Me and Mine {August}

August has been a strange month.

I've unintentionally stepped back from what little blogging I did, for no other reason that there is a huge thing going on in my life, which I can't talk about - at least not on the world wide web and I just don't know how I would find it in me to blog and give the impression that everything is rosy when it's really not that great for me right now. I can't talk about it as it's not my place and it's not directly anything to do with me...But it's hard and it's been a struggle. I enjoy blogging (when I actually do it) and wish I could be better at it. But I struggle to find the time. I work 30 hours a week, have an almost 3 year old and a husband, who I only get one full day with a week and I can never find it in me to neglect time with him to sit blogging. Our time together is so precious and we've recently started watching Sons of Anarchy, so every evening once Alfie is down, we will sit and watch an episode (unless it's the weekend and we will binge watch them). Finding a series that we both enjoy and sitting down to watch it after the end of a long day, is one of our favourite things to do.

Anyway, I digress. We started off the month having a date night to our friends wedding reception. Michael and I used to work at the same place and one of the girls he used to work with invited her along to her wedding reception. It was great for him to catch up with all his old team and for me to catch up with colleagues outside of work. We had a great time and it was lovely to see Michael enjoying himself catching up with them all after 8 months.

The following day, we went to visit my grandparents. The weather was on our side, meaning Alfie could play in their garden which he absolutely loves. I don't see my grandparent often, but whenever I do, I always manage to get a picture of us all together (or I at least try too).

The next couple of weeks passed without much of anything happening. Although, Alfie did get a superstar balloon from nursery. It was the cutest thing. Gina, his key worker, told us that they'd all been sat on the carpet reading and they have some words up on the wall 'who, what, when, where, why and how' From nowhere, Alfie pointed to them and said to Gina, 'Gina, they all start with the letter W, except that one (how) but it's got a W in it'. Gina was so proud of him and couldn't believe that he'd pointed it out. Things like that I take for granted, because he's our 1st we've nobody to compare him too, so we're not sure if he's advanced, behind or just where he needs to be, so it's always lovely to get feedback from nursery. 

In the middle of the month, we had a much deserved and needed 10 days off work. We were very lucky with the weather as the days which we had planned to go places are the days which we got the best of the weather. On Monday, we kicked off the week by taking Alfie to Smithells farm, which is a local farm near to where we live. We've never been before, but I've heard great things about it. It was lovely to see him with all the animals, as he loves animals. As we were getting ready for going, I noticed that they were just about to do pets corner, so we decided to go along. I'm so glad we did because as soon as we sat down, Alfie was given a baby chick to hold. He also got to feed a lamb (when they said they were going to release the lamb's I was expecting these cute fluffy little lambs - I was very wrong. About a dozen sheep came charging out of the pens)! Pet's corner was really great and Alfie loved getting the change to see all the animals up close an he even had his first donkey ride!

The following day, we went to Chester Zoo. I have wanted to go for so long, but wanted to wait until Alfie was at the right age, so he would appreciate it. Honestly, it was probably the best day out we have had. The rain held off all day and it was actually really warm. We had such a great day and Alfie was in his element seeing all the animals. When we saw the buffalo, he rather sweetly thought it was a Gruffalo :) A few times during the day, Alfie asked for his face painted. He's never had it done before and I was convinced that he wouldn't sit still. Never the less, we took him along to the face painting station and he decided he wanted to be a lion. When I showed him his face after it was done, he absolutely loved it and then proceeded to 'Roar' rather loudly at everyone who walked past it - so funny ;) 

We stayed until they were due to close and managed to get all round the animals. The only things we didn't get to do are see the new part which they've opened called 'The Islands' and we didn't go on the mono-rail. It's Alfie's birthday on Monday so we have said we'll take him back and do the things we didn't get to do last time. 


The rest of the week was quite chilled. We took him on the train to Manchester and he absolutely loved it. He's got a thing about trains and just loves being on them :) 

The weekend came and we had a family bbq for our 1st wedding anniversary. The weather could not have been any better. It was glorious sunshine for the whole afternoon. It was the best party we've had in a long time. I love it when all the family come together and the kids played really nice all day. Just as people were getting ready to leave, the black clouds came and the heavens opened. We couldn't have been luckier with the weather had we tried. 

With my fab bridesmaids (minus 1) a year later 

The Boys

The Girls 

I love this of Me with My Mum

On the 24th August, it was our one year wedding anniversary. I can't believe we have been married a whole year already! Crazy. The year has been the fastest of my life. It still feels like it was only yesterday that I was getting ready with my Mum in my sisters bedroom and being in the wedding car with my Dad and Alfie and literally crying all the way to the Church. I feel incredibly lucky to have my Husband and I don't know what I would do without him. He is my absolute rock! On our anniversary, we went back to Haigh Hall, which was our wedding venue, and had a photoshoot with our photographer, Chris Lewis who can be found on facebook (Christopher Lewis Photography). 

I've not received the photo's back from the shoot yet, but Chris very kindly edited and released one for me, for the purpose of this post. I'm so excited to get the rest of the photo's back because, the pictures I saw on the back of the camera, are just stunning. I'd even go as far to say that they're the best photo's of us as a family. Alfie has met Chris and his girlfriend Vicky quite a few times now, so he is comfortable with them and was an absolute star on the day - he really played up to the camera and did what we asked of him. He was a little gem!

The last weekend, we were also at another wedding reception of one of Michael's friends, which was such a great night. Unfortunately, I only managed a couple of (very, very bad) iphone selfies of us! 

So here we are for this months' me and mine photo and exactly a whole year after our wonderful wedding day. This is my favourite me and mine photo of the year!