The house warming

We had a fantastic housewarming with so many guests, old and new neighbours, friends and family..what a great time..and after wards we sat in the spa and relaxed the muscles..it had been a long day but fun.
My Aunt Fran flew out from UK for the event, she was a real trooper, having landed at 10pm the night before..remember the 6 hour time difference and she was still up and helping first thing in the morning..we started with our first guest at 2.06pm and the last left at around 9.45pm, and 95 people passed through our home...what a wonderful time.

Our weather

I know you have had a lot of snow and everyone seems fed up with it..well except the kids out of school they seems to be giving me the impression on Facebook that more snow the better!! but we have had it cold as well...I know it is winter her and December and January are cold..but compared to UK it should be like late September...but no...they had the coldest weather in 14 years and we have had three consecutive nights of below freezing...this is not good...my blood is thinning. Even Alex and Ben are saying it is cold...we have had the heating on so much more than last year..hard to judge if that is all to do with weather or because of the new house as well, it is larger and has many more windows, and also much more shade in the form of trees in out back yard and windows that have a shade that stops direct light...we will see if we need to insulate more if the house is hot in the summer. that means we have a problem, but when summer starts in March and ends in October the heat is a bigger problem..so new home, new experiences and waiting for a full year to see the full effects of everything. loving the house though..will get around to posting pictures sometime...going to stop saying soon..:-)

Alex's new kitten

So we gave Alex his own kitten for Christmas..he has called her Rookie..she is a delight, has sharp claws and enjoys being played with, will sleep where she falls, preferably wrapped around someones neck or snuggled into them as close to the skin as she can get..she weighted only 1.5lbs when we took her to the vet, so we are feeding her lots to fatten her up ready for her first shots..

so behind with my blog

I know, I keep promising I will get to the blog, and then something gets in the way...I think Cara's operation is a good excuse, but will try and do better now we are home and starting to fuction again..

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, we did think about all our friends in UK and around the world, I think Christmas is a time to do that naturally, and reflect on those you miss, times gone by and when you are all coming out to visit...do contact first..we already have people booked all year so do not just book..contact..we would hate to be sending people to hotels..

moving the the playscape into the garden...

They had such fun...I am sure they did. the hero's of the day managed to carry the platscape into the final resting place..no mean feat this WAS heavy..they could only carry it for about 10 paces and then put it down, had to do some serious manoeuvrings through the gate and then through the trees..

Fran's visit to Austin

So we held a house warming and you were all invited, and Aunt Fran did come all the way from cold snowy UK to be with us...had to remind her lots and lots this is our winter as well..but we did have some warm days as well, went over 70f, and the lack of wind and sunny skies I think helped make it a fun and enjoy able visit.

Whaaaay i am back up and running, so will try and get the blog upto date for you all

I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas and are getting ready to see the New Year in, who knows what it will bring for us all, but I hope it is a positive and joyous year for you all.

We had a wonderful Christmas, very enjoyable with a good mixture of noise, excitement, hot tub, family talk, family movies and just enjoying our own presents and peace and quiet. we were lucky enough to have two great friends for Christmas who helped make it special and add to the dynamics of the day...well 40 hours they spent with us...they are now in rehab I think....The Cochrane clan is a full on experience for sure...good times, good memories and such a great Christmas.
The new house is such a delight, we love it, and have settled in well, I will take more pictures now I am up and running again, Allan now has many days off to tackle a wide range of 'new house jobbies'..is he not a lucky chap.