People With Kids Don't Know

Tammy sent this to me recently and James and I had a good laugh :)  It's so funny.  Every single day I'm in fits of laughter between going insane - such an awesome ride having children around!! :)

***Okay for some reason I can't get the link to the video to come in here, but if you click here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFQfylQ2Jgg

You can watch it... so funny :)

In other news, Maggie's going for her kindy interview on Monday (yes, they actually reject kindergarten-ers they don't think are up to the challenge!!).  I can't believe she's leaving us!!!  She's currently here 'standing out' because she and Ana were having a crazy pre-naptime party in their room despite my urgings that they cease and desist.  Ana's throwing a mega tantrum, clearly overtired after the party.  She'll be asleep in no time :)  SJ's fast asleep, tired out from our huge morning at the grocery store - bless!  Fingers crossed in another hour I'll be sitting on the couch with my feet up eating lunch with all 3 cherubs sleeping peacefully!! :)  More likely SJ will wake up the SECOND Maggie and Ana finally succumb to sleep - they are like clockwork these guys lol :)

I'm DONE with morning sickness and I feel like I have a new lease on life! - SO exciting to not be sick, I can survive the getting fat and tired now :)  And enjoy the 3 babies we have before number 4 joins us!!!  15 weeks pregnant, so I'm really, REALLY excited to find out what we're having in just 5 more weeks!!!!!

Christmas soon!!!!!!! :)

Perth trip sooner!!!!!!!!!!! :)

James gets to not work on his holidays for once because he's in a grown up job where holidays are paid!!!!!! :)  I am making all sorts of fun family Christmas plans - going into the city to see the parades and pantomimes and lights and Santas - can't WAIT!!!! :)  

Ana's mega tantrum still going... I'm sure she'll run out of puff soon... fingers crossed... :)

Loving this 'holiday' weather - it's AWFULLY STICKY AND HOT and I can feel a good Summer STORM coming on soon!!! :)  We had a massive hail storm on Sunday, tis the season!!  Feels like Christmas :)

Hope everyone has a FABULOUS day!!!!!! :)

xoxox

Bucket List

I don't really usually dream too big or make a bunch of goals.  My goals in life have always been pretty simple - be a fabulous homemaker, make our kitchen the heart of our home and always bake and cook for our family, be up to date with ironing, be a good Mum and wife of course, be a good person, don't get fat.  Well okay it's not all that simple - especially since I keep getting sick and having babies at the moment - but it's all pretty much within the walls of our home.  I'm secretly not that adventurous.  I tend to be scared of everything.  I have an extreme imagination, overthink everything, and worst-case scenarios flock to me wherever I go.  It's actually something I have to consciously work on all the time, or I'd never leave the house!  - or be in the house alone! lol... James is very adventurous.  And I know it would be better for me to be so - experience more, enjoy more of what this world has to offer, be less afraid of unknown people and places.  And my own shadow... :)

Anyway, I thought I'd write a bucket list.  Don't get the wrong idea - it's not going to be full of skydiving or anything of the sort!  But I'm trying to look outward a little more, not be afraid to make bigger plans.  Some of the things like 'own our own home' have been lifelong dreams, and now that I look at the few I've already jotted down, they're not adventurous at all! - but I'll keep adding to it and I'll try to look outward a little more :)

Own our own home
Serve a mission with James
Write a book (probably a children's book)
Visit every capital city in Australia
Travel to Europe
Travel to America
Attend a session of General Conference in the Conference Center
Go on a dinner cruise
Go out to dinner somewhere where the dress code is 'formal'
Paint at least one surface in our home an exciting colour
Have $10,000 in the bank, 'just in case'
...hmmm.... bucket lists should be much longer an more exciting, right?  :P

Meanwhile, here's my list of things I want to do/see with James when we go to America one day! - This one was MUCH easier to write, because I wasn't trying to think of 'outside the box' things I want to do.  I already want to do all these one day! :) When I started writing about travelling up there I just started this list for fun - maybe we should just call this my bucket list instead??!! ;)

American holiday bucket list ;)

Eat a pretzel with cheese sauce in a 'mall'
Eat at the Cheesecake Factory
Eat at California Pizza Kitchen
(clearly I have fond memories of some of the food there! ;))
Attend a session of General Conference in the Conference Center
Visit the Sacred Grove
Visit Navoo, Illinois
Visit James' mission parents
Visit Dad's old mission companion's family
Play in snow
Times Square
See a show on Broadway
See 'local' New York - hopefully get some people who know New York to tell me where to go/what to see in terms of meandering around eating at fun places, visiting cool markets, etc.  Spend at least a day or two doing 'laid back' New York!
Go to Disneyland/Universal Studios
Do a session in as many temples as possible - Including SLC!
Walk around BYU
Shop (pack very light on the way over! ;))
Shop at Deseret Book
Visit Park City
Visit the Humanitarian Center in SLC
Do all the Temple Square Tours - the Lion House, etc.
'This is the place' monument
Ice skate outdoors
See the Christmas lights on Temple Square
Eat pizza in New York
Hollywood walk of fame, Chinese theatre etc.
Buy something at the Kodak theatre boutiques again
Go to the 'You've Got Mail' cafe in New York.  Eat there.
Central Park
Catch an NBA game

Clearly we're going to be there for quite some time, and clearly we're going to have a limitless amount of money.  So this trip may be in 30 years.  Or more.  But still, it's fun to dream!!  Also, it became clear to me while writing this list that our trip will span from the first weekend in October, till at least Christmas haha - well, timeframe sorted! ;)

Can't wait to add to this list as it comes to me - a lot of it's based on what I did/ate last time I was there ;)

Sister Love!

I just got off the phone to my beautiful sister-in-law Jessima who moved far, far away a few months ago now, and it hits me again how much I miss her!  And how lucky I am to be so very blessed sisters-wise.  I was born with an older sister, the Tamster, who's always been perfect in every way - including being the best big sister on the entire planet.  Then Bethany was born, who's one of the sweetest, nicest person you've ever met, she's ridiculously nice.  Both of them are.  And then my brother Jonny married Jessima, who's another one of the sweetest, nicest people you've ever met, and she just opened up her heart to all of us and we all adore her.  Then Micky married Bec, and they've always lived so far away but they still make an effort to come and see us and they've just had baby Saphira and Bec is such a sweet Mama!  Some people don't have any sisters at ALL!!!  And I feel for them terribly!!  James has a half sister who he only found out about semi recently and who he's never met, but I hope one day we do, because I can't imagine missing out on another sister relationship!  She lives overseas, and is about 5 years younger than us I think - maybe more?  But the thought of another sister thrills me.  And I've got another 2 in the bag sometime in the future when Boliver take on their vows and marry another couple for us!  It's so exciting wondering who they'll be! :)  Sisters are so nice.

I feel like such a wonderful parent, because Maggie and Ana have each other.  Forget buying them a swing set - I just birthed each of them their lifelong BFF.  You're welcome, girls :)

And I'm pregnant at the moment (and dying.  Was morning sickness really this bad every other time?!  HOW do I forget this?!) and hoping to give SJ a brother (yes, I'll love it just as much if it's female ;)) so that he can have a brother like I have my sisters.  And while I've been dead and dying of morning sickness Tammy and Beth have both come over and done my dishes and helped with my girls and brightened my days!!  My wonderful mother has been over a LOT, and I've been over there and she's looked after my babies and done the days' meals for us so I didn't have to gag over the sink for hours too.  I am so grateful I can't even tell her properly.  She is wonderful.  And she has so much of her own stuff on at the moment and has been dropping everything to come and help me.  I am so blessed with wonderful women in my life!!

And now I should mention the amazing guys too - from Oliver making me toasties when I was hunched up on his couch the other day to Ben helping with the children and Dad making me Sunday night dinners, I am so blessed - and I haven't even mentioned James, who has been 'The Man' - coming home from work, making dinner, doing dishes, putting children to bed, cleaning everything and then pulling out all his tons of marking and report writing for his reports that are due next week, while I lie limply on the couch barely even pulling out a smile.  And he does all that in addition to looking after me and running out to get me anything that I thought would make me feel better if just for a moment!

So very blessed!  I hope the J's move back one day and we can hang out with them again.  I feel like I took them for granted when they were here and I miss them!!  And Jessima is down there all alone being supermum with her 4 children under 5, baby Jayde only 5 weeks old and Jonny working long hours in the new business!!  And now I so wish I could help them!!  (At least when the morning sickness goes away Jess :P).  It's Jenna's birthday today, and I wish we could see her and cuddle her and wish her happy birthday!!  Maggie talks about Jenna and Jordan and Jacey and Little Baby Jayde 'who we haven't seen yet' all the time, and loved calling her up to wish her happy birthday earlier :)

I'd better dash - my little baby man is crying and he really is the sweetest baby boy I've ever seen in my life, he has me completely wrapped - it makes James roll his eyes at least 20 times a day - another reason it's good I'm pregnant - this way hopefully I won't spoil Stanley-James too much when I get busy with the baby :)  But for now, I'm his - and I'm off.  But I'm really so grateful for my sisters!  And brothers, and parents, and everyone, and this baby in my belly that's making me so sick but I know that I'm going to love it forever, and I'm so excited to be adding another little perfect person to this family who make me feel like the luckiest girl in the world every single day!  Oh poor SJ - really going now! xoxox

Random Stuff...

• I'm so tired!  Tired tired tired.  All the time, tired.  Tireder than I ever thought it would be possible to be!  I'm so tired! lol :)  Everyone says the jump from 2 to 3 children is the hardest, and I have to admit it's tough!! It's SO WONDERFUL to have these 3 perfect, wonderful, adorable (if at times insane ;)) children, I'm totally smitten by them, but it is kind of tough lately!! :)  I dream of getting 6 hours of sleep in a row.  And then I wake up and feed again ;)
• Our little boy SJ is the sweetest, cutest little boy in the history of the world.  I'm completely in love with him :)
• Maggie is the rockingest 3 year old ever - love her to bits - she's so funny, and so much fun.  She's like my little sidekick :)
• Ana's my other little sidekick.  She's so sweet and funny - she loves to laugh and be happy and dance, and she makes us all happy :)
• James gets holidays every couple of months.  We never realised until now how AWESOME it is that he's a teacher!!!  He's on holidays again next week.  He asked me what I wanted to do in the holidays.  I looked at him and my eyes widened with excitement, and I said "I want to have an entire day of naps, where you just watch the children, and I sleep all day, just waking up to feed SJ!!  ........ and we should hit the theme parks or something 'fun' too I guess...".  I think he's going to let me do it too, and it feels like all my dreams are coming true!! lol :)  I'm excited to hang out with him also :)
• I've been ironing :) Which has been one of my dreams of housewife-ing forever!  I finally feel like a real woman when I see James go to his wardrobe and pull out a neatly ironed shirt all ready to go for the day.  It makes me feel like I'm being an awesome wife lol :)
• I should be ironing right now!  But I feel like I need to 'let out' more random stuff about my life, so I'll probably do this again soon...  It's 10pm-ish, and Maggie's still not asleep.  Sleeping pills for children sound like child abuse!! Until you have one who won't sleep.  Then they just sound like a good idea.
• James is at the semi-formal.  Bringing back memories - I so wanted to go but apparently they don't let randoms in? :)
• I haven't been working out since I broke my toe 5 weeks ago and I've been getting terribly fat :s  But it's only sore a little now, so I should get back into it this week... or next week, after my nap day?  I'd like to be skinny again and fit all those cute clothes in my wardrobe. The whole getting fat and pregnant and then trying to get skinny again cycle is a little trying, but the children are worth it - they totally rock :)
• I'm out xox

Fabulous News:

I'm wearing my pre-pregnancy jeans!!!!!!


...

 - I'll let you know when I manage to do them up!

;)

Lately I've Been Wondering.......

Lol.  So, so tired! :)

I just started walking again last week, and started working out properly this week.  Last night I was sobbing and wobbling through my training last night while James barked things like "Come on you're not even trying!" and "Breathe!!!", (to which I wanted to yell "I AM TRYING!", and "I AM BREATHING!!!!!" but lacked the energy...sigh...lol).  I was reflecting on the fitness challenge I did and wrote about on here back in July-Sep 2011, and how impossible I thought all the tasks James was giving me then were, and how by the end of it I could do them all!  And lost all my 'Ana' weight! :)

It's hard to focus this time though, because James has developed - through obviously coaching and training people way too much lately - a crazy 'coach' persona, and it makes me want to giggle SO BAD!! He's like some crazy sergeant off a bad army barracks comedy movie, and it sets me off every time he tells me what to do.  Maybe because he's so authoritarian about it and I'm like "James I'm your wife, not some random army cadet you have to bark orders at!" but it was really disrupting my workout, because when you're a body of jelly instead of muscles, and you're desperately trying with all of your might to perform some grossly out-of-your-ability-level-right-now squat or lunge or lift with weights, and somebody makes you giggle, you almost collapse, and nearly die by hitting yourself over the head with your own weights.  And I was tired and James did not think it was funny, so I was a jelly laughing crying determined little mess.  I'm sure I'd laugh about it now if my stomach wouldn't explode with the pain!  I'm meant to be out the door with the girls to the park in 10 minutes, but oh my it's so hard to move, and my fingers are some of the only muscles in my body which can comfortably move right now lol.  Okay, okay - I'll go!  I'd better start losing weight and growing muscles soon, and get FIT - which is the whole point, isn't it?  So I can have some ENERGY to make this lovely family dinner every single night, and fit into some clothes that don't have belly bands in them! :)  Ah, good times!!  Getting up now, eeeeek!! :) xox

PS:  It's really, really hard, but LOVING having 3 babies!!! :)

Wow

Had a baby, moved house, James started work, etc. been a crazy, crazy month!!  But have been blogging that on my private blog.  Just saw this and loved it :)

He Turned!!!

We went for a follow-up appointment at the hospital yesterday afternoon, and the ultrasound revealed that Boy has somersaulted and is back in a good position for birth - YAY!!! :)  So no weird external turning procedure with a 40% chance of having to book in for a caesarian!  YAY!!! :)  Am so excited to be able to have him naturally, whenever he feels like coming :)  Now all I have to do is remember to sit forward a lot so he's not posterior.  Posterior isn't nice.  Yay Boy!! :)

Happy New Years!!! :)

Had the best New Years Day yesterday!! :)  I've been wanting to get some jobs done lately that just seem so 'big' in my current state!  It was James' last day of holidays and he was SO wonderful, bless him!  And the girls, who have had a crazy last few weeks, amenably slept for hours, so we could just 'do our stuff' :)

First, we got rid of Christmas!  Our house looks so lovely and clean and neat!!  We put away all of the Christmas decorations and cards and cushions, and everything else, and put out our usual house stuff.  Especially after the final vacuum, taking with it the last of the pine needles, it felt REALLY good! :)  I organised all of our Christmas things into new storage and organising containers I recently bought a million of, and love the new organised system!!! :)  I cleaned out the rest of the top of Ana's cupboard while I was there :)  We also managed to find places for ALL of the Christmas toys the girls received - no small feat!!  And I reorganised (even though they'd only had it for a week!) their little kitchen, and when they woke up we went through it together so they KNOW where EVERYTHING goes, and hopefully it's not as crazy in future! :)

Then, we organised everything Baby Boy :)   Until we move in the next few months, he gets 2 drawers to his little name - and a bassinet, if all goes according to plan and it EVER gets here! (We order through a shop which sell everything SO MUCH CHEAPER than everywhere else, but Maggie's cot, which we ordered over 3 months before she arrived, didn't arrive until well after they told us it would, after her birth!  They told us the bassinet would be here before the end of December, but alas - now they're saying end of January - and this boy will be here before then! :s  Hopefully it arrives just after he does?!!).  Anyway, I pulled out all of the lovely boy clothes we got for Christmas, and blankets, and toys, and organised them all :)  This is one of the FUNNEST parts of getting ready for baby :)  I put all of the clothes and blankets in the wash, and then used the drier instead of hanging them out, because it makes them so much fluffier and softer!! :)  I plan on having an ironing day this week, and getting them all beautifully ironed and folded and put away :)  It's so fun doing 'blue'!!! :)   With organising Boy's things, came organising my things too - to pack our hospital bags :)  I'll finish up properly when Boy's clothes are ironed and ready :)  It's all pretty exciting though!  I know I'm not quite in the 'nesting' stage, because as much as I love and was loving getting things ready for him, the urge was not accompanied by any kind of burst of energy, and I had to keep sitting down abruptly and resting cause I felt like I was going to faint half the day! :p  So hopefully that comes soon, and I can have another useful day or two before he gets here :)

We also managed to get out for a little grocery shop in the afternoon, including our first pack of newborn nappies ready to pack into the hospital bag :)  Sadly by that time I ended up sitting on a couch in the shopping centre and James running in to get the groceries (I love grocery shopping! :)), but we did it :)  James had (between helping me get things done all day) also been 'Mr Fix-It'-ing, fixing up a bunch of odd little things - he's always so onto stuff and handy, I love it!  :)

By the time we put dinner away and the girls went to bed, I felt fantastic!!  Everything is so clean and neat and organised right now, happy sigh!! :)  I sat on the couch and ate watermelon and read a book, and at some point fell asleep until James woke me up and took me to bed.  He used to carry me, but the whole 9 months pregnant thing seems to have ended that for now lol :)

So Happy New Years Everyone!!! Hopefully this year is as clean and fresh and exciting as Day 1 was for me!! :)  Bring on our Baby Boy and James starting teaching and everything else - 2013 is looking like our best year yet!!! :)