A Review of 2013

On Monday Asa and I took Xene, Lochi, Neva and Kaide to the cinema to watch the second part of The Hobbit trilogy
We took the four of them to see part one on 2nd January 2013, which got me thinking about the last 12 months and all that has taken place.

In January, Asa was given notice, the job that he had loved for the last 12 years was not going to be in existence from 31st March (one day after my birthday)which was extremely hard to comprehend, especially with the job market not too great.
So, a very uncertain year began, halfway through January I began to feel quite ill, dizzy and sick, which I put down to the worry of it all....but it wasn't, we found out we were expecting baby number seven. At the time, my sister and her husband had been trying for their first child, but had not had any luck yet, it was very hard keeping my little bean secret, as I felt guilty that I was pregnant, however I didn't need to keep it quiet for long, as I had a telephone call the following Sunday morning to say "Good Morning Auntie Amanda" to which I replied "Good Morning Auntie Karen" Our due dates were only two weeks apart !

The next few weeks passed with lots of tiredness and morning sickness, someone drove into the side of my large people carrier and it was a write off, thankfully baby 7 was safely tucked inside.

April was a mixture of apprehension, sadness and chaos. With five of our birthdays between 30th March and 28th April, this month is always utter mayhem. Asa was adjusting to not going into work every day and my Uncle sadly passed away, so it was a completely muddled month, however Asa and I did start a new project together, a new family travel blog Big Family Little Adventures it is still quite young, but we do have something pretty cool lined up to coincide with English Tourism Week in March 2014 .
We did all of the boring paperwork and Asa began his new career as an Independent Tourism Consultant.
AND we had a fantastic holiday in Skegness as Butlins Ambassadors. In May I fought the consultant about having a homebirth, and won! At which point I began thinking about a waterbirth, I found a lovely company called Birth Pools Online and set the wheels in motion to book for my due date in September.

June was Brit Mums, which I attended for the very first time and had a fabulous time, I met some amazing bloggers that I have been online friends with, actually in real life!! 

July and August I began to get huge, but we did manage an amazing day out with Citroen at Harry Potter Studios, and we were chosen for a second year to be Butlins Ambassadors, which is fantastic.
During July the company that I had arranged my birthing pool with, gave me the upsetting news that they were stopping trading and couldn't supply me with the pool, so I did what any sensible, hormonal pregnant lady would do, I bought the business!! (in hindsight, not the best timing as it meant I was lifting heavy birth pools about in my final 8 weeks of pregnancy...)

September 4th came and went, so I took matters into my own hands and took the entire family ten pin bowling, which ended with me getting a strike and going into labour that night, unfortunately I was the only lady of 2013 that my local hospital could not give a homebirth to, due to not enough staff being on shift, so I had to go into hospital, I still had an amazing waterbirth and baby Viggo was born weighing a surprising 9lb 6oz.
A few weeks later my sister gave birth to my niece Oriah (I call her Little O ) so its babies, babies, babies....

October, November and December are in fact quite a blur, sleep deprivation, school activities and running our own businesses has certainly kept us busy, and I really do not know where the last three months have gone.....

Lets see what 2014 brings

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE xxx