A Double Triple Shot

 I get a bit of hassle about how many photos I take of the kids and unlike most people who take less photos with more kids I have taken more photos as I have gained kids.... I already have two on my list to take once the final Stockley Baby arrives.

 

  

♥

Sausage Pie

In our quest to find the best pie I recently made these Sausage and Egg Pies (sans relish) from the Womens Weekly website. They looked nice but it was pretty much agreed that they tasted only average and so therefore won't be repeated.

 

 ♥

Imperfect

You're imperfect and you are wired for struggle but you are worthy for love and belonging.

I saw this on a Ted Talk by Brene Brown. While I am struggling to get through her first book which I am currently reading I think this statement is pretty darn cool and worth repeating. I think she meant it for girls but I reckon it's pretty much applies universally.

♥

TIMBERRRRRRRR!

Power tools, large machinery, men and noise- not much more a small boy could ask for to make him happy.

This is the day they cut the tree down (Lets just forget the crappy aftermath- but lets just say wish number three on my list after live healthy baby and Lotto powerball is to move house.)

I had been telling the base people for ages the tree needed to go the letterbox side of it was ever so slowly leaning closer and closer to the drive way and strong winds had the potential to cause big trouble.

See what I mean that large right hand piece used to be attached to the centre upright.

Lucky for us the guys turned up after school and kindy and we got to watch the whole spectacle.

And we weren't alone.

 

 

I always thought this stuff was interesting but with kids it gets stepped up about a thousand percent to "Fascinating Joy". 

♥

Creative Mess

This is what I am aiming for today a great big pile of creative mess as I match papers with photos ready to scrap. I'm hoping to get a WHOLE bunch of pages done before this baby comes in July and just generally get through a bunch of photos. I'm going back, 3,10, 13 years to scrap my babies when they were babies and it's getting me thinking about this new small person who'll be here (hopefully) before I know it.

♥

What's in a name?

Telling people your baby name choices before your small person has arrived more often than not can be a horrible mistake.  People of ten feel the need to issue their opinions on the choices and they are more often or not negative. I won't be sharing any of our real options with anyone (cept Les).

We have three girls names that we like and agree on  but no boy names at all and as we won't know what we're getting until we've got him/her we are on the look out at the moment for possible names. We do have some fun joke names though. Last time around we told people we'd call the baby Noname. Get it 'NO name'.

Having named a child Will I am now a little more cautious about the connotations on the name we choose. Think Will-POWER, Force of Will and WILLful and you'll understand what I mean.

So we have joked about a girl called Carmen, but spelt CALMen.

Or a boy called Placido. PLACID-o.

Seriously though we are looking for boy names.

• Not common, popular.
• Not the name of any pain in the butt kid that I ever taught.
• Not with the same first initial as anyone currently in our family (L, G, K, S, M, W, R (Ruby the cat) ).
• Not a name that rhymes with anyone in our family.
• Not the name of anyone currently in our family.
• Not a name that sounds like it should be on Jerry Springer or Days of Our Lives: Think: DaShaun, LaWonda, Ridge, Talon, Claw, or Thorn.
• Oh and heres the kicker we, Les and I, both have to agree on it.

Good Luck! If this baby has a willy it looks like it'll be another little Noname for a while yet.

♥

And Create I did!

So after yesterdays read/write/create conundrum (oh poor me spoilt for choice). I raced off and gathered together the above from my fabric stash. And made these.....

 

I made the pinwheely one first before I  had to go grab the kids from Kindy.

It's a pencil roll based loosely on the design in Soulemama's Book, The Creative Family.  The Brown one is for Will and the other for Emily (and then eventually the baby) to go in their 'Netball Bags' which is a kit (books, pads, stamps, stickers and pencils) that we take to Netball Practice to keep the kids entertained when the weather is crappy or they are just too tired to play on the playground.

If you are a scrapbooker and you think that fabric looks familiar that's because it's the Basic Grey Figgy Pudding line which they do in both paper and fabric.

♥

Paralysed by Passion

I am sitting here crippled with passion.

I have a burning desire to write.

And an equally burning desire to read.

Which is equalled only by the absolutely passionate desire I have to create.

I'd like to take this moment to appreciate the fact that I have the choice and the time and space to do any of the above.

*********************************************

Creating wins!

♥

A moment to breathe

I've been working really hard the past couple of weeks getting together 2 albums, one paper and one digital for a clients daughters 21st. I have been working solidly in patches during the day and late at night as well. Les even took a half day on Friday for me to have even more time on it. Yesterday during a morning of running around and odd jobs which took me to Glenfield and Westgate I picked up the physical album and got the pages photographed and in while Will was at Kindy. Then the real Tuesday mission started;

• Pick up two from Kindy. 
• Drive to Whenuapai  drop Les' Charger to him at work.
• Out the gate to the dairy post mail.
• Back to Whenuapai school grab one
• Do the loop past Hobsonville school and grab two more. 
• Head to Huapai and drop 3. 
• Loop back to the bakery because all the kids ate my hastily prepared lunch (a bag of hot cross buns). 
• Back to the courts at Huapai. 
• See the teams announced 
• Take the small crew down to the playground. 
• Get totally swarmed by flying ants every time I sat down (universe I needed to sit down what's with that?). 
• Watch end of netball practice.
• Load car with 5.
• Drop one to Whenuapai.
• Drop 2 to Hobsonville Base.
• Head home with 2.
• Hassle Merenia to get ready.
• Make makeshift bun in Merenia's hair.
• Load up W & M and head to Kumeu.
• Drop M to St johns.
• Drive home windows open begging W to fall asleep.
• Pass motorway over bridge and accept Will has fallen asleep.
• Get Milk from F & V shop.
• Head home prep dinner which Kieran has cooked (Pies).
• Make Will wake up.
• Encourage him to stay away and eat dinner.
• Make a Smoothie for dessert.
• Stories.
• PJ's
• Teeth
• Head to Kumeu.
• Wait in car for Merenia (Can't go in and get her as I'm already in PJ pants because I can't do a whole day in my jeans with this baby belly any more).
• Drive home.
• Cuddle with Will.
• Les gets home - yay- and puts Will to bed. Yay.
• Lay in stupor on couch till I rouse enough energy to go lie in a stupor in bed.

And now, today, I can stop and breathe. Yay! Hooray! Whoopeee!

I have plans to hang with my boy this morning and then a sewing project at my scrap table this afternoon and I may just have to throw together a scrapbook page or two tonight.

♥

Passion

This is Will's number one passion at home at the moment (His first equal passion is 'Sawing' at Kindy). Les brought Sam's Helicopters home with us after Christmas and managed to get two of them flying again- one of which we returned to Sam and the other  we got to keep which makes Will the happiest 3 year old on the face of the planet.

He has also taken to reading the Tower Hobbies catalogue and picking items out of there that he also wants to own. Generally helicopters but also the odd plane. He likes the ones that are special or significantly different from your regular run of the mill one. Like the Blackbirds or the Helicopters that have two large rotors rather than one big and one small.

 

Unfortunately for Will he needs to actually stick to the rules and not try and do things like catch the Heli mid air before we're likely to even consider upgrading him to a better model- the kid is like the demo derby expert of heli fliers currently.

 ♥

Collection Addiction

I'm a sucker for wanting to complete a collection. It's seen me waste a not inconsiderable amount of cash over my life time. This time around though I don't think it's a waste. We all love these wee guys and between Kieran, Will and I get our money's worth of enjoyment out of them.

The Christmas Holidays saw the release of Lego Mini figures Series 3. Incredibly disappointing was the fact that you couldn't distinguish at all between each pack whereas in the past you could tell them apart. This is fine if you are one of those people that can buy a whole box bring them home and sell the rest but that wasn't us. We had to go with the feel-up-the-packet technique and completed the collection buying on trade me. You'd think that Lego would make enough money off of their products without having to do stuff like that but.... nah.

So now we have all three series.....one.

...two.

 

and three. 

(photos by Kieran)

♥

Recycling

 

Something I love about raising children is that the simplest things that you can find right in your own backyard or outside your front door are so totally exciting and fascinating!

 

 Oh the excitement a recycling truck can bring!

I also love the way he stands there with his little hands behind his back- he does it all the time when he's observing, it's just one of his things.

♥

Thirty Nine

Little Mr Fiendy boy was being a tad uncooperative this week. Despite offers of lollies and supersize glow sticks I had literally throw him on the couch tickle him mercilessly, grab a couple of shots and repeat the process.

♥

St Patrick's Day!

St Patrick's Day presented an easy opportunity to do something nice for Merenia's teacher this term. I threw together this bag topper (a modified pre-made one from the Daily Digi) and decorated up a Starbucks Cup. (Miss Yap drinks a Long Black- which comes in a short cup- cheaper than a venti- bonus!) I also put together one for Les as well. Will and I dropped them at their respective work places for Morning Tea.

For some reason I was thinking that Jaffa's were orange and they were my 'gold' but they're actually red- duh!   

♥

Observation

When I was getting Will dressed the other day he noticed that we had the Batman Logo on our window.  Nice Observation Boy Wonder! :-)

♥

Unfathomable

It's simply unimaginable.

It's totally beyond comprehension.

It's too bizarre and intense to comprehend.

It's a tragedy.

It's beyond disaster.

The loss one one persons child
One persons parent.
One persons brother or sister.
One persons partner.
The loss of one life is so much to so many people.

Is so devastating.

Is so intensely sad.

So where do you begin?

How do you even start?

To realise what it means when 10,000 souls leave this earth, in one place, on one day, perhaps even in the space of one hour.

Oh, Japan.

Like Christchurch, my heart is breaking for your land, for your people.

For all those lost souls.

Hair Cut.... Grrrrrr!

He was just sitting there with Emily doing some artwork at the kitchen table. 

I was busy making Lasagne not looking in his direction.

He said something about hairdressers and scissors.

I didn't register the comment at the time.

Then I went to help him with something and that's when I found it.

In his lap.

Big chunks of his gorgeous hair.

He had just reached up and chopped it off. 

Grrrrrrr.

 

♥