New Nanny

Well we have a new nanny, her name is Kristina. She is very nice and has even started to come each day this week to help Lindsay with her last week. This will really help her to get to know the girls and the routine while Lindsay is here. Particularly Anja who initially was very "anti new nanny". She declared on Saturday evening after we had several girls over for an interview that "she did not like any of the ladies and that she wanted Lindsay to stay".

Kristina officially starts next week. She is pretty young with seemingly lots of energy. She is getting married in May to Sean and they are currently building a house in the local area. She is taking a part-time business degree (online I believe) which should be finished in two years. She has a strong interest in photography and eventually wishes to have her own portrait studio.

We welcome and look forward to having Kristina help make our hectic lives a reality!

I have posted a few pictures of Isabel from this week.

The Cousins

Shown below is an updated picture of Ella, Thomas and James, our neice and two nephews. These are Keith and Sam's kids who live in Esher which is very close to London, not far from where Lynne grew up.

Thanks for the picture Keith, cannot believe how quickly they seem to be growing!!

 

Weekend Update

Sunday afternoon and it's been a little more busy than usual around here. Yesterday was a jumbo nanny interviewing day. We had six scheduled but a few didn't turn up so the load was lightened. I guess they didn't like the way I spoke with them on the phone.

We met several great girls yesterday, many of whom we would be happy with. We had some tough decisions last night but I think we and teh girls will be very happy with our choice. We have yet to call each candidate so there will be more updates later on our new nanny.

Still really cold here, well below freezing. Took this picture of Iasbel this morning. She is really getting into her solid food and as you can see is starting to get very steady when sitting. They each have the nasty cold/virus that is going round. Ruby has also been quite ill this weekend. It's tough being a parent and being quite helpless when watching the kids not feeling very well.

Not much else to report, have a great week.

 

Weekend Ahead

Hope you are all tucked in. It is still very cold here in Indiana and we certainly will not be venturing out much this weekend.

Today I had lunch with Feng and spoke with Håkan in Sweden. it was good to catch up with both since I have not seen or heard from either in a while. Both keeping well, each looking after their kids.

Tomorrow is going to be a jumbo interviewing day. We have five nanny candidates coming round. We have been running an ad in the local paper which has resulted in many enquiries and some very well qualified. We are looking forward to meeting them all tomorrow.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Lindsay Will be Leaving us.....

We have some sad news indeed but not that surprising if you have been watching the updates over the last week.
Lindsay will be leaving us shortly. As she has outlined in their blog, she needs to devote a little more time to her family given Ruby's recent peanut allergy diagnosis.

Lindsay has worked with us now for over twenty two months. Over that time she has literally allowed our crazy lifestyle to happen. We would not have been able to keep up with my job in Indy and Lynne's job at Purdue if we were not totally assured that Anja and Isabel were not being looked after in a manner that we could be fully comfortable. Lindsay did this and more. She has been such a great Nanny to the girls, we literally could not have asked for one additional thing. I know it may sound impossible but if you know Lindsay you will know and believe it when I say that she cared for our girls with as much passion and love as she did her own little Ruby. Hard to believe but I think very true.

Almost two years is a long time and peoples lives change. When she started with us we only had Anja but we now have Isabel and they have Ruby so both our situations are a little more complex. She is graciously staying with us while we try finding a replacement. More on that later but for now......Lindsay I know we will say it many times before you eventually leave us but we love You, Mike and Ruby and we thank you sincerely for what you have done for us over the last two years!

Paul, Lynne, Anja, Isabel & Daisy of course!

 

Cold in West Lafayette

Not really that much happening here in this neck of the woods other than the cold. Today it's truly beautiful outside. Clear blue skies and sun shining magnificently, only problem is that it's really cold. Today we have 0F or -18C with the wind chill. Cold enough to keep one inside that's for sure.

Lit up a big open fire last night and kept warm and snug. Same today, we are exploring DVDs and what's on TV although Anja is dominating with requests for Cinderella.

Anja came into the study yesterday morning announcing that she had acquired a new dress, my polo shirt. It was cute, particularly since my socks were pulled right up over her knees!

Keep warm everybody and have a great week.

 

 

Peanut Allergy

This has been a busy, worrying and very stressful week for Lindsay and Mike. Ruby had quite a severe reaction last weekend to a small amount of peanut that she was exposed to. She has been on medication all week but they learned yesterday, after a definitive allergy test, that she is indeed very allergic to peanuts. This turn of events will have a significant impact on their lives. They have outlined some of these changes on their blog.

These recent events will also have an impact on our lives but right now we are just hoping that Mike, Lindsay and Ruby can quickly adopt to the changes that will be necessary.

They will of course be able to make the necessary changes since anybody with children knows, one can search very deep to do whatever it takes to ensure our children are cared for.

 

Tindra Wikström at Two Weeks

We received an updated picture deck from Håkan and Eva-Lotta today. they have named their little girl - Tindra. It's Swedish for "To twinkle" or "To sparkle".

She had jaundice but appears to be fine now.

Congratulations to you all once again, hope you are getting some sleep!

 

Real Food......Yum !

The highlight of the weekend so far, Isabel had her first taste of solid food. As the pictures below show, she was very hesitant at first but this morning she was very happy with her her new delights.

Other than this it has been a relatively quiet weekend. Lynne was ill yesterday, 24 hour bug, so we have been keeping low. Watched some football with Matt last night so I'm tired today! Took the Christmas down this morning. Not much else planned for the day, I may go for a run but I may just as well snooze!

Have a great week everybody!

 

 

Friends Children

Here is another set of adorable looking children. My friend from work at Lilly, Feng, sent me pictures today of their beautiful daughters, Nina and Stacy! Their dad, Jin-Rong, is an associate professor at Purdue just like Lynne so we almost have mirror image families with their two girls. Nina is a little older than Anja!!

 

It's a Girl!!

Congratulations to Eva-Lotta and Håkan who became new parents yesterday, yes on Jan 1st. They had a baby girl. We have no names yet but I'm sure they will be forthcoming! Yes new parents....very exciting indeed!!

Håkan...be sure to send us the blog address ....::))

 

Happy New Year & Family Tree

Happy New Year everybody! Hope you all had a very enjoyable New Years Eve evening!

This morning we assembled our family tree. This was a small fun project we decided to do over the holidays so that the girls could know everybody by name!! Individual pictures can be seen in an album.

 

 

Hint Hint !!

Just in case there is somebody out there scratching their head wondering what to buy me for my next birthday - here is a little help!!

 

New Year Resolution

This year I started to increase the amount of running I was doing. I have run constantly for a couple of years now, about 10-12 miles a week. Mid-year I wanted to drop a few pounds so I tried increasing the millage.

I did succeed in dropping 22lbs over a few months although over the Christmas period I have gained a few back!! I have really enjoyed my increased exercise. It serves as a great counter to the hours I sit in the car each week commuting to Indianapolis. Admittedly it also serves as an excellent counter to my eating and love for home brew and craft ale in general.

One of my New Years resolutions for 2008 will be similar to millions of others, try loosing some weight. For me it will be to try getting to my target weight and staying there!!

I started an online training log to track my running, biking, swimming and gym activity. It helps me keep motivated. I'm opening up access to it, click here, and will put a link on the side for future access. You can see how well I do in 2008.

I owe a big thanks to everybody who helped me steal away and get some time to do this exercise. You know who you are – Thank You!!

 

New Family Picture

We went over to collect Daisy from her holidays at Randy and Lorraine's this morning/afternoon. We also thought it would be a good time to try getting a new set of family photos since their tree is very nicely decorated and they got the girls these really nice dresses for Christmas.

Not easy trying to get a dog, two small girls, a Mummy and a Daddy all smiling together and looking in the same direction!! Took 226 photos in total, about 20 or so were worth keeping. The best are posted below but some other good ones are on a web album!!

Happy New Year!!

 

 

 

 

Chillin.....

We returned yesterday from a very enjoyable three day Christmas trip to Potato Creek. The weather was wonderful. Clear blue skies each day with temps in the 40s. Each day had pretty much the same themes...breakfast and lots of coffee, a mid-day stroll through the park (Brad and I got two runs in) whilst Lisa and Lynne went for a walk each day. The grandmothers babysat!! We can certainly recommend this park. The cabins were well equipped and very clean.
The evenings were spent eating and playing games!! We were three three families in all, each with a cabin next to each other, but we spent most of our time congregated for food and everything else in one cabin. Very relaxing.

Today we were chilling out round the house. Reading, cleaning, washing, calling relatives, Lynne was cooking food for the girls, I went to the gym. We went for a curry to top it all off and as I write we are about to start the bathing!!

 

Christmas Eve at Lisa's Relatives

We spent the first day of our trip to Potato Creek at Lisa's relatives. This was Christmas Eve and there was an army of people. Lots and lots of food, most notably some great Polish sausages, a party atmosphere, all the kids opened their presents and generally a great night was had by all. They live in South Bend which is a relatively small city in northern Indiana, about 10 miles from the state park we were to stay at. South Bend is most famous for Notre Dame University of The Fighting Irish fame. We actually visited the campus so I'll post a picture of that later.

There are lots of photos in addition to these which are posted to the web album folder.

 

 

 

A Birthday and More.....

This week started off with a trip to Randy and Lorraine's house. We had dinner, dropped Daisy off for a few days and we also had birthday cake. Deila turned 86 and looked great. There are lots of photos in addition to these which are posted to the web album folder

 

 

Anja and Emma Exchange Gifts

The McClellans, Matt, Laura and Ema came over last weekend and the girls exchanged gifts!! Emma was wearing this very pretty red dress that she look great in. Of course they each jumped right into dress-up princess clothes...