Another crazy week in the Radford family

   Well last week was spent in France on our family holiday with all the children and what an amazing time we all had, it's times like this that make us really sit back and think about just how unbelievably blessed and lucky we really are seeing the children having so much fun and enjoying playing with there siblings really makes me feel so proud of what we have yes it's a lot of hard work but the rewards are so so worth it we spent most of our days on the beach which we all loved Josh is such a dare devil and was quite happy going in the sea with us all and riding the waves he loved it Max is a little bit more wary and only ventured up to his knees and kept running back out with Tillie as soon as he saw a wave coming Luke really enjoyed looking for little crabs and there was a lot of them there such funny little things he picked one up and it kept popping out of it's shell then as soon as it saw us looking it went back in, little Oscar enjoyed it on the beach too he sat there watching everybody building sandcastles and eating the sand he's such a placid laid back little man our afternoons were spent around the pool they loved going down all the big slides they kept going down them in groups of four which was funny to watch Ellie and Aimee would count up to 3 in french then they would race down them i spent a lot of time in the baby pool with Max Tillie and Oscar it was just far to hot for me i was really struggling with the heat and there was no breeze at all just constant heat.  Max and Tillie went down the slides together i couldn't keep up with them they have so much energy but they loved it and Oscar really enjoyed going in the pool i thought he might of cried but nope he was splashing away and didn't want to get out.Our evenings were spent sat outside the caravan having BBQ's and just talking i love the laid back atmosphere of just been able to sit back and chill out and watch the children playing i think next year we are going to try and go for a month and stop off at different campsites through Spain and France that will be an adventure for them. On our journey home we got back into England and needed to put some petrol in the van so Noel went to take the petrol cap off with the key and he said it was stuck and he couldn't get it off so we tried and tried and couldn't do it so ended up ringing the breakdown company because there was nothing else we could do she said on the phone because they were really busy it could take up to 3 hours for them to come out and it was 1 in the morning and everyone was tired and fed up wand when i looked at the keys i said to Noel that key looks very much like our house key and he looked at me and said oops let me just try this other key and what do you know it opened he was only using the door key he's such a muppet sometimes he really cracks me up.


I'm now 30 weeks pregnant with baby #16 and everything is going well i had my midwife appointment and shes happy with his growth and how i am he is now head down which is great because he was breech i think he has really had a growth spurt this week because I'm feeling a lot more uncomfortable and the braxton hicks have really moved up a gear I'm getting so many of them and there so uncomfortable his movements have got more fierce this week i can now feel limbs coming out everywhere and my pelvis is starting to feel the strain and I've got the strangest craving which is flour i cannot get enough of it i know I'm strange but i was really missing it on holiday so the director went to a flour mill and bought me some which was funny all the children think it's disgusting well i think it's disgusting but oh well i think it must be the texture or something but it is weird.


16 kids and counting filming is going really well but it has been very hectic with not much of a break in between filming we had the minibus rigged up with cameras for our journey to France so that should be funny to watch and then when we got to the campsite the director said that they were going to take the cameras out of the minibus and put them in the caravan so it did feel very much like big brother but they did only stay with us till Monday then they left us to our holiday.

France road trip

We hit the road at 6.30 pm on the 20th July 2012.The children were all still awake at gone 11pm, with only Max falling asleep as soon as we set off. They were all pretty good and did finally fall asleep at about midnight. We got to the ferry terminal for 1.20am as we were on the 2.20 ferry and at this point the children had all woken up so they were all pretty tired and grumpy and the ferry crossing was a bit rough and with a lot of very drunk football fans so the chances of getting any sleep was none existent.We got off the ferry at about 4.30 by this time all the children were ready for going to sleep, so i did then manage a few hours sleep myself. It was such a long journey with us finally arriving at the campsite at 2.30 pm. The TV crew had followed us down in the car behind us because we had the van rigged with the cameras but the rest of the crew were waiting for us as we pulled in so we checked in and went to our caravans and as we were unpacking i said to Noel "did we not book a 3 bedroom one?" because the caravan that we had been told was ours was only a two bedroom. Anyway, after going to look at the other caravans we had booked we realised that we were in the wrong one and we had booked a 3 bedroom one so we had to pack everything back up and move. We did book 3 caravans but we have only ended up using two of them which is so typical because all the children want to be in our caravan and don't really want to be with the older ones in there van. it's so nice to be wanted. The first day we went to the beach and the children loved it with little Oscar trying to eat the sand all the time but what a great time we had building sandcastles and going in the sea. When we got back to the campsite the children all wanted to go to the pool so off we went, they absolutely loved the slides and Oscar got to go swimming for the first time which i thought he might not have liked but he loved it and was splashing and laughing and it was so lovely to see hes really enjoying his first family holiday. Me and Sophie have found the heat a little unbearable at times so have spent a lot of the time in the pool and eating LOT'S of gorgeous cream cakes and ice lollies.
I'm now 29 weeks and Sophie is 32 weeks it's going so fast it's hard to believe that the next family holiday we have there will be two new additions to our amazing family  life is just perfect.

What a stressful start to the week!

Well what a few days we've been having! We are due to go on holiday to France on Friday and we still don't have 9 of the childrens passports so i phoned the passport office on Monday only to be told that they are still under going the examination process and that they would not be back by Friday so i said well is there anything we can do to get them and they said that we could pay an extra £52 per passport to get them on a one day service.
Due to it being Oscar's first passport there is nothing they can do to get that passport to us and the only thing they could offer was a 7 working day service which obviously is no good so we we've had to make the decision to either not go and loose all our money on the holiday and the children would be gutted or leave Oscar with my mum and dad for the week and i'm just not sure if i can cope without him for the week as i've only ever been away from him when he was 6 weeks when Tillie got taken into intensive care and that was so hard but atleast i did still get to see him through the week and then i just keep thinking what if something happens and we're all the way in France. I'm so torn and really don't know what to do for the best.
We have tried getting through to the passport office all day today but their lines are constantly busy, it's so frustrating! We are now waiting on a call back within the next 48 hours to see if the passport office in Liverpool can sort the passports on the day service and if by some miracle they can do something with little Oscars passport. I'm so stressed at the moment and i never get stressed but this has really got to me, i'm just hoping tomorrow brings us some good news.

Me and Sophies pregnancy

Well in February we found out on the same day that we we're going to be parents again and grandparents for the first time! Our daughter Sophie was pregnant, to say it was a shock was an understatement but we were over the moon. The first 15 weeks for Sophie were really hard with her constantly being sick i just felt sick but wasnt actually sick. At 17 weeks she found out that her bump is a GIRL and they were both over the moon. A few weeks later we found out that our bump is a BOY! Going through this jouney together is the most amazing experience, we're both loving it and it's so nice to think how close they will be growing up, i'm sure they will be best friends when they're older. We've had our midwife appointments together which has been lovely and have found that we are both craving the same things; cream cakes and junk food. We had our 4d scan together the other week which was amazing to get to see our little boy and our grandaughter they are both doing really well. Our little boy weighs 2lb 3oz at 27 weeks and Sophies little girl weighs 4lb 4oz at 31 weeks which she has been told is above avarage so i think she could be in for a whopper and considering that her bump is so small i have no idea were she is hiding her because i just look like an elephant. I cant believe that in just another 8 weeks Sophie will be due and we will be welcoming our first grandchild into the family and just a few weeks later we will be welcoming our new addition into the family! It's going to be an amazing time for us all!

Had a busy week

    Well this week has been fun im currently 28 weeks with #16 and feeling really great, we had our 4d scan this week and he's absolutely gorgeous all the children loved seeing him, little Ellie said hes cute and he,s got a big nose, i think what she meant to say was hes got a button nose bless her it was very sweet, we found out that he weighs 2lb 3oz which she said is just right.
   
 I've got my midwife appointment on tuesday shes such a lovely midwife and has said that she will come out to the house so i don't need to go into the doctors which is so much easier, i cant believe we only have 12 more weeks till we meet him.

   We are doing filming for our new programme 16 kids and counting at the moment which is very crazy but a lot of fun, there have been some very funny moments along the way.We have enjoyed the few days off that we have had this week  ready for more filming next week,we have got our road trip to france next week and we are still waiting on some passports coming back which im starting to worry that they wont be back in time, and i still havent even started the packing but were so looking forward to getting away i really feel like i need this holiday now, and the children are getting so excited to go they cant wait i think there mostly looking forward to swimming and going down the big slides.

As you can imagine school mornings are very busy in our house with so many children to get ready and out of the door on time,  Friday morning the phone rang at 8.50 and it was hubby asking if Josh was at home well i had'nt heard anything from upstairs so i did'nt think he was in the house anyway i opened his bedroom door and there he was in his uniform playing with his lego on the floor never have we ever done that before even the other children hadnt noticed that he wasnt in the van it was an oops moment.