#BEDN Goodbye November and Hello December

This month, I am joining Elizabeth from Rosalilium for Blog Every Day in November #BEDN 2015. This blogging challenge is to encourage the participates to focus on blogging every day in November.
I still find it hard to schedule time into my day to blog and accomplish all the different ideas for my blog. I ended up publishing 11 blog posts in November which is twice as many as October. I did not accomplish daily blog posts but I was actually researching and drafting up many December posts and future blog posts. I love Christmas so I think December will have increased traffic and blog posts.

Me & Mine: A Family Portrait Project 2015 - November

I say this every month but November went so quickly. November was a month filled with fun family adventures and planning for a busy December.

The beginning of November was the time to take down the Halloween decorations and start thinking about preparing for December. In England, it seems like there is fireworks happening every night for weeks in November. Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Day is on November 5th in England but the fireworks started a week before Halloween and continued until at least the 15th of November. 

My Thankful List 2015

Thanksgiving Day (USA) is a day filled with yummy food, spending time with family and most importantly remember all the reasons that you are "thankful". I try to remember daily how blessed my life is but sometimes life is so busy and overwhelming that I forget. Below are the reasons this year that I am thankful:

HEALTH I feel very blessed that my family and I are healthy and well. As winter comes, we all will probably get the occasion cold but no one in my immediate family are fighting life-changing illness.

HUSBAND I have a very supportive husband that loves me on my good and bad days. He listens as I express my endless frustrations or worries about life but is also the first person I share exciting news with. He is an amazing father to our children and brings lots of happiness into our lives. I appreciate that he has the pressure of financially supporting us.

DAUGHTER My sweet girl promoted me to the title of "Mother" almost 4 years ago. Everyday she surprises me with our imaginative stories and questions. Her loving hugs brings sunshine into the cloudiest days. She forgives me if I am having a stressful day or not as patient with her as I should be. She is an amazing "Big Sister" (most of the time).

Little LadyBug Birth Story - Vlog Stars #7

Three months ago, I decided to start documenting our life around the LadyBug Home but creating some vlogs for my new YouTube Channel. We are enjoying the journey and may have some exciting news to share soon about some vlogging opportunities in 2016.

The last couple months, I have been joining Aby from You Baby Me Mummy and Amy from Mr and Mrs T Plus Three for their monthly #Vlog Star Link Up. Every month, they chose a themed vlogging topic and this month was "Share a Story". They requested you share a story about either your child's birth story, how you met your partner, or story about where you live.  

I decided to share Little LadyBug (LL)'s Birth Story. It was a magical day in January 2012 when LL decided to promote my husband and me to the new title of "Parents". It started with my water breaking at 5:45 am and by midnight we were taking home our beautiful little girl. 

Siblings - November 2015

The Big Sister and Little Brother relationship continue to strengthen and evolve each month. This photo is one of our favourite new "siblings" photo because it was ordinary day that turned into a special moment when Big Sister and Little Brother got to sit next to each other and travel around the grocery store. Little Brother was smiling the whole time.

Remembrance (Veterans) Day 2015 - My Family

On this Remembrance Day (UK) and Veterans Day (US), I am very proud to share how proud I am of the men and woman in my family that were part of the USA Armed Forces during World War 1, World War II, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. I am eternally grateful for the men and women that served with my family members because they all came home safely to our family.

Jessie McKnight Crew #665 - Standing Left to Right: Donald Hemingway - Co Pilot; Jessie McKnight - Pilot; Edwin Martin - Navigator - Kneeling Left to Right: Jack Kasper - Engineer/Top Turret Gunner; Glenn Hill - Nose Gunner; Ben Buck - Waist Gunner; Gerald Alport - Waist Gunner; Frank Bostwick - Tail Gunner; Ben Brown - Radio Operator This crew completed a 34 mission tour. Photo Source - Thank you 466th Bomb Group (H) - Attlebridge Facebook Page

The Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen - Parragon Book Buddies #Review

We have lots of books around the LadyBug Home. My husband and I also love buying new books for our children. Every once in a while, we buy or are given a book that just feels very special. This month, Paragon Books sent us a copy of The Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen retold by Mandy Archer. This book cover is a gorgeous purple cloth-effect cover with silver foiling and colourful swan illustration.

LadyBug Home & Designs' Top 10 Favourite Children Crafting Blogs

We in the LadyBug Home are always looking for fun items to keep us busy during rainy days inside or hot summer days.  I love making lists crafting blogs for inspiration and below is a list 10 of my favourite blogs. Have fun exploring!

Fireworks Painting at LadyBug Home

Happy Bonfire Night! Happy Guy Fawkes Day! Happy Fireworks Night! Since I did not grow up in England, I am new to the excitement for November 5th. It seems that fireworks started exploding around England a week before November 5th and continues a week after. We took our daughter and son to their 1st Firework Show on October 25th, 2015. 

I was not going to take my children to a bonfire or firework show today but I wanted to do a fun craft project to celebrate the day. My daughter LOVES to paint! So making pictures that were inspired by fireworks was the plan of the day.

Little Ladybug: Growing Up & Potty Training

My Little LadyBug (LL) became officially a "Preschooler" this September (2015) but honestly I did not have the traditional feelings that most Mothers have when their child goes off to Preschool. I read lots of sweet blog posts about how fellow bloggers were in tears as their children started Preschool or were off to First (Primary) School this Autumn. They wrote about the changes happening in their daily routine and how much they missed their son or daughter. I could understand but not relate because my daughter's may have now been officially a Preschooler but actually our lives had change very little.

Blog Every Day in November #BEDN 2015

Happy November! This month, I am joining Elizabeth from Rosalilium for
Blog Every Day in November #BEDN 2015. This blogging challenge is to encourage the participates to focus on blogging every day in November.

I wanted to join this blogging challenge to motivate myself to publish more blog posts this month. I have several family/photo linkups that I constantly do every month but I have many other blog posts ideas that I just can't seem to finalise. In the last 9 months of blogging, I have taken hundreds of photos in preparation of blog posts about crafting, UK travel, cooking/baking and other ideas been struggle to publish the blog posts. It could be partly because I find it challenging to create blog posts "perfect" for publication but mostly it because I have two children that make to hard to focus on blogging for about 80% of my day. I love being a mother (most of the time) but by the time the children are sleeping soundly in the evening, I am so tired that I really just want a cup of hot tea and my brain is falling asleep.