Me & Mine 1/12

A photo a month. Of the 4 of us.

January. 

Technically taken on 30th December but so darn close to January it'll do!

Xxx

New Year Mini Break

New Years break at our lovely Cornish Lodge with the Long's! 

Joe perfecting the art of the photo bomb! 

View from the lodge! 

Day 1 - Day trip to Looe! 

Cornish pasties - yummo!

Watch out for the seagulls! 

It wouldn't be a trip to Cornwall without a cream tea would it?!

Tuck in!

Day 2 - New Years Eve! Bracing walk on Kit Hill & visit to the Donkey Sanctuary

Those boots got very muddy! 

So many puddles for jumping in!

Gorgeous!

Grooming the donkey! 

Party food for the party masseeeve! Happy new year! 

Day 3 - New Years Day and  the day it chucked it down, all day, so we spent the day at china fleet leisure club. Swimming, spa time,  lunch, soft play, newspapers, gossiping, ice creams, latte...bliss

It's a hard life...

Our last day...the one where I got downstairs at 9am to discover the 3 girls had polished off all the chocolate fingers for breakfast the little minxes!!!

Quick stop off at the Hoe in Plymouth on our way home!

Quick - leave them in there and RUN! 

How most evenings were spent at the lodge...

 

Sad to say goodbye to our lovely Cornish lodge but some more lovely memories made :-) 

What I hate most about getting back from holiday....

THE WASHING!! Bloomin tons of it...gahhhhh!

Bye bye 2013 HELLO 2014! 

Xxxx

Reflecting

Well 2013 went by in a bit of a whirlwind didn't it? 

Lauren, you are growing up so fast...too fast! You are such a clever and beautiful girl. You've got some lovely friends and are doing really well at school too. You love going swimming and are really enjoying Brownies too - you've got so many extra badges this year! 

This year you turned 8 and as an extra special birthday present you inherited a ton of hormones and a bucketful of attitude ;) 

I just want to reassure you that me and Daddy, we love you. Immensely. Always. I know you think we hate you (remember that sign you wrote for your door after we had to tell you off one day? 'My mummy and daddy obviously HATE me.') Well it's not true! Sometimes you make us so cross we shout and sometimes we are so tired we can be very irritable with you but we absoloutly do not hate you, WE LOVE YOU ALWAYS. Got it? Just drop the attitude sometimes yeah?! 

Joefish you are growing up into a handsome boy although you're picking up a bit of that 'tude from your big sis so be a love & try & rein it in for me?! You are also doing immensely well at school, you've picked up your daddy's maths skills (phew) and are whizzing up those reading levels. This year you've dropped gymnastics (feel really guilty about that but you were falling behind because mummy and daddy couldn't make all the training sessions and it seemed like such a waste of money) instead you've taken up Kung Fu and tennis and you've also started Boys Brigade. You've got a great circle of friends and are such a popular dude. You continue to infuriate us with your whining yet also make us laugh so much with your bedtime antics - sleeping in packing crates, in dicky bows, in Tottenham kits..the list goes on! 

My lovely hubby...so proud of you and your recent promotion what a great way to start 2014 :) You are such a good father and provider for our family. Thank you for all help with my finance issues this year, I'm eternally greatful. Just ease up on the amount of time you spend in front of the computer and phone yeah? Oh and I'm pretty sure no other man watches, or goes to, as much sport as you OK?! 

And finally me....it's been a funny old year. I don't feel like I've achieved much this year other than just got through it which sounds pretty meh. 

I've come to the conclusion that I'm pretty hard on myself about most things but in particular motherhood, work and the way I feel about myself. I need to remind myself that I am a good mother, I am a good work colleague and I am a nice person goddamit! 

I've got to stop comparing myself to other people and I've got to stop stressing about what other people think of me. Easier said than done I know but these are 2 thoughts that I am carrying into 2014. 

Along with my new carefree attitude *ahem* there are a couple of other things that I'm gonna do in 2014...

The first is to start doing much of my food shopping via the Internet. Internet food shop and me have never really gotten on but to be fair I've never really given it a fair shot so this time round I'm gonna make it work for me and hopefully it will give me some extra spare time! 

The next thing I'm going to do is purchase a decent (ish) camera and either a) go on a photography course or b) (which is much more likely) do an on-line photography course. I bloody love photos (my house is choc full of them) yet I don't have the first clue on lenses, lighting etc I just point my phone and click (told you I was a novice).

Finally I'd like to invest in this here blog and write up a few more posts - Life Lately, The Ordinary Moments and Me & Mine (monthly photo of the 4 of us). 

Along with these resolutions (?) there's the usual...

* Drink more water

* Go to bed earlier

* Exercise more

* Eat a bit healthier (cut down on bread!!!)

Yawn. 

Anyway, goodbye 2013...2014 I'm looking forward to it, lots to look forward to - Taiwan and Shrek musical to name but a few!   

Xxxxx