Too tired to post...

I am so tired I really didn't want to post tonight, but I also didn't want to go to bed without my husband, who was cleaning the office for the first time since we moved into our house this past June.

We had an early morning with Miss Gemma greeting us at 6:30 am. Jonny had Gemma duty, so I slept until 8 am with Angus. I got up to make brunch for our friends, the Stinson's who were coming over at 10am. We had a nice morning eating and chatting with them. Jonny however had to watch rugby at noon because Ireland was playing England and the world would end if he didn't watch the game live! I was a little annoyed by this as our company was still at our house, but when it comes to rugby, there is no talking to him!

Jonny was in a great mood because Ireland beat England 19 -13 and I was heading to Jessica Knits with Pam, Elaine, and our babysitter Michelle for an afternoon of knitting. I didn't get much knitting done, but I did buy myself a new project. I have wanted to tackle socks, so I picked up some sock yarn and double pointed needles for my next project. I am also working on a strawberry hat to give as a baby gift for one of the babies that are going to be born this year. I am hoping one of my siblings or sister-in-law has a girl!

I am also looking for a pair of size 8 circular needles, 47 inch in length. I am trying to get my test knitting started for SWTC and I can't seem to find these needles. Please let me know if anyone has a pair they could lend me or a place I can buy them.

The kids and I are headed to the park for a playdate in the morning. We actually have a pretty busy week, so look forward to an interesting blog week!

You gotta love men in skirts!

We had our big family outing to the Scottish Highland Games to day in Mesa. We had a fabulous time! There were tons of men and women decked out in traditional Scottish garb. So people that are reading this don't know that first of all my husband is from Northern Ireland, attended university in Edinburgh, Scotland at Herriot-Watt University and his last name 'Dallas' is actually a Scottish name. That is why we have such an interest in Scottish culture. We were able to eat Scottish delicacies such as Haggis (which was in a can, I thought that was funny.), Steak and Mushroom Pie, Fish and Chips, and Gemma had a Sausage Roll.



Gemma eating her Sausage Roll.



Gemma stealing her Daddy's chips.

We walked around all of the booths where they were selling British food, knick knacks, t-shirts, etc. One booth that was very interesting was a place selling kilts that are called 'Utilikilts'. They were actually quite rock star esque, but there was one problem. One of the jack asses selling the kilt had an "IRA Freedom Fighters" t-shirt on with his kilt. I could not believe it and when I told Jonny what his t-shirt said he just shook his head. I cannot believe an American, who has never lived in Northern Ireland, would have the nerve to insult people with his t-shirt. Does he not know that the IRA is a terrorist organizations? Plus, kilts are British, so wasn't he contradicting himself by wearing that shirt with a kilt? I wonder if he sold any kilts???

We then walked around the clan booths looking for a man and woman we met back in 1998. William and Betty Hanna were a retired couple we spent the day with back then because Jonny noticed their Ulster flag flying at their booth. His father was from Northern Ireland and her mother was from Scotland. We found Mr. Hanna and found out that his wife had passed away in August and that he was ill himself. We met his son and daughter-in-law and they were all so nice. We were so happy that he remembered us after all of these years.

We took the kids over to see the pipe band competition. There is nothing like the sweet sound of bagpipes...





Jonny and Angus listening to the pipe band.

We ended our Scottish Festival experience watching a bit of the Highland Games and checking out the British cars. Brooke this one's for you!



Jonny, his parents, sister, and uncle drove this type of mini to London to see Prince Charles and Lady Di get married in 1981. This mini is about half the size of the mini you just got rid of. Can you imagine trying to fit a car seat in this puppy?

Technical Difficulties

Unfortunately my computer has been down for the last 24 hours, so I haven't had a chance to update my blog. Now that I am blogging I keep thinking of things throughout the day that might be interesting to the general public, my friends, and family. I hoping to make my blog interesting and worthy of your time.

Thursday I woke up with a horrible backache. I fell asleep sometime in the middle of the night when I got up with Angus. We sat in the living room and the only thing I remember is sitting down and latching him on. I think I sleep sitting up for the next 2 hours. I guess I get so exhausted from getting and up general child rearing that I sleep sitting up.

Gemma's friend Carson came over for the day because his mother, Hallie and brother, Harrison went to New Jersey for a long weekend. Hallie's husband Shannon, who is a lawyer, is probably one of the nicest people I know. He said when he gets off work he wants to take Gemma and Carson to Chuck E. Cheese. All day the kids were so excited about their date to Chuck E. Cheese. They had a great day playing together and they just get along really well. They even took attempted to take a nap together in which Gemma sat on her bed and Carson fell asleep on the floor in front of the door.

Thursday evening I went to visit the twins, Jeffrey and Matthew Homer. They are so tiny and so cute. Kim is doing a great job nursing both boys and she is a natural as a mother. I brought them their hats and I am looking forward to seeing the picture of me holding them in their new hats.




The twins hats.

Now for my actual Friday post....My social calendar is too full!!!

I was just thinking, why do I love being a social butterfly? Everyone teases me because I am always running around doing something or socializing with one group of friends or meeting new people. I seem to thrive on this. I think it is because I love to learn new things and with each person I meet, I learn something new and a lot of the time I form a new friendship.




Angus and Gemma laying in bed.

We started off the day running around crazy trying to get the kids ready to take Gemma to school. We were a little late as usual, but it was a pretty good day. I realize that I don't know how much longer I am going to be able to take Gemma to school. In order to take Gemma to school I need to be able to carry Angus on my body either in a sling, baby bjorn, etc. Angus seems to be a strapping 15lbs and I don't think I am going to be able to carry him for 2 hours for the next 12 weeks. If any one has suggestions on how to carry an infant, a relatively, large infant for 2 hours straight please let me know.

I had lunch plans with Brooke and Jen today at Postino. We were out celebrating Jen's 30th birthday. Postino is one of my most favorite places to go in Phoenix. We had a lovely lunch, a great glass of wine and got a little knitting done. Brooke and I decided it was about time that we met Jen's significant other, Mike. We are planning on having dinner with them in the near future so we can give Jen the rubber stamp of approval. Are you nervous Jen, or maybe Mike should be???



Sleeping Angus...



The Birthday Girl! Jen is 30 tomorrow!!!! Happy Day!



Brooke, the knitter.



Young Jack enjoying the couches at Postino


After lunch I rushed home to get ready to go to yet another social event, Book Club. We read the book "The Notebook". Although I cried through a lot of the book, I did find it to be a little on the cheesy side for me. I am looking forward to reading the next book "The Other Boleyn Girl" by Philippa Gregory.

We are looking forward to a family outing tomorrow at the Scottish Highland Games in Mesa. Stay tuned for pictures of men in kilts!

I'm going to pack up my bags...

I don't mean to shock people by the title of my post today, but I have had that phrase in my head all day. Don't worry I'm not leaving Jonny. My 3 year old, who love music and especially mommy and daddy's music, kept saying to me in the mini-van today "Mommy, play the I'm going to pack up my bag song". I could not for the life of me think of what Miss Gemma was talking about. I scanned the entire BNL cd for clues, but to no avail. All day I just wondered what song she was talking about.

We had a nice day today. Gemma, Angus, and I headed to Arrowhead Meadow Park in Chandler for MOMS Club. I have to say Chandler has the most incredible city parks and this was another great one that we discovered today. After the park we headed up to Gemma's school to register her for preschool next year. She is going to go the preschool M-W-F from 9:00 am to 11:30 am beginning in September. She is looking forward to going to school by herself and I am looking forward to some 1:1 time with young Angus.

I finished sewing in the ends of one of the twin’s hat. Here is young Angus modeling the hat.



All afternoon I started cleaning the house. I was able to clean two bathrooms and the kid’s bedrooms. I think I might just have the whole house done by the weekend, so we can enjoy our weekend. Cleaning the house was actually not too bad. Gemma was a big help with cleaning her bathroom. She really loves to spray the cleaner bottle.

Jonny picked Gemma up for swimming lessons and Angus and I headed off for a run. Gemma is supposed to test out of her current class and then we are going to discontinue swimming lessons for now. Gemma has been going to Swim Kids for over a year now and we love her teacher Amy. Unfortunately the business is run horribly and we decided we need to leave. My main complaint was the lack of customer service, but they put their own nail in the coffin when the raised rate twice in one year. Jonny also was harassed about payment today when he brought Gemma to her lesson. It is too bad that we love Gemma’s teacher, but hate the way they run their business. I feel that if we would stay at Swim Kids we would be saying that we love the way they run their business and they actually deserve our business, but we don’t. Sorry Amy, we will miss you!!!

We had dinner when Gemma and Jonny got home and I asked Jonny what is Gemma talking about when she says “I’m going to pack up my bags song”? The answer, one of the best obscure bands I have ever heard Sonia Dada “You don’t treat me no good no more”.

Do-it-yourself Housecleaning

When we moved to our new house last summer I told Jonny that I needed a cleaning lady. He laughed, but didn't argue. He thought that I should be doing it myself since I was a stay-at-home mom and had nothing better to do. I told him what would he rather have me do nurture our daughter or clean all day. I won that argument and we have had a cleaning service ever since. That is until today. I was going through our finances and I realized that it is a luxury we cannot afford after the arrival of young Angus and the mini-van to carry my young ones. I am very sad because I really loved Martha and Leticia. I am really hoping that we can have them back soon, but right now we have to watch our pennies. I have to save for knitting cruises you know! So Jonny and I have decided that we will clean the house together on a Saturday morning or afternoon. We will see how it goes...

Today was a pretty relaxing day. My MOMS Club friend Elaine and I walked to the park with the kids and it was nice. I keep meeting the same grandmas and mothers at the the park on Tuesdays and they all seem so nice. I may just make it a point to go to the park on Tuesdays from now on.

In the afternoon I emailed Jonelle from South West Trading Company and said I would like to do some test knitting for her. She said to go to their website and see the project she would like me to knit for her.




I know, nice cleavage shot, but I didn't take the picture! This is the shawl that I am test knitting.

I drove up to pick up the yarn and pattern and oh boy it looks a bit difficult. The patter starts out by casting on 308 stitches. Has anyone ever cast on that many stitches? I think the most I have ever cast on is 120 or so. This is going to be interesting. Also, if you have used SWTC Bamboo yarn, please let me know what needles you used to get the gauge. Believe it our not I have actually made 2 swatches with size 6 and 7 needles and I still can't get the 5 stitches per inch the pattern calls for. Ugh!!!

I also finished my first hat for the twins. I am going to sew the end in and take a picture and post later.

Happy President's Day!

It was a nice day today. I was able to get some help from Jonny last night. Angus woke up at 1 am and 5:30 am and Jonny got up to get him out of his crib and changed him and brought him to me to nurse. I woke up around 8 am and felt pretty well rested. I am really looking forward to 8 hours of sleep, but do moms ever get 8 hours of sleep?

I got a nice break from motherhood today. Jonny took the kids to Mama Javas for coffee this morning while I went to Coffee Rush for knitting. I worked on the baby blanket for my brother and chatted with everyone. We were also having a discussion on any good books to read, if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. After knitting Brooke, Jen and I headed to Cyclo for lunch. Lunch was wonderful as always and I am pretty sure the girls liked it too. I returned home from lunch and Jonny had everything under control. The kids were sleeping and Jonny was working on the rugby website, so I headed back out to do groceries. I am very impressed with my husband’s ability to take care of two children with out much assistance from me. I actually think he does better with two than one. Actually I think I do too. It is more of a challenge and there is more variety to your day. So if there are any 1 child families out there, and you know who you are, 2 kids is a must!

Hi ho, hi ho it's off to Avondale we go

It is so nice when Jonny has a long weekend away from work. It is really nice to have an extra day of help with the kids. Unfortunately Jonny decided that he would go out last night with his rugby buddies and have a few too many beers because "he forgot that the bars now close at 2 am." He was fairly useless to me, but I am glad that he had a night out on the town, one that he really deserved. He has been under a lot of stress at work and I am hoping this help eliminate some of it, even temporarily.

We had a really busy day having lunch with our friends Liz, Inigo, and their daughter Miren. Liz is a fabulous cook and we always enjoy eating her cooking and their company. After lunch we headed to Avondale to say good-bye to my friend from grade school, Nikki and her family. They have spent the past two year in AZ and decided to pack up and move to Nebraska. They want to be close to her parents. Very understandable since her parents are really great. We then ended up at my college friends' house to introduce them to Angus. It was really nice to have a day out just visiting with friends.

Pending my husband being fully recovered from Saturday night I am looking forward to knitting at Coffee Rush and lunch with Brooke.

Rain, rain, go away...

Rugby was cancelled today. I was really looking forward to it because I arranged several knitting friends to attend the game. Many of my knitting friends are single as is Jonny's rugby team. As Pam said in her blog "Knitting and Rugby a combo made in heaven." We will see...

This morning I organized The Wiggles tickets for my MOMS Club and booked our tickets to Northern Ireland this summer. Gemma, Angus and I are going to be gone from July 31st to September 1st. It will be so nice to get out of the heat ad enjoy part of an Irish summer. It will be so great for the kids to spend that much time with their grandparents, aunt and uncle, and cousins. We are really looking forward to it. Unfortunately Daddy will not be able to spend the entire time with us, but he will be there for 3 weeks. My blog will definitely be more interesting then.

Our only outing today was to the Sunset Library. Gemma picked out a few new books and Jonny got a library card along with a couple books on rugby. We the headed to Cyclo for some soup. It was a perfect rainy day meal.

Tonight Jonny is going out for a few beers with his rugby friend Tim and I am staying home with the kids and watching "The Notebook". My book club is reading the book and I finished it, so I thought I would torture myself and cry through the movie too.

It's all about the girl

Gemma has been fabulous since her baby brother arrived on the scene almost 10 weeks ago. She has been helpful and very patient for a 3 year old, so it is nice to have a day that is all about her once and a while. Angus and I took Gemma to her Mommy and Me preschool, Desert Palm Children's Center and Gemma had a nice time playing with all of her friends.



Gemma painting on the table.



Gemma with her friends in the kitchen.


After school we stopped at the the Book Connection, the best little independent book store (please don't tell Changing Hands on me!), located on Guadalupe and McClintock. The have the best selection of Melissa and Doug products you can find and Gemma had to pick a gift a birthday party she was invited to this evening. Note to all of you new moms out their: Melissa and Doug make a great line of puzzles, toys, etc. that are mostly educational.

It was a great afternoon as both kids went down for nice long naps at the same time. I was able to do a knitting needles inventory in which I found out I was missing quite a few pairs of needles. I think I found two pairs that I lent to a couple different friends, but not sure what happened to the rest. I also started another project using a free Lion Brand pattern for a diagonal baby blanket and leftover yarn from my capelet project. Since I have 4 new nieces or nephews coming down the pipe, I thought I would give this to the first nephew born and I hit the jackpot today because I found out my brother Mark and his wife Missy are having a boy!!! I also worked the twins hat, but I think the stripping is still off! I just can't figure it out.

This evening the whole family attended Gemma's friend's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese.



Daddy and Angus at the party.



Cake!!!

We had a nice evening and we are looking forward to Jonny's 3 day weekend. I am hoping it doesn't rain tomorrow because a few of my knitting buddies are meeting me at Jonny's rugby match for knitting and rugby.

Caffeine, your friend or enemy???

I forgot to mention this yesterday in my post. My dear husband didn't make the pot of coffee for us yesterday morning. I have become accustom to him doing this for me as I need a couple cups of coffee to get through my day since young Angus has arrived. By 5 pm I had the most splitting headache due to my lack of caffeine. Nothing 3 Tylonel Extra strength, 2 Advil, an espresso brownie, and a night of knitting couldn't cure.

I did however have to start my day with 2 cups of coffee. Young Angus was up on 3 occasions last night. 2 of the 3 times he was soaking wet because he has out grown the 1-2 size diapers. Gemma even got up last night for a laugh, not a very funny one. Thank goodness Daddy got her back down.

We laid pretty low today skipping our playgroup due to Angus still being slightly under the weather. I did take the kids out for a run this morning. It was the first time I ran with the double jogger by myself pushing almost 50lbs of children. Let me tell you, it was brutal. I did feel good after it was all over, but I can't imagine my kids getting any bigger.

I spent the kids nap time working on my capelet and baby hat for the twins.





I have the capelet knit, but I am either going to attempt to crochet a rosette, although Pam tried to teach me last night and I was lost, or I might try a knit flower. We will see. Right now I just want to finish my hats for the twins. I am kind of just doing my own thing with the stripy pattern, so I hope they turn out cute. I also took pictures of Gemma and Angus in their new hats that Kiki knit and Grace and Lucy made the pom pom for. Unfortunately my son's head is a little too big for his hat, but I took his picture with the hat.




Gemma, Angus, and I went to take Gemma to get her haircut and hit Costco. I do love Costco. We strolled around Costco for about an hour trying not to buy everything I didn't need. I actually got out of there spending less than $100 unless you count the gas I bought. I did get Angus bigger diapers, so hopefully we have a better night.

The guilty parent

I have been looking forward to today for a few days now. I have been planning all week to go to knitting at Mama Java's, but I felt horribly guilty because Jonny would have to take Gemma to swimming lessons with Angus in tow. I have done this on a couple of occasions and it is a lot of work, but I felt guilty having my overworked husband do this on his own. I just convinced my self this was something I needed to do. I asked Jonny if he could handle it and he replied he could handle it, but he didn't know if he wanted to do it. I thought why should I enable my husband like I enable my family? I still felt a little guilty, but knitting won.

Today was a really nice day. Gemma, Angus and I went to the MOMS Club social and then we had Annette, Annette's mother-in-law Linda from Nebraska, and Gage over for lunch. I made them panini sandwiches and salad for lunch and I have to say the sandwiches were fantastic. I love panini sandwiches!

Gemma and Angus both went down for their naps and I was lucky enough to work on my capelet and start my two baby hats for my friend's twins while watching "The Green Mile".

Jonny came home and picked up the kids and took them to swimming. I then went on to knitting. We had such a nice turnout at knitting. Jen, Brooke with Jack, Pam and I all arrived early. IT was nice to get some chatting in before the crowd came. Becky was there with my new awesome knitting bag! I realized as I actually got some knitting done that the stripes are off in my baby hat, drat! I have to rip a couple inches out, bummer! Nick also came to knitting tonight and it was great to chat with him. Having a guy in the group adds a little spice. Kiki came with Steve, Lucy and Grace and brought Gemma and Angus beautiful hats, thank you loads! Michelle, Pam, Melaine, Jen and I decided we would go to Jonny's rugby game on Saturday and knit. I hope it doesn't rain! It should be a good time!

Sicko Kids

We had plans to attend my MOMS Club playgroup in which we were having a post Valentine's Day party. I made the cupcakes and we were going to be decorating them. Unfortunately the kids have had pretty bad colds and I thought it was best if we didn't expose the rest of the kids to their runny noses. Instead we decided to run ERRANDS. Now Gemma and I had quite the discussion about errands in the car today. I told her instead of playgroup we were going to run some ERRANDS. She said Erin, (as in her cousin), in Ireland? No, I said, ERRANDS. Gemma said Erin, like Becca's (her other cousin) sister? No, ERRANDS like getting stamps, mailing letters, returning a book. I think she finally got it, but it is so hard to explain things to a 3 year old.

Today we ended up dropping the cupcakes off at playgroup for the other kids to decorate. I figured they would only go to my thighs if I didn't. We ran to Changing Hands Bookstore to return a book I thought I would check out at the library. I realized that I didn't have Angus' stroller with me, so I would have to lug his very heavy car seat around. We stopped by home to pick up the car seat, but realized it wasn't there. I called Jonny at work and he told me that he had the stroller, so he ended up coming home and having a very speedy lunch with us.

The kids took a nice little nap while I started to watch the movie Traffic. As I was watching the movie I was working on my capelet. I originally bought the yarn I am using to make a sweater, but after two attempts of making the sweater and having to rip it out due to the gauge issues. (I guess I should knit a swatch...) I thought that yarn would be perfect for the Lion's Brand Capelet. I am about 2/3 done with the capelet and I will be bringing it to knitting tomorrow night.

I am quite excited to go to knitting at Mama Java's tomorrow night. I haven't been to Mama Java's in a while and we always get such a great turnout. I am also looking forward to seeing Becky Williams because she will have my new knitting bag. I am also going to hit Pam up for a crocheting lesson for the Rosette on my capelet. After my capelet is done I need to make 2 baby hats for my friend Kim's new twin boys and then I want to tackle socks. Anyone have a fun pattern???

Thanks to my dear friend Brooke, (I linked to Jack's blog as it is my favorite!) who is the goddess of blogging, I will attemp photos over the next few days. Wish me luck!

Happy Valentine's Day

Once again I am going to try and start my blog. Since I tried to start my blog back in September I have made it through the Thanksgiving very pregnant, delivered a very healthly baby by named Angus, made it through Christmas, had loads of company, and celebrated my daughter, Gemma's 3rd birthday. I thought I would start on Valentine's Day since it was a nice day. I started the morning with coffee with my friend from Belfast, Northern Ireland Marion, her sons Lorkin and new baby Cabhan, and her Aunt Maeve who was visiting from Belfast. We had a lovely morning visiting and cooing at the new babies. During their visit, one of Jonny's rugby buddies, who had asked Miss Gemma to be his Valentine dropped off a box of chocolates for her, which was incredibly sweet of him. She played hard to get though and was really shy about the whole situation. Is this what we have to look forward to in the future? After they left, Alison from my knitting group stopped over to borrow my sewing machine. She has days to complete a very creative photo quilt for her grandmother's birthday. Good Luck Alison! I spent the rest of the day getting the kids down to nap and relaxing a bit. Jonny surprised and came home at 5 pm tonight. He made us a fabulous dinner of Penne ala Vodka. We all ate well! I am very lucky to have such a sweet husband that likes to cook on special occasions. Happy Valentine's Day to all!!!