My 2016 - heres to 2017!

Ah the beginning of a brand new year, an empty book just waiting to capture all the new memories. My plan is to use this blog this year to capture our family moments. Goodbye 2016 hello 2017! A lot of people think 2016 has been a terrible year, yes it has had its moments, in amongst sadly losing a lot of inspirational famous faces, controversial voting outcomes (hello Brexit and Trump!) and lots of political upheaval but overall 2016 hasn’t been too bad to my family and I. It’s been an adventurous year with a number of travels, a stressful year with job changes and new shifts for Kev to work round – but generally it has evened out with plenty of good too. I had to have a good think about the events of year and what the highlights were and for this reason I want to ensure that I keep this blog up to date with our adventures for the year so I have something to reflect back on as we get to this time next year!

January

We took our first family holiday! This was also our honeymoon, and I was super excited! Florida was not somewhere I saw myself wanting to go on my honeymoon – I always envisioned lying on a hammock on the deck of a lovely water villa on a secluded island in dreamy Maldives. Not themeparks and a giant mouse. When it came to deciding what to do I just couldn’t leave Riley for that long and I am glad this was the choice we made as I got to watch Riley experience the magic of Disney for the first time! He might have been suffering greatly with jetlag and throwing tantrums constantly but it will be a highlight of 2016 for me for sure!

February

The highlight of this month was my sister-in-laws wedding. We travelled down to Manchester on the train, which was a bit of a disaster. The previous week poor weather had brought down a bridge and we were diverted onto another line which added an additional hour and half onto the journey. The ceremony was at the Lowry and what a lovely venue it was indeed. It was a beautiful, if not damp and windy day and Riley behaved himself for the most part! He fell asleep after some dancing and that gave me and Kev a bit of time to enjoy the night. I enjoyed it a bit too much and had a wee bit too much to drink, as did Kev whose two left feet squished my foot and left it so swollen and bruised I had to go to A&E as I couldn’t walk! 

March

This month was a quiet month, I took this opportunity to visit my family back home in Troon. It’s a wee coastal town on the west coast of Scotland and is two hours away from Dundee. It means I don’t get to visit very often we visited my mum and dad who live 2 hours away from us. I don’t get to visit too often but we do try at least once every few months. Riley had fun visiting again, he does love to see his Gran and Grandad, but most of all loves to see his Auntie Karen. She is a doting aunt that absalutley adores her nephew and makes so much time for him.  

April

Riley turned three this month! This was scary in itself as I will never get over how quickly time flies when you have a child. I probably say this every birthday!

This month also saw we pass an interview and assessment centre and achieve my career ambition at 26 years old by landing a promotion for my dream job! Let me tell you I was a bag of nerves in that assessment centre. I had to pass to achieve a licesnce to practice my job role at the promoted level. I had previously sat one a few years ago for the previous level I was at and aced it, but got myself into a tizz over this one! When I finished I had a bubble on the train home as I had convinced myself I had failed. I spent a tortured week waiting for the results and have never been more shocked than finding out not only did I pass, but I had achieved an accelerated pass which means I did waaaay better than I ever imagined!

May

Riley caught chicken pox! He came home from nursery on a Thursday and the girls informed me that there had been a case of the dreaded pox. This had me thinking I had at least a week or two before Riley came down with it, so I cancelled my catch up at softplay with mummy friends in Glasgow and headed through to my mum and dads instead. Unfortunately those little red spots started popping up on his tummy, face and arms and he was covered by Sunday!

We were very lucky that despite him having a fair few spots he was pretty good with them and didn’t itch.

June

June saw the start of the better weather and by the end of the month Riley even made it out in a pair of shorts! Riley had his first sports day this month and he won every race! He is such a competitive child it is hilarious! After every race he came sprinting over to us shouting “I won! I won mummy!” I even got persuaded into taking part in the mum’s race. I was winning too until my blooming shoe came flying off and dropped me down to second place!

July

The start of the Pokémon craze! I partook for a week or two, before I realised how annoying Pokémon hunters were becoming in my street. We had three pokestops within 20 steps of each other and it caused traffic jams, lots of noise and litter. I soon began to dislike the damn things despite loving Pikachu when I was a kid myself.  

This month we kicked off the hunt for “Oor Wullies.” Dundee is known for being the home of the Broons, oor Wullie and the Beano. In order to raise money for a children's charity for the local hospital 66 Ooor Wullie statues were painted by lots of different people, groups and organisations and distributed throughout the city on a "Bucket trail." This was for the duration of the summer and took you to all parts of Dundee city that you might never have explored otherwise! This month we found 33 of them. Here is good old Wullie dressed up like Harry Potter. 

August

We continued the hunt for the “Oor Wullies before they were to vanish at the end of the month. We found the last of them. My favourite this month was up the top of Law Hill. You can see the whole city from here. Riley even spotted our flat and waved to Daddy, who in all honesty was likely to still be out for the count in his kip! 

September

We jetted off for our second holiday of the year. Costa Del Sol, a place I’d never been before and probably wouldn’t have gone if I hadn’t of found such a bargain and a genuinely great looking family resort. We really enjoyed our time here. Riley had a blast about the pool and even still he continues to ask to go back on the pool holiday!

October

This month saw the of the sickness which was to last almost two months in our house. Countless days off nursery and work, chest infections, sickness bugs, whooping cough and another round of chest infections to top it all off.

November

Sick month yet again! Despite this we still kept trying to keep spirts high and went out to watch the fireworks (Riley was scared two mins in and we had to walk home again!) do some baking, Kev caught whooping cough, Riley came out in strange rashes and began coughing so much he was sick. It was another fun month. Can you read sarcasm in a blog?! We topped it off with putting up a mini Christmas tree with all of Riley’s (really mine!) Disney decorations.

December

This was a busy month as Decembers generally tend to be! Myself, Riley and my two sisters visited Disney in Paris for 5 days. It was an amazing trip all the better with getting to travel with my sisters! 

Kev and I celebreated our first wedding anniversary with a pub lunch and a half day off work!I took no photos for the day for some reason (maybe something to do with it being just a pub lunch!) so here is a wedding picture instead! 

With 2016 wrapped up nicely, I am looking forward to an exciting 2017. We are one week in already and rather than make resolutions, I've set myself some goals for the year, one of which being the update of this blog to ensure all my family memories are captured in one place.