Christmas Day in the Skipper Household.

We had an amazing Christmas Day!

The first miracle of the day was I SLEPT IN!!! I NEVER sleep in on Christmas Day - I am usually up at the crack of dawn, too excited to sleep. I thought I would show you a few snippits of our day:

When I got up, Milly dashed out after me, and she found one of her presents before we had a chance to give it to her. I had to chase her back out to Daddy until everyone was awake and ready. She cried and cried - heartbroken because this "little" In The Night Garden character had to be left where she found him:



Mop appeared bleary eyed:


EJ was thrilled with his "big" christmas present:


Mop's new piece of real estate:


and something Mummy made:


EJ sporting the latest in hair-do's:




EJ was thrilled with the totem tennis:


The Christmas Table:


My glorious ham that I baked:


Mum and Dad opening up their gift boxes that replaced Bonbons this year:


2, 4, 6, 8 - bog in don't wait!



Granny and Grandad celebrated Christmas with us which was really lovely:


MORE presents:






Exhausted, Milly makes good use of her Christmas present - an Iggle Piggle sofa:

2010 is but a heartbeat away

Hello everyone!!

In just over 7 hours, 2010 will be upon us. I am excited! I always love a New Year. I am just hoping and praying that 2010 will be alot better than 2009 was for us.

I always have New Years Resolutions - and almost always keep them. The only one I seem to never get around to doing is losing weight. Meh... I'm past caring at this point. Yes, I am fat. I don't have the energy to deal with that at the moment. I am not going to actively try this year.

What I AM going to try and do is:

1. OPERATION GREEN LAWN.
The drought and lack of time has made our garden look terrible! Our lawn is in terrible shape, and the kids are now having to deal with prickles and weeds and rock hard lawns, instead of the green, lush and softness under their feet. So Daz and I are going to be focussing on making our lawns amazing. I dont' plan on watering them anymore, I'll continue to use grey water, but I plan to condition the lawn. I want our yard to look amazing in the lawn department!!

2. SPEND LESS MONEY ON FABRIC.
This year I want to buy the bare minimum on fabric and start using up my meagre stash. I want to put as much money as possible into paying for our swimming pool that EJ needs - and if that means sacrificing in other areas, I'll do it. I'll still be sewing and creating, but I'll be using up my scraps and fabric stash. I have a list of projects to do on Creative Expressions which I can't wait to get stuck into. :)

3. SPEND LESS TIME ON FACEBOOK.
This is a perfect waste of time. My new rule is that I don't go on it at all until the housework is done and my uni-work is done. Not before. I seem to check it alot and then end up sitting there for half an hour looking around on FB - when really I should be spending my time more profitably. What does looking around FB acheive? Does it change the world? No. It's a waste of life.

4. START DEVELOPING MY PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS
I have an amazing camera. Why not learn to use it well? I want to take amazing photos, not just happy snaps. I want to be good at photography. So I want to learn to use my camera and learn the art of taking good photos.


Have a very happy new year, lets hope that 2010 is an amazing year for all of us!

xx Skipper

Not exactly dinner conversation...

Tonight we had dinner with Daz's parents celebrating Christmas. Within ten seconds of sitting to the table, EJ spilled his drink all over himself and all over the table and all over the floor. He was horrified poor child. Luckily Grandma got him some cool new clothes, so we stripped him down and got him into clean clothes and back to the table again. 10 minutes later Grandma knocked Grandpa's drink over, and EJ thought that was hillarious!!

Anyway... my point.....

At the end of the meal, EJ was slowing considerably. He had eaten a big tea, a big bowl of Christmas pudding icecream and was finishing off his cheesecake. Grandpa asked him if he was kitty's bow (which means full up to the neck) EJ didn't know what that meant, but he said he was full.
"Full up to the top?" Grandma asked
"Yes, up to my neck!" EJ said. Then proceded to say: "But it will go into my tummy then fall out the bottom!"

Grandma looked at me, her eyes twinkling. I snorted and sputtered, trying to swallow the bubbles of uncontrollable laughter rising in my throat. She went red, trying not to laugh. I started laughing silently - well... more like wheezy laughing. Grandma cacked herself. I cacked myself. Daz stared at us in confusion, since he had missed the comment and tried to work out what we were laughing at. We laughed harder and harder... finally Grandma managed to say, inbetween squeals of laughter what he had said. EJ looked at us as if we were nuts.

I love how kids think!!

Will be back next week with Christmas '09, but right now I need to hit the hay. It's a big day tomorrow.

Merry Christmas everyone!

From my heart to yours

To my dear readers - have a very Merry Christmas and I will see you in the new decade! :)

With love from Skipper

Happy Birthday to me!

Yesterday I turned the big 31.



I had such a lovely day! In the morning I woke to the sounds of my 2 year old chattering at the top of her lungs in excitement - in came Daz with the kids. Mop had made me breakfast - which consisted of toast and marmalade. She made it - all by herself!! I could get used to this!! LOL. Daz brought in my coffee. Milly handed me by card and EJ and Daz gave me a bag of lovely gifts: a new Sims game, the latest book by Paulina Simmons (my FAVE author!!), a beautiful watch with a pink band and a silver and pink butterfly in the face, and a new purse.



I got a barrage of text messages from friends and family wishing me a happy birthday. Then Robynne dropped in with her kids, giving me a big BEAUTIFUL bunch of pink gerberas and birthday cake. Later in the afternoon my Mum and Dad dropped in with three storage boxes for my craft room, with all sorts of bits and bobs, individually wrapped inside. I got bath stuff, smelly stuff, fat quarters (which I am secretly screaming on the inside with sheer excitement because these will make up a gorgeos quilt for myself see HERE for more about that.) and other things. Milly has taken a liking to my slippers that came in the box and I keep finding them in various places in the house.



Then in the evening Kym and Scott came for a BBQ dinner which Daz cooked - I prepared the salads - and we hung out with them over some beautiful wine and board games! Kym bought me a birthday cake - a chocolate mud decadent melt in your mouth cake! Yummm!! They made me laugh so hard my stomach was cramping. It was such a wonderful evening.

So over all, it was a wonderful birthday! I had a very happy day. Even though I felt like I had razor blades in my throat - I still had a wonderful and happy day!

So that's that over.... bring on Christmas!!

New tooth = entitled to vote??

I was digging out the sheets from the washing machine and I overheard Mop saying this:

"Milly look!! I've got an adult tooth coming through! That means I'm an adult!"


Ummm...
No.
Not quite.
A little way to go yet.

History does indeed repeat itself.

Mop came running into me, panic in her voice, tears threatening to spill:
"Mummy! My tooth has gone down the sink!!!"

I snorted.
I giggled.
I laughed.
I roared.

She started to cry.

I laughed even more.

I'm not evil I promise.

"Can you get my tooth???"

Seriously, 24 years earlier another little girl came running into HER Mummy crying - "My tooth fell down the sink!! Can you get it!!"
And HER unsympathetic Mother suggested she call "Sue Ridge" (Sewerage for those not accustomed to the corny jokes that come from this particular mother.)

Both little girls lost their tooth down the drain. Both little girls cried. Both little girls are mother and daughter.

"I was trying to wash it!!" protested Mop as she walked away, very sad that her first tooth had gone down the drain forever.

Welcome to our family...

..baby Eva.

Born Wednesday 9th December - a new niece!!





I met her today for the first time. I had to be 100% sure I was over my tummy bug AND not be at awards nights! LOL.

Unless I have a "little whoopsie" - Eva will be the baby of the family. No more nieces or nephews for me. No more grandchildren for my Mum. And what a special little moppet she is!

Toothless Fairy

 

Mop came in, complaining that her tooth was really wobbly and annoying her.
"Pull it out then" I said - not very sympathetically I might add.
She looked at me, her voice starting to wobble, tears threatening to spill.
"Will it hurt?"
"A little bit." I replied.
"How do I do it?"
"Well... " and I tried to explain
"Can you do it?" she asked

Ahhh my specialty! I used to pull my brother's teeth for them when I was a kid. I sent her off to get some tissues - to her horror, to mop up the blood.

She opened her mouth, trustingly.
I looked at the tooth, and felt a tad queasy. What was wrong with me?? It was very loose.
"Try pushing it back a bit"
So she did.
Her eyes widened. I saw a little blood spill onto her lip, a second later she laid on my palm a slightly bloodied milk tooth. She did it!! She rinsed her mouth out then came back to claim the tooth. She pulled her own first tooth out, she didn't cry and she's excited about the cash that is coming her way!!!

She's very proud of her gap!! She's walking around the house now bearing her teeth for all to see!

End of year

Today marked the end of the school year for EJ and Mop. We were very pleased with their report cards that came home and are excited and proud to see such excellent results from them both.

Tonight Mop had her award presentation evening, and she got two awards - scripture memorisation and Highest Acheiver in Core Studies (which is Maths, English, Science, Spelling) So another tropy to add to the cabinet. :) We are very proud of her.

We are looking forward to lazy summer days ahead of us, where we can hang out together instead of rushing to and from school pick ups.

I shall be sharpening my knives....

Tonight as I was walking out of the building where the awards presentation evening was held, one of Mop's classmates came bounding up to her.
"Mop! Guess what?????"
Mop smiled, "What??"
"My brother LOVES you!!!!"

I glanced over at the boy who was grinning his toothless grin, and called out something to Mop. Where was the denial? Where was the punching his sister for telling such lies??? There was none! He just stood there grinning at her. He's got it bad.... a year three boy smitten with our Mop.

Daz in his usual dry humour asked how many cows will we get?

I mentally made a note to start equipping myself with skills on how to deter boys.

*sigh*

Check this out!!

Look at this amazing creativity. This isn't my own, this is my sister-in-law's handiwork - Deb. She is sooo clever in face painting!! Anyway the other day at my niece's birthday she painted Mop's face and I could not get over how stunning it made her look and made her blue eyes "pop" so I took pics.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

2 years ago

... Milly Moo was born. A beautiful, sweet, blue eyed fairy princess.


























Happy birthday Milly Moo. We love you so much! You fill our lives with so much joy and happiness. You are an amazing little person, so compassionate, kind and unbelieveably cute!

It's gone...

Just in case you are wondering where my weight loss journal has gone - I have deleted it. It's a joke really - I don't have the time nor the ability to focus on myself at this time. At the moment my life is my son.

:)

My heart is flowing over...

My heart nearly burst today, because it's so full of these beautiful little people.
















Yes I do love Mop as well... but she was very busy praticing piano while these cheeky two worked the camera.