Our Growing Family

Err, not like that!

This weekend we spent a lovely time with my husband's side of the family. It's been three weeks since my sister-in-law gave birth to her second child, my neice, and I was desperate for cuddles! 

As the sun shone and Monkey and his cousin played in the garden I was struck by how much has changed in such a short space of time. In just three years there are now three children - Monkey born 2011, my nephew born in 2012 and my niece born last month.

Having moved house a couple of weeks ago we are now just two hours away from their home in Staffordshire. It's still not a short distance but it is a massive cutback on the three and a half hours we have done for the past five years. It's the length of a nap and so I hope to travel up to the Midlands more often so that Monkey can grow up with his cousins as much as possible.

When I was little we lived near all my family and I have such a lot of family photos from when I was Monkey's age and my cousins feature in all of them.

While we attempt to make some new friends in our new hometown, it was lovely to spend a weekend with family and remember that we aren't alone.

Plus my niece is one of the most adorable babies ever and is the first thing in two and a half years to make me even consider being broody again!

Our growing family

A Fresh Start

Everything is new in my life and so it seems fitting to have a new start on the blog which I have sort of neglected slightly in the past few weeks.

The truth is that I willingly went dark as we neared completion on our very first house purchase. I was so nervous about tweeting or blogging anything in case it all went wrong. So I just shut up and so there is so much to catch up on!

We have it - we have our very first own home.

It's been a fun, exhausting first week here. We got the keys a couple of days before we actually moved in and we literally painted through the night to try and get the rooms done in the way we wanted. As I have previously said, I had seven years of pent-up DIY built up so I have been desperate to put my stamp on the house. We had six rooms we wanted to decorate and we managed to do three - the lounge (which was the mammoth job), Monkey's room and the bathroom - which I think might be my favourite room in the house now that I have added a nautical touch.

We're working on the rest of the rooms in the evenings - the stairs were done last night, it's the kitchen tonight and then we'll do our room - currently a room of boxes as we haven't bothered to get the wardrobe yet. Then there is still the playroom and the guest room to do but I'm afraid they are going to have to wait!

The credit card has taken quite a battering but there is nothing that I have brought which has been a waste or doesn't look brilliant in the house.

It's also been all change on the work side. I have left my full-time job and am now in search of something a little more family friendly. I'm trying not to let the fear get me as part-time jobs in PR are so few and far between I do worry how long I will be unemployed for but I have done the jobs which give me no balance, I need to find the right fit this time.

Monkey is out of nursery and I am suprisingly loving being a stay at home mum. I always thought it was never for me but actually I have quite enjoyed it. I don't think I could do it all the time but I have enjoyed the trips to the park, farms, playgroups and playgrounds and it re-enforces my wish to be around a little bit more.

There's loads more to say about the move and our new life away from London but this will do for now.

x

Team Jolie

A bit of a different post today but I wanted to use my small internet platform to pay tribute to the fantastic thing that Angelina Jolie did today. I'm not really much of a fan (I was always Team Aniston!) but I admire her greatly for coming out and opening up about something incredibly private in order to help others.

In some ways her decision to have a double mastectomy seems so obvious. Prior to the surgery she had an 87% chance of developing breast cancer. Now, following her surgery her chance of contracting that awful disease is under 5%. She has 6 kids - she had to increase her chances of being around to see them.

However, I don't doubt that regardless of the health benefits this was a long and thought-out decision.

I've been very lucky not to be affected by the Big C but I like to think that if something like this happened to me I would make the same decisions. Cut off the boobs, cut off the leg - do whatever it takes to make sure that I am still here to see my son grow up. I pray that I am never ill and never have to face these decisions but if I do then people who have spoken out about their health struggles will be my inspiration.

I'm looking forward to awards season next year. I want to see Angelina Jolie back out there with the bright red lipstick, skirt slit to the thigh and some mega cleavage - proving that no matter what surgery you have you can still be gorgeous.

To anyone who is battling Cancer at this time - stay strong and keep fighting x