We've Moved!

We are now in a house of our own!!!! And Kathryn has her own room, which you can tell she loves as she is now sleeping through the night (most nights!). And the day after we moved in, she started walking! Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, so I can't show you any. Here is one of Kathryn playing in the cupboards in the living room. She loves hiding in a place just her size!!!

Unfortunately as our computer broke (almost a year ago

now!), and we are no longer with Mark's parents, I don't know when I can post more blogs, so don't worry if you don't hear from us for a while (not that I regularly kept this updated!).

Apple Butter

Mark's parents have an apple tree in the back yard. To be more specific it is a cooking apple tree, so they cannot just be picked and eaten right away. So I decided that as there were so many apples, I was going to make apple butter. Here's how I did it:

14 apples

4 cups apple juice

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

2 cups sugar

First I washed the apples

Then I cored and quartered them

Then I put the apple juice in with the apples and then brought the mixture to a boil and then let it simmer for 30 minutes (stir occasionally to prevent sticking).

Next I put the mixture through a sieve

and then added the sugar and spices

Then I brought the mixture to a boil and then reduced the heat. I left it uncovered and cooked it over a very low heat for about 2 hours.

Then I put the mixture in any jars I had available. See? So easy. I do have to thank Mark and his Mum for watching Kathryn while I did this...I wouldn't have been able to do it otherwise!

We did have some more apples so I made some apple and walnut muffins - with Joel gone, we can have nuts in the food again!!!

Kathryn's 1st Birthday

Kathryn had a very exciting day on the 24th August. It was her first birthday...ever!!! What a milestone. Okay, so she didn't sleep too well the night before (maybe she was just really excited) and so she had to have two naps on her big day, but she still had a lot of fun. We went to a Garden Centre and saw some animals. She loves animals!

Thank you everyone for all your birthday wishes and presents!

She spent all day opening presents...they just kept coming (one even came after she went to bed for the night!) Man is she spoiled or what?! I think she is set for clothes for the next 6 months (assuming all the 12-18 month clothes last until she is 18 months old!!!!). And she is going to be the best dressed girl in town.

Of course we did have the traditional birthday cake that Kathryn got to have alone. It wasn't a barbie cake like my mom makes (maybe next year), but she enjoyed it so much she had it again the next night.

Sadly it is all gone now.

Though as Kathryn had her own cake, we had to have a cake to help her celebrate...

and there's some of that left ... and it's calling my name!!!

Computers are fun!

Kathryn loves going on the computer and seeing herself (and her Uncle Joel) on the desktop. But one thing that has been really entertaining is a photo booth application on this computer. Here are some fun shots of her:

Here are some using some great effects:

She really didn't like the x-ray effect

But would have happily stayed watching the fish for a while longer.

Here's hoping you've enjoyed these as much as I have!

4th of July

Happy 4th of July!!!! We had a BBQ on the 3rd and had a few friends over:

It was a really nice evening and Kathryn loved having all the attention. I was sharing my food with her (or really her food with me) and then Kathryn decided she could pick up and eat a hamburger herself!!! It was the cutest thing ever!!!


And yes, I did make my traditional US Flag Cake. There's less and less that survives each year. I don't know if that's a good thing or not...it means that I don't get as much later on!

We had a fun evening and must have worn Kathryn out because she went straight to sleep as soon as she was put in her bed!!! I really need to have more of these evenings - or I would do if it didn't wear me out as well!

Amberly Working Museum

Last Thursday (20 May) we took a trip to the Amberly Working Museum. We almost went with Buffy's parents when they were over here but we never got around to it. This is a place we will visit again the next time anyone visits us from the States. It was so interesting. The first place we went into was an old time printing press.
We have a friend from church who volunteers there and guess who we saw when we went in? That's right John Wallis. And here I thought he only worked there on alternate Tuesdays! We had a nice chat with him and then went on our way.
We went into the audio/visual building next and saw old radios and TVs. It looked like how I picture Radioshack would have looked like back in the day (had it existed of course).
We then saw woodworkers next and in one of the sheds where they were making brooms, we saw this sign:
We almost bought a broom, but didn't want to carry it around all day so we didn't. . . We can take orders for next time though!!! We went into where they had some old tools and saw this sewing machine. It made me think of the one that we had in our house when we were growing up...We thought Mom might enjoy seeing it.

After that we went on a train to the other end of the Museum.

Kathryn wasn't too sure about it to start off with, but Daddy was holding her tight and so she was fine to look around.

Our last photo is of Kathryn talking on the phone. It was just too cute!!!

We all had a great time and would be happy to visit it again.

Bignor Roman Villa

Last week we went to Bignor Roman Villa. It was about a 25 minute drive and Kathryn did really well. That's no surprise though as Kathryn loves driving (hates the traffic, though!) and usually does well in the car. It was really interesting walking around the villa. I love how they had underfloor heating way back in the day. When we're rich that's what I'm having!!!

Little Vampire

Okay, I really meant to post this picture when we took it (as she now has a few more teeth), but for a while, this is what Kathryn looked like with her top teeth...is it a wonder why I called her my little Vampire? I think she gets it from her father's side of the family!!!!

Brighton Sea Life

While Mark is looking for a job and we are all home together we have been trying to find different things to do together to get us out of the house. Mainly we have been taking walks on the seafront, walking around town or visiting garden centres. We had a buy one get one free entry ticket to the Sea Life Aquarium in Brighton so we decided we would have a look around and thought that Kathryn would enjoy it as she likes looking at the animals in the Garden Centres. As we went into the Aquarium Kathryn seemed interested until we put her closer to the glass ...
She was fine until the fish came up to the glass. Then her legs went straight and she would not get any closer to the glass...
Once she figured out that the fish could not swim through the glass she was much better and enjoyed touching the glass. All the animals seemed to like her as when she would get near the glass they would swim up to her! Even the big sea turtles in the big aquarium came up to get air near Kathryn (and ignored the people on the 'glass bottom boat')!

Okay, so the turtles are swimming away from Kathryn in this photo, but the other one that shows her surrounded by turtles isn't very flattering to Mark (as if Mark couldn't be flattering...he's so hott!)
As you can tell Kathryn is having a blast! I had fun too as it was a fun day out.

Easter

Isn't Easter so much fun? Well, I think it is. Kathryn didn't quite understand all the fuss, but I'm sure that will change next year when she knows a bit more what chocolate is!!!! Here are some photos of the Egg Hunt
And here are her spoils (and then some!):

Another Haircut

Okay, so this one was really a haircut as we chopped a lot off!!! Here is Kathryn's before shot:


And Her after shot:

At least she looks happy. This means that all of the beautiful dark hair she was born with is now gone. But I don't have to worry about her hair getting in her face anymore. And in this picture you can see her two teeth!!!

First Haircut and 2 teeth

Kathryn's hair was driving her mummy crazy as it was always in her eyes. So She has now had a haircut. Here is her before photo (the one we've done for her passport...yes we are in the process of getting her a passport!):
And here is the one after we cut it. As it is still growing out, I wasn't sure where her part is going to end up, so right now it is a side part:
And on the 6th March Kathryn's first tooth came through. She now has two teeth!
She's growing up so fast!!!!