Tuesday 25 December 2012

Christmas time with our 16 children



Well Christmas day finally arrived I'm not sure who was more excited me or the children! 
Last night we were up until midnight as we had to wait for some of the children to go to sleep before we could do anything with the presents. After they were all asleep we could start on building some of the toys, I had got Tillie a huge dolls house that needed building, when Noel took it all out of its box he just looked at me and said  "i think its going to be a late night" after an hour of putting that together we then had to build oscars bubble car, we unpacked that Noel said "it says we need a hammer" we both looked at each other as we both know as soon as we need some kind of tools its a 20 minute search to find it and sure enough it wasn't there so we had to use a battery of the cordless drill, there's nothing like improvising but it did the job so once that was finished we went to bed thinking we would probably have a few hours sleep before they came pounding into our bedroom but i woke up at 6.30 and though they will be up any minute now but i must have gone back to sleep and we finally got woken up at 7.30 so we got a lie in! We went down to get Sophie and Joe up whilst everyone waited outside the lounge then as soon as they came upstairs we opened the door and they all ran into the lounge shouting Santa's been Santa's been! it was so magical there was wrapping paper flying everywhere and children shouting what Santa had delivered. Oscar was totally oblivious to what was going on and just sat staring at all his brothers and sisters opening their presents and little Casper just slept through it all. I remember Tillie being the same last year but this year she was so excited to open all her presents and she loves her dolls house. All of the children were so pleased with what they got and have spent all day playing with their presents.
Once we had finished tidying up it was time to get the turkey in the oven. We had a 10 kilo turkey, it was huge and just fit in the oven. Then we had to prepare all the veg, there was 7 kilos of potatoes and 4 kilos of carrot and swede and guess who had to prepare it all? yep, me and hubby! oh and 6 yes 6 sprouts for Noel and Chloe because nobody else likes sprouts, plus all the trimmings, we also had 50 pigs in blankets but when it was ready it was gorgeous and they all ate it so we have had a totally amazing day playing with toys and board games and seeing all there faces has just been so magical. We hope you've all had a fantastic christmas love the Radfords x
 Max with presents 
 Oscar opening presents
 Morning madness




 Casper and Daisy's 1st christmas, its just too much for Casper he's fallen asleep 










Wednesday 19 December 2012

What a manic week we've had!!!

So a few weeks ago me and Noel decided to start a date night as we never get any time together as a couple and felt that we really needed to get some time together so Noel had been planning something for a few weeks and would not tell me what it was no matter how hard i tried to get it out of him so Friday came and it was date night and I was feeling very excited about going out for the night and my mum and dad coming round for the day which we always look forward to anyway. They arrived at 11.30 followed by Noel, he said he had a lot of paper work to do and would be working from home which wasn't unusual so when he got a phone call to go back to work i didn't think anything of it because that was normal but when he came back he said get your shoes on and come outside and when i got outside well, he had only gone and rented a audi a5 coupe and then he announced that we would be going to Chester for the night! well omg i was in shock because we never get to go away on our own ever, well we haven't stopped in a hotel for 20 years so I was over the moon and I packed my bag and off we went.
When we arrived at the hotel we were greeted by a concierge who took our cases and we went to reception where we were greeted by the hotel manager who was so lovely and couldn't do enough for us. When we were checked in he took us to our room and showed us round  it and it was an amazing room I felt like a princess! We had pink champagne waiting for us and when we went down for our evening meal we had a cocktail menu just for us which was amazing and did i enjoy all the cocktails on the list :) we had such an amazing time. When we got home the older ones had coped brilliantly Chloe had Casper during the night and he had been up at 3 then was in and out of sleep till 7 then she had to go into work for 7.30 but she loved having him.

This is our fantastic room


In the hotel we found this chair x

Then at 2 we had a dress fitting at the bridal shop so we took all the girls and when we got there they were all lovely and had cupcakes for the children and champagne for us grown ups so i started trying on dresses and i think it was the 4th dress I tried on and everyone loved it so we decided that that was the one so then Sophie and Chloe tried there dresses on and couldn't decide on the colour.. Chloe liked one colour and Sophie liked the the other  so they had to compromise and go with Chloe's colour and the little ones love there dresses. After this we then had to decide on where to renew our vows so we have now found the perfect place and we are so excited.
Also this week we have had lots of magazine and photoshoots which has been crazy but a lot of fun and I cant wait to see the pictures of our family.
We have had the 3 older primary school children's nativity play which was just lovely. I love this time of year, its just magical although this year i'm not very organised but i am getting there.



Smiley little Casper at 11 weeks x

Friday 7 December 2012

We've been up to alot this week!!!

Casper is now 9 weeks and it has gone so fast! I hadn't had him weighed in a few weeks so me and Sophie went to have them both weighed  and i was so shocked at how much Casper weighs, he's 12lb 7oz and he's doing so well but hardly surprising he's put so much weight on because he never stops feeding. Daisy now weighs 11lb 12oz she's so dainty and 5 weeks older than Casper! to look at them both you would now think Casper was born before Daisy, they're both doing really well although Daisy has had quite a bad cold this week so has been very unsettled for Sophie but Casper is now starting to get into a routine. We usually start to introduce a bedtime routine at this age so that has started this week and is going well... we bought a baby monitor that you can see him with and it has a two way intercom on it which was so funny because the first night we used it we put Casper up to bed at 7.30 and came back downstairs and me and Sophie were just sat watching him sleeping when we saw Josh who's 5 go in and give him a kiss good night it was so sweet and he just stood there talking to him when Sophie said lets press the button to talk to him so  Sophie said Josh what are you doing?! and he jumped out of his skin and ran out of the room and came downstairs laughing saying Sophie you jumped me up well i've never laughed so much for ages it was so funny.

This week we have been very busy filming for our new programme and it's going really well. We're enjoying it so much and the children are having a lot of fun filming aswell. Ellie was very impressed that she got to wear a mic pack for her interview and we've also been really busy planning our wedding renewals for what seems like ages so on Monday we told the children that we are going to go abroad to renew our vows and that we would be telling them where when we had booked it all the following day so they were all very excited. When we had got it all booked we gathered them all around the kitchen table and announced where we would be going and there reaction was amazing! little Tillie knew exactly what she wanted to do and said go beach straight away shes so excited and Max is excited about going on a big aeroplane  and the rest of the children are just excited about it all and can't wait to go, it was just magical to see all there faces and see how excited they all are so next weekend we will be going dress shopping. The girls are all looking forward to choosing their dresses so its going to be amazing and its only about 7 weeks until we go so not long! Also this week we have been to book the christening for 11 of the children so things are very busy at the moment and i've got loads to organise in such a short space of time but i'm sure it will all come together in the end. so that's about it for this week.
Heres a few little pics.



Tillie been a little mummy and feeding Oscar a yogurt



Casper in one of my favourite cloth nappies



Our cute little teddy bear Oscar x