Mummy's little helper!

Here's a picture of Nathan 'helping' with dinner last night! Funny boy! (& yes he was VERY closely supervised!)

Another Little Doggrell!

Well, so much for me posting more often!

Anyway, just thought I'd share the news that we are expecting another little arrival in February 2012! This is the 20 week scan picture so about halfway through already!

I had been given due dates of 2nd, 3rd and 4th of February, then at the scan we were told that from the measurements the due date would be 14th February! But babies arrive when they want to anyway so a couple of weeks isn't going to make much difference I don't think! So looks like me in hospital for my birthday!

I must admit I do have the odd moment of wondering why I'm doing it all again! (especially walking past the labour ward to get to the scan department at the hospital!) But then listening to baby's heartbeat or seeing baby wriggle arond on the screen at the scan I forget all about that! I'm a little nervous thinking about looking after two small children on my own, and sharing my time fairly between them both, but I'm sure we'll all adjust to it soon enough and find something that works! On the whole I'm looking forward to having a little baby again, despite everything, especially now Nathan is very definatly growing into a proper little boy! I'll try an keep you up to date with how things are going when I can!

Fifteens

Since I made these yummy delights for a church tea a while ago I have been inundated with requests for me to make them and for the recipe. I can't take the credit for them really as I found the recipe on the Internet. If I could remember the site I would give it to you, it had lots of great ideas! (I think all I did was type something like 'traybake recipe' in to Google or something like that!)

Anyway, to save me repeating myself and to give you all the opportunity to make these really easy and dangerously yummy treats I have decided to put the recipe on here! Enjoy!

Ingredients;

• 15 large marshmallows
• 15 digestive biscuits, crushed
• 15 glace cherries, halved
• 150ml condensed sweetened milk
• 75g desiccated coconut

Method;

1. Cut the marshmallows in half using scissors and place in a large bowl. Toss with the digestive biscuits and the cherries.
2. Gradually stir in the condensed milk until the mixture becomes a soft, moist dough. It should not be to dry, so you may need to add more condensed milk.
3. Spread a generous layer of coconut out on a clean surface and place the dough on top of it. Use your hands to form the dough into a thick, long sausage, coating well with coconut.
4. Wrap in a double layer of cling film and refridgerate for 2-3 hours.
5. Unwrap the dough, cut into slices and enjoy!

Bank Holiday fun!

Hello again!

We've just had a lovely weekend with my family in Shrewsbury. Thought I might share some photos with you;

Saturday was spent in Llangollen and we had a lovely walk along the canal there. It's a lovely little town, well worth a visit if you're in the area. Another place that is nice to visit (if you're into that sort of thing!) is Stokesay Castle, where we went on the Monday. It calls itself a castle but it's more of a fortified manor house. When we were there they had people there telling you about what life would have been like for the people that lived there when it was in it's prime, which was very interesting, but that was an event put on for the bank holiday and isn't always there. However, if you're interested in old buildings it's still a good little outing and there are some nice views from the top of the tower (especially if you manage to get some good weather!)

Blogging on the go!

I have just brought my first smartphone! And of course I've been browsing for apps. I found one for Blogger so this is my first attempt at a post from my phone! Hopefully it means I'll be able to update more often! This is just a test, so I'll be off now and hopefully in touch again soon!

Update

Hello again!

Hope you enjoyed the photos! Nathan is coming up for 18 months now! Six more months and he'll be two! My little baby! He's just growing up so fast! He's really into climbing everything at the moment, his latest conquest being the chairs at the dining table! He loves the new vantage point this gives him and the ability to reach all those things that we put on the table to be out of his reach! (and of course being able to get up on to the table itself now and again!) Always up to mischief and with an ever developing sense of humour there's never a dull moment in our house, which partly explains why I don't have much time for this any more! But I'm loving the stage he's at and now that we've developed a routine that works for us things are much more managable than they seemed this time last year!

I must admit that I really struggled after Nathan was born with the demands of being a wife and a mummy. It wasn't easy to admit to that at the time. For a time everything felt overwhelming and I felt like a failure for not being able to meet up to my own expectations. I looked around me and everyone else seemed to cope, more than cope, excel in motherhood! They all seemed to find it so easy! Looking back I can see now that what I saw could easily have been other peoples good days, their public front, just as that was most likely saw of me. Being a mum is hard work, don't let anyone tell you otherwise! Everyone has bad days!

Anyway, that's enough misery! I am blessed to have a wonderful, loving husband and family who were there and helped me through the worst days. Things are changing everyday and mostly for the better! Every day brings new challenges but life would be boring without them!

Andy's been busy with work and training to become charted hopefully soon so life has been pottering along full of everyday busy-ness! As Nathan gets ever more active and is growing up fast we have started thinking about moving. Our little flat has been great but we are fast growing out of it, it's amazing how much space a small person needs! We aren't really sure where we will end up yet, all possibilities are being explored at the moment! I will keep you updated with news when I know it!

Well, I better go, Nathan will be waking up soon and I have jobs to try and get done before he does! Apologies that this isn't a very interesting post!

Pictures from the last year...

Long time, no blog post!

Ok, so it's been over a year since my last post! oops! Doesn't time fly when you're busy being a mum! What with having Nathan and getting used to all the changes that involves has meant I haven't really had time for the blog. But I think we've got ourselves into a routine that works for us so I've managed to find some time for myself again!

It has been a busy year and not all of it easy but, generally it has been a good one! Since I last posted Nathan has learnt to sit up, crawl, stand up, walk, had his first birthday and has even learnt a few words! It's amazing how much they change in a year! He definitely has developed a sense of humour and it's fascinating watching him playing. He's really good fun to be with and I wouldn't want to be doing anything else! Ok, so there are lots of times when I don't feel so positive about it, like when he is emptying the cupboards (again), or when you feel like the only thing you say these days is 'no'! But he's still learning and I know that you have to set the boundaries now so that he can grow up a happy, confident, independent person. If anyone tells you that one year-old's don't know they're doing something wrong, I can tell you they most definitely do! I've just looked up from the computer to see what he's up to and found him with one of my gels pens, at which point he looks at me and gives me the cutest cheeky grin, knowing that he probably shouldn't have mummy's pens but in the hope that I won't notice if he smiles! Sometimes I wonder why we bothered with all of the lovely toys he's got, when he is just as happy with a pen! (or some other relevant non-toy!)

I'm not going to go into detail about what we did last year, it would take far too long! I will just give a brief overview. There have been many happy events with four weddings of friends and family, including my sister, and several new additions to the extended family, with several of Andy's cousins having babies! We have enjoyed some nice family holidays and helped out on one of the CCIW camps in the summer. Andy continues to be busy at work and has recently decided to go for it and take his final interview in May in the hope of becoming a chartered surveyor. Nathan and I enjoy going to the parent and toddler group (Little Ark) and the Womens Hour at church during the week generally spending time together at home!

Well, I'd better make that it for now, hopefully the next post won't be in a year's time!