So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye!!

Okay well maybe not a true goodbye but if you have been missing the action on this blog it means that you haven't yet visited me at my new home, so what you waiting for ?
Join me at Poppy Monkey Musings.

Right G, you can stop nagging me to post this now :)

The A-Z of Me Starts Here

I set down a challenge at Pickleberrypop which you can read all about here and it was inspired by my most gorgeous friend Amanda and her blog (click on the link in my blogroll and check out her A-Z!)
So here we go....

{Abbey}

Well how could I start with anything other than my first born daughter, Abigail.
According to the baby name book we used, her name means "fathers joy" and she most definitely is a joy 99% of the time. She is so smart and just soaks up the most amazing amounts of information from anywhere she can get it. She is really into reading, writing, art and music..a very creative soul. I have noticed over the last couple of years that she is much shyer than she used to be, she doesn't like being the centre of attention and having all eyes on her. Her voice is very quiet when she speaks (unless she is shouting at her siblings of course then the whole neighbourhood can hear her!) She used to sing endlessly around the house when she was smaller and now she stops singing if she even gets an inkling that someone is listening to her.
I think that's one of the reasons she enjoys piano so much, she gets to play music but gets to sit up the back of the band!
She's growing up fast now, she is getting more independant and I am finding I allow her to choose her own clothing more, her hairstyles..and now this weekend it's her ears pierced (she swears she is really going through with it this time but there again at age 5 she vowed and declared she would never ever have her ears pierced!)
She has a wonderful circle of friends at school, but I wish she had more friends outside of school, I guess in time she will as she participates in more activities etc.










{Angel, Awesome, Amazing, Artistic}

Oh forget it..how about

{All Of The Above}

Every one of those words describe the gorgeous, {Amanda} She is the most kind, non-judgemental person I have ever met, and I love that I can tell her anything and she gets where I am coming from. When you ask her something, she gives you the straight no nonsense answer you need and I love her dearly for that. She makes me laugh, and she has made me cry with joy, she's always there when I need her and I hope that she knows that I am always here for her too.
We only met online a bit over two years ago and we manage to speak at the very very least once a week now, but normally 2-3 times a week. We have so much in common, we share a love of scrapping, of photography, we both have twins, both live in SA , both born on the 13 of a month (in the same year too!) and the list goes on. We've managed to meet up about 3 times now and I have met her husband and her 3 delightful daughters. I always feel so sad when we say goodbye and she heads back to the country, like a little piece of me has broken.
Amanda is also very very humble and doesn't recognise what amazing talent she has, she is so creative in so many ways I could only dream about but she doesn't think what she does is that special. I hope one day she realizes just how truly talented she is. Love you chick.

{Attitude}

No I don't have one!

Because I Want Moments Like This To Last Forever

Joe just came in and gave me a big hug and said "Do you know whose my best girl?"
I suggested Scarlett, Abbey and Nanny but apparently his "best girl"
is his Mama *sigh* He then gave me the loveliest kiss and cuddle.
I am not silly enough to think I will always be his best girl but for now it's the best feeling in the world.

The Month That Was...

It's been a long time between posts..and apparently I am being missed (sorry Annette!!!) so I thought I would get things up to speed before the end of the year arrives!

The past few weeks have been fairly busy getting Xmas sorted, I am very happy to report that I finished every last scrap of pressie shopping on Dec 13th, my Christmas cards which I had sent off for printing this year came back and then I sent them off to their receivers and they shall hopefully get there on time. The Christmas tree is up and decorated, and the twins haven't pulled it over at all yet!

Abbey is now on school holidays after a busy last few weeks at school with a Music Night one week, Christmas Extravaganza concert the next week and then finally Speech and Award Night all of which went very well. She's had another great semester at school and managed 4 A's and the rest B's for her grades (actually one of those was an A+ for her piano lessons!) She has worked hard this year especially at maths so we are really proud.
She also decided that she wanted all her hair chopped off, so last Saturday we took her to the hairdresser and she is now sporting a much shorter do , which I think I am still getting used to but I do like it. This weekend she is talking about getting her ears pierced (she chickened out last weekend but did have a look at the gun they use to do it)

Joe and Scarlett are doing fine. Nothing really new with Scarlett but Joe is finally getting the hang of toilet training and we even had a run of 15 days without an accident from him so it's so much better than it has been. He went to see Father Christmas last weekend and was happy to sit and have his photo taken this year, first time he hasn't had a grumpy face! He also let Santa know that he would like a "big Transformer" which he knows only big boys get when they know how to use undies so fingers crossed he doesn't go backwards once he gets his Transformer.

In between all of that and juggling class parties, getting her books sorted for next year and getting her to concerts and rehearsals etc I managed to get another year older, was a quiet one this year and I managed a nice curry dinner out with G and he gave my a gorgeous little Ipod (yeah I know I must have been the only person in Australia that didn't already have one) but now I do and it's a lovely little 8GB-er so should do me nicely.

Anyhow will close up with a pic of Abs new short hair!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Actually it has been looking like Christmas is right around the corner for WEEKS since the shops near us chose to start erecting giant Christmas trees in store at the start of October!

It usually bothers me a bit but not this year, I am feeling strangely calm and organized this year so far and at the rate I am going I should be finished my shopping (except maybe for G) by Dec 1st. You can blame all my Christmas preparations for my lack of blogging if you like...but really I just haven't felt like blogging until now.

I have nothing huge to share but did fancy blogging so here's a quick catch up.

• Scarlett and Joe are loving Kindy and have settled in really well. I even saw Scarlett doing the Hokey Pokey last week so she's definitely feeling more comfortable there. Joe has been recommended for a Speech Assessment which should happen sometime during Term 1 next year once all the paperwork is done. He has a lot of words he uses, a big vocabulary etc but the clarity of the words isn't always there and people find him difficult to understand.


• Speaking of Joe he is starting to progress more with his toilet training. He's starting to stay dry all day as long as he is not in a pullup (yet some days he will stay dry in a pull up too) and last night he had his first nappy free night as he refused to wear one so we compromised on a pull up instead. Today he insisted on proper big boy undies..so far so good including a trip to school and back.


• Last Sunday I did my first photo shoot which didn't involve my own kids! I was very honoured to be asked to take some pictures of the beautiful and very pregnant Skipper and it was so much fun. She was such a great model , and I am really really pleased with the photos I got. Here's two of my faves:

And that's about it really. Nothing else really happening, just the same old same old but we are happy and healthy enough at the moment.

Not One To Brag BUT..

I played a blinder last night on Scrabble and just had to show it off. The game is still actually in progress so I could lose it but it was a nice boost to the score (yes, and my ego) anyway....

All Growed Up

Yep it's official, we now have two pre-schoolers in the house as today was the twins first day of Kindy. At this stage it's only pre-entry which means just one morning a week for two hours, but next year it will be almost 3 hours, 4 days a week. I can't even imagine having that much time to myself EVERY day. The possibilities are endless.
It went really well, Scarlett was up at 6am wondering if it was time to go yet. They had both helped pack their bags the night before and she was ready to get going. It was very loud here this morning as even Abbey was excited for them.
No tears when I said goodbye to them (well not from them anyway) and that was it.

I felt like an octopus on the way home, like I had too many arms and nothing attached to them, it was strange. The quietness of the house didn't bother me as much as I thought it would..there again I did use a little music therapy to get me through.
They had a great time and each brought me home a painting. I forgot how annoying it was to try to walk along, talk and keep wet paintings from flapping about as we went along, and by the time we were half way home I was running out of hands to guide the kids across the road and wishing that I was actually an octopus.

Anyhow here is a pic from this morning before they headed off on their trip to Kindy..

Bliggity Bloggety Boo #3





Isn't that cool? This is for the challenge over at the PBP forums which you can find out more about here

Not a lot going on here, it's a long weekend but we haven't been up to much, just some shopping, mostly for boring stuff. Scarlett and Joe start their pre-entry Kindy in less than 3 weeks now and so we went shopping for lunchboxes which they thought was very exciting. Scarlett chose a lovely pink Disney Princess design and Joe managed to get a big red Spiderman design. New sunhats for both as well and now they are all set for the big day.

We had parent/teacher interviews with Abs teacher the other night and he is extremely impressed with her abilities with English and said she is rating "off the charts" for her age. He likened her reading abilities to that of a Yr7-9 student (she's only Yr 3) and was also impressed with her spelling, grammar and comprehension of what she is reading. He is also very pleased with her maths and she is still above average but has a little room to improve in one or two areas. Overall she seems to be doing great, and I am so glad she is in a great school that knows how to challenge her without pushing too hard.