Our little girl turned one a few weeks back in the midst of the chaos, we had to postpone her party for a few weeks so we could catch our breath and I’m so glad we did. It was a lovely warm Sunday afternoon, we invited all of our family and friends around and it was a great celebration.

I wanted to share some photos but no really great photos as I was to busy being host to snap any, so got some off Mum hehe

Here are a few from her actual birthday when family popped in.

Cousin Maddi helping to open presents.

Grace in the cool tunnel her Auntie bought for her.

I went with a ladybug theme for the party.

Here  was the cake that I made.

Our wee princess in her fairy dress and wings

One of Grace’s birthday presents. Maddi figured loved pushing Grace around the back yard and Grace was happy to be the passenger!

Well like some of you, I have let the holiday mode slip into my blogging routine… I have had this post open for several days just sitting here with a title waiting to be written. Thought I better make a start on it! lol

I hope everyone has had a nice break and for those of you still on holiday, good on you!

We had a lovely relaxing break but are now back in the swing of it. Mind you, with being a Mum the work never really ends does it!?! hehe

We spent Boxing day at my sister’s, catching up with Dad and having a sunny BBQ lunch. Was a lovely day just to chill after the nice but chaotic Christmas day. As I said in my last post, I was lucky enough to receive a camera for Christmas so I have taken oodles of photos (can’t wait to get some time to scrap them) over the past few weeks.

Then we were lucky enough to spend several lovely days at Moana (Lake Brunner) on the West Coast where family have a holiday home. My friend Jess came and stayed with us too which was nice. We had stunning weather, which doesn’t always happen on the West Coast (especially when they hear we are heading over!). Unfortunately we had to cut out holiday short as Grace just would not settle there, she woke heaps at night so we decided to come home. Funnily enough she was back to normal the first night back! lol

New Year’s Eve was uneventful for us which was great, in past years there have been dramas that we would rather not have. This year Craig and I stayed home and watched “Sound of Music” :p lol

During our holiday break we had several more BBQ’s and the girls enjoyed there paddling pool on some of the hot days.

We started Grace on solids on Boxing day and she has been going great guns since, it has helped a bit with her night sleeping too. Finally some 7 hour stretch’s! Just had to take this photo of her covered in carrot! lol

Grace caught up on her email! LOL :p Craig was so proud!

We had friends over for a lovely dinner… and I just wanted to share this lovely photo I took of Dad with Grace.

I think that almost covers our holidays… phew now to try and scrap the photos! Hope you are all busy creating? I’m working on a mini album present that I will photograph ASAP and share.

Take Care!

It’s Christmas eve and I’m sitting here watching the end of a favourite Christmas movie "Home Alone", the to-do list has been all crossed off, the festive food is in the fridge, the pressies are wrapped under the tree and I have a nice box of chocolates beside me. What better time to wish each and every one of my loyal blog readers a fantastic and merry Christmas tomorrow. May your day be filled with family, friends, good food, fun and laughter. May you look inside your heart and find something really nice that you can do for a friend or family member tomorrow just to say "I care".

Christmas starts in our family with a midnight Christmas eve carols service at the beautiful stone church at the end of my family’s street. We don’t go to church in our family normally but this service is special. Every year I sit there in the peaceful candlelit church and think how blessed I am to be me. I find it to be the perfect start to Christmas day. It reminds us of the reason for the season and is the perfect time to reflect and centre yourself on what’s important.

Tomorrow we shall start the day with breakfast in bed, lot’s of cuddles with Grace and some pressies for her. Throughout the day we will share the festivities with family and friends and just have a relaxing day. Hopefully the weather will be better than forecast as we decided on a simple BBQ lunch with everyone bringing something. Thank you to everyone who suggested ideas for us, we have taken bits and pieces from the ideas.

Before I buzz off I must share this great little story a friend of mine shared with me. Perfect for us scrapbookers!

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Twas the night before Christmas, I’m glued to the tree. I’m wondering what Santa brought just for me.Could it be cardstock or chipboard or lace? Or a Cricut, I said with a smile on my face.

And that’s when I heard him,"Hi Santa," I said

"You know…good little girls should be in their beds"

"I know I should Santa, and now I’ve got caught. But I was just so excited to see what you brought"

"Well let’s take a look in this room where you work." He shook his head quickly, right and left with a jerk. I heard him exclaim as he put it in gear.

"You’ve got enough crap, I’ll see you next year!"

Well it’s that time again… catch up time! We had a nice weekend, it was pretty good weather and we just enjoyed ourselves. We attended a friends birthday BBQ on Saturday for the afternoon. Grace was fantastic, she was just content playing with her toys, looking around and taking in the party.It’s great that she is getting older enough to be up for a bit longer.

On Sunday we headed to Halswell Quarry Park for Christmas carols, we joined heaps of family’s with picnics enjoy the festivities. It was a lovely sunny afternoon but very windy. They had the boys brigade band to accompany the singing, which was good. Here’s some pictures.

I finally got the Christmas tree and decorations put up. I hate getting it all out and putting it together, but hanging the decorations is fun. I enjoyed unpacking the special little things that have been given to me over the years. I also decided that I seem to have a gingerbread man/house theme going on. Anything to do with baking suits me! hehe Craig liked the tree but had one complaint "No candy canes!?", so I shall have to go shopping for some. Grace likes the colours but was not keen on my singing Snowman ( he’s under the tree in the pic), i turned him on and she got freaked out and started crying.

Lastly here’s a picture of some Christmas cards I made with my Cuttlebug. A very simple design but I think they are pretty cool! Check out this website if you enjoy card making, it’s got loads of brilliant ideas and techniques! I know how much we all like finding new ways to use our Cuttlebug and dies.

 http://www.heartprints.net/

Well I missed last week as the week flew by before I realised it was over so here goes for this week.

1. Woo Hoot to my friend Megan who has FINALLY *wink* got her blog up and running. She is new to this blogging thing so why don’t you pop over and check out her blog. I’m sure she will be a regular blogger as she has always given me heaps when I don’t keep mine up to date! hehe

Check it out here  http://studiomcreations.wordpress.com/

2. My cute as daughter… she really is a funny little munchkin sometimes.

3. Having a lovely BBQ lunch with friends and family on Sunday, it was great to catch up with everyone. Oh and yummy food helps too! hehe

4. Getting myself sorted in regards to Christmas. It really has crept up on me this year. I hope to get the tree up on Friday and have enjoyed checking out the pics of some your Christmas tree pictures. Shall post mine when it’s done.

That’s about it for me, hope you all have a good rest of the week!

Well a little birdie told me that I haven’t been updating my blog enough so here I am with another update 

Firstly I must start with a big "LOVE YOU" to my fantastic husband whom makes my life much easier everyday! I love the support he gives me and how he helps out with Grace. Today is our 2nd Wedding anniversary but we have been together almost nine years!

So to celebrate we left Grace with her Grandparents for the day on Saturday and headed to Hanmer Springs to spend some time together. It was lovely to have some time alone without thinking about nappy’s, feeds and naps etc. We were glad to get back to her by evening though

We stopped for a bagel and coffee on the way, popped into the library where I found some mags for the trip. We arrived Hanmer around lunch time so grabbed a bite and hit the pools. We spent several hours just relaxing and soaking in the atmosphere. A must visit if you are ever in the area! Every time I go they have added something new to the complex. We had a wander around Hanmer, had some dinner then drove home to collect Grace. It is something I think we will be trying to fit in a bit more regularly. The good news too was that Grace was good for Nana and Granddad and they enjoyed having her.

I just crashed yesterday as we have been having a few bad nights sleeps with Grace. She is still waking more times than I would like. I ended up with a headache and feeling ick yesterday so just blobbed all day long. It was just what I needed as today I feel much better.

In other news I got some time out on Thursday to create  with some friends and this is what I came up with in the 3 hours.

Craig’s wedding anniversary card

A cute layout of grace

and this card for Craig’s Nana.

Well I better sign off, I can hear Grace waking. We are visiting an Aged Concern Outing group that I was involved with before I had her and the elderly ladies are all keen to meet her. Enjoy your afternoon!

A big CONGRATS to our great friends Bronnie and Dave, I can’t believe it’s been 3 years since this day!

Happy 3rd Wedding anniversary guys!

All this WOO HOOTING about my week is good fun, if you haven’t tried it give it a go! Makes you realise just how lucky you are…

1. Visiting the Dunkleys Craft show with my sister and friend. It was worth a looksie but there wasn’t anything new so will wait a few more years to go again.

2. The STUNNING weather!! It has been so warm and nice, but I believe we are in for rain. I think for us scrappers it’s a win/win situation because we can enjoy the sun then create when it rains! :p

3. Creating a layout, it’s be awhile. It’s simple but was in the to-do pile of photos.

 4. Completing Grace’s 12 months album up to date. (see other post for photos)

5. Sharing the first BBQ of the season with friends on a glorious sunny Sunday. What a yum spread we were indulged with!

6. Getting out walking on the beach. Note to self - DON’T try to push the stroller over huge sand dunes! It’s jolly hard work hehe

Here we go again, where do the weeks disappear too!

WOO HOOT WEDNESDAY!

1. Milo with marshmallows - My all time favourite treat at the moment!

2. Watching Outrageous Fortune, brilliant NZ tv!

3. The bright Summery colours in the clothes stores, yay Summer must be coming.

4. Seeing how happy Craig was when we celebrated the first Father’s Day as him as a Dad.

5. Spending time with my Mum.

6. Our little Grace is growing everyday and smiling and gurgling more, it’s so much fun to watch!

Last Sunday we had our baby shower, it was great fun! I decided to host it myself as I love doing parties, all the details are fun to sort out. Crazy I know but it’s my thing I had decided that I really wanted to go all out with an afternoon tea, so had a proper tea party. I borrowed old fashioned tea cups from my Nana and Mother in law. We had cake stands and pretty plates with the yummy offerings on them.  I do now understand why those pretty tea cups don’t come out very often, they are tiny,fragile and have to be hand washed!! hehe It all set the tone though so was worth the work, and besides they are so pretty ! As we don’t know the sex of bubs, I made the invites purple and green with butterflies and tried to carry that theme through to butterfly cookie favours. I struggled to find decorations that weren’t themed for boys or girls though. Definitely a niche market there

We played the usual games, pin the baby on the belly, guess the jellybeans in the babies bottle, celebrity parents and their babies and guessing my belly size with toilet paper. They were all a bit of fun, and got everyone laughing.

I used the wee mini album as a guest book and had all the guests guess the weight, date of delivery, the sex and any words of wisdom. It will be a great memento of the shower after I add some pictures from the day to it.

We certainly have some VERY generous friends and family! Craig and I were blown away by the generosity of everyone. We were spoiled and now have many lovely things to use when bubs is born. Amongst the gifts we got many handmade gifts, we got the cutest hand knitted booties, a sleep suit that was handmade, a beautiful cot quilt and also a handmade nappy bag. It’s one lucky little baby to have such loving people around. Thanks to everyone who has spoiled us, we truly appreciate it!

One last picture, here are the cute booties that Craig’s Mum knitted us and the wee set with tassels were very kindly sent to me by Mrs Frizz. It was such a lovely surprise to receive them, thank you so very much Michelle. I will treasure them!