Good News!

Taking a leaf from the lovely Mr. Russell Howard, I have decided that I am going to look at the positives in life and every Monday, I will be featuring a Good News Story on my blog.

You may have already heard of them, you may not, but what a lovely way to start 2011 and the beginning of each week?!

I will strive to banish those Monday morning blues for us all!

If you have any 'Good News Stories' that you would like me to feature, feel free to email, or 'Tweet' me @KezLewis.

The stories can be something you've stumbled upon on the Internet or in the papers, or it can be a very personal event within your family that you may just want announced to the rest of the blogosphere!

The very first piece of good news will be posted on Monday 3rd January 2011, so watch this space!

Here's to a fantabulous, happy, and healthy New Year x

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No. It's, err.. Ruldolf!



Wordless Wednesday.



Turning back Time (Part 2)



My poorly Bailey



Christmas Day, Saturday, 25th December 2010
In photos!



Santa Che





Christmas dinner!




Ashley's 'Brain Freeze' moment!



Ashley and Lauryn with their new media players













Lauryn



Bailey & Che having fun







Turning back Time (Part 1)

Date: Friday 17th December 2010 to Saturday 25th December 2010.

Following a brilliant week at Centre Parcs, our family headed home.
Driving through the beautiful wintery Norfolk scenery, spirits high, and thoughts of the upcoming festivities flooding our thoughts, all was happy and good.

That was, of course, until we walked through our front door.

The 3 year old, who had been fine all day, suddenly showered herself with vast quantities of vomit. This continued though the night and for around the next 12 hours. The 5 year old followed her sisters lead the next day and the baby developed conjunctivitis.

No sooner had this all taken place, when a slow leak in the bathroom near rendered the living room a swimming pool and left a gaping hole in the ceiling.

So the plumber arrived and broke the bath panel, the plasterer arrived and patched up the ceiling and the plumber returned with a new bath panel, in the wrong colour, was here was 2 and a half hours and still managed to mess up a job my 7 year old could have done in ten minutes flat.

In the meantime, while we all had our backs turned, a mega dose of stealth flu, snuck up on the unsuspecting, newly recovered 3 year old and reduced her to a snot dribbling, whingy, knackered, sobbing mess.


With the Christmas tree still firmly lodged between piles of old baby clothes and cringe worthy first music purchases from the '80's, we were still a long way off of Yule Tide flare.

Our planned week of making traditional Christmas decorations for a retro festive look was fast becoming a nightmare.

Luckily, even with a mucus infested toddler, we managed an entire afternoon of paper chain making.
The tree finally went up, only for the lights not to work.

A manic dash to the supermarket at 11pm in the run up to the big day was surprising fraught, and I cursed Drew for not letting me put up the damn tree before our holiday.
Lights purchased, the tree was fully made up for it's first appearance with an audience of four expectant children.

Phew. It passed the test.



Salt dough was next on the agenda. Now I do *not* recommend this to anyone who requires any kind of sanity in the few days prior to the 25th. Seriously, this stuff takes a long time to dry, even in the oven, do not leave it to the last minute!

Paper snowflakes were made while all of the Salt dough spent the best part of 24hours in the oven drying out.









Then our family Christmas tree was constructed.
Using coloured in cut outs of all 6 family members hands, the tree was erected and beautifully displayed for all to see. (This being a personal favourite of ours) The kids then made little cut out decorations for it and stuck them on with blu-tac.

Paper Angels were crafted along side many other paper based creations and voila, our Christmas was starting to come together.

Salt dough FINALLY dried, the painting commenced. The girls loved doing this and it will be something that we will do again, but much, much earlier in the month..

The final craft activity, and the most important one, was the making of the stockings!
I was immensely impressed with the sewing skills of the big girls and even my little ill girl had a good go (with a little.. (OK, a lot) of help from Mummy) They then decorated them themselves (all except Che, who's stocking was made by me, well, he is only 13months!) I think they all came out remarkably well.

 

Before bed, the traditional Christmas stories and a quick check on Santa's progress!

Keeping an eye on Santa Via the Norad site

The snot oozing, fever ridden 3 year old, still far too ill for family visits, left time for a last minute wrapping frenzy to take place on Christmas Eve.

The over excited kids and the exhausted fluey one headed to their beds early in eager await for Santa, whilst Drew stayed up til almost 1am waiting for the Norad Santa tracking site to show the big fella delivering to good old Blighty.

Yes, yes, I know, he is a child.*shakes head, while rolling eyes, and tutting*

Silent Sunday - Footprints in the snow

Duck prints in the snow

Waddle on over to see the other enteries here.

Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland

It was the perfect Christmas holiday.

Relaxing,

Christmassy,

and magical!

The girls loved the wildlife, the snow and all the Christmas events. We hunted Snowmen and Santas. Sang carols with beheaded reindeer, and played with a Polar Bear named Bjorn!

 

 

Che loved all of the Christmas lights, the pool and the swings!

We met elves, real life reindeer and of course, the big man himself!

Drew and I loved the torch lit snowy walks through the woodland, the excited faces of our children and the picturesque frozen lake.

 

The ducks and geese managed to to find a bit of respite from the 'Big Freeze'

A little wedding blog

This is a little taster from my wedding website, which will be going live in the new year.

*****************************************************************

So we are all booked and ready to go. How exciting!

I'm not really a big wedding kind of person. I much perfer going to other couple's weddings so I can relax without the children and get drunk!

The expense is a big issue for me. I simply don't get it!
The moment you mention the 'W' word, people start talking 'Budgets','Big white dresses' and 'Honeymoon's of a lifetime'

The simple, small and family focussed wedding seems, for most, to be a huge dissapointment. For us, however, it is utterly perfect.

We have been together for over a decade. We have the house, we have the four children, we have the family pets, we have everything we need. Why would we opt for a big extravagant, bank balance busting wedding?
For us it is all about our little family. We are not traditionalists, we have four children for goodness sake! We are not actively religious, that's not to say that we are athiests however.

For us, a big white church wedding would feel hypicritical. If that's your thing then that's great, but for us, it's not suitable.  Yes, churches are beautiful. Yes, they provide perfect backdrops for all of those 'must have' photos. But seriously, is that a reason to get hitched under the watchful eye of God? No. We don't believe so.

So there you have it, a small, personal and intimate wedding, with a non religious setting, which may not be as asthetically pleasing as a beautifully, architectural, historic building, but it's perfect for us!

It's strange to be saying that we are getting hitched after 10 years together. However, having said that, we love the fact that our four children will be such a huge part of our day, and that, for us makes it our wedding so much more special.

We are blessed to have such an amazing family with whom to celebrate our day with, and many great friends to help us relax and party with a few drinks afterwards.

6 months and 6 days to go... Bring it on! :)

Shaping up

Sunday was the end of my 3rd week on my Wedding Diet.

So what happened I hear you cry....

Week 3 started well , but swindled fast.

Why do I seem to be incapable of keeping this up 100%?

The eating has been going brilliantly, with the exception of the weekend, when I consumed more calories then I wanted to, but still less than the average woman's daily allowance, just!

Overall, a good week on the diet front.

Exercise, however is another matter

I hurt my leg on some ice during a particularly slippery school run, so haven't been able to spend any time on the bike this week.

I am very disappointed with this.
I know, I know, it's not my fault if I have an injury, but I can't help but feel unhappy about it all the same. Maybe it's the Bipolar talking?

I did manage 3 hours on the Wii step, although this hurt, it wasn't as painful as trying to pedal the bike.

My weight loss was 3lbs. :)

This week (week 4) my leg is still sore, but I am going to try and do maybe 3 hours on the bike and continue with the 3 hours on the Wii step.

The diet is to remain the same, so fingers crossed for another few lbs off this week!

Silent Sunday - Snow crafts!

Ok, I know it's a day late, but can't you read....Shhhhhhh!

See the other enteries here.

Dear So and So..

Dear Lauryn, Ashley and Bailey.

If you insist on removing every single toy from every orifice in the house at breakfast time on a school day, I will get angry. You will have to tidy it up, and you will be late for school.

I do not care that you will be the last one to arrive at your classroom, or that you will not have time to participate in 'Show and Tell', I do not have time to re tidy the entire downstairs of our home and get four of you fed, washed, dressed and groomed before we have to leave the house in the mornings.

Do me a favour, just stop it dammit.

Love Mumma.

___________________________________________________________________

Dear Drew

'Man Flu' is no worse then normal flu. Stop using this term as an excuse to sit in bed and watch movies and Sky+ all friggin day. I am tired too, but I have to keep going.
Get over it.

Love future wifey.

____________________________________________________________________

Dear Che,

Dude, you really must master the art of sitting your butt down once you have tired yourself of standing.
Screaming and yelling 'Mumma' at the top of your lungs until I sit you on the floor is getting old.

Love your very frustrated Mumma.

_____________________________________________________________________

Dear Man at reception venue

ANSWER YOUR FRIGGIN' PHONE DAMMIT!

Love a VERY angry Bride to be.

______________________________________________________________________

Dear Dave the cat

If you feck me off one more time this week, I am going to punish you by locking the door when I'm in the bath. No swim time for you... *insert evil laughter here*

Love your pee'd off human Mummy

If you would like to join in with Kat's 'Dear So and So' write your letters and link them here.

Wedding mayhem

Those of you whom follow me on Twitter or read this or my other blog, will know that Drew and I are finally tying the knot after 10 years together, this coming June.

We have booked the ceremony, we have also booked the reception venue and catering.
We even have the 3 bridesmaids dresses hanging neatly in the wardrobe.

Is this ahead of schedule? I have no idea!
Am I trying to race ahead? Possibly.

It's not that I'm over excited about the prospect of a wedding. I simply want to get everything sorted as soon as possible, so it's done and I can stop worrying about it all.

It's all the fiddly bits that take the time.
I mean, do you really have to have favours?
Would the wedding be deemed a disaster if we didn't pay an extra £300 odd for an evening buffet which, if bought from a shop would cost around £50?
Would it really be that terrible if we didn't spend an absolute fortune on flowers and decorations?
Seriously, what do you do with all this stuff afterwards?

We want simple, we want low key, we want something that is us.

Someone on Twitter asked me "Why are you bothering to get married now, after so long?"

Is there some kind of hidden etiquette that we have overlooked? Are you considered 'not worthy' of a marriage after a decade of living together?

In all honesty, the reasons we are getting married now are very personal ones.
Drew has wanted to get married for some time now, but there have always been far more urgent things to spend our money on. The older girls have also been questioning the difference in surnames. Although, this has absolutely no impact on our decision to get hitched.

Don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't believe in marriage, I know people who have been married for over half a century, and I think they're amazing!
I just didn't think that really, and truly, in this day and age it mattered a whole lot. It's a ring and a piece of paper. It doesn't change our relationship, it just gives us the right to refer to each other as 'Husband' and 'Wife'.

A lot of people talk about the 'security' in a marriage. Many feel that a man can't just 'walk out' whenever he feels like it.

Obviously, these people have never heard of separation and divorce!
Is there really any security in marriage these days? I don't think so.
Plus, after 10 years of 'try before you buy' I think we're way beyond the returns policy now!

Others talk about the 'social status' of being married.
Again, I really don't think that this 'social status' exists in the 'real world'. Maybe in Hoity-toity communities where Yacht Clubs and Butlers are all the rage, but here in rural suburbia, where we're surrounded by single parents and teenage pregnancies by the ton, if you're not considered a 'Chav' or 'Pikey' you're already made it more than half way up the food chain.

So I am getting married. Yes, after 10 years of being with my partner. Yes, after we have already had several homes, cars, holidays and children together. Yes, because we still love each other.
But also, because we have come to a point where this is important to us, for reasons I won't go into on here. Not for the conventional reasons, or because we Drew thinks marriage is important, or because we "insist on doing things the wrong way around" (as someone suggested!) Because now we want to and now we feel the need to.

So this wedding is going to be great. No matter how much we spend, or where we go on our honeymoon (A trip to London for the CyberMummy Conference!!) It will be great because it's our decision. It's our time.
We will be surrounded by our beautiful family and a few fantastic friends. It will be the first day of our next decade together.

Snow Monkey!

Dust, anyone?!

If it weren't for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn't get any exercise at all.  ~Joey Adams

I'm going to bring you all bang up to date with how the wedding diet is going.

Week 1:

Week one went really, really well. I lost 6lbs!!!
I am very pleased with this result!
I worked my butt off on the exercise bike, ate well, and it paid off!


Week 2:

Week two wasn't as good. I lost 4lbs!
Yes, I know, I should be happy with that. And I am. Really, I am!
It's just that, well, I'm not used to sitting on a bicycle seat for 6 hours a week and as a result I had severe saddle sore..
I did some Wii fit plus exercises, but these are no way near as effective as the exercise bike, therefore I didn't feel I'd done as well.
I am still happy with the weight loss though.

This week sees the start of Week 3.
I am going to get back on the bike. I am aiming for an hour a day for 6 days.
Weather permitting (as I have little Che to consider in the cold and snow) I am aiming to do an hours walking on top of what I already do 3 times a week.
If I can't manage a walk, then I will aim to used the Wii fit step on the 30min cycle twice a day for 3 days this week.

Wish me luck!

Where it all started!I know, I've been slack with the diet blogging... *slaps wrist*

Cutting the Cr@p!

I'm done with excuses.

The only person I have to blame is myself. I have no self motivation whatsoever.

I'm constantly tired, lacking in the domestic Goddess department severely of late, and am being a disorganised Mummy to my four children.

Tomorrow morning that is all set to change.
I am going to get that laundry basket cleared (if only for 5minutes) I'm going to sort through all of the kids toys (again!)

I am going to wrap those Christmas presents. I'm going to write those Christmas cards.

I'm going to clean the bathroom from floor to ceiling, mop all of the hard floors and scrub those beige leather sofas to within an inch of their lives!

This house is going to be controlled by ME again, and not the other way around.
It is going to be a tough couple of days, but I'm going to do all of those little jobs which I have been neglecting over the past few weeks.

I CAN do this!

Silent Sunday

Check out the other entries here.

B&W- The Gallery

This weeks Gallery over at Sticky Fingers is all about 'Black and White' this week.




Daddy and Son moment. Che Lennon, 4weeks old.




















 Che was a bit of a miracle baby.
We never expected to have him.
When we were told we were expecting a boy, Drew went as white as a sheet!
We had always said it didn't matter, as long as the baby was healthy.
Deep down, secretly, I think we both wanted a son, after already having 3 beautiful daughters.
Che's sisters were beside themselves with excitement.

The pregnancy was complicated, painful and long. The birth, traumatic.
We thought we'd lost him for a while. But he was strong.

At 4 weeks old, Che Lennon, our much longed for son, produced his first ever smile.
Looking up at his besotted Daddy, there was no mistaking this moment for wind.

Each time I look at this photo I am reminded of how lucky we are to have such a wonderful, happy and content little boy. He is strong and healthy. And now, a whole year on, he is just as much of a miracle as he was the day he was born.

Wordless Wednesday- One of these is real!