... a visit from the in-laws

A few weekends ago we had a wonderful visit from Ali, Michael, Lottie and Hannah. After their last visit we new what to expect so all child unfriendly objects were moved out of reach and sleep was off the agenda. We had a great weekend with Lottie entertaining us from the very start. It's great to have her running round our house and chatting non-stop. We had endless hours of interesting conversations. It's always so much fin to have the Patersons to visit and we are all excited about the arrival of baby 3 in January.

Last weekend Phil and I had our first weekend alone for about 6 weeks. We were so excited that we decided to go to IKEA, I know we're mad. It wasn't as bad as we expected and we got the bookcase for the kitchen that we had hoped for. We crashed out on Saturday night and watched a movie snuggled up under a blanket on the sofa.

We are now getting excited about Christmas and starting to think about what pressies to buy and formulating plans for New Year.

... a wedding and a wee trip up north

Phil and I went to a wonderful wedding a few weekends ago of Phil's old Dundee flat mate, Stuart and his fiance Sharon. Since the wedding was in November we were worried about the weather, but it was a wonderful day. Loads of our friends from Uni were there so it was great catching up with them and some folk who we haven't seen since uni days. I wore, for the first time ever, killer heels and managed to walk on them for most of the day. I'm afraid that by the time of the evening doo I was barefoot.

We spent the rest of the weekend with family and visiting my nanny who is very poorly in hospital. Then on Sunday night we headed up to Portstewart (North Coast of Norn Iron). It was so lovely to get away from digital TV, computers and all the hustle and bustle of life. We had a long walk on the Strand followed by dinner out in my favourite place to eat, The Ramore Wine Bar. My friend Sarah joined us for a few days and we had a great time catching up, shopping and playing Uno far too late at night.

A wonderful time in Northern Ireland was had by all.

... a visit from the parents and an MBE party!

It's not very often that I can say that my parents are coming for dinner. But last week they were on route to Lanzarote with 2 friends and had a stop over in Manchester. It was really lovely to see them and Dad really liked seeing the new house. We had a few hours of fun teaching the oldies how to play on the Wii!! Sadly they had to leave at 6.00 the next morning to get their flight but it was worth the early morning to see them.

Last weekend we headed down to London for Phil's Uncle Johnny's MBE party. He was awarded an MBE for services to Sri Lanka, were he works as a Church of Scotland minister. Johnny and his wife Patrica where involved in relief work after the tsunami, which by Gods grace they narrowly escaped getting caught in. The party was great, it was so lovely to catch up with family away from the usual weddings.

The rest of the weekend we just spent time with the Brumby/Paterson family at Ali and Michael's. We had lots of fun with Lottie and Hannah who are now getting so big. Lottie is chatting away and is very cute when she's calls me Auntie Hewen :)

Although we weren't there for Halloween I had to add these photos of them before they went to the Church Pumpkin party.


Lottie as a scary Lion


Lottie and Hannah (Hannah is a pumpkin!)