Gem's got the dolly bug...

It seems to have happened since our good friends had their 3rd baby not long ago. She's a busy little Mum- packing, organising, changing nappies and clothes and going all sorts of places. But this cracked me up when I saw this. I did eventually persuade her to use a pram...Jxx

Princess Tinkerbell Cinderella Fairy...

...is what Gem wants to be when she grows up! After we had dropped Jack at school yesterday, she came home and started adorning everything she could find related to this once again. She said to me, "Jack's eyes will pop out when he comes home from school and sees me wearing al these 'bootiful' things! I think he will fall on the ground!"

 But she got very grumpy when I asked her to say 'Bibbidy, Bobbidy, Boo!' and do some magic.

'I only do pretend magic, Mum - it's not real.'

Then she proceeded to lock me out the house while I was looking for my lens cap, the cheeky devil!

But how could you not forgive her when she looks like this:

i really do love this girl...

I started this layout a couple weeks ago and finally got around to finishing last night.

Gem I went to the Op Shop and found this dress for $2! She wears it most days....

Jxx

All dressed up and nowhere to go...

I turned 32 on Tuesday, and although for the last few years I have been feeling really old, it has just dawned on me that in fact I am quite young.  I am glad I have had this revelation as I seem to have a renewed energy for life just lately. I am finally giving hockey ago - until my back conks it anyway and even applying for some part time jobs and to top it off looking at doing some study!!
Notice our lovely renovations in the background. This is where the old kitchen used to be and is now the dining room. It will be nice when the taps are no longer hanging out the wall and they are plastered and painted.

I had a great day. Jack was at school and Gem and I picked up Grandma and Grant to have lunch at the Waikerie Cafe. We had friends for tea, which we was really nice. Thanks Bel for the yummy cake, Felicity for the drawings, Dave for the bottle of 'Aged' Port and Adele for the newborn cuddles. Sorry Hailey but there's no thanks for vomiting! Poor Darl...luckily it was towards the end of the night and so far we have been lucky to not catch the bug.

The kids wanted to dress up for my birthday and as soon as we had come home from dropping Jack off at school, Gem put every piece of Fairy/Princess/Cinderella dress up she could find. The only problem was it was only 10.30AM!! She finally resorted to watching some TV before we went out for lunch. She got a few comments that's for sure. Very cute....

This last photo is 'so' Gem in a sulky mood....

I was very spoilt this Birthday. With a few people chipping in, I FINALLY have an EXPEDIT book case from IKEA. I was only meant to get the 4x4 - which meant I would have 16 cubes but I 'accidentally' brought home the 5x5. It only JUST fit along the wall where I wanted it. But now I have 25 CUBES!!

For those who aren't sure what they look like - here is a pic:

They are perfect for scrapbooking as you can fit 12x12 albums and papers in. Not many shelves are that deep. You can add drawers, baskets, cupboard doors to customise as you like. I would also like to get the desk that attaches:

When it is all tidy and organised I will post pics.

Grant and I put the shelves together a week earlier so I wasn't meant to get any pressies on the day. BUT I was spoilt and had a bare rooted Mauve coloured Tea Rose (Shocking Blue).

He had also found a beautiful photo frame with dragonflies on it (he knows me too well). Grandma also gave me a beautiful photo frame with a photo of the four of us and beautiful verse about family surrounding it. It is really unique. 

Here's to being 32! Jxx 

I am obsessed with this rose...

It was planted in our front garden long before we bought the house and I have know idea of the variety but I just LOVE it - I have had to photograph it everyday since Grant picked it Tuesday night on my Birthday....Jxx

Last night's creation...

(finger/body painting)

Gem inspired me to get the paint out which I haven't done in AGES....TFL...Jxx

Oldies I love...

Came across these two layouts I did two years ago now....I really love these photos of Jack and Gem. Especially the top one....Jxx

Not your average Dad...

I have been wanting to do this LO for ages! Scrapbooking Memories have a call out for a Father's Gallery which has forced me off my butt...I am really pleased with how it turned out. TFL...Jxx

Updated: June 2010 - Look out for this one in an upcoming issue of Creating Keepsakes (Aussie Reader Gallery). Jxx

NO CHICOS...baby!!

Okay, so we learnt the hard way but it's probably not such a bad thing. My good friend took Jack to the local Footy today and returned him home when she was worried about him being extremely hot, itchy and coughing persistently. Good thing she did as he was having an anaphylactic reaction. After having the reaction during his Peanut Challenge at the Women's & Children's last week we recognised the cough straight away. Because we only live minutes from the hospital I raced him up there. We gave him Zyrtec and Ventolin via the Nebuliser which calmed things down, but we were oh so close to needing to use the Epipen. If we hadn't been so close to the hospital and the on call Doctor hadn't come so quickly it would have been used without a doubt. We finally worked out that the Chicos in his bag of mixed lollies were the culprit, containing Full Cream Milk Powder (thank goodness for Google!) We were surprised as we really didn't think he would react like that to such a small amount of cow's milk. So on one hand it's a little disappointing and on the other we feel thankful that we now know and that nothing too bad happened inthe process. Colourful mixed lollies from now on only!! The stupid thing is Strawberries & Cream and Milk Bottles contain no milk products, go figure!
I have stressed to my friend that she did a great job and please don't let it put her off of taking Jack. Right from the start I have never wanted to wrap Jack up in cotton wool. I want him to do as many things as possible. Today just makes everyone realise how important his Action Plan and Epipens are and that it's not a big deal to use them if needed. But he did scare me a bit today, the little bugger....I really do love him to bits.

Gemmy's finger painting session...very serious business!

For those of you who know Gem well, you'd know she doesn't mind a bit of painting...she can also get very carried away, with no encouragement whatsover from Mum of course!

She has been nagging us for AGES to get the finger paints out that she was given from Aunty Polly at Christmas. This afternoon Jack went to Footy with Naishy so I thought it was a great time to get them out so she didn't feel left out. These are a few shots I took. I love how serious she is about what she is doing, such concentration on her face...except that little smirk when the paint went on her belly for Gem's famous belly painting. She actually started out quite neat and wanted a brush for the paint, then in went the finger, followed by hands, feet, arms and finally the belly! You go girl...