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