Rochester Castle

Just some interior shots of the castle. This was an amazing castle with many arches and fine detailed work still in tact. Buildings on this site started in 1088. The keep that we explored today started in 1127 and took 12 years to build, which was a very fast accomplishment. It is over 100 feet high. The walls are 12 feet thick. It is amazing the workmanship that goes into these amazing buildings that are still standing for us to explore and learn from. Sea Shells were mixed into the castle walls. Both as a defense for people trying to climb and to help hold the walls together. It was pretty cool to see these full shells through out every wall.

The church that is across the street was closed today so we weren't able to go inside, but it was very beautiful. 200 stairs were throughout the castle and meant for some pretty steep climbing. Mason had daddy help him for parts of the climb. Taylor and her medievil headband that she got in the shop. Taylor LOVES castles. We went to the temple for our church in the morning and then to the castle. Since Thursday she has been saying, "temple, castle, fun."Carter spent a couple dollars of his allowance on this ring. At the top of the castle Carter was looking out over the river. He asked me to walk away and was just staring out. After a few minutes he came up to me and said, "Mom, I need to whisper something to you, but don't laugh." So preparing myself I got down and heard, "I closed my eyes and kept my mind wide open." I asked if he was able to see how the castle was back when it was all finished. He said he saw so many things that no one else did and walked away from me. Love moments like those. :)Just a very cool top on a tower that was nearby the castle grounds.

This was taken from the other side. I just zoomed for faces to be seen. In the top collage you can see where this spot would have been.
ANY OF YOU THINKING YOUR JOB IS BAD?

Going Private for a short time...

I hate private. Let me start with that. Mike and I feel like we need to for a duration of our year. If you could please make a comment. I am going to block others from being able to read comment section. That way it is only I you will be giving your email address too. Please, Please, Please let us know if you check in, even every once in awhile....we don't want to go private, but we need to for just a time.
Thanks so much!!! If you do not have a google account to be able to sign into private blogs when I send the invite it will tell you how to do this.

Does this count?

Considering that he won't stop shouting this when Mike is around, and only when Mike is around, does this count as a first word? So cute!! He babbles other things throughout the day, but this special treat is saved for dad. Also you might notice how close we are to crawling. This kid can roll like nobody's business, he gets into so much mischief already, heaven help me when he can really get around!

Brennan Guy

A few shots of Brennan that I could not resist sharing with everyone. Let me explain the green bottle... The Sunday School President in our Ward gave Mike some locally bottled fresh apple juice for Christmas. Brennan got to taste test the product and just loved it so much that when the bottle was emptied, he could not resist sucking on the mouth of it to get every last drop.

Sorry that I couldn't get a picture that depicted what beautiful flowers these are. THANK YOU HEATHER. I got flowers delivered to my door yesterday and it really made my day. I had just been telling Mike the day prior that I was irritated, frustrated, just kind of out of sorts. I didn't know why, but these were a wonderful gift that I appreciated very much. All of my sisters go out of their way to stay in contact with me. Even from across the ocean they are willing to do anything they need to for me. I am spoiled! Thanks again Heather, you are fabulous!!

Hello Mr. President

Just before Christmas Mike had the opportunity to meet the commander and chief. You all might remember the Iraqi shoe throwing. President Bush came through Mildenhall for a refuel on the way home. They had told them not to expect him to come out, but Mike was surprised when out came the President. They chatted for a few minutes. He even joked around about Pres. Bush's reflexes when it came to dodging the shoes. He also suggested he should have thrown it back. :) Leave it to my Mike to suggest that to the President. The only thing Mike was irritated about was the fact that his hair was extremely overgrown--never know who is coming for a visit!

**edited** For the curious, Pres. Bush did laugh about the shoe comment by Mike. He then said he did have to uphold some professional conduct. He joked about hurrying home or he would have more then thrown shoes to worry about. :)

Mighty Mouse

Who knew the signifigance of Aunt Heathers nickname for Mason when he was only a couple months old. The name has stuck and rightfully so. Mason's newest accomplishment is drinking out of a cup! It is so awesome to see his mouth cooperate with his brain!! He will even go to the sink and get his own cup of water. There are still spills when he is responsible for the amount that goes in the cup, however he does a fabulous job. No more hunting down sippy cups, no more looking for straws--one less thing to wory about it always good!! Mason even demands a regular cup now. He is doing great. It has been about 3 weeks since he started this and I had to bribe him with chocolate to get a picture. Normally he would run away. I told him we needed to send a picture to Mrs. Santiago(our old para) and that I would give him chocolate--he just smiled that smile of his and got to work. :)

Happy Birthday to Hollie. Just a few pictures of the fabulous day that was my Birthday. It was Sunday and was a special day to remember. I say that with a bit of sarcasim. I think the children were trying so hard to be happy and well behaved that they lost it more times than normal. Mike spoiled me by making a chocolate on chocolate cake even though it would be too rich for his enjoyment. The Elders, kids, and I ate with pleasure! We found out the missionaries had no where for dinner that night so we invited them over to partake as well. We had dinner and cake and sent them on their way. We will miss Elder Jentzch as he is off to serve in London.

The kids were so fun about my presents. Mason and Carter had gone shopping with dad. Mason was eagerly handing me presents to open. Anyone who knows Mason knew it was a great sacrifce for him to hand them over and not tear into the packages himself. He LOVES unwrapping and gave up that for his mom--what love! Carter got me a card and in it was 5 dollars. When I asked what that was for he told me it was to buy him Fruit Loops!! I about lost it laughing. I told him a couple weeks ago I wouldn't buy Fruit Loops that often because I would rather him have something more healthy. This has only spurred a deep desire for the forbidden bowl of sugary goodness in his mind!

Carter picked me out a watch and was so thrilled to have me wearing it. He kept asking how many minutes he had until bed. He probably thought I needed a new watch so that when I said 5 minutes until something would happen I had to abide by my words.

Elder Martorana (from Italy) and Elder Jentzch(from Germany) playing with some toys of the childrens. The kids absolutely love having them over for dinner. So much so that when they come to the door Taylor screams, "missionaries home!" I need to record the way she says missionaries. It is so adorable!!

Taylor Mae

Just a few shots of our Taylor who is growing up. We did her hair in sponge curlers for the first time this last Saturday/Sunday. It was pretty fun to see just how curly her hair can become. She was quite pleased with herself. She is a beautiful little girl with an independent spirit. She likes to do things in her own time, with her own ideas and especially without help. She is strong and I love that about her. She can hang out with the best of the boys and still be sweet and gentle when the time is right. :) The perfect combination!

racing cars

This is the latest addtion in our collection of things that go. We probably have far to many cars to count and each year the population gets larger. This is a pretty fun race track. The cars have sensors and swerve to miss things. It works better than I thought it would. Mason thought it was hilarious and he really enjoyed catching the cars as they came around.

Can you tell Mike has been off with his beard? To bad tomorrow he has to shave it off.

Magic Tricks

Carter has a new talent! Magic is making him think he is the cleverest boy alive! He was great at performing his tricks for daddy and Mason. He is quite the showman! I told him he needed to keep talking to his audience to distract them from his hands and he was so cute. He was just telling them how tricky it was to make things disappear and to read their minds!

A Challenge for all

REVERSE

How long can you go in your vechile without reversing? I am on day 10. That is right, TEN full days without using reverse. Not that I don't want to, I can't!! Our van's reverse went out. It apparently is something to do with the torqui converter not transmission. (I knew someone out there would wonder the problem.) So while the price to fix it is much greater than the worth of the van we decided against the repair. In the meantime while we decide what to do we can use the van, we just can't use reverse. One never realizes how much you use it until it is gone. So I challenge you all to see just how long you can go without that good old backwards driving!

Here's our Kitchen...okay, this is the after math of 4 Mormons and many Dr. Peppers later. Thank you Mike and Damian for the great entertainment!!

THANK YOU ZOIE!!!!!

Just a sample of the colors that are on our wall upstairs. This is only a quater of what the room looked like. This was also the next morning after I had already took a bit of vibrancy out of it--thank you Mr. Clean, however this is a job for....

a new can of paint.

*Edit* Let me specify, that is marker on the wall. I need new paint in order to cover it. Sometimes the Mr. Clean eraser is just not big enough.

More Christmas

Just a few shots from the night with our friends. We had a few people over and exchanged gifts. Then we played games, or should I say game. Cranium overload! The girls won all three rounds and we called it a night around 3 am.....yes it was a long day! How incredibly handsome is this boy!! We have noticed since his hair cut he is getting some red tints, it is pretty cute.

Taylor really LOVES to color. She is quite the artist. I will post a picture of that later. :)
Mason with his new Disney book. He is so great at just going through all of his books. He really enjoys all the pictures from his favorite movies. Mason has the potential to sit for about an hour or so and just look through books--it is fabulous!
Carter and his newest weaponry additions. This was a great today because they also received Narnia 2(thanks Gma and Gpa Mason). Carter was so excited to play Narnia with his shield and sword!
Had to break out the new coloring set as well. Everyone had a special project going!

Merry Christmas

Just a little bit from our day. We captured most but missed some that will have to be etched in our minds. Love technology and the instant pictures we can have to help us remember the great family memories.