Sledging

Snowing!

We're in Wales and it's been snowing!

We met Mum at Cardiff airport on Tuesday after a predictably gruelling trip and spent the rest of the week recovering. Then she took care of the boys all weekend while Heather and I went to see friends in Guildford and London. Here is a gig I saw in London featuring friends from back here.

We're home again now and the snow just keeps falling. Here are pictures of the snow outside and here is a gallery for the whole trip which I'll be updating regularly. Owain helped decorate the tree on Sunday and is getting pretty excited about the whole thing. I only hope Father Christmas can get through all that snow...

Thanksgiving

Here's a bumper crop of photos from our trip to Arizona last weekend. It was a lot of fun. We even got to leave the boys in Phoenix for a night while we lived it up in Prescott.

And yes, the blogs are pretty few and far between still. I've yet to post any Halloween pictures ... gasp! However, you can check out my buzz for frequent, often rude and always pointless snippets of randomness. (It's a bit like Twitter but prettier.) Heather sometimes does the same.

Just over a week until our holiday!!

Boring Rainy Day

This is what happens around here on a rainy day. I'm no "supermom" who gets the kids out rain or shine. So instead Owain gets up to no good. Washable watercolors my ass! He will be bluegreen for a few days. Is it the weekend yet?

And Happy Birthday Owain!

He's not actually three until tomorrow but his party was today.

He got lots of presents - mostly dinosaurs, of course - and a marble track. Here's a rare shot of Jimmy helping to build - and not break - Owain's creations.


Have you ever heard of a party starting at 10.30 in the morning? Well they do when you're three. Heather hired the Tumblebus on which Owain and his friends reenacted scenes from Con Air.


Heather made at least five exquisitely iced cakes yesterday. Here's one of Owain's cakes with three candles on it. Oh look, it's a dinosaur. In fact, how many dinosaur-related items can you see in this photo? I count fifteen if you don't include Owain himself.


Here's what he looked like as a hatchling.

Happy Birthday Jimmy!

Jimmy turned one on Saturday. The only person who wasn't unusually excited was Jimmy himself who acts like it's his birthday every day.

These pictures were taken by Anne.

Thanks Anne! And thanks for all the pressies from everyone - even the police car with the working siren.

Here's a bunch more we took too including Owain driving race cars at a beer festival later in the day. Next up is his 3rd birthday next month. Slightly terrified by that one...

Earlier in the month, we met Heather's cousin Aunty Andria for the first time which was a blast. She's the one sat on the stool on the right - not the creepy lady staring in through the window.


And finally, Heather took the boys to the doctors today and the big news is that they got bigger and heavier. Owain is 38 inches tall and weighs 35 pounds whilst Jimmy is 31 inches tall and 25.7 pounds. I don't know what any of that is in metric but I'm sure Jimmy will have overtaken Owain by the end of the year and will soon be carrying Heather and I around.

Focus

We've got a new camera! Expect a sudden surge in posts until the novelty wears off. It's got lots of extra buttons so I'm having difficulty getting good pictures out of it.

Here's the cake from my birthday last Thursday.


And the obligatory spider shot. They're not as much fun to snap as the beasties down in Arizona.


These are called web worms apparently. Horrible!


More little animals.

August

It may be a month between posts these days, but we haven't stopped snapping. Here's the cream of the crop from the last few months. What a bunch of posers we all are!


While Grandma Lyn was here, we talked about the idea of spending Christmas in Wales. A few weeks ago she kindly bought us tickets so it's official: we're all piling into The Cayo for the holidays. We'll be around for several weeks so if anyone wants to come and visit, please get in touch. We probably won't get around the UK much while we're there but at the very least, I need to take Owain to the Natural History Museum where I first fell in love with dinosaurs!.

July

Today marks the one year anniversary of moving into our house. It was a miserable 104 degrees and I was as big as a house myself 8 months pregnant with Jimmy. July 2010 hasn't been as remarkable but pleasant none the less. We've had an experimental fish taco dinner...

Fun in the back yard...

resulting in head to toe mud...

supper outside...

a block party, mexican style...

and a mommy contrived moment of cuteness in matching jammies.

The End. Show us what you got August.

Tub boys

Look, they're both almost looking at the camera. That's probably as close as I've got.


And congratulations to my mum who as on top of Kilimanjaro a week ago! I've still no idea what she was doing there but I hope she took some good photies!

Double Bloggage

Two posts in one day??? Yes, only reason being I forgot to put up this real cute picture of Jimmy.

Here Comes the Sun

Today is warm, bordering on hot. Maybe summer is finally here. We've been waiting and waiting...and waiting some more for the weather to change and now that the sun is out the boys and I went outside first thing and blew up the kiddie pool and Owain immediately stripped down, "Diaper Off!!!!" and got into the freezing cold, straight out of the hose, water and stayed in for an hour. He even dunked his head!

9 Months!

Our little Jimmy is now 9 months old, as of the 25th. I am flabbergasted at how quickly its gone by. He's pulling himself across the floor at lightning speed commando style (that boy CANNOT get his belly off the floor) and mimicking sounds, waving, and eating pizza for goodness sake! As you can see from the video he's very entertaining, and flexible, and kind of gross. I can't get enough of him. Happy 9 month b-day Jimmy!

San Juan

We got back from San Juan yesterday evening. It was the best holiday we've had for quite a while.

We went whale watching and saw some killer whales up close.


But mostly, we chilled out at home because the house was so nice.


And there was plenty of wildlife just in the garden.

Gurns

We're off to San Juan Islands tomorrow for a mini break and I'm emptying the cameras in preparation - hence two blogs in the space of an hour.

Here's me on the left and Jimmy on the right.

We don't look that similar but dental records couldn't tell us apart.

And here's Jimmy's tongue.

Magnificent, isn't it?!

Happy Snapper

Owain and Jimmy took Grandma to the zoo on Saturday. Owain took this photo - his best yet...

Grandma

My mum has come to visit for a fortnight to spoil her grandsons and weed our garden.

I think she used up her luggage quota on photographs. I've scanned in 176 so far and I think I'm nearly done. (Phew!) The oldest date on the back of a picture is 1916 but I'm sure a few are over a century old.

This picture of Granny Rose and two of my aunties is a lot more recent ... although honor forbids me from even hinting as to the exact year.


There was a street name on the back so I tracked it down on Google Maps and here's what it looks like today.


Note that the lamp post has been removed. Possibly, it was melted down for the war effort.

Owain's First Haircut

Not the best pic ever but it does show Owain's new look. He was starting to resemble Frasier Crane during the early nineties. Yesterday since it was so nice out we decided a little barbering session was in order. I cut John's hair and then since we had the clippers handy and Owain was distracted with the electric shaver, John gave Owie a buzz.

Notice that Jimmy is eating a baby, "GET IN MY BELLY YOU DELICIOUS BABY!!!!"

"Jimmy Barmer"

To translate: "Jimmy is a Farmer". That's Owain identifying Jimmy's outfit. Amazing as he's never met a farmer in his life.

Cardboard Anniversary

That's right, it's three years today!

Actually, it's not really cardboard; it's leather... which is what we'd be by now if we'd stayed at the chapel for three years:

Click through the image to see why we weren't in a hurry to post our wedding photos. (This one's my favorite.) It was also Owain's -5 month birthday.

Fortunately, our sons are better developed:


Here is a selection of pictures from the last month.

Cuties

A few mornings ago the boys both woke up very early (not a rare happening) and John and I wanted a little more rest so we chucked them in bed with us with their "botbots" and the portable DVD player showing "Happy Feet". Maybe we won't win any parenting awards for that one but it bought us 20 more minutes in bed and some cute pics!

Jimmy's New Trick

This is Jimmy's favorite thing to do lately and he does it with gusto!

P Robert

I've no idea what the 'P' stands for but this is the name Owain uses to refer to his Uncle Rob. Rob flew over to visit a couple of weeks ago and we met him on our way home from Arizona.

He was an instant hit with the boys - mostly because he turned up with a ready supply of dinosaurs. He also did his share of babysitting on the evenings when he wasn't terrorizing Ballard's bar staff.

When Heather flew out to see Jim, Owain kept saying: "Mummy plane? Mummy plane?" Well since Rob caught the Amtrak back to LA on Wednesday, it's all about: "P Robert train?"

Apparently, he didn't sleep the whole journey because a fat guy kept falling asleep on him but he managed to take some pictures along the way.

He flies home tonight. Come back soon, P Robert!

Here are some photos which also include Owain's first Easter egg hunt.

20100407 Uncle P Robert Visits for Easter

And here are some older photos of Owain expressing his deep love for prehistoric animals.

Obituary: James Walter Clark

Better late than never, I thought I'd link to Jim's Obituary in the local paper.

Here it is reproduced for posterity:

James Walter Clark, age 73, passed away on March 19, 2010 in Prescott, Ariz. at the VA Hospital. He was born on Aug. 21, 1936 in Alton, Ill.

Jim graduated from Marquette High School and later earned his Master of Social Work degree Summa Cum Laude in 1986 from Arizona State University. He had a successful career in the U.S. Navy from 1954 until retirement in 1983. From 1987 to 2008 Jim was a social worker at the VA Hospital in Prescott.

During his long Naval career, Jim received the Seventh Good Conduct award the National Defense Service medal, Vietnam Service medal (2 stars), Vietnam Campaign medal, and the Antarctic Service medal. In his youth, Jim participated in dramatics and held many lead roles in school plays. He was artistic in many ways. He enjoyed painting and more recently, interior design. He was an avid runner and completed at least two marathons. Much of his time was devoted to the work he loved at the VA. He touched countless lives as a social worker there for the past 21 years. One could arguably say that the most important thing in Jim's life was his stepson, Daniel, with whom he shared a close bond and lived with and cared for until his recent illness prevented it. Jim will be greatly missed.

Jim is survived by his stepdaughter, Heather McFarlane; stepson, Daniel McMakin; grandsons, Owain and James McFarlane; and sister, Joanne Clark. He joins his wife, Jane Clark who passed in 1991.

There will be a service for Jim at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at the VA Chapel in Prescott, Ariz. Following the service will be a Celebration of Life gathering at his home. The family would like to thank the staff at the VA Medical Center for their extraordinary care of Jim and their ceaseless support of Jim's loved ones.

Hampton Funeral Home was entrusted with the arrangements. Please visit www.hamptonfuneralhome.com to sign Jim's guestbook.

Jim's Service

Just a quick note to mention that Jim's service will be in the chapel at the VA in Prescott at 1pm this Saturday afternoon. Later on, there will be a get-together back at the house.

Grandpa Jim

Heather's step-dad, James Clark, passed away at 4pm today at the VA Medical Center in Prescott. This followed a long illness that ultimate started when he fell from his ladder and was admitted to hospital last year.

H is naturally very upset but bearing up. She and baby Jimmy flew over on Wednesday. Owain and I will be joining them soon. No news about the funeral yet. I'll post more info when I get it.

Here are some snaps of Jim from the times that Heather took me to visit him in Prescott.