Five!

So . . . . . . . it's only 5 more sleeps until my boys come home! Yay!

I can't wait to see them and give them both a great big hug.

I can't wait to hear all about their adventures and see all the pictures and video that they have taken.

Those five sleeps are going to pass by so slowly!

The girls are also very excited to see Daddy and Lachlan again.

Haylie misses having Lachlan sleep in the bedroom with her. She has spent a few nights in my bed because she says her room is too scary!

Every night it has been a fight to get Haylie to go to bed. She says she is not tired and comes up with numerous reasons to keep chiming out.

Last night she had a massive tantrum because she didn't want to sleep in her bed. She was in full meltdown mode completely with kicking, screaming, yelling, hitting, throwing, jumping, and crying. It went on for over 40 minutes before she finally gave in and went to sleep.

Yesterday, as we were eating dinner, out of the blue, Amie said, "I can't wait to see what Haylie looks like when she grows up". Not sure where that came from!

Only 5 more sleeps . . . only 5 more sleeps . . . . . only 5 more sleeps!!!!

Random Randomness!

So I've been a bit slack in the blogging department this week. It's been a busy week, even without my boys here.

Caitlyn started school this week! Yay! She was very excited and couldn't wait to go. She has loved going everyday and was a little disappointed that she didn't get to go today (it's Saturday). She was so excited to get a reader, just like the big kids, and she got a special desk with her name on it.

It has been very quiet at home without her. I think that Haylie is missing having someone around part of the time to play with. I'm going to have to come up with some new things to keep her happy.

I made playdough for the very first time this week. I know, I've been a mother for nearly 9 years and yet I've never made playdough. Scary, but I made some this week and the girls have been loving it, especially Haylie. She wants to play with it all the time!

Yesterday I got to go shopping with my Mum and found some fantastic clothes for some amazing bargains. Right now I'm wearing a new pair of cargo pants and they are sooooooooo comfortable! I got dresses, pants, shirts, skirts, and scarves! By the end of the day I was pretty tired of changing my clothes but was very happy with all of the new things that I got. Now it's going to be hard to choose what to wear.

This week I have felt like doing some baking, maybe some muffins, maybe some cookies, but I can't decide so I haven't made anything.

I've tired to be a good friend this week and branch out a little bit, hopefully it will pay off.

I really miss having my boys at home. It was great to talk to them on Wednesday. I know that they are having a great time and I can't wait to hear all about it when they get home.

Nearly every time we drive into the driveway Haylie says, "Daddy's home'. I think she is finally getting the idea that just because Daddy's car is here doesn't mean that Daddy is home. I know that the girls are very excited to go to the airport in the couple of weeks to pick up their Daddy and brother!

Well, that's it for now. A very random post. Next week I'll try to do better!

Changes

Have you ever felt that there was so much that you wanted to or needed to change/improve in your life that you didn't know where to start.  Have you felt that there are just too many things on your list that it seems overwhelming.

That's kind of how I feel right now. This past weekend I was lucky enough to attend the Time Out for Women in Sydney. I was also lucky enough to attend a fireside tonight for the youth with Laurel Christenson and Brad Wilcox.

Both of these wonderful events have left me feeling incredibly inspired and just a little bit overwhelmed. I know I need to make changes in my life and in the life of my family and right now I'm feeling inspired to do so, but how to actually go about it.

While listening to one of the speakers I had this thought . . . . . .

First, I need to write a list of all the things that I want to change or improve. Personally I'm writing a list for me and a list for the family.

Second, I'll put them in order of priority. Starting with the most important thing first and so on.

Then I'm going to start with just the first thing on my list. Work out how I'm going to do it. Write a goal and a plan of action. Then I'm going to work on just that one thing for at least a week or two before moving on to the next thing on my list.

I'm hoping that by doing this I won't become completely overwhelmed and give up totally. I'll give myself time to adjust and make it into a habit before adding more things to work on.

I'm looking forward to making some changes and seeing the effects that it has on my life and the life of my family.

I don't know if any of this makes sense to anyone else but I just felt like I needed to put my plan out there. Maybe it will help me stick to it. Maybe it will inspire someone else to give it a go and change something in their life. I don't know, but I do know that I'm excited to get started!

Today I'm .....

Feeling . . . inspired! Mum and I spent some time in some amazing shops this afternoon. It makes me want to decorate and create and make beautiful things. I can't wait to go back and visit these shops again!

Enjoying . . .  some time to myself. Lachlan and Amie had school, Haylie had Daycare and Caitlyn had her first school visit. And what did I do with my free couple of hours?! I went to shops of course! It's so nice to just wander around and not be constantly telling children to follow you, or not to touch, or whine because they want to leave.

Loving . . . Cupcakes! One our adventures this afternoon we visited a cupcake shop called Pink Frosting. They sell the most delicious, yummy, tasty cupcakes I've ever tasted!

Thinking . . . that I really should do some exercise tonight to burn off the cupcakes that I ate for lunch!

Wishing . . . that I owned my own home so that I could decorate exactly how I want to. Instead I have to try and work out how to decorate without painting the walls, putting holes in the walls, etc. I can be hard but one day I will own a house and then I can have lots of fun!

Wanting . . . my husband to come home so we can veg on the couch and watch a movie. He has been working so hard for the last two weeks that we have hardly seen him.

Debating . . . with myself if I have enough energy to really exercise tonight. I really should but I can always do twice as much tomorrow, but tomorrow is Saturday and we have things on and I don't want to have to get up early to exercise double, so I should just do it tonight. Maybe when the kids go to bed I'll feel the desire to exercise!

Knowing . . . that I have really enjoyed my day and even my week. What more could I ask for!

Random

Every time I plug my phone into my computer up pops iPhoto so that I can upload the pictures. Up until this week I have never done it. I found out that I had about 400 pictures on my phone! Most of them were ones that Haylie had taken so I deleted them but I did find some real gems.

How cute is this. I can hardly remember her being this small anymore. And she had no hair. Love that little bald head.

Another of my cute baby. We were always out and about taking kids to school, kindy, doing shopping, visiting friends and running errands so she did a lot of her naps in the car.

Here is Lachlan doing one of his jumps at the local park. He was so good at it. He would ask me every day if we could go to the park so he could do this. I remember one time though, when he first started to do it and he was on his old bike. It had been raining and there was a large puddle along the gravel path. He was riding along and decided to go right through the puddle! He only got a little way through when his wheels got stuck in the mud and he went flying off his bike landing in the mud. He wasn't really hurt but he was very upset by it and so we had to leave straight away. He wouldn't ride his bike the whole way home.

 Haylie fell over the back of the couch one night, hitting her head on the the floor. I couldn't believe how quickly the bruise and lump came up. By the time I got over to her and picked her up it was already there!

This one was taken in the school holidays. We had just gone bowling and in the shopping centre they had free face painting. Haylie was terrified of Lachlan and would not go near him until it was all washed off later that day!

We are always on the look out for new parks to go to so one Saturday we just drove around looking for some. We stumbled across a few but this one was the favourite of the day.

 During another lot of school holidays we went to Carrick hill to see a fairy play. Afterwards we had a picnic lunch and explored the storybook village in the gardens.

All she wanted for Christmas was her two front teeth!

Lachlan got this fat lip earlier in the day when he was riding his scooter at the park. He was doing a jump and caught the front of his scooter and fell flat on his face. He was lucky to be wearing his helmet or it would have been much worse!

 Our back garden started to flood a bit after days of rain.

At the beginning of the year we took Lachlan to see the Monster Trucks. He loved it!

This is my sleepy baby after her surgery a couple of weeks ago.