Family on Ricky Moorhouse

West Bay

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Our summer family break in West Bay, Dorset

Giant Sequoia tree planting

Sun, 26 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This weekend, to mark our 40th birthdays we planted Giant Sequoias with One Life One Tree at their planting site near Abergavenny. Sequoias are the world's largest growing tree species and capture up to 10x more carbon per hectare than a traditional woodland, so should capture the equivalent of a person's lifetime carbon footprint.

The site in Abergavenny was previously a commercial woodland grown as a mono-culture so the projects involvement there will increase biodiversity on the site with the planting of Sequoias along with the additional native species they will be planting alongside them.

Peak District Holiday

Fri, 13 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

We had a fantastic weeks holiday up in the Peak District staying in Hathersage. We fitted in lots of exploring of the surrounding area, but still a lot more to see and do.

On the way up to the Peak District, we visited my parents for a couple of days before heading on further. From there we stopped at Hardwick Hall on the way where we started with lunch before looking around the hall. We learnt about the formidable Bess of Hardwick who had built both this and Chatsworth. We then explored the grounds - particular highlights being the swifts swooping across the lawn in front of the house and the impressive stumpery.

Great South Run 2014

Sat, 25 Oct 2014 14:49:30 +0000

Great South Run weekend is here! Today we had the 5k run which Laura, Anne and Des took part in and all did very well, and Abi's 1.5k Mini Run - even Jessica was enjoying running on the race track they had there and is keen to do the mini run next time round.

Now all that's left is my one tomorrow - I'm going to be running the 10 mile Great South Run for the first time to raise money for gain. If the technology works you should be able to watch live at http://runkeeper.com/user/rickymoorhouse and you can sponsor me at http://justgiving.com/rickymoorhouse . I'll update this again tomorrow after the race!

Camping in Cornwall

Wed, 18 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

First day of school

Sat, 14 Sep 2013 10:11:16 +0000

Jessica on her first day at school

Mini Great South Run

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 16:42:48 +0000

This morning I had fun doing the mini great south run with Abi, unfortunately RunKeeper crashed as we went through the start line but I think we did the 1.5k in roughly 11minutes. She had a great time and did it with a mixture of running at a good pace and then walking for a little bit until she saw too many people overtake, then she would pick up pace and dive through gaps in front of her. She enjoyed the stretch on grass much more than the road and path sections and was thrilled with her medal at the end.

Looking back on 2011

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Greg and Poppy's wedding in February with the girls as bridesmaids.
My 30th birthday and combined birthday celebrations with my mum's 60th in the Cotswolds at the end of April.
Going to the London Men's Convention with Des and some of the men from church.
Starting to get into gardening and growing lots of tomatoes.
Holiday to Malta with Des where the girls swimming really took off greatly.
Our summer Hampshire pass, visiting some of the sites around - and especially our family trip to Basingstoke to visit Basing House and Milestones museum
Our lovely anniversary weekend in Torquay thanks to Anne and Des.
Abi starting school and her space party for her birthday
Visiting the Royal Landscape and meeting up with Linda and Dave on their way back to Canada

I'm 30 today!

Thu, 05 May 2011 04:00:41 +0000

So to celebrate my 30th, with thanks to my mum, here's 30 photos of me, one for each year:

Treasure Island

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 22:07:26 +0000

This afternoon we took the girls to the New Theatre Royal to watch Treasure Island, thanks to winning tickets in their twitter competition.

The set was really impressive with so many different things to spot with Abi before the show started, and had a fantastic ship's bridge, which doubled as the tavern entrance.

The show started with the beating of a drum and a fiddle player on stage, then the musicians took over and it developed into a big opening number, a combination which returned several times throughout, making great use of rhythmic elements intertwining with music from the excellent musicians.

Drawing of me

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 07:20:17 +0000

Abi drew this for me. She says I'm not a monster, I just have my teeth out!

Substitute fruit

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 08:17:51 +0000

Laura: Would you like some raspberries? Abi: I don't like raspberries. Can you get me ... erm ... a carrot instead? Laura: How about a banana? Abi: Oh Yeah! (excitedly)

Peacock

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 06:01:49 +0000

Whilst browsing through my pictures on Flickr, Abi saw this and said:

"I always wished I could have a pet peacock"

Guilty Conscience

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 10:39:18 +0000

One of Abi's favorite games recently has been to pretend to be on the telephone, having a conversation with someone and then pass the phone around saying "I'll just pass you over to Daddy". Today when she passed the phone over to me, we had the following conversation:

Me (talking on the toy phone):

Hello?

Really?

Why did she do that?

Abi (protesting profusely):

I didn't!

Watch out for the Abirazzi

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:30:24 +0000

Abi wants a boat

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:49:59 +0000

Abi has recently decided that she wants a boat

Abi: Can you give me some money?

Me: How much do you need?

Abi: Mummy, how much do we need?

Mummy: £20,000

Abi: Yes (looking at me)

Me: Sorry I haven't got that much

Abi;s Butterfly

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 09:10:17 +0000

(Drawn on the computer with a stylus)

Another baby on the way...

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:15:26 +0000

At last our 12 week scan arrived. It had felt like it was a really long way, but it seemed to come round quite quickly once Christmas had gone. So this evening we finally got to see our new little baby, and it was wonderful.

It had been a bit worrying initially as we couldn't find the heartbeat with the doppler we'd rented and the midwife couldn't find it either when she tried on Tuesday. But all the other noises were as expected.

Too much CBeebies?

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 21:05:15 +0000

Today when I was in town with Abi, we saw a man sitting on a bench â€“ she pointed at him and said,

"It's Grandad Tumble"

I said, "It's not Grandad Tumble"

She said, "It is Grandad Tumble isn't it! Okay!

Wake up…

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 20:28:30 +0000

As Abi was going to bed, we had the following conversation:

**Abi:**Abi to wake up early

**Abi:**Abi wake up at 3

**Me:**Thats too early - how about 8?

**Abi:**Abi wake up at 10 to 7

Abi goes a swimming…in the bath

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:54:37 +0000

The other night when Abi was in the bath, she decided to do some swimming. She went down onto all fours, and then lifted her feet up to float along the surface of the water. Like this she 'swam' lengths of the bath with her hands on the bottom.

Center Parcs 2008

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 22:13:09 +0000

We had a lovely holiday last week at Center Parcs - we'd booked it almost a year ago to make use of the discount they give if you rebook within 28 days of getting home so we were looking forward to it for a long time! It was so different to last time we went, as last time Abi was only tiny and not yet moving around, so we carried her around in the sling most of the time. This year she likes to walk around for herself and currently has a fascination with stairs - so every time she saw steps of any kind she would say 'up stairs' (even if she was at the top of them!) and head towards them. Also this year she was big enough to travel round in a bike trailer which after getting used to it she loved. Having bikes seemed to make everywhere seem so much closer and easier to get to.

Abi’s word of the day

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:25:18 +0000

"Nemo" - Abi

Milk

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 09:57:27 +0000

Abi now knows how to get her milk! First she'll use the sign for milk:

If we don't notice, she do it again with sounds and then sometimes if we're in the kitchen she'll point to her bottles followed by the fridge and the microwave (just in case we've forgotten how to!). One time she even went as far as to get the empty milk bottle out of the recycling bin and hold it up to me!

Abi Swimming

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:00:00 +0000

//flv_ricky('video_swim','abi-swim');

I know this video has been on Laura's facebook for a while, but I wanted it here too as it's sooo cute!

Abi has been doing so well with her swimming and it's lots of fun taking her. Last week, she had her first solo underwater swim - which meant she swam between the instructor and me underwater. (It was only a very short distance, but amazing!) Tomorrow is her last session of the current term, which seems to have flown by, but we're now booked onto the next term so it'll only be a weeks gap in between.

First Step

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 08:17:43 +0000

This morning just as I was leaving for work, Abi decided that she wanted to follow me as she often does and came crawling after me towards the front door and peered round it as I opened it and then continued to go through the doorway. At this point Laura picked her up and stood her on the floor a little way back from the doorway. She took a step to the side!! I know it's only a little step but it was a big moment for us and we're very pleased with her!

“Baby”

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 23:00:00 +0000

[Baby -Abi](http://samespirit.net/ricky/audio/abibaby.mp3) (mp3)

First Little Dippers Session

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 23:00:00 +0000

After problems with the weekend workshop that we'd originally booked on we finally got round to Abi's first swimming lesson today.

She seemed a bit nervous as we were waiting to get into the pool and watching the previous class finish as they did they're underwater swims and being thrown towards their parents. However she loved it once we were in. She loved having the other babies (She was the oldest in the group for a change) around and watching them and seemed to have lots of fun with the lesson itself. She did very well with her holding onto the side and loved her splashing into the pool as usual. The highlight though was floating on her back - she's never been particularly happy with floating and I hadn't got the hang of how to hold her before, but they showed us a different way to do it and she was brilliant - she seemed to love it.

A bath-time song

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Can you go splish splish splish like a little fish? splish splish A fish that goes splish splish splish

A fish goes splish splish splish
But what goes splosh?

A baby giraffe!

<img src="http://samespirit.net/ricky/images/giraffe.png" style="float:left;"></img>Can you go splash splash splash like a baby giraffe?
  splash splash
A giraffe that goes splash splash splash
when he's having his bath splash splash

A fish goes splish splish splish;
a giraffe goes splash splash splash;
but what goes splosh?

An albatross!

Can you go splosh splosh splosh like an albatross?
  splosh splosh
diving in the sea splosh splosh
when he's finding his tea splosh splosh

Abi’s messy adventure

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 23:00:00 +0000

This morning just as I was getting ready to leave for work I came back through into the dining room to see Laura and Abi, but Laura was in there on her own. - Abi had gone off for an explore as she's been doing more and more recently. When I got through to the living room, I saw Abi had got some thing in her mouth, and unusually it looked quiet big, so I went round to investigate further and discovered she had the lid to our Nandos' peri-peri ketchup in her mouth covered in ketchup and the bottle was laying on the floor next to her.

Abi getting up (video)

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 06:13:58 +0000

Abi Getting Up on Vimeo