Kenzie's already 1

I cant believe that this little princess has just turned one. Mackenzie is such a little dolly, and she loves her aunty!!! (cause i wont give her a choice, lol).

On the last friday of September me and kids went up to Mandy's for lunch for Kenzie's birthday. Didn't think it was going to happen as me, mum and mandy had all been so sick and stuck in bed for days.

The kids had a great time playing, having yummy cupcakes and braving the pool!!! Yes, the pool, and it was absolutely freezing. But they dont care.

They spend heaps of time outside even though the weather wasn't the best, overcast and raining on and off. Mandy and I ducked up the chicken shop and when we got back there was Shanice wheeling Hunter around in the wheelbarrow, and cause he wasn't comfy Nan gave him a cushion for his little head, lol.

After lunch I found them playing "The Renovators" at the side of the house. Hunter was playing in the mud while Shanice and Connor had time challenges to paint the side of the house with paintbrushes and water. Because they were all covered in mud that's why they ended up in the pool!

Sunday was Kenzie's birthday party with all the family. WOW, she is such a spoilt and loved little princess.

Mackenzie's gorgeous cupcake cake.

Such a cute family photo with lots of birthday kisses from her big brother

Blowing the out the candle. Kenzie much preferred to try and grab it then blow:)

Hunter getting piggy backed across the pool...... oh yes, it was freezing!

Beautiful blue eyes

Connor and Kenz

Eating birthday cake

Savvy Delights retreat

So it seems all I've been doing as of late is trying to catch up on everything! I do wish that I had just a bit more time in each day, I think most people feel the same way.

A few weeks back I was lucky to go along to the Savvy Delights retreat. Joh, Sami and myself had a great time as I knew we would:)

Sandra and Sarah were fantastic hosts and all the women there were so inspiring. It was also great to catch up with a number of lovely ladies that i haven't seen in yonks.

So, I set myself the normal challenge of not to procrastinate and to produce at least one layout, lol, which was easy enough to accomplish so I could go home a happy camper.

The girls had put up a stack of challenges for us to have a go at and when i got a little stuck i had a go at a couple which i loved.

It has now become a bit of a new tradition at retreat for the crazy Scrap Girls to have a photo taken in, around, behind, on a tree....... and of course, this one was no different! Sandra has told me that my copy is coming my way and i cant wait to see the evidence, lol.

So here's a bit of what i created:)

I think this one was based on a sketch challenge! But i used some the cute little embellies from Susan and Wendy from A Lil' Something .... super cute!!!

This one i had already started.... months ago.... and decided that i really should finish it!

Meeting Mackenzie....... cant believe how fast a year has gone

One of the challenges using a transparency made by Lisa Warren....... i alcohol inked all the butterflies

A bit of banner action....... I'm just in love with this Cosmo Cricket range

And lucky last layout, this one was also half started, but now finished!

LSBS retreat

Back in late August i attended the LSBS annual retreat. It's so nice to actually go to a retreat, as a customer and sit on my bum and not run the show, on the other hand it's tricky to switch off from "work mode" too, lol.

This was the 4th lsbs retreat that I've gone to and they are just getting better each year. Cath totally spoils us all with oodles of goodies to wake up to each morning and Nic, well she's just Nic and she's TOPS!

Poor Joh had the pleasure of sitting next to me as well as rooming with me...... thank god for ear phone, cause i could chew her ear off with my yacking! I did however, wake up on Friday morning with an extra pillow on me....... must have started the freight train snoring at some point in the night, sorry Joh.

There was lots of laughs to be had, classes to be done, tree climbing, shopping, chatting to old and new friends, eye brow waxing, waiting for sami to wet her pants again and again..... oh and maybe a tad of scrapping!

I must admit that in 4 days i really didn't accomplish much, but i had a great time doing it.

Here is some of the highlights:

Carol Mead's class on Thursday night.

I converted mine to 8 1/2 X 11 and love it...... the flowers were so easy to make and i love the cute little bits from Tattered Inspirations

And this cute little stunner was Lauren Bell's class

Oh, i must mention too that i did Anna Painters card class that was super cute, but i gave it to my mum for her birthday (which she loved btw) before i got a chance to take a photo.

And this was the only layout that i managed to come up with all by myself, lol.

They had heaps of challenges over the weekend and this was for the Travel themed challenge.

I cant wait to make more of these. I loved the process of making the whole album from scratch.

This was Evelyn Lloyds class - Fabric Album. Evelyn knew that i only did 8 1/2 X 11 so she created a new album for me so i knew the size to cut everything. MWAH, thanks babe.

This is just some of the goodies that we arrived to on our tables

Me, Joh and Sami...... love our new shirts, thanks sami

And there always have to be a silly one

LSBS tree huggers

Cath, Me, Joh

Nic and SAmi

Sami and Nic - loving the war paint

Belle's ball performers extraordinaries

creating.... 2011 so far

Sooooo..... where does one start when they have been completely AWOL from their blog for the past 6 months (well, almost 6 months).

It was a tough decision as to where the beginning was, and with so many up and downs i would be here for the next 6 months catching you all up. So the decision was pretty easy - start with some scrapping. It always makes me happy.

These are just some of my fav's that I've done so far this year:)

promise to be back more regularly

and dont judge me for my bad photographing of layouts skills, lol

quote of the week....

Loving is not just looking at each other,

it's looking in the same direction.

- Antoine de Saint

blink...

Where did January go????

It seems that it was Christmas yesterday! This month has been full on, we have not sat still the whole time, but yet really accomplished nothing, lol.

So here's a quick recap of some of the things we did over January

And the scariest part of January going so quickly is that tomorrow my baby girl starts high school. I'm so nervous for her.....

Connor got a paint ball gun for Christmas and spent a lot of time firing paintballs at the garage door.

I held the first Scrap Girls Mother & Daughter retreat.

Both Shanice and mum came along too with 32 other girls and we had a fabulous time. Cant wait to do it all again next year.

It was mine and Anthony's 11th wedding anniversary on the 22nd.

Anthony had to go down the farm, which was fine and I got to finally have a few days to myself after having not 5 seconds without the kids for the entire holidays.

I spent some of the looking back at our wedding photos

Whats an Australia Day without Pavlova and lamingtons?

So I made them myself:)

And because of the crazy 42 degree heat we had a spontaneous water fight at Nic's place