(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.

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!

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!!!!!!

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.

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

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!

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).

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.