So much to do, so little time..... or energy!

Has it really been so long since I posted last? er, yes.... sorry!

The exhaustion of late pregnancy has kicked in... mentally I feel fine, physically I am knackered and achy and swelling! Oh joy, but I am not complaining much, I am really privileged to be expecting my third boy... just wish I could be one of these skinny minnies who just gets a small baby bump and doesn't put on any weight anywhere else. I have A LOT of weight to shift after this baby arrives :(

I have been asked to share bump pics, and this is the only one I have as of yet. It was taken on New Years day when I was 31 weeks... please excuse the sticky out bits... what can I say, it was cold...lol!!! I plan to take another when I am closer to due date, which is only 6 1/2 weeks away.

Well Bear is now 2. He was beside himself with excitement when he ripped into his kitchen (which was rather tricky to wrap up). He happy danced and squealed, and hasn't stopped playing with it since. It seemed a really good idea at the time to buy the 120 piece food set, and the bag for life with its 20 pieces and the tea set with all its bits and pieces.... add these to the 50 piece accessory pack the kitchen came with and you have one very busy mummy forever picking up spoons, imitation fruit and veg and trying to find the missing bit of pizza!!!And of course a birthday isn't a birthday without chocolate cake!!! Although he had to wait until the Saturday when we were at mum's.... but it was a yummy cake and worth the wait!
So what else have I been up to... on Wednesday I finally met gorgeous baby Sam. He is so scrummy I could have stolen him and taken him home... but as Jen looks so taken with him I thought it might be difficult to sneak him out the door. Photo stolen from Jen's blog, and yes my legs really are THAT big!!!Today we took the boys to Bruntwood Park to run off some of their energy. There was one muddy puddle and which of the boys do you think found it???

Of course it was Bear!!!
Needless to say the grey coat wasn't grey for long, and the new Clarks shoes were just brown, rather than the khaki and orange they should have been!!!

Oliver never liked getting dirty when he was younger and still isn't that keen... this didn't stop him laughing and encouraging Harry to get really dirty and wet! Although to be honest, he really didn't need that much encouragement.

This morning I received a gorgeous bundle of goodies to play with from Sarahscards, and so wanted to get a 'nice picture' of the boys together. Shouldn't be too hard should it?!?! Well you try getting the two of them looking in the same direction at the same time, preferably smiling and not pulling a stoopid face or having their eyes shut. It took a series of over 30 photos to get 3 'nice' results. So tonight I plan to scrap!

I also had a teensy little spend with Sarah and bought this stunning wooden book... I plan to make a mini book of all Thing 3's first visitors. And the fact that we have decorated his room vehicle themed, and this book just had to be mine.

The January kits have been posted out, and my mum as a new subber (my treat as she is now a non smoker... well done mum, keep up the good effort) will be getting a box of gorgeousness on Monday. This LO has already gone live on the Sarahscards blog, so I can share it with you on here too. If you haven't already saved the blog into your favourites you really should... there is lots of stunning work on there to inspire card makers and scrappers alike.

There are still a still amount of kits for single purchase available here... you won't be disappointed.

Right, I think that is an update enough... sorry for boring you, but well done if you got this far!!!

Ok, so it's been a while!

Happy Christmas, Happy New Year and anything else I missed in my absence!!!

We had a fab Christmas. Mum and Dad came to stay for four nights, the boys got way too many presents.... although due to a massive clear out before hand the house isn't bursting at the seams like it was last year! Here are a couple of pics, of the boys with their stockings on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, and the huge pile waiting for us downstairs.

Yes, Harry does look like an Inuit baby when he wakes up in the morning... his eyes do go back to normal after a couple of hours and a warm bottle of the white stuff!!!

Yes, it is a huge pile of presents but it was for 4 adults, 2 children and 2 dogs!!!Santa was good to me too. I got loads of pamper products which I have decided to save until after the baby is here. And Rob got me a Wii Ft which was a total surprise. For obvious reasons I haven't been on it yet, but I have watched others and it looks so much fun, I can't wait!

Have been busy on the scrapping front too, although quite a few of the LOs have been for Sarahscards DT so can't be shared just yet. Unfortunately the Rough Draft blog went t*ts up last week so there will be no more fab sketches from there to work with although I will still stalk the DT members blogs for inspiration. Sunday was probably my last Warrington crop for a while and I managed to get 2 LOs done. This one is quite simple but I didn't want to distract from the photo too much. The reason Rob loves the photo is because it is a rare occurrence capturing a Bear smile!!! He does smile a lot, just not when there is a camera about, so this one makes a refreshing change! The lovely shaped paper, the stripey paper and the alphas are all from Sarahscards.... how annoying is it though having to poke out all those eyelets!!!

This was one of those photos you had to get in a really awkward position to take... just glad it wasn't on a day when the window cleaner was round!! Bear had fallen asleep on the living room floor, as he does, and I had to get down and at his level to take the pic... not easy when you are the size of a MOOSE!!! The cloud paper and the striped paper are by Bella Boulevard and can be found at Sarahscards, as can the Thickers. All the other bits and pieces were from a Scarlet Lime kit. The LO is quite touchy feely as I scrunched the stripey circle so it stands up slightly from the backing card.Well today is the last day of my Bear being a 1 year old!!! Can you believe he will be 2 tomorrow.... I can't. The past couple of years has gone so quickly and my baby is getting to be a proper little boy :( I will be back with more pics tomorrow of him with his pressies... I am so excited as we have got him the sizzlin kitchen from ELC which he goes crazy over every time we go into Mothercare on the retail park near us. So tonight once they are in bed and fast asleep it's mission build kitchen and wrap kitchen and all the various bits and pieces we have got to go with it!!!

Well here's hoping the school is open tomorrow (burst pipe today which resulted in a houseful of kids). I want Bear to have the morning with his presents on his own, before he has to share them with the others.

Still no disc!!!

So I have taken a photo of the photo instead!!! Not great but you get the idea. So we queued for about 20 minutes to see Santa, and Harry kept shouting and getting excited each time the door opened for another child to go in... but the moment we stepped into the castle, all hell broke loose! The tears and screaming started, and this was the best photo out of about 5 taken. I kind of expected a bit of resistance from Bear, but didn't expect him to have a full blown screaming fit! The minute I lifted him from Santa's knee he started to smile and talk to Santa like they were bessie mates.... boys!!! Santa doesn't look very happy on the photo either, but I guess it takes it out of you having to be nice to soooooo many crying children in one day! Oliver was very full of himself that he didn't cry, and was super impressed with the Biker Mouse toy he got. When Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas he told him 3 things on his list, then Santa asked Harry what he wanted.... Oliver interrupted to say that he still had 2 things on the list....LOL!!! Got to make sure you let the big guy know everything you want eh?!?!

Question!!!

If you were a scanner software disc where would you be?

Bad blogger.... again!!!

Ok so just for a change I have been a very bad blogger!!! But in my defence I have been busy crafting! I have been bitten by the knitting bug again... it happens at this stage of pregnancy, and is a hormone thing and not at all granny like... well that it my story and I am sticking to it!

I have been doing lots of craft activities with the children too, so our house hasn't been glitter free in weeks. I turned to say something to Rob last night and noticed he was twinkling in the light of the Christmas tree with some stray glitter on his face..... of course I didn't tell him, and it was still stuck this morning so off he went to work looking all bootiful and sparkly.... he he he!!!

I have been scrapping a little here and there too, although this is getting tricky already as thing 3 doesn't like me sat hunched over a desk and puts the boot in when I do... very dangerous when armed with a craft knife!

These LOs were done using the last November kit from Sarahscards... can't believe I haven't got round to sharing them already!

These ones were done using the December kit which is currently on sale here.
This LO was created using this sketch over on the Rough Draft blog... ok so it is loosely based on a rotated sketch, but I was really happy with the outcome. Don't forget to share your LOs for the sketches to be in with a chance to win a RAK... but more importantly because the sketches are fab and really get the creative juices flowing!This LO was done at the crop a couple of weekends ago... a just because LO straight from my head, but using all the new goodies I bought from Sarah on the day.... seriously I don't know why I bother taking stash, I always use the stuff I buy new!

We went to Mum's at the weekend for the last time before Christmas, mainly because we wanted to take the boys to see the Santa there. We have a classic photo, but I can't for the life of me find the scanner software to upload it tonight... will have a hunt in the morning so I can share with you tomorrow.... guaranteed to make you smile!!!

We have a bear back in the house!!!

Just got back from Meadowhall, or should that be MeadowHELL!!! OMG just how rude to people get in the run up to Christmas. One woman bashed her shopping bags into Harry's face whilst he was sat in the pushchair, and didn't see it as a problem when I pulled her up on it. Karma is a bitch though, because she turned round to hot tail it away from the wrath of Looby Lou and broke her heel...LOL!!!

Anyway, we have a bear back at home where he belongs... all is calm at present as the boys are pleased to be back in each others company... we'll see just how long this lasts though!

Huge Congratulations to the Ga family on the safe arrival of baby Sam... he is so flippin cute it make me want mine here and now... although I shall allow him to cook for a little longer as we haven't decorated his room yet, and more to the point we only have 2 of the letters we need for his door!!!

Sketch 7 is up on the Rough Draft blog, and I have to say that it was the most fun sketch to work with... I loved it, and was really pleased with the outcome. I took this photo ages ago and it has been pinned to the inside of my workstation just waiting to be scrapped... so glad I did get round to it and I love the papers I used... and there are those puffy thickers again... yummo!

Have just got the December Sarahscard kit to play with and even though it is Christmas themed, which I don't usually love... the papers are double sided and can be used for non Christmas LOs too. That said, I still have so many past Christmas photos to scrap, I am hoping that this will make me get through some of them!!! So tonight it will be Casualty, a glass of diet coke and Christmas scrapping. Gosh I know how to live!!!

Right off to watch Ice Age 2 with the boys...

Thought it was about time...

I scrapped some of the pics from last Christmas, seeing that this Christmas is only 5 1/2 weeks away. I don;t know what it is with me but I hate scrapping Christmas and birthday photos... I find it quite daunting, as there are usually loads of random colours in the photos, and then I tend not to love the themed papers that you are 'supposed' to use. So with this LO I decided to use the current Rough Draft sketch, and go for a random mix of papers, only one being from a Christmas collection. Not the best LO in the world, but at least there is a record of the event in Oliver's scrapbook. Now I just need to do the photos from Christmas 2006... how bad am I!!!Well last night was the first night without Bear... and we slept like a dream. As much as I miss him when he isn't here, it is lovely going to bed knowing that you're not going to be disturbed... unless you count Rob shaking me saying 'You're on mate, push the button!' what the?!?!?! Maybe I shouldn't have made the melted cheese on tiger bread toast as a late night snack for him after all!!!

Right, busy day ahead... we are going into the loft to sort through baby clothes/toys/equipment to see what we are keeping and what can go. Rob is desperate to get his room back to tidy and at the moment it is such a tip... will take before and after pics and share later!

Have a great Sunday. And enjoy your last day as a family of 4 Jen, Tich, James and Josh.