Well, it's been a looooooong time!

I can't believe it's been so long since I have posted!

We are only a couple of weeks out from welcoming our SIXTH child into our family! I NEVER thought I'd be a Mum to six.

We are living in Geraldton after moving back to Perth for a while after the twins were born. We're here to stay this time :)

Taylor starts at Nagle this year. She is VERY excited about starting high school and the new life opening up for her.

James is going in to Year 3 at St John's while Ellie is going into Pre-Primary. Both are very excited!

Duck and Weeno turn three next week although we had their party a couple of days ago as Richard is in Perth for training for work. He started a traineeship with Telstra in October and is so far really enjoying it.

We moved back to Geraldton in July (Richard came up in August after packing the rest of the house). We stayed at Jo's in her granny flat while we were looking for a house. It took MUCH longer than any of us thought and we are soooooo thankful to Jo and Wade for letting us stay :)

Life is so much better after moving back up here. James has stopped his incessant picking at his arms and legs and is coping much better with school and live in general. We have friends that value spending time with us and put the effort in to seeing us :) We definitely made the right choice in coming back!

Well, it is January and that time of year that results in reflection and self-analysis..... so what do I/we want to achieve this year?

2014 goals

• pay off our car by July
• have money on hand for all expected expenses
• have an emergency savings fund
• have savings for holidays/travel
• reduce clutter in our home - started this before moving but need to get back into it
• take time every day to enjoy life - sometimes an easy thing to forget to do!
• SEW!! It's been a long time and generally I don't do it because it involves cleaning up first (laziness) so I want to get cracking on it - I have a few projects that I want to start ASAP
• cook more/buy less - school snacks in particular

PLAN

• I have written up a budget which covers all expenses worked out over a 12 month period. This accounts for school fees, vehicle rego and maintenance/repairs, Christmas and Birthdays, car loan and savings. I have separate accounts for each so easy to track
• I have joined an online 'organise your home' sort of group. Enjoying it so far :) (have to start by catching up on housework before getting into the organisational phase) So, that's what I'm doing this week - attacking Mt Washmore (almost finished) and Mt Foldmore (lots still to go), steam mopping floors and getting the kids back in the routine of tidying up the mess they make BEFORE making more mess or running off to bed.
• I'm going to get my recipes out and get the kids to each pick a snack item they want to make and we'll do that in the last week of the holidays - cooking fun with the kids AND pre-preparing snacks = win win!

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!