4 days in Madrid

We had a great time in Madrid. The temple is beautiful. The city is huge and the metro is clean and nice.

Madrid had beautiful Christmas lights and decorations.

We loved eating at Hard Rock Cafe. Gotta love that hot fudge brownie.

We found a great park for the kids to play in the middle of downtown. The boys took a rest on this bench to get the rocks out of their shoes.

Luckily, the baby likes the food wherever we go! I went to the pharmacy to buy him some baby food and since I don't speak spanish, I tried asking in English and Italian. When I still couldn't be understood, I resorted to charades. The lady showed me a baby food bottle with fruit on it so I said, "si". When Todd translated the bottle for me, I ended up buying a fruit dessert with sugar. He loved his dinner that night!

A very merry Christmas!

Breakfast with Santa at Warwick Castle

Luke is our first baby that didn't cry when we put him on Santa's lap.

He just wanted to pull that white beard!

After breakfast, we toured the castle. We climbed over 500 stairs to reach the top of this tower. Todd gets the prize for carrying Luke to the top. Luke weighs over 20 pounds! Go dad! The next morning, Todd and I had sore legs. When I asked the kids if they were sore from climbing all those stairs, they said, "what stairs?"

The view of the river Avon from the top of the tower.

The boys loved playing in the snow from the machine.

This might be the closest they'll get to playing in snow this winter.

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer

Cucumbers for breakfast

This morning I asked Mary what she wanted for breakfast and she said, "Cucumbers on the couch while I watch Playhouse Disney." Normally I don't let my kids eat in front of the T.V., but when a 3 year old asks for a plate of veggies for breakfast, how can you say no?! She ate the whole thing!

Look who's sitting all by himself!

.............................Then again, maybe laying down is better!.............

What my kids have taught me Wednesday

My kids are teaching me to speak English instead of American. Here are just a few things that they've picked up on:

Mum (mom)

Gair-edge (Garage)

Toe-mah-toe (tomato)

Rubbish (garbage)

Bin (garbage can)

Trousers- we don't wear pants anymore

Biscuit (cookie/cracker)

Loads (instead of a lot)

Smart - "you look very smart today" (very nice)

Brilliant - also known as "brill" (excellent)

Lift (elevator)

Queue - "I am waiting in the queue" (line)

Soft toy (stuffed animal)

Boot (trunk of the car)

Lorry (truck)

Telly (T.V.)

Bits (stuff, pulp in the OJ, chunks in baby food, piece of something, or just a thing)

Motorway (freeway)

Petrol (gas for the car)

Words that mean the same but are used more often here:

Clever

Lovely

Fantastic

"Sort it out" - means to get organized, oops sorry organiSed

Exactly

Mate

Cycle - forget "riding your bike", you get weird looks when you say that

Toilet - the whole room is referred to as the toilet



In addition, the boys are learning French at school. The other night at dinner Benjamin told me that the brussel sprouts were "Ca va mal" (bad).

A day in London & Guy Fawkes bonfire night

We spent the day sight seeing in London...

We went to the Natural History museum in the morning when it was raining. Benjamin went crazy over their life-like T-rex. It was a big hit. Then we went to Wellington Arch and the war memorial. Michael asked a lot of questions about WW2 and we told him about his grandpas that served in the war. Then we walked through St. James park and over to Buckingham Palace. It was a great time in London. We treated ourselves to Cornish "Pasties" again on the train ride home. They are so yummy!

In the evening we celebrated our first Guy Faukes holiday with some friends. Guy Fawkes is known for the Gunpowder conspiracy of 1605. He tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament during the state opening on 5 November 1605. His plot was discovered before he carried it out, and he was burned. So the English build bonfires and let off fireworks in celebration. I love the picture of the boys at the bonfire. Benjamin has a sausage in one hand and a sparkler in the other. The kids had a great time.

A great date!

We went downtown to see Wicked. It was fantastic! After the show we grabbed a cornish pastry to eat on the train ride home. We have been wanting to have a date in downtown London together for a while. This date was well worth the wait. Thanks sweetie!

Happy Halloween!

Our kids were able to trick-or-treat, it just took a little planning on my part. My cute neighbor agreed to participate and I had a couple of friends meet at our house and give candy from their cars on our street. So this darling group of kids made the rounds between two houses and two cars until the bowls of candy were empty and their bags were full. They had a great time!

What my kids have taught me Wednesday...

To laugh! They are so much fun. Check this out.

Autumn in England

Michael loves to rake leaves and there's plenty here for him to do!

Our little Luke is 6 months now. He's such a sweet baby!

Michael wants his two front teeth for Christmas.

Am I really that old?!

Michael asked me last week if there was electricity when I was a kid. I remember thinking as a kid that my mom grew up in the dark ages and now my son thinks the same of me.

And then today I had a babysitter come over so that I could volunteer at the kids school and she taught me how to text. The conversation went something like this:
Me: "Wow! You know how to text? My phone plan has unlimited texts but I don't know how to do it."
Her: "Yeah, my mom doesn't know how to do it either."
The funny part is not that I didn't know how to text, it's that I think I'm as young as she is, but she thinks I'm as old as her mom.

What my kids have taught me Wednesday

I did 'cooking time' in Benjamin's class at school today. He got to choose 3 other kids to be part of the first group in the kitchen. So, when they came in, I asked them their names. When I got to the last little boy, Benjamin said, "Mom, he doesn't talk, but he gives great high fives! Watch!" And he walked over and gave the boy a high five. Then, when it was this little boys turn to stir, Benjamin showed him what he was supposed to do. I was so thrilled that our little Benjamin was a good friend to this little boy even though they couldn't communicate with words.

Yummy feet!

Hopefully he will break this habit before he starts to walk!

'What my kids have taught me' Wednesday

I've been reminded lately about how fast kids grow. President Monson talked about it in general conference, Michael's teacher talked about it at his 1st grade music program, and our nephew just got his mission call (I swear he was 10 years old yesterday)! So, I've been thinking about how much I need to treasure this time while the kids are little. It's hard sometimes to have little ones...sometimes the days seem to be lost to diaper changes, laundry, cleaning up and disciplining. However, there are far more moments when they teach me something profound, or they flash me one of those smiles that melt my heart, or they say a prayer that is the sweetest thing I've heard in my life. In an effort to grasp onto the moments when they teach me, I've decided to start a 'What my kids have taught me' Wednesday. Here's my first entry:

On Sunday around the dinner table we talked about talents. We discussed the talents of each family member and I was so happy to hear the kids list their own talents. Everything from, "I'm a great artist" to "I make my bed good." They weren't shy about their talents. We are all blessed with talents and it's important not only to recognize our talents but to use them.

"Don't forget to buckle the groceries."

We have a seat belt sensor in our car that beeps the most annoying beep you've ever heard if a seat belt isn't buckled. So, every time we leave the grocery store (every other day at least, but that's a blog post for another day) Mary reminds me to buckle the groceries so that once we reach 15 mph we aren't deafened by the beep. People must think I'm crazy when I walk around the car making sure all the kids are buckled, and then I open the door to buckle the groceries too!

Our princess is 3!

Cinderella gets a love from her brother and kisses from dad

Practicing showing 3 fingers instead of 2 and eating yummy cake

(Thanks to my friend Betty Crocker :))