impromptu photo shoot

we have these really cool red chairs in the play area now. so i thought it'd be nice to get a pic of the boys sitting on them. have i mentioned before that it's nearly impossible to get Kai to pose? well, i wasn't exaggerating :( these are just some of the pics I took in an attempt to get a 'nice' one...

DAGS!

...and again...


Josh is actually posing here lol


yet again


and FINALLY a couple of pics that I'm (sorta) happy with...and I can stop torturing everyone!

lately...

a very quick post with some pics to catch up a little on what's been going on around here lately :)

still enjoying our princess. she's started giving us little smiles :)
(note the lovely 'glow' she's got from this amazing heat we've had recently!)

Josh made his own snorkelling thing...he's got such an awesome sense of humour

Kai totally loves hats - especially Josh's. I can't wait to get a chance to scrap this pic - LOVE IT

ok, so he loves pretty much anything that belongs to Josh, including his goggles ;)

yes - I know - I've put them in matching clothes AGAIN!! UNBELIEVABLE!!
...but they look so cute...!

So we went to Forster last week, had a fantastic time. I really really enjoyed spending time with so much family around. Can't wait to do it again some day.

I can't believe Ella is 5wks (almost 6!) old already. She's wonderful, altho STILL has trouble with her daytime sleeps. I know I shouldn't fuss about it, since she sleeps really well at night (over 6hrs last night!! cool huh) but...well...we're working on it.

I got a shocking throat infection/flu thing late sunday night and have been sick most of this week :( felt revolting. AM SO GRATEFUL that Aaron was able to stay home a couple of days to take care of the kids so I could rest and get better.

So...lots of plans and ideas going around in my head...will share as I actually get things done (which takes a while these days...3 kids and all!)

Have a good friday everyone :)

*SQUEAL*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!

I found some MAJOR inspiration...too much in fact, my brain is overloaded and I haven't even started on my invites yet :(

I found it here - I have always loved her stuff generally, but never checked out the website before. LOVE IT!

especially this: I want to make this for the baby's room :)

...and aren't these gorgeous??

am feeling inspired for the boys rooms too:

they have downloadable templates for these little darlings:

and these always come in handy:

Ok, so I'm off to actually get some work done! enjoy :)

mid-week ponderings

We took Kai to swimming with us this morning. I had a feeling he'd probably like it, but he LOVED IT!! All thru Josh's lesson he wanted to get in, and when we finally got in the baby pool he splashed us both til we were soaked thru :) isn't it wonderful getting to 're-experience' all these kinds of things with your kids?

I haven't had the energy to get creative this week. BUT i have been sorting through photo's and getting some groundwork done for pages when I do have more energy. Aaron's been so knocked out by this bug, hopefully with the antibiotics he'll feel a lot better by tomorrow. The boys are much better but have been quite demanding at times, and I just I said I'm looking forward to going to work tomorrow - it'll feel a bit like a holiday ;)

Has anybody heard anything about the plastic baby bottle issue? Someone mentioned to me they'd seen something on maybe a current affair about how some baby's bottles had this toxin (bisphenol-A) in them that could be harmful to humans. Well, I've been rather slack about checking up on it, but finally today I googled it and found that altho there's no conclusive evidence that the chemical will cause cancer in humans, that it seems reasonable for parents to replace any questionable bottles as there is evidence in animals that it causes cancer and other not so pleasant stuff. So, we got some new bottles, and altho they're not cheap (neither were the avent ones we bought when Josh was a baby either!) I figure I'd rather not have to think about whether or not what I'm feeding my baby with is safe. I thought it was interesting that Canada had banned all bottles containing that chemical. I couldn't find any info about what Australia thinks about it tho.

Any thoughts? Anybody use glass bottles? I found the happy baby ones but they don't fit any other teat and they don't have lids...anyway, it's certainly an interesting topic.

and a quote for myself in this crazy-out of whack-befuddled week:

When we are motivated by goals that have eternal meaning, by dreams that need completing, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live life.

lovely day

wow, after yesterday with the boys (worst day on record) today has been AWESOME. Poor Aaron has finally succumbed to the cold I had (it's been trying to get him all week) and slept most of the morning (altho that part certainly isn't awesome). Malakai woke at 6am - purely to help me with my new goal of consistently getting up then I'm sure ;) lovely little fellow

After going to the child health and development day yesterday - praise God with NO KIDS - I came home re-determined to put a better routine in place. So today I packed up all the toys that were in the boys play area and put them in the newly cleaned out linen cupboard. So now when it's 'play time' they get given ONE box of toys and that's it. When they're done with it, it gets packed up before we move onto anything else. It will hopefully teach the boys that they can't just pull all the toys out and leave that area in a big mess. It will also challenge them to work with what they've got and be imaginative - as much as they are able. It has the added benefit of making the living area look a little tidier - I'm all for that!

Josh had a great outside play time, play dough and colouring in time today. I'm so proud that he not only has an excellent pencil grip, but he bends his wrist and uses his hand when colouring rather than just his whole arm (as with scribbling). He also did really well with 'rest' time which is a miracle cause normally that's the hardest part of the day. He's just finished spending time with Daddy making vanilla/butter cookies and cutting out shapes himself. He's really looking forward to being Captain Feathersword tonight too. So a good day. So nice after yesterday!

Speaking of tonight, I'd better go and try to get my hair to cooperate! Have a great weekend everyone :)

hello tuesday, hello RAIN!!

i am shockingly bad at watering my garden (read: don't water at all). so when it rains, especially when I'm not at work, I think it's great. except the feeling wasn't so great when dripping down the drainpipe outside my bedroom woke me at 5am!! lol, I even tried moving into the spare room to sleep but by then I was thinking too much. crazy huh

the boys played SO nicely this morning. I let Josh get into a bad habit of watching too much ABC kids in the mornings so recently I've slashed his time right back to just the 1/2hr of playschool. He has coped fantastically well, and our mornings are much more pleasant. so this morning he and Kai were in the 'play area' together (we've gated off the under stairs toy area with a play pen that goes straight across...does that make sense? it's awesome, keeps the toys contained...and the boys!!) and they were both really impressing me...until Josh took Kai's favourite plastic ball and Kai smacked him in the eye!! lol but we talked it thru and they both apologised (as best they could) and it was all good.

so...a rainy day inside. hmmm...definitely calls for some baking. love that baking smell when you're stuck inside. maybe date and walnut loaf :) yum

lots of people have been doing updates on what they're kids are up to lately. I love reading them, and I love the way it reminds me that I need to do it for the boys too :)
soon

I can't believe the weekend is over already.

Staff retreat was great. I always kind of dread it cause it means time away from Aaron and the boys, but over the last few years I've enjoyed it more and more. I was sad cause my very good friend Ali wasn't able to go this year (pregnancy complications), so Nath (another member of our yr 5 team) organised for Robyn and I to be invited with the boys to breakfast at John's place. He's very sweet :) breakfast was great and reminded me of the group of us that first started at TCS and how we'd meet for breakfast quite a bit (well ok, they would meet and I would show up later once I was up and finally got there!)

Our travel arrangements were slightly altered at the last minute which ended up being a bit of a strain but praise God, we made it alive and only slightly travel sick.

The speaker was good, told lots of stories which I always enjoy. Challenged us about our personal walk with God and our integrity (both personally and professionally).

The food was...um...good for vegetarian I guess! I haven't really had a lot of exposure to real vegetarian food (like vege mince) so it was an eye opener. We're going there again next year so I'm going to have to think of something...special dietary requirements or the like ;) they had AWESOME cookies tho, ate quite a few of them :)

All the girls in our cabin talked til after midnight :) we ended up talking a lot about the different churches we go to. I've only ever been to a catholic church (that I grew up with) and the one I'm at now (pentecostal) so I don't know a lot about other places. It was all very interesting. We had a great night. They were all shocked that someone would run during a worship service in our church. lol

Got back around 5pm saturday and grabbed a quick nap before we headed out to church that night (special service with visiting ministry). Most of the time it feels like an exercise in futility going with the kids, but we persevere. Sunday night was the best for us, the boys were AMAZING (and it made such a difference that Nic and Jim took Kai for me, thanks guys!) I so appreciated being able to really get into a service. Bro Johnson had a word from God for us too, which blessed and touched me on so many levels...it's hard to explain so I won't. Just feeling very much in awe of God and His love for me. And excited about His plans for our future.

Got a pretty busy week ahead - reports are due next week so I'll be flat out doing grades and writing comments. Taking Josh to questacon with Pam and the kids on wednesday (Josh is REALLY looking forward to that!) swimming - oops, that's NOW!! my grandma over for dinner and all the other regular stuff. Should be great :)

have a great week too!

the boys first tag :)

ok so Sarah and Hannah over at the Drew family blog tagged Josh and Malakai.

Forget the rules, u all know them by now anyway ;)

1. I said to Josh just now, what's something unimportant about you? His reply was, 'Be careful'.

2. Malakai loves shoes. He's getting a little better now, but as soon as he could commando crawl, he would chew and suck on any shoe he could find.

3. Josh doesn't like to be called handsome/goodlooking etc. If you ask him if he's handsome he'll get upset and say, 'NO I'M NOT!...I'm JOSHUA BRYAN!'.

4. Josh's favourite foods are Macca's 'cheese burgen and chips, choc milk (altho he's hardly ever allowed to have that cause it sends him crazy) bananas and mandarins (which he sometimes calls watermelon...?)

5. Malakai gets very vocal if you don't share what you're eating with him. Josh is awesome about sharing whatever he's eating, always breaks off little bits for him.

6. Malakai loves to open any drawer he can find. He's jammed his fingers in them so many times you'd think it'd put him off, but not at all. He's just learning to do it without jamming his fingers (determined little guy).

wow that was kinda hard! I'm always thinking stuff about them that I should blog, but as soon as I have to think about it I can't remember anything!

I noticed Nicholas and 'Miss Pea' haven't been tagged yet, so I tag them :)

Victory over the comfort zone!

There is a line of thinking that in order to overcome fear we must engage in that which inspires fear within us...kinda like how I used to close my eyes whenever I drove past a truck cause they scared me, til I drove to Melbourne once and passed 20+ trucks and now I'm good.

today was one of those times

I taught NOT ONLY high school, but I taught high school SPORT and ENGLISH!!!!!!!!! (Plus a little year 4 PE...but that barely warrants a mention)

Shocked? I thought you would be. A bit like last friday when I *enjoyed* our athletics carnival. What a year this is for me. Absolutely nuts I reckon ;)

So there I was, dressed all sporty (shocking my co-workers who've and I quote, 'Never seen me looking so casual') ha ha ha, they obviously haven't seen me after having a baby when I haven't gotten out of my pj's ALL DAY!!!

Anyway, yeah so I was all sporty and totally overwhelmed. The timetable was the first scary thing, then I had no key (you'd think since I actually work at the school that wouldn't have been an issue...?) and couldn't get in anywhere. And let me tell you - secondary teachers ARE A LOT MORE RELAXED about certain things than primary teachers. Like start times ;) Honestly, I could get used to a little more relaxation :)

Everyone was really very good to me. Which although it was a huge blessing, resulted in the day being quite boring. The most exciting part was talking to Esther C about stuff while year 9 girls played a game of contact netball (didn't even know there was such a game!) and watching Romeo and Juliet in English and thinking that I really enjoyed the version with Leonardo and should watch it again some time.

I'm excited that I did something that was out of my comfort zone. and exhausted.

On a less exciting note, the boys are both so sick. Well Kai is getting a little better I think, but Josh was out of his mind in pain today. Thankfully I had a free period (2 actually, on a relief day - see how I could get used to this relaxation?!) so I ran home - sorry that I'm shocking you so much, and to make you feel better, I only ran half the way. Then the rest of the way I was recovering). I did my best to comfort him and organise Aaron to have an early lunch to take him to the Dr for the 3rd time in a week. Please pray that they'll get better soon. I hate seeing them like this.

And speaking of being exhausted, that could account for the slight rambling feel to this post. But it was a really cool day. If you made it this far thanks for reading my really long post!!
Love Kylee