.Everything (it's long).

Thanks for the new baby congratulations :) We are excited, although a little nervous to be doubling the child to parent ratio in our family! Yikes! I've been feeling okay. Tiredness as to be expected in the first few months and a little sick. It is my best pregnancy as far as being sick goes though, which I am grateful for but I do think it has a lot to do with me listening to my body and only doing what I HAVE to do to keep things semi-functioning at home. Most afternoons you will find me having a nap on the couch, I've been going to bed earlier and totally vegging out once the kids are in bed at night. I'm spending hardly any time on the computer as too much time in front of the screen makes me feel sick and eating when ever I feel a bit yucky is helping too - which unfortunately includes lots of carbs, fatty and creamy foods...not my usual diet at all but I'll run with it while it's working!  I'm itching to get back into some sewing and pattern writing...I can't believe it has been so long since I've released a new pattern (forgive me!) I do have a few in the works which I'm going to make myself dig out and get working on ASAP though.

I feel like I need to do a little catch-up on the last month of happenings around here...

Poppy Tom is Lil's latest crush. She asks to go and see him all week and loves getting piano lessons from him. We are amazed at how quickly she picks things up and seems to have an emerging musical talent shining through. Here she is playing "Happy Birthday" to Oscar and Sam on their birthday at the beginning of October.  

Oscar was so excited on his 7th birthday. We celebrated with a chocolate chess cake (made by Jaron because chocolate and I are not friends at the moment). 

For his birthday, all Oscar wanted was a Lego with "power functions" (motorized). They are pricey though and we didn't feel right about spending such a big amount of money on a birthday present so we worked out a deal...about 8 months before Oscar's birthday we started a jobs chart. Oscar's jobs were simple things - set the table, make bed, take recycling out to the bin, etc. and each job was worth 20c a day (not including weekends). He had the potential to make $6 a week if he completed all of his jobs. We kept tally of his earnings and he paid 10% tithing each week. The deal was that if, by the time his birthday came around, he had not spend a single cent of his pocket money we would double what he had saved and let him choose a lego for his birthday present. It worked a treat! Jobs were done, pocket money wasn't spent on trivial little things and he learned the valuable lessons of saving money, patience and perseverance. When his birthday came, Grandie and Nana offered to include some money into his "lego fund" as their present which mean that he could choose an even bigger lego - it totally made his week!  And the lego took a whole week to make and is still being played with every day one month later!

The kids had athletics carnival during October. Oscar was there, but I didn't get any photos of him as I was with the kinder kids most of the time - plus, he was too fast to take any photos of ;) He did finish the day with a first and second place but didn't quite make his goal of getting a third place too get one of each ribbon! Lil was so excited, and Tommy even got to race in a few races! This is our last year at the kids school, next year we will be moving to a brand new school which is being built in our town. We will miss the rural setting their school is in now, but are also looking forward to settling into the new school and the adjustment shouldn't be difficult at all as most of their friends will be moving with them.

The lovely teachers let Tommy run in one of the races, he loved the cheering crowd and was more worried about giving everyone a smile and a wave than trying to win the race!

Cade and Talissa's big day is not far away - only 4 weeks to be exact! We are so looking forward to their wedding (and another trip to Queensland!) and helped them celebrate their engagement with a party at the park. The weather was beautiful, particularly after weeks of cold and wet weather, it couldn't have been a more perfect day to celebrate with friends and family.

The day before the party, Filipa and I spent 7 hours cooking up a cupcake storm! 150 cupcakes later, I don't think I'll be able to eat another cupcake for the rest of this pregnancy - or at least bear the smell of baking cakes, but they were delicious and looked lovely. Thanks to my special friend who gave us lots of cupcake baking tips and the BEST recipe ever that kept them tasing fresh for days after.

We finished off the engagement party day with our annual Halloween Party at our lovely friends, the Webster's house. Oscar wanted to be a lego man, so we cut the bottom off a protein powder container and spray painted it yellow - holding onto this one for later dress-up themed events as he isn't a fan of dressing up but will happily wear this for a few minutes! Tommy wanted to be a Wiggle - easy with a red top! and Lil a fairy ballerina - easy again after quickly raiding the dress-up box!

The hay ride is always my favourite part and this year there was even a professional face painter on the scene (makes for VERY easy dressing up if you aren't organised!). We came home with way too many lollies, rationed them out and gave the dodgy ones away to teenage boys who came trick-or-treating at our house on Wednesday night!

And if you're still reading, I'll leave you with my 11 week pregnant tummy. I'm secretly enjoying the excuse of calling my pot belly a pregnant belly even though I'm sure it is only slightly bigger than it was a few weeks ago! And excuse the gym clothes, it's unlikely that you'll see pregnant shots in them in a few months time - way too much lycra!!!!