Long time, no post

I must apologise for my complete absence for almost a month. *slaps wrist*

So what have we been up to? Pete's been on his football tour to Budapest, we've been away for the weekend to Brighton, the children have all carried on growing and changing, and yes I've taken far too many photographs, as always.











I also had my exam last Wednesday, which was my main reason for staying away from Blogger. I needed to do some serious revision, but I was a good girl and got stuck in for about ten days, on and off. The good news is, it paid off, and the questions were ones I'd revised. Pete took two days off and had Kit sleeping with him, so I could get some decent sleep beforehand, and I wrote copious amounts of notes to refresh my memory in the days leading up to it. The exam was 3 hours long, and I had to answer three questions with an essay type answer. I get my results in August I believe. I was feeling a bit worn out with it all, but now that I'm enjoying a few months off I feel ready to crack on with next year. I'm looking forward to it actually.

Taylor had his football presentation last Friday, which I hate going to as it drags on for hours and hours. I love seeing him get his trophies, but then we have to sit there and clap politely for another two hours. His team are all going to another side next year, which should be fun as the club they were with was pretty badly run.





There is only a few weeks left of the school term and I'm kind of dreading the children being off as we are really short of money. I think it's going to be a case of lots of walks in the country with a picnic this summer. Ryan has actually joined the land of the living as he's banned from the Xbox at the moment, so we currently have a nice, pleasant teenager - scheduled to finish on the 17th July when he gets it back! Isobel is great fun, and talks too much, as always.



Kit is such a sweet, calm little baby. he's a joy to look after. His only downfall is he seems to think that 4am - 6am is party time. He kicks around and whinges and shouts. Swaddling him settles him but he's getting too strong now and kicks himself out of his blankets. I've given him 13 weeks to get his body clock in order by himself and he's not having any of it, so I'm going to have to be tough with him in a few months when he goes in his own room I think. I was hoping that by ignoring him and not playing with or cuddling him, he'd get the hang of it and settle back to sleep, but nothing has changed in three months. Still he's so smiley and happy, I forgive him! When he's awake he likes to be sitting upright taking it all in, chattering to everybody.

Isobel's Party

The party ws a greaat success. I hate children's parties, they are my idea of hell on earth, so for me to enjoy it shows it must've been good fun! The children went straight out into the garden when they arrived and painted their own terracotta pot, then came inside and had their faces painted by me. Those two things took up at least an hour of the party and was a fab idea as they all really enjoyed themslves. We put the food out and they ate and played out in the garden, and stroked the Guinea pigs. They then filled their pots with earth and planted two sunflower seeds each. Then right at the end we had a butterfy pinata filed with confetti and sweeties which they all went nuts for.

Happy Birthday

It was Isobel's 5th birthday yesterday. She isn't having a party until next Tuesday, in the half term, but we had my Mum and uncle over yesterday to see her. It's my birthday tomorrow too!





This was Isobel then...


And a few of her now...

It's been a while

Taylor's football team won their league, so for a treat a few Saturdays ago we took them all to watch Southend United's last game of the season. They had no idea where they were going. They even had a small article in the programme, which was the best bit as it's something he can treasure forever.





I've been very busy trying to complete my course the last few weeks and I'm almost there now. My final essay went in last week, what a relief that was! I just have the final block of coursework, revision, and then the exam on the 17th June in London. I can't wait to get it all over and done with for a few months. I'm probably going to have to hold off on year two until I go back to work anyway, as I can't see the training department signing it off if I'm still on maternity leave. I've been glad to see the back of it recently, but this week I seem to have a renewed vigour for it and want to try and get the whole course done in a few years.

It's Isobel's birthday in a week, and in true mental fashion I've decided to have the party at home and do the entertaining myself. It was going to cost about £200 for her to have it elsewhere, and I'm way too tight to pay that. She's having fifteen friends over and we are painting flowerpots in the garden, which the children will be planting a seed into to take home. I'll make sure I post photos of the finished pots. It should be fun, I hope the kids enjoy it!

I can really see me in Christian at the moment, which is nice as they all end up looking like their Dad eventually. I'm making the most of the family resemblance. When Isobel was little I really though she looked like me...until I met Christian that is! Holy doppelgänger Batman, it's the same baby!

School Holidays

The children go back to school on Monday, and although I love having them home(especially the no early mornings part), this time it can't come soon enough as I'm dangerously behind on my coursework. I'm not entirely sure I'm going to be able to catch up. I think I'll be doing these last few weeks on a wing and a prayer, and trying to blag my way through the exam in June.

We've had an easter egg hunt last weekend, but as the weather has been a bit hit and miss we haven't got out as much as I would've liked.




The boys have been to Portsmouth to stay with Grandma and Grandad, and Ryan has now gone to stay with his Mum for a few days. We picked Taylor up yesterday, and went to a history museum in Basingstoke while we were down there. It was great. They had dressing up clothes, so Isobel picked out some Victorian clothes and wandered around the mock Victorian streets looking the part.



Isobel pretending to be a mannequin;


They had an old fashioned 1930's sweet shop where you had to pay with old pennies(given out at reception). Taylor then pulled this face in every photo as he chose Acid Drops!


I realised yesterday that I didn't have any photos of me with the baby yet...he's only a month old for goodness sake. I'm behind the camera too much, clearly.



Christian still sleeps too much, bless him. All that growing must be hard work. He wakes up every three hours for a feed, all night and all day, but between that he rarely opens his eyes. The crochet blanket in this photo was made by my Nan when I was pregnant with Isobel, and it's one of my favourite things. When I'm feeling ill, or low, I love to snuggle under it as it feels like she's here looking after me. I can feel the hours she spent making it, and her thoughts and excitement about meeting Isobel five years ago are inside the blanket. It's the closest Christian will ever get to her, sadly.


I bought him this mirror toy yesterday with some vouchers given to him as a gift and he loved it, and actually stayed awake for about 10 minutes looking at himself this morning, so we'll get that out more often. All that vanity looking at himself must have been tiring though, as he's now snoozing, again, next to me.

Ready to plant

I finally got out in the garden today. I'm really late to be digging over and adding manure, hopefully not too late, but at least it's done. I've decided to scale back what I'm growing this year as I don't want to take on too much work. I'm sticking with onions, lettuce, rocket, tomatoes, potatoes and strawberries. That's it. I have two varieties of potato and onion ready to go out, so I may try and plant them tomorrow. Here is what it looks like now. I wish I'd taken a before shot, the whole thing was overgrown with Couch Grass.


My rockery and herb garden are still looking a little worse for wear though. Looks a little pathetic, doesn't it?

Proud

This was part of a thread on a forum, but I thought it would make a nice positive blog post too. So, I am proud of my children because...

I'm proud of Ryan for not always bowing to peer pressure, and standing up for what he believes in. It often gets him bullied, or picked on by his friends, but he still refuses to always follow the crowd. He is often stroppy, and messy, and a whiner, but he also doesn't get into much trouble, and keeps himself to himself, and does just enough school work to see him through. What more can you ask from a fifteen year old, really?


I'm proud of Taylor for being such a sensitive, unique, quirky little soul. He really is one in a million, walking his own path through life. He is one of those people that will always be happy, and always be successful, no matter what he chooses to do with his life. His artwork is brilliant, and I love the fact he enjoys it so much just like I do.



I'm proud of Isobel for doing so well at school, she's achieved the targets for the whole year even though she only started two months ago. She's also taken to being a big sister, and no longer being the baby, really well, and loves her baby brother. She is astoundingly beautiful, and doesn't even realise it.





I'm proud of Kit, my snuggly baby son, for making his way safely into the world. It will always amaze me how they are created from such tiny cells, and end up being so full of life and beauty. We've been very blessed to have had four healthy, strong children.

Loved up

I am so in love with my snuggly little boy. He really is the cutest thing ever. He has this aura of comfort(I said this while he was in the womb too), you just want to hold on to him as he is really calming and it sort of envelops you. It's a lovely feeling. He sleeps a lot during the day, so I try hard not to pick him up, but I miss him when he snoozes all the time!

Life here right now is just babies, babies and more babies...not much else going on. We went to Portsmouth to visit Pete's family on Friday, then had my uncle over on Sunday. Pete has gone back to work now, so the mornings are a bit of a nightmare, and I am missing him and a bit bored. Taylor played in the semi-final of the cup on Sunday morning but they didn't get through. Such a shame, but his team are in division 7(going up to 6 next season as they've won the league), and the other three teams fighting it out for the cup are in division 4. They did really well to get that far against the much stronger teams. We have half term coming up, so I'm planning on taking Isobel to the cinema to see Monsters Vs Aliens, and we'll do our annual easter egg hunt at some point too.







I have this huge list of jobs to do(ironing for the week, gardening, write an essay that's a week overdue etc.), and all I want to do is snuggle up with Kit. Oh well, life isn't going to go anywhere, and he won't be this small and endearing forever. I'll forget about the jobs and end up cuddling him again, I'm sure.