Beginning of the rest of our lives...

This week has marked the end to Cancer treatment!

For now and hopefully forever.

So here is our journey through Cancer in photographs...

The first one was taken straight out of hospital.

David had spent a whole month in hospital and undergone two major surgeries.

This one was just over a month later,

David lost sooo much weight that he needed a new wedding band.

I am pleased to report he has now gained weight again and is back in his old ring!

The chemo months...

These months saw David very tired and poorly.

But he was a trooper and fought through it and even managed to continue working...

in fact David being David he has worked everyday (bar the two days of surgery).

The best of course for last!

The very last chemo tablet!!!

You can easily see the relief on David's face.

I would love to have taken more and truly documented the journey our family has experienced this year,

but time and situation did not allow.

Through all of this I know my family has been truly blessed in ways we would never have realised had this opportunity for growth not come along.

Don't get me wrong, we would have very much loved it not to have been here in the first place,

but we have experienced to many wonderful experience and blessings and grown closer to wonderful friends and even made new friends because of 'vlad' visiting. 

(Vlad is the name we gave the tumour)

I can honestly say Heavenly Father loves us and is mindful of our family,

how humbling is that, to know, and I mean know Heavenly Father knows us and wants the best for us.

Thank you to everyone who has prayed, fasted, helped, cared for and supported our family.

YOU are truly a blessing in our lives and we love you very much.

x

Thinking about Christmas....

I know what you are thinking, already?!

Yes, this year we will be having an extra special Christmas!

It will all begin (as it always does in our house) at Thanksgiving.

We certainly have A LOT to be thankful for this year...

I can't wait to go and pick out our tree at the place we did last year,

That was sooooo fun!!!

We plan on being 'just us' for Christmas itself, it will be the first for many years!

But anyway that is not the point of this post....

Getting carried away again....

Ohhh I do love Christmas!

I am hoping that this year I can make the children a special personalised gift.

No idea yet what to do, but I think pinterest will be able to help there!

But making a personalised gift for 6 children takes alot of time 

so early prep is a must!

I was thinking about using David's wonderful writing and being funny skills to write the children a story,

and then I would illustrate it and get them priniting as nice hard back books.

Our children Love to read...

Obviously Santa will be bringing a nice gift too 

but I think it would be lovely for the children to have something 

that will last longer than plastic of the lastest game.

Must get my thinking cap on!!

Any ideas, please do share them!

Hello World!

Yesterday David started his (hopefully) last round of Chemo!!

It will be so amazing to be done with the Cancer treatments,

and be able to say, at least for now, we have won the fight!

Who know's what the future holds, but we are thankful for every extra day!

We made the most of the last few weeks,

(David's chemo was delayed for a couple of weeks due to a cold and then low white blood cells)

So as David actually felt pretty fit we made the most of it!

We went on hikes and bike rides and picnics.

Oh and tree climbing and duck feeding...

 

Every one had lots of fun.

 

Sammy climbed the highest...

 

But Oliver the Brave gave it a jolly good go.... 

I think this child is going to be jumping out of planes and other crazy things by his teens!

He is so blummin' strong and fearless!

 

The older boys have far more energy than us and tend to go weaving in and out of the trees,

walking at least double the distance we do.

 

We are a family who love to be outdoors!

 

We are very excited about the Summer holidays,

Lots more hiking, camping, sleeping on the beach, biking and picnics etc to look forward too!

Until then David will be doing alot of.....

 Sleeping!

When all is said and done life is pretty great!

100 ways to spend the summer, frugal style!

I have been so rubbish at updating our blog, sorry for that.

We have had many ups and some crazy down's over the past few months.

At the moment I am trying to make plans for the summer!

Yep, it is not far away now, we are at the half term point which means its only a handful of weeks before the summer is here!!

(Little miss paddling pool tent making)

So what do you do to keep six kids happy during the summer?

Given that there are six of them, it has to be frugal too!

Hopefully with some research 

I will be better prepared than ever before!

Given that children slip in regards to education over the summer months 

we will be encouraging educational activities too.

 (littler miss Getting ready for a BBQ)

So far my ideas are as follows:

(Some of these our our family traditions to do over the summer)

(Littler miss and Daddy fruit picking)

1. Play at the park....maybe tour the local and not so local parks.
2. Baking - maybe a nice service project?
3. Readathon, I have a selection of books for each of the children and I will be giving them a folder so they can write a book report.
4. Water painting in the garden
5. A trip to the beach
6. BBQ! Lots of them!!
7. Outdoor cinema night - white sheet and the projector!
8. Camp out
9. Dance in the rain......it is England after all!
10. Teddy bears picnic (even the older ones love these!)
11. Random acts of kindness..... could be easily Incorporated several times over the summer.
12. Library reading scheme - the library does this each year with a different theme and free rewards.
13. Explore the outdoors - take a closer look at where you live, you might be surprised what you find.
14. Nature walk - take a I spy list to check off
15. Hike - England has soooo many wonderful opportunities for hiking!
16. Sensory play - fill boxes with all different items to describe and feel
17. More sensory play - try foods a selection of foods you have never had before. Maybe explore exotic fruits and vegetables. 
18. Ready Steady Cook
19. Climb trees
20. Go fishing
21. Lots of bike rides!
22. No tea Tea party
23. Messy photo shoot
24. Watch the stars - let them have a stay up late night and play garden games until the stars come out.
25. cloud watch, add in some I spy cloud watching fun to make it last longer.
26. Build a paddling pool tent
27. Kite flying
28. Feeding ducks
29. Making paper boats boats and racing them.
30. Blowing bubbles and counting how many we can pop
31. Fruit picking (one of our favs!)
32. Make jams with the picked fruit (be careful, very hot!)
33. Make yummy jellies with fruit picked.
34. Make smoothies with the fruit picked
35. Paddling pool fun, add the bath toys to make it last longer.
36. Water balloon fight
37. Fossil hunt, there is a fab beach in south shields in Lincolnshire that has LOADS!
38. Become paleontologist for a day - bury some dinosaurs in soil in a box and let them search for them. Even better set dinosaurs in plaster of paris and let them dip and scrape them out!
39. Make a play
40. Build a tent in the house..... another rainy day one!
41. Make pasta bracelets.... macaroni is brilliant for this.
42. Have a family Olympics - add up scores as you go and have an awards ceremony.
43. Have a murder mystery day (more for older kids)
44. Play old fashioned board games
45. Film night
46. Family sleepover - all pile into the living room or Mum and Dad's bed and stay up all night (or as long as you can) and have a mid - night feast!
47. Have a daily workout together
48. Do yoga in the evening to calm everyone down after fun filled days!
49. Make salt dough and design sculptures
50. Paint canvases
51. Write to Grandparents
52. Write to missionaries or friends living away from home
53. Write a story
54. Create a funny family story taking it in turns to write the next line.
55. Have an un-birthday party
56. Visit elderly neighbours
57. Surprise someone with treats on their doorstep, homemade makes it even better
58. Make treats to leave on a doorstep to surprise someone!
59. Make puppets
60. Have a puppet show
61. Take a drive to the hills and camp outside
62. Write and deliver Sweet nothing notes
63. Make a wind chime
64. Decorate the play house
65. Write a script
66. Act out and film your script
67. Go for a walk
68. Have a homemade spa day
69. Visit a museum
70. Sand castle competition
71. Set up a weather station
72. Research a country and cook food from that country and try out some of their traditions
73. Car boot sale - good chance for a clear out
74. Spend car boot sale money on a trip out, maybe to the zoo or a farm...
75. Silly photoshoot
76.    Paint pictures
77. Have a garden camp out party, sleeping bags, marshmallows, hot chocolate and maybe even a testimony meeting!
78. Get together with friends for a picnic/ BBQ
79. Make dream catchers
80. Dictionary look up - give the kids a list of words and a dictionary
81. Atlas exploring - Give the children a letter and ask them to find as many countries and cities with that later as they can
82. Horrible histories - Give the children a period in history and ask them to put together a presentation board all about what crazy things happened during that time.
83. Pick an artist and create your own work in their style....Jackson Pollock is always a hit!
84. Become Wordsworth, write your own poems 
85. Have a talent night, maybe toward the end of the summer so the children can show off the wonderful things they have been doing over the summer.
86. Super bubbly car wash
87. Make a wormery
88.  Hunt bugs and identify them
89. Grow Sunflowers, competition to see who's grows the biggest
90. Have plant growing experiments... see if talking to plants really makes them grow faster or add food to some but not too others etc
91. Make a family flag
92. Make a family summer cookbook, create your own recipes and try them out
93. Make sweets
94. Learn skipping games
95. Play hide and seek..... even Mum and Dad!
96. Have story time!
97. Have a random crafts morning - just provide materials and let them do as they please.
98. Take fire men a treat
99. Write thank you letters to your bishop, neighbours, family members or anyone who has touched your family in a wonderful way this year.
100. Make sure you take the time to enjoy the memories you are making and journal them!

 (Littler miss and Little mister with Mummy on a bike trek)

 Well I hope this gives you some ideas, if you have any I could use I would love to know about them!

We hope you enjoy your summer planning,

and even more your summer!

I Heart Faces - Beautiful B&W

This week's contest subject over at I Heart Faces is Beautiful B&W.

My entry is very personal to me.

On the 1st of February 2012 my families life was turned upside down by  a disease that touches all too many lives.

My Husband had his Cancer diagnosis confirmed.

After spending a month in hospital and enduring two complicated and huge operations my husband is finally home,

and we hope well on his way to winning his fight with Cancer.

We decided that we should make some kind of record of this fight for our children as it is now a part of who we are and our family history.

As I really rather enjoy photography we decided I would take a photo each month to keep a record of his fight and the effects it has on his body and mind.

This is the first photo taken just after he finally returned home after what has been and will continue to be a grewling and difficult fight.

After not picking up a camera for almost two months since this journey began it felt amazing to be photographing such an inspirational and courageous man.

Thank you for looking x

New Blog...

I have just started another blog,

It does not replace this one but compliments it.

I decided instead of posting lots of family fun ideas and visiting teaching ideas here

I would start a blog purely for those posts and keep this one about photography and our family going's on.

If you would like to check it out you can find it here:

www.makingmagicalmoments.blogspot.com

I hope you like the new blog and take some time to go and have a look.

Because You're Fabulous.....

With David having served his mission in America,

and Rebecca spending many of her early years on American army bases...

We like to celebrate some American holidays in our home.

Our favorite one has to be Thanksgiving.

It is a perfect opportunity to show how much we love each other,

and how grateful we are for all we have..

and for the wonderful people we have in our lives.

We are always looking for fantastic new traditions we can enjoy in our home.

I found a beautiful glass jar at Wilkinsons for just £5.00!!

It just jumped of the shelf into my arms...

saying "buy me, buy me!!"

To which I replyed "for what purpose do I need you?"

"I don't know yet but you will know soon, trust me, buy me!" said the jar.

So I lovingly agreed as it clearly did not want to stay at the shop anymore....

Maybe it was being bullied by the bigger jars...

I just don't know but I had a loving home and knew I could share it with this fabulous jar!

So it then occured to me,

I wanted a nice box to keep on the table so we could all leave nice notes

of why we love each other and things we are thankful for.

So that on Thanksgiving day we can sit and read them out

and everyone will know they are loved and worthwhile.

The jar said " I can do that, I would love to hold all that love and happiness inside me!"

What could I say but "yes!!".

So not only does the little jar get a new home

but gets to be filled with all the love our house holds too!!

Here is our little friend ready for compliments...

 

Isn't she lovely!

Oh and for those bargain hunters out there...

The twine is on sale at Wilkinsons, 

I bought a HUGE roll of twine must be about 300 metres for under £1!

The kind you use for craft project.

The Ultimate In Dating.....

I just have to share this site with all you fabulous Lurrrrvvvveee birds!!

This is FABULOUS!!!

I love this site, it's all about fun, refreshing dating ideas....

For us old marrieds!!!!

Enjoy!

Daddy Love....

Boys are fabulous!

No matter how old they are they like a good tumble,

and to play!

While on holiday and visiting the Great British Seaside

I caught my wonderful husband indulging in a little...

well, rough play I guess would be the best way to describe it.

Poor Sammy....

Though I wonder if actually the smile on his face says he LOVED it too!!

 

 

 

 

Boys will play!

I Heart Faces - Landscapes

This weeks challenge is Landscapes.

Which is perfect as I have just finished editing this picture of my son.

We were on holiday last week and had a fab day at the seaside.

 

Fabulous memories!

Thanks for looking!