A catch up ...

Cant beleive how quickly this year is flying by... and that is my excuse for my slack blogging... we have been a busy little family. A few weekends back the weather was simply gorgeous, it had all the signs of the last 'summery' day of autumn so we took the opportunity and got out and about (remembering that our NY's resolution was 'family outings') and went to the Clovelly HOtel for lunch and then down to the beach for a dip... What a fantastic little beach?? So suited to mummy Voute... NO WAVES!! The boys were quick to strip of and get wet... whilst Maty hammed it up for the camera...

Mathew been a little ham... all smiles and belly laughs (however they scared him everytime) and I just love some of these cheesy grins... he is just one little chubba bubba.. and so so gorgeous...

Just before school holidays Aidan attended his first school disco and Easter bonnet parade. We had a few disasters with the Easter bonnet... I kept making them too small for his head, so I quickly ran out of the glossy shinny cardboard and the top hat that I was conjuring up.. quickly became a little visor hat with feathers and chickens... He loved it... and I am sure that he is the first kids to have an American Indian inspired Easter Bonnet!!!! Needless to say ... We didnt' Win!!

Design Team....

To coincide with our metamorphsis from a blogsite to a website we have decided to search Australia for suitable candidates for our Design Team... the entries so far are wonderful, it will be hard to choose?

So for anyone possibly interested we are calling for interested people to submit their layouts to us so that we can pick two fantastic Design Team members and also put together a list of special Guest Designers to help inspire our members throughout the year.

So if anyone is interested please send in the following:
* 3 of your latest and favourite layouts that express your style
* A paragraph about yourself and what you have to offer us?
* A photo of yourself
* Links to your blog or online gallery
What we want from you?

* At least one layout a month using our packs that we send to you

* For you to chat participate in our forum

* To be able to teach an online class from your layout that you create or coordinate activities on the forum

* To suggest ideas to us to help us improve

* The ability to brag that you are on a Design Team!!!

If you are interested please e-mail us the above requirements to jodie@enchantedscrapbooking.com.au by 31st March 2009

Busy times....

The weeks are flying by... Term 1 is almost over... Easter is almost here and our Scrapbooking website - - is finally almost finished and is 'just about' ready to launch on April 1st. Yay... and we have Kevin O7's Economic Stimulus payments or 'free money' to thank!!!

12 months ago... we got an offer from one well intentioned website designer who scrapbooked to build our site for us FOR FREE ... however after almost 12 months of website building and her living with the greatest 'flu' prone family in Australia... the offer was too good to be true and the website was still NOT finished... So 3 weeks ago I approached ScrapGabbie ... and asked (begged?? LOL) if she would be interested in doing a makeover of what had been already done... So she took control of the site and worked her wonder... and now we are a week away from our launch... I am so excited... the site is looking great... the packs are assembled and proving to be a fun challenge... we are going to do a Design Team search and hope to find some talented scrappers to join us... and we will prey and hope that it will be well recieved and a hit with the Scrapbooking community....

On the homefront... we are busy with our day to day lives... and as per normal it feels as though the year is flying by... (hardly remember our year in Darwin now... LOL) and my baby is getting so big and wants to be a big boy already... sob sob...

Jolly Jumping: Mathews newest 'fun' thing to do....

A weekend of Family Outings...

And NO photos...

As listed in amoung our family resolutions for 2009... was 'at least ONE' family outing per weekend... well this weekend was a bit of a whirlwind... Saturday afternoon at the beach with Renee, Jimmy and the kids... and then Sunday we did the LOOONNNGGG drive from Coogee to Camden for Jared's Birthday party out at Renees' mum's house... The drive from Georges Hall to Camden was a 'no worries' drive... but from Coogee that extra distance seems and is enormous... but we did it, and it was a lovely afternoon and the boys especially LOVED the BIG under ground tunnel...

And on neither occasion I took any photos... amazing especially considering we hadn't seen Renee and family for about 3 years!!

But our big news for this first week in March 2009 is that Aidan learnt to ride his bike with no training wheels... yay Aidan!! Aidan went out determined to learn and in order to get him to pedal fast enough we told him to 'Make Daddy Run!!' and sure enough he quickly picked it up and off we went...

Mathew and Ella (before she took off down the stairs to help Aidan?) up on the balcony watching Aidan master the art of riding a bike... with NO training wheels...

Joshie and Mathew.... hanging out in Kitchen!!!

Joshie's 3rd Birthday weekend!!

Saturday, 14th February... Joshwa's Birthday DAy.... Joshie had been waiting patiently since Aidan's Birthday in January for his in February... we had told him on 'many' occasion that he would have his birthday once were were settled in Sydney... so finally his 'Sydney Birthday' day arrived.. and my second baby turned 3, he is growing up so fast...
So to celebrate and to make sure that he was fussed over we arranged for Mum and DAd.. (aka.. Nan and Poppy Chook) to fly down from the Sunshine Coast with our baby girl Ella... They (after airline and weather dramas!!) arrived in Sydney the night before to surprise him the following morning (his birthday), and to our delight Todd, Emma and the kids drove down from Nelsons Bay for the day to celebrate the 3rd Birthday of the Joshwa... The 6 grandkids... Mathew, Kaitlyn, Joshie, Eli, Teddy & Aidan


Sunday, 15th February.... The Unitt's visit...
Unable to make the party day on the Saturday, our great friends the Unitt's visited on Sunday for an afternoon of backyard fun, Pizza and McDonalds... we hadn't seen them for years.. and in actual fact they hadn't seen Joshie or Mathew ever.. and we hadn't seen their babe Bailey who was now 2 herself... so it was a long overdue catchup.

Settling in ... in Sydney

Can you believe it.. We have been South Coogee residents for a month now!!! That is amazing.. how time flies... and surprisingly we aren't hating Sydney ... we have landed ourselves the best location to live in Sydney... and are currently enjoying ourselves.

After a bit of a rocky start (Aidan was rather unsettled for a couple of weeks.. and suffered frequent meltdowns)... we have established a pretty hectic weekly routine...

*Justin has started his new job... and has once again inherited a shit fight... and is busy sorting that all out ... from the point of furnishing his office to rewriting the course!! Good luck... and has started playing tennis at 'Aidan's tennis club'...

*Aidan is at school full time now from 9-3pm and has tennis lessons Monday afternoon after school. (ohhhh!!!... right now I wish he started at 8am.. filling in that extra hour somedays is torture after starting school at 8am we are all ready and waiting to do the school run by 7.30am!!! ... but come winter when we dont want to get out of bed ... I am sure I will be thankful for that extra hour!!! LOL)

*Joshie has started daycare two days a week now and after initial apprehension on the mornings that he attends he comes home happy.

* Mathew and I .. well we are SOOOO busy.. school runs, looking after baby... I intend and would like to get back to teaching sometime this year but right now I have no idea where I would find the time... luckily.. Mathew cant start at daycare until he is 6 months... so I have another 3 months to work out where in the day I would fit 'work'!!! hahaha...

Our $$million dollar house!!! You could rent our house apparently for $800+ per week.. and after our spacious house in Port Kennedy that price certainly raises eyebrows!! It is certainly all about LOCATION LOCATION!!! Our house is small compared to what we are use too.. but after putting 1/2 our stuff into storage we have made the house ours.. and now realise how much stuff we actually have and probably dont need???

ONE BUSY MONTH ... SO MUCH TO RECORD....

Aaaahhh it is so cold.. in Darwin it rains and is still warm!! ahhh how it seems so nice now???

Well too bad... hahaha... Just under a month ago the removalist trucks arrived at our house in Darwin to pack us up and move us out!!!

After we had been packed up we had a day for rest and relaxation at the City Garden Apartmenst in town... and our friends who came to visit and swim...

Then we spent a fabulous 'busy' two weeks in Rockingham with our friends while our furniture was enroute to Sydney...

Mathew and Bronte's Christening

So after a fun filled... wonderful two weeks.. we got on another plane.. and headed to Sydney... ... Upon arrival we lived in our "hotel home" (as Aidan called it!!) and spent a few days

"Discovering Sydney..."

Moments after this photo was taken... Joshies hat blew off his head and fell over board.. however after a full harbour trip from Darling Harbour around to Circular Quay we managed to get it off the ledge at the back of the boat where it had been riding the waves... thanks to a one legged man with a walking stick... thanks!!!

Fun and Laughter at the end of a busy day of sightseeing...
.... one well travelled New Born....

Well now we are in Sydney and after a few nights in our 'hotel home' we have moved in and are quickly getting into a routine. Aidan has started school, Joshie starts Daycare in a few days , Justin has started his new job and Mummy and Mathew will hopefully have time to "scrap" hahahahaha