Winter 09 - Getting bigger, getting 70 - getting colder

Hi All,

It is the last Saturday before Christmas and snow is lying quite thickly. Megan spent yesterday in the snowy garden with Linda and today sledging with Keith.

Linda is now 23 weeks gone and we know that No2 is a Girl. Megan is delighted and has thrown herself into chosing names with gusto, current favourite is Delilah.

Last weekend saw Beryl's 70th held jointly with her twin Christine. A nice family time and excellent Birthday cake organised and hosted by cousin Stephen.

Linda only has two more visits to London for work before her maternity leave starts. Keith has starred as the Burley in Wharfedale Santa on two occasions, the first when Megan outed him in front of several dozen people by shouting "Daddy - take that silly costume off".

Megan was an Angel earlier this week in her first Christmas concert and the general pre Christmas excitement is heightened by the snow outside and the prospect of a White Christmas. Best wished from us all, to you all for 2010.

Keith, Linda and Megan

Autumn 09 and the Isle of Man

A rather wet summer has passed, autumn moved by and Winter is with us. We have enjoyed two great holidays. One to visit Linda's mum and dad in Somerset followed by four nights at centre parcs at Longleat. The other was four nights on the Isle of Man from which we returned this morning.

Megan has also enjoyed her first active Halloween and trick or treated with her cousin Isaac (see left).

Other non highlights have been bad colds for us all and a scarry visit to Leeds General Infirmary in an ambulance for Megan with a severe and unexpected asthma attack.

She recovered well but gave mummy and daddy quite a scare.

On the plus side I am pleased to let you know Linda is 18 weeks pregnant and though tired coping well. Megan is super excited and is already preparing the numerous ways she is going to help Mummy and Daddy with her little brother or sister.

The Isle of Man was some very wet, windy and one day of summt weather. Despite most of the island being closed we arrived to find the main firework display outside out hotel.

We posed with Norman Wisdom and Megan enjoyed meeting the Lemurs at a Wildlife park.

We hope to give another update before No2 arrives in mid April. Current favourite names with Megan are George, Georgia, Edward and Nicholas.

Spring and early Summer 09 - Tenerife, Camping and life in general

With Chicken Pox, home improvements, a holiday in Tenerife and a couple of camping trips 2009 is flying by.

Megan's Chicken Pox wasn't too bad (she may not think so) and thankfully arrived just before a great week in Tenerife with our friends Katie and Ian and their two boys Charlie and Jake (Charlie is engaged to Megan).

Upon return Keith's training for a 80 mile sportif cycle ride in the dales took up a fair amount of time but we managed to squeeze in our first camping weekend and some home improvements and a raised bed in the garden which is full of beetroot, brocolli and cauliflower.

Last weeked saw another camping trip with several other families with several highlights including Megan inpersonating Gene Kelly and Linda catching Crayfish (also Crazyfish to Megan) in the river Wharfe.

Linda has got involved in a campaign to ensure children in the village are guranteed a place in a village school and Keith's job continues to demand and challenge. Linda goes to London to visit her office once a month and is busy setting up a trading company for the charity at the moment.

Megan is truly on the village social circuit with two parties this weekend and two more next.

More soon........................hope you are all well

Feb 09 update - Birthdays and cold weather

Well 2009 so far has flown by. We've had a very cold year so far with two weeks of snow on the ground. We have also had two Birthdays (Keith and Megan's) and a great weekend visit to London.

Keith has invested in a new bike and committed to a 130 kilometre event in the dales in the summer. So far he had managed three training rides in the hills.

Megan's potty training is in week 3 and we are rarely having accidents. However if Linda and I had 1pence for every time we said "Megan - do you want a we we" we would wealthy people indeed.

We have just returned from Megan's joint 3rd birthday party which featured Cake, Candles, Pass the parcel, Statues and Keith taking his DJ role a little too seriously.

We have had lots of support and baby sitting swaps with Linda's sister who lives only a few hundred metres away. Megan and Isaac get on well despite an age and gender gap.