Summer Lovin'

Wow its a scorcher here in Auckland! our inside temp gauge is reading 30 outside (in the shade) and 33 inside! thats with all the doors and windows open and the fan going full tit!

You know the poo story from the other day? had another incident the day before yesterday, you think it couldnt get any worse than before? well think again.... nuff said!

Kaylee however, apart from the poo incidents is doing SOOOO well at Toilet Training, she was even dry in her over night nappy this morning! after a 12 hour sleep! we were much impressed!

I have a busy weekend ahead, we are looking after our Neice and Nephew (aged 2 and 4 respectively) for the weekend while their parents are away at a wedding, so its a bit different for them having never stayed away from Mum and Dad before, and its a little bit full on having a couple more kids in the house i tell you! cant say im too keen on having 4 kids myself at any time soon.... dont think i could cope!!! but trying to keep the kids occupied/covered in sunscreen/hats on/drinking water/eating fruit/staying in the shade/not running away is a full time job almost! whew!

When the kids parents arrive back in the morning they are taking Kaylee home with them and Darryl, Olivia and I are off to a wedding in the afternoon/evening, so that should be nice, its in a park, so i hope there will be a fair amount of shade and a little cooler! im sure i will sweat like buggery in whatever i will be wearing though.... its pretty stiffling out there!

still havent sold my car which is a bugger... but the new car we have is now warranted so i can drive that around and we can more actively promote my car for sale.

Now im about to dive into a nice watermelon that is sitting in my fridge.... ohhh yummm!!!

Toilet Training....

Oh My GODDDDDD shes got it!! we have success! only 1 accident today. It has all been her own doing, she doesnt even tell us that she is going, she just goes!!! (we can tell by the dribble on the seat afterwards.... i will teach her to clean up after herself later on down the track.... shes doing WEEEEES on the toilet!)

Very exciting times in our house i tell you!

but nothing else is really going on.... just been trying to keep cool, its damn hot!

Nectarines are my fave food of the month, they are just SO nice at the moment! ive gone through so much in the last couple of weeks, they are so cheap!

2 year olds!!

They are a unique creature are they not? haha

if you have an aversion (is that the right word?) to poo, i suggest you skip a couple of paragraphs!)

Friday saw success with Kaylee doing a poo on the toilet!! Very exciting time it was for us, especially since she did it all by herself without me knowing, she was of course, very proud of herself too.

Today however was another story... picture Mummy walking into Kaylees bedroom to put Kaylee back into bed (she plays up a little at nap time) picture Kaylee sitting there, big grin on her face, no clothes on, no nappy on, room smells funny... Kaylee tells Mummy shes done a poo in her nappy so she took the nappy off... Mummy then sees poos on the carpet, poos on the bed, poos on the wall, poos on the door.... Mummy isnt really too happy... so Mummy runs a bath, puts Kaylee into bath, Mummy rings Daddy to get Daddy to calm Mummy down a bit, tells Mummy that she can do this and be strong, Mummy cleans up bedroom, washes Kaylee, Kaylee escape bath, runs around wet and nudey, Mummy doesnt really care, Mummy is chatting to Kate on the internet, needs to cool down a bit! Mummy comes off the computer, finds dog toys in the toilet, Mummy rescues dog toys, cleans them then throws them outside with the dog, Mummy settles Olivia who is now crying, finds tennis balls in the toilet, rescues, cleans and throws tennis balls outside, back to settle Olivia, now finds toilet rolls in the toilet, ewww plastic bag and rubber gloves come in handy here, Mummy then dresses Kaylee, puts both girls back to bed...

now there is finally silence....

Moral of the story?

Dont do food shopping when you have your period and are all hormonal, hungry and pissed off (last night) because you spend way too much, you forget a lot, and you end up with chocolate, icecream and toffee pops, which i have to say, are all coming in very handy right now. :)

more money! :)

first of all i will do this for Karen :)

Four things about me:
A) Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Door to Door insurance sales rep (no shit! it sucked!)
2. Supermarket Butchery shelf filler upper!
3. Receptionist
4. Accounts Payable

B) Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. Grease
2. The Shawshank Redemption
3. Forest Gump
4. Number 2

C) Four places I have lived:
1. Auckland
2. Ruakaka
3. Ruawai
4. Edgecumbe

D) Four favourite TV shows:
1. Shortland St
2. ALL the CSIs (and bones etc LOVE forensics!)
3. Ugly Betty (i love it! she reminds me of ME!)
4. The Amazing Race

E) Four of my favourite foods:
1. Sushi
2. Crayfish
3. Fresh Summer fruit
4. Chicken

F) Four places I would rather be right now:
1.
2.
3.
4. Nowhere, i like it just where i am right now :)

ok, back to MONEY! ive had a quick looksie at the website Lil provided yesterday, pretty cool! i havent had time to have a good browse, but will do very soon.

i have purchased a new car today.... $800! bargain! bit scary for me, going from a flash (well i think so!) expensive (well... was when i brought it! haha) car, to a older putty bomb do up, we havent picked it up yet, and it does need a few things done to it, but Darryl knows these cars (Nissans) like the back of his hands, he loves them, so wont take much at all to do up. its pretty funky actually i think! i will show you a pic when i get it, we are hoping to pick it up tomorrow (and REALLY hoping that my car does actually sell on Saturday! you never know with people!)

Yesterday i changed power providers, i went to this website
http://www.consumer.org.nz/powerswitch/default.asp?bhcp=1
and worked out that im paying a lot more than what i need to be, so i changed! the saving is pretty substantial, over $500 a year, thats a lot of money!

i dont know if i have mentioned it or now, but this year i am doing pak n save Christmas club vouchers, $10 a time, will eventually add up and at the end of the year will definitely help at what is for most people a very hard time.

its been a hard slog getting my food bill down to under $100 a week, sure sometimes i will go less, sometimes a bit more, depends on what we NEED at the time (and if i have Darryl with me!) what i do is work out a food plan for the week, write down every ingrediant needed for those meals, delete out what i already have in the cupboard/fridge/freezer, and add in any cleaning products, toothpaste, soap, toiletpaper etc that we may need. then what i do is put it all into www.woolworths.co.nz just like im doing online shopping (sure the specials between the supermarkets change, but it gives you a fair idea) i put in everything that we want/need, then look at the total, keeping in mind that i still need around $30 for my fruit and veggies, from there i take out any non essentials (sorry Darryl, coke is no longer essential!) and how we can replace some ingrediants with other cheaper ingrediants (still keeping in mind nutritional value) takes a bit of fiddling, but really does make you think as to what is essential and what isnt, also gets you back to eating basic, easy, healthy meals, and makes you get a bit more creative in the kitchen! then i print out the list that i have created, and go to Pak N Save, which is of course cheaper than wollies, and ALWAYS take a calculator! do however keep in mind that we dont smoke (so that adds on a heap to your foodbill!) we hardly drink, and at the moment its just Darryl, myself and Kaylee who eat food, Olivia is fully breastfed and probably will stay that way for at least the next few months.

in the next few days im giving up my beloved broadband and going back to dialup... ok not so much a big deal, and definitely not a necessity (imo if you are on the bones of your arse and its either non essential bills or food, then the internet must go, $16 a month for dialup may seem a small amount, but when you think you can get 16 loaves of bread for that.... when it comes to feeding your family that is a lot!)

thats all from me today, whats the bet im boring the pants off ya! :)

Money

First of all i have to have a mini ARGH moment... ive just hung out a washing line full of clothing... and it is raining... DUH me for not checking out the weather forcast!

Thanks for your comments on the pics, no they arent wearing the same outfit, but i do love my gorgeous girls, Kaylee this morning has been amazing, before she left with Darryl this morning she was just so lovely and sweet (lets hope she comes home from Kindy like this!) she come out to me while i was hanging out the washing and i bent down to her, she held my cheeks and gave me a kiss, said byebye mummy, i love you! gave a little wave and off she went, ahhhhhhhh *gush* such the stuff memories are made of!

Money, ohhhh yes, the stuff you either love, or hate, hate to love or love to hate, but you gotta have it, you need it to survive in todays modern world.

for those of you who dont know, we are taking an increase in bills and a decrease in income... which basically means unless i get drastic NOW we are going to be in the shit bigtime, BUT its completely for the best, and we WILL get there! i have cut down SO much, im very amazed at myself, so far i have got my food bill down to $100 a week (thats $30 on meat, $30 on vege and fruit - its amazing how much $30 for fruit and vege actually is, i got 2 full bags the other day for $15! - and $40 on misc grocery items, and its actually really easy to do, buy on special, buy in bulk, think about your meals, buy in season, now before you say "well duh, it is pretty easy to do" this is coming from a household who used to quite happily spend $200-$300 Per WEEK on groceries.... we spend $15 every 3 weeks on nappies for Kaylee and use cloth on Olivia, so no probs there with cost apart from the washing liquid we use which costs about $8 and lasts us 3-4 months. incase your wondering, im putting all of this on here so i have something to look back on. ive pretty much sold my car (dammit! im gunna miss my baby!) for $11,000 so that is $11,000 worth of debt that will be very soon gone, we have our eye on a car which is just under $2000, so we will own that outright, no more car payments coming out of our account, (but dammit im gunna miss my baby!)

its amazing how you get used to a certain lifestyle, and it does take a while to adjust to change, just like when you start a new diet really, you get used to doing things a certain way, but situations change and so you have to aswell, but i think for me its a huge learning curve, and over the last couple of months i have grown a lot and learnt so much. and i hope that maybe others can learn from me.

we are consolidating all our debt today, which means paying off the visas and the little loan we have, and paying it back in lump sums sooner with less interest, (why didnt we do it sooner? i really dont know!) we got used to living good, and when it come to a stage where we couldnt afford to still live extravagently, we still did, but its a bit of a culture shock when the money runs out. makes you really stretch that last wee cent. ive discovered at our local fruit and vege shop, they have 2 x 2L milks for $5 (instead of about $4 each at the supermarket) they also have $1 loaves of bread (instead of nearly $3) and $4 trays of eggs (instead of $4 for a dozen) the other day when i went F&V shopping, i got 500g of plums, 500g of nectarines, 500g of tomatos, a cucumber, 2 lettuces, 2 x milk, bread, carrots, potatos, onions, for about $16... i thought that was pretty good! they have 10c pumpkins at the moment, unfortunatly i dont eat pumpkin (ick) but im going to get a few to make a whole heap of baby food up for the freezer for when Olivia starts solids in a few months (man thats scary to think about!) that saves $1 a jar!

Browsing the internet for free samples helps too, lately i have had washing powder, toothpaste, dishwashing powder, shampoos and conditioners, moisterisers, sanitary pads, all for free, all delivered to me. its great!

im just watching out my window an aeroplane going over dropping out parachutists (we live near the airforce so get to see them do heaps of neat things) looks like heaps of fun!!

its like my new mini project, going around, seeing what else i can cut down on, what bills we no longer need, ive cut down our Telecom bill $50 a month so far, just by ringing them and talking to them about the plans we are on, i have just worked out a way to save another $50 off it (free broadband... watch this space!) i even have a few other people around me seeing the money im saving thinking, well hey, we can do this too, and its great bouncing ideas around the place.

i'll be back :)

just cos :)

here is a photo of Olivia at 12 weeks and a photo of Kaylee at apprx 12 weeks

Kaylee has a cold.... so we are just keeping it quiet today, she had a great time yesterday though with Daycare in the morning and then we went to a friends for the afternoon, where we got the baby baths out filled them with bubbles and coloured water, put shaving foam and food colouring on a plastic table and let them go for it, so much fun (and mess!) she is now meant to be eating her lunch, but she is doing "tippee toes" ballet to Barney... i love watching her little mind tick over and her wee thought process happen, cracks me up!

im pretty tired right now, not getting too much sleep as its either Kaylee or Olivia up and down all night, im hoping to eventually get a few nights in a row of good sleeps, would help! but hey, it all comes with being a parent doesnt it, cant really complain too much, just have to be careful.

just had a wee 4 week old come and visit, only 6pds born, so still very little and gorgeous! scary that Olivia used to be that small!

They grow up so fast, cherish every day :)

Kia Ora!

im still around! still doing alright! :)

just pretty busy busy, which is good, but tiring but great! Im loving all the social engagements that i have on. and ive been a little ill too, but something very minor, nothing to write home about at all.

ive come to the conclusion that im addicted to sugar, chocolate, lollies, icecreams, BAD refined sugar. so today is day 1 (apart from a hot choc this morning) of no refined sugar.... we shall see how long it lasts, i know that i will have huge withdrawls tonight, but one day at a time, other than the bad sugar though, im eating really well, lots of salads, steamed veggies, grilled meats (love bbq weather!) lots of fruits, yoghurts, smoothies (home made of course), just have to get the sugar under control.

i havent done any scrapbooking in yonks... just not in the mood for it at the moment, when im not in the mood i make mistakes, mistakes cost too much money, we have no money, no room for mistakes :)

ive been sewing a wee bit, but my machine has to go back to Spotlight for them to have a look at it, its skipping stiches and i have tried everything to get it working properly, nothing works, therefor its not me, but the machine. im loving sewing though, especially sewing my own nappies for Olivia, costs around $6 per nappy, rather than $20-$30 per nappy to buy one new.

Kaylee is great, toilet training sux, shes back in nappies for a bit, just not ready i think, we WILL get there! she loves Kindy (daycare) just adores it.

Olivia is great, she sleeps sometimes through the night, usually wakes once a night though, i can handle that, she went through a stage of staying awake, which meant i wasnt sleeping... so hence why im watching what i eat so much more, what i eat affects her, so i have to be careful.

being a mum is cool, being Carla is cool, being a wife is cool, life in general is good.

my car is for sale :( i love my car so much, but right now, we cant afford to keep it, so if you know of anyone wanting a 99 Caldina GTT wagon, send them my way would ya? bargain! haha

im scheming, i have plans... one day at a time, watch this space

i have no idea what i weigh, and i like that... i know im big, but right now that doesnt matter, what matters is me keeping healthy, eating healthy and maintaining my milk supply for Olivia. Every time i "diet" i get depressed, i feel crap, i look crap, i just get blah. im determined not to feel that way this year.

Enjoy the pics, (yes that is Kaylee with foundation on... no it hasnt come out of that top yet...) dont forget to wear your sunscreen lotion.... its burny out there.

xxx

Birthday!

Yesterday i turned the ripe ol age of 25! yep im only 25! im sure i act a lot older sometimes, i have to remember that 25 is not that old at all! infact its still ALMOST teenage years (PMSL!)

i got completely spoilt, starting on Tuesday night when Darryl came home with a live Crayfish for me to devour for my dinner, ohhhh it was heaven!!! (my yearly birthday treat is my cray!) then yesterday morning Darryls sister came over for the day with hot chocolates and muffins and some beautiful shampoo, conditioner and hairspray (if you dont know this already i am such the hair product FREAK!), then i got a parcel in the mail from my mother with a little sewing kit in it, which is JUST what i was after for my newfound craft, and when Darryl got home i got a beautiful card (brought wee tears to my eyes it did!) from him, a card from the girls and a voucher for Rodney Wayne (my hairsalon) to get a cut and colour done! YAY! ive been holding out to get my hair coloured for MONTHS! then Darryls parents came over with Kebabs for dinner and they gave me a nice necklace. so i got absolutly spoilt rotten! had a million phone calls, emails and texts and just had a wonderful birthday! usually im passed by a wee bit, but this year i just felt great to be one year older!

Im having a BBQ on the weekend to celebrate too, im REALLY looking forward to kicking back and having a few drinks (have my breastpump back now, so i can enjoy a wine or 2!) we have lots of our close friends coming over and some new friends too, HEAPS of kids, so it should be fun!

the weather is meant to be crap today... i have a washing line full of clothing in the bright sun... just thought id mention that! lol

oh, also, the neighbours with the backpack? if you remember! lol they moved (not sure if im repeating myself or not, oh well!) so the pack finally came off the line, all the neighbours trees have been cut down, which means a huge amount of light is now coming into our kitchen and living area, its great! we also have new neighbours, but i havent met them yet.

Christmas eve/Christmas day/Boxing day pics

our beautiful bubbalu

had to wear all her new things all at once!

Kaylee LOVES her trampoline!

Our beautiful Kaylee

Olivia and myself

Family shot

Olivia with her Aunty Adele (my sister)

should be doing dishes.....

lol but im sitting on here instead! hell! why not!

Thinking about signing up to Mystery Shopping..... could be fun... could be dull..... wont know until i try i guess! i did it a few years ago, with a different company, and it sucked, but this company profiles different companies, so can only but try!

Darryl is away today Drag Racing, i hope he had fun, the girls and i just stayed home and im getting Olivia into a lovely routine now, i like knowing where i stand and for me, routine is good.

Kaylee is obsessed with undressing her Strawberry Shortcake doll then getting mummy to put the clothes back on, she comes up saying "Help you Mummy" meaning 'help me' lol still hasnt got it yet, but every day her speech becomes clearer.

still no luck with Toilet training, Kaylee gets so upset when her knickers get wet that she is now getting upset when i try to put knickers on her because she knows they will get wet (if that makes sense) and of course i want to make TT as easy on her as possible and i dont think this is the way, we wil get there i am sure!

im loving my sewing machine, have sewn up some wipes and a nappy booster today, i like loosing myself in something, whether it be scrapbooking, sewing, reading, sudoku, it helps clear my mind, i like that.

Its my birthday next week, usually i just let it go by... this year im celebrating, why the hell not i say! so we are having a bbq on Saturday night, lots of people are coming (or meant to be... i dont have the best track record for people turning up!) and im determined to enjoy my birthday and my bbq. 25 i will be, for some seems so young, for some seems so old, for me, seems just right :)

this year is the year dedicated to me, being a mother, wife, sister, aunty, daughter, granddaughter, neice, friend (drinking buddy! haha), and just being able to be me. im determined to get my stress levels back down, my fashion sense back up, and just be free to be myself.

Amen :)

Hello Lovelies!!

and a Happy New Years to you all!

things have been trucking along quite nicely here, and i really dont know where to start to be honest! lol but i guess i will start at Christmas day :)

Christmas day was lovely, Kaylee wasnt interested too much in opening presents, she just wanted to play on her new Trampoline (we showed it to her the previous night) but of course her and Olivia were spoilt rotten and ive been trying so hard ever since to find space for the new stuff! lol we only have a little house with no storage! :) it was a lovely day, we opened presents in the morning (my Mum, her partner and my sister were up) and then had a lovely breakfast of pancakes and fruit, then we pottered around home making salads etc and went up to Darryls parents for late lunch/early dinner, HEAPS of food, salads, cold meats, hot veggies, hot meats, and desserts to be proud of! :) was a cool day with the kids having a great time and the adults eating way too much! (we went back on Boxing day and at the leftovers!) Then on Boxing day Mum, Terry and Adele went home taking Kaylee with them and i stayed on up here for a couple more nights, then Olivia and I went down the Thursday before New Years and Darryl joined us on the Saturday, we came back home yesterday after having a lovely time away, shopping and blobbing! very nice indeed.

I was lucky enough to get a new Sewing Machine for Christmas and last night i sewed up my first creation, a skirt for Kaylee, its pretty cute :) i havent used a sewing machine since college, so i had to find my way around it again! like jumping back on a horse really :) so i cant wait to get creating, making my own nappies, wipes, a quilt each for the girls, clothing for the girls and ME! :) heaps of fun!!

i havent made any New Years resolutions as such, i never bloody stick to them, so didnt see a point getting into that! all i want for this year is to stay healthy, raise my beautiful children well, and keep happy, because i think im pretty damn happy right now, its nice, its not until you really are happy that you realise that you really werent happy, im meeting HEAPS of new people whom i am lucky to call friends, every week i meet someone new almost, and its GREAT! im not self conscious anymore about what people think, i let them see ME for who i am, and they like ME and appreciate ME and thats pretty cool i think!

im loving this Summer too, its just great for Kaylee to get out in the sunshine, tomorrow we will set up the paddling pool and the sprinkler for her, so im hoping she will enjoy that!

Kaylee is just great, very determined and stubborn, but we are working through that, she is talking clearer every day and learning more every day too, its great to see her little mind ticking over! we just have to start toilet training her i think, may give it a go tomorrow, i will stay home all day with her and see what happens!

Olivia is great as well, she started sleeping right through the night at mums, but last night being our first night at home she was incredibly unsettled (the car ride does it i think) hopefully tonight she will be back into sleeping right through again. she is growing so fast, 10 weeks old tomorrow! we get amazing grins from her and she coos and gaas away, its so sweet!

4 more sleeps until Santa comes!

ohhh how exciting Christmas is in our house this year! but to be honest this year im a bit over it and ready to start the New Year!

Olivia has been unsettled the last few days, not even sleeping during the day, going to sleep in the early hours of the morning at night, so i have been surviving on not much! but all of a sudden, last night she went to sleep at 10.30pm, i didnt go to bed until later (dumbass!) thinking that she would wake again, but no, she slept until 6am! OMG BLISSSSS! she woke at 6, went down at 7, woke again at 9.30 for Plunket to come and visit and weigh her, and back asleep again at 10.30, its now 11.11am and she is still asleep! yay! It makes all the difference to my sanity, i tell you!

Ive come to the conclusion that Olivia is intolerant of Disposable nappies (weird aye!) every time i put her in one, she gets a rash, but put her in cloth and the rash goes away and stays away! Synthetic fabrics dont agree with her either, even if its a cool day she sweats so badly in them! i call Olivia my "sensitive" one as she just seems so much more vulnerable (for lack of a better word) than Kaylee ever did! She is just so damn cute though, huge smiles and goos and gaas, just lovely! She just adores Kaylee, follows her (with her eyes of course) all around the room, watches every move she does, she just loves her! Kaylee is very doting with Olivia too, finds her a dummy when she cries and loves hugging her, very nice indeed!

I have a pedicure and facial appt tomorrow, OMG i cant wait! my skin is just so crap, i cannot get it clear for the life of me, i have tried SO much and spent SO much money on it, but yet i still have blackheads and pimples and blemishes, i just hate it! i do hope though that the appt is at a quiet time and not when the neighbours trees are getting cut down (they are using our driveway, only fair since we asked them to cut the trees down! haha) the backpack on the washing line is finally gone.... only because they moved! i am pretty sure it was on the line for 3 months!

I decided at 8.30 last night that i was going to go to the Warehouse, i needed to get out of the house on my own, so i left Darryl to it and off i went, OMG it was SO busy, the whole carpark was full, i did a lot of people observing, and i come to the conclusion that there are some very weird people out there..... i cant explain too much (you never know whos reading!) but whoa.... never seen a crowd like it before!

Anyway, this is probably my last post before Christmas and New Year, So have a very Wonderful happy Christmas and a Safe and fun New Years!!

CHEERS!

xxx

4 more sleeps until Santa comes!

ohhh how exciting Christmas is in our house this year! but to be honest this year im a bit over it and ready to start the New Year!

Olivia has been unsettled the last few days, not even sleeping during the day, going to sleep in the early hours of the morning at night, so i have been surviving on not much! but all of a sudden, last night she went to sleep at 10.30pm, i didnt go to bed until later (dumbass!) thinking that she would wake again, but no, she slept until 6am! OMG BLISSSSS! she woke at 6, went down at 7, woke again at 9.30 for Plunket to come and visit and weigh her, and back asleep again at 10.30, its now 11.11am and she is still asleep! yay! It makes all the difference to my sanity, i tell you!

Ive come to the conclusion that Olivia is intolerant of Disposable nappies (weird aye!) every time i put her in one, she gets a rash, but put her in cloth and the rash goes away and stays away! Synthetic fabrics dont agree with her either, even if its a cool day she sweats so badly in them! i call Olivia my "sensitive" one as she just seems so much more vulnerable (for lack of a better word) than Kaylee ever did! She is just so damn cute though, huge smiles and goos and gaas, just lovely! She just adores Kaylee, follows her (with her eyes of course) all around the room, watches every move she does, she just loves her! Kaylee is very doting with Olivia too, finds her a dummy when she cries and loves hugging her, very nice indeed!

I have a pedicure and facial appt tomorrow, OMG i cant wait! my skin is just so crap, i cannot get it clear for the life of me, i have tried SO much and spent SO much money on it, but yet i still have blackheads and pimples and blemishes, i just hate it! i do hope though that the appt is at a quiet time and not when the neighbours trees are getting cut down (they are using our driveway, only fair since we asked them to cut the trees down! haha) the backpack on the washing line is finally gone.... only because they moved! i am pretty sure it was on the line for 3 months!

I decided at 8.30 last night that i was going to go to the Warehouse, i needed to get out of the house on my own, so i left Darryl to it and off i went, OMG it was SO busy, the whole carpark was full, i did a lot of people observing, and i come to the conclusion that there are some very weird people out there..... i cant explain too much (you never know whos reading!) but whoa.... never seen a crowd like it before!

Anyway, this is probably my last post before Christmas and New Year, So have a very Wonderful happy Christmas and a Safe and fun New Years!!

CHEERS!

xxx

Its the most wonderful time of the year!!

I LOVE Christmas, its my favourite time of the year, and its so much more special this year spending it with my 2 beautiful girls! haha Kaylee cracks me up daily, "Merry Mismas" she yells all around the house! Oh yes and Kaylee helped us to put the decorations on the tree, lmao... very pretty indeed!

They are learning all about Christmas at daycare, so she is picking up a lot this year, last year she didnt have a clue, she just liked all the presents!!

HEAPS going on around here, im trying to get heaps of bills payed, but at the same time save money, but at the same time get ready for Christmas, lmao, hmmm not working too well! All i need to do now is get the 8x10 photos printed for the Grandparents and Christmas is all done! easy! apart from food of course... Darryls family being Darryls family, they tend to take their time on decisions about who brings what, ive been asking for weeks, i will probably be told just before Christmas day... lol ahhh well :)

im trying to work out ways to save money, because come February we will be taking a bit of an increase in bills and a decrease in pay... (all for a good reason... watch this space) so im trying to be proactive now in cutting down now to help later, one thing i am going to do is put Olivia in Cloth Nappies, now i know i have talked about this in the past, and even trialled it on Kaylee, there is absolutly nothing wrong with cloth, i like them, find them pretty, i just didnt continue with them with Kaylee for various reasons (which im not going into here) So i have just purchased a few online, and will continue to purchase some more, especially ones that will last from NB (aka now) until 18mths, they have funky domes that you can make them any size you need, so that and the cloth wipes that i will use (go to spotlight and get a heap of flannelette and cut them up!) will save me around $20PW on nappies and wipes. we have cut our sky bill right back to the minimal (we dont have a TV arial at all) $38 a month and i have made changes to our phone bill (internet bill changes to happen soon) i just need to get our food bill a bit more under control and i think we will manage.

one of the main reasons for all these changes and scrimpings is that i really want to keep Kaylee where she is if at all possible for as long as possible, she is LOVING day care, it is so good for her, me and Olivia, it gives Kaylee the extra stimulation with other children and adults, provides her with activities that i couldnt do with her and i have noticed a HUGE difference in Kaylees social skills already.

I got my haircut today, SOOOO much better, i have been holding out since Olivia was born and it just got to the stage where it was so yuk! so i feel ALOT nicer! hehe and ive also booked myself a wee Christmas present, on the friday before Christmas im getting a pedicure and facial! ohhhh yummmm i cant wait!

update :)

Sisterly love, isnt it adorable!

Hello! long time no speak! lol its been a busy ol' week in the house of Carla.

Kaylee came home from kindy on Thursday and wasnt really too good, shes picked up a wonderful Diarreah and vomiting bug, OH YAY! but its weird because it isnt full on diarreah and vomiting, its just once a day for each (and no vomiting at all yesterday) and it only seems to be at night! weird! so its been all fun and games in our house with A LOT of washing being done! (because its done at night in bed, thank GOD for underlays!) So anyway it just seems like she has a little virus and there really isnt anything else we can do apart from give her bland food and heaps of water. So no kindy for Kaylee this week, and probably lots of DVDs!

I just talked to the healthline people on the phone, ive never rung them before, wow so helpful!! i will be ringing back in a few weeks once Kaylee is 100% again to get help with her eating, great service!

lol she is sitting on the couch watching love to sing, singing 'Rere Atu' at the top of her voice, getting most of the words wrong, but its very cute!

Saturday i expressed off a whole heap of milk and went out shopping ON MY OWN! it was lovely! and wow so easy without bags, pushchairs, carseats, mischief 2 year olds! i went looking for a gift for my MW as she is discharging me today (NO FAIR!) and found a gorgeous Rimu memory box with room for a photo on the top with Paua surrounding it, just lovely and something i would love so i didnt mind giving it as a gift!

We did a fair bit of getting ready for Christmas on the weekend, getting gifts sorted and working out what to get people, we are keeping it very light this year on gifts, it just gets too expensive, but we are spending a bit on Kaylee this year, buying her a trampoline, she will just LOVE IT! it will be put up on Christmas eve so that she will see it on Christmas morning, we found a lovely gift for Olivia that was on special at the warehouse, so thats her done, and ive decided that all the grandparents for their gifts are going to get a lovely framed photo of Kaylee and Olivia, nice and cheap to do, but very special. now to take the photo! haha

ive been stocking up on little gifts throughout the year, so apart from getting the trampoline, its not working out too badly, id be SO stuck if i had to start christmas shopping now! i have a couple of business gift baskets to make up next week, and one more thing to get for my neice and nephew and something for my sisters and brother, (am thinking of getting them a Prezzie card from the post shop, cool idea!) and then i am definitely done, apart from Darryl, but he gets the same thing every year, lol, he always wants a CD of some sort and a couple of nice TShirts, i always throw a wee surprise in there too though!

I cant wait for Christmas day this year, Mum, Terry and Adele are staying with us, so Christmas morning its presents first, then breakfast (Pancakes, bacon, maple syrup and fresh fruit this year) then lots of playing with all the toys! haha and then off up to Darryls parents, HUGE family Christmas with mine and Darryls familys and a couple of other familys joining in too, heaps of cold meats, salads, desserts, drinks, yummmmmm cant wait!

i LOVE LOVE LOVE this time of year! we are getting our tree next week, for the past few years we have used a fake one, (i have allergies) but this year, as i love a real tree so much, we are going for real, so next week we are off to the tree farm to get our tree! cant wait!

1 month old

yep Olivia turned 1 month old yesterday, isnt it amazing how fast time has flown??

the days are still melting into each other to be honest and im still trying to find the balance between Olivia/Kaylee/business/housework/Darryl. Olivia feeds non stop, a lot of it is comfort, so i am using a dummy, (blardy godsend! shite my nipples hurt some days!) and i am doing a bit of expressing every day too to top her up before bed at night, and it seems to work well with Olivia sleeping around 6 hours in a row.

Today has been an unsettled day unfortunatly with Olivia going to bed for the first time at around 2pm, its now 4pm and i have NO intention of waking her, not after the constant feeding and crying that has been today!

kaylee is having a ball at kindy, the teachers were telling me today that they had music and she really got into it dancing and singing, had a great time (we do this at home too, she loves it! but they have cool musical instruments at kindy too) so im really happy that she has settled in well,

unfortunatly Kaylee has not eaten in 2 days (and counting!) its really hard as a mother seeing your child not eat, it makes me feel so dreadful and like a complete failure, i have NO idea why she is doing this, apart from being totally stubborn! BUT we will persevere and still serve her up exactly what we all eat and we are hoping that eventually she will start to eat again soon.

we arent being unreasonable in our requests for her to eat, we arent putting down dreadfully discusting food or anything like that! for example a days worth of (offered!) food usually consists of: Breakfast - Weetbix and pureed fruit or ricebubbles and yoghurt or toast and yoghurt, Morning tea - Rice wheels (they are flavoured rice crisps made by healtheries) or/and muesli bar or/and yoghurt (depending on if she had one with breakfast or not), Lunch - sandwhich (vegemite or cheese usually) a peice of fruit (she NEVER eats fruit or veggies at the moment unless pureed and hidden! its so hard! but i still offer!) and a few other bits and bobs depending on what we have in the house, Dinner - last night was chicken drumsticks, a bit of rice risotto and a pasta salad from the supermarket (easy slap up dinner!) tonight its going to be mince chowmein, i am HOPING that being mince she will at least try it! see this is where our frustration kicks in, its not like she is trying the food and not liking it, she is not even attempting ONE bite! not one! if she only tried half the stuff we KNOW that she would enjoy it!

Kindy arent having much luck either unfortunatly, she point blank refuses morning tea (fruit and then once they finish 3 peices of fruit they can have a plain bikkie) and very rarely even attempts lunch (today it was vegetarian burgers - they are a vegetarian daycare - she just ate the bread around the burger!) so she does get offered good food at most if not all of her meals! its a very rare occasion where she gets mcdonalds or takeaways, and even then she only nibbles at a few chips and nuggets, im surprised she is growing at the rate she is, lol its not food doing it thats for sure!

anyway, just needed to vent a little bit, its all so frustrating!

lol we joke that the waste disposal gets fed better than Kaylee at the moment, it gets all her meals!

week 3 pics

can you believe Olivia is 4 weeks old today!! man time flys! but ohhh so in love i am with my wee baby! and lately even more in love (is that possible??) with kaylee too, its so nice to have fantastic children!!

Things are really busy around here lately, i havent been reading as many blogs as i have wanted to, and making even less comments on the ones i have got around to, please dont think im ignoring you!! haha im just FULL ON! Definitely silly season time methinks! I havent even got out the thankyou cards yet for Olivias gifts! i have them all written out, now just up to the addressing stage, lol its taken me a week to get this far!!!! between christmas, the business and being a new mum again, wow not much time at the moment! but im actually quite enjoying being busy i must say!

plodding along

Im slowly finding my way into a routine, hopefully i can get Olivia into a more regular pattern with feeding and sleeping, she seems to feed lately every hour and a half, which is just shitloads! so i have been using the dummy a lot with her to try and drag out the time more and then she gets a longer bigger feed which fills her up for longer (thats the idea anyway!) she is doing pretty well at night still, i think i am lucky there, she only really wakes once or twice a night, depending on what time we all go to bed.

My MW is coming this afternoon so we will see what Olivia weighs, im sure she has put on heaps, shes getting quite chubby!

im feeling terrible today, very nausious, blah, hopefully i will feel better soon, why i think im nausious is because yesterday i DID NOT STOP EATING! OMG i ate and ate and ate like i have never seen food before, i tried to stick to sandwhiches and fruit and cereal, but potato chips, mallowpuffs and icecream got a say too.... i feel so foul today! i was just HUNGRY, however today, i have only just had a bowl of cereal, but i feel so ill im definitely not hungry!

Kaylee is back at Kindy today! yesterday when Darryl dropped her off she barely battered an eyelid, waved him byebye and set about playing, they told me when i went to pick her up that she was quite shy and quiet, (which is very normal for Kaylee anyway, around strangers) but she seemed to enjoy herself, this morning when Darryl dropped her off she went straight to an activity with some other children and waved Darryl byebye and set about to it, no qualms at all about staying there and quite happy for him to leave, YAY!! so i had a lovely lie in this morning with Olivia, Darryl got Kaylee ready and only woke me so i could tie Kaylees hair up (he tried, but couldnt... he needs to practise! haha) so im so happy and so relieved that Kaylee is enjoying Kindy, and i was pretty glad she wasnt here this morning to be honest when i smashed a glass all over the kitchen floor.... it shattered and took forever to clean up! i can imagine a nosey 2 year old making it all the more harder!!

im having a bad hair day... so desperate for a haircut!!

my sleeping babies :)

taken this afternoon, i had Olivia asleep in the sling i was wearing and Kaylee in bed, so quiet and peaceful and innocent!!!!

took Kaylee for a visit to daycare today, i had to go out of the room for a bit and do some paperwork, and when i came back i watched Kaylee play, she thought i wasnt there and was having a great time, so i dont have any problems at all leaving her there, put my mind at ease completely, she didnt want to come home!!!!

its so damned muggy! im trying to find a balance for Olivia between nice and cool, but still warm, if that makes sense, at the moment she is just in a bodysuit, nothing else and has been so since lunchtime, if i put anything else on her she sweats! but im "wearing" her in the sling at the moment so she is warm enough beside me, but not sweating at all, but i wont be wearing her all the time! its great though because im hands free while still holding her!

we have no plans for this weekend, Darryl is probably working tomorrow, but thats ok, hopefully once he gets home he can help me with the housework, its such a pigsty here at the moment, ive vacuumed most of the house daily, but a couple of the bedrooms need a good going over and some more windows need washing, so thats my boring plan for this weekend! haha

hope you enjoy yours, whatever you may be doing!

Weight off my shoulders :)

Sometimes it just takes a good vent or sob to relieve yourself, i always feel SO much better after i have got it all out, my frustrations never seem as big and overwhelming and i can gain perspective again.

Thank you all so much for your messages and emails yesterday, i really do appreciate it, and im feeling heaps better today, actually things have been pretty productive around here!

Darryl got home last night with information for a daycare down the road from where he works, the wife of one of the guys he works for, got on the phone and rang a couple of daycares and found out that this daycare had an opening, 3 mornings per week, i felt a wee bit embarressed that she had done this, not because it was someone doing something i should of been doing, (LOL!) but because i had rang all the daycares around where i live, not thinking outside the square and thinking of somewhere close to where Darryl is based, i really didnt think about that, i just thought about my own travel! whereas with this place, Kaylee will go Monday, Tuesday and Thursdays from 7.30 - 12pm, Darryl can drop her off on the way to work and i will pick her up again, but it means i have those 3 mornings free to spend with Olivia, to go shopping, out for coffee (stress free!), have some ME time etc, KNOWING that Kaylee is safe, and secure and having a great time!

When we pulled up to the daycare today, Kaylees eyes boggled at the play areas, the waterplay, the paints, the crafts, the books and toys and of course the other children, she was going around saying "ohhh wow!" and really taking it all in, Darryl and her popped in yesterday for a wee bit, and we will also pop in tomorrow for a longer visit so she can get used to the teachers (who are SO lovely!) and the kids. I think it will take her a wee while to settle in, she is quite reserved, but once she makes a friend or two she is off! They provide all the food, morning tea is fruit and a plain biscuit, the only drinks they have is water (which is perfect as Water and Milk is all we give Kaylee anyway) and they provide a cooked lunch as well (vegetarian, no meat!), all included in the weekly price, so really healthy, it looked very safe and i feel SO good that we are doing this for Kaylee, she will just love it and was desperate for more interaction from children her own age. She will be able to do so much more than what i can do with her at the moment, she just loves painting and crafty things and waterplay, I did have her enrolled in a private kindy across the road from where i live, which is a lot cheaper and of course so close to home, however they only do school terms, and Kaylee probably wont be called up until January or February next year, but i am keeping her on that waiting list anyway, just to keep my options open.

So from there we went to coffeegroup at a local playgym place, Kaylee had a wonderful time on the bouncycastle, trampoline, bikes and ride on toys while i drank hotchoc and gossed with the other mums, Kaylee actually didnt want to come home! but she came home absolutly shattered, hardly ate any lunch and went to bed, i can hear her singing (ABC's) now which means she has had a 3 hour sleep, just lovely! Olivia too has been asleep for that time as well so i have been able to relax, eat, drink, tidy, wash dishes and blob on here!

Really good day, i dont feel so out of control any more!

oh and i wont be going down to mums for a few weeks yet i have decided, as we are starting Kaylee at daycare from this monday i want to get her settled and into a routine before we chop and change too much!

now i have to go shopping for some daycare clothes, lmao, things that i wont care what happens to them! Op Shop here i come!!! :D