Wow where do I begin?

So much has happened since I last blogged here. So here's a quick run through of what I've not blogged about.

Christmas was quiet but fab. We cut down on the amount each of the children got but they loved what they got so they didn't care. 

New Years we went to hubby's parents for a party and left around 1am. The kids had fun playing with their cousin and nibbling on the food laid out for everyone.

Harvey turned 9! It really doesn't seem like it was that long ago that he was this little toddler running around after Cerys. He had tons of Lego as his presents which he loved and I made him a Lego themed birthday cake too. The amount of time it took to make Lego blocks out of icing was ridiculous but they looked great.

I turned 30 and well I don't really see the big deal about it, it's just another year.

We had parent teacher consultations in early March. Cerys is doing ok, Harvey needs to put his hand up more often and is on target, Archie is above average for everything and Jorja is getting there slowly but surely :) All are well behaved, polite, helpful, popular with others and get on with their work

Cerys is going on a class trip for 5 days to a place called Swattenden at the end of May. She's dying to go bless her but it'll be so strange not having her here for so long.

Easter is this weekend and this year our usual egg hunt isn't taking place. The weather isn't the best and it seems everyone has gone nuts buying out anything to do with easter chocolate so we haven't gotten any small eggs to hide. Cerys went to easter egg bingo at the school last week and won one of the top prizes and came home with two carrier bags full of easter eggs!

The kids school held an enterprise week sale on the last day of term. We went around each of the kids class rooms and bought something from each to help their class win. We came home with quite a stash of goodies.

Kellan is now 5 months old. He's dribbling like mad but no sign of teeth yet, is practically there with sitting up and he's done that so fast, literally in a week or 2, he loves being up on his feet and is such a smiley happy little guy.

Cerys got into her second choice of school, Spires Academy. It's currently being rebuilt so when she goes there she'll be using the new building. We think she'll love it there although she's not so keen on wearing a tie and blazer. She has to get a coach from our village to the school and we no longer have to worry about her wandering off in to town as it's too far from town for her to do that which was a downside to her first choice school.

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We've also been doing a lot of baking recently. It's really not good as we seem to be ballooning in size but oh it's just yummy.

Double Chocolate Cupcakes

Chocolate Brownies

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Valentines Day Cake

Whoopie Pies

Chocolate Cake for the Kids

Ginger Cake

Fudge Cake

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I also won a few cloth nappies. We won a prize from Itti Bitti in a photo contest on Facebook. The prize was;

 a set of cloth wipes, 

1 all in one nappy, 

1 snap in one nappy, 

1 wet bag, 

2 tuttos,

1 change mat

Gwen won a nappy from The Nappy Lady on Facebook as her photo was chosen for their timeline cover photo. I chose a Tots Bots Bamboozle size 2 in Pumpkin.

I got an Ella's house Bum Slender to test from Nappy Go Lucky on Facebook. It's a hemp fitted nappy.

I won a nappy from The Clean Green Nappy Machine on Facebook. I chose a Tots Bots Easyfit V2 in Gingerbread.

I won a Ones & Two's nappy from their Facebook page. (pictured on the right)

I won a new Little Lamb one size fits most nappy from their Facebook page.

I won a Bumgenius Freetime from Babe Me's Facebook page after a image hunt on their website.

I won a custom wool soaker in a Facebook cloth nappy group party.

I also won a Gumigem teething necklace from one of the new ranges they've just released after they chose the name suggestion I put forward for one of the designs. The design is now called Zebula.

The Sloomb nappy, Jack, arrived.

I also won a Jane Shilton gift card on Twitter and have ordered myself some lovely boots.

 

 

We also have quite a few new nappies. Fuzzibunz Elite Diaper Talk, Wee Notions Frilly Bum, Blueberry Coverall, Upsy Daisy Camo and a Holden's Landing Medium AI2. I'll do seperate posts for these nappies as reviews.

I think thats about all that I needed to post about so I'm off for a cup of tea while my little man is fast asleep.

Sorry I've Not Been About

I'm so sorry I've not blogged for a while.


Bubs arrived on the 26th October after being in labour for most of the day on and off.


I managed to stay at home until the last minute and gave birth about 40 mins after arriving at the hospital.


Our little Kellan Jacob Elliott arrived at 7:01pm weighing 8 lb 3 oz.


I managed without any pain relief although I was asking for pethidine when I got to the hospital thinking I had ages to go yet.


I'll be back in the swing of blogging soon I promise.

Today is/was Bubs Due Date

So we all know babies very rarely arrive on the due date and I honestly didn't expect Bubs to.


We had some irregular pains and tigthenings yesterday which led to nothing. The mucus plug also came away yesterday but that doesn't mean a lot either when it comes to predicting when labour will happen.


I had a midwife appointment today. Everything is fab with me and Bubs is good too. Bubs is still head down and the tip of the head is in the pelvis but the midwife said baby will still be able to move in and out of the pelvis so it may not mean much.


I'm measuring 42 cms which is strange for me. I've only ever measured ahead with Gwen but at the end was spot on for dates. This time around I seem to be 1-2 cms ahead each week. This doesn't seem to worry the midwives but I have to admit it's worrying me as I've got to push Bubs out and I'm dreading the thought of a big head like Gwen's again.


I go back in a weeks time on November 1st and they can offer me a sweep then if Bubs is engaged otherwise it'll be a case of waiting until induction is booked. Hopefully Bubs will be here by then.


Here's my 40 week belly photo.

39 Weeks Pregnant

Another week has passed us by and draws us ever closer to meeting Bubs.


I've had braxton hicks galore over the last week. Bubs has been pushing down although it hasn't led to the head engaging yet.


I managed 2 school runs today and am now suffering and walking like a cowboy and quite sore on my pubic bone. My belly has dropped and is measuring smaller than last week.


Time has been flying by and hasn't slowed at all. Most people say how much the last few weeks seem to drag but it seems that just as soon as a week starts it's ending. I'm just wondering when Bubs will arrive.


I'm back at the midwife next Tuesday and I'm hoping we don't make that appointment but think I'm hoping just a little too much there.


So here's my 39 week belly photo

I'm measuring at 44 inches

Wow It's Been A While

So what have we been up to since last week.


To be honest not a lot has happened until today.


I entered a competition on a facebook page to design a fitted nappy and give it a name. I designed a cream coloured nappy with red, white and navy cotton thread trim and red and navy snaps and named it Jack as in Union Jack. The facebook page's owner will order a batch of the nappies in my design to sell on her website and I also get a nappy in my design too. I'm not sure when I get the nappy but can't wait to see it and of course will review it when I get the chance to use it. The nappy I won is made by Sloomb

Cerys failed the Kent Test which is to see if she is suitable for grammar schools in our area. We were fully expecting this as she's not at the year 6 level yet in all her subjects. We've now applied for the schools we want her to go to and have a long wait until March 1st to find out which school she has gotten in to.


We ordered a change mat for Bubs last week. We usually buy one of those large rectangular mats with foam around the edges and covered in plastic. We find they pop easily and  then you have foam hanging out of them. I decided that this time I wanted to avoid them and try something smaller. I looked at all the cloth change mats but found they weren't very thick and didn't feel comfortable using them with a newborn. I then came across the Bibetta Roll 'n' Go mat. It's small, plastic but not hard it's soft, very padded, can be rolled up and you can wash it in the washing machine. It arrived today and I love it. I can't wait to use it with Bubs. It'll be nice not having a huge change mat laying around the living room.

I also won a 20% off code for Bububebe nappies on their facebook page. I happened to be online when  Lisa, the owner, was having random giveaways after reaching 2000 fans. We've already bought Bubs a Bububebe nappy so we're going to buy another using the code for Bubs or Gwen for a christmas present.


We bought a new digital camera last week. Whilst at Howlett's our camera decided to play up and have lens error after lens error. So Darren, knowing we'd need a camera soon for Bubs birth, went out and bought a Samsung ES9. We've been using it and it's pretty simple to use and takes fab photo's. I'll have to get Darren to review it for the blog. I think he's just pleased we have a camera that won't cause problems when we need photo's taken of Bubs.

38 Weeks Pregnant

Today I hit the 38 week mark.


I had a check up with the midwife. Everything is fine with me. Not that I ever really have any problems and since my iron levels are great there's not much to worry about.


Baby is doing great. Bubs kicked the midwife off my tummy when she tried to listen to the heartbeat. Bubs was laying with their back on my left side and is still head down.


y belly is measuring at 39 cms so just 1 cm ahead and I' usually spot on so not sure if we have a big Bubs in there or lots of fluid. The midwife did say Bubs is a good size but not sure what her meaning of 'good size' is.


I'm booked in to see the midwife for October 25th, so 2 weeks time, which is my due date. Hopefully Bubs will arrive by then although I won't hold my breath I'm good at going over.


My waist is measuring 45 inches which is equally Gwen's record and I think I've dropped a little compared to my last photo.

I also bought Bubs a new outfit on Saturday. I simply couldn't resist it.

Howlett's Wild Animal Park

Yesterday we made a surprise last minute trip out to Howlett's, which is near Canterbury, Kent.


We arrived at around 11:30am and bought passport tickets which allow us free entry for a year. These cost £39.95 for 2 adults. Gwen got in free as she is under 3. They take your photo and store it on their system so they know who the card belongs to.


We strolled around looking at the variety of monkey's, big cats, rhino's, elephants, deer, red river hogs, ant eater, gorilla's, capybara, bison and lemur's.


Gwen found the monkeys climbing and jumping hilarious. She would try to call them over to them doing the noise you use to catch a cat's attention. She'd tell me to push her closer to the fences so she could see better from her buggy too. She found the gorilla's fascinating and I'm pretty sure she was dying to get in there with them. She could have sat there all day watching them.


We had a rather lovely lunch from the restaurant. I had a cornish pasty, which was gorgeous, hubby, Gwen and my in laws, Tom and Trish, had sausage rolls with chips. 


We then visited the nearby gift shop. Gwen loved all the teddies and we bought her a podling parrot. We found a t shirt for Harvey for christmas with t-rex's on it and 2 little dinosaur skeletons for the boys for their stockings. I loved looking at all the gem stones, fossilized tree slices and the magnetic gem stones. We treated the children to little note pads and zebra pencils.


Trish, my mother in law, had fun with one of the siamese cats that live in the manor at Howlett's. She had it sitting on her lap in the gift shop while we were having a look around.


We found a lot of the animals weren't out in their enclosures or very cleverly hidden out of sight. Which was a little disappointing but that's animals for you.


It was lovely and quiet walking around as there weren't many children in the park as it was a school day.


Here's some photo's from our day out.

Howlett's was a lot of fun. Gwen went last year but screamed most of the way round but she appreciated the animals more this time and loved walking around with us. It's a fab day out as a couple or as a family. It's easy to get to and great exercise and you don't even realise just how far you're walking when you go around the park. The passport tickets are a brilliant idea and well worth investing in. The gift shops are great for little treats for children and adults. I found a beautiful little charm bracelet and charms to clip on it. There's even a little farm shop at the entrance selling lots of yummy goodies, all very mouth watering.

If you live near Canterbury it's definitely a place to visit Howletts