2012 in Review

2012 was a fabulous year for us. Amazing, exciting, busy and fun!! Here is my 2012 in review.

JANUARY saw us celebrate our engagement with those who matter most in our lives (well, most of them anyway!) with a big party at the local sporting club. I used my 30th Birthday present from the Englishman and jumped out of a plane (attached to someone else with a parachute of course!). The Englishman's parents Kate and Dave came to visit and we spent time with my family.

FEBRUARY started with a Sunny Day wedding for my awesome cousin and his gorgeous partner in crime - a perfect sunny day for a beach wedding! Next was a holiday with Kate and Dave - shame about the weather but we had lovely time anyway, picking strawberries, cooking lovely meals and watching the storms!! We ended Feb with a 30th birthday for a good friend - lots of food, fun and little people.

MARCH started with a visit to my Pop in his new home - not where he wanted to be but there were no other options. Some comedy, A birthday for a Mummy-to-be friend, a boozy dinner at a friends house, and a very welcome discovery - we had our own little baby on the way!!! Another wedding rounded out the month.

APRIL started with Easter and a camping trip to Tiona with friends. Another 30th, this time decked out in 80s gear! We bunny-sat our friend A's gorgeous bunny Sootie, hung out with lovely friends for Anzac Day and took a trip to the Gold Coast to celebrate an engagement for some other sunny friends.

MAY started with another engagement party for QLD friends, but a little closer to home thank goodness! The Englishman caught a nasty flu and was bedridden for a week - not fun at all. Luckily he recovered in time for a house party which he DJ'd at, and a very important day for him - becoming an Australian citizen! Followed by another important day - turning 30. In the midst of all this my Mum made Mother's Day a little special for me with a cute book :). We ended the month with the Englishman's birthday celebrations, including a meter long pizza at the local pizzeria!

JUNE started with chocolate milk cravings for me!! Two weddings on the long weekend - one via Skype, the other at the State Library. We had my 20 week scan and found out we were expecting a boy! Huge surprise for my Mum! I attended a baby shower for a dear friend and discovered how intolerant I can be of drunk people when I'm sober.

JULY's highlight was a last minute "baby moon" to Fiji for a week - perfect weather, great accommodation, lovely people and an all round relaxing holiday! We had another 30th for my wonderful friend C which included a cake with macarons on top - yum! We became an Aunty and Uncle for the first time - so wonderful!!! And started work on our little monkey's nursery after picking up the family furniture.

AUGUST began with a weekend in the Blue Mountains with a lovely group of friends - food, olympics, birthday celebrations for C's hubby and lots of fun with the Little Girl. Cooking (including a croquembouche!!) a new iPad, hormonal mood swings, a Hen's night, and Monkey's cot started to look like new. We rounded out August with another gorgeous family wedding!!

SEPTEMBER started with a catchup with my lovely 'Uni' girls which included some baby news! I found out I was suffering from Gestational Diabetes and we started getting ready to sell the Englishman's car, Ruprecht. Another baby shower and another Hens Day/night.......and a Baby Shower of my own, in Newcastle :-) Our new lounge arrived and we had a trip to Ikea!

OCTOBER was a busy month! A second baby shower for the monkey and I, 2 weddings (both beautiful!) and I finished up work and started maternity leave!

NOVEMBER started off with some lovely time off work, being social and getting important things like hair appointments and massages in before the monkey was due to arrive on the 19th. Lucky I got stuck straight into them though as he decided to arrive 11 days early, on the 8th of November. Little Billy made a reasonably quick entrance into the world at  7pm on a Thursday and our lives totally changed, forever.

DECEMBER brought a bit of experience and some challenges - going out for my birthday for dinner (success!!), staying with my parents over Christmas (success but hard work for them) and a quick change of plans for New Years when Billy got a bit sick. We brought in the New Year at home instead of at the J's house, but still managed to celebrate with a bit of an impromptu bbq, a view of the fireworks, homemade pizza and a glass of bubbles or two.

2012 has been insanely amazing and good. We have had so many opportunities to celebrate life and everything wonderful about it, watching our friends and family tie the knot and start their little families, and ended it with a wonderful family Christmas and a New Years at home with an amazing view.

I can't wait to see what adventures 2013 will bring, with the Englishman's parents coming to visit, our planned trip to the UK and watching our Billy grow for his first 12 months!

35 Weeks!! OMG.....

Soooooo.......today marks '35 weeks' of being pregnant for me. I can honestly say it hasn't flown by but it also hasn't dragged on either. I wanted to enjoy the experience and to remember it as much as I could and I think I've done that pretty well so far! It's not been a breeze but it also hasn't been a terribly hard process either. I've had my fair share of issues but mostly they've been ok.

Over the weekend, I had a second baby shower for our little monkey. Yes, I know, seems greedy right? The only reason for 2 was location, location. Having grown up in Newcastle but having lived in Sydney for almost 6 years now, I have strong ties to both cities and wanted the chance to see friends from both, catch up, swap stories with those who have kids or are preggers and to just enjoy the moment. Told you I wanted to enjoy the experience!

Yesterday was just lovely - a properly gorgeous party in our little flat. My beautiful friend C did most of the organising, with help from my sisters and Mum. The decorations were gorgeous and there was even a Lolly Bar for people to take home a lolly bag!!

We only played one game but that was because everyone was too busy chatting and eating and having a lovely time, which was just perfect.

It was so nice to have all my "Sydney friends" in one place as I havent had many opportunities to get them all together - I like everyone to know each other so no one feels awkward and can always find someone to talk to.
Anyway, the monkey was spoilt and so was I, yet again! The boys had a nice day out in the city so I think all in all, it was a good day for everyone. Even C's Little Girl had a good time.

This week, I have another midwife appointment and I'm getting fitted for some wrist splints, as I've developed carpal tunnel syndrome due to pregnancy and my hands go numb through the night if I sleep on them the wrong way- weird and very annoying. I'm catching up with some friends tomorrow night and other than that, I'm recovering from the weekend. Luckily I was able to have today off work so I plan to rest but also to finish sorting out the flat as it's not entirely back to normal (even with all the cleaning up the girls did yesterday!).

With only 9 days of work to go, things are really starting to hit home....in the next 6 weeks, we will have a very small person to look after. We really will! He will be tiny and totally reliant on us for everything. We will be tired and a little scared but oh, it will be worth it.

I can't wait!