National Day

December 2 was National Day for the U.A.E. It is a HUGE holiday for the emirates. Bruce and I set out to witness the events but managed to be too early for some and too late for others. Boo.  

We went walking along the corniche in the morning but were far too early. We then tried to go and see the fireworks but ended up being stuck in traffic the entire time. Surprisingly that was a great time as we got to see all of the cars all decked out, people dancing in the streets, and kids hanging out the windows of vehicles singing and shouting. 

Abu Dhabi Home

Our move to Abu Dhabi was quite stressful. It included many trips to the bank for Bruce, coordination of movers, cleaners, and appliance delivery, and me wanting to throw the resident "handy man" out of our villa. 

We ended up getting a HUGE place but it is a wee bit out of town. It is a brand new mansion built for 1 family, but subdivided for 7 (in a hurry I might add). We have the lower left side of the villa. Nice  neighbours so far...

Highlights of the house include:

- blue mood lighting

- kitchen cupboards that will collapse at any moment

- windows that leak

-  patio...woo hoo

- nice spacious rooms

- having a light that will randomly turn on and off because it is wired to another switch that is in the main hallway to go to the upstairs homes. 

- I could go on...

Regardless (or irregardless for some of you :) ) we are really happy to have found a place to live as housing is very limited right now. We are also thrilled to have unpacked all of our own stuff. Feels much more like a home. Now we have to get internet capabilities...

Happy moving fella that was quite proud of his truck. 
spacious rooms

Front
Fancy blue lighting
How the appliance guy set up our washer - ignoring the floor drain right in front of the machine. 

kitchen

Moving....

Again.
We are moving to Abu Dhabi tomorrow or Wednesday, depending on when the movers show up. We are still trying to organize internet in our new place so there may not be any posts until we reach the land of the snow. So excited. 2 weeks. Yipppeee

Videos!

Thought I would add a few videos. Apologies to those with super slow connections - B&L, you should be able to download these by the time we get to North Bay :)

First up some cute baby interactions. House guests are gone. Sniff...

Next, videos of what Neva has been up to. These are mainly for the grandparents. Not the most fascinating stuff if you have kids already or you are just not that interested in baby development. Personally, i was pretty darn excited the first time she grabbed one of her toys - and her toes. 

Pictures!

Here are some pictures of our adventures for the past couple of weeks. Melanie the super star has already posted a bunch of stuff at  http://www.thewrigs.blogspot.com/

Pictures taken in a park in Abu Dhabi

Oscar watching his sister

Fun on the slide
Melanie and Lucy

Wrigglesworth Family...awwww

Laughlin Family....awwwww

Dubai has a new mall – GASP - that recently opened. It will be the 5^th biggest in the world. It has a bazillion different stores (including Manolo Blahnik), a gold souk, Olympic size ice rink, and many other wonders. Much of the mall isn’t open yet but the new Aquarium is up and running. So with that as our objective, we loaded everyone in our Honda Pilot (named BB – for Brown Beast or Bruce and the Babes) and went to the mall. 

When we arrived I saw signs stating that this mall was the Everything Mall because you could get EVERYTHING here. Aptly named - it gave me a headache, made my feet sore, and left my child and me completely over stimulated. The mall people did seem to forget the little things like a chair in the nursing room L.  As I was sitting on the floor nursing, an attendant was nice enough to apologize and inform me that they didn’t have a chair.  “Ah, yes I did notice that.” 

Shots of the Aquarium

I love these shots of Lucy

Here I am
Neva loved it. 

 Lucy used Mike and Mel’s camera to take some pictures. I love seeing things from her point of view. These are some great ones of “Bruces.” 

Fingers Broken?

I know, I know. I haven't posted in a while. I just wanted to let you know that my fingers aren't broken.

We are having a wonderful visit with the Wrigglesworth family. I love having a full and hectic house. The kids are great - they are so cute, full of laughter and share Mel and Mike's enthusiasm. I have always known that Melanie is a super mum but let me tell you, she is a SUPERMOM!! I don't know how she does it. Such an inspiration and full of helpful hints. I so love having her here. Fun times spending your whole day laughing and talking about nothing in particular, all while wrangling 3 kids.

Hope you are all well. Just to let you know the weather has been PERFECT. Highs of 30. YAHOO. Another day of shorts, T-shirt, and sweat. I'm a pretty picture. :)

Pumpkin

Some shots of our little pumpkin. Hope everyone had a great Halloween. We didn't think we would see any kids treating but were so happy to see  20 or so little fairies/princesses running around the villas. :)

Had to include this shot as B and I think it is a funny one.