The Gadd family
Stephen Paul Higham has straight blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He is a doctor working in the local hospital.
Stephanie Fiona, who prefers to be called
Steph, has wavy light brown hair and green eyes with hazel flecks. She is a newly qualified teacher in the village school.
They live in a lovely 4 bedroom house with a small field in Northumbria, England.
Year 1: Family Event- Fulfil lifelong dream
Stephen and
Steph fulfilled one of their dreams and climbed the highest mountains in the Britain. It was exhausting but fun as they did it together and gave each other encouragement.
Year 2: Family Event- Broken bone
On a class trip, after telling the children to be very careful on the steps,
Steph trips and breaks her arm while trying to cushion her fall. The children were a little shaken up to see their teacher in pain and being taken to hospital. The arm healed well and there was no lasting damage.
Year 3: Pet- Sheep
Stephen decides that he would like to start breeding sheep. They get 2 Ewes, called Mint and
Rosemary and a
Ram called
Stew. Despite their names the 3 sheep become pets; however their lambs are breed for meat.
Year 4: Celebration-
EasterStephen and
Steph invite both sides of their family to join them for
Easter Sunday. There is a huge roast lunch, one of Mint's lambs takes centre stage and is accompanied by seasonal vegetables and potatoes. For dessert there are two big cheesecakes with a selection of fruit so that the guests could make their own topping.
Year 5: Birth- Boy
Stephen and
Steph welcome their first child. Their little boy is born healthy and happy. He is called
James Aidan,
James honours
Steph's Granddad. Little
James has black wavy hair, which was a surprise as
Stephen and
Steph's hair is a lot lighter, the dark hair has skipped a generation from
Steph's Dad,
Andrew.
James eyes stand out vividly from his pale skin and black hair as they are bright blue like his Dad's.
Year 6: Pet- Goat
Stephen decides to add a goat to the small field that the sheep currently call home. Mint,
Rosemary and
Stew did not know what to make of
Billy the goat at first but now he is one of their little family.
Year 7: Adoption-
EuropeThe couple decide to adopt a child; they take a long time to come to their final decision to adopt from Russia. Their decision is thought over carefully as there are many children nearer to home that need a family to look after them. Their minds are finally made up when
Steph bumps into one of her old lectures from university who is heavily involved in a charity who supports a Russian orphanage.
The family welcome a 6 year boy called
Aleksandr Luka to join them.
Aleksandr has brown straight hair and blue grey eyes.
Stephen asks him if he would like to keep his own birth name or be given a more English one.
Aleksandr thinks very hard and says, in words far beyond many 6 year olds, that he wants to keep his name but have the same last name as his new Mum, Dad and little brother.
Aleksandr is fascinated by
James and plays with him very happily.
Year 8: Family holiday-
IrelandThe family take a week’s holiday to
Ireland.
Aleksandr loves the ferry that they take over the Irish Sea. He joyously sings the Pirate song about going over the Irish Sea, that
Steph taught him, while
James joins in with some of the actions and shouts the occasional word that he has remembered.
Stephen documents the whole trip with hundreds of pictures and manages to be in hardly any of them himself.
Year 9: Birth- Girl/girl
The little family grows with the addition of twin girls. When
Steph found out she was pregnant she was secretly hoping for a little girl but got a shock at the scan when the nurse told them she was carrying twins. The girls were born 3 weeks prematurely but were big and healthy enough to go home after just one day. The girls are called
Katie Grace and
Cara Lilly. There is no mistaking that the twins are un-identical as they take after different sides of the family.
Katie takes after
Steph's side as she has her Granddad
Andrew's black hair, like her big brother
James but her hair is straight. Her eyes are the exact same shade of green as her Mum's.
Cara takes after her Dad's side of the family as her hair is wavy with
Stephen's blonde colouring and bright blue eyes.
Aleksandr and
James help with feeding the babies and love to entertain both
Katie and
Cara, however they don't agree with their pink girly clothes.
James states he is glad he isn't a girl because he doesn't like pink.
Year 10: Family Event- Fulfil lifelong dream
After climbing the 3 highest mountains in Britain, 9 years ago,
Stephen continued to train hard and set his sights a lot higher, literally. He wanted to climb the highest mountain in
Europe, the Elbrus, which stands at 5642 metres.
Stephen tackled the climb this year and succeeded.
Steph, and the children, travelled with
Stephen to the Russian Caucasus mountain range and were all there to welcome
Stephen and the rest of the party back into the valley after their descent.
Year 11: Family Event- Accident
Stephen was clearing the table of dishes, so that
Steph could start the washing up. He had just left the dining room when one of the girls started to get fussy so called through to
Aleksandr to let her out of the highchair. Alelsandr did as he was asked and let
Cara out of the highchair putting her on the floor.
Cara then crawled around to
James and tried to pull herself up using the table cloth that was dangling so usefully in front of her.
James plate had not been cleared away yet and so
Cara ended up pulling the plate on top of her.
Cara was taken to A and E and luckily given the all clear. She ended up with a big bump on her head but was mostly just shocked by what had happened. The long table cloth has since been banned from the table.
Year 12: Adoption- England
With the success of adopting
Aleksandr guiding them
Steph and
Stephen decide to adopt again. For this second adoption they decide to stay closer to home and adopt new born girl/ boy twins from England. The twins’ birth mother did not want to name them so
Steph and
Stephen name their 2 new additions
Scarlet Rose and
Charlie Ethan.
Despite not being biologically identical the twins both have the same brown straight hair and hazel eyes.
Year 13: Pet- Dog
Aleksandr and
James have been pestering to get a dog for a number of years and
Stephen finally gave in this year. The family get a black Labrador retriever and
James names the puppy
Sirius, after
Sirius Black from the
Harry Potter books who could turn into a big black dog.
Year 14: Pet- Dog
After getting
Sirius Katie and
Cara wanted a dog of their own too. The family got a slightly smaller breed this time. The puppy is a white and light brown English springer spaniel. The boys wanted to keep with the
Harry Potter theme and call the new puppy Fang, after Hagrid's dog.
Katie and
Cara didn't like the idea so
Steph suggested Fluffy which was a nicer name and was still in keeping with the theme.
Year 15: Celebration- Neighbour’s New Baby
The Gadd's next door neighbours,
Sara and
Matthew, welcome a new baby onto the street with a big party in her honour. The little girl is called
Sophia Poppy. She has straight blonde hair and deep chocolate brown eyes.
Year 16: Family event- You are asked to be godparents
Steph and
Stephen are asked, by
Sara and
Matthew, to be
Sophia's godparents. They are thrilled to be asked and accept straight away. The ceremony is beautiful and all of the children:
Aleksandr,
James,
Katie,
Cara,
Scarlet and
Charlie, are very well behaved throughout.
Year 17: Family event- Move
The family ups sticks and moves to a bigger house.
Steph is sorry to be leaving their family home but as the children are getting older they need their own space. In the old house
Charlie was the only one with a bedroom to himself and that was a little box room.
Aleksandr and
James shared and
Katie,
Cara and
Scarlet had the biggest room in the house between the 3 of them.
In the new house everyone gets their own room except
Katie and
Cara who wanted to share.
Year 18: Birth- Girl/ boy
Steph and
Stephen welcome another set of boy/ girl twins into their family. The twins are called
Aurora Neve and
Nathaniel Theo.
Scarlet and
Charlie had a little difficulty saying
Aurora and
Nathaniel so the twins were given the nicknames
Rory and
Nate.
Rory looks like the spitting image of the Mum with wavy light brown hair and green eyes.
Nate looks like his big brother
James with straight black hair and bright blue eyes.
Year 19: Adoption- England
The family decide to adopt for a third time, again deciding to adopt from England, as with
Scarlet and
Charlie. They adopt a 14 year old boy called
Tristan Evander.
Tristan has blonde wavy hair and amber eyes.
James and
Tristan, both being 14, instantly hit it off and it's as though they have know each other all their lives. The two boys share a room like
Katie and
Cara.
Year 20: Adoption- England
The family decide to adopt for a fourth and final time, this adoption is again from England. The Gadd's welcome
Abigail Mae a year 10 old girl into their family.
Abi has brown curly hair and hazel eyes. As with
Tristan,
Abi is accepted into the family by the children instantly.
Katie,
Cara and
Abi wanted to all share a room so the girls moved into the master bedroom to accommodate all of their things.
The Gadd’s
DH:
Stephen Paul Higham
DW:
Stephanie Fiona *
Steph*
AS:
Aleksandr Luka (19)
brown straight hair and blue grey eyes
DS:
James Aidan (15)
black wavy hair and bright blue eyes
AS:
Tristan Evander (15)
blonde wavy hair and amber eyes
DD/DD:
Katie Grace /
Cara Lilly (11)
black straight hair and green eyes / blonde wavy hair and bright blue eyes
AD:
Abigail Mae *
Abi* (10)
brown curly hair and hazel eyes
AD/AS:
Scarlet Rose /
Charlie Ethan (8)
brown straight hair and hazel eyes
DD/DS:
Aurora Neve *
Rory* /
Nathaniel Theo *
Nate* (2)
wavy light brown hair and green eyes / straight black hair and bright blue eyes
Pets
Sheep: Mint,
Rosemary and
StewGoat:
BillyDogs: black Labrador retriever-
Sirius and a white and light brown English springer spaniel- Fluffy
Stephen and Steph’s 10 children and 6 pets
Aleksandr,
James,
Tristan,
Katie,
Cara,
Abi,
Scarlet,
Charlie,
Rory and
NateMint,
Rosemary,
Stew,
Billy,
Sirius and Fluffy
This message was edited 4/25/2011, 6:20 AM