Caroline and Stuart's Wedding

Saturday 14th January 2012

Caroline and Stuart's Wedding

Caroline back from the hairdressers ready for her dress and to get wed :)

Chief page boy looking fab in his bow tie and cummerbund

just chilling with a custard cream and 'those naughty birds on Mummy's phone' 

Trying to get a sneaky look at Aunty Caroline in her dress 

Granne making the last finishing touches

In the car wearing Chauffer Ben's hat

Excited nieces, nephews, sister in laws and Jamie, waiting for Aunty Caroline to get out of the car

The service was lovely, lots of smiles on faces and also tears. Andrew cried from the pulpit as Caroline walked down the aisle which set her off even more! Bishop Hooson gave a beautiful talk as did Andrew. I think I managed to play 'Dawn' with only a few minor omissions which hopefully didn't detract. Joseph sat really well with his sticker book dressing up superheros and princesses. Ben ended up asleep on Nathan's shoulder at the back :)

Charlie having cuddles with Rebecca

Amazing cake by Val

The proud 'Greats' who had a lovely time chatting with Stuarts grandparents across the table. At one point when the amazing desserts were being handed out. Grandad asked Grandad Wilson (who had something different to everyone else) 'So what have you got that we haven't?' The reply was 'diabetes!'

Daddy was on boy duty as I was sitting at the top table

Mr & Mrs Wilson

:) 

Mum looking beautiful with Emily the fabulous flower girl - she loved it:)

The amazing trio of desserts : Ruth Walker's cherry cheesecake, Angela's brownie, Mum's lemon mousse in brandy baskets made by Val - it went down a treat :)

The bride and bridesmaids

Ben enjoying the purple favours 

Father of the Bride's speech


Dad relegating the white rose and promoting the red he feels more at home with (a joke brought back from the speech made at our wedding!)

Proud parents

The Groom's speech

The Best man's speech (Graeme) (stories about surfing down the stairs on a bed and microwave experiments including CDs, drinks cans, soap and an egg - sounds like something I'd do lol!)

Richard finding solace in a big bowl of crisps

Caroline looked beautiful in the stunning dress Mum had made

Anyone for cake?

Dream team - Val and Dale :)

Nathan did a fab job of running'Daddy day care' 

Mum had done an amazing job on the dresses 

There were three entrants into the 'Muckiest White Shirt Contest'

Though I'm quite reluctant to admit defeat for my own boys I do think on this occasion Jack won it with Ben in a close second and Joseph really lagging behind quite considerably!

Actually looking at this  photographic evidence I'm not sure if Ben actually clinched it?

Isabelle taking note of the result :)

Photo shoot time -

The Hillarys

 The Hillarys

The Hillarys

The H...Hunchback and Esmerelda??

Richard and Ashley

The McNees

 The Bleakleys

A lovely, lovely day :)

A trip for two

On New Year's day Evening, Nathan and I went to Lancaster for a night and day away. It was great to be back in my University City and it seems crazy that almost a decade has passed, since I lived there. 

Ashton (Thashton as we used to call it) Memorial Building

 There were some changes to the town centre but most things were the same, including the old door and old curtains which could have done with being replaced back in 2000/2002 when I lived at 19 Balmoral Rd !! ( I wonder if Rosemary still owns it?)

St Martin's College, which when I was there was part of the University of Lancaster is now The University of Cumbria.

I lived in Waddell Hall South, in the room, middle row, second in on the right.

And 18 Dallas Rd has now got a bright yellow door (there is still a VW campervan parked nearby as there always used to be, just a different one). I think it is the landlord stamping mark as a few houses around the city had the same striking paintwork.

We had a walk around the city then drove to Bowness in Windermere. One of the many things I always loved about Lancaster was its proximity to the lLkes and also the Dales. I guess I was especially lucky that Jane had Mindy and we were able to go places and explore whenever we wanted, which we often did - happy times. 

What in the evening and the following day turned into a huge storm, was already brewing when we got there. It put our plans to have a nice walk into touch.Instead we had to force ourselves to enjoy a  Thai lunch (Tiger Prawn Green Curry for me and Pork Sweet n Sour for Nath) and do some shopping (new boots for my birthday and a cream snood) - oh the hardship.

Just as the hailstone began :)

But even in the cold, wet, wind and hail it is still so beautiful.

It was fab to be able to walk around in our own time, hold hands and chat. We went back to Lancaster and dashed to get Nathan the Samsonite laptop case we'd seen in T K Maxx for his birthday. Back at the Travelodge we chilled watching Marley and Me,by the end of it , we were both sobbing  our eyes out and then laughing at the same time because we were both sobbing our eyes out!!

A lovely day - just the two of us x

3rd January - My Birthday

So like I mentioned before a storm was brewing and it came into it's full effect of my birthday :( I think last year I'd been spoilt, as we'd had a lovely cold but bright day and gone for a walk around Swinsty reservoir. I'd had the same expectation  for this year planning on a walk around the 12 days of Christmas walk,  at Bolton Abbey. It was a definite 'no goer' in the end we took the boys for a run around Monster Fun at Lister Mill and then had a chicken pie tea at Mum and Dad's - I'm 32 and never missed a birthday without seeing my Mum n Dad - I'm a lucky girl :)

Stockeld Park

7th January - Nathan's birthday. 

Breakfast part one in bed

Bacon, sausage n egg butties downstairs with cards and presents

Joseph was so excited to give him his card he tried to give it to him whilst he was in the bathroom getting washed :) 

Joseph and I had a lovely time, the afternoon prior, colouring the dragon on Nathan's card. Up until recently, Joseph hasn't really shown a liking for colouring or drawing but when we did the dragon he coloured really carefully. Sat on my knee, he'd do some and then direct me where I should colour. He offered me great praise for my efforts 'That's fantastic!' 'That's just perfect mummy.' He went to find his dragon to inform us which colour the wings should be - red! 

After brunch we had some shopping to do, to get ready for Aunty Caroline's upcoming wedding. Necklace ordered in Morley and black shoes bought for the boys in a busy White Rose centre. We took the boys round in the Little Tyke's Car trolleys you can hire, to make the experience more bearable for our shopping-phobic boys. Ben made all the usual high pitched  breaking and skid noises as we meandered around the hustle and bustle!

Jobs done and a quick stop off at Macdonalds later, we headed for Stockeld Park with it's Christmas Adventure. We'd been planning to go since November. Ideally we'd hoped to go before Christmas and take the boys to see Father Christmas, then we planned to go between Christmas and New year but opted for two chill days, then new year's eve were changed due to lack of time. So in the end we finally got there one day before it closed for another year. We were not disappointed. 

The walk around the Enchanted Forest was really great. Along the walk were deer,

a talking tree;

Rapunzel in her tower;

The boys imaginations were captured

by the forest coming alive as we walked through it.

Ben is still not happy with his hat, Daddy was more than happy to use it to keep his ears warm :)

We had to play the chimes to make the fairies wake up and dance.

Along the route there were also unicorns, owls, swans, wolves along with an ogre, a Wizard with his spell book; Cinderella's carriage; another bridge with a troll underneath; giant toadstool houses and an Enchanted lake. 

A few trees had doors where you rang the bell to find out who         lived inside. 

Figgy Pudding was not very pleased about being disturbed :/

Little Red Riding hood's Grandma looked like she needed a shave

Joseph and Daddy being statues 

It was really, really well done and magical for the children. I'm glad we finally made and hopefully we'll get there sometime in December this year.

In the evening Nathan went to conduct the baptism service for Denise Osbourne (unfortunately I had a migraine coming). He came back really uplifted by the strong spirit he'd felt. Elder Pezensky performed the baptism with Steve Lawrence also there to offer him assistance in the water. Dee is so lovely and seems to have grasped the gospel with all her heart. She'd ordered a temple dress for her baptism and organised her own service with Nathan and Ben Adamson speaking, and a  musical item of ' You raise me up' which she really makes her feel the spirit. Her family came to support her and had driven up from the midlands to do so, even though they are not members themselves - what a great example of family unity. 

Farewell 2011

December 31st 2011

New Year's Eve was a quiet one. I needed to stay later at mum and dad's to help mum move forward with my dress. We decided to move the plans to got to Stokeld park forward to next week, opting for a easy evening. We ate M&S food, watched the Cawood fireworks from the bedroom window ( I wish I'd been bothered to go and get the camera from the car, as the fireworks looked so cool over the house tops and the thought did cross my mind that we might not be here this time next year to do this again) We put the boys to bed and then snuggled up and attempted to watch the first Harry Potter (or Barry Potter as we call him :)) from our box set. We both fell asleep only to wake at the end credits in time to watch the fireworks broadcast from London. They were spectacular and went on for a whole 15 minutes - we're celebrating the arrival of 2012 big time because of the Olympics. 

We bid farewell to 2011 - it's been a good one, a fast one and very busy one and so we promptly at the end of the year went to bed :)