So this is Christmas.....Eve and Day

Our family has always celebrated Christmas together. We all get together, on Christmas eve,  eat a massive Christmas Eve dinner (which we all contribute towards by bringing our favourite dish) and wait to open the gifts. Christmas day we usually get together again to eat the leftover meat and we bring salads along and enjoy a day talking nonsense and lazing by the pool with the people closest to our heart.

This year was extra special for us, it was our first Christmas Eve with our Little boy Camden and possibly the last Christmas eve with my Grandfather Neville. As usual the house was so full of cheer, love and laughter. Laughter and lots of it is always the highlight of any of our family ocassions, especially with my Aunty Neena on top form as always with her funny jokes.

After dinner we all indulged in some sweet treats off the sweet table that my mom and I put together. I know what you are thinking, but of course there were desserts too, what is Christmas Eve dinner without trifle and chocolate mousse!

There is nothing like spending Christmas Eve with family!

Camden went down at around 8pm and we decided to let him open his presents on Christmas day rather. All us adults socialised until it was time to open the gifts!

Wayne and I had said we weren't buying each other gifts but I bought him a sneaky gift and well he had bought me one too. He knows how much I love MAC make-up and how much I have been wanting to get make-up brushes and that is exactly what I got. Lucky girl!

I bought Wayne a PS4 for his Birthday in November and I decided to spoil him for Christmas and get him a game, he of course was over the moon with my choice! Nailed it!

We got some other gifts from family and friends, we were pretty spoilt again and we weren't even expecting it. We are truly blessed with the people in our lives.

After opening the gifts we headed to bed, excited for morning to come so our Little monkey could open his gifts.

Christmas morning, Camden was awake around 6am and we were so excited to get him to his gifts so he could open them. The poor child was still half asleep when I plonked him in between all his gifts, he didn't even know where he was let alone what he needed to do. He looked so overwhelmed and just kept yawning - shame our poor little boy!

Once he was awake he got stuck into his gifts and the look of sheer excitement on his face was priceless and something we will never forget.

....just look at those toes and facial expression!

Let me read my bath book!

What the....

 

So chuffed with his "car"

Christmas morning was just the best with Camden. Once we were done we packed the rest of our bags and headed to the airport. Wayne and I had decided to take Camden to JHB to surprise his Ouma Magel for Christmas.

Dressed in his cute Christmas outfit Camden got a lot of attention at the airport. He is such a little charmer.



Camden loves taking selfies, he pushes the button and gets all excited - hence his blurred hands pictured above.
 

Camden's first flight went extremely well, no tears just moans and that was only when he was tired and wanted to sleep. I lay him in my arms and he slept for most of the flight. He woke up 15min before we landed in OR Tambo Airport. We were so pleased as we were stressing that his ears would hurt.

Wayne's stepdad Jannie came to collect us at the airport, he was so excited to see Camden that it was as if we didn't really exist for the first few minutes lol.

We drove to Wayne's grandparents small holding to celebrate Christmas day with Wayne's family. When arriving, Wayne had to get out of the car to open the gate. All his family was sitting outside on the lawn under the shade and when his mom spotted him she just started screaming and running towards the car. She practically jumped on Wayne to hug him and when she saw Camden, she got a little emotional.

It felt so good inside to know that we had made her Christmas the best one yet! She kept saying, " This is the best Christmas gift anyone has ever given me"

I think all in all we had a pretty special Christmas, one that has left us smiling for days.

Merry Christmas from the Loxton's & one soon to be Loxton

May this Christmas you celebrate God's love with the company of family and friends.

May you always stay blessed in life.

May the peace and prosperity of Christ's birth date, bring peace in your life today and forever in time.

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 

Love the Loxton's (and me)

 

 

 

Christmas sugar cookies

I promised to share the recipe we use to make our sugar cookies. It is such a simple recipe and they taste delish!

Ingredients:

1 Cup of butter softened
1 Cup of granulated white sugar
1 tspn vanilla extract
1/2 tspn of almond extract
1 egg
2 tspns baking powder
3 cups of all purpose flour

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
2. In the bowl of your mixer cream butter and sugar until smooth
3. Beat in the extracts and the egg
4. In a separate bowl combine the flour and the baking powder and add a little at a time to the wet ingredients. The dough will be very stiff. If it becomes to stiff for your mixer, turn out the dough onto the countertop surface, wet your hands and continue kneading the dough by hand.

5. DO NOT CHILL THE DOUGH. Divide the dough into workable batches, roll out onto a floured surface and cut with a cookie cutter.

6  Place on a baking sheet and bake on 180 for 6-8 minutes

7. Allow to cool on the baking rack until they are hard enough to transfer to a cooling rack.

8. Decorate as you wish and enjoy!

'Tis the season to be jolly

There is nothing quite like the smell of freshly baked cookies in the morning, especially around Christmas time...

The weeks leading up to Christmas have been full of TO DO's, I have tried to stick to my weekly to do list but somehow time always manages to get away from me and before I know it the week is over and we are one step closer to Christmas!

As a family we have always put our tree up on the 16th of December. I have asked my mother what the significance of the 16th of December was and she said she couldn't tell me they have always done it that way and it was passed down from my great grandmother. Who knows?! I wanted to put our tree up on the 1st of December already but truth is I never got around to doing it until a week ago but now it is up in all its gold and silver glory and it looks FABulous!

All the gifts are wrapped and under the tree. When the tree is up and the gifts are wrapped, THAT is when it starts to feel like Christmas to me.

Excuse the quality of the photo, I take all my pictures with my phone camera.

My mom and I have been busy baking up a storm for our sweet treat table at Christmas eve dinner. Our family has always celebrated Christmas eve. We all get together at my parents place and have a massive dinner, followed by trifle and my grans famous chocolate mousse. As kids we all waited patiently for Santa to deliver the presents in person when the clock struck 12 and then the opening madness with tearing of paper would begin.

I have so many fond memories of all of our Christmas' together as a family. Of course when you get older and you realise that Santa in fact doesn't exist, the excitement of receiving and opening the gifts fades but spending quality family time becomes more important. This year everyone is so excited that there is a young child in the family again who doesn't understand much or that Santa doesn't exist, so we can start having Santa come over to the house to hand out the gifts again like we used to back in the day.Camden is only 5 months old so we will be bringing the Santa aspect back as of next year.

This Christmas is going to be extremely special as it is our first Christmas with Camden and possibly the last Christmas we get to share with my grandfather who is terribly ill with liver cancer. I am going to soak up as much of this Christmas as I can!

We decided to not put Camden in your traditional Christmas outfit this year due to the fact that here in SA you just can't find cute kiddie Christmas outfits but he is still going to look so dashing in his cute little outfit that we have put together and I cannot wait for Christmas day so I can dress him in his little red shorts and suspenders that my mom made along with his reindeer ears.

Ok so back to the baking.

A tradition in our family was that my Great Grandfather Marshall would make everyone a fruit cake for Christmas, I sure loved his fruit cake. Since his passing, we haven't really had anyone to carry on this tradition and I have always wanted to make and decorate a fruit cake, so I made my first reindeer topper, it looks more like a teddy but it will do as my first attempt. We covered the fruit cake in fondant and placed the reindeer on top. This cake is the main feature on our sweet treat table.

I think Grandpa M would be proud!

We have baked some sugar cookies, rolled out some fondant and cut out shapes using the same cookie cutter as we used for the cookies and we then decorated them to match our gold and silver Christmas theme. I really enjoyed making these and they look so awesome on our table.

You can find the recipe here.

Lastly we baked some of my mom's signature vanilla cupcakes with caramel butter icing and added the toppers to them that my mom worked on until all hours of the morning.

We always try to go the extra mile to decorate the Christmas table for Christmas Eve dinner. I think we have done a pretty good job again this year. I cannot wait to share photo's of our sweet treat table.

Now to finish cooking, set the table and wait for the family to arrive!

Merry Christmas to all.

Enjoy every moment you get to spend with your family over this festive season, time is so short.

And just like that, He is 5 Months Old ~ Camden Kingsley Loxton

A whole 5 months already!

I remember peeking over the bassinet at Camden when he was just a few weeks old wishing he would stay that small forever, but I can honestly say each month keeps getting more fun with this little guy and I hope that it carries on this way for years to come, or at least until it is no longer cool enough for me to drop him off at school and he asks to get dropped off around the corner- I hope that day never comes!

My Lil baby is starting to turn into my Lil boy. It scares me that everything is happening so fast. I cannot believe that next month he is a whole half a year old and that is not something I am sure I am going to be able to accept. Six months left to organise his first birthday...he he he are you kidding me, I started that when he was a few weeks old!

Even though at times during this month it felt as though we had four seasons in one day, I have one word which will put all you parents out there in the picture ~ TEETHING! Oh dear teething!

To be honest, I am not sure at times if we have been battling with sleep regression or if it is just his teeth that have been bothering him non stop. We have had a month of struggling with naps and waking up constantly during the night and I pray that this soon subsides. Besides that, it has been another good month.

A month full of giggles, expressions and plenty of improvement, especially in the vocal department! He has definitely made a giant leap into tiny boy (or as I would like to think of him still - baby) with BIG personality who actually does things instead of just laying there looking cute.

There isn't a day that goes by that this Lil boy doesn't make us laugh until our bellies hurt, he has become such a little character. The more you laugh at him the more he will do what it is he is doing that is making you laugh and then he laughs with you.

How Big?: Last month we missed his check-up due to some mix up on their behalf so we went around 4 and a half months. He was weighing in at 8.4kg ( closer to 9kg on his 5 month Birthday), I can definitely feel those 8.4kg when lifting him in his car seat to put him in the car, how I have not lost this baby weight is a mystery. He is measuring 67cm

Clothing Size: He is wearing 6-12 month clothing mostly. I seem to be having a problem with his clothing as he is thin but tall. I find that most of the leggings fit him in length but I am having to take all his leggings or shorts in as they float around his waist - Like father, like son!

Eating: His entire eating schedule has changed since going for his check-up at the clinic. He is now on 3 solid meals per day and drinking 4 bottles of formula, which means he has gone from 6 bottles a day to 5 bottles and now to 4, with some water in between.  It is the cutest thing to feed him his solids, he absolutely loves his food and eats like such a big boy already. With every spoon you get a mmmhhh mhhhh out of him and you cannot feed him fast enough, boy if you take too long to get the next spoon in his mouth you will know about it

• 5/6am, he gets a bottle
• 9am we feed him fruit
• 10am a bottle
• 1pm we feed him veggies
• 2pm a bottle
• 5/6pm, he has cereal
• 7/8pm he has his last bottle
• In between naps we give him sips of water
  

Sleep: THIS has definitely changed from last month to now, thank you teething! Everything was going so well and then it all changed. I have to laugh at myself for thinking that at 2 months when the drool set into overdrive that he must have been teething....WRONG, now he is teething! He is still a happy baby when he wakes up and gives you that gorgeous little smile full of gums with his head cocked to one side but getting him to nap during the day or sleep through the night is an impossible task.

Sometimes when he is scream crying from being overtired, I just feel like letting out a scream cry too - it is exhausting. I think battling with your child to get him to sleep has got to be one of the most stressful things out.

On a good day, he wakes up at 5/6am and has his bottle and goes to nap around 7:30am for about 45min. He naps again around 11 for about 45min to an hour. He takes another nap around 3 or 4 and then sometimes is sleeping around 7:30pm.

So we have improved a bit from last month, we no longer have to wake him for his 10pm feed. He is last fed around 6/7pm and only gets fed again around 5/6am.

 

That just woken up look...wait for it...two seconds later
- full of smiles.

  

Movement: Rocking on all fours is the thing to do it seems this month, hasn't yet mastered the art of crawling but he will get there soon enough.

He is still rolling around like crazy, we are not able to leave him on our bed or on his changing mat unattended anymore.

He is able to walk in a walking ring - he crab walks in it though.

Milestones: 

I don't feel it has been a major month for developments for Camden but he has gotten stronger each day and can hold his toys a lot firmer than before. He is also reaching out to grab things, so if he wants something he reaches out to get it, not like before when he wanted a toy but wasn't able to coordinate to actually get what he wanted. The other day when I was eating, I swear he put his hand out as if he was asking for some ~ so funny!

• Has started showing major empathy towards other children, if they cry then he gets upset, his lower lip starts to quiver and then he starts crying.
• Moans when mommy and daddy leave the room or if we venture out of sight.
• In week 18 he got his first blister/sore on his baby toe from jumping in his jumperoo. I had to cut up a small plaster just to fit it on his baby toe - shame.
• Extremely vocal of late and he definitely has said the word mama a few more times than just once, especially when he cries and I
  
  am not the only one who has heard it. First time was in week 18
• He has perfected rolling over from week 18
• Rolled from his back onto his tummy in week 19.
• Eating three solid meals per day from week 19
• Holding his own spoon but can't quite get it into his mouth from week 20
• Getting up onto all fours is a breeze for this little guy. It is amazing to see his development from one month to the next.
• Week 21 - He is able to walk in a walking ring. My gran has bought him one as a Christmas gift and he had to "test drive" it in the shop. Was so funny to watch him having a go.
• At the mere age of 5 months we have had to sadly take a few toys away, especially his bath ducks and rattle as he has some sort of love hate relationship with those toys. I think it is due to his gums being sore and when he chews on them it must be so satisfying or frustrating that he cannot get the toy in his mouth properly - it  just gets way out of hand and he starts screaming and then eventually it all ends in tears and an hysterical baby that takes forever to calm down.

• Sucks and chews on his toes constantly. If you try change his nappy his feet automatically go up to his mouth. When you sit him up he folds over double just to get his foot in his mouth. Obsessed much - I never knew toes could taste that good LOL
• Uses Wayne as a jungle gym. Climbs all over him just to get to Wayne's nose so he can chew on it - weird child.
• Teething for sure! His bottom gum is so swollen and you can feel the knobs from the teeth under his gums - poor thing is in agony most of the day.
• Chewing on fruit in his Nuby nibbler, so disgusting to have to clean that thing when he is done.
• Discovered his "boy bits" in week 21 and hangs onto it when he is in the bath

Overall he is just a happy chappy with loads of expression, constantly smiling and giggling, also staring lol - need to try teach him that staring at people is rude.

Excitement this month:Getting ready for our boys first Christmas. Putting the Christmas tree up. Wrapping all the gifts, baking Christmas cookies...the list is endless!

'Tis the season to be jolly!
 Mommy this month:
I have started to realise that this baby weight thing is obviously going to be some massive battle I have to fight as no matter what the weight just won't budge and I am still as fat as a house - I feel fatter than when I was pregnant AND I can no longer use the excuse, "I just had a baby".

There are days I feel like giving up but I still push through. I ran my first 5km trail run and my first 10km road race, I finished -  that is all that matters to me - it was tough, my knees are still killing me. YAY to me!

I start with a fitness coach in January and I am so looking forward to having structure in my life. Yes I have structure but answering to someone at the end of the day is just far more appealing to me. The dietician I go to once every 4 weeks and losing 2kg's every four weeks and then gaining a kilo is just not helping me and she isn't able to assist me with training. I need more than someone telling me my hormones are still out of sync and this is why I am battling to lose the weight - this isn't a good enough excuse for me.
So, this coach works off an app that I have to download onto my phone, my weekly exercise routines and goals, my weekly meal plans are all loaded onto my profile and he tracks my progress - so no skipping a workout for me otherwise coach will know and it won't be pretty. Once a week we have Skype sessions, sort of like a counselling session. It may not sound exciting to a lot of people but it appeals to me...BRING ON JANUARY - operation wedding dress needs to commence!

Physically:

My knees still ache and I walk like an old person but I reckon it has something to do with the extra weight I am carrying around too - this too shall pass!

Emotionally: I am great!

 

And just like that, He is 4 Months Old ~ Camden Kingsley Loxton

 

Oh Camden our little boy! How much you have changed.

We can tell he is a growing boy because we have had to do some shopping again. I'm in denial of him having outgrown his Baby Next onesies and I think I need to stop trying to put him in them at the hope he may have shrunk overnight. His poor toes get all curled over when I try squash him in them but I just love those Next onesies so much. This little boy is killing our pockets when it comes to having to buy him clothing to fit him constantly. We are thankful that summer is here as this means less clothing lol!

We have definitely seen some major development in this last month. He is extremely attentive of late and can see us from a distance. When you call him while standing quite far away he looks to find you and smiles,  except when he is totally glued to his Baby Einstein videos, try get his attention when he is watching these - not going to happen, typical boy or should I say  - Like father like son! He is such an inquisitive little boy, wants to see what is happening everywhere.

He has started to smile back at you when you smile at him and even laughs at you sometimes for no apparent reason or if you laugh he laughs too. Sometimes when you give him a smile he lets out a loud screech followed by a belly giggle while he scrunches his face and tries to hide his face with his hands or in your shoulder if you are holding him - he is such a character these days!

He has really grown a liking to specific toys and gets extremely excited when he sees them, so excited that he makes this weird sound with his mouth and spit goes flying everywhere. His excitement levels have reached an all time high this month. When we have play time he pulls his entire body stiff, arms tight at his side, scrunches his face that he sports a double chin , makes this weird sound with his mouth as I mentioned above and then he kicks his legs like crazy and screeches with delight. It is SO funny! He is copying us on a daily basis, we have to really start watching what we say or do these days.

His hand eye-coordination has drastically improved. I was quite concerned that he may be a slow developer in this department and that the only deadly grip he would ever have is the perfect grip he gets of my hair that leaves me in agony most days. I was wrong, he has a lot more control over his hands and fingers now, somehow they seems to be cooperating with him these days. Before I would sit and watch him staring at his hand as if his brain was telling it to move but the message was just not reaching its destination and you could see his frustration, poor little guy. He has started reaching for things, and holds them so tight, if those toys were alive he would be cutting off circulation....poor Sophie the giraffe, she stands no chance, she is strangled daily along with spending most of her day in Camden's mouth.

Camden giving Sophie loves after he has tried to eat her.

Playtime with Cam has become extra awesome because he is more interactive and he makes us laugh more than we make him laugh. He is just the cutest little guy. We are so blessed.

How Big?: We unfortunately missed his check-up this week due to the lady writing the incorrect appointment date in our book so we have rescheduled  for the 27th. I have however weighed him and he is weighing 8.4kg but we shall wait until he is measured at the clinic as they are more accurate.

Clothing Size: He is able to still fit into some of his 6-9 month clothing but he is also wearing 6-12 month clothing.

Eating: He is still eating roughly every 3 and a half to 4 hours during the day. We have however started him on rice cereal and some veggies in the morning with his 10am feed. He loves his food, finishes it all and opens his mouth as the spoon approaches. He has also started watching you eat, almost as if he is waiting for you to give him some, soon I will be able to teach him that it is rude to stare at people while they eating lol. Once we go for the check up at the clinic we may incorporate some more "solid" meals and see how it goes but for now the small bit of cereal or veggies he is getting is fine for me as I don't want to rush giving him solids. The last few days before he turned 4 months we struggled to get him to finish a bottle. He was only drinking 100ml at a time and I thought perhaps it was because he seemed to be suffering with some sinus problems and they cleared up in two days - our little boy is just like his daddy. Come to think of it, I know this is off topic but besides the teething issues and sinus he is a really healthy boy, we have no issues and he is never sick.

Sleep: This has changed again, but I am not complaining! It has improved drastically over the last few months, he no longer cries when he wakes up, now he makes a little noise so you know he is awake and then when you say morning he starts smiling - melts my heart.He is now napping after his 5am/6am feed. He eats and goes right back to sleep until about 7/7.30am so this gives me time to work out and it gives daddy an extra hours sleep. He is still awake a lot more in the day and some days only has those little 20minute cat naps I mentioned last month. At night after his 6pm feed and bath he wants to go "sleep" right away and sometimes he sleeps from the minute you put him down until we wake him at 10/11pm to feed him* or he tummy times in his cot and amuses himself and then passes out. We used to make the mistake of taking him out assuming he wasn't tired when we thought he was but we have now learnt to leave him because he is going to pass out soon and he wants to be in his cot...weird?!

Another new thing now, we struggle to get him to sleep some days but only if he becomes over tired. If he is even slightly overtired you will have a problem on your hands, he will fight and perform and you can just hear that absolute exhausted cry. You will then end up putting him to sleep on your shoulder with a blanket over his head while he is crying and then he just literally passes out. It is like one massive fight and then silence a few minutes later, sometimes Wayne and I laugh because we are like, why does he put up such a massive fight to go sleep when he is so tired. He isn't the type of child who just falls asleep where he is, if he is tired he will moan a bit and then you know you must put him in his cot or pram in the next few minutes otherwise you will have a major problem and have to deal with a tired crying child. There is a difference between a normal moan or a tired moan and the minute you see him rubbing his eyes or nose or doing the tired moan you know to put him straight in his pram if we are out or in his cot if we are home and he goes to sleep. Fighting with him to sleep when he is over tired is NOT fun, it is a nightmare!

* Yes we wake him to feed him around 10/11pm still because we fear if we don't wake him he will wake up around 2/3am to feed, like he was when I took his 10pm bottle away in the past when the clinic sister tried to get us to put him on that terrible schedule. We have however decided to see if he will sleep from 8pm to 5am though because when we wake him to feed him around 10pm, he literally dream feeds and passes out after his nappy change - but we will do this over a weekend when daddy and mommy don't have to work and feel exhausted.

Movement: He is like a wild child these days in his jumperoo, he really gives that toy a good go. He pushes himself up his cot, our bed or up Wayne's chest with his feet and trying to change his nappy is becoming increasingly difficult as he moves non stop and turns to look at the different things that catch his eye. He only ever sleeps on his tummy but I have found him on his side often when I come into the room. He has rolled over from his tummy to his back but he hasn't mastered the art just yet, he still looks rather awkward when he tries to do this. He is a lot sturdier when he sits now and doesn't fall over as much when you prop him up.

Milestones:
 

• Ate his first "solids" in week 14
• Perfected the art of rolling onto his side in week 14
• Started really belly laughing around the end of week 14
• Started to hold his own bottle around week 15, not totally unassisted as he drops it sometimes and then we need to help him. 
• Rolled onto his back in week 16, but as I said he has definitely not mastered this art just yet, he looks very uncomfortable and you have to push his arm flat against his side  first and then he can do it, his arm gets in the way of him rolling as he pushes it out straight all the time. He needs to figure this out on his own.
• Laughs when mommy sneezes or when granny makes funny noises from about week 16

• Started to roll into a ball on your lap and hold onto his toes( not for long periods of time as he can't quite get a strong enough grip on his toes) around the end of week 16
• Started shaking his rattle and not just holding it in week 16
• Around week 16 he started copying everything daddy does and some of the things mommy or granny does. If daddy sticks out his tongue so does Camden.
• Went on his first beach outing with mommy and daddy.
• His first walk on the promenade in his baby carrier and not in his pram, he would cry before if he wasn't laying on his stomach in his pram
• Everything else I mentioned in month 3 he has just improved on and by improve I mean he is a lot better at sitting unassisted, he is baby talking a lot more and is way more alert and his hand and eye coordination has improved drastically.

 Sitting unassisted but he has improved a lot since these pictures were taken at the end of week 14

 

Excitement this month: Mommy and daddy got engaged this month, if you missed the blog post have a look here

All in all, the weeks from month 3 to 4, were great. Our boy is really developing and we are loving him more with each passing day.

 

Seventeen weeks post-partum: Back into the full swing of training. I have started to train in the mornings for an hour each day before I start work. I do a bit of cardio and strength training. Some days I run as I am practising for my first trail run in December. I have also entered the Spur Trail run series which kicks off in January, 4 races in total and ends in February 2015. The dietitian, Alex Royal that I mentioned I am seeing, I go for check ups every 4 weeks and my last weigh in, I lost 2kg in 3 weeks (slow but it is something). I am eating a healthy ,well balanced diet with loads of fruits and veggies, good carbs and lean meat. Weight loss is going to be a lot slower than when I previously used to diet for competitions (this I need to wrap my mind around still) as this eating plan is well balanced and not a quick fix to losing weight fast but the positive is that I get to eat all different types of food not just chicken, fish, chicken, fish and some broccoli.

Physically: My joints seem to be easing up, my knees still ache but other than feeling stiff and sore from training, I am feeling good physically.

Emotionally: I'm in a good space. I have my one or two off days here and there but who doesn't?



 

 

Family funday.

Doing family activities outdoors in winter proved to be rather difficult at times especially with a young baby but winter is long gone and we no longer have an excuse to stay indoors and hibernate, even though I know Wayne would hibernate all year long if he could....I won't let him!

Our weeks are so busy that real uninterrupted quality family time isn't possible. Wayne works and I work half day from home at the moment until January( then I go back to being at work full time) and even though we are with each other a lot during the day,most of that time isn't quality family time because we are so busy working, getting ready for the next day or preparing dinner, doing washing, seeing to Camden...the list is endless.

We decided recently that in order to get out and spend quality time as a family, Sunday would become our designated family funday and so it has.

It doesn't have to involve money or doing something that involves a lot of money, the point is to just get out as a family and have fun. It does wonders for my soul to get extra special quality time with my boys.

During the week we work to a sort of schedule so we have a balance with work and everyday family life and on the weekends we haven't had much of a set plan which meant we were staying at home a lot or getting out so late in the day because getting yourself and a baby ready for the day when you haven't planned to get out early means you end up leaving around 11am only. This doesn't work for me, I need to be out and about...cabin fever and I do not work!

We have put together a list of things we would like to do and we have already started ticking off items on the funday "to do" list.

I look forward to a QUALITY summer spent with my boys.