We're off to treat ourselves!!

We heading down to Salt resort tomorrow to stay the night to help our dear friend Amanda celebrate her 40th Birthday. I can't wait, the resort it lovely and the pool area is fabulous so the kids will have a ball tomorrow afternoon. We spent the day there when our friends Bel & Graeme came up to stay there and we went down to see them.
We are going to be all grown up and go out for dinner at the restaurant at the resort which I'm also looking forward to. I have booked a babysitter for the kids so cross my fingers they behave and don't carry on for her or us. This will be the first time they have been babysat by someone they don't know. I'm still tossing up as to whether we tell them and introduce the sitter to them or to just take a chance that they don't wake up and go out after they are in bed. They will be exhausted by spending the afternoon in the pool anyway so I'm hoping they will just crash and be none the wiser. Shall let you know next week :)

oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY Amanda for tomorrow too xx.

More scrapbooking

I went to a crop night on Friday night, hadn't been to one for ages, I was ready for a very productive night, finishing off a layout I had started already and then plans for another. It never goes the way you plan though does it! I had huge dramas with some rubons and had to cut the page in half and start with a different piece of paper under the original. It didn't turn out too bad, not what I had planned though.


and I made Ella little box to put all her hair ties and clips in, I was sick of them being all over the place (thanks for the idea Sharon)
Loving that paper too, its the new range from Scrapworks, so gorgeous!


I'm also in LOVE with the new range from Scenic Route, they are such fabulous bright vibrant colours. I couldn't resist them the other night, I have nearly finished one of Hudson using the
Sailmaker Lane paper and have a few others planned for the rest of the paper.

Disappointed

We were to have photos with the very talented, wonderful Rachel Richter this afternoon (by default as Kath had to cancel her booking, yay for us though) but for the first time in ages we had RAIN!!!! so were unable to do it. We went to Roma St park where we were having them, hoping that it would be a typical Queensland 10 min downpour and then the sun would come out but the rain set in as a heavy drizzle and continued for quite a while, sob sob. I'm so, so disappointed but will have to book with Rachel for another time, hope we can get in soon. Hudson was such a baby the last time and he has changed SOOO much. Rachel couldn't get over the change in him and took a double take when she saw him this afternoon. My baby is growing up, he's a wild woolly haired boy now :)
Here's the difference:
THEN

and NOW that's a 7 month difference.

Just for a bit of fun.

I found this a little while ago but keep forgetting to post it here. You can make up your own chick with all sorts of different accessories, fun! Have a go and see what your chick is like.

Bless this chick

Here's mine :)

We had some of our very special wonderful friends come to stay with us the weekend before last, I'm a bit behind aren't I !! Anyway it was so great to have Belinda & Roddy stay and we had a fabulous time with them. We spoilt ourselves and went to "The Spirit House" restaurant in Banding on the Monday. It was divine, if you are up that way make sure you go, the food is beautiful and the setting so pretty. They serve a mix of Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian food and also have a cooking school that has heaps of different classes you can do. Col has been given a voucher to do some, he just has to choose which one he wants to do. Our very special friends Belinda (Louie) & Roddy or Wooey and Uncle Rob as Ella calls them, lol.

.

The restaurant is set around this lagoon which makes for a very special setting.

The kids had a great time, watching the water monitors, chasing butterflies and exploring around the gardens. We even found out that the lizards will try to eat anything, see the photo on the side!!

We had such a lovely day, it was definitely worth the hour drive up there.

and the finished ones

So here are the other Christmas layouts that I have now finished. I took so so many photos on Christmas day the only way I was ever going to be able to use a lot of them was to get them printed in the smaller size and also my camera picture size got changed somehow so it was the only way really, lol.
The page isn't that fancy but it tells a story to us about the day we had and how wonderful it was. You can't see from the photo but the words 'Christmas Day' are all glittery. It probably needs something else but I don't know what quite.








and one with the photo we used on our Christmas cards.

My addiction...

As a lot of you know I do scrapbooking. It's something I put off starting because I really thought I would be crap at it and that it wasn't really my thing! Well, thanks to Sharon I am now totally addicted and loving it. It's my way to relax and has been the way I have got to know some really wonderful women here in Brisbane. That's not to say that I'm not crap at it but I' m really loving it at the moment and have been quite productive over the last few weeks. So I thought I would share a few things with you all.

I am stuck on Christmas layouts at the moment, I still haven't done the ones from 2005 so really want to get last years done before I move onto other things, lol. This is one of 3 I have done, the other 2 aren't quite finished yet. I've also nearly finished a little book about our Christmas family traditions, just have to find the kids Santa photos and then I can finish it.

These are old chupa chup lollipop tins I bought and have decorated for Ella & Hudson to have in their rooms. Not sure what we will put in them though. Any ideas???

Cheeky little monkeys!!!

We got a few photos of the kids all together, very hard to get 4/5 kids to all look at the same time. It looks a bit like a page from a pumpkin patch catalogue, not the clothes but the scenery, lol.

Ooops I forgot I had started this page and not posted it - doh! So here it is, just a few weeks later then it should of been, lol.

Poppy's Tractor

My Dad, otherwise known as "Poppy" has an old Massey Ferguson Tractor that he got out while we were down for the weekend. He took all the kids for a ride and they LOVED it, well Max and Ella did, Hudson and Jemima weren't too keen. Baby Jake thought it wasn't too bad either.Hudson did warm up to a bit by the end but wasn't going to show it by smiling at all, lol.

Even Nic had to get in on it and take the Fergie for a drive, she did get off Dad's knee and go on her own though, teehee.

Mums 70th Birthday celebration

We had a fabulous time on the weekend at Mum and Dad's celebrating mums 70th Birthday. It was so great that we could all be together again, fantastic that Nic, Rob and Jake could be there and that Mum was feeling better and able to enjoy her special weekend. We had a great night out at the pub for dinner on her actual birthday, the kids thought it was very special.

Us all being silly doing Poppy's TADA!!!

We had a party for Mum on Saturday night at Charlton's Golf Club, just finger food and drinks, which went really well. Is was great to catch up with people I hadn't seen for long time and so nice for Mum to be able to celebrate with them all. We got the local Church ladies to do most of the work on the night and bought a lot of the food so it was much easier for Mum and us all, great to not have to run around stressing about it all. The kids came to the party (after not being able to get a babysitter, I think having 5 scared them all off, lol) and had a ball running around and showing off, we had Happy Birthday and cake and then went home. They looked so cute all dressed up in their 'party' clothes.

My gorgeous nephew and niece, Max and Jemima.

Mum's Birthday cakes
Mum and her sister, the gorgeous Auntie Joan.
Doing the speeches.

look Mum, CAKE!!!!

I can't remember the last time I had a photo taken with Andrew and Nic, so glad we did it and its not too bad a photo either.

and last a family shot.

Off for the weekend

Ella was very excited to be taking her own suitcase on holidays to Nana & Poppy's, she thought she was very grown up in deed and loved the fact that she was just like Daddy pulling along her own bag. She looked so cute pulling it along and clutching her beloved teddy at the same time. She made sure her bag was ok the whole time, even when we were standing waiting to check our bags through, she's growing up way too fast!

She was so so excited to be going to Nana & Poppy's house and wanted to be there NOW!!!!