I'm an Aunty!!!

Woohoo!! My sister Alissa gave birth to a baby girl at 12.15pm today :) They have called her Emmerson Paige, but not sure if that's the right way to spell it yet... she is something over 8lb apparently, don't have all the details yet...

BUT I'M SO EXCITED!!! This is my first time as a Aunty :) Nice to be able to spoil someone else's baby and give it back!!

I have to wait till tomorrow to visit though, coz I'll wait till Greg is home so I don't have to take the 3 kids up myself.... gives me time to find a pressie and make a card!!

:) :) :)

P.S. Today is my baby girl's 6 month birthday, so little Emmi is exactly 6 months younger!! And she is a due-date baby too, not very usual :)

When did we move into a TOY STORE????

Must have been yesterday coz that's what my loungeroom resembles right now! The children got absolutely SPOILT ROTTEN this Christmas.... now today we have the dreaded task of finding homes for all the new things!! Eek..... I think thre will be a lot of purging of old toys today!!

Hoping you all had a lovely day yesterday. Ours was long but nice... but I think we're going to stay home for our own Mardon Christmas next year!

The day started about 6am, and surprisingly we managed to get Daddy out of bed at 6.30am! Think that must be a record.... but it WAS Christmas so no sleeping in!! Lani managed to stay awake for all the present opening, unlike Eli last year (who was back in bed by the time Daddy got out of bed!)... the kids opened gifts, then seemed to only want to play with each other's toys, strange... lol... they got spoilt rotten, the best bit was when Jai thought he'd opened everything and there was a note in the tree to go and look outside... he screamed when he looked out the back window and saw the new trampoline!! Unfortunately it was rainy so they couldn't go on it straight away... So we opened our presents, played for a bit, then went to church (we were a bit late - the story of our life recently, we're never on time anymore) ... after church it was a mad rush home to pack the esky, presents, let the boys have a quick jump on the new tramp, feed the baby, and jump back in the car for the long two-hour trip to Toowoomba for christmas lunch with my family.

It was a yummy lunch and fairly relaxing... present-opening time was crazy, presents going everywhere, and all too fast, so I really don't know who gave the kids what! And they got spoilt rotten again... thankfully we borrowed a wagon from our pastors (our car needs a wheel balance among other things!) coz we needed the extra boot space... it was full on the way home, oh I should have got a photo of that.....

The trip home was a LONG one... Miss Lani does not like car trips and what should have taken 2 hours, ended up taking a lot longer.... we had to stop a few times coz she was just screaming and screaming and then she was overtired so was just screaming some more... we decided to stop in at Mum and Dad's on the way past to try and settle her to sleep.. well we were there for an hour, she didn't go to sleep, but then did in the car, PTL! So we finally got home at about 8.30pm, put the kids to bed, unloaded the car.... and my BIL gave us a bottle of Kahlua and of Baileys (which I've not had much of before), so we REALLY enjoyed a yummy drink to wind down.... and some left-over banoffee pie too, yum!!

So now is the long task of finding where to put all these toys!!! BIL is *hopefully* (fingers crossed) moving out in a week or so, so if and when that happens, we'll be able to set up the rumpus room again as a playroom, and I can't wait!! We'll have somewhere to put the toys for one!!

As usual, I didn't get a lot of photos.... I never seem to get around to it, and would rather be joining in than running around behind the camera all day... and the lighting is never any good around our christmas tree... but here's a few from the day.... (oh a couple from today too)

Greg got this electric shock game from his sister..... here's all the big strong 'men' (boys) trying to out-play eachother and see who's a sissy and who's a 'man', lol..... I won't play... lol.... don't see the need to intentionally give myself an electric shock, coz no doubt I'd lose....

Jaidyn and Elijah were given matching shirts from their Nan (MIL) and of course I had to put them on them for christmas day.... really wanted to get a full-length pic of them, but Eli won't stay still for more than a second so this was the best I could do - Dad had to be in it... still a nice photo of my boys though :)

Li-Li and Daddy playing on the new tramp today:

And I attempted to take some pics of the kids together.... never seems to work does it... got a couple of half-decent ones though, so that will have to do!

And beautiful Miss Lani on her first christmas (she's in her christmas dress too, but the headband was lost in the pile of gifts and wrapping and boxes in our loungeroom!)

Ooh, wanted to say I got really spoilt... Greg bought me a gorgeous bracelet, and my parents had a freshwater pearl necklace made for me over in Singapore on their holiday earlier this month. Also got the Crabapple Bakery Cupcake cookbook and a cupcake tree, so can't wait to do some baking!! Will make a beautful cupcake tree for Greg's birthday next week.

Hope you all had a beautiful day with your families and stopped to remember the birth of Jesus.

OK, now onto the new year...

One more sleep...

Just thought I should get on quickly, as I might not have time later, to wish you all a very Merry Christmas (if you celebrate it of course!). Hoping you all have a beautiful and relaxing day tomorrow with family and loved ones, and that you may all take some time to reflect on the REAL reason we celebrate this holiday! That is, the birth so many years ago of one special babe who was to grow and save his people from their sins... that'd be us, and that'd be our Saviour Jesus Christ!! And if you don't know Him, why not just ask Him to come and fill you this Christmas? He's waiting for you... :)

Isaiah 9:6
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Luke 2:11
Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you: he is Christ the Lord.

Matthew 1:21
"She sahall bring forth a son, and thou shall call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins."

Makes a girl feel good...

... a new hair cut that is... and mine has been WAY overdue... so finally got the chop the other day, and I like it short!!! Haven't been bothered to straighten my fringe yet (hope I can find time to regularly though!), so for now a clip has to do!

Anyway, here's me now :)

Hope you're all nearly organised for Christmas.. I so AM NOT!! Eeek... still have a few pressies to get, probably have to go tomorrow or might drag Greg out on Sunday too.....

Well have a great weekend all!!

Congrats and cupcakes...

So HOW did it get to be the 17th of December already!! Eek!! I'm sooo not organised for christmas...... thankfully though, Greg is working 2.30-12.30 this week so I have a bit more time during the day to go and do the dreaded christmas shopping without the kids (well the boys at least)...

A few things to catch up on...

A HUGE congrats to Amy (my SOF buddy) and Michael on the early arrival of their beautiful daughter, Amalia.... it seems Amy liked my trick of delivering her own baby in the car, coz that's what she did too!! Good on you Amy, its a great experience wouldn't you say... I hope to meet the princess soon!!

Another CONGRATS to Cass (another SOF buddy!) and Dale on the arrival of their baby girl, Annabelle... great name too!! Can't wait to see some piccies of her!!

My sister has a week or so left till her bub is due... can't wait!!!

Yesterday afternoon, I had a lovely high-tea afternoon tea with my girlfriends from school, that I don't see nearly often enough, in fact, I'm not even sure I saw them at all this year, except for one.... oops, must change that for next year.... anyway, of course, I made cupcakes again, this time minis and I tried my hand at making christmas trees again, and this time they actually worked to my liking!! Yay... here's a piccie...

The food at the high-tea (yes all for 5 people, eek!)

ETA: the high-tea WASN'T at my house, so therefore it was not me who went to all the trouble to make this table all pretty... I just took my cupcakes along.... :)

And the 5 of us (gotta get our yearly group shot!) Two girls missing this year, Mel and Jo are overseas in the UK... here's Lou, Erinna, Katrina, myself and Jade.

Other news.... Mum and Dad returned from their cruise last week.... I think Mum is finding it hard to adjust to having to cook and clean again!! Jaidyn is having a few nights at Mum's this week, ahhh, love holidays..... now just have to entertain him when he gets back... I think a bit of christmas craft and cooking this week is on the agenda, maybe a play-date too.

Well, I'm frantically rushing around trying to get christmas presents sent off, cards sent off and the rest of the christmas shopping done. Thought I better do a quick update, but now I have to go and get my hubby out of bed and shower and go do some christmas shopping!!

Have a great day all xxx

Beautiful beautiful Lani...

** I started this post a few days ago (really today is the 17th!) so I'm just gonna post it to get it out and do another one too I think, can't seem to keep up with this these days, but things I want to get down! **

My girl is now 5 months (and a half nearly!) old... where did that time go.... thought it about time I did an update on her development and did a shoot....


She is rolling like a trooper (has been for a couple of months really). She hardly stays on her back these days unless she's particularly happy and then she is seen goo-ing and gaa-ing as in off in another land anyway... or eating her toes...


She has started getting up on her knees a little, and rocking back and forth. At this rate, she'll be crawling by Christmas, just over 6 months, my clever girl. (However in saying that, both the boys were crawling by 7 months I think)


I have given her the taste of solid food a few times. From today though, I think I'm going to make sure its every day, as he sleeping patterns at night have been shot to pieces lately.... she's reverting to worse than when she was born, waking every 3 hours like its daytime!! (as it is, I am updating this at 4am coz she's got up every TWO hours tonight... I'm so sleepy!!) Would just love a *bit* more sleep!! So obviously her tummy needs something more.... maybe I should try the bottle before bed again too. Yes, she's still breast-fed. However, who knows how long that will keep up if as it seems, she's not getting enough!! Hopefully the solids will help though, and I can continue to breastfeed for at least a few more months.

Well here's some piccies I took at 5 months old:

Post overload!!

Oh why do I leave it so long between posts, and then have about 100 things to mention when I *do* get around to posting - really must just do it in dribs and drabs mustn't I!!
So LOTS to mention...

Yes, I got to see my gorgeous Lusi, even though that in itself seems ages ago now (nearly two weeks!). Of course it was too short of a visit, but SO GOOD to see her, as we really don't know when it will be next... here's a pic I nicked off her blog... I managed to show her a lot more of Brisbane than I had intended, as we got a little lost getting from the airport to Maccas where I was meeting my sister.... so she has now been over every major bridge in Brisbane, and got more snaps of bits she didn't get last visit, hehe.... I was sad to hand her over to Cass and Lu though :( Hope its not too long till I see you again sweet girl xxx

It's definitely Christmas in full swing in our house now! The start of December definitely brought with it all things christmassy... This year I have made the boys an advent calendar using an activity each day rather than a chocolate - but actually they have the choccie calendars too, which I had bought before this idea was given to me from the wonderful Ange at SOF... Well as for the actual calendar, hopefully I'll get something made next year, but I've designated a christmas/family related activity for each day leading up to Christmas Day. So far, we've missed actually doing a few of them - due to disorganisation or wet weather - but hopefully we can catch them up. So far we have:

* Been to the local christmas carols

* Put up our tree

* written christmas cards

Today after school we are making some felt baubles... these activities are much harder to find time for with school to work around though! Today's should be fun, and might actually be good enough for yesterday's activity of getting a new ornament each for the tree (even though we just bought new red ones on Sunday) - we will make them this year I think!

So the weekend saw us at our playgroup (the one I've been going to with a couple of girls I went to school with - love facebook!) christmas party. One of the guys dressed up as Santa, which was for sure the highlight of the afternoon, at least for us adults... it was one of the cheap costumes I gather coz it fitted oh-so-bad and Pete had a nice hole in his crotch area - so funny!! The kids thought he was great though, except Pete's own son who was petrified... lol... we had done a little secret santa with gifts for the kids. Its actually the first 'christmas party' I've been to for a playgroup or group of friends, and it was really nice... maybe I should organise one with our other friends from church too! Eli got a little teddy that has velcro, laces, buttons etc to play with; Jaidyn got some matchbox cars; and Lani got a couple of rompers. Of course I made cupcakes again!! Spent ages the day before looking up pics on the net to decorate them..... well they didn't really turn out how I initially wanted them too, but were good anyway!

And Eli thought so too :)

Straight from the playgroup break-up, we headed to our local christmas carols... it was so good that it was on last weekend, as otherwise Greg would not have been able to go (working 6 days/week from now on), and I wasn't sure I would be with the kids on my own (Eli is enough to handle in a place like that!). They were lovely. I really LOVE going to our carols. Ours are particularly great because they are put on by the combined churches in the area, so there is really a big Jesus focus, which is so often lost these days, and I love that Jesus' birth was the main focus still, with only a little bit of Santa, Rudolph and Frosty...

In preparation for this last weekend, I spent the nights of the week before at the machine, sewing a christmas dress for Miss Lani. So of course she wore it and looked just gorgeous!! Might have to put it on her regularly in December to get some wear out of it, and of course on Christmas Day! And Eli wanted in on the photos too:

On Sunday we put up our tree and a few christmas lights... just as we were putting the tree together though, we decided we wanted some more fairy lights for it and I wanted to add some red to the blue and silver we've had for years.... so the tree stood there a little bare while we trundled off to Crazy Clarks to get some more decorations! Then we came home and Jai and I (and Eli tried to help too, but of course really just got in the way!) decorated the tree and Greg chuffed off outside to put up the lights on the house... we don't have a lot, but might just collect a new set each year I think.... we now have one set of icicle lights hanging from our gutter, and Greg bought a set of net lights to hang from the deck (really, we could have done with 2 of these ones though), and we got a neon red christmas tree which is hanging in the baby's room's window (which faces the front of the house).... here's the tree though... I just LOVE looking at it, esp with the lights on at night...

And here's a special little friend on our tree - a snow baby that my grandmother made for Jaidyn (he has 4 - the first 4 years of his life, but she's not making them anymore :()

I have a list about a MILE long of things to make and do.... its getting closer to christmas and I seem to keep adding to it and then not doing much..... I did get some inspiration from Ali Edwards this morning while reading her AEzine email, when she encouraged us to do these projects in the bits and pieces when we can, and they will come together... I am forever waiting for a nice big chunk of time to do it, which face it, doesn't happen much in the life of a SAHM to 3!! So I'm going to try to get these things done in small amounts now...

Anyway, this has taken a good chunk of time to do already, so I'll leave it for now... possibly missed something but oh well.

Take care all xxx

Will be short, but so sweet!!

I get to see my beautiful best friend LUSI tomorrow!! Woohoo!!! Who'da thunk huh!! She'll be up in Brissie for Lu's wedding (of which she will make a beautiful bridesmaid!) but its a rather short stay, esp with a wedding going on too.... but I just could NOT go without seeing her!! So we have arranged for me to pick her up from the airport and then we'll grab a bite to eat (probably Maccas!!) and then I'll take her out to Cass' place where I shall leave her!!

Even though we won't get much time (maybe an hour or two?) it will so great to still see her, and I'll make sure I take the camera for a quick piccie!!

Aaarrhhh... Pirate Party!!!

On Saturday we celebrated Jaidyn's 7th birthday by having 11 of his friends, and some family over for a pirate party!!

I spent AGES researching pirate parties on the net, narrowing down what I wanted and what was do-able for my time and budget (some of the Americans seem to go WAY overboard and these parties would no doubt cost hundreds of dollars!)... I wanted it to be fully pirate themed, so it was fun picking games, foods, decoration ideas etc.... You've already seen the invite (see a few posts back if you missed it). So I set myself some expectations by having that really cool already... had to live up to them!!

It was lots of work, but soooo much fun!! I didn't realise how full-on kids parties are too.. we've hosted more 'adult' parties before, where I can duck upstairs to prepare food etc, but I didn't really take into account I'd really need to be with the kids all the time, so I'm soooo thankful to my Mum and sisters for doing the food upstairs for me!!

When the kids arrived, they had name badges to put their pirate names on (most kids missed this point though and just wrote their names!)... and we set up some icing and lollies for them to decorate some pirate bikkies while waiting for everyone to arrive. There were also temp tattoos to apply... most of the boys were more interested in wsord-fighting though!! (and we only have one or two lots of tears, thankfully short-lived).

Once everyone was here, we started into the Treasure Hunt! Greg was Captain Gut-ripper Greg (nice name huh!) and he was in full costume (as was I too) and most of the time we were able to pull off the pirate-slang too! The kids loved the treasure hunt I think!! We broke it up at parts to play a couple of games. I want to record the actual clues here too, so sorry if you're not really interested in the finer details!

We started by reading the 'pirates code' to them (rules for the booty hunt):

1. Only th' Captain be t' read th' clues. He will read 'em once all sea dogs be havin' assembled.
2. Any gentleman o' fortunes caught runnin' will keel haul th' plank.
3. All ye scurvy dogs must nay be movin' till Gutripper Greg tells ya.
4. Any lowly pirates caught tryin' to pillage th' booty will be marooned on th' next island – bring th' treasure back t' th' ship before ye split it.
5. Any disputes an' ye be leavin' ya treasure t' davey jones!

Then Greg produced the first clue from his pocket:

Ahoy all ye pirates!
Ye booty has been stolen!
All th’ remains is this one clue:

A message in a bottle be th'
only way t' send mail.
Ye Seafarin' heartys these days
be havin' 't much easier now wi' these…

Which sent the kids to the letterbox... then....

Aarrgh, ye lily-livered land lubbers!
Can ye smell them doubloons?

Ye might find th' booty in a hut near th' cliffs…

The next clue was hidden in our playhouse next to our rock wall... took a bit for them to find this one! Some of them were looking right at but couldn't see it, lol! then:

By th’ Powers!
We be und’r attack!

Avast, man yer cannons!

Here we played 'Sink the Ship' where there were two teams in 'ships' Greg made of boxes... they had 2 'cannonballs' each (scrunched up newspaper balls) and the point of the game was to get as many of the balls behind the other teams ship in an allocated time. They LOVED this one, so we played it through twice. Then they got a chocolate coin for their booty collection, and this clue:

Ye be gettin' closer t' ya pieces o' eight!
After that swashbuckle
we need t' restock our cannonballs.
Ye clue be hidden amongst them.

There were black balloons blown up and hidden in our pop-up tent.... the kids had to tie one to their ankle and on GO they all popped each-others or their own balloon and one of them had the next clue in it (unfortunately the clue was actually in one of the spare ones, go figure!!):

The next clue was a coded message, and:

Shiver me timbers! Th' decoder be what ye need.
Ye may find 't near th' tree…

They found the decoder near a tree and then had to go about cracking the code... many of the boys ran off here coz I think they got a bit bored - it took about 5 mins to get the code out, which said: The treasure is buried beneath the cooker.

They had to think for a sec.. "The oven?" "No guys, its all outside. What might you cook on outside?" "A BBQ?" Yes, so Jaidyn led the way up the back stairs to the BBQ, where they found the booty hiden under the cover! I managed to follow them up there but the only pic I got was hands!! (quite humourous really, they'd obviously forgotten the rules, lol!)
With the booty was this message:

Wave ye jolly roger!
Th' booty be yaaaaaarrrrrrrrs!
Now alls t' do be celebrate wi' some grub,
an' a drink or three!

Then it was time to eat! The kids were only semi-interested in the food, but moreso in playing sword-fighting and on our swings again!! The pirate food consisted of:

* 'Scavenger Dogs' - mini hotdogs with sails!

* 'Cannonballs dipped in blood' - meatballs and tomato sauce of course!

* 'Shark's Blood' to drink - red cordial ice-cubes dropped into lemonade and swirled around so it looks like blood (didn't really though but cool though!)

* 'Rum' or 'Grog' - coke! A couple of the girls asked a couple of times - 'can we please have some more rum?' lol...

* Fruit skewers - so pirates don't get scurvy!

Plus some lolly snakes and chips, and bickies and dip for the adults...... the hot stuff was snuffed up pretty fast!!

After some grub and abit more playing, I brought down the cake. I was SO relieved that my cake actually worked and didn't fall apart - it was perfect... the key is freezing the cake overnight, then again after 'gluing' the bits together..... I did a pirate ship, and had a bit left-over so made a little deserted island too, which was supposed to have another little lego pirate on it, but not sure what happened to him (maybe he was eaten by a shark, or had to walk the plank instead?).

The kids ate cake and played a bit more, then we opened the presents and gave them their 'booty' to take home... Oh my word, Jai now has soooo many new toys!! We are really struggling to find places for them to go - I think his room will need a clean-out and to put away some of the older toys maybe!! His room is only pretty small!

The kids all had a BALL, and we were soooo exhausted afterwards!! Of course we had to snap a couple of family pics while we were all dressed up though...

It was so much fun! But I don't think I'll be doing anything so in depth for a little while!! Phew!! Here's some more pics from the day - hopefully you can see them ok!

7 years ago today...

I was 18 years old and holding my new baby. I was in wonder of new life but a bit scared at how this would change my life. Well, Jaidyn changed my life immensely but not once have I ever wanted to take it back. God has given me so many wonderful opportunities out of this experience. Being a young mum is cool. I love it. Sure, its hard, but its so 'me' and its what God has for me for my life right now.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful young man Jaidyn. He has been through lots of changes in life so far - living with just me, his father visiting on weekends. Then his father deciding to waver his role as a dad (4 years ago now?) and Jai having to adjust to having a new Dad. Its a lot for a little guy to deal with really (but happens so much in todays society), and I'm sure as he gets older, Jai will have a lot more questions and possibly want to see his biological father again. But he is such a sweet kid. He's so smart, so social, so sensitive, so loving. He's also a bit stubborn and messy and forgetful like his Mumma, but I love him with every ounce of my being!!

Happy Birthday sweetie!!

Pirate party review and pics to come, but for now I have to go and make some ganache icing for my special boy's birthday cake for tonight!

A full-on weekend!

Hey hey, I'm trying to keep on top of updating here or else none of this will ever make it on here. I have so much to do, so many things to go to in November that I'll have too much to update if I don't do it now!!

This last week and weekend have been FULL-ON!! Had quite a social weekend really. My sister came over to babysit Friday night for me so I could go to an Engagement party, but I ended up being so tired that I didn't want to drive into the city on my own (Greg works weeknights), so I didn't go. Sorry again Hails!! Was nice to have a bit of a chat with my sis though, as we usually only see each other at family lunches these days.

Friday saw me tired as I spent most of the day making cupcakes! lol... I made 2 double-batches, which gave me about 65 cupcakes in total!! Thanks to a yummy recipe and thread from the Nappycino forums I just had to try! So Friday night after my sister left, I iced about 30 cupcakes... now I've never done piped icing before and it took me a bit to get the hang of it, but by my second lot of icing on Sunday morning, I think I had it pretty good. I took 24 along to the SOF Charity Crop on Saturday, about 20 along to my sisters baby shower on Sunday, and well the other, however-many got polished off pretty easily around here. I iced half in pink with little lolly butterflies sprinkled over the top, and the other half blue with stars sprinkled over - as my sister doesn't know the sex of her baby, I though I'd better do both colours! I was pretty happy with how they turned out actually - and they taste DIVINE!! Good recipe!

And Eli thought so too! Yummy!!

Saturday I went along to the Scrap of Faith Charity Crop at Caboolture. What a fantastic day and just what I needed!! I get a little stressed with two bubbas at home sometimes, so a day out with friends was just what the doctor ordered as the saying goes. Was great to catch up with my girls again - Sal, Amy, Chrissy, Rozzie (been too long) Karen, Sarah and Kat... and great to meet some more IRL finally - Gennie, Donna, Ange & Katie... and even make some new friends - Leanne, Sarah and Naomi. I did absolutely NOTHING scrap-wise, which I know is terribly pathetic for 12 hours!! But I'm sure I made up for it in chatting! Lol, and I had to mother Lani too... but its ok. Sure, I would have *liked* to have done something - even if just to prove to myself that I can actually crop at a crop - but oh well, I can scrap at home, its catching up with these beautiful girls that is the important part!

One of the best things about the day was that we raised over $800 for the organisation Mercy Ministries, who have a residential program for girls in crisis. I was so blessed to hear about this ministry and I really pray that I can sow into this ministry in the coming months (Sal and I hope to be able to do some scrapbooking with the girls one weekend - or more regularly even).

Here's some piccies - unfortunately, I didn't really get a lot.... but the wonderful Karen is going to put everyone's pics together on a CD and post them all out to us, yay!

All the SOF girls - (back L-R) Ange & Lucas, Katie, me (Lani was asleep!), Katrina, Karen, Rozzie, Sal... (front L-R) Amy, Chrissy, Gennie, Donna (and Benjamin).

The beautiful Gennie and I.. LOVED meeting you girl!

Rozzie 'busy' scrapping...
On Sunday, I skipped church to ice another batch (which I froze to keep fresh) of yummy cupcakes to take to my sister Alissa's baby shower - half pink and half blue. We then headed over to my parent's house for a lovely 'Baby Shower BBQ' with Liss & Drew's friends... played fun baby games, opened lots of baby gifts and ate lots of yummy food. I made her a gift-set of 2 fitted cloth nappies and a fleece cover - and I hope to make her a lot more in the coming weeks/months. It was soooo cute making the teeny weeny newborn nappies, makes Lani's nappies look huge!! These ones were 'gender-neutral' - but I'll be sure to make some more pink or blue after she has bubby!And here's just some other pics to share:
Me and my beautiful Mumsy -

Lani in her beautiful party dress that Donna gave us on Saturday... she looked soooo cute in this thanks Donna - and everyone else thought so too...

Me and my gorgeous girl!!

And this one cracked me up!! I came out to the lounge and here she was with her headband over here eyes... but coz its lace, she can see through it, so she was still happy playing! I think I almost wet my pants laughing so much! How funny and how cuuuuuuute is she!!!!

Well, somehow it got to be 11pm already!! I better get to bed! Night :)

Busy Beaver....

Whoah!! My life is a crazy blur of creativity and projects at the moment. And they aren't really even Christmas related!! I've been sewing up a storm lately, loving making the MCNs but really I need more time!!

On Sunday we went to the baptism of my friend Bec's gorgeous twins, Evie May and Jett Christian. Bec is also another MCN lover so I thought I would try my hand at applique to make the twins a special nappy cover each. They took a while (especially as I'm such a newbie to it all) but it was fun and I was pretty pleased with how they turned out - and Bec LOVED them.

Now, I'll just have to have a go at making some for my little Miss. Thinking hearts... and flowers... and a Christmas tree .. hmmm or an angel... for Christmas!! Yay!!

Here's what the twins covers look like (and I couldn't resist Lani modelling them coz the cute effect is definitely better with a bum to fill them out):

I've also been busy organising Jaidyn's 7th birthday party which we will have on the 17th. We're having a Pirate Party - Aaarrrgh!! Lots of fun, I can't wait!! Yes, lots of work too (and I'll probably kick myself later) but I couldn't resist! Jai love pirates and I know they'll just have the best time!! Here's the ultra authentic invitations I made the other night (and my thumb is finally feeling better after being a tad sore from lighting a lighter for 30 mins straight!):

The invitation reads:

Ahoy Matey!
Stop yer pillaging: lend me yer ear,
I have a message fer ye to hear!
The Treasure's been stolen,
it must be found,
So tighten ye sashes
Buccaneer Bay bound!
Shiver me timbers,
thar's a pirate on board,
Drinkin shark's blood
and flailin his sword!
I'm Captain Jaidyn,
and will lead the way,
On Saturday, November 17th,
I turn 7 that day!
Chart ye course fer
(address).
We be settin sail at 2pm
fer some swashbucklin fun, grub and kiddie spirits.
Wave yer flag if ye be attending
or hav yer Mum send message by yer phone
to deck hand Natalie at (ph number).
Sees ye there.
Aarrgh!!!

P.S. All pirates need come with yer swashbucklin pirate names

and dressed in yer best attire, or yel walk the plank!

Cute huh! (no, I didn't make it up - the Internet is a wealth of information!)

I've got some fun pirate games planned, have roped my Mum into doing a pirate ship cake (yes!) and lots of loot to find in a treasure hunt of course!! Just to source some more pirate stuff, and costumes for Greg and myself!!

And... darn it, I was going to write lots more, but both of the baby's have just woken - they were supposed to BOTH sleep longer, ggrrrr.... so I gotta get back to that whole Mum thing... oh a little more time in the day would be a good thing!!

Lotsa love to you all, and thanks for stopping by :)

She's gone (MCN) crazy!!

MCN = Modern Cloth Nappies... and yep, I've gone a bit crazy and obsessed...

Been sewing up a storm (well when I can get a chance to!)...

Here's what I've made so far - 5 nappies and 2 covers. Been trying out a few different patterns, seeing what I like.
For any of you out there doing the same, the back left is the Mama Bird in little size... don't like the leg elastic in this one.. the blue one is a side-snap pocket I made for Eli (he's worn it twice but I'm not too keen on it really.... for now I'm concentrating on making the rest of Lani's and then will try a different front-fastening pocket pattern for Eli again)... the two at the front are the Weeweka one-size pattern which I like the best so far!

This is the inside of the Weekeka (for Katie mainly coz you asked to see). They have a microfleece inner layer, and a fold-out soaker for quicker drying!

Here is the little doll modelling her new nappy - the weeweka above (and my favourite one). this one is a nice trim fit and will fit her until she's toilet trained hopefully - its a one-size-fits-all...

Here's another pattern I tried - the Ottobre... I made this one with a PUL cover so its waterproof and doesn't need a cover on top. Not much liking this pattern too, so probably won't do this one again - bit gapey at the legs...

This is the MiaLa cover I made this morning.. I also made one the same in a pale green last night... coz her covers are WAY too small for her now (newbie sized!). It looks a bit bulky on her but that's coz she's got one of the old fat fluffies fitted nappies under - they're really bulky. Good to know that this cover covers even them though...

Next mission is applique and embroidery... I'm hoping to do a few for gifts like this, so want to practice one for Lani first, to make sure I don't totally SUCK at it!! lol

Ordered some more fleece yesterday - coloured yay! Bit sick of white inners.... fleece will ALWAYS get used!!

Anyway, better feed these babies, just wanted to share :)

My beautiful sister....

Just look at this beautiful blooming bud of a pregnant woman!! My sister Alissa is 30 weeks pregnant - due 27th December.





I hadnot seen her in 6 weeks, and to say her belly had grown significantly is an understatement. I think I almost cried when I saw her today... isn't she just gorgeous!!!

I find it quite surreal looking at my sister with that little belly. Like its just not meant to be there! Oh, I'm so excited about her baby coming in only 10 weeks time now!! How exciting!!

Oh, and I've been busy busy and have so much I really need to catch up in the world of blog... hopefully I'll find some time this week to update! Bye for now xxx