We LOVE visitors!!!

Oh how we love visitors! and February was the month for them! every week brought new people which was ever so exciting! You can see from the picture above what Ella thinks about visitors too!! hehe! Our first visitor was Granny Kathy, who had been staying in the UK since Christmas for Ella's Birthday before she headed off to her new house in South Africa.

She came a few days before Ella's birthday so she got to spend some time with the birthday girl one on one.  Ella thought she was pretty great to have around!

Books and cuddles before bed! 

and she also joined us on our birthday trip to the Zoo too! 

On a very late Thursday night after a very long megabus ride from London which she almost missed, Auntie Mara arrived! We wasted no time the following day, and since it was a blue sky day we headed for the mountains!

which were covered in snow!!! Unfortunately it had rained the night before and frozen the melted snow back into ice, so the path we usually climb to get to Cwm Idwal was super slippy.  So slippy that By kept falling over with Ella in the backpack, and Granny Kathy didn't have suitable footwear so her and Ella chilled out in the visitors room whilst we had a quick walk up to the lake.

I think this was my very favourite trip to Cwm Idwal because everything just looked so beautiful in the snow.

Mara and By did the daredevil stuff like stepping out on to the lake! which I was a little bit horrified at! and then Byron started throwing himself down on his belly and sliding along the ice...and I was getting even more panicked! but it was pretty solid ice, we threw rocks at it and it didn't even crack!

Mara got to live out her childhood dreams of being an ice skater sort of! 

Ella was all smiles after, once she was warm and cosy and not slipping over on ice!!

The next morning, the complete Braithwaite/Jones/Ide gang arrived for Ella's party! so we were a full house! Whilst the babies napped, we told everyone of the fun that had been had at the frozen lake the day before so By and Mar went off for round 2 with Cam and Ja and Mel!

Even more snowy and beautiful than the day before! 

Mara and Cam showing off their moves! 

and catching an awesome sunset just before they left! with all limbs intact, thank goodness!

On a lovely Sunday afternoon the following week, our friends Laura and Javan came over for lunch.  They were in our church congregation the last time we lived here in Penmaenmawr...but they've since moved about an hour away so it was fun to have them come visit...and see Esme all grown up and baby Jude in action! 

Ella was in 7th heaven having Esme chase her over and over! she kept requesting more and Esme kept obliging, a great little set of buddies! 

What a bunch of little cuties! Ella sure does love having other children around! 

The following week some of my uni friends came to visit and check out some of the Welsh scenery! I was madly checking my weather app the whole week leading up to their trip as knew they were keen to do some hiking but every day I looked the weather for Saturday got worse and worse! 

Eventually Saturday came and it was pretty sunny and pleasant where we live on the coast, but the mountains were still forecasting heavy rain. We went to Cwm Idwal anyway and fortunately it didn't rain, but we did have crazy gale force winds! 

It proved a bit much for poor little Ella so she chilled in the car with her Daddy whilst we had a quick hike around!

All smiles, despite the crazy weather! The rest of the weekend was spent enjoying lots of yummy food, and homemade desserts! and games were on the cards but we just got too busy chatting! Love these friends of ours and wish we didn't all live so far apart! Really appreciated all the driving they did to reach us! Some of the Londoners only arrived at 3am!! Now that is dedication! 

The last of our visitors was Laur, one of my besties from back home.  I was especially excited about her and Sam and Lilia coming to visit because they were bringing a very important addition...baby Rosie! 

She's the camera shy one passed out on Laura's lap! hehe! We started our day at Hickory's for some steak and shake fun! Laur is a big milkshake lover like me so we always like to indulge when we get together!

A giant steak and a snickerlicious milkshake for only £10? I'll take that Steak n Shake Tuesday's!!

Lilia and Ella loved their balloons!

and back home we got the babies to do some posing! The last time I saw Lilia was last summer so it was lovely to see the adorable little girl she is turning into, and she is quite the chatterbox these days - loved her cheeky little personality coming out! 

I love this one, it's like Lilia and Ella are really fussing over baby Rosie! 

It's easy to see why, she's completely adorable! look at those gorgeous blue eyes!

So fun to get to catch up and have fun with all the babies! 

Had to snap a little pic of the recently turned 4 person Brooker family! Aren't these guys lovely! 

Ella wasted no time in showing Lilia how her toys worked!

and baby Rosie did what newborns do best...and slept the day away - what a peaceful sleeper! Their visit certainly made us excited for the day when our family expands!

We've been on quite the lonesome comedown these past 2 weeks since our last visitors left! but oh what fun it was having so many people come to see us! We don't really have any more visitors lined up for now...because we will be departing these shores in around 8 weeks, not that I'm counting or anything ;) 

A Christmas & New Year's Round Up!

If there's 3 things I love in life...it's Jesus, my family and good food! 

So as you can imagine my excitement levels are always pretty high around Christmas time since it's a time to celebrate all 3 of those things...so be prepared for a picture overload!

I started off the festive season by heading back to my hometown of Harpenden to exchange some presents with friends, an annual tradition that we started when we were 15 and still at school and that we have continued every year since.  It was extra special for me this year, since last year was the first I've ever missed due to being in the Caribbean and so I was double-y excited to be joining in the fun this time round!

It was also Caz's birthday on that very same day so we went out for a lovely meal at Strada.

How I love going back to where I grew up, Harpenden will always hold a special place in my heart.

We spent Christmas day with my mother in law Kathy, in the Braithwaite house it is a tradition to open your presents accompanied by a mince pie and cup of tea:



It's also a tradition to get yummy reminders of home like droewors!



and it's sort of a tradition for me to get baking related presents! hello extra KitchenAid bowl and cupcake oven gloves!

After the present opening, we had a delicious feast that begun with camembert and toasted bread...

followed by a turkey and gammon joint roast and the best roast potatoes around...

Once we were all sufficiently stuffed we went on a Christmas day walk to Ampthill Park...

Back home, it was time for dessert - a peanut butter & brownie 9 layer trifle By and I had made!



and fitted in a skype with Cam who's in South Africa:

and then we played By's new board game pointless followed by some Christmas movies and then bed!

Boxing day was spent at By's dads house.

Even Obie joined in with the festivities!

We had a nice meal and then the boys competitive side came out through some olympic event playing on the Wii.

After they were all played out, we headed north to Shropshire to spend some time with my family.

We had a giant present opening session upon our arrival - check out the size of my stocking!

By got some fajita and taco kits for lots of Mexican fun...

and I got tons of baking goodies plus this giant lindor chocolate ball! how cool! 

I also loved going round the house and snapping all the decorations! 

I really should have taken a photo of the tree whilst all the presents were still underneath! 

and thanks to Mara's Bon Appetit, Martha Stewart magazine and new dessert book we were treated to tons of yummy bakes over the next few days like taco pie, sweet potato slow cooker soup, butternut and mushroom risotto, emperor's pancakes, banoffee pie and magic bars to name just a few!

Of course the highlight of the whole of Christmas had to be pointless! I've lost count of the number of times it was played in Shropshire but inevitably it would be the first thing my mom would ask to do daily!  and it's such a fun game that it never got old! 

She won the first night we played it...

and spent the rest of the time trying to regain her champion title and the coveted pointless trophy, to no avail! There were SO many laughs during the many games we played of rubbish answers that people gave so that made it even more entertaining! like when Dad was going to pick 'Richard Beckham' as a member of the Beckham family or when he tried to talk Mom out of picking Buzz Lightyear as a character from Toy Story because 'why would a space man be in a film about toys'! or when Mom was delighted with picking 'Highbury' as an answer for a premiership football ground (since she's not really up on her sports) only to discover it's called Emirates these days! and Mara had too many for me even to know where to start! haha

When Mel and Arne arrived from Bruges a few days later we introduced it to them too...





and with their arrival they also brought us some yummy Belgian treats!



and it was time for another round of present opening! By added to his ever expanding hot chocolate collection with some real Belgian hot chocolate sticks - he was pretty pleased with them!



and Mel stuck to her annual tradition of seeing how many bows would fit on her head...



Usually we hit the shops alot when we all get together but fortunately for the boys it didn't happen too much this time around although we did make a special trip to Chester & Cheshire Oaks one day to check out the sales...with uggs and hats at the ready (it was a chilly day!)

...and to have lunch at this amazing place:

I was so desperate to eat there that undeterred by there not being a free table available for 3 hours when we stopped by, we opted to sit outside! Yes - it was a freezing cold day...and it may have also been raining but when Root Beer Floats, Milkshakes and Pulled Pork are involved then compromises have to be made!

It did not disappoint...here are Mom and Mel showing off their Root Beer Float and Triple Mint Oreo shake!







and then the food came...and it was definitely worth it! A chili dog with the cutest little bucket of fries for the veggie in the family...check the irony!



and the most amazing American meatfeast platter! with pulled pork, brisket, bbq sauce smothered ribs, dry ribs and of course some fries and slaw!



It certainly kept us going, even after all the sales shopping through the crowds at Cheshire oaks, we managed to muster up enough energy to put a tannoy out for Mel and Mara when we temporarily lost them!!

You may have observed that Dad was missing out on the American BBQ fun...well don't you worry because he was having his own fun at home with a jack hammer and our back garden!



For New Year's Eve, we got some fireworks - I made some cupcakes and me and the girls dressed up in dresses, fancy tights and colour co-ordinated our crazy patterned nails too!

Apparently the boys didn't know what all the fuss was about, so it was t-shirts and jeans for them! (as they entertained themselves rubbing balloons against their heads and sticking them to the ceiling...good times!)

Of course what were we doing just before the clock struck 12? playing another game of pointless! but we made it out in time for a little disco on the drive as the countdown began...



and By and Arne put on quite the display.  The highlight was when the grand finale firework fell over and started shooting out everywhere and even heading towards us at alarming speed! We were laughing pretty hard at that point...some of us a little too hard! but what better way to bring in the New Year!

so I'll leave you with some sparkler fun that we had! here's wishing all of you a Happy New Year too! Hope 2012 is a great one!





Well done for getting to the end of this post!