I'm Back!

Hello!

Remember me? No? Didn't think so. Oops.

Long time no talk. This feels so weird to be writing on here again. I've missed it soooo much.

I've been gone for a very, very long time and I don't even have any excuses for that... I don't think "the dog ate my homework" excuse is going to quite cut it!

There has been so much happening since I was last on here, so I thought I'd update you on everything 'life'!

First of all, the last time I blogged was four days before Megan, Sophie and Daisy's little brother, named Oscar, was born and he is just adorable, I'm so proud to say I was there for the whole thing and was one of the first people to get to steal lots of cuddles from him - he's made me a very proud godmother, it'll also be a great story to tell all of his future girlfriends; you've been warned Little O!

I then realised I only had a few weeks until I was going back to uni and I wanted to dedicate as much of my time to my family as possible, which meant this little space taking a bit of a backseat, even more so when I got to uni and was landed with a lot of work to do. However, I did a blog post HERE, quite a while ago, about the realities of university and although I very much stand by what I wrote, things have definitely gotten a lot better for me this year in terms of my flatmates and friends but I might do a different, slightly-updated, blog post on another version of university I've found this year.

Now I'm trying to write it all down, I'm seriously forgetting half of the things I've done over the past few months - brain failure!

I moved into my new uni flat on the 19th September and pretty much all of my time since then has been consumed by some new and amazing friends that I've made, as well as the massive workload I've managed to accumulate lately, but seen as I'm going to do a different blog post on university happenings we'll skip to the latest events which is...

The welcoming of my new, beautiful little nephew to the world. Yep, that's right. Another little nephew to run me ragged and spoil tons! Harry Robert Murphy was born on the 28th October and I got a lovely text from my brother announcing he'd finally arrived, what made it even better was I was going home that coming weekend so I wouldn't have to wait the weeks to see him I originally thought I was going to have to - which reminds me, I also went to see Ben Montague and Shane Filan when they visited Carlisle, whilst I was home that weekend; they were both awesome!

I think that's pretty much everything... All of the main goings-on in my life anyway! I'll try not to leave it so long before my next blog post!

Katie x

5 Things to Do When You're Sick

Hello!

I looked after Daisy on Sunday when she wasn't very well and it appears I now have her sickness bug - throwing up everywhere and all of that gross stuff (TMI, by the way...). Needless to say, my bed and I have been best friends today whilst the bathroom has just been interfering with our relationship.

I always struggle when I'm poorly because I hate feeling like I have no energy - something you know you're lacking when you don't even have the strength to turn the bath taps with your nimble toe skills, but you also can't be bothered to sit up and reach for them, so you just sit as the water gets colder and you look at it wishing you could just make it heat up by staring at it. Yep, you guessed right, this has happened to me today.

My lack of energy and inability to want to do anything means I always get bored and end up feeling sorry for myself, so here are 5 things to do when you're a poorly little thing (they might even help you feel a bit better!).

1.

Watch lots of movies!

Snuggle up in your duvet, either in bed or on your sofa, and watch tons of feel-good movies. Personally, I always end up watching Mary Poppins because I lurvvv her! If you're not sure what to watch though, then HERE is a list of feel-good movies that I wrote a little while ago - there's some good uns', even if I do say so myself!

2.

Hugs.

I'm soooo soppy when I'm ill, I just want constant hugs and baby-ing, so hugs are always a good thing when you're ill, they make you feel oodles better, too - you just have to find someone to hug who doesn't care that you're highly contagious...

3.

Go outside.

A funny one to think of doing if you're not well but don't go far - obviously, you have no energy, remember! - you don't want to spread your germs either. Just go sit in your garden if it's nice weather, fresh air can never be a bad thing. Unfortunately, this isn't something I've been able to do thanks to the tail-end of Mrs Hurricane Bertha that's hit England; I don't fancy sitting in a torrential down-pour, thunder and wild gales.

4.

Sleep... Lots.

Let's be honest, sleeping is never a bad thing but it's definitely not going to hurt when you're sick, sleep it all off, that's my advise for the day.

5.

Take a lovely, long, luxurious bath.

Any excuse to have a bath - add a nice, smelly bath bomb too, if you can - light a few candles and just lie there and relax! 

Katie x

6 Pamper Night Necessities!

Hello!

I mentioned the other day that I'd spent the day with Megan and Sophie. Well, as well as going to the lovely little Old Hall Cafe (which I wrote all about HERE), they had some friends over and their mama had organised for us all to have a pamper night!

There are certain things that I think are essential to a pamper night, like:

1.

Face Masks

Who doesn't love a good face mask, cleansing all those pores and whatever else it is they're supposed to do?! Personally, I think I just looked like I had poo spread all over my face but it felt amazing, it was self-heating too which, aside from being one of the weirdest sensations ever, made my face feel all lovely and relaxed!

2.

Mani-Pedi's

Well, everyone needs to have pretty toes and fingers, a pamper night is the perfect place to fix those bare nails and chipped toe nail polish! I had Megan and Sophie do mine and I definitely have an interesting mix of colours on my toes...

3.

Movies

Find the best and most hilarious, belly-aching movie you can find and put it on for you and all your friends to sit and crease up in laughing fits! (We ended up watching Princess Diaries - Megs and soph are only 8 and 9, so the movie had to be age appropriate, obvs! Plus, everyone loves Princess Diaries).

4.

Selfies

Let's just be honest for a moment, selfies are an -anywhere-any-occasion thing, okay? So why the hell wouldn't you take a ton of them on your pamper night when you all have face masks on and look like crazy people for painting your face with, what is essentially, mud?

5.

Sweeties!

Once again, sweeties are an anywhere-anytime-occasion thing in my opinion but you need extra sweet treats at a pamper night, because you're pampering yourself, so why not treat your tummy too?!

6.

Hair Accessories

Not only do you need to sit and do each others hair making sure you all look fabulous but you need a few flower crowns too - duh.

Obviously those are just what I deem as 'essentials' and I've probably missed things off or put things on that you wouldn't have thought of but I'd love to know what you do on a pamper night - as you can tell, we had an awesome treat night!

Katie x

My Month In Pictures

Hello!

I decided to be super cute today and make a collage of all my favourite pictures from this month because, you may have noticed, I love to take snaps of all the lovely moments! Now I have the cutest collage that rounds up my month and all the beautiful things that happened this month.

Most of them I've probably already blogged about somewhere in this little internet world because I like to make sure I keep you guys all up to date with my life and I find it nice to look back on myself today and see all of the lovely things I've done.

There was my lovely grown-up niece's birthday and then, of course, Miss Princess Daisy's birthday (I wrote a little something for her HERE, if you want to pop over to it), then the day after was the James's birthday, and two days after was my Grandpa's birthday! There are way too many birthdays to handle in just one month!

I also had a night out with some of my friends from home amidst all of this and a day in Newcastle with my bestie. There have been plenty of days out with all of the Little (and Big) Ones that I can't even tell you about them all but I did posts on a few of them HERE, HERE and HERE. I also found time to have an operation on my ear at some point and get a job (which I did a little thing on HERE)! It's actually been quite a busy month now I'm trying to remember everything I've done!

Have you done anything nice this month?

Katie x

The Problems With Hospitals

Hello!

I had to have an operation on my ear on Wednesday - nothing too serious, but it was still an operation. It does mean I might struggle with posts over the next few days though, so sorry if there becomes a distinct lacking of action on this little space, I'll be back on it as soon as possible!

The timing of this sucks too, I had the opportunity to go on a camping trip this weekend with Daisy Doo but had to turn it down, seen as I'm not exactly in the best state. It also means I have to miss a week of work, which sucks. Oh well! It'll all be worth it in the end!

This isn't the first time I've had this operation but it was a bit bigger this time, in hope that it would be the last time I have to have it. The one thing that always gets me every time is that I can't wash my hair for a week - it gives me the serious heeby-jeebies! I hate having gross, greasy hair... I guess it just means I won't be leaving the house for a week! 

There are so many things I hate about hospitals, here are just some of them!

1.

Food.

I cannot stand hospital food, this probably has a lot to do with the fact that I'm a majorly fussy eater - even my toast has to be cooked in a certain way if you expect me to eat it! This kind of fussiness doesn't bode well for me in hospitals though because, as most people will know, hospital food is in a constant state of sucking, yuckiness... Or is that just English hospitals?

2.

The Smell.

I bet this seems like such a silly thing to dislike about hospitals but I have a seriously strong sense of smell. I think it's because people say that when one of your senses is weaker, another is stronger; well my hearing isn't the best so I think that's why my ability to smell things is amazingly good. It comes in rather useful at times but it's not the best thing to have in a hospital - all I can ever smell is antibacterial wash and occasionally, if someone's bleeding a lot, I can smell blood too, which there is obviously quite a lot of in a hospital... Ewww. 

3.

Boredom.

There is never much to do in a hospital but sit and be nosy. If you've just come round from an anaesthetic (like I had) you don't really have the mental capacity to focus on much, so the likes of reading is out of the question (sad and extremely cry-worthy, I know). I don't know what it's like in other hospitals around the world but, you have to pay for the TV's in English hospitals - something I refuse to do - and so the only other option is to just sit (or lie) there and be bored. Bored, bored, bored.

So there's what I think of hospitals. The only thing I'm looking forward to now is a week relaxing in my bed! Lots of sweet snacks are in order and plenty of feel-good movies! 

Katie x

The Trials and Tribulations of a Job

Hello!

As some of you may have read (HERE) I have a job now!

There are a lot of good points to having a job - like having a regular income! That part's definitely the best part!

There are also some not so great things about having a job; here are five of them (in my opinion):

1.

Not seeing the Little Ones :(

It was Daisy's birthday last week so I did manage to get the night off to go to her birthday tea but normally I take her out a couple of days during the week and I haven't had the chance to do that, which I hate. It was also James's birthday last week (too  many birthdays in one week!) and I only managed to see him for about forty-five minutes; it was literally a quick hello, birthday hug and a quick goodbye. I really miss getting to see them regularly and take them out to do nice things.

2.

No more lie-ins.

I actually have to get out of bed. You have no idea how much of a chore this is. It's awful! I love my bed! And now I have to battle with myself to remove myself from it. It's tough. I feel like I'm neglecting the poor thing. I'm sure my bed knows it too, seen as it's not letting me get a full night's sleep anymore!

3.

Sore feet.

For my job I literally have to stand on my feet for seven hours straight (aside from my eating break about half way through that) and wow is it taking its toll. I feel like every night when I get home I should have some professional masseur here to give me a foot rub. They hurt :(

4.

Uniform.

Most jobs have a uniform. In this sweaty weather, I'm not loving it though. There are a lot of ovens and things where I work (as if that isn't a big give away to the kind of place I work in) so it heats up in there pretty quickly! I have to have my legs covered because of there being lots of hot things, plus I'm super clumsy so it would probably be a good idea anyway, so my jeans are clinging to me within the first half hour and the shirt I have to wear isn't the thinnest of thins either, unfortunately but hey ho! It could be worse. At the secondary school I went to we had to wear all black. Now that was a bit warm!

5.

I miss my grandparents.

Slightly similar to the first one. I normally stay at my grandparents for the majority of the week and then come home for the weekend, or something like that, but these past few weeks I haven't been able to do that and it's killing me. I'm really close to my grandparents and I miss them like crazy not being able to see them. I've even been talking to them on the phone most nights but it's not the same. It takes a bit to get to there house though so I'm constantly trying to figure out whether it's going to be worth going for just the few days or waiting till I've got longer off.

Anyway, those are the woes of having a job. I'll get over them eventually, it's just taking a bit of getting used to when I'm home for the summer and I feel like I'm not getting to see the most important people. And I have sore feet. That never helps.

Katie x 

A Day of Little Ones: Part 2

Hello!

The afternoon part of my day last Thursday was spent with Megan and Sophie, who are so grown up now it amazes me! I look at them and I'm just like "when did you shoot up?! This is a recent thing... Right?". It seems to have just dawned on me recently how big they're getting - Megan, the oldest, will even be off to secondary school (high school) in September next year! I remember when they were just little babies, it feels weird to see them so grown up and giving you answers to things that you forget a nine year old knows!

Anyway, my distress of them growing up so quickly aside, here is my afternoon with the girlies!

If you didn't see yesterday's post with Part One, click HERE to give it a quick read!

 One of these bikes decided to break whilst we were at the park, with the breaks stuck on it, unfortunately I got the joy of pushing it all the way home!

 Little gymnastic girlies! They're amazing at it! I went to see their gym show last week and I was amazed by what some of the children in the show could do and none of them were older than ten!

 To say I had a mini heart attack when I turned around and saw them climbing this tree would be an understatement!

 I got over it though, they assured me they'd done it plenty of times before... Not going to lie, it still didn't stop my heart from pounding twice as fast as it should have.

 She's a right poser this one!

We all went out for a little meal afterwards with some other friends - I especially love the Daisy and her Megan in this photo, so cute!

Katie x

A Day of Little Ones: Part 1

Hello!

Last Thursday I had another lovely day with Daisy and then took Megan and Sophie out in the afternoon. 

It was awesome to get to spend the afternoon with the Megs and Soph actually because, as you can tell by the many posts about her, I get to spend quite a lot of days out with Dais but not so many with her big sisters, because they're in school during the day. So I loved getting to spend time with them, even if it did result in me having to push a broken bike all the way back to their home!

We decided to have a change and go to a different park after we'd been to soft play for the morning, so Bitts Park is where we ended up! I think, I'm not sure though but I think, it might be one of the biggest parks in the city and it has a massive adventure-climbing-frame-thing... I don't know what you call them but children that use them have to wear helmets and harnesses and stuff. So yeah, it's a pretty amazing park.

We didn't do any of the big adventure stuff though, due to Daisy being too little and me not wanting the heart failure of seeing her suspended up that high!

Rather than bombard you with pictures because, trust me, there are a lot of them, I'm going to do this blog post in two parts: The morning with my Little One and then the afternoon with my Bigger Little Ones!

I'm loving this nice weather, it's perfect for these kind of days!

Katie x

A Mid Week Pick-Me-Up #6

Hello!

This post is going to start with an extra cute little birthday message, to an extra cute little nephew on his first birthday!

Aside from the fact that you're obviously the cutest Chief Little One there is, and you're obviously the secret prince because you were born in the same year and only a week apart  from the the royal baby, Prince George - they must have got you mixed up with him because there's no way you're not a prince, too - you're the giggliest (and grumpiest) little boy I know, and you're going to be such a lady-killer when you're older, I can see it already! Love you, little Dude.

Now for this week's Mid Week Pick-Me-Up!

To try and stick to the family theme that seems to have started this post... and yesterday's post was very familial as well, actually... This is the quote I have chosen for this week.

(Source)

"Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind, or forgotten." - Stitch (Lilo and Stitch)

I know I normally do my own little drawing of whatever the pick-me-up is each week but I really loved this one. 

I not only love the quote because it's from one of my favourite movies when I was younger, but I love the drawing of Stitch and it would take me a long time to draw anything that good. So, I thought why not just share the original with you rather than try and put my own twist on something that's already pretty amazing.

Family means a lot to me and it always will, because every little part of my family is important to me. I would do anything for them but I also know that they'd do anything for me.

My family don't all live near each other but we still all come together when we're needed or for big occasions like big birthdays or Christmas. We spend Christmas together every year, all of us, without fail, there are no excuses allowed but it's one of my favourite times of year just because we all get to be together on that one day. 

You should always love your family like there's no tomorrow because you never know when something horrible could happen and could snatch someone important away from you, when you think it could never happen to you.

Cherish every moment you get with your family, young or old, everybody needs love. And giraffes. Everybody needs giraffes too... Just saying.

Katie x

Have you read the previous Mid Week Pick-Me-Up's?

A Mid Week Pick-Me-Up

A Mid Week Pick-Me-Up #2

A Mid Week Pick-Me-Up #3

A Mid Week Pick-Me-Up #4

A Mid Week Pick-Me-Up #5

For the Birthday Princess...

Dear Little One,

This is just a little letter to you that, I hope, one day in the future when you're all grown up, you'll read and see just how much I love you and how special you are.

You're officially two as of the exact time this post went up!

Until there is someone as special as you in your own life, you will never understand just how quick you're growing up. I remember the first day I saw you, and the next day, and the day after that too. (Shhh, don't tell your sisters but you were definitely the most well-behaved baby out of the three of you ;) ). You were the most precious little thing I'd ever seen, in your bundle of pinkness! This is a warning, Daisy Doo, stop growing up! Even when you're thirteen, and probably don't want big hugs from me, I'll be giving them to you, because you'll always be my baby goddaughter that nuzzled into my chest when you couldn't sleep.

I know I'm bias, so some might say my opinion doesn't really count, but you're the most beautiful little girl there is, with your big blue eyes and little blonde pigtails - you make my heart melt, baby girl - dye your hair and I'm going to cry... Buckets! Seriously. Don't dye your hair. It's beautiful. And don't you dare ever let anybody tell you you're not the most stunning and delicate Little One that they ever did see, because you just tell me and I'm gonna go kick some butt! You're amazing.

Every time I see you, no matter how often it is, you always seem to have grown up that little bit more, saying new words  - your current favourites are "owanges", "no", "babyyy" and "baf", just in case you're wondering - and doing new things; I know you'll be off to school before I know it!

It was because of me going to university that we started our real, whole-day little park days and play dates - it was something that just the two of us could do together and get some proper Daisy and Tatie time, and I could spoil you tons too (remember, all of those bubbles and cakes are a secret from mummy - we always forget to save any for the grown-ups ;) ). It's also probably the reason that every time you manage to get hold of my phone you look at it and go "cheeeeeese" with a big, cheesy grin on your face.

You make me smile on days you don't even know I'm feeling down and, it's on them days especially, I don't know what I'd do without you. You're this gorgeous little light that nobody can help but love. All I ever want to do is see that smile on your face and I'm not going to be happy if anyone ever stops you from smiling - I'll kick their butt too! Promise.

There is nothing I wouldn't do for you (and you know it, I'm sure!), every time I walk through the door you have that cheeky grin on your face, as if to say you already have planned where you're taking me to that day (I don't get the choice, I just follow, and that's the way I love it). One day you can hopefully look back at this blog, figure out how this blog came about (I know you're going to be a clever girl, so that shouldn't be difficult for you) and see all of the different places we've been and what we've done.

I love you so much, Little One.

Tatie xxxxxx

P.s. I have a lot of embarrassing baby pictures of you, expect me to show them to any and all future boyfriends - it's in my Godmother contract!

The Sunny One

Hello!

Yesterday was an actual, fatual sunny day! Believe it or not, they are very rare where I live so, obviously, sun can mean only one thing a trip to the park with my Little One! 

As soon as I walked through the door, she looked at me, grinned and started shouting "shoes on! Shoes on! Out! Paaaark!" - she knows if I go to visit and it's sunny then we go out, so we did and what a lovely afternoon we had, too!

Ice-pops are just crazy-exciting!

Spot the birdies!

I have my own miniature Hermoine Granger - she even ran around the park waving the stick and saying "abbacababa" - in other words "abracadabra" - it's not hard to see where her big sisters are rubbing off on her!

Katie x