It's The End Of The Year As We Know It

Well it's New Years Eve and here I am sitting here with a lovely cold glass of white to drink (okay so it's milk..what's your point!?), the kids are all asleep and G is watching a movie. All is calm, all is peaceful and just a little Nelly Furtado on to keep me grooving while I attempt some digiscrapping tonight.

I decided I should attempt to blog a little about our Xmas celebrations before it becomes last years news.
Christmas Day was nice enough, very quiet..in fact so quiet that we went and woke the twins up at 8am as we got bored waiting for them to come open presents. They tore through the mounds of presents in no time flat. Joe really got the hang of presents this year and barely looked at each one before wanting to tear the paper off the next one. He just loves to rip things though is my theory. The girls weren't far behind. After the unwrapping and breakfast I spent the next hour or two painstakingly opening box after box of toys with stupid fiddly wire tags, sticky tape and assorted other methods of torture to stop kids actually getting to their toys.
I think by far Abs fave present was her Bratz Muichiz (a fancy virtual pet really) and she was pretty stoked to get the Bratz PS2 game plus a TV/DVD combo for her room.
Scarlett's fave is a bit harder to tell as she is still going from toy to toy but she does seem to love her pink ELC keyboard from Grandma and Grandad and her Serafina talking cat which I managed to get from Ebay a few months back.
Joe is just happy over so many things, his bucket of dinosaurs, his Buzz Lightyear action figure and his ELC Lift Off Rocket being his main faves for now.
Christmas Day was quiet, we just had my Mum over for an early dinner and we just sat about watching the kids play with their games etc Our big day (well my fave anyhow) is Boxing Day where we get together with our closest friends and neighbours and have a big BBQ. It's always more relaxing and more casual than Christmas Day. The kids loved having conpany out in the garden all day and we had topped up the sand in the sandpit so that got a good work out, along with the trampoline, play gym and anything else they could get outside!
Unfortunately we are now just a week away from Joe and Scarlett's 3rd birthday and I am now in a mad spin trying to get presents for them. It's a hard time of year to be buying stuff as the toy departments are barely stocked so it doesn't matter how good the sale is if they have not much on their shelves.
Today I bit the bullet as we had to get *something* We decided that we would buy trikes mid-year for the twins and just get them something small for their birthday. Joe has a huge friction powered vehicle that I think he is just going to love! Scar is getting a Cloe Bratz doll. I am going to have take all the small pieces away but I know she will love it as I think she was disappointed to get a Barbie rather than a Bratz at Xmas. She took one look at Abbey's 2 new Bratz dolls, glanced in disgust at her Barbie and threw it aside as she lunged for a Bratz doll. In fairness though she has since played with her Barbie but I think she has room for a Bratz doll too.
We are waiting to see how the weather is looking for next weekend before we decide on what we will do for their actual day but are hoping for a trip to the Zoo all going well.

Other than that all is quiet here. We've been shopping at IKEA a couple of times to get some storage both for our CD's and a bookcase for Abs to try and get more space in her room, it's just so small for her now. Hoping to finish moving her room around tomorrow and fingers crossed she will have some room.

We also had one of Abs friends over for a small BBQ the other day and then they all got into a waterfight, was a lovely evening and so I will finish 2006 with some of my fave pics from that night. Oh and Scarlett isn't one for waterfights (or water in general) so no pics of her :)

Happy and Safe New Years Everyone!

Taking it like a man

A Little Bit Soggy

Fireman Joe in Training

The Annual Boxing Day BBQ

I will come back and blog properly about our celebrations in the next day or two but am so tired I can hardly type a decent sentence let alone speak one..and I don't drink so can't blame the alcohol! So here are some pics from my fave day of the year..Boxing Day!!

The new fancy schmancy BBQ

Future Charlie's Angel?

Go Ahead Make Joe's Day!

Cup of tea?

And So This Is Christmas 2006!

Scarlett spies a pile of pressies!

Abbey and her new hair do!

Joe gets busy with the unwrapping.

Christmas Carnage

Little Miss Fiesty

Just in case there is any dispute over who rules the roost in this house.

Scarlett is whining at the baby gate which I tied shut, and Abbey said something inaudible to her from across the room. Miss Nearly Three's response?

"No your not the mum, your Abigail, and I'm Scarlett"

It's The Holidays!!

Yep first day of school holidays here today and all I can say is..it's going to be a looong 7 weeks with the 3 of them home *sigh*

Joe has been quite off all week and not at all his normal self, he's been stubborn, aggressive, argumentative, demanding and whingy. Urgh, his whinging is the worst sound ever. He's like a damn foghorn. What's worse is that as loud as he is if you ask him what's wrong he mumbles and the more you ask him to speak up the quieter he mumbles..very frustrating.

Looking forward to getting Abs report next week in the mail, why they can't justgive them out is beyond me..I hate waiting to see how she went though am confident she did ok. I know she got an A for piano at least as her music report came home already. Not bad for her first term I think!

During the week I also turned the big 33, not much of an occasion but I do have a flash new printer to show for it and the complete first series of 90210 to watch! We had a delicious chicken enchilada dinner which we ate in peace and quiet once the kids were in bed..bliss! Unfortunately G has been under the weather this week and I was pretty tired and we couldn't even be arsed to watch a movie so G went to bed early and I got held up going to bed by a late night phone call from my sister in the UK.

Not much else to say, G and I are off shopping in the morning to get any last minute bits we can think of while the kids go to Mum's to help her decorate her tree. We are pretty organised now though still reeling from the cost of postage to the Uk for some parcels we sent! I am also just doing a quick desk calendar for my Mum to go with her magazine subscription I re-newed. I started this afternoon and have finished up to June so far so half there at least!

Oh and I got tickets to go see Pink in May...woohoo!

Anyhow off to bed for now!

Going To Get My Arse Kicked...

if I don't update this blog.

Well it's a busy time of year so here's what I have been up to in a nutshell

- Went and saw Robbie Williams live at AAMI Stadium on Tuesday night. Music was great, Robbie sounded fantastic (though could have been louder) and a very dazzling stage set up but somehow I still left feeling a bit disappointed and flat. Can't work that one out..I must be getting too used to having second rows seats or something ;)

- Having some issues with Abs and her hormonal mood swings. I don't want to be too hard on her at this time in her life when she is struggling to understand how she is feeling but not wanting to let her get away with murder either..I need to find the balance. Today all I asked her to do was tidy her room..let's just say it was like adding water to a sachet of Instant Attitude Mix.

- Been having a ball on Carole Neale's CT team. All the girls are great and it is such a thrill to be working with Carole's stuff.
Here's a couple of my recent layouts using her kits and templates all available at The DigiScrapShak Store (except for the Grungy Christmas kit used in the middle layout which is FREE with the December DigiScrapShak newsletter!)

This last layout of Scar is using Little Possum Designs "Hello Dolly" and "Rockstar" kits with a Carole Neale template.

- Also been busy with Abs finishing up school at the end of next week. It seems they must have everything at the end of the year so the last weeks become a blur of school discos, class parties, music night, speech night and the Christmas Extravaganza, honestly it's doing my head in. I can't wait for holidays but I don't think that novelty will last long once the kids start fighting. At least G has a nice looooong break and will be here too!

- Have almost finished the Christmas shopping too. What a brain strain that has been for the kids who have everything and don't really ask for much. Still I think they will be very happy with their lot and if they complain I am sure there are some disadvantaged kids out there somewhere who could really use some new stuff.

Okay that's it for me, will try to stay on top of the blogging now I am caught up a bit! If you haven't already check out the new music clip on the sidebar..just beautiful!

No I Am Not Dead

I just haven't blogged for a while due to being tired, busy and not having much to say. I will come back soon and update..but have a splitting headache right now and can't be arsed to type more!