Snowflakes 1st birthday

I think it goes without saying, this year has gone extremely quickly, and I'm yet to meet someone who thinks otherwise. It is somehow already September, Autumn is most certainly in the air and I've begun getting more than excited for the chilly weather festivities to come. But before we can dig out our winter coats, wellies and throws, a certain day arrives on our calendar. And that date is the 5th of September, the day our darling Snowflake was due to enter the world, meaning that this year he or she would have been turning one years old.

It's completely and utterly surreal for myself and Simon to imagine ourselves with a one year old now, it feels like we have been mourning the loss of Snowflake for an eternity. We would do anything to have Snowflake here with us, but there is something special and a certain depth that comes with loss, it gives life so much more meaning and you no longer have the energy for any sort of negative relationships.

The 5th fell on a Saturday and we had a really slow morning at home, we was in no rush to get out of the door! We headed out for the first time around lunch time to a restaurant for some scrummy food, before going for a long, long, sunny walk in the park. We spotted out dragon flies, even saw a white feather, it was a beautiful afternoon. The whole day we both felt really content, and since we were expecting the worst, it came as a pleasant surprise. 

This year we wanted to let off sky lanterns (last year we let off balloons, you can read all about that here) but unfortunately I couldn't get any in time, but very luckily for us a girl I went to high school with had some, and very kindly gave us them.

 We headed to the same spot as last year, but unfortunately it was just too windy and the lanterns fell apart at every attempt we made. Already quite sensitive with the day in mind, we found this utterly heart breaking. I felt like I once again had failed as a mother, our baby had no gift to say we was thinking of her.

Not ones to give up, and big believers in 'better late than never' we purchased some balloons a few days later and headed back to our favourite spot, where we had the perfect evening we wished for. 

The beggining of my weight loss journey

It's been a long, long while since I posted here on my blog. Although perhaps hard to believe (with my absence and all that jazz) I do really enjoy writing, and in particular... writing here! I haven't quite found my niche yet, or particularly found myself in the routine of regularly blogging but it is something I would like to do more of. So excuses aside, I thought I would share something that Is consuming a lot of my thoughts and making frequent appearances in my daily life these days, and that is my new venture into losing weight! (Yep I'm making a come back with one of them posts)

Since I last did a personal, life update sort of post, a hell of a lot has happened! Instead of going deep into details I'll tell you this, it's been a whole 18 months since the miscarriage of our sweetheart Snowflake, and we still aren't pregnant! A few months ago I was diagnosed with something called polycystic ovarian syndrome, also referred to as PCOS, in basic terms it means 'many cysts' which are on my ovaries and I no longer release an egg on a monthly basis. PCOS is one of the most common causes of female infertility and this diagnosis didn't come as a shock to me, but more about that another time.

One of the ways you can control, and help ease the symptoms of this disorder is to lose some body weight. This is something I knew would have to do to achieve pregnancy, as with my current high BMI I am unable to undergo any fertility treatments.  Although not guaranteed, it is still possible to become pregnant naturally by losing weight alone, so as you can imagine I got started right away! I browsed the internet, namely Pinterest to find anything that may be of help to my journey, I came across a number of brilliant ideas, and I thought I would a couple of them with you in this post.

1) Make a list of why you want to lose weight

2) Drink ice cold water, you body burns extra calories warming it up

3)Leave yourself motivational fitness quotes for yourself around the house

4) Make social activities active, head to the park for a walk instead of the pub for a pint

5) Drink water infused with fruits 

and of course, the main thing is to eat a balanced diet and exercise frequently. 

Aside from the tips above, there was a particular tip I came across which I instantly knew would work perfectly for me, even satisfying the DIY and craft lover inside of me. And that idea was to create motivational weight loss jars! These jars are a visual aid in showing you just how much weight you need to lose and how much you have lost. 

Here are my weight loss jars...

This method of weight loss is perfect for those who have a set amount of weight they wish  to or need to lose, like myself. I personally have to lose 21Ibs (1stone and a half) to be within the weight guidelines for fertility treatment. The general idea for these weight loss jars is that each bead represents 1Ib of weight, so in the 'pounds to lose' jar I have put in 20 beads and one into the 'pound lost' jar as i've lost 1Ib thus far.

Do you have a set amount of weight to lose? How is it going? :) 

Easter Goodies

Im not sure about you but I think that in the age of Pinterest people are making much more of an effort and getting excited about the perhaps smaller, less anticipated events in the yearly calender - such as Easter. Thinking back to my childhood I really did enjoy Easter, but it certainly wasn't the hootenanny it is today!

So with that said and a little under a week to go until Easter Sunday, I thought I would share with you the things we have been buying and making for our growing brood of Neices and Nephews.

Jumping straight in with the boys, we purchased these Minion ceramic mugs with a milk chocolate easter egg inside. One for our 12 year old Nephew Bradley and the other for his younger brother Oakley. We bought these quite in advance and paid around £1.99 each from Asda, i'm pretty sure I have seen them in there since if you would like to snap one up before Easter!

For our 3 year old niece Mia we wanted to do something a little different as she will get lots of big Easter Eggs from the rest of the family and she is at the age where she is really beginning to get a greater understanding of things. We decided to create her an Easter Egg box filled with goodies which was so easy to make, good fun and as an added bonus it only costed a few pounds to put together! I love how it came together as a little scene, im sure she will love it too (especially the animals).

And last but certainly not least we couldn't resist putting something together our 5 month old Niece Lacey! She is far too young to understand what is going on, but we couldn't just give her elder sister Mia something and not her. So we bought her this super cute, super soft little lamb which i'm sure she will enjoy dribbling all over! This was also fun to put together and I simply couldnt resist putting it in an adorable Easter box. Both the box and the lamb are from Poundland, costing you guessed it, a pound each - an absolute bargain.

So thats everything we've been buying for our Nieces and Nephews. I really enjoy reading these sorts of posts on other peoples blogs, so I hope you enjoyed reading mine too!

A New Years Surprise!

Happy New Year Guys!

I generally like to blog as and when things come to mind, as opposed to coming up with something for the sole purpose of blogging it. So I certainly did not think i'd be blogging so soon into 2015, start as you mean to go on though right?!

So, anyways.. If you have been following my blog for a while now, or follow me on social media platforms you will know Myself and Simon have had what can only be explained as a naff old year! Of course with the miscarriage, but also with what felt like family drama after family drama (families eh?). We have been super super excited for a new year to begin and knew we wanted to have a special New Years Eve. When Simon returned to work after Christmas I got crafty and put together some decorations (including tinsel which I hate, but Simon loves), made him a card, and did lots of organising.

Inside the package.

With Simons birthday following closely after Christmas I thought New Years would be the perfect opportunity to start the year with a big old positive and spring the surprise. So his gift is a combination of an early birthday gift and a New Years gift! I ummed and arrred for months deciding what I could do to make his next birthday one to remember. I decided on a trip to Keswick in The Lake District for a couple of nights on the anniversary weekend of losing Snowflake.  In the package was a tiny wooden ticket which says 'this ticket entitles you to a weekend away' and after opening the package at 00:05am on New Years Day I gave him a card with all the information for the trip. 

The surprise went down incredibly well, and started the New Year of incredibly!

Snippets Of Christmas - Week Four

Happy almost New Year!

Today marks the final part of my mini Christmas series 'Snippets Of Christmas'. This has been the first ever series on my blog and i'm pleased to say it was one I came up with myself. I generally take a whole lot of pictures, but this mini project has had me taking a whole lot more, perhaps even of things I wouldn't necessarily have captured before!

This past week has been pretty darn wonderful, not just because of Christmas day, but because I finally managed to slow down, relax and enjoy myself! Early on in the week one of my closest friends came over and we had a baking session and made the edible place settings for christmas day dinner at my parents (and a Simon gingerbread too). 

Since myself and Simon became a couple around 6 and a half years ago, we have always spent Christmas Eve together having our very own little Christmas together and we continued the tradition when we moved in together. For 'Our Christmas' we got up bright and early to exchange gifts to one and other, and open those to both of us. We carried on a fairly new tradition of going to the pub for lunch with Simons family where we stayed for a good few hours before going on to the Harvester for tea!

On Christmas day we each went to our own parents for a morning of present opening and bacon barm eating before getting together again to spend the rest of Christmas Day at my parents house! My Mums Christmas dinner is absolutely huge and absolutely incredible every single year.

Boxing day to me is where Christmas ends and I begin to think about the New Year! We spent boxing day at simons parents playing with our nieces and eating more good food.

It wouldn't be a true She Andd Him blog post without Pookie now would it?

Well that is all from me and my Snippets Of Christmas. I hope you all had the most fantastic Christmas, and a big old Happy New Year to you too!

Snippets Of Christmas - Week Three

Only 4 sleeps to go!

This year feels like it has gone super fast, but this December, well it has gone super super fast in my books. Christmas is only four short sleeps away!

This week has been insanely hard and insanely awesome all at the same time. I have been really run down, and I've had a number of break downs (one of which at Tesco, no fun!) If Simon wasn't by my side, it was our fur-baby.

On Wednesday I finally began to feel like myself again, just in time for a get together with our friends! I don't usually drink, but with all the stress I decided to have a couple to relax me. It worked! We had a wonderful time.

The latter half of this week has been the awesome part! Filled with a nibbles night at our house, being treated to lunch in Garstang by Simons parents, meeting my best friends new boyfriend over lunch and a cinema trip. All in-between the madness that is getting ready for Christmas!

By the next Snippets Of Christmas Santa will have been! 

Merry Christmas :) 

Snippets of Christmas - Week Two

December week two is complete!

It has been a very hectic Christmas week once again, started wonderfully by an spur of the moment date night at the Harvester. I'll admit I was feeling a tad overwhelmed by the first week of December, it was lovely, but with pack after pack of lights failing and trying to keep Pookie out of the tree I was feeling quite defeated. So a lovely Harvester date was just what I needed to get back into the spirit of Christmas! 

This week I started helping my Dad with his Christmas shopping, it's a little tradition of ours and it's something I look forward to each year! I help him choose all of the presents he needs to get and wrap them for him too. We of course came back to our house for hot chocolate and biscuits (yummy!)

One thing I love about December is a busy calendar filled with lovely events with family and friends! One event we was especially looking forward to was catching up with my Grandad (who we haven't seen since Tenerife in February) over dinner with my parents and also my Nanna. We had a really wonderful time and it really kicked of the festivities! 

The festivities continued into the weekend as we had my Nephew come and stay with us, we saw Penguins of Madagascar at the cinema and did a spot of baking (much to his initial teenage disapproval!) 

Now to cosy up on the sofa to catch up on Strictly Come Dancing like the OAP's we are!

Goodnight :)