Our Trip to England: Family Time

As mentioned in the previous post about our trip to England we most enjoyed spending time with family.
Calleigh absolutely loved being there and having so many people to play with and she was so good. I was so proud of how well she responded to everyone and how well behaved she was. It was such a pleasure to hear from so many people how well she was doing and what a great job we are doing as parents!

Calleigh spent most of her night's at Lana's house in her own little room and a few nights with Nannan and Grandad. She loved spending time with Auntie Lana, who took the week off to spend time with her. Whilst we were then Lana and Mike also acquired a little baby of their own, Shadow- a six week old puppy. Calleigh has never been too fond of dogs and was very cautious around Shadow and quite often would ask for someone to take her away. I think being a jumpy, excited puppy scared her a little bit, she was very playful. But there were times when Calleigh was happy to play with Shadow and throw the ball for her. 

Lana and Mike also took Calleigh to the farm one day whilst I went shopping with my Mum. She had a great time and Lana came home with a funny video of some noisy goats which Calleigh did not like- she doesn't like noisy things!

One of the best things about going home when we did was that we got to meet our nephew and Calleigh's cousin, Benjamin and be there for his Christening! Calleigh loved seeing baby Benjamin and was very sweet to him and gave him kisses. Although she did point out that his was drooling- that's a lot coming from someone who has just started picking their nose!
After the Christening Calleigh spent the night with Nannan and Grandad, she always loves staying there and comes back saying the strangest things. This time it was that she needs to stretch her ears just like Grandad! 

I was also very happy to spend some time with my Dad and Calleigh's Grandpops! She loved having fun with him and it was really nice to have some quality time with him.

And we also got to spend some quality time with Great Nanna too!

Our Trip to England

Let me start this off by saying we took a slightly different route this time. We took a direct flight from Chicago to Heathrow instead of the two planes we usually take to Birmingham.
The drive to Chicago took 5 hours but it was a really nice and relaxed drive we took at our own pace instead of rushing around in a airport so that was really good!
Once we boarded the plane we were a bit disappointed with the fact that the plane wasn't as well equipped as the one we were used to. The TV screens were tiny and there wasn't anywhere to charge our phones to which we were told that is only for business class blah blah- nice for them to put us in our place. We felt we aid extra for premium seats for no reason at all- the other plane we usually get has everything in a premium cabin seat- big TVs, a much bigger film choice and somewhere to charge our devices.
Apart from that the flight went really well, it was overnight so we all managed to get a little sleep before landing, although we didn't have much else to do other than squint at the TV screen.
Once we landed we were hit with the chaos that is Heathrow- why in the world did we think it was a good idea to fly into Heathrow! It took us nearly 2 hours to get out and pick up our rental car and then we got stuck in all the roadworks on the M1- nightmare!

Anyway- on to the holiday!

We spent our first night all together in a hotel and then Calleigh and I spent the following nights at my sister's house. Calleigh loved staying there and was very happy with her special Peppa Pig bed and all her toys to play with there. Calleigh and I both got a little ill on Saturday morning which I just put down to the travelling as we both made a full recovery by that afternoon.
On Sunday Lana, Mike and my Mum took Calleigh to the Zoo- which of course she had a great time- and then we met up later for a meal.

On the Monday we decided to take Calleigh to the seaside for a couple of days and stayed at Mee-Maws caravan. Calleigh absolutely loved it! She loved playing on the beach and in the amusements (which she called instruments)! She had lots of fun on the rides and we had such a nice relaxing time staying in the caravan.
Calleigh was so good the whole time- bar a few tantrums when it got a bit too cold to stay on the beach!

The best thing about visiting home is of course spending time with family and friends and we did plenty of that during our stay. I will post more about that in the next post so keep and eye out for that.

Keurig 2.0 Review

I was lucky enough to be selected to review the new Keurig 2.0 model brewer by Influenster. 

Firstly let me say I was beyond excited to receive it and wasted no time getting it out of the box!

Setting up the brewer was pretty simple following the provided instructions. The most time consuming bit being preparing the filter for use in the reservoir. Once it was all set up it looked great as the new addition to our kitchen! 

The best and most exciting thing about the Keurig 2.0 is it's ability to brew a carafe as well as just a cup. So on busy mornings you don't have to keep going back to refill your coffee. You can also set it to auto start at a specific time so you can just roll out of bed in the morning and have your coffee there waiting for you- brilliant- especially when you have a demanding two year old who wants their breakfast!

Other features I like are the strength settings- you can now choose how strong you want your coffee at the touch of a button and also the Keurig 2.0 has a larger water reservoir which means you can make more drinks before you have to fill it up with water again. It's also a lot easier to fill as it has a lid that part opens and stays up instead of taking the whole thing off. 

There are still a wide range of pods and different flavor coffee's you can use in the 2.0 but they have to be the newer ones- it's marked on the box whether they are suitable for all brewers or not. 

My only complaint at the moment is that there is not much choice for the carafe. You have to use the special, larger pods to brew a carafe and I haven't seen many to choose from as of yet. I'm waiting until they bring out a Breakfast Tea one so I can brew a whole pot of tea in seconds!!

The Keurig 2.0 has a sleek design with a neat touchscreen display where you select all you settings and desired options. It's really customizable, you can even change the color of the light in the reservoir tank to suit your mood. 

As I said before it's a great addition to our kitchen counter! It's a bit larger than previous models but doesn't take up too much space.

I received this product free of charge from Influenster for review purposes.

We're Back Home!

Just a quick post to say we arrived back in sunny St Louis on Thursday. 

We had such a great time in England visiting family and we also enjoyed our overnight stay at Chicago but we are extremely happy to be back home and in our own beds again! Calleigh is happy to be back with all her toys and has spared no time getting them all out! 

I feel I may have neglected this blog a little during the run up to our trip home and whilst we are away but I can assure you the posts will be back! Starting with a few covering our trip. 

Also as October is my favourite month of the year look out for lots of recipe, craft, outfit and baking posts to come in the run up to Halloween! I also have a few exciting reviews coming up too!

Thanks for sticking around! 

Outfit of the Month: September

I love this month's outfit! As it's getting a bit cooler and we are heading off to England in one week I picked up some jackets and leggings to keep her warm. I think she looks so Pink Lady in this outfit haha.

Jacket- Gymboree
Leggings- Gymboree
White Tee- Next