Click

That's what that movie is called isn't it?! Where Adam Sandler has the remote and can see his life as if they were just sections on a DVD.
I wish I could put all my memories onto a device like the one in the movie and relive them when I wanted to. I find myself agreeing to read 1 more book to the boys, falling at each hurdle they throw me just so I can live in that moment just a second longer. Don't get me wrong, the kids have the ability to send me from 0 to 100 on the angry/frustrated scale within a matter of seconds BUT the feeling of completion they give me - that completion that I never knew I had been missing, the happiness I feel in our family unit soars far higher than the angry scale could ever go. Moving away from everything we have ever known has been the hardest and most rewarding thing our little unit could ever have done. And its not just the boys I count in that feeling, its the 4 of us. I'm not one of those people to publicly ooze an abundant amount of soppy affection about my life so I'll stop these there. I'm tired, hubby is away and I'm missing him. So I'm sitting here trying to get myself to a sleepy state, so really I could go on for ever. But I won't. My family is ultimately what I feel anyway, I couldn't possibly relate it all to somebody else.

So what I originally came in to blog about was language. Its the theme of the day here with master 4 at speech therapy to try fix his pronunciation habits that can affect his ability to communicate some messages. Like anything, when you start working on it you notice it more so every element of Master 4s language has been the focus of much of my attention.

We are really enjoying in the thick of the fournager years here and getting served a true variety of language in all its flavour. Comments like 'I want you to go and die' really do leave you with a feeling of warmth and love deep inside don't they!?
On the weekend I headed to the shops and on departure I asked Master 4 if he needed anything, his response was Yes, intrigued I asked him what he needed and his response was 'Um, something we don't have'. Clearly he got his shopping tendencies from his mother AND has outsourced the buying part, smart lad.
I wish I had a mental memo board to take note of all the funny things he has said, its all a vague distant memory.

We are thoroughly enjoying the other end of the spectrum as well, Master 1 just finding his voice and saying single words, 'UCK' is often yelled in the car when he sees a truck bus/train/large utility vehicle, we also have Car, duck, mum, dad, Santa which is adorably pronounced SAAAANTAAA. He also tries other words, IF he feels like it when asked. But generally he is a quiet kid preferring to use gestures to communicate. Which works fine, for now.

x

Christmas time

It seems the lead up to Christmas drags on for months but the day itself, gone in an instant. A blurry memory of torn wrapping paper, many laughs, some tears and much love.

This year marked our first Christmas in our new home. I've been so busy with sorting out the house and doing all my 'holiday activities' that I didn't feel too anxious about the upcoming day. Christmas means a lot to me, being a foodie I love the food preparation and the eating, I love the planning, I love preparing the gifts for people, thinking about what they would like and seeing them open their gifts. I love being with other people and relaxing for the day. Obviously I wasn't sure what to make of this year being so far away and missing out on those usual activities in the comfort of our family homes.

The lead up to Christmas was wonderful, we found ourself unleashing the 'kids must be in bed at their 7pm bedtime' rules to, 'lets leave to see the christmas lights at 7.20pm'. The freedom that came with our more relaxed holiday attitude was wonderful. We got to enjoy the innocent wonder of the Christmas lights through the eyes of our sweet boys. What miracles children are! Mere days before Christmas a friend lost her baby girl to a rare genetic disorder, so many times during these holidays I looked at my boys and couldn't stop thinking of baby S. I am just so lucky to have my boys, every single day that I get to cuddle them, that I get to tell them I love them and even when I get to experience the joy of having them fight is a wonderful day because it means I have them.

We are so fortunate to have a wonderful village of support over here, I guess you lean on these people more when you are away from your family and older friends. As a result Christmas day did not go by with my sitting and tearing up at the thought of the events we were missing back at home, I did at various points in time think with fondness back to what we would be doing had we been back home. But we had such a lovely time with new friends and adopted family that I cannot say I felt sadness at what we were missing, just nostalgic.

I've managed, you see, to get myself into a good headspace! It is a nice place where I don't yearn for things I cannot have, I live here, not there. I CANNOT simply have the life we live here AND the life we left behind. THIS is our journey for now, and I'm going to enjoy it and not wrap myself up in what we miss and what we cannot do. We take the opportunities here as we can and continue to grow into a stronger family unit as a result of living in isolation to those family ties.

Christmas has come and gone and we prepare ourself for another New Year, what a great year 2012 will be. I am sure.

Fresh summer coolness

With hot days upon (most of) us I've turned to looking for cool treats that are egg and dairy free so our littlest man can enjoy them with us. You don't need an ice cream making you just need to get clever.

I made banana sorbet last week and it turned out really well, and is so so easy. Using just 1 cup caster sugar and 1 cup of water along with 1 cup of mashed banana follow this method


Preparation method
Prep: 10 minutes | Cook: 4 hours
1. In a small saucepan, stir together sugar and water. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and allow to cool.
2. When the sugar syrup is cool, stir in bananas. Pour into a freezer - safe baking dish. Freeze for 3 to 4 hours, until set at the edges.
3. Remove from the freezer and transfer to a mixing bowl. Use an electric mixer to beat until smooth. Return to the freezer until gently set, at least 2 hours.
(source: http://allrecipes.com.au/recipe/10658/banana-sorbet.aspx).

The result is a smooth and tasty sorbet that is not too sweet and the perfect accompaniment to a summer fruit salad. I'll come and add a photo later...but mine looked pretty much the same as the one from the link!

Gingerbread Men in a Jar

Thanks to a gorgeous book 'Kids in the Holiday Kitchen' that I purchased from Pottery Barn last year I found the perfect teacher gift for this year. They are biscuits in a jar. Basically you layer the dry ingredients in a jar and then attach a gift tag with the recipe. The recipient just adds the required additional ingredients like butter and eggs to then make their biscuits. I purchased jars from Ikea, gingerbread cookie cutters from Big W, cardboard and ribbon from Spotlight and with just a little patience whilst putting them together we have beautiful personalised gifts for teachers and daycare workers.

This is the recipe that I used and this is the text I put on a card attached to the jars.

Gingerbread Men in a Jar

For scrumptious holiday cookies preheat oven to 180^oC. Beat together 1 egg yolk with 125ml golden syrup and 125gm room temp butter. Add dry ingredients of jar, mix till well combined. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Press dough into a disc. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes. Place dough between 2 sheets of baking paper and roll out until 4mm thick. Use gingerbread man cutter to cut out shapes. Place on prepared trays 3 cm apart. Bake in oven for 10 mins or until brown. Push smarties into warm cookies to decorate.

And this is the completed products at less than $10 a gift.

Dry Erase Calendar

I'm going to completely ignore the fact that I've been MIA in a big way. I have all the best excuses though with the Uni semester finishing, an interstate trip and the general busyness of our family. But I'm going to try post lots in the coming weeks as I am on holidays and keen to enjoy them by letting my inner creative crafty self come out.

This week I completed the first of a long list of things I want to create. It is a dry erase calendar. My plan was to use colours to intergrate with the feature wall and splashback in the same living space. The completed product has definitely done this.

I started with an Ikea frame

Next up was the collection of paint swatches

I then painted the back board that came in the photo frame, I had some white/cream paint in the shed so I used this to create a nice background for the calendar. Using an old calendar lying around I cut the shapes out of the swatches for each day of the month, a year and month slot. I used a measuring tape to accurately place each square on the board...and this is what I created.

I have to say I'm biting at the bit to write things on to the calendar. It's so easy to write on and will be easy to wipe off at the end of the month too. Our house desperately needed a central point to put our whereabouts so I'm thrilled we can now do this so easily.

I've been MIA

It's been a crazy few months and I've been MIA - a terrible blogger!

I've started uni, we've travelled back to the East coast for a visit and we've had the usual at home with the kids, dog, house etc etc. I know its all very unique to us and not what anybody else goes through. (ha).

In amongst all the usual I have done lots of baking, so I'll get recipes up soon - as usual dairy and egg free for the little lad but very tasty too!

Be back soon...really soon!!!

Vanilla Cupcakes

Who said egg and dairy free cooking has to taste less than great, or look less than great for that matter!

This recipe can be made with eggs/dairy or without using a dairy free marg and rice milk and the Orgran 'no egg replacer'.

Ingredients:
125gms butter, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups SR flour
1/2 cup milk

1. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric beater until pale and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until just combined.
2. Fold in the flour and milk gently until mixture is smooth, spoon the mixture into paper lined muffin pans.
3. Bake in a moderate oven for 15-20mins until cooked and golden.

Icing

For a dairy free icing I mix icing sugar mixture with dairy free marg and a bit of vanilla or rice milk - mix butter/marg with electric mixer until pale and slowly add the sugar for a 'fluffy' icing, beat for a couple of mins after you mix it all together. You can then add some melted dairy free choc, cocoa powder or peanut butter for a bit of flavour.

Good Food and Wine Festival

The weekend just passed Chris and I were both recovering from a weird virus which had left us with headaches and nausea and we were coming off the back of 3 weeks of doing virtually nothing with the boys due to them being sick. With the Good Food and Wine Festival on in Perth I thought it was a nice opportunity to head on the train into the city...it turned out a massive fail but we made something of it.
We took the train after Master 4's swimming lesson - it was a lovely train trip and quite quick. We got there and as soon as we got into the stuffy and food and wine smelling convention centre Master 4 got instantly restless and pale. Master 1 was crabby and not going to sleep. We made the decision to split up, the 2 big boys heading home and the little one hopefully napping in the pram whilst I explored. I quickly changed my decision and leapt after Chris - meeting him outside with a vomitting Master 4! The shows! Courageously Chris took the kids by himself back on the train and home and I headed back into my mother ship, aka the food and wine festival.

Whilst I felt guilty at first I quickly warmed to the surroundings - tasting bits of freshly made fudge, malaysian (meeting Alvin from Masterchef), watching a masterclass hosted by Matt Moran and tasting yummy chocolate, wine and so much more. If its on in your city and you love to know more about the origina of foods and tasting different things then its definitely worth an outting. I even got my Matt Moran cookbook signed by the author himself...

Playdough

I love getting in the kitchen and this morning I was marvelling over just how many things you can create with 1 packet of flour. I think the 3kg of flour was around $3.70 and with that 1 packet I have made 6 bread rolls to have with soup, pastry to use with apple and rhubarb to make a pie and this morning some playdough and the packet is still going.

I've had this playdough recipe since before we got married, a family friend gave it to me at my kitchen tea. This morning was the first time I've used it...pretty bad considering we've been married 5 years.

Anyway, I made 2 batches, 1 yellow and 1 blue and I got a good 25 mins out of Master 1 which isn't bad considering he much prefers to terrorise and pull apart the house. Did you know if you don't have creme of tartar you can substitute it for white vinegar or lemon juice. I substituted it for lemon juice this morning and the result was perfect.

The recipe is 1 cup of plain flour, 1/2 cup salt, 2 tablespoons creme of tartar, 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon cooking oil and food colouring. I mixed the food colouring in with the water and oil and lemon juice (instead of creme of tartar) and then mixed the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients on medium heat on the stove. You just mix the ingredients together until the salt has disolved into the flour and the mixture becomes pileable a bit like playdough should, and then you are done. I then let cool and kneaded it a little before giving to the kids.

Hutch

Meet our new family member, he is a 15ish week old Boxer pup. Isn't he cute!?!

Mars Bar cheesecake

A Woman's weekly favourite and now a favourite in our house too!

Prep time: 30 mins (plus refridgeration time)
Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients:
250gm plain chocolate biscuits
150gm butter, melted
2 tablespoons brown sugar
20 gm butter, extra
300ml thickened cream
50gm milk chocolate, chopped finely
3 teaspoons gelatine
1/4 cup (60ml) water
2 x 250gm packes cream cheese
1/2 cup (110gm) caster sugar
3 x 60gm mars bars, chopped finely

1. Blend or process biscuits until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add butter; process until just combined. Using one hand, press biscuit mixture evenly over base and side of a 20cm sprinform tin, cover; refridgerate about 30 mins or until firm.
2. Meanwhile, combine brown sugar, extra butter and 2 tablespoons of the cream in small saucepan; stir over low heat, until sugar dissolves, to make butterscotch sauce.
3. Combine chocolate and another 2 tablespoons of the cream in another small saucepan; stir over low heat until chocolate melts.
4. Sprinkle gelatine over the water in small heatproof jug; stand jug in a small saucepan of simmering water. Stir until gelatine dissolves; cool 5 minutes.
5. Beat cheese and caster sugar in medium bowl with electric mixer until smooth. Beat remaining cream in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Stir lightly warm gelatine mixture into cheese mixture with mars bars; fold in cream.
6. Pour half of the cheese mixture into prepared tin; drizzle half of the butterscotch and chocolate sauces over cheese mixture. Pull skewer backwards and forwards through mixture several times  to create marbled effect. Repeat process with remaining cheese mixture and sauces. Cover cheesecake; refridgerate about 3 hours or until set.

SERVES 8

tips. Because of the long refridgeration time this recipe is a good one to prepare a day ahead.
You can melt the chocolate and cream in a microwave oven - cook on high for 1 min and stir twice while cooking.
Don't use the 'dessert' labelled cream cheese, it is too soft for this recipe and the cake won't set firmly.

Sticky walls

Finally the painting is finished. Thank goodness the inlaws booked their trip to visit otherwise I'm doubtful we would have gotten our butts into gear and completed the painting!

Now the walls are finished everything is going back to its much happier state, clean, tidy and organised.

So the wall stickers are going on. Our bedroom finally looks more lived in with the wall sticker and whilst it had some problems sticking (to what appears to be bad wall paint - not a wall we painted) it still looks great.

Mmmm...Pizza!

Tonight we had delicious home made (that is from scratch) pizza! My wonderful husband spent parts of the day making the dough and then putting together a delicious feast. We had a Magherita and a Vegetable pizza.

It is a very simple recipe that we found in the Gourmet Traveller  "Italian Cookbook".

Pizza dough
2 tbsp olive oil
7 grams dried yeast
1 tsp caster sugar
450gm (3 cups) plain flour
350ml lukewarm water

1 Combine olive oil, yeast, sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 350ml lukewarm water in a bowl and set aside until foamy (2-3 minutes).
2 Gradually add flour to the wet ingredients (in a large bowl) until a rough dough forms, then turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (6-8 minutes).
3 Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside until doubled in size (1 - 1 1/2 hours).
4 Knock back dough, knead lightly, then cover and set aside until doubled in size (45 min - 1 hour).
5 Meanwhile, preheat over to 250 degrees celcius. Place two heavy-based oven trays in oven to heat.
6 Divide dough into quarters then form four 30cm diameter circles with the palm of your hand or a rolling pin and place each on a piece of baking paper. Spread pizza topping over bases, then bake in batches on heated trays, using baking paper.

To make a pizza that was friendly for our sensitive tummied master 1 we cooked and mashed pumpkin and scattered vegetables and ham over the top. The proof is in...well the pizza.

Bob the Builder

Rare is it that daddy can do anything in our home without a "mini-me" following him around. I absolutely adore it - it is simply the cutest thing when I see C working on something in the home and Master 4 is usually right by his side (okay so it wasn't as adorable when I realised he had taken this act a little too far by actually drawing on the wall to measure where he was to drill a hole...in pen no less).

Perth in Autumn

I'm in unchartered territory - for me anyway. Spending Autumn in Perth, on our 4 previous visits to Perth prior to moving here I had never been here in Autumn, it was always Spring or Summer. I have to say I am loving it. Traditionally Anzac day in Canberra is the start of the freezing weather, the start of long sleeves until at least September. But Perth is so different and I am not taking the differences for granted in any way. I should note, you won't see me blogging about what I miss or the cons of living in Perth. It goes without saying that we miss our friends and family so much, but life is about embracing change and all the positives in life and as such I don't stop very often, if ever to feel sad or sorry about our situation - we are so very fortunate. I just wanted to note that so that you know.

Anyway, as I was saying...Autumn in Perth, at least for us is:

Visits to the park (and not having to rug us all up!)

Visits to the beach:

Taking a swing in the backyard at 5.30PM (again without having to rug up!)

Enjoying a family dinner outside (okay so maybe that ocean breeze is sometimes a little too cool to enjoy dinner outside without a jumper...but you can't have everything right?)



Late night visitors

A couple of nights ago Master 4 woke up at about 11pm, usually he goes to bed and we don't hear a peep for 12 hours. So to hear him pitter patter into our room at 11pm and tell us he felt sick I jumped at the opportunity to have him hop into our bed and cuddle us for the night. He loved it too, cuddling up inbetween his mummy and daddy I have no doubt he felt safe and loved. We held hands for some of the night, I know it sounds corny but his little hand on my pillow was irresistable. And the sleepless night aside with him waking for water and his little brother waking (a reminder he was at the other side of the house alone no doubt), it was really nice.

"Cookie"

It seems only fitting that my little A has finally attached to a comforter, and that comforters name is Cookie. A loves his food, he loves his cookies too. After months of trying to get him to attach to a comforter that suited me he finally found what suited him. A beautiful bear that was gifted to him before he was even born, it is a good 3/4 of his size and he adores him.

Emerald Wave

Sounds nice doesn't it? It's the colour of our new wall. Fitting giving our proximity to the beach and it's waves, on some days there are parts of the ocean that look like this colour. It is so beautiful where we live. At first I was a little startled by the 'brightness' of our new wall. The prior soft green colour was soothing and whilst it didn't match in with our new splashback the new matching colour being more vibrant and a strong colour was at first a little worrying. But once we completed the entire wall I quickly fell in love with it. The wall now has a couple of important additions - photos of our gorgeous boys. This image is just a portion of the wall, its a very big high wall that takes pride of place in the middle of our home.

Easter traditions

I don't remember any easter traditions in our family home when I was growing up (correct me if I am wrong mum and dad). And through watching reality television shows and reading about other peoples lives on the internet I have started to think about whether I want traditions in our own home. What I hope is that we will set up some traditions of our very own and one day when our boys are much bigger and living separate lives from us they will gravitate home to us to enjoy their childhood memories...in adulthood and hopefully then one day with families of their own. I realise this might sound like I want to set up traditions JUST for the future benefits. But that is not the only reason. I know that Hamish is at the age where his earliest memories are forming, I would like to think they will become of baking in the kitchen with me, hunting in the garden for eggs with his daddy and not of me raising my voice at him to tidy his toys, or clean his room...or wash his hands.

In any case, what DO I want to become our Easter traditions. Well today I pondered the tradition my dad had of cooking shortbread every Christmas. Sadly Australian summer is not conducive to working with rapidly melting butter and flour on the kitchen bench and drinking a hot drink with a piece of shortbread is not quite as appealing as it would be in a northern winter. As a result I pondered making shortbread each year for Easter. Given we are now living away from my parents I cannot rely on a constant supply of shortbread from their home and the postal system is not nearly reliable enough...so I just might have to make it myself.
Today I found a very simple recipe and then put the shortbread dough into Easter egg moulds. I thought that this would make little crispy shortbread biccies that the kids would enjoy. The result was not too bad considering I have a) never worked with easter egg moulds and b) not done shortbread in this way before. As with all my recipes recently it was made with dairy free margarine as opposed to butter. The recipe is simple, 250gms marg, 1 cup of icing sugar, 1 cup of cornflour and 1 cup of plainflour. You cream the marg and sugar then sift the flours in and mix and knead well. I find it is quite sticky with the marg so its harder to work with.  In any case, below is the result. I'm pondering lining the moulds with chocolate before putting the shortbread in next time, also decorating with icing once cooked. Not sure yet...will this become a tradition for Easter in our house. Time will tell. I apologise for the dodgy picture - Blogger keeps changing it around.

You can't have your cake...

And eat it too! But seriously, who wants to leave a cake and not eat it? Even when it is deliciously gorgeous I would still rather eat it.

Hamish, our big boy is now 4! This also marks the end of birthday season for our little family, and thank goodness for that. I'm all birthday caked out!

My Women's Weekly cake book served me well for the birthday season. Hamish's cake for preschool was the basic vanilla cake and his cake for home was the chocolate cake.

Rich Chocolate Cake:
1 1/3 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
125gm butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla essence (or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract)
1 1/4 cups caster sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup water.

As with all the recipes I do these days you can substitute, in this case I use Orgran No egg replacer and I used tablelands dairy free margarine instead of butter. I find it make things lighter using the dairy free options anyway.
This recipe you just sift the dry ingredients into a bowl and then add all remaining ingredients and combine. Increase speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes or until mixture is smooth and changed in colour. Spread into prepared pan and bake until cooked.

I added a little something with the buttercream to jazz up an otherwise ordinary cake. This meant putting a layer in the middle of the cake.

A messy shot, I know! BUT it was a quick photo to show the middle. I have to say it was a delicious cake. The butter cream, also a Women's Weekly recipe and again substituted with the dairy free marg and rice milk instead of cows milk.

Butter Cream:
125gm butter, softened
1 1/2 cups icing sugar mixture
2 tablespoons milk

Beat butter in small bowl with eletric mixer until as white as possible. Gradually beat in half of the icing sugar, milk then remaining icing sugar. Flavour and colour as required.

And the result is delicious!!!!!! And here is the birthday boy himself

Replacing the old with the new

When I found our new home in Perth (Chris had never seen it person until we moved in) I was able to visualise what I didn't like in the house in its improved state. I knew that the hosue was right but there was aspects to it that we needed to put our stamp on it. It only took us a couple of months before we got fed up with trying to operate in a tiny and disfunctional kitchen and trying to keep the floor clean. White tiles + 2 busy and messy little boys = hopeless to keep clean.

As a result we set out on the task to update the floor and kitchen, a costly task. After collecting a few quotes and inspecting a few showrooms we decided on Granite Transformations to redo the kitchen (they use as much of the old carcass as possible and enhanced this as well as built some new cabinetry) we also decided on Vinyl planking floors which looks like timber. Vinyl planking is durable and easy to maintain as opposed to its more expensive options such as the laminate or timber. Use Granite transformations and vinyl meant we could afford to update both features of the house that bother us the most.

This is the result of lots of dust and mess:

Before (before we bought the place so not our items in the kitchen or anything):

After (most renovations completed we just need to paint the walls):

As you can see we had a builder also come in and knock out the interior kitchen walls and plaster the brick walls.

Fresh, clean, bright. Much more 'us'.

First year around the sun

It would be nice if I could pretend tomorrow wasn't really happening. But, alas it is here my baby boys first birthday and thanks to being in Perth I 'technically' get and extra 3 hours of Angus being a baby. I'm enjoying every minute of those three hours resettling him back to sleep. But that aside, I honestly want, no need time to slow down. Where has this year gone?

This time 1 year ago I had quite a restless night, just couldn't get comfy. Nothing painful but in my heart I knew that my baby was on his way, I just didn't want to let my head know because of the disappointment if I were wrong.

It is hard to believe that this strong little soul has been with us a full year. In one way it feels like it was yesterday, in another way it feels like he has been with us a lifetime. My heart swells with love and pride when I look at him. My little Angry Angus is a contrast in so many ways, he was in a tearing hurry to arrive earthside yet is not in a tearing hurry to do much else in life. He has a feisty fiery aspect to his personality but at the same time he is so laid back and cruisy. He is a cheeky devilish little thing and at just 11 months 3 weeks and 6 days I can see he is going to be a handful, he has a taste for adrenalin....yet at the same time he is the cutest most angelic little boy.

I want to drink him in, remember every little bit of him at this age. I don't want him to grow up, but at the same time I want to see the person he becomes and see what he achieves in life. I want to protect him, wrap him up in bubble wrap and never let him out of my sight - but at the same time I want to miss him, I want to hear about all the things the world is giving him. I want him to stay near me so I can see him all the time - yet I want him to explore everything his heart desires. Why can't we control time even more? With Hamish I felt like time went by in an absolute blur and somehow I have a nearly 4 year old on my doorstep. I thought with a second baby time might go slower I would have time to drink him in because I had 'done it all before'. But then we get thrown with a completely different child (naturally) and I feel like a whole year has gone yet I'm still trying to get to know him.

My darling Angus, don't grow up too quickly. Let me saviour and capture each milestone with you. We love you so very much...thank you for choosing us as your family.

Embracing our new home

Since moving to Perth we have been trying to embrace the 'seaside living'. With this we have had fish on the menu...weekly. We have enjoyed fish and chips whilst out on the weekends and enjoyed learning about cooking fish in our own home. This is a novelty for me because prior to now Chris would not allow me to cook fish at home so I would have to enjoy it whilst he was out of town.

BUT, Chris is now not only eating fish...but cooking it too.

Tonight we had the following beauty of a meal. Straight out of our kitchen fresh Salmon steaks with tarrogon sauce and asparagus (a Woman's Weekly recipe no less).

Making your own fun

In the world of two little boys I can certainly see that the sillier, crazier and more dangerous activities are the most fun! Last week I grabbed the already falling apart laundry basket and allowed the boys to have some of their own fun. This will not be a frequently repeated activity as when we get our new floor I won't be encouraging it but for now it was a fun activity that filled in half an hour in the afternoon.

I LOVE

Wouldn't it be nice if Valentines Day became less about doting on that 1 person you love most in this world and more about enjoying and really appreciating the things you love most about your life? Sometimes I think we are too busy living to actually stop and think about those things. So what do I love? I'll show you a little about what I love.

My family! I love all my boys and I love our life. I'm so so fortunate to have 2 healthy little boys that are all mine and a supportive and loving husband (most of the time, don't go getting a big head Chris!)

Okay so we might not look quite like the Kardashian sisters but I Love my sisters. There are 4 of us all up, all different and individual but we get along alright!

Okay so we don't quite have the same issues as the Fockers BUT families are complex and ours are no exception. But we love them anyway and we and our boys are very fortunate to have both sets of parents in our lives supporting us and what we do.

Friends! They really are angels without wings. I'm very blessed to have wonderful friends in Canberra and now also in Perth. Today a very beautiful new friend of mine bought over a 'sleep deprivation survivor' it had oly the very best things in it that I would most definitely have picked for myself. A very beautiful soul to have bought that to me today. How did I get so lucky to have so many beautiful people around me?

Speaking of beautiful...

 I love turquoise boxes with white ribbon....need I say more?

It is a new love, but it is a love. The iPhone is my sanity when at a coffee shop with a disinterested threenager, my navigator when I am lost, my entertainer when I am waiting and my friend at all hours of the night! If it would settle the baby for me then we would be set.

Okay so honestly I LOVE all food, food and I have a wonderful relationship.

So really I love a lot of things, it is nice to sit here thinking about what I love. What do you love?

While you were sleeping

It's something I do every night, I just pop in to see my little boys fast asleep. It's nice to have their peaceful faces as the last thing I see before I hit the pillow myself. This is what I see.

How many do you do?

Hamish does 5! 5 Weetbix is this little 3 year olds breakfast. Impressive huh.

Brothers

Ever since we bought Angus into the world it has been quite an adventure for our little family as we learn our roles in the family with this new little person who really changed us. I really felt that we went from a couple with a child to a family. I guess family is what you make it, and for me I always knew there was more then 1 baby waiting in the wings for me and as a result, I just didn't feel like it was a family until we had more then 1 child (and okay honestly, I feel like there are more...but sssh Chris might see this and freak out!).

Anyway, part of what I really have loved seeing is little Hamish becoming a big brother. There relationship is complex and has many levels to it. I suspect on the whole each would do anything for the other...as long as they wanted to do it. hehe. Anyway here are some photos of them from this week. Beautiful boys!

Would you trust that face 'helping' you up the steps?

Angus is not always happy when his brother smothers, I mean hugs him

Big brother teaching little brother how to play with the bead toy

Big brother teaching little brother how to use the Buzz big boy toy.

A perfectly relaxing day

Yesterday on a perfect day we took a lovely trip to the local Marina and enjoyed a relaxing walk, drink and lunch together as a family. I don't think I could have planned a more perfect day. The sky was blue, the sun was shining and the kids were in good moods (YAY!).

The day was our first family outting which didn't involve purchasing things for the house or doing errands. It was just a day to experience baby's first fish and chips, baby's first sorbet and enjoying the Perth lifestyle that we moved here for.

We all returned home positively exhausted after so much relaxing, who knew fresh air, food and relaxing could be so exhausting?

Fun with my boys

Often our weeks are just a blur of at least 1 visit to Bunnings, play centres, play dates, shopping trips, beach trips, park trips and playing at home with a bit of gardening inbetween. This week was no exception. We had the return of preschool for master three which we were ALL most excited about. Hamish enjoyed his time immensely and didn't even want to come home at the end of each day. Angus and I enjoyed our days alone and come Wednesday we were ready for our usual activities to continue.

Whilst at the park Angus was keen to try to keep up with his big brother...this ofcourse means climbing the slide from the bottom and trying out new found standing and pointing skills. As the below photos will demonstrate.

Not wanting to stray too far from our usual activities the boys and I also visited Bunnings to purchase more items for our vegetable garden. This ofcourse includes the exciting use of a little trolley for Hamish. A must on ANY Bunnings visit.

I must say, taking these 2 boys out is tiring. I'm left quite exhausted at the end of the week after navigating them in and out of the car at the parks and managing food etc for them. How do mums of more than 2 do it?