Another cake...

Greg starts a new job on Monday. We've been waiting 5 (or 6?) long weeks until he was offered the job, so yesterday was a special day with Greg's last day as a contact centre consultant. Next week he's moving up the ranks a little, and across the departments to work in City Waste. He will be a field officer setting up and maintaining a new system of industrial recycling bins for apartment complexes. I'm sure he'll do a great job, and it seems to be a great mix of what he's learnt both as a retail manager and a contact centre consultant with Council. So proud of my man.

And so seeing as though I was home yesterday with Lani sick, I decided to bake him a cake. He's been saying for a few weeks now I could make him a bin cake... and so I did! I don't think he really expected me to, but it was fun, and quick and easy too.

So here it is... a recycling bin, complete with Brisbane City logo and milk bottles and coke bottles!

Eli wanted to make Daddy a red cake, so we also tried out a red velvet cupcake recipe... not too bad, but nowhere near as good as my vanilla cupcakes! The cream-cheese icing is good though!!

We even had a candle and Greg made up his own rendition of Happy Birthday: "Happy new job to meeeeee!!!!!"

And the traditional cutting of the cake... not sure if this is how it's traditionally done though, and Lani looks a little shocked by Daddy's technique!

Having his cake and eating it too!! Yum!! So much icing on the lid there!

The inside of the cake... I made 2 bar cakes, cut them in half and stacked them on top of each other...

But a piece is very hard to fit in one's mouth!!

Happy Saturday! What have you been doing today? We've been up to our church this morning as we're finally moving back into out building after repairs from the Nov 08 storms have *finally* been finished... its very exciting to be going back 'home'... last night we had a 1/2 night of prayer and I went up to the church for about 2.5 hours. Was great to really seek God's words for our church and where he wants us to go next.

We've also been clearing downstairs, as we're having tradies in to do OUR repairs after the storm from last year too.... well some parts... we need a new flooring downstairs as there's a pipe that's broken through the cement floor - BAD reno job of whoever did it!! So new lino, which means clearing out all the things in the playroom, and my sewing room (that one's a big job!) Am thinking its a good opportunity to re-design things and decorate a little down there!! I sort of just plonked things in last time, might finally get some curtains for my room and put some pics up on the wall or something too...

We're off to friends for a BBQ dinner soon. Nice. Life seems to be a little 'back to normal' again... we've been a little hermit-ty lately and I love being with friends and family, so I'm happy!

Hope you have a great rest of your weekend.

Missing this girl xxx

Love you Lus. Miss you all. - xxx -

Happy 2nd Birthday Lani!

Yes, this is truly me... Lusi's post gave me a little 'boost' to try and keep up a little... I did say 'try' so we'll see how we go...

Yesterday our little princess turned 2. Can you believe it? 2 years ago, we were racing to the hospital in the car, me in full transition mode... and then giving birth - while still in the car!

She arrived into this world in a spectacular way, and lives pretty much that way too. She's a full-on little bundle of energy - inquisitive, cheeky, often defiant, very talkative, active, and very adventurous.

She's learning to go to the toilet, and to recognise her colours, and to count to 10.

She loves playing with her babies - rocking them, patting them to sleep, wrapping them in blankets and giving them a bath. She got some new dolls clothes for her b'day, so no doubt now we'll be dressing and undressing them a lot too.

She loves to play outside, and is usually happiest jumping up and down on the trampoline, swinging high on the swings, kicking or rolling balls, riding bikes and climbing ladders and play equipment at kindy.

She talks a lot and is very confident.

*sigh* She's not a baby anymore.

We celebrated her birthday with a low-key family BBQ at home. Greg's parents are visiting at the moment, so it was a great opportunity just for the families to get together.

Lani got spoilt with lots of lovely presents, cards and a little money to spend too. Some of these included a Tigger and Pooh flip-out sofa, trike with pedals, wooden dolls house, In The Night Garden (her favourite!) books, plastic food for the kids kitchen, hand-made (by Nan) dolls clothes, a Tinkerbell fairy dress, and some gorgeous clothes.

Lani's favourite character is Upsy Daisy from In The Night Garden - she now takes both her Pink bear and Upsy Daisy to bed with her. And so it seemed the logical choice (but scary one) to try and make Lani an Upsy Diasy cake. I had previously looked at a few on the net, but didn't see many I really liked (and they all used ready-made icing for the whole thing which I didn't want to do)... so I sat down with my cake tins, the Upsy Daisy dolls, baking paper and scissors and designed it myself. It used 3 cakes - one round, one square and one bar cake, all cut into different parts of her body, but in all I think she looked pretty perfect!!

Only took me 3 hours too!! (not including baking the cake the day before - thanks Nan!)

Lani loved it though! And I even made a special little gluten-free cupcake for my sister who is a coeliac (sp?) - also Upsy Daisy of course.

We had a lovely busy day celebrating our Princess's special day... love you darling!!

Hey everyone :)

It's Lusi here, one of Nat's bestie's :)

She has come interstate here to my house and I thought I would hijack her blog on her behalf (with her permission of course!) because I'm wondering if anyone else out there checks in here to see if she has updated it :)

I think Nat is awesome (she told me to write that) and she is teaching me tonight how to make a modern cloth nappy! She is also telling me to add that I think she is gorgeous (which i of course do) :)
Did you know that her beautiful daughter Lani is going to be 2 next week? And that since she last posted here Eli has turned 3 and Jai will be 9 in short months time? Wow time flies hey.
I'll leave you with a little ditti i made up for my special Natti :)

There once was a cutie named Nat
She did not own a cat
She visited me here
And we shed a tear
When she had to go back

ok so that last bit was a bit lame but still :)
I've just read it aloud to her and she said very sarcastically, 'yeah that was great. but what happened to (and this is her own song i might add)

Nat is awesome
Nat is great
She ate chicken schnitzel
Off my plate

Ahem.

Well with it being after 1am now, I will sign off and say this was the only way I could get this blog updated :) Sorry to bore you!

Love you Natti!
Lus x

Merry Christmas 2008!

Well, Christmas is over for another year. I hope you all had a great one.

We hope you all had a lovely time, and that you might have remembered the reason that we celebrate this special holiday - the birth of Jesus Christ, son of God come to the Earth in humble and meek form of a baby -to live among us, and eventually to die for us.

We all sang Happy Birthday to Jesus while at church, and reflected on the wonderful things He has done in our life this year.

Christmas this year was a little different for us. Instead of having Christmas Day with my family as we do most years, we were very blessed to have Greg's parents visiting this year, and so we had a Mardon Christmas. Jeremy came and my sister Shanyn also slept over and spent Christmas with the Mardons, as Mum and Dad were in Townsville this year. Shanny and I had fun watching and singing to the Carols and wrapping presents Christmas Eve while Greg was downstairs setting up one of the kids presents. I think Shanny enjoyed having all the fun of opening and playing with new toys with the kids - except maybe being jumped on at 5.30am coz she was sleeping in front of the Christmas tree!! It was really special to have her with us - love you Shan.

The day started with the kids looking at the Christmas tree, and being allowed to play with a few things that were unwrapped. They were then allowed to open one present before church. At church I was singing, and we had a birthday cake for Jesus. After church we came home and I prepared most of the lunch (a new thing for me!) while the kids played, and while Sandy & Chris were picking up Jeremy from the other side of town. When they came back, we got out some nibblies, and sat around the tree opening presents together.

Then came lunch - nothing too fancy, but we certainly didn't go without - we enjoyed cold turkey and Christmas ham, crunchy noodle salad, potato salad and roast pumpkin & feta salad. And a little bubbly too - well for the adults! For dessert, Sandy and I decided to take the easy way when the Home Icecream van came by on Christmas Eve - perfect! Icecream! and Sandy made a beautiful Christmas cake too.

Then we did it all again on Boxing Day at my parents house, after they'd just returned from Townsville (poor Mum was pretty tired!). We feasted on BBQed steaks & sausages and a few gourmet salads, plus I made banoffie pie for dessert, and my sister made cupcakes.

The kids gathered around the tree, this time with my gorgeous neice Emmeson too. We did a Secret Santa with my family this year - for adults - so it made it easier to just buy for one person. I ended up wanting to make something for my sister and Mum too, so spent most of the day beading them bracelets and earrings!! Was fun though. :)

I bought Lani and Emmeson matching dresses and hair-clips to wear for Christmas, and oh they looked so beautiful together! Pity Lani was having a patty when I was trying to take photos!

The children received some lovely gifts (but not too many). Greg managed to get a big play kitchen on clearance when he worked at Toys R Us, and its been sitting in a box downstairs for about a year, but as my BIL was living with us last year we couldn't set it up. It turned out to be great this year because Lani is now old enough to enjoy it.

Jaidyn received just about everything I think they possibly make in Wall.E merchandise. Well, maybe not all, but a lot! I will have to take a 'group shot' of all his Wall.E stuff today! He was very happy :) He also got some books and clothes.

Eli received various things - some duplo, and various books, puzzles, toys from In the Night Garden figurines, The Wiggles and Tigger & Pooh. He loves all these shows/characters so he was happy too. And some clothes & shoes too.

Lani received lots of doll things - much to my delight! Now, I know I bought these for Lani, but after 8 years of boys toys, I am going to LOVE playing and dressing dolls!! Woohoo! Mum bought her Cabbage Patch newborn twins - so cute! Rory and Caroline. Takes me back to when I had CPK when I was younger... I want one again! Greg's mum is going to make Lani some dolls clothes, so we can have more fun! I might copy the pattern from her so I can make some too if the urge and time present themselves!

Greg and I didn't fare too badly either. We bought each other perfume/cologne - I got Ralph Lauren Romance, and I bought Greg Hugo Boss Energize. We also received 2 'How to Hose a Murder' games, which we LOVE, and can't wait to play with our friends again - hopefully they will oblige again. Some clothes and PJs too, and a bottle of chivas Regal for Greg and Baileys for me - nice!

We have a busy few days ahead too! We're off to Greg's Aunts for a swim and BBQ tea this afternoon, and then my gorgeous neice Emmeson's 1st birthday party tomorrow!! Its her b'day today, Happy Birthday beautiful girl!! Phew, we'll be busy!!

Hope you had a great one, and a big hello and 'we missed you' to my SIL Andrea in England!!

Jaidyn...

So I've just been reading a friend's blog, and realised I need to adopt her method of posting...

Short and sweet. One kid at a time. Then I might actually get some posts actually posted (instead of sitting in my draft box half done coz I don't have time to finish them!) So here goes...

JAIDYN...

Jaidyn turned 8 in November. At times I find it really hard to believe I have an 8-yr old! And at times I realise that the teenage years are not too far away... now that will be scary!! We didn't have a big party this year, just a little BBQ lunch at my parents house and an awesome b'day cake of course! One of Jaidyn's interests this year has been dragons, so I searched the net for the perfect dragon cake to make. We iced her blue so she could be a 'frost dragon'. And her name is Sapphira, named after his frost dragon toy, who is named after the dragon from the movie 'Eragon'...

For the last few months, Jai has been OBSESSED with anything to do with the movie Wall.E, which came out a few months ago (I think even last school holidays it would have been that he saw it). His obsession has not paled yet!! I don't know what it is about Wall.E that he loves, but he's completely hooked. He never tires of drawing Wall.E and the other various characters, he got a Playstation game for his b'day which he almost finished, then accidentally wiped, so he's going through it all again. He's also got a couple of figurines, if which he pretty much always has in hand, or making play-worlds for (usually out of my cups, placemats, books etc!). He has the novel, and the 'Intergalactic Guide' to everything Wall.E. Oh and we watch the movie from time to time too! He's hooked, and has asked for more Wall.E stuff for Christmas. He even turns into a Wall.E robot each night when he sets and clears the table. Its a bit strange... but cute... lol.

Jai did well at school this year. He's particularly good at his English (just like his Mumma was) and he acheived well above average in the English parts of his National Testing earlier this year, and still average or above on his Maths aswell. He got mainly Bs and As (effort), and Sounds and a High (academic) for his report this semester, and he was VERY proud of himself. And so are we. Wow, grade 4 next year, he's growing up so fast.

Having a little brother has it trials for Jai. They are at the stage now where they fight ALL the time. Poor Jai gets quite frustrated at Eli for wrecking his things sometimes, and Eli just wants to play most of the time. And they wrestle (play!) a lot.. but that's boys huh. Then there's those beautiful moments when Jai sets up a train set for Eli and they play nicely for a bit... before Lani comes and destroys it... lol.. never a dull moment in our house!

Jai has been a part of Boys Brigade this year and is enjoying it a lot. I think its really good for him to have that thing 'just for him', and the Christian program is great too. He's been away on 2 camps this year. A 'parent and son' camp earlier in the year with Greg, and more recently the State Camp... was his first time at a camp by himself. And he had a ball. His award ceremony was a few weeks ago, and we went along, as well as his grandparents and aunty Shanny, and he was so proud to receive some badges for his uniform. They performed their figure march that they did in a competition earlier in the year, and it was really good! I had a huge 'proud Mummy' moment watching them!!

I will need to get some new pics of Jaidyn. As he doesn't grow as fast as the other two, photos are scarcer around here... but I WILL get some over Christmas.

Love him xx

Hair clips and Boys Brigade

Not much to report from me. Life is really really busy, but really really normal too. Work, sewing, cleaning, washing, feeding kids, changing kids, having fun with kids. Same old same old.

I've put the kids in daycare one extra day so I can catch up on my nappy orders. I'm swamped and it really wasn't going anywhere... so an extra 5-6 hours - depending how diligent I am - will help. That's an extra 2 nappies a week roughly. So I'm hoping I can get back up to 5/6 a week, and get through these orders again.... I'm very sorry to any of you who are still waiting!!

School holidays are now upon us. To be honest, I don't really like holidays, the two little drive me nuts enough!! lol... Jaidyn is going with my Mum up to Hervey Bay to stay with my sister and neice for 2 nights, while I'm at work this week. She might even take him whale watching - lucky boy!! There won't be much room for much stuff to do with Jai, but he's going to get stuck into some craft on Thursday while I'm working from home and the kids are in care. Hopefully I can help him a little too.

Jai had a figure marching competition for Boys Brigade last weekend. We couldn't really go coz it was right over dinner and bed time (almost impossible with two littlies) but his grandparents took him and they did a good job. Jai really enjoys BB... they have a State Camp coming up, which he'll be going to. I'm looking forward to it for him, some time just for him and doing something he likes, and hopefully will help instill a bit of responsibility... or he'll only come back with half his belongings...

We have a couple of big weekends coming up - in fact, the last few months of the year are already looking busy. Next weekend I'm meeting a group of the girls from the Maternal forum, should be fun. Sunday I'm off to a baby shower.

My school friend Louise is getting married in a few weeks time too!! That's on the 18th Oct. Her hen's night is on Friday 10th, but I'm not sure if I'll go yet.... its dinner and a show, a bit on the exxy side, and the dress code is dress-up - 'naughty girls'... oh dear... little conservative Christian me can't dress up like that!! Not to mention how hideous I'd look... to me 'naughty girl' requires showing lots of leg... ewwwww..... we'll see... I wouldn't be very comfortable I can tell you now. But also don't want to let Lou down by not going. Will have to see if we can afford it - its getting to the expensive time of year for us - Christmas coming and a few family birthdays to add to that - my sister in Oct, Dad and Jai in Nov, and Greg and Emmeson in Dec!! Phew!!

The SOF retreat is getting closer - yay!! 2 nights just for ME, with NO KIDS!!! BLISS!! Can't wait... I think I might have to start prepping Greg for a weekend with the kids on his own though...? Hmm, yeah, maybe I should go out on my own a few times over the weekends in the lead-up... purely for him of course!!

Oh, and Lani seems to be getting closer to mastering this walking thing. In the last few days, she's actually been walking around more and more, rather than dropping to her knees (even tho its a lot quicker!)... yay!! So proud of my little girl!! I really want her to walk so she doesn't dirty the knees of her clothes and babylegs anymore!! Oh, and we have bindis everywhere in the backyard, so it will be better if she can walk!

Anyway, found this little quiz on Mel Goodsell's blog, thought since you've not really heard from me in a while, you might like to see this....

1) LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATRE? KungFu Panda with the kids last school holidays... might go and see 'Wall-e' today though...

2) WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING?None, don't have any time!!

3) FAVOURITE BOARD GAME? Cluedo or Pictionary

4) FAVOURITE MAGAZINE? I don't really buy any, but I like Spotlight's 'Get Creative' coz it has bits of everything in it.

5) FAVOURITE SMELLS? Rain... coffee when you first open the jar...

6) FAVOURITE SOUNDS? My children's laughter... worship music...

7) WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD? Fear

8 ) WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE? Usually, why are the kids awake SO EARLY!!

9) FAVOURITE FAST FOOD PLACE? Fasta Pasta or Subway

10) FUTURE CHILD'S NAME? I have always wanted to call a daughter Esther but Greg won't have a bar of it... I also like Ashton for a boy, but it sounds kinda funny with our last name.

11) FINISH THIS STATEMENT—’IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I’D……hire a cleaner!! And someone to help me sew nappies...

12) DO YOU DRIVE FAST? Not much.

13) DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? No.

14) STORMS–COOL OR SCARY? I LOVE storms.

15) WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR? A white 1990 Holden Apollo

16) FAVOURITE DRINK? A large hot cup of coffee

17) FINISH THIS STATEMENT-IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD… do a lot of things!! Sew myself the skirts I bought the patterns for for Spring... sew Lani some dresses... sew gifts for Christmas.... make Xmas cards this year... do more for other ppl.

18) DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?Yes

19) IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY OTHER COLOUR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE? I love red, but moreso highlights I think. I'd do a few more red highlights than I have, if I had the money!!

20) NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN? West, North and South Brisbane... lol... adventurous aren't I!!

21) FAVOURITE SPORTS TO WATCH? None, don't really like any.

22) WHATS UNDER YOUR BED? Nothing because our bed goes all the way to the floor - its a waterbed frame (with a crappy foam mattress that needs replacing, in it)

24) WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN? Strange question...

25) MORNING PERSON OR NIGHT OWL?I used to be a morning person, but nowadays that usually means the children are awake too... so I prefer some time to myself at night these days, and I've become a night owl, don't usually get to bed untill 11pm at the earliest.

26) OVER EASY OR SUNNY SIDE UP? Sunny side up please :)

27) FAVOURITE PLACE TO RELAX? In bed, sitting on our front verandah with a cuppa (prefereably watching the rain) or on holidays somewhere without the kids (lol, like that every happens!)

28) FAVOURITE PIE? Hmmm... don't eat a lot of pie really... I had pumpkin pie once and it was to die for!

29) FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOUR? Choc-mint, but closely followed by Cookies N Cream.

Oh, that's the end!! I was on a roll there!!

Just a couple of pics to end the post.... not much really... and I never seem to get many of Jai, but then being older, he doesn't change much in a month or two...

I have another new obsession - gorgeous hair clips for Lani... add that to MCNs and BabyLegs.... oh dear... anyway, these are the first of my collection... cute huh!!! I will take some pics of her in them soon - possibly today...
... the cupcakes and cherry ones I bought for the purpose of motivating me to make the matching nappies for Lani - I have some gorgeous cupcakes and cherry fabrics.... so far I've cut them out!! lol...

My gorgeous boy looking like a model I reckon!!

Miss Lani with her new outfit all ready for church :) I love black right now!!

And another of Princess wearing a pair of Babylegs...

And just pretend there's a pic of Jaiyn here... isn't he handsome!!

Well I guess for 'not much to report' that was kinda longish....