Life....... and Death

More busy busy busy in our house.

I am very excited to welcome into the world my new little niece - Charlie (Charlotte).  She is so cute and apparently is being a very good little girl for her mummy.

Charlie, right after she was born - so gorgeous

Natalie, my sister, had a fairly textbook pregnancy and actually had to be induced!!!  What a difference to little Max, my nephew, who was born extremely premature at 25 weeks on the dot.

I have ordered the blinds for the play room and am waiting for them to be installed.  Hopefully in the next few weeks.  It is nearly finished and I can't wait to "reveal" the finished room.  Not too long now YAY!

Jemma is a busy girl.  It is her Year 6 Party in a few weeks plus Cheerleading concert.  We have got her a lovely dress for the Year 6 Party, she looks very grown up.  I'm looking forward to seeing her do her cheerleading routine too.

Jemma dressed up for Halloween

Jemma & Michael playing with glo-sticks

Michael has really come along in his talking recently.  He is putting 3-4 words together and is speaking a little more "normally".  I am really happy with how he is going and I'm sure he will be taking like a normal little boy in the future.  His shyness/social anxiety is also getting much better - if someone comes over or to the door, he no longer runs into his room.  Progress is a great thing when you have a special needs child!

Michael with his Melbourne Cup hat he made at Pre-school

Rhys is now confidently pulling himself to standing and is just starting to cruise the furniture.  He is a lot happier now that he can do that.  We are still having lots of eating issues and I did try and get into Tresillian, but what a waste of time that was.  Their opening words, at my phone interview, was - "Well we can't get you in until February next year at the earliest".  They gave me some tips, but no help really.

Ben is eating well and sleeping well and is virtually running!!  He is a busy little man who is always on the go. He is still a real little mummy's boy.

My 3 boys - so cute

The twins are now 15 months old!!  Time has gone so fast.

15 months old - Rhys & Ben - such different little boys

Finally, some sad news about our wonderful cat Squishy.  She started to struggle breathing and it got worse and worse.  Firstly we thought it may have been a heart condition, but that was ruled out after an x-ray.  Any way, it seems it was an obstruction in her nasal cavity and because she is a persian cat, there is nothing they can do.  She was quite miserable, so we decided to get her put down.

Squishy about a week before she got sick

She was a wonderful cat who had a brilliant personality.  She loved Greg a lot.  We will miss her a lot, but glad she is now at peace.

Spending some time with her most favourite person in the world - poor Squishy

Hope you have a lovely week

Rach
xxxx

Playroom carpet & busy busy busy

 Wow, things have been quite busy here recently.  Having two toddlers, plus a special needs 4yo, plus an 11yo is making things a little crazy in this house.  I also hurt my arm (from carrying the babies) so have been in pain, which also makes me exhausted.  It is much better now thank goodness, so I am slowly starting to feel a bit better.

My 3 boys - Michael, Rhys and Ben

Jemma being silly!

Our carpet got laid in the playroom and it is fantastic!  It is lovely plush carpet, which is resistant to stains etc.    It looks fantastic and I am slowly getting the room sorted out.  Here is the progress:

Carpet laid & lounge put in

From the other side

Looking into the main lounge room

From the other side

Hope your week is going well and is not as crazy as my world is at the moment!

Rach

xxxx

Playroom Progress & around our home

The playroom is really starting to look fantastic.  Greg has finished gyprocking and painting and it looks great.

The stacker door has been put in and the carpet has been selected.  The carpet people are coming tomorrow for a final measure up, so hopefully it will laid really soon.

The stacker door from the playroom.   The carpet square will be the colour of the carpet.

From the lounge room

I planted a few plants, two tomato, two strawberry and some basil.  It's going quite well but a bird took one of my almost ripe strawberries this morning, so I will have to net them up it think.  Grrrr!

Here is the front of the house.  It is looking quite nice.  The Gardenia trees that I had out the back, I have moved to the front because they no longer got any proper sun with the new room.  They are going really well and hopefully I will have lots of gorgeous flowers soon.

The back patio area is also looking quite nice now too.  I retrieved all my plants from up the back yard and have been giving them some TLC.

It has been quite hectic here recently.  Greg started a new job and now starts early in the morning, so I am left to organise the kids on my own.  We are getting into a routine now thank goodness.

Rhys is not sleeping well, or eating well.  I have some real issues with this and have decided to get a referral to Tresillian to help me with this.  I called them up for advice and they felt my issues were a bit too hard to deal with over the phone and that my best option was to go in for a residential, so I am off for a referral tomorrow and then hopefully will be accepted.  I really need some help before I begin to "not cope".  At least Ben is a great sleeper and eater - thank goodness.  Sometimes, having a special needs child and twins gets a bit too much.  Everything (and I mean everything) with Michael is often a drama and then on top of that being woken up 5 times a night = no sleep, well it can get to you. Better to nip that in the bud.

Hope you have a good week :-)

Playroom progress

We are making fantastic progress on the playroom.  The builder and Greg have been working hard (Greg has been working very very hard).

Firstly, Greg had to remove the old sliding door.

Then the big old window and taking down the eaves.  The crap that fell out of the roof was absolutely revolting YUK!

Then the middle bricks, wood and bricks under the window had to be removed.  Following that a beam had to be put in, as it was a load bearing wall and also a false wall after the bricks.  

Next step is the plaster board/gyprock to be put up to cover the external brick work, eaves and new wall.

Now Greg has the fun job of finishing it all off so it is ready for painting and the stacker door to be installed.  Looks like he will be working at night after work to get it all done.  Busy busy busy!

We also picked up a sofa bed lounge on Wednesday.  It is in excellent condition and was perfect for the space we have.  It was $1000 new but I got this one for $500 second hand.  The downside was it was out at Pyrmont, in the city.  My wonderful Mum & Dad came and babysat the kids for us and we drove out there.  It was a bit of a debacle - the lady told me she would dismantle it - she didn't - and then didn't have any tools to get it apart!!!!!!..... (and we didn't take any tools because she had told me she would dismantle it before I picked it up - *sigh*)  Lucky for her, her neighbour had some tools and Greg got it apart.  Thankfully it all ended well but we have learn't an important tip for everyone

Always take tools, even if you think you don't need them!

We saved $500 + delivery of getting one second hand, so that will help pay for some floor coverings/window coverings etc.  We have also saved a bomb by getting Greg to help the builder and do a lot of the work himself (eg take out the door & window, plastering, helping the builder so he doesn't need to employ a labourer).

Every bit helps.

Think of Greg this weekend, plastering the walls...............................

Our mantra atm

"It will be fantastic when finished"

xxxxxx

How to make yoghurt from scratch - step by step

My boys love yoghurt and we go though almost 1kg a day!!!  I had to find a cheaper way of getting yoghurt than buying it from the supermarket at over $4 per tub.

I started making it myself, using the Easiyo system.  You can pick these up a garage sales or op shops for a few dollars too, or buy new for about $20 or so.

What you will need:

• Easiyo system
• Small tub of plain yoghurt (or previous yoghurt you have made) or some yoghurt starter (Green Living Australia)
• UHT full cream milk (I use this because you don't have to heat the milk up)
• Milk powder (full cream)
• Vanilla essence (if you want vanilla yoghurt)
• 3-4 TBL sugar

Method

Pour some of the UHT milk in your yoghurt container

Add 3-4 TBL sugar (this is important if you like/used to the taste of supermarket yoghurt - I did one batch without sugar and it tasted awful to my tastebuds.  Adjust to your liking)

Add 2 heaped TBL yoghurt (or a few grains of yoghurt starter)

Add 1-2 TBL vanilla - if you want vanilla yoghurt

Add a heaped 1/3 cup of powdered milk (optional, but necessary if you like a really thick & creamy yoghurt - we do!)

Shake it all up.

Add remaining UHT milk and give it another shake (try and dissolve most of the sugar)

Add boiling water to the Easiyo thermos up to the baffle.

Add in your yoghurt jar and put the lid on.  Wait up to 6 hrs or overnight and.....

YUM YUM YUM - THICK CREAMY YOGHURT!!!

Repeat the next day for more yoghurt, using 2 TBL from this batch.

Cheap and easy and oh so yummy.

Enjoy!

xxxxxxxxx

A busy life!

It has been crazy busy here at the moment.  I just don't seem to have a minute to myself any more, but I guess that is to be expected with my life at the moment.

Fathers Day was quiet, but I made this picture and put it in a frame for Greg.  He loved it! (it was VERY hard to get these pictures, let me tell you).

DAD picture for Fathers Day 2012

I did manage to get away for the weekend - it was Greg's cousin's Hens Weekend.  A bunch of girls went to the Hunter Valley.  We stayed in Broke, which was lovely.  We had dinner on Friday night at Margan Restaurant (nice), a wine tour on Saturday, with lunch at a very "french" inspired Tallavera Grove Restaurant and chilling out on Saturday night.  I headed off early on Sunday to save Greg from the kids, but they were very good so he didn't really need saving - but it is very hard work having them all on your own.

Of course I forgot my camera as I was racing out the door on Friday afternoon, but it was a great weekend away.  Although those fancy restaurants are nice, they are a tad pretentious in my opinion but I guess I'm a what you see is what you get kinda girl, so I don't really fit that sort of scene..... oh and last time I checked I wasn't absolutely loaded $$$$$$$$ wise either, so may cringe a little at the verrrrrrrry expensive price tags!  However, the views and decor at both restaurants and the wineries was wonderful and made for a fantastic weekend.

Outside Tallavera Grove Restaurant - gorgeous views of the vines here

Other than that, life has been chugging along as normal as it can be - ups and downs etc.

Ben has finally got some teeth - the top two have come though last week YAY.  We also had to give him a haircut as his hair was getting long and he likes to rub his head on the floor and it was going into dreadlocks!!  Also, everyone used to ask me if he was a girl because he had lovely golden curls LOL.

I took the kids to the park on Sunday afternoon to give Greg a break.

Ben, with his new hair - he looks like a little boy now

Michael having fun on the slide

Jemma sitting on the baby swing

Rhys having a swing

Both Ben and Rhys eat a lot of vanilla yoghurt.  In fact Rhys won't eat anything else.  I have been going through yoghurt like crazy and it gets expensive, especially since I can go through a litre a day, and at $4 per tub it adds up quickly.

Anyway, I have an Easiyo yoghurt maker and started using that, but even their packs were $3.50 or so a pack, so that was getting expensive.  So I decided to buy some live yoghurt culture from Green Living Australia and try my luck at yoghurt making.  

My first attempt was a disaster!  Not because it didn't set, but because it absolutely tasted DISGUSTING.  The reason?  I didn't put any sweetness into the yoghurt.  I actually am amazed at just how sweet our normal yoghurt from the supermarket is against normal unsweetened yoghurt.

After much trial and error, I now have our vanilla yoghurt down pat & I think it tastes yummy.  Here is how to do it:

Yummy home made vanilla yoghurt (very thick as we love it this way)

What you need

• Easiyo yoghurt maker & container
• Yoghurt starter OR some plain yoghurt from the supermarket (small tub)
• 1 litre UHT long life full cream milk (I buy Aldi brand)
• 1/3 cup heaped Powdered milk full cream (I buy Aldi brand) - this makes THICK yoghurt... nom nom nom
• 3 tablespoons of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of vanilla essence

Method

• In the Easiyo container, pour some long life milk into it
• Put in the yoghurt starter (few grains) or 2 heaped tablespoons plain yoghurt
• Put in the sugar, vanilla essence and powdered milk and shake it up
• Put in the remainder of the UHT milk and shake again (try and get the sugar to dissolve a bit)
• Place into the Easiyo with the boiling water and leave for at least 6 hours

After 6+ hours, it will be set and you can put it in the fridge.  Mmmmmmm, really thick fresh vanilla yoghurt.

Then, when you take it out of the fridge, make another batch using 2 heaped tablespoons from the container.  It goes on and on and on.  SO easy!!!  SO cheap!!

I will take step by step pictures next time I make it and put it in another blog!

Enjoy

Rach
xxxxxxx

Michael is 4!! Wow! plus love getting freebies YAY

Wow, wow, wow - Michael turned 4 yesterday.

New Iron Man toy from Mummy & Daddy, Jemma, Rhys & Ben

Showing me how it works

How time flies.  It's hard to believe that my beautiful little baby is now a big boy of 4.

Look Mummy Look!

Greg took the day off work and took him to a Thomas movie (Michael's first ever movie experience) - Blue Mountain Mystery Movie.  I won tickets in a Facebook competition, which was so cool.

Showing his brothers his new toy

He has a great time and was very good.  He loved eating all Greg's popcorn and M&M's.  He sat for the whole movie too.  What a star he is.

Look what it can do Rhys & Ben

Our room was finished last week.  It looks fantastic.  I had our builder come out and we have decided what we are going to do to make it look a bit better.  In the interim, we can't really use the room because it has a concrete floor, which is no good for the babies to crawl on, is cold and just not suitable to use.

So, when Greg got home from taking Michael to the movies, he called up a local carpet place to see if they had any second hand carpet for sale.  They had removed some from a house that day and were going to put it in the bin, so the guy told Greg to come down and see if he wanted it.  He said it was in pretty good condition, not perfect, but not bad.

Greg went down to take a look.

OMG it is perfect as a temporary floor covering for the playroom.

Laying the carpet

Kids already having fun on the carpet

And best of all - it was FREE!!!

All done, just needs a good clean

Coming up nice and clean

It was very dusty, but overall in pretty good condition - not perfect but for what we need it for, it is great!!!  We got enough to put it down on the floor and it is fantastic.  The echo of the room has gone, it is nice underfoot and best of all, the kids can play out there.  

Bliss!!

Oh, and did I mention it was FREE!!!  

hehe

Wow, Ben loves the new carpet in the room.  Perfect for walking up and down

All in all a freebie day - free movie tickets and free carpet - noice!

Happy Birthday Michael, we love you lots big boy xxxxxxxx