Happy Birthday Anabel!!!

Last week was a very exciting week in our house. Apart from being my birthday on the Tuesday (which doesn’t seem so important now), our little princess had her 1st birthday!!!

Thursday 14th June 2012 –  HAPPY BIRTHDAY BELLA!!!

We got up extra early so she could open up some cards and presses before MrV went to work, here she is playing peek-a-boo with one of her new books… she did this with most of her cards too!

MrV and I bought her a Smart Trike, I think she was happy with it…

and it even came with a handy little phone incase she needs to make an important phone call!

Granny and Grandpa came over a bit later and we all went for a trip into town with her new toy, I got to play at steering her, though I think I need a bit more practice! We saw a couple of friends who had got her pressies too, she is a very lucky girl 🙂

On the Friday (15th June) MrV booked the day off work so we took her for her first visit to Whispnade Zoo. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t as great as it had been the day before, but she got to see lots of different animals and she seemed to love it. Here are a few of my favourite pics from the zoo…

Checking out the monkeys…

Up close and personal with a hippo!

She spotted a tiny mara

This is my favourite 🙂

On Saturday (16th June), it was Bella’s party! MrV and I were already exhausted after being up til nearly 1am the night before baking and icing cakes, and putting up the balloons and banners, it was going to be a tiring day! Little miss chilled out in her pj’s until Granny and Grandpa got round, then they took her out for a walk so we could hoover in peace! It wasn’t long before the guests started arriving, perfectly timed with the birthday girl waking up from her morning nap. Here are my favourite pics from the day…

What are those flashy light things mummy?

Ooh, my cakes!

This is my absolute favourite, my very little birthday princess 🙂

So much has happened in the space of a year, it’s gone so very quick. Whatever happened to my teeny tiny baby?! She’s definitely growing up already, I can’t wait to show her all of the photos and cards when she’s older, she was (is) a very spoilt little miss, I hope she enjoyed her birthday 🙂 xxx

SECRET POST #6

(posted 23rd July 2012)

An alert popped up on my phone this morning… “you are 9 weeks pregnant” as if I’d not remembered! There’s not been a day that’s gone by in the last few weeks where I’ve not either felt sick or been sick. Today it’s both 😦

I’m not normally one to do the whole ‘woe is me’ thing, but I’m really struggling. Bella is so active now, when she’s still it’s probably only because she’s asleep! I seem to have less and less energy, so I’m finding I have to lay on the sofa and just watch her play rather than join in, I feel really mean. I should count myself very lucky that she’s quite happy playing on her own though, she’s recently taken to crawling into her playpen to read a book and closing the ‘door’ behind her!!

Merci Maman : my Jubilee bracelets

I was just browsing Facebook the other day, as you do, when I spotted a competition with a company called Merci Maman, this got my attention.

Merci Maman (click here to visit their website) is a company that specialises in personalised gifts, mainly jewellery but not exclusively, and to tell you the truth I’ve been eying up their necklaces and bracelets for quite a while now.

The competition, to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee last weekend, was to win not one but two bracelets. All I had to do was fill out a form, there was no question I wasn’t going to enter! Here is the photo they posted to lure us magpies in…

… two bracelets, engraved on both sides, blue with silver and red with gold! I think I might even have left it until a couple of hours before the competition closed to enter, but it was worth a shot, right?

CORRECT! The competition closed at 12pm on Friday 1st June. My phone rang at just gone 1.30pm, I’d not for one minute thought it was them calling! It was Clemence, one of the lovely ladies that works at Merci Maman, she sounded as happy as I was when she told me! I never imagined my prize(s!!) would be with me so soon, what with the bank holiday weekend just starting. Again, I was wrong!

Saturday morning, I had a knock on my door, a special delivery for me, look…

The bracelets were each in their own box, and they even came with a little card congratulating me on winning them! I didn’t waste any time putting them on, after all, it was the Jubilee weekend! 

So many people have commented on these, and I am so impressed. Ok, the engraving is not perfect (notice the slightly wonky flag in the above picture?) but they’re hand engraved, which is so much more individual. I’m hoping I can purchase some personalised jewellery in the future, maybe a necklace this time? *hint hint MrV* 

SECRET POST #5

(posted 23rd July 2012)

I’m almost 7 weeks pregnant, or so we think. I say this as my last period wasn’t really ‘normal’, it never really kicked in, so I’m either nearly 7 or nearly 11! I was only saying to MrV the other day that I was worried as I didn’t feel pregnant, I didn’t have any real symptoms. How wrong can you be?! The following day I started feeling sick, I’m massively bloated (which is secretly why I’m hoping I’m more than nearly 7 weeks, as my belly is getting big already, either that or I need to stop eating!) I’ve had horrendous mood swings, and the last two days I’ve cried on and off all day.
It’s so awful having to hide it. I can talk to less than a handful of people about it, but on the other hand I don’t want to talk about it as I’m so paranoid something is going to happen. Just this last weekend we’ve been out to visit people for the Jubilee celebrations and I’ve had mini meltdowns as nothing seems to fit, already. It would be fine if we were sure everything was ok and we’d had our scan, then I wouldn’t have to hide my belly. That being said, a lovely girl we know is also expecting, she’s more than 20 weeks now, and I look bigger than her, it’s so depressing 😦
I guess I just need to be patient and wait for the midwife to contact me so I can tell her about my confusing dates, again. I remember this all too well from being pregnant with Bella!

Silent Sunday