...O little town of Bethlehem...

...hmmm one day I'd like to GO to Bethlehem...
but for now this will have to suffice...imagining what it was like.

Layne playing with the train

...so everything is supposed to be symbolic right??? um.....so the train?? um...they had camel trains....

Layne putting decorations on the tree

...she thinks she's one of the "wise men"

Jake...not sure what he's doing

...so does he...

the 'train'

Last year I was busy laying on the couch being sick while they put the Christmas tree up...this year I was busy feeding the girl...then I was really mean and let her cry while I took some pictures...

decorations

...our house...

...and the husband has been hard at work putting up all the time consuming outdoor decorations....

IN MY DREAMS!
(OK so I'll settle for the front door and the gate....and I know my husband & the kids would like a bit of the snow.)

- above photo from PB catalogue -

...a visit...

The husband's parents are visiting at the moment...(they're currently living in the Middle East)...his dad was able to meet Ava.

...and, of course, MaMa brought dress-ups...

....these were taken the afternoon they received them....I absolutely LOVE them...because they make me laugh...

Jake couldn't stop saying...'I come in peace...' (don't ask...I don't know!) and well I just happened to capture this expression on Layne's face!

Layne gave MaMa some pocket money so she would bring more dress-ups next time - she loved them that much!

(there is also a hat and a head piece that goes with Jake's...but he'd ditched it by the time I got around to taking a few photo's)

3 months has gone by quickly...

...she's 12 weeks old now and doing great...she loves to talk to us... smile at us... and of course be cheeky and poke her tongue out at us :)

a favourite...

This is a favourite place of mine

problem is...like most things in life...I didn't appreciate it when I only lived 10 minutes away from it! I lived 10 minutes away from these gardens throughout my highschool years...ahhh now I live about 2 hours away and jump at any opportunity to get together with my family for a picnic here. We had a 'father's day' picnic here this year...and a certain father and son (& nephew/cousin) got to go on their first helicopter ride! The reason why there is no photo of the helicopter ride is because they were just going down to take a 'look' at the helicopters...and then I got a phone call to let me know that I had to drive to another vineyard and pick them up...:) haaaaaa

A quaint little shop...

Clickinmoms and a picture of Paris

I've been learning so much about photography and photoshop at Clickinmoms. It's great being able to go to a forum and finding the answer to a question that you've had for ages...and no matter how much you search on google you just can't seem to find an explanation that you can understand :) .
I have had a simple question about colour management and calibration for a while now and there are so many arguments for and against what my particular questionwas, that I was getting exasperated...FINALLY I just decided to go to the forums in clickinmoms and see what they all had to say about it...found out that my question has a very simple answer and I now I can breath a sigh of relief! If any of you photography fans wanna join go on over to my sidebar and click on the clicknmoms logo.

Oh and for those of you that are interested, start checking my eden lane photography blog for freebies I find on the web. The freebies will be anything from photoshop stuff (brushes and actions), cards and templates, and anything FREE!

At a later date I will also start posting tutorials on there show you how to do simple things in photoshop. But first FREEBIES!

dreaming of...

...rome...

...I don't know if it's just because we've hit spring and the weather is warming up...or because it's nearly a year since our round the world trip last year...either way...italy is on my mind...

THANK YOU!

Just wanted to say a quick 'Thank You' to everyone who sent us emails etc. after having Ava. We really appreciated it...I'm slowly starting to get back into replying to emails but thought I'd just let you know...I did get your email :)!

Another baby...

...so my nextdoor neighbour and i were due only 2 weeks apart...baby w. is only 10 days old in these photos...ahhh finally some nice sleeping shots!

...if you want to see more of baby w. you can go on over to my photography blog.

Ava Grace

....so most of you know by now that I had my baby...she was born 31st July weighing 6pd 7ounces...my smallest yet.

Ava was born with Down Syndrome. Although it was unexpected, having grown up around a few Down Syndrome kids, I was excited for the difference she would make to our little family. She was in NICU for 2 weeks...she's now home with us and doing well, although there will be ongoing medical checkups with her heart condition. We are very excited to have her as part of our little family and her big brother and sister absolutely adore her! I've included two of my favourite photos of her - unfortunately by the time she came home she was too alert to do one of those nice peaceful sleeping shots that you see of newborns!! She wasn't having a bar of it!

...my cousin...

So I shot these over a month ago...it's my cousin with her new baby...he's gorgeous! (so's she but we're talking about babies here...!:)

I've been meaning to put them up here so that my family can see the pictures...but I just wasn't quite happy with them and kept wanting to fiddle...these are two of my favourites...

A Birthday

A little girl in our house turned 5 on Friday....she asked for a lollipop cake (which she literally thought she'd be able to eat like a lollipop????) and a present that she's been begging for, for the last 6mths!

I think her present is a little overwhelmed at the attention she's getting...

...and the birthday girl was distraught that her new little 'fluffy' couldn't sleep in her room with her at night...

p.s just had to share something Mike and I had a bit of a laugh at - we bought 'fluffy' and then went next door to the Vet's to get her vaccinated...the receptionist asked Layne: 'what's your rabbit's name??' Layne promptly said 'Charlie'...so the name 'Charlie' went into the computer - a few minutes later the vet came out calling for 'Charlie' - as we started to get up - Layne started going off at the vet...telling him that she's not a charlie anymore that her name is now 'fluffy'...and then she sat back down waiting for him to call for 'fluffy'....

CLICKINMOMS

Ok so I know there are heaps of you that love photography - I have this posted on my photography blog but thought I'd put it here as well for you. If you're interested - this is a pretty cool site - you can join for as little as $6 a month! It's a great source of information and tutorials and a great way to learn more about photography at your own pace.

Just remember to put the coupon code "FRIEND" in at checkout to get your 10% off - I think the offer expires 31st July!

star wars with a pottery barn fix...

...Jake's room has always been one of those 'I'll get around to it' things since we moved into our house...now 2 and 1/2 years later and new baby nearly here I thought maybe I'd better do something about it or it'll be one of those MANY ideas I have, that never seem to make it from the idea, to the real thing! So the husband and I sat down and made a whole plan - measurements and all...have moved furniture around and made room for a desk that will come over the next few months as time and money allow. The rest I've slowly been doing bit by bit over the last little while...and although it's a long way from done...I'm just happy that something is actually being done!

Jake loves star wars...I love pottery barn...we don't have pottery barn here...it's a sad thing and it frustrates me to no end sometimes...and because we don't have pottery barn here...our target doesn't stock 'pottery barn look alike' stuff (without the pottery barn price tag!). So since it'll be awhile before our next trip to the U.S...(which I've told my husband will be purely 'a shopping trip' :) I've started to look at what I can do myself...the husband then started to get into it and if any of you remember the post I did about a year or so ago about the bed head that he made me...you'll see that he is quite handy...just has a very time consuming job which limits his 'handiness' to me...(I know... again frustrating!)

But then some kind of miracle started to happen - he doesn't have any extra time... in fact less than normal, but he started to look at some of the things on pottery barn that I liked and he was convinced that he could make most of it!!!!...needless to say I immediately threw ALL my furniture out and eagerly awaited the expected goods.... ok, so maybe not...I am pregnant, but I'm not that out of it! So my point is...he's actually helping me do Jake's room - and he's NOT gay....that's the miracle!

But before I go on, I have to mention how freaking pedantic the guy is when I do stuff like this when I'm preggo. He goes a little OVERBOARD... like for eg. I'm not really a coke drinker...never really liked the stuff...in fact I don't really like fizzy drink (soda) much at all...but if we're traveling somewhere and I need and I say need a drink immediately...he won't let me take a sip of his coke...because it's 'bad' for you - HELLOOO - you're drinking it!!! just give me a darn drink of coke!....and then he remembers what it's like to say NO to a pregnant woman...and well lets just say...I'm not thirsty anymore!



so when I went to do Jake's star wars painting he literally refused to let me do it until he got a GAS MASK!!! I had one of those little disposable masks for when I'm sanding...thought that was just fine for the painting...but nooooooooooooo I not only had to immerse myself into a star wars painting I had to actually BECOME Darth Vadar himself...!!!!

...and I had to wear gloves (which I would have anyway - but I'm not admitting that to him!) and if he had a disposable body suit he probably would have made me wear that too!!!

...and the finished product...Jake and I are so excited...J. because he gets his painting...me because I can take the stupid gas mask off and cross another thing off my list of things to 'get around to' - oh and did I mention that it's glow in the dark too!!!

( and yes for any of you who look long enough you will see PLENTY of mistakes...heee but Jake hasnt' figured that out yet so I'm going with it...although then he did start demanding a spaceship...and I told him NO WAY this is it buddy!!)

lollipop kids...

I've been going through some old photos....found these that I took in October last year...

Jake's facial expressions totally make me laugh!!!

Sisters...and a brother...

On the photo shoot with -Mary- I also thought I'd actually make an effort this time round and get some pregnant pictures....ughghgh.

It's funny how different the kids are - they're both excited...my boy is very affectionate - he climbs into bed and always wants to feel the baby move in the morning. When I pick him up from school he runs to me and wraps his arms around me (well best he can) and give the baby a rub and kisses my stomach. My little girl on the other hand isn't so into the whole 'feeling' the baby move but will periodically come up during the day and say 'cuddles for the baby...and mummy'...and give my belly a hug...both are really cute about it...

Mary & I...

So about 12 mths ago Mary and I started talking about taking some photos together and reanacting some of the old mission photos...since we have some pretty hilarious ones together...but by the time we actually got around to making a date...I was pregnant and sick as a dog..so we postponed it...a few weekends ago we decided it was now or never...because these things can be so easily postponed since neither of us really care to be IN FRONT of the camera...but we got my husband to do his best...it was the middle of the day (the worst time for photos) but it had to fit in with his heavy work load that weekend...which gave us about a 2-3 hour window around lunch time...needless to say we had some fun...

I love the one (above) on the left....

donna hay....and a bit of bill...

so i had a girls day out on saturday...with Mary... (see last post). we have been waiting for the new donna hay store to open...it was set to open in march but opened 1st April...so we took the first opportunity...

...it was very quaint...just what i like...

....unfortunately, as was expected, the prices weren't exactly to my liking...gorgeous dessert glasses being around $41 each!

....i did come away with some cookie cutters and tea towels though...
they had everything from natural cleaning products to a kitchen with divine raspberry meringue teasers to taste!

...and this was our favourite display...(they're soy candles at the bottom)....anyone who's interested in a birdhouse decor...it will set you back approx. $235 for each birdhouse. :)

...it was worth the day out...Mary and I love donna hay (for you americans that have never heard of her...google her)... we ended our day out by having 'all day breakfast' at bills....(bill granger's...once again...if you don't know who he is...google is your best friend) ...all i can say is 'i love bill' - the food was excellent, we didn't have to wait long for a seat (being pregnant this is a matter of high importance!) and the pricing was even better...i don't think i saw anything over $20...!

...a visit...

...so i thought i might show you how much i've aged...because when you pull out photos from over 10 years ago that's ultimately what you're doing! some of you from T2 might remember that kim & i were somewhat inseparable...and we always knew that although we lived on opposite sides of the world, we would see each other again...and we have...each time I've been back to the states...she just happens to be living in the place that my husband has gone for work...this of course has been quite convenient for us!

....so FINALLY she made it down our way(with her husband & 4 kids!)...and of course that visit wouldn't be complete without a visit from Mary.


...don't knock the photo - it was 11pm at night...we were tired and were frankly having too much fun catching up to really care about taking photos...that and the fact that none of us wanted anyone seeing what we look like at 11pm at night!

...unfortunately Mary had to work the next day so we had to call it a night... I should clarify that statement... Mary needed to at least show up to work...not that she was really planning to do work... she will more likely be creating her igoogle page, creating a fake blog, reading my blog, and emailing me... similar to my day...only she's getting paid for it!

...the only thing that's missing from these photo's is kim's red glasses :)...yes the one's that had no lenses!

easter

...i broke a few of the easter eggs i made about 2 years ago...and i couldn't see my pregnant self blowing more eggs to decorate more...

...so i cheated and bought some to replace the ones i broke...

...reacquainted...

I grew up on these biscuits...with butter and vegemite...my sisters and I used to have competitions to see who could squeeze the biggest 'worms through the little holes...

I never buy these for some reason...and I saw them the other day while I was out doing the grocery shopping and thought.....hmm my kids are gonna lovvve these...so the last few days I've been getting reacquainted with them by teaching my kids how to squeeze 'worms' out of the holes....

...just because she can...