Grandma's house!

Today we leave for Grandma's house! I don't know who's more excited - me or the kids! I was up, washed and dressed and packed before long. Ethan woke up and was covered in spots. He sat crying in the bath till i came to him, then i saw the horrible spottiness. The Pox has struck us finally. Jared left before me to go with Sam to the Forest of Dean to do some biking, as part of his birthday present. I am a little jealous!

The journey was the same as it has always been: Lily will fall asleep for part of the journey, wake up and then cry. Usually this happens half way up the M5. Ethan gets fractious at her crying, and starts crying himself. Lily gets hysterical, Ethan gets more hysterical, especially as he's poorly. Needless to say, i pulled over at the nearest services to get some munchies. It did the trick! It wasn't till we were on the M54 that Lily started to get upset again. It's always such a relief when i am able to get the kids out the car!

We had some lunchies before chilling outside for a bit. Ethan's temperature started to peak again, the poor boy, so we put on Nanny McPhee for him to watch. He kept asking for 'Nanny Guffee.' So cute!

Ben and Georgie came up to see us and cook dinner. Fajitas are one of my faves! Everyone started to come home from work about 7ish before deciding to get in the pool that Thomas bought. The water was at such a good temperate from the heat in the day, we were in there for ages! Ethan and Lily stayed with my mum while i went in - the little tinkers wouldn't go to bed. Mummy managed to get Lily down to bed for me, and Ethan. Thank you mummy! :)

Dad, Thomas, Georgie, Ben Rachel and I got in and it was so much fun, i felt like a little child again. We would circle round the pool as fast as we could then follow the flow round. Oh, it was so good to be silly, i was the last one out of the pool:

Eventually went to bed at 11.30pm. I am going to be tired in the morning! 
                                                                      

Carfatha Park

Its another sunny day! Yey! I don’t know what has gotten into the kids- Ethan slept till 8.30 this morning. The poor boy is shattered. I had to do a few jobs around town, like buying some packing materials for eBay and getting some foodies in for Jared. Ethan walks by the pram so well, and then other times he will run away. I am always on my guard, that’s for sure. He loves to follow the tile patterns on the floor, even if there is someone in the way. He imagines them to be train tracks. Ha-ha. Lily is so lovely to listen to in the car. She chats to her self and sings. It is so cute. Definitely makes me want another one!

After getting home, unpacking and making lunch, I put Lily to bed. She is so clingy when tired. A quick feed always puts her in a good mood before sleeping. She went down for a good few hours too. Ethan watched some Thomas Tank on Netflix while I tried to bag up my eBay stuff. I am trying to clear out some folders for the filing cabinet. I finally sold all of them but grossly underestimated the postage. Royal Mail are greedy blighters! So I had to withdraw the sale and refund all the buyers. 

Pauline came over just as I was finishing up to go to the park. It was so hot! I lifted Lily and off we went. It was packed. I knew it would be packed, but not as bad as it was. No photo’s either, as it’s not allowed. There were kids everywhere. I think Ethan found it quite overwhelming, so we left after a few minutes. It would be too easy to lose him in the massive crowd. So we walked down to the little train.

Pauline had her first turn:

 

 Such a cheeky chappy:

We took a brief walk around the little lake before sitting under a tree. It really had heated up. Lily and Ethan enjoyed playing in the grass:

It wasn't long before thirst kicked in, and we decided to leave. The traffic to get out was terrible. They are doing road works right by the exit, causing stop start traffic. Tedious! Pauline bought the kids a drink to help stem the tears! She took my bag of ebay posting and posted it too! What a wonderful mother in law i have.

I made it my task for the day to organise Ethan's toy boxes. It took a heck of a lot longer than i thought it would, but it was worth it;

Lily and Ethan played around me as i did it. Lily is all for me! It's so funny to watch and a little frustrating for other family who want to cuddle. I like it :) Poor Ethan came down with a temperature just before bed, so lots of cuddles were needed. Lily took ages to go down too, standing in her cot, crying at me. I have become really soft! For the rest of the night i cleaned up, organised washing, studied the scriptures, blogged and squeezed in an episode of 24. I can pack for Grandma's tomorrow... :)

Lily Philly is ONE!

It’s Lily’s birthday! Hurrah! She is one today! I really didn’t know what to do with the kiddies today, as money is tight and petrol is expensive but I thought, ‘what the heck’ and went to the beach again. I rang Emma Jane to see if she was still going and if I could tag along. Thankfully they hadn’t even left yet. I was all packed up ready to go by 10.30am; they weren’t leaving until 11.30am, which eventually led to 12.30pm. I followed Richard and Dove down, and they took one of Emma Jane’s kids with them. Ethan couldn’t get his name right, calling him Enoch. It made me laugh inside. We arrived at 1.30ish which was a bit later than planned. 

The weather was just glorious again. I love how the sun reflects off the sand as the tide goes out and it’s still damp. We managed to find a space quickly as the tide was moving out. It did bug me that the teenyboppers that set up near us decided to start smoking pot. Gross. When they start suffering the effects, no doubt they will blame God. Anyway..

Ethan and Lily loved it again. Ethan decided to be a tinker today though, which meant my patience was being frayed. For some reason, he wanted to chuck wet sand in the air. Of course with loads of people around it meant it was landing on them. After several warnings and several attempts to ruin other children’s sand castles, I put him on a time out next to the pram. Of course, sand being present, he did his first trick again of throwing it in the air. I watched it land on some large lady’s legs and that was it. I picked him up and stepped him into Lily’s buggy for 10 minutes. He screamed and screamed. I would be embarrassed, but after 4 ½ years of exposure, I’m just not. He eventually calmed down, said sorry, I calmed down and said sorry, and all was well again. 

I couldn't keep Lily away from the rock pools: she was straight in there!:

 

Sand tasting again as well as rubbing it into the eyes:

Ethan playing 'nice':

 The water was really cold!

I had to pack up and leave just after 3pm as i was doing dinner tonight. Ethan wasn't happy to go. Lily was so sandy, it took ages to get her cleaned up. Good old talcum powder! She cleaned up lovely! I did tell the life guards about the potty pot pots, but i doubt they did anything. When walking back up to the car, we came across a family who had a member on the mobility scooter. Ethan pointed at her and said, 'mummy, i want one of these for my birthday!' Well, everyone around him laughed. What a cheeky chappy! He managed to run from me when i was talking to the life guard and get under a barrier that was just before a sheer drop. I honestly don't know what to do with this boy! He likes to keep me on my toes!

I got back to the house and put on dinner. Lasagne, salad, coleslaw, garlic bread and jacket potato. One of my favourite meals. Peter and Pauline joined us for it too. While it was cooking, we did the present opening. Ethan was more thrilled than Lily, the funny boy!:

 One from grandma:

Dinner was so good! Lily loved it too. She munched a load of cheese cake:

 Pauline's puppet;

 Bath time as we were all stinking from the beach and dinner!:

  

I did shed a few tears this morning. Today was the last day we saw Philippa last year. The last day we got to talk to her. Peter and Pauline felt it too, and didn't have such a good day. I miss that girl so much. I can't wait to give her a big hug again. 

Once we cleaned up, we put the kids to bed and did another 24 fest. Even now, as i type this, Jared is nagging me to put another one on! I guess the eBaying will have to wait till tomorrow morning. :-)

Beautiful Summer!

Today has just been so much fun. Thomas rung me yesterday on his way to Ellice's house - she was in work all day today, so he asked if he could come and see us. So, we decided to go to the beach! Jared is writing his dissertation, so he was out of the house first thing this morning. The weather has been so good since yesterday, so i jumped at the chance to have some outside time! I packed up a lunch and did as much house work as possible before Tom arriving. As soon as he was with us, we were in the car, ready to go.

It was a bit of a nightmare getting there, as I’d forgotten the junction I was taking when I got to the M4. Thomas rung Jared, and for some reason, he thought Thomas and Ellice were in Cardiff, so he gave us directions from there. I followed them, only for them to lead me in completely the wrong way. I was NOT impressed to say the least! Bah! We did eventually get there though, with a struggle to get loose change from the tiny shop on the bay and the ticket machine not giving change, we finally got set up. It was just so beautiful where we were. Ethan loved it, as was Lily. Ethan wanted to eat lunch, build a sandcastle, go to the sea front and play with other children all in one go. It was so funny to watch! He couldn’t decide what to do with himself. So he contented himself by eating his sandwich and running around the picnic blanket. Lily sat with me eating sandwiches and sand. She spent most of the day sampling areas of it.

It was class to catch up with Tom, to hear what he is up to. It won’t be long before he goes on a mission. I am so excited to know where he is going! He had Lilsie while i fed them both lunchies;

Ethan enjoying his 'crips'. Crisps is a little bit more difficult to day. Look at that lovely little face. You wouldn't think he was a tinker;

He took both the kids down to the sea front for me, taking Lily into the water. She didn’t like it, and I don’t think Ethan would even go near the water. It was fun to observe them from the blanket. Lily wasn't too impressed;

Sand tastes yummy;

Thomas and i loved digging deep holes on holiday as children. It was fun to try and do it again. Sadly, the water level is too high!:

Giant tug of war against the sexes. Girls won 3 out of 4:

My lovely little girlie:

They were both absolutely shattered after the days events!:

They were not that impressed at being woken up. We did a quick whip round Tesco to get some food in ready for tomorrow – its Lily’s Birthday! We are going to have a birthday tea with Peter and Pauline. I also picked up some dinner for tonight. Sometimes cooking from scratch every day can be quite tiresome!

Thomas set off when we got home so that he could get back to Ellice for 6pm. Jared came home for dinner about 5.30ish. I miss seeing him in the days, i have to be honest. The kids do too. We cleaned up, Jared played with the kiddies, making them giggle before having a mass 24 fest. We watched 5 episodes on the trot! I have to be honest, i don't know how Jared does it. I am falling asleep by half ten. He nudges me and asks, 'Are you watching/paying attention?' I think we eventually went to sleep at 11pm. I love it, but it's very anti- effective. I've sold things on eBay that need bagging! :-)

Anything to keep the lovely husband happy!

Will it ever stop raining?!

We woke up this morning to rain. Again. All it has done the last few weeks is rain. My neighbor told me that it's meant to be like this for a few more weeks. It's so annoying! I had to get some things from Tesco and wrote a list out, but while pushing Lily around in the trolley, she ate my shopping list!! She hates sitting in the trolley and will only give it about 10 minutes before getting fractious. Shopping with kids is hard work. Ethan, bless him, is so good though. He's never been trouble shopping.

By the time i got home, it was 11.30am. Jared needed to do a run to the tip so he took Ethan with him. Ethan called down the stairs to me saying, 'MUM! I'm going to the tip, ok?' Haha. It's hard to remember some of the things he says to me through the day, i do want to try and document more of his cute sayings. He loves to say, 'this is just terrible' a lot. I don't know where he got that one from! 

I made lunch for everyone, while also unpacking and cleaning out the fridge. I just managed to squeeze food in for me too before doing the school run. Ethan shouts, 'no school!', and then every time i take him to the school gates he's running ahead of me. Crazy boy! 

Lily went for a sleep so i studied D&C 7 and part of 8, helped Jared print some labels off for the filing cabinet, put some dinner on and picked Ethan up from school. He was with another boy called Kayden. They have a love hate relationship, and Ethan was asking him to be his friend where Kayden was ignoring him. Hahaha. He is obsessed with who his friends are. When we ask him about uncle Sam, he says, 'NO! HES NOT MY FRIEND!'

Dinner time is so stressful in our house, and i really need to get more patience with it. Ethan always grumbles at everything i make, no matter what it is (bar chips and sauce). Tonight i'd made a creamy casserole with mash and green beans. He screamed about it for a while, before he finally ate it. We try to ignore it and after a bit of reverse psychology, he will eat it. I just wish he would get over the grumble bit and just eat! 

Jared had ward council tonight so i put the kids to bed. I lost patience with Ethan a few times as i wasn't listening to me and i always feel terrible afterwards. Parenting is so hard sometimes.  They both went to sleep like little angels, especially after last night. I just checked on Ethan and he was looking like this;

I'd better put him back in bed properly! As you can see, he's had a few wardrobe changes since going to bed. Haha. I sat and pinned a few things on pinterest before catching up on some blogging. 

I now must go and work out before it gets too late. I haven't run in months, so here goes. Hopefully if i can get it done in time to watch another episode of 24. That's what we eventually decided on last night.  

Cathy for dinner

I want to say that today has been exciting, but it hasn't. It has rained all day, constantly. I don't know why we haven't flooded yet? I am enjoying having Jared off from placement and having about to help get the kids up and ready for the day. He did a bit of work here before going to his mums to do some work. Ethan played with his trains and asked me to take some pictures. He is so cute;

Jared came home just before the school run, and i was able to put Lily to bed and just take Ethan. It's so much quicker to get him into school baby-less. They have become a little obsessed with safety at school, and it's now got to the point where we have to pass through 3 gates to get to the classroom, 2 of them locked magnetically. What the flip? Is danger really that serious around these parts? Two of the mums have asked me to go to the school quiz night on Friday, which is my ultimate awkward situation. I like to keep free from non-member social events, just as i feel so uncomfortable. The booze comes out, the loose morals/attitudes/clothing all comes out, and i don't know how to react?! So i said I'll see...

I wanted to study today, but didn't get the chance. By the time I'd made dinner, cleaned up and did some washing, Lily woke up. I just can't study with Lily about. She wants to be in my pocket!

After getting Ethan from school, Cathy Powles came for dinner. It was really nice to have her, and listen to her experiences in the gospel. She lost her husband in a climbing accident 22 years ago, so the grief side of losing someone is very real to her. We had a lovely evening together, and she offered to have us over next Monday, which i am excited about!

I don't know what got into the kids tonight, but neither of them would go to sleep. Jared and i cleaned up after dinner and Lily and Ethan were crying, out of bed, wanting attention..etc. Lily finally went down just after 9pm and Ethan has only just gone to sleep now!! 10pm!! He's so funny though, calling down, 'i love you mum!' He even gave Cathy a kiss and cuddle. Cute.

I was meant to work out tonight. I have a wedding on Saturday, and i have put on some pounds, surprise surprise. I am definitely doing LL again! Before going to bed, Jared has convinced me to watch some 24 with him. Bah..it's too far fetched for me. Oh well...

Sunday.

Today has been quite enjoyable, even if it wasn't something i looked forward to this morning. I was asked to do music time in Primary, and conduct. Hopefully there was someone to do sharing time.. Eeek.

Both kids ended up in with us early this morning, so after feeding Lily and putting her back in her cot, we all woke up at 8.30am. I haven't slept in that long in a long long time. Jared, however, was up and fully dressed, ready for the day. I must have been tired as i didn't hear the alarm or anything. Jared was so good to get up and sort the kids out while i finished off the last few bits for Primary. We made it to Church on time too. Yey!

It was a lovely sacrament meeting, with testimonies born. I even did mine. I've realised that i have just got to do it when i have the opportunity. No hiding away. That's not what a testimony is for. Primary went well too. June Jones came and did Sharing time, and it was brilliant. She really got the kids attention. Katie and Steve Taylor came in to offer support too, which was great. Overall, it went really well and i could see the kids had enjoyed themselves, which is the most important thing!

We headed straight to Peter and Pauline's for dinner. The boys love to play 'rugby' together;

Peter and Pauline went to see the Davies' as their father passed away last week, so we chilled at home. Ethan got a hold of my camera and took some photos;

Look at those lovely little toothypegs; 

He is just so cheeky!;

Sam is dating a girl in the Stake and she came up to visit that evening, so it was nice to meet her! Pauline did a nice big batch of pancakes. I ate 3. Hahaha.

We got the kids home and to bed and did a quick whip around to clean up a bit. I am so behind on my washing. Jared sat and watched the final of some football match. It's on the tip of my tongue, i just can't remember...anyway, Spain won. I was meant to be productive, but watched video after video on YouTube. It start at looking at funny gaffs and ended in watching Beyonce. Hahaha. I always dislike Sunday nights, it's like Monday is just minutes away .