Three years

Today it's me and Kester's third anniversary. My parents are babysitting for Felix and I'm going to meet Kester at his office in London early evening. We're planning on going for a meal in Chinatown, where I'm desperately hoping we can find somewhere that does crab rangoon, which we haven't been able to find since getting back to the UK.

Then we're going to see the wonderful Bill Bailey, who I adore. We saw him a few years ago at Glastonbury, but I'm really looking forward to seeing him again. I just hope I can stay awake! I have a terrible habit of falling asleep in theatres, though I'm sure the lovely Bill will be able to stop that happening. To be honest in the past it happened most when Steph would get free tickets from Hugh to see various plays, we'd try to fit in 2 or 3 pints before we went, if it was really bad might have a smoke in the interval and then I would conk out in the second half. Not much chance of that happening today!


We got married on January 7th 2006 at Brentwood Register Office. It was a really really fun day, very laid back and very much our style. All our friends chipped in to help. I wouldn't have changed a thing.

Just married:


We went to the pub for a couple of hours afterwards and had a couple of well-earned drinks

Kester and his best man, James:

Had a few photos with parents and grandparents

and brothers and sisters:

The reception was in the hall of a working man's club I used to go to with my family as a child. My uncle got us a discount and some friends decorated it for us.

Some friends formed a covers band and played for us:

Though the music was too loud for some:

First (unplanned) dance. We hadn't planned on a first dance at all but my parents and the band connived and pushed us into it:
Our friend Ian DJed. Here he is teaching my cousins how to be like him:

and I like this one because it's caught a tender (drunk) moment between me and Kester while all around is madness:
with some of our friends:

And of course after that the night dissolved into lots of bad dancing:



The three years of marriage have gone so fast, but it's pretty amazing when I think about how much has happened in that time. In January 2006 we had gone over to Chicago, but were still sorting out visas etc. We spent two years in Chicago, in the first we had lots of fun - some holidays, lots of drinking and socialising, lots of eating out etc. Almost exactly a year after moving there we found out I was pregnant with Felix. A surprise, but a very happy one indeed. Everything changed then, a lot. No more late nights, boozy bars and general abuse of the body and mind. We still enjoyed our next year but it was very different, getting ready to become a family, preparing for Felix's arrival.


Felix was born in July 2007 and while we still enjoyed seeing friends and showing the often asleep Felix the city he was born in, the next few months were mainly spent planning how we were going to get the three of us, and Dinger, back to the UK. We managed it though, and got back here in October 2007. Mum and Dad kindly gave us somewhere to live, though being a family of three living in one room can get a bit much at times!



We finally got our own place and moved in here in February 2008. As with any house, we've discovered things that aren't right with it (such as the conservatory roof that leaks when it rains and currently has a bib protecting us from watery downfalls.) but we love it nonetheless, it's become the place where Felix has really grown from a baby to a toddler. In fact we were watching a video of the last year the other day and were amazed at how much he'd changed since we moved in. He seemed so with it at the time, whereas looking back now he really was just a wobbly-headed baby who made a lot of funny noises and peculiar faces. He was very cute though.



In August we found out I was pregnant with baby number 2, a girl this time (and this one was planned). Although I am a little daunted by the prospect of two kids (how do you go shopping? How do you get them both downstairs in the morning without one being left alone with dangerous things to hurt themselves with? What do you do when you're changing one nappy and the other is trying to escape out the window?) we're both very excited about becoming a family of four. It's pretty amazing to be entering our fourth year of marriage, and to have nearly doubled the size of our family in that time. Oh, and without wanting to be too corny, to be as happy as ever, even with all the sleepless nights and temper tantrums (not only from Felix either. Ho ho).

So Kester, if you're reading this and you've made it this far, let me just say Happy Anniversary my darling. I love you now so much more than I did seven years ago, even more than I did three years ago, and I hope to love you just as much, if not more in the years to come.

(I also hope you're not too embarrassed)

xxx