HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGGIE!!!!

Alex with blonde hair about 6 months ago (her hair is now brown again)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAUTIFUL AGGIE

Well today is Alex's 20th Birthday. I can't believe that it has been 20 years since she was born.

OMG it just seems like yesterday that I was very very very young and having her - gosh time flies.

Alex was the best baby and kid. So good - virtually perfect really. Teenage years were HELL ON EARTH for me & Roger. But geez now she is great - well most of the time LOL.

We are going to Blu Water Grill for dinner tonight for her birthday. I have made her a cake - what do you think? I am quite proud of my effort, I hope she likes it :-)

This was actually really really easy to make. It is my lush choclolate cake recipe (look under recipes) & frosting. I made the cake last night (and had too much mix so made some cupcakes too).

Today, I made the frosting (the whole batch) and spread it on the cake (which is turned upside down but it didn't go flat - oh well). Then I put the rest in a piping bag from coles and piped out little round mounds (easy - I practiced on a cupcake first). I made the icing hearts from ready rolled white icing (Coles again) and some little baby cutters - oh and I coloured the icing with food colouring - messy but did the job, cut them out and left them to dry. I then sprinkled some sprinkles on there & will get some of that white writing icing and pipe/write her name on it. I'm pretty stoked with how it came out actually (better than I thought).

How much do you reckon it would cost to buy that from the shop??? I reckon it cost me about $10 all up - if that much LOL (not including my time but thats ok).

Will post pics of the dinner later :-)

The EYE

The EYE

This photo was taken by a friend of mine Stacy, when I was showing her my chicks (this is my favourite chick - Pom Pom.



Not my best moment though LOL!!



We call it "The Eye"

Getting ready........

Michael with Daddy's (Greg's) motorbike helmet on - he loves it, but wasn't fussed about having it on his head LOL

I hope I'm not turning into bridezilla - I don't think I am, but I do want to be organised for this wedding. Until then I feel that all I do is trawl the internet to find what I'm looking for *sigh*

I have had a very busy week though.

Monday - Mums Group (at our place)

Tuesday - Hmm can't remember what I did - probably some cleaning and trawled the internet

Wednesday - Went to visit my photographer - http://www.gemma-clark.com/

Thursday - Out for dinner with some friends & some baking, trawling the internet some more

Friday - Tidying the house etc, trawling the internet

Jemma was at her dads this week so that was good cause I was busy!!!

It is all coming together well I think. Here is what is happening:

Ceremony/Reception

We are not having a "traditional" wedding. It is going to be on Sunday 23 August, 9.30am in the morning. The venue is Regals Rendezvous at Annangrove (about a 45min drive from our place roughly- I haven't timed it yet so that is a guess). I LOVE the place, check it out, it is gorgeous!!!

So we will have the ceremony under the rotunda which I had to "hire" (read RIP OFF) but hey that is the garden centres rule, not the restaurant. The restaurant lady is Alana, and she is lovely!!! After the ceremony, we will be having platters of food on the tables for people to help themselves (greek inspired - antipasto, souvlaki, seafood, dips mmmmmmm) Cake will be as a sweet - OMG cakes are EXPENSIVE - (awaiting a quote at the moment).

Our celebrant is Philip Holland. He is lovely, a really nice guy. Greg really liked him too. Very glad we chose him. Am currently writing our vows and will send them over to him for review. I'm trying to make it FUN and not too lovey dovey, cause thats not us!! Music is an issue grrrrrrr as I can't decide what I want for ceremony. At the reception, the venue has a lady come in so we are going to use her YAY!!! (hope she's ok)

Invites

Here they are. Hope to finish them this week (my sister is going to do it - thankyou Nattie xxxx). Quality is a bit crap, I will have to redo this but it is metallic cream with a metallic bronze (brown) strip and then purple with little gold leaves japanese paper strip. Looks great (well I think so).

Photographer

I absolutely LOVE my photographer. Gemma is SO lovely. I love her photos and she is such a nice lady - I feel really lucky that she is going to photograph our wedding. She loves animals like I do and I think we just clicked. She is just starting out into full time photography. I just know our photos are going to be brilliant - she has a flair. Check out Gemma's Site to see her work - brilliant. We are taking the $1500 package which is more than I really wanted to spend as we are on a really tight budget. However, I am totally happy with that decision because of Gemma and her work. I actually really wish I could afford a package (especially after meeting with her and seeing her work & albums) but we can't and I accept that.

Dress

This is NOT me but is the dress I bought

I got my dress on ebay for $110.00 incl postage. Bargain - & its designer!!!. It is exactly what I wanted style wise - plain and simple. I have to lose a bit of weight (2kg down and counting) to fit the top as it is a small fit grrrrr. Bottom too big, top a bit small (but is fitting better every week!!). A wonderful girl from mothers group - Chris - is a dressmaker and is going to alter it for me for free (the bust is a bit big and so is the skirt). I hate my back & it is winter so I have ordered a wrap from Wrapor. Yes all the way from England!!! It was a bit expensive (Im having Ivory Duchess with Organza - beautiful) but I will sell it on ebay after the wedding & try and recoup costs. I think it is very elegant and looks fantastic so worth the money. Shoes - my sister said I can use hers but I am just a little bit scared that I am going to freeze my toes off (as it is the middle of winter). Still thinking about it.

Flowers

A lady on ebay had some lovely bouquets (fake flowers) in packages which were reasonably priced but too big for what I needed. I emailed her and she had brilliant ideas. She gave me a competitive quote of $135 plus postage ($20?) so going ahead. Will sell on ebay after wedding.

Thats enough wedding stuff for now. Will update more next week LOL.

Some sad news - Our Rooster (who didn't crow) sadly passed away today. He was sick yesterday, but not really bad or anything. I told Greg that we needed to check him and he didn't come out of the coop today. He wasn't well. We went out to the shops in the morning and in the afternoon when we checked he has passed away. RIP little guy :-(

The chicks are going well. They are still a bit ugly as their feathers are coming through so they look funny.

Michael is nearly crawling - nearly......... He is moving all over the place but hasn't quite worked out how to crawl. It won't be long!!! He also doesn't eat any food except arrowroot biscuits and rice crackers for babies and bottles - and this is driving me INSANE!!!! Yesterday I cooked 5 different meals for him and all went to the chooks. He is up 2-3 times a night for a bottle BECAUSE HE IS NOT EATING!!!!!!. I am calling up baby health on Monday and going in to see what i can do. He will not eat for me - since he got his throat infection. I cannot go on like this.........LOL,.....no seriously..........

Well, I will update when I can - so much going on - have a great week

Love

Rach

I'm getting married!!! :-)

Jem and Michael - sorry about the red eye

Yes, that is the surprise that I mentioned last post!!

Greg and I have decided to tie the knot and I am very excited about it. We got engaged when we were away at Tasmania for Greg's 40th Birthday, in 2007. I got pregnant when we were away too!!! I probably would have gotten married prior to having bubba Michael BUT I was so so very ill whilst i was pregnant, that just wasn't an option at all.

My sister got engaged and then married in that time too. After I had Michael I told Greg that I didn't want to get married anymore - Why? I don't know really - It just didn't *feel* right at the time - I don't know why - maybe baby hormones???.

However over the past couple of months my feelings had changed and for some reason I started to really feel that I wanted this to happen - and it is!!!

I am really happy and excited - I have never been married before.

Greg is a good guy. He is quirky and different, but then so am I. He is not perfect and sometimes says the wierdest or completely the wrong thing LOL but this is because of his chronic shyness - it takes over his mouth and what he says is not what he means or it comes out completely wrong or silly. Saying that, he is very clever - I'm sure if he had had some different opportunities and a different family environment who could have assisted him overcome his shyness then he would be a very different person - but sadly that didn't happen (well it didn't until I came along LOL). He is a great father to Michael and is very good with Jemma and Alex. He can make anything he sets his mind to - its amazing what he can do. He has grown so much since we got together....................he is a completely different person to what he was 4 years ago....... and I can't imagine spending my life without him now. In a lot of ways we compliment each other, which is great - we are a good team. He has wanted to get married but gave me the space to decide when I was ready - and now I am - very much so!!!

So, the planning has virtually been consuming me because I am trying to arrange this in 11 weeks!!! OMG - so much to be done!!!

I will update this week the details of the celebration and where I am at with all the planning. Of course, knowing me, I wanted to stick to a budget and I will talk about this too (and how it is blowing out eeeeek!!). This marriage stuff is VERY expensive - even when you are a tight bum like me hehehe.

Some other news - one of the other chickens is laying!!! YAY I'm not 100% sure which one but I think it is one of the layer hens I bought from Dural Produce store a while back. She has grown a very big comb over the past couple of weeks and it now is very red too - so my money is on her.

Here is a pic of her first egg (it is the small one in the middle):

The chicks are growing fast!!! They are looking a bit ugly now as they are growing their feathers. I can't tell which are roosters or hens but hopefully soon we will know (maybe by 6 weeks??). We are going to have to get the nursery together soon, so will post progress of this too.


Sorry I have been a bit offline lately. I hope to get it together now that a lot of the organising is done now xxxxxx


Michael and Jem (Michael looks like Devil child LOL)