We have a crawler!

Esther has figured out how to go forwards! She is now less frustrated but if things were hectic before they've just stepped up a notch.

Play room

There is plenty more "new house stuff" to catch up on, but we had the official opening for our play room last month. Already it is seeing a lot of use, and everyone is enjoying the extra space.

Garden

The end of the year seems like a good time to catch up with all that we did in our new garden... yes, we've been in the new house nearly a year! The girls grew a good share of flowers and vegetables again. There were strawberries too but I don't seem to have any pictures of them.

At the start of the year we didn't even have a shed! Here's the Quadro schoolhouse marking out the site.

Safe bets of peas, tatties, carrots and onions, plus some flowers for this year.

Potatoes ready to go...

hurray!

It wasn't all crop growing. As well as some nice barbecues this year we also built a new play structure. (that's the best name I have for it)

Exciting - this year we actually grew a pepper!

A bumper turnout of nasturtiums and sunflowers

A less bumper haul of potatoes

Though a decent load of peas and onions.

Tallest sunflowers ever!

A decent set of chilli peppers - now in the form of chilli jam.

We also had the smallest sunflower ever. Here is the comparison with the big one.

and the flower itself.

There's a butterfly here.

A sad ending to the pepper tale. We took it in to ripen, but a caterpillar had munched on one side (just a little bite) and only a few days later it went all mushy.

On the plus side, this years' tomatoes worked well. Even the red ones!

Christmas!

Christmas is coming and we have 3 very excited children, plus 1 that has caught the excitement off the others! So it's time to get the tree...

Obviously the trip has a few elements of fun besides...

and decoration!

Nicely done.

We've also gone all-out this year and got lights for the front of the house too. Just what I'd like to think are tasteful blue and white ones (no strobing!).

I also had quite a bit of pocket money built up so have invested in some colourful lights in the house. These are "smart" ones so they do all sorts of cool things like switching off by themselves when you go out, and changing colour to more of a sunrise in the morning, Very good for the dark winter! The one on the TV is meant to reduce eye strain too.

Speaking of chilly weather, in the name of space saving we got a new extra tall fridge, but this has left us with something of a surplus of cooling devices. Anybody want one?

My Beautiful Miriam

It is your turn again, my beautiful girl, to have a letter from Mummy. You are so excited about being five, you went to school today singing "I am five, I am five, I am five!". With your friends being a bit older than you , I suspect you feel like you have been waiting FOREVER to be five. Congratulations, you have made it!

 Miriam, first we have to talk about your laugh. It is awesome. It is one of the best laughs that ever did exist. It is the kind of laugh that resonates from your very soul and it is incredible. I hear it when you are playing with your friends (or even, occasionally your sisters) and I hear it when you are singing happily to yourself. It is an amazing laugh. I pray you never lose the ability to laugh.

You are an amazing, loyal friend. Your best friend is still Connie although more and more I also see you playing with others and generally you are kind and caring and I find that beautiful. You want to include everyone, you don't like to see others being left out. Your goal is that everyone enjoy themselves. I love that.

You continue to be stubborn (one day we will tell you the time you spent 45 minutes refusing to eat one bite of your dinner) but slowly (stubbornly) you are learning that Mummy is who you inherited your stubbornness from and we are learning to work together to get things done.  Some people will tell you that being stubborn isn't a good thing, but I think it is great as long as you learn when to let things go. Being determined to see things through is a brilliant character trait that will see you a long way in life.

You can find joy in almost any circumstance and you can help others find it too. You can find the fun in almost anything and I thank God you are here to help me find joy too.

You started school this year and I think you are happy to finally be there, you love getting to do the things that Naomi does and finally getting to be one of the big ones. Mummy doesn't like you growing too fast but I am happy that you are happy. You are also turning into a properly beautiful little girl. I already look at photos of you before your glasses and they look all *wrong*. I let you choose your glasses and you chose, so well.

My prayer for you this year is that you continue to find joy in all things and that as you learn more about Jesus that you find joy in Him too.  I love you baby girl, you bring me so much joy, it continues to be my privilege to be your Mummy.

He continued, “Go home and prepare a feast, holiday food and drink; and share it with those who don’t have anything: This day is holy to God. Don’t feel bad. The joy of God is your strength!”

Lydia

Oh Lydia, as all my girls do you are growing faster than I would choose and today you turn three! You've been telling me all week that you are "nearly three" and you can even recognise a number 3 when you see it written down (along with other numbers too, you clever little cookie).

You are a joy to be mummy to, with a wonderful inquisitive mind, you enjoy exploring, going on adventures and you often tell me "I have an idea!".

I love how much joy you bring to any occasion, a pile of leaves - great! A slice of cheese - yummy!! A big space - fun! A long car journey - amazing.  Your ability to find the adventure in any and all circumstances will take you far, my precious, cherish it.

You don't like to be the little one. You are a big girl and heaven forbid anyone think otherwise. Whatever the big ones are doing there you are too.

I mean why wouldn't a nearly 3 year old make a Charles Rennie Macintosh stencil, her big sisters are doing it after all!

You bring so much fun to our lives, you are the dance when everyone else is just sitting around. You are the wiggle to everyone else just waiting.

You have an incredible sense of smile, fairy dress for the school run, yes please! Party dress and welly boots, why not? Wooly hat whatever the weather? Why is it even a question.

Lydia you are a precious, beautiful child who DEFINITELY knows what they want. And what you want you make known and I don't enjoy the days I have to say no for some reason. You are a strong, wonderful girl and I suspect will lead people all sorts of fun places. I can't wait to see, I know you'll go on all sorts of adventures.

My prayer for you this year: that your sense of adventure grow! and that in it you'd start to trust in Jesus

I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.
2 Corinthians 11:26-29

Volunteers wanted

I project I'm running that's looking at the sounds people associate with places is looking for volunteers. Basically we're looking for people to visit our web page, listen to a few groups of sounds, and vote on the ones that remind them most of one of the places. Each visit should take around 7ish minutes, and ideally you'd come back to the page a few times over the next 2-3 months.

The places being studied are Stirling City Centre, Stirling University Campus, Aberdeen City Centre and  Aberdeen University Campus. At least many of you will be familiar with at least one of these! If you can spare a few minutes, please sign up and start listening to the sounds we’ve captured. The page can be found here: https://tiny.cc/crowdsound . At the start of this work, the sounds will seem fairly random and not necessarily good matches for the places. The idea is that as more people participate over the next couple of months, they will slowly gravitate towards something the really fits each of the places.

Also, if you can share this with others that'd be great. There's a an "official" blog post with much the same message at http://crowdsound.stir.ac.uk/2017/10/27/volunteers-wanted/

Growing

Esther is growing! She now sports a shiny new tooth...

She is also now quite capable of being elsewhere to the place in which she was put. I left her on her changing mat for about a minute, and found her here...

More treating

Lydia has now also got a button jar. Here she is the first time it was filled - very exciting! The treat was a snack with Mummy just before Jumping Beans. Very good indeed.

McTreat

We have given in! Naomi and Miriam have had their first trip to a certain clown-sponsored fast food chain. Over the past two weekends they filled their button jars, and first Naomi volunteered that she'd like to go. Then Miriam.

I can report that Happy Meals are much the same as they've always been - though the ordering process is a bit more technological than I remember.

Naomi genuinely described this as a "dream come true".
Even better for her, within a few days she got to experience it again with one of her friends!

Miriam was so captivated by EVERYTHING in the place that eating a small packet of McNuggets and fries took nearly an hour!