Moving Day

(after a long days work the boys had our local f friendly ducks pay them a visit!)

( actually excited to go to bed)

With the baby on the way we are starting to have to make some changes to our sleeping arrangements to ensure we all fit. Even though we have a 4 bedroom house, Matt has to have a study. He has SO much junk and I hate having a computer in the living areas so the only option was to have the boys share a room. This option is not one Ethan has been very excited about. But yesterday we finally got the bunk beds we had been waiting for to arrive in stock. Matt and Sean spent the morning putting the beds together ( a job I am glad i did not have to assist in and that Sean came and helped instead!). By the time the beds were up both boys were so excited that they moved Daniel's bedding in straight away and set up the beds and there soft toys that sit on their beds. I did however ask them not to move any toys in and that i would work out how to fit all there stuff in during the week......But during my afternoon nap on the couch i wake up to matt informing me that Ethan was creating room for Daniel and most of his stuff had been moved!!! I would have been annoyed but the fact that Ethan was so willing to make room for Daniel overshadowed any frustrations I had.

So this week I get to sort out the boys room and set it up and finish cleaning out Daniel's room for matt to move his study into there. I have decided that I want to study for the nursery so matt gets a new room too :) I am actually looking forward to all the moving being done with so I can start painting and setting up the baby's room.

Dinosaur Day

Ethan's class has been learning this term about dinosaurs, fossils etc. He has absolutely loved it and spends so much time at home learning about them, drawing them etc. Last Friday his class had a dress up day and they had to dress up as a dinosaur, dragon, princess etc. Ethan is normally not into any kind of dress up, and this time he still didnt want to wear a costume and I thought that once again he was going to miss out on something fun as he never participates in anything like this. But He was happy to have a dinosaur "back". So we spent Thursday night cutting out the "plates" for the back ( not spikes as i was calling them!) and made him a dinosaur back. He was so thrilled with dressing like a dinosaur that he wore it all day!!!

I was so pleased that he actually made an effort to participate :)

Hard Done By

Daniel is feeling a bit hard done by at the moment. Everyday he and I have the conversation of "why was Ethan born first". As he ask the question his eyes are filling with tears and no answer satisfies him. He is starting to feel like Ethan gets to do all the "fun" stuff and he misses out. And it all started a few weeks ago at school when in assembly Ethan had to go to the stage to receive a certificate for his nomination for Aussie of the Month. Daniel was sitting watching and by the time I picked Daniel up from school he was a little teary. Those tears welling in his eyes broke on the way home and he cried (hard) for the next hour!!! Since then everything Ethan does or has that Daniel doesnt have it starts again.!!! I have tried to tell him that he is lucky because he gets to be a big brother and a little brother which Ethan doesnt get....but his responses is just "I wanted to be born first".........I am just hoping that this phase will end soon as it is one i just cant win!

First scan

Today I had my first scan which was really exciting. Daniel got to come with me however he was a little confused. I had told him we were going to see the baby in my tummy today. So as they lady is doing the scan Daniel is looking closely to see when my stomach is going to open up so he can take a peak! It was very cute and he just didnt get that the baby was on the screen as it didnt look like a baby!
But baby (or Blob as Daniel has named it) is all good. Got all his (or her) parts. It was such a relief to finally see the baby and actually see the reason for why I have been so sick. And even better was I also got to enjoy the scan. Today is the first day in 4 weeks that I am headache free which is so nice. I feel SO normal today.

( and for those who asked due early April)

I'm still alive

Well it has been over a month since I have blogged which has been my longest break since I started.Now my absent blogging has not been because I have lost the desire to blog but more because I have been SO sick, tired etc that I have struggle just to get up and keep the kids alive. But now that I am coming to the end of my first trimester I am hoping the energy levels will pick up and the sickness will continue to slow down and I can go back to wasting many hours where I should be doing housework (or something else more productive) posting blogs and catching up on everyone elses!

Catch Up

I havent blogged for weeks sickness running through the family so i will just do a bit of a catch up. Since we have been sick we havent been doing much but we did last sunday get to celebrate Olivia's 2nd birthday at Corey and Nikki's. That was heaps of fun. Livy is so funny to watch. She is SO animated and LOVES the attention. Even now almost a week later the boys still laugh at how "funny" they thought she was!!!!

The Week before the boys and I went around to meet Aunty Erins new pet. She bought a rabbit and the boys had been dying to see it. they loved it although not brave enough to actually hold the rabbit. but were happy to touch it and thought it was extremely funny when the rabbit peed all over aunty Erin!!!!

Impulse Buying

So i'm sure we all impulse buy from time to time and I am certainly no exception. Infact i find it hard to not impulse buy. I am not a good saver and figure if I have money then i should spend it. Normally my impulse buying is the usual pair of shoes or a top etc. Nothing too expensive, but it does happen fairly often. Matt on the other hand is not so impulsive with his buying and rethinks buying something until in most cases he usually talks himself out.

The other Day however Matt had lunch with Drew and I get a call to say he is buying a new TV and when he told me the price my jaw nearly dropped! Now dont get me wrong we did need a new tv. As you can see from the pictures that our old TV was small, and it was starting to crackle. I dont know how old it was but we got it second hand from Nan Docking when she died and that was about 6 1/2 years ago. who knows how long she had owned it for.

Matt really seems to go all out when impulse buying! But at least it was something that the whole family can enjoy.

Happy 5th Birthday Daniel

Yesterday was Daniel's 5th birthday. he has been eagerly counting down the months, weeks and days until this day arrived. all we have heard for months is "how long till my birthday". According to Daniel the age of 4 is "little" and 5 is "big". He has constantly told me that when he is 5 he will be able to do the things he couldnt do as a 4 year old...the main this being that he would always say " I cant stop pooing my pants because I am only 4. I will when I turn 5". So sure enough i put this to the test yesterday and yes he happily went to the toilet and we had no "accidents" yesterday. So hopefully we will continue to have no pooed pants because i am so over cleaning pants on a daily basis.

Anyway Daniel had a lovely day. the kids at kinder sung happy birthday to him and he got some cool lego stuff that he had been asking for for months. And for me the best thing was that he didnt want a fancy cake he just wanted a mud cake from woolworths with kinder suprises on top and smarties...EASY!!!

I've been tagged ( thanks Melissa)

10 YEARS AGO - I was 18 and working at My goodness Health foods for the Ross's. When I wasnt working i was getting up to all sorts of no good with Melissa.

5 YEARS AGO - Five years ago today i was living in Canberra and was preparing to go to the hospital to have Daniel ( his birthday is tomorrow!) I was feeling very nervous (about the c-section) and SO exhausted.

5 MONTHS AGO - I sent my baby off to school :(. But apart from that 5 months on not much has changed busy living life, working, kids being a wife etc.

5 THINGS ON MY LIST TO DO TOMORROW

1) Make Daniel's birthday cake.
2) Clean up the house for Daniel's party
3) cook a bunch of food
4) post letters to Brett , Scott and Melissa as they have been sitting here for ages!
5) washing, washing and more washing

5 BAD HABITS

1) putting off doing things
2) impulse buying
3) daily chocolate fix
4) not getting enough sleep due to very late nights!
5) using my lack of sleep as an excuse not to clean up!

5 PLACES I HAVE LIVED

1) Hobart
2) Elizabeth Town ( or somewhere up that way!)
3) Canberra
4) Melbourne
5) havent live anywhere else!

5 THINGS PEOPLE MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT ME

1) I have kicked my coke addiction ( that is the drink not the drug!!!!!)
2) The CD I listen to the most is The Osmonds
3) My first ever concert was Young Talent Time when I was 9
4) I HATE sausages
5) my biggest pet peeve (literally) is cats pooping in my garden, on my lawn , on my deck. If i wanted that i would buy a cat.

5 people i tag

-Nikki
-Hannah
-Ashlee
-Claire
-Erin

Welcome Home Aunty Erin

I stole these pics from Erin of her awesome trip. Top one of one the gorgeous beaches she went to in Hawaii and below St George Temple. Have to say a little jealous of the trip she has just taken and cant wait to do it myself one day!!!!! to see more pics of Erin's trip check out her blog .

Well Erin ( and Leah) finally came home yesterday after her big trip to America. They boys were very excited to see her as it had been so long and for them seemed even longer then it actually had been. Daniel actually though Erin had moved to DisneyLand!!!! They were even more excited to see aunty Erin when they saw all the cool gifts she had brought back for them. They were very spoilt. Infact we all were very spoilt. It was like christmas! But we are glad Erin is back ( especially as she is our chief babysitter!).

Best Friends

Last night the boys and I were sitting in the lounge room recovering from our drive home from mums ( where Ethan vomited in the car), when Ethan looks at me and says "I am the luckiest to have Daniel as my brother". Daniel didnt say anything but looked at me with a big grin.... I love that these two love each other so much. Don't get me wrong they fight all the time, annoy each other, hit each other. But I love how they play so well together, and always miss each other when the other isn't around.

( and yes Erin if you are reading this it was your car that Ethan puked in!!!!!)

Risdon Prison

Yes that is Risdon Prison in the background, and from memory on this day the boys were a little disappointed as there were no prisoners in the yard!!!!!

Well the holidays are definately over and life has returned to being busy. Before the end of the holidays we managed to get to a couple of parks. One being Risdom Brook Dam. Now the reason the boys chose this park is because they have an obsession with Risdon Prison at the moment. The love to drive past it, and even more so they love to go up to Risdom Brook Dam and look into the prison yards and check to see if there are any prisoners in the yards. Ethan also wanted to get his photo taken with the prison in the backgroung so that he could take it to school for "show and tell"!!!

Also during the holidays Grandad Docking came to finish of the cubby house he started at christmas time so now the roof is leak free, and no longer any sharp edges.

Worth a Look

For anyone having a baby, had a baby or just likes babies! check out this website. Lisa Yost has just started a business of making baby clothes. They are the cutest clothes and of course modelled by the very cute Ripley

http://www.bearbumz.com.au/

elder docking

Scott sent me a photo this morning so i thought i would add it here. He seems to be doing well ( as well as you can gather from his 2 line emails!). Also i just wanted to add that we are now FINALLY a nappy free home. Daniel has now moved from night nappies to pants... and 4 days on and no major dramas. It has been a LONG time coming. He just did not want to give them up.

Grandad Jury's Birthday

Grandma letting Holly blow out a candle after Grandad had!
Lou and Amber looking as beautiful as always
Daniel deciding whether he likes the cake or not. after one bite he decided that he didn't and went to play.

The ever so checky Holly looking her very best!!!!!

Last night we got together for Grandad Jury's birthday at Grandma and Grandad's house. It was nice to get together with all the family (the Tassie family!). The boys were looking forward to it all day as they hadn't seen there cousins for a while. It was a nice night. The kids were all really well behaved. It is so nice to have a great family that is enjoyable to be around.

A Year On

Today i just want to remember my dear friend Kylie who passed away a year ago today.

Wood Stacking.

This morning we were up early as we had to take matt to work. On our way home I saw some really cheap wood on the side of the road, so i called up the number and 10 minutes later the guy is at my house with the wood. So my morning was suddenly devoted to stacking wood. something that I really did not want to do. But I couldn't leave it for Matt to stack later as one of the cars was stuck in the drive and we needed both today! Ethan was really excited about stacking wood and helped right to the end. His goal was to stack more wood then me! Daniel on the other hand took 2 very small pieces of wood and then declared that he was too tired and went to bounce on the trampoline. But thanks to Ethan's help all wood was stacked and our wood supply now looks a lot more healthy.

Mastering Photoshop

I've decided that i am not happy with the layout of my blog so i have decided to play around with some blog backgrounds and next week when the kids are on holidays and i finally have more time to sit and play around instead of spending 1 1/2 each day running kids back and forth to school i am going to learn how to use photoshop and maybe even igital scrapbooking to see if i can come up with a page i am happy with. as i have never used either before i am sure it will take a while!!! but i am up for the challenge.

Bribe Chart

We have started using a reward chart to encourage the boys the behave better and help out more (especially with cleaning up). We are also using it to help encourage then to try in areas where they are struggling a bit. For example Daniel with his toilet training ( which is an ongoing battle) and even little things like getting Ethan to wait outside his classroom for me after school instead of waiting inside and looking out the window. They absolutely love the "train chart" and actually now try to do these things that they normally dont try. It's also become a great bribe when i am totally frustrated with them and they just aren't doing what i ask! hopefully the excitement with the chart will continue as it has been a great week.

The last Bit

After Anders chocolate factory we took a detour through Dunorlan/Weegena area. I love this area. Some of the best country side around. I would love to live here ( however wont happen as matt is all City!!!).

and our last stop before we arrived home which was matt's choice of the old historic bridge at Ross. It was a fun Family trip and glad we took it as we haven't done anything like it for SO long. But very glad to be home in my own bed and to have the internet again!

Leaving Burnie

We had a few hours to kill on wed morning while matt was finishing off so we found a "really cool park" to play at!
We also went and had a look at the boats at Winyard warf.
On our trip back to Hobart we made a few stops. One was at Anvers Chocolate Factory. We had lunch there and some Yummy chocolates. I think next time we will just have dessert there as they looked SO good, and main menu is a little fancy for our taste and we just arent fancy eaters!

The grounds were absolutely beautiful at Anvers, and well worth a visit if you are passing by.

Burnie continues

The boys loved the beach and would have love to have spent more time there. It was a shame it rained so much.
The lighthouse at Wynyard. as you can probably tell by looking at the boys the weather was aweful, windy , wet and cold. but they still loved the lighthouse.
apparently at this park there were meant to be platypus in the river but we didn't see any. but it was a beautiful fern park which would be a great picnic place on a warm day!
One of the beaches along Burnies coastline. taken at sunset. we were waiting to see the penguins come home. and after a lot of patience of standing in the cold we finally spotted on which came and burrowed right under feet which was great!

Family Road Trip

Last week Matt told me that he had to go away for work, which is does every now and then. Normally to Melb or ACT but this time it was to Burnie and did i want to come with him,...Now to say that I wasn't very excited about Burine is an understatement but since i had to take time off work i figured we may as well go and have a little famliy trip. The boys were so excited about going on a "holiday" and staying in a hotel! WE left on Monday afternoon and of course had to stop at the park which has the trees cut into animals which the boys thought was really cool. Then with a few other toilet trips we got to burnie before dark and found our hotel and some food to eat (yes it was 3 days of take away!). I must say that my only memory of going to Burnie was with my Nan when i was about 11 and i remebered it as industrial and mucky brown water and a pretty ordinary place. Now years later i still dont think of it as a place that i would choose to take the family (except when the tax office is paying) it wasn't as bad as i remembered. The beaches and the water were beautiful and the water SO blue.

The Neglected Child

Daniel loves to show his muscles at the moment!
this is what happens when a mother neglects her children for 1/2 hour to check email and of course catch up on others blogs! ( i had only cleaned the room a short time before !!!). Clearly he and Ethan had way too much fun

Bath Time

Now i wouldnt normally take bath photos. But i had to take this photo the other day to mark the occasion as it is the first time in over 2 years that Daniel has actually sat in the bath. A few years ago he was splashing with Ethan and he slipped under the water. He was under for a second and then was pulled out but since then he has never sat in the bath. he always stands and i have to wash him down! Bathtime for the past couple of years has been a real chore. It has always taken both Matt and I to wash his hair together as one of us had to hold him while the other washed! but the other day Daniel was standing and i asked him to sit. of course he said no. I got a little frustrated at him , but he seemed to ignore me. Then all of a sudden he is sitting and playing and having a great time. infact he asked if he gets really dirty could he have another bath!!! So finally bathtime is not so stressful.