Xmas 2006

Our year started with half the ground floor of our house still a building site. Progress was slow but in April we got away from it all by going on the school ski trip to France. You can see in the top right of the picture the enthusiastic skiers and the very tired parents! It was a truly exhausting trip - having to carry five people's ski gear - but we all enjoyed it greatly. We're not sure we'll be repeating the experience soon though for reasons to be explained shortly...

In July the girls enjoyed a week's holiday to Wales, leaving the boys behind for a back to back Pirates of the Caribbean experience! While the girls were away our rabbit Smokey produced three babies. You can see two of them in the picture. We kept one of them (Lotta) to keep Smokey company and the others have gone to good homes.

For our summer holiday this year we went to Scotland. We visited Hadrian's wall on the way up to Mull. In the picture you can see Tobermory (or Balamory as it is known to anyone under five). We visited Staffa for Fingal's cave and the Treshnish Islands to see puffins. Can you spot the puffin in the picture? We continued our Scottish holiday with a week near Fort William. We could see Ben Nevis out of the window of our log cabin and enjoyed a quieter time learning fly fishing and doing some horse riding.

In July, Loveday's Mother's dog Echo gave birth to 4 gorgeous puppies. We, of course, got talked into having one - a lovely black and white female - Daisy. You can see her and Holly (12) in the picture. They are quite good friends and have very noisy rumbles on occasion. Daisy has eaten the sofa which is unfortunate - we are hoping for less chewing very soon!

Just to cap off the reproductive saga we too are expecting again. Our baby is due at the end of April, but if past performance is a guide, it will probably appear a couple of weeks later than that. The children are very excited about the prospect of having a new sibling, and we are excited to have potential babysitters in house!

Our new kitchen is now in use and nearly finished too! We completed our land swap with our neighbours and now have a fine new (dog proof) boundary. We've been levelling and terracing our new bit of garden, so we are still living in a building site!

Amy (10) is studying hard (poor thing) for secondary school entrance exams in January. She has been doing lots of horse riding and flute playing too. Ed (9) is doing the things boys do at that sort of age, computer games, football, Pokémon, getting into trouble etc. Isabel (5) has started her new school in the reception year. She seems to be getting on very well, making lots of friends and getting the hang of that reading thing.

There is more to tell, but... we've run out of space! You'll have to come and visit in 2007 to hear more...