Happy Australia Day

Hope everyone is enjoying a nice relaxing Australia day today. The kids and I went off to an Australia day breakfast that the local council and Lions club put on this morning - we go every year with my mum and dad, and the kids love it! I took this pic to record Isaacs first Australia day.

Craig picked Caleb & I up after breakfast and we went and collected a tonne of wood from my Nannas that she gave us. Lovely job when its stinking hot!!! It will save us having to get as much when winter eventually comes though. Mum took the other two kids back in the cool at her place. It was the first time Ive really left Isaac, and it was a bit wierd. I had managed to collect a bottle of expressed milk and he took that with out any problems for her. Ive never had much success expressing milk with the other two, but this time I think Im getting the hang of it. I would really like to keep feeding for as long as possible this time, so it will be handy if I can have some bottles on hand for when I really need to leave him. Cause I missed a feed, I was able to express a whole small bottle whe I got home - I was so excited!!!

Thanks to those who have sent me emails in the last few days to check if Im doing OK. Ive been really quiet around the place lately, mainly because we are WAY over our monthly internet usage. Its nearly double our allowance and is going to cost us a small fortune!!! We are tossing up if it would be worth moving to an unlimited plan, but we will see how the next couple of months go.

I hope you all have a great day celebrating this wonderful country we are so blessed to call home, I cant think of any where else in the world I would rather live and raise my family than right here in Australia.....Advance Australia Fair!!!

Tagged

Well this is my very first tag - how exciting, and thanks Ruthy!!!! (don't worry, I will get over this excitement very quickly!)
Here goes
Four jobs you have had in your life?
1. Making mops (yes the cotton ones you mop the floor with - exciting NOT) I did this for a year after leaving high school before I started uni.
2. Waitressing at a german coffee shop & restaurant while I was at uni.
3. Child Care worker in a child care centre - spent most of the time in the under twos section, loved this, hard work but so rewarding.
4. Family Day Care Provider - Great way to work and be a SAHM at the same time.

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. Dirty Dancing
2. Top Gun (love that beach volley ball scene!)
3. Beaches - gotta be the saddest movie ever
4. Father of the bride - SO funny

Four places you have lived:
1. Lobethal SA - grew up here
2. Greenwith SA - when we first got married
3. Woodside SA - while we were building our house...
4. Now back in Lobethal!

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. All Saints
2. Home & away
3. Star Gate
4. Fresh - cooking show

Four places you have vacationed
1. Wallaroo in a cabin right on the beach
2. Thailand
3. New Zealand
4. Sunny Queensland for the SAM retreat last year - what a blast! love to go back

Four websites I visit daily:
1. Ebay
2. My Blogg list
3. My bank site - just to check if Ive wom the lotto yet! LOL
4. various scrapping galleries
( no wonder IM already up to this months usage allowance!!!)

Four favourite foods:
1. Chicken anything
2. Ice cream/ice blocks/ slushies...anything frozen really
3. mangoes
4. sweet potatoes

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. In bed with the latest CK, which I don't have yet
2. Asleep, and not getting woken up till the morning
3. with friends
4. Scrapping (but...my printers out of ink and I can't print any more photos)

Four bloggers that I am tagging:
I think that there is only one that I can think of that hasn't done this, so I tag Janine, the newest blogger I know of.

We R memory keepers

Im loving this new stuff atm, and the lovely lady at Scrapbook station gave me the perfect selection to do another baby boy page (your a champ Janine!!!) fro this months DT challenge. can't wait to go in and get myself some of the gorgeous chipboard alphas as well...but as discussed earlier need to get all the baby clothes paid for first...mmmmm did I mention I just bought a gorgeous pumpkin patch cot quilt and sheet set off ebay...it was a bargain, and hasn't even been used, it was just displayed in a cot!

Anyway here is my LO.....
Hope you are all nice and cool...its so hot here tonight. Usually by this time it is lovely and cool, but it is still and muggy tonight - yuck! Im nearly ready to close the windows and put the aircon on..how rediculous for 9.15 at night.

my new addiction

I think that Im developing a new addiction to shopping for baby clothes. They are just so darn cute! Ive been giving ebay a fair flogging lately buying up pumpkin patch stuff thats barley been worn, and today when we went on a family trip to TTP I used the excuse I needed to go to the loo, while Craig took the boys into a hobby shop (well Isaac needs a bit of that male bonding time too, and I couldn't take him to the tiolet with me after all, could I!) and I nipped into pumpkin patch to check out their sale. well close to $100 later (in about 10 min flat!) I was back from my little trip with a bulging bag. 5 pairs of pants and two T shirts AND I saved over $50... Some of it is size 0 for this winter though, so Im really shopping sensibly. Must go and check what Im still bidding on with ebay now LOL!



I did this LO last Sunday after we went to the pool. I just LOVE this pic of Craig and Isaac. Its a bit shadowy but there is just something that draws me back to it. I used PP again just because I could too! (plus my cardstock is running dangerously low...something to do with lack of money due to the baby clothes thing!) Its not a really good photo of it, it looks all washed out for some reason, but you know what the papers looks like IRL.

I better head off and season the new wok we just bought, so Craig can use it to cook calamari for tea for us!

Hope everyone is havin' a great and relaxing weekend
Nic xxx

Laughter !!!

My bubby laughed at us for the first time this morning and it was so cute. He was smiling alot just before then, so Nathan had gone and got the camera out to take some pics (Ive got him well trained already!!!) so managed to capture some photos of those first laughs - wish I had some of those sound strips to record it as well.

After reading Nics blogg and seeing her georgeous simple LOs for her favorite photos album, and reading a mag article on creating calenders I was inspired to alter a cheap calender I bought yesterday morning. The top is a 8 1/2" x 11" LO which is just clipped on with the bulldog clip, so I can remove it and put it in an album. I will do one for each month using favorite photos from the month before. They will all be basically the same with the CS strip with the month and a touch of PP that co-ordinates with the pics. I have also challenged myself to create the entire thing from my draws full of off cuts - Ive got to do something to start using them up!

Its really hot here today and were off in a minute for a swim in the kids cousins pool. Since I will be just sitting around with Isaac I might take the camera and see what I can capture.

Bye for now!

Nic xxx

Peace & Quiet

Im sitting here with Isaac sound asleep and Caleb & Nath are at my sisters after having a sleep over there last night - its bliss!!! Ive just finished scrapping a LO too. I had a bit of a laugh to myself when I just photographed these two LOs. I did one the other day surrounded by ratty kids with the constsant mum..mum...muuuuuuum going on, the other was finished just now in the peace and quiet - I think each makes its own statement about my mind set when I did them LOL




The snowfalkes and some of the journalling is all hand drawn on this one. I traced some of the large snowflakes from a HS mask, and drew the others freehand, then went to work doodling all around them. Im suprised there is any ink left in my zig writer!

Im not overly excited about the end result - its just so different to my 'usual' style, but its another LO for my New Zealand album done. I geuss it sort of ties in with the whole mucking around feeling of the photos too. (Yes I am trying to convince myself to start liking it!)







This LO I LOVE! Actually it could be just the fact that I love the gorgeous little shoes so much!!! They are the cutest little things I have ever seen, and I really can't wait for Isaac to grow enough to wear them. The titles are handcut and I did the journalling on the computer...I havn't done that for a while. Must mean Ive actually been doing a littel bit of handwriting. I didn't want to handwrite on this one though, it was all so neat and tidy and lined up that I didn't want to spoil it.

So you can see what I mean - the LO that looks a little like a train wreck, or the nice neat orderly LO - can you geuss which one I did when?


One of my friends is going through some pretty heavy personal stuff at the moment and I just wanted to let her know Im thinking of her, and that Im proud that she has had the courage to make the descisions she has. I spoke with her this morning and she sounds like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders. (I know she reads my blog and will see this, - she knows who she is - (((Hugs))) you know where I am if you need to talk more!

Im feeling really good about my scrapping at the moment. I feel quite inspired and there are ideas spinning around in my head constantly - so many things to photgraph and scrap, so little time. Its a nice feeling to have back again! Pity its never around when its time to do LOs for the masters or elite teams. Oh well its me and my family I scrap for anyway, so what will be, will be
(kay serah serah!)

Have a good weekend - stay cool/warm depending on what the wether decides it will do - and thats anyones geuss!!!

Nic xxx

Happy New Year

Hope you all had great time seeing the new year in last night, and that your not feeling a bit worse for wear today LOL. We had a fun night, but I think there may have been a few sore heads amoungst them this morning. There were heaps of kids so the boys had a wonderful night and managed to hang out till nearly 1.30am. I fed Isaac at 9.30pm and he slept in his pram, right in the middle of the party till we left - he didn't even stir when all the poppers got let off at midnight.

I got all inspired this morning and packed all the christmas decorations away. I would like to have left them longer, but Craig offered to help so I wasn't going to knock that back. At least its all done now and my house is back to relative normality - LOL apart from all the baby stuff that seems to be taking over.

Hope everyone has a wonderful 2006 and that you made lots of new years resolutions/intentions and are able to achieve them all. Im still working on what my intentions list will include - I will let you know when its done. Id love to hear what everyone else wants to achieve this year too.

Its HOT!

Its 38 degrees herre today - thank goodness for airconditioning. We will be spending the day inside, we had planned trip to the beach, but there is no way Im taking a six week old out in this heat, let alone putting up with the other two whining about hot it is.

We have some friends popping around later for christmas/new year drinks so that should pass the afternoon away and keep the kids amused.

We are heading to a friends place for a nice quiet New Years party, its actually one of the families from school, so there will be heaps of other kids there that will be the boys ages, so they should have a great night too. My best friend left this morning to drive to Melbourne to spend New Years with some friends over there at Phillip Island, they are staying in caravans so Im hoping the weather is kind to them!

Here is a quick LO I did yesterday while the boys were playing battleship and having a snooze - LOL I wondered why it was so quiet after they finished playing, I went to find them, and all four of them were sound asleep in differednt rooms - what bliss!!! perfect scrapping time. I even tidied up my scrapping desk thismorning, so its already for me to get inspired and mess it all up again.


I was a bit unsure about using the flowers on a boy LO, but I like how it turned out, and it was nice and quick to do.

I love sleep!

Im feeling a million dollars today - well almost human again anyway LOL! I feed Isaac at 9.30pm last night and he slept till 5.15am - thats a whole 7 hour block of sleep - I don't remember last time I got to sleep that long! Then he went back to sleep till 8.15am, so I got a sleep in as well!!! Don't worry Im not delusional, Im pretty sure it was just a one off, but gee it was nice!

OK Ive been tagged by Michelle so here goes

Never in my life: Did I imaging myself as the mother of three boys, after being one of three girls its kinda wierd - nice weird though! I aslo never imagined enjoying being a SAHM so much.

When I was Five: I was at the same kindy that my children went to and ny teacher was Mrs Branston.

High School is: something I coasted through, I got good marks but never really pushed myself - imagine what I might have been able to achieve if I did.

Once in a bar: Im my younger days, I could often be found laying on the bar having tequila laybacks - yumm I used to love tequila!!!!

Last night: I got seven hours sleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I turn my head left I see: autographed photos of sports people of DH. When I turn my head right I see: my photo printer - with the red light flashing saying one of the ink cartridges is low - as usual.

A better name for me would be: anything but Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum (its two weeks into the school holidays and I think Ive heard that 1 million times already!)

I have a hard time understanding: How anyone could hurt an innocent child

You know I like you if: you would be able to tell, if I didn't like you I wouldn't bother keeping in contact with you.

Take my advice: try not to worry about the small things in life that really don't matter. Worry instead about the things you can change. Always tell the people you love that you love them, you never know how long they will be around.

If you spent the night at my house: You would either have an early night, or still be sitting drinking red wine and talking at 2am - only to be woken by the males in this house who like to get up at about 6am.

I always make a point to: check my emails about a million times a day - Im not sure what I think Im going to miss!

I'd rather lick the belly of a cockroach than: loose my husband, children, friends or family

And by the way: did I mention that I had seven hours sleep last night!?!

That was fun!!! I think Im supposed to tag someone else now, but I don't think there is anyone I know with a blog that hasn't already been tagged!!!

Ive done it!!!!

OK after reading everyone elses bloggs Ive finally decided to bite the bullet and create my own. I hope to keep it updated regularly, but we all know even with the best intentions how hard that can be LOL. If nothing else it will allow me to keep you all updated, at least occasionally, with whats going on here in my life , and give me yet another excuse to be on the computer - not that I need that.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and spent heaps of quality time with your loved ones, I know we did. Isaac had a wonderful first Christmas and we all had a wonderful day. Craig has the whole week off so it will be great to spend some time together.

Thought Id share this photo of Isaacs first Christmas. I took it a week before christmas when he was 4 weeks old and can't wait to have some time to scrap it.