Last day of January? Already?

well, I thought that my camera was working with the computer but...its' not. So, no pics from Catie's birthday. Not that I remember to take many anyway. I really need sleep so I can quit walking around in a daze. =) We did have fun for her birthday. Her family dinner was Tuesday night. She requested mostaccioli. And she wanted a cake with a hard chocolate shell around it that you break. And then the cake is covered in lollies and prizes. Well, we made the cake, she frosted it and I made the hard chocolate shell. She wanted to see it so I got it out of the freezer. It started falling out of the bowl so we put it on her cake. Yeah, it was about 10 minutes later that we remember that we didn't put the lollies and prizes on it. Oh well. On Wednesday we had cake and ice cream for breakfast. (she requested waffles but we didn't have enough eggs) We made cupcakes to take to the waterpark later. Then in the afternoon we went to the local waterpark. We hadn't been before as it opened the first week of school holidays and we didn't want to bother with all the people. As it happened Catie's birthday was on the first day of school so the park was nearly empty. Gotta love homeschooling. 3 homeschooling families came with us. The Sauvageot's joined us after school was out. The girls played for 3 hours and would've stayed until it closed. We finished Catie's birthday by letting her choose what fast food to have for dinner. It was definitely not a healthy food day but it was fun.

Hard to believe that tomorrow is February already. I've been telling myself that when February comes I'm going to cut out sugary stuff. And now it's here. So for the next 4 weeks I will not be drinking cokes or eating sugary snacks. well, I should say that I will TRY to not eat or drink those things. I chose February because January was VBS and Catie's birthday, March is Josh's birthday, April is Emma's birthday, etc. I kinda forgot that Jennie and Andrew have birthdays in February. =( Oh well, it needs to be done.

I fed Nathan some rice cereal and a tiny bit of pear and banana this afternoon. He acted like he liked it and it doesn't seem to have affected his tummy like last week. He's actually asleep right now. Hopefully he doesn't sleep really long this evening and then be up at night anyway. But last week he was up late because I fed him and I didn't want that to happen again. He's getting so big. He is almost sitting up and I think he is getting teeth too. Since VBS he has been very clingy though and very much a mama's boy. Might be the age too??

We started school two weeks ago. Last week we only had 3 days due to Australia Day and Catie's birthday. So back to normal tomorrow. Well, after the guy comes to measure and quote for insulation. =)

cakes, cakes, cakes

I'm linking up to Life As Mom's Birthday Cake Round-Up.

hard to believe

that this little baby is turning 7 today!!
Happy Birthday, Catherine Joni!!

ever been this tired??

"Not Me" Monday

Most Mondays MckMama hosts "Not Me" Monday. She's on a cruise at the moment so don't know if she'll have it this week. Anyway, I've never joined before but figured I definitely could after the weekend I "didn't" have.

Friday I did NOT happily shoo 3 of my children out the door with their Grandpa to go away for the weekend. I did NOT get caught up watching "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" on youtube and not have time to tidy up for the youth leaders meeting at our house on Friday night. So I did NOT take the laundry that needed to be folded and throw it in my child's room. I did NOT accidentally give all the youth leaders an iced chocolate topped with chocolate sprinkles that had weevils in it. And if I had I wouldn't have totally freaked out about it.

On Saturday I did NOT totally ignore my messy craft room and instead go shopping. And we definitely did NOT take all the grocery money I saved by not shopping this week and spend it by eating out for every meal (except breakfasts) this weekend. I did NOT eat something that kept me up all night sick to my stomach.

On Sunday I did NOT totally forget that the laundry was in my child's room so when she showed her Grandma her "new" room they walked into a pile of laundry. I also did NOT feed my son cereal for the first time in hopes that he would sleep longer than 2 hours at a time. That did NOT come back to bite me in the butt as he spent the next three hours with a sick tummy and gas. And therefore I did NOT go to bed so late that I am having a hard time doing anything this morning.

nope, not me!!!

flat cousins

Beka, Nathan, Catie, and Emma

Flat Brandon inspired us to make flat versions of ourselves. =)

Flat Brandon

at the shark show

at VBS

at Tooan Tooan Creek by the flying foxes. see them hanging in the trees?? Flat Brandon looks a little worried!! maybe it was just the smell?? =)

AHHHHHH......

picture of Nathan in his Christmas outfit from Tasha.
He's changed just in the three weeks or whatever since I took this.

I'm feeling a little behind so will do my random dot points in a desperate attempt to catch up.

• VBS was last week. We had over 75 all week and got to 100 on Friday.
• Apparently another church was running their own VBS last week as well. So I'm thinking our numbers were really good.
  
• I'm glad more churches are starting to do something like this.
  
• I've asked someone else to run VBS next year in hopes that we won't be here.
  
• Anyone who has some insight or help for us writing our VBS programme entitled Jesus to the Rescue???
  
• I've already figured out the Bible stories in correlation to rescue services. And I've got general ideas for our skits. Just need them written in skit format. No clue about songs or crafts or games.
• Flat Brandon came to visit us last week. We had been waiting for him to show up. He even got to visit VBS with us!! I have pictures but now have no way of uploading photos as Josh decided to reinstall Windows on the media centre computer and so far it has taken 3 days. And it will have Windows 7 so not sure if it will be compatible with the camera. If it isn't we'll install the card reader...even if I have to do it myself.
  
• I miss blogging.
• I miss blogging with pictures.
• As part of homeschool we are going to make flat versions of ourselves to send out in the world. Thinking about setting up a blog for them though.
  
• Homeschool started again yesterday. We got about half done what I wanted. And so far today we've done nothing. Of course instead of 15 minutes to get photos printed it took 1.5 hours!! I really should hook up my colour printer.
  
• Catie turns 7 next week!!!
  
• We're going to our new local water park for her birthday. It's the first day of school for everyone else so hopefully we'll have the water park to ourselves (well, mostly)
• finally went to the wholesalers here in town. They aren't any cheaper but I love their store. Bought a 2.4kg miracle whip!!! and a 3 litre maple syrup!! No cheaper than the grocery stores but we shouldn't run out anytime soon. Seems like every time I turn around we're out of those.
  
• They also have 1 litre bottles of imitation vanilla. i'll have to try those when my vanilla runs out.
• Did I tell you about my vodka/vanilla bean experiment??
  
• Nathan is changing SO MUCH!!! Just last week at VBS he reached out with both hands and grabbed my cup and tried to drink out of it. He's never had a drink from a cup in his life!!
  
• Last night Josh was holding Nathan at the computer and Nathan was having so much fun just banging on the keyboard.
• The girls are all doing well. We're hot and cranky and tired after last week but we're okay. Gonna try some new discipline techniques around here and see how they work.
  
• Finally took my christmas tree down on Sunday afternoon. It makes me feel like I can breathe again. weird!!
• Floyd had to buy a new truck and bought a dual cab so he and Gwen can use it to take the girls around. =)
• He took them for ice cream at McDonald's on Sunday night after church. Just him and the girls!!
• Floyd and Gwen are taking the girls up to Rockhampton for the weekend. Gee, what am I going to do with myself this weekend?? =)
• TTFN
  

My room updated =)

I've been wanting wooden blinds for my room and they went on sale at Big W last week. So Josh bought them and hung them. I LOVE THEM!!!

Catie and Emma's room

T


After moving Catie's bed into the room Josh decided to measure the beds and realized that the bed wouldn't fit where we were putting Emma's bed. So we took apart the bed and Emma is just sleeping on the trundle that goes under it. We put cork boards up in the rooms (I let them paint them) because the girls kept taping pictures up on their walls and we didn't want the paint messed up. The girls are all playing with their "paper" dolls from Grandma. She made the dolls with her embroidery machine. They have glue that let you stick the clothes on but remove them easily as well. The dolls are so lovely and Gwen made them little "books" to keep them in with plastic pages for the clothes to stick to and little "beds" for the dolls to stay in. They each have a boy and a girl doll and the designs are each a little different too.

The best part about the girls switching rooms is that they have kept them clean ever since. LOVE IT!!

Beka's new room

This looks a little bland but she loves it and it has been staying clean. Her Dora kitchen got moved out doors to clean and hasn't moved back in yet but will probably go next to the doll house. That doll house is one we bought them for Christmas and they love it. They each have a peg doll family to go with it. Nathan will be in this room when he moves out of our room. His crib/cot will go under where his name sampler is hanging. The black shelves are there right now.

Goodbye Yellow!!

I'm glad to see you go!!

Wanna play again?? Where's the baby??

There he is!! =)

New Year

photo from Sydney Morning Herald

What is about these holidays that I just want to clean and paint and de-clutter? And it seems this phenomenon is the same all over the blogosphere. Everyone is cleaning and de-cluttering. I'm the only one silly enough to repaint my house. =)

Anyway, so far I have totally cleaned the master bedroom and all but the shower of the master bath/ensuite. The girls' rooms have been cleared out, cleaned, de-cluttered, one of them repainted and changed around. Josh and Jason painted the hall yesterday. I'm considering leaving it pictureless for awhile. We'll see. I think today we are going to do the main room. Either that or the girls' bathroom. Josh said to leave the toilet and the laundry room for now as they are simple enough to do as a weekend project sometime. I'm really liking the new colour. Although come to find out, after all that trying of paint samples, it is VERY similar to the colour in the girls' bedrooms. HA!!

Josh has taken the girls to the school while he does a job or two and Nathan is taking a nap so I really should use this time to prepare for painting. hmmm...bathroom? main room? bathroom? main room?