I love a good wedding

And this was a GREAT wedding. Our friends Clive and Nic got hitched in the most romantic manor house setting in Alloa. Now Alloa is perhaps not the spot to head to for your fortnight's holiday, and the rain did make several appearances, but nothing could take away from the total magic of this day. Pipers, kilts, thistles in the buttonholes, a very handsome groom and a stunning bride! Add to that champagne, the best of friends, my new camera, some more champagne, great food, dancing and perhaps just a little more champagne! Perfection.

 

Don't they just look perfect together? I tell you, it was emotional carnage for a few of us, and not just as a result of the champagne!

Ok, now I'm off on the fantastic family holiday in Florida on Thursday for 2 weeks, so for those of you who stick with me through my blog droughts, I'm afraid there's another coming up. I'm led to believe that the resort we're staying in has online facilities, but I think my mother may actually kill both me and my dad if we so much as venture there for more than 10 minutes, so I can't guarantee any blog action! More than my life is worth. But as I'm off on summer holidays for another 5 weeks or so after we get back, I hope to get back into the swing of things. Lots more time to chill, enjoy my family, take pictures, scrap them and blog the results! Cannot wait for some fun photography sessions coming up too, not least with my favourite Boland family!! Until then, enjoy the summer and remember that it really is all good xx

Ta-dah!

Just a picture post for those who really want to see how lovely our new kitchen is. As you can see it is fab and has killer pull-out larders (3 in total!) and some very sexy lighting for all the entertaining we'll be doing ha ha!

 

Obviously it will not have the strip of carpet forever, although I am rather attached to it already and Conor won't enjoy rolling around on the stone tiles half as much! And I did consider and even take pictures of the foxy new downstairs loo, but you know what? It just looks like a downstairs loo! I think you need to see it in person to appreciate the sexiness!

How much fun is too much?

This time last year Annie Hafermann was just a casual online acquaintance I'd made through the Scrapbook Magazine. Who'd have thought that a year on our families were hanging out in our house and having the most amazing time? Seriously, I'm pretty sure we've made friends for life in this cool family.

Admittedly the whole weekend was a bit chaotic given the building site status of our house approximately 36 hours before the minivan (hehe) arrived and out they spilled. I know if it hadn't been for my mum and dad helping in the house and garden, and Michael's dad cutting the hedges back from jungle-dom we'd have had to ship them out to my sister! But never have a junk room, newly installed kitchen and half plastered living room been so quickly transformed. It makes me sure that all this 60 minute makeover stuff is a load of codswallop!

Anyway, we were so GLAD  that the Hafermman clan were prepared to risk the mess and come to stay. Friday we chilled out with a bbq and wine and our boys bonded with some ridiculous noises and forced laughter over hotdogs. I think they've also made friends for life - so cool to watch. Saturday we headed to our favourite haunt, Mountstewart for a picnic in the glorious sunshine then had a crazy water fight (all Spike's fault!) before taking a walk to the beach. Then the parents had more food and wine and cheered Lee on to be the new Joseph! I cannot believe Annie and Spike had not watched this show before!! So much fun in such a short space of time. It just ended too soon. Next time, you guys need to get a later boat! Or just fly!!

A few observations from the weekend:

1. These 2 are possibly a match made in heaven (if you ignore the dried-on yogurt on Conor's nose!)

2. There really is nowhere nicer for a walk on a sunny day than Mountstewart. Seriously, it feels like a little piece of heaven on earth.

3. Laughter is good for the soul, even when you're only 3 or 4!

4. Never trust a dad when there's a pool filled with water just meters away! It could also be noted that dads are really just little boys looking for their chance to run around like crazy just for fun!

5. A mum with a camera at the ready indicates a) life is a photo opportunity waiting to happen, and b) there's a scrapbook page about to take place!

 

We really had such a blast this weekend. Thank you guys for making the trip - be sure we're watching Easyjet for those half term flights in October!

In other news, the kitchen is finished and I shall try to get photos on here tomorrow sometime - obviously after I bake some banana bread in a rather Nigella fashion for Patrick's playgroup coffee morning on Friday. There is much I could say about the pain that all the work has been, but I shan't. The kitchen is gorgeous and I'm tired of being cross about things or people telling me I should be cross about things. So there!

Michael is away training with work again this week, so it's just me and the crazy boys! Patrick had his MMR booster today and we went to the paddling pool at Ards Leisure Centre as a special treat after tea. He was so completely brave and didn't even whimper in the doctor's surgery, until he saw the tiniest speck of blood a bit later on. Not loving the blood! Yet another fabulous trait he's inherited from me. And I leave you with the news that things are looking bad for the Little People around here with the arrival of Conor "Gulliver" Boyd!

I am very excited about the possibility of scrapbook pages later this week after the arrival of my wonderful order of stash from Lifetime Moments earlier today. No customs charges for me, Jo and Sheila!!

Scrappy genes

clearly run in our family. My sister gave me this book last Thursday - perfectly timed after a most upsetting and unproductive shopping trip for a wedding outfit for my cousin's wedding this weekend. Suffice to say I came home with nothing, that fashion sucks right now and that I've decided to borrow an outfit and save my money for stash buying on my holiday!! Anyway, this ranks with the nicest gifts I've ever been given.

The journalling on this page is well worth a look in the full size image. Leanne is a good friend of mine who also has 2 crazy boys and has just moved and had building work done. Plus she's pregnant again!! I really don't think she'll mind if you look at what it says! 

Seriously, what a cool present. I really felt great after I read it all. This is the stuff we need to remember, not all the crap about not being the perfect size or the perfect mother or having the perfect house yada yada yada. Everyone should have one of these.

On the house front, you really don't want to know! We're still not in and it still isn't finished. And that's all I'm saying!!

Tag, you're it

This is all very exciting! Jo recently tagged me to fill in this list of questions, and I'm altogether giddy about it because I've never been tagged before. Shows you how desperate I am for fun at the minute! Today's post comes from the metropolitan hub of Carrowdore (look really closely with a magnifying glass on a map somewhere in the region of Millisle and Greyabbey if you're that keen!). We're staying with Michael's parents for a few days before we land on my sister again and then on to my parents again. The new kitchen and downstairs loo had better be worth this hassle. Anyway, without further ado I shall answer the questions and give you all a brief glimpse into the crazy world of me!!!

1.Two names you go by:

Mummy and JB - they're the names used at home.

2. Two things you have in a relationship:

Love and security.

3. Two favourite things to do:

Spend time with my boys and taking photographs.

4. Two things you want very badly at the minute:

To be able to get back into our own house and to get out of teaching.

5. Two pets I've had:

A hamster called Scamper (my 1st pet) and a golden labrador called Holly. Both sadly missed.

5. Two people who will fill this in - consider yourselves tagged!

This is a tricky one. Annie will definitely be first, but I don't really know that many other bloggers. I'm going to say Anna and then I shall have to e-mail her and alert her to the fact!!

6. Two things you did last night:

Proofed wedding photos and ate at Charly's with my family.

7. Two things you ate today:

Half of Conor's packet of Milky Way Stars (he won't notice!) and the delicious curry my mil made for tea.

8. Two people you last talked to on the phone:

Hmm, apart from the people at the Next directory, that would be Kenny, my photographer chum and my sister, Lesley.

9. Two favourite places:

Home and Mountstewart on a summer's day.

10. Two things you're doing tomorrow:

Spending most of the day in someone else's house (again) and maybe helping out at a charity photography event in Crawfordsburn with the fab Kenny.

11. Two longest car journeys:

Bangor to South of France and Bangor to Spain, both family holidays when I was little.

12. Two favourite holidays:

My honeymoon in Las Vegas and San Diego, and Paris with Michael last June.

13. Two guilty pleasures:

First flick through a magazine - must be done in peace with a cup of tea and preferably a bar of chocolate, and watching box sets of any good show with Michael - favourites include 24, West Wing and Spooks. (Looking forward to getting into Grey's Anatomy on  my own over the summer hehe!)

14. Two things that make me laugh:

The silly things the boys do, and most Ben Stiller/Owen Wilson movies.

15. Two things I last got in the mail:

Dull post and more dull post. I'm too poor to have nice things delivered these days!!

Ok , I shall await the responses of the tagees. I hope you feel you know me better now!!

Branching out

I've clearly been slaving away over the wedding photos I did for Michael's cousin a couple of weeks ago. Hence my lack of blogging and picture posting. I also further climbed up in the bad mother ratings for not posting on Patrick's birthday. And there are many, many pictures! And I will post them, but for now I am not going to get worked up about not blogging, because much as I love it and want to be able to post daily, life just doesn't allow me to do that at the minute. And I won't feel guilty! So there!

Anyway, before I lose all my readers I shall give you a preview of the wedding pics. I was generally pretty pleased with the results but my camera was in the process of dying so a few weren't great. The upside of that is I'm also trawling the digital slr market for a new one!! Very exciting times indeed. Ok, pictures coming up...

 

Lazy blogger

I admit, I've been a terrible blogger this past few weeks. Things are just crazy at the minute. Take tonight for instance. Conor woke about an hour after going to bed and when I went into his room I could hear the scraping and flapping sounds of a (another) bird trapped in the cavity wall between his room and the bathroom. It would appear we have starlings nesting somewhere in the eaves of the house and one of them must have fallen. We had a similar experience a few weeks after moving in, although after about 3 days the noises finally slowed down then stopped. One can only imagine what's lying down there now! Anyway, the outcome of tonight's episode was that we had to take Conor to my mum's to stay as no other rooms in the house have curtains and that would have meant getting up at about 4am when Conor would most likely have decided it was time to get up!

Aside from that I've been a busy photographer. Last weekend I went to Liverpool for Michael's cousin's wedding, at which I was also doing photographs. Talk about pressure! It was such a beautiful wedding, but given that I was being watched by everyone and that I knew half of them I felt very nervous. It's a very different experience from babies and families where you know you can always reschedule if things go wrong. Thankfully, my friend Kenny came with me and brought bucketloads of talent and experience to the whole affair and I think we pretty much covered it! I promise to post a few pics in a day or two. For me, though, one of the nicest things was the impromptu newborn session I got to do with the bride's 10 day old nephew the next day! He was just adorable. I'm not at all ashamed to confess that I've proofed a good few of this session despite the hundreds of wedding pics waiting patiently in another folder on my desktop!

   

His brother was extremely cute too:)

I seriously have a ton of photos to share but bed is calling me, so I shall post those over the next few days. And to those of you I owe a phone call, I admit to being a rubbish friend and shall make amends tomorrow!! PROMISE :)

Check this out!

A friend of Michael's is helping me out with this!

How very exciting!! Will keep you posted.

Beautiful

Just a quick post to share a few pictures from my newborn session at the weekend. This little girl was amazing - so wide eyed for being less than 2 weeks old and totally loving the camera! Can you tell her parents have modelled in their time?! It must be in the genes:)

eta: it's the dad's tummy! Do you think I would torture myself if it was the mum's?!! 

To the ladies

Once a month I get to meet up with a group of incredibly cool girls for some food, chat, a lot of laughter and a healthy dose of encouragement. I've known some of them forever (well actually just my sister!), some for years, and some for just a few months. We are all so different but have been brought together by our faith in God. This week has been a very emotional one in many ways, and being with these girls tonight really made me realise how blessed I am. So I thought I'd just very quickly say thank you to the ladies. You are amazing girls and life is better because of each of you:)

ps Apologies for no pictures but there should be some tiny baby ones at the weekend. SO excited!!