Snowy Irish Adventure!

I don't know if you've seen on the news or maybe you've been getting it worse but we've had some crazy weather in this part of the world! Strangely though at our house we've had only a few days of settled snow and no blocked roads at all. We felt like we were missing out slightly so we rugged up warm and headed off in search of some real snow! We only had to drive 20 mins and the snow was literally meters high in places! Ché Phoenix got to wear his real snow suit his Auntie Patrice got him and I got to make a snow angel for Dani from ecofootprintsa. I cant remember exactly how it came about but I promised her I'd do one for her years ago and so I put it on my 101 list!

Psyching myself up for it! The wind-chill factor was immense, hence my face lol

 

The drive home! 

A special little video for you!

I took this on tuesday morning, was practicing the classic embarrassing mummy move of kissing him all over his gorgeous wee face and he started smiling! On purpose! Each time I kissed him he smiled! I can't even describe the feeling, just overwhelming excitement, love, happiness and joy. Totally amazing! So after I composed myself I grabbed the iphone so I could show Al (who was at work) and I captured this super cute snippet :)  

Ps. I've never uploaded a video before so please let me know how it works!

Living the dream

'The dream' as I put it back in 2011 when I started this blog - 

"To stay as happy as we are now, to have the time we want together (and with our own family in the future) and to live sustainably on our own land. That's it really, the simple, good life."

Note the first 2 points, they are the most important to us and thats what this post is about :) 

We are definitely succeeding with the 1st one, in fact we are even happier, we laugh, hug, play, smile and joke around just as much. The 2nd point is always a balancing act, we want to work, to earn money for the 3rd point and yet we place huge importance on the time we have together since for us that is directly related to how happy we are - point 1! So both of us working full time for someone else, commuting and just being away from each other for so much of the week never quite sat right with us. We're soppy, I know :) 

Now with Ché Phoenix here too the time we spend together, as a family, is even more crucial.  

I have been working towards being, at least partly, self employed for a while with The Itty Bitty Book Company. That's going really well since being off on maternity and I'm loving spreading the positivity with them! I'm working on my time management, and getting better at it :) I'm finding little ways to be mum and business woman at the same time, like walking down to the post box with Ché Phoenix. That's my daily exercise and book dispatched in one :)

People said to us you can't do anything the 1st year of having a baby, it's crazy, you'll be exhausted, you'll have no time for yourself etc ect. We decided to ignore them! If your whole world is going to be turned up-side-down and re-arranged anyway then as you're finding your flow and settling into this wonderful new world with your baby, why not put it back together the way you want to? We knew it was up to us to decide how this first year was going to be and we decided we are going to make it amazing! It's our year of new beginnings in so many ways.

I'm not the only one making changes this year, Al has decided to start his own business too! He'll be doing freelance graphic design from home :) We are so excited about this :) This is such a special time for us, for our family and we'll never get it back so it's super important that we are happy and have no regrets about how we spent this time in years to come. Al is such a loving and dedicated father and husband and spending 11 hours a day (including commute) 5 days a week away from his son and wife during this time just wasn't acceptable to him. He's always been a courageous person who isn't scared of taking a risk if the reward will be worth it. I admire him so much for taking this step. I know he'll make working from home a success and the bonding time he'll have with Ché Phoenix will be priceless too :)

"Never separate the life you live, from the words you speak" - Paul Wellstone

St Paddys Day Tomorrow!!!

I'm so glad my husband is Irish, I'd have fallen for him anyway mind you ;) But when your a free spirited 19 year old, taking a break from traveling the world and you meet a handsome Irish man who says "come to ireland with me" there is only one answer! And so I moved to Ireland :)

In the 6 years since then I have totally fallen in love with this country, I couldn't imagine living anywhere else, raising my children anywhere else. For me this is home in every sense of the word :) Al and I have been to every county in Ireland, explored mountains, beaches, waterways and cities. Even so we feel as though we've only seen the tip of the iceberg with regards to what this place has to offer, the more you see, the more you discover, the more you immerse yourself in the culture and history, the more you fall in love - you can't not!

St Patricks Day is a great excuse to celebrate a beautiful country, wonderful culture, wear green, drink Guinness and Jameson and have the best of craic! So sláinte my friends!  

Happy St Paddys Day!!!

Life with Ché Phoenix :)

Thank you all so much for your lovely comments and for welcoming our son into the world. Even though we've never met it means so much and one day I'll be able to show him your comments and he'll appreciate it too!

This friday Ché Phoenix will be a month old! People really aren't lying when they say the time flies when you have a baby! I thought I'd do a brief photo recap post then I'll be back to regular posts (I hope...)

Our first photograph, unfortunate we had to be in hospital for the first few days but necessary so I can't be annoyed, just didn't like all the tags and monitors, not really my thing. Will do a post about the whole birth experience another time. Such a special moment, love this photo :)

Pondering this new bright world 

First day at home - I love this photo so much! My 2 men :)

Sleeping in the big bed with mummy and daddy the first few nights

Auntie Squeak (real name Pippa!) came to visit YAY

Then auntie Kiy (real name Malaika!) came too and did his hair lol

Bathtime with mummy and more mohicans!!!

Love Love Love 

"first we had each other, then we had you, now we have everything"

3 way kiss!!!

He's a lucky boy to have such amazing Aunties :)

So with my sisters visiting, Al's sister moving over here from England, midwife visits, friends visiting, taking him to be registered, visiting his grandparents lots and great grandparents, getting into a routine (sort of!), sleeping when we can and just cherishing every single moment, its been a busy busy few weeks! 

A perfect few weeks though, becoming a mummy is everything I hoped it would be and more. Ché Phoenix is such an angel baby, sleeps up to 6 hours at a time at night, is so alert and strong, breast feeds like a champion, so relaxed, happy and just spreads joy to everyone who sees him! I feel so blessed to be part of his family, to be his mummy :)

Here's a few recent photos from my Instagram account. I've been slightly addicted lately so if you want to see a few more of my family/day to day pics you can follow me there too or just bookmark the page if you don't do Instagram, but you should - it's fun!