Content for now

Here is a set of random photos I've taken over the past few months that make me very happy.  I move through phases of contentedness regarding my life in England.  More recently I've felt quite unsettled....  but then I look at photos like these and remember how lucky I am.  

A market & cafe chairs

Shops & buildings in a pretty little town

A narrow street called Checker Walk

Tudor style architecture.  I'm in love with this!

Old wood parque floor

Hertford College, Oxford

Catte Street,  Oxford

The Radcliffe Camera, Oxford

Canal boats on the Thames

Canal boats on the Thames

Spring blossoms

A golden field of rapeseed (as taken through the window of a moving car!)

Pretty little woods we've recently discovered (Ipsden Heath)

Little King Lewi

Lewis is 6 months old and growing into a sturdy little guy.  

He can sit on his own and rollover.  He can eat pureed food from a spoon and drink water from a sippy cup.

Nothing makes him smile and laugh more than watching his sister run circles around him.

He growls when he's holding and examining a new object in his hands.

He loves going on walks in his stroller.

He is so cuddly and sleeps with his face buried into his mommy.

He is such a mellow and chilled out little chap.

I am very much in love with my blond hair, blue eyed boy. xo

Motherhood Moments

I'm just popping in quick.  It's been a stressful couple of weeks for me, but I feel so lucky (blessed) to be a mommy to two sweet little ones.  "The joy in motherhood comes in moments.  There will be hard times and frustrating times.  But amid the challenges, there are shining moments of joy and satisfaction." Elder M Russel Ballard

Here are a few of those shining moments....

Miles's brother and sister-in-law came to visit for a few days.  It's the best thing ever having family in our home and for them to cuddle and play with Tess and Lewis.

So a few days early, but Happy Mother's day to all of you wonderful women out there.

Trading Spaces

Last month we purchased a toddler bed for Tess so we could free up the crib for baby Lewis.  Since mine and Miles's bedroom was a smidge bigger, we decided to swap rooms and give the larger room to the kids.   (It makes me laugh to say that, because really both rooms in this little English house are so ridiculously small!)

And here's the result...

The bed is from Ikea.  Tess loves it, and we can make it longer as Tess gets older and bigger.

I absolutely love this little room for my little ones!  (Remember how this room used to look when Miles and I lived in it?  Click here).

And here's how mine and Miles's new bedroom looks...

I am in love with the ceilings in this house.

(This is how it looked when it was Tessa's room)

And finally, Miles finished the living room floor.  The carpet was old and worn, so we pulled it out, sanded the original floor boards, filled the gaps between each board, and varnished it.  It was a lot of hard work (mostly from awesome Miles) but we are thrilled with the result!

We think this little house was built in the 1920's.  I love thinking about all the people that have lived and walked on these floorboards in the past 90 years.

And I totally made the rug!  I did it the same way as this rug I made a few years ago.

For our next project we plan to remove the living room wallpaper and paint the walls.  I have a love/hate relationship with this wallpaper, but with this new floor it's definitely time for the paper to go.  What color would you paint?  I'm thinking something light and neutral to contrast with the floor.

Easter Weekend

I love Easter in England because it's always a four day weekend, since Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays.  We've kept ourselves busy with projects and a big DIY project.  Here's a peek....  (Warning, this blog post if pretty much only pictures of my two little ones!)

We had painting...

...and drawing

....and all around silliness!

Longing for warmer days so we can go outside to play

We pulled out the nasty living room carpet to expose the house's original floorboards.  Miles has been sanding all weekend getting the floors ready for a beautiful coat of varnish.

We colored Easter eggs

Eggs in England are brown, so the colors never turn out quite right.

We made our favorite banana cream pie

Hunted for Easter eggs in the garden (in the frozen garden!)

Tess got a new dress (thanks Grandma & Grandpa!)

Happy Easter dear friends & family!