This Mother's Favourite Smell

There are many parenting moments I love (and just a few I don't).

Funnily, many of my "love it" and "don't love it" fall into the smell or touch categories. 

There is one moment that remains to be a favourite of mine, even as my children grow bigger and older.
Nothing beats the post-bath wonderfulness, no matter what the age.
The moment is always the same, although, sometimes moves too quickly.

The smell of freshly washed hair, which is soft and damp.
The rosy cheeks that are soft but shiny.
The pale, wrinkly toes and fingers.
The cuddly child wrapped in pyjamas.

All of these are to be savoured .....
because the state of the bathroom, post-bath, is often unfavourable.

Lucky my kids are so cute and cuddly.

Weddings Are Many Things

Weddings can be such wonderful events. The idea is very personal and romantic; two people, so in love, that they want to declare their commitment to each other, joined and celebrated with their most loved friends and family.

I know the joys, time, effort, expense and stress of organising a wedding. Ours was way back in 2002.

We started planning our wedding, seriously, twelve months in advance. Alas, there was nothing like Pinterest then to get inspiration and ideas.

We recently attended the wedding of my gorgeous cousin and her husband.

I am trying to think of a word to sum it up ... but I can not choose. It was beautiful, elegant, fun, romantic, merry .....

The bride was none other than Sim, the lovely lady who writes at Hakuna Matata. If you wish to pop over and visit,there are posts about the proposal and the planning of the wedding.

Sim and her hubby-to-be

The wedding was held at the gorgeous Villa Howden, located at Howden, Tasmania.
It really set the scene for the type of wedding Sim and Alex were wanting. Villa Howden is romantic, beautiful and luxurious.

One of the gorgeous rooms - this one was taken by the bride's parents

Villa Howden-the staircase is ideal for photos

The setting for the nuptials.

A cheeky shot of shoes

Sim and Alex, now married.

The elegant table setting

The Bridal Waltz - just beautiful to watch

The Lolly Buffet where guests lined up to fill their take home box.

Me and Sim

Sim and Alex wanted the guests to know that each one was there, on their special day, not because they had felt obligated to invite them, but because each guest had played an important part in their lives so far. Such a wonderful, thoughtful statement.

The day and the event was gorgeous from start to finish. Everything was as it should be and there were so many lovely, and thoughtful personal touches. It flowed and came together so well, that it would have been easy, as a guest, to not give thought to the many, many hours Sim and Alex, their wedding party, as well as their parents and families had put into every decision and detail.

Love the Quotes

I have been finding some great quotes lately so I thought it only fair to share some with you. Hopefully you will like them too. 

This weeks theme is LOVE.

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

The Seven-Year Engagement

image source

The Seven Years between hubby and I becoming engaged and getting married could be classed as a romantic comedy. Alas, we did not think of making a film about it. 

We were not in a rush to set a wedding date. We wanted certain things to happen first. Unlike The Five-Year Engagement, the delay was not so much setting up our careers, as setting up our future.

We both had similar ideas about how we wanted our lives together to "pan out".

We wanted to enjoy each others company and get to know each other. We wanted to be a couple and make lasting memories together. And we did just that. We love looking back at photos with the children and telling them the stories behind each adventure.

Neither of us wanted to rush into a relationship that might fade or change over time either. So for the whole time of the engagement we lived together. We lived in several houses, and even with hubby's parents for some time. We played house, payed bills, nurtured pets, changed jobs and had a few disasters we can now laugh about. We had different experiences shared with different friends and family. We holidayed together and spent time apart enjoying our hobbies. We saw the good and the bad, learned ours strengths and weaknesses, and held each other up when it was needed. We gave the relationship every chance to change and grow along as we did, and by the wedding, we certainly knew each other inside out.

We wanted children, but wanted to set ourselves up first. If that sounds a little sterile and too organised to be romantic, then I can tell you we have our impulsive moments, but the big decisions were important and we liked the sense of control. We saved for our first home, which we renovated together (we could have done a comedy movie just around that). We then wanted to have a little money behind us before our family began, so we worked toward this. We worked on our ideals and discussed things about our future in detail. There was a lot of dreaming, but mostly we were ensuring we were on the same page. Of course, our opinions do sometimes differ, and we have had our disagreements, but we had the time to work through them.

Maybe this communication, and growing together is why we celebrated our Ten-Year Anniversary this year, and hope to keep adding the decades to our tally. We have watched as some of our friends have struggled through terrible relationships, and some have ended badly. We are so glad that we took the time to set the strong foundation for ours.

We hope ours will be a happily-ever-after tale. It has been so far.

Where he likes to be

He is where he likes to be.

Sitting on my knee

Little arms wrapped tight around my neck

Watching the television with drowsy eyes

Warm little cheek pressed against mine.

I hope he remembers,

In years to come

How close we were.

I hope he can still say

I love you Mum

You're the best.

I had a vision

When I was growing up I imagined having a boy and a girl. The perfect pidgeon pair. I envisioned what they would look like.

When I was pregnant with my first, I had a feeling that the baby was a boy. I had no proof at this stage. I just always thought of the baby as a "him". We then found out I was having a girl(hmm, great intuition), and knowing the father, I had a clearer vision of my daughter. She would have her Daddy's blue eyes and my dark thick hair. Funnily, she got the exact opposite (wrong again).

image source

How can I be so in-touch with my unborn child and be so wrong. And I'm Sagitarian! Aren't we meant to have psychic tendencies?

In the end it made absolutely no difference what or who she looked like. Although, when you are planning to have children and then are carrying your child, you do hope that the child does not inherit any features you like the least, or genetic problems. In the end, you have absolutly no control over this either.

My second child was a boy. My perfect pidgeon pair! At least I saw something right in my future.
He was fair like his Daddy and got his eyes too. I look at my children, and smile as I see similarities of my husband and myself. Some things are really obvious, others are just little movements or expressions. But they both their own ways and are their own little people.

Does the fact that they have similar features to us make me love them more? I don't think so. I would have been quite happy to go down the adoption road if necessary.  I would love my children if they looked nothing like the rest of the family.

I also have a vision of my children growing up and their future. We'll see ....

Linking up with Kortneys Krazy Life

Linking up with Life with Twins & A Drama Queen

I DARE not blink!

My baby boy has just hit another milestone. 4 years. Gone - just like that!

I remember sitting with him in the hospital, knowing that he was my last baby. Willing time to creep by slowly. Alas, time waits for no-one. This is definitely true.

We have been through a lot with him in 4 years. So many memories, that it almost seems that it was impossible to cram it into that time. We are lucky that we have evidence of many of those memories that we can re-visit. Thanks to digital photography I happily snap away, and most of the time the children are happy to play along.

We reviewed some older video footage of when our boy was a toddler. It was great to be back there again. At the flick of a switch we were transported back to chubby cheeks and curly blond hair, his funny stiff walk and love of eating with his hands. Miss 7 was, of course only 4 in the footage. The love for her brother beams from her little face, even as he pulls her hair.
I guess, if they must grow up so quickly, then I must be thankful that I have the video footage and photos to look back on. I just hope that the memories that go with them, that are still quite vivid in my mind, will stay just as fresh with me for a long time to come.

It was evident that our boy has changed in his features quite a bit since his baby days. He is now slim and athletic. His hair is now short and straight. The puffy little red cheeks are gone. But he is the same boy - cheeky, a glint in his eye, quick to cuddle, adventurous, with the cutest little grin and ready to tell you what he thinks. He has always been able to make me smile, even when he is at his naughtiest I find myself smiling at his antics and courage.

I will leave you with photos of Master 4 (no longer Master 3) at his best.

Dammit! - I'm a follower!

Ok - I caved! I am now on Twitter.
I'm not one of those people who like to follow trends. If anything, I tend to back off from something if everyone else is doing it. Sometimes though, you just need to go with the flow. I am looking at Twitter as a tool, and not just something others do.

And since I LOVE blog hops, I have joined the Twitter Hop with for the love of blogs.

Broken friendships

Hubby has reached the point where he tiptoes around silently whenever the parcel delivery van pulls up in our driveway.

photo source

He and the delivery man were getting along really well, as I made sure that they saw each other often. They were making small talk and having a joke, but something happened.
Could it be that they were seing each other too often? Or was it the little comments the delivery man was dropping about the regularity of his visits? Maybe it was the effort the delivery man was putting into their relationship, yet he still had not been invited in for coffee?

photo source

Regardless, hubby has decided it is best that he not answer the door unless he needs to sign for a parcel.

It could be that I am slightly most probably the cause of this problem. I am the one that dropped hubby in this pickle.

I have a small problem ... ONLINE SHOPPING ADDICTION! Aaggghhh!
I am trying to keep it under control - really!

I'm not a huge shopper usually. I dislike sifting through racks and shelves, amongst other people pretending not to be looking at the size you are after or which style you are looking at.  In the past I have been known to detest clothes shopping in particular. I hated shopping for bigger size cothing that didn't feel comfortable in the hot little changerooms.


Some things have changed lately.
I have finally reached a point that I am feeling more comfortable in my skin. Also I have been able to buy clothes in my size and they fit comfortably, right from the start. I can't remember many times in my life that I have been able to put something new on and not feel the need to twist it this way and that or stretch it.
I also have children to buy for now. I have found this much more fun than buying for myself. The clothes are cuter and more colourful. The sizes are more predictable. And the looks on their faces at getting something new is priceless.

I also LOVE a BARGAIN!
The online offers available these days are really good.

I have a list of my favourite online haunts on my blog.

Alas, I feel that hubby and his pal will never get back to their chatty selves.

Show Off Your Shot - bubbles

Today I am linking up with and then-she snapped. People who know me will know that I have a camera of some description on hand MOST of the time. Love, love, love taking photos! Can not have too many - Thank God for DIGITAL!

It would be quite correct to say that Master Three LOVES a bath, and doesn't mind a bubble or two.

He will tip ALL of our bath toys in and play until the water goes cold.

He is very sneaky though - he likes to splash which is breaking rule number 1.

He also likes to find things to add to his bath, whether it be some of Mum's shampoo, some Insect Repellant, some non-water resistant toys, a balloon .... anything is possible.

Master 3 is also a bath stunt professional and likes to perform tricks, swirling the water over the edge and seeing how much water will leap out when he jumps in from the bath edge.

Breaking rule number 2.

Something unique to Master 3 that I did not have to endure with my daughter (could it be a boy thing?) is how relaxed a warm bath can make him. And I mean relaxed! Every muscle ... do you see where I am going here? If you don't,then let me just say that Master 3 has had foreign objects, not usually welcome in the bath, on several occasions join him for a swim. Needless to say that hubby (who is not a fan of foreign objects) quickly lets me know my services are needed.