Taylor Tales

{retromummy giveaway}

2010-11-13T07:45:00.002+11:00

http://retromummy.blogspot.com/ is having a very generous giveaway on her blog go and check it out!!!

WOW it has been a LONG time :o)

2010-11-07T14:46:00.006+11:00

I was just sitting here thinking I might have a look at my blog.... It has seriously been over 6 months since I have even visited my little blog. It brought a huge smile to my face having a look at the photos of the kids.... They have all grown so much.

Lots has been happening in the taylor household. We have designed a house to build, had the approval to build our house from our local shire. Yesterday Salt poured the slab for our shed, which we might just have to live in while we build the house. The shed will go up in the next 2 weeks so that is really exciting as it means I can declutter our house that we have wayyyyy outgrown and put it on the market for sale.

My little business that I started in March has just exploded I cannot believe the response I have gotten from everyone loving my metal framed clutches. It is keeping me really really busy which is great.

Back to the kids they are all going great,

Mia is loving school and seems to be going well. She has gotten soooo tall. She had a great season at soccer and recieved the most consistant trophy which was so well deserved as she always tries her best.

Brie loves preschool and will be going 2 days a week next year which she will love. She has just started writing her name and can also write Sams name. She has her Dancing concert on at the end of the month which will be good.

Sam has just taken a liking to the wiggles. He will watch them for ages..... takes after his sisters they love the wiggles. He is go gorgeous, he is into everything and climb OMG climb. He is not saying much yet but the girls were never quick to talk either. He get his point across so that is the main thing. He loves playing in the sandpit and jumping on the trampoline. I can't believe that is will be 2 in january :o(

We had some photos taken in october of the kids :o) Heidi did a beautiful job.

Well that is about it for now, it has taken me forever to put all the photos in the right spots :o( What is going on with that?

{SAMMIABRIE DESIGNS} - Purses & Clutches

2010-03-08T18:12:00.002+11:00

sammiabrie designs purses & clutches are fully lined with interfacing and wadding so they hold there shape. The small ones are 4.5 inches wide by about 4inches deep. You can fit your money/keycards/driverslicence & a small phone I am selling these for $15 +$3 postage.

The bigger ones are just over 6 inches wide and about 6 inches deep these fit so much in them. Mine holds my phone. keys, money and keycards. I am selling these for $35 inc postage. I love mine so much I wish I had more one to go with all the colours in my wardrobe.

I have heaps of different fabrics and have more frames turning up this week and next so keep on the lookout for new purses on here.

Amie xx

{Just a few random photos from our HOLIDAY}

2010-03-01T20:54:00.000+11:00

{Another months fly's byyyyyyy.......}

2010-02-19T20:29:00.015+11:00

WOW another month has just flown by. so we have been on holidays, Mia went back to school she is pretty excited about being in year 1. Brie started preschool and she is really enjoying it.

Sam has learn't to climb in a big way and OMG he is into everything. He climbs on the table, into drawers, into the bath, the chairs for the kitchen table, the slide.

Holidays were great, we saw so many new places and some beautiful beautiful tourist attractions. We stayed with the Zagames for a couple of nights and it was just wonderful, Luke and Salt get along great the kids get along great and Briony and I well it is like we have known each other forever. Thanks for having us guys. We then went and stayed with Salts brother and his family it was great to see them all the kids love there big cousins. We really loved Echuka and Ballarat, Apollo Bay was just gorgeous too.

Below are some photos from the last month.... they are not in order at all....

Sam has a thing for climbing into drawers atm.

Brie and Sam cuddled up in the washing basket.

Salt put Sam in the bin, it is a nice clean liner though...

Sam eating his first icecream.

The other morning he was being very quiet..... yep pulled the butter off the bench and put it everywhere :o)

Playing in the lid drawer is so much better than playing with toys!!!

I made these shorts for Sam the other day. So quick to whip up. They look extra comfy too.

Brie trying to do a summy on the tramp. It didn't work.

Mia learn't to do summies the other day she has not stopped since.

Sam climbing up the slide, I am just waiting for him to break his arm or something. I have been laying it down so he doesn't climb on it too much but he just loves sliding down it.

mmmmmm lollypops. He just loves them.

Sam climbs back into the bath all by himself if you can't find him you know where too look.

Mia was washing up the other day and Sam just had to be in on the action..... check out the tippy toes... so cute :o)

Daddy pushing him on the tractor now Sam just loves this.

Mia's first day of year 1 and Bries first day of Preschool.

Mia & Brie having fun at Torquay beach it was freezing but they had fun.

Photos of Sam at Sovereign Hill

Mia panning for gold.

We had lots of fun paning for gold. Salt found the marjority of the specs of gold.

I took these photos of the windmil while driving along I think turned out pretty great for travelling along at 100km.

I just love this photo of Sam and Sebastian. They played really well together it was so cute.

Having fun at the Zagame's

Photos of Echuka

Brie and Sam.... sometimes when Brie is in the mood, she will say take a photo of me and sam.
Below are some cards and layouts that I did earlier in the month.... I haven't scrapped since so I hope to get some mojo flowing again very soon.

above is my Scrapjack LO for Feb

{Happy Birthday Baby Sam}

2010-01-19T22:38:00.007+11:00

Today Sam celebrated his 1st birthday, he woke up at about 7.30am and I fed him.... then we got up and waited for his daddy to come home from work and his sisters to wake up so we could give him his presents.

We gave him a ride on tractor which he is way too small for but I figure his sisters can push him around on it! The girls gave him a thomas train each, we are starting early on his collection LOL I hope he takes a liking to trains. His Nan and Pop in cowra gave him a gorgeous winter outfit which will be very handy in Melbourne next week just in case it is cold. My Nana and Grandad in NZ gave him some shoes and clothes which are all just gorgeous.

Grandma and Grandad gave him toy trucks and money.

He really wasn't fazed by the whole thing. He liked the wrapping paper the best I think.

We then had our pancake breakfast which he just loved. This is the first time that he has sat at the girls table, I had to take a photo of his cute little feet that only just came to the edge of the chair :o)

After breaky I tried to take some photos of him, it was much easier when he couldn't move!

This one is my fav of the day....

He had lots of phonecalls today and even said his first hello on the phone to Nan which was pretty cute.

The rest of the day saw him sleeping and playing or wanting to be cuddled. I thought he was extra cuddly today maybe it was because I had so much to do. We had cake in the afternoon with family and friends, he was very spoilt with gifts and money.

Sam enjoying his yummy cake.

Now the cake didn't turn out at all like the picture in my head! But it tasted sooooo yumm! I just love kids birthday cake. I wanted blocks because it is probably the toy he plays the most with at the moment.

Tonight we have just had a quiet night as Salt had to go to work again. My little birthday boy went to bed at about 8.45pm all by himself for a change, but woke up at 9.30 wanting a cuddle so he is now asleep in my bed which he LOVES

I took this photo last night I wanted one last photo of him before he turned one.... as I have said Sam likes to sleep in our bed.......this was him at about 10 oclock last night. His cot is right next to our bed so I am constantly putting him back in his own bed.

Some things Sam's doing at the moment are -

Biting - he is a shocker for it.... toes he bites my toes nearly everytime I am sitting on the lounge or floor he bites... It really really hurts. I am hoping it is just because he is getting his teeth.

Climbs - on everything.

Walks - around furniture

Stands - up holding onto stuff but not by himself.

Talks - he is saying Dad, Mum (occasionally) and Hello and just general baby talk.

Eats - Everything but seems to have an intollerance to dairy :o(

Plays - with a few toys, loves playing in the kitchen cupboards and in the laundry with the clothes. Loves the toilet and the bin and climbing into the bath. Actually he just likes playing with everything he shouldn't.

Well I am off to bed it has been a huge day.

Goodnight.

{What the kids do in the school holidays}

2010-01-19T22:19:00.005+11:00

They do alot of this

Brie & Mia are constantly playing their DS's or watching tv.

Now Sam he does alot of this..... He just loves to climb on everything.

Now he has only fallen off a few times you would think he would learn his lesson. We have put a beanbag down just in case he falls. Mia and Brie are pretty good at grabbing him down when they see him climbing.

Other than that if he isn't playing with the bin, he is in the toilet SO GROSS.....I am forever washing his hands.

{Mia got her ears pierced}

2010-01-19T21:44:00.003+11:00

On the 14th Jan 2010 Mia finally got her ears pierced. She has been asking since she was about 4 and he Dad said she could so I took her down to the hairdressers last week and she had them done. I had been telling her that it was going to really hurt...... so she was a bit nervous. You should have seen the look on her face when the first one got pierced she didn't know whether to cry or not. I said are you all right/ and she said YES, did it hurt? Yep! Do you want the other one done YES MUM..... so she held her eyes tight shut and it was all done.

She is pretty pleased with herself and I think she looks extra cute with them in.

Forever Always is LoOkiNg FoR

2010-01-06T19:07:00.000+11:00

Forever Always is having a New Years Cleanout….not that we are outing the old and bringing in the new, but it is time for something fresh and new. You may have noted a few changes, each of the DT family will now have a role that they are committed to each month to create on specifically.

And we are looking to adopt… So if you think you can add something special to our family on a monthly basis we want you….

Yes it’s a DT call but one with a difference… we are looking for a Cybercrop Queens and Tutorial Queens….

Requirements:
· As Cybercrop Queen – it will be your responsibility to come up with the monthly topic, and at least 2 challenges with supporting inspirational layouts. You will also be required to be present in the forum during Cybercrops.
· As Tutorial Queen – it will be your responsibility to come up with the monthly topic and at least 2 layouts or examples to be posted in the forum and on our blog.
· Complete challenges
· Be active within our site, including daily posting in the forum and regular layouts in the gallery beyond your required role
· Help promote our family and site through blogs etc including advertising of your Cybercrop or Tutorial releases and all other sneak peaks.
· Have a love for our store and the products it contains you will also provide links to them when you have used them. (Although we understand that we don’t stock all products and the you will want to use other product at times….please be mindful of items we have in store when scrapping).
· Be on call for other jobs if needed when a family member is either sick or away.

Benefits:
· Being apart of the best online family there is.
· Online recognition as a Design Team Family Member this will include your portrait in the family album, your bio and layouts will be featured on the Forever Always Website, Forum, Gallery and Blog.
· Discounts and FA Shopping dollars for all items including our Retreats.

I would encourage all applicants to visit our website www.foreveralways.com.au and become a part of our forum to be sure this is the Design Team for you.To apply for one of our positions, please submit a minimum of 3 examples of your work that have never been posted on the World Wide Web or in a Magazine.

If you are applying to be a Cybercrop Queen – please send us a Theme topic and four challenges showing us your skills.

If you are applying to be a Tutorial Queen – pleases send us a Tutorial showing us your skills

Christmas Photos

2009-12-29T09:38:00.004+11:00

This is the kids opening the presents on christmas morning at our house.

below are the photos of the kids at Kay and Jims house opening the presents.

We had a very quiet christmas as Salt was on dayshift, but the kids loved every minute of it..... they were all very spoilt of course, the presents they played with the most was pig goes pop, the seesaw and Brie just loved her Nintendo DS. Mia was pretty excited with her ipod as well on boxing day her cousin Adam downloaded a heap of games onto it so she can do more stuff with it.

Brie hasn't been for a ride on her bike yet as it is too big and she is scared.... so it looks like we will just have to put it away for a while. She really needs a new bike though as the one she is

riding is Mia's old one and the training wheels fall off all the time and it is annoying.

. The jellybaff was a huge hit, they all had so much fun with it. I don't think I would buy it again though as it is pretty messy stuff.

This is the waterslide that Salts mum brought the kids for christmas they have not stopped playing on it. I think Salt had the most fun sliding them down it at full speed. You can see the grins on there faces. Sam was just loving it.

Merry Christmas"

2009-12-24T14:57:00.005+11:00

Well we have had a busy month doing everything and nothing LOL, I just don't know where the time goes :o( So this post has a huge amount of photos which hopefully will help me remember what we have been doing :o)
Meet Siannah Kaye, my newest little niece, isn't she just adorable. Can't wait to meet her. She was born on the 16th of Dec weighing 7p 3o
Congratulations Kristal, Mark and Alex. I am going to attempt to make her a quilt once the silly season is over.

I am love with these little petti skirts atm and brought a kit to make one..... It has gone in the 2 hard basket when Leah sent me a link on ebay to a shop who is selling them for about $20 (Heaps cheaper than the kit) including postage. I snapped this one up extra quick and I am going to get some more asap.

Mia talking at her school assembly.

Brie taking photos of Sam

Sam is 10 months old in this photo, I try to take a photo on the 19th of every month.

Our dog Banjo he has grown heaps, he is actually heaps bigger since I have taken this photo.

Sam with Daddy in the pool, he just loves the water and I can even dunk him and he comes up laughing.

These are the christmas trees I made for our Ordanment Swap over at forever always, got some gorgeous stuff back too :o) Thanks girls.

Making cupcakes, thought this was a good idea for less mess :o)

Mia and Sam playing with the ball the other day. He thought it was great.

I took the girls to the cobar pool a few weeks ago as it has a water slide and Mia was in her element she had a ball. Ever since Brie has been asking to go back to the place that has 3 pools. Brie climbed up the steps a 1000 times but wouldn't go down by herself. So I put my swimmers on and went down with her 3 times it was so much fun but it was cold :o( and Sam was being very patient waiting in his pram for us. I am going to take them back in January maybe Brie will go down by herself then.

This is my Jack for Dec and below is a LO that I did the other night when I found the template for the owl.

FA's Dec monthly sketch.

At the end of november the girls had there end of year dance concert which was great, not that I really get to see much of it as I am out the back with the girls changing there costumes. This was the first concert where I have had 2 kids in it, Brie had 2 costume changes and Mia had what felt like about 50 but was only 5 I think, when you only have a song or two to change the kids it makes it all very interesting. Friday night was heaps better than the thursday cause I knew what I was doing. The girls had a great time and tigger even made an appearance on the friday night as Brie wouldn't let him go.... it was very funny.

At the start of dec we went to Sydney for a week,

The kids had there Santa photo taken at Sonia's when we first arrived, Sam snuggled into Santa and it was so gorgeous to watch, he would have fallen asleep if he could of.

I stayed with Sonia's lovely family and we had a ball. The kids and I really enjoyed our visit and can't wait to do it again soon. This is the girls playing dress ups while we were in Sydney they had a ball in Biancas room, the rest of the photos are on Sonia's camera it was a classic.

We caught up with my sister most days at the beach as that is what the kids wanted to do they just loved the beach,

I enjoyed watching this pelican he was following the fisherman around and I wondered why the man grabbed his fish so quick, but he told me he had to be quicker than the pelican.

all Sam did was eat the sand but he did enjoy it as he just loves the water.

We also took them to see the opera house,

Brie had an awesome time climbing up all the steps and letting Bianca chase her. Mia well she looked at it and then was ready to go to the beach and sulked until we left.....

After they played on the beach at Manly we went for pizza and Mia took this photo of Sam it was so cute everytime she said "smile Sam" he would just grin at her.

I also took them shopping at Warringah Mall and they were running into people cause they were too busy looking around at everything LOL.

Sonia and I got creative at night time when the kids went to bed, she taught me how to bind which is something I have been wanting to learn. I loved it but it takes way tooooooooooooo long. The christmas runners that we made took me at least 5 hours to bind and Sonia had to end up finishing it for me LOL But I love the way it looks.

Just a bit about the kids atm too -

Mia - is 5y 8m old and has just finished her first year of Kindergarten, it is hard to believe that she is going to be in year 1 next year it all went so fast. She got a great report which we are so happy about. Mia is the youngest in her class and she even got a B in maths, and a few other subjects. Her reading is going great.... She is actually reading this as I am writing it! She told me to tell everyone that her favorite music is P!NK. She is getting really tall as well so many people comment on how tall she is. She is a great big sister to her brother and loves playing with him and helping me out with him as well. Her hair is finally starting to grow and when straight is past her shoulders now which she is pretty excited about as she wants her ears pierced and I told her that when it was past her shoulders she could... Me thinking it would take a lot longer. She is extra excited about santa coming tonight as well. I am backing it in that she is up at about 3 or 4am wanting to open presents. Mia's favorite food is wedges with sour cream and chilli sauce, Pavlova. She also loves prawns, yabbies and oysters. For christmas dinner tomorrow we are having prawns and oysters she is very happy about that.

Brie - is 3y 8m old and is very cute and very very cheeky, when she is in trouble you can not look at her cause the look she gives you makes it very hard to rouse on her. She says the funniest things as well like a few weeks ago when I roused on her for nearly breaking something she said I like your shirt mum.... I don't care Brie you shouldn't of touched it! AND your pants are nice too! The little turd. Brie is starting Preschool next year so that will be exciting for her. She can sing lots of songs, knows her ABCs and can count to 15. Her drawing is still a scribble and has know idea how to write her name but I am sure she will learn that at preschool.

She loves to watch movies/tv she will watch the same thing over and over again, she can repeat lines in movies as she is watching them. I think I will take her to see the princess and the frog when it comes out in Jan. She would love it I really think she would be happy to sit and watch it. She still takes tigger everywhere with her as well. She is my best sleeper and is always happy to go to bed at night and likes to sleep in. Her favorite food at the moment is peanut butter sandwiches.

Sam -is 11 months old, he is extra gorgeous and extra spoilt..... atm he is crawling and climbing on everything. He is still breastfed and will eat everything and anything that we are eating, as soon as the girls have anything to eat he is straight up to them wanting some. They are pretty good at sharing with him. He loves bananas, jam on toast for breakfast. He had christmas ham for lunch today. He has 4 teeth two up the top and two done the bottom. He likes to bite as well which really hurts I hope he snaps out of that soon. I will get him weighed and measured next month when he has his 1yo needles. He likes playing with blocks and pulling stuff out of cupboard repeatedly LOL.

He isn't the best sleeper but over the last week I have been trying to get him to go to sleep by himself he is getting better. Last night he didn't even cry as I finally found a CD with hush little baby on it and so far he has gone down twice with it playing and I don't hear any crying. He loves you singing it to him when he needs to go to sleep. He can say Dad Dad Dad, bub bub and hello, he chatters to himself alot too. He likes to wrestle with Salt which is pretty cute to watch. He is just a gorgeous little boy and is quite placid and into everything. He is such a cuddly little boy too which I just love.

I hope everyone has a great christmas and all the best for 2010.

Hugs Amie xx

{Sunday News}

2009-11-15T10:53:00.003+11:00

Lots has been happening this week with Sam, he is starting to do lots of new things like pulling himself up on the couch and stand there until he falls over..... He thinks he is pretty clever too.

On wednesday afternoon he started saying Bub and is now saying Dad as well.

Last weekend I did the santa hat photoshoot Sam and Mia were happy to pose but as usual Brie just didn't want to be in it!

Check out my cheeky little monster at 10pm the other night he just did not want to go to sleep.

How cute is this!!! I found this blog who shared a fab tutorial on how to make them. It is so cute, Brie actually tried to eat it.....

Not much else happening here this weekend. Lots of swimming in the pool. Salt brought a baby galah home from work last night that he found. So the girls think that is pretty good.

My SIL Kristal has some great new designs for christmas cards on her site so go and check them out... Tell her I sent you!!!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday everyone :o)

{Scrapping Christmas Decorations Tutorial}

2009-11-15T10:42:00.003+11:00

MIDMONTH TUTORIAL FOR FOREVER ALWAYS
Last week I was browsing throught the christmas ezibuy catalogue and saw these great christmas words that you can hang on the tree...... The scrapper in me imediatley thought I can make them with all my chipboard letters that I have :o)

You will need:

Alphas

Glitter/Kindyglitz

Dimensional magic

Ink -

string/ribbon/fishing line.... what ever you wish to use to hang it on your tree.

Step 1.

Get out the letters you wish to use.

Step 2. Ink them up with what ever colour theme your tree is :o) I used silver as I didn't have gold or red :o(

Step 3. Join your word together so each letter is touching. Cover with Dimensional magic, it will join at each letter where it touches. It will be messy!!!!!

Now sprinkle HEAPS of glitter on the dimensional magic and let it dry for 24 hours at least.

I think the Dimensional Magic is the best thing to use as it does give it dimension where as kindyglitz is a bit flat once it dries.

These are my finished words, I still need to put something on them to hang them from the tree but seen as it isn't the 1st of December yet!!!!

but here are the photos from the catalogue for you to see how good they look. I noticed BigW has them in there catalogue too.

I am going to make some with our names on them as well I think they would look good as well, something different from the name bauble.

Enjoy making these for your family.... handmade decorations are great :o)

Thanks Amie xx

{Just a few more photos}

2009-10-29T10:43:00.005+11:00

These are the LO's I did for the Forever Always cybercrop the other weekend.

And here are a few more photos of Sam being a great little poser for me.

You can see his 2 bottom teeth in this photo, can't wait to print it and scrap it :o)

I will have to get the santa hats out and do a santa shoot for this year.

Not much else happening here. Sam has been a bit off this week I think he is getting more teeth, he has had a few temps and all the other good stuff that comes with teething.

We are off to Dubbo again this weekend for my cousins 21st. Should be a great night.

I have a LO in this months scrapbooking memories magazine it is for the Showcase using My 2 Angels. It was pretty stuff to work with :o)

Enjoy the rest of the week everyone :o)

{Stuff}

2009-10-15T10:44:00.005+11:00

On monday Salt took the girls out the bush with him for the day, it was so quiet with just Sam and I. He took the camera with him to take some photos of them in the oats crop. Very cute I would love to dress them up and take them out there again but it is about an hour away :o(

I took these photos of Sam yesterday morning, He is getting harder to photograph as now he just wants to grab things so is always moving about...

Sam is really hard to bath atm as he wont lay down in the bath. He just wants to sit up. The girls were having a shower yesterday morning and I put this tub in the shower and let it fill up. He fits in their perfectly and looks so cute he had a lovely time.

Sam has started to sit up all by himself he gets on his hands and knees and pushed himself up until he is sitting up. You can tell he is pretty happy with himself every time he does it. It is all fun and games until he topples over and hits his head.

Sams eyes have changed colour in the last month I was looking at them the other day and thought Oh how cute you are going to have brown eyes. We all have hazel... I think they are going to be a medium brown.

Over the last week I have been scrapping up a storm I have just been in the mood to scrap which has been great, I have so many photos to get through. Sams album is pretty much up to date which is great.

We are off to Dubbo this weekend for a friends wedding, my aunty is looking after the kids so they will have a great time with her. Sam has had a few bottles of formula this week as well so I am pretty sure he will drink a bottle for her..... well heres hoping.

I can't believe how quick the school holidays are going.... We have been having a lovely time just relaxing, enjoying not having to do anything, no rushing around in the mornings. The girls have been to the town pool a few times it is sooooo cold but they have a quick swim and are ready to go home again in about 15mins.

OMG Brie put Mia's DS in the bath this morning I can't believe it as soon as I saw it she knew she was in trouble. I told her that she had wrecked it now and it wouldn't work.... She told me to put it on the charger that will fix it! I am hoping that it will work once it dries out, when I washed my mobile the other day it started working again after a few days.

Here is the LO we did at last nights recipe scrap, I really love it and can't wait to get the cupcake papers out again and make more flowers. I think they look great.

{Lazy Day Skirts}

2009-10-13T13:46:00.003+11:00

The lovely Mel Goodsell is having a little sewing party on her blog this week, atm there are 70 something people participating in making these gorgeous little skirts. They are sew sew easy to make and I made these 2 yesterday morning in about 2 and a 1/2 hours. I brought the fabric from spotlight on the weekend and it just looks gorgeous in these little skirts. The girls are pretty happy with their new outfits too :o)

Also I hope you all come and join me on wednesday night for the recipe scrap, and then again on Thursday for Forever Always monthly Cybercrop. Here are some sneaks of my LO's from the challenges. Why not come and join us over the weekend to play. Bingo is on Saturday night and is always lots of fun.

Have a great day!

Amie xx

Recipe Scrap 14th October 2009

2009-10-11T17:35:00.003+11:00

Last wednesday night some lovely girls joined me over at Forever Always to create this LO. It was a fly by the seat of my pants LO as I hadn't even completed it at the time. We all love how it turned out and it really got my mojo flowing to start Bries 3rd birthday LO.

So join me again next week to scrap this planned LO

(click on the photo it will take you straight to the forum)

You will need
1 Photo 6 x 8 landscape orientation (again I have used a collaged photo.)
1 sheet of cardstock
1 Piece of patterned paper
Alphas for title
Journalling pen
3 different colours cupcake papers - Yes what you use for cooking cupcakes
1 button
1 heart
kindyglitz, paint or glimmermist...
1 or 2 chipboard numbers depending on the age It is only a little one this time
Now this LO will look good for boys and girls so come and join me next wednesday night at 8.30pm
Amie xx

{October Already & Photos}

2009-10-02T22:20:00.008+10:00

I can't believe how fast this year is going..... There is only something like 82 sleeps until christmas and then before I know it Sam will be one. We have been quite busy last month, we had Mia's last game of soccer. I celebrated my 31st birthday..... I had a lovely morning with the family and then went to another friends house where we had pancakes for morning tea YUMMO. Then we went to Orange to do our tax, Mia had her soccer presentation that weekend as well and she received the coaches award which she was pretty happy about. Now she wants to play cricket OMG I just want to stay home....last weekend we went to Dubbo for my Aunty's 50th, Salt had a great night. I went home at 9 with the kids as it was sooooo cold. I had a fringe cut and can't believe how much younger I look! Don't know what I had been thinking for the last year or so. Sam has started to do so much stuff.... he got his first tooth on the 23 Sept, not that I would have known, we were at dancing and Kristin was holding him and he was chewing on her finger as he does to everyone!!! And she said Amie he has a tooth - NO he doesn't was my reply. Yes he does.......... NO he doesn't..............anyway she was right and the little turd has been biting me OUCH. He is starting to crawl getting up on those hands and knees and just rocking. He can drag himself along the floor now and is quick I turn my head for a second and he is across the room. Talk about trying to keep the house tidy. He is forever putting stuff in his mouth that the girls leave lying around, Brie thought she would give him a 20c piece the other day so that was a fun experience NOT.

School holidays started this afternoon I just love school holidays . I hate having to rush Mia around in the mornings. She told me when she came home from school today that she isn't getting out of bed tomorrow she is just so tired.

She is going really well at school, her reading and writing is improving, in the last few days she has been trying to write sentences all by herself it is really quite funny to see how she thinks things are spelt.

Brie is going really well, she is ever so cheeky and adorable. The other day one of the kids toys started singing and Brie said MUM THATS THE MUSIC THAT COMES OUT OF SAMS SOCKS!!!!!

I laughed so much because I knew she was talking about sam being in his jolly jumper. He has a music mat under him and it was the same music..... so cute. She has her Dad wrapped around her finger like you wouldn't believe. He just can't say no to her. She went to work with him this afternoon even after he had said no 5 times LOL.

The pool opens this weekend and Mia is just busting to go it is going to be freezing but it is such a kid thing to want to go to the pool as soon as it opens.

We are in the process of getting the plans drawn up for the house... OMG I will be so glad when it is all over and we have only just started :o(

Ok now for a few photos,

My Birthday morning

The pancake cake tradition ( I have a new pancake maker)

Sam being cheeky for the camera

My new fringe

My beautiful Mia posing like a good little girl

Mia and Sam

Now do you think I can get a nice photo of the 3 of them. They are ratbags one is always playing up two guess for WHO.

Sam at 8 months old

My first attempt at applique (Spell??)

Sam loves his walker

Brie with the sparklers at Aunty Julies 50th

This is a new sign up at our Local Caravan Park - my girls are in one of the photos Just a bit exciting for them. Salts sister actually took the photo of the river in the bottom right hand corner.

And lastly 2 photos that I took of Sam yesterday morning. He is so cute I just love him so much and just don't want him to grow up I wish they could stay babies forever.

I am sure there is heaps more stuff that I should be writing down but I just can't think of it atm.

I am off to bed.

Have a great long weekend everyone. We are staying home as Salt is working as usual LOL.

{retromummy}

2009-09-18T18:26:00.003+10:00

I have just been doing the rounds of my favourite blogs and Corrie is have a very generous giveaway on her blog so go leave a comment..... Goodluck.

Recipe Scrap with Renae

2009-09-09T11:33:00.005+10:00

Renae has some gorgeous sneak peak up in the forum so come and join her tonight to scrap up a stunning page.
INGREDIENTS
cardstock (i've used yummy bazzill swiss dot...mmm)
24cm x 18cm die cut or cut out paper
large tag (with string or ribbon for loop)
6 x 4 portrait photo
25cm string
25cm ribbon (thin)
20cm (length) x 12cm (height) bottom right corner of a shield type shape patterned/plain paper.(hope thats not too confusing an explanation so just ask if not sure)
journal pen
stamped image cut out and raise mount it on a circle (circle approx 5cm diameter)
alpha title
book page or similar paper 6cm x 10 cm and chipboard to frame it or make your own frame for it
diecut embellie to suit page medium size
staples
rubons...something in a straight line small and appox 15cm long.
Now this may sound like a lot of ingredients but its all really bibs and bobs and one of my fav all time layouts i've been saving for a special occasion
So come and join Renae here tonight around 8pm to play.
In other Forever Always news

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It is Cybercrop time again so come and join in the fun

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What else has been happening in our lives???

This is the kids this morning all snug in my bed watching tv. So cute.... Sam is a quick learner he is starting to smile as soon as I pull the camera out got to love that being a scrappaholic LMAO.

Mia and Brie went to their first disco a few weeks ago, it was a halloween theme and they dressed up as witches. Brie just loved every minute of it. Mia was a bit shy and said it was a bit noisy but had a good time mostly. I don't think it was what she expected.

Some scrapping that I did for the newsletter, I think these are the first LO's I have done in what seems like months.

A few weeks ago I wanted to get a few photos of the kids now why is it that 2 will cooperate and 1 wont! Brie was in fine form and wasn't having a bar of it. This is the one photo I got of the 3 of them I still love it though cause she is just so gorgeous LOL. She has a mind of her own and not one bit of bribery works to get her to do something she doesn't want too. Mia on the other hand I could always bribe LOL. She is just well practiced now and poses for me whenever.

So I ended up with some gorgeous photos of Mia and Sam.

Mia enjoying some soccer at Gilgandra a few weeks ago. Last week she got the most improved trophy again which she was pretty happy about. On saturday we go to Cobar for our last game of soccer. I will look forward to my saturday sleep ins again.

Sam in the last week has turned into a rolly polly baby. He loves it, it is really cute to see him trying to get around on the floor. I cann see him getting stronger in his arms everyday so it won't be long and he will be crawling. He is going to be 8 months old next week and I know I say it all the time but I can't believe how quick it is going. He went into his cot on the 1st of september and is slowly getting used to it. He likes to be cuddled to sleep or at least know that your in the room. It is like having Mia all over again, he has the same sleep patterns as her sleep for about 4omins - 1hr about 3 - 4 times a day and she liked sleeping in our bed too. Brie was the best she would sleep for 3 hours straight during the day and all night and would not ever sleep in our bed if she ever woke in the night I would have to rock her back to sleep on the l0unge.

I can't remember if I have mentioned this on here but we have brought a block of land and are going to be building a house on it over the next few years I say over because Salt is building it himself and it is going to take ages. But today we brought out shed to put up and I am a bit excited cause once it is up I can put our house on the market and move into the shed as it is a 21 square she which is heaps bigger than our house we live in now. Not that it will be for living anyway only maybe a 1/3 of it will be made to live in but at least we will have space to store every thing else.

2009-08-03T17:25:00.002+10:00

I started writing this over a week ago soooooo I thought I best finish it....

Well I can't believe another month has gone by......so now I have to think what has been happening. The kids have been sick but the good thing is that when they get sick they all get sick together.... I guess it beats one after the other. Mia missed a fair bit of school the last few weeks of term as she was just getting sick all the time I am hoping this term starts off better. We were so looking forward to the school holidays. Mia had her first athletics carnival which she enjoyed. That night she had her community concert which she did 2 dances one for tap and one for jazz. She just loves it. I said to Brie the other day are you going to do jellybeans this term and she said no I want to do Jazz and Tap... (she has since told me she is going to do Ballet so it looks like she will be waiting for a few years.) so I am thinking I might just take her down and see if she will do it. Her problem is Mia isn't there so she doesn't want to do it :o(

The girls are so funny sometimes a few weeks ago we were driving and I said who loves mum and Brie said Meeee,shooting her hand up in the air and Mia said Meeeee and did the same thing. Brie turned around and said I said my hand is higher LOL

Sam is going great he is 6.5months old now and is such a good little boy, he loves to laugh at me and the girls. The more I laugh the more he laughs. With out fail everytime I change his nappy he giggles because he is ticklish on his belly and undoing his nappy tickles him. He is 8.4kg and 66cm long. Mia was 8.7kgs and 71cm long at the same age. Bries doesn't have anything written down :o(
He is eating lots of food, loves his yoghurt and egg custard I gave him vegies tonight and he didn't go much on them at all.

So below is heaps of photos over the last 6 weeks not that we have been doing much

Mia started back at soccer on the weekend, she played so well. She got the 3 points best and fairest I was so proud of her it was the first game that she actually started kicking the ball the right way. We then went out to the Ag Expo there was some great stuff out there. Then that night we went out to dinner with friends to the motel so it was a busy busy saturday. This weekend we head to Gil for a soccer gala day.

A layout that I did using the sweeties sketches blog this month. Scrapping is few and far between these days.

Brie this afternoon, she decided to be a hairdresser again on the weekend and cut the back of her hair again :o( Her fringe still hasn't grown back.

Meet our new addition so far it is called Bingo by Mia, Dingo by Brie..... pup pup pup by me and I think Salt wants to call him Jack LMAO.

Sam enjoying his first time in the swing this afternoon

Brie and Sam the other morning.

Posing for mum in Dads 28 year old suitcase that he took to primary school, a friend of mine was cleaning out a shed at work and found it and looked in side and found Salts name and address. Salt was pretty impressed with getting it back.

First time in the jolly jumper Sunday 2nd August

Brie playing doctor with Sam

Sonia's table runner/square to sit a cupcake/ cake stand on. This photo really doesn't do it justice it is very pretty. I also made her the buttercup bag such a easy pattern and quick too, but forgot to take a photo of it.

Sam the day he turned 6 months old

Our first egg :o) the girls love collecting the eggs we are getting 3 eggs a day now which is great, I can't believe how many scraps we have.

This is her tap costume for the Good ship Lolly pop

Mias Jazz costume

Mia doing her high jump at the sports carnival

Running the 200m Mia came second in the 5yr old age group :o)

Well my house looks like a tip so I am turning off my computer and to clean it up over the next few days.... hopefully if I get in it will be done tomorrow, and I can turn the puta back on LOL.

{It's all going tooooo FAST}

2009-06-21T19:28:00.006+10:00

OMG Sam is 5 months old already I wish it would slow down. He is the most gorgeous adorable little boy you could ask for. SO SO SO happy and did I say cute :o)

Here are some photos I took on friday. That day I also gave him a taste of farex which he mostly spat out but today he actually swallowed most of it. Brie was just eating a banana so I squished some up for Sam I think he liked the taste of it but would squish his eyes up when he swallowed it I wish I had it on video camera it was so cute.

Salts mum brought us some chooks a few weeks ago, so today Salt made them a chook house so we could bring them over to our house. He did a pretty good job just using stuff that was lying around our back back yard. Mia is pretty excited to own the chooks and she has called them Charli, Brooke, Mia, Brie, Ella & Libby. She is now talking about when they will have chickens...... apparently they will lay eggs in a couple of weeks how exciting will that be. They are pretty friendly chooks so I sure Mia will have lots of fun with them. Brie on the other hand isn't too keen on any animal and just screams if they come near her.

A couple of months ago Salt put up this tyre swing for the girls out the front they just love it and have so much fun on it I finally grabbed the camera the other day while waiting for Mia to come home from school. Best toy ever they reckon!

The last few weeks has seen Mia being sick the poor little thing. She has had the vomits, splats & now croup. I hope she gets better soon it is really knocking her about :o(

I haven't been in my scrapbook room for at least 2 weeks I think I am getting withdrawals LMAO I am in an Apron Swap atm with Sonia, Gab & Briony so I am hoping to get it made this week sometime. I have so many things I want to sew but just to find the time. Tonight I saw the most gorgeous fabric baskets on Mel Goodsells Blog I am going to have to go and buy the magazine just so I can make some.

Anyway I am off to feed Sam and go to bed Mia went to bed at 6pm and Brie has just gone.

Goodnight All :o)

{Soccer, Busy Busy and some Scrapping}

2009-06-03T19:51:00.005+10:00

Mia played her first game of soccer in Tottenham a few weeks ago, she just loved it. Salt was so proud of her for getting in there and having a go. She wasn't scared at all. It was great. On the weekend we headed back over to Tottenham for her next game of Soccer where she got to be the goally for a quarter. She let one goal in out of a few attempts so that was great. The team made her job pretty easy though as they stopped the ball a couple of times too. Mia got the encouragement award for the game she was pretty impressed about the whole thing. Afterwards we headed out to the Westons for a sleepover. On the way we stopped at the centre of NSW's and took some photos. Salt is such a poser.We had a bbq in the bush the kids loved it especially Denis's chips and toasting marshmallows.

Libby and Sam are missing in this photo.

On the 23rd May we went to Cowra for my brothers 21st. Steven had a great night. It was great to see everyone, Nana and Grandad came over from New Zealand and met Sam so that was pretty special. Only my Aunty Julie and cousin Adam have seen Sam since the day he was born so the rest of my family actually got to meet Sam and give him a cuddle. Here are some photos from the next day.

This is a photo of Nana & Grandad and the grandkids & great grandkids. This is the first time we have all been together in nearly ever.

Naughty Brie thought she would cut her hair last week :o( she has taken a big chunk out of her fringe lets hope it grows soon so we can straighten it up for her. I think she has learnt her lesson cause Mia said that she was going to cut her hair the other day and she said NOOOOO Jody only cuts it!

We have been so busy in the last few weeks which has been great, ( Mia has had speech therapy in Dubbo which went really well. We go back next week for another session.
Sam is growing up way way way too fast :o Sam is such a happy baby as soon as you speak to him he gives you the biggest grin and talk..... lots and lots of baby talking I just love it. This week he has started holding his head up really well when you put him on his tummy, He has started arching his back so you pick him up. He has started rolling toward his side as well so I am sure it won't be long until he can roll over. I think I will have to get his jolly jumper out soon. He loves it when his Dad comes home he always give Daddy a big smile which I sure just melts Salty heart. Salt said the other day do you think he will love going out to the bush with me when he is bigger. Well if he is anything like his sisters he will. He has also discovered his hands and is starting to hang onto things. We just love him so much he is such a beautiful little boy I think he is going to be a bit of a joker like his Dad cause he is so cheeky already. He just loves the kisses and cuddle I give him I always get a grin when I give him lots of kisses on his cheeks. The other morning I was feeding him and Mia came out well he stopped feeding and looked at her as if to say well come on talk to me!

And just a little bit of scrapping from me........not much happening in the scrapping dept but I have got some new goodies coming from the forever always shop so lets hope it brings some mojo with it :o)

{A Show. Photos & some Scrapping}

2009-05-13T22:02:00.003+10:00

On the weekend we had our local show. The girls had a lovely time, as yo can see. Mia had to dance at the show I always love to watch her dance and all the other kids they are always so cute. I expressed a bottle for Sam to drink while we were there but he didn't go much on it. I just had to take a photo of Salt trying to feed him with it, a little father son bonding time :o)

A few photos from this morning that Kristal quickly took, just so cute.

This is the LO I did for my Recipe Scrap at Forever Always tonight a nice quick and simple LO that only took about 20 mins which is always a good thing. Most of the girls are away at the FA retreat I wish I were there with them using all the new supplies Sonia has in stock. Anyway enjoy your weekend girls.

You can join Renae and I this friday for our weekend High Tea Cybercrop. Make sure you pop in and say hello.

Nite all

Amie xx

{Sam cutie pie Sam}

2009-05-08T13:37:00.001+10:00

Just wanted to share these cute photos of Sam :o)

{Happy 3rd Birthday Brie}

2009-05-03T09:04:00.005+10:00

{Happy 3rd Birthday Brie}

Brie had a wonderful birthday on Friday, she just loves her kitchen that we gave her. Now I am going to have to make her some pretend food out of felt I sure some bacon and eggs would be easy enough. We had her party in the afternoon, she got lots of lovely presents/money and came home that night all tired out, which is always great!

Sam giggled for the first time on Bries birthday too.... it was so cute and the best thing was that James was home for lunch and got to see it as well.

Below are some layouts that I did for the Forever Always Newsletter you can read it here

This is my scrapjack LO for my it is very plain but I love it. Hope you all give it ago this month.

Last wednesday I took some photos of my friends new baby and her 3 year old. We are really happy how they turned out.

Mia marched in her first Anzac march last weekend, it was great to see all the kids marching, and very emotional to see the old diggers marching as well.

Sam also had his first bath in the big bath the other night he really loved it which is great. He was just getting to big for his little baby bath. I also got some photos of Sam in his christening dress as well since it was a bit dark on the night :o) I made it into a collage and sent it as a thankyou card as well.

Well enjoy your sunday everyone we are off to a 6th birthday party so I best get off here and get organised.

Amie xx

Join us at Forever Always for our SUPER CROP to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day.

2009-04-24T20:10:00.001+10:00

Friday 1st May - Sunday 3rd May 2009
So many challenges and games, you won't believe your eyes !
And, here's the twist...as well as scrapping up a storm, you can join in the fun by setting your very own crop challenge !!!
Lots of inspiration, fun, chatting,
RAKS and some prizes up for grabs !!!
Register now in the FA forum for your chance at a Lucky Door Prize !!!
Bring a friend/s and go into the draw for a RAK !!!
Hope to see you !!!
http://www.foreveralways.com.au/forum/viewforum.php?f=78

{Personalised baby birth announcements & thank you cards}

2009-04-22T13:47:00.004+10:00

I would just like to share with you a business that my SIL has started on Ebay. Feel free to pass this link onto your friends as well. Kristal also designs birthday party invitations and thank yous, wedding thankyou's, engagement invites and thank you's and pretty much anything else thatyou can think of. All of her cards are designed to print onto the standard10x15cm photo paper or they can be printed onto card stock if your printerallows for this. You can print at snapfish for 15cents a print or your local photo lab if it is cheaper. Kristal made the girls birthday invitations this year for me and everyone that saw them thought they were great. It beats writing out 35 invites at a time :o) If you are interested in having a card design personalised for you or know of anyone who would find this service useful please let them/me know. You can leave a coment here and I can forward it onto Kristal or you can contact her through ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280336942084QQssPageNameZMERC_VIC_RCRX_Pr3_PcY_BIN_IT&refitem=280335257646&itemcount=3&refwidgetloc=closed_view_item&usedrule1=CrossSell_LogicX&refwidgettype=cross_promot_widget&_trksid=p284.m183&_trkparms=algo%3DCRX%26its%3DS%252BI%26itu%3DUCI%252BSI%26otn%3D3
Thanks Amie xx

{Happy Birthday Mia!!!}

2009-04-20T09:47:00.000+10:00

Mia turned 5 on Friday and she had a wonderful day and recieved lots of beautiful presents and money which she brought a DS with, so she thinks she is pretty special now :o)

I took these gorgeous photos of Sam this morning he was 3 months old yesterday and is gooing and gaaaaing it is so gorgeous to hear. He is full of smiles and I reckon he is trying to giggle.
Check out the girls playing dressup I got these bargins at Target on the weekend $2 a costume we got Snow White, Batman and Hannah Montana, the girls thought it was christmas when I came home.

{Recipe Scrap with Renae}

2009-04-14T11:48:00.001+10:00

Hi everyone....would love it if you could all join me for my first recipe scrap challenge this wed 15th April. Get your stash sorted and lets make use of those scraps for this one!!

INGREDIENTS:
12 X 12 cardstock base
PAPER A - 3"x7.5"
PAPER B - 4.5"x 10.5"
PAPER C - 3"x 8.5"
PAPER D - 3"x 6"
(patterned or plain papers, all paper sizes are approx so if you have one near enough....use it )
2 x ribbon - 1 x 9.5", 1 x 8.5"
journal box
4 x photo corners
12 or more assorted buttons
alphas for title (mixed is great) andmini alphas &/or journal pen for subtitle
and the most essential ingredient....6 x 4 portrait photo
meet me here at 8 tomorrow night so we can mix it up!!

{Sam's Christening Night}

2009-04-12T09:17:00.000+10:00

Last night Sam was christened during mass, it was a really lovely night, Sam had a lovely time he slept the whole way through it :o) Being at night the photos are not the best which is a shame. I am going to dress him up again and get a photo of him in the family christening gown.
Joshua our nephew and my bestfriend Kristy were the godparents, My Aunty Julie and cousin Adam came up from Dubbo for the night which was really great to spend time with them.

This morning Mia woke up and asked me if the easter bunny had been and left a MAP....... I forgot all about the map I made her last year, so she was a bit dissapointed but I told her the easter bunny couldn't hide easter eggs this year as the mice would have eaten them I think she was pretty happy with that but still sat there with a sad look on her face :o( Until Aunty Julie said the easter bunny left some eggs somewhere else. Mia was pretty happy with her box of goodies from Easter Bunny Aunty Julie. I didn't take any photos :o(

Anyway have a lovely easter sunday everyone :o)
Amie xx

{Cross Country & Chocolate Mess}

2009-04-08T21:27:00.002+10:00

Mia had her first cross country today, the kids were all so excited. It was such a long course too for little kids it would have had to of been a kilometre at least.... Mia kept stopping and looking about I think she needed a drink. She enjoyed herself heaps though.

Yesterday I made some chocolate cupcakes for playgroup today and guess who had lots of fun with the beaters!!! I couldn't help but get a few photos of her :o)

Some photos and a few LO's

2009-04-07T12:48:00.003+10:00

Not much happening around here atm, Sam is getting christened on Easter Saturday night so that will be nice. I am going to make his christening cake, there are so many gorgeous ideas on the internet I just hope it turns out how I want it too.
I have been having fun making collages in Picasa as you can see. I have been trying the the last 7 weeks to get a nice photo of the kids together for their twinkle toes frame and do you think I could so I ended up putting together this collage for the frame Nichole loved it and I can't wait to see the finished result.

I just love overalls and Sam looked so gorgeous in these on Saturday I just had to take a photo.
Sonia your quilt makes for a gorgeous background too :o)

These are a few LO's that I did for the FA newsletter the first 2 are using the monthly sketch and the other one was for the newsletter feature that I sort of didn't get finished but we will share anyway as it is finished now :o)

The kids are going great, Mia is loving school, she is counting down the days until her birthday. So is Brie they have been picking out their cakes Brie has gone from Bob the Builder to spiderman and I think Mia has decided on the cake that you can hit with the hammer.

Brie is enjoying being at home with me and Sam which is good that she doesn't miss Mia too much I am sure Brie will love the holidays so she has her sister home with her.

Sam is going great, starting to settle right in now and just being a good little baby. It was really cold last night so I put winter pj's on him and today he really wasn't sleeping well I think I might of had him just a bit too hot cause he hadn't slept all morning and now I just have him in a summer romper and he is asleep. It has warmed up this arvo though.

Well I best go and make some cakes for playgroup tomorrow.

Amie xx

{Whats been Happening Here???}

2009-03-25T13:01:00.004+11:00

Well it has been a few weeks since I posted, so I thought I would share some photos of Sam and his hernia...... It is quite funny looking but after talking to a few mums who's little boys have had them I am pretty sure it will go away by the time he is 1 :o)

I need to get a photo of the 3 kids for their twinkle toes hand sculptures and it is so hard to get them all in a good mood at the same time. So far I haven't had success but I will keep trying it has been 6 weeks since we had them done so I need to get the photo back to Nichole soon. Here are some from the other day.

Sam and Brie decided they didn't want to be little models :o( Mia will pose for me most of the time.

Sam is 2 months old in this photo I can't believe how quick time is going..... I want him to stay a baby forever. He had his 8 weeks needles last Thursday and he weighs 12p 12o he is 57cm long and his head measured 40cm. He is starting to sleep from about 8 -9 pm at night till around 4am in the morning which is great, 6 hours straight sleep does wonders. His favourite thing besides feeding and sleeping would have to be having a kick without his nappy on. He will lay on his change table for a good 20mins kicking away.

Now to share this beautiful present that Sam received on Monday this picture does not do it justice at all.... The gorgeous Sonia designed this cot quilt for Sam and it is just stunning. I just can't stop looking at it. If you pop over to Sonia's blog you will be able to buy the pattern from her. Now I have searched the net for something like this and couldn't find anything. I am going to buy the pattern from her and make one just because I love it and think it would be a nice easy first quilt for me to make.

Brie has the most gorgeous long dark eyelashes and I have been wanting to get a photo of them so the other day I snapped this. I can't wait to scrap it :o)

Not much else has been happening, Mia and James went camping on the weekend. Brie so wanted to go she had her bag packed ready to go the poor thing. She was just a tad upset when we told her she couldn't go :o( You could just tell Mia loved spending the weekend with her Dad. After James comes back from Darwin I think they are going to Brewarrina fishing.

Mia is really enjoying school and has nearly learnt all her site words. She comes home most days and writes letters in her own little language and tells me what it is. Her colouring in has gotten really neat too, it is amazing how much they pick up so quick.

Well I best go and get some house work done.... :o( I was sick yesterday and James had to stay home from work and look after the kids. Today Brie is wondering why her dad isn't home LOL.

Bye for now :o)

{ A few Layouts to Share}

2009-03-03T14:05:00.005+11:00

I did these LO's a couple of weeks ago for the Forever Always Retreat booklet, so the ladies had some inspiration while they were scrapping away on the weekend. I wish I could have been there. My thoughts are with Sonia's mum today who broke her leg on Sunday at the retreat. Wishing you a speedy recovery Gran {{{{Mwah}}}}}

Last night I was talking to my mum on the phone and Brie came into my room and told me that she had put Sam in his bed! HUH We had just been for a walk so Sam was still in the pram sleeping anyway Mia had wheeled his bassinet into there room and Brie spotted it and decided to put Sam in it. I have know idea how she would have done it as she s only as tall as the bassinet but he was still sound asleep. So she must have been pretty gentle NOT........ We have given her a good talking too about not picking him up and that sort of thing so lets hope it doesn't happen again. At least she come and told me I would have nearly died if I had gone into the lounge room and he wasn't in his pram.

{Blowing Kisses}

2009-03-01T13:20:00.007+11:00

Here of the photos of Little Miss Brie riding her bike, she has gotten really fast now and decided after playgroup the other day that she didn't want to ride home I said Brie come on we are going home and she said NO I am going to FOODWORKS ummmm no we are going home NOOOO FOODWORKS and off she took on her bike, now I have been in this situation before when Mia learn't to ride her bike and I couldn't catch her :o( so I put the breaks on Sam's pram & ran straight after her she thought this was quiet funny and pedalled even faster and THEN she got really wobbly and stacked it big time!!!! Straight over the handlebars it winded her big time the poor little thing :o( But that is what happens when you don't listen to mummy Brie I told her.

Last Sunday Salt took the girls fishing, and before they left Mia came running in to give me a kiss goodbye, Brie was already in the car so I went out to give her a kiss but Salt was in the road and we couldn't reach each other so I told her to blow me a kiss....... Well it was the cutest thing you have ever seen she blew me a kiss like she was blowing out candles. Both Salt and I were like ooohhhhhhhhhhhhh you are so sweet!

Mia came home from school on Friday and asked me when I was taking her to church so GOD could rub the stuff on her forehead. I didn't know what she was talking about so I told her to ring Grandma and ask her to take her to church this weekend. Kay then told me that it was Ash Wednesday and the kids would have gone to church for school. But how cute is Mia so GOD can rub stuff on her forehead.... I asked her who god was and she said The man in the church.

Brie and Sam the day he turned 1 month old

Sam has an umbilical hernia I will have to take a photo of it IT is HUGE, he has been a little unsettled this week I think he might be growing..... Salt told me to take him to the hospital to see what was wrong with him LMAO can you tell we have never had a baby who cried for more than a second. I think he only cried for 5 mins when Salt got worried and said we should take him to the hospital. He is back to being a good baby again now. I tried to get some nice photos of Sam the other day and he just wasn't in the mood as you can see.....

It was just a bit tooooo bright for him

Then I gave him his dummy so I could get a nice relaxed photo and when I took it out I got

THIS

So we came back inside and he opened his eyes for me, I can't wait to get him smiling :o)

I had Sam weighed on Tuesday 24th Feb he is 4.7kg 54cm long and his head was 38cm so he is growing heaps which is great he is quite chubby it is so cute.

{Stuff}

2009-02-15T20:03:00.004+11:00

I just thought I would share a photo of James when he was 2 weeks old. When Mia was born we couldn't believe how much she looked like her dad. Now Sam is here we are all saying the same thing.

I took this photo just a while ago, Sam will be 4 weeks old tomorrow I can't believe how quick it is going. Sam is growing so quick he is putting on lots of weight I will have to take him up to get weighed again this week, last time he had put on just under 500grams in 9 days. He is sleeping pretty well waking about twice a night, he likes to be cuddled to sleep which I don't mind I could sit there all day and hold him. It helped that Salt was home this weekend to run around after the girls though yesterday every time I put Sam in his bed he would wake up so I think we layed on the lounge for about 4 hours LOL.

Last night we went out for valentines day to the motel with Bec and Griffo, we all had a great time and Sam was so well behaved. The food was delicious as always.
I have been meaning to share that Brie has learnt to ride her bike, just before Sam arrive Mia taught her how to ride.... it was so cute they were out the front and I was inside listening and Mia told her what to do and then she would say GOOD GIRL BRIE, thats it WELL DONE. OH GOOD GIRL GOOD GIRL. Anyway last week I took her around the block so she can get some practice she is going really well and so far is very careful if she sees a car coming she will stop pedalling which is good. I remember when Mia first learnt to ride she used to take off on me and I wouldn't be able to catch her. I am hoping because Brie is nearly a year older she will listen to me alot more. I will take some photos this week and share.

Last week Salt got stung by a bee on his ear, he came home and said is my ear swollen LMAO it was huge and over the next few day got even bigger..... This is the photo I took of it just so he could see how huge it was

Well I have to go James has just come home with the girls.... they have been fishing, and they both caught a fish so they are all happy :o)

{Mia's first day of School}

2009-02-04T12:35:00.004+11:00

Well the big day arrived, Mia woke up at 6.55am and came in and said can I get dressed now Mum??? No you can stay in bed until the clock says 7.30 was my sleepy reply. Next thing we know it was 8.00 and Salts mum was waking us up. So she had a shower and had her breakfast. When she put her school dress on I nearly cried she looked so grown up.... then she told me she

felt sick, I wonder if it was butterflies or still hungry.

Salt came home from work so we could both take her to school, we took some photos and off to school we went.

Mia was pretty shy and hung onto my hand and didn't want me to leave. I am glad I had my sunglasses on cause the tears were just sitting there. If Mia had of cried it wouldn't have taken much for me to just take her home with me.
I was pretty lucky cause Mrs Bartley needed to take her photo so we went outside and had our photo taken and then Mrs Bartley asked her if she wanted to come in with her so she gave me a kiss and said goodbye.
Can't wait for her to get home on the bus to tell me how she went. I hope she is having a lovely

day.

{Getting back into scrapping}

2009-02-03T17:00:00.005+11:00

I suck at scrapping boy pages....... very sad I have just done a LO couldn't help myself I had to use pink,

I then started a second one but the second one is just not happening It looks like SHITE and I had to walk out of the room. I think I just love using girly colours so much it is just a shock to the system to try and use boyish colours, Sam is going really well though and he is such a good boy..... He tends to sleep for his 3 - 4 hrs during the day and then 3 hours at night... once he swaps that around it will be good not that I expected anything but as the girls were perfect little babies too. I just get really naughty 2 year olds. The girls are slowly getting used to not having all my attention which has been a shock to their systems, Mia being the worst, I thought it would have been the other way round.

I took these 2 photos today I need to get a really nice photo of the 3 kids in the next month as they are having their hand moulded by twinkle toes, Sam is having his feet done as well as I had the girls feet done when they were babies. I am sure it is going to be a task to get them all looking at me at the same time.

Sam isn't really liking being wrapped up in this hot weather but I think I have it all worked out now so he can't get out!!!!! He looks like the stork delivered him. So cute.

{Introducing Sam James Taylor}

2009-01-29T09:20:00.007+11:00

Firstly thankyou to Leah for keeping you all updated on Sam's arrival.

Well where do I start....... Sam was born by Cesarean at 12.18pm on Monday the 19th January 2009 Sam weighed 7 pound 1 Ounce or 3210grams his head circumference was 35cm and he was 49cm long. How excited were we to meet our first little boy. I came back from recovery about an 1hour and a half later and when James handed Sam to me to hold I noticed his breathing was weird "The nurses called it a grunt" Anyway I was like Salt that isn't normal and he said he thought he was just like his dad and breathed loudly.......

Anyway they took Sam off to the nursery to check him out and told me he would be there for 4 hours while the pediatrician could have a look at him and then came back and said that they had to insert a drip as his blood sugar was low and he had fluid on his lungs and they didn't know if he had an infection or not, he would be down there for the night. They had to have 3 attempts to put his drip in my poor little baby but I knew he was in the best place possible. They got me up about 8pm and showered me and took me down to see Sam but I couldn't stay long as I felt really sick from the hot shower :o( So I went back to my room and slept until about 5 the next morning when I got up and showered myself and walked down the nursery. I took my camera down and the nurse told me that Sam had been a naughty boy over night and had decided to stop breathing I was like OMG.... She said he is fine now though I asked how long he was going to be down in the nursery for thinking I would be getting him back that day and she said oh probably 5 days..... she said you don't think something like this would happen after a scheduled C -Section. I went back to my room and it finally sunk in and the tears came rolling out. Cathy my room mate who also had a little baby Sam came over and gave me a cuddle, which made me feel alot better. Anyway still pretty sore and the last 24 hours a blur I would walk up and see Sam it is so sad in the baby nursery all these little babies in humidicribs. I think I got to have a hold of him on wed morning everything is such a blur I tried to feed him on wed afternoon I think he latched on straight away I had been hand expressing to get my milk to come in so I had made his job pretty easy ;o) He was being tube fed every 3 hours so the next time I tried to feed him he was too tired and wouldn't feed so they tube fed him again. How was he ever going to wake up and feed from me if they just kept tube feeding him. Anyway once we got him fully breastfeeding he never looked back. I got him back in my room on the thursday and I had to take him back to the nursery to feed him though and he had to sleep in there that night. I woke up about 5am on Friday morning and just felt sick I just had to come home and I was hoping we would be able too...... I went down to the nursery to check is Sam was awake but he was still sleeping but the nurse let me take him back to the room anyway I just had to come back at 8am with him so the Pediatricians could check him over. They gave him the all clear as long as his jaundice level didn't come back too high. 4pm that afternoon his level came back low enough so we were able to leave. I was so pleased. The hospital staff were so lovely and couldn't have been more helpful but I just wanted to be home.

Sam is going great at home, his big sisters have been fairly full on though I guess I am just so tired so that doesn't help. Things are slowly settling down now though and we are all getting used to having a tiny little baby in the house :o) I could just sit and look at him all day.

Salts mum has been a lifesaver coming over and cleaning and cooking just helping with the girls. I bet she will be glad when everything gets back to normal as well. I feel really good though, the best I have felt after a Cesar actually...... But I am still resting fairly well as I know that is the best thing to do.
Thanks to everyone who left messages, text messages or phoned it has been wonderful to read or hear from everyone.
Below are a few photos of Sams birth and stay in the nursery, his first bath, first cuddles with his sisters and his first photo shoot at home yesterday.

Sam is 8 days old in this photo.

Txt update from Amie

2009-01-22T19:40:00.002+11:00

"Sam is doing much better, feeding like a champ now. If all goes well he will have 1 more night in the special care nursrey, then 1 night in the ward with Amie, than hopefully home on saturday"

Baby Sam

2009-01-21T13:56:00.002+11:00

This is Leah in the Kia again posting for Amie

Little baby Sam is a bit sick, he has been in the special care nursrey since he was born, Amie had texted me to say the Dr's are not quite sure what is wrong with him at this stage, he is being tube feed, but Amie had breast fed him this morning and he was much better. So things seem to be looking up for him. Please keep him in your thoughts and send positive vibes to Amie and little Sam to get him home soon!

Sam Taylor has arrived!

2009-01-19T15:04:00.003+11:00

This is Leah-in-the-kia posting for Amie to announce that

Sam Taylor

( no middle name yet) has arrived at 12.18pm weighing 7pd 1oz.

All doing well!

Congratulations Amie, James, Mia and Brie!

{My Baby Belly}

2009-01-17T16:42:00.002+11:00

Well this is what my belly looks like at 37 weeks 5 day pregnant :o) Kristal took these photo's earlier in the week. I don't think my belly is that big..... I am hoping the baby will be around the same size as Brie if not bigger compared to Mia Brie was tiny. Dr Tooth thinks he will be between the girls 7p 6o and 8p 11o so I will just have to wait and see.

I can't believe I only have 2 more sleeps and our little man will be here. I am feeling very nervous about the whole thing. I am sort of organised the girls bags are packed and I have the babies bag packed I just need to do mine and Salts. We have to be at the hospital at 7am on monday morning so I am hoping we will have a baby before lunch :o)

In other baby news a HUGE congrats to Bec and Griffo on the birth of their baby girl Macy Summer she was born on monday and is just so cute and tiny.

Anyway I will pop back in with photos of our new baby when we get home from hospital.

Hope your all having a great weekend.

Amie xx

A few photos taken by Kristal :o)

2009-01-04T19:46:00.004+11:00

Well here it is the photo of Mia catching her first fish all by herself with her Dad's fishing rod.

Kristal has been taking heaps and heaps of photos over the last week, so here are a few of my favs. Brie and Alex out fishing getting into lots of mischief!!!

I am just loving this photo of Brie's sillouhette, just gorgeous.

Mia being sprayed by her uncle Mark.

Brie being cheeky as usual.....I am really looking forward to scrapping these.

Alex on christmas morning loving the girls motorised 4 wheeler.

{Just be Brave OK}

2009-01-03T10:00:00.005+11:00

I was just sitting in the lounge room thinking about stuff I need to do before the baby arrives and Mia came in and asked me what I was doing? I told her I was just thinking about stuff I need to do for the baby, she asked why I had changed the pram around and I said that they would need it in Dubbo.... Alex can sit in the back and Brie in the front. Where the baby going to sit mum???? I told her that we will be in hospital still........ Ohhhhhh she said WHY???? So I said when they cut my belly open to get the baby I have to stay in hospital for a little while. How many sleeps she said I said 4 or 5....... Ohhhh she said well you Just be Brave OK.

Well we put in a very very very quiet new years eve, the girls were asleep by 8pm and I wasn't far behind them :o) Salt went shooting as he still had some roo tags left.

On new years day we went to Salts mum for a YUMMO bake dinner and plum pudding, then Salt, Kristal, Mia, Brie and Alex went fishing for the afternoon and Mia caught a fish all by herself using Salts fishing rod..... Salt was pretty proud of her when he came home to tell me. I am sure Kristal would have taken a photo so I will share when she puts them on my computer.

So I spent a few hours doing some scrapping not that I can share as it is for a product challenge with scrapbooking memories coming out in Vol 11 No. 4 and my other stuff was for this months scrapjack. You should see my scraproom it is a total disaster atm so it is pretty hard to find inspiration in there.

While my sister was here over christmas we had a very quick photo shoot so I could get some photos of her with the girls, these were the pick of them as I said it was a very quick one I would have loved to have had more time but I can't wait to scrap these all the same.

We had a lovely christmas, James and I were up until 2am putting together the girls presents. OMG it took us 3 hours to put together a dolls house Salt was going off his head.....all I could do was laugh at him cause he couldn't even put a dolls house together how is he going to build our house LMAO. Anyway Mia woke up about 7.30 on christmas morning and I reckon it took her about 5mins to wake Brie up she was pretty tired as she didn't go to bed until after 11 Mia had fallen asleep in the car looking at christmas lights. So we exchanged presents and everyone was nice and happy, Stacie loved her necklace which made me extra happy as it was a really special necklace I had had made for her from etsy. I came out and cooked breaky, Kay came over to give the girls there presents and then over came Old Salt, Kristal, Mark and Alex.

Alex just loved the ride on car that the girls got so he has had lots of fun since riding one. We let him take one home to grandmas as he will be here for a month. We went to Kays for lunch and dinner and then came home to bed I was sooooooo tired, Brie fell asleep at 5.45pm and stayed asleep until about 3am when she woke up sick had a little vomit then went back to sleep until about 5am I gave her something to eat I think that may have been the problem she was probably just hungry.

On the saturday after christmas we had a big storm about 4.30 in the afternoon this is one of the photos I took.

Mia had swimming club again last night and went really well she swam freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke. I can't wait to see the improvement in the next few weeks.

Well there is just over 2 weeks until the baby will be here so it is all getting a bit nerve racking, I know Brie is still on little but at least when she was born Mia had only just turned 2 so we were still in baby mode, Brie will be 3 in may and is so no a baby anymore..... I am sure I will be fine once our little man is here.

I am going to get Kristal to take a photo of my pregnant belly sometime in the next 2 weeks so I will share that with you all too.

Have a great weekend everyone :o)

{Merry Christmas}

2008-12-24T15:21:00.003+11:00

Just a quick post to wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

Have a great day tomorrow everyone and I hope you all get spoilt!

Hugs Amie xx

{Swimming Club}

2008-12-12T20:40:00.002+11:00

Tonight Mia had her first taste of swimming club...... and she loved it. She was really tired when we came home though I guess all that swimming wore her out. She did really well with the kickboard and freestyle but breaststroke had her a bit confused but with a bit of practice she will be swimming really well like the rest of the kids.

Here are a few more photos from the last week or so,
Mia in her gorgeous dress.
Singing at the preschool concert.

My Gail Pan stitchery that I gave to Salts mum as a christmas card, I just wrote on the back like you would a christmas card.

M

And lastly Brie and Mia on the tramp this afternoon, I was laying under it and thought these photos looked pretty cool :o)

Have a great weekend ;o)

Amie xx

{Aussie Scrapjack Design Team}

2008-12-10T20:24:00.002+11:00

How excited am I to share with you all that I have been asked to join the Aussie Scrapjack Design Team There are so many talented ladies over there so it is really an honour to be asked. Thanks Lou :o)

In other news it has been a while since I have blogged..... it is getting so hard to sit in front of the computer I get really uncomfortable and feel like the baby is getting squashed BIG time. I only have just under 6 weeks to go so I am getting really excited. I am so unorganised it isn't funny!!! I am just waiting until after christmas and I will sort myself out and all the baby stuff as well.

Mia and Brie are going great. They have been doing swimming lessons the past few weeks and Mia has just come along in leaps and bounds. Brie is pretty confident for her age but takes after me and is very stubborn she won't do it if she doesn't want too so it was quite funny watching Laura try to get her to do the lessons.

Mia had her end of year dance concert a few thursdays ago as well and they all looked so cute and danced so well. After the concert her and Brie were in the bath and I heard her say Brie you don't want a piece of me!!! How funny see what happens when they are around older kids for a few hours.

Last week I was reading Mia a story called The old man that loved to sing and there was a page with a heap of birds on it and I said to Mia do you know what any of these birds are? She said thats a Kookacock! I cracked up laughing and said do you mean a cockatoo..... Yeah thats it she said.

We put up our christmas tree 2 sundays ago and it justs looks beautiful all decorated by Mia and Brie, Salt dressed up as Santa and brought the tree in from the shed. You should have seen Bries face it was priceless she really thought it was santa.... Mia just said Ooooohhhhh Dad. I can't wait for christmas to come this year it is going to be so much fun the girls are so excited. I am really going to have to wear them out on christmas eve so they go to sleep for me.

My mum & Tony and my brother came over this weekend to celebrate christmas with us and Tony's family this weekend as Tony and Steven are working christmas this year so we went to the motel for dinner and it was so yummy. I took Mia christmas light looking afterwards so she thought that was pretty good.

The photos below are of a few things I have been doing lately. I am right into stitcheries at the moment. The only thing I hate is that it takes ages..... not like my scrapbooking. LOL. I finished another one today that Gail Pan has on her blog it is just gorgeous I love it I will share with you all when it is all finished.

Well I have been sitting here long enough I have some more photos to share but they are taking forever to upload so I will do it tomorrow......

{Photo's}

2008-12-07T07:46:00.002+11:00

Before Mia's preschool concert the other night.

Mia receiving her book from Santa ;o)

Brie being a little turd and not letting me take her photo in this gorgeous dress that grandma brought her.....

2008-11-07T13:33:00.000+11:00

It's not too late to join in on the Forever Always Chat Extravaganza
Welcome to FA's Chat Extravaganza Competition !
The rules are easy...chat, chat, and chat some more !
And for doing just that, you could win some great prizes !
The major prize - for the person who makes the most posts during the competition - is a $50 voucher to spend at FA !
The minor prizes - for winners of various random challenges and games during the competition - are $5 FA Vouchers, RAKS and FA Stars !
The competition is on now, and runs, until midnight 20th November, so you STILL HAVE 13 DAYS to chat yourself silly !
To enter: Simply add your name to the list and your current post count.
You can enter at any time.
The winner will be determined by who has progressed the furthest in their post count during the competition.
All posts must be legitimate posts and not spam.
See the official competition thread, for all news, announcements, challenges and awarding of prizes etc, associated with the competition.
Keep your eyes open for random Chat Spot Specials, Chat Challenges, Chat Scrap Challenges and Chat Games in addition to all of our regular chat ! These will give you even more opportunities to improve your post counts !
Explanations of these, can be found in the forum.
NEW MEMBERS WELCOME !!!AS A BONUS FOR ALL NEW FORUM REGISTRATIONS - WILL BE ALLOCATED 750 bonus points in the competition

{20 40 60 Challenge with Scrapbook Creations}

2008-11-05T15:57:00.004+11:00

I have just come home to a lovely email from Kim at Scrapbook Creations asking me to do one of there 20 40 60 Challenges. I am doing the 20min challenge which is right up my alley don't you think......... how exciting, I just had to share.

Here are some LO's, off the page, and cards I have done lately :o)

These few things have been done using the Christmas kits available at Forever Always. These kits are great and OMG you can make so much with them :o)

and from the monthly newsletter. The cards are just for fun I am trying to get lots of cards done so it isn't such a rush when I need one in a hurry :o)

{Forever Always Novemeber Newsletter}

2008-11-01T11:29:00.001+11:00

This month we take you revisting Paint, Ink and Dyes and hopefully finding something you haven't tried in a while but giving you inspiration to try it again....check out the gallery to see it all.
Important DATES
Be sure to pencil these in your diary…then ring and book in, space is very limited!Thursdays - 10am till 2pm (bring your lunch), Every Thursday – just call and book in.12 Hour Crops - 1st November.Christmas Crop - 29th November {with all the trimmings including our Kris Kringle}Cyber Crops - 14th - 17th November.Recipe Scraps – 6th November with Paula Perry and 27th November POT LUCK with Sonia2009 Retreat Dates – details to be released but feedback on these dates is appreciated.
Retreat #11 – 26th February – 1st MarchRetreat #12 - 14th – 17th MayRetreat #13 - 6th – 9th AugustRetreat #14 - 29th October – 1st November
We reveal OCTOBER’S Winners check it out to see if you are one of them!!!!.
Take a stroll down Inspiration Alley…
November's Monthly SKETCH CAN BE DOWNLOADED IN PDF FORMAT FROM THE SKETCHES LINK OF THE WEBSITE VISIT IT HERE
This inspirational sketch was inspired by Amie's layout, with a design that is simply fun!!…We hope this one inspires some simplicity in your scrapping…enjoy!!!
Create an ORIGINAL Scrapbooking page based on this Sketch. Upload your entry to the Forever Always Gallery. Or Email the entry to info@foreveralways.com.au with a small description. Entries close on 29th November, you will be in with a chance to win a $15 Gift Voucher from Forever Always.
read all this and more over here in our downloadable PDF NEWSLETTER
happy scrapping
Sonia

{The UPDATE on the Toilet Training}

2008-10-31T07:38:00.002+11:00

About 2 weeks ago I attempted too toilet train Brie..... well she had know idea and after 2 days I gave up and said she will do it when she is ready. Well last friday she decided to use the potty all by herself and has not had an accident since I am so proud of her. She has had one dry nappy at night and the others haven't been hardly wet at all. Today at the supermarket she said MUM I need to wee. So I took her she probably had to hold on for at least 2 mins while I got her to the toilet which I thought was excellent and then just as we were going thru the checkout she said she needed to poo and I was like really??? thinking in my head she just wanted to use the toilet again for fun so I didn't take her and she did a poo in her pants in the car on the way home so I have learnt my lesson when she needs to go she needs to go...... when I said Brie have you done a poo in your pants she just looked at me as if to say I told you so.

{Potluck Thursday with Forever Always}

2008-10-29T08:16:00.002+11:00

Thursday’s are out scrap and chat nights…we have revamped a little taking into account some forum feedback. From now on, the first and last Thursday evenings of the month – we will have our Recipe/Potluck nights…really a FREE class with a difference. You haven’t seen the end product. Sometimes these recipes will involve a technique, other times it’s just a fun quick layout. Check out the forum for the ‘ingredients’ list on Tuesdays.
It's almost Thursday and my turn at potluck this week....but let's go with half and half.
I am putting up a List of INGREDIENTS....and you have till Thursday to think of some instructions to do with these Supplies. - we will start at 8.pm to allow our non DAYLIGHT savings girls to join in the fun
INGREDIENTS
1 X sheet of Cardstock
8x9 Inch pattern paper
3x7 inch pattern paper
Assorted flowers, buttons THREAD
journal block
chipboard name
tag
let's come back here on Thursday at 8pm and play....see you then!!!

{Photos Toilet Training and More}

2008-10-24T18:26:00.004+11:00

A photo of Mia when we went fishing the other day...... this is the before photo LOL

Salts damper was heaps nicer than my first attempt.

OMG how dirty can one child get....

Mia and her Carp that she caught.
Below are a few LO's that I have done for the October midmonth newsletter.

Below is for the midmonth Sketch

This LO was from the Cybercrop last weekend. The girls took these photos.

And also below a few more LO's from the CC and some cards from the leftover scraps.

Mia had her haircut last weekend and Jody straighten it for her.... The photo doesn't do it justice but she just looked so cute and grownup and young at the same time if that makes sense... I like her curl the best though... That night we went to the footy presentation and I am sure she went to the toilet to fix her hair up at least 10 times......... each time she would come out and say does this look beautiful??? So gorgeous.

In other news the girls have a pet fish each, meet Squirty and Lil Baby. Mia owns Squirty (the black fish) and Brie own's Lil Baby (the orange fish) I was quite impressed with the names they chose.

They are going so well feeding them everyday, Brie like to try and pick them up though..... LOL.

Today we went to the reading bug held in the park and the girls had there faces painted , made a bookmark and had a play in the park for a while and then we came home. Last week I started to toilet train Brie but gave up after a few days as she really had no idea.... Well today she has done 2 wees in the potty all by herself I am so proud of her :o) Lets hope she keeps going with it. I would love for her to be TT before our little man gets here.

In other news I have a LO in scrapbooking Memories this month in the Buttons Gallery :o)

We also have a new chat comp running over at Forever Always come and check it out. The girls are chatting up a storm......Just click on the link on my side bar and come and say hi.... There are some great prizes to win.

Ok hope you all have a great weekend.

Amie xx

Huge Top 50 Comp

2008-10-23T17:14:00.002+11:00

There have been some changes recently to the Aussie Top 50 site. Jude has stepped down, and Victoria is the new owner.There's quite a buzz happening there, and it's kicking off with what sounds like an awesome competition !!!

Certainly a huge prize pool !!!For more information, click on the blinkie !!!

{Creating & Sharing}

2008-10-07T18:23:00.004+11:00

Well I have been busy sewing, scrapping and stitching over the last few days, weeks month!!! & thought I should share what I have been up too.

The LO's below are from the last 2 FA newsletters.

This is the Recipe Scrap LO that we did last thursday night.

Now onto the sewing, I was lucky enough to win this gorgeous bag pattern from Janelle Wind. It is her new Thelma's day out Bag and I am in love with it. I still have a journal to sew as well but I will get to that hopefully later this week.

Now below is my first stitchery I have ever done. Earlier this year I join up with the Honey Suckle Christmas Club once a month you receive a project to complete. Well as soon as I saw this I had to do it. I just love the stitchery and plan on making some more for the rest of the family.

Sonia forwarded this email from Marelle, so here a the cards I have sent to Sonia for her to pass on.

My friends

I am trying to raise $450 for a friend's mother (who has beat breast cancer twice before) who has breast cancer for a third time. This time, instead of going down the chemo track she has opted for naturopathic diet etc. So, my friend has not told her mum of our plan, so I am hoping to make it come to fruition She needs to have unpasturised goat's milk and since she has limited funds, I need to raise $450 for a goat so my friend can milk the goat for her mum. These goats are really unusual and rare and we have tracked a breeder down in Colac - so I was wondering if I could ask my gorgeous online friends here if you were able to make some cards with positive messages that I could sell around my area to raise the funds.. you would only have to make a couple each then I could sell them to start the fundraising.. The story is quite amazing - my friend has just reunited with her Mother after a considerable time apart (a lot ofyears ) and her children now have a grandma whom they did not know- after they were reunited the cancer came back - so I feel I would like to help , at least to raise money for a "downpayment" on the goat.. So if you would like to help, please mail all cards to me! If you could help, I can pm you my addy and I will then sell the cards and start the ball rolling.. Last year (it took me 4 months to raised $60,000 for a friend's son who is now confined to a wheelchair after a bmx accident (17yrs ) so I am hoping it will only take a short time to raise $450 Thank you my sisters in scrap!xx

And last but not least I thought I would share my LO that is in this months Scrapbook Creations Mia & Brie both get pretty excited when they turn up and see there pics in the mags.... Not that Brie is in these but in the next few months she will be :o)

Anyway that is about it from me. I am hoping to have an early night tonight as I am quite tired.

Nite all :o)

Amie xx

{Our Attempt at Camping}

2008-10-06T09:51:00.005+11:00

Well we had planned a family weekend camping this weekend, so we headed off yesterday afternoon. When we got there James said he wasn't going to set up the tent until nearly dark as he thought it might come in and rain :o( So he started fishing

and the first bite he caught a COD :o) but atm they are out of season and your not aloud to keep them.... not that it was big enough anyway LOL. So we took a photo and let him go :o)

We then started a little fire so I could attempt to make my first damper. It looked so good and tasted yum but was as heavy as a brick LMAO!!!

The girls had fun pottering around and toasting marshmallows in the fire. Brie did a fair bit of laying around as she was pretty tired.

But it soon started to spit and the girls and I had to jump in the car and head home as Salt said I wouldn't have gotten out of there in my car otherwise. Brie fell asleep on the way home and slept until 7.45 this morning.
Salt was home about 15mins later he said it just poured down. So we will have to plan another trip very soon as it will be getting too hot.

Hope your all having a lovely long weekend.
Amie xx

{Recipe Scrap with ME!!!}

2008-10-02T09:21:00.003+10:00

Good morning Girls, I know it is short notice but here are the ingredients for tonight's recipe scrap.
1 Sheet of Cardstock
1 8inch x 9inch piece of Pattern paper (Lightish in colour as you will be stamping over a corner of it.)
1 3inch x 8inch co-ordinating piece of pattern paper.
A 13cm x 18cm photo portrait orientated, landscape would work if the corners weren't to busy. A flourish stamp or chipboard/felt flourish
2 medium - smallish size flowers
1 large button
1 small button Journalling block - I have used a Making Memories noteworthy size one.
Alphas for title - I have used the new Bella Chipz
Mini Alpha stickers.
Now if you wanted to do a boyish LO just substitute the flowers and flourish for some other sort of boyish embellishment like stars.
Hope you can join me around 8pm for a Scrap & Chat & to find out more about our Happy Hour Sale!!!
cheers Amie & Sonia
www.foreveralways.com.au

{Forever Always Retreat # 10}

2008-09-23T07:15:00.004+10:00

Last thursday I left for Sydney to go on my 3rd Forever Always Retreat. Now I think Sonia may have outdone herself AGAIN..... Each retreat I go to gets better and better. I had the best time. It was so good to catch up with Briony again and meet Cherie for the first time. I love catching up with all the regulars at the retreat and there are always new people attending which is great. I met 2 lovely ladies from Jindabyne Sandra and Karen. They are new to scrapping and had such a lovely time.

Here are some photos from the glamour shots

Cherie, Briony & Me

Briony's Bump and My Bump we had to get a glamour shot of the baby bumps.

Now this tiny photo... such fun staying up late I think this was about 1am....

Sharryn and Chrissy gave me their Tiara's and Feather Boa's Mia thought this was pretty special as you can tell so thanks girls.

I would also like to thank Brian and Dee for getting us from and to the airport.... such a relief to not have to drag our luggage all over syd.

{Happy Birthday tooooooo meeeeee}

2008-09-14T20:39:00.001+10:00

I just love that song that Justine Clarke sings.....LOL Happy Birthday to me!! WOW the big 30. Well my birthday started on Friday as Salt had to work yesterday and today. Friday morning Salt came home with a cake and I opened the door to a cake full of candles it was so sweet. We then went out to dinner to the motel and it was just yuummmmyyyy :o)

Today I woke up to the best present ever YES my washing up gloves. LMAO I just love how much thought she put into it. Just so sweet. I had lots of phone calls this morning and then went to lunch with Leah, Kristin and Bec who just spoilt me with lovely presents. Thanks heaps girls you know how much I appreciated it today.

After lunch we went to Salts mum's for the afternoon where again I was spoilt with a baked dinner and apple crumble.

I am off to Syd on thursday I just can't wait.

Nite all
Amie xx

{Happy Father's Day}

2008-09-07T18:21:00.002+10:00

NOT
We are all sick with the spews LOL poor little Mia hasn't stopped vomiting all day :o( I am glad that she is old enough to know and gets her bucket.

Salt had to go to work tonight, he is sick but as he has already had the last 2 nights off he had to go in as his Dr's Certificate only said until last night.

The girls gave Salt his gifts this morning, Mia made a magnet man a preschool and they had a happy fathers day drawing each for him and of course chocolates. Just what he wanted was his reply. Mia was so excited about Father's Day and had been counting the sleep since wed. Now she is counting down the sleeps until my birthday, and just to let you know she hasn't forgotten about the washing up gloves she asked me where you can buy them at this morning..... so cute :o)

Caught up with Alison yesterday we all had a lovely time catching up and chatting. Thanks girls it was great.

Today I cooked my first Turkey with stuffing it looked so yuummmmm but we hardly ate any of it as we all feel so sick :o(

{Scrapping}

2008-09-05T20:14:00.002+10:00

Well I have been doing just a bit of scrapping in the last week. A lot I can't share until after the retreat, but here are a few! Today I did the sept 123 Challenge and

the 123 Cybercrop Challenge 3 which is sponsored by Forever Always.

Last night I hosted the Recipe Scrap and here is the Quick and Easy LO that we did.

I am also participating in a Masculine Card Swap and above a 2 of the Cards I have made :o) The rest were made last month and are in the newsletter.

The other day while we were in Dubbo Salt, Brie and I went to the Western Star for lunch..... Just as we were about to order Brie was standing behind me and spewed all over the floor. The poor little thing I felt sorry for all the people already eating the lunch. She woke again last night vomiting. Apparently there is a lot of the poos and spews going around so I really hope she doesn't get the poos now. When she woke up tonight she wouldn't eat any dinner and then next thing she vomited again.... so I am guessing we will be in for a sleepless night :o(

Have a good weekend all.

{Football, Injuries and Scrapping}

2008-09-03T07:12:00.008+10:00

Well the boys lost on Saturday which was sad..... but what was even sadder is that Salt only got to play about 5 mins of football and then he got injured. He is so annoyed as he said he felt really good and was looking forward to playing. Thankfully I got the camera out as soon as he went on the field so I got a couple of photos. He has been in bed since 5am on Sunday morning.... he is going crazy he hates just laying around but it hurts if he gets up. We are off to the Chiropractor today (I am so sick of driving to Dubbo atm) so hopefully he will be heaps better this afternoon. It is his Sciatic Nerve and I don't think I have seen him in so much pain for ages.
So here are the few photos that I got of Salt playing.... and a few others which were half decent.

One of the few runs he actually made.

Injured on the ground :o(

Captain Coach Anthony Griffiths.

Tim Smith

Salt receiving his medal.

Well I have been scrapping up a storm in the last day and a half, most of it is for the Inspiration Booklet at the Forever Always Retreat on the 18th Sept. But here are a few from the Sept Newsletter, we had to focus on brads WHICH I SUCK AT! LMAO, but the other girls did some stunning work if you need some brad inspiration checkout the newsletter here

Colour Combo Challenge - Blues

The above Layout is one I did for our Sonia Says Challenge.

This one is from our last CC.

---------------------------------------------------------------

RECIPE SCRAP

Ingredients for Thursday 4th September 2008 Recipe Scrap with Amie Taylor

Photo Size - Up to a 6 x 8 Portrait Photo

1 Piece of Cardstock

1 Piece of Patterened Paper

1 Large journalling block. (I have used a Teresa Collins White Block)

Decorative Stamps & Ink

Mini Alpha Stickers

1 Chipboard Shape.

This is going to be a really quick Layout that I think is just looking great.

Remember you can substitute any of my ingredients for something you have at home. Look forward to seeing you IN THE FORUM at 8pm on Thursday Night.

{I have the cutest little 4 year old}

2008-08-30T08:19:00.004+10:00

We are off to Dubbo today for the footy grandfinal and I said to Salt this morning that I needed to go and pay some money of the girls xmas layby and get some photos printed..... I added that we could buy my birthday present as well.

So I asked Mia what she was going to buy me for my birthday and she said some gloves to use in the water..... Oh that would be nice Mia I said, the ones that I use in the shower?? NOOOOO she said the ones that Holly's mum uses to wash the dishes. I cracked up laughing and said I would love a pair of washing up gloves Mia that would be a lovely present. How cute is that thinking I would love a pair to do the dishes IF only she knew how much I hate doing dishes ;o)

I took a few photos at our Birthday Picnic for Kays 70th on thursday. It is the best place to take photos I can't wait to get them printed today... I will have lots of photos to scrap at the Forever Always Retreat Only 19 more sleeps I think.

Well I best get organised for Dubbo! Salt is in bed watching Brave Heart - this is something he has done before playing in the last few grandfinals he has been in. It must get him in the mood to play footy LOL.

Have a great weekend all.

Amie xx

{WHoooooHooooo The Boys made it too the Grandfinal}

2008-08-25T10:09:00.003+10:00

YES Leah I am still alive..... thanks for asking.

Well I have been a slack blogger haven't I!!!! But anyway I will try to remember what I have been up too. Not alot really hence the lack of blogging LOL.....

I felt the baby move on the 12th August which was really exciting :o) On Friday we went to Mudgee for Salt's Uncle Bill's funeral, he was 79 and broke his hip a couple of weeks ago. He was quite sick as well. On Sunday we went to Dubbo for footy, Nyngan had to win to get in the grand final and they did it was such a close game with the end score being 28 -26 Macquarie gave away a penalty and Tim Smith kicked the goal. So next Saturday we are off to Dubbo again for the Grand final. I can't wait... yesterday my heart was just racing!

Mia had her dance concert on the 14th of August she only danced once but I was just amazed to see how much she has improved since last year. Last year she was too busy looking at herself in the mirror as she was on the side but the other night she was in the centre and made me so proud.

Last Tuesday one of my Friends Kerry and her family moved to Sydney, it was really sad to see them go but we will still keep in contact for sure. {{{{waving}}}}} to you all and I hope your all unpacked and the girls enjoyed their first day of school.

This is really bad I can't even remember what else we have been doing....... I have only just started scrapping again as I hurt my back a few weeks ago and couldn't move for a couple of days... after that it got a little better but I couldn't sit which meant no blogging or sitting at the computer.... All I could do was stand or lay down. I feel for anyone now when they say that they have hurt there back.

Anyway Mia is at preschool she is going to catch the bus home this afternoon which she is very excited about I will have to have the camera ready for that. I will share a photo later tonight or tomorrow ;o)

I have also had a few more LO's accepted to be published with Scrapbooking Memories so that is exciting :o)

Have a great week all.

{CHALLENGES AND CYBERCROP}

2008-08-15T15:52:00.001+10:00

Hi Girls, just thought i would give you a little reminder... Amie has put up the RAK for OUR RAK AND NEW CHALLENGE which is due at midnight tonight.DETAILS can be found here http://www.foreveralways.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?t=658&start=540 Tonight is also the begining of our AUGUST CYBERCROP here is our order of events....be sure to come and Play. Paula is the queen of the Crop and has some great challenges planned all weekend long.
Friday 7:30pm The Chatter begins
8pm Challenge 1
Saturday
7.30 pm Bingo (Played in the Bingo thread) - must have completed 1 CYBERCROP Challenge to play.
8,00pm Challenge 2
8:30pm Challenge 3
Sunday
8.00pm- Challenge 4
Monday 7pm- Scrap and Chat
Tuesday Midnight - all challenges must be uploaded.Hope to catch up with you all on the weekend sometime....
hugsSonia
www.foreveralways.com.au

{Recipe Scrap TONIGHT}

2008-07-31T15:34:00.000+10:00

Hi Girls, well i know I am a tad late with my ingredients for you....but time just seems to be getting away from me this week.I have dragged out a layout from 2005, this was one of my master entries at the time....when i look at it now I think no wonder they didn't want it....LOL, but it is actually one of my Favourite layouts...as it contains very heartfelt words and journaling that were very important to me at the time.....I hope you enjoy doing this with me tonight....As i said it is from the staples stash tonight, so if you don't have something simply substitute.....it's all about your take on the recipe anyway.so INGREDIENTS 1 sheet of cardstock or plain PP {background} 1 large decorative stamp paint or ink - to use with the above stamp staples scraps of cardstock for matting 1 fotofile - basicgrey and heidi swapp do these....but you can just make one from a piece of folded cardstock. title letters (mine are acetate) Song lyrics - now these are typed on a piece of photo paper.....but you could choose to just have a larger journaling piece. and no the photo paper is not imperative....just standard paper is fine, but after having mine in an album for 2 years, i think it would have looked nicer on photo paper....Scraps of Ribbon Dymo Tape Sewing Machine or Hand stitching requirements {optional} PHOTOS 1 4x6 or 5x7 Portrait photo + a duplicate of the same photo to cut up or use 5 index prints) Ok....I feel that most of the items you have in your stash....you can substitute anything remember...thats the idea....work with what you have. hope you all are looking forward to coming and joining me tonight....see you back here http://www.foreveralways.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?p=45475#45475around 7.30ish.....

{BABY NEWS}

2008-07-30T09:56:00.001+10:00

Just sharing our exciting news, Jan 2009 is going to bring another little Taylor baby into our house. We are all very excited especially Mia who we told yesterday.

Here is a little pic of the scan yesterday.
Hope everyone is well

Amie xx

{Newsletter Layouts}

2008-07-18T19:42:00.003+10:00

Just thought I would share some of my midmonth newsletter layouts here :o)

The top 2 LO's are themed "Shabby Chic" I had another one but it was accepted to be published with Scrapbooking Memories :o)
And this LO is for the Midmonthly Sketch come and check out the sketch and you could win some FA dollars to spend ;O)

Have a good weekend all I haven't scrapped in a week and I am hoping to get some done this weekend ;o)

{Happy 40th Sonia}

2008-07-17T19:38:00.002+10:00

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Soooonnnnnnnnnia :o)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOOO YOOOOOOUUUUU

Have a totally awesome day and I know your going to be spoilt :o)

HUGS Amie

{Happy Birthday Jackson & Mia's first EYE TEST}

2008-07-14T19:48:00.004+10:00

First of all a HUGE Happy Birthday to Jackson Z who is 4 today. I hope you have had an awesome birthday :o)

Today Mia had her first eye test, and I was so proud of her sitting there ever so perfect and doing everything Jenny asked of her. She has great eyesight and her long distance vision is above average so that is great. She has been counting down the sleep until today she was really excited to get her eyes tested and when we came home today I asked her what was the best thing about Dubbo today....... Getting my eyes tested was the response!! So I am glad it lived up to her expectations and everything is great.

We went out to the Overflow on the weekend to visit the Weston's we all had a lovely relaxing weekend. Especially the kids who just didn't stop playing :o) Kristy and Denis have a Pecan tree and Mia took a bit of a liking to the nuts so Kristy gave me a huge bag of Pecans to shell and I came home and made my first Pecan Pie and OH MY it is DELICIOUS!!!!! Very sickening though, & oh so time consuming cracking the nuts open..... but I enjoyed it for something different.

They also had a huge lemon tree full of lemons so I will make a lemon meringue pie sometime in the next week too :o)

Hope everyone is well

Chat soon Amie xx

con

{I just had to write this down before I forget}

2008-07-09T19:50:00.003+10:00

Today Brie has just been chatting her little head off !!!! We were at Grandmas today and

she said - Happy Birthday Mum

I said - It's not my birthday Brie

she said - Whens your birthday?

I said - the 14th Sept Brie.....

She said - Ohhhhhhh

And just now I read something funny in the FA forum and cracked up laughing....

she said - Why you laughing MUM?

I said - I just read something funny on the computer

she said - Ohhhhhh & then sang the theme song to Scooby Doo. & sang at least 3/4 of the song. OMG she is only 2 she just makes me smile.

I love that she can talk so well and understand what I ask her to do. I tell her to do or not to do something and she will say OK mum, I guess it is the joys of having a big sister who is a chatterbox as well. Mia didn't start asking WHY until she was about 3 or so and Brie has been asking it for ages........

She just loves watching the wiggles and tonight the girls had little pretty tartan dresses on so she went to the cupboard and pulled down a tartan dress and asked me to put it on her :o)

Nite All

Amie xx

{Forever Always Happenings}

2008-07-09T16:43:00.001+10:00

It's all happening this week, starting tomorrow night {THURSDAY} with our
WEEKLY RECIPE SCRAP
Sharryn Thomson will be your lovely host for this weeks RECIPE SCRAP. I hope you will all join us, in what will be a very exciting challenge !!!
You will need:
1 sheet cardstock
2 sheets (or 1 double sided) patterned paper
2 different ribbons
1 ric rac
1 journalling card
1 large and 1 small blossom
1 brad
alphas for title
see you over here at the Forever Always Forum on Thursday Night around 7.30ish to start the project.
JULY CYBERCROP
Our cybercrop is this weekend, and the fun is already happening with some pre-crop chatter and loads of hints flying out too, we were totally inspired by the July Newsletter to get a FABRIC themed crop happening.....be sure to come and check us out here. We are playing with our Famous Points system again...competition at its best.
ORDER OF EVENTS
Friday
7:30pm The Chatter begins
8pm Challenge 1
Saturday
7.30 pm Bingo (Played in the Bingo thread) – must have completed 1 CYBERCROP Challenge to play.
8,00pm Challenge 2
8:30pm Challenge 3
Sunday
8.00pm– Challenge 4
Monday
7pm- Scrap and Chat
Tuesday
Midnight – all challenges must be uploaded.
Sunday's Cybercrop Challenge # 4 – Pattern Instructions
Another name but the same challenge….I hope you enjoy me in creating another layout, filled with sewing, fabric and notions.
For this challenge you will need:
Photos
1 x 5x7 landscape
2 x 3½ x3½
Supplies
1 sheet of cardstock
3 x 12 inch Patterned paper
5-10 pieces of Assorted Ribbons
9 inches in length.
4 ½ inch ring of contrasting Cardstock – this is a 4 ½ inch circle with a 4 inch circle cut from the centre leaving you with a ring.
5 inch square piece of fabric
Dotto Adhesive runner
Double sided Tape
Tiny Alpha Stickers
Chipboard alphas
Felt Butterflies – or embellishment to suit your layout
Bling
Kindy glitz
Tools
Compass
At least a 6 inch piece of sandpaper
Fabric Scissors – yes they need to be very sharp to cut the fabric and not fray the edge.
Fancy Edged Scissors
SEWING NEEDLE
Optional – I have stitched one word of my title on the fabric – the following items will help this Iron on stiffener or Iron- on Pellon - 5 inch square
Embroidery thread to match layout
So why not come and join the fun over the next few days....see you there

{This gorgeous RED Jacket}

2008-07-08T18:50:00.002+10:00

This is a really bad photo of the LO but the sun wasn't cooperating today LOL.
Love this jacket and Brie's smile just makes me happy in this photo.

This is called a mini Maze Album and they are so quick and easy to make you should all give it ago :o) Here is the link to the best Tutorial on how to make these. The tutorial is on her sidebar.

Not much else happening Salt is out fishing for a few days so the girls are happy cause when Dad is away they get to sleep in my bed..... and they are both the biggest bed hogs LMAO.

I had a LO accepted to be published from Scrapbooking Memories last week so that is exciting it is going to be in the Encore Gallery.

Thursday night Sharryn is hosting the recipe scrap so that should be a great night too.

This weekend Forever Always has there monthly cybercrop on come and join us it is going to be lots of fun and if you have a fabric stash happening you will like it even better.

Well the little girls are in bed and I am off to get some scrapping done.

Nite All

{What have I been up too???}

2008-07-02T16:52:00.002+10:00

Well not a lot really..... I went to Dubbo a few weeks ago and picked up my car. It looks so nice and new again, it needs a good clean again though. While I was there Kay took Brie too Kidzoo so I could go and watch Sex and the City. I absolutely loved loved loved the movie LMAO I too sat there by myself with my popcorn and solo :o)

My LO in the current issue of Scrapbook Creations looked really good I was so happy with the colours unlike the month before.

Just sitting here trying to remember what we have been doing..... I have been doing a little bit of scrapping but not a lot.

Trying hard to keep this house clean, it is a never ending job and as soon as I clean it the girls seem to find something else to pull out.

We also went to Dubbo again on Sunday as Salt was playing footy there, such a great oval to watch footy at, the girls had a great time.

Thinking I may have to take the girls out for another photoshoot very soon, Mia seems to have grown again she just doesn't stop!!! If she keeps going she will be taller than me by the time she 10..... Not that that would be a hard thing being the shorty that I am LOL.

Mia got a really great report from Preshcool, Chantelle's comments were: Mia has had a fantastic start to the year & has made progress in all areas of the program. Mia is a valued member of the group, she is an absolute pleasure!

How proud of her am I!!!!

Well that is about all I can think of at the moment I need to keep it a bit more up to date here so it isn't such a task when I do.

Thanks for stopping by.

Amie xx

{What have I been up too

2008-07-02T16:52:00.000+10:00

{Recipe Scrap}

2008-06-18T14:11:00.001+10:00

Recipe Scrap....
Thursday Nights @ Forever Always

Nice & easy...

You will need... 2 cardstock (I have used 1 cdstk & 1 mulberry paper) 1 patterned paper Chipboard alphas 3 embellishments (I've used 7Gypsies word stickers, but any will suit) 2 photos - I've used 5 1/2"x4" & 3 1/2"x2 1/2" (the smaller one could be used as journaling)
Look forward to catching up with you 7:30pm Thursday night. Any questions...just ask! Just follow the link to register your interest and join the fun!!!

http://www.foreveralways.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1345

Come and join us they are lots of fun :o)

{Registration finishes today}

2008-06-15T10:55:00.006+10:00

Come and join us for a little family rivalry in the

‘Forever Always Forever Family’ Challenge

We all know how rivalry is strong in Families; well our little family community is about to Search again, for a guest designer! Are you up to the challenge of joining us for this 6 week project, packed with family rivalry? This competition has a benefit, each entrant will get to complete a memento Album, it will run similar to other book of me challenges but this will be a book of FAMILY, as here at Forever Always we pride ourself on being a Family run business, anyone who has been to retreat or attended a 12 hour crop or been apart of our online community can testify to this sense of family. So with this said, we have decided that our mini book project will be titled ‘Forever Always Forever Family’ Each week one of our Design Team Members will run a challenge inspiring you’re to complete a page in your family mini album. As you our family community are what we aim to please here, we want your input in our winning position, so at the end of each week, we ask that you vote on your favourite Participant – when voting, we ask you to consider, the style of the participant, the work involved and the participation {yes chatter} level in the forum. Email your vote for your favourite to info@foreveralways.com.au – this tally will be kept, and occasionally put out there for you to see….after all it’s nice to know where you stand in a competition. The Winner of our competition will be sent a DESIGN TEAM PACKAGE and asked to contribute to the September Newsletter. Good luck and happy scrapping.

The link to the forum is on my side bar.... come over and join the fun ;o)

Here are a some of my LO's that I have done for the Cybercrop this weekend :o)

LAYOUT REMOVED FOR PUBLICATION

The 2 LO's below are from the recipe scrap I did on thursday night :o)

My sister came up from Sydney for the weekend which was great, we had a lovely time making scones as it was so cold outside, felt like something warm to eat. We went to the motel for dinner last night and took Mia with us :o) She was so well behaved... she has been wanting us to take her out to dinner there for ages and now I think she is old enough, she really enjoyed her garlic bread, bruschetta and prawn cocktail, she even ate the lobster off my plate... Mia takes after her mummy and daddy and just loves seafood :o)
Thanks Stacie for a great weekend it was lovely to see you, can't wait to see the photos you and Mia took last night.

Have a good day everyone I am off to the park with the girls.

{Kids say the cutest things}

2008-06-12T08:09:00.003+10:00

This morning Mia woke up a bit grumpy, and didn't want a cuddle from anyone so when she finally wanted a cuddle I picked her up and gave her a cuddle on the lounge.... her head was resting on my chest and after a while she said...... Mummy I can hear music coming out of your booby!!! So cute I told her that it was a heartbeat, and she went OOOOGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH

Scrabooking to share.........

I was hoping to get quite a bit of scrapbooking done last weekend but I didn't get a thing done... so yesterday when Brie had her sleep I got back into it and did some DT work and then the mojo was just flowing so I did this LO of Kristal and Marks wedding. This was one of my fave photos from the day.

This is a Forever Always Newsletter LO

Below is the current monthly sketch at FA.

This is last thursdays recipe scrap that Sharryn did I totally love the LO, I wish I had own my camera when Mia and Brie were tiny babies.

It isn't the best pic of the LO as it was taken at night.

Not much else happening atm, my car is still in Dubbo getting fixed so hopefully it will be ready tomorrow and I might be able to get down to pick it up.

Happy 7th Birthday to Nathan W today too :o)

Forever Always Cybercrop starts to night so come over and join us.... also I will be running the recipe scrap tonight so if you feel like scrapping or chatting tonight here is the link
Have a great day everyone.
Amie xx

{NEW Advertising BLOG}

2008-06-01T17:33:00.002+10:00

well there is a new advertisng BLOG out there...
Check this out....

http://justcallsandcrops1.blogspot.com

Happy to do: DT / GDT Calls Submission Calls Competition Calls Challenge Calls Local Crops Cybercrops Offering: IN ADVANCE advertising, not just on the day ! With daily updates and advertising as needed. And links to Calls and Crops in the US that are mostly open to internationals !

{Another LO accepted for Publication}

2008-05-30T15:37:00.002+10:00

Well today after a bit of a dry spell I have had another LO accepted for publication.... Very excited. I was starting to think it was a bit of a fluke at the start of the year getting those few acceptances....

My LO is going to feature in the Time Gallery in issue SC #60
The funny thing is that I sent it in to them about 3 months ago...

Have a good weekend everyone :o)

{Not Much Happening}

2008-05-28T10:27:00.005+10:00

Hi everyone,

Yes well I have been a slack blogger but there just hasn't been a lot happening in the taylor household of late.....

These are the LO's that I did at the Forever Always Cyber Crop a few weekends ago.

This is the catfish that Mia and I caught the other day when we went fishing, Salt didn't catch a thing... LOL

So just thought I would share some photo's this one is of the girls on Monday afternoon painting each other with makeup. Kept them quiet for quite some time...

I did a photography course a few Sundays ago and it was really great, I learnt heaps and now I just have to put it into practice. mmmmm what else is happening ummmmm Brie is talking sooooo much she can sing songs and everything I can't believe it. Mia was 2 when Brie was born and there was no way that she could talk like Brie. It is really great though because she can tell you what she wants.

Here are a few things that I have heard her say lately.

I loooovvvee you Mia - This happens most day when they wake up.

after I roused on her yesterday as she didn't want to put her pajamas on.. I love you mum!! The little crawler LMAO it was very cute though.

Thats beudiful Mia. -commenting on Mia's colouring yesterday at the library.

I could go on and on here but she just repeats everything you say, or anyone else. She is just loving getting books read to her as well.

Brie is going really well in her new big bed, Grandma brought her a safety rail and I think that has helped as well as she just doesn't get out of it now.

She looks so tiny in the bed.

Mia is going great in her new bed as well we have had 6 nights in a row of going to sleep in her bed and 3 of the 6 night she didn't even come into our bed during the night so that has been great not having any kids in the bed.

I don't think I have shared this photo of Gemma that I took the other day, she is just so gorgeous. Such a happy little baby too.

This is a LO I did for a Recipe Night at Forever Always - Just like the progressive challenges I used to do.

Shock horror I did a double LO yesterday I never do doubles as I pretty much like sticking to one photo per page...

This is my LO for this months 123 Challenge. I really love it.

Tigger had an accident the other day, since it has been cold we have a bar heater that is in our kitchen lounge room. Anyway Brie has been walking past it and having a habit of leaving things in front of it :o( So far she has tried to burn the house down 3 times first it was a pillow which was the quickest to start smoking.... then her princess foam chair and then the other day it was poor tigger. Luckily all three times I have been in the room and noticed the smokish haze coming off things. Tigger's leg got burnt and he now has to wear a bandage. I think it has finally sunk in that you don't leave things near the heater. We would have been in big trouble if it had of wrecked tigger as she takes him everywhere.

Enjoy the rest of you week, I have to get off the puter and clean up this house it is in a terrible mess and I was hoping Salt would be home today to help...he does it so much quicker than me!! But he's not!!

Amie xx

{Mothers Day and My Baby is all grown UP!!!}

2008-05-13T22:36:00.003+10:00

This is my mothers day present from Mia that she made at preschool, she is so cute and has been watering it every few days.

(Me practising my photography skills)

Well it is all a bit sad tonight, My baby is growing up way tooooo fast. Brie decided a few nights ago that she could climb out of her cot. So today I packed her cot up and she is sleeping in a big girls bed. Well it is Mia's bed that we brought her and since she doesn't like using it Brie may as well. Last night I let her go to sleep in Mia's bed but then put her in her cot once she was asleep.
There was no trying to get out she just went straight to sleep and tonight she has done the same thing. So lets hope that continues Mia has gone into our spare double bed so I am hoping she takes a liking to that and starts sleeping in the bed by herself all night.

Can you all notice the liquid paper on Brie's face.... she was very quiet on Thursday and this is what she was doing painting her face.... I got it all off her lips and the rest took about 3 or 4 days to come off her cheeks.

Just thought I would share 2 of my LO's that are in the Forever Always May Mid Month Newsletter, the Pattern Papers are from the new Kaiser range and they are just stunning.

This Thursday night Forever Always Cybercrop is on and it is going to be lots of fun and games.... so why not come over and join us.

{Holidays}

2008-05-03T21:49:00.008+10:00

We had a really great holiday. It was made even better in the fact that Salt's Brother's family were at the Gold Coast with us at the same time so we did all the Theme Parks together. I am so glad because the boys were just awesome with our girls, taking Mia on ride after ride... Salt and I don't really like going on the rides, Salt only went on a few with the girls he said he feels like he is paralysed and nearly wets his pants LMAO!!!!

So we arrived at Burleigh Heads on the sunday after Kristals wedding, we stayed at the Paradise Grove apartments and our apartment was just stunning. It was about 500m to the beach and 200m to all the restaurants which suited us down to the ground, Salt would go down each night and get dinner and bring it back and we would eat on the balcony.

On the Monday we headed to Seaworld, how amazing are the dolphins. At Seaworld we found out Mia has no fear and went on everything she was aloud to go on again and again and again.

Tuesday we went to Wet and Wild but it was pretty cold so the girls didn't get the most out of it. Mia went down this huge waterslide all by herself (well that is what I was told) so the next time she went up I was waiting for her to come down and she didn't next minute I saw her walking back down the ramp. Uncle Dean had pushed her down the first time, and her cousins didn't want to push her down again..... LMAO if I had of known that I would have taken her up myself and given her a little push, cause she really loved it. It was just a bit hard to get going apparently.
On the wednesday it was Salts birthday so we went and had a BBQ lunch with the other Taylors and then went to the beach. I just love the beach, I grew up going to the beach and really miss it. I would love to live near the beach now I think it is a great family day out.

Thursday we went to Movie World, now this was the pick of the parks for the girls ages. Mia even got to go on a roller coaster which yes you guessed it the dare devil loved it and went on it at least 6 times. I just loved the Shrek 4D movie and watched it twice. I even went on the Superman roller coaster it was awesome even though I squealed the whole time and had my eyes shut. Mia and Brie went on everything they could and had a lovely day. Brie's favourite was the cars she could only just reach the pedal.

Friday I took Mia to the movies for the first time ever, we watch Horton hears a WHO... it wasn't that great I think she liked the popcorn the most. I think if it had of been something else she would have liked it more.

Saturday I caught up with Kye and her lovely family, and Salt went and watched the Titans play Canberra.

Sunday we found a gorgeous little walking trail and secluded beach... that we wished we had of found earlier in the week as Salt would have gone down there fishing of an afternoon. But now we know it is there next time I'd say we would spend a fair bit of time there. We all had a great time looking for shells.

Monday we went to Dreamworld, now I think this was the best place for Brie to be able to go on rides, I could take her on a few more rides like the log ride where we got soaked as, and another water raft ride that we all went on.

Tuesday we went on the walking trail again but it rained so we took the girls to the heated pool instead and then headed down to the beach again that afternoon shell hunting.

I would just love to live near the beach again, I got up and walked along the beach of a morning... Maybe I could talk Salt into moving there one day.... what do you think my chances are!!!

Below are some photos, they aren't in any order.

Salt took this pic of Brie and I. I just love the photo I have had it blown up and now I just need to find a spot for it!!

On the last day at Burleigh we found a heated swimming pool Brie loved it and hadn't forgotten how to swim which was great.

How gorgeous is this Tiger :o)

Wags and Mia

Batman and Robin were awesome, they chatted to Andrew and Mia for a few minutes asking them how there day had been before letting me take the photo.

Mia just loves Scooby Doo... (not that you can tell by this photo.) watches it all the time. Scooby was actually in the top of the car and I asked him to get out and have his photo taken with Mia. How nice of scooby. She even had a scooby t-shirt on!!

Love this photo.

Dad, Brie and Henry, Brie wanted to get her photo taken with Henry but was just a bit scared... she was like it with all of the characters.

Brie and Dad watching us on the ride below.

This ride was so much fun even though I am squealing.

Mia and Cat Woman.

Mia and Sylvester.

Mia and Tassie

Happy 36th Birthday Daddy!!!

Uncle Dean and Mia, Mia was a bit hesitant but she got used to after a while and absolutely loved the beach.

Trying to get a family photo.......

The boys playing footy.

Mia on the Beach she just loved the beach.

Brie at Wet & Wild.

Dean, Sonya, Andrew, Mia, Mathew and Joshua having a great time on the Mammoth. Mia loved this waterslide and went down at least 7 times. There would have been at least 200 stairs to climb and it didn't worry her one bit.

Mia's footprints in the sand

Brie in the sand at the pool where Dean and Sonya stayed, she was being cheeky putting sand in the pool.

The Dolphin Show was just stunning to watch, we all loved it.

How beautiful are the Pelicans

Mia on the Pirateship ride, this little girl seriously has no fear. She is with her uncle Dean in the second row.

After the ride.

Joshua & Brie at Seaworld.

{Wedding Photo's}

2008-05-03T20:05:00.005+10:00

Well I thought I should share some of the wedding photos that I took last month. Both Kristal and Mark and Ange and Bushy were really happy with there photos which was a huge confidence boost for me.

Kristal & Marks Wedding

Ange & Bushy's Wedding

Thanks guys for trusting me to be the photographer on such a special day :o) I had an awesome time and it was such a great experience :o)

{Happy Birthday Beautiful Baby Brie}

2008-05-01T19:16:00.003+10:00

Brie turned 2 today.... Happy Birthday to my beautiful baby Brie.

I can't help but call her baby brie LOL anyway she had a great day and is sound asleep in bed :o)