Time for an update.......

dont know where to start its been so long since I have up dated my blog. I have been busy rearranging the hosue and have moved everyones bedrooms around to a different room. Steven is at the age where I thought he really needed more space and room to play, his old room(which is now my room) could fit his bed and set of draws and that was pretty much it...now it fits a queen size bed and tv at the foot of the bed and nothing else,LOL.....also Steven never had toys in his room and hasnt done since he was about 4years old. Since he has moved rooms and is now on the other side of the house(which is sunny in the afternoon so his room is alot warmer inthe evenings) which is Liams old room and I tell you I wish i moved him into this room years ago because he is now sleeping through the night(most nights anyway and its longer than his old usual 11pm-3am). So YAY for a good nights sleep. This photo is Steven and Piggy who goes everywhere with him, I have banned him from the toliet and bath, but other than that if you see steven piggy wont be far away.

Love this photo of Liam, the boys love to have a nice deep bubble bath and we had run out of bubbles and i always forgot to get them when i did the shopping. When I didnt remember Liam had soooooo much fun with them but was a bit surprised when i came into bathroom to get photo of his silly antics,LOL. A 21st photo for sure.

Look what I treated myself too, a friend does Stampin' Up and when I saw this i had to have it(as you do). the next punch i want to get is called Spiral which is one that i ahve been after for awhile that give you a note book spiral edge look, but for now im happy playing aorund wiht this one.

The last week of school was camp week. This year the years 1-4 went to Hamilton Zoo for their day trip. I was hoping to go but didnt in the end(but thats a whole other post) the boys enjoyed themself although a bit let down i wasnt going. The girl I look after in the mornings, her mum went and kept me up to date with txts about the boys for me(I know im mad worry wart mother) she txt when they were leaving Hamilton and told me that Liam had fallen over and grazed his knees but he was fine....poor wee man when i saw him he looked so sad and sore with plasters on his knees and his shorts rolled up so they didnt rub on the plasters and he was walking like an old grandad anyone would have thought he twisted his ankle or something. Once home I managed to convince him to take the palsters of so the air could get onto the sore and they can start to heal...i have been nice and not shown the photo of the raw knees.


ONe of Stevens favourite books....Steven doesnt like photos at the moment and runs and hids so this is the best I can get of him at the moment and while you cant see his face I think its nice photo showing what he enjoys doing, and best of all hes not a running away blurr,LOL.

I havent been very creative lately but here is one layout i did the other night which i quite like. i showed it to liam to see what he thinks and he told me it doesnt look finished but couldnt give any ideas of how to finish it...what sort of scrapbooker is he,LOL. Have a few more layouts but its too late to get photos of them tonight.

A random but favourite photo at the moment.

Lots more has been happening but nothing that I really want to blog about. Totally enjoying the holidays and the boys being at home and most mornings they climb into my bed and have lie in and watch Ben 10 on my bedroom tv and then we get up and start our day....we will all go into shock when school starts again. But also looking forward to school for Steven to get back into routine...he says he misses school because he likes to work and hates the holidays and yet when he is at school he pretty much refuses to do work. And then Liam says he loves the holidays and doesnt want to go back to school because he hates to work and yet he does very well at school,LOL....me i just want a bit of normal in my life(whatever normal is) but we are getting there, baby steps im told but then how long can we take baby steps for? Somewhere along the journey the steps have to get bigger and more effort and achievement have to be done? Right im not going to go into this Im going to finish of here with happy note that I have two nights without the kids this weekend so im off to get some sleep and then a day of creating tomorrow I think. Have a great weekend.

PS...its midnight and blogger spell check isnt working and Im lazy and cant be bothered going throught to spell check so sorry for all the mistakes that im sure there will be.

First layout

I honestly cant remember if this was my very first layout but it was one of the first layouts I ever did. I remember Steven was at home with his dad and I spent the day around at Tanya's place with Liam-he was about 8-9 months old at the time. Tanya and I spent the day scrapbooking. When I started I taught myself then I held a creative memories class at my place. So that's why even thought my first page there is colour and its not the white background like what creative memories teaches.

Another earlier page of mine which is the white background of Liam's first xmas.

Now these are the pages I do. This one I love with all the cutting out and I went through a stage of cutting out swirls and vines etc.....*note to self to finish this layout off*

And this one is one that I finished last night.....loving this one too and I wish all my layouts I could look at them and say there is nothing I would change about them...but I guess they cant be perfect all the time. Might have to display this one in my scrapbooking room for a little while before it gets hidden in an album.


So school is back tomorrow and while Liam is sort of looking forward to it, Steven is trying everything to get out of it. Yesterday he had a little sore on his foot and said oh well looks like I cant go to school if I cant walk....nice try buddy but you are so going to school kicking and screaming if need be. I do feel for him because I know and understand that first day of school is very unsettling for him and there are lots of new changes he has to get use to, but sadly this is just the part of life he HAS to learn to live with and deal with. But I have talked to the school today and they have organised a teacher aid to be with him all day tomorrow, so at least I can drop him off and know that if he is too unsettle there is someone there to help him and calm him down(fingers crossed).

Photo shoot at the Exelby's......

......or circus I'm not sure which, lol. For this 365 project there is the front and back page which will just be the 6 photo slot and title page and end page so i thought I would get some nice photos of the boys and I....well easier said than done. Steven at the moment if you ask him to smile for a photo he runs and hides, so i thought oh well lets just make him look like he's happy and having fun. So i handed the camera over to Liam and managed to get hold of Steven and then counted to 3 and pulled his hands away form his face. But as you can see i have no control of his eyes which in most of the photos were closed but that's Steven and this is a record of who we are now ah so it will do. And then at the end of the year i will take more photos of us to add to the back page. I'm really looking forward to getting my pages and being able to put photos and journalling into them rather than having a pile of photos and notes. Anyway I'm off to bed, will be back tomorrow with some photos of a brown bag album I have made.

Its too hot

I cant stand it being so hot. We have all the windows and doors open today just need a nice breeze to go through the house. We will definitely be going for a swim this afternoon.

For those of you doing the 365 project if you visit Becky's blog she has put a link for free download for some of the designs from the kit. So I have already download these and have been busy working on some journalling for the days that have gone by already. Really looking forward to getting the page protectors so I can get the photos and journalling cards put in, then I will feel like I'm getting somewhere with it. So hopefully by the start of next month I will have some layouts to show. A few questions for those of you who are doing this. On your journalling cards are you putting the date and the day of the week in this or just the date? If you are adding the day of the week what are you using for this? Or are you adding your journalling on the computer(like me cause i hate my handwriting and for some day there is a bit of writing I want to add but wont fit it all if I hand write it) and so just adding the date at the top or bottom of your journalling? I have also made a folder on the computer for 365 photos and journalling. And since I either get my photos developed at the chemist or online I will just once a week or fortnight get photos developed, so by having this folder it will be easier to find the photos. As I put the photos into the folder I also name them with the date and day so that when i get then back it will be printed on the back and easy to put them into the page protectors.

So yesterday I have took a couple of photos and not sure which one I will use, but might have to have a play around in photo shop and make two photos the size of one....might see what I can come up with.

Now there is nothing like starting the day with some happy mail....a big thank you to Mandy for the goodies that arrived in my letter box this morning. Liam went and checked the mail and he comes back with package saying "we get mail".....both boys were keen to see what was inside only to say "oh more scrapbooking stuff" once I had opened it,LOL.


And for today's photo I got this one of Steven giving Liam a hug, not often this happens. They were asking each other questions about their new numbers up computer game and Liam got all of his questions right and Steven was so happy with him and gave Liam a hug. Although by the look on Liam's face hes not too excited about this.

Whoo hoot Wednesday

Just a short list for me this week even though i know i have missed more than a couple of weeks of doing this.

YAY for getting a good night sleep....Steven was asleep by 9ish(which is great for him at the moment) so that meant i could have an early night and even though at some point in the night Liam climbed into my bed i still managed to get a good night sleep and both the boys slept in till 7.15 this morning....now that's a BIG plus.

Also YAY for the sun being out and there being blue sky today, I have got the sheets out on the line finally.


Liam and i baked a cake last night got his teachers birthday today...he decorated it with green icing and LOTS of 100's and 1000's and then pebbles around the edge and he wanted to put her age on it so I asked him how old he thought she was and he said 22....so 22 went onto the cake....his teacher was over the moon with the cake and the fact that she is only 22,LOL. And they funny thing was that all the kids in the class believed that she was 22 and they were all amazed that she was younger than their parents. Kids are so funny sometimes. So I stayed at school for a bit to get a photo of Liam's class for his teachers mini album that I'm doing so will get those photos developed and then that will be my weekend project. Also very sad that she wont be back next year so the class will be having a shared lunch next week.

Its been awhile.....

......since my last post and its now 11.25pm Sunday night and I cant sleep so here I am blogging listening to music on you tube. Okay this may turn into a really long boring post so feel free to stop reading now and just look at the photos instead,LOL....you have been warned. Things are so busy and rushed at the moment and yet some things seem to stand still with no change to them at all. I want to move forwards with my life and stop reliving the past and yet there are so many things that remind me of the last year. There were so many things that have happend many I dont often talk about some i dont want to talk about.I have had many weeks now with broken sleep(and yes i know the obys are both sleeping and i should be making the most of it, but its too hot and i have so much going on in my head at the moment)and i think if you lack sleep everything else seems to suffer. Steven has had a few bad days at school where he has been up at 2.30am and not gone back to sleep then tried to get out of going to school becasue he is tired. The teacher had noticed that he shakes his head alot more some days than others(Steven slowly shakes head as if saying no when he is tired or stressed..its like a stress reflief for him or stimming as its called)but most days he seems to cope with being up early a full on day at school and then going to sleep late. I guess it will all catch up with him at some stage.

A few weeks ago Liam got this cerficate in school assembly and hes so funny because the first time he got one he didnt waant to get up infront of the whole school but now he pretty mych runs up to get it and holds it up and then gives me the thumbs up and big smile. He also got antoher one last Friday for having water courage.....YAY for Liam. He is doing so well at school and im very proud of both him and Steven. So I hace been going up to school with Liam during his class swimming time and the water is so lovely, ashame they only have 20 minutes in the water I could stayin there all day which is saying something because Im not much of a water person.

Here is the finshed survival kit for Stevens teacher. I really do love how it looks and almost dont want to give it away. I showed Stevens old ESW(Educational Support Worker) the kit and she asked if Steven would like to go back to kindy for a term so that when he leaves I can make her one,LOL. But I thought what i might do is make her one next year as she is now our carer support person and Steven goes to her house every monday for the night after school.

One of the things on the teachers survival kit list was 'A girft- to remind you that your students are a gift to you and you are a gift to them'....so this is her gift that I have made. Just a fold out Kaisercraft album for her to remember Steven and the great year he had in her class.


So I went up to school and got a class photo and one of just Steven and his teacher and told her I need them for his school scrapbook album...and I have put them into this album to give to her in a weeks time. Also a week ago she showed me some wriiting Steven had done ast school when they were asked to write aobut their year at school he wrote the following (I tired to scan when he had written but blogger wouldnt let me up load it so i will jsut retype it as he has written it)...'In room 6 I like computer time, battleship, easy homework and numbers up. I love Mrs Carpenter because I like you. I get better at writing and handwriting. I play outside is tag with Evan.'
Again I just love that first he is expressing his feelings/emotions about and to someone, and it was funny she was telling me when he handed his book in he asked her not to read it till he was outside playing and i swear when she showed it to me i had tears in my eyes it was just he sweetest thing he has written. And I love Stevens honesty....Im am very sure he goes to school knowing he will get his computer time once he does his school work, he will only willingly do homework if it is easy, if there is any chance he feels he may get the work wrong then we have a fight on our hands with that homework. Numbers up is a computer game that he loves and gets to play when he gets his school work done. He has gotten so much better with his writing, he still struggles but at the start of the year he was hardly writing a sentence that made sense, but now on good days he will write a whole page and it makes sense too. His hand writing has also improved so much in the last 6 months..he is doing so welll and im somewhat scared of what next year will bring. I feel we will be back at square one if he has a different teacher. I will be finding out this week who his teacher is so I have time to say yes I think they will be fine or no way.....LOL i have become very good at voicing my opinion when it comes to Steven and the school and even Liam with the swimming.

Look what new brand the warehouse have got...and these stamp packs were only $5 each which I thought was a great price for clear stamps. The border set were from spotlight and I thought I could use them a bit on cards. The warehouse is getting in some really good scrapbooking stuff now.

A few weeks ago when shopping with mum and my sister tanya this little guy came home with me...I thought he was so cute and just had to bring him home to add to my growing collection of snowmen.

And here are just a few snowmen...I counted 62 here and there are a few more in the main xmas tree as well.....snowmen are my Christmas addiction,LOL.


The boys and I made these little gift bags for their friends. At first Steven said he doesnt have any friends(which made me sad) but then he was trying to write down the whole class so i told him he could have ten giftbags to give to his friends. So off he went with his list of names and cards and started writing. i really thoguht he would have given up after a couple of cards but he kept going and even put his teachers name down on the list. And he was so funny when he handed them out, his teacher had the class sit in a circle and he sat on chair next to her in fornt of the class. She asked him why he was giving something out to everyone and Steven replied with 'I have no idea'(and just imagine him with his hands up in the air when he said this,LOL) his teacher and I just started laughing it was so funny. And so he called out his friends names and they came adn got the bags and he said merry christmas to each of his friends and then he got to his teachers one and let out a little giggle and said there even one for you,LOL..........I tell you this boy makes me laugh so much. He is such a happy carefree child and does amazingly well with all the struggles he has to deal with in every day life.

I have been doing a little bit of creating and finsihed of my advent tree, not sure that I 100% like the brightness of the red numbers and may change them for next year but for now they will do.



PS when reading this remember that it was late at night so im sorry for the mistakes, blogger spell check sint working and im too lazy to go through and proof read.....I hope it all makes sense....nite nite of to be now to see if I can sleep.

More bits and pieces

When I got out of the shower yesterday morning this is what the boys were up to, I'm not sure why but Steven is loving lying across the top of the sofa at the moment I'm sure he must think hes a cat,LOL.

I picked up my latest Creating Keepsakes September magazine yesterday and always I sit down at night while watching TV flipping through the pages looking for new inspiration. There are a few layouts I really liked and will have to scraplift at some stage and one that I did last night and this is my end result - I have since taken the star away as I decided I didn't really like it there.

A big thank you to the lovely Mrs Frizz...the boys checked the mail in the morning and just before lunch(its there addiction at the moment to keep checking the letterbox just in case the mail lady comes back to put stuff in our letterbox,LOL) anyway no mail then when I went out last night I noticed a bit of an envelope sticking out of the letter box, so I'm thinking the mail lady must have slept in,LOL...anyway this is what I got from Mrs Frizz so a huge thank you it was a very nice surprise.

So I have been rearranging my scrapbooking stuff again and sorting through getting rid of stuff when i came across one or two kaisercraft beyond the page items.....putting them together like this makes them look like a mini addiction on top of my scrapbooking addiction. But I'm sure its not just me who has this addiction.

When I saw the gingerbread men I fell in love with them and have got a few of them and I'm going to make(probably not this year but maybe for next Xmas)gift tags for my nieces and nephews and then every other year they can hang them on their Xmas tree.

Catch up

Most of my posts these days seem to have that title catch up.....Since Sunday afternoon i have been in bed sick. The boys have been fantastic and entertaining themselves with games and tv while letting me rest, I would get up to do meals and then go back to bed. Felling a bit better today but still not 100%. Hopefully tomorrow I will be feeling alot better and hopefully the boys wont get it.

Anyway with this horrible wet and windy weather its feeling a bit like winter again, but we had great weather for Stevens little birthday afternoon tea so that was great. So before school finished a letter from school saying the following came home

Dear Alison

Each year we get tickets given to the Annual Ten Pin Bowling Party, hosted by Epilepsy Foundation of N.Z.
We give these tickets to children and their families who may have faced adversity, or who need to go that extra mile to gain success in reaching their potential in learning.
I am pleased to select your child as a worthy recipient this year. We hope you and the family will enjoy celebrating with your child and that the date of the 4 October in the school holidays is convenient.

At first cause there was just 3 tickets i thought can i handle this by myself with both the boys and do i really want to go alone....party normally =balloons, lots of noise and people.....balloons, lots of noise and people = grumpy moody Steven,LOL. And the morning of the party i told Steven and Liam where we were going( I try not to tell new things to Steven too far ahead of time as it gives him too much time to get stressed about it) and we went online and I showed him some photos but he just kept saying I don't understand mum....so we went along and first thing was the clown standing at the door handing out balloons, but we manage to get in without too much fuss, they had sausages in bread and fizzy drinks for everyone and face painting and more clowns inside giving out lollies and more balloons but both the boys hid behind me when a clown got to close. BUT once Steven had his eyes set on the bowling balls he was happy with a smile going from ear to ear. And he had so much fun after waiting for nearly an hour for our turn he was so good and then he just wanted to get up there and roll the ball he not care too much if he hit the pins or not he just wanted the ball to be rolling,LOL. But in the end we all had a great day and I'm SO glad i braved the day by myself and had so much fun with my boys.



And just because I'm a mum and mums like to talk about when their kids do well I thoguth I would show the certificates both the boys got on the last day of school....well done boys I'm so proud of you both.

And I think I spy and wheres wally have moved in...this is all the goodies Steven got for his birthday and wow they just keep coming. he really loves the wheres wally stuff at the moment and we have found some great bargains on trade me...YAY for trade me.

Right I might go and crawl back into bed again...hopefully tomorrow I will have a bit of energy to do some scrapbooking.

Day on the farm

So not alot has been happening other than my sister keeps asking me to up date my blog it's been a week I have been told, so here are some photos of the boys when we went out to visit my parents on Saturday.
I just love this photo of Steven with the lovely background and love that Steven is waving.

Then he is on the move again and ready to jump and move onto the next great adventure on the farm.

This photo of grandad Steven took which I thought he did a pretty good job as all of grandad is in the photo and its not blurred.

So the guys went for a walk on the back of the farm to find the roosters that a friend let go out there...so they took water and food for them...Liam wasn't too sure about them.

Steven seemed to enjoy them.

Next adventure was this slide that grandad created for them...Liam didn't go down it and to be honest i didn't blame him....Steven loved it.

Another Steven taken photo of grandad and Liam.

Scary...I recommend that mums not watch their kids go down home made slide on dirt hills.

But Steven had a great time and that's what matters.

And this is Master Liam who without me know climbed onto my bed with his blanket and went to sleep...Maybe I should give him my double bed and i have his single bed then he wont be able to climb into my bed,LOL.

Not alot of scrapbooking being done at the moment and i have decide that I'm going to give challenges a miss for a little while and get back into scrapbooking for me and not for challenges. i do enjoy the challenges and they are fun but im finding I just need to do scrapbooking when i want to with my own deadline, be it a day or a week to get a layout done...scrapbooking for fun.

Updated:I thoguth I would add that the photography is all done by Grandad and Steven....arent they great at taking scrapbooking photos for me lots of different angles and great shots, in total I think I have about 50 photos from our visit to the farm so lots of photos to scrapbook. I only took the terrible dark photo of liam sleeping in my bed,LOL.

My Boys

I haven't really got much to say but wanted to share these photos of the boys that i got over the weekend...love the one of Steven on the lazy boy, this is his cheeky sort of smile he give at the moment when asked to smile for the camera. And the one of the boys was Steven being silly but it was nice to capture them together and happy.