2014: Our Year In Review

Posted on the 30 December 2014 by Sparklesandstretchmarks @raine_fairy
Last year, I did a little count down on 2013 month by month and everything that had happened for us....2013 had been such an eventful and life changing year with the birth of our first child that it seemed a fitting thing to do, and now that I look back on it a year later I'm so glad I took the time to write it all down.
And so here I am, one year on, doing it again!
January
At the start of the year Tyne was 10 months old - he was sitting up, and starting to crawl, starting to feed himself and had four teeth. How long ago that seems now!
We had a visit home to Liverpool to see my family, but other than that the month was largely uneventful.
I wrote a blog post called My Mummy Confessions which was featured & discussed on an internet radio station, which was very exciting for me! 
And we had a bit of an odd experience when we took Tyne to a local soft play center and caught what seemed like a ghostly hand on one of our photographs!
I suppose the main thing that happened in January was that it was when I started to blog about my anxiety issues for the first time, and it was doing that which helped to start me off on my journey to trying to find a resolution.
February
It was in February that Tyne officially started crawling - so it was goodbye to the baby days and hello to the hecticness of chasing around an active little baby-bug all over the house!
The first birthday countdown begun and the planning was well underway!
Jon & I spent our first ever Valentines Day at home, as it was of course the first one as parents with no babysitters!, so we enjoyed a little dinner for two and a glass or two of wine....interrupted non stop by a sleep refusing baby of course! March
March was a super exciting month - it was Tyne's 1st Birthday!
We had a lovely party for him at home, and I was very proud of the birthday cake I somehow managed to make for him!
We also had tons of fun doing his cake smash and I still love looking at those photos now!
The rest of March was full of ups and downs - it was my very first Mothers Day which was so lovely and it was also when we did our first hotel review  enjoying an overnight stay in Cornwall for the blog which we really enjoyed!
However it was also the start of a lot of health concerns, when I went to the Drs about a sudden weight gain and they were concerned that I may be either 20 weeks pregnant or that there was an unidentified mass in my stomach!
April
April meant it was time for Easter - and as everybody who reads my blog regularly will know, I do love an occasion so this always makes me happy!
I had loads of fun planning Tyne's Easter outfits and putting together his Easter basket, and we celebrated the day with family.
April was when the weather started to pick up and we started to enjoy regular trips to the seaside, which Tyne really enjoyed!
It was a pretty productive month for blog writing too, as this month I wrote my post on sex after childbirth which ended up being picked up by a womens magazine and then by This Morning -and I also wrote about our Weaning journey the non-BLW way which has been one of my most widely read posts to date. May
May bank holiday weekend was one of the most fun ones we had for the whole of 2014, as we went along the Days Out With Thomas event which Tyne absolutely adored! He still watches our YouTube video about the day all the time and we really hope it comes back around again this year!
I had also finally started seeing a counselor for my anxiety issues, and was starting to see some results.
June
This was certainly one of the most eventful months of the year!
I had a really amazing experience when I was invited to the exclusive premiere of season 2 of Orange Is The New Black as part of my role as a Netflix Stream Team blogger - I got to meet and interview the cast which was so amazing!
Jon & I enjoyed our first baby-free weekend away in forever when we took a little trip to London, and there was a lot more holiday-related fun as we also enjoyed a wonderful review holiday to Parkdean in Cornwall which was our first proper family holiday and enjoyed a fantastic night away reviewing the Watersmeet hotel in beautiful North Devon!
The month was also a big one for me as not only did I attend the South West Blog Social but I also overcame some real fears and attended Britmums Live 2014 where I got to hang out with some brilliant friends I`ve made through blogging and had such a fun time!
July
photocredit: OhSoAmelia
July was another chaotic month - I was invited on to This Morning to discuss sex after childbirth following a blog post I'd written on the subject.
This was a massive thing for me as suffering from social anxiety as I do made it very difficult, but getting past my fears felt like a real victory.
We also enjoyed another family trip, this time to Peppa Pig World, where we had a really amazing time!
August The month started off pretty quietly, we celebrated Jon's birthday and there wasn't much else going on - we were working a bit on building up YouTube with the intention of doing more vlogs.
Then toward the middle of the month, we got the surprise news that we were expecting baby number 2!
It was all pretty stressful to begin with as I had some problems and we were told that it seemed the pregnancy may be either ectopic or failing - this went on for a couple of stressful weeks but thankfully all turned out well in the end and Baby Number 2 is now doing wonderfully at 25 weeks!
September

On September 11th I turned 33 years old - this birthday was celebrated with a nice meal out with my boys and not much else.
The month was dominated largely by extreme, debilitating morning sickness...I had no energy for anything, including blogging!
The one stand out event of the month was the wedding of my friend Sarah, which I managed to force myself to make an appearance for!
October

This was the month of our 12 week scan, and we were so excited to get our first look at baby number 2 and be sure all was healthy!
It was also Halloween so we visited home to spend it with my family!
November

This month was mostly about prepping for Christmas and sorting out Tyne's gifts!
After yet another spat with our godawful landlords and the worst letting agents in the history of the world (Hi Completed lettings Newton Abbot!), we finally decided to throw the towel in and MOVE!
We went on a couple of viewings before finally finding our DREAM house in nearby Paignton.
We didn't think we had a chance of getting it as other people had already applied, but by some miracle we were chosen and at the end of November we set about moving in!
December
This month saw us getting settled in our new home, and having what is hopefully our first of many Christmases here! Which brings us up to date!
We're looking forward to seeing what 2015 has in store for us!
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