May twenty-ten

Mothers day. A sleep in, a gorgeous bag made by Max at pre school, slippers and money to buy my iphone car jack.

Loftus Pies YUM. Slow Cooker Dinners YUM

Preschool photos. BPS photos.

Preschool Committee Dinner.

Cooper's Baptism.

Lucas' 4th Birthday, Kirsten 34th birthday & Ben's 9th Birthday.

Julie's Tupperware party and a nice dinner with her and Peta.

A high school catchup at Taren Point.

Play center catch ups with mums group (Monkey Mania) and Elleni and Kerry (Clown Town).

Cleaned Pantry, cups and glasses cupboards.

Jars of....quilt

Max's quilt is finished and I LOVE it.

It measures about 120 x 150 cm. It is SO bright and I love looking at all the bugs. I am more excited about it than Max.

If you pop by leave me a comment.....I would love to hear from you.

Girls in my Circle

When I was little,
I used to believe in the concept of one best friend.
And then I started to become a woman
And found out that if you allow your heart to open up,
You could have many best friends.

One friend is needed when you're going through things with your man.
Another friend is needed when you're going through things with your mum.
Another will sit beside you in the bleachers as you delight in your children and their activities.
Another when you want to shop, share, heal, hurt, joke, or just be.

One friend will say, “Let's cry together.”
Another, “Let's fight together.”'
Another, “Let's walk away together.”
One friend will meet your spiritual needs,
Another your shoe fetish,
Another your love for movies,
Another will be with you in your season of confusion,
Another will be your clarifier,
Another, the wind beneath your wings.

But whatever their assignment in your life,
On whatever the occasion,On whatever the day,
Or wherever you need them to meet you with their gym shoes on and hair pulled back,
Or to hold you back from making a complete fool of yourself, those are your best friends.

It may all be wrapped up in one woman, but for many, it's wrapped up in several:

One from 7th grade,
One from high school,
Several from uni years,
A couple from old jobs,
On some days your mother,
On some days your neighbor,
On others, your sisters,
And on some days, your daughters.

I am happy that there are a lot of women who have made a difference in my life xxxxxxx

Project Life

Wow it's May and I have not updated you on how I am going on Project life 2010.
Firstly I can't believe that I have taken a photo EVERYDAY this year, without forgetting. This is my first week that I have really needed to LOOK for photos to take. Most days things come up and there is a story i want to share. The other night Max was playing with Carl his 'iphone friend' (a great ap for kids) and I needed to get a shot, it was so hard as we were in near darkness.....so I guess I am happy that I am also working hard to strengthen my photography skills at night as I hate using the flash.

Another project I took on was to take a photo of Flynn EVERYDAY as well. Sadly I let this go in early April, I still take a shot most days and I am hoping to have 300 days so I can fit them all in a gorgeous slip in album I have.

Here are some of my pages from project life, I am only up to date to March 1 so I need to get a move on as it tends to get out of control easily lol

This is the first page......I am yet to complete my title page, I will post when I do

thanks for stopping by......let me know what you think and if you are doing PL let me know where you are up to!!!!

April twenty-ten

Another very late night on the 1st....crawled into bed at 3am on the 2nd after some wine time and girly laughs.

Easter - too many hot cross buns, a yummy good Friday fish lunch, a trip up the river, an Easter egg hunt, boat rides, tubing, Tayla broke her finger and a Chinese dinner with family.

A lovely school catch up celebrating Gina's 40th, great food, company and MOET. Loves my BPS girl pals.

School holidays...no preschool. A mixture of rest and a few days out at the park, shopping and a Ben 10 concert.

Darren's 34th birthday dinner and BBQ. He made it to his cake on Friday night, but was asleep just on dinner on the Saturday night.

Minimal scrapbooking, some cleaning and STILL dealing with pool issues.

A fun night with the girls at my place hosting a jewellery and Tupperware party.
Anzac Day- March in the city.

I started to look at schools to enrol Max in, looked into a new Family Day care for Flynn.

Really WARM autumn weather, lots of trips to the park.

Anzac Day 2010

My Dad makes me so proud to be an Aussie. He is such a great man, I love everything about him. This year was his first Anzac day without Doreen and everyday is a little hard for him. I get upset watching him get upset....I just want to make all the pain go away but it never will.

For years I have said I will go and watch him march 'next year'. Well I was sick of those years going by and as he did not march last year due to Doreen's health I decided now it is every year we will share this event.

We found a good spot on the side of the road. the plan was to text dad and let him know where we were and what side of the road we were on. However.....dad lost his phone, we think it fell out of his suit pocket on the train. So he never got our instructions to march on the right-hand-side and we could not hear him call out "I've lost my phone"

Sadly Max fell asleep and missed Pop. We were going to venture down to try and have a drink with dad but it was busy and we thought it best to leave him with his mates. Little did we know he had lost his phone and it would have been better to walk down and see him to ease his mind.

We walked around Darling Harbour and had a nice lunch at the Meat and Wine Co. We did some clothes shopping for Max and Darren, looked around the Cenotaph and then went to the station. Just as we were about to walk down to the platform...out of the corner of my eye I could see my dad entering the station...I was shocked to see him and he seemed a little upset as he told us the story of his phone and that he was waiting for us to have a drink......I was sooo upset, we should have stuck to our original plan but as he was not answering his phone i just thought he could not hear it. i was sad he never stayed and relaxed with his mates at the pub.

Max and I read the book "My grandad marches on Anzac day" a tradition here on Anzac day. We thank all those that fought for this wonderful country...LEST WE FORGET.

A week in my life - April 19 to 25

Ali Edwards inspires me, she is what defines scrapbooking for me.

I thought is would be a great week to document MY LIFE because in exactly 3 months my weeks will look different as I will return to work for 2 days a week. I love life right now, the routine and staying at home, i don't like how it is moving fast and the days are whizzing by. I love being a mum, a wife, a daughter, a friend. Laughter, talking, photos, my computer/iphone, exercises, kids, happiness and TV are part of my happy life. Daily chores and paying the bills are part of my life too....I just don't associate the word happy with them.

I am not going to post much here, I am off to spend time on the actual project.....but here are some of my favourite shots i took over the past week, surprisingly i took over 300 photos of the week.

A promise photos WHEN i complete the album!!!!! i will also revisit this in 3 months when I am back at work to look at my week then.

Check out this fantastic album.......I love Pip's work

he

loves his action figures and will sit and role play with them.

loves TV.

is a BATMAN fan and Astro Boy is his friend.

has all of a sudden become scared to fall asleep in his own bed.

he has a short fuse at times and gets angry when he hurts himself.

he gets in trouble for growling at me.

invites kids over "to our place" if he likes them.

loves the colour green. He draws and writes all the time in green at Preschool

loves to eat tinned spagetti, cucumbers, vinegar and balsamic rice crackers and ice cream.

has a memory of places, he will say "mum, Linda came here". "that's Tayla's soccer field".

has classic one liners like after not seeing Charlie from Preschool (he is at school now) for at least

4 months and suddenly seeing him you said "oh my gosh Charlie you are ALIVE".

asks good questions "Mum why is your hair growing black?" (well I did need my hair coloured)

this time a year ago

yes (often) I am good at dates, remembering little things, sometimes very insignificant but still useful. April 2009 has many memorable dates i will always remember
01 - Egg Collection
06- Embryo transfer
17- the phone call ....YES....POSITIVE...ALL LOOKS GOOD
22 - ultra sound confirmed...we saw you for the first time xxxx

And here you are a year on...Flynn Frederick, so loved, so chubby and so happy. I pinch myself everyday knowing how lucky i as not to have to go through IVF again and again, my only wish was that my eggs survived and I could have made someone else as happy as you make me.







Sadly there are NO photos from that day...but I remember the phone call before 11 and Rel taking my washing off the line (gee that girl can FOLD well).

frustrated

I was chatting with a scrapping friend today (well 2 actually) and we had a whine about no TIME to scrap. I could NEVER give this craft up but I am frustrated that I have sooooo many stories from my two gorgeous boys, my hubby and even my dad and friends to tell, I just need to stop procrastinating and get it DONE. I love this simple layout as it shows what scrapbooking means to me......some paper, a punch a good photo and a story to tell.

I have sat and edited photos this week (HOURS of time), tried to tackle my taxes (grrrr), cleaned the house, updated my boys journals, hosted a party for Daz, looked after 2 young children and still I feel I am not getting done the things on my list. I want to finish Max's quilt, write Flynn's thank you cards before he can write them himself, clean my HORRIBLE wardrobe and oh the list GROWS. I think I am toooo busy living life to document it

WHY is it we are half way through April and I feel like it should still be January 15???? How do people go to bed before 9pm and COPE???lol maybe they don't scrap heheheheehe.

OK now that moan is OFF my chest I am off to catch up on some of my "project life/photo a day"

March Twenty-Ten

An afternoon with the girls at WICKED the musical.

A nice day at the Camden show.

Mark's 41st birthday dinner, Byron's Christening, Nathan's 4th birthday, Tyler's 3rd birthday

A tupperware party, a scrap night and a 'just because' meant 3 very late nights....girls stuff, lots of laughs and a few glasses.

A new Principal for BPS.

A lovely lunch and catch up with 5 high school girlfriends.

Preschool Easter concert and egg hunt. Sadly term 1 of preschool came to an end, Max very happy and settled. He loves his 'best buds' Raph and Nathan

Loving keeping up with my photo-a-day challenge, sadly not keeping up with the album I am keeping them in.

2 swims this month in our pool after finally fixing the 2nd filter problem the solar heating broke.....a very sad pool season comes to an end :(

Flynn's first giggle made us all smile.

Scissors Paper Smock Kits

I have finished my three layouts for the next kit at Scissors Paper Smock. I am dropping them off to the shop tomorrow so they should be on sale just in time for Easter. Another 3 pages for under $25. With the terrible weather they have forcast this Easter long Weekend I am thinking it might be a great chance to scrap LOTS!!!!!

Scissors Paper Smock at Suite 3/403 Hume Highway at Liverpool 9821 4888.

the Camden Show

We had to get up way before the sun to drive Darren to the airport so when we got home we decided to go down and enjoy the Camden show and boy I am glad we did.

the beginning.

Max won a Pirate telescope on the clowns.

I won a BATMAN by throwing 3 rubber balls into a bucket....as soon as I handed over the $10 Max thought Batman was his. The pressure was on to make 2 out of the 4 balls stay in the bucket...lucky I learnt by watching that they bounce and a soft throw was the way to win.Max loved looking at the chickens and it took a long time to work up the nerve to touch one and pick one up.

He loved riding the tea cups and cars.

It was soooo hot the jumping Castle burnt his feet. (36 degrees).

We bought a TOY STORY show bag.

Max wanted to go on the giant slide and walked all the way to the top. I followed him and right at the top he changed his mind, as it was tooo hard to get back down, I just threw him on my lap and he screamed all the way down.

We drank nice cold icey drinks.

We loved looking at the horses and cows.

We ended up leaving and going to eat in the aircon at Camden McDonald's...it was soooo hot.

I wanted to quickly look at the patchwork shop in Camden but Max threw himself on the ground and begged me to go home. He napped for 2 hours that afternoon and then went to swimming lessons.

the end..........."I'm tired, can we go home, where is the car????"

As we left I said to myself that we would definitely go down again next year on the Friday as it was not busy and a great day out. Then it dawned on me Max might be in school next year. WOW that made me sad that next year little excursions together like this would not be as easy and mean more crowds.....well maybe one day off school with mum each term would be ok!!!! ;)

Jon and Kate plus Eight

Yep i am a reality TV junkie and since we have had Foxtel Jon and Kate plus Eight has been a MUST see for me. I have quickly watched the past 5 seasons and tonight I finally saw the last episode. I was soooo sad to see them part. They are such a gorgeous group of kids. I loved Alexis (soooo much so if Flynn was a girl I may have used that name). Hopefully one day we will see how life turned out for the eight and Jon and Kate!!!

PROOF I am a mother

PROOF I am a mother of a 4 year old and a 12 week old

I have stretch marks all over my belly.

I am 20kg over my healthy weight range, I am wearing maternity clothes and I attend weight watchers.

I can smell baby vomit on my shoulder, in fact most clothes have a vomit stain or are soaking to get the vomit stain out.

Everyday I make a Vegemite sandwich, walk over toys, wash, throw my hair into a ponytail and eat on the run.

I say "pack that away now you are finished with it" 32 times a day.

My 7 hours of sleep is broken with 50 minutes of feeding at about 4am.

My feet are in need of a pedicure, my shoulders are in need of a massage and my legs are in need of a wax.

I watch kids TV instead of what I want.

I am always getting Max into bed late and battling with his "but just 2 more minutes".

I have a 'to do' list that is 34m long.

I am looking on ebay for power ranger toys and rescue heroes.

I have approx. between 40 to 60 minutes of adult conversation each day.

I am on the preschool committee. I am organising Fundraising and book club.

My first LO for Flynn's 8.5 x 11 album.

happy

happy that I have LOST 5.4kg in 6 weeks of weight watchers.

happy Max is loving every moment of preschool and he has 2 fantastic teachers

happy Flynn is a great baby and even though he still wakes at 4am I can cope

happy with the layout i did the other day

the journaling reads - One September morning you called out to Me "I love you my sweet Darling". We now say it all the time to each other. You even know that is you say it with a cute face and pout your lips it helps you win brownie points with me.

very very happy with shots from my new camera (Canon 7D)

this Saturday

Scissors, Paper, Smock are hosting a make-and-take this Saturday from 10 to 12. Not only do you get to try Glimmermist (which I LOVE) you learn how to make this stunning flower. I was going to go in but I forgot all about my day out with the girls at WICKED....now how could I forget about that???? I bought cute shoes today for it....now to find the outfit.

The kits are also for sale.....be quick, they are selling fast.....$25 for 3 layouts is GREAT. I am starting to work on the next kit now

February twenty-ten

1. Max started back at preschool. He loved it but was exhausted at the end of each day. He made Buzz wings and they got Hermit crabs. Everyday was exciting. Max, Raphael and Nathan quickly became great friends.

2. A fun day at Charlotte's and Felicity's naming day at the Scarborough Hotel.

3. A green pool, a broken filter and lots of dollars spent.

4. Lots of rain, sun, hot nights, humidity at 99%, the hottest summer in 4 years.

5. I started weight watchers and lost 2.8kg in 3 weeks...lots more to go. I also began decluttering the house.
6. Flynn smiled for the first time. He is so cute and becoming chubbier (5.02kg 19/2). He is such a good baby 95% of the time.

7.Flynn and Max got their needles.

8.BBQs and relaxing drinks with friends.

9.Darren went through some terrible times, personally and professionally. High stress levels, i love him for everything he does even more xxxx

10. Max caught up with Callum who he missed so much. I too went into school a few times to catch up with those that I missed.

hey Rel

what I meant to say today was........

thank you for being there from the beginning. You (with a few others) have been on my roller coaster fertility ride. Each week you supported me, if I needed a reality check, you gave it to me. You kept my mind off it and helped me.

You supported me on the IVF days at work and kept my mind off it, we laughed, we talked and we hoped. When I called balling my eyes out you covered for me and made my day better. You were there the day I got the news that my first cycle had worked, you truely believed as you had the pram pandora charm ready to give to me....I am thankful everyday I see that charm as I know it could still be in your hand bag.

You have helped me with Max...a true friend, great advice from a brilliant mum. Thanks for your support while I was in hospital...Max STILL talks about that day Lava girl xxxx

It would be an honour to have you in our lives and Flynn's life.....he would be the luckiest kid if you were his God mother.

love ya the longest time....so glad BPS brought us together.

and P.S my heart is still beating from that night in the wardrobe when you said you were going for that job...remember it is a package deal if you ever do go for a job...me, you and Ally xxxxx

Motherhood

thanks Jen, this made me happier today. You, like most of us out there, are a fantastic mother...cheers to all of us xxxxx