Finally smiling

Hamish is finally really smiling and talking to us. I had Josh and Isabella making him smile so I could take a photo. Only thing is as soon as I get my phone ready to take a photo he would stop smiling!! Isn't that always the way. He is so adorable and so loved. I wonder what he must think with all our enormous heads hovering over him making silly noises and funny faces. He must think we're a pretty funny bunch.
Chatting away.
And smiling so sweetly.

Ten pin bowling!

It's the school holidays and so I asked the kids what they wanted to do. Bowling was up there on the todo list. I must admit that I love bowling and hadn't been in a long time. Dave was at home working and so it was just me and the four kids. Josh and Sammy are very helpful. I really couldn't cope without them. They were able to help Isabella when she needed it and keep her happy when I was feeding Hamish.

We had two games and a hotdog, chips and coke. The kids were in heaven and me too. I've been couting calories trying to get these pesky last 4 kilos to disappear and haven't been eating much junk at all. Hotdog and chips. Yum!
Both Josh and Sammy were great at helping Isabella at her first ten pin bowling outing.
I even managed to bowl with Hamish. He slept for 3 hours!!! I wish he would be that good while I was doing my Physio class. Oh well.
We all enjoyed the hotdogs!
The only reason I won was that Josh gave me two strikes and Sammy gave me a spare while I fed Hamish. Weren't they kind. He he he

The Craftroom Cupboard first coat

I finally had a little time to paint after getting the painting supplies I needed. Hamish was being a good boy and actually slept when I had some energy. This doesn't happen that often. Isabella was also wanting to help but was prepared to draw for the hour it took me to paint the first coat of paint on the cupboard as long as she could paint afterwards. First I painted over the dents that had been filled and spots I didn't think the roller would get into. Then I rolled away to my hearts content. It didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. Isn't that always the way! An hour all up.
This is after only one coat. The only problem was the awful paint smell in the house for a good day after. Dave put an onion in the room to help with the smell. I'd never heard of this. It seemed to work. He put half an onion in a bowl of water.
Afterwards I took Isabella outside to do magic water painting. She loved it! Very cheap clean fun that entertains for hours. All the kids have loved painting with water.

Holidays have begun...

It's that time of the year again and holidays are upon us. We decided to make a list of things we'd like to do over the first week including a menu. Very cute! The first thing on the agenda was a visit to Buffalo Park to scooter. Isabella now has her own scooter and was keen to ride it like the big kids. While we were there we had afternoon tea. Coffee for me, hot chocolates and pastries for the older two and a baby chino for Isabella. She also shared some of the older twos pastries.
We then took the kids to see "Mr Poppers Penguins" as promised. So much to do and so little time. The older two are going to be spending the second week of the school holidays with their dad, hence the cramming of as much as possible into the first week.
It was also Hamish's first movie. He behaved himself and fed for most of the movie. I also spent quite a bit of time jiggling him at the entrance to the movie theatre. Thankfully on a Sunday night at 7:30 there were only two other couples in the theatre. So it was pretty stress free over all and a cute movie. For Dave and I probably the most memorable part will be the two car trips it took us to get there and back. It will be great when we're in a position to get a car that will fit us all! I'm sure we'll be able to laugh about it one day, but at the moment it's just a painful reminder that we can't afford to do anything about it at the moment. Frustrating, but doable never the less!
You can see Sammy wasn't expecting a photo! A beautiful movie with a lovely message about family.

Making Bunting

I have been talking about making bunting for Sammy's room for months. Today I finally got around to starting.

First I used the cardboard template and traced around it on the ironed fabric with a special chalk pen. Sorry no photos of that. I cut them out and pinned them wrong sides together.

Next I sewed the two long sides together using a straight stitch.
You can see how I put the foot next to the edge of the material.
I cut the point off each flag.
I turned them all inside out using a knitting needle. Make sure to do it carefully so that you don't push through the stitches.
I was lucky enough to have two twelve year olds helping. Sammy has her best friend staying over and she was keen to help. Yay for me! It's really hard getting anything done with a newborn around. I love my little man but some days he doesn't want to do anything other than attach himself to me.
Iron all the flags and then cut the little bit of seam sticking out off.
Almost done!
Then take your bias tape and pin the flags in the fold.
Once the flags have been pinned in place it's time to sew your bunting together.
Turn the ends in and sew them.
You're now finished. All you have to do is put the bunting up now and Hamish has been sleeping peacefully in Aunty Lisa's arms after much standing and rocking by her. So grateful!!

7 Years Today.

It was 7 years ago today that I met the love of my life. Who would've guessed that here we would be with our family of 6. I think we're officially a large family now! Some days are mad but I wouldn't have it any other way!! I feel honoured to have met someone so wonderful as my dear and darling husband.

You are my soul mate and I love you with all my heart!

Progress

Dave my love decided that I should paint the top. I must admit I wasn't going to. But if it is painted it'll be much cleaner and I'll actually be able to put stuff on the top if I choose to. I'm very grateful for his cleaning and dusting of my furniture. I love you honey!! And yes my dear husband is very tall. 6'5" in fact! So although he makes my cupboard look small it's really not!

Ready to paint

I finally chose a colour for the new cupboard Dave got for me(freebie). I wanted a bluey grey. I searched the net for colour ideas, but of course the colour names here aren't the same. In the end I decided to stop being so indecisive and just chose one. I think I'll be very happy and if not its just paint isn't it. I also got some black paint to finish off the beautiful old school cupboard. Before and after pics and posts to come soon.
Weekends at Bunnings are always crazy. But so glad we finally made it.

Two-Tone Choc-chip Cookies

 Preparation time: 15 minutes
Total cooking time: 12-15 minutes
Makes about 40

125g butter
1 1/2 C soft brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 1/2 C plain flour
1 tsp bicarb of soda
150 g dark choc bits
150 g white choc bits
1. Preheat oven to moderate. Line two trays with baking paper.
2. Using electric beaters, beat butter, sugar and essence in small bowl until light and creamy. Add eggs gradually, beating well after each addition. Transfer to a large bowl.
3. Using a metal spoon, fold sifted flour, soda and choc bits into creamed mixture; mix until smooth.
4. Drop level tablespoons of mixture onto prepared trays, allowing for spreading; flatten mixture slightly.
5. Bake 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned and cooked through. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Mix well.


Put spoonfuls on a cookie sheet.


Bake.


Cool.

Repeat one handed until all baked. Try not to put the baby down or he will scream.

Lunch at Kazbah

Being on maternity leave means I can now go out to lunch during the work day. I caught up with Jenny and it was so decadent doing lunch while others were working! There were so many good things to choose on the menu, but since the breakfast menu was still on we both chose something from that. Yummo!

The Boy is growing

Hamish has just had his 6 week check-up. Well it was last week, so not soo long ago. His stats:
Length - 51cm to 60cm. A growth of 9th in 6 and a half weeks. Wow!
Weight- 3.2kg to 5.7kg. A whopping fattening up of 2.5kgs!!
And here are two photos showing the change.And now...

The kids

The kids are growing at an alarming rate!! How can I have children in high-school let alone nearly as tall as me! Josh has just got his half- yearly report and he's done so well. He got an outstanding in Maths. Must take after me of course. He's just got home from school and is making himself some pikelets. I've got me some clever children! I just need to teach him to cook a meal with the same enthusiasm.

An update of the last year

It's been almost a year since I updated this blog and I think it's about time to update where we are.

Where we're living now...
After almost four years living in Putney we were offered the rental place by the owners as they were wishing to sell. We of course would get the first opportunity to buy the said house at the bargain basement price of 1 million dollars. Yes you heard that right! We were so shocked as the house is still a fibro and is in dire need of quite a lot of maintenance work not to mention the white ants. We declined politely and began looking for another place to live. We'd been paying $630 a week and soon found out that we wouldn't be able to find anything equal to what we were living in for anything less than an extra $200 a week. We were shocked! Really we would be paying a small mortgage without the benefit of having a house of our own at the end.

We ended up finding a wonderful house in East Ryde with a pool, but without a garage. The selling point was the bath. I've made good use of the bath nearly every day and during the end of my pregnancy I often had two baths a day. Just bliss!! The house is on a long narrow road around the corner from where we lived when we were pregnant with Isabella. Dave has an office downstairs and Josh not only has a large bedroom downstairs, but he also has his own bathroom with a shower and toilet. It even has a corner kitchenette with a little sink, basin and cabinets. Josh loves having his own space. We gave him our old queen sized bed but we haven't been able to give him a proper sized mattress yet, so he's sleeping on this huge bed with a mattress that only fits half of the bed. Sammy has her own bedroom and Isabella at the moment has her own room, but will eventually share with Hamish. We have an enormous bedroom, that is almost as big as the bedroom we had in Evans Head. We could probably have a small couch in our bedroom and still have room to spare. Hamish is in our room at the moment in his bassinett and we also have his change table in there too. We have a huge lounge/dining room that is open plan and a lovely large kitchen. There is an 'extra' room that was probably the formal dining room that I'm going to use as my craft room. I'm very excited about that!

Joshua is turning 14 this year and is in year 8 at Hunters Hill High. He is still doing drama with Kidz on Stage until the end of this term, but then he's going to change to doing karate. Now that we are living in East Ryde the travel to Homebush to do drama is too long. He's also doing drama after school on Tuesdays with his school drama teacher and the bonus is because its through the school it's free. We LOVE free! He's doing scouts on Thursday night and Dave is now the scout leader. Josh has gotten a lot of badges and is now a patrol leader of the 'Seals' group. Fridays he does hip-hop dancing and then it's always a long journey to get the kids up to Troys. We take the kids up to him on Friday night and Troy brings them back after he finishes work on Saturday night. It means that they are back between 11:30 and midnight. At the moment we are doing this every weekend. Now that we've had Hamish Dave is going up with the kids by himself as we can't all fit in one car now. Josh loves maths and is especially good at algebra. His favourite subjects at school are drama and maths. In another week Josh will be having an information evening to help him decide what subjects to choose for years 9 and 10. I can't believe that he's almost in year 9! He's grown so tall recently. Just before christmas last year Josh was shorter than my mum and he's now quite a bit taller than her.

Last year he did a dance for variety night by himself infront of his whole school. We were so impressed and the dance was great. People were whooping and applauding and Josh loved it. We were so impressed with him!

The variety night was only a few weeks after Josh had a falling out with his group of friends at school. He was uninvited to a party in the same week that he was shunned by his whole group of friends. This was started by his best-friend of year 7, Toby. I was so upset with this. Luckily he has found a new group of friends who seem lovely.

Josh is enjoying cooking and now that I'm home on maternity leave I've decided that the kids are going to be able to bake or cook a dessert on Tuesday nights. Josh has already decided to make us a chocolate lava cake next Tuesday. I can't wait! He's already made it at granny's house. Both the kids get to bake with granny when they visit by themselves and have a recipe book with their recipes in and a photo of them cooking. One day they'll look back on that with fond memories.

Sammy is in year 6, her last year of primary school and is coming up to her twelth birthday and has decided on a slumber party for her 12th birthday. This will be in just a couple of weeks. She's got a lovely group of friends and is looking forward to starting at Riverside Girls High School next year.

This year Sammy is doing Contemporary and Jazz instead of Contemporary and Hip-Hop dance classes. She does these on Wednesday afternoons fromm 4 to 6 and walks from school to the Gladesville Uniting Church with a group of girls that all go to dance. She has to wear bright pink and black clothes and often when she comes home we get to see her latest dance moves. Sammy is also doing scouts now after leaving Guides with Brittnie and is enjoying gaining badges. The scout troop is growing and there are now girls and boys in the unit and Brittnie's mum Sandra is also on her way to becoming a scout leader.

Sammy really enjoys cooking and recently made granny's cheesecake recipe with only a few words of advice from me. We got to eat it for dessert over two nights. On the second night Sammy was too full to eat her piece of cheesecake. Of course it made itself into the fridge, but sweet things don't last long in our house and I couldn't help but eat it on the second day of just sitting there in the fridge. Sammy came home late from scouts to ask if she could eat her cheesecake slice and I had to sheepishly admit that I'd already eaten it. I've promised her that we'll make it again soon.

Josh and Sammy are now visiting their dad every weekend and enjoy spending time with their new sister Eve who will be one a couple of days before Sammy's birthday.

Isabella is now in the big pre-school room and will be starting 'big' school next year. She has enjoyed the transition from full-time care to just two days a week now that I'm on maternity leave. We are starting to get into a routine with our week. Mondays is the day for mother's group. We get to see Kaitlyn and her new brother Liam, Cooper and Mitch and Logan and Eliza. We take turns having it at our houses and bring along morning tea. Isabella and I have been enjoying making biscuits and slices and the rest of the house is enjoying eating them. Day-care days are now on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Isabella's friends at the moment are Jessica, Meggy and Lucy. We've had a few playdays with Jessica and Meg already and I'm in the process of organising a catch up with Meg, Lucy and Eve who used to be one of Isabella's best friends until she moved pre-schools. It should be great to catch up with Sophie and her two little cherubs. On Wednesdays Isabella still does Mighty Mites and comes home on those days with stories about what Coach Kim taught them. She has just started this week having no rest or sleeptime now that she is starting 'big' school next year. She was so excited to tell me this week that she didn't have to do any resting and got to play instead. Thursdays are turning into baking days and then Fridays are our playdays day when I'm up to it.

Isabella has found having a new brother a bit of a difficult transition and she has reverted back to having accidents at school and wetting her bed. She is also having the odd tantrum and is refusing to wear warm winter clothes even though it is freezing outside. We've had days of 10 degrees and its only the beginning of June, so really unseasonably cold weather. Hopefully this is not what we should expect for the rest of winter. I've just started a star chart which is proving to be effective and will hopefully help this adjustment period to be less traumatic for all of us. Especially her parents who are both severely sleep deprived at the moment.

Hamish came into this world on the 7th of May and is fitting around our family routines as a fourth child would. He's an easy baby and rarely complains about anything and when he does he is very quiet about his annoyance. Dave likes to say that Hamish doesn't cry and he's pretty close to the mark. He's just started in the last week to notice his surroundings and will now look at us intently like he's trying to figure who we all are. There are a lot of us after all! He is starting to look less like Isabella but it is hard to know who he'll resemble at the moment as he seems to change from week to week as he fills out. He's turning into a little chunky monkey and at his first visit from the community nurse at two weeks old he had put on 800g from his birth weight. It reminds me of Josh who also became pretty chunky pretty quickly. Hamish has been a very spoilt baby and he is still receiving gifts from people. I've done only half of the thank you cards that I need to do and I just haven't been able to find time to do the rest. I have an excuse at the moment that he is only just 5 weeks old, but this excuse won't last long. We all love having him around and are glad to now have a family photo with all of us in it.

2010 Updates

It is nearly mid way through 2010 and I'm finally catching up with some upddates. Here goes...

Dave is enjoying his business mostly, he's training to be a scout leader, is becoming very muscley and has gotten back on the Weight Watchers wagon. He's feeling pretty good about himself!!

I am finally feeling normal after the D&C I needed 7 weeks ago. We're desperate to have another baby and are so sad that we've lost our last four babies. We went to the RE (Reproductive Endocronologist sp?) and got our results back from the D&C. There was a problem with T16 which is a common reason to miscarry. The RE didn't think that there would be a problem next time. We're waiting another month and then we'll be back. It costs about $1800 a pop, so not cheap, but so worth it!!

It's my third year at my school and I'm on a year 1/2 class and really enjoying it. I'm the social committee organiser at school and thinking that I should start organising our Christmas party.

I've finished my first subject of my Masters in Education and will hopefully get back to it again soon.

On a very sad note, Joanne took her life. It still doesn't feel real!!

Joshua is about to turn 13. He wants to have a party at a Tepanyaki restaurant. He does drama with Kidz on Stage on Monday nights and after school on Thursdays. He also does Scouts on Thursday night. Friday he takes himself to a hip-hop class in the Putney Primary School hall and is absolutely loving it!! He practices his dancing as often as Sammy will let him into her room to watch himself in her floor to ceiling mirrors. They both like to dance to music in there and watch each other's moves. On Friday nights Josh sometimes goes to a youth group up at Gladesville church with some friends that he's made at school. One of the parents takes him up there and we pick him up at 9pm.

Josh has started year 7 this year and is doing really well at school. He's just managed to get his 10th certificate at school for good behaviour and wonderful assignments. He's made a few good friends and has settled down well. Toby would be his best friend at school at the moment. Josh found the assignments very overwhelming at the beginning of the year and missed a couple of projects that he ended up getting zero for. After getting him a whiteboard to help him stay organised and helping him with his homework, he has managed to get some good marks and is on his way to better organisational skills in homework tasks. He is a wonderful big brother to Sammy and Isabella.

Sammy is in year 5 and enjoying school as well. She has just had her hair cut into a bob, because of knots and issues with keeping her long hair clean and unknotty. It looks beautiful and is much easier for her to look after. She has a nice bunch of friends and is especially close to Brittnie, who has been in her class every year since year 1. I think if those girls were split up they would be devastated!! Sammy is doing Guides on Tuesday night and is doing contemporary and hip-hop dance on Wednesdays with Brittnie. I am the president of the Girl Guide support group for Gladesville. Sammy is a sensitive girl who can be easily upset but is also very intuitive, gorgeous, an avid reader and a caring sibling. She likes to cuddle with Bella, but is also very upset when her little sister breaks one of her things, which unfortunately is quite common now that they share. Sammy is still messy, but is learning to be more tidy.

Bella is at such a lovely age. She goes to Acre Wood childcare full-time and has some lovely carers there. Her favourite would be Rachel, who has followed her up from the baby room. Her favourite friends last year were Evie and Lucy. Evie has moved to another childcare closer to home, however we try and catch up with her when we can. Her new best friends are Jess and Will. On Wednesdays she does a fitness class at school called 'Mighty Mites'. The song that goes along with these lessons with 'Coach Kim' is 'Mighty Mites, happy and bright'. This is followed with some star jumps. Bella shares a room with Sammy and is still in a toddler bed. She goes to bed at about 8:30pm and takes forever to fall asleep. At about 4:30 she hops into our bed in the middle, between Daddy and Mommy. She is woken up at about 7:15 with great difficulty. Then breakfast and off to school. She always arrives at school very excited and jumps up and down as soon as she gets there.

Some family routines...

We all start the day together with breakfast. I love it!! I read the paper and we all sit and eat together. Then there is a mad rush to get out the door. I take Bella to school, Josh catches the bus (leaving the house at 7:45) and Sammy is taken to school by Dave.