I have had a play with Blogger and hope to tweak things a bit more as time goes by. My blog has been a bit boring looking for a while now, so play I will as time goes by!

Now for some photos!!

This LO is now living at Lucy's home, I promised her a LO in lieu of an entry in her CJ. I did make up a cd of music for her too, and have more playlists of my favourite all time music, so if you like music Lucy, let me know and I'll send more!! x Lucy has been a fabulous support to me through out Lexi's heart problems, and we love her so!!

I have noticed lately that when I stick my LO's on the wall for photos I never really put them up straight! Anyway this is for Nic's July sketch challenge on E2C. I am yet to send it in, but here it is! Lucky Lexi in her little yellow dress!!

And here we have Little Miss Personality!! Wham Bam Thankyou M'am!! She has just changed so noticably lately. She has just started chewing her food for ages in her mouth and then spitting it out on the floor, or anywhere.... Gross Lexi!! I have Pump bottles for my water, and I CANNOT leave them anywhere near her, or she will squirt them all over the floor like today! I foolishly left my rings on my bedside table last night, went to pop them on this morning, my engagement ring was no-where to be found. I found it in a handbag that I remember seeing her play with. She screams, squeels, talking more everyday. A true joy but no longer my little baby. She sees me coming toward her with a nappy and takes off in the other direction. She shuts doors on you, or shuts herself in various rooms including our walk in robe with no lights on in there. Then when you open the door you can see her squinting like it's so so bright!! 

She is a monkey!!

A quick rumble before bedtime!

Beautiful girl! She went to a birthday party today and had her face painted. So gorgeous! But grumpy when she came home!! Maybe too many lollies and fairy bread!!

Friday afternoon started with a couple of these. Yum but potent as I found out later on. Blue Vok, Malibu and Midori. Only a capful of each in such a big glass, but still! Then we went around to a friends house to watch her practice with her partner in her Duo. Kids went to sleep there so a few more to be had, and then whoah, hangover on Saturday. Many thanks to my lovely husband for looking after us all. And for not giving me any grief. The Grand Ol Girl can't do it like she used to!!! 

Anyway, while I spent most of yesterday laying on the couch (oh the shame) I watched Nigella make some yummy roast potatoes which I copied for us tonight. YUM YUM YUM with the old Lamb Rack! 

And to top it off, Lexi having her bottle of milk before her daytime sleep today. Very cute, but very naughty!! LOL!!!! 

Thanks for popping by! x

A sneaky peek of a LO that's winging it's way to Lucy!!! About time I say!! I hope you like it Lucy! 

xxx

Op shop love in the form of ramekins like my Mum would have used to own! The dark blue one has a tiny chip but otherwise they are perfect! Now to work out what to make in them. Maybe a mornay for each of us when my parents visit! 

The girls and I having fun on Sunday! Very funny little things they are! Feeling the love so much ATM! 

Same with this little bubba, just feeling the love. The girls are just so beautiful to each other and I love it!

 Good glory nora, I HAVE SCRAPPED! And really feeling it too. I did some LO's last week or the week before and I struggled with them, pushed the paper around for ages, but these three just came out of nowhere. I loved it!! The above LO, I stuck the pink inked flowers upside down, and they didn't have anything underneath, so I pulled them off, added doilies and lots more butterflies, ink, glimmermist, staples, and little wire words down the bottom right that I have had just about the whole time i have been scrapping. So good to use them! 

This LO just came out too. Not sure about all the flowers but that's probably because I hardly use them, but spent some $$$ and stocked up on some gorgeous prima flowers. I wouldn't know if they are new release or not, but love love love them! The photos are from my 30th Birthday and I have always loved these particular two! So glad I finally scrapped them!

 This is for Amanda's July challenge on E2C. This is a really crappy photo but I love it in real life. A special time for my Mum to have her 3 Grandies on her lap, after all the worry before and immediately after Lexi's birth. We are so lucky, Mum just gave it all up to come to Adelaide with me before I had Lexi while Brenton was still working and then to take Mia to Port Lincoln while Lexi had her heart surgery. Mia had a great time with her other grandparents too through that time, and I have a precious photo of my in-laws with the girls too that I want to scrap. This challenge pushed me to use it. THANKS AMANDA!!!! x

Oooh ooooh, gotta go Packed to the Rafters is on!!
xxxx

I have been tagged by the gorgeous Lauren!! 

 

 Here are the rules that go with it:

1. Put the Swap Sisters Bonny Blog Award on my blog.

2. Share 5 things about myself.

3. Pass the award onto 5 other Bonny Blogs.

4. Add links to my 5 chosen Bonny Blog Winners.

5. Let them know they have been chosen to win the Swap Sisters Bonny Blog Award by leaving a comment on their blog.

Ok, so five things about me...

1. I feel like a scrapper wannabe, wish ideas flowed out of my head like I think they should! 

2. I love to sleep. I could have a Nanna nap EVERYDAY if at all possible. But it's not.
3. I love cooking but I always almost leave out a vital ingredient when I'm reading a recipe, or get quantities wrong.

4. I would love to take a self improvement course to help me learn some focus!
5. I am the BIGGEST procrastinator that you ever did meet.

And I'm not going to nominate anyone as I'm a slack-o!! 

xxx

My weekend that was was fantastic. Brenton was home all weekend, and it was a perfect family weekend. The girls played well, harmonious you might say!!  I scrapped, made a load of bread in the machine, tidied, sorted, washed clothes. We hung at home and it was good! Feeling peaceful at the moment.

This little bundle is growing way too fast... wish I could press the pause button for a few days. Talking so much, alot of babble but a lot that makes sense. She gets the tele remotes, gives them to Brenton and says 'Ta Bubba', bangs on the cupboard for 'eat', runs up the hallway for 'barp' time (bath time) which she sometimes says as 'baf' aswell. She does what we call the drop and roll when she either wants something or doesn't want something, it can go either way. It usually involves her banging her head on the floor or some hard substance around her! She is also parroting alot of what we say. Mia and I love to snuggle in bed with Lexi in the mornings and try to get her to say random words which surprisingly she is good at. Just once mind you, she doesn't like to repeat them again!! She's no fool!! Just a joy this girl....  I could eat her all up!! 

Snotty nose and all, what's not to love! 

 Here is someone else that is growing way too fast!! Today she is eating her new favourite fruit, Oranges. She would eat heaps everyday but I have to stop her at two a day. I don't really want to find out what happens to her stomach when she eats too many. We have just started a reward chart to encourage her to read her reader at night with less resistance, do what she is asked without so much crying and tears, and to also go to bed without mucking around. There is alot to be said for a chart printed from a free website and some stickers we already had laying around. Mia needs encouragement ALL THE WAY to do things. You can't leave her to her own devices. Unless she wants to do it of course. But we are getting there, she is a delight too! Very funny and knows it! We are having lots of laughs lately. She loves a snuggle! On Saturday night she woke at 11:30 after we had gone to bed and wanted to hop in with us, I said No, lets go back to your bed, I'll lay with you for a while!! FUNNY, I hopped in and we snuggled together and off to sleep til the morning! These are the thing that aren't planned but so good! Lexi woke in the morning so there we all are in Mia's single bed having a really nice time, talking to Lexi, laughing.... It's the small things.

Mia and her friend Lucy today. Lucy came for a play this afternoon and they made Jungle animals, had a cubby hous in Mia's room, played ponies, ran around outside, produced above play, coloured in, and had a picnic on her bedroom floor aswell. Notice the little helper in the play too! They were so good and let Lexi just bounce around with them today... 

Well I have finally scrapped... Both of my LO's involve Tatum!! Big Sis Love is inspired by Tatum saying about scraps and how she feels less intimidated by them, so I got out my scraps pizza box, delved and it came from there. Love this photo, Mia couldn't (and still can't) get enough hugs.. Looks like she's squeezing her here! What a wonderful Big Sis!!

And this LO is an out and out scraplift of one of Tatum's LO's. It featured in Scrapbook Creations 79 in her hybrid article, page 39, called My Baby Girls. I really like the way it turned out, even if it's not 'mine' That's ok, I really need something to get me on the scrap roll again so who better to get ideas from??? I mean, really!!

TFL! xxx

Now this is what I'm talking about!!
So excited! Can't wait to have a mini re-union with some or all of the girls that were there in March! 

Yippee!!! 

Our life this week!

I did make some crispy thai chicken with thai rice this week but nothing beats the ol Aussie Icon,

Bangers and Mash! It was very very very yummy!

But will be making some Thai soups this week, as they too are yummy! Planted some herb seeds today so that when I want Coriander I have it at hand, Woolies never seems to have it when I would like to purchase!

And here we have a lil bit of Sister Love in our bed yesterday morning before an unscheduled power outage, we were rocking out to RAGE in our Jim Jams, and poof, off it went! Love ya, ROXBY POWER! (not)

But doesn't matter, snuggling in with these two is so good! 

Mia had her friend Bella over for a sleepover last night, yesterday afternoon they dressed up and we havehad a little photo shoot!! I already had my bed sheet hanging on the line, so I lowered it and we were set to go. Mia thought it quite funny to pull sheet off by laying back on it... then we got back down to the business at hand!

I just love this photo of Bella, it's gorgeous!!

 Ratbags of the highest order! They almost drove me spare by not going to sleep last night til after 10 (and they kept waking Lexi up)!! And then waking this morning at 6.30, then Lexi woke up, not a real happy household this morning... No more sleepovers for a while! Anyway they are beautiful girls and fab friends, but bring on school tommorow!!

Talk about a poser!! A few seconds after this photo, I accidentally donged her on the head with my camera, and that was it, photo shoot was over, Mia was off running round the yard screaming!! LOL!

She is pure delight... So beautiful, she is walking and mimicking our speech ALOT! I could eat her right up! She can say Mum, Dad, Mia, Miamoo, Cat, mimicks 'here you go', knows NO and says no no no when she doesn't want something, Nanna, Poppa (even though she has a Poppy) and lots of other little ramblings come out of her mouth!!!

And a little bit of Daddy love this evening! The girls are both 'Daddy's girls' I guess they both got used to having him with us 24/7 while on holiday, they are really missing him!

No scrapping, although I have picked out photos for LO's for Lucy, and have thought alot about said LO's, finally feeling a bit more settled in at home...

(and Tiff, if you call in, hope this is better on your eyes! I'm a bright girl)

I'M HOME!!

We had a fabulous time in Thailand, I recommend it highly!! Go, go, go! 

I have heaps of photos, but they aren't uploading here.. so if you like go to my facebook page and have a squiz. If you are interested that is, no pressure from me!  I am just putting some more up now..

Settling back into home life, but truly had some fantastic experiences with our friends and our kids.

Not alot to say really, the kids are tired and a bit out of whack, me too! But surprisingly unpacked most of our gear within 2 hours of being home and that includes washing on the line...

Back into school, P&F meetings and wondering about what to cook for tea!!! BORING!! 

Some of our highlights were,

Swimming nearly everyday of our trip!

Elephant ride, although in two minds, as they are loved and you can see that but they are chained up, but a fabulous experience nonetheless... Our guide for the ride kept calling his elephant 'sexy elephant' Very funny.

Trip to James Bond Island, which was ok, lots and lots of tourists, too many!! It was funny on there, Lexi was sitting on the ground, along comes a Japanese couple, plonk their baby next to her and start snapping away on their camera!! Funny indeed, he was a pretty cute little boy!! I was fascinated more though with the little fishing town type place built in the water a little while further on 

where we ate lunch. Felt very weird!!! Had 'sea legs' while back on solid buildings, was really a strange sensation.  

The 'adults only' night out for birthday celebrations... We got babysitters in the hotel. The boys found a great bar, very friendly and we settled in there for the evening. Along comes all types of people wanting to see things, from the older Grandmother types with their wares strapped and hanging off every part of their bodies, to the man from the tailors across the road coming over to see what we were up to, to the man with the big lizard for you to hold or put on your head for a photo with your own camera, 100bht thankyou!! Also little kids coming in selling flower necklaces and little things like that. My friend got duped big time, a little boy got her to buy his 'last' 4 flower necklaces, so he could go home, then came back 5 minutes later with a heap more to sell! The same little boy was even whipping Brenton with his little bamboo cane to get him to buy something... They try it all on you. And most of this was after 10 o'clock at night. I always got sucked in, I thought the sooner the flower necklaces were sold, the sooner they could go home to bed! It is an open air bar, and it rained while we were there, so we all huddled under the part that was covered... No bacardi breezers so one of the bar girls takes off and got us some to drink!! So nice... Bit seedy the next day but worth it.. funny night, thanks JOY!!!

THE FOOD!!! 

I was warned that we might all have funny tummies, but not at all really... Mia did one night and we worked out that was because she had eaten a whole heap of dried apricots in glee after I bought them home from the supermarket. The street food is the absolute best, I was fascinated with the carts that people pushed/drove around. 

Night Markets

Went to one in Phuket twice, loved it so much, shirts for between $3-$6 Australian. And more yummy food there. Gorgeous Fish cakes, and rice balls. I have a couple of new skirts, heaps of tops, and some gorgeous little lamps, I would have bought so much more if I could have. We had so much luggage as it was.

Chinatown in Bangkok

In Bangkok we had another Adults night, where we got the kids babysat in the hotel and went to Chinatown for a suckling pig in a Chinese restaurant!! What an experience, the little piggy comes out, and you eat the skin in little pancakes with spring onion and some delish soy type sauce... Then the pig goes out the back to be chopped up and cooked, we chose to have it fried... We also had some soup for starters which was out of this world, and lots of rice and vegetables, all so delicious! Then we found a little desert place and had the most yummy icecream type desert but it was all fluffy, with frozen fruit. Man o man!!

Grand Palace

We also went to the Grand Palace in Bangkok... So astoundingly gorgeous, lots of detail and obviously a special place for the Thais.  You have to dress appropriately so I was worried about what to wear but I needn't have bothered, you can just hire what you need there! Remember that just in case you go, ok? lol! It actually would have helped to know it as we wouldn't have worn clothes that the weather was way too hot..


The Thai people themselves.

All of our kids couldn't have been more adored, and doted over. Lexi in particular was always being touched and talked to. It really is a wonderful trait of the Thais. And as it is pretty quiet at the moment, the staff at the hotels had more time to get to know us, which was lovely...

That's enough for now, I will upload photos with stories about them, but for now, I miss Thailand, but I'm glad to be home, but I am soooooooooooo happy that we went. We nearly didn't because of the troubles, but it turned out to be the trip of our life so far!!!
Thanks for visiting if you do.
xxx