We are still here... honest!

Thought I better upload again before weeks turn into months! Not much going on really, still pretty much in the same position as last time... either pinned down by a feeding Dinky Doo or walking round with a Dinky Doo strapped to the front of me!!! Seriously, he's 7 weeks old now and still as clingy as ever... if not more!!! This photo was taken at the weekend, and even though I hate pics of me, I have pledged to have more taken with the boys as currently there are very few. A bit morbid to be thinking about, but if the worst did happen there would be hardly any pics of me with any of the boys. So time to get over the how awful do I look in this pic paranoia and make sure I am in photos too.

Although Dinky Doo will have to have a name change soon as he is not so Dinky anymore... yesterday we had him weighed and he is a whopping 10lbs 10oz now! He's grown out of his new born clothes which was a sad day... putting them all away never to be worn by a baby of mine again... sob!

This was my favourite babygro which was worn, washed, ironed and worn again constantly... and I just loved this photo with his eyes wide open.These photos were taken a couple of days ago after Drew got the lovely outfit in the post from Dr Eileen, a very lovely UKS team member... thank you Eileen, he looks adorable in it, and Bear loves the Bear toy.

Speaking of Bear... does anyone know how to stop a 2 year old bulldozer from having constant bruises on his face?!?!? I swear people will start to think I am beating him up soon... we've had 4 big bruises on his face in the past 3 weeks! This first pic was a cracker of a bruise that went straight down his forehead and face after a collision with the school railings!!! It was one of those moments where the whole playground went silent... except Harry!!!The latest was done whilst in Daddy's 'care'. Only a man would let a freshly bathed child go out to play on the watered lawn in his pjs... an accident waiting to happen and it clearly did! The black eye doesn't look to bad on this photo but that is because Harry is squinting... he really does look like he's had a bit of a to do with Ricky Hatton!!!

Bear maybe a bruiser and always in some sort of trouble or other, but at the end of the day he's also still my baby and still needs his afternoon nap.... seen here snuggle up on Daddy along with Dinky Doo in his papoose!

harry also has a new love in his life... her name is Marigold and yes she is a cow! We have been to Reddish Vale Farm Park a couple of time over the holidays and I have to say it is love. He goes on about her all the time, pretends he is on the phone to Marigold and carries 3 pictures around with him pretty much everywhere!!!

At the same farm park there is an area where the kids can play in the straw. Strange how the only two children actually in there were mine, and typically Oliver came out the worse off in the straw fight that lasted 15 minutes and would have been longer had we not of broken it up before Bear got too carried away!

Yesterday I had an Ofsted inspection so am waiting for the results of that. It'll be interesting as when the inspector knocked on the door I had Dinky in my arms having just thrown up all over him and me. Harry and Freya had tipped most of their dinners on the dining room floor and the house was a general tip. She didn't give much away so I'll just have to wait and see...watch this space!

One last thing. A big fat congratulations to my best friend Annie, her Rob and beautiful girly Lola on the safe arrival of Jonas Henry.... we can't wait to meet him.

T.U.B.

Totally Useless Blogger.... Rach gave herself the title but I think I can say that the crown is definitely mine!!!

I cannot believe that I have been AWOL for soooooooo long. But to be fair I have been a bit busy!

Baby number 3 arrived on the 2nd March, 3 days before his due date. I had to be induced to high blood pressure and 'grossly abnormal' bloods, but he didn't want to hang round.... so after a 44 minute labour Drew Isaac Stevenson came screaming into the world.... and to be honest he hasn't really stopped screaming since! OK so that might be a bit mean... he only screams when you try to put him down, so as long as he is curled up on my chest, or snuggled into the crook of my arm he is absolutely content and cute! Of course this means that housework and internet time are limited and I seem to remember a hobby called scrapping.... seems such a long time since I did any though!

We were expecting Drew to be another big baby after the whopper that was the Bear, however he was only 8lbs born, and at 4 1/2 weeks he weighs 9lbs 1oz.... still quite a bit smaller than Bear was born!!! We were also worried about how Harry would react to having a baby around, but he has surprised us and is very gentle and protective over Drew (nick named Dinky Doo, as Bear calls him Doo and he was very Dinky).

Anyway enough of the baby talk for now... here is a piccie of the little guy, although I really need to get more taken.... bit difficult though when I am holding him all the time...LOL!!!

As for scrapping... I have been promised scrapping time tonight whilst Rob is on Dinky Doo duty.... yey!!! I bought some lovely stash before I had him and can't wait to get stuck in and use some. There are a few LOs I have done for the Sarahscards DT that I can share with you now. These were made using MME papers which are gorgeous and thick.... a bit too nice to be cut into to be honest. These ones were made using the January kit.... I also got to play with the March kit which was full of fresh spring colours... I am going to make much more of an effort now to be back scrapping/blogging/blog visiting! I had a spooky dream about a friend last night and need to go check their blog to see if there is anything in it!

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!!!