It's that time again for ARTEFACT MOTHERHOOD - a project shared with other international female artists who are documenting our journeys as mothers and creating memories for our children through our photographs and words. Have a read through mine and then go check out the next amazing artist in our blog circle!

I half woke up around 6 snuggling daddy when you, Forrest on the other side of him needed to go to the toilet. This time daddy helped you and let me stay in bed. Afterwards you came back in for a snuggle and you do give the absolute cosiest morning snuggles but they were mixed in with the continuous “I want to go down-staays with you!” I really didn't feel like getting up yet so daddy said he would go down with you which at first you didn't agree with but eventually you and him went downstairs while I got an extra hour of sleep or so of sleep.

I jumped out of bed when I heard you, Nixie, come in because I didn't want to miss the second countdown to solstice surprise. When I came into the lounge you, Forrest and daddy were playing goose on the loose. Once the game finished you opened your number two and we're so incredibly excited that it was another new switch game this time Lego Ninjago! It was perfect because just yesterday in the car you, Forrest were saying how you really wanted the Ninjago game! I had told you I would put it on your wishlist.  Then of course you had to go play it. And I decided to make one of my little spirit love foxes, for the last week it's how I've been starting my day. It just feels so good to be making something with my hands and I love seeing what shape they take and what personalities they get. It's become my morning meditation in a way. 

Once I finished my fox and while you played your new game from today and alternating with yesterday's game (Lego world which according to you both is the better of the two) me and daddy managed to accumulate enough energy to tidy the house and get it ready for our love tree which we are getting today. 

Once we finished the chores we all got dressed and then you, Forrest played with your soft toys. I love how the both of you are still so into playing with them and how you always want to tie them all together, today it was all about trying to tie Milk the avocado and rateaser the rat together. Whenever I go into our bedroom these days all I see on our bed is a clump of animals all tied up together. 

We got our coats on and got into our car, the temperatures have really dropped and it said -2 in the car! Annoyingly our car's heating has broken so it's a matter of really bundling up to keep warm. Although the two of you love being able to see your own breath and you reminded me of little baby dragons. 

Before getting our tree we decided to stop by the Ducking Stool in Christchurch for a special treat of hot chocolate and even though they looked absolutely gorgeous none of us really liked the taste. We had decided to be fancy and try a white chocolate one and it just didn't do it for us. They had put in some spice that had more of a curry flavour than white chocolate.  I felt a bit disappointed that we hadn’t  liked them as I had hoped it was going to be a really lovely treat but oh well these things happen! And neither of you were fussed. You, Nixie liked the waffle, the cream and the candy canes and Forrest, you were happy with the candy too. Although I did love seeing you, Forrest pretend to be a puppy and lick the cream from the glass and you were also pretending I was a puppy and kept “petting” my head.

Then it was time to finally go get this year's love tree. Nixie you kept sneaking the window open in the car even though it was freezing inside, I mean the temperature says -1 but you said you were hot, you have never felt the cold like the rest of us! 

We went to New Park in the New Forest for our tree which has become our tradition for the past few years. Forrest, you had a very strong theme for the day of being a puppy and needed to lick us before we could go get our tree. I just love the little path to the trees where every year you both hop in and want to be pulled in the cart. I have photos of this each year and I love to imagine that I will get the same photo for many more years to come.  This year we found our tree in record time. We headed to the 6 foot fir tree section and It literally took us 3 seconds. I was drawn to one straight away and amazingly we all loved it and that was that! I couldn't quite believe how easy it was. Daddy started sing-talking again which he has been doing off and on all week and you, Nixie absolutely hate it with a passion and just can't accept him doing it. It was so cold outside but you, Forrest, really wanted to go on the little nature walk which you, Nixie, didn't want to do at all because your feet were so cold. But it was just a very short little walk to see if we could spot all the little robins they had hidden. Daddy didn’t join us as he was putting the tree on the car so we just went ahead without him thinking he’d catch us up but we were back at the car before even seeing him and by this point you, Nixie, were absolutely miserable and freezing.  Then it was back to the car for the drive home in the fog that seemed quite thick in places.

Both of you actually fell asleep in the car and I don't even remember the last time you, Nixie, have done that. It makes me wonder if you're not feeling 100%. You both looked so sweet though. When we did get home it was actually hard to get you out of the car! You weren't the happiest when you woke up, you were both cold and went to the sofa and snuggled under my favourite blanket together. You, Nixie weren't feeling great and complained of a headache and just feeling so cold so we gave you some calpol which seemed to help. But luckily you all defrosted a bit and felt much better once we started decorating the tree.

You both looked so sweet cutting off the plastic covering of the tree and then we all really got into putting up the hearts and reminiscing on our past hearts. Some of them I remember making with you, Nixie when you were around 1.5 years old and we still lived in London! All this decorating the tree inspired you, Forrest to begin a craft session with daddy of making more hearts and daddy helped you cut little hearts to add to the tree. Then you began making daddy loads of little paper craft presents including a little frog and Nixie you also joined in with the craft session and made me the most incredible little dragon which I immediately put up on the wall. 

There had been a bit of an argument about who would get to put the heart up on the tree and we asked the two of you who had done it last year and that whoever did it last year would need to be the other person this year. Neither of you remembered so you, Nixie and I went upstairs and looked at photos from last year to discover that it was Forrest’s turn this year. 

We had wanted to do so many more things today but once the tree was up and decorated it was tie for dinner and we had nothing in the house so daddy went to the shop to get us some party food and while he did so the two of you played a little bit of video games before it was time to eat and watch a nature documentary called Big little journeys. 

After the show finished we headed up for bed. For the past several weeks you both need daddy to give you piggy back rides upstairs while pretending to be an animal and tonight he was a slug. After you had brushed your teeth, Forrest and while waiting for you, Nixie to finish you began playing this game with me and daddy where we needed to try to lick you while you were shaking your head super fast and it wasn’t easy! At first you said we weren’t allowed to use hands but as we were both quite scared of really hurting ourselves in the process you decided we could use hands to stop you from moving. This little game created the sweetest little squeals of laughter and by the end of it we were all belly laughing.  Me and daddy have been taking turns reading to both of you but tonight I decided to have both of you in our bed so that we could get closer to finishing our current book. I had plans to get up to hang out with daddy but ended up falling asleep with you both. 

Go next to my beautiful friend and wonderful artist Caro Cuinet in our Artefact Motherhood Project to read her post in our blog circle.