Posts in category: Personal

Last month I joined in with the Siblings project for the first time.

And, even though it’s still early days, I have a feeling I might manage this project every month this year.  Even if the photos aren’t exactly what I’d like them to be.

See, I saw some really gorgeous photos from other bloggers as part of the project last month.  And it made me really want to make an effort with my two this month.  To take the time to actually do a sort of mini photo shoot with them.  It was in my calendar to do it and everything.

But still, it just didn’t happen.  When I looked through our photos from the last month though, I found I did have a couple of pictures of the two of them together.

Not quite the set of photos I had imagined, but I’m happy nonetheless.

Despite all the coughs and colds we have managed to get out to the beach a few times in the last few weeks.  Rhys and Nerys both love it down there, even when it’s so cold you need your hoody hood up and your coat on over the top.

They both love digging in the sand, looking for treasure and building sandcastles.  For the most part they do this nicely together, but they do have their moments when they’d rather just do something by themselves for a bit.

They are good friends at the moment though.

Nerys was at nursery today and was so excited to tell me that she had seen Rhys when they went out to play in the yard.  I love that they have that reaction to seeing each other, they were both so happy about it.

And on one occasion recently I left Nerys at home with Daddy while I went to pick Rhys up from school.  The first thing he said to me when he came out of his classroom was “where’s my sister?”.

Nerys still wants to be like her big brother, and wants to do the things that he does.  And at the moment, she really wants to play Minecraft with him.

She’ll sit really close to him on the sofa, and watch him as he plays.  Sometimes it gets a bit too much for Rhys, and he asks her to move away.  Other times though, he will tell her all about what he’s doing.  And then he’ll let her help, telling her what blocks to use and where to put them.

It’s really lovely to see, even if it doesn’t always last!

Every month I see these lovely family photos pop up on my newsfeed.  Bloggers and photographers taking part in the me and mine project, which aims to get us all in front of the camera once a month as a family.

This is the year I really hope I will manage to join in every single month.

And I’m off to a good start.  We have a family portrait for January!

This was taken by my mother-in-law in Victoria park in Swansea.

We had finally made it out of the house for a walk on the beach all together, after weeks and weeks of me feeling ill with a virus that I just can’t seem to shift.

Most weekends I’ve ended up heading back to bed for a lie down in the afternoons, my body just badly in need of rest to try and fight this bug off.  Which means we’ve not really been out and about that much this month.

So even though I was still bunged up and coughing, it was really lovely to head out in a window of sunshine and breathe in some sea air.

And I’m really pleased that we went, and that I took the camera along, so we could all cwtch in together and get this photo.

Hopefully the rest of the year will be a bit less germy and offer plenty more family photo opportunities!

So here we are.

2017.

A brand new year.  And a chance to get stuck into the living arrows project for a second go around!

Last year I had no set pattern to my living arrows posts.  Some weeks it was a photo of the two children together.  Some weeks it was just a photo of Nerys, and others it was just a photo of Rhys.  And I think that’s the way I’m going to tackle it again this year, rather than restricting myself by saying I’ll always do, say, a photo of the two of them together.

For the first week of the year though I wanted to include photos of them both.  So I have a clear image of what they look like now, so I can see how much they both change over the course of 2017.

First up is Nerys.

This is going to be a big year for her.  She turns 3 in a few months time, and will start going to a pre-nursery class at school 5 mornings a week.  Then in September she’ll head off to the nursery class.  I’m not sure how I’m going to cope, seeing her in a little school uniform!

I think she’ll thrive though.  I really do.

And up second we have Rhys.  

I can’t quite get my head around the fact that he’ll turn 6 this year.  He’s growing up so fast.

Whatever this year brings, I’m really looking forward to taking time each week to stop and take photos of my children.

I put together a post of all my photos from my living arrows project in 2016 and it’s so nice to see them all together in one place.  I’m already looking forward to doing the same at the end of 2017!

At the start of 2016 I started taking part in a lovely photography project – Living Arrows.

Living arrows is a project that celebrates childhood.  It’s nice and simple really, every week you take a photo of your child/children.  A photo that captures a bit of who they are, and what you’ve been up to together that week.

This is the first year I’ve taken part, and I’ve really loved taking the time to take a photo each week.  And I’m so happy to now be able to put all the photos together.

So here is my living arrows collection for 2016! 

What a year!

What strikes me most looking back at all these photos, is how much Nerys has changed.

Rhys has changed a fair bit over the course of the year too, but you can really see such a huge change in Nerys.  She was just coming up to 2 at the start of 2016, and is now quickly approaching 3 and you can see in these photos how she’s gone from a toddler to a little girl.

That aside, I just love all the little moments that have been captured in these photos.

The trips out, the days at home, the bond between my children, the changing of the seasons.

It’s all there.

Our year, in 52 photos.