Finley's First Christmas

Happy New Year everybody! Can you believe that it is 2013 already...this time last year I was psyching myself up to give birth in February whilst panicking that I still didn't have my hospital bag packed! 'Relax, you have ages' I thought, Little did I know I would be giving birth in less than two weeks! 

 Just as quick as the year began with Finley in our lives, it shot by even faster!  

One of the most exciting times Matt and I had this year was celebrating Finley's first Christmas :) For the first time in our 9 years together Christmas was celebrated at our house, Matt was the hostess with the mostess and I donned the role of Chef, to quote my Dad 'these are some of the best roast potatoes I have ever had'! Eat your heart out Ainsley!

Hands up who had Christmas Pyjamas on? We Did.

It was such a laid back lovely day, we had the usual festivities playing on the TV whilst family popped round to open presents with Finley and dress him up as Father Christmas.

My Dad spent the day with us and helped Finley unwrap his goodies from Father Christmas. He even did the washing up after I used every baking tray and pan available in the house...his invite is already in the post for next Christmas. 

Along with the good old tinsel bun went the obligatory paper hat....if you don't wear one whilst eating Christmas dinner you actually get arrested by the Christmas police! You have been warned!

Although Finley wasn't too interested in ripping open the presents and just played with his old toys he still had a great time. He was so spoilt but hey that's what having babies is all about, right?

He has far too many clothes and toys to post pictures of everything here but some shall feature in his upcoming 'Finley Faves' post :) 

Here are a few snaps from dinner, excuse his messy chops!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed eating your body weight in Roses and feasting of left over turkey sandwiches! If anyone has any Orange or Strawberry Cremes left send them my way....they are my most favourite.

Overall it was our best ever Christmas, I just cant wait for more Chrisrmasas to come around for those little squeals of excitment and 5am wake up calls to see if he has been.

Merry Christmas from us all and I hope 2013 is lucky for everyone!

Our last photo of Finley from Christmas in more Christmas PJs saying Goodnight and Thankyou.

Love Kayleigh x

Twas the night before Christmas

and all was still....until Father Christmas visited!!

Yes that's right...he's Beeeeeen!

Here is a sneak peak of the festive goods in store.

I cant wait to take a million snaps tomorrow and feast on all the festive food!

Finley has quiet frankly been spoilt rotten but anyone could have told you that.

See you all soon

Have a wonderful Christmas

Love Kayleigh x

Our Twinkley Christmas Bun

Wow...nobody ever told me that once you have kids Christmas engulfs your whole life for the entire month of December. Wrapping, cleaning, list making, card designing, present ordering, food shopping....I'm tired out all over again just reading that! 

Everyday for the past week I sat in my good old blog writing area (the couch) to write blog posts on all sorts of exciting things but could I finish one of them, nope! I have 3 draft posts crying out for photos but i just haven't had chance to take them, one reason being I have been THE most busy Christmas person ever and analysing the 'big' food shop over and over until I think we have everything but a box of cotton buds in the trolley. And the second reason is there is no natural light anywhere! I have a weird 'thing' that I have to take pictures only in the day when there is an abundance of sunshine....not something that the North West is known for in the Winter! I need to buy that lightbox I keep promising myself!

Anyway I thought I would make use of the dark, gloomy, drizzly weather and off I went to grab Finley, some fairy lights and my camera!

After I made Matthew risk life and limb climbing on chairs to disassemble our kitchen fairy light feature all for the love of photography we headed to the darkest spot in the house to take a few snaps.

As with the majority of my posts this may be a little picture heavy, but hey who doesn't love looking at the most adorable pictures ever?! 

I have had this idea pinned on my Pinterest board for ages and I finally managed to tick it off :) I just wish we had time to re-do our Christmas cards as I would use one of these pics to send out to family!

Ever since Finley started crawling it has been so difficult to get any pictures of him sat still, the majority I get now are of a blurry baby zooming passed the camera or of him trying to escape up his stairgate. He was so fascinated by the lights he sat there playing with them patiently whilst I managed to get a few decent snaps in.

I think he looks like an angel in this picture, you could just imagine if it panned out there would be his beautiful white angel wings....

Thank you so much for taking the time to read and please share your Christmas snaps with me either in the comments below of on my Facebook page here

Love Kayleigh x

Its Officialy Christmas

...well it has been officially Christmas since last Sunday but I have only just got around to writing the post, it seemed to take me forever to edit these pics, I was distracted by all the festive-ness and started browsing Christmas songs on Youtube. Concentrate Kayleigh, concentrate! Here is a pre-warning - this may become a rather picture heavy post!

Anyway, I wanted to show you all a few snaps I took of us putting up the Christmas decorations ready for Finley's FIRST EVER Christmas. *yay*

To be honest I had imagined a lovely Sunday of making paper chains together, watching Elf and Finley rolling around on a bed of tinsel but the reality was slightly different. Instead we missed Elf because Uncle Buck was on, Matthew distracted Finley with the tree star whilst I took almost half an hour de-tangling beads, which you cant even see on the tree *sheesh* and to top it off Finley decides he dislikes the tinsel very much and doesn't agree to wear it as a garland he so promised when I was 8 months pregnant last December!

Note the disapproval of a Tinsel necklace

Our Christmas Star in his Christmas PJs

t still turned out to be a lovely family festive afternoon and we enjoyed creating our own little Santa's grotto, if I had my way I would have 100% more decs up but Matthew said I was already verging on tacky...but isn't that the whole idea? I wont bore you all to tears with a picture of every single decoration we own but here are a few snaps of the tree :) 

Once we got on a roll hanging up stockings and pinning up the bunting it didn't take too long to complete the look we have now, 'a colour jumble' if you will, I haven't gone for the traditional matchy matchy look, I prefer the rustic mis-matched look. I cant wait for next year for Finley to add some homemade baubles and hanging pictures, possibly even Spiderman if he doesn't mind living in the tree for a month. 

I just had to add that this is one of our Christmassy candles we currently have burning, now I'm not one for spices especially cinnamon and this goes against all my dislikes for a candle scent, but, I love it. It is a spice-fruit combo and smells just like well...Christmas! My other fave is Cranberry which came in a set we bought here.

I shall leave you with this lovely pic of Finely and I celebrating our decorations success. Oh, it is the law to wear your hair in a bun and wrap tinsel around it from the 1st December onwards :) 

Quick read this *ssshhh* here is a secret mini quiz for you, I have secretly put little birdys in some of the photos above. Take a look and let me know in the comments how many you can spot!

Hope you all have your decorations up and counting down the days till Father Christmas comes!

Love Kayleigh x

A cheeky morning with Finey

This post is a little bit of an accident really, I was just snapping away on the camera trying to get some shots of Finley sporting his festive jammies when I realised he was just being plain cheeky! At the moment it is almost impossible to get a picture of him sat still...instead he is always doing the 'I promise I'm being good Mummy/Daddy' face, whilst climbing up any furniture he can find!

To be honest I'm not surprised, I think he is getting me back for disappearing a few times this week. On Wednesday I had to leave him for the longest time ever...13 hours 40 minuets to be exact!!! *Sigh* and to add to my already mummy anxiety I was over an hour away in Manchester! For all those people who may be interested I was at the Employment Tribunal courts observing, so concentrating on cross examinations took the edge off wanting to constantly sob and call home. 

Then the next day I was out with all my bestest work chums for the works Christmas Tea, it was a quick Chinese before we got drenched running to the car to get home to Finners.

Anyway, I wanted to share a few of the lovely snaps I captured of Fin being a good old cheeky chap! I wouldn't expect anything less of an 11th month old baby boy....and I have a sneaky suspicion he isn't growing out of it any time soon! That is fine by us, we just love our spirited bun full of giggles and mischievous glances. 

Theres the 'look' I was talking about!

As I chased him back into the front room out of the Kitchen he headed straight to the DVDs, this baby just doesn't want to take it easy.

Let me know if your little ones are keeping you on your toes? Oh oh oh guess what.....the Christmas tree is going up tomorrow! YAYAYAYAY 
'I love you, I lovvveee You, I LOVE YOU' -can you guess my most fave Christmas film from that quote??

Love Kayleigh x

Christmas Decs Haul

Oh dear I have done it again, the Christmas bug has bitten and I have a few more festive items to show you all....our house is going to be like a full on Grotto by the time Christmas Day comes!

For some strange reason I have the weirdest online shopping habits, I casually browse a website for ages, see things I love, check the prices, add to basket then the 'tight-wad' in me goes and closes the whole site down! Is it just me who does this? Please tell me I am not alone in 'pretend online shopping'? 

Anyway I am a regular 'fantasy' shopper on dotcomgiftshop - Amazing website! I absolutely love living in a retro world and the thought of neatly stacked vintage lunchboxes fills me with glee. *takes a moment to swoon* The great thing about Dotcomgiftshop is the prices, usually I find that anywhere that stocks anything shabby chic or of that nature they hike the prices right up because they know how popular it is. But all the lovelies on this site are extremely well priced - sometimes cheaper than Ebay! 

So what made me check out this basket? Their amazing deal of the week offer, that's what. I have been eyeing up the Christmas section for some time now and had my heart set on some lovely Christmas bunting but as usual every time it was in my basket I clicked of the page....and regretted it every time :( 

But last week they had some fab Christmas bunting....half price! Say What?! It was a sign, in my basket it went along with a few other Christmassy bits, some retro old skool paper chains to make with Finley and some fancy napkins for our Christmas dinner! Bet you cant wait to get your chops on these Dad!! And a little sneaky prezzie for Finners' stocking!

Want to take a peek at the goodies? Here you go :) 

I think I got some great bits and my grand total was around £30, a great deal!

Make sure you go and check them out here and have a look at the deal of the week offer for some great savings :) Im currently compiling a wish list to hand to Matthew...I mean Father Christmas for him to maybe place a few treats under the tree for me.

Love Kayleigh x

Clothing Christmas Haul

I have realised that I am much more Christmas obsessed than I first thought....another post in September.

The other day whilst browsing online I had a look to see if anywhere had any festive fancy dress in stock...I cant resist a bit of fancy dress. I didn't see anything earth shattering but I did find some Christmassy gems in Next.

The first thing I spotted were these snuggly sleepsuits

The Fairisle print on the left is far more up my street, I love the retro feel and if they made this in Adult size I would have it on right this minute. The second is a red and black stripey Christmas pud number, very cute and could be worn by little girlies too. 

 Both sleepsuits are in the size 9-12 months and came in a two pack for £12

By the time these were in my basket I went Christmas mad and decided to get Finley's Christmas Day outfit.  Here we have just a standard pair of jeans as he had none in his 9-12 month box of clothes, the best T-shirt ever and an adorable Christmas Pudding hat. 

Ignore all creases - They had just been de-parceled

The T-shirt has that wonderful Retro feel with the Fairisle heart, it is long sleeved for chilly December days but not too thick you can never let your baby wear it inside. 

The jeans are just a standard pair of denim elasticated waist band jeans...great feel and very soft for easy movement. I tend not to dress Finley in jeans at home, I always find them restricting so he is often seen sporting loungewear indoors....just like his mum and dad (Comfy pants are the way forward).

Finally there are not enough cute describing words (adjectives for you English teachers out there) in the world to go into detail on this bobble hat. Who wouldn't want to put this on your baby at Christmas, that's right nobody! I bought this is size 6-12months but because of Finley's 95th centile head it is a little snug, I'm sure if will be fine and I can always adjust if needed. It has a woollen knit look and a huge oversized red pom pom on top. I'm swooning already. 

I tried to get Finley to model the hat for you all but he was too interested in scooting in his walker so excuse the blurry pic. 

I still have two other things that are due to be delivered tomorrow but they are not Christmas related - surprisingly.

Let me know if your planning on getting any Christmas clothing? I would love to see it.

Love Kayleigh x

The cutest Christmas bag ever

Hi Everyone, as you probably know by now I have started planning for Finley's first Christmas and browsing ever website for anything festive and cute. 

One of my most favourite websites is notonthehighstreet.com I love how you browse through thinking "oooo that would be great in the bathroom, ooooo Matthew would love that" or "this is in the kids section but I want it for me". From what I have seen it is very similar to Etsy as in there are multiple sellers that offer some pretty cool stuff. 

As I browsed through the site one item caught me eye - this lovely little canvas Christmas bag from the seller 3 Blonde Bears :) 

I love the rustic feel of this bag, how his name is all raggedy and the Jolly Father Christmas just tops it off for me. I wouldn't say this is an alternative to a stocking as its around 20cm by 26cm, but I would say it is plenty big enough for your Christmas sweets and choccys or even better to put on your table for friends and family!

I think it will look blooming well lovely nestling under our tree all stuffed to the brim with treats - I'm getting so excited. I'm thinking of getting one for Matthew and I so we all match.

You can purchase yours here for £7 including delivery -  there are different designs to choose from and the seller offers allsorts of other lovely personalised items, including stockings, present sacks and babygrows.

I have added the business card info I got incase you want to get in touch with them - sorry its all crinkled, Finley got his hands on it tut tut tut.

Let me know what you have started buying if anything yet for Christmas? 

Love Kayleigh x

Am I about to talk about Christmas in September...

Well the answer to that question is yes, im sorry but im just too darn excited. 

Im not sure why but for some reason this year I have had the 'Christmas Urges' (yes that is a condition) since around June. A very new experience for 'lets wait till December pay day' me, I am assuming that once you have a baby a Christmas switch in your head is switched to overdrive. 

Finley will be only 11months this year but I think he will love all the fussing and paper scrunching...and of course the obligatory fancy dress and matching family pyjamas.

The thing I am most looking forward to is passing on little traditions and creating new ones as a family. I always think about the moment he understands and truly believes in all the magic of Christmas, that Christmas Eve when he can't sleep, the little letter written in crayon and that look of pure joy and happiness on Christmas morning where he cant speak for excitement.

Expect more posts on Christmas in the coming months for ideas on pressies, decorations and just general Christmas greatness. 

Do you plan Christmas months in advance or are you a last minute shopper?  

Love Kayleigh x