Wednesday, December 27, 2006

(a belated) Merry Christmas

anyone miss me??? lol We have had no internet conection since last Saturday !!! Turns out it was some issue with the actual exchange, and it wasnt till today that it could be fixed. AllS OK now though, but I think Ive got quite a few blogs, emails etc to catch up on, so please excuse me if I dont get to make comments or return all the emails straight away.

The xmas eve service went really well, and then we had pressies at Craigs mum & Dads place after. By the time I got home and got the kids to sleep so I could put out their pressies etc I was exhausted. the kids must have been as well..they only woke at about 6.50am - very civilised !!!






















We had a wonderful Xmas day. Caught up with my best friend for a morning drink (or two!) , had lunch with my family at my sisters, and tea with the inlaws at Craigs parents place.

I hope you all had a truely wonderful Christmas filled with love and joy.

Friday, December 22, 2006

the Santa saga

Ive been procrastinating for the last week about taking the boys to get a photo with Santa. This morning I bit the bullet and decided it was today or never! I wasnt quite mad enough to head down to TTP so I went for a large local shopping centre at Mt Barker. I arrived and went to check the sign as to times etc only to find that the last time Santa was there was on Thursday 21st Dec - what the!!!! Hence Santa photo take 1.....




Well I had to get something!!! and the cute photo of Shazzs neice jumped into my head when I saw that big empty seat!!!











Off we went to do the last minute shopping etc. The boys - bribed by the promise of McDonalds for lunch - were really good. As we were about to leave who should be sitting outside of Coles on one of the benches but the jolly man himself! We got a Merry Christmas as we walked past and kept going. It got the better of me though and I went back to ask if I could get a photo of Isaac sitting on his knee. He was a lovely old Santa and offered to go down the other end of the centre and sit on the chair and have photos! Santa photo take 2....

I wasnt sure how Isaac would react, but he didnt even blink an eye! He sat and smiled and played around while I got a couple of photos, and the other two even agreed to get in there for a photo - as long as they didnt have to sit on his knee LOL.

















Well thats one more thing ticked off the to do list lol More pressies to wrap tomorrow while the boys attennd a practice for the Christmas Eve service at our church. All the kids present a nativity play and basically run most of the service on Christmas Eve. The boys love being involved!

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

yesterday, today, tomorrow

Yesterday - I had a great time at the beach with Nathans class. We went to Seacliff, its a lovely beach. It was good weather for spending a whole day there, a little chilly for the kids and their poor teacher when they came out of the water, but great for beach cricket & sandcastle making!

I came home , picked up the boys from school, Isaac from Grandmas, showered, changed, and
Isaac & I headed back to town for the concert. It was just beautiful. Monices class all came onto the stage, each with one of their teachers...some used walkers, some were in wheelchairs and Monice was on a really big three wheeler bike - which she obviously loved as she got to centre stage, threw her head back and gave the cheekiest huge smile. I of course fought to hold back the tears - it was jsut precious...something about school concerts, especially when its your very first.
I had to leave early as the boys were in a nativity play back home. I got there just before they started - they were exhausted but did a great job. Nathan was a shepard, and Caleb a wise mans servant. Jessie & Luke were angels as well. Its beautiful to watch. All of my boys have played baby Jesus the year they were born and its become a bit of a christmas tradition now to be in it at least one night. Its a late night though, they do preformance at 8.45pm and one at about 9.10pm!

Today - today both the boys classes have class parties at lunch time. I dropped them off and went upto mums to wrap pressies, then since Isaac was asleep I made a platter of cold rolls for Nath and dropped them at the school. Check out what I made for Caleb...a bit girly but oh so cute. Saw it online somewhere and loved them...so this was the perfect opportunity to make them. Not a very healthy choice I must say...but his note never mentioned the word healthy, and I always send healthy stuff so he was thrilled to be taking sweet biscuits and lollies!!!
Got my chrissy cards back yesterday and they are fantastic! Have to address and send them off today

Tomorrow - School finishes early. My other sister Jodis birthday
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JODE!!!!!!

Sunday, December 10, 2006

sharing time

Finally a couple of new LO to share. This first one is for the current Scrapbook Station theme - butterflies & dragonflys. I kind of lifted myself. I went through my favorite latest LOs and picked the bits I liked and combined them into this.
















You can see the other gorgeous creations for this theme by Kathie, Katie, Jahnava & Carol-lee here

After I did this one I also used alot of the same ideas and did a LO for Jamie for his first birthiday. Kathie actually posted a pic on her blog a while back, but I thought Id put it here for my records too.


















Today was my baby sisters birthday. We headed down to Henley Beach for lunch with her, her DH & gorgeous little Georgia. (Ill put a shot here of Vic & Georgia specially for my Auntie who pops by !!!! HI ***waving*** Auntie Jan)

















HAPPY BIRTHDAY VIC!
I took lots of pics of the boys playing at the beach after. Perfect cloudy day, and I only bought along the cruddy little 3.2meg camera - oh well I got some shots Im happy with anyway. Just lack that real clarity. Here are a few of my faves....
























***WOW bloggers playing nice tonight!!!*** Busy week ahead in our household...last week of school for the boys so there are end of year excursions, class parties, end of school services, my gorgeous god daughter Monices very first school concert (can you tell Im a little excited about that one!) Caleb & Nathan are in the living nativity performance for two nights this week. Its my other sisiters birthday on Thursday & mum & dads wedding anniversary next Saturday. We have a Christmas party to attend next weekend. Hectic but good! Hope your all enjoying the silly season and had a wonderful weekend.

Friday, December 08, 2006

Merry Christmas















They are done !!! So much for being super organised and havinfg them sent out n=by the beginning of December. I sent through the order to have the family ones printed last night and Im in the process of emailing out all the others. GGRRRR some times computers give me the irriks! Would have been quicker to email them each seperately LOL apologies to any one that received it more than once. Ive had issues with outlook this morning!!!

I did it on Photoshop. The spacing on it looks a bit off here, but it gets cropped a bit when they print it (as I found out when I had Isaacs 1st birthday invites printed...and couldnt use them cause half the writing was missing!!! - cant believe Im using the same online printing people again - better not happen a second time!)

I meant to let those of you who were interested know that the diary I did for my mum came out really well. I think she will love it. The pics are not photo quality, a little grainy. but its not photo paper its printed on, and they are quite open about that. It is however really good quality heavy weight pages. Im getting desk calendars done for Craig & my Dad, and a photo book of our houseboat trip earlier in the year for Craigs parents. Now I want a diary too - when Ive got a bit of spare time LOL

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

supposed to be professionals

I got SM 8.5 this morning and just sat down to check out a LO I had in it...GGRRRR what is it with the photography in this mag??????? My cuddles for Teddy LO is SO washed out the cardstock looks white.....it is actually blue as you can see .






















I was excited to see Isaac right by his little friend Jamie though! Well thats my whinge for the day!

Have a good day everyone!

Monday, December 04, 2006

scrapping for me!

As much as Im enjoying the challenge of the EDM album, some days I just feel SO over using just the sponsors product. Even though there are some awesome products included, its just so limiting. Yesterday I just felt like playing with my stash. I need a new cartridge for my printer, so I couldnt actually scrap. I rummaged around and made some little Christmas decorations. It was lots of fun!!! Unfortunately I forgot to take a pick before I played santa and gave them away. There was a little ribbon wreath made with an old MM metal rimmed tag and ribbons and tiny bells (saw a similar idea on a LO...dont remember whos it was though) a little teeny tiny christmas memories accordian album with chipboard shapes and a metal tag decoration made with a K & Co Metal art tag, Karen Foster Metal word and some ribbon. I love Christmas and I love giving little gifts...especially handmade ones.

Today on my way down to Kathies I popped by Scrapbook Station and came out with a wonderful assortment of goodies (thanks Janine!!!) I was inspired by all my new goodies and actually managed to prettty much finish a whole LO at Kathies - between coffee, muffins, kids, lunch, gossiping and drooling over some of Kates most gorgeous work...that girl is so talented, and her work has so much more depth and dimension than you could ever tell from seeing it online or in the mags.

Its very unusual for me to get a LO done in that sort of time. It was so liberating to scrounge through my new stash and use what ever I felt like for a change. I did decided on these yummo papers from font works so the LO can be used to display in the shop, but apart from that I just ripped open packets and had lots of fun!!! Still a little finishing touch I want to add...when I work out exactly what LOL..maybe some little red photo corners on the right of the journalling box???just needs something I think.

Tragedy (well not exactly !!! ) did strike while I was there...my white gel pen ran out. I never thought I would use a white pen much, but I think Ive used it on every LO since I got it. I had just finished saying to the girls that I didnt know how I survived with out it when it did its last stroke! Murphies Law !!! One of the best things about scrapping with a freind...I just borrowed Kathies!

I also bit the bullet and booked into a Creative edge class - one of Zinas. I cant wait!

Thanks for a lovely day once again Kathie & Kate (and Jamie & Georgia).

Friday, December 01, 2006

brrmmm brrmmm

brrmm brrmm brrmm. Its such a little boy noise. No longer the babble of an infant, but the sounds of a little boy at play. OK well its really more of a bwwww bwww sound, but you only make it when you are pushing along your little cars, or trucks, or buses or anything else with wheels. It is just so cute. You are growing up so fast.

















I heard you say another new word for the first time yesterday. "oo" (as in pool). You say this when something catches you eye that interests you. It used to be a sucking air in noise, but yesterday it was more like a real word. I got this photo of you saying it today, as you saw a bird fly past. Its just so precious the way you learn a new sound or word, and then practice it over and over for days.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Creative Edge

For any of you considering attending the Creative Edge event in Adelaide next January the programme of classes is on the site now. WOW what a line up. The classes sound fantastic and the teachers are the extremely talented - Samantha Dorn, Kate Mason, Steph Caskey-Devlin & Zina Wright ! Speaking of extremely talented, big welcome to Carol Lea who has joined the Scrapbook Station DT. Looking forward to 'working' with you!















Ive got some more birthday pics, but I will post them when I get the others from Sabine. I wanted to share this one from yesterday though. New pool (c/o Sabine, Pete & Monice) and new bathers (c/o Auntie Mandy & family) what else could a boy want!!!
























There is one other thing I wanted to share. It is the most gorgeous mini book that Kathie made for Isaac for his birthday. It is just divine! Thank You so much Kathie, we both love it!!!!!


Monday, November 20, 2006

Happy 1st Birthday Isaac


Happy 1st Birthday my sweet little one....

I know I keep telling you, but time really seems to be going by so quickly. It doesnt seem like a whole year ago since I cradled your newborn body in my arms for that very first time. Now you are turning one. You have learnt so much in these first twelve months. You have gone from the complete dependance of a new born, to a sweet, cheeky and much loved part of our family.

You are finally sleeping through the night regularly...thank goodness! You love your food, and have developed a very sweet tooth. You can pull yourself up on the furniture, and with the aid of the same little walker toy that helped both of your brothers take their first tentative steps, you are able to take a wobbly little walk all by yourself. Your fingers grip the handle tightly. Your legs are stiff and you almost drag them along as the walker moves forward and the top half of your body goes with it. You have a determined look of concentration on your face until somone catches your eye and the biggest cheeky and proud grin appears instantly.

You still dont say many recognisable words, although you babble away to yourself all the time. Mum mum the occassional da da, and oggie oggie oggie are heard often, and when ever I sing twinkle twinkle to you you sing along with the sweetest little sounds and actions all of your own.
When we play with your duckies in the bath each night and I ask "what does the duckie say?", you grin and make your own version of the quack quack sound I am making.

You can clap hands and wave goodbye and hello. You are so funny to watch when your waving. Your wave changes depending on how people wave to you. Somtimes its a frantic waving of your whole arm, other times its like the royal wave, or just a little movement of the fingers - so cute! When we take something away from you, or your not allowed to have something you want, you drop that lip and start screaming in a split second. That noise ends just as dramatically if you manage to get your own way, or we give you something else. Your definatley developing your own little personality.

You have learned to blow raspberries...big sloppy, noisy, cheeky raspberries. Its a skill you like to practice often!!!

You love to be cuddled, and when you want to get up you tug on my leg or lay your head gently on my knee. Its melts my heart when I pick you up and you snuggle your head into me and your arms drape around my neck. I know its your way of saying I love you Mummy and it is just so adorable. Your brothers are constantly telling you that your cute enough to eat, and you love it when they pick you up and carry you around with them. When Daddy is home you demand his attention constantly. When you are excited your whole body stiffens and trembles and you make a long deep giggling noise which never fails to crack everyone up laughing. You have mastered the art of climbing the plastic stairs on the little slipperydip and the play gym - although you have no idea what to do once you reach the top. You can open cupboards and drawers, you push your cars along making a noise thats sounding more and more like brrmm brrmm.

On the day of your first birthday we celebrated with a birthday brunch at home. It was a fairly warm 34 degree day, so we were outside under the pergola. We decorated with blue ballons and silver stars and ate eggs, bacon, hash browns, roast tomatoes, waffles, pancakes, toast, sweet muffins, fruit platters, and a dump truck birthday cake. There were 14 adults and 14 kids all here to spoil you and make your first birthday a special day. You recieved lots of beautiful gifts, and spent the day eating and playing with your new toys. I think you managed to try a bit of every sort of food that was available. You were such a good boy. You had a few hours sleep in the morning and woke just as your first guests arrived. Once everyone arrived you were a little overwhelmed, but after a few reasuring cuddles with Grandma you got used to it all and had a lovely day. As we relaxed in the late afternoon you had such fun playing with the piles of balloons that were left.

We all love you so much my sweet little man, and we are so blessed to have you in our lives.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY darling.

PS I will share some more photos of the party later when I get them from Sabine. She took some gorgeous cake eating shots etc!

Friday, November 17, 2006

Happy 1st Birthday.....

just a quick post to wish Kathies little boy Jamie a wonderful 1st birthday today. I hope your day is filled with lots of love and kisses and that you get spoilt rotten little buddy.

Im trying to get organised for Isaacs 1st birthday on Sunday - geting there slowly LOL

I just cant believe how quickly the year has gone!!!!

Im having coffee with Michelle this morning, so it will be lovely to catch up and check out her gorgeous work as well.

Have a great weekend everyone

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Its beginning to...



......look a lot like christmas. Yeh sorry I know its only November, but when I suggested putting up the christmas tree soon Nathan was so excited he wanted to do it today. Well why not!?!?! May as well enjoy it for as long as possible! The kids did help (?) for a while LOL















I really wanted to have that really 'full' look to the christmas tree this year. I saw a pic the other day in a catalogue and the tree was just chocked full of gorgeous baubles and decorations. They must have about a million things to get the effect!!! I got an extra 80 baubles this year - plastic ones so that one fascinated little baby doesnt do himself or my glass baubles any damage. There is still tonnes of 'spare' space. Oh well it will do!


Since its decorating time, it also means 'tis the season for silly santa hats...bring 'em on...I just love kids with santa hats..so cute, and so christmas!!!!!!



Hope your all having a good weekend. Big hugs to Mel who has been sick - hope your feeling better! Im sitting here listening to the rumble of thunder. Its been trying so hard to rain. We get about a dozen huge drops and then its gone again. we really need some good rain, so Im keeping my fingers crossed. Although dont know if Ill be quite excited enough to run around naked in it ;) (hehehehehe I so hope someone had their camera handy while that was happening... no names will be mentioned!!!!)

Ive been getting a little scrapping done between dealing with a miserable bubby. Nothing I can share here just yet though.

Isaac was pretty unsettled Thursdayduring the day, but Thursday night and Friday were awful. He was miserable and clingy. I think it might be his first molars cutting. He is dribbling HEAPS and hardly ate anything on Friday. I took him to the doc. Friday afternoon just to make sure it wasn’t anything more serious. His throat was a bit red (mmmmmm if you whinge as much as he had in previous 24 hours I wonder why?!?!) but his ears were OK, which was my main concern as he seemed to be pulling at them a lot, and one kept going quite red. He spent most of the day just laying curled up on me. He was so restless while he tried to sleep. The poor little thing. He seemed much better today, he is still a bit off his food - unless of course it is fruit or anything else sweet!! but was really hard to settle down to sleep tonight. We ended up getting him back up until 9pm! He is asleep now, so hopefully he sleeps through.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Christmas gifts


Every year since Caleb arrived I have sent out Christmas cards with photos of the boys on them and often plan to make christmas gifts for many of the family. Only trouble is, I never end up doing the gifts. This year Ive decided to cheat a little bit. My sisters, parents & I put all the names in a hat this year and are just buying a small gift for one other adult and then all getting pressies for the kids. Even though Mum & Dad are part of this we all like to get them something a little extra from the grandkids. I found this site online and downloaded their software and Ive made a diary for mum. I havnt put the order in yet, so I dont know what the quality is like, but I love the concept and price are pretty reasonable.
This is what they look like. It has about 80 photos all up. They also do desk calenders, wall calenders, birthday calenders, and photo books.
Im thinking about making a desk calender of Isaacs first year. You can pick your start and end dates, so I will just a have a photo of him each month. It will be a nice keepsake for him to look back on.
I might even try a photo book of one of our holidays. I LOVE scrapping my photos, but with the digi camera I tend to only print the ones I want to scrap. Id love to have a lot of the others more accessable to Craig and the kids so it might be a good option. They all love looking at my LOs but I cant and dont want to scrap all the photos, and Im a bit of a slacker at putting my work into albums so its a bit hard to look through!

Got a couple more LOs done for my EDM album too. Didnt know how I was going to incorporate the colours in the seasons rub ons into a boy LO, but its turned out to be one of my favourite LOs that Ive done for a while! I havnt shared any of the LOs from this album yet,perhaps once they are all done I might do one of those slide shows or something.

Congrats to Kathie on her first LO for the SS DT that is on the site now, and congratualtions to Jahnava (who's first LO is on there too!) and Katie on becoming part of the team!!!

While Im sending out congratulations and cyber hugs a HUGE congratulations to Erica who is one of this years Elite Team - what a well deserved position - hope you have an awesome year girl!!!

Better go and have a shower while my little man is sleeping. Im off to have lunch with a couple of girl friends and their babies at the pub and put on Melbourne Cup bet!!! Its the first year I havnt been working so it should be fun. (I started this post the other day, so its quite likely that the date wont even show as Melbourne cup day!)

Have a good week

Monday, October 30, 2006

I can...

make my own patterned paper, embellishments, what ever really. I can change the colours of anything I like, Ive worked out the whole use of layers, and played around with lots of fancy stuff in photoshop.

Ive just completed my assignment for lesson 5 of the digi course, and I think Ive come quite a long way in this short space of time - not that you can really tell from my LO! but Im much more comfortable with PS now - its not all that scary - once you know how to use it! Definately cant see myself becoming a digi chick though - I spend enough time on this darn puter as it is!
Nighty night!

Visitors

Isaac and I had the loveliest visitors today - Kathie and Jamie came to play! We had a great chat and the boys had a great time playing, once Isaac got over wanting to grab Jamie and kiss him like he does his teddy bear!

Jamie is such a clever little thing at posting, and loved Isaacs rocket shape sorter - he was very good at it too. Its always so cute to see how alike they are in what they doing, and also see the differences as well. I kept telling Isaac to watch and learn. He is quite happy to push the shape in once you sit it there (because thats what his brothers do for him) but he hasnt yet seen the need to do it all himself!
They were so cute to watch. Always checking out what the other one had. Just like Isaac, Jamie didnt take long to find one of the 'big boy' toys. He was fascinated by spiderman. What is it with stuff like this? Isaac has baskets full of toys, but if they are around he will always pick up one of his brothers toys in preference to his own!

I got some yummy muffins from the bakery this morning, and got one each for the boys for after school. I decided to give one to Isaac as well - it was his first muffin and he loved it. He is developing a very sweet tooth for such a little boy! I couldnt believe how fast he gobbled it down!

Saturday, October 28, 2006

another first


It was haircut day today, and although I absolutely adored those gorgeous whispy baby hair bits on Isaac, I decided that it was time for his first haircut. It was starting to annoy him and get in his eyes all the time..but it did look so cute, and I was scared of him loosing that baby look. I didnt want much off, and Im really happy with it, just a trim (with some of the precious blonde curls bagged up for me to keep) I dont think he looks too grown up - Ive still got my baby for a bit longer LOL

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Fabric Paper


I created this LO almost entirely from fabric. Originally the photo corner was going to be for the Scrapboxx DT competetion - the brief was one product three ways - my product was going to be fabric. But for various reasons I made the descision to withdraw from the competition. I was having such fun playing with the fabric that I turned it into a LO, and wrote an article about the technique for Scrapbook Stations fancy schmancy new newsletter.
You can view the first edition here.



Congrats to the girls that made it through the next round of the SBX comp. I saw the entries this morning and they are all awesome. LOL Michelle, even though you didnt use your boys on your entry I picked yours out straight away - gorgeous. (As are the others whos entries I instantly recognised !) Good luck in the next round.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

digi scrapping


Well I didnt get a chance to get any scrapping done! The boys decided to stay home and play cricket instead of fishing. I have however just completed the second lesson in a digi scrapping course being run online by Tracy Watson. As you know Ive been struggling a little (understatement!) with photoshop so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to learn the finer points. Dont think Ill become a convert (although you never know!) but it will be great for designing my christmas cards and invitations etc. This first LO was just a simple graphic one - learning a few bits about layers etc. I knew most of this, but it was good practice. Next lesson is designing our own PP - I cant wait!

Also thought Id share the invites Ive designed for Isaacs birthday party. They took me such a long time!!!!! So wish Id done this little bit of the course before I attempted them - oh well I got there in the end LOL. I uploaded them and ordered the prints tonight. Should arrive on my doorstep sometime this week.

Lastly I wanted to send the biggest thank you to my friend Kathie. Today I printed out my blog entries of the monthly letters that Ive written to Isaac. I started writing them after reading several of Kathies letters to Jamie on her LOs. With the exception of the first couple of months Ive actually written regularly. It was wonderful to sit down and read through the progress of my little man. The big milestones, and the little moments that may otherwise have been forgotten. So thanks for the inspiration gorgeous - I will be forever grateful! I even sat down and journalled the whole birth experience. I know I did it not long after the actual birth, but it got lost in cyberspace some where I think. I still had the times etc that things happened written down so it was suprisingly easy to fill in the rest. I didnt realise it was still so vividly etched in my mind after 11 months LOL.

Well 'thats all folks' I think two entries in one day is enough for anyone

great weekend

so far we have been having a lovely relaxing weekend. I went and spent soemtime with my little sister and her gorgeous girl georgia yesterday, then took the boys to see some model cars racing near her house. They loved them, but thought it was too loud to stay very long - Isaac was the only one not at all bothered by the noise. I didnt feel like cooking tea last night so we gave my mum & dad a ring and headed to the local pub for tea with them.

Today after dramas with the computer this morning (we thought the kids has managed to wreck the cordless mouse while they were playing games online - GRRR we were so cross with them. After a phone call or two to a computer friend ti turns out that the batteries were flat in the mouse - I didnt even know it had batteries!!!! Had to apologise to the kids and tell them it wasnt their fault lol) We went for a drive to whispering wall, and then to the big rocking horse. Had a lovely couple of family hours. I think Craig and the boys are heading off fishing ata local dam a bit later as well. I still havnt managed to get Isaac to sleep, so I might be sitting here while they go fishing and he sleeps - mmmm wonder what I could do to fill in some time ;)

I did this LO Friday. There was an online challenge (on Scrapboxx I think?) to scrap a LO with out a photo. It inspired me to do this. I found this quote a couple of weeks ago and loved it. Its framed (love having a cheap shop close by!) and sitting on my desk. Now all I have to do is tidy and redo the rest of the room. Maybe this will be the catylist for a whole room makeover! maybe not too!

Hope you are all haivng a lovely weekend too.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

11 months

My poor little poppet....
You spend a great deal of this month absolutely miserable. You picked up a virus which really knocked you around. You had a temperature for a week, which was helped only a little by panadol drops. You hardly ate a thing, and I really had to work hard to even get enough fluids into you. All you wanted was to be cuddled. You cried every time you were put down, and I don’t think we saw your precious smile, or heard your sweet laughter for nearly a week. It has taken two and a half weeks for you to get back to your normal self. It was heartbreaking to see you so miserable and be able to do so little to comfort you. You would start crying and clamp your mouth shut as soon as you saw the panadol syringe – you were so sick of taking medicine.

Thankfully the last few days you have been back to your cheeky little self. Laughing at everything and nothing, playing peek-a-boo under the table, continuing your ongoing discovery expedition of each and every room of our home. Even though you have free run of the family area, your bedroom and the playroom, we have to remember to shut the doors to the toilets, bedrooms and office or you find your way in and the exploring begins! You have even worked out that sometimes the boys bedroom door doesn’t latch properly, so even when it looks closed you still crawl over and give it a push just to check. If it swings open you take that as an open invitation. Your brothers are pretty good at keeping little stuff off their floor, but you love to be right there with them as they play, which sometimes becomes quite frustrating for them. They pick you up and take you out to your toy corner, but you manage to find them again in no time at all. If the door is closed you sit there calling to them. During the past two weks of school holidays we have been putting the safety gate in the door of their room. At this stage that is keeping everyone happy. You can see them, they can see and talk to you, continue their play, and have their personal space respected as well.

Your understanding of the world around you is expanding beyond belief. I think I had forgotten what a steep learning curve little babies go through in their first couple of years.
You love to play a little game where I hold your hands and say up…down…up…down… when I say up you stand up tall, and when I say down you squat down. Its too cute.
You just melted my heart yesterday. I was laying on the lounge,watching you crawling around the room when our eyes met, you gave me the biggest smile. I said come and give mum mum a kiss, I didnt really expect any reaction from you, it was just part of the daily chatter that we share. Your eyes lit up, and you crawled straight over to me, pulled yourself to stand at the chair and landed the biggest sloppiest kisses right on my lips. I picked you up and hugged you so hard sweetie. I love you so much. I must, cause you dont care if your face is dirty or your nose is running, when you want a kiss there is no stopping you. Mouth wide open, dribble going everywhere. And you insist on planting it straight on my lips. Its probably a kiss only a mummy could appreciate! You even think that me wiping all the dribble off and saying eewwww is hilarious....so you give me another one.

We have started to hear dad dad dad occasionally too – much to Daddys delight. You are so excited when Daddy gets home from work nowadays. You are becoming a lot more social, and are getting to be quite a little daddys boy, when he is around. You love the silly songs he sings, and the funny noises he makes. You love sitting in his arms and getting to look at the tin animals way up high on top of the meatsafe. You love tickles and peek-a-boo, giddy up horsey and hanging upside down. You love just spending time hanging out with your daddy.

You have nearly mastered the art of waving goodbye, although this skill seems to come and go at your whim. We are also working on clapping hands. You have managed to do it a couple of times, but I suspect the meeting of your hands was more of a fluke than good planning! Surely after the amount of times we have sung ‘if your happy and you know it clap your hands’ to you, you will want to master this really soon just to stop all of us singing and clapping. You do love us to sing to you though. Your favourite songs are ‘twinkle little star’, if your happy and you know it shout horray’, ‘hey diddle diddle’ & ‘hush little baby’. I wouldnt be surprised though, if the first words you sing are “I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair” this song is so stuck in mummies head that I walk around singing it all day…even your brothers know the words and sing along with me now.

We have also moved on to the excitement of finger foods. Mummy is not good at the whole messy eating thing, but in an attempt to get you eating something (anything) during your recovery I tried lots of things. You took to finger foods like a duck to water. Ravioli, steamed vegetable fingers, wholemeal crumpets, bread, pears, bananas you devour it all. Today you even managed to eat dried apple rings – how you manage that with only eight front teeth I will never know. One thing you havn’t had much successs with is your sipper cup. Slowly you seem to be getting the idea but its taking a while for you to work out you have to tip it up to get anything out. Too many willing little helpers to do it for you I think!

You had your first real accident last week. You were having a wondeful time in the little clam shell pool under the pergola. I was sitting right next to you paddling my toes (also very funny apparently) when you decided to stand up and topple head first onto the pavers. You banged your head, and skun your nose and lip. With a runny nose its taken a while to heal as well. I think that the little pool might need to go on the grass from now on - although with water restrictions tightening we wont be filling it very often. { This past year has been one of the warmest and driest in a long long time. I sometimes worry what the world will be like as you grow up. I fear some of the things we take for granted today will become much harder to come by. We live in such a lucky country, but unless we learn to respect and conserve our natural resources it is going to be alot harsher and cruler than I have ever known}


AND… the last week and a half you have been sleeping through the night!!! Im not sure if it’s the after effects of the virus, but Im loving it, and I hope we have finally turned a corner in regards to your sleeping.

I cant wait, in four more weeks we will be celebrating your first birthday. There are invitations to make & presents to choose. It will be such fun to plan a special day just for you.

I Love you forever my sweet little angel.

Mummy xxx

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Birthday Brunch & SAM retreat - one year on

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM! To celebrate we had a birthday brunch at our place. Its become a bit of a tradition over the past few years. It all began when we decided that brunch on Easter Sunday was a great excuse to all catch up as a family, and now it happens more and more. Its a pretty simple affair, everyone brings along something and we have a big cook up outside on the BBQ. Eggs, bacon, sausages, piles of fresh toast, juice & coffee. We usually eat at about 10.30am and then sit around catching up for hours after. Its 2.30pm and the last ones just left.

I actually remembered to grab everyone soon after they arrived for a group photo. Ive been meaning to get one for ages, but you know what its like (especially with lots of kids ) there is always someone asleep, or hungry, or someone has to leave early or had to work and couldnt make it. LOL
So this is my family...Mum & Dad: Jodi, her DH Col and their three kids Jessica,Lucas & Riley; my youngest sister Vicki her DH Mike & baby Georgia and the five of us. Some strange faces there, but its near on impossible to get everyone to look and smile at the same time!

Yesterday was one of those days I just felt all inspired to scrap. Craig was at golf, the boys were all content and amused so I did one LO in the morning (cant share yet) and last night I still felt that urge (haha no not THAT urge!) so I scrapped another whole LO. Ive been wanting to scrap this photo since the retreat last year, but Im still waiting to get it on disc (!!!! subtle I know) so I went blog surfing and snatched all thepics I needed from your blogs. This photo has been scrapped a million times, and I will probably use it again when I actually get around to scrapping a LO or two about all the fun we had at the retreat. This LO was actually inspired the gorgeous photos of these little bubs who were all in the making at the retreat (even if some of their Mummies didnt realise it yet!!!!) It was fun, and really good to scrap about a slightly different topic for a change.

















Its also hard to believe thats its been a year since Mel and I jetted off to the other side of the country to spend a weekend with the most gorgeous and fun group of girls you could hope to meet - who we had never even met before. Its awesome when people you have never met before offer to pick you up, have you stay at their house and drive you around for the weekend - and to top it all off they turn out to be one of the most genuine and gorgeous girls ever - thanks Rozzie! I think our family and friends thought we were a bit batty going all that way for a scrapping retreat. But it was SO worth it. My only regret is that I wasnt able to enjoy it to the full (read stay up all night drinking and scrapping) as I was 36 weeks pregnant at the time, and had to be a little gentle to my poor old body. I couldnt even manage the walk up & down heartbreak hill most of the time, just as well I was able to borrow a car from some lovely chicky!

Craig & Pete have gone off to the 4 wheel drive show this afternoon, and when they return Sabine and I are off to see the dixie chicks at the entertainment centre tonight, Should be a good show. Tommorrow is the last day of holidays for the boys, so we better get all organised for Tuesday - Im definately not looking forward to getting back into the school routine again! Ive been enjoying my sleep ins too much.