Very Late...

Now I know it is fast approaching the end of the first month in 2009 and I haven't blogged since Christmas Eve - so please forgive me - but I just wanted to say Happy New Year to everyone.
We had a fabulous Christmas and really enjoyed the opportunity to meet Ria, our neice,(Amy was thrilled at having a real, live baby to poke at) and of course spending long overdue time with Jen & Ben. To be honest it felt like they had never been away and the girls were thrilled to have them around. Of course their arrival also meant their deaprture last week and although the parting was hard it was nothing like the roller-coaster of emotions we all experienced last year.
Luckily for Jen, she is returning to NZ summer whilst we battle with the wind and rain that is winter oh and our summer too if the previous years are anything to go by!!

The tooth fairy paid her 2nd visit just last night and there was much excitment this mornng when Lauren opened a little envelope with her name written on it with sparkly stickles glitter glue. *note to self* be more careful about the sparkly glue, Lauren quizzed me this morning, "that's a bit like your glitter glue, isn't it mummy?"

On the scrapping front I also completed a long overdue (a year to be exact) page about Amy finally getting on her feet last winter. A very simple page but I think I like it!



That's all for now folks, hopefully it won't be another month before I am back!

Almost Christmas

Christmas is almost upon us, the presents are wrapped, festive eats are in the cupboard and the girls are full of excitement and anticipation! That just leaves me with the house to clean, the turkey to cook, the table to set... and of course leave Santa and Rudolph their Christmas treats.
As it is the festive season, I decided to update my blog banner - hope you like it?
Now I know that this is probably not the best time of year to think about re-introducing my youngest to the potty, but at the beginning of the week we did and so far it has been pretty successful; the delight on her face when she succeeds and the "Hip, hip hooray" that we are all have to cheer makes for quite a comical scene!

While I was taking Lauren to school a couple of weeks ago I happened to glance out of the window and was struck by the sheer beauty of the sky I saw before me. A magnificent colour of red and orange, now I know what they say about a red sky in the morning, but for me this was a reminder of all things bright and beautiful. For those of you who missed it:



This Christmas will be a special one as Jen & Ben arrived home at the week-end. The girls have loved spending time with them already and to be honest, it is as if she has never been away. I can't help but feel a little bit of sadness as our family is re-united as this will be the first Christmas without my Papa, but I know that he would not want us to feel like this and so we will concentrate on enjoying this opportunity to get together.

Just last week, Roy surprised me by telling me that he had changed my car. What is unusual about this? 1. He never does anything on impulse and 2. he would never dare to change my car without consulting me first. I can't complain though as I have now left the days of driving a bus behind and am now seeing the world from a different level driving a 1 series BMW. It is fab to drive but Amy is most confused and is adamant that it "is not Mummy's tar, is Daddy's tar."



And now, I must go and work some magic on this rather untidy house. I would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and peaceful New Year. Hope Santa is good!

That long ?......

....since I last blogged? I realise that you aren't sitting waiting on a long overdue blog update but I thought I'd better show my face before the Christmas festivities begin and 2009 is here! What have I been up to?

:: Enjoying a lovely day trip to Glasgow - no children allowed!

:: Having a rather unfortunate meeting with the pavement outside school!! Yes really, I won't go into details or the embarrassment I felt but suffice to say that I seemed to come away slightly worse off!!

:: Getting some much needed decorating done in the house along with the pre-Christmas tidying and sorting that this time of year brings.

:: Putting up the Christmas trees with the help of my very own assistant, in the form of Lauren and being loudly accompanied by Amy on the piano as we put up the trees, thrashing out her own version of "Dinkle, Dinkle, little dar" Someday I will get round to photographing Christmas!

:: Finishing the last of the Christmas shopping - yeah!!

:: Realising that Lauren is growing up - she lost her first tooth at the weekend and although she was near giddy with excitement at the prospect of a night-time visit by the tooth fairy, I on the other hand had mixed emotions only a mummy can understand.



Today, Lauren brought home a picture she had drawn in school. I know I am a little biased but it is one of the best drawings I have seen - I am continually amazed as to her increasing ability and I have decided to frame the picture as a little reminder.



:: Amy has become a real chatterbox, sometimes it doesn't make a lot of sense, particularly when she is really animated about something, but on the whole we are getting the message, loud and clear! The other day I had her in Bangor and she announced to all "I don't like shopping, I want to go home now" Clearly she hasn't realised that shopping is a girl thing!



...and finally, Jen & Ben are returning in about 10 days time, I can't wait to see them and hear all. They leave NZ next week and I trust that they will have a safe journey.

Lost in space...

Just a quick post to prove to all that I am still around despite my absence in the blogging world.
Mum and Dad are on their way back home, we are looking forward to seeing them, hearing their stories and no doubt viewing the many pictures that will have been taken (knowing Dad a DVD slideshow, complete with music and captions will have to be made and an "offical" viewing of it)!!

Lauren and I made our first school project for the Yr1 space theme. Having trawled the web for ideas we decided to make a planet, complete with sparkly cosmic rings!!



I hosted my first Virgin Vie party last night and as a result of the evenings sales and 30% comission during the month of November I managed to bag £90 of goodies for myself!!

And with that I'm off, serious relaxing and TV watching to be done. Have a good week-end!

Magical Moments!

We arrived back from Disney a week ago, having had a fabulous but very cold time. The girls loved every second of it and I didn't need to worry about Amy being afraid of the characters, she was right in the thick of it and most importantly, got to meet her favourite character...Minnie Mouse.
The little autograph books I made with my cricut proved to be a big hit with Lauren, Sarah and the characters themselves, we even succeeeded in getting all but one of the autographs. I left a blank space on each of the pages so that we could add a photo of Lauren with each character.

I decided when we came back that we would try potty training Amy, howvever her declaration that " I like nappy the best" and the onset of a tummy bug meant that we have had to forget that idea for a little while longer.

Tango is going home tomorrow after his final check-up with the vet. Mum, you will be pleased to hear that he has been a very well behaved house guest, eating up his dinner and has had lots of hugs and kisses from Amy (not sure how keen he is on these).

I'll leave you with a little slideshow of our trip to Disney. (There is some Disney music - if you want to listen)!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We've been Tango'd

Mum and Dad left for NZ on Sunday and arrived safely after several long flights. I have been left in charge of their "feline children" which due to a rather unfortunate run in with a car and subsequent broken leg has meant that Tango is currently lodging with us. He is currently on cage rest and thankfully my cats haven't realised he is secretly hiding in the dining room...having said that they do look somewhat puzzled when they hear him miaow...loudly! Just so Mum knows that he is still alive and well, here is a photo of him, complete with a very attractive purple lampshade collar!



Half-term is nearly upon us and we are off to Disneyland Paris with friends! The girls are very excited, Amy loves Minnie and Mickey Mouse and Lauren is very much a Disney Princess. We have booked tea with Mickey and the Princesses and I am dying to see Amy's reaction to the oversized characters instead of the cuddly toys on her bed.
I am busy making some simple autograph books for Lauren and her friend, nothing like a bit of pressure to get the job done.

And finally, the ballerina with her cup, I was so proud of her last Saturday when she was presented with it, she also got a gorgeous teddy bear which naturally she was more impressed with.

Brown paper packages tied up with string.....

these are a few of my favourite things...well not quite brown paper but a brown cardboard box packed with lots of lovely scrapping goodies from the US was delivered a few days ago - unfortunately I had a small customs charge to pay and of course Royal Mail to pay for the privilege of delivering it to me! I certainly wasn't disappointed with the contents, but now, as I am sure other scrappers will understand I don't want to use my lovely new stash that I waited 3 weeks for - were is the logic in that?





I decided to use some of the clear stamps that I bought to create a page of Lauren's first day at school. I didn't get the stamping quite right but I am pleased with the simplicity of the page. I think I have finally "found" my scrapping style; simple layouts, straight lines and little patterned paper scraps.



Lauren's swimming lessons are still going well however Amy is most put out that she isn't going swimming too. I decided to take her a week or so ago , which she loved but it all ended rather abruptly when she cut her cornea (ouch!) by throwing her swim ring up in the air and it somehow managed to scrape her eye! We made an impromptu visit to the optician who examined it under a microscope, confirmed the cut and prescribed some antibiotic eye drops!! Thankfully there is no lasting damage and her eye has completely healed.

The first of the school birthday parties was held the other day and teh kids could wear fancy dress - I usually groan at the thought of fancy dress but decided to meet the challenge head on....and so Lauren was...Tinkerbell, complete with glittering make up and hair, which by the time she had twirled and danced round our house found itself on to our carpet, floors, chairs etc.







Finally, a proud mummy moment! - I left Lauren to ballet this morning and was informed by her teacher that she had won the "most promising pre-school award" for her ballet last year. She has to attend a small presentation next week and get her photo taken. I have no recent ballet photos but here is one of the prima ballerina last year.



Have a good week!