Snow day(s)

On Tuesday morning I woke up and immediately felt like a kid again, we had snow! I had been feeling a bit jealous of you guys in Seattle and loved the thought of having a lazy day at home with Mark and Calum, especially since Mark had been gone in Barcelona the weekend before.

Day 1-10 a.m.
Checking it out
Day 1-5 p.m., look how much snow we got!

Tuesday was great, nothing like a little snow to make you feel like baking. I made an Apple Upside Down Cake from Cooking Light's October issue, my Grandma's Banana Cupcakes, did about 4 loads of laundry, watched Repo Men with Mark while Calum was napping (awful movie), made a proper lunch for my boys, took Calum out to play in the snow and had a lazy evening in. I realised that if I lived somewhere where it snowed a lot, I would be huge-all you want to do is bake, eat crap and be lazy! Snow also makes it really hard to get to the gym which isn't ideal with Miami around the corner.

Calum not sure about the snow

Wednesday I woke up and we had even more snow. Mark decided he would actually try doing some work which he doesn't realise just doesn't happen when you have a 19 month old running around (which might have been a blessing as he now realises what I go through on my "days off"). We didn't bother going out in the snow because Calum really just wasn't sure about it the day before, which I can't really blame him for as it was up to his waist and there didn't seem to be any cleared patches for respite! Spending 15 minutes getting all bundled up for 5 minutes out in the snow to be followed by 20 minutes of cleaning up after the discarded layers from two boys just didn't seem worth it. I scavenged in the fridge and managed to produce a decent dinner from very little ingredients and almost no vegetables since I hadn't been to the store since the week before (fried rice with chicken and crispy noodles), but I think the fatty non-diet food was finally catching up to me. Managed to polish off the last bottle of wine in the house (well, except the sketchy bottle of red our neighbor brought at the beginning of the summer that is left for emergencies only).

The strip

Today (Thursday) I was even less enthusiastic about another snow day. I had a cupcake for breakfast, leftover fried rice for lunch. Mark decided he would try to get the car out and go to work, had a laugh watching him clear a foot of snow off the car with only his hands-we hadn't really expected a blizzard in November and don't even own a snow brush, shovel or an ice scraper (unless you count the credit card sized one I put in his stocking last year which just didn't seem sufficient). Mark managed to get out, I managed to email him my grocery list and now Calum and I are enjoying some peace and quiet. Will be very interesting to see what Mark brings home from the grocery store tonight since the last time he stepped in one was not long after Calum was born. He's been there 15 mintues and I've already had 4 calls....

Day 3, 1 p.m.

Not feeling overly optimistic about the prediction of more snow and colder temperatures meaning what we have won't go away anytime soon. Have a much needed hair appointment scheduled for Saturday morning which is unlikely to happen I'm afraid which isn't ideal with the clock ticking on our trip home-you might all see me back to my roots, literally!

Calum loving the snow days

As I write the snow continues to fall so looks like I will be housebound for a few more snow days. At least I get time to blog! x

It's a Family Affair

We've been busy since our last post, it seems like the end of October went by in the blink of an eye and all of the sudden it's November and just 5 short weeks until our trip to Seattle. Since we last blogged we:

Opened our Halloween box from Grandma McEvers. Highlights: Slim Jims (I DIE!), Rachel Ray magazine, American Halloween candy, Funfetti Halloween cake mix and frosting and our new Halloween haunted house candle feature with Pumpkin Spice candle (which is as close to a Pumpkin Spice latte as I will be getting since I was told last week at Starbucks it will basically never come here since Brits aren't into Thanksgiving).
Opened one of our Christmas presents early. Calum has been unwell for the last month or so. First it was his leg/ankle injury which had him not walking for over a week and then it was a mysterious flu like illness which my Mom thought could be Fifths Disease (http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/bacterial_viral/fifth.html)-you can kind of see the "slapped cheeks" look in the pic above that is characteristic of it. Miserable. Getting sick in the middle of the night, endless changing of clothes, sheets and etc. Calum used to eat anything you put in front of him and since then he's become picky and seems to have lost his appetite. This week he has an ear infection. It's never ending and distressing as a Mom to see your child sick and in pain and not be able to do much about it. Since we're going to be in Miami for Christmas we decided to go light on the gifts this year (as in Calum is getting 3 Fisher Price toys and the truck above is one of them) and as a perk me up we decided to give Calum one of the gifts early. It worked, for about 15 minutes!
Dressed up as a lion for Halloween. I think the look in the top pic says it all.
Had our 2nd annual Halloween party. Since we met last summer, the Mums in our post natal group have stayed in touch and they all came over on Halloween with the babies for our 2nd annual Halloween party. 6 babies + 6 Mums = chaos. That said, it was really fun for me to have them here all together and I look forward to having the party for years to come. I'm so lucky to have met these women, they have really helped me get through some challenging times as a new Mom and Calum is pretty lucky to have such a great group of friends already. BTW, this is the only pic from the day with all 6 babies and it also pretty much sums up the day.

Read lots of books. Calum has always been a big book lover (just like Mommy!) and can never have enough story time before bed. What started as a ritual of Calum and I of reading a book after the bath in his room has extended to him picking a second or third book and bringing it into our room to read with Daddy before his bottle. In addition to our own collection which has been pretty much all thanks to Auntie Tara, Calum gets to have 8 books at a time from the library which has been great-he loves going to pick them out and it allows us to change the selection based on what he's into at the moment. Currently he's into books about animals, making the sounds that they make, and he loves books with flaps to open.
Went to the Mary J Blige concert. Yes, I've been on an old school tour lately-Joe, Keith Sweat and now Mary. Our friends the St Martins were able to get box tickets to see Mary J Blige last week and I have to say, it's the best concert I've ever been to. She sang her heart out for 2+ hours and I found myself knowing almost every song. Amazing. In the bottom pic on the right is a footballer named Anton Ferdinand who happened to be sat in our box.
Renewed our love for our local park. Now that Calum has perfected his walking, the local park is even better than it ever was before because it offers unlimited space for him to run and play and that's just what he's been doing lately as often as he can get us down there. I mentioned before, but this park is literally right behind our house and is only accessible by a path that starts along a big duck pond that our house backs onto. The top pic is our attempt at feeding the ducks-Calum wasn't too happy about sharing his bread, hence him sneaking a bite for himself.
Had cousin Rhys over for a night. Mark's sister Tracey's baby, Rhys, is one day shy of a year younger than Calum so I wasn't sure how we would cope with two babies for the night but it all went off without a hitch. Calum couldn't quite figure out why his old baby toys were out and for the most part didn't pay much notice to Rhys being there-sadly he never seems to get jealous when I hold other babies although I suppose this will be a good thing if/when we have a second. Rhys is a very easy baby who loves to be held all the time (opposite to Calum at this age) and it was a pleasure to have him. The second photo is Calum giving Rhys a kiss-it's taken him ages to be coaxed into kissing but in the last week he's really seemed to pick it up and it's pretty cute.

How I know it's almost Halloween....

This arrived in the post last week:

Yep, my annual Halloween box from Mom. Sure I'm 30 years old and am still getting Halloween gifts from my Mom-so?! Unbelievably my Mom spent $90 to send a 20 lb. box which is sure to include a ton of candy I really shouldn't eat seeing as how I have to be in a bikini in two months time for our Miami trip but oh well....

I haven't officially opened the box yet, I'm saving it for Halloween but I did have to sneak out Calum's Halloween costume from the top which I ordered from the US Amazon since our UK selection isn't great. Here's a little sneak peak, I think it's safe to say that someone wasn't really loving not being able to use his hands and wearing a furry hat. Let's hope we have more luck on the actual day, this year I'm having Calum's friends around again for a little party and we're going to take Calum trick or treating around the new neighborhood to meet a few of the more distant neighbors we haven't had a chance to meet yet. Can't wait x

Down on the farm....

Last weekened we made our first visit to the nearby Godstone Farm which was I'm sure, the first of many. It was a perfect fall day to see the animals (which weirdly included ferrets and guinea pigs in an outdoor pen), play in the gigantic sandpit and explore what has to be the biggest playground I have ever seen. I think I had as much fun as Calum did, seeing the smiles on his face were priceless.

Calum with just about the biggest pig I've ever seen. For the record, seeing a pig in person has really put me off eating pig-such disgusting animals!
Trying to climb into the pig pen
Petting the goats despite the big sign saying DON'T PET THE GOATS
Love that smile!
This was only a small fraction of the sand pit. Calum finally overcame his dislike of sand that day, up until now he's not liked getting dirty!
On the swings

Before and after....

When Mark and I first viewed our house last year around this time, I fell in love the second I walked in the door. It just had that warm, cozy feel that felt like home and as we walked through I could picture us living there-Calum playing in the massive backyard, the three of us sat around the kitchen table eating dinner, it just felt right. This was despite the fact that the house was decorated in a style that was completely not our own (garish yellow wallpaper and gold carpets, *red* wallpaper in the master, a bedroom completely in pink from ceiling to carpet, different floors in every room due to the owner owning a flooring business.....). After months of waiting, we moved in on May 28th and within a week Mark had invited about 30 different painters and electricians in to give us quotes on how much it would cost to make it our own.

For a period of a month our house was filled with painters and electricians; on the day the fireplace was replaced we had 10 workers total in our house! It was a nightmare and something I'm not sure I can live through again-my OCD was in full effect and the stress of trying to keep the house clean and livable was overwhelming. Four-plus months later and we're still not quite there in terms of finishing touches (pictures, mirrors, entry table and etc.) however I thought I would post a few before and after pictures since most of you haven't had a chance to come over yet (although I know you will eventually, guest room remember!).

BACK LIVING ROOM AKA WHERE THE GROWN UPS WATCH TV:

BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER (still waiting on our new mirror to go above the fireplace)

FRONT LIVING ROOM AKA CALUM'S PLAYROOM:

BEFORE
BEFORE

AFTER
AFTER

KITCHEN (we've decided to keep this as is for now, even though it's not my dream kitchen-yet!):

MASTER BEDROOM:

BEFORE-The previous owners tried to sell us these curtains for £200!

BEFORE
AFTER
AFTER

HALL AND ENTRY WAY:

BEFORE-Gold wallpaper covering the hall on all 3 floors
BEFORE-The only picture I could find of the matching gold carpet, this is a picture of the winding staircase leading to the 3rd floor which is currently my office

AFTER-I LOVE these windows, an original feature of the house which was built in the 1930s
AFTER
AFTER (view from kitchen to front door, door on left leads to Calum's playroom)

GUEST ROOM:

BEFORE-pink carpet, two styles of pink wallpaper.....
AFTER-the bed is admitedly too big but as this will probably someday be another nursery we couldn't justify getting new bedroom furniture. Not to worry though, when/if that time comes, we have plans to convert the 3rd floor to a guest room! x