Our new addition!

At 3:30am on Saturday 21st November 2009, I woke up feeling a bit strange and at 3 days past my due date, I suspected it may be time for baby Gray to make an entrance. However I knew it could take a while, so I set to, at that unearthly hour, getting everything ready for the baby, as well as some crafting!!! Lee and Isabelle woke up about 6am and I decided to do a cooked breakfast to occupy the time. Contractions were irregular and not too strong so I wasn't worried. I sent Lee off to work and Isabelle got picked up to go to a friend's birthday party.

Then I bent down to pick up a laundry basket and felt a pop and a sudden gush of water!! I called Lee and he had to turn around and come back! We left for the hospital at 10am and we were on the labour ward by 10.30, we were in the delivery room by 11am. By this time contractions were coming closer together and more intense every time!! I was using gas and air, and rocking on a birthing ball, which was helping. By 12.00 I was on the bed and pushing, Kaelyn Rose was born at 12.25pm. I can't believe how fast it was compared to Isabelle!! Lee was absolutely fantastic and is now besotted!! We are so grateful that another little princess has joined our family!!

This was taken just as they brought her up onto my stomach, I am absolutely exhausted and very hot and sweaty!!! Nice!!!

This is after we have both had a wash and look a bit more civilized!! I was just relieved that it was over and she was with us!!!

Welcome to the world Kaelyn Rose Alan Gray born 21st Nov 2009 at 12.25pm weighing 7lbs 5.5oz.

Isabelle's first day in Year One!

Incredibly, I remembered to take a picture of Isabelle on the first day back at school, though we were rushing and as you can see, she was less than impressed!! She has settled in so well to being in the older class, and her recent parents evening went very positively. She is progressing fast and we are trying to keep up with everything she is doing at school!! We are so proud of her, despite the grumpy face!!

Our last day trip of the Summer

I know this is obscenely delayed but I was looking through the photos and they are some cute ones of Isabelle. We used a voucher and got into Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Gardens, for FREE!! We were very lucky with the weather and it only started raining as we were leaving. Isabelle loved climbing the ruins and Lee was following an audio tour with headphones, so kept throwing in facts and figures (which he loves!!) We walked for miles all around the extensive grounds, so rewarded ourselves with ice cream to finish. Isabelle's face is excellent, staring at the rather large ice cream!! (Sorry it is a bit dark, the clouds had started rolling in by this point!!)

Update on our Family

I realised that it was the end of the Summer, that I last updated our blog! Shocking!! Life has been quite busy though, in my defence!! We only have 5 weeks left till our baby is going to greet us, so we have been frantically getting everything ready for her to come. I think we are about there, and have everything we need for the little madam. We are all so excited to meet her and get to know her little personality!! We are pretty certain she is a girl, but it will be funny if she isn't!!! (There is lots of pink in our house now!!)

Isabelle has been enjoying Year 1 in school, she is excelling and is a popular member of her class. She speaks very highly of her teacher and I have been blessed to have the time (and the energy!) to go into the class once a week and listen to the kids read. It has been great for Isabelle to see me taking an interest in her school work and good for me to meet all the people she comes home talking about. I am aware that I won't have the time once the baby is here, so I am going to try and keep going for next couple of weeks.

Lee has been keeping himself busy with various things. While the need for staff members in schools has been very quiet, he has been working at a couple of shops in town that sell camping and hiking gear. He is really enjoying it, as it is one of his many hobbies, so he knows his stuff!! There are opportunities to work up the company and they are eager for him to progress the company 'ladder' quickly. We are just grateful he has work in this difficult financial climate. In his spare time, he has been playing his warhammer game and also doing some voluntary work for Bilton conservation group, maintaining woodland areas, etc. Think he is slowly getting his head around the idea that he is going to be a daddy soon!!

I have been running around after the special people in my life!! As always!! There have been lots of things I have wanted to get done before baby arrives, and I am slowly working my way through the list!! One of the big things, is that I need to make a dent in my christmas shopping as I may not have the energy or inclination to drag a newborn into town to battle with the crowds!! I am getting some done and I feel that any left over, may have to be internet shopping!!

So that is us all updated, it may be the case that the next update you get will include another little person!! Very exciting!! Hope that everyone is well and we look forward to showing you many pictures of our new family member soon!!

Our Summer

This summer holidays we have had a nice time together as, Lee and myself were both working in schools, so we all broke up from school at the same time. We weren't going on an annual holiday but there were lots of fun things going on with family and friends to keep us occupied!! Plus I desperately needed to organise our house and get lots of annoying little jobs done, that get forgotten about when I am working!! Luckily we managed to get alot of these done in the first couple of weeks, which left plenty of time for fun!

Our good friend, Joyce Cappleman, returned from her 18 month mission for the church in Canada, so we enjoyed spending time with her and gettting her moved into her new flat. We also went to Scarborough and met up with our friends, Natalie and Simon, on an unnaturally warm day!! Isabelle even managed to get on the beach with her swimsuit! We had a wonderful day out at Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, again in some glorious sunshine. Lee enjoyed listening to the audio tour, as he is really into history! At least every week we made it to Valley Gardens for a play in the new playground, a walk in the gardens, and maybe even an ice cream!!

Here is a gorgeous pic Isabelle at our friend's wedding, can you tell she enjoys get dressed up?!?

We met up with some friends that came over from Holland and went to the National Railway Museum in York. (Unfortunately I was having so much fun, I forgot to take any pictures!! Whoops!) Then we went to Clifton Moor and went ten pin bowling. The kids absolutely loved it and beat quite a few of the adults! We decided to go out to eat afterwards for a pub style dinner. It was great food and we all just enjoyed sitting around and chatting.

This is a picture that Isabelle took of my mum and Joyce while they were at Harlow Carr
Gardens for the day. Mummy was working at a friend's gift shop in town for the morning and Lee was cutting his mum's large hedge, so Isabelle got to spend the day with Grandma and everyone. She also took copious amounts of photos of gorgeous flowers. She is our budding photographer!!

This is Isabelle at her friend Lauren's birthday party that was held at Crazy Tykes in Wetherby. She loves to play with Lauren, even though she is 2 years younger, and they always play so nicely together. Needless to say, she had a ball and was extremely hot and sweaty at the end!!!

Now, I suppose we should all get ready to go back to work and school! Oh well, we have had lots of fun and it has been lovely to spend so much quality time together. Isabelle is so excited to be starting year one, (mummy is mortified this year has gone by so quick)!! I will also be starting my maternity leave in September, so not much longer and I can chill, though I seem to work harder when I am at home (who said being a housewife was easy?!?!).

Our very own celebrity wedding!!

A high school friend of mine got engaged earlier in the year and we were invited to their engagement party. It was lovely to have a little reunion of high school friends and we also found out that their wedding was happening a little sooner than expected! They had been approached by a television company, to take part in a reality program where the bride and groom are separated for 3 weeks. In that 3 weeks the groom has to plan the whole wedding!! I have seen some of the program and it is a real gamble as to whether the bride will actually like any of it! She doesn't even get to see the wedding dress until the day before the wedding and the venue is a complete secret until she drives up to it!!

Anyway we were invited to the wedding and needless to say, I was frantic trying to find a dress that fitted, and was acceptable to appear on television!! Lee and Isabelle were sorted, just the pregnant woman to worry about! Luckily found one I felt comfortable in. The day of the wedding arrived and we made our way to the secret location, The Red Lion Inn, Burnsall, North Yorkshire. It was gorgeous and set right by the River Wharfe. Then we just had to wait for the bride!! The wedding ceremony and reception were beautiful and luckily, the groom had done a wonderful job! The bride was thrilled!! It was a bit strange having all the cameras around us all day, but like true stars, we got used to it!! Haha!! Congratulations Mr and Mrs Hicks!!


Vicki and Stuart Hicks

Me (26 weeks pregnant) and my wonderful husband!!

Our 1st Wedding Anniversary!!

On Saturday 8th August 2009, it was mine and Lee's first wedding anniversary. I can't believe how quickly this year has gone!! But yet so much has happened! We travelled up to Eskdale in the Lake District on the Friday afternoon. We had booked a gorgeous little bed and breakfast for the night, so we had a pub dinner in the gardens while enjoying the unusually warm weather!!

When we woke up in the morning, it was still gorgeous weather, we were surprised!!! We had a fantastic breakfast which almost filled us for the entire day!! Then we checked out and went on a miniature steam train to Ravenglass. The journey was lovely and we had a walk around the little seaside town, then travelled back.

We then went the 'scenic route' to Ambleside (through the mountains)!! It was quite scary (thank heavens Lee was driving!) and made the pregnant woman feel quite travel sick!! By the time we got to Ambleside, I felt much better and we had a walk around and stopped in a little cafe for a drink and scone. Then it was home time, but we were both tired after a lovely night away!! Isabelle had spent the night at Grandma's and gone to a friend's house on Saturday, so needless to say, didn't miss us much!!