Update 2 - Center Parcs!

Well as promised a post to tell you all about our holiday!! Last week we had our first family holiday (and first holiday for Ian and I in 4 years!) to Center Parcs in the Borders. We drove down on Monday morning and the girls were really good in the car, mostly because I was bribing them with the picnic I made!

We had a lovely lodge, right near the centre of the village, which had a pond right opposite with baby ducklings in it! They were so cute and were quite often in our garden. There were also Rabbits and Squirrels in the street who were so tame and just sat there whilst the girls talked to them!

There is loads to do at Center Parcs, it is so family friendly. We went swimming (which wasn't a great success!), lots of playing in soft play areas, out for meals, walks etc. We went to a Cinderella tea party, which Holly loved, there were party hats, cakes, games and Cinderella came too! I also had a real treat and went for a facial in the Spa, which was just fantastic.

The only bad thing was Holly was sick on the Wednesday lunch time, in the middle of a restaurant, so we just ended up having a quiet afternoon, well Ian and the girls did, I spent it in the Launderette washing all the clothes she had been sick over!! And here was me thinking I would get a few days without washing! Anyway she was fine, and had picked up by Thursday. Anyway here is some photos....

Ian and Holly in our 'street'

Holly and I at the Italian Restaurant

Nat and I at the soft play area

Ian and Nat at the swimming, this was the first time Nat ever went swimming!

Holly half smiling at the swimming!

Holly outside the main village building

Holly and Nat having a kiss at the Tea Party, awwww!

On Friday we drove back up via Glasgow and went to Ikea, which was a bit of a nightmare for one reason or another!! As was the drive home! As was the mess of the house when we got in (the extension was being decorated last week which left dirt EVERYWHERE!) Anyway it's all sorted now!

So all in all we had a great holiday, so much so I am already looking at prices for next year!

Bye for now!

Hannah

Update 1 - Birthday!

Hello Everyone! So sorry it has taken me so long to update the blog, as usual things have been busy, both girls have been poorly (again), the extension has been ongoing, work, ebay, holidays, birthdays etc etc etc!!!

So I will do 2 posts, one on Nat's birthday etc and the other on our holiday at Center Parcs, which I will try to do later!

So back to Natalie's birthday! Well she was 1 on the 26th April, which is just unbelievable, the 1st year just flew past. On the actual day of her birthday we went down to Brechin Castle Centre with Angela and Matthew for the day. We have been before and it's really good for the kids, they can just run about and see all the animals etc! Unfortuanately Holly was really poorly and spent most of the time cuddling her Daddy! She did play for a bit with Matthew though. Nat enjoyed it, she just sat smiling in her buggy!!

So on the Sunday after her birthday we went out to Brewster's for lunch with the family and Angela, Martin and Matthew. Here are Holly and Matthew tucking in to their ice cream...

And here is Nat with her birthday cake, which had the Teletubbies on it (of course!)

We all had a really nice lunch and Natalie really enjoyed having a birthday, she got so chuffed when she got presents and when we were singing Happy Birthday.

As you have all seen the extension is really coming along (thank god!) and should be finished in the next couple of weeks. Here is a nice photo of Ian, Holly and Nat in it when it was just a pile of bricks!

Apart from all that we have been trying to do all our usual things. On Bank Holiday Monday Angela and I took the kids to Storybook Glen as the daddies were working, here is me and Nat with her favourite Teletubby, Po!

And Holly and Matthew being the Station Master and Fat Controller!!

Both girls are doing really great, Holly continues to be a complete chatterbox, she definitely rules the roost in this house!! Nat is definitely following in her sister's footsteps and can say lots for a 13 month old. She is cruising now and becoming a bit of a monkey, which is hard to believe as she still has that angelic baby face!!

Well I will be back soon to update on Center Parcs! (hopefully!)

Hannah X

Progress Update

Hi All,

Sorry for the lack of updates on the new room. After the last one it was all inside work which was kind of difficult to get a good picture of so I held off. We were also on holiday to Center Parks last week so were cut off from the net for 5 days!!!! On the plus side whilst we were away the painter and decorator was in doing his bit and also the slates were put on the roof so it's looking great. Pictures are below, the inside ones aren't great as it's hard to get everything in - think I need some tips from those photographers who take photos for solicitors!:

Anyway the next job is the plumber and sparky to return on Monday to fit the lights, sockets and radiators. After that the joiners are scheduled to come back on the 31st to fit the floor and that'll be the inside done!!!! Then it's just the builders to finish the step and harl the outside and it's totally done!!!

That's it from me I'm sure Hannah will try and do a Center Parks blog at some point soon so look out for that.

Ciao

Ian

Nearly there...

Hi all,

well the joiners are cracking on a pace and it's now wind and water tight!!
I was quite amazed when I came in from work as there was no longer a pit outside the patio doors, the floor was in and it made such a difference. I was going to take a lovely picture from the inside but the joiners have filled it up with their tools and plasterboard so that scuppered that! Anyway here's the lastest shots:

More tomorrow....

Ian

Back to work...

Well after a 2 week break thistle are back at work on the sun room. It's only day one of the joiners being in but it's really starting to take shape already! Pictures below:

I'll update again tomorrow.

Bye

Ian

1 year on....

From this...

To this............

To this...............

Our Baby Natalie Mary is 1 TODAY!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATALIE!!

We will be back soon with an update, both girls have been ill over the past few weeks (it's Holly's turn just now), so no time for blog updates.

Hannah

End of Part 1

Hello All,

Well that's the base work done so we are now waiting for the joiners to come in, which is not meant to be till May the 4th :(. Hopefully it will be brought foward as I think it will be very frustrating looking at the bricks for 3 weeks! Anyway photos are below, not an awful lot of change from yesterday but at least the garden is tidy again!

Ciao for now!

Ian

Day 3

Hi All,

Well they're cracking on and it's looking pretty good to me! :




Just to say as well poor Natalie is ill again :( She has a temperature and is quite bunged up so we think she may have a cold or flu and also a wee stomach upset - but you don't really want the details on that part!

Bye for now

Ian

Day 2

Hi Folks,

Here's the photos from day 2's work. Starting to take shape now! :)




Ian

We've got the builders in!

Hello all I'm going to be hijacking the blog over the next few weeks to keep you all updated on the progress of our new conservatory/family room! So unfortunately no cute photos of the kids I'm afraid.

First photo was taken at 07:23 this morning. I cleared the patio myself last week prior to the builders coming in:

and just after I took this picture a man turned up to dump this in the front garden:

Then not long after that the builders turned up. I went to work and left them to it for the day. Then came back to this:

So that's Day 1.

Bye for now

Ian

Easter Sunday

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a lovely Easter Sunday and are not too stuffed from all that chocolate!

Thankfully we had a much better night with Natalie last night so all woke up feeling much better than yesterday. Once we were all up and dressed, Mum, Dad and Sarah came up. Mum and Holly decorated eggs for rolling later on, which Holly loved doing...

After that we went out in to the garden to see if the Easter Bunny had been, which he had!! Holly was delighted and hunted out the Easter Eggs. The Easter Bunny had left arrows to where the eggs were hidden, which Holly thought she had to pick up too!!

Tucking in to her findings!!!

Here is Granny and Holly rolling (or throwing in Holly's case!) their decorated eggs....

Poor Miss Natalie slept through all the Easter goings on, but here she is with her Granny when she got up, wearing her bunny ears (provided by Auntie Sarah!)

Once everyone left we had a quiet afternoon, then a yummy roast dinner provided by Mum!

Both girls were very tired tonight, so are sound asleep, I think they enjoyed Easter though!

Bye for now,
Hannah

The Chicken Spots are back....

.... And this time they're serious!! Poor Miss Natalie has the chicken pox now. She was very fed up on Monday and Tuesday this week, she had her injection on Tuesday mornng and cried for 15 minutes afterwards, which is very out of character. On Wednesday morning we woke up to her having several spots on her head and the next day she had loads. She now has many more and is very very fed up with it. We have had 2 terrible nights with her, and she is very clingy to me, she just wants her Mummy. I have been giving her lots of baths (with Bicarbonate of Soda in them!) and putting on Calomine lotion. We really think that Holly was very lucky when she had them as she was nowhere near as bad as this.

Anyway you can kind of see how bad her spots are in this photo of them sitting together yesterday, Holly told me she wanted a 'Shot' of Natalie so I put her on her knee...

So it's just been a quiet few days, we did go over to see Liam and Emma on Thursday, as Liam has the chicken pox too (probably got it from Holly as they had been playing together the day before she got it!) and Friday was a quiet day. Of course it is Easter weekend, we were going to do something tomorrow as Mum and Dad are through, but that's off now Natalie is so poorly. I have told Holly that the Easter Bunny will still be coming though and we will have an Easter egg hunt for her tomorrow.

Last weekend we had both sets of Grandparents through as they were all going to see Lionel Ritchie (?!) in concert. Holly and Natalie were just delighted to see everyone. Here is Nat playing with the ball which both Grannies were throwing to her.

Here is a photo of the girls I took one morning last week, Holly was lying watching Peppa Pig and Natalie kept throwing herself back on the floor to lie like her sister, very funny!

And finally Holly outside sweeping up the sand she kept putting on the step.

That's about it really, apart for the exciting news of a new arrival (no not Ian's Playstation 3, poor me I am a playstation widow!) our friends Angela and Martin are expecting a baby in November, I am just so excited for them and can't wait to meet Matthew's wee brother or sister. I was speaking to Holly about it the other day and she said "Alla have Natalie" (Alla=Angela) I think she is expecting Natalie to go and live with them now!

Well that's it, Happy Easter all!
Hannah

Chicken Spots!

Hi Everyone!

Well as reported last week, Holly has the Chicken Pox, or as she said to me the other day, 'Mummy I've got the Chicken Spots!!' She really hasn't been too bad with it, a little grumpy over the past few days, but she hasn't been itching too much and her spots seem to be healing up. Hopefully she will be well enough to go back to school on Thursday. She is really fed up being in the house, so Ian took her to B&Q today, where she wasn't likely to meet any other children and pass it on!

Ian has been off work since Wednesday which has been great. We obviously haven't done much but it's been nice just having time together. He got his tooth out on Friday morning, which wasn't much fun (as he keeps telling me!) so was pretty miserable with it all weekend, then he realised yesterday that there was still a bit of tooth left so had to go back today and get it out, but it was actually a bit of bone (YUCK!). I have been working and on Friday afternoon took Nat into town shopping, which was good. I have spent yesterday and today spring cleaning the kitchen, boring but necessary!

So apart from Nat having the odd trip out the girls have been in the house. Here they are playing in the garden yesterday....

Today, Ian and Holly worked on their rockery that they are building at the back of the garden, here is Holly filling it in with soil, she was a right wee Charlie Dimmock (right hair colour and everything!)

And this afternoon we baked 'Dora' cakes, which she just loved doing....

Apart from that we have just been trying to keep her amused so lots of drawing and Peppa Pig has been on permanently (come back 'The Wiggles' all is forgiven!)

Nat has been getting in lots of crawling practise, and is so fast now! She is just loving moving and exploring the house. Ian and I are finding it very strange seeing her move, maybe because she has always been such a baby. She loves going in the kitchen and goes 'Ooh' if she sees the gate open. I found her emptying a packet of spagetti on the floor this morning, which she was delighted about!

Well that's it for now, tomorrow is Ian's last day off, so I am going to work then to get my hair done, which I can't wait for as I am getting it coloured for the first time in 4 years!

Back soon,
Hannah XX