Happy 2nd Birthday Lydia!

Today our gorgeous Pickle turns 2! Can you believe it? We're off to the foreshore reserve for hopefully a not too ridiculously hot party with three of her friends, and some family.
I promise to post some pics when we get back... ooh now where have you heard that before? But right now I'm enjoying the last few moments of peace before the rest of the house wakes up (yep, nearly 8am and miraculously they're all still sleeping).

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Okay; here they are, as promised. Lydia actually work moments after I finished typing, so we got everyone else up for some serious present opening. And I mean serious. She took her task VERY seriously, and though she was clearly excited about the gifts she was getting, ooohing and aahing and wowing over each thing very nicely, she hardly smiled the whole time. She was very cute though, tearing each piece off and handing it to Andrew or myself before starting on the next piece.

Our lunch on the foreshore was ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL! What a great spot! We set up our little marquee thing under the shade of a lovely tree, and with the breeze coming off the bay it was soo lovely and cool. Certainly no comparison to the 39+ degree days we've been having. The kids played nicely, there were no fights, they all enjoyed the fruit and healthy alternatives to party food that I put out. We've reduced Lydia's sugar intake to try to help her calm down a little (and it's really working nicely) so we wanted to keep the sugar to a minimum. The kids enjoyed choclate cake (shaped like Dorothy the Dinosaurs hat) but they were quite happy with the sandwiches and fruit and veg platter that we put out. It's important I think to remember that the party needn't be about the food, but just about the kids having fun together. And the grownups enjoying a chat in the shade is always great too! Okay; so pic share!

The first is of my Mum and Lydia. Lydia spent ages telling Mum some big old story; pointing out all these things and grunting. Mum spent ages being 'interested' lol. The second is Lydia and I. Thanks Rach for taking this great pic - I actually like this one. :) The third is the too cute Cake. I love easy cakes; and this was too easy; but looked super cute. And finally; I didn't give out gift bags this year. Instead I went down to Kmart and bought pencils for 99c a packet, then I created new liners for the packets to make them into little thank yous. Very happy with the final result.

Class Christmas Party and Dane's report

Dane's class at school had their Christmas Party today; and it was totally cute as. Yep that is my genius son sitting inside a washing basket in his classroom... it's a boy thing, right? They had an absolute ball handing out Secret Santa gifts and feasting on the most incredible array of food. I love how much pleasure kids take in the little things... (like washing baskets) Lydia also had a total blast, and the kids were so great about including her, and the other younger siblings who attended.

Actually today has been completely mental. I woke up at 5 to 9 this morning; swore at the clock... (always a pleasant start to the day) then just decided that if Dane was going to be late for school then a few minutes extra wouldn't make much difference, so I jumped in the shower for a quick wash before getting him and Lydia out the door and into the car for school (even managed to give Dane some toast on the way) Was completely impressed to be at school by 10 past 9 - only 10 minutes late - NOT BAD!

Okay; so I dropped him at school, filled in a late pass, then threw Lydia back in the car and off to Kmart to grab a few things for Mum to give as Christmas gifts, had a quick coffee with my hubby (have I mentioned that I LOVE having him work at our local store now?), stopped at the grocery store, then back home to finish up Dane's teacher's gift, cook up some pizza and pies for the party and back at the school by 12.

We (Lydia and I) stayed for the hour long party then back home to finish a few things here, back to school by 2:30 for a Parent Helper's Afternoon Tea, then picked up Dane and bought the kids home. Where I am now taking five minutes out to upload some of my fave pics from today. I have an AWFUL head cold, which apparently Wendy sent me via the net from the UK (probable, right?) and I want to crawl into bed and sleep til next week, but it is hot and muggy and Andrew is working late again tonight, so that's not happening.

On another note Dane brought home his report card tonight and I'm pretty proud of him. He has improved in all areas that were mentioned last semester (namely, listening and focussing on the task) and though he still has a ways to go with those things he has made an effort and I am totally pleased by that. He also got a B in reading; which means he is about 6 months ahead of state expected level and I am SO PROUD of the effort he's making.

Photo Update

Oh my! I have been so darned busy preparing for Christmas; but we are totally loving it. Okay, things to share; firstly - Dane got his school books for Grade 1 last week; a huge event that required Lydia assisting. He was so excited to look through a bunch of boring notebooks lol. I can not belive that he's almost done with Prep. My baby is getting big so darned fast, and I am not thrilled with it.

Secondly, Dane and Andrew went fishing on the weekend - staying out until 2 am I might add - and Dane caught this awsome gummy shark. hahaha - kinda cute actually, Dane fell asleep on Andrew's chair sometime around 11 p.m. and when he woke up was told by his daddy that he'd caught this shark. (It was caught using Dane's rod, so by his standards, that means he caught it.) Yep, poor Daddy caught NO FISH; but Dane landed this baby in his sleep. :D

Our Christmas tree is laden with cute red presents now; and miraculously Lydia hasn't touched any of them. I guess she doesn't yet realise that cool stuff is wrapped up in those brightly coloured boxes. This time next week that will all change I have no doubt. We've even put our gifts for Lydia and Dane under there, so all it's waiting for is Santa to arrive and drop off his goodies. Dane is SUPER excited; this week is just dragging by for him.

Meanwhile I have been busy making cards - I packed up all the Christmas cards and posted them before I took a pic (yep; I'm an idiot) but I have also been making statioary sets as gifts; so I have a bunch of cards to share. I've even made matching envelopes for each card. These are just a few of the fifty or so cards I've made in the last week... Nothing elaborate; just simple, but I think they're cute. I've been trying to use a lot of my scraps too, so they've been super economical.

Dane's class Christmas party is tomorrow and today they've been to see Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium at the cinemas. It sounds like such a lovely movie; I hope he's enjoying it.

Oh and one more thing before I go. Lydia has just discovered the joys of peek-a-boo. lol - insane, right? I mean, she's nearly 2! But it's still totally cute! Love those chubby little fingers and the cute-as giggle that goes with this game.

Well that'll do from me for today - am aiming to get some just for me scrapping done tonight, so i might even share some layouts before Christmas.

14 sleeps til Christmas

Anyone else getting excited? I just LOVE Christmas; doubly so now that I have my wonderful children to share it with. There is no sight cooler than the look on a child's face when they see the Christmas tree laden with gifts on Christmas morning. Dane and I have been shopping for a gift for Andrew and one for Lydia and we've had such a great time; dawdling around the shops looking at all the cool Christmassy types of things. We've been playing carols pretty much non stop and just really getting in to the whole spirit of the season. Joy, love and laughter. Yep; Christmas is on it's way!

We're doing our annual Christmas photo shoot this week; I can't belive I still haven't taken pics of the kids in Christmas hats hehehehe will post them once I have them. We spent the weekend making cards for all his friends, which he gave out with candy canes yesterday. I think that's one of the great things about the festive season; how many things can be made and shared.

Hope you're all enjoying this Christmas as much as we are.

I saw this on Erica's blog and had to share it with you. Thanks for sharing Erica; I pray that this touches someone else as it did me.

A minister passing through his church in the middle of the day
Decided to pause by the altar and see who had come to pray.
Just then the back door opened, a man came down the aisle,
The minister frowned as he saw the man hadn't shaved in a while.
His shirt was kind a shabby and his coat was worn and frayed,
The man knelt, he bowed his head, then rose and walked away.
In the days that followed, each noon time came this chap,
Each time he knelt just for a moment, A lunch pail in his lap.
Well, the minister's suspicions grew, with robbery a main fear,
He decided to stop the man and ask him, "What are you doing here?"
The old man said, he worked down the road. Lunch was half an hour.
Lunchtime was his prayer time, For finding strength and power.
"I stay only moments, see, because the factory is so far away;
as I kneel here talking to the Lord,This is kind a what I say:

"I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, LORD, HOW HAPPY I'VE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHERS FRIENDSHIP AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN.
DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY, BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY.
SO, JESUS, THIS IS JIM CHECKING IN TODAY."

The minister feeling foolish, told Jim, that was fine.
He told the man he was welcome to come and pray just anytime
Time to go, Jim smiled, said "Thanks." He hurried to the door.
The minister knelt at the altar, he'd never done it before.
His cold heart melted, warmed with love, and met with Jesus there.
As the tears flowed, in his heart, he repeated old Jim's prayer:
"I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, LORD, HOW HAPPY I'VE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHERS FRIENDSHIP AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN.
I DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY, BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY.
SO, JESUS, THIS IS ME CHECKING IN TODAY."
Past noon one day, the minister noticed that old Jim hadn't come.
As more days passed without Jim, he began to worry some.
At the factory, he asked about him, learning he was ill.
The hospital staff was worried, But he'd given them a thrill.
The week that Jim was with them, Brought changes in the ward.
His smiles, a joy contagious. Changed people, were his reward.
The head nurse couldn't understand why Jim was so glad,
when no flowers, calls or cards came, Not a visitor he had.
The minister stayed by his bed, He voiced the nurse's concern:
No friends came to show they cared. He had nowhere to turn.
Looking surprised, old Jim spoke up and with a winsome smile;
"the nurse is wrong, she couldn't know, that he's in here all the while
Everyday at noon He's here, a dear friend of mine, you see,
He sits right down, takes my hand, Leans over and says to me:
"I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, JIM, HOW HAPPY I HAVE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND THIS FRIENDSHIP, AND I TOOK AWAY YOUR SIN.
ALWAYS LOVE TO HEAR YOU PRAY, I THINK ABOUT YOU EACH DAY,
AND SO JIM, THIS IS JESUS CHECKING IN TODAY."

My baby is sick.

I know she doesn't look at all ill, but today I took my baby girl to the paediatrician. She's been presenting with a whole lot of issues that were just accumulating to too many things to ignore. Getting the appointment was tough going, but my wonderful friend Marion was able to secure me an appointment when she had to postpone hers. Thank you once again to Maz; cos we certainly couldn't continue without answers. And it seems we are going to get some now. They may not be the answers we'd like, but this paed is being really thorough.

Lydia's having trouble with her speech, in fact she's actually almost 10 months behind where she should be, she has a poor attention span and short fuse, she's had some pretty persistent bowel troubles and her head circumfrence is pretty small. The doctor is testing for so many things; poor baby is going to have as much blood taken tomorrow as it is possible to take from a 2 year old, and I am not looking forward to that at all ; is there anything worse than seeing your child suffer, expecially when they don't understand why you're allowing it to happen? The most frightening of the tests is a chromosome test. I know it's only a test, but even the idea of something being wrong that we can't fix scares me. I pray so fervently that nothing will stop our baby girl from reaching her full potential. That anything we find we can fix, and that anything we can do for her is done. She's so bright and happy and full of life; I can't imagine her life being anything but completely fullfilling and enriching.

The results for this one don't come back for 6 - 8 weeks; chuck Christmas in there and you have to add an extra 2 - 3 weeks for holidays, so we wont know what's going on until late Feb. Please pray that whatever is wrong with Lydia is found and healed.

Family Portraits

We had some family pics taken a couple of weeks ago - they took loads (don't they always?) but these are my faves. I didn't buy the while collection, but how cold I not get this black and white?? Sorry the colour and lighting aren't the best; but my scanner is appalling!

I've also been working on a 'One little Word' challenge through My Scrapbook Nook (thanks Erica for the awesome inspiration) as a faithbook to re-focus me in times of need. Once it's finished, I'll share it... I'm finding it hugely therapeutic right now. Thanks as always for stopping by; hopefully one day I'll actually post something worth checking out! :D

Layout Share - from me this time :)

I managed to get two of the CIS cybercrop layouts done this past weekend, so though I'd share them. Monochromatic scares me; don't know why, but it never seems to look quite right when I do it. However, I'm really happy with how this turned out. Both of these LO's were inspired by the awesome Rachel Hall's 'MUAH' LO (check it out here) 'Tahlia' was inspired by the design, and Jordy & me was inspired by the colours. Thanks for sharing your amazing talent Rachel.
I've also made a bit of a start on our holiday pics, so I have a few LO's to share. The first LO was for Wendy's sketch on the CIS Sketch Blog Check it out if you get a chance.



Thanks for stopping by - hopefully I'll have some more to show you soon.

Layout Share - from Dane

Dane sat and scrapped with me - a monochromatic layout for the CIS cybercrop. He was so meticulous, Jolene stipulated that only one colour could be used, except in the stickers, so he wouldn't even write in any colour but blue. He was a little concerned about the other colours in the photos, but I managed to convince him that was okay. I've included a close-up of his journalling cos it's just so sweet.

This was quite a challenge for me; to let him do a page in one of my albums, not his album, but a page for our holiday album... without interferring. I guess this is going to be one more of the beautiful things about scrapping, that I can share with my kids and they can contribute something worthwhile to our family albums. I'm sure they'll be all the more special to him for it.

Please leave loads of comments, he gets such a thrill out of people saying nice things about his pages.

My gorgeous hornbag friend Shelly (do you think that is a good intro or what Shel?) has finally started blogging. So please jump over to her blog and have a look if you get the chance - remember how great you felt every time someone left a comment when you first started blogging and share the love girlies.

In my life - today is pirate day at school for Dane, and family portrait day at Lydia's creche, so we're off this afternoon to get our photo taken. Dane's been bribed with a sleepover if he smiles nicely for a few pics hehehe... the things we do, hey? Lydia's still crook and has now added NOT SLEEPING to her symptoms... I am exhausted and cranky and all things horrid at the moment. Just desperately need more than two hours sleep a night. Hope the doc has some answers soon.

For now, I'm leaving it at that - will post pirate pics tonight or tomorrow when I have a little more energy.

More pics... and.....

Well firstly here are a few more pics from our Holiday. This first is one of my absolute faves EVER of Lydia. Love that grin. Not quite sure when my baby became a little girl; apparently she's bypassed the whole toddler stage... well, judging from this pic, anyway! It was taken on the upstairs balcony at the house in Brunswick Heads.

These next pics are of Dane enjoying the pool at the resort - how cool is that waterslide??

And finally, some BIG news. We have a new vehicle parked in our driveway! This morning we brought home a 2003 Daewoo Nubira sedan! woohoo!!!!!! It has under 50,000 kms on it and we are so excited! Finally both of our cars are in good condition and wont be requiring huge $$ being spent on them every month just to keep them running. Not the best pic, but here it is.

Photos from our holiday

I've been promising to upload a few pics from our holidays; so here are the first couple. I'm having some trouble uploading, so I might load up some more tomorrow. The files are all huge, so they need a fair bit of editing to compress them down enough

These pics were taken at Byron Bay - Lydia at the beach (not getting wet hehehehe) and Dane and Andrew looking out across the ocean from Australia's (almost) eastern most point.

One of about a million from Brunswick Heads - Dane had such a wonderful time kite flying on the beach.

These two were taken at Movie World - the kids had the most AMAZING time here. Dane was so so so excited about going on the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster (a ride which, as it turns out, scared the living DAYLIGHTS out of him) and Lydia just wanted to do everything. She was shattered every time we had to tell her she was too little.

I'll have upload pics from the resort tomorrow - my camera is flat and all the pics are on that :(

I've been tagged.

So Karen has tagged me to come up with 7 random things about myself... so here goes...

1. I don't consider myself a good mum. I'm not particularly patient, and quite frankly a lot of kids activities bore me brainless. I wish this wasn't the case, but there it is.
2. I love school. (omg NERD!) I do. I love to learn, I love to share in knowledge, I love to debate... love it all... cept exams YUCK!
3. I eat WAY too much. I just can't seem to stop myself snacking. Like, all day. BAD BAD BAD.
4. I am incredibly opinionated. Sometimes a little arrogant I suppose, but I really feel that people need to consider how what they do affects others a bit more. This includes smokers, parents who couldn't care less about their kids, dangerous drivers... you get the idea.
5. I love the wind in my face - that complete feeling of freedom that comes from riding a horse or standing on the top of a hill with your eyes closed and your arms spread wide, embracing life.
6. I have a shocking inability to say NO. I don't even want to. I want to help EVERYONE. I burn out pretty often.
7. I love pretty things. Hilarious, cos I'm about as rough as they get. I want to live in a pretty home, with pretty things and be a girly girl. I'm not, but I want to be.

Don't know if that actually tells you any more about me; but there you go.

I'm now tagging Fleurie and Manon.... sorry girls hehehehe

A quick hello

Good morning all. It's currently 20 past 6 in the morningn here in Sunny QLD and you'd be amazed by how many people are awake here! I don't have time to post pics right now (omg there are gonna be SOOOO many when we get home) but I did wanna pop in and let everyone know we're having a WONDERFUL time. We spent yesterday at Warner Brothers Movie World and we all had such a great tme there. Ihas this kids section with rides just for little ones which was a blessing with Pickle, cos she aas starting to feel left out until we found that. I think Dane went all any ride he was tall enough for - which the exception of the roller coasters... lol, a boy after my own heart there!
We met up with Liz and her beautiful kids and Jolene and Katie on Friday - Liz and Jolene are exactly as I imagined them and their kids are just too cute! I really didn't realise just how TINY Sabrina is. Dane and Zane hit it off INSTANTLY and were best buddies in a heart beat. Katie played happily at her own thing - that girl is so cute!
The resort is fab; Dane has been so excited about having a Playstation in his room and he even beat Daddy last night (hehehehehe) We've spent a couple of hours in the pools already; with more planned for today. Just relaxed days planned from here on in and we'll be home Monday.
Looking forward to catching up with everything then.
Love n hugs
Dee

All Things Are Possible

As many of you will know we have been facing some pretty heavy finacial burdens of late. My poor DH works hard to provide for his family, but being on salary has meant that no matter how many hours he works there is still no extra money coming in. Every October he comes up for pay review, which generally means an extra $1000 or so each year (basically not much mroe than CPI increase) Next week we are due to leave on holiday to QLD a trip we've been planning for 18 months and saving for that long for. Last month that all came crashing down around us when I had to go back in to hospital for surgery. So we were desperately hoping that this year he might get a bonus, some extra money in his actual October pay packet.
Yesterday God reminded me of His infinite Love for my family. Andrew came home not only with a bonus meaning that we have MORE than enough money to enjoy our holiday; but also enough of a payrise to ensure that I can continue with my studies next year and that the financial burdens which have exhausted us can be lifted from our shoulders. Now I know many of you will be sitting here asking why God would be giving us MONEY? This money; which may seem a small amount in the eyes of some, will pay off all my medical bills and put me in a position to support the children of my sister; who need love right now. The timing of this is absolutely life saving; we can now spend our holiday recovering from a VERY tough couple of years and rediscovering our family. That is the Power of His Love. Not the money; but the peace it gives us. In His Love; All Things are made Possible.

Sketch by ME!

I've finally ventured into the world of sketching lol. I love working from sketches; I find it really focussed me; so when Ally asked me to come up with a challenge for this month at Crafty Collages I knew EXACTLY what to do! So here it is; my first ever publicly released sketch! Ally fixed it up for me in Photoshop; I don't have any software that can do anything like that.

Please give it a go; can't wait to see what everyone comes up with; it's a nice simple one with plenty of room for creativity. If you make sure and include some fabric somewhere on your LO (that's fabric, NOT ribbon) and upload it to the crafties gallery over here you'll be in the running to win this month's prize!

School Holiday Antics

Well the two weeks of school holidays are almost over and most of the holidays I haven't really been up to doing much with Dane. Today, in an effort to make up for a complete lack of attention I took him and his best mate Sami to the Melbourne Museum.

They had an abolutely wonderful time; it's such a great place for kids, and cos I promised Kate I would; here are a few of the pics I took. The dinosaurs were naturally the main feature for the kids, but Dane was really impressed by Phar Lap too. They also have an awesome kids room with hand puppets and a sand table set up with these 'fossils' in them for the kids to 'discover'. It's so cool!

After the museum we headed over to the Hard Rock Cafe for a very late lunch. Love this place; such good value and the kids were just so impressed by all the memorabilia. The kids menus there are designed to be coloured in, so they happily sat with some crayons (yay! still not too big for crayons!) They also got to keep the cups that their drinks came in, which they were pretty stoked with. Then back on the train to head home. I got the coolest pic of Dane on the train, so I really wanted to share it with you. Full credit to these boys; I have no voice at the moment and they were so good.

Nice Matters

Well Liz has once again absolutely made my day. Honestly folks, if you don't know this woman yet, then you are missing a huge part of the greatest things in life. Liz is supportive, encouraging, patient and welcoming to EVERYONE! I have never met anyone so openly accepting of other people in my life, and I thank God every day for bringing her into my life. (Of course, if He could just find it in Himself to convince her to move to Melbourne, I'd be even more thrilled!!!!)

So now you're wondering what this wonderful gal has done? Last week was a shocker for me; so much bad news and I was absolutely miserable. Liz, without knowing any of this, did several things to lift my spirits;

1. She tagged me as a Nice person, just because.

2. She made this gorgeous min album and posted it to me; how divine is this???

3. She posted me a RAK, along with the gorgeous LO she created of my two darling children.

4. She messaged me just because I hadn't spoken to her for a couple of days; just to make sure I was okay.

How could one ask for a better friend than that?

Now to pay forward the lovely compliment that Liz has given me; I'd like to tage the following people as Nice people;

Kate - no blog although her gorgeous little girl has her own site; umm Kate - when's yours coming???

Simone

Shelly

Ally

Kate, Mone and Shel don't have blogs to share yet - get bloggin' girls! But they are gorgeous lovely people who brighten the lives of those around them.

Sorry that this is such a long post; but I do have to add a mummy brag moment! My beautiful baby boy performed in his first school concert on Friday night. he was absolutely petrified and I am so proud of him for conquering his fear and doing it anyway! Well done Dane, you did such a great job! Some pics of my little star!