An Announcement

We are very pleased to announce the birth of our son, Liam David.

He was born at 6.26am on 1st July 2008, and weighed in at 7lb 6oz.

Both mother and baby are doing well.

Further details to follow when we’re not feeling so tired

Ellie’s Birthday (Weekend)

Ellie had her 3rd birthday this weekend. It really is hard to believe that she was born three years ago. The time seems to have gone so quickly.

On Saturday, which was her actual birthday, we had to wake her as Ellie was being a lazy bones and decided that she would sleep in. After waking, Ellie came into our room where we gave her some of her cards and presents.

“Oh, ” she would say each time she got an unopened present. “What’s inside?”

“You need to open it to find out,” we replied.

After that we all got up and came downstairs for some breakfast, and also to give Ellie her main present, a battery powered jeep.

Ellie had a small ride in it and wasn’t very impressed. She couldn’t work out how to stop as she careered across the garden towards her trampoline, getting out and declaring that she didn’t like it. Hopefully she will grow more accustomed to it and have another go in the near future.

Once Ellie had had her presents we made a trip to the supermarket to do the weekly shop and also get the food for the party. After returning from our shopping trip, the three of us went to Knowsley Safari Park.

We had a great time. We were pretty fortunate with the weather too. Ellie even had a go at driving around.

After our visit to Knowsley, we headed back home, but first we had to make a stop at Wigan train station to pick up Gemma’s brother, Shaun. Ellie was very excited as she loves going to see the trains.

Once Shaun was safely loaded into the car we headed home, where Gemma set about making Ellie’s birthday cake. She had done a trial run the previous weekend and it looked and tasted brilliant. This one was no different.

On Sunday, we had a BBQ party, and we were very,very lucky with the weather. During the previous week the weather forecasts had not been too promising, so it was with some trepidation that I lit the BBQ shortly before our guests were to arrive. And very soon after I had lit it the first spots of rain began to fall.

“At least I’ve got a waterproof coat,” I thought. But luckily for us all, it was only a brief shower and the sun soon showed his face to make it a gorgeous day. Gemma and I were very thankful for this as it would have been a bit of a tight squeeze trying to get everyone inside the house.

Shortly, after the BBQ was lit, guests began to arrive. My sister Lynwen and her husband Geth were first to arrive with their two boys, Dafydd and Aled. Next to roll up were Nana Mandy and Taido, with Carl, Craig and Ricky. We had a few other guests who came to see the birthday girl.

Once all of our guests arrived, Ellie began to open the mountain of presents that had been bought for her, while I got on with cooking the huge amount of food that we’d bought. (We bought way too much!) Gemma gave me a helping hand with all of the salads and extra bits and pieces. After serving up and everyone tucking into the vast amount of food, it was nice to sit down for a few minutes in the sunshine.

Ellie in her “Stephanie from LazyTown” wig	Me slaving away at the BBQ
Party Guests in the Garden	Blowing her candles out (for the 2nd time)

Once everyone had finished their food and given it chance to settle, it was time for Ellie to blow out her candles. The cake was brought in to a chorus of “Happy Birthday”, and before it was finished and the photos were taken, Ellie had already blown out the candles. Cheeky girl - no patience. So we had to do it all over again so we could get it on “film”.

It was a really good day and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. We did had one minor mishap when a stray gust of wind blew our parasol over right on top of my sister. Luckily she escaped with just a bump on the head and a bit of a sore neck. Sorry!

Thanks to everyone for coming. And a big thank you from Ellie for all of her presents

Gemma’s Pregnancy - Week 27

It’s been a couple of weeks since the last update on Gemma’s pregnancy.

There has been some excitement this week, as we went for a private scan. This was mainly as a reassurance aid for Gemma, but it was also a chance to have another look at our baby.

We’d made an appointment at a place called Innervision in Warrington.

Once we were in the scanning room, we were put at ease by the sonographer. He was very chatty, reassuring Gemma, and myself.

First thing that we did was to confirm the sex of the baby that we were having. At one of our previous scans we were told that it was a boy, but the sonographer at the time would not say that she was 100% certain.

This time, there was no uncertainty. The baby is definitely a boy. I would post a photo here, but Gemma has banned me from putting the picture here. She wants to keep it for his 18th birthday party, to show all his friends and possibly a girlfriend.

There was also no sign of the soft marker that had shown itself at the earlier scan, which was a huge relief.

We did get a few other picture, two of which I have posted here.

Until the next update…

Making Cakes

Over the past couple of weekends Ellie and Gemma have been making cakes.

Last weekend they made Jam Tarts :

 

And this weekend they have been making Chocolate Krispie Cakes, we’ve got to use up all of the Easter Eggs that Ellie was given somehow!

 

Here’s Ellie after cleaning out the bowl, mmmmm, chocolate:

They were all lovely, and there aren’t many left.

Trip to Knowsley Safari Park

On Saturday we decided that we would take a trip to Knowsley Safari Park. We had not been on a trip together for a while, and it was such a glorious day. The weather was sunny, if a little cold.

When Gemma arrived home from work, Ellie and I gave her enough time to get changed and grab a quick bite to eat before we headed off. In the 30 minutes or so it took us to drive to Knowsley, Ellie managed to fall asleep in her car seat. She was well away and was still fast asleep as we were about to enter the enclosure.

A little encouragement was needed to wake Ellie up, and she stirred not really knowing where she was. Once she came round properly and realised that we were going to see the animals she got very excited.

“Animals” she shouted. “Go see, animals.”

With Ellie now fully awake and eager to see the animals we headed through the gates of the enclosure.

The first animals to be seen was the herd of Fallow Deer, who thought it would be a good idea to congregate across the road, whilst they ate what looked like a tonne of carrots. This did give the opportunity to see the Deer up close.

There was a little drive to see the next animals as it is winter so the deer are not grazing. The next animals to see were the Tigers. Unfortunately for Ellie they were hidden in the grass so that she wasn’t able to see them. It was a shame as she was excited at seeing them.

Next up were the Lions. The lions were very popular, with a large number of cars queueing to get a good look at them. All of the lions were lying next to the road so everyone was able to get a close up view of them. With the large number of people trying to get a view of them, it was difficult to get a really good view. That was until the lions decided it was time to get up and have a walk.

The lions made their way around and in between all of the cars. The photo on the right shows how close we got to them. I was a bit gutted how it turned out. Just as I was tracking the lioness and pressed the button the windscreen wiper came into shot. Aaaaagh! Can’t win them all, I suppose. From the lions we headed amongst the emus, buffalo, more deer, wallabies.

As we came out of the lions enclosure we had a very easy decision to make.

Do we go into the Baboon enclosure and have our car pulled apart? Or, go on the car-friendly route along the edge of the enclosure?

Tough one that!

We took the car-friendly route. And it was a good decision looking at the cars already travelling through the enclosure. The most common items to disappear were the windscreen wipers. It was quite amusing following a car trying to clean the rear window without a wiper blade.

The baboons are always good to watch, climbing over everyone else’s car, and chasing each other. There was a big free for all when the keeper brought them some more food. All of the larger males chasing off the smaller ones who would dare to try and get their food first. No respect for their elders!

From the baboons we then went through to the camels, ostriches and the rhinos. I was surprised by the sight of the baby rhino who was so much bigger than the last time we had seen him (or her - not too sure). I didn’t think that it was that long ago that we’d last seen it. Obviously it must have been. The rhinos were the last stop in the enclosure and we headed out of the gate.

The elephants were our next stop, who have their own separate enclosure. This was only a quick stop, as there was only one of the elephants wandering about, and shortly after getting Ellie out of the car, she wanted to get back in. I couldn’t blame her as it was pretty cold.

We then parked the car and went for a little walk. Ellie wanted to go and see the giraffes, so we walked the short distance to the giraffe house, passing the meerkats and otters on the way.

We then walked back up to the Children’s Farm. Ellie really likes this and you can stroke the animals. She was a little wary of stroking the animals at first, but once she got over her initial nervousness she had a good time. At one point she put her head through the bars on the pen for the pig to get a better look. Luckily she didn’t get stuck!

Ellie really enjoyed seeing all the animals, and also enjoyed her freedom wandering around on her own, giving her that little bit of independence. She looked so cute, trotting about with her little backpack on.

After a good walk around it was time to head home as a certain little girl was getting very tired, and I’m sure that Gemma’s legs were getting tired having to carry her bump around.

We all had a really good afternoon out, sunny weather if a little cold.

An Afternoon at the Park

Ellie and I had a great time yesterday afternoon. We ventured out into the cold and went to the park to have a play.

We set off, both of us wrapped up against the cold and walked to the park. Although Ellie didn’t walk too far as she insisted on having a carry! We got to the park and Ellie ran off towards the play area. She soon turned around as the local ducks and geese headed towards us, as they were expecting to be fed. Ellie ran towards me shouting, “Daddy!”

She practically jumped into my arms as the army of birds began to surround us. One goose in particular was a bit braver than the other, and stretched his neck up to have a good sniff.

After a few sniffs Ellie got bored of the goose’s company and headed to the swings. I lifted her on to the swing and set Ellie on her way. Ellie was having a really good time. She looked so cute wrapped up in her hat and scarf squealing on the swing, “Woo!”

The next place Ellie wanted to go was the climbing frame, so we headed over to it, where Ellie bounded up the steps so that she could go down the slide. She spent a good time on the climbing frame going up the steps, down the slide, all the time shouting “Again!”

On the climbing frame was a fireman’s pole, which she spotted and shouted to me “Sam!”, as in Fireman Sam. With a bit of help from me, Ellie had a few go’s at sliding down the pole. “Wee!” was the cry.

After a time, a group of other children arrived from one of the local nurseries. I was impressed with how Ellie handles herself with all the other children. Not once did she get all possessive over the play area. She always waited her turn to climb the steps and go down the slide. She had a really great time, following some of the other children around.

Ellie went back and to between the swings and the climbing frame. At one point on the swing she said to me, “This is fun!”

I’ve never heard her say anything like that before.

After a good hour of being out in the cold I suggested to Ellie that we go home. But she was having none of it, she wanted to stay out and play. Can’t blame her really, even if it was freezing cold. After a little persuasion, and the promise of a drink of juice and a biscuit when we got home, Ellie reluctantly agreed to head home.

As we left the park, Ellie didn’t seem to keen on walking, so I gave her a lift on my shoulders. She really enjoyed this, bouncing along on my shoulders.

By the time we got home, Ellie was absolutely knackered. We both had a great time, in spite of the freezing cold.

Honeymoon

I’ve added some pages about our honeymoon in Portugal.

These can be found here.

Blackpool Illuminations

On Thursday night we took Ellie to see the Illuminations at Blackpool.

As it was Gemma’s night off from work we thought we’d take the opportunity to go to Blackpool to show Ellie the Illuminations.

Once we got there it was still quite light, so we got ourselves some fish and chips and waited for the light to disappear. Once the darkness began to descend we took a walk along the promenade towards the North Pier where we were got on the tram to take us some of the way down the promenade to see the Illuminations.

It seemed to take an absolute age for the tram to appear. So when it finally appeared we got on and paid our money to the conductor. We were sat on the top deck, which gave us all a good view of the lights. Ellie was pretty excited about it all, calling the tram “Toby” after the tram from Thomas the Tank Engine.

After a few stops we got off the tram and went for a walk along the Central Pier. It was getting quite cold now and Ellie was all wrapped up warm in her winter coat. She enjoyed see all the lights and noises on the pier, but did seem a little unfussed by some of the rides.

After walking around the pier it was starting to get quite late so we decided to head home. It had been a lovely evening.