Oh hi!

Hi friends! Boy I have been missing this place lately. Just though I'd pop by and share some photos. Hopefully not too much longer now and we can look at replacing our laptop. Miss you all! xo

(Pictures via Instagram. @hellofallow)

checking in and checking out again

You may have guessed from my absence in this place that my dear old laptop did in fact kick the bucket. It's been strange not having her and reading blogs/commenting has been tricky on my phone, so I've found it easier to just not. And to be honest it's been nice. I'm spending way more time in the now and less time comparing my life to others in blog land. So for now, until such times as I feel the need to return, this is it. I will be back eventually, I know it, but right now my priorities are elsewhere (like house hunting!) and without that laptop, blogging is a bit tricky anyway.
So for now I'll leave you with some pics of my big fat baby (via instagram~ @hellofallow)

xo Kristin.

technology and me

completely unrelated picture... because who can resist??

So my rusty old laptop is becoming more and more unreliable, which means that my appearance here may become even more sporadic as I get less patient with the old girl. With juggling the demands of children, it takes me a good hour to write a post, and that's AFTER I've mucked around forever trying to turn the thing on and waited for it to stop freezing up every time I try and open a new browser window or try and visit a new website. It's frustrating, but a new computer is just not high on our priorities right now, with us wanting to remain hire-purchase free while we are on the journey to buying our own home!

In other news, I managed to convince Luke that I should upgrade my mobile phone to a plan instead of prepay and so I decided I may as well go the whole hog and sign up for an iPhone on plan. And I am in LOVE. It's a-ma-zing! This of course means I'm now on Instagram, so if I do disappear from here, you can always follow me there. (@hellofallow)

Fingers crossed I'll be back tomorrow, maybe...

goodbye winter time

1/. last sunset of the season

2, 3, 4/. boys playing together (nicely for once)

5 & 6/. dinner!

7 & 8/. tired Mama, snuggly Bubba

Happy last day of winter! Hope you all enjoy your first spring weekend for the year. x

my heart is full

 

how can it not be when he's such a happy guy!

boy style

 I'm a sucker for the coloured jeans that are everywhere right now. Unfortunately I'm not investing in any new clothes for myself until my post baby body decides to stop shrinking but in the meantime I can live vicariously through the big boys, who now have a couple of pairs each!

Jeans ~ cotton on

Striped Tee ~ gift

Vest ~ Handmade by me

Shoes ~ Kmart

toothy smile and happy brown eyes ~ all him

more boy style can be found here.

sweet treats

After a bit of a freak out on my part over Benji's spilling habits (I thought it was reflux revisited!) I've had to fiddle around with my diet a whole lot. Initially I cut out all citrus and dairy (just like Archer) but unfortunately this didn't help at all. Eventually I put the problem down to the chocolate I've been hauling back pretty much since his conception (no wonder so many people thought he was going to be a girl!). I'm blaming tomatoes too but they're much easier to hold back on than the wonderfulness that is chocolate. Unfortunately, however, I still have those breastfeeding sweet toothed cravings. The sort of cravings that a piece of fruit just doesn't fulfill. So I'm on a mission to find sweet treats that don't involve chocolate... which is actually pretty hard for me because I'm no natural sweet tooth, cheese and crackers being my usual guilty pleasure. So I guess I'm wanting to know, whats your usual sweet treat?? or are you a salty treat fan like myself? The boys and I made this Lolly cake over the weekend and as you can imagine, it's gone already.

Lolly Cake::

1 package Malt biscuits, crushed. (I use the food processor for a nice fine crumb)
1/2 a 395g tin of condensed milk
100g butter, melted
1 packet of eskimo lollies (or lolly bananas or similar)
Dessicated Coconut to roll in. (~~the cake, not yourself, silly!)

Mix all ingredients together, minus the coconut. Roll into a log shape, roll in the coconut, cover with cling film and refridgerate to set. Slice when set. Easy!!

benji kiwa ~ six weeks

On Wednesday our little Gnome turned 6 weeks old! I can hardly believe how fast this milestone age has reached us. The squidget is growing like a sprout weighing in at almost 6kg already... 1.9kgs more that his birth weight! No wonder the arms get tired from lugging him around. His eyes are getting lighter and he's graced us with the odd full-faced smile, which makes my heart sing. Already the poor tot has had his first dose of the flu complete with sky high temps, but thanks to the magic of Mama Milk, he's making a speedy recovery, thank goodness!

Benji is wearing his Camilla jumper ~ because pretty jumpers are not just for girls!

this place

First of all, rather than reply to each of you individually, I just want to say thanks for all your amazing and lovely comments on Benji's Birth Story. Reading through it again, I see it's so full of poor grammar and spelling mistakes... sorry about that. I've been thinking of wirting out the other boys stories too, but memory is not serving me very well with them and there is no way I'd remember everything, so I'm not sure if they'll actually eventuate.

Anyhow, I've been thinking a whole lot about this place lately, and how much I miss blogging regularly and also how much I miss having the time to be in this space. however I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to keep it up as much as I want to. I mean over the last few months, the posts are very uninspired, too much "mum-blog" and not as much "craft-blog" or just general "fun-blog" as I would like. Hopefully the time to craft will come sooner rather than later but in the meantime, I feel like this place is becoming a bit stale. Maybe I just need some proper time out from here, or maybe a makeover. Who knows.

So yeah. I'm in a bit of a blog rut, sorry folks. Fingers crossed I won't be stuck here for long.

boy speak

a few of the best quotes from my funny two, over the last few weeks. (sorry facebook friends, they'll be a repeat for you guys.)

Finley after a tussle with his brother over toys :: "Archer, I hate it when you're a bad guy but when you are being nice I put my hate in the rubbish bin."

Finley just days after giving birth to Benji :: "Mummy, we need more kids in this house because 3 is not enough"

Archer last week... :: "Mummy did you put Benji back inside your tummy?" "No, why??" "but it's still a little bit fat?" (gee thanks....)

and my fave so far,

Archer watching the Olympics synchronised swimming ::

"I wish I could go to the big swimming pool and wear sparkly things when I grow up to be a big lady."

(more boy speak here)

the birth of benji kiwa

To start with, I'm no writer, so I'm sorry if this is disjointed or makes no sense. I've just kind of written it down as it comes to mind. I wasn't going to write it at all but there is part of it that, that although I can laugh at it, it still makes me really angry and I think that by getting it down it's going to help me let it go. It's also really quite long so I understand if you don't read it at all. Also, while I'm not afraid of birth and I do think it's an amazingly empowering experience, I'm the first to admit it's hard and it hurts. I have babies because I want children, not because I love the birth experience... and my story probably reflects that. Anyway, read on if you want and if you're not interested, feel free to pass it by...

and just like that a month went by

Wow. Here we are, a half hour away from August the 4th. A whole month. We've had our issues (this wee man is a bit relfuxy but at this stage pretty mild compare to Archers dose) but otherwise he is feeding and gaining weight like a champ, a whole kilo in 16 days at one point. The wonders of breast milk really amaze me. I caught him smiling at Archer once but he hasn't done it again, so I think it might have just been wind ~ but you never know...

I've tried to start writing our birth story but I just can seem to find the right words. It all happened so fast in the end that I'm not quite sure where to start. Or if in fact I should write it at all ~ it seems kind of unfair on the other two because all three of my births have been so different and I never recorded the other two... or maybe it will be the prompt for me to get down what I can still recall.

I found this Article yesterday and I think it's important that anyone who is expecting, or who has a newborn, should read it. It just makes sense really.

This post feels really fragmented sorry ~ a bit like our sleeping patterns right now ~ and my brain in general. I think I'll just leave it here and head to bed for some shut eye. Some more of those milky snuggles might be nice too...

(gorgeous vest a gift from the lovely Clare)

two and a half

Mister Waddley Archer. With your gorgeous brown eyes, your amazing eyelashes, your sandy brown halo of hair and your cheeky way of life. You make your Mama's heart flutter everytime you flash that smile. Your Daddy's smile ~ the smile I fell in love with...

On tuesday your happy little face officially turned Two and a Half. I forgot what a pleasure it is to be a mum to a Two and a Half year old ~ tantrums and reputations aside. I have trouble believing that in six short months you will be Three.

Don't grow too fast my Archer Toi. Stay small for a while longer.

keeping it real

 

 

it's chaos around these parts. every time I think I might have a spare moment to fold washing or wash the dishes, someone decides it's time for a feed. I shouldn't complain, these milky newborn days will seem a distant memory all too soon. I do wish he'd stop pooing and puking all over everything though ~ it'd help with that washing pile a whole bunch...