Our year - 2014


2014, what a year it has been. It's been a year of big changes and even bigger decisions. It's been a whirlwind of so many emotions as so much has happened, it's all been a blur. Let's have a look back at my year.


January.

We started the new year off with a bang and one huge decision as we bought our first home! We put an offer in and it took a good few weeks of negotiating until they finally accepted our offer. We ended up buying the house for 15k less than they originally listed it for so I consider that a win.

Noah was 
2 months old this month and had begun showing signs of separation anxiety. We thought he was a little young to be going through it but it turned out to be the start of a long battle. I wrote "Only have eyes for Mummy" to seek advice from fellow Mummies as it was a confusing time for us and we needed all the advice we could get.

My favourite blog post from January has got to be Before and After Labour - What I didn't know. I like to think this is a frank and honest post and it's not one for the squeamish.



February.

From what I can remember from Feb it was a month of waiting. We had put in our offer on the house and we were negotiating and bargaining. When they finally accepted we were left in the lurch waiting for the next stage. We went on many family walks around the area we had bought into to get the feel of the place and it was such an exciting time.  

I was giving Slimming World a go and was doing well. I was also trying to be more active and was taking Noah on really long walks everyday.  


Noah was of course 
3 months old and was sleeping through. His personality was really starting to come through and he had almost grasped the ability to laugh, so cute to watch. 

My favourite post from Feb was "
20 facts about Noah" which is lovely to look back on now. 



March.
Come March we were still waiting to get our hands on the keys to our new home. We couldn't believe it was taking so long and we were itching to get the ball rolling. It was so tough because we knew when we finally got the keys it wasn't a case of pack up and move in, we needed to undertake a full house renovation too.

Noah was now four months old and I had decided to start weaning him as he was showing genuine interest in food. None of his first tastes replaced milk feeds but in hind sight I probably would of tried to hold out a bit longer. That being said weaning him slightly earlier than recommended hasn't hindered him in anyway as to this day he has no allergies and eats everything put in front of him.

We had a busy month. Noah took his first trip to the seaside and had a wonderful time in Blackpool with his Mummy and Daddy. I celebrated my very first Mothers Day, we had many many family walks and went through sleep regression, teething and a leap.

My favourite post from the month is probably the "4 month photoshoot" that I shot in our old bedroom. Those are some of my favourite photo's. 



April.

We were still on the home front with news on our house. It turned out that all the relatives who had inherited the house were all falling out about money and we were having to wait so much longer because of it. It was a nightmare. We were driving upto the house every other day and we did see that the front room had been cleared out so that made us feel like things were finally happening. 

Noah was now 5 months old and time was flying by in the blink of an eye. He had started laughing all the time, he knew his own name and he loved his porridge. We were really struggling with stranger anxiety and not many family members understood what was happening which made it even harder. 

Noah experienced a lot of firsts this month. First trip to the zoofirst time painting and first Easter

My favourite post from the month was "Taking a look back" and to this day I love reading that post as I just loved being pregnant. 



May.

On the 1st of May we finally got the keys to the house after 5 months of waiting. We started work straight away by ripping out the kitchen and stripping wallpaper in every room. Once we begun we realised how much work had to be done and it was very daunting. We initially thought we would be in the house within a month and that was very naive. It was pretty much none stop work throughout the entire of May, we were there more days than not.

Noah turned 
6 months old and was a delight. He seemed to of gained confidence with strangers this month. He was very vocal and everyone would comment on how chatty he was. He was attempting to sit up but was so chilled out and lazy that he hadn't quite got there yet. He was on mashed foods and was sampling finger foods although they made me feel anxious at first.

I celebrated my 
26th birthday and it was my first as a Mummy. We celebrated by having a nice day in the gorgeous weather and then went out for dinner at one of our favourite spots. It was a great day.



June.
In June we were still at it with the renovations in the house. It was none stop but we did get an insane amount of work done in that first month. The house of course was no where near ready to move into and as our tenancy had ended on the bungalow we rented we had to move in with Nick's parents.

Noah was now 7 months old and to mark the occasion he woke up with his very first illness, smothered in a cold. This month he had pretty much mastered sitting up, was babbling like nobodies business and loved Spongebob, food and feeding himself.

June was all about renovating, it's all we did. My favourite post from the month was probably one of the dozen of interior posts which you can see here and here.  




July.
This month I feel like the work on our house came to a halt. It was so frustrating because we were still living with the in laws and wanted nothing more than to move into our new home. I wrote about the progress or lack of here and thankfully we picked up momentum shortly after.

Noah had turned 8 months old and the months were still flying by. We were having glorious weather in July so we took advantage of the heat and bought Noah a paddling pool which he absolutely loved. We also had many days out in the sun and documented a week in photo's


Noah also modeled for The Essential One which is one of my favourite baby brands. I was a little apprehensive taking him to the shoot because of his stranger anxiety but he rocked it. He even fell asleep on set!

This month my sisters long term boyfriend flew over from American to come and meet us all for the first time. I was a little nervous at first because she is still my baby sister and a guy was travelling from the other side of the world to see her. I like to think I am a great judge of character and the second I met him I instantly liked him and I couldn't of been happier for the both of them. My sister then went over to LA with him to stay over there for three months, she had an incredible time. Alright for some, right?!





August.
Work on the house picked up this month and we made real progress with the bathroom and kitchen, the house was almost livable and we were itching to move in. I found August a tough month and was feeling pretty rubbish which I wrote about here. My Mother in Laws dog Rossi also died too which we all found really hard. Not a nice month. 


Noah was now 9 months old and had just had his 8 month development check with he passed with flying colours. He could wave, clap his hands, dance and wave. He had become so affectionate this month and would kiss and cuddle all the time.

My favourite posts from this month were my documentary posts from The Essential One photoshoot which were "Noah the baby model" and "Behind the scenes". I am so glad that I blogged about it because it's lovely to read through, it was a great day.



                                                                       
September.
The house was almost ready to be moved into. There were still jobs that needed to be done but the house was livable. We ended up moving in at the very end of September and it was a long time coming.

Noah was 10 months old and was coming on leaps and bounds. I blogged about him a lot this month which I loved. As the house had me preoccupied I hadn't wrote about him as much as I had of liked to so it was very refreshing to be able to do so. Noah had a very uncharacteristic sulky day, we had a trip to the sealife centre, had a photoshoot in the garden. I also wrote about what Noah eats and a day in the life of Noah.




October.
We had finally moved into the house but the work was still going on. I updated the blog with a nursery and master bedroom update. It was fantastic to finally see the rooms we had worked so hard on coming together.

Noah had turned 11 months and I couldn't believe he was almost 1 year old, where had the time gone? His bum shuffling had finally turned into a crawl and he was standing too. It seemed like he learnt everything all at once.

I took some of my favourite photo's of Noah ever which I shared on Autumn Days and Bath time with baby. It was also Noah's first Halloween and we dressed him as a pumpkin.

I was very busy on the blog front this month as I felt inspired and had lots of different idea's. My favourite post from the month was "Why I chose to be a stay at home Mummy" and it seems to be popular with my readers too. I also enjoyed writing "My Mummy Confessions" and "Babies best friend" too. 




November.
Noah was now 12 months old, he had turned one! He had mastered crawling, was cruising and finally had two teeth. I still cannot believe how fast our first year flew by us and I felt very nostalgic in this timehop post. We held his birthday party in the new house and it was lovely to have all our family together to celebrate his special day.

A few days before his birthday we had a DIY cake smash. It was so much fun and we took some really good shots. If you are thinking of having one too then go for it. If you would like a little encouragement then check out DIY cake smash tips, I hope they help.

I really enjoyed blogging this month as I focused so many posts on Noah. I put together his 1st year in photo's, wrote all about big changes. I loved November. 




December.
I think December is my favourite month of the year and I featured a lot of festive posts on the blog this month. I wrote about my festive favourites, last Christmas and of course this Christmas which was amazing! Noah was 13 months old and was able to enjoy it so much more, it's only going to get better and better as he gets older too. We had such a busy but lovely Christmas although it seemed to only last two minutes, I can't wait for next year.


Christmas posts aside some of my favourite posts this month were "Swinging in monochrome" and "Ways to help your baby sleep."




Well that is just a brief overview of our year and I know I have missed so much out. It has taken me days to put this together so I can now breathe a sigh of relief. It's been a fantastic year and I can't wait to see what 2015 has in store for our little family. 


10 comments:

  1. You have had such a wonderful year. I hope 2015 is just as productive! x

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  2. Blimey! How did you get anytime to do any writing with all the house sale and renovations going on. Well done for keeping it together and Noah is gorgeous!

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  3. You can see how much he has grown and he looks so happy too.

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  4. Oh wow he is sooooooo super cute !!

    Rachael , from - http://awesomebeforeautism.blogspot.co.uk/

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  5. wow youve had a busy year we had house renovations a full one at that, new bathrooms , kitchens, electrics, plumbing, we got our new roof intime for the winter and currently waiting for scaffolding to go up for our new outdoor wall covering the rendering , house wa upside down cant seem to get it back now lol, but we trying to get moved

    http://beautyandtheprince.weebly.com/makeup/deborah-milano-shade-3-bronzing-powder-review

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  6. Have an an amazing 2015 lovely lady .

    well done on everything baby , your home your Nick and you are amazing

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  7. Congratulations on your new home. Hope it all goes through without a hitch. Your boy is a real cutie.

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  8. Congratulations on your new home. It is good that you could stay at your in-laws whilst you did work on it. And looks like your young man is growing so fast :)

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  9. So nice to do a round up to see how children have grown. Hope the house is feeling more settled and moving on with thew work.

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  10. on your revamping our home for spring, what colour is the walls?

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