Finally Again!

Where have I been?

Well, the question actually is "Where has my computer been?" 

I love computers but when they don't work  I HATE them! 

I ran out of giggles (giggs/GBs?) apparently. It had been threatening for a while and it finally happened.

So my computer went to computer hospital.

She is back now

AND 

I finally got a new camera.

So double Yay.

What's been going on?

Winter.

indoor huts

Olympics. Of course.
This is our olympic opening ceremony breakfast. Spot the olympic rings. 

That's the whole clan, apart from me. Watching opening ceremony. My lads ready for their own football games. 

Birthday.

Smiles!

Breastfeeding! Lots of!!

Hope all of you are good out there in blogland.

I have a few other posts lined up and ready to publish as I have a back log now from all my non-posting days and weeks. YOu're welcome.

Happy Days..

Back on the Blog and Back from the Beach

Yip we're back in Hamiltown..

Still a week of holidays to go, so yay!

So I bought some storage space, and so I can now  put posts up again.

You'll all be THRILLED about that, I'm sure! (lol)

THanks for the advice etc on the last post..

I will get to all the other blogs and comments soon hopefully!

When we got to the beach we wondered WHY as the weather was SO bad. 

There was a 2 day and night storm that was quite spectacular. (as you can see, the house is very close to the beach so we got a great few of the storm!)

Despite the weather, the kids still wanted to go swimming. We had to hold them back.
Iris was desperate to give her newly acquired (op shopped of course!) 'Maisy Mouse' togs/swimmers an outing... 

There was a lot of reading and games for the first 2 days..

And I got breakfast in bed one morning. Bless my Joe's little thoughtful heart!

 Eventually the rain stopped in patches.. and we took those moments. 

For sand digging and prancing...

You can see how churned up the sea was..

This is Arlo's first time on a beach EVER!

But then the sun came out and it was like summer! The kids and their cousins had so much fun, as always.

We're so lucky.


Hope y'all are good and well!
Look forward to catching up on blogs.

I haven't been op shopping for about 8 weeks. Gasp!

Thank you!

A big thank you for all the bloggy love coming to Iris and my crew!

It was a bit of a process but she's winning! 

And the swollen up lymph nodes were not due to anything sinister, which is good...

So thank you for all the lovely comments and virtual hugs!

This is Iris yesterday.
If you look carefully you can still see a bit of a lump.



I had a few posts lined up but I'm having technical issues...
Like: I've exceeded my 1GB free allowance from picasa for blog photos. Or something.

I am computer-ally challenged, so any advice gratefully accepted!

Also - how do I get REPLY thingy enabled on the comments?

Grazies y'all!

School holidays now for 2 weeks, so we're off to the beach house for a few days...
Happy Days!

CLOCKS (and SHOCKS) .... a Collection

A Collection I quite like.. They don't all tick, as I don't like lots of loud ticking! Just 2 of them are operating, the rest are decorations..

This magnificent starburst  was gifted to us by my Mum's best friend Judy.. It was lying around in her loft apparently.. The spikes are wooden and we LOVE it!

This is one that John picked up. He likes industrial kinda stuff.. It's pretty cool. It hangs just inside the front door..

This one I actually saw in the window of  a $2 shop! I wouldn't usually buy a clock from there.. but how could I resist? I knew it would look ace on our toilet wall. It ticks beautifully and keeps perfect time. I love a bit of  cheap kitsch. 

This was so cheap it may as well have been free from a jumble sale several years ago. "Not another clock!" said John. But we love it. 

This one  has been with us the longest. It was from an antique shop in Edinburgh, Scotland. We bought it on a whim for 15 pounds, which was quite a price back then, we thought. And we had to carry it all the way back to London, which was difficult and downright dangerous! ( We hadn't worked out that you could take the spikes out to make transporting it easier!!!)

It was in perfect condition when we bought it and stayed perfect until a couple of years ago. Inexplicably it fell off the wall one day, and then twice more - and it bears the scars. Dinged and battered, but still keeps perfect time  and we love it.. Bummer it's damaged but it tells a story I guess!

 Iris is in hospital. She was put there last night (while I was in the middle of trying to do the clock collection post!) We thought she had the mumps or something but it turns out it's an infection and has gone into her system...

She's bored shitless. And  grumpy  sometimes. But being a brave girl. Her neck is really swollen especially on one side. 

I go up in the days and John does the nights.. It was OK today, but in a few days time she will be well and truly over it...

She''ll be fine.
Just a waiting game!

So she won't be wearing a Friday Frock this week!

Frock on Friday for One of Us..

Frock on Friday for Iris was this funky one that just made her want to DANCE!!! Do you love the paparazzi hands?!  I am not wearing frocks right now
- breastfeeding + frocks = difficult!
Boots - op shopped
tights and merino top - passed on to us
necklace - I bought it at a SHOP!!! (Cotton On Kids - I go there for the necklaces - for me and Iris)
Dress - My sister bought it from a flash shop when my niece was 3 (she's 13 now)  and she justified the purchase by saying she'd pass it on to me for my daughter/s! 

Iris with marmite face.
 Baby with squished up cheek face. 

I'll try to get a bit of time to photograph other things - I promise I won't always fill the blog posts up with baby photos!

Something sad happened this morning - Gil chopped ALL his curls off. Sob. It was completely unceremonious.
Chop chop.
They never grow back the same. Well they didn't for my other, formerly curly, boys.
Sigh.
How shallow am I?!


Need to catch up on blogs.. I'm way behind on what y'all are up to.. need to find some time for comments...


Happy Days, but!

I Found some Recent Finds!

So as I said in my last post, I am unable to go hunting and gathering right now..

But things have been coming to me!

Here are a few recent acquisitions....

THE BEST ever box that my friend Trishy brought up to me when I was in hospital....

The best one I've ever seen..
I LOVE these hand sewn card /picture boxes. This happens to be the coolest kitschiest one I've seen.. and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

Too cool.

A for Arlo.. one of my sisters found him this. 

Bibs made by my sister-in-law out of fabric from my mother's stash. The fabrics are VERY familiar to me from when I was a kid. LOVE.

My most recently acquired kid - 2 weeks old now. So sweet.

Got this funky dragon shirt quite recently...It had its first outing at the school disco last night.
Joe and Gil very dedicated to making their hair as straight as possible for the occasion..


Happy Days!

I'll link up to Her Library Adventures. Coz that's how I roll. 

Dragon Baby has arrived

 About 10 days ago I had another big fat baby boy.

His name is ARLO JOHN
and we are in love for the 5th time!

He weighed 11lb 10oz qhich is exactly the same as his big bruv Gilly was. That is 5280g . Think of a 5kg bag of potatoes, then add on more for the fluid and the placenta and the cankles and THAT folks is why I was practlcally crawling everywhere for the last month or so of the pregnancy...lol!!!

The rest of the kids are utterly smitten. They want to hold him ALL THE TIME. The novelty most certainly hasn't worn off..

I had my first caesarian. I REALLY didn't want to but I know for sure he would have got stuck as he was wider than Gil who got stuck big time.

As a result and due to a variety of reasons (snowball effect) Arlo was in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for a week. We got home on Wednesday.

Feeding him has taken a lot of learning as we missed those crucial first little cuddly snuffly snuggles. Sob.

Anyway.
All is well now.
He is adorable and I LOVE having a baby in the house.

So does Iris! 

This is a suitcase full of Arlo's first clothes and the view of Hamilton lake from the hospital window one night. 

Happy and Glorious. 
I am not a royalist but I do love a bit of pomp and pageantry from time to time. High tea anyone?



I will be slowly catching up on blogs. 
Thank you for all the well wishing from my last post.


Unfortunately I am not allowed to drive for 6 weeks which is going to seriously impact my op shopping capabilities!

Never mind. I am happy to hang here and love my baby. Confinement, old fashioned styley.

Happy Days!