Go to Layouts, and LO with a twist!

Ok so another challenge over at Remember When's blog was to look for your go to layouts. I have worked out I have about 5 or 6 favourite, and I use them a bit in varying forms!
Also Di asked for us to look for a LO and lift ourselves, this is a favourite for me to do if I am stuck. It is also really fast if you save your journalling.
These first pages are the ones Di asked for, a lift of yourself, I started with this page, another challenge from Di asking what makes us happy.



















This one is literally a lift of mine with a twist, I rotated it and changed it to suit to write about my kids similarities and differences.


















Here is another lift with a twist, I did the second page today. This first one is a favourite, and I have directly copied it before. Here is my starting point.



















And here is my twist, rotate, and mirror image. I love this LO as it is really hard to deal with two pictures that are different orientations, I am pleased with how it looks.



















The next one is a go to LO of mine it is originally a lift of Nicole's, as you can see it just gets swapped around and reworked to suit, it is a favourite and all of these pages I am really happy with.

























































Lastly, I must have this weird connection with Jo going on. Jo just posted pictures of her holiday to Hawaii last year, and she shared some pictures of her girls in hula skirts. I made a comment saying I have a cool LO Nicole shared a long time ago that included some cute little girls in hula skirts, and I thought she might like to lift it. On closer inspection the LO is in fact Jo's!



















So Jo, here is my lift of your LO and it is one of my all time favourite pages! It looks way better in real life.


















Sorry about the photos today girls, it is the best I can manage in our house at the moment.
Happy scrapping, go and try lifting one of your own pages, it is really quick!

Sliding doors

This is my sliding doors moment in life.
I had been planning my 10th wedding anniversary getaway for a while, as I think I had mentioned before. I decided on Crowne Plaza at Coogee Beach, as we had never been to Coogee before. As fate/chance/luck/destiny what ever it is you choose to believe would have it Jo posted on her blog two days before we left. Jo mentioned that her sister would be staying at the same hotel, after giving birth at Prince of Wales hospital (wish I got to do something like that!).
I thought it was a bit of a coincidence and I mentioned we would be there too. I didn't think much more of it.













Silly me didn't take a photo of the hotel from the outside, this is the view and it was directly across the road, this is one of the baths and the surf life saving club at Coogee.
Anyway, back to my sliding doors. If we left it there, Jo and I would have a sliding doors moment, we would have been in the same place at the same time and probably not seen each other.
Jo commented back that she would be visiting her sister there on the Saturday, and that if we were staying overnight that we might see each other. She also joked that she would have her camera there and she could snap a picture of us for our anniversary.
I still didn't think much of it. I have always admired Jo's photography skills, and the amazing photos she posts on her blog. So I thought a little more about her comment and said that if she really wanted to take a photo that "on second thoughts I should say it would be great for a cool photographer to snap a photo of us thanks so much for the offer". I told her how she could contact me and I left it at that. After all I was off on a night away the next morning. I will share the story of our time away in another post.
So I got a text with Jo's number on the morning we were heading to Sydney. I text her back to give her my number and said we would arrange a time to meet.
To me this was so strange, actually planning to catch up with someone I had only met through friends of friends, on a blog. I was going to meet in person one of my cyber friends, how cool!
And how generous of her to offer to take photos of someone she had never met!
So after a few texts and a phone call we met on Coogee beach, and instantly began chatting away, as if we had known each other for a long time, we are very similar and have a lot of the same likes when it comes to photos and scrapping and memories and colours. It is funny to see.
These are a few of the amazing shots she took of us.

































































So after giving up an hour of her time to spend with me, taking photos and chatting, we thanked Jo very much and said goodbye so she could go see her little nephew.
I am so appreciative of the time Jo and her family gave to us, and the moments she captured for me I will treasure always.
It is always special to have photos taken of you, I am like most, not in many. But to have someone you have met in person just 5 minutes before be willing to do that is just awesome.
I love the photos so much, but more so it is such a pleasure to meet someone so kind and generous!
The blog world really is amazing and I am so glad to have met Jo in person. Hopefully we will catch up again soon.
And here is a photo of Jo and I together, my husband snapped it of us before we left.
Thanks Jo!

A few things...

There have been a few things I said I would share and have not. So this is a quick post of those.













This is Noah's birthday invite I made using an Ali Edwards overlay.



















Here are Katelin's tea party invites, they are paper eskimo.



















And this is the flagging or bunting also by paper eskimo.

I am off to visit a friend in Royal North Shore Hospital, awaiting surgery on a brain tumor, so please say a prayer or two for her, that she will be well and that she will get her surgery quickly. She has a boy the same age as my Noah, he will turn 4 in just 2 weeks time.
I will be back to share about our anniversary or another cool story this afternoon.
Until then.
PS let me know if there is anything else I said I was going to do and forgot, I do that a lot at the moment and it is so not like me.

Turning Four, in photos!

I have so many stories to share from the last 2 weeks, and some scrapping pages too, but for now we will start with Noah's birthday celebrations. I will share the rest over a few more days.
Daddy stayed home for the big surprise, and we waited for you to come out of your room. You had been quietly playing in your room for a bit. You came out and said it was your happy birthday and asked why Daddy was home. You headed into my room to find me, and your presents.













And you found them.













Katelin was very patient and helpful with your presents.













You looked intently at each one taking them in.



















Then we asked you to go outside, you were not sure why but went with it anyway. At this point you need some background info, Noah has been asking for a trampoline since Christmas time, even saying while jumping on his bed, I don't have a trampoline yet! In the last few weeks before his birthday Noah seemed to loose focus, shifting to robots and rockets. So he had no idea what might be outside. I love this look on his face, You can see it just starting to light up into the huge grin, as it was all being processed.



















You loved jumping on it, even in the freezing cold morning. Katelin was really good at jumping too. It is actually Katelin's present too.



















You did a little building with Daddy before he headed off for work.



















After coming in from the trampoline, you rand Nanny on the phone (at 7.30 in the morning) and told her that you got a trampoline and that she had to jump in her car and drive down here right away to see it. Mum only lives around the corner. So she came down a little later and you opened presents from her. This was one of them, some sticky footed geckos that climb down the glass. Both you and Thomas think they are great!
From here you spent the day with Nanny, as is usual on Friday's and it was what you wanted to do. You went to Poppy Heckel's and had lunch and got some money in a card.













When you came home Nanny told you about a lego garbage truck at the shops. You said you would like to go buy one, so Nanny took you. You picked it off the shelf and took it to the counter. You gave the lady the money and Nanny explained that you would no longer have the money, just the truck. You got some change and a docket and your truck. You took it home to play with, you were a little disappointed that it didn't "do anything" it wasn't battery operated, you had to make it work yourself. Sometimes those are the best toys.













Then we decorated some cupcakes for your birthday dinner.













Not sure if Katelin as decorating or eating!



















A Wall.E robot from Nanny!













Hip hip hooray!



















The next morning you got up early and wanted to build your robot, so we worked on that before getting ready for your party.



















Your party was at Avoca beach park, it was a little windy for swimming so w just played in the park. You got another robot from Aunty Trace, the look on you face as you were unwrapping it said it all!



















You got this cool ball flipper from the Evans' Simone always finds the coolest presents. You are giving it a turn.



















There was some digging to be done.



















And of course a robot cake!



















I was feeling generous when you asked for the whole head, I gave it to you and you had a great go of eating it.



















And made a mess.













For your birthday we invited friends to join us in a picnic lunch, we asked them to bring their own food in lieu of presents, stressing it was just the company we wanted to celebrate your birthday. You still got an amazing haul of presents!
I hope you enjoyed turning 4 buddy!

My big boy is 4!

I find it hard to believe sometimes, I have a son, and I have had him in my life for four years, it seems like a blink ago this was him













and we met him for the first time



















he made us a family.



















He has taught me about being a mother and how to apreciate the little things.
































He has shown me how amazing a sibling bond can be. Buddy you are an amazing big brother and you blow me away at how protective you are of your sister.
































You remind me to take it slow and enjoy playing.



















Every day you show me how to delight in the simple things.



















You love to build like your daddy.



















You still love your bear



















You are our little man and we love you to the moon and back!
Happy Birthday Noah William - Our man who's 4!



















PS Noah got this tramopline, that is a whole other post!