Twins

It has been so hot here the last few weeks that Hannah and Jacob have been sleeping in undershirts to try to stave off the heat rashes. Here they are after their bath and dressed in their onesies as they watch a baby einstein video before bed. I think they might actually look like twins in this photo. Most of the time I don't really think they look much alike but here they do look similar.

Big Boys' Fun Weekend Away

My uncle got married yesterday so Alexander, Benjamin and I went over for the festivities. We walked on the Digby Ferry to go to Saint John and then up to Albert with my mom. We all had a great time! Congratulations Doug and Krista!!
While at the wedding at Broadleaf Guest Ranch, the boys got to go for a little ride on Peanut the horse. They both got up in the saddle, shouted "Giddy Up Peanut!" and off they rode into the sunset...or around the ring, whichever you choose to imagine...

Here is Benjamin....


And here is Alexander giving a little wave...
And speaking of waves....
We came back to my parents place today and enjoyed the pool. The boys both loved swimming, jumping off the side while shouting "Cannonball!", and even putting their faces under the water. Each time we go swimming they get a little braver. We are so fortunate to have a pool across the street from our new place in Edinburgh too!
I am so blessed to be their mom, I had a great weekend away with my boys! (We all still call them "the boys" even though they aren't our only boys...Jacob is never forgotten!!) I am sure Jacob and Hannah had a great weekend with Dad but he isn't as camera and blog happy as I am!

Sunday School Picnic Part 2

Here are the pictures of the picnic which we took with our camera. I am not sure how to get rid of this underline...
Anyhow, the boys had a great time with the parachute!

Here are the fun pictures of the tug of war. They are in reverse order unfortunately so here are the boys getting trampled as the boys got pulled over by the girls.They were so funny as they gritted their teeth and pulled so hard on the rope. As you can see, the little red and yellow thing on the ground is a sprinkler which was the line over which they needed to pull each team.
Here is the first picture which shows them all straining against the rope.

We have really enjoyed our church here and have made some good friendships which make us sad to leave. However, we are so looking forward to meeting new people and experiencing new things in Scotland!

We have a home! Part two

I am VERY happy to report that we have a place to live once we reach Edinburgh! (No "I think" this time) We will be staying in the family apartment complex of the university. I spoke with Accommodation Services yesterday and accepted one of the 3 bedroom flats they had available. It is on the third floor and there is no elevator but it is a flat. We will be on the high priority list for a ground or first floor flat and can easily switch before or after we arrive.
Other good news... I found another blogger who lives in the same area to which we are moving. I have been able to ask a bunch of questions and feel like I know a bit more about this new adventure. Plus I found out there are 6 other families living in the same area (4 US and 2 Canadian) and the ladies all get together for tea once a week. God is so good!
Thank you all for your prayers.
Bev

Sunday School Picnic

We had our Sunday School Picnic on Sunday afternoon. We all had a great time. One of the ladies from our church took pictures and sent them our way. So here, for your viewing pleasure , they are!
This first photo was taken after I participated in the ladies sack race...Hannah was slightly traumatized when I left her to do the race, she didn't go far from me after I finished the race.

This is Benjamin and Alexander in the sack race. Bennjamin (of course) is in the blue shorts and shirt with the beige hat, Alexander is in red with the matching beige hat. The other boy in red with the blue and yellow hat is their friend Brennen from their SS class. The boys loved playing baseball, flying kites and the tug of war.


We even got a picture of Grammy White (for those of you who have been asking!) taking a little walk with Hannah, Jacob and I.
This photo was just too cute not to post...Here is our little man Jacob. Doesn't he look like a little scholar already? (Just like his dad!) Jacob really is turning into quite a little scholar. He started repeating words about a month ago and says them very clearly. And for the last couple of weeks he has been saying words and phrases all on his own. He will grab my hand and say, "Come on", at the playground he says "Here I come" from the top of the slide. Just this morning, I got him out of bed and as we are coming down the stairs, he looks at Moly lying on the floor and says "See ya". It is too cute!
I believe I have a couple more pictures from our camera which I will post a little later. I think I even have one of the boys being smooshed into the ground during the tug of war...they were quite competitive. Only a couple tears after being trampled as the girls beat the boys!

Water Fun

We have had some great weather in the last little while here in Nova Scotia. We had ALOT of rain a few days ago...as you can see in the above "puddle pic". Then today it was 28 degrees and we had some different fun in our little pool.
Everyone loves to play in the water whether it is a plastic pool or a "natural pool" (aka mud puddle). We look forward to many days in the pool this summer. We want to take advantage of our big yard as we will be severely downsizing very soon....I've heard everything is much smaller in the UK, except for the expenses that is!

WE HAVE A HOME!

We have a home in Scotland...I think. We received an email today that there are 2 different 3bedroom flats available starting in July. Now we just need to call for the particulars and decide which one. They are both university owned flats in a good area of Edinburgh (or so the website says). The nice thing is that they include heating which is good since Shawn would have us all freezing if we had to pay separately for it :)
We will update you when we have our new place finalized.
And now we enter the wait for visas...There always seems to be something new once I get "destressed" about another issue. AAHH, the joys of moving overseas. I really shouldn't complain, I am very thankful for what God has done this far and I know He will continue to work things out.
Bev

STUFF!!

I just spent the last 2 hours sorting through STUFF. I am amazed at how much you can accumulate in only 9 years of marriage. Especially since I thought we had rid ourselves of quite a bit last summer before moving here to NS. However, when you have to pare your life down to about 10 suitcases....I realized we have an insane amount of STUFF!! I am really looking forward to yardsales this summer so we can be rid of some of it but I have already packed two medium sized Rubbermaid containers with, once again, STUFF which we need to store somewhere while we are overseas. This may be a greater undertaking than I realized..... Anyone want to take my children for a day or two so I can get down to some serious packing? Ha! Ha!
Bev

IT'S OFFICIAL!!

Well....I guess it's official. I booked our flights to Scotland tonight!!!
I was so stressed while doing it. Shawn says it is because I had never spent that much money before but I think it is also the finality of it....one way tickets mean no turning back.
I am very excited!! Now all we need is a place to live once we get there. Okay, I am back to being stressed again....
Bev

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

We celebrated Shawn's birthday with a rousing game of pin the tail on Dad! I have a sinus infection right now so am not up to much partying so poor Shawn had to make his own birthday breakfast and lunch but I did manage to rally around to help make supper for him....and to enjoy the 2 DQ cakes he had (his mom had gotten one and the kids and I had gotten one).
Anyhow, we hope his birthday will be a little more enjoyable next year!

Festivities.....Part 2...No rain!

Lest you all think the festivities were all rained out....
We did take in a children's parade and fair on Saturday when the rain held off. We didn't have the camera recharged from Shawn's trip so we had to wait to get the photos from my grandmother who came down with my mom for the weekend. Everyone really enjoyed the merry-go-round and Alexander and Benjamin also got on a monkey jungle, an airplane ride, and a children's rollercoaster, which was pretty fast if you ask me....but they had a blast; they are such big boys!
Unfortunately we didn't get a good shot of Jacob; he is just in both photos on the edges. He couldn't stop saying "Neigh, Neigh" the whole ride.

Festivities

We took in the festivities of the wet weekend of the festival. I was amazed at how many people came out for the events. I took a couple of pictures of us "enjoying" the grand parade.....we were all soaked by the end of it but we are happy to have seen Shawn's two nephews who play in a pipe and drum band. Of course, it would have been nice if they had been closer to the beginning of the parade than the end! Jacob kept saying "Neigh...Neigh..." whenever horses went by and Alexander and Benjamin enjoyed all the different bands and the police on motorcycles. As you can tell by the picture, Hannah was not too thrilled with the parade but she did dance a little to the music of a couple bands.





We are so glad to have Shawn home! He had a great trip but is also very happy to be home.
After the fair, we came home, had hot chocolate, warm muffins from the oven and a nice warm bath and then PJs for the kids. You can have fun in the rain afterall! Oh, I didn't get a photo but Alexander and Benjamin had fun in the rain after church today as well. The back part of our driveway is slopped in a little causing quite major flooding when it rains. So when we got home from church today, the boys decided to splash in the puddles a bit...okay, alot! Although they had on raincoats and rainboots, they were thoroughly soaked. But boy did they have fun!