Playing catch-up

Haven't really posted many photos of Joel on here lately (Probably much to my parents misery) so I thought I'd share a few recents.
We went to an indoor playground with playgroup on Monday and Joel loved it. He really loved the ball pit too which is extremely bizarre as he is usually afraid of balls. There were no other kids there so our littlies had free reign. A few of us went up on the big play equipment. Joel loved climbing through the tunnels. He looked so cute (and so small).



And yesterday we went out for afternoon tea with Beth (my sister) to say goodbye - she is off overseas for about 6 weeks. We took a few happy snaps there too - Joel had a baby cino and fairy bread - which he loved (getting all over himself!!)





And we have a new face that is being flashed around quite regularly. We call it The Grump Face. It's usually pulled out when he's being told off or we do something he doesn't like. It's so very hard not to laugh. He was grumpy here cause his little girlfriend Tilly was playing with his fave toy. It's called sharing sweetie!

I have a couple of scrap LOs to share too but I will do that over the weekend sometime. Don't want to overload you with photos.

Till next time!

Quick Update

So I've been MIA for a few days but I have been so busy and Andrew has been sick (gastro -blergh!!) and home for the whole week so it's been crazy around here. So just a quick update and then hopefully a bigger one in the next couple of days.

I didn't make it through to the next Round of Idol. But I am so ok with that. I am just stoked that I got to round 6. I totally wasn't expecting too make it that far at all. But this comp has helped me find my scrapping mojo so that's a big fat positive. Thanks to all of you who voted for me.

I have a couple more LOs to share but need to find time to take pics of them and post them. Maybe on the weekend.

Apart from that, I really have nothing much else to share. Just wanted to let you all know we are still alive (andrew only just!!)

I'll be back later with some photos and other stuff.

A NEW LOOK

Don't flip out and think you are at the wrong blog - it's still Megan here. Just thought I might change up my blog a bit. Found this super cute template and wanted to give it a go. What do you think?? Cute hey!

So I am through to the next round of Idol but they have decided to change the voting for the last couple of rounds and only let those who are active members on their forum (that have had at least 10 posts) vote. So thanks to all you guys that have got me this far. If you really want to become more active in the forum and then vote for me, feel free but I am totally not expecting you too.

But here is my LO anyway. We had to make all our own embellishments. And use metal, plastic and fabric. Talk about a challenge hey. I used bottlecaps, bread tags and some felt on mine. I really like how it turned out.


Joel is walking all over the place now. It's his preferred mode of getting around now. He is such a cute little walker. Really must get some more video and post it on here.
And my birthday is coming up next Saturday - another year older! 29! Getting close to the big 30!

Ooo oo and I had some extremely happy yummy mail this week. On her blog a few weeks back, Jamie Waters (see sidebar) had 2 kits from Work in Progress Kits, to give away all you had to do was leave a comment on her blog. AND I GOT PICKED. Well the kit arrived this week and oh my oh my. It was huge and so pretty. I seriously don't want to use any of the papers. Check it out...

Well that's about it for now. I am going to go and veg on the couch and watch the olympics with Andrew.

Till next time.

IDOL ROUND #5

So it's voting time for Embellished Idol, people. I'll put the instructions on how to do it again and also show you my latest creation.
The criteria this week was to scrap a non-person LO. I channelled my inner girly girl and went we a yummy pink, blingy creation about my love of cupcakes. I am really happy with how it turned out. Hoping others do to!! :)

And a couple of close ups!

Now for the how to (i've just cut and pasted from last week's post!)
1. You have 3 votes so to find the other 2 people you want to vote for go to the Embellished Idol blog link and check out the entries for Round 5
2. Then head over to the Embellished Forum
3. Click on the Round 5 voting option and then at the top of that post is the poll. Vote for your top 3 people (my name is megan_s) and then submit. PLEASE NOTE YOU MUST BE REGISTERED TO THIS FORUM TO VOTE. SO IF YOU AREN'T REGISTERED, PLEASE DO SO - THERE IS A REGISTER BUTTON IN THE TOP RIGHT HAND CORNER OF THE SITE PAGE. ANYONE CAN REGISTER - YOU DON"T HAVE TO BE A SCRAPBOOKER!!
4. If you are looking to find people to vote for, my friend Jodi from mothers group is also in this competition. Her username is batnbub so feel free to throw a vote her way.

So there you go, if you are still having trouble voting, leave a comment and I'll try and help you out.

Thanks again for all your support guys. I appreciate it.

Till next time, stay positive and (vote fore me! LOL)

Thankyou

Well I am through to Round 5 of Embellished Idol. Thanks to any of you that voted for me. I am very grateful
This won't be long as Joel is asleep and it's a good chance to do the next LO for Idol!! We have to do a LO without any people on it. I have an idea churning and am hoping it turns out how I see it in my head!! LOL

Just wanted to share a bit of neice love - this is my totally gorgeous neice Sadie (who is almost 7 weeks old!!) Joel and I spent the day with Clare and Sadie on Tuesday while we had a termite treatment done at our house. I caught this sweet little smile on camera. Almost makes me clucky again (but not quite!)

Till next time

Another round of Embellished Idol

Well thanks to those that voted for me, i got through to the next round of Idol (by the skin of my teeth!!).
This round we had to attach everything to our page with stitching - title, photos, embellishments.

Here is my LO for this round

So here's how to vote for me (cause I would really appreciate that!! ha ha ha ha)
1. You have 3 votes so to find the other 2 people you want to vote for go to the Embellished blog link and check out the entries for Round 4
2. Then head over to the Embellished Forum.
3. Click on the Round 4 voting option and then at the top of that post is the poll. Vote for your top 3 people (my name is megan_s) and then submit. PLEASE NOTE YOU MUST BE REGISTERED TO THIS FORUM TO VOTE. SO IF YOU AREN'T REGISTERED, PLEASE DO SO - THERE IS A REGISTER BUTTON IN THE TOP RIGHT HAND CORNER OF THE SITE PAGE. ANYONE CAN REGISTER - YOU DON"T HAVE TO BE A SCRAPBOOKER!!
4. If you are looking to find people to vote for, my friend Jodi from mothers group is also in this competition. Her username is batnbub so feel free to throw a vote her way.

Again, thanks for all your support. Would love to stay in this comp as long as possible.

As for other stuff happening around here, poor little Joel has croup! So the last couple of nights have been pretty sleepless for all of us. But he is on the mend - not sounding like a dog anymore.
Apart from that, life is normal and good.

Anyway, i really should try and get a super early night.

Till next time, VOTE FOR ME!!! Hee hee!!

Embellished Idol and a little catch-up

I mentioned a few weeks back that I was entering a competition called Embellished Idol. Well we are up to Round 3 and I am still in it. I would love to continue on in the competition but I need your help. I would love if you would vote for me. First of all, you'll need to register at the Embellished Forum then you can vote. You click on the Round Three button and it will show the list of participants. Choose your top 5 - feel free to vote for me LOL and my friends Jodi (batnbub) and Danni as well.
If you want to get a look at the participants entries, head to the Embellished Idol Blog.
Down the left hand side you will see a folder called Round 3 - there are pictures of all the projects for Round 3.
Our task this week was to scrap a life motto, but we were not allowed to scrap on cardstock.
I went with a canvas and was pretty happy with how it turned out.

The following two LOs are my pieces for Rounds 1 and 2.

As for the rest of the life, all is well. Joel is still tottering around. He doesn't actively walk yet - he won't initiate the walking but if we stand him up, he'll walk to us or to the couch. Still very cute!
Andrew is well and truly back into the swing of school and already looking forward to the next lot of holidays!! Work for me is going well as well.

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of my Nanna's passing and it still seems quite surreal that she is not here. I miss her so very much and often think of how she would react to things or what she would say in certain situations. She would have loved watching Joel grow up. To make sure we remembered Nanna, my sisters and I got together for lunch. It was nice to catch up and remember Nanna. We were actually talking about the photo above, saying that is was so her. She was making her yummy pasties and she still had she still managed to be wearing her pearls.

I really need to finish up.
Till next time, don't forget to vote for me!!

Joel's First Steps

This happened at our house tonight.
We are all very excited!!!

A photo missing

So after I posted my last blog post with all the pics of Joel's party, Andrew was looking through and was a little disheartened that there wasn't a pic of him and Joel in there (I'm sure I put on in the collage but it's not there now). So for Andrew's sake here is a pic of Joel and his Daddy (not a super great photo but a photo all the same!) And also a few extra photos that my friend Marina had on her computer.

Joel and Daddy

Thinking hard about what to play with next!!

The sisters, Joel and my neice Jessie

Joel's fave thing to do - push stools and chairs around!

The beautiful little Sadie

As for the nurse visit, Joel is growing along nicely. Still a littley but that's ok with me! He now weight 8.5kg and is a whole 6cm longer than he was in March!!! He's now 74cm long. The nurse said he is doing brilliantly and that's all I wanted to hear so we are happy.

That's all for now. I'm off to eat another cupcake!!!!
Till next time

In the jungle the mighty jungle....

So we survived the first birthday party. We are all so tired and full but happy. It was a great day. Lots of people, laughs, food, presents (lots of those!!!!). Poor little Joel woke up with the killer of all blocked noses and a very husky little voice (AGAIN!!!!) but he was a trooper and the party went on. He was a little clingy for most of it but loved the present opening time. He was totally totally spoilt. So much stuff - we seriously look like we have robbed a toy shop. You can see his mother load of presents in one of the last photos. CRAZY CRAZY. Just wanted to share some pics of Joel's special day with you all.

A photo of Joel's present from my Mum and Dad - a Thomas the Tank engine babushka - all the way from Russia. Cute, hey!!

I need to go to bed now! We are off to the Maternal Child Health Nurse tomorrow for Joel's 12 month check up so I'll post the big stats (more for mum and dad and my own records!!)

Till next time

Just a quickie (as my Dad would say!)

In the midst (love that word) of party prep which is going really well - I am totally baking up a storm and am slightly worried about the big job of making the cake this afternoon but just wanted to let you all know we are still here and alive

Will be back in the next couple of days for a party wrap up and I think it may be time for a header change as well.

Also tomorrow, I'm starting Embellished Idol - a scrapbooking comp run by the Embellished Shoppe. I am super excited about it. Look forward to sharing more next week

Till next time.

1 today

This time last year I was laying in a hospital bed, holding my newborn son and feeling a little sore but so very proud of myself. Yes that is right - Joel is 1 today. Can you believe? I really can't. This year has seemed to fly by and I know I sound old saying that, but it's so true. I've been going back to July 2nd 2007 all day today, remembering what happened, how it all unfolded and the awesomeness (is that a word??) of the day - forgetting all the pain and yucky stuff of course. It still seems so fresh in my mind. But a lot has happened since then, and my little Joel is growing up. He makes me laugh at least once a day (and often makes me cry too! LOL). He amazes me the way he is constantly changing and learning and I cannot wait for the next year to unfold and see what he has in store for us. I am loving the journey of motherhood, and could not have asked for a more perfect first child.

Joel joel, I love you sweetpea and I'm so excited to continue to see you grow into an awesome little boy. Big smooshy kisses and snuggles.

I was going to share a few pics of his first year, but being a typical first time mum, there were too many to choose from so I did a little collage up in Picasa. Hope you get the gist. The last few were taken at our Mothers Group birthday party last week - Joel really really loved his first cupcake!

We are having a party on Sunday so I will be back hopefully on Monday, to share photos and a rundown of the shindig!

Thankyou all for sharing this journey with us.

Till next time

Meeting Sadie

Joel and Sadie meeting for the first time

Welcom Sadie Joy Reeve

I have a new niece. Her name is Sadie Joy and she is beautiful. She was born this morning at 12:30am via C-Section. 8lb 2oz, 49cm long. My sister Clare is doing so well and as is her hubby Matt. We went and saw them tonight and she is just beautiful. So much hair and gorgeous squishy smooshy cheeks.

Thought I'd upload some videos of her for my mum and dad and also some pics!

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