Parenting the Shand Princesses

MummyBou is back! Happy New Year everyone! Surely it's time to stop saying that now right? It's been a while since I blogged but I had to take a break, not only from my blog but from my social media too. Sometimes we have to take a break, refresh, re-evaluate our situations and come back stronger. See where changes can be made, what you need to stop doing and what you can do to improve your situation. That's what I did. I went on holiday with my family and had a well deserved 10 day break. When I got back, I sat down with OJ and brainstormed about our future; business and personal. We celebrated our first Christmas as a family and wedding plans are in full effect. May-May's development has been beautiful to watch. She hates sand, has 2 teeth and loves to dance. But I will explain all this in upcoming blogs. I will be blogging every 2 weeks, so ensure to keep an eye out on my Instagram and Facebook . -x- Michaela -x-

So I have decided to give up my plan to go to university. Before you all scream not to quit, let me explain. Quick re-cap. I had planned to go to university next year to study Events Management, gain experience and open my own business. I started an Access course in November last year and was doing so well. Yes it was difficult but I wasn't expecting it to be plain sailing. I took 3 months study break when I had May-May and then started back. And the stress began. My mind went blank with every assignment, I struggled to understand information and I would stress myself out so much. This continued for 2 months and I thought how on earth will I carry on? I sat down with OJ and he said to me “Mics, why are you still going to university?” I told him I needed to go to open my business and gain more experience. “No you don't. Your business is up and running, you are gaining experience by booking small events. You're only doing this access course to get you into uni, ...

1 Year 9 Months until the wedding... And I said yes to the dress!! It was so spontaneous too. My sister and I were going to Aldi when we came across a little bridal boutique. We thought it was a warehouse but when we stepped inside it was a beautiful bridal shop. The lovely assistant Jess said we were free to look around, so we made a start. Within minutes I was wowed by some beautiful dresses. But I saw one and it reduced me to tears. There were also 2 other dresses I really loved too. So I made a note of the 3 dresses and vowed to make an appointment to go back and try them on. I went back the next day 😂 I had told my mum about the dresses and she said she wanted to see them. We returned to the shop and I was surprised to see my dad had come too! Jess was very surprised to see me back within 24 hours and managed to do me a same day fitting. How exciting! I filled out a form which asked details about the wedding and then I got to try the dresses on. The first dress was lovely...

It all started from a epiphany I had while coming home from work, i just knew in my mind that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with mics. We had only been together for a year and a half and were expecting a baby as well. I was scared she was going to say no as it might have been too soon. So when i got back to mics mums house I told her about my plan to propose. I will never forget how her face changed into shock and excitement. She told me about when she was proposed to and it was around the same time as me and mics. That gave me the confidence to go ahead with buying a ring. When I bought the ring I felt like I wanted to burst with excitement but then I ha d to think how am I going to ask her. I thought of so many elaborate ways to do it. But I knew we were going on holiday to Benidorm for my first time and it felt right to do it there. I brought the ring and I showed it to mics parents and told them of how I wanted to propose and they were both really pleased with the...

I recently ran a dad competition to give the winner a chance to guest blog on my page. The guest blog today is coming from R.Y.O.D a.k.a Michael Henry. He is going to give his very interesting insight into parenthood which I'm sure you will all find inspiring . Hope you enjoy his journey that he is sharing. Hi my name is Michael I’m 30 years old and I’m engaged to be married to my fiancé Rebekah and I’m also the father of our incredible beautiful son Mikah.  My views on being a father are simple - I believe it is so easy to be the forgotten person when you bring a new life into the world. We live in a society whereby fathers are seen as the ones that go to work and bring in the money for our family however I like to take a different approach, I believe that being there for my son through every step of his life is so important I made it very clear at the beginning that I wanted to be a part of every thing that he does and instead of his mother doing one part and me doing ano...

The countdown to becoming a Mrs is on! There are only 677 days until OJ and I tie the knot and I am now in full wedding planner mode. To be fair we have our wedding "planned" we just have to pull it altogether now. The date is set, the church is booked and bridal party finalised. We have our colour scheme, we know what colours we want our bridal party in and I have a few dress styles in my head (well, in my very large wedding scrapbook!). OJ knows his style of suit too, even which shop he wants to purchase it from (talk about super organised). Now all we have to do is work hard and bring our plans to life. People say weddings aren't cheap and yes they're right. But you don't have to spend thousands of pounds. It's all about budgeting where you can. I have seen some lovely boutiques that do their own range of dresses and they look as good as, if not better, than the top designer dresses. We're also asking our bridal party to pay for their dresses/suits...

This week our May May officially turned 5 months old and I couldn't be more happier with how her development is going so far. She is so alert these days and has started to notice her hands and feet more often. It has been a massive learning experience for me as this is my first time being a parent but it has all been worthwhile.  I have struggled with nighttime routines with her as this is when she gets more agitated from teething and growing pains. Its hard to see her in distress and i try to give her as much cuddles as possible which sometimes calms her down but over the course of time she has become more playful.  I love it when I enter a room and she gives me the biggest gummy smile. It totally fills my heart up when she does that and it immediately makes everything else minimal. May May has also learnt how to roll over onto her stomach which is a joy to see and how she has the ability to move her body in different positions while laying on her back.  I ...