A week long tomorrow.

Tomorrow hey, I'll be back to update tomorrow. Pfft!! What a slacker hey.
Well I'm about a week overdue for this update but better late than never as they say.
Life is finally starting to return to some sort of normalcy around here. Andrew's reports are done and Joel and I are over all the sickness that's been running rife through us. We have pretty much written May off - a bout of gastro each and two colds for us. Hopefully that will be it for the year!! I think we've had our fair share of the lurgies.

Some exciting news for me - I got a job!! I've been looking for a part time job for a few weeks now. One where I can still spend most of the day with Joel. Got a position with a organisation called Australian Homecare. It's run by the MS Society and it provides homecare/personal care for clients in their own homes, who struggle with a range of issues, such as MS, intellectual disability, physical disability, etc.. So I will be doing shifts mainly in the afternoons and on weekends. I'm excited about it but also very nervous as it's been a good 5 years since I've done anything like this. I have an induction/orientation morning tomorrow. So yeah. Cool for me, hey!

Apart for the sickness, Joel is doing really well and is constantly making me smile and laugh with his funny little antics. Some of the things he enjoys doing at the moment is going into our bedroom and standing up at the window (on his tippy toes - so cute) and looking out on the world. He's fascinated by it.

He also enjoys putting anything and everything into his mouth - toys, leaves, little bits of dirt, fluff, newspaper, the phone book. I've never vacuumed so much in my life (which presents another problem, as Joel is frightened of the vac cleaner!)
He's growing up ever so quickly and in 2 weeks today will be 1!! ONE!!! WHAT!!! Have no idea where the last year went. We are having a little party for him - going to have a bit of a jungle theme, like his room so I am busying myself with little details and preparations for that.

I've discovered a new scrapbooking website - Aussie Scrapbooking. Such a cool website with lots of great giveways, info and pretty things to look at. I won this Scenic Route prize pack there last week. I got it in the mail yesterday and it is so yummy.

Have managed to fit a bit of scrapbooking in. Spent Saturday night with some of the girls from Scrapniques, That was heaps of fun - only managed to get one LO done. Really need to learn to
scrap and talk at the same time!

That's about it for now. I really want to try and update more (but I'm not making any promises)

Till next time

Hello anyone there!!

We're still here and alive. Haven't had much access to the computer as Andrew is in the midst of report writing. But I promise to get on here tomorrow and do a bit of an update.

Till tomorrow my pretties

Some scrapbooking shares

I've finally done some scrapping over the last few weeks. Feels good to make stuff again. Just wanted to share the stuff I've done.

This one is about Joel's little baby mullet. It's gone now :(

All about Joel (aren't they all!!!) and what he's eating at the moment.

My little Mama's boy at the moment. Awesome photos by the most awesome Katie Toland!

A little LO about Andrew and his want for Joel to support the West Coast Eagles.

I did this LO for a Challenge over at Country Scrapbooking. Needed to use a She quote.

Joel and I both have colds at the moment and my poor little sweetpea has two more teeth coming through either side of his top front teeth. He's been getting it from all sides this month - gastro, cold, teeth. So much for the non sick week!! So we've been laying low this week, staying inside and warm and Vicksed up - love that stuff.

Anyway, Joel is asleep so I am going to try and do some more scrapping. And Andrew needs to jump on the computer to do reports - erghhhh!!

Can't leave without a pic of the little dude. He's loving the bath and swimming and water in general at the moment. He loves to splash. I took this photo mid splash and think it's pretty funny!!

Till next time

Teeth and swings

Life has been busy and crazy the last few weeks. Joel and i got gastro last week, my sisters and I went to a taping of Deal or No Deal (no money was won by us but we each opened a case!! BIG DEAL hey!). My sister Clare had her baby shower on Saturday - my other sister Beth and I organised it. It went super well, if I do say so myself. So I'm looking forward to a few less crazy, non-sick weeks ahead!!

Just came on to share a few pics of Joel (especially for my M&D, but really for everyone's viewing pleasure). Can't believe he is going to be 1 in 7 weeks. Probably should start thinking about a party for him!!

The first pics are of Joel on his swing which is hanging from a tree in our backyard. He LOVES going on it. His little face just lights up and he giggles away. The dogs come and hang round too and he loves them too.

The last couple of pics are a couple that I snapped today. We didn't have any shots of his little bottom teeth and now the top two have come through and I managed to catch these shots without being too blurry.

I'll leave it at that.

I've been tagged and I'll get to that tomorrow or Friday!!

Till next time!

I'm still here

Well it's been awhile so I thought I should update my blog. A bit has happened since I was on here last. Firstly, Andrew's nan in Tassie passed away so we had an unexpected trip to the Apple Isle last weekend. I hadn't actually ever met her, but heard many great stories about her. Andrew hadn't seen her in over 9 years, so that's a bit sad. Although we were in Tassie for a funeral, we managed to have quite a good time. It was great to meet some of Andrew's family that I haven't yet met, and it was nice to be away from the house for a bit and we even did a couple of holiday type things. We were staying across the road from the beach, so we took Joel there (he's never been before) and he was totally transifxed by the ocean. He couldn't take his eyes off it. We also took a trip to the Burnie Cheese centre (sounds boring but I was only there for the tastings!! and they were definitely worth it!) and we also checked out a little gourmet chocolate factory called the House of Anvers. Very cute and super yummy chocolate.

One of the other bonus whilst we were in Tassie was that Andrew's sister and her daughter Jessie were staying with us. Joel loves Jessie. I mean LOVES her. And Jessie loves hanging around Joel, playing with him, making him laugh. She is such a little mother to him. Was awesome to know that she was there to keep him entertained

Joel certainly enjoyed a little bit of chocolate pudding at one of our dinner's out. The next couple of days I certainly did not enjoy the nappies he was producing!!

One of the "FUN" things about staying in a motel - no bath so the sink had to do. Joel had great fun trying to escape on us.

Joel's top two teeth are pretty much bulging out of his gums, poor little love so he's fave thing at the moment is this teething ring. Bet it feels good to chew on

What else is new? I can't think. It's been so long. That'll do for now. There is plenty to read and look at.

Hoping that I can stay a little bit more on top of the blogging. And hoping to have some scrapbooking to share soon too.

Till next time

Joel laughing at himself

My mum and dad gave us a voucher for Christmas to have lunch at the Langham Hotel here in Melbourne. Very la di da. More about that later but I wanted to share a little clip of Joel while we were there. This is his new little laugh thing that he has started doing.

Joel Crawling

Just a few things...

..... I wanted to share with you.

The post above is a little video of Joel crawling (love that you can hear his little hands slapping on the floorboards before you can see him). He is getting everywhere now, following us around all over the house. He crawls out to the front door when Andrew gets home. It's so cute.
He's started pulling himself up onto his feet now!! AHHHHHH!! It's all going a bit quick for me. Soon he'll be going to Uni!Joel and I went to Crop for Kids on Saturday. Big scrapbooking day to raise money for the Royal Childrens Hospital. Didn't get much scrapping done but I had a ball anyway. Joel was so good. Played happily on the floor for most of the day and hardly heard a peep out of him. Jane Fitchett from Crafty Matters snapped a couple of cute photos of him - Katie Toland was holding him. Is he not the cutest little boy ever!

School holidays start over the Easter weekend so I'm sure Joel will love having Andrew around a bit more (I will too!!)

That's all for now. Hope you all have a safe Easter break, and that sometime over the weekend you remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us.

Till next time.

Andrew swims too!!!

Just thought I would share some pics of Andrew and Joel at swimming together. I really am blessed to have an awesome hubby who is a wonderful Dad and who Joel just adores. The first two pics are of Joel going underwater for the first time. He did so well.
Also, we now have a full-blown crawler in our midst. Joel is on the move now. So scary that I can't just put him down and know he'll be in the same spot! DOH!! No it's good - he is so pleased with himself. He is constantly looking over at me and smiling as if to say "How good am I Mum." He's just so cute!

I'll have to capture some crawling on video and load on to here in the next couple of days. He has a great little style!

So that's the news from the Spinks' house! I'm hoping to get some scrapbooking done over the long weekend (gotta love a 3 day weekend although it doesn't really make much difference to me - but it's good for Andrew to have an extra day off)
And I am totally excited about Crop for Kids next weekend. Should be an awesome event to raise money for the Good Friday Appeal.

Anyway, that's all for now. Till next time

Scrapniques Guest Design Team Layouts

A couple of weeks back I was asked by the lovely Danni at Scrapniques if I would be a guest DT member and use their March Kit "Grandma's House". It is full of such gorgeous stuff and I was so excited to be able to use them for some LOs.
Here are the four I made with stuff from the kit (and I still have leftovers!! Gotta love a kit like that). The first two are using photos from our photoshoot with Katie Toland when Joel was only 1 month old.








Thanks for looking and go and check the kit out at Scrapniques and also their forum is so friendly as well.

Till next time

The next Ian Thorpe

We took Joel swimming for the first time last Saturday. He was a little unsure, didn't cry or anything but was just a little stunned. It was lots of fun though. I'm sure he'll grow to love it. We are attending lessons on Saturday mornings so Andrew and I are going to alternate going in the pool with him. There were lots of other Dads there - in fact there were only 2 of us chicks in the group of about 9 so I was very impressed at all the dad participation.
Apart from that, not a whole lot has been happening around here. Just day to day stuff. I've been trying to get some scrapping done - somedays I am successful, others I am not. Managed to do this LO of Joel's first bath at home, last week so I thought I'd share it. He was so tiny and skinny. Awwww so sweet!
Done a bit more scrapping stuff this week but I can't share it just yet as it's for a guest design team spot (woohoo) but I'll share the stuff next week and also tell you where you can get the gorgeous kit. Some seriously yummy stuff in this one.

Anyway, that'll do for now. I really need to keep this a bit more updated with photos and stuff, especially for mum and dad. Sorry guys. I'll try harder.

Till next time

Man boobs, teeth and scrapbooking

My little skinny boy is plumping up. We officially have mini man boobs now. I am so proud!! Gotta love baby boosies.
Life has been good. Andrew is back at work now so Joel and I have been adjusting to it just being the two of us during the day. Joel was looking around a bit on the first couple of days, trying to find Andrew, which was very cute.


We have our first tooth poking through. Would love to take a piccie of it but he won't let me get near his mouth and if I manage to pry it open his little tongue shoots out, covering the tooth. But it's there. He's done really well so far. Been a little bit grizzly but has really been a trooper through it all.
Joel's really sitting up well now too and it so close to crawling. He can move himself backwards, he just has to work out the forwards thing! I know one of these photos is out of focus but it's still so cute so I had to share.

And I've finally done some scrapbooking. Seems like ages since I did an actual page. Really want to get stuck into it. Have so many photos of Joel I want to scrap. But my first page for ages was one about me!! For a challenge on the Scrap of Faith website. It's about God's plan for me in 2008.

Anyway, that's enough for now.

Till next time.

I've discovered Picasa

It's certainly been awhile between posts. Not a whole lot to tell really. We've been enjoying Andrew's holidays - relaxing, watching DVDs, scrapping (me not Andrew) playing with Joel, surfing the net.
On my wanderings around the world wide web, I discovered Picasa. It is totally the coolest. For those not in the know, Picasa is a photo organisational and editing tool. I made the collage below with the click of a button. Very cool. And so much easier than trying to do it all in Photoshop.
And the other bonus is it's hooked up with Blogger so I posted the pic straight from Picasa. So cool. Mum and Dad, you should totally download this. So to show off my Picasa find, I've made a little collage below of a few recent shots of the lovely Joel. Still totally in love with him and ever the smitten kitten.

Andrew is back at school next week so that should bring a little more normalcy and routine back into our lives. Joel is totally going to miss him when he goes back to work. When I am feeding, he is constantly stopping and looking around for Andrew. If he sees him, he cracks the biggest grin. So cute.
I went and saw my first movie post Joel on Monday. Took my niece. We were going to see Enchanted which I've been hanging to see. But it was sold out!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! So we saw Alvin and the Chipmunks instead, which was very cute. Andrew's told me to go to the movies by myself tomorrow (before he goes back to work) so I might go and check out 27 dresses.

Anyway, I better go do some housework before the little dude awakes.

Till next time

Goodbye 2007, Hello 2008

What a year 2007 was for my family. This time last year I was 13 weeks pregnant and thinking that having a baby would be the only big thing to happen in 2007. How wrong I was.

Joel came along on July 2nd and life has not been the same since and I wouldn't change a minute of it. I love him to bits and am truly enjoying all that motherhood brings.

3 weeks after Joel was born, my nanna passed away. I miss her so much and know that she would have enjoyed watching Joel grow up.

And then my parents moved to Moldova. I sometimes still can't believe it's a country!! LOL. But they are loving it over there. I miss them heaps too though.

We had a great New Years Eve. I made cupcakes and a whole heap of our friends got together at Scott & Kathryn's house (Joel's godparents) We ate food, chatted, played Taboo, sweated and melted!! It was 41 degrees here in Melbourne on NYE and New Years Day. So hot. Bring on winter please. Joel is doing really well in the heat - he's not a huge fan of the heat but he's coping brilliantly.

He has become so very noisy and talkative over the last couple of weeks. Lots of squealing and raspeberries and little laughs. He cracks me up all the time. I'll have to capture some on video and share it with you all. It really is cute.

Andrew is still on school holidays so we are spending lots of time together. It's great to have him around to help out with Joel. We made a trip into IKEA on Friday. I seriously love that place. We bought a storage unit/bookcase for the lounge and some baskets for it, to store some of Joel's toys in. Had my swedish meatball fix for lunch - YUM!! Our friends Marina and Peter and their little boy Samuel came along as well. Joel and Sam loving playing with each other and I think they both enjoyed their first IKEA experience.

Been doing some organizing/purging/sorting/tidying around the house. Feeling the need to declutter and simplify. Done Joel's wardrobe and drawers, my scrapbooking cupboard. Want to get the linen closet (scary!!) and the pantry done before Andrew goes back. Nothing like a good clean out and clean up to start the new year.

Joel has his 6 month check-up tomorrow. Can't wait to see how he's progressing. He has gotten really long and he's certainly getting heavier. We've started giving Joel some tastes of foods. He's a bit freaked out by it all - pulls these little faces as if he's eaten a lemon or something sour. So funny. He's tried rice cereal, apples and pear so far. He looks so little sitting in the high chair.

So that's about it from around here. Still very much in relaxation/holiday mode and loving it. Might do some more baking and scrapbooking over the next couple of weeks. Will share any LOs as I go.

Till next time.