We were given the UPPAbaby Vista pram over six months ago to review when Freddie arrived. Out of all the prams we've had since having Mia, the Vista has to be the best pram we've had. The pram gets used every single day on the school runs, our family adventures and anywhere else we need to use it. Freddie isn't in his carrycot anymore as he prefers to sit up and look around. He used to sleep in the pram as we were on the school run but now he's wide awake and interested in everything that we pass. He always gets compliments of his big blue eyes.

We've used the UPPAbaby on many grounds such as sand, rocky paths, smooth paths and grass. The pram is perfect for all kinds of grounds. Which is great as we tend to go on a lot of walks in different places. Freddie loves sitting in the toddler seat which can be put forward-facing or parent-facing. He's not been seated forward-facing yet as I like to see him when I push him and I think he's a bit too little to be forward-facing all the time. But, he will eventually be facing the other way, one day.

When I wrote my first thoughts on the pram when I received it, I fell in love with the size of the basket. I've also had a lot of people commenting on the size of the basket. In the past six months of using this pram, I've never had a problem to fit anything into the basket. The girls always put their school lunch bags and homework folders in the basket. I can still put many other things into the basket along with their school bags. It's the perfect size when I go out shopping for the day during the week and I've got to take the bus as all the shopping fits in the large basket.

As the pram coverts into a double pram, the back wheels are a little wider than a normal single pram. I have had trouble going into some shops because their doors weren't wide enough or the other side of the double doors were locked. I was worried about going on the bus for the first time but I hadn't needed to worry as the pram fitted perfectly in the pram space. It's only rarely I have trouble getting the pram through certain sized spaces.

We went for a little holiday last year and decided to use the carrycot as Freddie's sleeping crib for the 4 nights we were away. The carrycot is padded with a ventilated mattress and base which makes it suitable for overnight sleeping which is great if you are a family that loves travelling. It means you don't have to bring an extra item such as a travel cot. The carrycot is suitable from birth to six months of age.

We are currently using an universal cosy toes for the pram but UPPAbaby also do their own for the particular pram too. Six months on and I would still recommend this pram to anyone who is looking. We have been on many adventures and walks with the UPPAbaby and we are looking forward for a lot more in future.

You can read my full review on the UPPAbaby Vista 2015 here

Freddie turned six months old nearly two weeks ago now, and I do wish time would slow down, just a little. Although I really do love watching him grow each day, learn new things and reach new milestones, I must admit I do miss the newborn days. He's changed so much in nearly two weeks. Every single day he seems to do something a little different, and it's amazing watching him. He babbles a lot more now and has said 'ba ba' and 'ma ma' a few times, and although he probably has no idea what 'ma ma' means, I love it when he says it. He has definitely found his own voice now and babbles away when he's outdoors in his pram or when we're at home. He's not that quiet little baby that we once had. But he's learning new things and reaching new milestones, which is amazing.

Linking up with My Sunday Photo

For women, Valentine’s Day is often about looking the part and getting ready for the biggest date of the year. The most anticipated date in the calendar for many couples, girlfriends and wives will be on the hunt for the best beauty products in order to treat themselves and ensure they look great.

With many couples going out for dinner or other similar dates, Valentine’s Day is all about getting dressed up for the evening and looking your best! Spending quality time with your other half is incredibly important and Valentine’s Day is the perfect excuse to make some unforgettable memories together.

So, if you’re looking to ensure your makeup collection is stocked up for your customers this Valentine’s Day, there are endless options to choose from. Ensuring you have the correct beauty products for your customers to create their favourite looks, here are just a few of the top must-have wholesale cosmetics to get your hands on this year.

A Quality Moisturiser

Since Valentine’s Day occurs in the month of February, many women will be looking for the perfect products to fight the winter chill and keeping their complexion flawless. Stocking up on gentle but effective moisturisers can help lock in moisture and enable easy makeup application.

Protecting skin from the cold and wind that comes with the winter months, a quality moisturiser should be at the top of your essentials list!

Choosing the Right Foundation

Stocking up on the right foundation is a vital part of your makeup kit. The fundamental beauty product to start any makeup look with, there are hundreds of different shades in order to match various skin tones perfectly.

Research well and discover what foundation will suit the effect that you are looking for; you may discover that you prefer a matte finish while other occasions may call for a dewier glow. With so many reviews on the different brands of foundation, it’s important to find the right beauty products to complete your kit.

Brightening Up Your Look

Many women will choose to include a blusher in their makeup routine, in order to bring a little more life and definition to the overall look. Teaming foundation and powder with the perfect blusher can finish off the perfect makeup combination for Valentine’s Day. Choosing a variety of blushers to complete your collection means you can offer a number of different looks for Valentine’s Day.

With so many different shades available to suit a number of skin tones, you can create the desired appearance you’ve been looking for!

Work Some Magic by Applying Concealer

Concealer is one of the most versatile and magical beauty products on the market, offering many different purposes to create a number of different makeup looks. Whether it’s to mask dark circles, or even in the process of contouring and highlighting, concealer can be a very handy beauty product to have in your kit.

With so many shades to choose from, you might also need to make sure you invest in the right tools to apply concealer; whether it be a sponge or brush is entirely up to your preference!

The Finishing Touch

One of the best ways to finish off any makeup look is to invest in a flattering lipstick shade. Showing off personality and enhancing your appearance even further, lipstick can finish off your look flawlessly. Lipstick and other related makeup kit such as lip liner can help to not only create the perfect shape that complements the rest of your efforts.

Choosing a few different shades and extending your collection can be beneficial as to create a few different looks, in order to find your perfect colour!

So, this Valentine’s Day make sure you have the must have beauty products for your makeup bag! Whether you choose to follow celebrity inspirations or create your own looks, this beauty kit will help you on your way

I really wanted to write one of these at the beginning of the year but I lost track and I guess it's better late than never, right? My biggest achievements last year was giving birth to my beautiful baby boy, Freddie George and earning more money through my blog. Another two things I could tick of my list for last year is visiting Haven and Bluestone. I had always wanted to visit those two places and although I had visited Haven years ago, I wanted to take the kids there too. It was Freddie's first little holiday and it was perfect.

This is our family bucket list for 2017

• Visit Haven again
• Visit Bluestone again
• Book a holiday abroad
• Have a long weekend stay in Liverpool
• Buy a new camera
• Do a 1st Birthday Cake Smash photoshoot for Freddie
• Book Disneyland
• Visit Thailand again
• Go strawberry picking
• Visit a pumpkin farm
• Have a night away before Christmas - just my partner and I (and probably Freddie!)
• Reach my 18-month goal of breastfeeding
• Visit more food festivals
• Visit Cardiff again
• Go camping
• Visit a Zoo
• Have more family outings

This is my personal bucket list for 2017;

• Learn to be better with money
• Pay off store card
• Have a night break away
• Go to a spa
• Save £300 towards Christmas
• Walk up Snowdon again
• Lose 6 stone by early January 2018
• Be more organised
• Look into a course in photography for 2018

This is my blogging bucket list for 2017;
• Buy a new camera suitable for photography and vlogging
• Achieve 1 full year of vlogging
• Go to Blog On Conference
• Arrange a meet up with Bloggers
• Reach 6000 followers on Twitter
• Reach 4000 followers on Instagram
• Reach 3000 likes on Facebook
• Reach 150 subscribers on my YouTube channel
• Have one day break a week
• Interact more with bloggers

I'm really interested to see how many of these I will achieve this year. 

Do you have a list of things you want to achieve/do this year?

I remember when I was younger, the days where you dream your 'future' and how you'd like your life to be and all that rubbish, I knew I always wanted kids. I knew I wanted a family of my own. But, life doesn't really pan out as good as you dream of it being. If you're a regular reader, then you probably know that I fell pregnant at the age of 16 and gave birth to my first daughter at 17. It was hard and probably one of the most challenging times of my life but I've got through it, and now I actually do have a family of my own. I never thought my life would be how it is, though. I always wanted four children but little did I know how hard parenthood actually is. I remember a few years after having Elliw I said I wanted one more and no more after that as I knew I would never be able to cope with two children close age - hard work! Little did I know, I'd be a Mum to a little boy. That is one thing I never saw happening. I felt I was always going to be a Mum of two girls. Freddie is our little bonus baby and has filled a place in our hearts.

After binge eating over the festive holidays many people's new year resolution is to start eating healthy. Weight Watchers have a great range of meals that go with their plan. To join their weight loss plan of eating healthily and loose weight the right way, you can join online or at your local group. Weight Watchers have a new range of chilled foods in most supermarkets such as Asda and Morrisons. The new packaging stands out more than their previous packaging which makes it easier to find when you shop. The packaging is now aligned with SmartPoints plans and a range of NoCount meals.

WELCOME

We are back! Firstly, I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and happy new yew year! I decided to stop #justanotherlinky a few weeks before Christmas because I felt it was going down hill and I just didn't have enough time to carry it on. I was getting too stressed about it, and that's not what a linky should be about. I absolutely love reading blogs, commenting blogs and finding new blogs to follow. When I first started this linky, we had nearly a 100 linkers, and I would love it if I could get it back to that. I am going to try my best and see how it goes. I may be looking for a co-host in a few weeks or months time, I'm not sure yet! 

If you are thinking of joining, please read the GUIDELINES

GUIDELINES

✘ Feel free to link up to two posts, no more.

✘ Any post, Any topic - but keep it family friendly! 

✘ I would really appreciate it if you could comment on at least 2 other posts and the one before you (pretty please!)

✘ The linky will be open for every Sunday until Thursday midnight.
✘ When commenting other posts, remember to leave the hashtag #justanotherlinky
✘ Feel free to leave the badge or link on your post or blog
✘ If you are chosen as 'favourite post' you give me permission to add one of your photos on the post the following week

WHAT WILL I DO?

As a host, I will be trying my best to comment every single post that links up. However, as family life can be so busy, especially with a baby and two children, I may not be able to do it every week. I will be reading every single post each week, though. I will also be seeing who comments the most, and the top 3 commenters will be linked in the next #justanotherlinky post. I will also be choosing one favourite post a week.

TOP COMMENTERS
Each week I will go through every single post to see who are the top 3 commenters. This is why you will need to leave the hashtag #justanotherlinky after your comment. Otherwise, I can't count your comment. This is perfect for backlinks! 

FAVOURITE POST
Each week I will choose my favourite post of the week. I will be linking it up here. 

<a href="http://www.life-as-mum.co.uk/" target="_blank"><img alt="thumbnailsize" border="0" src="http://i65.tinypic.com/2e37jes.jpg" style="border: none; max-width: 100%;" /> </a>

An InLinkz Link-up

Freddie is 6 months old now, and it's all going a bit too fast for me. I wish time would slow down just a little but having to look after Freddie and his two sisters every day, each day just passes and passes. It does make me sad that he's growing up too quick. I look at him and I try to remember how he was in the newborn days and things are just so different. They way he looks, his hair, the way he feeds and more. Although cluster feeding was a nightmare at times and brought me to tears many times, I kind of wish I could go back to that time and just cherish it more. I've been breastfeeding for over 6 months now, and it's one of the best things I've ever done and experienced.

Not long after Christmas, after keeping all the presents and sorting out the playroom, I thought it was about time I changed the living room around to make room for Freddie's things and for there just to be more space. I hate things in front of the window and the sofa was right in front of it. I have since put the sofa the opposite side of the room and the living room looks a lot better. When we first moved into our home we only had a few cushions on each sofa and it looked bare. It didn't look comfortable or cosy.

This week we started a new routine with Freddie. We have been putting him upstairs in his crib to sleep in the evenings instead of settling him downstairs in his bouncer before taking him up to his crib when we are ready for bed. It was a big step for me as I am just in denial that my last baby is growing up. This week has also been full of challenges. Mia's behaviour has been awful, she actually got me into tears at the start of the week, outside! As the week went by her behaviour started to get better slowly, thank god.

Hi! Tell us a little bit about yourself (how many kids, about your family and blog, etc.)

Hello, I'm Alyssa I'm nearly 28. I live in the North West with my husband and our two children, J who is 4 and C who is  8 weeks. I blog at www.mumtoamonster.com.

Why did you decide to breastfeed?  

I wanted to try and breastfeed C as I didn't manged to breastfeed J. I tried but we ended up expressing and having to cup feeding for two weeks. This time around I was more relaxed and put less pressure on myself. 

Before buying our home, we had private rented two houses within 3 years. At the back of my head, I always knew we didn't own that house and we could have a letter at any time from the landlords asking us to leave because they've either sold the house or any other reason. Our first house we were only there for 6 months until we decided to go for another private rent house because the house was too small. The second house we moved to was a 3-bedroom house and big enough for us all.

I always like to look back and reflect whenever a New Year comes around. I like to go through my old posts and pick my favourites, but also see what memories they remind me of that I’d completely forgotten about.

I am so proud that I have been breastfeeding for 6 whole months. I remember when I found out I was pregnant, I knew I wanted to breastfeed. Although I knew that I wanted to breastfeed, I was extremely nervous because I literally had no clue about breastfeeding. I had no idea how much it hurt, how I would feel, how I would be feeding out in public if there were certain things I needed to know, how much they fed and so on. So many questions were going through my head and I was lucky that one of my close friends breastfed her baby (my nephew), so I had a few answers from her. I was disappointed that I wasn't given any advice from midwives.

January is a hard time with money for many of us after spending so much for Christmas. We have to spend wisely and many new years resolutions are to save money better than you did last year. It doesn't always have to be that hard to save money, there are many ways you can save money through the year, and you may not even see it unless you add it up at the end of the year. Here are just a few ways you can save money this year;

How am I even writing this? It doesn't seem that long ago that I announced Freddie's birth. Time has gone by so quickly, and I can't believe my last baby, my first little boy is 6 months old already. How is that even possible? It makes me feel sad that he is growing and growing each day, but I'm also so happy and feel so lucky that I get to spend every single day with him, at home. Freddie is by far the hardest baby I've had out all 3, but I honestly wouldn't change a thing (maybe a bit more sleep, though?).

Hi! Tell us a little bit about yourself (how many kids, about your family and blog etc)

Hi, I’m Zoe a mother of two and blog over at My Mummy’s World. I’ve an older boy who is approaching five and a younger daughter who is 18 months, which is whom I breastfed and still do.

I am back - yet again - writing my weight loss journey posts. This time I feel more determined. I don't know if it's because it's the new year but I reached a certain weight, and it makes me feel sick. I've never weighed this much before, and I was in two minds of actually blogging about it, but I decided to in the end because I thought it would be great to look back in a year or so time. I joined Slimming World the Wednesday after Christmas, so it was before New Years. I thought I was going to be on plan over New year weekend, but it just didn't go how I wanted it too.

I started weaning Freddie a couple of days before he turned 4 months old. Now, some may be against that, and some could say they have done the same. Each baby is different, and I have noticed that since having 3 children. Mia started around 4 months while Elliw started when she was around 6-7 months old. Freddie was feeding on me constantly, and it felt a bit too much. Although it was a bit of mixed comfort and going through a growth spurt, it just seemed like the right time to introduce solid.

I used to love linking up to Sarah's weekly linky, Weekend Tot Style when the girls were younger but since they both are in school full-time they are mostly in their school uniform, so I don't get a chance to take many photos of them wearing their own clothes and I always forget when the weekend comes. However, Freddie has now started wearing a lot more outfits instead of babygrows, but he will still wear his babygrows often. I bought a few outfits from NEXT in the boxing day sale as I was given VIP online, so I managed to grab a few bargains.

I wanted to start this linky last year but I just never got round to it. I have a few in my drafts but never finished them, so I plan to join this linky, #LittleLoves each week this year. I thought it would be a good post to write every Friday to remember the little things we loved during the week.

Hi! Tell us a little bit about yourself (how many kids, about your family and blog etc)

Hiya! I’m Abigail Bryony (Abbie) and I run a family themed blog over at www.LilypadandBow.com. I have a 4 year old daughter called Lily and last January we welcomed our baby boy Archer who is now 11 months. I started my blog 5 years ago whilst still at uni so I could document my pregnancy with Lily and loved it so much that I’m still blogging today.

As a Mum of 3, I've got to have eyes on the back of my head. One is in the pram and my two girls walk. We have to walk by some busy roads each morning on our way to school which can be quite dangerous at times. There are a few small roads to cross and two main busy roads to cross. I've been learning the girls how to cross the road safely since they were young and I will be doing the same when Freddie is a little older too. Road safety is so important to teach kids because it's our responsibility to learn them for when they grow older. Here are just 5 ways you can teach your children to cross the road safely;

I've had a bit of an up and down kind of week for the first week of the year. Last Monday night something clicked in my head that I needed to start walking again. Tuesday morning we did our usual school routine, and you can watch our full day here. I was shattered, as always and I didn't have the energy to go out for a walk, but I forced myself and straight after dropping the girls off at school, I decided to go straight for my walk. It totalled to 3 miles, and you can follow my walks on my Instagram page here.

There’s something amazing about spring – so full of hope for another year of fertility and growth – but this magic doesn’t last long so it’s vital to get out there and capture it before it’s gone. If you can manage a few stunning spring shots you can immortalise that magic in some beautiful canvas prints using Hello Canvas!

If you need a bit of help to capture the essence of spring, here are some tips to guide you along.

I was looking through my 'draft posts' and came across a half written post called 'Looking Back at 2015 and welcoming 2016'. It's a shame I never got round to finishing it, but it gave me an idea to write a whole new post by looking back at 2016. Many things have happened during 2016, and it has to be one of my favourite years by far. I'm actually feeling quite sad that the year is over and we've started a whole new year, again. So here was our 2016;

JANUARY
This month was full of people congratulating us on our third pregnancy. We had announced our pregnancy on the 30th of December 2015, and it was the perfect start to a new year. I remember January going slow because I was super excited for my 3D gender scan appointment and then to find out we were expecting our very first baby boy was even more exciting. I remember lying on the bed getting scanned, with my partner, his parents and the girls in the room watching the screen and being told I was carrying a boy.

As well as having my gender scan, I also experienced my second NHS scan at our local hospital. I had my first pregnancy scan late December, but I was only 10 weeks gone, so they wanted me back around 12 weeks pregnant for better measurements. I couldn't wait to tell the girls to see how they would react to the news of having a new baby brother or sister. Mia was so disappointed, and Elliw just seemed pretty confused about the whole thing.

This update is a little late because I had not long written a small update a few days before he turned 5 months old. I honestly can't believe we now have a 5-month-old baby boy. Time is going by a bit too quick, and I wish life would slow down, just a little. It makes me sad when I look back at old photos because he's grown so much. Freddie is the most amazing little boy, ever. He is loved so much by us all.

For months and months, I have been wanting to start vlogging, and I decided around Christmas time that I will force myself to do it in the new year coming. I thought it was the perfect time to start seeing as it's a new year. I have done a few family outing videos in the past but never have I spoken through a whole video. I am full of nerves when I think that the video has been published and is now on YouTube, but I need to start somewhere.

My first video is pretty rubbish, and I need to work on my confidence and my video editing. The video is pretty basic, and I only used a basic video editing programme that is already on my laptop. I am still learning about the whole new vlogging world. I've currently got two other videos that need editing and uploading, and I'm quite looking forward to them as they are a bit more interesting than this first one I have done.

I would really appreciate it if you could subscribe to my channel - that would be amazing!

A few weeks back we were given a stroller to review, the Pockit stroller, which is also the world's smallest folding stroller and was in the Guinness World Records in 2014. The stroller is 30 x 15 x 35 cm when folded, fantastic right? I couldn't wait to receive it and see what it was like myself. When the stroller was delivered, I was surprised at how small it was. I was interested to see if it opened easily and folded back down easily. I gave it a go, and I must say it did impress me. When the stroller is folded there is quite a bit of weight, however, when the stroller is up it's a lightweight.