Its a.........

BOY! at 11.16am today my good friend Toni gave birth to her third precious baby boy - Tanner James. He weighed 4.1kg (just over 9lbs) and is 53cm long. They are both doing well, and I cant wait to go and have a great big cuddle !
CONGRATS guys! and welcome to the world baby Tanner. (aawww she just text me a pic! now Im feeling really clucky, he is just beautiful!)

Ok Ive also got a couple of LO to share. The first is from a while ago - one of the pics from on the houseboat - Ive been meaning to add some journalling strips in the blank space, but its been sitting here so long like this, its started to grow on me just like it is!


















The next one is for Isaacs baby book. I had fun with the little ribbon star - it was a challenge idea from the scrap to the max newsletter that I tried out. I used a few new things I picked up on Friday. We were supposed to head out to Scrapbook station for a big shopping spree, but ran out of time. (to much time at TTP & freedom!) Craig offered to take me to another store on the way into town instead. Unfortunately their range was quite limited though. They have downsized since I was there last and I couldnt really find much that I wanted at all [sad I know!!!] It really made me appreciate how lucky we are to have a store like Scrapbook station here in Adelaide, their range just rocks, and there is always heaps of new stuff arriving - I did get a couple of bits of paper, some wild asparagus sticker strips and tags, and my first ever sheet of kraft cardstock LOL. I love the scalloped edge on the sticker strip, Ive actually trimmed along so the whole LO has the scalloped edge. (sorry about the crooked pic!)

quality time

I geuss thats what Ive been upto over the last few days. Friday Craig had the day off and arranged for us to meet up with my best friend Sabine and her DH (and no kids!!!) in town for lunch. We havnt done that for sooooooo long - it was fantastic!

Saturday was spent home with the family and then we ended up for dinner at Sabines place - a yummy steamboat - gee that girl can cook. Im so blessed to have such a wonderful person in my life who loves and supports me and puts up with me unconditionally!

We had a couple of drinks with some other friends on Sunday. Pretty layed back weekend in all!!

Toni still hasnt had the baby! She is booked on tonight for an induction, so by this time tomorrow I should have all the details.

Been checking out a heap of blogs today and it sounds like all the girls that went off to Kiwi scraps on the weekend had the best time. Adelaide is just so far away from all these things!!! You should all jump on a plane and come down here for Creative Edge in January!!!

*baby stuff for my records* Isaac got his third tooth on Sunday. He has had a temp for the last couple of days and has been really restless, day and night. So unlike him. He seems a little better today, so hopefully he is managing to fight off what ever it is. THe other day ws his final feed from me :( tried again to no avail and decided to just go with the flow and d]keep on with the bottles in the morning. Only good thing is I didnt have to wake up when he did on the weekend!!!

I wish I knew yesterday...

..morning as Isaac cuddled up warm and snug in my bed for a feed, that it might have been the last time that I gave my sweet little boy a breastfeed. He flat out refused me this morning! I thought maybe he just didnt want anything, but when I offered him a bottle about half and hour later he guzzled it all down. I knew it wasnt going to last forever, but Im just a bit sad that I didnt even get to savour our final feed, I think its worse that I didnt even know that it might be the last one. I guess I will just have to get used to cuddles in bed in the morning (although he would much rather be out with his brothers :( once he hears they are up)
My baby is just growing up SO fast. Perhaps I could have another!?! Maybe if I didnt remember how horrific actually being pregnant was last time I might seriously consider it, although I would have bucklies and none of talking Caig around to another one...he is quite content with our little family just the way it is.

The boys and I were mucking around with the camera this afternoon and I managed to capture this self portrait of me and my boys. Isaac has gorgeous blue eyes like Caleb, and the cutest little turned up nose and olivy skin like Nathan, BUT I have no idea where the blonde hair has come from. He is getting blonder and blonder - my little blue eyed, blonde bombshell LOL


I was thinking today about the fact that even though Im an avid scrapbooker, and love taking millions of pohotos, there are already things in Isaacs life that I cant believe I missed the opportunity of photographing. I dont have a photo of him in the car seat as a newborn when it was facing backwards (yet I remembered to take pics the second I turned it around), I dont have photos of Isaac in my favourite little 0000, 000, & 00 outfits, I dont have a pic of him laying in his little donut pillow on the lounge chair where he spent so much time as a newborn, and I dont have a pic of that delightful fat & full (or milk drunk) state that newborns get after a feed.

I am determined to try and document more of these everyday types of moments on film and in my albums now. So I have a question for you all... what photos do you really wish that you had taken? Id love everyones feedback, and maybe hearing what others missed out on might help us all to remember to document all the little things in our lives a bit more often.

I did it !!!

well with a little help from my friends! Thanks Kathie, you finally solved it for me - and for future reference load pics as as large and left. Now you should be able to click on any of the pics on this page and have an up close and personal look at them LOL

Since Im here (yet again today) I will share the rest of my masters entry. My double, my monogram, and my 'innovative' (NOT) technique, which was decorative machine stitching.

..but wait there's more

sorry for bombarding you with photos of my little man today, but Im determined to get this sorted out and work out how to master blogger!

I snapped this shot of Isaac the other day. Before he was crawling, when I put him to bed he would just stay in the one spot - he would kick his rugs of or turn his head to the side, but not move around much. Now days I never know what position I will find him in LOL this couldnt have been comfortable, but he slept for about another half an hour like this!

Here goes...

OK I will try loading a pic at the large size and see if that works. Its Isaacs 8mnth shots that I took a couple of weeks ago.

how do I ...?

Thanks for all your comments everyone, you sure know how to lift a girls spirits!!!

A few of you have commented about enlarging the thumbnails on my blog. Can some one give me directions as to how I go about loading them so you can click on them and bring them up bigger please.

We had the kids footy carnival yesterday - what a big day. We left home at 9am and got back about 4.30pm. Caleb and Nathans games were at oppisite ends of the earth (well it sure felt like it) and in between where I had to trapse back and forth was heaps of sand that had been dumped there. Im not talking about a sprinkling, it was really deep sand - at least 30cm! What fun it was trying to get the pusher back and forth over that to go and watch Naths games. Of course I had to do it myself because Craig coaches Calebs team, so between each game he had to organise the next team etc etc. He was a little dissapointed that he didnt get to see much of Nath playing though. Most of the kids in his team are first year players, and I think they reached their peak yesterday LOL they played so well, I was so proud of them. Calebs team have a lot more experience, and they played most of their games really well to. Even they have inproved a lot over the year. Isaac was a little angel, he only slept for about 10min all day though! When we were nearly finished packing up, Craig strapped him in the baby seat so we could put the pusher in the boot. He was asleep before we even got back in the car to leave!
AND what was the one thing i forgot - my camera!!!! GGGGGGGRRRRRRRRR. thankfully Sabine was coming up for a while, so I rang her and she bought hers up. Which is probably better anyway as its a heaps better camera and she has a huge zoom lens as well. Cant wait to see the photos she took. Although she isnt a scrapper herself, she is a great photographer and loves to take LOTS of photos - gotta love her!!!!!

I took Katies advice this morning and set the timer for 1 hour to get housework done. Wow I got so much done, dishes, everything wiped down, floors swept & vacuumed, beds made, and I even got the kids rooms cleaned up (usually their job - which doesnt get done -but I was on a roll) got a pot of soup on, and some veggies roasting for Isaacs lunch and to go with tea.
The sad thing is I found it hard to stop when my hour was up - LOL - but I did ;)

OK im off to watch Dr Phil now - hopefully there is something good on today, its been pretty crap lately. Maybe ive just been home and able to watch it for to long!!!!!

tagged

Thanks for the tag Nic - havnt done one in a while.
Here goes -
1. How old are you? nearly 36 (eek that sounds old!)
2. How many kids do you have if any? 3 - Caleb, Nathan & Isaac
3. Are you married, single, divorced, widow? Married since 1995
4. What is your occupation? at the moment SAHM and lovin' it
5. What are your passions? Family, Friends, Photography, Scrapping
6. Are you a dreamer or a dream seeker? Definately a dreamer, I dont have the guts to take things to the next level and follow my dreams - too many what ifs
7. Are you happy with the way your life has turned out? Yep
8. Are you a scrapper and if so how many hours a week do you scrap ? about 10
9. What do you want to do before you die? watch my kids grow up and become parents themselves
10. What is your favorite food? (s) Laksa, chicken, mangoes, chocolate covered licorice
11. What is the food you hate the most? oysters, olives and anchovies YUK
12. What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you? cant think of anything atm
13. What is the happiest day of your life thus far? the days my boys were born
14. Are you a neat freak? Or a dirty house cleaner? My house is pretty much always clean, its often messy, but its still clean.
3 People I tag, Mel (so she has to update her blog again!!!) Janine, Katie

Well today is the 11th of August, and the day that I officially admit defeat with the SM masters comp :( I so wanted to just make the top 100, but it wasnt to be! Oh well life goes on!
I may as well share my LOs now though. Here is my single and beyond the page.


At least I can get these coat hooks up on the wall in Isaacs room and start using them now.

Nursery Photos

Well a long time ago I started re decorating Isaacs room. I still havnt finished, but today I finally hung a covered canvas on the wall, and tidied up enough to take some photos to share with those of you who asked to see them. I still want to do the knobs on his drawers, but apart from that its basically finished.

What a day

What a beautiful day it is here - real spring weather. We spent a couple of hours this morning doing a big clean up - vacumming, washing floors, picking up any thing that isnt suitable to be put into the mouth of a very inquisitive and now on the move 8 1/2 month old.

Had lunch out in the warm sun, and laughed at Isaacs antics as he discovered ants and grass for the first time. His chubby little fingers didnt know what to poke or try to pick up first.

Poor Toni had contractions 3 min apart till 2am this morning when everything decided to stop! She is home today trying to get some rest and start the waiting game all over again. Her little bub obviously just isnt ready for us to meet him yet!

I just got my DT LO finished too. The kids were building lego (as you do when its such a beautiful day!!!) so I went down there with them, and had it finished in half an hour! Decided to kill two birds with one stone and went for the black and white theme as thats the current 'dare' atm.

Make sure you take notice of the 'brush' work in the bottom left of the photo -I DID THAT!!! I worked out how to do brushes in photoshop - yeh for me. Its pretty basic, but I did it!!!

OK my little man has just woken, so we are off for a walk in the beautiful sunshine while Craig puts a leg of lamb on the webber for tea. He is definatley getting good husband points this weekend LOL.

mum

His first word is mum!!!!!! Isaac is the first of my boys not to say dad as their first word, he has been saying mum mum mum mum mum over and over for the last couple of days, so Im saying this is officially it. Not sure he has put the word mum and me being mum quite together yet, but who cares, he can say mum mum mum mum!!!

The crawling is getting better and better, and he is so chuffed with himself. He is doing the rounds of the lounge checking out all the stuff he has only been able to look longingly at his whole life. Like all babies in this house, he has found the coconut fibre in the pot plant, and just loves it!!!

I saw little Jamie on Kathies blog in his Jolly Jumper and it reminded me I needed some more photos of Isaac in his. He is calling out Hi to Jamie!!! :)

Went shopping today and bought new towels etc for our ensuite - they look fabulous. They are gorgeous coffee coloured country road towels. we went the whole hof and got matching bath mat, hand towel and face washers as well! The best bit was that DH offered to pay for them with some gift vouchers he got for his birthday - gotta love him! (also gotta hope I dont end up with a whipper snipper or something in a couple of months for my birthday lol)

On the scrapping front, its really bizzar, our DT breif is baby LOs, and do you think I can put one together???? Thats all Ive been scrapping for the last 8 months, but when thats what I have to do, its just not happenning. Ive got three LOs started on my desk, but just cant seem to work out those finishing touches for any of them. I hope I can get at least one finished tommorrow (sorry its late Janine!)

Last thing for tonight - we're expecting another baby - well when I say we, I mean we in our street lol! My good friend and neighbour Toni is at the hospital as we speak having her third child. She left at about 6pm with contractions about 5 min apart. Her other labours have been reasonably short so I hoping for the good news before I go to bed.

crawling - well sort of

My little boy is sort of crawling today. Its so cute to watch, his arms and legs seem to do all the right movements but he doesnt really get too far :)



With a bit of encouragement he is getting better each try though - by the end of the week Im guessing there will be no stopping him. Not sure everyone will be so excited about the whole thing when he is under their feet, grabbing their toys, destroying the TV book that always gets left etc etc etc.

I wanted to send a big congratulations to Kathie for getting the call from SM saying she made it into the top 100 - not that I ever doubted she would. ( Awesome work babe! Hope little Jamie is on the mend too.) A big congrats to any one else out there that 'made it' that I dont know about.

After deciding to do the FK EM album I was a little hesitant when I saw this months onsert. Id never used iron ons before...WOW they are fantastic though. They were actually suprisingly easy to apply, and I just love the texture they add to the page. Yet another thing to add to my wish list ;) I managed to get 2 singles and a double done for last months theme, and Ive completed my first one for this month already. I really need a few more supplies to mix in though so it doesnt look quite so dated (Ive been using up stuff in my stash that I already had)

Ive finally done it - unlimited braodband!!! Lets see how much more time I waste on this darn computer now though.

Thanks for all your comments on my last LO too. Im still thinking its right out there (which was the whole point I guess!) but thanks for laughing with me anyway!!!
Ive actually been back to Teeshas site for another look, and read about how she does her art journals. It was really interesting that she doesnt just do one page at a time, but rather about 10 and just lets them evolve as she feels the inspiration.