Family Portraits

Is that really a week gone by since Week 8 of The Gallery?

It is Now Week 9 and Tara has picked a great theme for this week of Portraits

So I have decided to give you some portraits of our little family

Our Family at Week 11 of BB's life taken by us (camera on timer)

Our Family taken by Emma from Little Flower Photography

I love this picture of BB she looks so cheeky

And a lovely picture edited by Enhance Me

Going on Holiday with a Toddler

In 5 days time we are going on a little holiday to a quaint 5* cottage in the Isle of Man.

We have been so busy this last year with the business that we haven't set time aside to go away yet.  So we decided to do one trip close (ish) to home and then another holiday at the end of the summer somewhere a bit further away.

So this will be the first time we have travelled far with BB.  It will be a 4 hour car drive and then a 3 hour ferry crossing.  I like to be organised and so have been writing lists of things we need to take from bottles and food to the travel cot and toys. She has only just turned 1 so a lot of the normal holiday advice like playing i-spy etc won't do the trick.

So far I have come up with the following for the journey to keep her amused:

-Her favourite snacks on hand (raisins and rice crackers)

-A little travel bag with her favourite toys from home in, a couple new toys as a surprise & a couple books

-Music for the car

What tips and tricks and advice do you have for travelling with a toddler/1 year old?

The Gallery: 7 Deadly Sins

It is week 8 of The Gallery and what a great prompt we have..The 7 Deadly sins.

Luckily we only had to pick one.

This was difficult and I nearly picked Gluttony because we all know BB LOVES her food but instead I picked something that was very appropriate to her early days.  I give you...

...Sloth

BB is an amazing sleeper, she has been sleeping through the night since 3/4 months. But for the first few months of her life she suffered with colic and so tummy sleeping was the only way she would sleep soundly. Her favourite possition was over a pillow, she would sleep for hours on end like this.

and finally, the Cot....

Welcome to Mummy's Shoes

Hi Folks.

So here we are at my new abode 'Mummy's Shoes'.

It was a hard decision saying goodbye to WADs but the time had come to move on and thank you so much for sticking with me.

Please do 'refollow' and comment and if you are subscribed to my feed please do update it to this new one too. I will miss you all otherwise :)

And by the way who likes this photo?

The lady who took this is the most amazing photographer I have ever come across, as well as a very lovely lady. You must go and check out her portfolio and site, you will be looking at her pictures for hours. Pure beauty iammel.net

The Gallery Weeks 1-7

I haven't been up to speed with the blogging community recently but I am back on track as I have discovered Tara's The Gallery.

It is positively ingenious . The girl is good.  Each week she gives a theme and we have to provide a photo(s) which depicts said theme. Somehow I have missed 7 weeks of themes but not one to shy away from a challenge I am going to give you all 7 right now.

Week 1: Beauty

My gorgeous daughter was pure beauty to me from the first moment I saw her

Week 2: Numbers

I have chosen number 1 as my number. Baby Belle has just turned one and she is saying goodbye to being a baby and hello to being a toddler. She is also my 1st baby. She always comes 1st in my thoughts. This picture was taken at her 1st birthday party.

Week 3: Colour

I am cheating a bit and not picking one specific colour but instead relating it to my childhood/upbringing. I had an amazing time growing up and it was always bright and colourful thanks to my wonderful mum, dad and brothers.

Week 4: Me
I think these photos show all the different sides of me and who I am today.

The daughter, sister, child and friend in me

The frivolous, fun, fashionista, dancing, girly side of me

The romantic 'in love' wife in me

The business woman in me

The jokey outdoor loving girl in me

The Mummy in me

Week 5: Outside my front door

We love to go out walking. Lucky for us we have a few places close by that we can go to do this. Castor, Ferry (we call it Fairy) Meadows and Orton Mere.

Week 6: Ugly

This was a hard one but I managed to come up with two photos. The first is of me.  Hubby and I had been walking for over 4 hours in 40degree heat and I had blisters from my new sandals.  At this point I had gven up and plonked myself down on the side of the road...my mood was very ugly. Hubby even said he'd carry me but I was being stubborn.  The second is of a phone shop we came across in Turkey, very funny but very ugly indeed.

Week 7: Joy
Joy for me has grown and spread. It started with my Nanny and Grandpa, then my Mum  and Dad and then grew to me and hubby. All this joy has been encapsulated into our little Baby Belle. So here I give you some photos of where hubby proposed to me and told me he wanted to be with me forever. Joy to me is 'US', our family, and our life we have today.

The Ring

Patara Beach..the rocks where he hid the ring

The Ring...again!

Eating out that night

Our Ottoman Lounge

The 1st Birthday Party

The long awaited, much anticipated "Flower Fairies Party" for Baby Belle's 1st Birthday has been and gone.

I am now enjoying the calm. But anyone who knows me will know that I delight in having events to plan for and so I am a bit sad it is over.

I must admit I was very fortunate because Grams had BB the day before the soiree to allow me to 1) make the cupcakes 2) decorate 3) decorate 4) decorate 5) prepare cuisine

Thankfully hubby also took the day off work to 1) Construct the Gazebo 2) Assemble the trike 3) Cook the chicken (his chicken kebabs are luscious!) and 4) Fill the balloons with Hellium. It turned out to be a really fun day working on everything together and hubby, not really being one for reveling, suprised me with how upbeat and happy he was. If you want to see a couple of our 'day before/preparation pics' (there aren't many because we were busy) you can see them  HERE

The morning of the party BB didn't want to sleep, of course anyone with a baby knows this is always the case, when you want them to stick to their routine they don't.  She knew something was going on. She usually sleeps, like clockwork, from 10-12 everyday so I told guests to arrive at 1, she would therefore be wide awake until the end of the party.  She went down to sleep at 10am and woke at 10:30am. I knew she would be shattered now.  But I can honestly say she was amazing! She got grumpy at around 3pm and so Grams and Grandpa took her out for a walk away from the mases and she had a power nap whilst out. She then woke up all happy and ready to continue the celebrations!

A few of the other babies and children couldn't make it because it was the easter hols and a lot of people were going away, but a fair few turned up and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, including the adults.  We told everyone we were cutting the cake at 3 but due to missy being a little exhausted it ended up being at about 4pm. 

I hadn't seen the cake until that morning. My mum (Grams) had been working on it for a few weeks and had done EVERYTHING from scratch. When I saw it I couldn't believe my eyes. It was so gorgeous! From the little flower fairy feet and faces to the pretty flowers and butterflies, she had hadmade the lot. My pictures really don't do it justice as the whole cake sparkled and glistened in real life:

It really is quite special. There are some more pictures here. BB also had her first ever taste of sugar/sponge cake too which was funny. She of course loved it.

If you want to see a selection of pics from the day click here

We had a lovely day and most importantly Baby Belle had a lovely day. Thanks to everyone who came and for all the lovely gifts. It really was very special and I can't believe our little girl is 1 Year Old already!