It's The Weekend!

I can't believe it's the end of another week already! It's absolutely flown by and here we are getting ready for the weekend again.
It's been a good week, Ab's a bit under the weather with a cold but apart from that we all are doing okay. I have just finished adding some more to a paper pack ( I thought I had finished it but of course I wanted to add more) It's now got 25 papers so I'll either break it up into smaller packs or just leave it as a mega-paper pack..ah decisions, decisions..I can never make up my mind. I guess I don't have to rush anyways as right now I don't have anywhere to sell my designs with the DSH Store closing on April 30th. I do highly suggest checking out the store which is having a massive sale and pick out some bargains before it closes.
Not a lot happening on the home front, the weather has changed big time over the last day or two and at times today I have even felt cold! From 33C here last Saturday to an expected 19C here tomorrow..it's quite a change.
Haven't got far in jazzing up this blog this week but there is change coming, even if you can't see it yet! So stay tuned....

It's Over, It's Over, It's Over

Yes *that* album is now almost officially done. All 20 layouts are complete, I just need to re-size them to 6x6, print them, chop them and go get the album (which is on hold at the store for me) so the end is in sight for sure.
I'm looking forward to getting back to some of my own projects and LO's for a while now, starting with a blog makeover..as you can see I started with the header. I am going to try to fix up a few bits over the next couple of days and just make it visually a little more interesting and bright. Change is good, right??

Had a nice enough weekend. We took Abbey clothes shopping, just G, Abbey and myself and the twins spent some quality time with Nanny :) We intended to spoil Abbey rotten but unfortunately there was a distinct lack of decent clothing available so all we ended up buying her was some new underwear and a long sleeve plain pink top! She did get McDonald's for lunch which she was just thrilled to bits about, and later in the afternoon we railroaded her into a cafe and bought her a nice cold icecream sundae, while G and I scoffed an ice chocolate/coffeee with whipped cream and icecream on top!! Was a hot day so we truly deserved it :)
Ate a deeee-licious dinner of chicken enchiladas that night too..was a good day!

On Sunday Abbey had her first swimming class with her new teacher and did an awesome job. Just 3 months ago she was in tears at the thought of having to go in the deep pool, this week she was diving from a kneeling position from half-way down the pool..yay Abbey! Her confidence in water is definitely on the rise and it's so exciting to watch!

Not much planned for the week ahead, just catching up on housework and some scrapping (as much as I can fit in!!) so should be nice and relaxing!

One Door Closes, Another One Opens

Firstly a huge thanks to all you lovely chickies who were sweet enough to comment on my last blog entry, your support was so appreciated and I am very pleased to say it was a much better day today..in fact it was actually fairly enjoyable!
To Kate, Annette, Heather and Mr Heather..THANKYOU for the new forums so we can all still hang out together whenever we want. I had so much fun there today..probably too much fun actually as I didn't get any scrapping done and my housework didn't exactly go as planned either!
The kids were all beautifully behaved today, I even caught Miss Scarlett striking a lovely coy pose for the camera. She was pretty good all day, as was Joe and this evening we took them to see the health nurse for a check-up. I'm pleased to say they are doing brilliantly!
Joe now stands at 91.5cm tall and weighs in at 13 kgs exactly, and Scar checks in at 12.3 kgs and 88cms.. a far cry from their birth weights just 26 months ago when they were 2.6kgs (Joe) and 2.2kgs (Scarlett) The nurse was very impressed with Scar's speech (she repeats EVERYTHING!! Even long hard words or sentences) and also with the fact Scarlett not only draws great circles but names what she is drawing..normally she draws a circle with lots of lines coming out of it and tells us it's a spider..today she did a strange triangular type shape and told me it was a kangaroo!! She also draws circles and adds facial parts like eyes,hair, nose, mouth etc..even if they aren't quite in the right spot at times!
Joe is also doing well, not too artistic but very energetic, he speaks many words but not as clearly as Scar, however the nurse could understand his words and was very happy with his development.
When we got home my Mum had dinner in the oven, and bless my big girl Abbey as she had set the table, set the twins table complete with their water cups and tidied up all the toys that had been out. I really felt rather pampered, and to top it off I have a friend picking Ab up in the morning so I can sleep in an extra 30 minutes, and she is being dropped home after school too so no need to drag twins out in the heat. Bliss!

Can We Just Start Over??

I have to tell you, this week has completely sucked! On Monday I had an awful headache, bordering on a full blown migraine and Scarlett was just flat out being a ratbag! She finally went to sleep and I was able to take a stronger painkiller to rid myself of the headache once and for all. I always wake up woozy from them but being that I didn't have to go get Abbey from school I figured it was okay. By the time Gareth got home I was feeling fairly functional, but somewhat spacey as is usual for me after migraine-like headaches.
Then I got *the* email..Digital Scrapbook Haven was closing it's doors as of the end of April. I have to say I completely understand why Admin felt the need to pull the plug, but I miss everyone already. Today when I went to pop into the forums I was shocked to find the whole DSH site gone! The web host has pulled the plug, and thus instead of going out in grand style, it just disappeared into cyberspace.
First things first, I need to finish *that* album..I have 4 more pages to do..and I have started on 2 of them so I am almost there now!
We are having a dinner party Easter weekend with about 7 other guests so I should really sit down and work out a menu for that and make sure all is organized!
Adding to my woeful week is my incredibly naughty twins! They have been absolutely shocking this week. I am almost hoarse from telling them off for all the things that they have done.
Today I took them into the garden for a bit to wear them out. We had a great time on the new playgym and with the water table, and watching the big airplanes from the nearby RAAF base go over. I then had to spoil it by insisting they come inside as it was getting too hot and lunchtime was approaching. I had to pick up Joe and carry him in, I made the mistake of not watching him properly when I was locking the screen door and before I knew it he had wrapped his arms around my leg and proceeded to BITE ME!
Let's just say I don't think he will do it again in a hurry, he doesn't like being told off but being sent to sit in the hallway just about broke his heart...but not enough to stop him defiantly blowing raspberries at me if I glanced at him.

Ho Hum..tomorrow is another day!

The Weekend That Was

Well it's been a few days since I blogged so thought I had better say something!
Not a huge amount going on here but it's been a fairly nice weekend.
Mostly we just ran a few errands yesterday morning and then watched a movie with the kids in the afternoon before settling down for a yummy dinner and another movie once the kids were in bed. We watched "Flight Plan" with Jodie Foster, it was a watchable movie but I rather thought the ending was silly and didn't tie up the loose ends.
Today G took Abbey to swimming while I stayed home with the twins. We were concerned the twins would jump straight in the pool after last week.
Ab got her certificate and finally went up a level! Yay! She's been working at this for a year now so we are very proud. She's switching swim teachers next week and we are trying to make her lessons at a different time so that we can also get the twins into the only toddler class held on a Sunday and just have the two classes one after the other. I think they will be starting next term into swimming all going well with Ab's change of swim teacher.
Anyhow I have managed to make a whole paper pack today! Not sure when I am going to upload it etc yet..might hold off for a bit longer and make sure I am 100% happy with it.
I had best be off, G is getting McD's for tea tonight to show Ab how proud we are of her so I better stick something in the oven for the twins.

I Scrapped For Me!




I thought it was time to take a break from the album, so although I did get a page done for it this morning I decided to refresh my brain by doing a page for me this afternoon. It seemed so much easier to be inspired!

The papers and ribbon are from Rina Kroes' kit "My Dad, My Hero" The elements I made myself.

The Knee Evidence


Okay..so someone please tell me how this happened overnight?? Oh and no, G does not sleepwalk, he's a very sound sleeper! I am a light sleeper and had a bad night last night but would definitely have noticed if he had gotten out of bed.
This is not a hoax at all by us, so if someone can give us a rational explanation..go ahea!

Weird, Freaky and Just Plain Strange

Okay this is too weird not to blog.

This morning while drying himself off after his shower G looked over at me and said " Did you shave my knee while I was sleeping?" Of course I hadn't..but will keep it in mind for next time I want to get him back for something.
Anyways, his left knee has a patch about 2 inches wide by 1.5 inches long that looks like it has been shaved, it must have occured a day or two back as there is just a smidge of stubbly regrowth and not only that..a little nick to the skin, just as though someone had shaved and cut themselves. It's bizarre, and I will be trying to get a pic of this later today as it's very weird and we cannot figure out how this occured. It's only one knee, not both and it just looks like it was done on purpose.

I guess maybe he should just be thankful the aliens didn't stick a probe anywhere else !

Just A Perfect Day

Today we took the kids swimming. It was the twins first time in a pool and we really weren't sure how they would go. I've mentioned before how nervous they are with water but the last few months they have been coming to watch Abbey's swimming lesson on a Sunday and have started being quite interested. So finally today was the day for them to get in the pool. We asked Scarlett several times if she wanted to get in the pool to which she declined, until I asked "Scarlett want to get in the WATER?" and frankly she could not get out of her clothes and into her bikini quick enough! Joe just went along with anything, but once he actually got in the water it was like he was born swimming! He was amazing! None of this sitting on a step while he gets used to chest deep water for him, he was kicking his legs and trying to launch himself off the step within minutes of getting in. He even managed to get some crazy looking doggie-paddle moves going and and tried to take off...lucky I had hold of him. I even managed to dunk him under a couple of times without him freaking out!
Scarlett, who I had feared would hate the water most took huge delight in splashing Daddy, and the entire pool area was treated to delightful high pitch squeals of joy at full volume. She didn't seem to care at all about the water going on her face and she kicked her legs like she was racing for her life and didn't care who got wet!
Abbey was just happy to have some extra pool time as we always have trouble getting her out after a lesson. She has swimming every day this week with her class too so she should be fairly water-logged by next weekend!
All in all it was just a lovely day, we came home, had naps (yes including me!), helped Ab with some homework, had a yummy Mexican dinner, I showered all the kids and then put my feet up to watch TV...oh and I managed to scrap a page before we went out this morning.
A very productive day all round I say.

My Smart Cookie

Here's a face many of you wouldn't have seen before on this blog, this is my eldest daughter, 7 year old Abigail. Tonight's post is all about her as I am really rather proud of her at the moment.
She's such a loving girl, she's funny, she's smart, she's creative, she loves to read and generally she is a great big sister.
Abbey's had 4 days off school as she's been a bit ill, she missed last week's spelling test and subsequently missed out on getting her new spelling words until Wednesday this week when she went back to school. She's in the top spelling group in her class and her words this week included "impressive" "enough" "pressure" "discussion" and "expression" All up she had 15 words to learn before her test on Friday... and she did it, and nailed the test with a perfect score.! She was stoked as she had been so worried about getting a word wrong (she's an absolute perfectionist!)
Not only that but her behaviour has picked up big time in the last 3 weeks. We've had one or two "moments" but all the fighting that had been going on between us over the last few months finally seems to be settling down. I can see how hard she is trying to be good and I am putting in my best effort to diffuse situations without shouting all the time or nagging her. It's working great not just for our relationship but also the whole family seems calmer.

I'm also trying to get some earlier nights so I am not so tired and cranky..and on that note....goodnight!

I See You



I took these pictures of Scarlett yesterday and just love that her eyes are so clear in it. I also wanted to show that she isn't always the little blonde haired, blue eyed beauty that everyone else sees!
Most of the time she is the most gorgeous gentle child, always chatting or singing, loves to read and draw, always so gentle with her toys and growing more independant by the day...but when she gets upset she lashes out at everyone and everything around her, and frankly it's heart-breaking to watch.

She doesn't know how to calm herself down, she bites herself and throws things. It kills me to watch her do it and I don't know how to help her understand her feelings of anger. All I can do is wait for her temper to pass and then she is herself again.
We have our good days and our bad days, a good day could mean only one or two short tantrums..a bad one could be 5-6 bigger ones. I can't wait for her to grow out of it!

It's A Miracle!

Two posts in one day!

First and foremost my Harvey Blue kit is now available to purchase, so head to the The Digital Scrapbook Haven Store and get it now!

Secondly we have a new toy.... a DSLR!! I am really excited and can't wait to get some amazing shots (after loads of practise I am sure). We took a couple of test shots today but didn't really have a big chance to play with it as much as we would have liked as by the time we got it home it was heading into that whole dinner,bath and bed routine time of day. Here are a couple of shots though.

Firstly Joe and Scarlett (yep that's the big scratch on her nose from where Joe smacked her in the face with a book earlier in the week)

And also one of our two moggies kissing. Meg on the left and Ollie on the right. They don't really get along lately actually and shortly after this pic was taken Meg smacked Ollie on the head with her paw then bit his ear..and next thing I knew the fur was truly flying!

As for how the weekend went, well it wasn't too bad. Took the girls to the Dr as they are still struggling with their colds. Ab is probably worse and still won't be at school tomorrow as she has started a course of antibiotics which will take a day or two to kick in I guess. I'm sure she will be back on her feet soon enough, though she did skip her swimming lesson today to be on the safe side.

Not much else to mention, another big week of scrapping ahead (well that's the plan!), dinner out tomorrow night without DH and kids...woohoo and if I am really good I may even get my hair cut this week! (fingers crossed)

Cute moment of the weekend award goes to Joe who looked so so proud of himself sitting up in the barber's chair on Saturday morning having his hair cut, with his Daddy in the next chair over getting his done too. He was perfectly behaved and you could see how grown up he felt being just like his Daddy!

What The World Needs Now....

I was in the hallway hanging up the washing and Ab was a short distance away completely engrossed in her drawing as she often is.

Ab said "Will you always try to never let bad things happen to me"
Me: "Of course I will always try"
Ab says "that's coz you love me so much, more than anything"
Me: "Yes"
Ab replies in a dreamy kind of way "It's all about love"

Not only did this make me smile and my heart melt that little bit more, but I am sure when I looked over at her there was a soft focus effect around her. Oh to be 7 years old again!

Hot Off The Presses!

My new kit "Harvey Blue" is due instore at DigitalScrapbookHaven any moment now. It's named after my new nephew of course! It has:

• 8 papers
• 2 torn papers
• 4 folded ribbons
• 4 crumpled ribbons
• 2 star tags
• 1 staple
• 3 brads
• 1 star buckle
• 2 fuzzy fibres
• 1 numeral set
• 1 uppercase alpha
• 1 lowercase alpha

All this for the bargain price of $4.50 !

Hope you like it, and if you do buy it and make sure you let me see your LO's that you used it on. I am so happy with how it turned out and I just LOVE the colours. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it.