Adventure is out there!!

Mummy and Baby adventure day!!

21.01.2014
Today was soo much fun!! Kelvin works everyday from home, so it is really hard for me and baby K to keep quiet and not disturb him, we try to go out to places and most days we do but sometimes I am particularly lazy and dont want to do anything, which consequently makes it really difficult for Kelvin to work. Today wasnt one of those days!
Baby K woke us up at 9, we got ready and left the house for 10.30am, world record!! We went to get some petrol then played in the car for a lil bit, whilst I put my make-up on, baby K played with my brushes and played with the steering wheel, he loves to drive (and eat my make-up). Then we set off to Pavillions shopping centre, first we looked round a few shops then we got hungry so decided to get some pancakes, Superquinns own 5 for €2 amazing!! (On pancake day last year Superquinn were making these pancakes all day, just hot off the hotplate and they were actually amazing, I tried all year to find a good recipe like them, they do sell the mix but you need a hot plate for sure!) We found some benches and ate some pancakes together, baby K was soo excited to be near the benches, he was walking around them, kissing them, screaming into them and crawling under them, he was soo funny and crazy.
After our pancakes we headed into "Easons" its just a book shop but a really good one (also really expensive) they have a little kiddies reading nook which i think is sooo cute! It reminded me of Matilda when she is in the library all day just reading books, I hope when we have our own house we can have a reading nook, books are much better than TV and baby K already loves them. We sat on the couch there and read through 3 books, 1 was a pop up book about Spot the dog, which I used to LOVE when I was younger ... "Spot, Spot a loveable Spot he's soft and cuddly and he smiles a lot" but baby Kelvin didnt really like that book, the puppet was huge so i think he was scared of it. We then moved onto Peppa Pig books, I dont think its a girly programme im not sure, but all children seem to love it, I must admit I do think its pretty good actually, I love Peppa's baby brother George he's soo cute, we read about how much Peppa loves Mummy and about Fire Engines, baby K loved the fire engine book! Hmm maybe I should look into taking us for a fire station tour, I wonder if they do that here?!
After story time Kelvin started to get a little cranky, he was tired, but I tried to keep him awake as the whole reason we came to the shopping centre was to check out the new Pirates village that has just opened, baby Kelvin loves play area's so we were really excited for this one it looks great on the website. We arrived at the door, and it smelt like gone off wet clothes, and was absolutely freezing, we took a step inside and all that was in there were huge blow up bouncy slides, they might have been fun but not for a baby, the toddler area had a huge slide like 3 times the height of my moms house, and the gate had a sign saying maximum height and the arrow was about the same height as me! There was hardly anyone in there and it just looked awful, there were no pirates, no music and not really much colour, I definitely wouldn't recommend it to anyone, so we turned back and went for a wee walk outside (mainly because the lift had broke so there is no other way to get back to the shopping centre) and back to the car. Kelvin had a little feed, I reversed the car and he was completely asleep, lil cutie!! I was disappointed about pirates village so I was thinking if where we could go instead, I wanted to keep out of the house for a while so Kelvin could work properly without us distracting him, I decided we'd go to fun galaxy instead! Baby kelvin actually LOVES this place! It's a big play area, lovely and warm, friendly staff and lots to do there. Last time we came it was very busy so we stuck to the toddler area, in the big area there was a huge slide and lots of climbing stuff but there was a sign saying no adults so I didn't take baby Kelvin up, however this time I asked the staff if I was able to and they said its fine, Yeyyy! We went down the slide loads and kept climbing everywhere, then played in the ball pool and with the bike and blocks we were there for 2 hours! I always loved play area's when I was younger and I was excited to take baby K to them, but I didn't think we had any here, then I found Fun Galaxy, I love it! 

 Baby Kelvin's favourite thing to do is just sit in the ball pool and chew all the balls haha

 Little cute face!

 Just woken up ready to play!

 This picture cracks me up, he looks like such a little creeper, funny boy!

I'm trying to organise mine and Kelvin's week so we are out of the house lots and not doing the same thing, I made a list of fun activities for us, Thursday is going to be Messy play day because this is the day Kelvin goes to Belfast, so he can't tell us off hehehe! Tuesday is going to be our play areas at, Wednesday is going to be our trip out day, and Friday is our shopping day. Here is my activity idea's list...

• Fun Galaxy play area
• Newbridge park
• New bridge farm
• Feed the ducks
• Visit Easons
• Visit the library
• Go for a walk on the beach, collect shells
• Mummy and baby group (Monday mornings)
• Train ride to Howth
• Pavilions train ride
• Museum
• Imaginate (children's museum)
• Swimming
• Cardboard trains
• Baking
• Visit aquarium
• Messy play: Painting
• Edible paints made from cornflour and angel delight
• Collages
• Potatoe printing
• Colourful spaghetti
• Playing with jelly
• Colourful bath
• Stick foam shapes on window (I saw people used sticky clear paper but I'm not sure where to get that)
• Fill egg shells with bits of material
• Playing with bubbles
• Make crawling tunnel out of a cardboard box and material scraps

I'm super  excited to start out messy play, I don't want to put Kelvin into nursery I really don't feel comfortable about them so I'm trying to teach him lots at home, he is already very clever and I think and hope he will learn lots more from our messy play days. Oh here is the website I got a few activity ideas from  theimaginationtree.com

"There is a strong connection between getting up in the world and getting up in the morning"

2014...
Well its been 2014 for 10 days now, and I haven't wrote a single blog, what the heck!! I will write a Christmas blog one day soon, but for now I'll just say it was a great one, lots and lots of family time and happiness I loved it!

10/01/2014 (Happy Birthday Mattythefattyboombatty)

Wake up its a beautiful day!

This week has been a huge mix of emotions. I am generally a very very unorganised person, I have visions where I think I'm organised but I really struggle to stick to times and to actually organise things, it is one of my dreams to be organised as everything would be so much better and easier if I were. I used to always be late for everything, I even got a certificate in college for "Never being on time" at that time it was funny but today I was thinking about it, I used to disrupt my class everyday walking in late, I nearly made my teacher look bad in one of her assessments  I always used to forget things and was just so hectic and it eventually made me bored and unhappy, when I absolutely LOVED my course. As I mentioned in a post before I got distinctions in everything, I was even personally recruited to go and work on a cruise ship as a beauty therapist there, and any job I applied for at high class spa's I got, but at the end of the year the only award I got was for being late, when I know I could have got student of the year or any of the top awards, sometimes I do really frustrate myself. Anyway, this year I made a goal to get up at 8am, I LOVE my sleep so much and very very rarely would ever wake up at 8am, I mean throughout my whole life I would sleep in till the very last minute, usually past 8 when school starts at 9am and once again teachers would be on my back, I would forget everything, I wouldnt have time to look nice etc, but I never learned! When I got married I still slept in all the time, for absolutely no reason, I was just completely lazy. Now I have baby Kelvin, and I hardly get any sleep so I sleep for as long as I can, sometimes I would get up at 10 and sometimes later, baby Kelvin wakes up most hours in the night so I am constantly interrupted and he lately got into the habit of sleeping across my chest or cuddling up to me, I obviously love that, I love cuddling my little Prince all night but after 8 months I decided its a little bit much, I need to get baby Kelvin into a routine and sort myself out. So after 7 days still I hadnt been getting up, still I would mope around the house and feel awful about myself, didnt really get dressed didnt really do anything then go back to sleep. Kelvin always tries to encourage me, but I can be quite stubborn and I would just think you dont understand your not up all night and I would often get upset or angry at Kelvin trying to help me. Then on Tuesday evening we took a trip to Ikea, we got baby Kelvin a high chair and a new cot, we took one side off the cot and pushed it right up against our bed, our bed now looks like a queen size yeyy. (Might I also add how much we LOVE Ikea  there are sooo many bargains and it makes us feel really motivated to have a nice house.) So that night I fed baby Kelvin (still breast feeding) and then placed him into his bed, and any time he woke up in the night I just rolled over fed or comforted him and rolled back to my area of bed. It was amazing!! He still woke up like normal but I actually slept, I slept on my front, actually got to hug Kelvin in the night and could spread out as much as possible, the next day I woke up at around 8.30am with Kelvin. I had a shower with baby Kelvin, got us both dressed, did my make-up, blow dried my hair, fed baby Kelvin, actually had breakfast myself, cleaned the dishes, made the bed, did some laundry and made soup all before 12.00pm, It was such a great morning! I felt sooo accomplished and actually really happy. Baby Kelvin then had a sleep for over 1 hour ahhh, he usually only sleeps for 20mins, and again he slept in his cot not on my knee, after he woke up we went for a walk to the shop which I havent done for weeks then I was able to make dinner and just relax. It was sooo amazing how just waking up early made such a difference. I did the same the next day, Baby Kelvin didnt sleep as well on Wednesday night so I was super tired the next day, but I had to take Kelvin to the airport for work so I had to be up at 7.30 anyway, so I woke up, and the baby did too, we came home and had a little nap as we were both really tired but then we did all the things we needed to and had another successful day, I even made a pie, with home made crust, although for some reason that did take 3 hours! :/ Now its Friday I woke at at 8.30 today and me and Kelvin were able to have a lovely snuggle session before he worked, normally I am complaining about waking up and being so tired (at 10am) so Kelvin just goes straight to work. It can sometimes be very hard trying to split myself between the baby and Kelvin, I love both of them sooo much and want to spend all my time with both of them, but obviously baby Kelvin has more needs so Kelvin I guess I sometimes push aside, I definitely do when I wake up late anyway because Im just moody. I hope he knows how much I really do love and appreciate him, he is an amazing husband so thoughtful and caring and he is a great Daddy, I am very blessed to have married such a perfect man! Anywho back to Friday, I got up had my shower, did my make-up blah blah blah and was actually rushing Kelvin along to give me his card so I could go out, today we were heading out shopping at 11.50 rather than 3pm, I looked nice, felt great and baby Kelvin was happy. He slept for an hour before we headed in, so I was able to read some of my Sheri Dew book "Women and the Priesthood" its a great book, I got it for Christmas but have hardly been able to look at it. I have a few favourite quotes so I will share them, i just need to remember to keep a notepad with me so I can write them down! I realised whilst reading my book that the only reason I havent read my book before is because I woke up late, I dont have time to do anything because Im rushing about, usually while baby Kelvin sleeps in the car I sit there and rush doing my make-up as quiet as possible before he wakes up, and when I say make-up I mean like bronzer and mascara, this week I've been able to have an eyeliner flick everyday and actually wear my nice usual make-up. I am just feeling so accomplished and so of worth, I think I might have already said that, oh well! It is just soo amazing being organised and having a plan and structure, oh might I also add, today baby Kelvin had almost a full fruit pot, lots of water, a few rice cakes, some baby food in a pouch and just before bed ate 2 bowls of Liga and milk (5 biscuits)  without even complaining once, even opening his mouth for them! Baby Kelvin is 8 months and I just couldn't understand why he didnt want food, I have been trying to give him structure this week and it has helped sooo much, I really needed it too, as before I was just feeding all day everyday and it can sometimes make me feel weak. From Wednesday onwards this has really been a fabulous week and I feel amazing!! I really hope I can keep it up. P.s I have also developed a habbit of praying on my knees. Sometimes I really struggle to pray, not because I dont believe in God, because I do, but I just feel a bit weird praying sometimes, but for some reason, being on my knees helps soo much! It could be because I am just focussed on praying, nothing is distracting me, Im not half asleep and Im not rushing but It has been great to actually pray and to always feel like my prayers are being heard, again hopefully I can keep this up. Oh I just remembered I was watching a video in Primary on Sunday and it was the Mormon message "I am a child of God" and I thought of baby Kelvin the whole time whilst watching it. I then came home and read over our song to learn this year "The family is of God" its such a cute song, I love it already, part of the words read..."A mother’s purpose is to care, prepare,To nurture and to strengthen all her children.
She teaches children to obey, to pray,
To love and serve in the family"
 the words "teaches children to pray" really stuck out to me and I realised that the only way baby Kelvin will ever pray is if I teach him, the words "I see my mother kneeling with our family each day" from Love is spoken here, entered my mind and I thought I need to kneel! In the video a parent is sat with their child praying, kneeling against the bed, for me that is what my role is as a Mother, to teach my perfect little angels (okay crying here ahhh) how important the Gospel is, and that whenever they need help with ANYTHING in life they just need to pray and speak to Heavenly Father because he is always there for them, just like I will always be, but sometimes he can help them more than I can.

Sister Act

This week has been a fun, busy, crazy week full of laughter, tears, shopping and weird sister stuff! I know a lot of people say it, but my sisters truly are my bestest friends (apart from Kelvin and baby Kelvin). We have always gotten on really well, when we lived at home we would always have sleep overs in each others rooms, chat to each other all night, take weird pictures, do silly dances, make cringey video's and do all sorts of best friend stuff. 

My sister Melissa has been married for 2 years, she is just 20 months younger than me so we were always very close, when she got married, I cried myself to sleep most nights because I missed her soo much. It was so crazy her not being in the house any more, I mean she did used to argue with everyone so it was crazy the house being so quiet, but it was just crazy someone being missing from our family. We are a very close family so it was hard letting our little Wissy go. She married such a great guy though and he instantly became part of our family and we love him like our brother, so its kind of easier with Melissa being married now. Melissa has achieved soo much since being married, she started off working in Matthews family post office and had to learn all sorts of crazy stuff for that and deal with lots of problems and complications, she then moved on to be a carer for people with Autism she has dealt with people having epileptic fits, threatening to commit suicide and just generally struggling with everyday activities. When we were younger we always used to laugh at Melissa, she was such a wimp and scared of everything, if she saw a drunk person or someone fighting she would cry and be soooo scared, so it is just amazing how she has adapted to these huge changes in her life, as well as moving to 2 different cities and being a perfect little housewife, by the time she was 21 she had sewn her own dress, knitted at least 3 scarves, wooley headbands and some cute little wooley animal decorations for her home, she is a very devoted wife and a very spiritual young women she is a great example to me! 

Then there is my tiny little Princess Char. Charlotte has always been the crazy one of the family, she was always wild growing up, I don't mean wild as in rebellious I mean wild like a cave girl! I once went into the kitchen and found her setting fire to her school tie on the cooker, she would constantly be upside down in the living room doing handstands and going crazy all the time. Its really strange for myself and Melissa to accept that she is now 17 and doesn't like wearing boy clothes, actually wears make-up and isn't as crazy as she was before, although she still is pretty crazy. Her just as crazy head boyfriend went on a mission in April 2013 to Ogden Utah, they have been dating for nearly 2 years now. Its so nice to see how much they are both changing. Charlotte is trying her hardest to be a missionary girlfriend but she has also changed completely in herself and grown into such a spiritual young women. She dedicates most of her time to reading the scriptures, reading and studying talks, watching uplifting video's and studying many different aspects of the Gospel. She's a great example to all her friends and to my 2 little brothers who always look to her for help with church stuff and she encourages them in anyway that she can. She really is a beautiful young women inside and out!

I am soo proud of the beautiful people both my sisters are, and so very very blessed to have them as my sisters.

Just a few things we did this week...

1. Took the girls out to Howth, which is where our favourite chippy is... the only one in the whole of Dublin that sells mushy peas love you Beshoffs
2. Went Christmas shopping in our gorgeous shopping centre Dundrum. Living my whole life near the Trafford Centre it was really hard coming over and only having very tiny versions of this, they are still great but nothing like Trafford... then we found Dundrum! All my fave shops are there, and it looks beaut at Christmas time. We found a gorge Yankee Candle shop which im literally obsessed with. Im saving up to get a porcelin ginger bread house to put candles in next year, sooo cute! We also took a lil trip to Hamleys. It was great fun in there, i think we were inside for about 1 hour. Baby Kelvin loved all the teddies and toys, we let him play in the ball pool there and he loved it, which is great as i was planning on getting him one for Christmas. It was a great trip. Oh, except whilst Christmas shopping, i bought myself a snood/ scarve which was sooo soft and cute, it was €10 and I loved it. Whilst paying for some other items, my hands were full of bags so i put them all down then picked them up when we left. We got to the car and i realised my scarf bag was missing, somebody actually stole my shopping bag!! I was sooo upset, I cant believe people can be so heartless around Christmas time, but oh well I guess some people are just bad no matter what time of year it is.
3. On Friday we did my normal food shopping, then went with Kelvin to teach seminary. Us girls and baby Kelvin waited in the car whilst the baby slept, then went in to the church and had a singing session on the Primary piano it was great fun. That is something i really miss about living at home, the piano and singing with my sisters. We love to sing, we arent really good but we just love it. Hopefully one day I will have a big music round with a grand piano for all the family to stand around and sing songs together. After seminary we went to Nando's our fave reasutrant!! Mmmmmmm
4. Saturday was our ward Christmas party. I was very excited to bring my sisters and introduce them to the ward members. I really love my ward and want my sisters to see just how great it is. Before the party we had a little devotional which was lovely, Kelvin and I had to read a poem between us which I really liked.

There’s Christmas in the home and church,

There’s Christmas in the mart;

But you’ll not know what Christmas is

Unless it’s in your heart.

The bells may call across the snow,

And carols search the air;

But, oh, the heart will miss the thrill

Unless it’s Christmas there.

I had a great week with my sisters, even though we didnt get to do everything that we planned it was still lovely to have them with me, even just chilling in the house. It was very hard saying bye to them, as I wont be home in England for Christmas this year, hope they come again soon!! x