Merry Christmas, Happy new year, and some news!

We had a lovely Christmas and new year this year, we got to see my family for Christmas, and have a brilliant Christmas day with them and we saw Rich's family in between Christmas and new year and let off some fireworks.

Christmas was spent down in Reading, with a brilliant day of presents, food, laughter and family. I love Christmas at my mum and dad's, they love it, and the tree is always full of decorations from my childhood. We always sit fairly reservedly and my dad hands out the presents. This year Ethan got to sit with him and help and he loved it :)

Fireworks at Rich's parents was great fun too, especially when one malfunctioned! It sounds scary and it did make us all jump, but all that really happened was instead of a fountain style firework, we got more of a flashbang effect! The most entertaining part was just afterwards. Everyone jumped, but Carl (very much a grown up brother in law) squealed like a girl. Or maybe a pig. We were laughing our heads off! He's a great sport though and laughed along with us :)

New Year's eve itself we spent.... in bed. We are not new year's people. I don't really get it, it's just another night to us, and with boys who get up at 5/5:30 am, NOT worth it! I value my sleep too much to be cool ;) If I had a party to go to or something, then I'd enjoy it, but unfortunately the morning comes around all too fast!

Now for the news...

 Ta-da!

That's right, we're having another baby! There are sneaky posts from the past that just appeared here, here and here muahaha! I'm 17 and a half weeks, so almost halfway! In 2 and a bit weeks I'll be having my second scan, and hopefully it'll look a bit less like a potato this time. We are so excited. I am also exhausted, still sometimes slightly nauseous and suffering from an insane sense of smell. That is not fun. 

Oh, and our holiday, which I never came back and commented on, really was great. Except for the part where I crashed the car at low speed into a wooden post and destroyed the bumper. Oops. But for a first accident, not too awful. It's currently in with the insurers getting fixed, which was cheaper than getting it done ourselves, even with a small premium rise. However, our courtesy car is a Skoda Fabia. A fine car, even for our family of four. Except we had a Mazda 5. And we had to do the Christmas trip in it (200 miles each way, with presents!). I was a little nervous! It actually worked out alright, with a bit of tetris know-how and putting smaller presents in the space where the spare wheel should have been, as the car came with a repair kit instead! Hopefully we'll be back with our bus soon and I'll adjust back to the size of it without knocking anything else!....Don't tell Rich I said that... 

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

Robots and Spaceships and Aliens oh my!

It's been a while! So, what have I been up to. I made another baby quilt, this one for my lovely friend Harriet's teeny weeny new boy, the very gorgeous William.

Isn't he scrummy? Also how gorgeous is this picture. You can completely see the total adoration, and it still doesn't quite capture it. That house is bursting with love.

Here's the blanket - I'm very pleased with this one, the fabric was such a good find, boys are difficult to shop for!

 The two materials came as a set too, perfect for a matching front and back piece. There was also a third pattern, like the front with the squares, but the pattern was much larger and so would have been great for a big blanket, but not a baby one. I'm very fussy about fabric. Even though the blankets are (so far) all for babies, I don't like picking a fabric that's too babyish, as my way, the babies don't out grow the patterns too quickly! My boys each have one, Ethan's was made by his auntie Sheri, and has dinosaur patterns, and Sam's was made by my mum and has animals and palm trees and stuff.

Last weekend we took Ethan for a treat day - I read an article recently about how sometimes we can get so caught up on telling off our kids, that they don't hear as many I love yous, and recommended treat days where the child gets to make the decisions and you get to just have a good time with them. I'm making it sound hippyish, but that's basically the gist, and really, it's about quality time together, with the focus on one child (the article recommended taking the child out without siblings if possible). It's supposed to also help 'reset' the child's behaviour and your responses to it, sort of a clean slate.

 So Ethan chose Sundown Adventureland, a children's theme park about an hour away. We've been before with school so he was very excited to go, and asked if Daddy and Sam could come too, and off we went.

 First came the Santa ride. It's open all year round and Rich was very excited, as he is a massive Christmas lover. The boys were excited too, and we went on it twice. There are actually two Santa rides there, but the second one only opens at the beginning of November. The boys were not impressed.

 Santa's sleigh crossing the moon! The whole park is (dated) animatronics, so it all moves.

 Santa's map. I'm not sure he's getting the best time with this route.

 

 On the tractor ride, and apparently not impressed with my photography skills.

 Getting onto the Robin Hood ride. There aren't any pictures of the ride in progress as I was too gobsmacked by the animatronics. At one point you're practically flashed by Maid Marion!

Attempting to release King Arthur's sword. There were lots of other rides and play areas, but I'm terrible in that I always forget to take pictures and end up with random insights to the day :)

So here's the skinny - I'd definitely recommend it, it was perfect for the kids, the rides were not in the slightest scary or fast, and it's not too expensive. £11 for adults and kids, and under 2's are free. There are 2 indoor play areas with food available, again, fairly cheap, and really good. Best of all, once you're in, the only things you pay for are food (although you can bring your own) and the gift shop, assuming you want to stop there. That too is reasonable.

All in all it was a brilliant day, we had loads of fun, there was no tellings off from us, and his behaviour was brilliant, with no whining, which recently had become pretty epic. A win I think!

Next time - an update Sam's Loki jacket for Halloween, it's going well so far!

Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!