The Boy Thing

So not to leave out the other half of my mad two....

I am not a boy type of girl :-) I grew up with a sister and therefore our house was a hangout for girls. We were close friends with other families that were made up of all girls. We made cubbies, we put on concerts and we played with dolls, we did hair...all the usual.

So for me to be blessed with a boy was a new experience! I have no idea about go karts, building things, knocking things down or really anything with a motor (if my car breaks down I stop out of it and call Steve to come get me - seriously, I wouldn't know how to get to the engine of my car if I wanted to). I don't understand the wrestling thing - I can't stand being tickled and I hate being restrained yet it seems to be an almost daily part of my two boy's needs. Before having a boy I didn't know there was a super-hero-ish sound effect for EVERYTHING.

The boy was brought to life once again today when Grandad gave the kids a showbag from the Ekka. Cassidy was demurley putting strawberry lipgloss and body spray on everyone from her Strawberry Shortcake bag whilst Isaac tried to swipe passers by with his light saber. Once we got home he was also thrilled to discover his bag included temporary tattoos - suprisingly a new thing in our house. So of course he was happy to have photos of his tattoos and light saber -

"Hey cool mum, I look like a monster!". Great. Just what I strive for in my photos :-)

Oh and just to prove my point about boys - while I was typing this he snuck in with a spoon and pressed it against the small of my back under my shirt and of course it was freezing.

I asked him "What's the spoon for?" and he said, " Nothing, I just wanted to give you a fright".

Lovely!

Get out of Jail Free Card

Isaac bailed both himself and his sister out yesterday...

I was on the phone. As any mummy knows, that is all you need for the chaos to start. Luckily it was only Steve on the other end so I yelled at the kids the usual babble of "that's enough...I can't hear daddy...you're both going to your rooms.."

Whilst still trying to talk to Steve I hear Isaac say to Cassidy, "Okay that better be enough now cause she's on the edge".

How can you not laugh when another of your favourite phrases comes back to haunt you?!

Missy Moo I Love You

Cassidy often goes by the name Missy Moo...for some reason it just seems to suit her. Her personality could only be described as spunky...full of life and attitude. She and Isaac are so different in terms of their personalities. Isaac is our worrier, he is extremely careful about everything and always need to know all the details before doing anything. If he can send Cassidy out first to test whatever he wants to do, he will.

Cassidy will launch into anything head first - ask questions later. She is rarely moody or sulky - she may pull a good pout but it only lasts a matter of seconds. She rarely cries when in trouble but will shout verbal abuse from her room till inevitably she gets a smack for being cheeky :-)

I've been able to scrape her hair into two scrawny little bunches for a while but now she loves offering opinions as to how her hair should be done. When I say it's time to do her hair, she runs in to pick out matching hair accessories for her outfit...she always makes suprisingly good choices! She insists on wearing the same perfume that I put on and it takes me 20 minutes to do my makeup because of Cassidy's "helpful" assistance..."No, I think you should wear THAT colour lipthssstick mumma".

Mumma...another one of Cassidy's little quirks that I couldn't go without. We had never used the term ourselves, she just started calling me Mumma one day. Usually when she wants something or is doing her best to be extra sweet if Isaac is in trouble :-) but you know what? It works.

missy-moo-I-love-you xxoo

Happy Birthday Super Princess

Please say a prayer for Sheye, Crayton and their family today...their darling girl would have turned four today.

Do you think there are birthdays in heaven? I don't know, there are so many things I can't bring myself to understand at the moment, no matter how hard I try. But I believe that every day in heaven for Ava is like her birthday...surrounded by all things pink and so much love.

But today, the twenty second of August two thousand and seven, is the day Ava blessed her beautiful parent's lives four years ago. I so wanted to release some pink balloons for Ava today with the kids, but it has been raining heavily and blowing a gale all day, so I decided it probably wouldn't go so well.

So pink cupcakes made into a bunch of balloons it was. Happy birthday to an angel whom is loved so very much, both in heaven and on earth xxoo

Call me Irresistable

I just find Cassidy hard to resist in red. Obviously, she feels the same way because when I tried to take a couple of photos of her today, she couldn't stop looking at herself in the window. Every time she caught a glimpse of her own reflection, she paused and looked at herself over her shoulder!

So cute and there's nothing wrong with a bit of self confidence :-)

Rough and Tumble Boy

So I know I'm biased, as every mummy is and should be, but I think he's just so handsome. Looking more like his Daddy every day with his wild curls and blue eyes. I love it whenever he's due for a haircut cause he curls always go wild and out of control...there's no flattening them down, his hair is so thick and it's growing in every direction! But I just love the real "little boy" look he gets with his hair all a mess. Every time he's due for a haircut I have been meaning to take some photos but have never got around to it, but today Cassidy had a big sleep so we had some time together before she woke up... and I love some of these.

What a handsome man he's going to be one day. I love you biggest boy xxoo

A Shameless Plug

Okay they don't get much more shameless than this....

I recently entered a photo competition run by Centro shopping centres where the only criteria is to enter a photo that makes you smile....so I did!

Each Centro has twenty (I think) finalists and I am a finalist at Centro Taigum with this picture of Cassidy. So here's where my shameless plug begins...if you read my blog, you live near or shop at Taigum - go and vote for me!! I think you can pick up an entry form at any of the stores (or if you're like Mum and Lyall, go into a store and pinch - yes as in STEAL!!) an entire stack of entry forms and try to throw the vote my way :-)

If I win I get a snap-happy camera and a photo printer which I don't really need but hey - I've never won anything before so it would be a cheap thrill :-) and I might give it to you if you're nice to me (wink wink)

What I really want is the $10,000 national prize but I don't really like my chances on that one!

Also if you live at the Gold Coast go and vote for Sheye and if you live near Geraldton WA go and vote for Carrie - not that those two really need any help, their pics are awesome!

Down on the Farm

Well the closest thing we know to a farm anyway :-)

Last weekend we went out to Harry and Merrilyn's for a catch up lunch which was lovely. The kids had a ball, especially Isaac. What boy wouldn't be happy surrounded by dogs, tractors, chickens, possums and...the Argo?!

What is an Argo you may ask? Believe me, I did!! The Argo is like a mini monster truck with huge wheels that goes on land and in water...I mean as a girl, it didn't really get me dancing for joy but the boys all seemed to think it was pretty cool! Isaac got to have a drive with Harry and thought it was just the bees knees.

Also what's a trip to a farm without a hoon around on the back of the tractor?

The Crimes of Cassidy Pt 2

If you asked most mothers when their kids behaviour is at their worst, I think most would answer the same : when you're on the phone!

Today was no exception. The phone rang while Cassidy was still in bed. It was for work so I was chatting away when I saw her walk past the office and grin at me through the open door on the way to my bedroom. I pretended all would be fine but in my heart I knew it would not be so.

By the time I got off the phone, which had been quite a long conversation, I just knew it was going to be bad.

She had sampled most products from my makeup case, obviously leaning towards my pink mousse blush and lipstick as her favourites. It was in her ears. It was in her hair. Cassidy of course, thought she looked breathtaking.

By the time I finished cleaning Side Show Saidy up, I had gone through a good part of a packet of babywipes...somehow I don't think our pale blue bathmat will ever be the same either!

The Austin Infirmary

Well that's what our family is calling us at the moment and unfortunately it's not far from the truth...

We could be a whole segment on a Current Affair at the moment, you know the way they're all going on about the flu epidemic. Well, we have our own little petri dish of an example down at Deception Bay! None of us have been all that great for a while, I never recovered fully from the last serious flu a few weeks ago handed on so graciously by my children. This time though we visited some family that were a bit under the weather and that was all it took...the next day I had the tell-tale sore throat and off it went...it started with me and now all four of us are down (or does that count for five when your husband is sick?! sorry darling!!)

Blessed are we though as I have the best mum ever that has been here attacking the mountains of washing and ironing and trying to rival the Woman's Weekly test kitchen in the amount of casseroles she has been churning out. Am I complaining? NOT ONE BIT!! Mum, just another one of those times when I say I simply don't know what I'd do without you xxoo

Amongst all our sniffles and snot (okay so snot is not a nice word but I happen to be privvy to the fact that most of the people that read my blog are mums so they can deal with it) we had a moment this morning that got us all giggling in a painful, choked up coughing sort of way....

Our new lounge was delivered yesterday and Steve read the kids the riot act last night that everyone does when they get a new piece of furniture (you know like it will make one tiny bit of difference to the way the kids will treat it) specifically saying there willl be no pens near the new lounge.

Now the moment he said that, I had a really bad feeling that started with a 'c' and ended with a 'y'.

Sure enough this morning when we managed to rouse ourselves from a sudafed imposed sleep and made it downstairs, Steve discovered pen marks on the base of our lounge. Now just so we can assure you that we had the correct culprit, Cassidy always draws little circles in her pictures. It's just her thing. Like the mark of zorro, that's what she does. And right there on the base of our brand spanking new leather lounge was a little circle in one of my metallic silver scrapbooking pens ( I wouldn't have been suprised if when confronted, she had said "but Mummy, it was acid free!")

Anyway so Steve called them both inside and asked who did it, not that he needed to as the guilt was written all over Cassidy's face. She owned up straight away and in the silence before the Wrath of Daddy Isaac piped up

"oh, this is going to be bad".

Such a simple little line, but if you could have seen him there, hands clasped, perched on the edge of his seat, half smile on his face, awaiting the punishment that was surely about to befall his sister, you would understand why I nearly died laughing.

Daddy struggled, but somehow regained composure and carried out said punishment.

But my sides still ache at the thought of that moment :-)

...and yes we got the pen off the lounge.

What About Me?

Isaac was sitting next to me while I posted the last photos of Cassidy. I finished up and said okay mate, I'm done and he said, all forlorn, "but mum you didn't do any photos of me!"

Naughty mummy that I am!

Okay so not to have my son feeling neglected and unloved :-) here are some from his participation at the end of Cassidy's. It started out okay....

But quickly started to disintergrate when he got the giggles....

and ended with the favourite pose of most four year old boys...charming!

Vintage Girl

Every morning Cassidy drags a chair over to her cupboard to try to pull the wool over me and select her days' clothing herself. We come to serious blows on this on regular occaisions but today I weakened...

Yesterday I bought her a new dress at Target as I couldn't resist. It's a very light summer dress, and its too cold to wear yet, but it reminded me of the beautiful dresses (or "frocks" as my Nonna would say!) that little girls used to wear. It seems whenever I go to the shops now there's more skulls and crossbones on little girls outfits than buttons and bows!

So as soon as Missy Moo opens the cupboard, she saw the dress (what is it with us women, we can spot a new outfit at 100 paces!). She said "Oh mummy, look at that, it's just beaustiful. It has STRAWBERRIES on it!" like it was the most exciting thing in the world...her eyes were so huge and blue and beautiful...well she sucked me right in.

Obviously realising I was onto a good thing, I said okay but you have to let mummy take your picture to which of course she agreed as she already had the thing half on.

So here is my little vintage girl...too cold to do any shots outside so it was indoors with my boring old backdrop again, but we had fun :-)

The new InHouse Studios Website is LIVE!!!

After much blood, sweat and even tears (mine in frustration with websites and Steve's in frustration with me lol) the InHouse site is live!!

Go to InHouse Studios to check it out!

So to my loyal blog readers (especially the ones that are silent, as in they don't post a comment or tell me that they read it, they just stun me by saying "oi you haven't posted on your blog for a week, what's up with that" the next time I see them) from now on my InHouse clients will be on my InHouse blog and happenings at the Austin hood will stay on Three Loves.

So basically if you don't want to hear me whinging about my feral children go to the InHouse blog or alternatively if reading about my feral children makes you believe there may be hope for yours, read Three Loves....or if you like me, read both :-) :-)

So why the seperate blogs...well since my scrapbooking has taken a very sad slide lately due to lack of time, I have comfort in the fact that I found out about Blurb that can print your blog into a book! How cool is that? The ultimate lazy scrapbooker's resource! I plan to print one every year so we can have a family yearbook. For all you girls that have complained that scrapbooking is too complicated, now you have no excuse!!

xx