So, what's been happening? Ellie has had her 1st birthday party, attended by lots of her friends and family. It was absolute pandemonium for a couple of hours but a good time was had by all.
Here she is congratulating herself for blowing out all (one) of her birthday cake candles!!
I returned to work, and then left again to start maternity leave! It was quite nice to have a break from looking after Ellie all day but I really missed her too. It was nice for her to spend lots of time with her cousins and Nicola. She still goes to nursery once a week - she absolutely loves it there and barely gives us a backwards glance when we drop her off!
Ellie took her first steps on my birthday and now walking is most definitely the preferred way to travel! She's had her first shoes, which she really loves and spends all day toddling about all over the place.
Here's the little darling looking a bit pensive about walking on the grass!
We had a terrible shock in March when my step-dad Paul passed away suddenly in his sleep from a heart attack. Obviously this was totally unexpected and has been very hard for all of the family, especially my mum of course. The funeral went really well, as far as funerals go, and was extremely well attended - over 200 people were there. We shall miss him a lot and it's very upsetting that he didn't manage to meet his two new grandchildren - our new bean and his daughter Nicola's baby who is due in September. My sister and I were very lucky to have had him as our dad for 16 years. Rest in peace Paul - we'll be thinking of you lots.
Here's one of our favourite pics of Paul, taken at Lake Vyrnwy in 2007 with Sophia. Grandpa loved his grandchildren and was really looking forward to the next two.
Speaking of the new bean - Tabitha Rose was born on May 4th (her due date!!) after a rather speedy and intense labour. She was the spitting image of Ellie when she was born - so much so that given two photos of them, I couldn't actually tell them apart! She was 7lbs 5oz, much smaller than her big sister, but is very gorgeous and is settling into the family nicely. She is feeding very well and our only niggle is the fact that during late at night she gets a bit colicky, which is a bit wearing on our nerves but hopefully it is just a phase that will pass soon. She kept us up until 3am this morning!
Here's Tabs, having just been born. We don't have too many photos of her yet, as it's been a bit manic around here, what with Ellie too!
That's it for the kids - I shall try to do a house update very soon. There's been a lot of change around here in the last few months so I think it deserves a post all of its own!
