He did it!

This blog post comes to you from a very happy, and well rested Mummy! For the first time in over 2 years we managed a full night with no children in our bed!

Sam and Sky had gone for a sleep over at Grandma's giving us a rare night with only 1 small person to contend with. Loki loves having some time where he gets Mummy and Daddy all to himself, he could play on the trampoline with no big brother and sister knocking him over and jumping on him, and watch whatever he wanted on the telly. 

Then it was bed time, he fell asleep cuddled up to Daddy on the sofa and went up to bed around 7pm. We made ourselves some tea, watched some TV and were enjoying our child free evening when he woke up again at only 9pm. Evening over. Daddy spent the next hour trying to get him to go back off, only for him to wake up every time he tried to put him down, so Mummy's turn.

We cuddled up in Loki's bed (cot bed=squished Mummy with neck in ridiculous position) 45 minutes of snuggling, stroking his face and rubbing his back later, and he finally gave in! So at 10:45 we went to bed. Loki has never slept in his own bed for more than 4 hours so we were expecting a wake up call around 2:30. But it never came. I woke with bleary eyes and picked up my phone and was amazed to see the time..4:15am and the house was still silent. No crying, no toddler crawling up the stairs. Silence. Worried I went to the boys room, and there was Loki, still sound asleep in his own bed. I crept back upstairs. I woke again at 6am. Loki still asleep. I couldnt sleep after that and ended up reading my book until he came up to our bedroom at 7am..yes 7am!!

Finally Loki has slept through the night! Now we just have to hope (pray) it wasn't a 1 off...

I'm back!

Well hello there!

I suppose I should start by apologising for my ridiculously long blogging break.. Truth is life has been a bit hectic lately and finding time to sit down and write a blog post has been pretty impossible!

Firstly, there's life as a family of 5. Having 3 little ones running round the house has been hectic to say the least! Never a dull moment round here, be it Sam refusing to get off his tablet (best Christmas present ever apparently..) Sky deciding to go down the stairs on Sams old ride on Winnie the Pooh (don't ask) or Loki emptying entire boxes of Lego onto the floor every time I attempt to leave the room for a moment (you know to have a wee or put the kettle on). Hard to believe that Sam is now 6! Sky is 3, has just started nursery 2.5 days a week, and Loki has just turned 2! Where does the time go?

Then as if we didn't have enough going on, we bought a pony. (Madness I know) Please welcome to the Young clan.. Zoom!

Zoom joined us last February, Sam had started riding lessons, and I had gone back to lessons again to start my British Horse Society exams, and so we decided that actually it worked out cheaper to buy a pony that we could both ride, and I now teach Sam (and Sky, and Loki!) myself, and Zoom costs us much less than riding lessons!

At the end of last summer, after many months of job searching and having no luck in finding anything that would work around the family, I started my own business as a freelance groom. I have lots of lovely customers who pay me to look after their horses while they're at work, or on holiday. I am loving every minute of it! It doesn't feel like work as I enjoy every second! I feel incredibly lucky that my lovely husband Joe has been so supportive, even when holiday cover has meant me working a 7 day week! He is always there to look after our little people if I need to drop everything to help a client, and without him the business would never have been possible!

While we are welcoming new members to the clan, we also had to say goodbye to a few too. My Uncle Gordon, who had suffered from MS for many years, sadly passed away in June last year, after a short battle with lung cancer. The MS meant that he couldn't undergo life saving treatment. I have been fundraising for the MS Society in his memory ever since. (you can donate here- www.justgiving.com/Lacey-Young3 ) I was hoping to run this years London Marathon, however due to a knee injury and a chest infection my Doctor advised that I defer, and so I will now be running London Marathon 2017!

We also had to say goodbye to our little staffy Lola. Unfortunately just after Christmas she attacked our other dog Taz. It was completely out of character as they've always got along, so we put it down to maybe her coming into season or feeling a bit under the weather and carried on as normal, just keeping an extra eye on her. But a few days later she did the same thing again. Taz was nowhere near her at the time he was sat in the kitchen watching me cook and she flew at him. When I got her away she then went for me as well. So we took her to the vets, who thought that she could possibly have had a brain tumour, or other neurological condition as when she turned it was literally like flipping a switch, she went with no warning and would be back to her normal self seconds later. We made the difficult decision to have Lola put to sleep. One of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make, but I feel it was the right decision and hope she is happy playing over rainbow bridge.

So.. its been a year of up's and downs. 

Hoping to keep you all more up to date from here on out!