Warning... long post... LOTS to catch up on...

It's been a full-on week and a half (2 weeks now?) since I posted. Lots been happening, too busy! But it's nice to have a bit of time to chill again :)

Firstly, my little man turned ONE! Oh, how did that happen!! Mind you, I look at him now, and he certainly looks and acts like a one-year-old. He's very very miscevious indeed! He's developing a very distinct 'character' and now he's walking everywhere! So cute! In the last week, he has just got more and more confidence. He went from walking sometimes when we encouraged him, to walking everywhere now, with only a few little wobbles and falls. I still can't get enough of watching him with his little bowed legs and his arms out to help balance him! So cute...

He had a great time opening presents on his b'day. I wasn't really expecting him to be too interested in it, but he managed to tear and pull the paper off and get the present out - with only a little help at times from Daddy and Jaidyn.

He got a lovely soft piano from Nan (Greg's mum) which you can play and it also plays its own tune... and a couple of fun DVDs too - Hi-5 and some other nursery rhyme ones too... from my grandparents (who gave us money to buy something for him) he got a trike with a trailer... this is heaps of fun!

At first, it took a while to get the hang of moving his feet along with it, but now he understand and Jaidyn enjoys pushing him around the house on it... surely it won't be too long before he's whizzing around on his own on it! And from us he got a cool pop-up tent/cubby house thing - it has two cubby parts and a tunnel joining them up. The tunnel is such fun! I love to watch him going in and out of it!! Glad we got him that!

Greg and I decided to take him out for Maccas for lunch and a play at the park. We should have eaten at McDonalds though, as there were many birds watching us with their beady little eyes and Eli was more interested in watching them and the playground than eating his chicken nuggets! He had a great time on the swing and I took him on the see-saw thing too, and Greg got some photos. None really great though, but anyway. He was in bed early from all the playing!

On Saturday we had a little party for him. Had my family and a few close friends from church come and help celebrate. We set up the tunnel and cubbies in the backyard, a mat with some blocks too, and Greg hooked the baby swing up to the swing set, so the few kids that were there (my two and a friends two - 2.5 and nearly 1) had lots ot occupy them, and lots of photo ops too! Elijah absolutely LOVES the baby swing though, and its a good sturdy one that he doesn't flop around in like the ones at the parks. We have to go outside every afternoon now to have a swing! And I swear he would sit in it for hours too... anyway, back to the party. My BIL was official photographer for the day, and I think he was having his own little party playing with our camera - he filled THE WHOLE memory card - all 270 photos of it! So yes, we got heaps, but you can just imagine the extra time its taken me to go through and edit them! Phew!!
It was a lovely afternoon. We had the party outside in our backyard, borrowed the tables and chairs from church, set up the food table down there. Its really nice outside at this time of year - not hot or anything - just lovely! Eli opened some presents - got a cute crocodile toy that has little blocks he likes to put in, pull out, put in again... and he got some cute clothes too - my fave being one of the striped Bonds hoodies - sooo cute!... and we had the cake, which I was so happy to report turned out so well! I am by no means a cake mum, so I went for the easy option and bought a choc sponge roll and made it into a number 1 and put lots of smarties on top. It looked great if I do say so myself! lol...
Eli was well-and-truly pooped afterwards though! He was in bed early again!! So that was his birthday!

In other exciting news, Greg got the Toys R Us job!! Yes!! I can't begin to explain what a relief this is... and I am looking forward to having my days back to just me and Bubba again! lol... God had certainly been testing and teaching us about patience with this one, because we were waiting like 2 weeks, and in the meantime Greg hadn't applied for any other jobs. I was getting a little nervous that we might have wasted 2 weeks, but Greg was really trusting God for this one, coz its perfect for what we need - and we should hopefully get a discount too - sweet! Yep, God really showed us His faithfulness for trusting him for our provision, and what a great testimony to share with others. So praise our Awesome Father for this!! Anyway, he starts on 12 June. He may ask if he can start earlier though, when he gets their details. But we'll see how we go. Starting on June 12 means we are definitely still free to go to James and Jayde's wedding on the 9th, yay! And, the company has even said it will be ok for Greg to take a week off (unpaid of course) when Bubby comes. We were a little worried about this as its only 2 weeks after he starts, or a bit sooner even! So Praise God for that one too!

Things are starting to get really close to this baby coming now. Was reading Anthea's blog the other day, and she's a week or so behind me, and has her bags packed and everything, and I thought 'Ooh, I better get a move on and get organised!' I've been finding it hard to get in the right 'headspace' to focus on the baby stuff while I'm still working and have other things I have deadlines for too, so I asked my boss if I can finish up work this week instead of next week. She said that will mostly be ok, but one of the other relief staff is not working atm as her husband fell out of a tree and is in bad condition in the hospital (prayers for him and their family!) so she may just *really* need me. I said if she *has* to, roster me on next week. So we shall see how that goes.

A week and a half until our friends James and Jayde get married up at Noosa. I'm really looking forward to this beautiful occasion, but don't have anything to wear yet! (Not to mention not really any money to buy it with). I'm hoping I can maybe get away with just getting a dress/top thing to wear with my black pants or a black skirt. I know not overly dressy, but there's not so much available to a pregnant woman on a tight budget! Hopefully I'll find some time next week to go shopping for something. And Mum will be babysitting the kids for the night, so that's all organised, yes!

Off to a baby shower on Saturday for my friend Hayley, who's a month behind me. I will have to take Eli (maybe Jai too) now though as Greg has to help some friends move house. Hopefully he's not too much of a pain... but I'm sure he will be, coz he is!! lol

Had an awesome, wonderfully long chat with my bestie Lusi the other night. Man, you rock so much girl! Every time I talk to you girl, I long more and more that we lived closer together. I know that ONE DAY SOON God will give us the opportunity to spend a weekend with eachother. Its just so funny how every time we're on the phone we check the flight sites *just in case* there's some super specials and our hubbies will let us!! Heehee..... If I had lots of money, I'd fly you up here right now!!

I'm sure there is other stuff I wanted to say, but this has taken me DAYS to post, so I better just get it out there!

Have a good day all xxx