Today after getting Thatcher off to school and the other two T's ready for the day, I met some girls in my ward for brunch at a place on the High Street in St. John's Wood called Carluccios.  It was nice to meet some other girls in the ward and get to know them a little better.  Tagg was excited because I told him since we were going to kind of a grown up ladies thing that he could bring my iPad and play Minecraft the whole time.  He was sold.  Tate on the other hand didn't get the memo that mom needed just one hour of grown up time and pretty much just freaked out the entire time.  Why is it that after wrestling a small child for an hour plus you feel like you've just run a marathon?  Needless to say, we came home and I put Tate home and then I took a nap along with him.

Later on Tagg and I decided that we needed a treat so we went to another place on the High Street called Maison Blanc.  I had heard it was yummy, and so we went and got a french pastry each.  I got the almond croissant and Tagg got some pot o creme thing.  They were both delightful and all I know is we will be back.  Europe just has the best breads and pastries.  I don't know why we can't duplicate them in the states but we just can't.  Being here often reminds me of Italy and Malta.  The food especially.

That was all that was really exciting today.  Todd came home early again and we all had dinner as a family.  It still feels really weird to have him home and to actually sit down to dinner as a family.  I know that is sad, but it's true.

Sorry no pictures again today, just got caught up in the normality of it all I forget to take pics!

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Not much to blog about today.  No pictures from today, sad but true.  Just still getting in our normal day to day routine.  Thatcher was out of school today because the teachers were striking.  I don't know a lot about the situation, but it all sounds very formal and British.  This morning as I was making breakfast Tagg saw that I had put some pears in the fruit bowl on the kitchen table and exclaimed, "they have pears in England TOO?!"  It is so funny to see and hear what the kids think about London.  They ask me funny questions all the time and have started trying to mimic the accent.

We stayed home all morning and just hung out, I cleaned the flat and then we got ready and went to the cell phone place to upgrade my phone from pay by month to a contract.  It was pouring rain, and the boys were mortified that we were going to actually go out in it.  I was the meanest mom ever and they didn't want take the bus, they wanted to take the tube.  There was a lot of sadness, weeping, wailing, nashing...all of that.  But we made it there, upgraded my phone, which I am SO GRATEFUL for.  They wouldn't let me do a contract when we first got here because I didn't have my UK debit card yet.  It was such a pain, not enough data, wouldn't let me set up voice mail, couldn't text.  It was a royal pain.  But now I am back in action!

After getting my "mobile" all set up we headed to Selfridges because it is my new favorite store and the boys somehow talked me into getting them a new Lego set.  We looked around for a little while then caught the bus back to St. John's Wood.

Tate was done with our outing for the day and cried and screamed the whole way home.  Everyone was looking at me again and I really had had enough of the rain, the complaining, the screaming, the riding the bus and wanted to scream "What do you want me to do about it!?!"  But I didn't.  I kept my cool.  I missed my Sienna though.  And sunny Texas.  And my friends.  And for some reason Mexican food at that moment. Random, but true.  Today was the first day I got a little sad and homesick.

Tonight Todd got home for the second night in the row at a very decent hour.  Shocking, but true.  It is weird, it's like, "wait...who is this guy hanging around during the evenings?  I am married!?  What?!"  It's been really nice, and also kinda weird and we are still adjusting.  Usually when Todd is home it is play time. I relax, he relaxes, the kids want him to play with them.  So it is weird having him around at night and things still need to get done, I am still in rush around mommy mode with dinner, and dishes, and lunches for tomorrow being made.  So yeah.  It will take some adjusting, but it's good adjusting.

We did the usual of fighting the boys to eat dinner, and then getting them to bed.  Tonight I continued planned our trip to Paris that we are taking over Easter.  I am very excited.  We are also planning a trip to Ireland and Scotland after the boys get out of school.  Places I've always wanted to go, and it is exciting we will be able to go and learn and see all that we can.  Still feel so blessed for this opportunity.

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 He LOVES this new bunting thing that we got for him to help him stay warm while he is in the stroller.  It is soft and fuzzy and whenever I take him out of the stroller when he has it on, he immediately lays on the floor and scoots around.  He is a weirdo!  But a cute weirdo and kinda looks like a cute turtle with this hood on!





He also is banned from the kitchen because the washer and the dishwasher are running a lot and he loves to push all the buttons and mess up the cycles and then we have to start them all over.  It's funny, but not funny.  But whenever I am in here he crawls as fast as his little arms and legs let him to me and then proceeds to empty out all the cabinets and push all the buttons he wants.  Good thing the kitchen has a door!  Need to look into getting some locks for the cabinets!


So yeah it was a good, uneventful rainy day.  Thatcher is home tomorrow because the teachers are "striking" at the school around here, whatever that means.  And so I need to find something for us all to do so we are not stuck in the flat all day.

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We stopped by the park on the way home and the boys played catch for a bit, and I snapped these pictures because it still boggles my mind where we are...I mean look at the backdrop!  So cool.




We headed home sooner than we had planned because even though the sun was out, it was actually freezing cold.

Todd had a great first day at work on his new case.  We thought that he would be able to get home relatively early tonight, maybe even for dinner, but he learned half way through the day he had late meetings.  They said it was very unusual and not common and so I still have a glimmer of hope that it will be different here with Todd's schedule.  That was one of the major perks about coming, Todd should be around a heck of a lot more.  The jury is still out for me if that is going to be true, since he only came home to sleep tonight.  But I still have faith and hope and all that good stuff because I am good like that. ;)  I'll update as our time here continues.

Something that is annoying is that we do not have phone or internet in our flat until April 2nd.  So we've been paying a weekly fee to this "hot spot" internet we have available through our building.  It is so spotty and goes in and out all the time and it is enough to drive you batty.  I can't wait to get our "broadband" as they call it here, installed.  Ay.

Oh, and today was the first day I missed TV. Looks like I'll have to start checking out the ol' iTunes to catch up on some favorite shows!

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The ward was so great.  We are so happy to be here and be apart of this ward.  It is a great mix of nationalities, with a lot of Americans.  There was such a special spirit there, and me loving church history I couldn't help but get a little choked up thinking about all the amazing people in the church who either served their missions here or came from here and impacted our history and lives so much.

We all felt instantly welcomed and the boys were happy to make some friends.  The primary is considerably smaller here than our Frisco ward and Thatcher was very excited to be able to participate more.  I think we will really enjoy our time here.

We took the tube home which was long and I don't know if we will do again, we just might taxi it up both ways from now on.  By the time we got home and I started to make Thatcher's birthday dinner and cake, it was way past 3:00pm.












All in all it was a great Sunday and birthday for Thatcher.  Tomorrow is a BIG day with Todd's first day on his new case and Thatcher's first day of school.  He is excited and I am nervous for him.  We will see how it goes!

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After I got home we just hung around the flat and I made my first big dinner here, spaghetti.  They have the same products that we used to use in Italy to make our red sauce and the spaghetti itself here is much more authentic, so the whole meal turned out pretty close to what we used to have in Italy.  The fresh bread here is also delicious, and so easy to get at the bakery just down the street from our flat. Even the bread that comes in the packages is much fresher and cut thicker, and seems to be less processed here. We've noticed that most food seem less processed and fresher.

We spent the evening skyping with my family and preparing for Sunday by getting everything ready to go to church, since we need to be out the door early to make it on time.  We are excited to go to our new ward tomorrow and the boys are very excited to make some new friends, I guess they are getting sick of just playing with each other!

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