Fantastic!

 

That is my word of the week! The week has been blooming well fantastic too. A week today will be the night before we go away to Thailand so we are all very excited. A massive plus for this week is that both girls have been fantastic and so well behaved. Yes there has probably been a couple of arguments between them but that is normal right? Ignoring the one or two arguments my girls have been perfectly well behaved this week.

 

This is my first week of joining this great link up! Hope to link up to it as often as I can too!

 

 

With having my first daughter when I was 17 years old I haven't really had any girly nights in. I've had maybe two or three where I have gone over to a friends house and had some food and a film but these days I am at home every night with my girls and my partner. I don't really have the energy or the money to go out but when I do then I really look forward to it and make sure I have a good time. My ideal girls night in would be with a few drinks, pamper treatments, loads of chocolates and snacks and a few films, maybe even a takeaway too. I plan to have a girly night in soon, plus my partner works most Saturday evenings until around 4am so it will be nice to have a few friends over for a night in. Especially being a mum of two very hyper little girls it is always nice to have a little break now and then.

How would you like to win a great Girls Night In Bundle?!

Prize includes:

x2 DVD's - Blended, The Other Woman from Cashgenerator
7" gourmet chocolate pizza from Qwerkity
Bing board game, x4 Face masks and £15 Supermarket vouchers of your choice! from BingoPaddyPower.

To enter, all you have to do is read the Terms and Conditions then enter the giveaway by using the Rafflecopter below.

Terms and Conditions.
1. UK residents only.
2. Winner with my notified via e-mail within 24 hours.
3. Giveaway ends 5th March 10pm.
4. No cheating.






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The past few weeks I have been having atleast two or three, maybe more cups of teas. I was never a lover of having coffee or tea before but all of a sudden I have to have one in the morning and before I go to bed! I guess it is just a habit now. We have another fantastic giveaway for my lovely readers! One lucky reader will receive a cute His & Hers mug made by Specialist name badge makers.

For your chance to win please read the Terms and Conditions, then enter by using the Rafflecopter below. Good luck!

Terms and Conditions.
1. Winner will be contacted via E-mail.
2. Winner will be contacted within 24 hours.
3. UK residents only.
4. No cheating please.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How would you like to win £50 to spend at Custom Canvas? Well we are giving one lucky reader the chance to win this great prize. Custom Canvas make high quality photo canvases and they also do some personal custom jigsaws. This would be great for a gift for that special person this Valentines.

For your chance to win £50 to spend over at Custom Canvas all you have to do is read the Terms and Conditions and then do your entry on the Rafflecopter.

Good luck everyone!

  Terms and conditions.
This competition is open to UK residents only. 
  The winner will be randomly selected and contacted directly by Custom Canvas.
  The voucher will be for £50 to be used on the Custom Canvas website and has no cash value.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

On a previous post I mentioned that we are going to Thailand for nearly 3 weeks in February. Although I am super excited, I am also dreading it. The main part I am dreading is the travelling, having to hang around the airport with a 5 year old and a nearly 3 year old. They are right monsters at home and right little madams when we go to shops so how are they going to be in an airport and how are they going to be on the plane for nearly 13 hours and 15 hours back?!

You're probably thinking we are mad right?! I totally agree. A few people have told us. However, it will be worth it since we will be staying there for 20+ days. My partners parents have a house there which looks lovely, and I can't wait too see it. Expect a lot of photos when we come back.

The past few weeks I have been looking around for things to keep the girls entertained in the airport and on the plane. I know there are going to be a few strops and tantrums, they're kids at the end of the day! Totally different routine, they will get tired and probably try their best to stay up as much as they can because of a different scenery! We will see.

Innotab 3S
We are actually going to be reviewing this soon! I really can't wait. We bought an iPad not so long ago and unlucky the girls' tablet broke! So we have been worrying that they are going to fight over the iPad. So I am hoping that they will be happy enough to share the iPad and the Innotab! I am really looking forward to reviewing this with you all. Mia used to have a Leappad about 2 years ago, the batteries were awful so I am hoping this will be much better.

Paper & Pens
I am deffintley going to buying some travelling stationary for the girls. Especially Mia! They both loving writing, drawing and colouring so I am hoping they will be entertained with these things too.

Childrens Books.
I will bring along some books to read the girls. They both love being read too so this should help a bit too.

Fault In Our Stars
My brother has given me this book so I am going to read it on the plane if I get a chance, along with a load of other magazines!

What things have you taken to travel abroad with children? I'd love to know please!

As my previous post is about what I achieved in 2014 I thought I would write up what I would like to achieve in this new year 2015. If you hadn't read what I had achieved in 2014 then you can read about it here.

Blogging.
I would really like to be more organised with blogging. The past few months haven't been all that good for me with blogging as I just felt I didn't have the time and when I did have the time then I just wanted to relax and be lazy basically! So I am going to try my best for this year to get my blogging skates on and be a bigger and better blogger than I have been! Especially that I will be nearing my 2 year blogaversary!

First Holiday
In February I will be heading off to Thailand for 3 weeks so yet again I do hope I will have some scheduled posts written up for my readers whilst I am away! I am really looking forward to spending my first holiday with my partner, both my girls and my partners parents. I've never gone abroad before so it will be an interesting experience for me.

Reach my weight target.
My biggest dream for this year would be to reach my goal weight by Christmas. However, I wouldn't mind if I am about a stone under target. As I need to loose about 4 stone now so I do hope that I will reach target and be a size 12.

Get a job.
Since I had to quit my job before Christmas and I am going on holiday in February I have given a 'job search' a break. However, I have e-mailed one company about a job and explaining I am going on holiday so hoping can work something out. In the meantime I am leaving the job search until March. Ideally, I will need a job that does 16+ hours on a weekend or evenings because otherwise I will be paying more out to childcare again than I am earning!

New business to grow.
I have started a new business at home. It has just started so not fully 100% yet. It is a Gift Hamper business and I will update you more when it grows a bit more, hopefully.

Get into shape
Along with loosing weight I would like to go out for more walks do more home exercises and get into better shape! I feel good when I do my home work outs however it takes a lot of patience to do it! But once I start I am fine and I don't want to stop!

Save money
This year I have started my Park vouchers this month. My aim is to keep paying every month. Also I want to save up in cash which I will start after my holiday. I really hope to stick to it and save up for maybe another holiday next year!

Where did 2014 go?! It went way too fast. I'm thinking back and trying to think of all the things we did! So I thought it would be a good idea to jot it down. 2014 was a good year for us although we had a few bumpy rides, who doesn't?!

My youngest daughter turned 2 years old. Having 2 children really does make life fly by! Here I wrote a little post for her to look back at when she is older. Not long after her 2nd birthday she got a place in playgroup which you can read about here.

It was an exciting year for my eldest daughter as Mia had a very first school report. Also she started full time school which was very scary for me but also very exciting and proud seeing my first baby girl going to school 9am until 3pm.

This is one day I will never forget. The day I climbed Snowdon. We went the hardest way, I ended up crying because I actually felt my legs were going to give up and I had a few slip ups on the way. I just felt I was climbing rock after rock and it was never ending but of course I did it and we went down the easy-ish way. One of my biggest achievement.

I GOT A JOB!

Yes! I got a job, I had an interview and a few days after I got a call to say I got it. I as really excited. You can read the post here. Unfortunately I had to quit the job after a month and a half as it wasn't enough hours and I was basically paying out more to childcare than I was earning so I thought what was the point? So sadly, I had to quit. However, I am currently looking for a 16+ hour job.

 

 

Another fantastic experience was seeing Jessie J live! We were really lucky that she was performing in Colwyn Bay which is about just over an hour away from us. I went with one of my friends and we had a brilliant time. There were some other groups there to who were also great. One of them were called Neon Jungle and I honestly can't remember the other two groups! Jessie J was amazing singing live!

 

 

By the end of the Summer Elliw became fully toilet trained! It really has saved us on buying nappies however when Mia's toilet problem gets better it will save us even more money! Elliw shocked us all on how quick she learned.

 

 

The most exciting thing we did this year was buy our very own home. Looking back that this time last year we were still our Private Rent house. We didn't want to carry on living in Private Rent houses and we wanted a house we could call a home. Our offer got accepted not long after Christmas 2013 so it was very exciting. Here is our old Private Rent house and here are the posts about our new home: here & here.

I was very lucky to have the chance to have this helicopter experience with my nain and taid on himy taids 70th birthday. It was a surprise for him and he was really shocked and happy when he saw what it was. I was the first time I ever flown and it was an amazing experience! You can read the post and see more photos here.

Another exciting birthday was my nephews FIRST birthday. He had a little party a couple of days before his actual birthday so we went to that but was unable to go see him on his actual birthday because of my partner working and it would have been too late if we went there. He has grown so much, if you'd like to read a post about what I wrote then you can read it here.

I actually forgot to write a post about this so I thought I will just add it in here. On December the 4th the Coca Cola truck came to our town so we went to see it after my partner finished work. I was so excited! The girls didn't understand but we took our own photos as I was not going to que up in the huge que that was there!

Mia had a great 5th birthday party. Not many children were invited as I couldn't afford to pay for the whole class so I chose her good friends which she also chose too. I decided to do a Frozen Pamper theme party. All the children absolutely loved it. You can read more about the party here.

Last but not least! Christmas! We all had a fantastic Christmas. We all had too much too eat and the girls had too much presents ha ha! However, we all had a great time spent with family. You can read about our Christmas and Boxing Day here & here.

Me and my partner stayed at home New Year. The girls went to bed normal time. I had a few drinks - a bit too much ha ha. We had a lovely steak meal and just chilled all night.

Happy New Year everyone!

I was recently asked to review an item for ElesClothing. I decided to choose this gorgeous red jumper which I thought would be great just in time for Christmas and throughout the year. Not often do I buy myself new jumpers so I was really pleased when i got offered to review one clothing for myself. I was very pleased when I received this lovely red jumper. At first I did think the material would be quite itchy on my skin but when i put it on it was fine! The top is very comfortable to wear and warm too. It's a 3/4 sleeve top as you can see in the photos. The length of the top is a bit short on me but it looks nice with a black vest top underneath and a pair of jeans or leggings.  

 

 

 

Overall, I am very pleased about the jumper I received. It is one of my favourite jumpers in my wardrobe! You can purchase some wholesale stock here.

 

 

 

 

I was kindly sent this jumper free of charge to write an honest review.