Holly's FAB 1

Firstly for today's blog I have a nice little picture of Holly having a cuddle with Granddad after a recent visit this weekend.





A Granddad cuddle for Holly.

Everyone always comments that Holly is so much like Joshua rather than Brandon and I have to say I agree whole heartily. She is like him in so many ways and as if you wanted any more evidence, 4 weeks old and she is already a thumb sucker just like her bog Bro!

It has taken Holly 4 weeks to discover the joys of thumb sucking.

Now I remember playing with play-doh and plasticine when I was a kid. But just like everything else it seems to have been improved and upgraded so much over the years. For Xmas we bought the boys each a construction vehicle play-doh toy and I have to say they are the absolute dogs nuts. They have lights, sounds, built in rollers, cutters, extrusions and can mould all kinds of shapes from bricks to cones to rode signs to garbage fish!!! I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy playing with these as much as the boys.

Brandon playing with his construction play-doh set.

Loading some rubbish into Joshua's dumper truck.

Just how cool is this for a play-doh toy? They didn't have these when I was a boy.

Brandon gets very creative and starts role playing with his construction set.

A lovely picture of Brandon holding his little sister.

 

So this blog is called Holly's FAB 1 for a reason and that reason is her lovely new pink car which she got for Christmas. Its a stunning soft toy which she can sit in and is fully supported and padded. It has a plastic key, a teddy doll, a rattle mirror and a musical steering wheel. Earlier today she even had a little nap in her car which was funny, especially when I was telling the boys this is why we don't let women drive because they sleep at the wheel!

 

Holly's FAB 1.

 

Brandon getting in on the picture and enjoying pushing his little sister around in her car.

A lovely picture of Brandon and his little Sis.

Woops, another women driver as Holly knocks the wing mirror off of her car.

Joshua soon wants to get in on the action and push FAB 1 around the living room. Wooden floors are great for whizzing their sister around.

Finally for today we have a picture of Holly laying down with her giant size Minnie Mouse that Auntie Nicky got her for Xmas. As you can see the teddy is not far off of the size of Brandon and therefore dwarfs little Holly. Certainly a teddy she can grow up with.

 

Holly with her Minnie Mouse teddy she got for Xmas.

Brandon's Golf Set

Since Joshua got his golf set for his 6th Birthday Brandon has been very jealous. Every time we go to the driving range he kicks off about how its not fair that I have a golf set, Joshua has a golf set but he doesn't. Well finally we have no more of Brandon's little strops as Santa brought him his own little golf set for 3-5 year olds which includes a bag, a 7/8 iron and pitch wedge and a driver. So we recently all headed off down the driving range so that Brandon could test out his new clubs.

 

Joshua and Brandon looking all serious with their golf bags before we head into the driving range.

En route to the driving range Joshua was asking me why it is called a"driving range" when you don't drive there. So we had the discussion explaining that you drive the ball off the tee for each hole and that your wood clubs are often called drivers. e to practise driving the balls.e you go down there to practise driving the balls. Anyway once there we got a bucket of 100 balls and divided them up between the 3 of us. The power tee's were down due to recent flooding so we were forced to hit the balls off of the mat and the old rubber tee's. Brandon was hitting some great little shots with his new clubs and was starting to get some good loft on the ball. To be honest he really isn't that far behind Joshua in ability and I think they are both getting very close to being able to go onto a pitch and putt.

 

Good form shown by Brandon with an excellent back swing ready to drive a ball.

And equally as good on the follow through as he watches his ball launch.

Nice after shot pose!

Joshua was happy tonking balls towards the tire with his driver.

The end of a hard session and Brandon neatly puts his clubs back in his bag and zips his cover up.

 

I've often said my long term fitness goal is to now try and hold off the boys for as long as possible. Ideally I still want to be able to hang with them in the gym, the bike or running until I turn 50. However the golf could be a completely different story. At the rate they are progressing it really wont be that long before they can both out play me. I am so looking forward to those lazy summer Sundays when me and the two boys can head of out for 18 holes on a main course.

Make A Wish

Firstly for today's blog I have some pictures taken of little Holly wearing some cute little "I Love Dad" slippers and hat which she got as a present on Boxing Day.

I love Dad slippers to keep her little tootsies warm.

And her little "I Love Dad" hat.

 

On Boxing Day this year we had a lot of the family around to have a get together, exchange some presents and generally have some fun. For the first time this year we also had a flying visit from some of our Norfolk relatives as Auntie Chris, Steve and Layla came down en route to their vacation in Morocco. So little Holly got to have a lot more cuddles and meet some other members of the family. Chris seemed to really enjoy seeing the baby and even had time to give her a bottle feed and burp before flying off.

Auntie Chris meets Holly for the first time and gives her a bottle feed.

With the Norfolk folk visiting we had some 20 people in the house (which was a record for me) and needless to say the living room was rammed solid when it came to exchanging presents. Holly seemed to be passed around a bit like pass the parcel and the boys were buried somewhere in the middle of the room amongst bag loads of presents.

I think I need a bigger living room.

Both the boys were very disciplined this year and waited patiently as everyone took it in turn to open a present. Of course there were a few people trying to jump the gun or start unwrapping the next present ahead of their turn!!! 

Joshua and Brandon dive into their present bags.

Brandon readies his next present as the Hulk (aka Uncle Michael) opens one.

No more waiting and Brandon tears into another present.

Little Holly meets her 3rd cousin Layla.

Layla tucks into one of her presents whilst Auntie Chris enjoys her Holly cuddle.

Little Brandon gets lost as he dives into his present bag.

I think this might be the first picture of Holly having a cuddle with Uncle Michael. Love the little Minnie Mouse outfit.

One of the activities for every Boxing Day is to pull our giant cracker. This usually turns into a bit of a frenzied free for all with the smart people laying on the floor below the cracker to collect all of the goodies.

Everyone gets around the giant cracker ready to pull it. You can just about see Joshua lurking underneath.

Josh and Brandon are buried in there somewhere......will we ever see them alive again?

The boys and Holly were both very spoilt again on Boxing Day and by far they had the most presents out of everyone. Everything from new bedding sets, clothes, toys and pyjamas were bestowed upon them and giving me the headache of finding homes for everything. The boys both got matching Skylander pyjamas which look and fit great.

Ready for bed in their new Skylander pyjamas.

Another first for this year as I allowed Joshua and Brandon to pull the turkey wish bone for the first time. They tried just little pinkies to start with but didn't quite have the strength to snap the bone. So they end up with a full fist grip on each side and ultimately it was Joshua who came up trumps. He has made his wish and not told a single person what he wished for.

Getting ready to pull the wish bone with their little pinkies.

The wish bone just didn't want to snap using their little fingers.

 

Holly's 1st Christmas

Today was Holly's first Christmas and we had a thoroughly enjoyable but manic day at home as a family of five. Surprisingly the boys did not wake too early, Joshua was about 7:05 and Brandon was gone 8 o'clock. Even then they were happy to lay in our bed with Holly watching Paw Patrol rather than going downstairs for their presents, weird!. Finally I managed to get them up, dressed and washed and then also made sure they had some breakfast before going into the living room for some presents.

 

The three kids curled up in Mummy and Daddy's bed not too bothered about rushing downstairs for Xmas presents.



 

To start the proceedings Joshua helped his new little sister open her very first present which was a teddy bear from one of our neighbour's, Liz.

 

Joshua helping Holly open her very first Xmas present.

Once the first present was out of the way it became a bit of a free for all and the boys were super excitable at opening all their presents. Whilst we spent a lot and bought them far too much, their reactions wee priceless and I think they both got pretty much everything they asked for and more. Probably the only disappointment was Joshua who wanted a drum set but didn't get one. Brandon's top present is by far is golf set which he loves and Joshua is either his stunt scooter or his submarine. All in all they have got so many new toys that today we probably only got to play with about half of them. I am absolutely exhausted with building/assembling toys, putting stickers on toys and crawling around on the floor playing with the boys all day. To think its only going to get more manic over the next few years as Holly grows up and joins the Xmas frenzy. 

Brandon with one of his Dinosaur Train characters, "Tiny".

Of course Brandon had to have some Hotwheels on his Xmas list, so here is Hotwheels Shark Attack.

Joshua with his educational "Hangman" game which he really wanted.

Brandon likes his Hotwheels.

Brandon's favourite present which he was ecstatic about, a junior golf set. Roll on when the golf range opens so we can all get out and hit some balls.

Joshua with the Disney Planes Wii game.

Something Mum and Dad always did for us every Christmas was to buy us an annual and it is something I have also tried to do with the boys. Brandon got a Disney Mickey Mouse Club House Annual but Joshua got a couple. Firstly, Disney Planes and a book on Baby Animals. But the star book which I stumbled across for Joshua was an RSPCA annual. He absolutely loves it. I think I have mentioned before that he is obsessed with watching RSPCA and Animal Rescue programs in the morning (rather than cartoons), so this book is just amazing for him.

Joshua loves his RSPCA annual.

How appropriate for Brandon to have an Angry Birds game. Me, Josh and B had a good game of this and Brandon won.

Joshua with his bright orange stunt scooter which he wanted. The old Olympic scooter seems to now have been handed down to Brandon.

Joshua's next favourite present is this rather amazing submarine with lights, noises, divers, rescue boats, firing missiles etc.

Both boys also wanted ice cream and frosty makers this year and so we ended up buying Joshua the frosty ice drink maker and Brandon a Moo Cow Milk Shake maker. We ended up testing both of these out and made a simple black current ice drink and a strawberry yogurt milk shake with vanilla. Very nice.

Joshua with his black current frosty drink.

Brandon mixing up and strawberry yogurt milkshake.

Brandon's total present haul was quite impressive and almost filled a 3 seater sofa.

Joshua pile of presents stacked up on the 2 seater sofa and his scooter down at the side.

Joshua looking mean and focused as he readies himself for a test drive of the new scooter.

Once the boys had settled down and the wrapping paper cleared away we finally got to sit down and open some of Holly's presents. Despite being a little girl she is still clearly in a testosterone fuelled house and as such her main present was of course her first set of wheel, a soft toy sit-in car. 

Joshua helping Holly open her first ever set of wheels.

Holly test drives her first set of wheels. Just cruising around the living room looking for some action.

Despite all the lovely (and expensive) presents, probably one of the most enjoyable for the boys was a simple painting hand pallet which was purchase from a 99p shop as a stocking filler. The boys thought the pallet was amazing and were both dead keen to don the paint shirts and do some Christmas art.

Joshua and B set to work on a festive painting using their new artist paint pallet.

Brandon's picture was a lovely painting of him playing football outside in the sun,

Joshua hard at work on his festive painting.

We had a very traditional Xmas dinner as always however for the first time in many years we had to buy our own turkey. The meats comprised of turkey and gammon and then all the trimmings on top including goose fat roast potatoes, yum. Very pleased with Joshua today as he ate some broccoli and even more impressive he now likes brussel sprouts and ate two of them for the first time. Like father like son, that means two very stinky bums tomorrow!



Joshua and Brandon settle down at the dinner table for a traditional Xmas dinner.

 

All 5 King;s having our first Xmas dinner together.

 

After dinner we had one final surprise for the boys and that was our family Xmas present. This years gift was the Wii Infinity which I am sure will provide hours of entertainment for the children on those miserable winter days when they cannot get outside. Of course now the argument will be whether they play Skylanders, Infinity or Disney Planes!!! Good luck with me ever getting time to play Gran Turismo 6.

The boys open the final surprise of the day, our family present of a Wii Infinity.

So Holly's first Xmas is over. Hopefully next year she can be a bit more involved and could possible be walking around the house as well. So now its time to get the house cleaned and ready to start all over again tomorrow for Boxing Day.