A few months ago I was sent the UPPABABY Vista Pram to review, and I also wrote my first thoughts of the Vista pram. Before writing this main review, I wanted to try the pram out for a good few weeks before writing up my thoughts. I have been on many walks with the Vista and using it daily for school runs, it's been on a beach, rocky paths and even through wind and rain. I have also used the carrycot, toddler seat, and Kiddy UK car seat.

Welcome back to this week's #besttimescaptured. I have been pretty behind with this and that is mainly because life is getting in the way. I am trying best to keep on top of things and as Freddie has started to go longer between feeds and settling around 9-10pm each evening, I am trying to scheduele posts as much as I can. This week I'll be showing the past two winners of #besttimescaptured.

What is #BestTimesCaptured?

Best Times Captured is an Instagram community where you share your best captured photos. I love taking photos and that was one of my reasons for starting #BestTimesCaptured. I would hugely appreciate it if you could support my Instagram hashtag/community. Another great reason to use the hashtag #BestTimesCaptured is you'll be entering to win yourself a POPBOOK. There will be one winner each week for the next couple of months. 

Our past two winners...

A photo posted by Christina (@ladybughomedesigns) on Oct 29, 2016 at 12:45am PDT

A photo posted by Sabrina (@themummystylist) on Oct 18, 2016 at 1:28pm PDT

Huge congratulations to you both for winning yourselves a POPBOOK each!

"Happy Halloween"

Hello! Happy Halloween everyone (tomorrow). Firstly, thank you to everyone who's linked up. I haven't managed to comment yet but I will get round to it this week. The girls were off school this week, so I've had no time to read or comment posts this week - sorry! I hope you all have a lovely week and stay safe this Halloween. 

Parenting is tough. There are many days when we feel like we're not doing a good enough job but we're trying our hardest. At the end of the day, we always remember the good times over the bad times. But every parent deserves some time off and a break. Having a break can be good for both parent and child. Some parents may struggle on what to do while they are child-free. Here are a few ideas;

Spinmaster has released a new modern Noddy toy range this Autumn, and this Noddy House Playset is one of them. We were given this playset to review and the girls were so excited when they saw the box. The playset contains a Noddy figure, Rev the car and a removable spaceship bed. We were also given two other figures. This colourful house comes with a side that attaches to the side and a lift that makes a noise when it goes up and down.

Mia has always shown an interest in art, design and creating her own things. When I got asked if we would like to review Gel-A-Peel, I was interested to see what designs Mia and Elliw would do. You can create your jewellery with Gel-A-Peel by their three easy steps: Design, Peel and Wear! The girls were super excited when they saw the box and couldn't wait to get started.

We were given some Halloween party goodies to enjoy whilst watching the new Bing! DVD which is out now. The girls have always loved watching Bing!, so they were both super excited when I told them they were having a little party. We watched the DVD, decorated a carrot cake (which was very tasty!) and carved a pumpkin which they really enjoyed.

When you're wanting to lose weight or maintain a healthy lifestyle, you need to eat healthily. But even when eating healthy, it's still nice to have a little treat now and then. What I have found it there aren't many treats such as desserts out there which you can enjoy guilt free, until I tried these Weight Watchers desserts. I was given some vouchers to purchase some Weight Watchers desserts. It took me a while to find, but I finally found Toffee and Honeycomb Sundaes. This pack contains 2 packs of low fat sundaes.

I've never been a fan of Halloween, but I must admit that I love clothes shopping during Halloween. I have noticed this year especially, that there are so many lovely outfits and adorable fancy dress costumes. House of Fraser have some cute and affordable Halloween fancy dress costumes and outfits. I've listed a few of my favourite pieces from House of Fraser's current fancy dress range:

There are so many adorable Halloween outfits out recently. My girls are dressing up at bats this year but I am still looking for something for Freddie. With the two long sleeved tops above, you could team them up with some joggers, Halloween leggings or a skirt and leggings/tights for girls. I am truly in love with the baby dinosaur, how adorable is the outfit?

What are your little ones dressing up as this Halloween?

So much money goes into buying a house, but if you are thinking of moving house soon or in a few years time, you may need to do a bit of work to improve the value of your property. Balustrade Components have put a quick survey together asking a few questions on how you think you can improve a value of property, which you can fill out here.

H E L L O ! !

I hope you've all had a brilliant week. My girls are off school for the rest of the week now. I've got a few things planned but I hope it just goes smoothly and not like how the Summer holidays were. I managed to comment on all your posts last week and I loved reading them all. 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and week. Happy linking!

It was roughly this time last year when I fell pregnant but little did I know that I had started growing a little human inside of me. I remember taking so many pregnancy tests and taking some on the sly without my partner knowing because he would have thought I was nuts taking so many. I was just confused to why my period was so late, and every test I had was negative. I had booked a doctors appointment and even the blood test there was negative. I was told to wait at least a week, a long week that was.

I received some bottles of ProWater to try out. ProWater is a high protein and low-calorie drink which comes in three flavours: Blueberry, Red Berries and Citrus Mint. I received the blueberry and red berries to try. I found them appetising and best to drink when chilled. My partner also enjoyed the drinks. ProWater is a great alternative drink to shakes and protein bars that you may see in gyms.

During your pregnancy, you will have to decide how you would like to feed your baby. You can feed breastfeeding, express milk in a bottle or formula feeding. I formula fed both my girls and currently breastfeeding my son. I was very lucky that Freddie latched on straight away, even though he has tongue tie. Although breastfeeding is much easier than bottle feeding because you don't have the hassle of sterilising and preparing bottles before you go out. But with breastfeeding some mothers suffer low confidence of feeding in public such as cafes and restaurants. Negative comments and press don't help the situation even though breastfeeding is natural and no one should have a problem with the way you feed your baby.

One of the most important things to think about during your pregnancy is deciding on a name. To begin with we had no clue what to call our baby when I was pregnant. Elliw is a Welsh name and one thing we both agreed on was not to choose another welsh name. We both sat down one evening and thought about different names for both genders. We didn't come up with a big list but my favourite names for a girl were: Sienna and my partner liked the name Lily. For a boy I fell in love with the name Jac.

As a breastfeeding Mum you want to make sure you're giving your baby the best start in life. In the first few weeks a breastfeeding Mum should try her best to eat the right things to help increase her milk supply. Many worries go through a nursing Mum's mind, such as; "Is baby getting enough milk?", "Is my milk supply low?", "Can I do this?" and so on. It's only natural to think those thoughts, especially if you feel like your baby is constantly stuck on you. But there are other reasons your baby may want to be on you constantly:

I've never been these best at socialising with people I don't know. But when Mia was born, I decided to take myself to a local baby group and I'm glad I did because Mia loved it and I managed to make some friends from the group too. I went to 2 baby groups when Mia was little but stopped when Elliw was born. When Elliw was born I had already moved to the village we currently live at now for about 6 months. It was too far for me to attend the baby groups I had attended with Mia, which was a shame.

H E L L O !

Happy Sunday! We have something new to share with you. I've decided to change the linkies days to Sunday until Thursday. This means that I can have more time for linky and be able to comment on everyone's posts in time. I have been unable to do last week's but pop over by Monday and I will have written top commenters and favourite posts by then. I look forward to read all your posts this.

I am finding it hard to believe that Freddie is 3 months old. These 3 months have flown by but they have been the best 3 months ever. It's been amazing watching him grow and watching him be the boy who he is today. He has grown so much and it's hard to think that he used to be so small. It doesn't seem that long ago that I wrote his announcement on the blog and even his first month update. It's all gone so quick.

When I think of pickling vinegar I always think of pickled onions. I never really thought of any other recipe to do with pickling vinegar until we were sent some products by Sarson's and my partner and I thought of a few others whilst also surfing the web for more recipes on the Sarson's website. We were shocked to see a lot of recipes available on their site. Here are just a few:

For many months my partner and I have been thinking about booking a weekend away somewhere but we just didn't know where. We both started to think about a Haven holiday as we thought it may be great for the kids and that is what we wanted. We then thought about inviting some friends and their kids with us too. We all booked a caravan for the 7th of October until the 10th of October. The girls were so excited. The location was only about 30 minutes or less from where we live and with Freddie being so young and our friends babies' being near the same age as Freddie and their other youngest just 1 years old, we thought the closest one would be best.

#BestTimesPhotos is an Instagram community where you share your best time captured photos. There have been such adorable photos shared recently. The tag is sponsored by the lovely people over at POPBOOK. Anyone who uses the hashtag will be automatically entered for a chance to win a lovel y popbook.

Here is more information about the community:

I love reading things about other people and one kind of post I haven't really done is a post just about me. I have been blogging for a long time now and I think it's kind of time I sort of come out of my shell and let my readers know a little bit more about it, personal or not. I have nothing to hide about myself and I'd rather people know this person behind the screen. So, I've written some things you may not know about me, some facts:

1. I was bullied all through high school - it was hell.
2. I used to be that kind of 'Emo' person back at high school.
3. I have dyed my hair countless of times.
4. I've dyed my hair bright red once.
5. I have lived with my partner for 6 years.
6. I fell pregnant with my first at the age of 16.
7. I got beaten up at school because I refused to get off a bench where that bully told me to move.
8. My Mother does nothing with me or my kids.
9. I am the eldest of one sister and 5 brothers.
10. I have a liver disorder when I'm pregnant
11. My liver can't handle alcohol much anymore.
12. I have been blogging for three and a half years.
13. I have never attended a blogging event.
14. I am a shy person.
15. I only have a handful of friends I trust.
16. I have moved 3 times in 6 years.
17. My favourite programme is Hollyoaks.
18. My all time favourite programme is FRIENDS
19. One of my favourite films is Father of the bride
20. Beauty and beast is one of my favourite childhood films
21. I've always struggled with my weight
22. I got 'touched up' in high school - he got suspended for 1 week.
23. I am a very forgetful person.
24. I've had depression twice.
25. The sound of someone gulping and chewing makes me feel sick

"Look at the world with a child's eye... it's beautiful"

#BestTimesPhotos is an Instagram community where you share your best time captured photos. There have been such adorable photos shared recently. The tag is sponsored by the lovely people over at POPBOOK. Anyone who uses the hashtag will be automatically entered for a chance to win a lovel y popbook.

Here is more information about the community:

Happy Saturday! I hope everyone had a great week. The sun has been shining all week for us but it was quite chilly Thursday. I am quite glad to say that I am loving Autumn, finally it's here. Not many people linked up last week but I really hope more people join this linky and I so hope it gets back to how it used to be.

When I first started high school I felt the same as most of the other kids starting, nervous but also a little excited. Few months down the line it all changed. I wanted to change schools, I wanted to skip days off. I just didn't fit in anywhere. It got a little better but then it just went worse again. The 'group' of people I was in didn't accept me for who I was. They didn't accept me, for me. I had 5 people I was best friends with and they accepted me, but the rest? I still have no idea to this day what their problem was with me.

Parenthood is hard. It's exhausting and every Mum deserves a break but sometimes we can't get a break when we want. So that is when the bathroom becomes our best friend and our best hide out (for most anyway!) There are many reasons bathrooms are great for us Mums to 'hide' from the kids just to have that two minute peace and quiet.

My girls have always loved a bed time story. We always try and read some different books most nights before they go to sleep but they always have that favourite book they love. Mia is currently at the stage of wanting to read herself now, so I try to make sure we have books that are suitable for her age and suitable for her to try and read the book herself. Otherwise, I read the book to all three children whilst snuggled up in bed. Most nights I will do a few things such as asking questions about the book so they can also learn, as well as having fun. 

Here are a few other ways you can learn and have fun reading a book with your children:

When I fell pregnant with my first child I knew straight away that I wanted to formula bottle feed her. I had no information about breastfeeding and if I am quite honest - I was not interested either. I felt too young in myself to breastfeed as I had just turned 17 years old. When I had my second child at 19 years old I decided to formula feed again but a few weeks down the line I regretted my choice and wish I had more encouragement and information about breastfeeding to somehow change my mind. However, since then I regretted my decision to formula feed my second child and so I promised myself if I ever had another child, I would breastfeed.

Having a newborn baby is exciting but also really exhausting. Sleepless nights, getting used to life with a newborn after your body going through labour and giving birth is exhausting. Although newborn babies just cry, feed and sleep it may not sound much or exhausting at all but it is. Mums are very vulnerable in the first few weeks after giving birth, so it is important to let her know that you are there for her - whenever (if she needs you). There are a few ways you can help a new Mum in the first few weeks:

Happy Saturday and welcome to #justanotherliny. A linky where you can link up any two posts, any genre from all kinds of bloggers around the world. I need to apologise for last week. Things got on top of me and I was unable to run last weeks linky and I haven't had time to read all posts yet - life got in the way, I apologise. This week is back to normal so I look forward to reading your posts.

As always: This linky is for all bloggers. Link up any kind of posts but remember don't link and jump! Be sure to read the guidelines below before linking.

* PLEASE LINK UP A BLOG POST AND NO MORE THAN TWO POSTS*

*  G U I D E L I N E S *

1. You can link up one or two posts, no more
2. If you link up to #justanotherlinky, I'd really appreciate it if you could take the time to comment on the post just before yours and 2 others {and more if you can}
3. It would be great if you could comment on host post - but you don't have too! 
4. Any topics/blogs allowed but must be family-friendly
5. Link must lead directly to a blog post
6. Remember to leave #justanotherlinky when commenting

- Please do not link up more than two posts

- Linky is now open from Saturday until Monday 11.55pm. 

* S O C I A L  M E D I A *

TWITTER

- Feel free to tweet your post to me @lifeasmumblog and @mylifeasamummyx and use the #justanotherlinky hashtag, we shall re-tweet you

- If we are not following you, please leave a comment on this page and let us know Or tweet us!

- If you would like to be reminded on the morning of when the linky is open, do let us know

FACEBOOK

We do have a Facebook page. Which you can find here. It would be great if you could all join, pretty please! It's basically a support page and a page you can share you posts. I will do a weekly thread too. More details to come on the page. 

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