rachelandspencer.com

Hooray! Spencer and I finally got our "other blog" set up. So if you're interested in the more mundane-y type posts (that will primarily feature baby Ilo), check out rachelandspencer.com.

Happy Birthday Rachel

Happy Birthday Eli

336 Christmas Moments

Rachel and Spencer and baby Ilo joined Mom, Dad and Sarah this Christmas.  Sarah was a (literal) woman/actress of many hats for the annual nativity story on Christmas Eve.  Ilo was the youngest 'baby Jesus' to have filled the title role.  Janice, Lucy and Sherri Jones shared the evening for Mom's traditional 2) soup, 3) bread Christmas Eve dinner.

On Christmas Day, for the second year in a row, since Great Grandpa's passing, the 336 gang were all at 336 the entire Christmas Day.  It was so fun to Skype from sunny Boston, to snowy Provo and also Missouri and Washington and see what one and all got for Christmas and watch them open their presents from Grandma and Grandpa so that the fun of Christmas was extended from sea to shining sea throughout the day.

The highlight (not counting presents) was when...
The 'Who's, young and old, sat down to a feast,
The main dish prep'd by Spencer they did feast, feast, feast, feast!
They did feast on Who-pudding and rare Who roast-beast.
Roast-beast is a feast coast to coast west or east.

After last year's rare Who-roast goose, the party at 336 ventured to new territory - rack of lamb.  Spencer really was the lead chief along with Rachel preparing a wonderful crown rack.  Later Spencer also created a festive drink of ginger ale from scratch (I mean ginger-root scratch) for the group to enjoy while playing Dad's new Christmas board game - Ticket To Ride.

Merry Christmas!

Family Night from M Cornwall on Vimeo.

This goes along well with our gift from last year!  We hope you all had a Merry Christmas.  This year we played a very fun family night game- so if you decide to play it or not that fine but mostly the gift is a little entertainment on cream smashing from the east  coast!!

You know it is Christmas at the Cornwall's when...

Our Sweet Caleb

 We are now a family of 7 and loving every minute of it.

Everyone was excited to find out they had a new brother and everyone was anxious to hold him

We are soooo glad that Grandma decided to extend her stay.  THANK YOU!!!!!

 Coming home from the hospital

 There is something magical about having a Christmas baby.

Fish Canyon

California Thanksgiving

Even though we are fast approaching Christmas, we didn't want to lose out completely on our chance to share some photos from our visit to California for the Thanksgiving holiday. It was so fun bringing Wendy to 336 so she could explore and fully experience the joy of being at my childhood home. We loved the warm California weather and enjoyed our November outing to the park. Wendy loved the swings, slide and walking by herself all the way down to the park.

#ASaviourIsBorn

Cousin Tiffany has the honor of being one the social media artists to celebrate the 12 Days Of Christmas #ASaviorIsBorn.  Tiffany is day 6, right in between Alex Boye (5), who we love and Lindsey Sterling (7), whose video is, as always very creative.  Click on the image to go to the site and scroll down to 12 Days of Social. 

Next to Tiffany my favorites are: Alex Boye (5), Lindsey Sterling (7), Peter Hollens (8), David Archiletta (10), Studio C (12)for humor - I bet you laugh out loud, and finally, we, as a family, really need to step up our caroling compared to this group (13).

It's True - Christ, A Savior is Born

Lately

I know most of my posts are "lately" posts and I am so behind on Alden's monthly posts but life with these three sweeties is busy busy and fun fun fun.  Thought I would share some pictures of us lately.

Emary is full of wonder, curiosity, and trouble and we love it!  She dives right in to anything she is doing and shouldn't be doing.  She got her little paws on an ink pad today- literally!

Alden is learning all the necessary skills prior to crawling.  

This photo makes my heart sing for so many reasons!  

1. He is just adorable

2. It is Christmastime

3.  Sitting babies are seriously the cutest- I love watching babies sit- I just do!

4. He is wearing Bennetts first Christmas Pajamas

5. He is absolutely in love with his Daddy!

We call Alden Fuzz lately- he has the fuzziest little head!

At Thanksgiving Emary enjoyed feeding Bennett some apples.

Alden raiding the fridge while Emary cooks.  I love that this little girl is in the middle of two brothers.  She is so sweet and takes such great care of them! And I feel as though when she gets older they will take care of her even more than they do now!! Love it!

My big boy decorating the Christmas Tree.  He is the best helper and such a good, sweet boy!

We have had some unusually warm weather.  The kids enjoyed a day at the zoo!

We are loving our 3 kid Boston Life!

Ilo Frederick Twelmeyer

We wanted to officially announce the arrival of Ilo (pronounced "eye-low"), born November 30th at 1:12 am, weighing 8lb 4oz, 22 inches long.

His first name comes from Ilo Leslie Smith - Beverly Hodgkinson's dad, and Frederick is a middle name passed down through Spencer's paternal side.

We had a really incredible experience giving birth at home. It was an intense and intimate experience in many ways, not excluding the fact that Spencer got to cut the cord at the foot of our bed.

We are feeling so blessed, and we love this boy to pieces.

LOVELY HOLIDAY EPILOUGE

Sarah and Dad arose bright and early on their final day to make connections to get to the airport to fly home.  The very handy District Line tube stop which they had used all week was CLOSED for the weekend for track repairs.  It was not the best timing for transportation issues. The first day the line was down it was SNOWING when Dad and Sarah left the flat.  (In Dad's all two years in England as a missionary it snowed maybe once or twice ... global warming?)  With the difficult weather and critical timing to get the airport an absolute plan needed to be worked out.

The plan started with catching a (double decker, of course) bus at the top of the street.  Bus 69 went  to the Jubilee Line tube station.  The tube traveled to London Bridge Southern Railway train station.  All went as planned until London Bridge, then things came falling down (my fair lady oh).  Sarah asked, some platform staff and was told that there would not be another train  to Gatwick Airport for an hour.  That wouldn't do so they helpfully made the suggestion to hop on a train going to East Croydon that would soon be pulling into platform 13 and then change trains for one going to Gatwick.  Dad in the mean time was asking another pair of platform staff the same question... 2nd witness... same answer.  As Dad and Sarah approached platform 13 a train had just pulled in.  West Croydon was noted on the readout as one of the stops.  On board that hopped.  WAIT!  West Croydon?  "Didn't we want East Croydon".  The train doors closed.  Too late!  A wonderfully helpful and observant young man seated on the train asked if he could be of assistance.  Telling him that the final destination was Gatwcik Airport he calmly explained the following. "Get off this train at Norwood Junction, the stop just before West Croydon.  There will soon be along a train going to EAST Croydon.  Take that train one stop to East Croydon.  Get off that train and take a train that will be going to Gatwick".

It all worked out in the end.  Having planned a journey with MINIMUM changes (1 bus, 1 tube, 1 train) due to the baggage Dad and Sarah were lugging, they ended up with 1 bus, 1 tube, and 3 trains.  Lunch was purchased, as planned, at the airport with the final pound sterling notes the two had in their wallets for the 10 hour flight home. The final anxious incident was in finding a water fountain.  For a country that has water pouring from the sky constantly the Brits seemed to have responded with making drinking water nearly impossible to find.  There is ONE drinking fountain in the entire international airport.  Sarah found that not even the personnel at the Information Booth know where it is.  Sarah valiantly preserved and filled her water bottle returning to the gate several minutes AFTER the boarding call.  (P.S. Norwegian Air has a fine airplane but they serve nothing.. zero.. zilch.. complimentary to the low class passengers, so Sarah's water run saved life and limb.)  Farewell dear England.

On the train (one of them)

On the plane winging back to Los Angeles (Dad is learning to look at the little camera lens on the smart phone when performing a selfie.)

That's all folks.  A full and memorable trip for daughter and DAD.

LOVELY HOLIDAY 06

Saturday, November 21 was to be one of the highlight days of the trip.  Arrangements had been made for Dad and Sarah to spend the day with Suzanne, someone Dad had taught on his mission 40 years ago.  Suzanne, then 16 years old and her younger sister Jacquelyn both joined the Church and were baptized.  Suzanne has been a faithful member ever since.  After 5 years as a Relief Society President of her ward she now serves as a Seminary Teacher.  Yeah! We love Seminary Teachers.

Suzanne picked up Dad and Sarah at the train station in Farnborough, the town where she lives, about 60 miles s/w of London.  From the station they stopped by her home and met her husband, a chess tutor.  Suzanne hosted Dad and Sarah for the rest of the day.  They drove through Ascot (famous for it's horse race track) to Eton (noted for it's very prestigious boys school, where Prince William went to school) and finally to Windsor.  The better part of the day was spent touring Windsor Castle - the Queens country home in Berkshire.  (Photography is not allowed inside the castle so one would have to Google-it to see the magnificence inside.)

Dad and Suzanne in front of her house in Farnborough

The 'uniform' at Eton is a coat with tails.

Bridge over the River Thames that separated Eton and Windsor

Suzanne recommended a pub in the shadow of Windsor Castle to stop for lunch.

The flag is flying which means the Queen is in residence.

As Queen Elizabeth had just recently passed the mark of being the longest reigning English monarch there were special displays to commemorate the occasion.

The view from the castle bulwarks.

The church within the castle walls.  Henry VIII and his wife Jane Seymore are buried prominently in the floor of the choir.

It happened to be the evening for the annual Christmas lights lighting in Windsor, so there were crowds and crowds of folks in the streets when Dad, Sarah and Suzanne exiting the little bakery where they had warmed themselves and talked and talked over large cups of hot chocolate.  One of the more interesting "decorations" is shown on the video above of changing scenes projected on one of the castle drum towers.

Since Windsor is the Queens sometimes residence that calls for Royal Christmas decorations.