A Little Sales Haul..

I'm not usually into the boxing day sales. Most of the time I'm skint and when I do have money I've missed all the bargains. However, this year I made sure to keep some money just in case there were any good buys.
I didn't get a lot but I did manage to get a few nice things for the kids. 

At Tesco (F&F), I managed to get Keira a pair of boots. They were £10 reduced from £15.

I also managed to get a little outfit for Macey for £4 which I forgot to take a picture of. 

At Mango Kids online, I got Keira a pair of tartan jeans. They were £11 reduced from £24.99.

And two pairs of cute socks for £2.99 reduced from £5.99

Logan got a mustard check shirt. It was £7.99 reduced from £16.99

He also got a nice chunky scarf. It was £5.99 but should have been £12.99

I bought a packet of little hair clips for Keira too but I got an email the next day saying they were out of stock =(

From Matalan Keira got a black lacy blouse to go with her tartan jeans. I can't really remember the prices of the things I bought in Matalan. I think this was maybe £6 in the sale.

And a pair of black patent studded Dr Marten style boots. 

Logan got a new pair of jeans

And finally he got a black woolen military style jacket. 

Here he is trying it on! Keira says he looks like a girl with it on! Haha! I'm glad he didn't hear because I'd never get it on him again. He is very much a boy in every way.

I think I did not too bad! 

I've seen a biker style jacket that I want to get Keira to complete her little outfit. I'll invest in it very soon. Now that Christmas is over I'm looking forward to going on some clothes shopping sprees for the kids! 

I'm terrible at these clothing haul posts. I have no idea how to photograph the items to make them look their best! I'll try and figure something better out for the next post!

Christmas

Hello everyone! Hope you all had an amazing Christmas! We sure did!

Christmas Eve was spent cleaning the house and preparing for the next day. Paul got home from work around 4pm so we gave the kids their Christmas Eve boxes then. Right after they got their boxes Logan had a bath with half of their Lush bubble bar. Once he was out and had his new pjs on, Keira got a bath with the rest. Once they were both finally dried and had pjs on we put the DVD on for them and sorted all their food out into a picnic. They had a great night. We put Logan to bed at 7pm and Keira fell asleep about 9pm. Then it was all go getting everything sorted. As usual there was something that needed built.. and hit with a hammer. Happens every year and every year I'm on the edge of my seat in case it wakes the kids! Luckily it didn't! Haha. Paul and I finally got to bed around 11.30pm.

(This isn't all from Paul and I. The gifts from my mum and dad are in there too. We actually did good cutting back this year but my mum and dad went nuts! Haha!)

Keira first woke up at 3.30am. We told her to go back to bed for a little while. She did but didn't sleep. We eventually gave in at 4.45am and let her downstairs. We had to wake Logan up! Haha. Once they opened all their gifts and we all got ready we headed to my mum and dad's house for dinner, which was lovely as always!

My Christmas tree came down on Christmas night. There just wasn't any space. Then all my decorations came down on boxing day. I'm so happy it was a good day buy also so happy that it's all over with for another year!

Now, it's time to move onto my mile long 'to-do' list before baby arrives!!

Lush's So White

I was really looking forward to using this bath bomb. I originally bought it to try it last year at Christmas but Paul stole it and used it! Haha. So, I had to order it for myself again this year. I have no pictures of it working this time. Every time I tried to take a picture the water was showing up as a kind of brown disgusting colour when it actually was nothing like that at all. 

I liked this bomb. It says on Lush's website that it's apple scented. I couldn't smell any apple at all. But then I'm not great when it comes to smells. It did smell nice though. This bomb took ages to disappear completely and left the bath a lovely shade of pink. This one also left my skin feeling lovely and soft. Even though I did like this one I don't think I'd rush out and buy it again.

This was one of the few bombs I received that was completely whole! Haha. 

Gabriel's Redemption

Every now and then I like to read books that are a bit, erm well, smutty. But I like the books to at least have a good story to go along with it. For example, at the time, I enjoyed Fifty Shades of Grey. Looking back now, I think it's terrible! Haha!

Gabriel's Redemption is the third book in a trilogy. First book being Gabriel's Inferno, second being Gabriel's Rapture. I read these two books at the beginning of the year and I really enjoyed them. The story was good and the characters were well developed. 

However, I think it should have been left at two books and not three. This time round I can't connect with the characters at all. I do like the story but not near as much as the first two books. Every time the characters get down to business I kind of just feel like 'oh god, not again'. =\ There's also a lot of talk about Dante Alighieri is hard to keep up with when I have no clue about the subject. All I know is he wrote The Divine Comedy book series and it's from the year 1306 (I think). I get that the characters are specialists on that subject but I feel like it goes into a bit too much. At one point, Julianne, the main female character gives a whole speech. I had to skim over it. The ending also brought back some memories for me. Overall I rated it 3 stars out of 5. I liked it but that's all.

Christmas Bargain

My daughter is obsessed with penguins. They're her favourite animal ever. So, she loves Happy Feet. I saw this on Toys R Us's website a couple of days ago. I'm unsure of the normal price as it only shows the previous sale price. But I got it for £1.96! Complete bargain!

Shoot For The Stars...

I placed a large order with Lush on Tuesday and paid for next day delivery so I would receive it all quicker. However, it didn't show up on Tuesday. So, I contacted Lush and they refunded the extra £3 postage that it cost me to have it delivered the next day and they said that my package was still on the van and would be delivered on Thursday. It was delivered while I was out doing my food shopping but they left it in the kids playhouse in the back garden. When I picked the box up I knew straight away there was something wrong. The box was all bashed up and there was powder falling out the bottom. A few of my items were completely smashed up. I ordered 3 Shoot for the Stars bath ballistics but I only received 2. My penguin was also missing but there was a note saying that they were out of stock and it would come out to me in a separate package once they made some new ones. So, I had to get in touch with Lush again and let them know about the smashed and missing items. They have been really good about it. They asked for pictures of the smashed items which I gladly sent. Now they have to put a claim into the couriers for the damaged items. They are also sending out replacement items for me.
I had planned on doing a haul post but because everything is a bit of a mess (they're not all smashed but most are a little messy) I'm just going to post them as I use them. Like a mini review.

The first item I used was Shoot for the Stars. This is what it was supposed to look like...

But mines looked like this. A bit of a mess and the star fell out..

It still worked just the same. I loved this bomb. The scent wasn't overpowering. And the end result was so pretty. My best friend described it perfectly.. as a gothic mermaid bath. Once it's settled it leaves the water dark purple with loads of silver sparkles. It was really relaxing and left my skin feeling so soft.

This is it starting to work. Excuse the pregnant belly sticking out in the corner! I never even noticed until after I was sending the pictures to my computer this morning! Haha! I wish I taken a picture of it once it settled. I'm getting another one in the post so I might still take a picture of the end result. I wish this was permanent! Definitely worth a try before they disappear!

Christmas Eve Box..

We always let the kids open a present on Christmas Eve before bath time. It's usually new pyjamas, a DVD and a small toy. This year after seeing Christmas Eve boxes everywhere we've decided to do the same.

In the box the kids will get a new blanket each, new pyjamas, some slipper socks, a DVD, popcorn, Pringles, sweets and some fizzy juice. Paul is trying to get new cups for them today. All the boys ones were sold out when we tried before. And I'm still undecided about adding a toy. 

They'll get to open it, as usual, before bath time. They'll then get to have a bubble bath (with Lush's Christmas Eve bubble bar) before getting all cosy into their new pyjamas. We're putting Despicable Me 2 in the box since none of us have seen it yet. 

Last year Keira got herself so excited that she fell asleep before 6pm! She didn't even get to put Santa's pie and drink out or sprinkle the reindeer food outside! Haha! So, fingers crossed she stays awake a little bit longer this year!  I really can't wait!

Graze

I used to get Graze boxes for myself last year but after so many weeks I cancelled them due to money issues. A few weeks ago I decided to start getting it again as I really missed it. Every week when my box turned up in the post Logan would go nuts and eat the majority of it! So, I ordered him his own box too. He got his first one today. I'll definitely continue his boxes and he seems to really enjoy them and it's a nice treat for him on a Monday morning whilst Keira is at school. She won't touch the food in the boxes at all.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Since I'm pretty big on reading I thought I'd start adding book wrap ups and a little review/what I thought on each book I read.

I just finished Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. I honestly went into this book blind. I knew it was a popular read. I follow book lovers on YouTube and have seen it pop up a lot. I didn't have a clue what it was about. I didn't read any reviews etc before hand.

I bought it because I saw it in Tesco for £1.95, which is a bargain for a book. It lay on my shelf for a while until I found myself in a bit of a reading rut. It's taken me a while to read it even though it's only 418 pages long. I'm tired easily due to pregnancy and fall asleep when reading. I did really enjoy this book though. I love all the characters in it.

The story follows 17 year old Karou, a blue haired girl who lives in Prague. She lives a double life. Goes to school and loves to draw in her sketch book. Creatures who are part animal, part human. But what her friends don't know is that the creatures are real. She grew up with them, not knowing who her real parents were, and she has special access to their world. A world of teeth, wishes and whole lot more. But her life is turned upside down when an angel seals all the doors to their world and she is left on her own.

This book is really worth a read. I also heard it's being made into a movie. It is part of a trilogy. I'm really looking forward to reading book 2 which is called Days of Blood and Starlight.

Build A Bear

This year for Christmas, Keira has asked for the special edition My Little Ponies available in Build A Bear. We have two out of the three that are currently available in the shop. I know she's going to be looking for the third but I don't want to keep adding more and more things into her pile of presents. It would mean I'd have to buy more for Logan too.
But at the moment Build A Bear have an offer on where if you spend £25 online or in store you can buy a £10 gift card for only £5. I've bought 2 of these at different times which means that now I have £20 worth of gift cards for Build A Bear. The gift card comes in a little pop up house like the ones that the actual bears come in.

I'm planning on giving the gift cards to Keira for Christmas. That way I can take her to the shop after Christmas and she can pick something that she likes. Whether it be the other pony or clothes etc. Plus it's so much fun in the shop. Getting to stuff your toy and make a wish on a special heart that goes inside before it's stitched up.

The gift cards would also make a great present for someone who likes cuddly toys!

December...

I usually have so many plans for the month of December. The kids need to be kept busy. It's an exciting time. However, after reading something quite traumatic last week I took a very bad anxiety attack that lasted several days. I'm still not 100% back to normal. I usually have a bit of social anxiety but this is the first time something of this scale has happened to me. I hope it never happens again. I was questioning my sanity for a few days during it.
I'm still not completely in the mood to do all the fun things. I'm very irritable. But we do have some things on the cards.

We put our Christmas tree up on the 1st December but because I was unwell the kids and Paul did it. We got a new white tree earlier in the year as our old one was falling apart. He didn't put any of the new decorations or the new star. The old decorations and star were white so the tree just looked like a big white blob! I spend the afternoon yesterday trying to sort it out. It's not great but it's much better than it was.

I've  been saving up toilet roll tubes for ages to make a tree and some Santa's/snowmen/penguins.
I'm hoping to do salt dough again this year.
Loads of baking
I think we may be having a trip to the zoo to see the penguin parade.
We're going to see Frozen in the cinema.
Keira's school concert is on Monday and Tuesday.
She's also going to see Pinocchio in pantomime on Friday.
I'm also really looking forward to getting the last of my Christmas shopping done.

The big dilemma is whether or not to buy those extra gifts for the kids or not! Haha!

So, December isn't a total loss.

The Christmas Tag

1.  Do you prefer a real Christmas tree or synthetic?

I've never had a real tree and I don't really fancy one. All those prickly needles falling everywhere all the time. No thanks!

2.  You're in a coffee shop, it's December, what do you pick?

A gingerbread latte from Costa! I really want to try the hot white chocolate too.

3.  Whats your favourite colour scheme for decorating the tree?

I love traditional decorations. Red and golds. But my tree is for my kids so it's a complete mishmash of everything they like. I'll do themes properly when they get older!

4.  Giving or receiving?

Giving. Always giving. I'd be happy to just watch my kids open presents and get nothing myself.

5.  To mince pie or not to?

I'm not keen but Paul and Logan love them.

6.  What's your traditional Sunday lunch?

As in Christmas dinner?? We have usually either chicken, turkey or steak pie, mashed and roasted potatoes, gravy, stuffing, peas, carrots, sprouts. Then we have a big dessert too.

7.  Christmas day fashion

We always get something new for Christmas day. Keira gets a fancy dress, tights, shoes and coat. Logan will get chinos and a shirt (maybe with a tie). I'll be wearing my maternity leggings and I have a new top to wear. I'm going out shopping soon to buy something for Paul. I want to get him one of those obnoxious Christmas jumpers! Possibly one with bells! Hahaha!

8.  What's your favourite Christmas song?

I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day by  Wizzard

9.  What's your favourite Christmas film?

I love Elf! I also love The Santa Clause films, The Muppet's Christmas Carol, Mickey's Once and Twice Upon A Christmas. And Nightmare Before Christmas!

10.  Open presents before or after lunch?

Before. We spend the morning opening gifts, then we get ready to go to my mum and dad's for dinner. Then we have all evening and night to play with new toys and watch TV!