Christmas is coming, Mummy's getting fat!

As a child we used to sing a little variation of "Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat" instead singing "Christmas is coming, Mummy's getting fat"! 

This was not meant unkindly, as it may seem, but was a joke from a time where my Mum (having had 4 children) was often pregnant at Christmas. 

Well this year, like the turkey, I am fattening up nicely as I am now 16 weeks pregnant! 

Being gluttons for punishment and just not being able to resist having a tiny one again we thought 'why have 2 children when you can have 3!'

We announced our pregnancy a little later this time and had a long time to consider the announcement. You may or may not remember my second pregnancy announcement and the absolute headache it was getting a then 10 month old Nemo and Poppy to pose nicely! (You can read about it here! http://themumthedogandthebaby.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/opps-we-did-it-again.html )

We had lots of ideas but after several failed attempts to get the children (namely Pebble) to be at all cooperative we decided to go with the easy option instead. 

So hello Baby Pip! 

This pregnancy has of course already had its dramas but everything is settled now and going well. (Albeit my issues with my hips I had last pregnancy have already started to creep in.....) The scan was very quick as the sonographer said the baby was very chilled! Hopefully this bodes well for the future! 

The title of my blog- "the mum, the dog and the baby" seems a little ridiculous now that before too long there will be 3 children in our house. Nemo is super excited but is very invested in the idea that this baby will be a boy... Pebble doesn't really understand the concept but has now got into the habit of touching her tummy and saying "baby!" 

Meanwhile Christmas preparations continue, the house has now been christmasfied! It's been lovely to get out some of the things I spent hours crafting over last year, we now have 3 wreaths in our house, the winter one, Christmas one and Autumn one (I can not yet part with this one as I spent so long on it!) 

The winter wreath now has some extra sparkly bits that arrived in the post, it looks so pretty in the doors with the frosty garden behind it. 

Christmas wreath has been out above out fireplace. 

Unfortunately Nemo has been a little unwell and after school got rather disturbed by his viral rash (!!) I was told to keep him at home. I appeased him by letting him 'help' me decorate the tree. 

Nemo's taste is a little different to my own.... 

Nemo wasn't too impressed when I took his cars off, I didn't want to be one of those parents who redoes the Christmas tree after their children have decorated but I'll try again next Christmas! 

Pebble loves the Christmas tree and this year she is old enough to listen to me when I tell her not to take everything off! (I get one year of this before Pip is causing chaos next Christmas!) 

I have been enjoying the beautiful frost and am keeping my fingers crossed for some snow. Frost just makes everything look beautiful. 

We have also had some really beautiful skies

The cold weather has seen us making full advantages of the many blankets we have in our house! 

Lucy from the attic24 blog is releasing a new crochet blanket inspired by heather on the Yorkshire moors, I am very excited! 

Project: Christmas-feeding the masses is under way. Today I made 90 Christmas cocktail sausages, recipe curtesy of Nigella Lawson- I love her Christmas book. 

They smelt amazing bubbling away in the oven.

Now I somehow managed to avoid even eatting 1 as I have become concerned that 90 isn't enough. Now I've done my maths, I'm using them for two meals that will combined mean 14 adult portions and 6 child portions. Allowing for the adults to have 5 each and the children to have 3 each (keeping it in mind there will be a full roast dinner with this) there will still be 2 left over. But seeing them in the pan, it just didn't seem like enough! 

They are now living in the freezer with the muffins! 

I am also slowly buying things and stashing them above the kitchen cupboards

This weekend sees us doing some more Christmas baking and cooking but before I leave you I thoughts I'd show you and cute photo and a funny photo. 

Here are Nemo and Pebble looking very sweet! 

I stumbled across Lego man on the kitchen table in a interesting juxtaposition with a stacking toy! At least Lego man looks happy!!,

Lovely autumness and Christmas preparation

Well I'm going to be very British and talk about the weather which has fluctuated between beautiful clear Autumn days and pretty foul days full of freezing cold heavy rain. 

Last weekend saw us experience more of the latter. We were pleased to find there was a bonfire and firework display just 10 minutes walk from our house which was free to get in to. Sorted. 

So we headed out, it was cold so we wrapped up the children in so many layers that particularly Pebble looked like a marshmallow. It's quite miraculous she could actually walk. 

They had an amazing bonfire which even from some 20 meters away you could not face straight at it. 

Then just before the fireworks started it started to rain. At first it wasn't too bad but it got progressively worse and worse. By the time the fireworks started you could not actually look up to see the fireworks as the rain pelted into your eyes. 

These photos don't do it justice but we were soaked through. 

An unimpressed Nemo sat soaking wet in the pram! 

 

After braving the rain for about 20-30 minutes we had to admit defeat and leave. Nemo and Pebble both cried all the way home not able to decide if they were more upset at being very cold and wet or leaving before the fireworks had finished.

This weekend saw more of the beautiful cold and clear Autumn weather. We went for a really lovely walk yesterday at Ford Moss. 

I bought Pebbles coat sized 2-3 years so that it lasts and sure it will last because it drowns her! (Note the lack of hands coming out the end of the sleves!)

Nemo loves playing hide and seek at the moment. Below is Daddy and Pebble hiding but Poppy is giving their location away a little! 

Nemo naturally decided that he wanted to roll on the floor!?!?

Met these beautiful ladies (I actually have no idea if they are male or female but they seemed like ladies!) 

Of course every outing with toddlers seems to end the same way, tears and tiredness! 

Note the grumpy children! 

Children are the most cute asleep I think! 

Church this morning was entertaining / embarrassing. 

Nemo likes to sing along with the songs, however he likes to sing a song of his own choice. This led to Nemo's cries of "EE-I-EE-I-O" being heard between verses of the song. Quite hilarious! Nemo is obviously of an age where he understands he needs to be quiet for certain parts of the service however Pebble is still a bit young. The quieter the church seems to be the more talkative Pebble gets. Today there was a time of quiet reflection followed by a 2 minute of silence being Rememberance Sunday.

This is my worse nightmare. 

We managed pretty well on the whole but at one point during the silence  Pebble did rather loudly exclaim "Hello!". 

 As we sat afterwards having our tea and biscuits we got an invite for lunch simultanously to Nemo weeing himself, Pebble using the distraction to take Nemo's toy and Nemo and Pebble erupting into a loud fight which made the whole room turn and stare. 

Had to turn down the offer of the lunch.... :( 

They have however of course been pretty angelic ever since, of course now because there are no people are here to see them! 

This weekend has marked the beginning of Christmas preparation. This Christmas is the first time me and Hubby are hosting my side of the family who usually invade my parents house. This does mean 3 days post Christmas of feeding a total of 15 people. Christmas and the 2 days prior to this my Mother-in-law is coming so this totals 6 days of Christmas hosting.

I have, no doubt, been driving my family mad as I try and pin them all down to get their movements and run by a few things I am doing differently past them. However they should spare a thought for my poor husband who has been subject to hours and hours of discussion and planning. To give you an idea these 10 pages of notes are my plans for food, presents, sleeping arrangements etc. 

My husband will be making these into some epic spreadsheets at some point! 

I am pre-making 7 different food items in the run up to Christmas and with only 4 weekends at home until the big day this weekend I had to make a start. I am unashamed to say that we got the Christmas CDs out and the Christmas aprons on to bake these! 

Here are 36 Christmas muffins. Of course Nemo wanted to help. He's actually got to the point where his help doesn't prove too disruptive. 

Then naturally Pebble who wants to do whatever her big brother does also wanted to 'help' (her 'help' is more distracting!) 

I have been feeling really rather smug as I have completed all of my Christmas shopping (Thank you God for Amazon when you have small children and live over an hour drive away from any major shopping centres!) 

However yesterday a cheque arrived for the children from a relative who didn't know what to get the children so asked us to buy something using the money. Smug bubble burst... 

This weekend has seen me finish my 6th attic24 wreath - the winter one! 

http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2015/03/winter-wreath-ta-dah-1.html

Strictly speaking I haven't actually completed the wreath as I'm awaiting a couple of cute sparkly bits of but on (I bought these very cheaply on Amazon but pay the price as they aren't due to arrive for weeks!) 

For our home we now have a set of 4, the Easter, the Autumn, the winter and the Christmas wreath. 

 I have also made a summer one and an Autumn one for my mum and sister which means in the past 12 months I have done 6. 

I am now going to try and balance all my blogs with the part of my life I have neglected in order to complete my crafting/ baking. As my friends keep asking how I do it- I do it by ignoring the house and leaving my husband to keep the children alive. I have a rather messy house and I haven't done any washing for the whole weekend so I better get on with some housework! 

Just how I like to spend my Sunday evenings.... :-D