I’m finally sitting down to catch up on our adventures and it’s 12:30 at night. Oops!
First days back were a bit rough. Alice and Rachel had a hard time figuring out why they weren’t tired at night. We could explain to Rachel that she needed to sleep when the sun was sleeping, but Alice can’t be reasoned with. Also, Emily and her kitties were staying with us, so we were trying extra hard to be quiet. (We loved having Lucille and Jenna Macaroni Cat, and Emily too I guess ;-P ) It was fun to catch up with Emily and just be in OUR OWN HOME! WAHOO!
It is WEIRD to see Alice just walking all over our home! She is a proper little toddler now. I can’t wrap my head around it! She seems so grown up when she walks around and plays with her toys, climbs up on stools and chairs, and tries to talk with the rest of us. She is LOUD. HOLY COW! This girl has some serious lung capacity. I’ve never known a baby who could scream like she can. Not that she’s angry or upset-she just loves to make noise! We’ve halfway taught her how to say a quiet “ah” and open her mouth if she wants more food, but the rest of them time, we have no idea how to curb the yelling. Oh well. It’s almost funny?
Alice really loves BOOKS. (“ook” in Alice) She will play quietly with books for HOURS at a time. In the morning, Rachel will wake up and put some books in her bed so they can play quietly together if I’m still sleeping! It’s A MIRACLE! Haha! I love those kids! I really love when Alice brings a little book over to me, and I always try to drop what I’m doing and read it to her. She will sit so quiet and still on my lap while I read her favorites: “Go Do Go”, “Funny Face”, “Bedtime”, “That’s Not My Pig”, “Peek A Boo with Friends” and “Good Morning Baby”. It’s so sweet to see her really learning! Another “ordinary miracle”!
Her other love is DOGS or “gogs” as she calls them. Everywhere we go, she spots them and tells us all about it! She isn’t always sure how to pet them, but she wants to be close and just watch them. Birds and cats are becoming favorites too, since we see lots of them on our walks.
Alice can wave “hi” and “Bye” and she’s started to say those words too! She can imitate “mama” and “dad” although I don’t know if she understands them yet. Other words are dog, bird, look, and again. Her best trick is “blathering” her tongue in and out. So funny! Oh, and she loves giving “hi five” and “bones”.
She sleeps from 9 PM-8 AM with one or two little outbursts in the night, but she has gotten progressively better at putting herself back to sleep. It’s been a BATTLE to get any sleep, but the last few nights have been pretty good! She will usually take a morning nap from 10:30-11 and then nap with Rachel around 2:30-4:30. (working on dropping that morning nap)
Alice surprises me every day. I never know what she wants or what to do except hold her on my hip and show her all the things I’m doing. This is great for my daily arm workout. She loves playing with Rachel, and she will make a break for the toilet if I ever let her out of my sight. She is still our flexible, squishy, hilarious little princess, and she will dance to any beat you can give her. (Of course her favorite tune is “There was Alice, Alice, sitting in the palace…”) I love her little blonde head with those silly brown tips leftover from baby fuzz! I can’t believe she’ll be 1 in a week!
Rachel is amazing. I am so proud of that little girl! She has suffered from some painful and annoying health problems for awhile, and we've finally gotten some medication that is working. She's had to work SOOOO hard and endure so much, and I'm proud of her for choosing to be happy through all of it.
We’ve had a lot of craft time together where we make Halloween decorations or do learning activities! So far we’ve made a skeleton woman, a candy corn bunting banner, a paper plate ghost, pumpkin, scary witch, and Rachel made a butterfly. She’s learned how to use scissors all by herself! I love picking out things on pinterest for us to try, and I love seeing how proud she is to show off all of our creations.
She is SMART! She can talk SO well, people don’t believe her when she tells them she’s 2. She can put her clothes on all by herself and put her clothes away in the right drawers. She’s my biggest helper in the kitchen and cleaning up the house. We sing the “clean-up song”, and we love to sing “Make it a Good Day”, “Cuppycake Song”, “Twinkle Twinkle”, and any song Rachel makes up. She’s so CREATIVE! She made up a game called “Punashama” where you have to use a stick (or spatula) to flip a cardboard box into the air and yell “Punashama!” (She told Paul “It’s a really tricky game.”) Her other creation is “waggle waggle” which involves a shoe string and wrapping it around your foot. Rachel loves to play pretend and assign us all to be different characters from her favorite movies like “Swan Princess”, “How to Train Your Dragon”, and “Minions.” I spend a lot of my day being Hiccup or Toothless.
Moving around this much really took a toll on her sense of security. She knows she’s a long way from Ggie and Mimi, but she wasn’t quite sure if we are visiting or staying here? She gets really worried if I ever leave her, and she often tells us “You can’t leave me here.” Or if she’s mad: “You can’t listen to me!” I have to snuggle her to sleep for naps and bedtime, but I’m learning to love that quiet time to just breathe together. She has a hard time staying in her bed-probably because she’s a little bit worried we won’t be there when she wakes up (even though we tell her every night exactly where we are going or what we are doing). I know she gets scary dreams sometimes too. She’s been a trouper to travel the world with us. I know it’s been tough, but I’m also glad she gets to learn from these experiences and develop a sense of security in new situations. She is learning she can trust us, and we are learning to communicate more clearly with her. I am so grateful for that little ray of sunshine. She reminds me to be grateful for the littlest things.
Rachel LOVES to pray. She volunteers for the prayer EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. She always thanks Heavenly Father for so many things-each member of our family, all of her friends (by name), and everything else she can think of. I saw her kneeling down and praying in the middle of the park today. Not sure what it was about, but it made me so glad she knows she can pray anytime, anywhere. She loves to read her scriptures too! We’ve been studying Gal 5:22-23 which lists some fruits of the Spirit. Tonight, she told me the almost the entire verse word for word! She especially emphasized and repeated “joy” and “longsuffering”. What a woman!
Some of our recent excursions:
-Handley Hall with the Beasley’s and Mace’s. We went the day after we got home because everyone just couldn’t wait to see us, and we couldn’t all fit at our home very well, so we packed up the girls and made a day of it! Carol brought us all a picnic, the Mace’s purchased our tickets, and we paid for the apples we picked from the apple orchard. Ha! The grounds were gorgeous-full of gardens with very careful designs. You can see how much work and pride they take in their gardens. Very English. The hall was lovely, but the best part of the day was being back with our friends in some BEAUTIFUL English weather.
-SCOTLAND: Two days after we got home, we realized we had an entire week ahead with lovely weather, so we wanted to spend it in the highlands! We booked a last minute rental car and some airbnbs and just went! Crazy. There was quite the drama picking up the rental car-the place was completely out of cars, so we ended up three hours late and three times the money we were planning on spending. Oh well.
We finally got us all packed in, and we rolled into Edinburgh about 9 at night. There were stops with parks and whatnot along the way. Couldn’t find a public restroom in any of the tiny towns, so when we got to our street, I hopped out to get in quickly. Except it was the wrong street and I ran up and down it with Rachel, looking for the right house (which didn’t exist). AH!!!! Paul parked and got all the luggage and Alice out, and I met him halfway back, turned him around, and we drove about 10 minutes to the right place. Hahaha. Oops. It was a great location though! Literally ACROSS THE STREET from Arthur’s Seat, and around the corner from Holyrood Palace! (Those were our two goals for Edinburgh, so it was a win!) I cooked up the dinner and we ate at 10 pm that first night. Unfortunately, Alice got sick, so the next few days were full of snotty noses and no sleep. Well, we were still jetlagged anyway. We didn’t make it out of the flat until about 11 the next day.
Hiked up Arthur’s Seat, and LOVED it! I was so proud of us! Rachel climbed most of the way up by herself. And Paul carried Alice in the back carrier like a champ. We met Elder and Sister Donaldson at the top with about 6 departing missionaries. They remembered us from our performance in North Wales! We joined them for a verse of “High on a Mountaintop” which seemed entirely appropriate, and then we made our way to the lookout point. It was a PERFECT clear day, and you could almost see Sterling Castle! WOW! So amazing.
Holyrood Palace was fun! I don’t usually even try to do headphone tours with little ones in tow, but Rachel and I had fun listening and I gave Paul the highlights. Loved the gorgeous “family history” room full of portraits, and we enjoyed the exhibit honoring the queen. What a woman. Also, there’s a little “kid friendly” room with toys and clothes and videos of royal children throughout the years. So sweet!
We found some souvenirs on the Royal Mile and just kept walking. There are only so many days with perfect weather, and we weren’t about to quit while the sun was shining, so we just marched all over that city! Loved every bit of it!
That evening, I made spaghetti at our little place, and cute Rachel-in the middle of the meal-just said “Thank you for making me these noodles mommy.” It just melted my heart that she was sitting there, enjoying her noodles so much, remembered that I made them, and thought to thank me! Such a sweet little Bean!
The next day was our big DRIVING day. We did a little picnic beside the spring in Pitlochry and had fun exploring the streets and old churches there. I tried to take pictures on my phone as we were driving, but they just couldn’t do Scotland justice. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! There’s a tangible feeling as you roam those hills-like Brigadoon is actually going to pop up at any moment. It’s heaven! Fort William with the lake was STUNNING, and although it was dark, we thoroughly enjoyed the stretch from Fort William to Glasgow. I want to do it again and again! Unfortunately, the address for our hotel in Glasgow didn’t work. So at 10:30 at night, we were on a wild goose chase, driving in circles with two exhausted little munchkins. It was so funny, we almost cried. Those are the moments that form the bond for the family, though. Paul was a champ getting sent on quest for petrol and parking. The SWEET gal at the desk helped me set up the cots and get the girls in bed. We loved fighting through the night with Rachel waking up every hour with her tummy hurting, and we were so late to breakfast the next morning, but the whole staff knew who we were and helped us out. It’s a lot sweeter as a memory. Haha!
Drove to the temple and traded off watching the girls. There aren’t words to describe how much I needed that day in the temple. I was so grateful to get a few moments to just sit and ponder and listen.
-GENERAL CONFERENCE: After our week in Scotland, our internet was having issues, so we spent a weekend at the Mace’s to be able to watch General Conference. It still feels weird to have it in the evening, but I absolutely loved every single talk this year. I was so grateful for their witnesses of truth-the reminder that we are not alone and we are united, or at least we are united in our efforts toward our goal of unity. I came away with a renewed determination to both SIMPLIFY and WORK HARDER as I live BY THE SPIRIT all day, every day. That’s the key, isn’t it? The Spirit will direct our paths.
-UNIVERSITY: Paul was both excited and dreading going back. There’s a lot of work to do on Hamlet (he’s playing Claudius), thesis, project, planning for the future, and keeping our family insane. Wait. I mean intact. He has a much busier time table than we were expecting this term, so he’s just trying to hold it together for now. 3 weeks in, and the dust is beginning to settle, though.
-CHURCH: We’ve loved jumping back in to the ward. It’s great to see our friends, make new ones, and feel like we have a job to do. There are 4 sets of wonderful missionaries in our ward, and we are having the last ones over for dinner tonight! Can’t wait to get to know them all better. Paul and I are trying to put together an entertainment set for the ward “fall activity” next week as well as prepare for Christmas programs which are around the corner. We had a wonderful baptism last week for Norma, and I was able to speak about baptism and covenants. Loved being able to ponder that.
(Elder Minder is from Danville!)
-HALLOWEEN: Isn’t really a thing around here, but I’m hoping we can find somewhere to trick or treat??
-BIG PLANS: Working on “Our Story Goes On”-hopefully three more performances in the next 8 months; a trip to Jersey for Christmas/New Year with a small journey to France; Thanksgiving???; Christmas presents need to be done in advance for mailing; as I’ve settled back in, I’ve been mentally packing/sorting things to keep or toss when we finish here… I’m already exhausted. Oh boy. Still planning trips to Ireland, Italy, and Austria before then! GAH! Add in a few birthdays and anniversaries too…
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