Happy Birthday Rehanyn!!

Make a Smilebox postcard

Mornings

Josh and I had a great time away this week. This is what our mornings looked like.

Josh outside waiting for breakfast to be served. I obviously took the photo from inside the cottage.
The view from our breakfast table on the verandah

Josh having his morning "cuppa"

Breakfast is served. This is actually the second course. A 3 egg ham and cheese omelet for me and a country breakfast for Josh--sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs and half a tomato.

First course--fresh squeezed juice (I had orange and Josh had tropical) fresh fruit for me and pancakes for Josh (he had already eaten one).

The breakfasts were included in the cost of our cottage. We filled out a little menu each day for the next morning. We got to choose when (between 7:30 and 9:30) it was served. And yes, they brought it to us at our cottage. So nice.

Beka

Emma

Catie

Update

• Went to Fraser Island yesterday. It was nice. very bumpy though. Of course that's kind of assumed when you use the words four wheel driving. =) Our first stop was Lake McKenzie. We rolled the girls pants up and let them walk in the water. Emma and Beka got absolutely soaked. Not really all that surprising I guess. Our next stop was Kingfisher Bay. I managed to find a swimsuit coverup/shirtdress for only $5 so Emma could wear something. She had fallen over in the sand as well and her pants were soaking wet and full of sand. Mom and Dad hadn't seen Kingfisher Bay before so that was nice to have a look around. We then went to Central Station. On our way there Josh noticed that on top of all the 4WD tracks were fresh dingo tracks. After about 5 minutes we came around a bend to see the dingo trotting along in front of us. We tried to get a picture but he went left as we passed a sign telling us to "Keep Right". Guess he can't read. =) As we sat eating lunch at Central Station a magpie flew by and snatched a piece of cheese out of Catie's fingers. Totally freaked her out!! We went on the shortest hike there at Central Station. It is right by Wanggoolba Creek. I mentioned to Mom how nasty the water looked. It seemed to be covered with foam or something. Then we realized that actually it is the clearest water you'll ever see and the "foam" was just the sand bottom. I think Mom got some video of that. You wouldn't believe how clear that water is. As we headed back on the barge we saw a dolphin playing in the water. He wasn't a friendly dolphin as he stayed really far away from the boat not giving us a chance to take his picture or see him really well. =) We finished the day with pizza at the Sauvageot's and then home for showers and bed.
• Today we are going to get photos taken of the girls. One of the girls at church works in a photography studio. She asked if I wanted to bring my girls in for a sitting this week. So after curlers in hair last night we're headed off for photos in a couple hours.
• Mom and Dad are at the Boat Club with Richard and Fay Hadfield having breakfast right this moment. The Boat Club is situated on the boat harbour/marina (obviously) so they should have quite a spectacular view as the sun rises.
  
• After the photos and a quick trip to the library this morning Josh and I are off to Maleny. Our 7th anniversary is next Monday and my birthday is next Thursday. Also Father's Day here in Australia is the first Sunday of September. So we are celebrating all those things plus the fact that we have babysitters living with us at the moment. =) We are going to Lillypilly Country Cottages. We get back Friday sometime.
  
• Beka got up at 6:00 this morning and vomited so I'm hoping and praying that she isn't sick and the other girls don't get it.
  
• The picture doesn't have anything to do with this post except that now I am talking about it. It's a daisy from my garden. (If you click on the picture and see it full sized you'll see drops of dew on the flower. It really is gorgeous) I planted three daisy plants that have grown about 3 times their size and are producing gorgeous flowers. I also recently planted 8 gerberas and 10 snapdragons. Can you tell that I love to plant things? I can't wait until the garden is ready to plant. I'm excited to grow our own veggies and the girls are excited too.
  

So we tried something new...

and it didn't turn out so great. We tried making our own toothpaste. I don't think we'll be using it. Even with a whole packet of sweetener and twice the amount of flavouring called for, it was way too coconutty (from the coconut oil) and salty (from the baking soda). You should have seen the looks on the girls' faces when they tried it. Very funny!!

However, did you see my cute new tablecloth in the picture?? Here's a better picture of that!! =)

And how cute is this?

Australia Zoo Tuesday August 19 2008

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Monday evening

Grammy teaching Beka to play cribbage.

"Hmmm....that's interesting, Grammy."

Catie and Emma watched a video.

Papa read a book.

Just thought this one was cute. Catie gave Papa a hug and a kiss and this is what I caught when I took the photo.

And in case you were wondering, Josh had a board meeting and then a computer job.

Saturday morning

Well, I woke up with the girls at 6:40 this morning, realized that Diego and then Dora were on tv, put the tv on and went back to bed. A little while later I heard Dora go off and then after what seemed a few more minutes decided it must be after 8 so I should get up and rescue Mom and Dad. Well, it was actually after 9:00. So I got to sleep in today. =) Mom was cutting out a dress for Catie when I got up and Catie wanted to help Grammy. Emma was in the front room singing to Papa. After she realized I had the camera she sang to the camera rather than Papa but it was so cute to see her with him. I keep trying to upload the video but Blogger won't let me today. I'll try again some other time.

Mom measured the girls for dressmaking so we decided to update the growing wall. Seems we hadn't measured them since October last year. Catie has grown just over 2 inches. Emma grew 3 inches and Beka grew 1.5 inches.

We went bowling with the youth group last night. Beka won the high score on our lane with 126. Papa had 124. But the computer did give Beka a strike when she didn't get one. The computer was totally messing stuff up. And we kept getting no pins being reset. and the lane was slanted. But we all got over 100. I think I lost though. Sad. =) Grammy got photos so we'll have to get her to blog them.

Well, Mom has moved on to sewing the dress so I need to cut out some more. And also finish the bulletin for tomorrow. Have a great weekend!!

Meme

Saminda tagged me for a meme of 6 quirks or weird things about yourself.

First, the rules......

1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag 5 following bloggers by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

1. It took me 2 years to finally finish Emma's quilt. But it is done. Largely due to Mom. =) this would be why I've never joined Amanda's quilt alongs.



2. As previously mentioned I get started on a job and then don't finish it in a timely fashion. I just recently finished the job of typing out a song book for church that I started five or six months ago.

3. I spend entirely too much time on the computer visiting all the blogs of creative, inspiring christian women.

4. After holding Emily and breathing in all that fresh, new, earthy new baby smell I had a very physical ache to have another baby and may have turned to Joshua and demanded that we have another one. =)

5. I love to plant stuff but I don't like to pull weeds and don't always remember to water the plants. And I'm not a big fan of eating veggies. =)

6. I tend to get lost when reading a really interesting book. I don't have any clue of what is going on around me or what time it is or how much time has passed.

I'm going to tag Tanya and Marlana because they steal all my stuff anyway. =) LOL just kidding. I don't have enough friends to tag anyone else. =)

Baby!!!

Baby Emily Grace has arrived!!! I don't know any details yet but I heard her screaming in the background and Steve says she has quite the head of hair.

edited to add: She was born at 4:20 pm. She weighed 8 lbs 7 oz and is 52 cm/20.5 inches long.
As you can see she has a head full of dark hair and she likes to suck her thumb. =)

see more photos here

the cake

here's pics of the shower cake. I thought it turned out cute. Tanya sent me this link and I took it from there. pretty much exactly from there if you look close. =)

Update on Baby is that Jennie is in hospital right now in labour as they induced her this morning due to a condition called pregnancy cholestasis. We hope to meet baby Emily soon. =)

random and busy

okay, I've been very slack and haven't taken pictures of Mom and Dad with the kids yet. The girls have been bouncing off the walls with excitement and have to show Mom and Dad everything they can think about. As you can see, Catie lost her tooth the first morning Grammy and Papa were here. very exciting. And instead of the normal apple she was biting into a banana.

Today is the baby shower so we spent yesterday and will spend today getting ready for that. I'll share photos of the shower later.

***well, it's now Sunday morning instead of Saturday morning. I tried getting this ready but it was during the scheduled outage so it didn't work. And then we were busy all day long. I didn't take pictures of the shower because one of my friends did so I'll get pics from her.

plan and proof

So here's the plan:
2:00--children up from naptime, commence with toileting, brushing hair and getting shoes on
2:15--get into car and drive 15 - 20 minutes to airport
2:35--arrive at airport
2:45--watch Grammy and Papa's plane land
2:50ish--welcome Grammy and Papa


And here's proof that there's no point in cleaning too early or thinking that you are ever actually done cleaning. Beka tracked muddy footprints through the house including the craft room and my bedroom. This was about 5 minutes after I vacuumed those areas!!

house tour

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Just so you know, I'm keepin' it real by posting pics of messy bedrooms, kitchens, etc. No cleaning happened before taking photos. =)

Ready

We even have chocolates on the pillows. =) They're in the air somewhere between LA and Auckland!!

Prettify your world

Just thought I'd share a couple sites that will help if you want to use something besides the basic blogger templates or just want something different on your blog from time to time. Plus this way I have them all in one spot for the next time I decide to change my blog. =)

• The Cutest Blog on the Block
• Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates
• Leelou Blogs
• Pyzam
  

Gonna be busy the next couple days. Might not be on here much. I'm thinking though that while the house looks nice for Mom and Dad I might take some photos and do a little house tour. Just for fun. =)

Picture Update!!

Cinnamon Rolls in the refrigerator ready for baking tomorrow morning.

4 loads of laundry on the line

Only rubbish to take to the tip and furniture to arrange and walls to wipe down in the guest room!!!
And it's not even Saturday yet!

Music

This is what I'm listening to while I do my chores lately. Something about listening to music that I discovered and loved as a teenager is so much fun. I've also been listening to this a lot lately.

Friday

wow, yesterday was a very full day. I wasn't sure on Wednesday night that all the plans for Thursday were going to happen. Emma kept saying her head hurt and then just before dinner vomited. As Josh headed out the door to church a little while later I told him to tell Steve that if Emma (and therefore me) was up all night I wouldn't be teaching school and that our guests probably wouldn't want to come over for dinner and catch the flu. However, after a long hot shower Emma was starving and ate all her dinner and asked for more. She slept soundly and hasn't complained since.

So, we all went to school yesterday. Beka went in the pre-prep (preschool) room and Catie and Emma went to prep(kindergarten) with me. It was a good day. two students were absent and one of them was one of the rowdy ones. Thankfully the class had sport in the afternoon and that is taught by a different teacher. I did read some Curious George books to the children after their work was done. They loved him!! It's always nice to share something I love and let someone else fall in love with it too. I might tell their teacher how much they enjoyed it and share my Curious George unit study ideas and all my Curious George books and movies with her.

We came home after school and I set to work making sure the kitchen and bathrooms were tidy and doing the laundry. Josh vacuumed and swept and mopped for me. The Sauvageots and our other guests showed up around 5:30. We had a nice dinner of BBQ pork sandwiches, steamed veggies and baked potatoes. They brought a blueberry cheesecake with them which the adults enjoyed while the kids had a chocolate iceblock. Afterwards the adults had a nice conversation time while the kids enjoyed a video. It's times like that when I appreciate the two living areas in our house and the sliding door that separates them. =)

So today my list looks something like this:

• buy 10 bags of marshmallows (for tonight's youth group bonfire)
• make 3 batches of cinnamon rolls
• go to the grocery store
• drop books off at the library
• wash and hang out 3 loads of laundry
• fold 4 loads of laundry
• get garage to point that Josh just has to move everything out to the shed

Tomorrow morning at 8 is the family breakfast at church. Tomorrow afternoon from 2 -4 is a friend's tupperware party. Tomorrow evening at 7 some ladies are coming over. In between all that Josh and I need to completely empty the garage and pick up a bed from our friends. oh, and the girls need to pack for their sleep over at Grandma's. They've been asking to do that since Tuesday so I'm guessing that won't take long. =)

I can't believe that it's only 5 days until Mom and Dad get here. We're so excited. I have all kinds of projects planned. =) I hope you all have a great weekend!! I'll update with photos soon. TTFN!!