Weekend at Cabinteely Park

Last weekend we went to Cabinteely park www.dlrcoco.ie/ccda/parks/cabinteelypkhistory.htm Which isn't far from where we live. It is so beautiful there. It has lovely greens to go for walks, and huge playgrounds. Dylan loves to bring a football and just run. The weather was so nice again - I think we could get used to it. We had such a great day, so when my parents came to visit on Sunday, we decided to take them over to see the park. It has so many things for the kids to play on. My parent's really loved seeing the kids for the day. They were so amazed to see Lauren starting to take her first steps. Dylan and his Grandad vanished for the afternoon. We couldn't get them in any of the photos, because they were having such a good time playing. We really loved having them here with us. It's lovely when we are all together. Here are some pictures from the weekend. I had to add one of the view of the blue sky and the trees, with the mountains in the background. If we could have this weather all the time, every day would be even more perfect...

Saturday

Sunday

Baby steps

Today, between her daddy and mummy, Lauren took her first few shaky steps, unaided. Her face alight with pure happiness, and 'look what I can do.' giggles. I was so proud I felt like I could burst, shouting around the kitchen in my p.j's. Her big brother standing on the sidelines, looking amazed and excited. It only feels like yesterday when I watched Dylan take those shaky steps. The time goes by while you are busy cooking dinners and cleaning rooms. I guess moments like today make you stop and appreciate that the time goes so fast. Over the next few weeks she'll gain confidence, and start to walk more and more. Then the time when she crawled everywhere will become a distant memory.....

Later on she was ready for bed, and wanted to try some more walking. she is so adorable. I just love how it looks like she's waiting for me to get the camera ready, we are all so proud of her. I was so proud of both my children, Lauren for taking those steps and Dylan for being there coaxing her to take them. It is amazing to think that five years ago, we stood with Dylan, coaxing him to take his first steps. Just Derek and I with Dylan in the middle. Now he stands with us, encouraging Lauren along with us. His arms outstretched to her, calling her to him. The love and pride shining from his eyes. What is most touching when I look back on the videos, I notice that it is Dylan who is always there when she stumbles. His arms are always there to catch her. I hope that in their lives as siblings, it will always be this way, Each there with arms outstretched, just in case the other stumbles. Dylan has grown into such a supportive big brother. I hope I can always remember how wonderful this day was.

A week in pictures

Here are a few pictures from the past week. Things have been so busy here, we've just been enjoying the start of the summer....

Showing off her pretty dress

The weather was really nice, so we could have some ice-creams and get outside for bit. So here are some more pictures of things we did this week...

I hate it when the phone rings during dinner

Morning time cuddles and tickles

Playing some football

Just playing with her toys

Enjoying her first ice-cream...

Yummy...

Some characters come to Hamley's toy store, so we went along to see them. Dylan thought they were great!

Day at the park

Dylan got his vaccines yesterday, so he wasn't feeling that great today. I brought him to the cinema this morning, to give him some quality time with just Dylan and mum! the film we went to see was in 3D and he really loved it. His face was priceless! He'd never seen a 3D film before. I always went for the regular show, as I thought he was too young to keep the glasses on for the whole film. There wouldn't really have been any point in seeing the 3D show. I thought he was finally old enough now, I was right, he understood that he had to keep the glasses on. He thought it was great.When we got home, we brought the kids to the park, it was warm, but slightly cloudy so we thought it would be a nice day to go for a walk and play football. They had a great time! They played on the slide and swings. Dylan was slightly out of sorts from the vaccines so we didn't stay too long! It was nice to get some quality family time together... Here are some photos I took (again on my Mobile phone, as the battery on my camera died as soon as I turned it on!)




vaccines and Handprints...

Lauren had her last set of vaccinations today. Now she's finished until she's five. She wasn't too impressed at all. The doctor gave her one in each arm. She had big tears on her cheeks. It is just heart breaking to have to hold them still, her big eyes looking up at me wondering why she has to have this done. I know if she ever caught any of the diseases we're vaccinating her against, then it would be much more traumatic, but it's still tough! When I was getting her ready to go she kept trying to pull up her sleeve to show me what the doctor had done. She was mumbling something that only she could understand, but I had a fairly good idea what she was trying to tell me!! She recovered quite fast and is sleeping soundly in her crib. She took her bottle with her and was so worn out from her ordeal, that she went straight to sleep, without even the energy to move her bottle away.

This picture is a little hazy as I took it with my mobile phone. Dylan is due his five year old booster vaccines next week and I'm anticipating a lot more tears from him.

For Derek's birthday a few weeks ago, I had Dylan and Lauren make a plaque for him in a little place called Pompei Paints in town. It has their handprints and ages on it, It's just beautiful, it will be lovely to look back at it in a few years to see how much they've grown, I've just hung it up... It has lovely little beads that you thread onto the part that you hang up.

He loved it...

 Happy birthday Daddy....

Weekends are made for this

This weekend was mostly spent relaxing. On Saturday we went into Dublin city to walk around. There was lots of tourists there enjoying the Irish atmosphere! We walked around The George's Street arcade, which we loved. It is full of quirky stalls, filled with adorable baby clothes, and one of a kind trinkets. It has an other world charm about it. You could imagine it all those years ago, the hustle and bustle of the market place. The memory of a time gone by. http://www.georgesstreetarcade.ie/

Today the weather was really nice, which meant we could sit out in the garden to enjoy the fresh air and the sun. Dylan played football all day, I've never seen so much mud and grass on one person. It makes me smile to see the difference between my boy and my girl. Dylan rolling around in the grass, adding sound effects to his games. He adds the whoops and calls from a crowd of imaginary spectators, and Lauren, she sits and admires her dresses, gives kisses to her dolls and wraps her arms around your neck, to plant tiny baby kisses on your face. yes I like how they can be so different.

I also explored my blog a little too much. I wanted to add some of my favourite photos of the family over the years, I also added a link to my photo albums to share with family and friends. So here they are, they make me smile!...

View all

Family holiday photos '09/10

Some family photos from Christmas, Halloween and Easter last year....

Christmas 2009

Halloween 2009

Easter 2010

Happy times...

weekend at Glendalough

A few weeks ago we went to visit Glendalough, which is a monastic village based in an old glacial site in Co. Wicklow. It was so beautiful to walk around there. Afterwards we went for a drive in the mountains to see the views. It was breathtaking. We may not have white sandy beaches or palm trees here in Ireland, but what we do have is so truly scenic. We have lush greens that flow so beautifully into lakes, that are so perfectly framed by picturesque mountains. The sky was a lovely blue, who could ask for more than that. We had a great day....

slowly but surely...

So I seem to be getting to grips with the blog slowly but surely. Everything is looking a little rough around the edges, but hopefully it will start to take shape soon enough. Lauren has been sick recently, has had a bad case of the snuffles. She isn't sleeping well, she usually sleeps like well, a baby!! but the last few nights she's been waking up coughing and getting herself really upset. Dylan then wakes up wondering what's wrong. So it's all fun and games in our house right now. I suppose these are the 'joys of motherhood' then the alarm goes off at 7am and you kind of wonder.. ' is it still tomorrow if you don't sleep the night before' and then I go in to check on Lauren and she looks up at me with these big eyes, still wet with her snuffle tears and smiles even though she feels awful and you suddenly realise why you are doing this job, even though it's hard, it's so worth it.

I put her down for her nap this morning, and went to get her a drink,when I came back to check on her, she was already out for the count, literally five minutes later...

Too cute..

Heaven Sent

Well here it is, my first post on my new blog. We are the Doyle Family. Louise, my husband Derek and our two children Dylan (born in November 2004, and Lauren born in February 2009) about three months ago we moved our family half way across Ireland. My husband Derek got a new job with a bigger firm, so the choice was made for us. So here we are in Dublin, in a new home, new school and new job! I wanted to have a blog as a record for our children of the things they did while they were young. I chose the name heaven sent for my blog, as I really feel that both of our precious children are sent to us from heaven and every day I am so grateful for them, when I look at their smiles and I hear them laugh, they make me realise that they really are a gift, they really are ' heaven sent'

so meet the family....

This is Dylan, The big brother

This is Lauren, the baby

Derek and Louise, otherwise known as mom and dad...

This is our record of the everyday things, these are our memories, this is our life, our way, and you are welcome to join us, if you have the time......