much better...

Morganne is much better now...she is being her usual bubbly happy self which is great!Evangeline loves her baby sister and Morganne loves her too...Here is Evangeline in her costumes at the rehearsal for the dance concert this week...And here is the very cute moth she drew yesterday!And one last pic just because...I hope you are having a good weekend! Lissy

hospital...

I was thinking recently I had been lucky never having been to hospital with the kids....well Monday night that changed...

Morganne has had a cough and cold for a couple of weeks. I took her to the doctor last week but she was fine...just something viral as her glads were up. Then Sunday her temp started going up getting to 39.5C...it would go down after some paracetamol but go up again...she was a bit wheezy and her breathing was a bit laboured (she was grunting)...she slept in my bed that night...then Monday morning I took her to the doctor and she said she had a chest infection and an ear infection and to watch her breathing...her breathing was worse by the afternoon and so I went back to the doctor and she sent us to hospital...so we spent the night in Princess Margaret Hospital for Children...not much sleep...mostly M sleeping in my chest in the reclining chair...but by morning she was improving so we came home...

She has been up and down since yesterday with some wheezing, temps and grunting but not as bad as Monday. She slept with me again last night as I wanted to keep an eye on her. Her temp did go up but her breathing was pretty good. It was tiring being in hospital but reassuring to know help was on hand. The staff were all fabulous. I hadn't been sure on Monday if her breathing was so bad and if I was just being a paranoid mum which is why I went back to the GP...as it turned out I am glad I did...better to be safe than sorry as they say...

Mum had been out to see us on Monday afternoon ( she spent Sunday with us too) so I was able just to leave Evangeline with her for the night and go which was great as Ben is at sea.

Other than that we have had a good week! E had her dance concert rehearsal...M clapped and kicked her legs around as she loves music. The concert is next week.

I have fixed some reticulation - I am very impressed with myself!!lol...Here is my handy work! This photo for Ben! I haven't filled in the hole yet so he can see it in real life when he gets home!!Evangeline had Lara's birthday party on Saturday to go to... And we babysat Lara on Saturday night and went to the school dance...Morganne loved the music too!
And Evangeline has taught herself how to blow up a balloon...she is very pleased with herself! Morganne has learnt to climb up onto the lounge chairs...she loves to climb in there with a book...but twice she has fallen over the arm! I have put the cushion on the floor to make it lower but still she went over the arm...So she had a big egg on her head on Friday which is now just a bruise...the triage nurse thought I was at the Emergency Dept for that! Ben may be changing onto another boat...so he may or may not be home a bit earlier...and then going back to work just after new year...so we will see what happens...Lissy

she's up...

Yes Morganne is standing up holding the furniture!
This is her chucking a hissy fit when I would not give her the spoon when feeding her some banana!
Evangeline is loving having "cups of tea" with the tea set my sister and family gave her for her birthday...it is a Pippi Longstockings one...I loved these stories as a child and E likes them too! I had plans to build a house on our farm and move in with my pony...lol..

We had swimming this morning and Lara come to play this afternoon.

Tonight we had the dance dress rehearsal for the end of year concert...E did her own thing....lol...but was cute anyway! She missed a lot of classes this year and was partially deaf at most of the rest so really she has no idea what is going on! Poor thing was so tired by the end of it all.

Morganne loved it all and clapped and boogied and waved her legs around! I didn't take any photos but tried out my camcorder which I have just bought....I have wanted one for years! My filming skills are pretty limited but it will do!

We have had a couple of nice warm days with about 26C but now rain is coming and about 20C for rest of week. A couple of sprinklers are broken so it is just as well as I cannot put the reticulation on until I work out how to fix them!

I have been trying to sort out the girls clothes and toys this week....a mammoth job...and that is about it for now...I hope you are having a good week! Lissy

aaaaaaaaaaaargh! Pirates.....

Evangeline had a sensational time at her 5th birthday party...and I think all the other kids enjoyed it too! Here are some or rather lots of photos! The Pirate Ship Ben built was a huge success! And I think a few people would have liked to put it in their car and take it home! Here she is...she isn't quite sure how to use the telescope! I made the costume...it was actually very hard to find black and white fabric...I suggested other things but she wasn't happy with my suggestions...fortunately I found some!I made scraves for all the kids and handed out pirate kits I got from the $2 shop! And they had a ball! We had pirates fighting...and running about...
and walking the plank...and on the ship...We had a couple of games... Morganne was a cute Pirate Baby...And two cute babies...And us three girls...Morganne and Grandma...And the two girls...And the cake! A pirate ship of course...chocolate cake and choc chip ice cream layers in case you were wondering! The sail is a piece of scrap booking paper! And I even found some pirate candles! The sea is cream and blue sprinkles! And it tasted pretty good!And that is about it! It was very windy all day but it all went well.

Today at school E had her birthday story...the teacher tells a wonderful story about the earth revolving around the sun and each year passing from birth to the current birthday...and so birthday celebrations continue!

I am cleaning up and recovering from the weekend! And I shall have to get onto finishing the mini album for the party now I have the pics edited! And then onto planning Morganne's first birthday party! Hope you have had a good weekend too - Lissy

five today ...

Here she is our birthday girl this morning...6.52 am...so she had a little sleep in!The Pirate Party was a huge success...I have loads of photos thanks to Alli and Michael...so shall do a post on the party very soon...

The Pirate Girl is now crashed out asleep and snoring in my bed...she chatted to me for half an hour saying she wasn't tired...then fell asleep mid sentance! And her snoring is too loud for me to sleep! So no rest for this Pirate Mum...The Pirate Baby is asleep too...so is the Pirate Grandma...lol...maybe I will just have a coffee...Lissy

4 years and 364 days...

This is it...E's last night as a four year old...tomorrow she is 5! My due date was actually November 15th...and she was only a little late arriving at 0.55 a.m.My friend Jo was over today to keep her occupied this afternoon while mum and I prepared for the party. It was a struggle to get her to bed tonight...she is so over tired and so excited about turning 5 tomoorow...She had her first sleep over at a friend's yesterday...we went to their place a lunch time up in the Chittering Valley...and then Morganne and I came home late afternoon. She had an absolute ball with her little friend Eden - they are two peas in a pod.
Morganne is sick...quite a bad cough so has been pretty grizzly all day...poor little thing...but this is her on Thursday...I did say this eating thing was messy as she is learning to use a spoon and here is the proof! We are eating outside a lot...Amazingly she does actually get quite a bit in her mouth. It was pretty messy with weetbix this morning though!
But hopefully her skills will improve quickly! Everything is mostly all organised for tomorrow's bit event! John Cougar Mellancamp is playing at Sandalfords tonight...we can hear it very clearly as it is only a few hundred metres away so not much point going to bed yet! Hope you are having a good weekend - Lissy

eleven months old...

Our gorgeous baby Morganne is eleven months old today! While E was at dance this afternoon I sat her in the park and took some photos...I love my camera...all I have done is resized these and cropped a couple...I took about 160....lol...and narrowed it down to 24...but will just share some...mainly for Ben's benefit as he is at sea...hopefully I can do a scrapbook page soon... She can crawl very fast now and loves to crawl into the bathroom at bath time...or make a beeline for Evangeline's room to play...and loves to play with Evangeline...she is very ticklish and has a gorgeous chuckle and she gives wonderful snuggly cuddles...The saying "when she was good she was very very good, but when she was bad she was horrid" sure fits Morganne as she is the most delightful baby when she is feeling well...but when she isn't, oh boy we sure know it...little curls are starting to appear at the back of her hair which is getting very light...She loves to point at things, especially planes, clap her hands, do a funny little boppy shimmy dance to any music, press buttons on toys to make noise or music, put things into things and take them out...She is starting to wave and is almost standing up on things like the lounge or the toy box...it will be a while before she walks though I think...she still only has 6 teeth so waiting for more to appear...she can feed herself a bit with a spoon but it is very messy...she still loves grated cheese and cream cheese sandwiches...but she is trying other things especially if it means feeding herself! She is still not a good sleeper waking a couple of times a night...but she has had some good two hour day time naps which is great...And she still does her very cute grizzle face that I scrapbooked a while back.......And here she is with my good friend Shauna...And that is it for today - Lissy

morning, noon and night....

Evangeline is in the Pirate Ship morning, noon and night...as soon as she gets up in the morning and the moment she gets home from school...she is none too pleased when I make her come inside!

Yesterday morning she beetled straight out there...then she ran across the lawn waving at Daddy's plane (we are in the flight path)
She tried to see it off in the distance....And then started howling she she couldn't see it any more....
a>and cried all the way back to the pirate ship... but then she cheered up with a bit of coaxing!... And started playing again... And had a little friend playing too...
And Morganne is getting some food in her mouth using a spoon...but oh boy what a mess...
Ben is out at sea somewhere off the coast near Exmouth...And me, well I have been busy filling in holes in the lawn (ones I try regularly to sprain my ankle in and have succeeded twice this year already!)and doing a bit more tidying up around the garden...and baking cakes...I hope your week is starting well - Lissy

gone again...

Ben has gone again...he has been home 8 days but has changed ships so is off back to work for another five weeks...and he deserves a Dad of the Year award...this weekend he made this pirate ship for Evangeline's pirate party...I made the sail and our friend Pierre helped out too...but mostly Ben did it all...and E said AAAARG! She is in seventh heaven...I shall try and do some painting this week too...

Ben did this as well as sort out the pool, fix the garden reticulation, lots of gardening and a huge clean up around here of rocks, rubble and junk as we had a huge skip to fill...amazing effort!

So we will be missing him but he will be home for Christmas...yay!

We had a busy weekend with two birthday parties, and some time with Spirit the horse with friends visiting and Grandma visiting too...
Morganne finally warmed up to Ben a few days ago as she is feeling lots better now but no new teeth have appeared...lots of drooling and such so I am sure they will...and she ate outside yesterday while we were making the ship!
Evangeline was very sad this morning as Ben left early while she was asleep and she wanted to give him some more hugs. We phoned him up but she is still pretty sad poor little thin. And so now to a busy week as usual plus all the party preparations - hope you have had a great weekend - Lissy

time...

Time seems to be flying by...busy days and more busy days...I have been doing a lot of gardening trying to tidy things up, weeding and re planting ready for the upcoming birthday parties and plus it will be nice to have some flowers around! Mum helped out too which made a huge difference...plus she knows lots about gardens and helped me work out what to plant...So I am rather pleased with the garden at the moment! Well that was until I went to see a garden with mum last week...oh boy it was huge and totally amazing! I have a large garden by most standards...but this was HUGE...about 1 acre (four old house blocks) and like the Secret Garden...I am inspired to do some more in my garden...I had taken a couple of pics before I found out I wasn't supposed to be taking any photos...The top photo is the vege garden and had the most spectacular artichoke plants...And I loved all the succulents she had in pots around the place


We had an amazingly busy weekend for us....usually we are home and doing nothing! My sister and family were in Perth so Ike came to play on Saturday...E went to mum's with the boys for a sleep over on Saturday night. So Ben and I went out to a restaurant, Padburys in Guildford with M - who grizzled...oh well! Great meal though! Morganne is teething again I think...grizzly, not eating, waking every two hours, runny nose, and so on! We get a week or so of this it seems and then maybe a couple of teeth appear...we are still waiting for this next lot! She only has 6 teeth so we have a lot of bad times with teething ahead!

Sunday morning we went to breakfast at Taylors in Upper Swan with Ben's parents, my sister and kids and mum...M is grizzly even with mum...She cries unless she is with me! ...and she cries even when she is with me ... aaargh! And she has not wanted anything to do with Ben until today! She was briefly happy with Ace...This is my favourite photo which E took...Then Sunday night we all went up to see my aunt and uncle in Darlington for dinner as my cousin and her husband and very cute 18 month old Kate were visiting...and M grizzled!

This week has been very busy too...E went to the Perth Mint on a school excursion on Monday, she had a play day with her best little friend from school yesterday and Ben's mum and dad came over today too...we have speech therapy and horse riding tomorrow and two birthday parties coming up on the weekend...

I got to catch up with Alli briefly yesterday which was great...

Ben got home on Saturday and is home for all of 8 days...as he is starting on a new boat...and goes back to work for another 5 weeks on Monday...so he has been very busy doing jobs like sorting out the pool ready for summer and checking the reticulation though we have had so much rain this week we haven't needed to water...and he is making a pirate boat for E's party...and we have some more cleaning up to do around the place too! Not much of a break but he is keen to work on a different boat and now he will be home for Christmas...he has missed a few in the past...he has missed most of Evangeline's birthdays, and will miss Morganne's first birthday...but it will be nice to have a Christmas together...

Don't you love how M sits to eat! If she is eating...today she did eat some banana and a bit of yoghurt...and she has had some happy non grizzly moments today too...poor little thing...when she is well she is such an easy happy baby...but when she isn't feeling well we sure know! Anyway I hope you are having a great week - Lissy

other layouts...

I really do love scrapping and my approach is just to scrap how I like and for myself...and don't agonise over the details...just go with the flow and get the photos and stories scrapped...and I think it is great to share with others which is why I like teaching too...plus you get to see other peoples interpretations of your work and usually pick up some new ideas too! There is always something new to learn! I certainly do not know it all!

Here are the other layouts I did with each of the Basic Grey kits I used for the retreat classes...I gave out instructions for these as well...I tried to make most of the pages not too girlie...
Ambrosia...Offbeat...
Eva...this one is very unclear sorry...And I still have load of stuff left to do more...I just ran out of time! I really like their new letter stickers...I never used the old ones much...Now I must try and get on and finish my mini albums too...Lissy

oh blimey....

Ages ago I was tagged by the lovely Kim G...amazingly there are people out there who do read my blog!


The rules for the award are -
(1) The winner can put the logo on their blog.
(2) Link the person you received your award from.
(3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
(4) Put links of those on yours.
(5) Leave a message on the blogs of the girls or boys you’ve nominated

If you've already received this award you can choose whether or not to pass it on.

Hmmmm....just seven blogs...bit tough but here goes...

Mel Goodsell...she is so lovely and has a great blog, and is always always always creating beautiful things...very inspiring...I am sure she has already had this award so she has my permission to not pass it on...lol...

Alli Paterson...well Kim nominated her too but she really is a great gal, great friend and a great scrapper...

Sharon Manning...who is always willing to become and take fabulous photos for me

Chris Millar who is a very clever girl...and such a lovely person too...

Rach who is completely nuts, great fun and her blog is fun to read even if she does not post her scraping often!

Another Rach...who is a very talented scrapper...just love the way she mixes papers and colours and such...and yes she is lovely too...I only like lovely people!

And this girl..Judy is a very talented girl...she started scrapping but is now more a mixed media artist...and she too is lovely...lol...

I hope you have had good and busy weeks and have nice things planned for the weekend - Lissy