My entry in Renae's CJ, for the Life Experiences swap on the forum. I think all of my entries are more than likely going to be about Lexi's journey, it has come back and hit me with some force this past few weeks. I think that I haven't really de-briefed to anyone. I talk about it of course, but really really had a good let out, no, I haven't. And coupled with Lexi being so so unsettled, it made it all seem so much more full-on I guess. I am fine, it just all seemed to be getting on top of me for a bit there, but am happy to say I am feeling alot better now... more about that later in the post...

My LO for CCG #121, I missed last weeks challenge which I was shirty about but it just did not happen... I am really enjoying the colours, it is a fun thing to do... and I have gotten some really nice feedback which has lifted me quite abit too.. Go and see for yourself if you haven't already!

Little Lou Lou on the weekend, she looks quite chubby here. We went to Pt Augusta for one night and shopped (yippee) and spent some time with my in-laws who met us there, as it's about half way for both of us! I find it hilarious that Woolies excites me as much as it does. They have so much more variety than ours, alot more choice all around and to be honest, I'm jealous!! Anyway, I got yummy flavours of my favourite yoghurt and a dip that I just wanted to get! I'll sit down and eat the lot this week!!

The playground near where we stayed, Mia loved it, and it was a really good one too. We saw some people from Lincoln there that we recognised, which was nice, I like to see familiar faces even if I have no hope of remembering thier names... Oops! I am very bad with names and birthdays....

Lexi all rugged up in Pt Augusta... She just looks so cute!!


Those of you who read my blog would know that I have been having problems settling Lexi. I was really at my wits end with it all. I felt like I had no idea what she wanted and it was becoming a hit and miss affair. Sometimes she would fall asleep at the boob, sometimes not, sometimes she would fall asleep while being rocked, sometimes not... all the while she was VERY upset. I felt like I just did not know what was happening with her.... and that I did not know her at all! Also she was waking for up to 2 and a half hours in the middle of the night. I am taking my girls for a holiday to Darwin in 7 weeks and was wondering how the hell I would cope with her, and how our friends would cope with this baby who screamed until she finally gave in!
On Friday I went to Big W in Pt Augusta and bought Tizzie Hall's book, Save Our Sleep, and thoroughly read it last night after she finally gave in and went to sleep. Well today, things were put into practice and I feel like we are finally on the right track. AMAZING! The first sleep it didn't really work, but I went back over a few things in the book and the next sleep, I put her to bed, wrapped up and lay a wrap next to her face so she could feel it and rub her face against it if she liked... And it turns out she likes it, not a peep out of her at her 1 o'clock sleep and again tonight when I popped her into bed at 7pm!

7PM!!!!

She has NEVER gone to bed at that hour, and quietly, settling herself off to sleep! I am one happy Mumma right now, I feel as though we all might be a bit happier, not least of all Lexi who must have been sick of it all too!! I had the most wonderful chat with one of my old friends in Pt Lincoln who I let it all out to and she suggested it, and I'm so glad she did.... Look out, I might be back on the scrapping bandwagon in full force if I once again have my evenings to myself!!!

Long rant, but it's as much for me to look back on too!!

Hope you had a Happy Mothers Day! Brenton was home and I'm always happier when he's around and we had a great day just hanging out as a family! I love it when we are all together.. Especially since he has just finished a stint of working 13 days straight, mostly 13 hour days by the time he got back home again. So, a day like this is treasured!!

xxx

Mia 'helping' me make Banana Cake, it is the easiest recipe, and extra yum with thick cream cheese icing on top....
You just mix altogether
8oz S.R. flour, 4oz butter or marg (which I didn't melt, it was softened for a bit beforehand), 4oz sugar, 2 eggs, vanilla essence, 2 mashed ripe Bananas, 1 tsp of bi-carb soda dissolved in milk.
And that's it, mix it all together, bung in a greased cake pan and bake in a moderate oven for 40-45 mins. I cooked this one about 160 degrees for a bit longer as my oven gets too hot and crisps the outside of things before the inside is done.... Yum and a quick and easy cake to whip up. And the so bad it's so good icing is small block philly cheese at room temp, 1 tbs butter, 2 cups icing sugar and some vanilla...

The end product, which didn't last very long in this house!! delish!

A few weeks ago I noticed that my Aloe Vera plant out the front was starting to shot a big spear like thing out of it and now it is flowering, I have never had an Aloe Vera plant flower before so of course I had to take a dozen photos of it!!

These connector textas have given Mia alot of joy lately... She loves them. She has been playing with empty toilet rolls and empty paper towell rolls, and they are her 'people' and she makes cages out of the textas for them... On Thursday, she just played for hours with them! And it was actually raining most of the day here so it was good for her to amuse herself for so long!

I've started to read Lexi some books. She loves it. She seems to really look at the pictures. I can remember buying this book when Mia was a baby and we were broke and we couldn't really afford to buy it but I did anyway, and Mia loved it and we read it to her for a long time and now Lexi is getting to use it, so really am glad I did buy it all those years ago!

Cute bubba after her bath the other night, whe sure is growing fast, getting her 4 month immunisations done today which I'm not looking forward to but she coped really well with her 2 month ones so hope it's the same this time round..

My girlies having a cuddle... The little horsey that they have in thier arms is what Brenton and I bought Lexi while we were in Melbourne. I just thought it was so cute and in intensive care they used it to prop up her limbs at different times while she was recovering after her operation. Some Nurses didn't like the babies having soft toys around them probably for the germ factor, but most were more than happy to let us have them near her. And Liz, if you happen to read this post, hope you are going well, and I think of you often!!! xxxx

Latest LO for Color Combos Galore #119. I have struggled to scrap this week, Lexi has been a bit of a challenge to get to sleep of an evening, think it's time for her to go in her cot. It makes me sad but I really think the time has come... I swore black and blue that I would not rock her like I did Mia and I'm finding myself having to do just that. We will see what happens in the next few days.

What did your babies do while they were getting off to sleep, do I need to give her a comfort blanket or some such thing. I think she is way too young for controlled crying and I'm not a fan of it anyway, but really would love to hear what you may have done with your babies!!

Anyway, it has been working for me to scrap during the day while she is asleep, but I find it hard to scrap if I know that the floors need to be cleaned or other stuff like that. I just need to start thinking that it is something I enjoy and to just sit for an hour or so and just scrap!!

Hope you had a great weekend...
xxx

New hairdo, made my photo B&W so as to try and hide the cold sore on my lip and the pimple on my cheek!! lol. It is quite dark underneath and really quite a lot shorter than it was, and I am really happy. It involved a change of hairdresser like I mentioned in an earlier post but the new one picked up what I was putting down about how I would like my hair.... She has a new regular customer!!! A happy one!

Smiley Miss Lexi, just gorgeous in this pic, she is sitting on her Dad's lap and somehow looks so much more grown up than she looks IRL. The little sweetheart has been a bit hard to settle lately, I am a pretty tired Mumma right now. She was being so beautiful to me and settling ultra easy and sleeping ALL night waking only for a quick feed on both sides once in the night and then going straight back to sleep! But not at the moment... we will get there!

Mia had a friend over playing on Monday and while they were in her room making a huge mess I took the opportunity to take Lexi and pop her on my bed to take some photos of her without Mia, as she always has to be in the scene aswell. I love this photo, she looks so serious and I love her little hands that are clasped.

Mia asleep the other night with Lumpy! She got him when she was born from her Aunty Nelly and Uncle Michael. He comes out every so often and becomes her favourite again. At the moment he has been with her nearly every night. Mia, bless her, has been pushing my buttons lately like you wouldn't beleive. My patience is not what it should be, but she is being a bit difficult... I wonder if I'm giving her enough attention but we DO do lots of things together everyday so not sure. A phase I suppose, which it all is anyway. She is a beautiful little girl, just having a few moments. Yesterday everything that happened was followed with an 'OH MY GOD' like when she tried the icing for our cake that we made, 'Oh My God Mum, this icing is yummy' I tried to tell her that it's not good to walk around saying that... continuously!! Anyway, it's all part of being a parent, it's just not all sunshine and that's the truth!!!

My entry for Em's CJ on SBM forum. I went a bit overboard with the paint, but I kind of like it anyway. It was posted yesterday. It will be good to get my CJ back just to see all the entries.. Can't wait, but I guess it will be later on in the year..

The new Color Combos Galore challenge is up, I love the colours. I'll be trying to do it this week. Tried to pick out some papers and photos last night, Lexi was a fair bit unsettled so didn't get very far, but the first challenge I did last week got some really nice comments on it in the gallery, which was really very encouraging. ai don't think I have an eye for balance and all that stuff on my LO's so I can never really tell if it 'looks' balanced. And at the end of the day all my pages are just for my girls so it doesn't really matter anyway, but it WAS very nice to have the lovely comments!!

NEWSFLASH!!!
I just went and put Lexi into her bed as she was tired and ready for a sleep and this time she just took her dummy and settled quickly... This has not happened for 6 days, I have had to resort to either rocking her to sleep in her little chair or feeding her to sleep. This is a little breakthrough for us right now!! Yippee!!

Anyway, once again, a ramble of a post, but that's me, a chatterbox!!
Leave me a message if you visit!!
xxx

Last week I managed 3, yes THREE layouts! It was a personal best for a while!! The above one is just so nice in real life, I just couldn't get a decent photo of my layouts on Friday. But anyway it's of Lexi in Rose Ward in Adelaide. The dear little thing looked so small in her cot. I took so many photos of her, infact I took heaps of photos of her whole journey and I was feeling a little overwhelmed at scrapping them and then I just sort of stopped and gave myself permission to scrap whatever photo of the girls that I liked whenever I liked and then I felt alot better about it.

I can remember when I started to scrap, I used to give myself hell about scrapping in chronological (sp) order and it used to make me stress about it. And then once I got involved in the on-line world I realised that it just doesn't matter, there was no 'rules' to this scrapping business... And then I felt free-er to scrap whatever, whenever! Just have to remind myself of that here and there!

The above Layout is for Color Combos Galore Challenge #118. A new discovery for me, a really cool website.I had often seen the colours on Belinda and Nic's blogs and wondered about it all! I am going to sit down this afty and check out everyone else's LO's. I saw the combo and thought, OMG, I don't really know about this.. I wasn't even going to do it. But then I sat and started looking through my ridiculous stash and started having a nice ol time, finding things I wanted to use, playing around with letter and colours. It was great!
So anyway, I just love this photo of my babies that I took not long after we bought Lexi home to Roxby. I just wanted to convey the LOVE i have for them! And again, this photo just does not do this LO justice. It is now a little favourite LO. All from a combo I thought I didn't even like!


A lovely weekend here for our little family. Friday afternoon I had my hair done and had a fair bit chopped off, and I love it! I will have to take a photo and show you (whoever visits) then came home and picked up the girls and went to a friends house for an hour and a half for a couple of quiet drinks as she is leaving town (another one... boohoo) and it's a real pity that I have only just started to get to know this top lady and now she is leaving!
Saturday we just bummed around the house, and did jobs inside and out! We went a work mate's of Brenton's for tea, it was a AFL footy tips show from last year. Better late than never...They did lamb and pork in a custom made rotisserie thingy that was cooked with charcoal, it tasted delish! A nice night and we had really good company. I haven't really mixed with these people much but I really really had a great time and can't wait to have them over to our place so that when the girls are tired I can just put them to bed and still have the good company!
And today, well Mia and I have been planting herb seeds and tending to our growing garden. It has taken us along time to get the garden going again after the pool went in, the yard was such a mess. But vegies, herbs and plants are like scrapping, they make me feel good!!!

What a ramble this post has turned out to be, I am in a good mood so I guess that's why I am rambling, I talk lots when I am happy!
Hope you are happy too!!

Tatum is due for her baby this week and I am constantly thinking about her and her family and the impending arrival, new babies excite me, there is something so utterly special about new little lives! So that will be some good news coming during the week!! My dear friend, I hope that your labour isn't too laborious and anyway, it's all worth it isn't it!! Love ya!!!

xxx

Some scrapping to share... The above photo is for a CJ on the SM forum, I chose the theme, A LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE, which of course our family has just had with Lexi. I still look at her every day in wonder that she is doing so well. I still shed tears on occasions just looking at her and thinking about it all... DH and I say it will always be vivid in our minds... So, anyway that is my front cover....

My into page...

Sign in page which will look so much better once everyone has signed in!!

And my entry. Behind both photos is pockets with more photos and 5 pages of journalling. I feel almost as if I could write a book, it was hard to journal, as I felt I could have written about Lexi's journal for ages, I left out alot of detail.... And I didn't want to over bore my CJ friends.... I am sending this one off on it's journey tommorow and if all goes well it should be home before Christmas. This is the 4th CJ I have been involved in and I have none back home as yet, which is immensly dissapointing. I fought tooth and nail at one stage to get some other people's CJ's returned, and yet, none of mine have made it home..... One, both DH and I really loved and it just vanished and I am unable to contact the lady who last had it... Frustrating indeed... If this one goes missing I swear I will hop on a plane and go and collect it personally. This one is such a personal thing to me...

I just did this LO quickly this afternoon, once again inspired/scraplifted Belinda V, whose work I do really love and if I have any hope of getting through this HUGE pile of photos, I would do well to be inspired by her!!

Hope to be on my scrapping roll now!! xxxx

Mmmm, Easter Bunny visited and left a trail of eggs from the front door to Mia's bed, here they are trailing down the hallway to her bedroom......

My precious ones having a cuddle on Thursday, they had a few parcels arrive and got lots of eggs and little soft toys! Spoilt are my two but I love it!! And they are cute too!

When I was pregnant I asked the girls on the SM forum if they had spare HUGGIES barcodes, as I really really really wanted this little playtent for my baby! I have had it for so long now and was finally pleased to be able to use it yesterday! She loved it! Kept the flies off and I know she likes to lay and have a kick so it was perfect! We had a Weber feast with some friends yesterday at our place and it was a fantastic afternoon, lots of food, I made a spinach cob too! Delish! The kids had a swim, and played dress ups and had a lovely afternoon just being kids!

Little Miss Loo Loo with her little yellow duck that one of my good friends here in Roxby gave Lexi for Easter, she always spoils us at Christmas, Birthdays and Easter time!

Miss Mia with a gift that her Aunty sent her from Port Lincoln! It was a metal Dora handbag with the beautiful pink eggs inside! I love her face in this photo, pure delight!!

I hope your Easter has been special, ours has been a mostly quiet affair, but it was lovely to have DH at home, he starts back on night shift tonight for 4 nights then no more night shifts in the future! I really don't like night shift, I don't worry about being on my own at night, infact I don't mind it at all, but the days when the baby is crying and Mia is pretending to be a baby elephant, when she walks around so loudly.... it does my head in! I have cried a couple of times out of sheer frustration at the situation. But I can surely handle 4 more of them and then it's done!! Yeeha!

Another post coming shortly with some scrapping! Feeling fresh and inspired about it, while I have really still been loving looking at blogs, mags, forums, etc... I just could not be bothered but hoping this is a good start!!

xx

My little bubba in her cot having a sleep in it for the first time... Once she actually sleeps in there full-time, all her special little toys will exit. She is still in the basinette by my bed every night... I really like her sleeping right there next to me. I don't know how I'll cope when she get too big and HAS to go in her cot... I won't like it! She is still pretty small so I'll keep her in the basinette as long as I possibly can!!! For the last couple of nights she has been waking 2 times during the night for a feed instead of one, so maybe she is having a growth spurt!! Not too quickly little Lexi!! She is a very smily baby, and in the last few days has found her hands, and clasps them together and stares at them. She's on the verge of having a laugh and is making lots of baby gurgling sounds... Sweet!!!

I love this photo of Lexi, this little dress it just the cutest, Tatum bought it for her when she was born, just so gorgeous! She has grown out of a couple of outfits, it is heartwarming to know that she is slowly getting bigger...

My two precious ones in the bath together for the first time. Mia was so excited, the little seat that Lexi is in was my SIL's and it has suction cups on the bottom but they don't really work too well anymore so I might just buy a new one...Both Brenton and I were right there, but the chair didn't stick to the bath and then I put too much water in the bath and Lexi's bottom half started floating away... She was only in there for the photos and a quick wash! It was a bit hectic! But good for a photo opportunity!!

All is well in my world, feeling great, except for the tail end of a cold which had me coughing uncontrollably at night, it drives me crazy! Last night I came out into the lounge and wrapped mysef in a rug and slept upright in the chair for who knows how long! Just so I wouldn't cough! It was really bad the night before, I got up and moved to the spare bed, wheeling Lexi in the basinette with me which woke her up, so she back on for a feed to send her back off to sleep, and then she wokeup another 2 times for a feed, and in between me coughing so much, not much sleep was had Sun night! I was soooooo tired yesterday...

I can hear my bubba waking up so I'll be off now!
Hope the week is good for you!!
xx