Getting my sewjo back!

So, it's been a while since I last posted!! 2 months in fact!!

We've had two birthdays since then! Elise is now 2 and Taylor is now 9 - where oh where did that time go?? I can't believe it's almost a decade since I found out I was pregnant with Taylor! Will post some pics of their birthdays a bit later :)

Today, (well, all week really) I've been getting inspired to get back into my sewing! The drawback to that is that my sewing area - whilst I do actually have a designated sewing area - is not in the least organised or unpacked from our move!! So what's a girl to do? I rummaged in the boxes to find what I wanted and got to sewing hehe. The lazy me is still alive and well!

So, today I've made Ellie two outfits :) I think they may end up forming part of her Christmas presents.

I bought this flower print at spotlight ages ago with Donni! Only $2/m from memory and I had 2m of it so will be making either a skirt or pants for Taylor as well as another skirt for Ellie (one with pockets I think!). It is the first yoyo I have made and I'm ok with how it turned out. Would have preferred it smaller but couldn't be bothered undoing it :P I picked some shirts up for Ellie from Best and Less for only $3 each and I might have to go back and get some more in larger sizes I think!

The first outfit

The second

This fabric I actually bought to make something for Taylor.... shhhhh don't tell her!! hehee This yoyo is much smaller and suits the size of the button MUCH more!

Tomorrow after teeball, I'll endeavour to sort out some more of my stuff so I can get cracking on some pants! I didn't want to get my patterns out without unpacking properly! I can feel a pile of summery pants for Ellie coming along!! I also have a few pieces of fabric set aside for pj pants (lightweight cotton) so will get onto them in the near future too :)

And with that, I'm off to watch The Backup Plan before hitting the hay :)

19 weeks 3 days

Yay, we are petty much at the half way point! :)

Here is a pic of my belly at 13 and 18 weeks (didn't take one this week)

I haven't put on any weight so far which I'm happy about :) Fingers crossed I can keep it that way!

We had our big scan on Tuesday and all went well! We had all the kids with us which was just so much fun lol. I don't think we could ever take enough food with us to keep them happy for an hour! Both babies measuring a week ahead which is great :) I'm hoping that we won't end up with two 9lb+ babies but it is entirely possible!

We got a few pics to share and found out that we are expecting a boy and a girl :) Taylor is decidedly happy!! She was almost petrified that she would end up with another two "annoying brother" hehehe. I may have been nasty and told her it's two boys :P I did however tell her the truth and she is now ecstatic!

Without further ado:
Twin A: (having a big stretch)

Twin B:

Laying on top of each other:

feet:

Twin A:

Twin B:

Still quite surreal. Hard to believe there are two babies in my belly!! Even though I do look 7 months pregnant at not even 20 weeks lol.

16 weeks 4 days

16 and a half weeks down and 23 or so to go....

Nothing very exciting going on here at the moment pregnancy wise! Had my first appt with my Dr last week and all is well. He did a little scan and we saw both babies and their hearts beating away frantically. I suppose the big news with regards to the pregnancy is that my big scan has been booked!!  31st August @ 3:15pm we will hopefully be finding out what is hiding in my belly :)


In other news....

We are in Geraldton! We've been here for two weeks now and we are staying with friends until we can find a house to rent. Hoping we find one soon! Will be nice to find a house and really settle back in to being back here.

We are now onto looking at buying a bigger car. We are looking at getting a 1990-1999 model Tarago. They seem mostly to be within our meager budget and there are a few around with decent kms too. Fingers crossed we find a good one when we are ready to make the trip back to Perth to get one!!

12 weeks done :)

Taylor came along with me this morning for our 12 week scan and had a great time seeing her little tiny siblings!!

It's felt like a really long time coming getting to this point (found out I was pregnant before 4 weeks even!) and we've known that we are expecting two since 6 weeks. Hopefully we will be all moved and sorted soon then I can relax and just enjoy what will be my last ever pregnancy :)

Both twins are measuring exactly on track for dates and were moving heaps! Found out that we have one anterior and one posterior placenta as well.

So, more pics of course!!

3D pic of both bubs (it's a big fat placenta in between their heads lol)

To begin with, Twin A was kicking Twin B in the head (sibling rivalry already!!) and then Twin B turned so they could kick each other hehe.

Twin As heartbeat of 153bpm

Twin Bs heartbeat of 165bpm

This one isn't the best pic but it's both babies with their heads together (on the left is a profile pic looking up and on the right is looking to the screen)

The risks as a result of the NT measurements (didn't have the blood test as they are notoriously inaccurate with multiples) were great. 1: 3549 for Down's, 1:5079 for Edward's and 1:21091 for Patau's - very happy about all of that :)

8 weeks down, 32 to go!

Richard and I went for our scan this morning. I was extremely anxious but he was cool as a cucumber hehehe. All is going well with both babies - YAY!!!

Both bubbas - measuring just 1 day apart

Twin 1s heartbeat 143bpm

Twin 2s heartbeat 154bpm

The doctor doing the scan was lovely! So, off we went home then I went out for a lovely lunch with Mum at the Kewdale hotel. Scrummy salt and pepper squid - YUM!!!!!!

Our big news!!

Recently Richard and I decided we would add #4 to our family. I got this a couple of weeks ago!

Due to some light bleeding, I had a scan which all went well and showed us this......

We are expecting TWINS!!!!!!

We are scared, excited, nervous, happy and everything in between! We are hoping and praying that everything goes smoothly and that come January 2011, we will be welcoming two new babies into our family. It's only very early days so at the moment we are simply hoping for the best but have been told that all is looking good :)

Oat slice recipe

Thought I might add some recipes that I've been using lately :)

Oat Slice
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup SR flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup coconut
125g butter
1 T honey
1 egg.

Melt butter and honey together. Beat egg and all dry ingredients together. Combine all and press into greased or lined slice tray.
Cook in moderate oven 20-25mins.
Cut into slices.

What did I do differently?


I doubled the recipe and but used only 2/3 cup of raw sugar with 3Tbsp of honey in total. I also keep mine in the fridge so it doesn't crumble too much. In the past, I've added sultanas as well and I think I might make a smaller one next time so it's thinner and add some mixed fruit and seeds oh and definitely less sugar in that :)

Snacks for the week

This week so far, I've made banana and choc chip pikelets, more cookies and oat slice for Richard

The pikelets....

The oat slice (I froze half of the pikelets and slice)

And my lunch today - wholemeal pasta with chicken and avocado creamy sauce

Fortnightly meal plan

Ok, I've been lazy not posting but we've been doing pretty well with not wasting money on food generally. This past week I've been sick and James got his tonsils out 3/5/10 so pretty hectic lately.

I've done the meal plan for the next fortnight and I don't need to buy ANY meat to make all this! :)

Sunday: chicken burritos with corn
Monday: low fat sausages with mash and steamed veg
Tuesday: pasta bog (sauce in freezer is mince and lentil)
Wednesday: slow cooker beef and veg soup with pearl barley
Thursday: left over soup with bread or damper?
Friday: tandoori chicken pieces with veggies
Saturday: veal curry with cous cous
Sunday: rolled beef roast with baked veggies
Monday: shepherd's pie with salad
Tuesday: slow cooker apricot chicken with rice
Wednesday: jaffles/eggs on toast (footy training)
Thursday: chicken fried rice
Friday: meatloaf with mash and salad
Saturday: minestrone soup? (or some other sort of soup to use up leftover veg)
Sunday: lamb korma roast jacket potatoes and steamed veg


I'm also going to make another pumpkin soup tomorrow to use up some more of the pumpkin in the fridge and freeze it in individual portions.

Shopping list for tomorrow:
bread, milk, potatoes, fruit oh and dish washing liquid!

Tuesday 27/4/10

Tonight was meant to be fettucine carbonara but we ended up with pumpkin soup hehe. I got an email this morning saying my box of veggies has been cancelled :( and so on my trip to get Richard ham for lunches, I bought a big 5.5kg pumpkin for 99c/kg :)

Costing:
Pumpkin $1.34 (used 1/4 of the pumpkin)
Potatoes $1.00 (used just under 1kg)
Onion $0.20
Bacon $1.50
Garlic $0.05

Total = $4.09 (We used less than half giving a total of $2.05)

We also had a damper with it:
2 cups SR flour $0.40???
1/2 cup milk $0.10
Total = $0.50

Dinner total = $2.55 :)

Today I also made more pizza scrolls. I actually received complaints this morning from Taylor that there were none left lol.

Costing:
4 cups SR flour - $0.80?
1.25 cups milk - $0.25
cheese - $0.85
ham - $2.00
pizza sauce - $0.75
pineapple - $1.01 (although I ate about 1/4 of it hehe)
Total = $5.66
Which made 39 scrolls giving a cost of $0.14 each

I make the scrolls in place of buying muesli bars and such. The muesli bars we used to buy were $3.14ish for a pack of 6 which is over 50c each so a pretty big saving there!!

Oh, I also made some cookies using LittleBT's recipe which always goes down a treat! I baked around a third of it and have some more in the fridge to bake this week and a large portion in the freezer.

I thought I'd also add a pic of the chicken burgers we had on Friday, they were so tasty!!

Ok, the rest of the week's meals..... I might alter my meal plan I think.

Monday - lamb, cheese and veggie rissoles and potatoes on the bbq in the park $4.19
Tuesday - pumpkin soup - $2.55
Wednesday - veal curry in the slow cooker with couscous - $5.48
Thursday - pepper steak/chicken schnitzel, mash and vegetables - $5.10
Friday - bacon and eggs on toast with tinned spaghetti - $5.63
Saturday - spaghetti pasta - $2.64
Sunday - beef burgers with salad on toast - $5.23


I don't actually need to buy anything for this weeks meals but will do the shopping on Saturday (making the most of any markdowns) for next week.

We have James' tonsillectomy next Monday so will be an easy couple of days meals I think :)

Meal plan 26/4-2/5

Oh my!!!! We are almost heading into the fifth month of the year!!! Anyway... I'm in meal planning mode (not sleepy but shhhhh don't tell Richard!) so I'm setting the menu for next week.

Monday - apricot chicken and rice - $4.23
Tuesday - fettucine carbonara - $4.86
Wednesday - chicken curry in the slow cooker with couscous - $5.48
Thursday - pepper steak/chicken schnitzel, mash and vegetables - $5.10
Friday - bacon and eggs on toast with tinned spaghetti - $5.63
Saturday - spaghetti pasta - $2.64
Sunday - beef burgers with salad on toast - $5.23

Total of...... $33.17 WOW!!!!!

The week's meals in text

Sorry about the lack of pics, I kept forgetting to take them!!

Wednesday - Moroccan pumpkin and chicken soup with buttered bread - went down a treat! $5.96
Thursday - rissoles with vegetable bake - another winner!! $5.35
Friday - lemon and herb crumbed chicken burgers with salad on multigrain rolls - yummo!! $7.85

Tomorrow night we are having meatloaf with mash and salad and Sunday we are having butterflied lamb with steamed veg (gourmet night lol).


So, costing for the week's meals:

Monday - $7.54
Tuesday - $2.64
Wednesday - $5.96
Thursday - $5.35
Friday - $7.85
Saturday - $4.59
Sunday - $10.75

So, my total for this week is............................ (drumroll please).............................. $44.68
I'm really happy with that!!

Now today when I went shopping (spent $75) I stumbled across some marked down mince so bought 7 packs of that hehehe. The most expensive pack was $1.84 with the markdown as it was already on special! So, that gives us another week of cheap meat in the freezer! I have also ordered a box of fruit and veg to be delivered next Friday!

For $59.32 (delivery is free), I'm getting:
2x rockmelons
4kg Hi early apples (lunchbox size)
2x red capsicums
4x sweet corn (planning on cutting these in half to do us for two meals)
2x broccoli
3x 1kg carrots
1x celery
1x cabbage
1x cauliflower
4kg potatoes (gourmet)
4x sweet potatoes
4x butternut pumpkins
3x zucchinis

Depending on the sizes of some of it, I'm hoping it's a good deal! Hoping that it will do us for vegetables for a fortnight and I think it should however I'm still going to have to buy salad stuff when I do the shopping. Now if only I could find a place that would sell me cheap groceries and deliver for free hehehe

This week's snacks

So, in an effort to reduce the food bill (read SLASH) I am now making all our snacks from scratch :)

This week, I made some savoury muffins, billy G cookies (bought the dough ages ago and found it in the freezer on the weekend), pizza scrolls and sausage rolls.

The muffins - simple savoury recipe with zucchini, carrot and cheese. I poured the remaining mix into a loaf tin and then sliced it and toasted it in fingers :)

The pizza scrolls - I made the dough using SR flour, milk and a pinch of salt and topped with pasta sauce, diced bacon, pineapple and tasty cheese.

Topped

With cheese

Ready for baking

Enjoying the scrolls on the couch! Excuse the tipped over laundry basket lol.

Sausage rolls - I bought some sausage meat this morning on clearance so mixed it up with some diced onion, grated zucchini and carrot and sage and wrapped it in some puff pastry :)

Assembly

Ready to bake - we ended up with 7 small and 9 large sausage rolls :)

Ready to eat!

I've also been asked to make a cake (by Richard) so will be doing that tomorrow.

Cheap cheap dinner - spag bog!

Tonight's dinner was spag bog with beef mince and red lentils. It was much tastier than DH was expecting hehe.

I used;
600g mince (I got 1.2kg for $2.50 on clearance)
2 cups red lentils
2 carrots, grated
2/3 zucchini, grated
2 small onions, diced
2 tins diced tomatoes
1/2 jar of dolmio pasta sauce (left over from making scrolls)
beef stock
tomato paste
mixed herbs
sage
water
250g fettucine

It made enough for three meals for the 5 of us and worked out to only $2.64 per meal!! (not per serve)

Can't believe how much more filling it is with the lentils added!

Cooking, cooking, cooking..... (doesn't look very exciting does it?? lol)

Silverside in the slow cooker

Ok, last night for dinner we had silverside (cooked in the slow cooker) with garlic cabbage, and steamed broccoli, sweet potato and carrot. Richard commented that it was the best silverside he has ever tasted hehe.

The vegies waiting to be cooked!

My yummy looking plate

It worked out to

$5.50 silverside
$0.20 carrots
$0.09 onion
$0.50 broccoli
$0.70 sweet potato
$0.05 vinegar & bay leaf
$0.50 corn flour, milk, butter & mustard for white sauce

= $7.54 :)