A christmas Wedding

Last Saturday I got a new sister inlaw which is very exciting. Unfortunaely I didnt get to go to the wedding as it was a last minute wedding very close to christmas ( In Melbourne). However Matt got to and I have got to enjoy all the photos and a wedding video!

Christmas Tree

This year putting the tree up was definately more of a chore then fun. We had been sick all week and I had no motivation, But after much nagging from the boys I agreed. This year the scene for putting the tree up was much differentthen in past years with matt lying in the recliner with a blanket sleeping off his sickness, and So not to disturb Matt or annoy me too much the boys watch a christmas movie while I put the tree together on my own...once the tree was up I told the boys to go for it with the decorations. Ethan ever so eager was putting up all the decorations, especially excited to put up the homemade items ones.

Daniel on the other hand decided he would just play in the tinsel like a 2 year old!. During the decorating of the tree I stepped back and trod of my camera which I had stupidly placed on the floor and broke it!.So the only photos I have in on my phone which didnt turn out that great...(need to add a new camera to my christmas shopping!). Thankfully once the tree was up the excitement of Christmas started. I just love Christmas. I love the lame Christmas movies on TV, I love Christmas carols, Christmas cooking, Turkey, Tinsel and wrapping presents. The only thing that is missing from the perfect christmas is snow....but I am not holding my breath for that!

what to buy for a 14 year old boy

I have been thinking all week and I still cant figure out what to buy for my Nephew for christmas. Teen boys are way to hard to buy for.

Is santa real???

That is the question that I was asked last night by Ethan. In the past I had always said to him just "if you dont believe santa wont come". But he was full of technical questions of santa last night so I had to break the bad news to him who Santa REALLY was! It was heartbreaking to break that news only weeks before Christmas. I was really hoping for him to one more magical christmas before reality set in....But I did try to soften the blow by telling him that now he was a big boy he was allowed to know the special secret about Santa that he needs to help keep from others so he was a little excited about having a special secret to keep.....but I couldnt miss the disappointment on his face....then he asked about easter bunny. So in one night he lost Santa and Easter Bunny. I didnt have the heart to tell him about the tooth fairy also :)

A Hard working Missionary :)

I was browsing blogs this morning in attempt to put off house work, when i accidently clicked on a random blog instead of the one I actually wanted to visit. When the page flicked up of this random blog I was presented with photos of Elder Scott Docking working hard on his misson :) Here is what I found....( yes I stole the photos!)

( Maybe a way to get people to listen to his message ??? !!)

7 MONTHS TODAY

Today we have reached 7 months. Zack Is still a super easy baby. At 7 Months Zack has his first tooth , which came through last week and another very close. He is eating solids now and LOVES his food. His little legs are becoming quite chubby! every day he is getting closer to rolling over but apart from sliding around a little on his back he is still stationary which is kind of nice. Unlike his Cousin Levi who is such the little mover and shaker Zack is quite content just lying there!

All Things Harry Potter

( if you look carefully you can see all Daniel's Harry Potter scars. You may need to click on the photo to see it as the pen doesnt show up well)

Recently the boys have become Harry Potter obsessed. It all started when some of the older kids at school started calling him Harry Potter because of his scar on his forehead. he got quite upset until I told him that HP was cool (but really what would I know I HATE HP!). I bought Ethan the first DVD and both boys begged daily from that day forward to watch it. Daniel's obsession has grown however as he draws the HP scar on his forehead. He also draws it all over his body, all over his bed sheets, the walls, books. He often will draw ethans scar on his head as well and asks me why he doesnt have a cool scar like Ethan's. Last week Daniel fell over and hit his head on his bed and the first thing he asked when he stopped crying was to go to the hospital to have his head stitched to get a scar and was terribly dissappointed when I told him all he needed was some frozen peas for his head.

The School Bully - a mothers fight

All year Ethan has been battling a kid at school .This kid has not only spent the year teasing him but also kicking, punching, shoving, throwing mud and getting his gang of little friends to chase, circle and trap Ethan as they try to scare and hurt him. For a long time Ethan didn't tell me about this, but as soon as he did I marched down to his school angry that this had been allowed to happen. I went to see his teacher who played dumb to all this ( come on some of this was happening in her classroom). She is either lying or really does not pay attention to the kids. However I did eventually get a call from the schools vice principal advising that the issue was being dealt with and that I was not the first parent to complain about this child.
Things seemed to settle down for a while until yesterday when Ethan advised that it was happening again. So this morning I went in to see the teacher again who then turned to me and told that Ethan needed to stay out of his way, and what was Ethan doing to provoke it and that she couldnt do anything unless she saw it with her own eyes. As I left school this morning I was mad. I hopped in the car and all the way home I was fuming at this condesending teacher. How dare she blame Ethan who is the worlds nicest kid and NEVER intentionally is mean to anyone ( other then his brother!).
I got so mad that I rang the school and demanded to speak to the vice principal.. I made my complaint about the boy and then made my complaint against that horrible teacher. I very firmly advised the school that they had a duty of care to protect my child and that if it was an adult doing these things it would be a police matter. I then Advised that I would go to whatever lengths to protect him, stepping on whoever I needed to in the process.......

Now hoping there will be changes. I think the school has got the message... I am one mother not to be messed with.

Our Trip To Launceston

Visiting the Gorge. The first time for me and the boys. The boys loved it. Especially since it had recently flooded so the water was very high. I have to say I can't believe I have lived in TAssie almost all my life and never been there before. It was beautiful and look forward to going back there again and walking around the rocks (without the kids).

The boys were a bit nervous on the bridge , especially as it was a little windy!

We stayed at Grindelwald in a gorgeous Spa Villa. IT was brand new and SO nice. It had a massive spa which I enjoyed! I have always wanted to stay at Grindelwald ever since I was a kids and I use to see the ads for it on TV....but being from a family of 9 kids our holidays were camping in a tent...not nice hotels! Its just a shame it was wet the whole time we were there...

Ethan and Daniel shared a double bed which meant it took forever for them to go to sleep.

We took the boys the "monkey" park before we left and they thought it was awesome. Daniel tried to make friends with some of the monkey's and they spent probably 30 minutes just watching and laughing at the monkey's getting up to "monkey business"! One Monkey was feeling quite frisky and the boys thought it was great that he kept "hugging" the other monkey's!

I have only been to Launceston a few times in my life and each time I am not overly impressed. But I did love the gorge. But Hobart is definately the better place to be :) Matt hated driving around Launceston and kepted muttering how he hated it! I think he got more frustrated driving there then he ever did in Melbourne. WE were definately glad to get back to Hobart and its sunshine as Launceston was just wet the entire time we were there.

Footy Colours Day

Today was footy colours day at school. The boys were so excited to get involved this year. Last year Ethan was too shy to wear anything but his school uniform ( which is collingwoods colours anyway!) Last night I bought them Collingwood tops as that is the team they were born into. Some kids are born into royalty, ours are born into collingwood! About 8.30pm last night I went to check on Daniel and there he was in bed with his t-shirt on, magpies beanie and scarf. Terribly disappointed that he couldnt sleep in them he was up first thing this morning to get dressed. This morning I tried to get some pics but Daniel was too hyped for senisble picture. The more I asked him for one nice smile the crazier he got. When we arrived at school the grade 3 girls were all dressed in collingwood colours from head to toe singing the the collingwood song over and over to everyone in the car park which the boys thought was fantastic.....seems their school is a high percentage of collingwood supporters with the song even being played over the PA today :)

3 new post....a catch up

I bought Zack a jolly Jumper last week. He is now over 4 months old and does get bored on the floor and the rocker. He wasnt so sure about it at first but now loves to just spin himself around and will bop on it to the wiggles.

Daniels actual birthday (22 July)

Playing deal or no deal at last!

Daniel's "woolworths cake"

Daniel transformed into Bumblebee

For Daniel's actual birthday since it fell during the week and I dont like going out on school nights with the kids we stayed home and had home made pizza for tea ( daniel's choice) and cake and icecream for dessert. I refused to do another fancy cake but Daniel didnt mind he was happy with a mud cake from woolworths. Matt had found some basketball candles which decorated it up a little....Daniel loves basketball at the moment after becoming a little obsessed with some family movie called Like Mike....Lame movie but he loves it. Daniel's hightlights of the day was at school getting to wear the Birthday sticker. Getting the Bumblebee (transformers) dressup outfit and of course getting the game Deal or no deal. Daniel is completely obsessed with the show and watches it everynight. He wants us to move back to Melbourne just so he can go on the show! He has been asking for the game for so long.

Daniel's 6th Birthday

We had to move the sails of the ship so it didnt go up in flames as he lit it!. had that happen once before

lots of smoke after he has blown out the candles

Livy looking gorgeous with her hair in pig tails!

having fun together on the trampoline

Zack and Levi behaving nicely together

So I am a little behind on the blogging ( thanks to a week tonsilitis). So playing catch up here. Daniel had his 6th birthday the other week. We had a family BBQ lunch the Saturday before his birthday with mostly my side of the family. It was a nice quiet afternoon with no stress and hassle and plenty of food. The kids had fun playing outside and eating food. All Daniel cared about for his party was that cousin Levi was there. You would think that having his own baby brother at home would mean he didnt care too much for any other babies but he is always wanting to see baby Levi so he was very excited that Levi was there. He also had a great afternoon playing with Livy. She is at a really good age now where her and Daniel play really well together. Daniel chose a pirate ship cake as his birthday cake. Not my best cake I have ever done but I have certainly done worse!

3 1/2 months

Zack loves lying on the floor and playing with his new toys that daddy bought him

Zack had his first cold / ear infection/ bad cough this past week resulting in his first lot of antibiotics. Despite being sick (and still is) he has been so good.

zack at 3 months is now

*Sleeping through the night ( from about 9.30pm to 7.30am)

*putting himself to sleep (most of the time )

* smiling and talking heaps

* moves head first along the floor while lying on his back

*loves to play with his toys

*still hates his baths and lets us know about it

*loves to "play" with his older brothers

*LOVES to be cuddled

He has become such an easy baby. Hardly ever cries and is so happy all the time.

A catch Up

The last couple of weeks have been lots of fun as Auntie Kelly , Jessica, Ella and Noah came to visit. The boys have loved having their "melbourne" cousin around has it had been a LONG time since we had last seen them. Daniel Especially loved playing with Noah this time as he is all grown up and no longer a little toddler so they were able to play cars together.

Zack has learned a new trick in his rocker as you can see by lying sideways at the bottom and then of course he isnt comfy so he cries! Seems it is now time to belt him in

Daniel has suddenly got into dress ups. He found this old wizard outfit that Auntie Kelly gave him a few years ago but never used...now he wears it all the time and is hanging out to get the transformer outfits.

The Holidays would have been more fun if it hadnt rained but we still had fun!

Daniel and I did some cooking when Ethan went to auntie Lou's for the weekend.

Ethan having fun playing Guitar Hero

Eating Icecream (auntie Erin's treat) at Mures after fish and chips for lunch

At the museum

and I did get to buy myself a funky new bag these holidays ( made by Lisa Yost).

The boys were unimpressed with the weather these holidays. We had planned a lot of out door activities and lets just say we didnt get to do any of them due to all the rain. We did still find stuff to indoors but after 2 weeks indoors they were busting to go to school. Ethan did get to spend a few days at Auntie Lou's where he got to go to the movies and play in the bush with Connor, and we made it to the museum followed by lunch at mures...but we had lots of dvd's and ethan was even 'allowed' to play guitar hero on the nintendo WII which he loves...but normally only gets to have a go when Matt is playing as I dont like the idea of playstations etc. ( we have both nintendo and playstation but not one kids game....I guess I am a mean mum!).

a few more.....much more of an improvment!!!!

Docking family ( those who were living in Tassie at the time)

Zack in the bath... he is still yet to love the bath

Digital Scrapbooking

Tonight I finally got a chance to start trying some digital scrapbooking. this is my first effort. not overly exciting and it is done using all freebies. once I feel confident to do it i will purchase some nice packs etc. but at the moment I am just trying to get the hang of photoshop...which I have found SO frustrating!