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.