Lisa's blog challenge

Recently Lisa set a blog challenge on the Scrapbook Station Forum. We have to post a pic on our blogs of a favourite thing around our house. I decided to get on to it this morning. I wandered around the house, room, by room, trying to decide on a favourite. My house is full of things I could have taken a photo of, but the thing that stood out to me, the thing that instantly makes me feel happy when I see them are some of my kids pieces of art that I have around the house. One is on the wall in the playroom, Nathan has several of his proudly displayed on his bedroom wall, Calebs was sitting on the kitchen table waiting for me to get it laminated or framed to hang up, and Isaacs was on the bench...we only did it this morning!!!

Nathan 2003 - Self portrait

Nathan 2004 - Flowers

Nathan 2006 - Abstact portrait

Caleb 2006 - Waves

Isaac 2007 - Lines



I love the innocence and sense of fun in kids paintings, I always have. They are so uninhibited when they are young. They love what they do, and are so incredibly artitic and free. Such a shame that we loose this confidence SO quickly, especially when its not appreciated or nurtured. Ive worked with three year olds who are reluctant to make mistakes when they draw or paint...I dont think they have ever had adults who appreciate their abilities, and realise that the actual process of creating and doing is so much more important than the finished result...but that the finished result still really matters to the artist and should be cherished!

Thanks for the challenge Lisa - it was fun! So glad I have these special pieces recorded somewhere too. Eventually they will all go into my mini labum of things that make me smile that I started in Zinas class at CE (and still havnt finished)

***how exciting I just had a courier drop off a big box of goodies for me. I entered a comp on the huggies web site and won a prize. Its a beach bag, pooh bear hoodie towel, water saftey book, little swimmers, change mats, wipes, sunscreen, baby lotion and bath wash. All will come in very handy...probably next year though LOL, I think swimming season might be over here now***

I did it

Today I finally got up the courage to send off my precious EDM album. Im a bit terrified that something will happen to it while its away from home...but after spending all those months keeping up with the LOs I decided to just bite the bullet and enter it. It was today or never as its due by the end of the week, and it ended up costing me a small fortune to express post it!!! Im a bit cross with myself as I forgot to photograph my last few LOs before I sent it off. I might post a few of my LOs now too. For now Ill just share the album ( I took the litle arrow with the quote off the front - didnt like it!)

I made this from scratch as the one I ordered didnt arrive. I had to pull apart another old album to get the posts from though. ***If anyone knows where/if you can buy just the posts and screws please let me know. Im shocking when it comes to spending $$$$$ on actual albums, so if I can get some of the post bits I might make a couple more***

The 'secret' is out

Ok to all of you that have been going crazy not knowing about the little secret that has been popping up on blogs absolutely everyhwere Ive just got the OK to reveal some more details......

Im sure you will be seeing this blogs name pop up regularly from now.. Its a fantastic idea and I wish Michelle & Alana all the best for their new venture!

Go and check out the blog here. They are having a grand opening with competitions and prizes really soon, so pop back regularly!

16 months

Dear Isaac,
You're 16 months old and you definitely have the hang of walking..there is no stopping you now. Its rare to see you sitting still any more, you are always on the move.

Walking, almost running, exploring everything. Id forgotten how full on this stage is. No longer can we go out somewhere and know you will be content to sit quietly in your pram and watch the world go by, or sit on my lap while I chat to a friend or watch the boys. You want to be down and walking, and doing it your way. If you don't get to do things your way, we sure hear about it. The ear piercing squeal that you have drives us crazy at times. But for you it is the most effective way of getting a reaction....from anyone with in ear shot usually!

It was time for another haircut this month too. As cute as your baby curls were looking, they were constantly in your eyes so they had to go.

You look so much older with them all cut off.
You have developed a fascination for shutting doors...any sort... cupboards, the microwave, big doors, the sliding door, the fridge....the biggest frustration is of course that to shut a door it must first be open! SO of course you also feel the need to open the doors, then close them, then open them again...and so the cycle goes. None of us have that much patience with this little idiosyncrasy, especially when you decide to explore inside the cupboards as well, or when your constantly trying to shut the fridge door while I'm still in it!!! Maybe its a sign of things to come. Perhaps you will be a tidy methodical person in later life...I can live in hope!

Too cute. That's just what you are sometimes. I thought you were down in the playroom with your brothers. You had come outside the office door where I had tipped all the washing ready to be sorted and folded. You had somehow managed to pull dummy and teddy out of your cot and snuggled down in the clothes and fallen asleep. So sweet that you wanted to be close to me, and so precious when I opened the door to see you there! Your speech and communication skills have developed a little more. You wave this cute little palm up, hand twisting wave and call out your version of 'see ya'. It sounds more like ee a, but in context you can tell what your saying. Its nearly always followed up by your open hand being flung from a wide open mouth with the sound bwaa, bwaa which translates to mwah mwah. Its your cute little way of blowing kisses, and everyone gets them, even the garbage truck! We are hearing more of the word Ta, as well as mum, and the occasional dad. Oof oof, the noise a dog makes...a a the noise a duck makes, eeeeeooooowwwwwww the noise a cat makes, and aaaarrrrrr the noise a lion makes are a few other sounds you are able to make. You are signing a little more often now as well. You hold your hands up...gone...

in answer to the questions..."wheres Daddy?, wheres teddy?, wheres dummy?, wheres the boys? You competently use the sign for finished and drink....although they look very similar and its sometimes difficult to tell the difference. You soon let me know if I have misunderstood though. You are also starting to use the sign for more. You have started shaking your head to mean NO as well. I'm constantly amazed by your comprehension of the spoken word. I can ask you to go and find your dummy, close the door, do you want to have a shower with daddy, have you got a pooey nappy and your reactions show that you fully understand what Ive said to you. It must be so frustrating not yet having the words to communicate with us at that next level.

Finally all of your molars have cut right through, which might explain the marked improvement in your general disposition and eating during the later part of this month. Its lovely to have my happy little man back again. Its amazing what a difference the absence of pain and the presence of a full tummy can make. You have started dribbling a lot in the last week, and I'm guessing its your eye teeth. Your poor little thing, I just hope that these don't cause us as many problems. You have started to feed yourself messy things. Mummy isn't really good at watching the food go everywhere but your mouth, but Ive been letting you have a go anyway. Your doing a pretty good job most of the time. You did get really grumpy one day and throw your spoon. As I reached across the table to get it back for you, you took a swipe at your bowl and knocked it crashing to the floor. It smashed into lots of tiny pieces, and food went everywhere. Not good baby, you have to learn to be a little more patient, and Mummy learnt to only give you plastic bowls from then on.

Your ability to walk everywhere has lead to a new discovery...pull along toys. You love your puppy, and your train. You love that as long as you hold that string tight, they will follow you where ever you may go. You still look as pleased as punch every time they do it too!!! You have become rather clingy to me lately. You don't like Mummy to be out of your sight, and will burst into tears if I'm out of your sight for long if we are at someone elses house, or if I have to leave you. Even with Grandma...I know its just a stage, but I hope its one we can pass through quickly.

The daily rituals are becoming something you love to be part of. Taking the nappy sacks out to the wheelie bin is something you love to do. As soon as I tie that little orange bag up you are pointing and grunting at it. You grab the handles and head for the front door. I lift you up and lift the lid of the bin. You hold the bag over and drop it in. You love to watch the postie deliver the mail, although you are surprisingly apprehensive about his motorbike. The garbage truck is another source of fascination for you. We either sit on the front window sill or look through the front window as the big grabber picks up the bin and flips the rubbish into the truck, before the bin comes back down with a big thump. The driver always gives you a wave or a toot when he sees you! I'm sure that being the mummy to a little boy is the only thing that could make me feel excited as I hear the rumble of the rubbish truck coming down the road!

You LOVE spending time with Daddy. You don't really get to spend a lot of time together, so you treasure your time with him. He lifts you up and lets you push the buttons and push the door shut on the microwave when he gets you a bottle, he lets you in the shed with him, he brrrmms cars around with you, and builds sand castles. He gives you horsey rides and shares in your excitement as you see a birdie in the back yard or a plane flying in the sky. He lets you have a shower with him and he has put a little box near the water feature so you can climb up and see the water and play with the rocks. He loves you so much baby, and it makes my heart melt watching the two of you together.

I know I say it every month, but time just seems to be going by so quickly. When I look at you I no longer see a baby. In so many of my photos lately I see a little boy looking back at me and wonder where my baby has gone. This next month might be a bit light on with photos though, Mummy's camera has packed it in! So its back to Daddy's little one till its fixed. I hope its not too long. I dont want to miss a thing!

mwah mwah my sweet little one.

I love you to the stars and moon and back again!

Mummy xxxx

shhh Ive got a secret!!!

well its not really my secret, but Im helping to keep it, and spread the word about an awesome new venture by a couple of clever Aussie scrappers. If you love scrapbooking, prizes and being organised then keep your eyes and ears to the ground and stay tuned for the grand unvielling of the blog address, and the grand opening with lots of prizes up for grabs. For now this is all I can share........

oh I love secrets (LOL but only when I know what they are LOL)

So.....

SO....much fun taking the boys to the bike track on Monday


So...confident...thats Caleb
So...proud that he eventually got BOTH wheels off the ground over a jump

So...cautious...thats Nathan

so...hard to pedal up the big hills on a bike thats getting too small for you
so...much more confident by the time we finished
so...darn cute..thats Isaac

so...cheeky
so....not a little baby any more :( I see a little boy sitting where my baby should be..whats going on???!!!

As you can see we had a great time at the bike track. Craig had to work Monday so it was just the boys and I. I had a lovely time taking pics of them all. Found out the back of the station wagon (with the back up!) makes a great little photo studio, great light, nice black background... Isaac and I sat in there together for ages watching the others whizz past. We did venture out to one of the seats near the centre of the track, but I was a little concerned that he was going to bolt out onto the track as a bike came over the jump...much safer with drinks and snacks in the back of the car!!! LOL are you sick of the litttle bonds hoodie yet??? I seem to be getting lots of pics of him in this...its my fave atm!

We spent Sunday veging out. It was the only day Craig had off over the long weekend, so we just hung around home and relaxed. I think it may have been encouraged by a bit of a late night Saturday night. We had Kathie, Phil & Jamie up for dinner, We had a fantastic night...sat chating till about 1am. Going to bed that late does make the morning come very quickly though. I dont know how many of you manage to scrap till that hour (and later) night after night...says me who is sitting here at midnight writing my blog! Maybe Im just getting old !?!

Tonight I went to a CM mystery party. (A good frind of mine is a CM consultant, and is totally respectful of my style and scrapping preferences, as I am of hers) we made a quick little card/ mini LO, I want to add a few bits (of my stuff LOL) to mine, and then I will post a pic. CM actually have a few funky papers, and a cool photo album that I was really impressed with too.

I should get to bed, its tommorrow already!

A couple more

Just a quick share of a couple of my latest LOs The first one is for the current portal on SS - would have been part of my top 10, Love the pic! The second is a pic of Caleb from our recent trip to Wallaroo. Im trying to scrap a bit more of all of the kids. Whilst doing my EDM album my scrapping was heavily weighted to LOs of Isaac. I really need to start documenting more of the other two boys lives as well...even though its near impossible to get them to stand still for any sort of pics atm without some serious bribery happening LOL

We just returned from seeing Walking with Dinosaurs - absolutely awesome show. THe older two loved it, we loved it,and Isaac, despite not being the slightest bit worried by the noise, huge dinosars etc seemed more interested in all the lights (he has a thing for lights atm - always pointing and grunting at them) he was so tired he fell asleep mid way through...the sound was so loud Nathan was putting his hands over his ears, and there is Isaac, laying spread across Craigs and my laps with his teddy sound asleep. He had got to the point he was so tired he didnt know who he wanted to sit on, and bascially dropped off half way over the two of us - too cute. He jumped when the T Rex came out and roared, but didnt wake.

Yesterday the boys had their final official cricket game. I took lots of action shots of them all so I can do up a little story board for each of the kids for presentation night in a couple of weeks. Here are Caleb & Nathans.

It looks like Im working my way backward through my week LOL Friday I caught up with Janine at SS and then with Kathie, Mel & Kate for a few hours of scrapping. Time went so quickly, and I got very little done, but it was a great day, I love catching up with these girls. Got to see some of Kates scrumptious creations again - her work is so textural and scrummy, no photo could ever do it justice! Isaac got to catch up with his little mate Jamie, and spent quite some time smooching Charlotte and having a play with Georgia. Despite my best intentions of geting a photo of all of us, I only remembered to pull the camera out once and snapped this pic of these two gorgeous little boys! They look like Ive caught them doing something they shouldnt be dont they!Kathie and I were discussing our boys eating habbits. The two of them are usually so predictably similar, but Jamie has been eating enourmous amounts, and Isaac has been eating hardly anything. Until yesterday LOL I think Jamie must have had a little word in his ear for me. For tea last night he had an easy mac with crushed tomatoes, tuna and a whole egg through it..he was still hungry...a petit miam..he was still hungry...a pear...he was still hungry....a bowl of hot chips....he was still hungry...a piece of bread....he was OK. but still had full bottle of milk before bed. I dont know where he puts it all! This is from the child who the other day had 3/4 small banana for breakfast, 8 sultanas for lunch and 1/2 peacharine for tea, and wouldnt eat anything for weeks unless it was fruit. I had even resorted to mixing pasta through diced fruit, and putting chopped sweet potoato through diced fruit to get something else into him LOL

Thursday I took Isaac to one of the local playgroups for the first time. I realised how little I do with him at home...when the other two were little they were always having paints, playdough, drawing, pasting etc....it took going to PG for Isaac to have his first experience with playdough and paint - gotta say both were very short lived, he was much more interested in finding something to push around the room.