Christmas Catch up

A New Year has begun, the celebrations that occur in December have all been celebrated, so now we are all in relaxation mode!!

Mark is still on holidays till the 14th Jan, it is nice to have him home, and we have been spoilt with sleep ins, usual get out of bed time at the moment is 8.30am! although I wont mention I have had a few sleepless nights with the girls, Im hoping it was the heat and them both going through one of those stages!

Our birthdays were good, that was a few weeks ago now! mine was on the Saturday of Marks Christmas work function, so we stayed in a hotel in the city, we managed to have a wander down Rundle Mall and spent too much money in Haighs! - anyone from SA who loves chocolate would know all about Haighs! (not to mention how expensive it is, but well worth the money, lol!)

We had a beautiful day for Christmas weather wise, and our lunch was enjoyed by everyone, the photos here are all from Christmas, Jacob is in one opening up one of his Doctor Who toys, I could here him around 5am, going through his stocking which I filled with lollies, and at 6.30am he was so happy it was time we could all get up, I did have to tell Mark a few times to get out of bed lol! and I had to wake both the girls up, which explains why Beth and Ella both look bleary eyed!

The other shots is our family photo, and one of Ella and I, wish I had taken more of Jacob and the girls.

Well thats an overview of my life over the last week, I have begun to scrap again after a bit of a break, not to my doing, but the business of life! lol!

I wont mention our New Year celebrations, not after Mark got out the shower with a few minutes to the countdown and told me he was going to bed cos he was tired!!!!! needless to say I wasnt very happy with him, and as Ella had awoken beforehand and was up (it was VERY hot still) and Jacob wanted to stay up for midnight, I took them out the back to hear all the cheers and see if we could see some fireworks, but it was very quiet and we didnt see anything, so Jacob said it was the most boring New year ever!!!!

December

December already! I love this time of the year!! so full of celebrations, love, presents and fun! I am so excited about Marks Christmas work party - which happens to fall on my birthday! we have our hotel room all booked and Mum is staying over to mind the kids, Mark and I can have a full day and night to ourselves!
We had the kids party on the weekend with Marks work, and the kids received a present from Santa, such fun!

I have a few more layouts 'blessed' is of Bethany and Ella taken on Mothers Day,
'Slow down' is of Ella, the photo was taken a few weeks ago not long after she began to walk, I used the wall in the photo to write the journalling and used a rub-on,

and the blue one 'moments like this I love', the girls were sitting together on the chair swing outside, just giggling together and kissing each other, so I just had to photograph them and scrap it! the journalling is just how much I savour and love the moments I have with them!

I really must start scrapping Jacob, at the moment whenever I try and take a photo of him he pulls a face - very frustrating!!!

sympathy please, I'm sick!!

Over the last week all of us has been hit with this awful flu, with Mark and I the last to deal with it, hes been home from work all this week, I feel so tired and unwell and having to deal with a toddler and a baby on the move is very tiring!! Jacob went back to school yesterday after nearly a week of and Bethany is returning back to her stubborn self lol! she was the sickest one, on the day I took her to the docs she spent all day on the lounge laying down poor thing, so anyway hopefully in a few days we will all be back to our normal healthy selves!

On another note heres another layout I finished a few weeks ago, I love this photo of Jacob on our wedding day - (Mark and I), Emily took this of him after he had had enough of the day and all the photos that were taken!

Well I think I need to rest and put my feet up, the kids are all in bed and all I feel like doing is going to bed too!

The Wedding!!

Well yesterday was the big day for our cousin Carmen when she married the man of her dreams, we all had such a great day and I remained stress free all day! (I had a reading to do - a small one!) the reception was so much fun thanks to my younger brothers and sister and we learned that Sam can't be trusted with a portable camera! lol!!
The weather held out, it poured when we were in the Church and Emily said it was freezing for the photos, Carmen was the most relaxed and excited bride I think I have ever seen! it was just such a beautiful day for my Aunty Veronica and Uncle Nicky after all they have and are going through and it was even more special that Uncle Nicky was well enough to walk Carmen down the aisle, after all the photos I took the majority of them came out blurry and I only got 1 of Mark and I! and Daniel most of the photos you either had your eyes closed or pulled a face - not happy lol!
It was great to catch up with the extended family and we all had a fantastic day and night, by the end of it my face was sore from laughing (mainly to all the mischief Sam was getting up to!)
The reception was held at the Port Adelaide club rooms and unfortunately we lost and more misfortune when Adelaide won so a few Crows supporters including my dh delighted in rubbing it in!
I'll have to start scrapping some of these photos of my family!
Emily you made a BEAUTIFUL bridesmaid, I said to Mark after that I can't wait till you get married and I will be your bridesmaid!

finally some sleep!!

I am trying not to be too excited here but Ella has begun to sleep through the night! over the past 7 nights now she has had 3 nights of full sleep I'm talking from7ish till 7-8am, its not every night yet but a huge improvement from what she has been doing, I have still had a couple of nights where I have had to just let her have a cry then she settles down and sleeps! as pleased as I am about her sleeping through I am realizing that as she is our last baby, its a stage of my life (the sleepless baby stage) that I will no longer experience, she is growing so fast! I feel so blessed that I have been given the gift of raising 3 beautiful babies.

It has been so cold here that I am soo looking forward to spring - we aren't even halfway through winter yet! I'm just not a winter person - unless its raining (but then theres the dirty floors to clean from wet muddy shoes)

I had my first big shopping trip yesterday on my own, I had Carmens kitchen tea in the arvo but before that I was able to go to Westlakes on my own, Mark took the kids to his mums for lunch so I didnt have to worry about coming home to feed a baby, I was gone for 2.5 hours!! I even found a pair of roxy jeans to buy which I promised myself after Bethany was born and they were on special! so all in all a great day!

coming home to have a holiday

Well our little mini break is over - not alot of relaxing with a baby and a toddler, but it was still a great holiday and so nice to get away!

The cottage we stayed in was just gorgeous, we had a farm next to us and it was in the middle of paddocks - so we were pretty secluded, the kids all shared a room and Ella was determined to keep me awake all night so the last night we were there I caved in and she slept in our bed, so it was great to come home and get back in to our routine!

Bethany had Hi5 withdrawals so we had to find a Hi5 dvd to buy! which got played at least once a day, the photo is of the girls watching it!

It has been a busy weekend, we had Carmens hens night last night, we had so much fun! plus so nice to get out without the kids - hey Leanne!!! only 3 weeks to got to the big day now! and Emily yes you deserved that award that you handed over to Kat - although it was pretty close!

Holiday mode

we are in holiday mode here, Mark has just started his week off work and we are going away in a couple of days - we are so excited!! Jacob has been away all weekend as well, he had a sleepover last night at a friends house and tonight he is at his dads house.

Well my organizational skills haven't improved too much, I had to book the car in for a service before we go away and well because I left it to the last minute its booked in on the day we are leaving - whoops, I forgot to pay for Jacobs swimming lessons at school so I will have to pay that on the morning we leave and i had to get Bethany's eczema cream and because I am not at all organized couldn't book her in till the morning we leave - so its going to be a big busy day when we leave, if we ever leave lol! I must pack tomorrow!!!!

I did have some layouts to post but I need to photograph them again, instead I have a couple of Bethany, on the weekend while Jacob was playing the xbox, he called out to me to show me what Bethany was doing - blowing on the glass cabinet door! looks so funny!!

Just stuff

wow I cant believe how fast the year is going! the last few days have felt like winter, it has been rather chilly and wet,

we lost one of our big shady trees the other day- well it wasn't ours it did grow on the footpath, but it was the tree I parked under in summer, the roots had broken one of the water pipes, not very interesting I know but it was a big tree and I'm pretty sure some birds lived in it!

yay we are going on a little family holiday in less than 2 weeks, we are staying just out of Victor Harbor in a little cottage called Frangipanni Cottage, at first dh said he is not staying in a place with that name but I think the spa won him out lol, it looks really nice and lonely (theres no other houses near by) and its only a few mins drive from Victor and Im sure there is a scrapbook shop there that I havn't been to before!

I am getting alot more sleep lately, although Ella is teething and it seems to be waking her, she has her 2 bottom teeth but one of her top side teeth is about to break through which seems a bit unusual, she is so cute, she sits now all on her own and she has just started to stick one arm out to me if she wants me to pick her up, she loves Bethany, it is just beautiful watching them sometimes, a couple of times in the car I have noticed them holding hands!

Bethany is into Jacobs old Hi5 videos mainly the Animal Adventures one which would have to be about 5 years old now- as Nathan has all his hair lol! and everyday I have the songs playing over and over in my head, and I cant get them out!

well I think it must be time for bed, busy day tomorrow- arnt they all when your a mum!

mothers day

I was totally spoilt on Mothers Day! after a not so good night with baby Ella, Mark took Jacob and Bethany of to Church and I went back to bed while Ella had her nap so I was able to catch up on some sleep- what a huge difference it made! for the last couple of days I dont think I have been grumpy with either my kids or with hubby! Mark cooked me bacon and eggs for breakfast and he gave me a bag of Darrel Lea chocolate and a bottle of caramel baileys (mum that will take me ages to drink that, and I wont drink it before I need to feed Ella) and Jacob had spent all week at school making me gifts so it was a really nice day! I even managed to take pictures of the kids, I hadnt planned on dressing them all in white and blue either! unfortunately when I asked Mark if he would also wear his white shirt he said no lol!
For lunch we went to Marks mums and had KFC and for tea we had yummy pizza at my mums so we were pretty stuffed by the end of the day!
Well that was my Mothers Day hope you had a great one aswell!

I did ask him to be honest.....................

I recently bought myself a pair of skinny jeans and while getting dressed to wear them yesterday, I asked my darling hubby how they looked, expecting him to say 'wow, you look great in those' he raised an eyebrow and said 'your not 15 anymore dear', Ouch that hurt, needless to say I wore something different and will reassess my wardrobe at a later date!

Blog Challenge #3

blog challenge- fav spot-
ok heres my favorite spot in the house, the family room, its the room that most of the day is spent around as the kitchen and dining room is next to it so we use this room most of the time- and of course my scrapping desk is in the corner! you can't tell in this photo but that window is my fav spot to see things- from where I took this photo we can clearly see freight trains and huge ships that go out to sea via the Port river, I remember the first morning after we moved, back in January last year- the start of a 40 degree heatwave, I had very little sleep, boxes everywhere and Bethany was really unsettled in her new room (she was 6mths), I went to try and settle her and when I went past and looked out the window I could see the sun rising- it truly took my breath away, even now at night when I have to feed a baby I will sometimes stand here and look at all the lights or watch a huge fishing boat go out in the dark- it amazes me how blessed we have been with buying this house, and everyday I am so thankful for this house and this room!!