Back from Portugal

Hello, my stalking readers who seldom comment. (I confess, I'm guilty too, on many other blogs. But I also confess I love to read people's comments and with so many recent posts that still have "0 comments" on my blog, I'm a little sad. sigh.)

So we are back from a lovely little trip to Portugal, such a nice, relaxing break. I thought I'd share some of the fun pictures from our trip. Mainly castles, cathedrals, churches, oceans and architecture (that's really what Portugal's about, we've decided). Later, when I have more time and brainpower (sometime less close to midnight), I might add some details about what you see here. But for now, just picture power...

That's all for now. I will only add that Brian took a bajillion-million MORE pictures than just these few, so, if you continue to stalk, you might eventually see:
a) comments on all the pictures I've just added
b) a lot more "artsy" pictures of cathedrals, castles, oceans, and architecture.
Hold tight!

Happy Birthday, Sammie -- video

Bodiam Castle and Hastings

One fun day trip with Reed and Alysa was to visit a castle we've been wanting to see for quite some time -- Bodiam Castle. It's one of those romantic looking castles, with a mote around the outside and ducks and fish in the mote.

It was built in the 1300s as a fortress/manor house. Very impressive, even though it's all in ruins now. We explored some of the chambers and climbed to the ramparts for some good pictures. Here we are standing in front... Reed and Alysa in front...
Alysa showing Sammie the ducks, while Sam admires her mittens. (She was warmly dressed in a lot of non-matching stuff... how do kids always lose the stuff that matches??)
Reed taking Samantha on a tour of one of the inner chambers.

After touring the castle, we got super HOT hot chocolate to go, and drove a few miles to the village of Battle, where the Battle of Hastings was fought by William the Conqueror in 1066. There's a huge Abby and battlefield, which we were hoping to tour. Unfortunately, we missed the last admission by like 10 seconds. Rats! But we took some nice photos and had fun peeking in some of the little shops in the town.


That's all there is to tell for now, I guess. We leave for a spontaneous trip to Portugal early tomorrow morning... We figured this may be our last chance to travel Europe before this baby arrives (only ten weeks to go!). So, hopefully next week we'll have more fun stuff to share.

Happy Christmas Wishes!

We had a wonderful Christmas, though I didn't get many pictures. It was a really relaxing time, with lots of good food, good company, and plenty of rest. Who could ask for more?!
Here are a few pictures of Samantha opening her presents... then I'll tell some of the finer details.

Here is Samantha modeling her new Princess Pajamas that Janice and Jay sent... she wanted to try them on the second she opened them!

Reed and Alysa spent Christmas week with us, arriving on Sunday, 23rd. That was a crazy day! I was helping to organize the Christmas service for our church service, including playing the organ, doing a special piano piece, and accompanying several singing groups on the piano. Plus, we were doing a special Christmas craft activity with our Primary children, with lots of glitter, glue and paper stuffs that were my responsibility. Well, Saturday night we noticed Samantha's eyes were going bloodshot, with lots of fluid in them. After we put her to bed, I started researching her symptoms and guessed she might have conjunctivitis, or as we know it, "pink-eye."


Brian and I discussed, and decided I would drop him at his early church meeting and then take Samantha to the walk-in clinic before church. That turned out to be a not-so-good time, as they made us wait for nearly two hours at the clinic before telling us, yes, Samantha has pink-eye, and giving us a perscription for eye drops. Unfortunately, that meant I was late getting to church, and Samantha was contagious and had to go home. Brian met me at the car, and took Sam home while I went in to take over playing the music -- I was a nervous wreck. I guess it turned out okay, people said. But I was pretty distracted, with the Primary activity, Samantha being sick, and Reed and Alysa arriving while we were at church. Whew! Oh, and I had to cancel our Christmas Eve party and tell everyone at church... we had planned it at our house for the next day, but since Sam was contagious, we really didn't want other kids getting sick. That was a crazy day!


But from there, Christmas was all a nice, relaxing time! On Christmas Eve, we went out with Reed and Alysa to see some of London. We wanted to go to the concert service at St Paul's cathedral. We waited for nearly 40 minutes, but we didn't make it in. We got some nice pictures anyway...

Here we are on the bridge with St. Pauls in the far background. Another COLD night, but what do we expect in December, anyway?
We walked across the bridge and had dinner at a nice pizza place. Here Samantha enjoys showing off her cool pizza hat for Aunt Alysa...
Then we went home, ate chocolates and talked about Christmas memories before bed. We all slept in Christmas morning until 9ish, then took our time lounging before opening presents together. We had a nice late breakfast of pancakes and hashbrowns, then napped and played with our new presents for the afternoon. Dinner was nice -- ham and potatoes, etc., then more talking and feasting on chocolate, which seemed to be the order for the rest of the week.

Among the gifts I received was the DVD collection of the 7th season of West Wing. I had watched most of the 6th season during the spring, when Brian was working that REALLY rough stretch. Well, so Brian thought I'd enjoy seeing the 7th season, just to wrap it all up. I DID enjoy it! Together we watched the entire season between Christmas and New Years -- mostly between 10pm and 1am. Whew! Glad that's over. :) It was fun to be so indulgent with television, as that is probably more TV than either of us has watched in the last 6 months combined.

Anyway, we've been having a lovely time relaxing this past week, really enjoying the time Brian has had off, and enjoying being with Reed and Alysa as well.

Brian's work's Children's Christmas Party

A few days before Brian got off work for the holidays, his firm put on a Christmas party for all the children of their employees. It was quite the shin-dig! They had a big race track with remote control cars, some electronic games, a sand sculpture station, a billion balloons, face painting, a DJ, and a really nice lunch spread. This was all before Father Christmas brought presents to the 50+ kids that were there! I didn't feel really comfortable taking pictures of all the events with so many kids and parents around, so I mainly just got Sammie and Daddy waiting for Father Christmas.

Here Samantha holds her balloon that was a rabbit (she cleverly untied him and then had a long sword-like balloon instead). Yes, she's looking a little wary, waiting for her present from Santa.
Even though we talked it up all day long, meeting Santa still wasn't a very pleasant experience for Samantha. She cowered in Brian's arms and had a hard time looking Santa in the eye. But she did accept the gift, and managed to say "thank you, Santa" through her tears.
She got a "tick tock clock" as she calls it. A very loud toy that tells time and weather conditions. She loves it!
By home time, Samantha was bushed! Here she sits with a helium balloon, waiting to go. She slept in the stroller on the Tube all the way home, cutie.

It was a fun day, and we were happy to have gone to the party, as we've been invited three times now. :)

Fun with Family

Brian's only sister, Janice, and her husband, Jay, came to stay with us for a week and a half just before Christmas. We had so much fun, and we hope they did too! With Brian working, we made good use of the weekend and went to Bath for our Saturday. Here are some of the highlight pictures...
We found a great Middle Eastern buffet restaurant that Janice and I really liked. Samantha wasn't so impressed, but liked her snacks of applesauce and pretzels a bit better. This shot of the River Avon looks deceivingly not as cold as we were when we took it! Brrrr!! It was a very nice day in Bath, but also VERY cold. We had to keep popping into shops and markets to get hot chocolate or warm our hands.
We visited the Roman Baths -- the reason they call the place Bath. I've visited Bath five times now, and this is the first time I've actually paid to take the tour of the Baths, built in the 4th century when the Romans Empire was in Britain. It was well worth the tour, as it turns out... lots of great history and nicely restored to showcase the natural hot springs that still flows there.

I was most interested to learn that the entire springs was buried for many hundred years, and was only rediscovered in the 1800s, when people noticed their basements were flooding slightly. They dug the whole place up and started excavating and look what they found... (that's what I read on one of the plaques, but I could be mistaken in some of the details)


Samantha loved having Jay and Janice around. She especially loved all the goodies and treats Jay brought -- fizzy drinks (Fanta soda pop) being her favorite. She also loved traveling like a big girl when we went on the Tube. Instead of being in her stroller, we got her out to sit on the BIG seats with us, a rare privilege that I can't afford to do often when we're out alone.

We also spent a day in the Cotswold villages, one of my favorite places in England. Unfortunately, I didn't remember to take a single picture!! But I think Janice and Jay may have some good shots, I'll try to add later if I can.

It was so fun to have them here. Janice taught Samantha that it's FUN to have her hair brushed and fixed (something I REALLY appreciate). And she also taught her to say Princess dress, Princess pajamas, Pretty princess, etc. Welcome to the world of princesses!

Catch up time!

As you've probably noticed, it's been weeks since I've gotten around to adding anything new here. I feel comforted in browsing other people's blogs and noticing that most of them also have been absent from blogger. I guess we've all been busy enough DOING fun stuff, we haven't yet had time to blog about it?

That's certainly the case here. The short scoop of why there have been no blogs, and then I'll update in a new post...
First, Brian's sister, Janice, and her husband Jay came to stay with us for a week and a half, leaving midweek before Christmas.

Then, a few days later, Brian's brother, Reed, and his wife Alysa came to spend the Christmas week with us, leaving yesterday (New Years Eve).

And now, it's New Years Day (happy New Year, everyone) and we're lounging at home, planning a trip to Portugal for the coming week -- leaving early tomorrow morning.

So, my only chance to catch up is NOW. There may be several posts (this explanatory one being at the bottom, unfortunately), if I can stay focused. And then, you'll have to wait another week to hear how our trip to Portugal turns out! Stay tuned...

Birthday Festivities

We had a really fun day, celebrating Samantha's birthday yesterday. We started with a morning present party, opening all the "Sammie presents" that had been stacked on the bookshelf for the past week or so.

Samantha really got into the present opening, learned how to rip and tear very quickly. She got most excited about the first present -- new doll, books and candy from Grandma and Grandpa Bishop. It was hard to convince her there were other fun things in the rest of the packages.

Here she is, standing on the living room table, modeling her new presents and enjoying the audience... It was really fun to have Aunt Janice and Uncle Jay here to help celebrate. Sam loves to play for the crowd!
She got really spoiled by all grandparents... a new sweater and jeans from Grandma Eva and Grandpa Doug (sweater modeled below and above), and new dress-up hat, necklace and purse from Grandma and Grandpa Hone, and other VERY fun items that were favorites all day!
After Brian, Janice and Jay left, Samantha and I had a leisurely morning playing with her presents, then went to an impromptu lunch visit at our friend, Debbie's. We then went down to the shops and bought some BALLOONS for a special birthday girl. (Anyone looking for great gifts for two-year-olds, balloons seem to be well appreciated!)
After nap time in the evening, we met up with our group for a delicious Italian dinner at the Pizzaria right down the street from our house. Sam played to the crow, insisting on wearing her sunglasses and necklace through dinner.

Brian also wore the glasses, for a second. Very nice look, isn't it?
We came home for delicious chocolate Snowman cake. Samantha LOVES snowmen so much, I thought it would be fun to make her a little snowman cake for her birthday. It was a hit.
A close up of Mr Snowman...
Our happy birthday girl, enjoying her piece of birthday cake... she asked for the pink mittens, and enjoyed picking all the buttons off as well.
Happy Birthday, Samantha dear! We loved celebrating two years with you. Fun times to come!!

Happy Birthday Samantha!

Today is our Samantha's birthday. Yay!! It's so hard to believe she's two already. And yet, at the same time, she seems so grown up and is such a little girl instead of a baby. A quick photo tribute to show how much she's grown...

Samantha -- 2 days old:
6 months:

One year, on her birthday:

18 months:

2 years -- taken yesterday:

We're having a great day, and will put up pictures of our festivities after we get back from birthday dinner. Stay tuned....

Third Trimester -- and Blooming!

It's official -- my third trimester has begun and this baby is less than three months from his due date (March 8, for those who aren't counting along with me). Brian is actually keeping better track than I am. He's the one who informed me of this special landmark occasion. Wahoo!

I'm starting to get the friendly belly pats from friends (will hopefully be a month more before strangers start in, too). And, I'm starting to get noticed for how "big" I am. Sensitive ladies at church are kind enough to tell me I'm "blossoming," "blooming," or I am getting that "pregnancy glow." Less sensitive examples are the man who tried to make polite conversation by telling me, "I've been noticing the last few weeks that you seem to be getting fatter and fatter." -- or, the doctor who treated Samantha last week who confidently guessed, "you must be in your last month!"

Yes, I'm getting bigger, and people are noticing the change. This little baby is kicking a lot. It's easy to see and feel him from the outside -- and hard to ignore him on the inside. I've got all the familiar aches and pains that came last pregnancy, as well as some new stitches and cramps that the doctor says are perfectly normal and should just be ignored. (Easy for him to say, of course.)
We've been discussing possible names for this baby. No wait, I should rephrase that to say I've been discussing possible names. Brian has been consistently vetoing almost everything, and kindly refusing to suggest any names of his own choosing because it's still "too soon." So, I call him William or James or Nathan since those are names I like (even though all three have been vetoed twenty times over).

Here's the obligatory pregnancy picture for y'all... At 6 months and two days, here I am with sweet baby James, or whatever he happens to be called eventually:

Bishop Elf Family

Have you seen this yet? I just got it from two friends this morning and thought it'd be funny to make one for our family... Check out our new "elfy" look:

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1173378785

Once there was a snowman...

We've been staying in lately, first to help Samantha get better -- and now because it's been pouring rain. We had a little bit of winter fun yesterday, making our own paper snowman. Samantha was very excited to help tape the different parts of the snowman together (we couldn't find glue, and I've now decided tape is just easier anyway). She loved the "yeyyow" buttons, "gween" shoes, and "WED" mittens most of all. Mittens are a new favorite with Sammie... she wants to wear them all the time (I keep them hidden until we're ready to leave the house). When we were done making our snowman, she insisted the snowman wanted to go for a walk. So, we put on our coats, hats and mittens, and walked the snowman down the street and back. Good fun!

Here's Samantha trying to "see" her snowman in the camera, after I took the other picture of her holding it...

Not much news to report right now. For the past three days I've tried to load some more videos from the last few months. No luck... I must have created some kind of error and now it won't let me upload anymore videos. Oh well, enjoy the few that made it through before I got shut down, I guess?

Successful Sharing Time

In church yesterday, I gave the sharing time lesson and it turned out really well (always something to feel good about)! We ended up having TONS of visitors due to a baby blessing, which caught me off guard as I walked in and saw our primary had tripled in size. But amazingly, I had felt inspired to prepare for "extras" just in case. It turned out perfectly.

We started out talking about presents we hope to get for Christmas. Then I asked them about some of the presents they were thinking of getting for their parents and other family members. After a few minutes of discussing, I uncovered a big box full of presents I had wrapped at home. All the children gasped in excitement. I explained that these presents in my box may not seem as exciting as some of the things we hope to get for Christmas this year, but they represent some of the gifts that we have received from our Heavenly Father.

I asked the children to each take a turn unwrapping a present, and we spent a few minutes talking about each gift/blessing. The gifts were items such as a picture of our family, a bag full of little toy animals, a little clock (time), a basket of plums (food), a picture book of countries to visit (the world), a gold-framed leaf (nature/plants), the scriptures, etc. I had wrapped about 15 different gifts to discuss, even though we only usually have 5 or 6 kids for our sharing time lessons (Brian had even teased me the night before, telling me I was getting a bit carried away). It turned out there were exactly enough presents for every child to open one! Talk about inspiration!

At the end, I pulled out a very large present, wrapped with lots of bows and special wrapping. I told the children that of all these gifts from Heavenly Father, there was one that is most special of all. They were each taking guesses as I unwrapped a picture of the Saviour. As they realized what it was, there was a sweet hush that came over the room. I quoted the scripture "For God so Loved the World" and talked about how special the gift of Christ is to us. I reminded them that while there are many gifts we give and receive each Christmas, the whole reason we celebrate is for Christ. We ended with a very sweet, calm spirit in the room -- a good reminder to me of the real spirit of Christmas.

Hello!! and good night.

In England, they really do say "hello" instead of the traditional American "hi" that sounds so familiar to me. Samantha took a long time to get her "hello" perfected. But I think it's the cutest thing ... thought I'd share a little video. (And yes, we bribed her to say it with her binky, as you'll see!)