Xmas 2002

2002 has been an eventful year for us. We started it by moving house in February which is never an easy task especially not with a 2 month old baby! In the end it went well, but the four days it took were very tiring indeed. We've settled into our new house just fine and enjoyed the spring which you'll see in the top right of our picture along with the raspberries and the nappies.

The summer was filled with weddings (5) - congratulations everybody! Only two weddings were in Cornwall but we seemed to have been 4 times by June! You'll see Amy as a Tammy's bridesmaid and Isabel wearing her wedding dress in the picture.

Things took a turn for the worse in late June - Nick's father Dougal died suddenly while mowing the grass one fine summers day. This was a great shock to us all - especially his wife Val who had a heart attack on the same day. We are all recovering slowly but miss him greatly.

In July we had a quick trip to visit friends in Madrid and in October we had a late holiday in Mallorca which was great fun for all the family. We stayed in a lovely villa in the mountains and spent much time in the sea and swimming pool as you'll see in the picture! We also managed to visit quite a few restaurants which was rather a treat.

Isabel has been a joy for us this year changing from static to mobile, silent to talking (6 words!), but always smiling. She is now walking very solidly (though it looks a bit like she has lost her horse) and is into everything. We've now got 4 stair gates and locks on all the kitchen cupboards! As you'll see from the pictures Isabel enjoys her food, playing with her brother and sister and sleeping (sometimes).

Edmund started school in September. This was quite distressing for all of us to start with but he has settled in very well now and is producing wonderful drawings which is quite a surprise since before he went he refused to pick up a pencil! Ed has grown up a lot in the last year and he is a wonderful friendly little boy.

Amy has learnt lots of things - she has swum five meters, learnt to read, learnt to ride her bicycle without stablisers and to skip! You'll also see that her teeth have been falling out too (poor thing). For her final challenge this year she is learning not to suck her thumb - she is doing very well so far!

For Nick and Loveday this year has been mostly a matter of surviving. Work has been demanding for Nick and the children for both - spare time has become a distant memory! We can see things will be better next year on both fronts and are looking forward to it!