Timon George Corbin

Welcome to the world Timi!!
We were so excited to hear of the arrival of little Timi Corbin. He was born on 10th November - on my brother's 40th birthday, what a wonderful present!!! Well done Katka! Timi looks very much like his big sister Ani when she was first born.

We can't wait to meet little Timi and enjoy those precious baby cuddles!

Dancing Queen

Ha! I love this photo! I came into the living room last week to find her all dressed like this! Olivia is into dancing at the moment. She's really exploring how to move, spin, bend, wiggle and jiggle her body. She puts on demo piano pieces on our electric piano and dances away to her audience.
Here are some photos taken earlier this year of Liv at her ballet classes. She loves dressing up in the outfit and more graceful, balletic moves are slowly developing. Her favourite part of the class is when they gallop around the room like horses - she races round, speeding ahead of the others, loving the race, while her ballet teacher politely says "slow down, slow down"!!

Halloween

We enjoyed the run up to Halloween..... pumpkin carving, spooky Halloween crafts, choosing costumes, facepaints and decorations. Olivia was planning on being a cat until the week before! But changed her mind (it is a woman's perogative!), and beautiful princess she was - with a twist of witch too!
It was fun dressing up for the Trunk or Treat. Dan's face looked a bit too scary I thought!! I had visions of children being freaked out and bursting into tears! It took a while for Liv to feel comfortable with my witchy-green face! The Trunk or Treat was great fun. We enjoyed seeing so many creative 'trunks' decorated and Olivia was in sweety heaven.
Aren't they cute!

Half Term Activities

Our half term holiday has seemed to have come round quickly! We were excited to spend a few days with Lindsey, Reuben and Bronte while they stayed down here at Mum and Dad's. Olivia and Reuben were super excited to be together. The last time we saw them was in August and over the past two months Liv has been asking and asking to play with Reuben. They had fun playing outside on the trampoline, and in the garden in the gorgeous Autumn sunshine. I loved hearing their make believe games as they dressed up, packed bags and went on holiday to Austria! I found them both in our bed - in their 'holiday house'! We also had a fun visit to the Park at Burton On the Wolds and to Staunton Harrold.

I loved having time to snuggle, hold and be with precious baby Bronte. She's such a happy little baby and such a good little girl. Linds popped her on the floor for a minute while we helped Livvie and Reuben with an activity. We came back into the living room a few minutes later to find this sleeping little babe.

We were also very happy to have Harvey, a good friend, stay with us for a few days while he was over from the States on business. Dan and Harvey are great friends. I love to see them together, they light up and look so happy! Dan organised for them to try some knee-boarding at Holme Pier Point. It was lovely to have time to chat and catch up - we missed you though Lindsay!


Ha! This one makes me smile!! (some random man dressing or undressing too!)

Goodbye and Good Luck!

It is with sadness that we say goodbye to our friends the Presburys as they move to America. We have many happy and fun memories of times together and are grateful for the support and kindness they've shown to us over the years.

We have actually been dreading telling Olivia that the beautiful Beth would be leaving to go to school in America. Olivia has known Beth since she was a newborn and has grown to absolutely love her. She worships her! She talks about her at least once a day, sometimes during the night! She talks to her on her pink toy mobile phone, she writes her letters, she wants her hair like Beth, her clothes like Beth. When asked who her friends are Beth is always mentioned first, "my special big friend Beth." She always asks if Beth can come for a sleepover. When I collect her from Primary at church on Sundays I am greeted with a disappointed face and "Where's Beth? Can I go to Beth?" This little girl LOVES Beth.

We softened the blow a bit and said that Beth will be going to a new school for a while. Olivia has taken it really well although saying goodbye was just too difficult to handle. Thank goodnes for telephones and the internet!

Wishing you Presburys all the best x x x

Grandma and Grandpa in Ottershaw

We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Kear the first weekend of October. Livvie and I hadn't been down to their home since Spring time and Dan hadn't been since early in the year. So we were all looking forward to a weekend in Ottershaw with the Kears.

Olivia had a wonderful weekend having lots of time and attention from her two doting grandparents. We enjoyed walks in the woods, playtime at several parks, feeding the ducks at the river Thames and catching some Conference talks on their BYU tv. It was lovely to have a relaxing time to spend together. Dan and I loved hearing family stories and memories from his Mum and Dad when Liv was down to sleep for the night. Thank you for a lovely weekend Grandma and Grandpa Kear :-)

Prague - Part 2

The clouds came down and with it the drizzle so we left Austria a fews days early and headed back to Prague. On our way we stopped off at Cesky Krumlov. If only these photos could catch the charm and beauty of this little medieval town. It was truly amazing, I felt as if I was walking around a film set (my brother later explained that it was used to film Ponochio). As the sunlight disappeared the buildings were lit up. Wandering through narrow cobbled streets and cobbled squares felt rather magical. This is such a Romantic little town, it would be wonderful to experience it in the heart of Winter when cobbles and roof tops are covered in snow.

We were happy to reunite with Steve, Katka and Ani and spend the last few days of our holiday with them in their home. Two little girls were also very happy to be together again.
All the little Czech girls wear these head scarf -hairbands to keep their ears warm and their hair out of their eyes on windy days. We went out to buy one for Livvie too - don't they look cute!

We were so excited to find a large Horse Chestnut tree in their village laden with huge conkers!! We had such fun shaking branches and throwing up sticks to knock down the conkers. The girls thought it was wonderful and were soon joining in the excitement with cries of "look at my beauties mum!" We did get some rather strange looks from locals as they walked and drove past us, as conkering isn't a Czech custom!! They were probably thinking 'English vandels'!!
We were sad to leave for home after two exciting weeks. I really didn't feel ready to go back to normal everyday life. We had a wonderful time as a family visiting two very different countries. Both places interesting and beautiful in their own way. Thank you to our family and friends for making us feel most welcome and being such good company.