Whats been happening?

Hmm… lots but not much lol…

Zoe started solids about a week and a half ago

Tilly loves tea parties at the moment. Everyday I hear, ‘want a cup o tea mum?’ -

Shannon and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary with a picnic tea and movie at the moonlight cinema at the Botanical Gardens. We saw “This is it”. Of course Zoe came along

But she was a good girl and went to sleep fairly easily on the lawn and slept through the whole movie -

Zoe moved into a cot last Thursday night 4th Feb -

I had been a bit worried as to where to set the cot up and what to do but we eventually decided that we would set it up in Tillys room. So the girls now share a room and so far it has worked beautifully. They are both sleeping well and don’t wake each other. The only downside we have experienced is that Tilly now can’t play in her room through the day (as Zoe has her day sleeps in there) and it’s been difficult to get Matilda to quietly go in there and sleep for her day sleep. As a consequence, she has pretty much cut her day sleep out now.

Matilda has also ditched the dummy (or should I say we ditched it for her ) We have been talking to her about getting rid of it for a while and last Tuesday the 2nd Feb she had her 1st night without it. It actually hasn’t been that bad. She seems to be coping quite fine without it. She has asked for it at the odd occasion but we just remind her that she’s a big girl now and doesn’t need it

Zoe is now 5 months old and is still a dream baby.

She sleeps easily (like she’ll even just fall asleep on the carpet where she’s playing if we are out). She is enjoying her food and loves rockmelon at the moment (this heat calls for something sweet and juicy).

She still sleep beautifully at night, some nights she is waking at 4am for a quick feed, other nights she sleeps through til 7:30am. She rolls over and reaches her hands up to you when she wants you to pick her up. She is very strong and spends ALOT of time on her tummy. If all babies could be like her, you’d have about 50 I’m sure!

Matilda has been great but is going through a bit of a testing patch again at the moment.

She is playful and funny but also wilfully defiant at times. It can be quite trying. She is getting better with some things and is always very helpful with Zoe. She loves her little sister

She loves singing and ’swimming’ (she can now blow bubbles, put her head under the water and started doggy paddling over the holidays).

She loves to carry apples around now and nibble on them for ages.

She only wears nappies to bed of a night time now. She no longer has a dummy (as mentioned above).

She is growing so fast!

Happy Australia Day!

This year we spent australia Day at a BBQ at Dannii & Israels with some friends (how else would you spend it lol). And yes…we ate lamb lol. We were all sporting some lovely Aussie tattoos etc. We had a lovely time.

Here is a pic Dannii took of our little family -

Here are a couple of pics I took of Tilly yesterday still sporting her dashing flag tattoo on her cheek (it’s gone today though). -

She’s such a funny girl -

Simplify 2010

This year I have chosen a word to describe my goals for the year. I have chosen the word ‘Simplify’.

I really want to simplify my life.

For me this means-

* Declutter and organise our small house so we all feel comfortable and happy to be in it.
* Get back to basic cooking from scratch instead of buying highly processed food.
* Focus on eating healthy, good nutritious food.
* Go to bed at a decent hour so I have the energy to get up in the morning in time to get everything done that I need to in my day.

I am hoping that by focusing on these things, other things will fall into place. By getting enough sleep each night, I will be able to have the energy and time to prepare good nutritious basic meals, by eating good food, I will have the energy to exercise and be fit. All of which will make me feel better, be better and more healthy and would lead to a happier family all round.

So yesterday we got started (now that we are back from our holiday) and rearranged and decluttered the whole loungeroom. It feels so good to have it done. I want to be in that room all the time now lol. I also baked banana bread using bananas that were on special and made banana chips and fruit roll-ups in the dehydrator for snacks.

This morning I got up when Zoe woke up for her morning feed and stayed up instead of going back to sleep until Matilda came in. I had time to get Shannon his breaky, make his lunch and have Tilly’s breaky ready for her when she got up. I spent the rest of the day finishing off the loungeroom, some general cleaning, and prepared a lovely meal of Chicken Pie and vegies for tea.

I thought I would share the recipe with you too since it’s so yum.

Chicken Pie (My darling sister Tammie shared this recipe with me).

* Take 3 skinless chicken breasts trimmed or 1/2 kg of chicken thighs, just cover with water in a large saucepan and simmer for 10 minutes.
* Drain, chop small (shred).
* Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius.
* Line base of pie dish with pastry ( I made my own, you could use 2 sheets of shortcrust pastry though but homemade is so much nicer ).
* Blind bake for 10 minutes (I didn’t bother but you could for a nice crunchy base).
* Heat 50g of butter in a saucepan.
* Add one large finely chopped onion.
* Cook, stirring for 3 minutes.
* Whisk in 3 tablespoons of plain flour and 1/2 teaspoon of dried Thyme.
* Stir for 2 minutes.
* Add 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock and 1/2 cup cream.
* Whisk until it thickens (3-4 minutes)
* Remove from the heat and stir in the chicken.
* Add one cup of chopped vegies (you could use frozen vegies here if you like).
* Season with salt and pepper.
* Spoon filling into pie dish.
* Decorate the top with pastry.
* Beat 1 egg yolk with water and brush over the top.
* Cook until golden brown. Approx 40 minutes.

Matilda wanted to take a photo of her dinner too (too cute) -

Tomorrow I want to get stuck into getting the kitchen organised

Christmas etc :)

I know that I am only up to the 19th of December and should have finished my posts up until Christmas. Basically just so I have a record for when I get a chance to sit down and finish of my December Daily mini album. But in the mean time lots of other things have been happening. So for now it will just stay as a record up until then.

Shannon’s family came down to Melbourne for Christmas this year and time kind of got away from me. Here are some happy snaps to fill in the gap from Christmas til now -

(Oh and Shannon and the girls got me a Panasonic Lumix shock proof/ water proof camera for Christmas which was PERFECT for a holiday on the coast… most of these pics have been taken using it).

Christmas at Nans.

Presents galore-

Nan & all of her grandchildren & great-grandchildren front row-

Nic and Amy hosted Christmas this year and did an AWESOME job. Here is Amy in the kitchen preparing the spread-

Nan & Phoebe-

Nan & Zoe -

By the end of the night… we were all a bit tuckered out -

Between Christmas and New Year, our car broke down and Shannon spent four very hot days under it fixing it. I am very thankful to have a husband who can (or is willing to learn how to) turn his hand to most things and after purchasing himself a manuel for our car, changed the transmission, harmonic balancer and gave it a service while he was there

After Christmas we spent almost two weeks visiting family on the South Coast NSW. We spent lots of time at the beach. We even managed to squeeze a couple of nights camping in at Wapengo.

We had a lovely time hanging out at Mum & Dads farm -

So now we are back home and getting back into our routine. Shannon returned to work today… back to the daily grind.

December 18th

Today we left Tilly with Nan & David and hit the shops to do a bit more Christmas shopping. I love this time of year and love shopping. It’s always so fun to try and find just the right gift for everyone. We got the bulk of it done. Only a couple to do before next week and a bit more to do after Christmas (as we wont see my family till then).

Todays pics are of my adorable baby girl. She has discovered her fingers this week and LOVES to suck them. Some times it’s a thumb, sometimes two fingers. She is SO cute!

December 17th

Today I just finished off folding the washing from yesterday while Shannon began our search for a new car. Our current car is dying.

I spent the afternoon at Dannii’s house enjoying some relaxing time and good food with my mates. I have been spending my Thursday afternoons fellowshipping, networking and supporting some dear friends. Today was the last day we met for the year so it was really lovely to relax, not clean but just fellowship and eat yummy food! (Megan please don’t forget to email me that choc peppermint truffle recipe. Far out they were good!).

Shannon and a couple of his mates went out to the movies to see ‘Where the wild things are’ while I stayed at Dannii’s and crafted the night away. I sewed and made scrabble tile pedants. A lovely way to spend the evening. Stayed up way too late though. Didn’t get to sleep til about 3:30am. Doh! Hehe. Was fun though

December 16th

Washing washing washing!

Today it has been really nice weather and I have washed 6 LOADS of washing! So good to have it all done. Camping always seems to create so much washing. Wet swimmers, dirty clothes, dirty linen and towels etc. Ahhh, good thing it’s all done because tonight was a very special treat as Zoe had the privilege of playing Baby Jesus in the Road to Bethlehem production at Nunawading. Approx 3500 people take the journey each night and it runs from Monday through to Thursday. She played Jesus from 7:30 til 8:30pm. She did so well as it was SO hot. Here are some pics to prove how GORGEOUS she was -

How ADORABLE is she?!!!

December 15th

Unfortunately today was the end of our camping trip.

Here are the kids having a play while we packed up the tents-

We packed up our tent and drove home.

We decided to stop along the way at Torquey and have some lunch and a quick swim.

We called in for a quick look at Bells Beach too (famous surf beach)-

Home now. Lots of unpacking and washing to do. Ahhh the joys.

December 14th

Today was a lovely sunshiny day. We headed to the beach and had a swim and relaxed. It was bliss. Although a few of us ended up with a bit of this…

The sun always gets to white legs lol.

Almost everyone did a spot of fishing and Tilly caught her first fish!

and yes it was a catch and release. Too small for dinner

We enjoyed some ice-cream -

and exchanged gifts with our friends-

Tilly got a gorgeous crayon roll and note book. Handmade by Dannii.

Shannon got an iTunes gift card. I received a divine vintage fabric handbag that Dannii made me and Zoe received a cute jumpsuit and bibs, all personalised by Dannii. So blessed!

December 13th

Today we dropped Vicki off in the morning at the airport -

said our goodbyes -

and watched her fly away

Then we had a lovely brunch and catch up with our good friends Joel and Belinda (no pics here… sorry).

After that, we headed down to Lorne for 2 nights of camping, relaxing and socialising with the Best family. It was delightful!