OUR YEAR - 2017


I kind of love and hate this time of year. I love that fact that I can think, look and read back over all of our memories but I hate that another year has flown by, yet again. I'm sure I've cried each New Year's Eve or Day for the past couple of days. I always feel mixed emotions, especially when I've failed at goals and not achieved things I wanted. But as they say, we should never regret anything that we choose to do in life. But I do regret things I didn't choose to do. Things always happen for a reason, whether they hurt or make you happy.

2017 has just been full of ups and downs, just like many other people's I'm sure. The early months of 2017 were tough. Really tough. I was at breaking point, I didn't know what to do, and I felt like a complete failure to my kids. Something I always wanted to achieve was to have a 'happy family life' for my children and myself. Of course, no family is perfect, and all we can do is try our best. We got through it and sorted our problems out - still going strong.

Months went by again and there I was feeling low, yet again. My partner and I were fine. It was me. I was struggling with everything else, mostly parenthood and working from home. I still don't think many people understand what it's like to work from home and juggle looking after three kids too - it's not easy. Unless you do it yourself, I don't think anyone would understand. There's been a lot of cries, breakdowns and tantrums (kids). It's been hard, but yet again, we got through it.


We get through the 'bad days' by having all those lovely memories. Freddie learning to walk, saying his first word. Going on holiday, having a few breaks in Bluestone and Haven. Having some kid-free time to ourselves. Both girls coming home from school with some lovely photos of us and funny stories. Going out for lovely walks and family adventures together. Having little parties on a Friday night, film nights and more. Mia losing her two top teeth and not being able to say the 'S' letter - it's hilarious.

Watching our three beautiful children grow. They're not perfect every day - no one is perfect. They've never been perfect, but they are in their ways. Although they are brother and sisters, all three have unique personalities. But something that makes them the same is, they're all amazing. Through all the stress, pain, the hard days and more, I am proud of them. So proud of them all.

They are the ones that keep me going. My family.

2017, although you've been crap at times, you've been amazing at the same time.

I've lost friends, lost family but gained better ones. I've learnt a lot during this year, like I have each year that's passed.

The days are long but the years are short.

Make the most of it.

The good memories are always the best and hide the bad memories in ways.

Here's to 2018 and more amazing memories and days with my three amazing children and a wonderful partner.

Happy New Year everyone.













LOOKING BACK AT 2017

I can't believe I am writing this post again. This year just seemed to have flown by, and even though I've said that each year I've written one of these posts, this year seems to have flown even faster than the other years. Last year's post was so special as last year we welcomed our third and last baby, our first baby boy, Freddie, into the world. I've got happy tears looking through the post and that's what I absolutely love about blogging is that I can look back and read everything. I've got most of my life written down, some private and many public. It's something I absolutely adore doing and love looking back on. I know for sure that I would forget most of the things that we have done and places we have been if I didn't have my blog - and that's why I'm so grateful for it.

Something else I started this year was my own YouTube channel and I've really enjoyed it. I love sit down video as they're a little bit easier, but I also love vlogging our days too. I have a few goals I want to achieve for my channel for next year and I hope I can achieve them. It's so lovely too look back on.

Without further to do, this was our year;

JANUARY
It's crazy to think that in January 2016 I was in my early weeks of pregnancy with Freddie. But in 2017, he was six months old. I also made my first ever video for my channel, which is very embarrassing to watch but we all have to start somewhere, right? I didn't vlog after this for a while. I started back in July for a couple of days, to stop then until September/October time and have been doing it regularly since then.



FEBRUARY
We had a few little adventures during February, such as having a couple of walks down on our local cycle track, a cold winter walk in Llanfairfechan and the best memory of this month was celebrating Freddie's Christening day on the 5th of February. I decided to do it on that date as it fell in pretty nicely with my Great Nain's birthday. She sadly passed away back in 2012 and it just seemed right and a nice thing to do to celebrate something happy on her birthday.


MARCH
March was another exciting month for us. Our littlest girl turned the big five years old and we celebrated her birthday in Bluestone, for a 4-night stay which we really enjoyed. During our stay in Bluestone, we visited Tenby too which we all really loved.



APRIL
We had a few fun and memorable family adventures through April. Which honestly, I would have forgotten about if I didn't have my blog. It was so lovely looking at all the photos and reading the post when I was looking at it for writing this post. Freddie also had his first full night sleep in 8 and a half months.



MAY
Freddie turned 10 months old this month. We also had a few adventures of walks down at our nearby beach, which is a stunning place to visit when the sun is out.


JUNE
During July we visited Bodnant Gardens as part of a review for the National Trust. It was absolutely stunning and we went with some friends and their kids. It was such a beautiful day and we all fully enjoyed ourselves.


JULY
I still can't believe it to this day that my littlest baby, my last baby, is one years old. We celebrated his birthday in Haven, Hafan-Y-Mor, Pwllheli. It was a brilliant long weekend, something we all needed. Family members were also allowed some day passes which they used on the day of Freddie's birthday. It was lovely having both sides of the family together. We even went strawberry picking at the beginning of the month.

AUGUST
August was full of adventures and full of memories. I also turned 25 years old but as a parent, birthdays don't really mean much to me anymore. We had a wonderful weekend in Aberystwyth after having a full day in Oakwood Theme Park. Not only that, we also visited Broughton shopping centre for a fun event they were holding over the half term holidays. We also visited Liverpool, my favourite city and we all really enjoyed ourselves. As well as breastfeeding for over a year.

SEPTEMBER
September was a nerve-wracking month for me. It's the month I went to my first ever blogging conference, BlogOnUK. It was amazing and I really enjoyed myself, all the sessions, as well as meeting bloggers. Also, we had a few other adventures such as; visiting Gyspy Wood in Bontnewydd and fun adventures with the KIA Sportswagon Optima that we were given to review. Another reason this month made me nervous, was we decided to start Freddie in a nursery.



OCTOBER
This month was a sad month for me. Freddie decided to stop breastfeeding, he weaned himself off at 15 months old. It makes me so sad t othink it's been this long already without feeding him. Breastfeeding was huge part of my life for 15 months and I've loved every single minute of it.



NOVEMBER
I had been looking forward to this month for months! My partner and I had a kid-free night stay in Liverpool to do the Christmas shopping and for us to have time to ourselves. It was absolutely lovely and something we really needed.



DECEMBER
December was another really exciting month for us all. Our biggest, eldest daughter turned 8 years old. She is growing up so quickly. We also spent her birthday in Bluestone, which was yet again, amazing. We had a 4 night stay again and we fully enjoyed ourselves. Of course, we also celebrated Christmas Day which was absolutely lovely.



CHRISTMAS EVE WITH PERSONALISED PARTIES


For a couple of years now we have been hosting a little party on Christmas Eve. This year we decided to carry on the 'tradition' if you can call it that. I think it's something nice for us all to do together before the big day. The girls were so excited and the excitement for Christmas day kept building up and up. To add to that excitement we cooked some mini burgers and a pizza for us all to share, adding some crisps and little snacks too. To help add that special touch we added some toppers from Personalised Parties.

We received a personalised party pack from Personalised Parties a couple of weeks ago. Initially, it was supposed to be used for Mia's birthday, but silly me forgot to take the pack with me to Bluestone. However, I thought I could use them for our Christmas Eve party instead. As it was meant to be for Mia's birthday, they were personalised with her name. I got them printed in welsh, so they said 'Parti Mia Wyn', which means 'Mia Wyn's Party'.


I am really pleased with the whole pack that we received. I chose the unicorn pack as Mia is obsessed with unicorns at the moment (who isn't?!). The pack is huge and includes 52 items, which I think is fantastic for the price (34.99). The quality is absolutely fantastic, and I'm overly pleased with the quality. You can add up to 21 characters to the pieces. The 52 piece pack includes:
x8 Personalised Party Plates
x8 Party Cups
x8 Personalised Party Boxes
x8 Party Hats
x8 Party Masks
x16 Personalised Food Flags
- They also supply the wooden cocktail sticks to use with the food flags, as well as the strings for the hats and masks.





You can view more of their products over on their website here.

PROJECT MC2 DOLL - REVIEW


Throughout the years there have been so many kinds of different dolls, and I like how different they are these days. Years ago when I was my girls' age, most dolls looked pretty much the same and were never unique. When we received a Project Mc2 doll to review, first thoughts were great. I was really pleased with how unique she looked, and I adored her outfit. Both girls absolutely fell in love with her and couldn't wait to get her out of the box.

We received the doll called McKeyla McAlister. There are 5 different characters, and they're all unique in their looks and ways. They also come with different experiments. The one we received came with a science experiment to make your very own glitter tattoos. What's great about these experiments is you can easily do them with household items (you will have to buy these separately) and are so simple.

The Project Mc2 Experiment Dolls help encourage children to become more interested in science experiments. Not only that, but they also learn new things as well as having fun at the same time. It's a great way to get your child interested in experiments and learning new things. I really like how different each doll is and how they each come with a different experiment for your child to do.

Are your children into the Project Mc2 Experiment Dolls?





OUR CHRISTMAS DAY


I have been looking forward to this year's Christmas for so long, especially when it was planned that we were hosting Christmas this year, for the first time ever. I was so excited and looking forward to being able to spend the day at home. We usually spend Christmas day in my partner's parents house, but this year they came over to ours for Christmas dinner and to spend a few hours at home with us, which was lovely.

Freddie woke up at around 4am, so I decided to put him into my bed because I didn't want to be like a zombie in the morning. He fell back to sleep, and all the kids woke up ready for the day around 7am. The girls opened their little treat boxes that they received from Santa, that were kept in their bedroom. They had a box full of treats which included: flapjacks, a little wrapped present, chocolate coins and other little bits. Afterwards, we all went downstairs, and the minute the girls opened the living door, they were absolutely amazed by all the presents.

Our morning was full laughter, little screams of happiness and even tears of joy. It's so amazing watching the kids get all excited. However, Freddie had no clue what was going on. He went straight for his little Henry hoover that in front of all presents and he just went off and 'hoovered' everywhere. He was not at all interested in any of his other presents. My partner and I ended up opening them all for him.

Later on, we all got ourselves ready and went for a walk to my partner's aunty and uncle's, where the kids opened more presents. We were lucky that we missed the bad weather, there and back home. We had a drink each, and the kids had fun playing with their new presents. We headed back home and just chilled. My partner's parents came round, and we just all had a very relaxing day. The kids had more presents to open too, they were so excited.



Throughout the day we had our Christmas dinner and just relaxed through the day. It was so lovely to be able to relax, and we all really enjoyed the day. The kids went to bed around 7 and my partner, and I just tidied up a bit and relaxed for the evening.

The following day we spend the day in my Nain and Taid's house which was lovely. It was so nice spending the whole day with my side of the family as we never get to do it that often. Again, all three kids had lots of great presents, and they were so excited about them all.

So that's it for another year. Christmas is done and dusted. It's crazy how fast it flies by, isn't it? But it also comes by too quickly too. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and all the best for the New Year.