So long January!

I'm back!! Finally! Danny dropped my phone accidently into the dog's water bowl and ruined it. 10 days...10 days!!! I've been waiting for the insurance and the repairers and blah blah 10 days!! It's been hard! How I've missed Spotify! Anyways I'm back and all is well again!
So what's been happening?  Well, it was Connor's third birthday on the 19th. It's always quite hard to find things to do with it being January and freezing.  But he chose to go to pirate Petes play area and had an awesome time running about like a loon whilst me and Craig frantically visited three different Argos' to finally get a Blaze monster truck! He loved all his presents... Loads of cars, dinosaur, gruffalo, planes, trucks and hulk stuff. This was pretty cool. Craig and I got it for him to carry his cars cars about in rather than a back pack.. he seemed pretty happy!

We went to high altitude in Norwich again. The boys love it there. Just a place to burn off a load of their energy by bouncing about, jumping onto a big red pillow and throwing basket balls! It is great fun, but a tad expensive. But hey. You only turn three once!!

Craig starts working nights for three months next week so we graciously accepted the chance to escape for a bit together when my lovely mother in law (almost!) offered to watch the boys last Saturday.  It almost feels naughty having a few hours kid free wondering around Norwich as if we were a young couple without two little hooligans! We wondered around shops (with the kids in mind of course)  After actually having the chance to look at everything in the Disney shop without having to worry about the boys seeing and wanting something Craig Is now totally desperate to get the boys into star wars because he wants a remote control BB8.. Oh dear!  We had lunch out... And ate it whilst it was still hot and didn't have to share!!

 We visited Lush..  Which is a shop I always used to love and spend a fortune in. Before the kids....I always thought I'd love to work in there, making soaps and smelling amazing and being covered in glitter is just so perfect! After seeing my clear excitement over soaps and bath bombs Craig treated me to a few and we, of course, brought the boys a few too. We got them a really cute little blue robot bath bomb. I thought of Connor especially because he loves pretending to be a robot, but he actually got really cross with me for making his robot melt in the bath and refused to get into the bath. Oh dear. 

Danny loved his, a shea butter and something or other one. He smelt like a little baby again for a few hours at least!  I got the glitteriest one I could find! The Sunny side bubble bar. It smelt totally  divine and I was really excited to get into a bath of glitter! I was so hoping I would get out all shiney and have glitter in my hair!  It didn't but it smelt sooo good!

I also brought a non child book. I've never brought anything like this before, but just felt drawn to it.. And at only £2 I thought it was worth a look!  Mindfulness plain and simple a guide to inner peace by Oli Doyle. It's actually really interesting! It's all about retraining the mind into a different, calmer way of thinking. By not giving into your thoughts and ideas, just living in the moment and being peaceful, not worrying about things that have or haven't happened yet. I'm about half way in and think it's pretty awesome so far.

We snuggled up together and watched harry Potter and the chamber of secrets the next day to combat my mummy guilt for spending a few hours away from the monkeys!!  I love that they enjoy Harry Potter so much. Dobby is now Danny's favourite character, Connor loves fluffy the three headed dog!  On Craig's last day off we bundled nanny into the car and we went to the now Stick man trail  at high lodge in Thetford. The boys love it there, following the little character signs. Plus they can run and climb, jump in puddles, squelch in mud and collect sticks! All the little 'hidden' play areas and musical instruments are great fun! Hiding in teepees, the wobbly bridge, super high slide and the gruffalo are always highlights too. Oh and there's a gruffalo child statue now too!

In regards to resolutions...My diet has pretty much crashed and burned but I'm hoping to get back into it in the coming weeks! Exciting times lay ahead!!

Until next week!! Into February we go!

Thanks for visiting! XxxX

Love is lovely, so let it grow, let it grow

Evening!
So I'll try get this one in before the week is up! Into week 2 and still going strong with the resolutions!  Whoop whoop! Still eating well,  2.5lbs down this week. Which isn't as amazing as my first week....but not a gain so all good! Not doing anything faddy, just counting calories and making better choices! (and making sure I have enough left for a cheeky glass of wine..  Or two!)

A brilliant, amazing and super creative friend of mine over at the The salted tail(who was also the inspiration for me to start a blog) recently wrote about something that caught my eye. Here's the  link!
In a nutshell you sign up for a five day 'course' -5 days 5 emails that encourage you to find a word for the year. A mantra, something to refer to, focus on. You complete the small tasks each day and decide on a word by day 5. It was something she has done for a few years and I thought I'd give it a go too.
The first day was a guided visualisation about your perfect day, which I loved as I really am trying hard to improve my mental focus. I'd love to be able to meditate properly, or even just to turn my mind off from the constant I need to do this, I've forgotten that, oh what will so and so think for a while. One of the things I wanted to improve on this year was finding myself a little more, and I'm hoping things like this will help me. But more about meditating another day! I mean It has to be worth it...look at this guys face!!

In the end I chose the word Grow. Now, I don't mean I'm going to go full hippy and grow my arm pit hair down to my knees and only eat produce grown in the organic fields of wild fairies, powered by pixie poop. No, I mean grow in so many ways.

This is such a cute quote, and after writing pixie poop, I can't resist popping it in!


This year marks Connor's third birthday next week (!!) So he will officially graduate from baby class and into a fully fledged little big boy! He will be starting nursery in April (!!!??) Which will be both an exciting and terrifying thing for me. Connor and I have gone through so much (loosing his twin, complications and being induced 10 days early, his very quick and surprising birth, being a teeny tiny 6.1lbs when he was born, a massive high temp at 2 weeks old that even the out of hours doc had no idea about, knocking out his front teeth, being put out at hospital to remove a piece of plastic he had shoved up his nose plus much more!! I really find it hard to let go off him! I'm sure he will thrive and be brilliant...just have to let him GROW up!...  See where this is going!?

Saying that.. Him and Danny going to nursery together will open up, for the first time in just over four years, free time for me. Time for me to fill with something useful. A part time job? Helping and visiting family more?  Or voluntary work? Something I hope that makes my relationship with others to GROW and to bring new things into my life, to help me as a person to GROW.. Haha this is getting old very quickly!

Danny will start school in September too. Again, this is exciting and terrifying!  He totally loves nursery and everything about it! He's made some lovely friends and is even doing so well with his letters and writing his key worker is going to be sending him home with some little handwriting sheets!  How cute! Major proud mum alert sorry!

Craig's job role is changing and he is really looking forward to the new challenges ahead. He is so wasted in his current role, I can't wait for him to be happy in his job again. His new working hours and pay will also open up more opportunities to us too. Which is exciting, it feels like things are pulling together finally..

We still desperatly want our family to grow by one more. However that happens, it will, and I hope by this time next year we will have this, or at least be very close to it!

So yeah. Grow seems to work very well for me, I'd love for existing (and new)  friendships and family relationships to grow and bloom. To learn, listen to, and to do something new. To make life happy and exciting again. To really move on and grow from the experiences of the last year or so, to become a better more peaceful person.


So thank you and goodnight!  I hope the current weather (fooking freezing and crappy half snowing/rain/ so cold it makes your ears burn /rubbish) turns on its heal and we get some sun again!


Whoops..  Looks like my yankee collection as GROWN today too! Haha!

Thanks for visiting XxxxX

Everything new and sparkly!

Morning peeps!
So, one of my resolutions was to write on here a bit more. With the aim for once a week so thought I should really get one in now, albeit a bit late...but what's new!
I actually stuggle to think of things to write about anything interesting. As well, days blur together and bang week gone! Well, carrying on with my resolutions, I have been very good with my eating. Which is even more impressive for me as the cupboards are still over flowing with the remainants of Christmas!  Cakes, sweets,  chocolates, biscuits, mince pies and booze! Sooo much booze!! I have surprised myself though. I've actually eaten three meals a day and lots of fruit and veg, cut out bread and sugary stuff (almost)  and started using sweetners in my coffee (I can't give up coffee yet!!) I've been walking Alfie further (he needs to loose a few pounds too!!)

Isnt he gross haha!

I've been doing lots of home exercises squats, lunges, planks etc. I really need to strengthen myself up a bit and make the most of my big butt. Big is great... Wobbly is not!!  I've lost 7lbs in a week. So going well. Long way to go yet, but a flying start anyways!  I'm not planning on loosing loads and loads as it's not sustainable and not how I want to look! Heres some of my body inspiration pics.

Quite a way off yet... But something to aim for!

I love swimming so I may try get to a pool a few times a week or maybe some classes. I'm the most uncoordinated gulumph ever though so maybe not!!
My worst area, being a pair shape, are my thighs and butt so I'm aiming at them and trying to tone them up! I'm finding this impossible though!! How does she get her legs so high!?!

I'm really enjoying this clean slate,  new start and positive changes way of thinking. It's lovely to feel as though I've truly left last year and everything else in the past and everything in front of me is new shiney and exciting! Refreshing infact. Speaking of new, I got some vouchers for Christmas and treated myself to a new coat and boots! I adore the boots (even if my best friend reckons I look like I've borrowed them from Edward Scissorhands!) I was a bit dubious about the colour of the coat..but so far so good. I do feel a little like a marshmallow in it but it's a lovely upgrade from my rather dull and boring scruffy green parka!

I'm trying to be much more positive every day. Ushering in those positive vibes an all! I really need to look into this thing I've read about on my friend's blog.  Having a mantra to keep yourself positive. I'm wonderful at getting myself in a mood quickly over nothing. I'm working on that.  It's easy for me to get down about the way I look and with making these changes to my diet and lifestyle I hope these melt away. Who knows maybe this summer I'll be rocking a bikini or some shorts.....Maybe! (ick!)

It's not just a physical thing though I need to change my thinking that actually I am wonderful and beautiful and I should love myself a bit (a lot) more than I do. I've been watching this group on pintrest about blog prompts and writing about yourself. One of the prompts was to write about 5 things that you love about your body and right now I'm finding it so hard to find even three so hopefully later on this year I'll be able to complete that!
In other news I think (touchwood!) We have cracked Connor and no nappies at night this week. He is three in 9 days (!!!) and I really wanted him out of them before then so bit the bullet. It's been a rough week, and lots of wet sheets but progress has been made!! Danny has been back at nursery this week and has been practicing his writing more, he's now learning phonics how did he get old enough to be doing this!?

I brought this book this week too.

It's lovely, my friend recommended it to me and it's really good. It's about a little boy and his grandad who go through a magic door in his loft and sail a boat to an island where he doesn't need his walking stick anymore. They have loads of fun, then Grandad says he thinks he wants to stay there and they say goodbye. Syd sails back alone. The next day he returns to his Grandads home to find he's gone, along with the magic door. But a toucan delivers a postcard of Grandad on the island showing his love for Syd still lives on even if he can't see him. I read this to Danny. He got upset but we spoke about it all and the underlying message of love in the book seemed to strike a chord with him.

I've visited Jacky a few times too, one time she was great the next awful. She asked Connor what he got for Christmas 12 times in jusy over an hour. I do want to keep the visits up as feel I may regret it if I don't, no matter how akward it feels or how difficult it is. I've Skyped my dad this week too, seen friends and made plans with new and old friends for next week. So, so far so good, week and a bit in and I'm still keeping to my resolutions! I'm feeling really positive about 2016 and long may it continue!


Just to add my brand new beautiful little neice was born this week too!! I'm so so happy for her and her partner  and can't wait for a squeeze and to be cool Aunty Grace!!!

Have a good week! Until then!

Thanks for visiting XxxxX