Fifteen Wonderful Years

Love is not a matter of counting the years,
But of making the years count...

Today is our fifteenth wedding anniversary, and I have now officially known Dan for more than half of my life! I have to say that the 15 years spent married to him have been the most content, exciting, fun, memorable and above all the happiest.

15 years ago we were both very young, very different people, still trying to work out who we were and where our place in the world was. But we have grown together and bonded in a way that is precious and, I think, unusual these days. Rather than growing apart we have knitted closer together. I couldn't imagine a life without Dan by my side, and I know he feels the same way. Some people believe in soul mates, and some don't, but I truly feel that I have found the person that I am destined to be with; that there is no one else for either of us, no one better suited, that we are just perfect with each other. After fifteen years we are no less in love than we were the day we married; in fact our love is stronger, more passionate and enduring.

Who would have thought that at the ages of 16 and 21 we would, by chance, meet the person we were destined to spend the rest of our lives with?

Fifteen years later, both a little wrinkly, a little grey, a bit fuzzy round the edges, we have some precious memories and some great stories to tell. We now have 4 adorable, precious children, each of whom are the light of our lives. After 15 years and 4 children we try to spend time doing things together, just the two of us. We have our own interests, and our joint interests.

This morning I woke up to discover a big plate of croissants, a cup of tea and Dan standing with 15 balloons in his hand! Each balloon has a little note inside it, and I am popping one each day for 15 days. Isn't he romantic?? He also made me a plate of 'fifteens' which are my favourite treats! Not just a plate of fifteens, but 15 fifteens! Plus he gave me an envelope full of vouchers, which I haven't opened yet.

I made Dan a book of Love and I was really pleased with how it turned out. Its basically a printed book of all the photos of us as a couple, with little love poems and quotes next to them. It is possibly the most romantic thing I've ever done, as quite honestly, I don't have a romantic bone in my body (yes, I know, it's so unfair that I am married to the most romantic man in Britain!) Dan said it was the best present he ever received, so that made me happy. He keeps reminding me that our anniversary isn't over yet, so I'm not quite sure what else he has got up his sleeve.

Dan,

You are the most amazing man. Every one who meets you thinks that you are an awesome husband and father, and its true. I love you with my whole heart, with everything that I have inside me. You are precious to me and I treasure every day that we spend together. Don't ever change. You are divine just the way you are. Here's hoping we spend another blissful 15 years together.

Love you forever,

Bree

Christmas 2008

I am way behind with my blog posting. I am missing the Christmas post, my birthday post, and a post about 2008. I guess that happens with a newborn and three older kids in the house. So heres a brief account of the most amazing Christmas ever!

So Christmas Eve was our first with 4 stockings. Annabelle helped Emily hang up her stocking (not that Emily really knew anything about it) and Barney enthusiastically left out the mince pie, and carrot for Santa and Rudolf. It took Barney hours to get to sleep. He kept getting up to look out of the window, peeping for Santa. But the plus side of this was that he didn't wake up until 9am, so we had a nice lazy start to Christmas day.

Christmas Day itself was quite relaxing as we didn't have to make a dinner this year. Mum had invited the entire family round to hers, so we spent the morning lounging around in our PJ's whilst the kids opened their presents. (I spent much of the morning nursing Emiy too!)

The bigger kids both received a new mobile phone for Christmas along with various new clothes, hair accessories, sweets, chocolate and general teenage stuff. Annabelle enhanced her Nightwish collection with DVD of their music, patches to sew onto her jeans, and Nightwish stickers to decorate her room with. Jimmie received Lost series 2 and 3, and hasn't come out of his bedroom for days since as he is glued to the telly. Emily got a few little stocking fillers which Barney eagerly opened for her. Barneys most exciting present was a Gameboy, which has hardly left his hands since.

Christmas Dinner at Mums was divine! She cooked for 14 of us! The turkey was not just a turkey... it was a duck inside a turkey inside a goose... and it was mouth wateringly good. She spent something like 12 hours cooking it and was up to tend to it during the night, much like a newborn!

Dishing up time was a mammoth task and involved help from almost everybody. The adults all sat at the main table, the big kids sat up at the breakfast bar, and the little kids had a wee table of their own. Emily kindly slept through dinner time, just long enough for me to horse down my food before she needed nursing again. The food was just delicious (Thanks Mum!) and the company was the best.

Mum had a Christmas tree in her huge living room that was actually bigger than my house. It was massive. It doesn't look all that big in this photo because it's such a huge room. But it was a sight to behold. And underneath it were the most amazing hampers for each family that Mum must have spent weeks putting together. Our hamper was filled to overflowing with lots of different types of home made fudge, a huge box of home made truffles, home made spicy nuts and lots of other delights too. Dan was extremely taken with the big new saucepan that was included, and he hasn't come out of our kitchen since.


After every Christmas comes my birthday, and I am now another year older. This year we planned a quiet day, as I'm not yet recovered from my C-section, and am feeding Emily what seems every 5 minutes anyway.

Barney woke me up in the morning by bringing all my presents up to the bedroom. Traditionally we always open birthday presents on my big bed. Barney was even more excited than me and handed me each present, watching with enjoyment at every one I opened. They gave me a new HIM t-shirt, the new Dawn French book 'Dear Fatty', enough bath stuff to keep me clean for an eternity, and lots of other things too.

In the afternoon the midwife made her final visit to our house to discharge us from her care. At the end of her visit people started turning up at the house and I realised Dan had invited people round for my birthday, as a little surprise. He's so cute like that. So we had a nice lunch with family and friends and I got more prezzies! Barney helped me blow out the candles on my cake. Not quite sure why I had a big '2' candle on my cake though!

On that note, I must go, as Emily is awakening for yet another feed.

Halloween 2008

Halloween is almost over. I've tucked an exhausted Barney into bed after a day of desperately waiting for sweets, and then over indulging to the extreme. Annabelle has gone for a sleepover at her friends house, and Jimmie is out in the front garden with 4 of his friends who are awaiting their lifts home.

He has spent the last few days organising a Halloween party for his friends, and I must say that I'm quite impressed with his efforts. He demolished my kitchen making a pumpkin shaped pinyana (I can't work out how to spell that for the life of me, sorry) which he filled with sweets, decorated his bedroom with various spooky banners and wall hangings, then lit the room with various spooky glowing balloons and lamps. It looked very impressive.


So this evening 4 of his school friends arrived, dressed up for trick or treating. This is the first time we have met his school friends and they were delightfully polite and generally likable. They went trick or treating, then hung about in Jimmies bedroom, before heading out to the garden to burn off steam on the trampoline and to break the pinyana. They were all very hospitable to little Barney, despite him being 8 years their junior, and included him in all their games, which made him one happy boy.





















Dan took Barney, Annabelle and Annabelle's best friend trick or treating around the estate. Barney, who dressed as a power ranger, was beside him self with impatience all day long, waiting for Halloween to start. Dan distracted him for a while by carving a pumpkin together. They came back from their efforts with a full bag of sweets each, enough to keep him going for weeks.

Barney had also spent days preparing his bedroom for a Halloween party, which Dan and I were both invited to. He had decorated his room with spooky posters, drawings and stickers. I was amazed to discover that he had made us all party bags full of sweets, had a box full of sweety prizes, a rubbish bin at the ready for all our sweety wrappers, and various party games all set up. I discovered half the food I thought had been stolen from our kitchen was actually being given out as prizes at his party! I was the proud recipient of some plastic witchy fingers, which I wore through out the party. We played sleeping lions, musical statues, had a treasure hunt, listened to Barneys spooky stories and generally had a great time. It was great to be sitting in his bedroom at 9pm playing games and watching him lap up all the attention. I was very impressed with his organisational skills. He had thought out every detail.



This week the kids have been off school with half term and its been a good week for them. On Tuesday we took them swimming at the leisure centre with the pirate ship, flumes and crazy river in Lisburn. Dan took them to the cinema on Monday afternoon while I enjoyed the peace. On Wednesday evening Daddy had a sleep-0ver in Barneys room which made him feel oh so special. Daddy slept on a futon, and they ate sweets whilst watching the Bee Movie together. What a great Dad! I took Jimmie out for lunch yesterday and then treated him to some new jeans and jumpers (the poor boy had grown out of all his clothes). Then today I took Annabelle out for lunch and we mooched around the shops together. I wanted to spend some time with each of them, just to chat and make them feel special. Tomorrow I shall take Barney out for his lunch and chat.

A summer wedding

Yesterday saw Dan and I put on our glad rags as we headed off for the wedding of his friend R (and his fiance, obviously). R has worked in our CD shop since the day it opened 7 years ago. We were delighted to be able to share his happy day with him.

So Mum came to babysit, and I tried my best to make my horrible shapeless sack of a maternity dress look pretty. I thought Dan looked amazing in a suit! It's not very often that he gets to wear one. In the end we got ourselves looking quite respectable, even if I do say so myself!


This was the first wedding in a chapel that I've ever attended, and I found it very interesting. I was fascinated by the bell ringing, chanting and kneeling. Having been christened into the Catholic church myself but never having attended it, I always find it interesting to see how I could have been brought up if circumstances had been different. The service was lovely and the bride beautiful, as expected. Even R scrubbed up well for the big day!

The reception was held in a beautiful lakeside setting. Every detail of the day was just divine. The food, the company, the setting. A really lovely day. I didnt know a single person apart from the groom but within minutes of arriving at the reception I'd met his entire family and had my legs sprayed with cooling spray by his mother! They were a really lovely bunch. I hope R and his new wife are as happy as Dan and I have been together. I'm sure they will be.

Quick Christmas Day Photos....

The wedding of Hannah and David, 28/11/2007

It's Sunday morning and I'm finally getting a moment to write about Wednesdays wedding. The biggest event of the year for our families. And what an amazing day it was! I think it was the loveliest wedding I've ever been to. Hannah put so much work into organising it, along with the help of various other people, especially Mum.

Barney and I spent Tuesday helping to decorate the reception hall, which was held in Castlewellan Castle. I thought Barney would be a nuisance for that day but he was absolutely great. He made friends with the chair delivery man, and the Castles caretaker. He put the rings on the napkins and helped scatter love heart shaped sequins over the tables.

Wednesday morning started early in our house. Everyone had to shower, including my sister Maddi and her partner Tom. Then Maddi, myself and Annabelle headed to the hairdressers. From there Maddi and I went to Mums house to help the bride get ready. The morning went relatively stress free, although Mum nearly had an anuerism at one point when she couldn't find the bridesmaids necklaces. At one horrifying moment, I got red lipstick on Hannah's wedding dress, and nearly died there and then, but we managed to get it off with babywipes.

Photos of us getting ready at Mums house.

We drove like royalty in two wedding cars to the church in Killinchy. Hannah and Mum in one car, followed by the three bridesmaids. At the church we were met by Dad, the flower girls (Annabelle & Jenny's three girls) and the Page Boys (Jimmy and Barney). They all looked adorable, the boys in their suits, and the girls in their tiaras. Dan looked amazing too in his suit which matched the grooms, as he was groomsman. I don't think our family has ever looked quite so smart before!

The flower girls started the procession, two by two, down the ilse, scattering rose petals, to the tune of Song Bird played on a harp and flute. They were followed by the two page boys. Then Hannah and Dad made their entrance, followed by Maddi and I, and last but not least Jenny.

The service in the church was held by David's Father who is a minister there. Dan also did a short talk in the church, and us bridesmaids & Mum sang a song - Come What May from Moulin Rouge.

The service was lovely, and we all had a tear in our eyes as we watched the happy couple make thier vows and share their rings. They looked so adorably happy together.

After the wedding there was a mini reception held in the church hall, before heading to Castlewellan Castle for photos and the reception.

Hannah & David leave the church as husband and wife, Cutting the cake at the mini reception, and Barney & I looking smart at the mini reception.

We stopped at the Lake in Castlwellan forest park for photos with the wedding photographer. None of us had ever been so cold before and we all got completely windswept. But the photos will be amazing.

Inside the castle we had a mammoth photo session, and I'm pretty sure the photos look like something from an OK magazine shoot.

Then finally, after all the photos were taken it was time for the reception. The hall looked gorgeous, and the food provided by the Castle was absolutely divine! I was only sorry I couldn't eat very much, squashed into that dress. We had the usual speeches, including a very funny slideshow of Davids life, by the best man (his brother). And then a bit of a disco session.

The day ended with the bride and groom leaving the Castle through an archway of sparklers, which looked very pretty indeed.