Stuck inside

We were stuck inside again today because of rain. We made some playdough, which a certain little Miss threw all over the floor to every square of the room (ok not quite but near enough!). We also rebirthed some old toys. Amazing how an old toy that has been tucked away out of sight can provide hours (well almost an hour) of fun again.

Smile :)

Click on picture to see it bigger.

Biker dudes

DS1 and his friend are really into their bikes. They spend alot of their free time riding together, doing jumps and perfecting their tricks. Some of the things they can do really make me cringe. I admire their confidence and their ability to keep trying despite many falls and scrapes. In case you are wondering.. they do normally wear helmets but were showing off for the camera here!

Rainy day

As much as I like taking pictures of my kids I like taking pictures of other things too, more precisely macro shots. Unfortunaly my 350D doesnt take great macros (more to the point, because I can't be bothered hauling out the tripod : p So I dusted off the point and shoot and took it outside in between showers. Winter can be pretty too.

Addicted

I can rarely get her to look at the camera, let alone smile so this was a treat.. as you can see we have a paci addiction going on so that comes with the smile ;) I'll keep trying!

Shhhhhhhhhhhh

It doesn't happen often these days, but sometimes they both just fall asleep on the lounge together during the day for a nap. I love watching them sleep.

Swinging fun

Even though we havent had much rain so far this winter, its been so cold I have been reluctant to go out of the house but the kids were really getting antsy today so we took them to the park for a run around. I've also been feeling really blah about my pictures so I was pleased to get one or two reasonably decent shots.

Don't forget

to wear a helmet..

The little things

It always amazes me that children can find immense enjoyment out of such little things.

Sweet girl

Two years ago today a sweet little baby girl entered our lives, we could not imagine our lives without her. I love that she is so girly despite have four big brothers. I love her curls, I love her smile, I love her personality, I love that she now SLEEPS!

I love you Missy Moo.

Mama has a new toy

This weekend we picked up a new computer. The old one just couldn't cope with the demands we (ME) were placing on it so it was replaced with a brand spanking new one. Now I know there are faster, bigger, meaner computers out there but when you have been working on my tiny little thing (only 125mb RAM for starters!) for years believe me you notice the difference!

What I like most about my toy (besides the card reader.. so cool!) is the 19" widescreen lcd montior. Its great for when I am editing pics. I can fit EVERYTHING on this screen. Its so sharp and bright! We have two CRT monitors and both were terrible so I'm feeling really spoilt! (Sneaking in two pics in one here ------>)

The only downside.. I have to share with the kids because now the games we have actually work!

A flower

To remind me that winter will end...

Slip slidin away...

So today we took the kids down to the waterfront so they could burn of some energy riding their bikes and so I could get some more picture taking practice in. Down by the end of the boat ramp were seagulls all lined in a row, reflections in the water. Perfect shot. I just had to go down to the waters edge to get the shot. Easy.

So I start walking down the ramp. I start sliding down the ramp. I can't walk back up the ramp without making myself slide more. I'm thinking this is NOT a good thing as the waters edge is fast approaching and the ramp is just getting more slippery. Faster I slide, with a slight amount of panic. Finally my feet go out from under me and in an effort to keep my camera (my VERY NEW camera) from getting wet I land heavily on my elbow and slide into the water. I finally stop sliding almost waist deep in water. Camera dry.. me wet. Elbow has a small but deep cut, is very bruised and sore :(

I somehow managed to get out of this little mess, crawling along the waters edge and up some rocks, located Dh, who took pictures.. and NO, I am not posting those here..lol When we got home I was looking through the days pics and laughed hard to find this..

I must have somehow hit the shutter button on my slide down! The ramp isnt as steep as it looks here.. THANKFULLY!

Blahs

I spent yesterday feeling flat and blah. I cleaned all morning only to have my clean floors dirtied by muddy feet, someone washed dirty hands in my clean bathroom sink, the kitchen stayed clean for all of 5 mins, someone had a tantrum because his sippy cup had the yellow lid on it instead of the green lid, if you are a mum, you know the drill. Then, in the afternoon, my son's friend came to visit and I swear that kid is more draining than ALL of my kids put together. By early evening I was a screaming banshee and everyone was in my target sights!

After dinner Dh disappeared and returned home with not one but TWO blocks of Cadbury's milk chocolate, he placed a glass of wine in my hand and told me to sit down. DS2 & 3 gave me a foot massage (I can ignore the fact that it cost me some of my chocolate..) ahh bliss.

That night after everyone was in bed, i remembered how earlier in the day my friend Mel reminded me that one day they will be grown up and we'll have our tidy house and our peace and our quiet but that we would miss all what we have now.

She's right. I will. Today I am savouring the little messes.

Growth

Nothing exciting to say today. Kids are on school break for two weeks and I am enjoying having them home. No morning rushing around to get everyone out the door on time makes for a much more relaxed mama!

Snapped some quick pics of Emma today, she found a new use for adhesive door sealer.

Bruisers bruise

What a day..

Now as the mother of four boys you would think we have had quite a few trips to the ER, but, we havent. Tonights little trip was only our second. The first was when Jacob tripped over and ripped his fingernail out of the nail bed.. that required two operations to repair (I still like to remind Dh of his comment about going to the Er "they'll just put a bandage on and send us home" hahaha)!

Today Ethan crashed his scooter. I'm not sure which freaked me out more.. the mammonth GOLFBALL size bump that appeared on his head within seconds or the fact that he had this weird look on his face and couldn't seem to manage to get his eyes to come out of the side of his head and look at me!

Thankfully we were just 5mins from the hospital. Seems half the city was having accidents as well. There were three teens in there with various broken bones from motorcylce misadventures (note to self.. NO MOTORCYCLES.. no matter how much they BEG me) a skateboarder with a HUGE knee, a mum with, I'm guessing, a broken something in her arm because she emerged 2hrs later with a plaster cast, another teen boy with what I presume was quite a cut to the bridge of his nose judging by the blood soaked cloth he was holding and numerous other INTERESTING people, some of whom didn't seem to have much wrong with them at all and maybe like to just hang out at the ER(dont you love ER's).

Back to Ethan. Apparently it is quite normal for golfballs to appear like that but the disorientation was a bit of a worry and we should probably hang around the ER for a little while to be on the safe side and watch for nausea, vomiting, sleepiness, lethargy, further disorientation etc etc.. here's your icepack. We take a seat, Ethan sobbing that his head hurts, me trying to apply an icepack filled with BIG icecubes in a way that doesn't hurt the lump on his head.. which has started to look a bit smaller thankfully. An hour into our wait Ethan falls asleep, this makes me a little nervous.. but hey we are in the ER. He sleeps for an hour, wakes up and has a little cry, his head hurts, he wants to go home.. he is hungry. I figure hunger is a good sign. We get m&m's to share.

After 3.5hrs he's looking and sounding quite perky (must have been those m&m's) and my mummy instincts are telling me he's going to be just fine and do we really need to wait a probable 2 hours more? We go see the nurse at the desk. She asks him if his head hurts.. he says no.. the bump has gone down quite a bit by now, she says ok you can go, come back if you have any concerns.

We get home and he proudly showed of his bump to the bigger boys, Emma pokes it just to make sure it still hurts.. it does. I took a picture of his bump after we got home, it really doesn't do it justice. Will have to come back and upload it later along with the picture of Zack AFTER he fell in the river.

What a day.

Winter days

It's the beginning of winter here. You could be forgiven for thinking winter started months ago, it has been so cold. I am so not a cold weather person (remind me why I moved to one of the coldest states in Australia???!). I don't like dreary days, don't like grey clouds, dislike wind and rain.

I especially don't like that I am forced to be indoors so much when I would really prefer to be outside taking pictures. But occasionally you do get to go outside and occasionaly you get a pic that everytime you see it, it warms you up and you forget about how awful the weather is. A little person all rugged up against the cold, pink cheeks, a pink nose and those eyes, oh how I love those eyes.... I love this little face.

The best part of cooking

.. with mum is getting to lick the bowl afterwards!