You may see the pace at which my life is moving based on the length of time since my last post. When I think about what has happenned since then it blows my mind a little.

Lets start with the first big event – Auntie Kellys wedding. We all headed to Maui, HI at Christmas to see Kelly marry Ali on December 28th. It was a beautiful day and whilst Gracie made a lovely bridesmaid Patrick wasn’t quite so convinced about his Miami Vice suit! Emma, Marcus, Callum and Ryan then came home with us and we had a lovely few days going to the beach, enjoying the sunshine and keeping a newly walking Ryan from going up and down the stairs.

The New Year started with more change as Patrick started nursery school 5 days a week. Mummy had a sleepless night worrying about how much her baby would miss her whilst Patrick just went straight in without a backwards glance. Four months on I am pleased to report that he adores school and his teachers and can already count to 30, recognise the letters and sounds of the whole alphabet (even the dodgy zeeeeee), spell his name, cut like a demon and sing a variety of songs in what his teacher calls an angelic singing voice. Apparently, he can hold the last note beautifully … America’s got Talent anyone? In other Patrick news he has recently started going to gymnastics with Coach Jerry; a rather tough ex-marine who throws him 12 feet in the air off the trampoline into a pit of foam cubes. I groan but Patrick thinks he is the greatest person on the planet and as it is only him and his little friend in the class they are learning a huge amount.

Gracie continues to enjoy school and charge at full speed toward teenagerdom. I am just hoping that if she gets all this angst out now it might save us some trouble later on! Her confidence continues to grow and she has made some lovely friends here both in her class and the neighbourhood. One of the many benefits of Socal living is the ability to walk home from school most days. People are really chatty in the Parks and there is a nice community atmosphere where we live. Grace has also joined a gym but thankfully one that involves less throwing and more high fives and stickers. She is loving it and is learning that if you fall down you just get back up and try again, something that Grace has always struggled with. This year has also seen Grace become more interested in fashion and she has her first pair of fashion shoes – Sketchers Twinkle Toes. After I persuaded her that she didn’t need to get the pair with the skull and crossbones on because Daddy works with bones I actually think they are quite sweet. Diesel wants me to get a pair now but I’m not sure I can channel my inner pop princess to that extent. The tooth Fairy has also put in an appearance at our house this year as Grace has lost her bottom 2 teeth. Unlike her Auntie Em she didn’t really enjoy the process of wiggling her teeth so they didn’t come out until the new ones were well and truely through and even then Mummy had to do the final pull. (The things Mothers do – it was disgusting!) For anyone who is interested the going rate in our house was a golden dollar, in our house the tooth fairy only brings coins x

We have just got back from our bi-annual trip to the UK and apart from the Rotavirus that Patrick got we had a lovely time. Thankfully our decision to stop off in Chicago on the way back also prevented us from getting stuck in the Volcano problems otherwise I am sure that we would still be there now!

All in all, 2010 has started well for the Dempsters and now that we are back home from our travels we are hoping to spend some time exploring our new home State.