A Birthday and an Engagement

Well it has taken the news I received by email last night just before I went to bed to get me back in the blogging seat. My brother Davey popped the big question to his wonderful girlfriend of nine years, Sam. Luckily for us all she accepted his proposal and now we all look forward to a wedding.

It was actually Sam's birthday and Davey proposed to her on this wonderful looking beach in Thailand. An account of the proposal can be found on their blog.

Congratulations to you both, we are all so excited for you!!

 

Thanksgiving Holiday

It has been a pretty festive here in West Lafayette over the last week. It was Thanksgiving week and of course in this country that means no work and lots of food. On Thanksgiving Day we had dinner with Kaisa and Kevin and their family. It was a fun packed day/evening and when I get photos from Kaisa I will post more specifically on that.

Then on Saturday we had Thanksgiving dinner at Randy and Lorraine's house with their family and friends (all 22 of us). It was a great day, very enjoyable and positively relaxing. The photos below are from that event but I have posted a wider selection here.

Finally then on Sunday, Lynne cooked a meal for my birthday (we generally celebrate on the closest weekend). She invited some friends over and we had cake. It was a fun day overall, the highlight of which was the wrapped up a present the girls gave me which they proceeded to open as soon as I thanked them. I now need to hit the gym.

 

 

 

Atlanta, GA

We returned a few weeks back from a very successful trip to Atlanta, Georgia. The girls had a great time and I think overall it went well. This was largely due to the help we had from Kristina who was excellent at keeping them both fully amused each day. They were fully exhausted each evening when we returned from our conference. The highlight for the girls was clearly the hotel swimming pool. They also hit the tourist spots, the Aquariam and the Childrens Museum but in the end the pool was a hands down winner.

Many thanks Kristina for all your work during the trip.

Overdue Update

It has been a few days, sorry for that, my mind has been elsewhere. I have posted a few pictures from the last few weeks. We have been busy at home here. Pat has now returned to England after having stayed three weeks. I have been to San Diego for a week with work and we all travel again next week. Lynne, Myself, Kristina, Anja and Isabel will fly to Atlanta, Georgia. The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) will hold their annual symposium and Lynne and I both need to attend. Kristina has graciously agreed to come with us to look after the girls whilst there. You may recall that Lindsay came to San Antonio, Texas with us exactly two years ago. It should be fun, we are looking forward to it.

 

Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon

Two weeks ago I ran the inaugural Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon. They also had a marathon but I was in no shape for the full 26.2 miles. I did manage the 13.1 mile distance however, despite not having trained all that much. Understandably I did not beat my time from earlier this year but did manage a very respectable 1:52:33. I was happy with that. It was a beautiful autumn morning, perfect running conditions for a jog around the streets of Indianapolis.

 

Halloween 2009

As is tradition, the girls went trick or treating on Halloween evening, to just a few doors in the neighborhood. No surprise that Anja was a Princess this year and Isabel was a Ladybug!

 

 

 

Daddy’s Pretty Girls

On most days I think our girls are pretty but more so on some days!!

 

 

 

Baking Time

This is a pretty typical scene from our kitchen on any typical weekend day at our house. Lynne bakes something each weekend, be it muffins, scones, bread, a pudding or simply a batch of food for the girls lunches. She is no longer allowed to do so alone. With the help of the stools that Randy made for each of the girls, they are a BIG help :)

 

 

Army Strong

Last Tuesday, Kristina's husband, Shaun, left for army boot camp. Yes he has joined the military.

Kristina is obviously missing him terribly and our thoughts are with her each day. He will essentially be training until early Spring but will return for 10 days at Christmas. She is starting to blog a little more about her love for him and how painful it is with him being away in addition to not having much contact with him over at Mr and Mrs Hawk.

 

Pictures from Ireland

Last week, my parents had The Station Mass at their house. This is local Irish tradition in which a mass (church service) is hosted in somebodies house, presided over by the local priest, and the entire neighbourhood attends. Each house in the neighbourhood participates on a rotating basis with two houses participating each year.

They had a good party afterwards since many friends and relatives visited from all over the country. Mum sent over a CD full of pictures which I have copied over to our web album space. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Congratulations Jonathan and all at PollDaddy

This morning after reading my brother Jonathan's blog, I learned that he has sold one of his companies. This week polldaddy was acquired by Automattic (the makers of Wordpress).

Congratulations Jonathan, you and Triona have worked really hard over the last 15 years or so on all your projects, you are well deserving of everything that comes your way.

The sale of polldaddy, a little spin out company from his other company Infacta, has received lots of media attention. Of note in the New York Times, Washington Post and others here, here and here.

The picture shown above was taken last year from when Jonathan and Diarmuid visited, he is proudly wearing his polldaddy T-shirt!

Congrats once again.

Mostly Sick!!

It has been a tough week here on Hillcrest Rd and not just because Lynne was away. Isabel was under the weather early in the week with a sporadic fever which was then picked up by Anja on Tuesday. We have had several 4-5am starts to the day and on Wednesday morning had a trip to see the doctor. Everybody has caught a virus, a nasty rotavirus that is going around. This spread further by the end of the week with Kristina calling in ill on Friday and myself feeling quite under the weather. Headache, sore throat, aching muscles...you all get the picture. We are going to try laying low for the weekend.

In a time of falling house and real estate prices, there is one popular place round here at the moment. Lynne's lap. The girls, each of them feeling ill, are dueling like we have never seen previously for Lynne's attention and comfort. Daddy simply does not cut it but I do understand how it feels since it was my lap that was the hottest ticket in town when Lynne was away.

Lynne returned safe and sound Thursday night. She enjoyed meeting old and new friends in Denmark. Håkan, Eva-Lotta and Tindra, many thanks for all the presents.

Lynne's Mum has settled in perfect, we are glad to have her this week to help out with ailing bodies. I hope you are all feeling better than we are, enjoy the weekend!

 

Hmmm ....What do you do...Laugh or Cry?

This is what I had to deal with this morning! The real advantage of having your children get a little older is that they need less and less constant oversight. Of course I may wish to revise this sentiment in later years but for now, roll with me. Last night long after I put Anja to bed I started to hear the familiar pitter patter across the landing floor, over and back a few times. It didn’t sound good so I went to investigate. Anja had found literally the only items of make-up that Lynne possesses. Mascara all over her hands and face.

This little episode was then followed by what greeted me this morning! There was this thick aqueous cream all over her hair. I was quite angry and inside was also dying with laughter. I did a poor job of conveying my sentiments since I started laughing mid way through our little chat!

 

 

 

Birthday for Randy and Dinorah

Yesterday we took ourselves over to Randy and Lorraine's house for a dual birthday celebration. Randy turned 25 and Dinorah, 21 :)) We only stayed a couple of hours but we had a lot of fun. Isabel was the star of the show, everybody wanted to hold and cuddle her. The highlight of the evening; the cake and ice-cream of course!!

Happy birthday to you both once again, it was great to see you!

 

 

 

 

Goodbye Mummy.....hello Gran!

This morning Lynne left for Denmark on a business trip. She will act as an external examiner on a PhD thesis at the University of Copenhagen. She returns from her trip late on Thursday night via the University of Kansas where she will give a seminar. We are getting relief here at home however.....

Lynne's mother, Pat or better known round here as Gran, actually arrives from London this evening. We are checking her flight status right now. She usually makes it over twice a year and this will be her usual Autumn visit, coordinated of course to help with Lynne's departure. More on her arrival tomorrow!

 

Weekend Update

Weather this weekend was absolutely fabulous. We took it easy for the most part, walks, cooking, a little shopping, visiting neighbours, Lynne did a little gardening and Anja became addicted to this coloring program online on the Fisher Price website. She is getting to be a dab hand using the mouse, she even started to show me how do it at one stage (not really sure whose personality trait that is :)

Our family blog was featured in our local paper, the Journal and Courier this week. They run a weekly column on local bloggers; the article can be read here.

All of you taking a browse for the first time, welcome. Enjoy the site, leave a comment and feel free to come visit us at anytime.

Weekend's over, hope you all have great weekend.

 

 

Here goes the weekend...

It's Saturday and we are looking forward to the weekend. Lynne went over to Kaisa's house last night for a girls gathering. Brad, Aulden Reina and Matt were here at our house kicking back for the weekend.

The day outside looks nice, experts are calling for clear blue skies and 70F so we are going to try heading out for a bike ride later.

Currently Lynne is upstairs sorting the girls clothes, Anja and Isabel are "helping". I snapped the two pictures below just a few minutes ago. Enjoy the weekend everybody!