Friday, May 30, 2008

Me and my hobbies

Well I have found another one. I have fallen in love with Digital Scrapbooking! As we are trying to sell our house and will be moving interstate I have had to pack up all my paper scrapbooking. I really missed it - until now! I can now scrap to my hearts content and the bonus is that it is soooo much cheaper. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE paper scrapping but this is the next best thing. Here are a few pages that I have finished recently.

This one titled 'Anna'



And this one titled 'One touch'



I tell you its addictive!

Zach & Anna's 1st birthday passed nicely. We didn't do anything special on the day apart from pressies but we are having a BBQ/party on saturday for them. That will be nice. We only got them one thing each, they really want for nothing, I did also get them one combined present that they will get on saturday as mum has it with her at the moment. Now for some photos for you.

Zachary with his truck - the battle now is him getting to play with it. Mitchell loves it!



Anna with her first little dolly - so sweet!



And a photo of the two pressies



Ok its late - or should I say early *naughty* so I better hit the hay as they say. And to Mel - I will definately add you to my flickr!

Night night all!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

One whole year!




Zachary James


&


Anna Caitlin


One year ago today we welcomed you into this world.


It's hard to believe you were ever so tiny!


Have a lovely day my beautiful bubbas!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Looking Back

In only 8 short days my little babies will be one! Can you believe it? It only feels like yesterday that I was in Melbourne crying my eyes out at the thought of delivering my twins at just 29 weeks. Thinking about what could happen, will they be ok? And now a year on we are celebrating that as a wonderful day, the day Zachary James and Anna Caitlin made a quiet entry into this world via c-section after Zachary's waters broke.

Little Zachary making an appearance first at 7:25pm. Weighing in at 1518gms, 41cm long and a 29.5cm head circumference. Anna was quite comfortable and had to be convinced that she needed to come out. So after 3 minutes of pushing and pulling out she came (bum first) at 7:28pm. My little Anna weighed in at 1395gms, was 40cm long, with a head circumference of 28cm. Such tiny little things, but great weights for 29 weeks!

Zachary James:







Anna Caitlin







These photos were taken in the few days after their birth. I still have the little hats they are wearing and the boards from thier arms (that are actually finger boards!). I still have A LOT of stuff from these days down to the nappies they are wearing (well not the actual nappies, clean ones LOL ) The nappies are actually preemie sized ones and are still to big!

Now we will take a look back at their first few months in NICU....

Zachary..







Zachary's home in the NICU in Mercy hospital Melbourne



Anna..







Anna's home in the NICU in Mercy hospital Melbourne..



Zach and Anna reunited at last. Very first cuddle together at 15 days old..



Mummy's very first cuddle with both Zach and Anna...



That was the last photo taken before they were transferred to Sale hospital SCN...Must do school pickup now so I'll continue this post shortly :)

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Oh! What a day!

Well today here has been nothing short of a disaster!

Started the day feeling like s**t after a wonderful night of tag team. Anna has decided she would like up to 4 feeds a night and just screams the house down if she doesn't get them, I just can't handle that! Zach has taken a real liking to biting me instead of drinking, even though he knows he is going to get in trouble for it and then spends time crying because he wants a feed! Males! They eat like there is no tomorrow but still love their boob, he just doesn't understand that mummy is now becoming to scared to feed him. Anna had a pretty good sleep before waking up for some lunch but Zach has only had about 30 minutes all day, its now 4pm! He is currently lying here in his rocker refusing to go to sleep and Anna is ready to go back down again.

On top of all this, my house looks like a bomb has hit it! I have 2 baskets of washing and a basket of nappies that need to be folded and put away. I also have a load in the dryer of the bubs clothes - they will need folding shortly too. I need to finish packing the dishwasher and start it, wash the dishes that don't go in there and give the lounge, dining and kitchen a run over with the vacuum. Mitchell's room looks like someone has just turned the toy boxes upside down and tipped them all out and I haven't even made my bed! Oh and I would love to jump through the shower and brush my teeth - yuck! Where do I start???!! I guess by getting these two little ones to have an afternoon sleep!

Brett is away working at the moment too - not that he is much help when he is home - but I can chuck Zach at him sometimes if I just need to get something done. Both are very much mummies babies.

Ok, they both seem to have nodded off so I better move them into bed and get this house in some kind of order. Might come back and do two posts in one day - WOW .... LOL

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Mother's Day

A very happy mother's day to all you mummies out there!


This morning we just had a quite one. I had a pretty late night with the twins and was really tired this morning but then the kids gave me some pressies and it was all good. Ok, now a pic for you all...



I recieved a lovely card, a beautiful 'I {heart} mum' photo frame, a super fast cook book, a new spare battery for my little baby; my 400D and lastly my new Bag Button! I'm in love with my bag button! I have wanted one for a while and luckyly mum came through organising the kids to get me one. Oh and how can I forget! I also recieved some yummy caramel fudge. My absolutely favourite! That however didn't make it into the photo as I just couldn't resist eating it. It now the afternoon so it was all gone by lunch time - naughty me.


I have since spent the afternoon cleaning. I know I shouldn't be doing that today, but I've been very unmotivated lately so when the urge comes to clean I just go with it - doesn't matter what the time is (or the day is).


I put my new bag button to good use this morning. It is such an awesome idea! I have an over stocked linen cupboard and was just totally running out of room. I tidied it up this morning and compacted 1 single doona, 1 queen doona, 3 pillows and 2 garbage bags full of baby rugs into 1/2 a shelf! I now have room again! (Mum left this morning and said she would like a couple of extra towels so I culled some of them to and some sheets we never use). I also pulled down all the teddies stored in the top of Mitchell's cupboard. 2 garbage bags full and compacted them down to two small heaps. We now have so much more room. I should have taken photos as I was quite amazed at how well it worked.



Ok, not much else to report right now. I'm going to have a cuppa and get back into some cleaning until the twins wake up. See you again soon!

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Wow another post!

Came across this and thought I would add it...












What Naomi Means


You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.

You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.

You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.


You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection.

You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.

You have the classic "Type A" personality.


You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life.

You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you.

At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself.


You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated.

You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want.

You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way!


You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing.

You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long.

You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.

I know I lied......

In my last post I said I would be back soon and that didn't happen as its now May, but here I am now so sit down and hold onto your seats.....its time for an update....


Now what has gone on in the last month....firstly I will announce our big news (and no I'm not pregnant LOL!). We are moving! We have decided that it would be best if move closer to our families, Brett's being in the Bombala/Delegate area and mine in Canberra. Brett's father is getting older and living on a farm is getting harder for him. Brett would like to closer to be able to see him regularly and help out and we also want him to get to know his grandkids a bit more. Brett wonderful mother passed away on July 31st last year VERY suddenly having never met little Zachary and Anna and it really hit us all hard. Brett's sister has recently moved to Bombala so we will be closer to her too and it will be great to have family around again. Canberra is only 2 hours at the most (I think) from Bombala so visiting my family will be easier too. Brett starts a new job in Bombala on the 26th driving a log truck. The job pays more than his current job driving refrigerated vans interstate and he will be home every day! **Naomi does a little dance** I won't know what to do with myself!


The kids and myself will stay here in Victoria until the end of the school term or the house sells (whichever comes first). The house has been on the market now for 6 months so we are really desperate to sell but won't just take peanuts for it as we have put in a lot of work to get it the way it is! We will probably rent for a little while until we find the right property to buy. So here comes the fun stuff - NOT! I now have to start looking at enrolling Ashlee at a new school, look into preschools for Mitchell who starts next year and then find a new Paed for Zachary and Anna (this I'll probably have to look in Canberra for). Also try and start networking again for parents/mothers in the area.


On to the kids now....Ashlee is nearly 11 (going on 20!). Her birthday is June 1st. She is the only one that I have pretty much finished shopping for. She recently competed in the District Athletics and came out with a 1st in Hurdles, a 2nd in the 100m and a 3rd (by a hair!) in the 800m. By the time here favourite event came around, the high jump, she was stuffed and didn't do to well but there is always next year. She now goes onto the Zone Athletics on the 23rd of May.




Mitchell is still little Mitchell. He is being quite demanding at the moment but I think it is just to do with his age. Going to have to be a bit tighter on him I think! Not to much to update with him, he now is very determined to dress himself, get his owns drinks and spent 24/7 outside. Its not to bad really, when your not in a hurry LOL!




Still such a beautiful boy!


Zachary now has 6 teeth! He is commando crawling EVERYWHERE! he constantly gets up onto his hands and knees but seems to be happier with the commando crawl for now. Nothing is safe and Mitchell is really not enjoying having to 'share' his toys that he leaves on the floor. He has been sick (and still is I guess) but we have handled it although really hating his yucky runny nose!





And last but definitely not least....our little Anna. What time she has had. My beautiful little girl has been sick again. The first time she was able to (or so we thought) fight it off and get well without any intervention. After a few days of fevers that topped 40 degrees a doctors visit saw us going home with instructions to keep up the fluids and panadol. This seemed to work but unfortunately 2 weeks later we were back in the hospital with broncilitis. Thankfully after some oxygen and a few different drugs including steroids we took her home after only 2 days. She now still not completely well and is still on steroids and now on Ventolin but we live in hope that this winter is not going to be endless hospital stays!


Apart from that she is still a pretty happy girl. Still no teeth and no crawling but rolls to get where she wants to go so again nothing is safe. She loves clapping her hands and 'talks' all the time. When she crys now she calls 'mummy' - it melts my heart!






Onto some other news.....We would like to introduce the newest member of the Armstrong family......



~ Oreo ~


Little 'Oreo' was just 5 weeks and 1 day when he came to join our family. That was just over a week ago now. He is just so cute and incredibly little! Over all he is a really good kitten but I still can't wait for him to grow up a little bit. Kittens can be hard work LOL!


I haven't actually sewn anything in the past few months. With the house for sale I can't be bothered pulling out the machine as I know I'm going to have to pack it all up again when people want to come through the house, also I have been far to busy now that the twins are getting older. I spend most of my day now cleaning, doing washing and playing with the kids. The only time I get to sew is at night and usually by then I'm just to tired : (


Well, I better sign off now. Its getting late and need to get a few things done before I head to bed. Brett is away at the moment and won't be back until lunch time Monday than its off to Melbourne for a B-Double course. Thankfully my lovely mummy came down for a days to help out. I would lost with out her! I love my mummy LOL! xx Naomi

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Are you listed???

I am now #989 on the Million Blog List. Are you listed?

Just go to the link below and add your name!


Get listed at www.millionbloglist.com


Be back soon with more updates ------------> I PROMISE!

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Long time, No see!

Hello everyone! Have you missed me ..... LOL!


My poor little blog, I've sooooo busy I haven't had a chance to update you!


Ok, so what have we been up to since I last post....??


I had a birthday! On February 26th....I'm now 26 years young. Happy birthday to me :) I celebrated this by doing nothing. Yes, thats right - nothing. Come to think of it I was a crook as a dog on my birthday and bearly wanted to get out of bed let alone celebrate. Also Brett was away working.


Also in February Anna celebrated a mile stone - she can now sit, all by herself! Nothing else going on with her. She is in great health now and we have had no problems. She smiles, laughs, gets excited to see me. Anna loves her food, she will eat anything, anywhere, anytime. In fact she can be quite the pig. But its all good, considering she was so small at birth I'm happy with her last weigh-in off 7.4kg.








Zachary is still as cute as ever. He is now 8.4kgs and nearly crawling. Although he is not sitting yet. Just not really interested, he much prefers to stand. Zach now has 3 teeth and one more cutting through now. Its amazing how different they are, its just so hard to keep up with them ... LOL








Some great news is that Zach and Anna are 10 months and 1 week old and we are still breastfeeding! I'm soooo happy. They have now out done both Ashlee and Mitchell at 8 months. I'm hoping that they will continue for some time yet, I love feeding them.What else is going on ... ??? On March 29th my brother Daniel married the woman of his dreams. I say this because he has been chasing her for at least 10 years and finally they are together. I'm really happy to now have Melissa as my sister-in-law and really look forward to the day they give us some little neices and nephews! Ashlee was junior bridesmaid for their wedding and she looked stunning (will be adding a pic at the end of this post). I just looked at her and forgot that she was only 10 years old! Quick - buy the shot gun! LOL.




Mitchell is really turning into a little boy, no longer my baby :( He is so active and full on. On days like today when it is cold, wet and windy outside he just drives me insane but I love him to death and love watching him learn new things everyday. Currently he insists on doing everything himself. He can get his own cordial and make sandwiches. He loves to help you take washing out to hang up and he loves to help sweep and vacuum. Lets just hope that this continues for years to come.





There is probably so much more I could write but I better cut this post short unfortunately. Its getting late and I need to get a few things done before I head to bed. Washing, ironing, folding clothes, putting away toys etc etc it never endeds. But would I have it any other way ..... ?? I think not!


Lastly, just a shot of my 4 beautiful children.....not a great one causes its so hard to get them all together at the same time but sweet.



Ok maybe two...


Thursday, February 14, 2008

Some sewing

This is the dress I made for the wedding I went to a couple of Saturday's ago. It is a horrible photo I think but you get that. BBL ~
Black Dress

Valentines Day

Today is Valentines Day. Although Brett had to go back in the truck again today we had a nice morning. We don't 'do' gifts as we have better things to spend our money on and we also have our anniversary on the 19th (6 years!!) and my birthday on the 26th so buying yet another gift is just way to much.

I cooked Bacon and Eggs for breakfast (Brett's fave) and even turned the bacon into a little heart - corny I know! But he did notice :) After that we just spent some family time together before he left just after lunch. Don't you just love those kind of days ;)

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Very pleased with myself

I made a decision a little while ago to cut down on some unnecessary spending and to also try to help the environment a bit. When I sat down and had a bit of a think about what exactly I could do I found a huge amount! A bit of web surfing also helped. I wanted to 1. Spend less cash on things I really don't need to buy 2. Reduce the amount of rubbish we output here and 3. Be more environmently friendly. We already do a HUGE amount of recycling at the moment to the point were our recycling bin is over flowing and our rubbish bin isn't even half full but there was still more I could do.

First things first, I went from disposable nappies to MCN's (Modern Cloth Nappies). First we started out with about 40 Mandy Mac fitteds with Snappi's and 9 BBH (Baby Beehind) PUL covers. I loved them so much I moved onto AIO's (All in ones) and pockets that don't require a cover and come in amazing different fabrics and designs. After that came my obbession with making my own AI2's (All in two's) as I found that they dried alot quicker. We have now built up a stash of about 70 nappies (and the addiction continues!). Zach and Anna are in full-time MCN's at home and out 'n' about, Mitchell even wears one to bed with a Bamboo booster! I haven't purchased any disposables for months!.

The next thing I did was decide to use cloth wipes. Having twins and a 3 year old we would go through an enormous amount of wipes that aren't cheap! I was given a stack at chrissy time so I finished those off and went using fleece wipes. I purchased 24 fleece nappy liners from Oztion , cut them in half to make 48 and there you have it, all for only $4!! We just use water or a little bit of JnJ cream and it works great.

Other ideas for money saving that I have taken on board are:


  • Shopping at Aldi instead of Safeway or Coles



  • Buying in bulk - I now purchase most of my meat in bulk at great savings



  • Walking more places - living in a smallish town has its advantages



  • Ashlee catches the busy home from school - cost less then driving



  • I make most of Ashlee's lunch stuff i.e Muesli bars



  • Homemade snacks and yogurt



  • We converted our 4x4 to gas a little while ago - we have a late model Prado and it was really consuming the petrol. Brett has a late model LC Ute that is diesel - not so cheap :(



To name a few.....

I make my own cleaning products (its amazing what vinegar can do!) and have begun sewing a lot of the kids clothes. Ashlee thinks this is great as she gets what she wants in the fabric she choses.

So that is my contribution to the environment and also our hip pocket!

Some excellent sites to help you out if you would like to make some changes are:

Saving Mums - A1 Top Site!

Simple Savings

Green Living Australia

Thrifty Fun

Till next time, take care everyone!

WELCOME!

Hello and welcome to my new blog! I was getting a little bored with the last one so I decided to import all my posts over here. Wordpress has a lot more add-on options and it also gives me something else to do. (Not that I'm not busy enough as it is!) Short post, gotta go. See you all again soon.