Welcome home daddy

In early November Roger went to the US for ten days - it was a really long ten days!! We were so excited to see him again that we were at the airport over an hour early, plenty of time for a coffee.

Dex only had a robot to chew on

ha, chocolately babyccino face

Evie took this one for me, a tired but happy face

sooo excited...

must dance...

the welcome home sign Evie made

(the word 'nun' is to symbolise 'The Sound of Music', don't ask me why!)

some gorgeous sibling love and giggles

yes, there are no photos of Roger, we were too excited about cuddling him!

A little Christmas cheer

In early November I took Evie to the Christmas Pageant in the city of Adelaide. It was so cool! (for info about our pageant, check out here).

high-fiving the cops, a high-light for Evie

Father Christmas arrived on the last float of the pageant.

Evie is excitedly waving both one hand, and her home-made streamers!

Super Merry Christmas to you and yours xx

Dexter at nine months

Dexter was nine months in November, time seriously flies. This boy, he is just fantastic. During this time Dex got his next two teeth, and with a minimum of fuss too. He also figured out how to stand up on furniture and move around holding on, adorable! And man is this boy cheeky.  Saying no to anything just makes him grin and keep going!!

(I'll be back soon with a ten month update...)

Continuing on...

Ok peeps. So I'm still alive and still here. I could tell you about our past six weeks -  the business trips and times of 'single parenting', the fact that our brains have been full of planning, thoughts and uncertainty....

Instead I think I'll just move back to the blog as though I was never gone, mmmkay?

Here's a happy snap of my two with Father Christmas a couple of weeks ago (yes, I'm too cheap to pay for a proper photo!). And the colour co-ordination was accidental!!

Royal in the afternoon

We had an adventure today - I took Evie out of kindy early and, with Roger's parents, drove into the city to see the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall! It still feels a bit surreal actually. Evie, like all four year old girls, is obsessed with princesses, so this trip had her very excited! (We left Dexter with my parents, I didn't think he'd have much patience for the whole endeavour)

Evie changed into a pretty dress before we left and we stopped by our local florist to get a posy for the Duchess.

Here's a nice pic that a passerby took for me, lovely!

Here's Evie waiting for 'billions and gazillions' and getting quite 'bored' (in reality it was only about 30 minutes). We were early enough that Evie could be right at the front, some of the other people had been waiting there for two hours!

 The Prince was very friendly and seemed like a nice chap.

When the Duchess approached Evie eagerly thrust her posy into her hands. The nice old lady next to Evie introduced her to the Duchess, and she said 'Thank you so much for the lovely flowers Evie'. Wow, Evie was so proud that the Duchess knew her name!

Even though we came home dog-tired I'm so glad we had this adventure together, we've created some lovely memories that will excite Evie for years to come!!

An outing to the beach

Last Tuesday we had some stunning weather, so the kids and I played hookey from housework and spent a few hours at the beach. It was heavenly! Evie is old enough now to entertain herself, she made friends with a cute kid and built sandcastles. I sat with Dex in the pram for a bit, and then let him crawl in the wet sand (which he loved and didn't even try to eat!). We ended our date with a rainbow paddle-pop and hot chips, classic!

My love for... one small room

Ok, so I have to tell you about this fantastic shop in Croydon (Adelaide), one small room. A couple of my coolest friends (Gypsy Lou & one small orchard) talked this shop up  until I really had to visit.

A couple of months ago Roger and I decided that we really needed a new dining set. The one we had used to be his grandparents, and it wasn't wearing so well. I was feel bruised on my butt and thighs from the seats, and that's not a good sign!

When I visited the store I was overexcited and bought both chairs and table (even though we'd agreed to just look at chairs, oops!) Anyway, long story short we loooove our new dining set. We love teak, it's really comfy, the table's extendible, it looks super cool and it's by the same 60's maker (Noblett & Son) as our cabinet!

(disclaimer, on getting the set home we did notice a couple of tiny issues with the table, but they're fixable. I think next time I'll take a man to look furniture over with me!)

Just think how good she'll look once we re-do our kitchen!!

hmm, not the best picture, but you get the idea!

ps - I also bought a new bikini while visiting the store, it's totally adorable!

pps - One of my fave blogs (The Design Files) has a peek into the house of one small room's owner, Rebekah Cichero, today - check it out (prepare to drool!)

Dexter is eight months!

I know every mother says this, but I can't believe how fast my kids are growing! This little chunker is eight months already. Dexie's hair is still growing straight up and slightly back now, I think he might have wavy hair! He has two big teeth on the bottom now, with which he happily demolish's rusks and anything else in his path. Dex is totally on the move too (he's figured out proper crawling), as soon as he hits the floor he's off to explore. We're having a battle teaching him not to go in the kitchen! I'm constantly hearing Evie yell 'Mum, he's in my room touching my things' - I have a feeling this is just the beginning! I should mention that Dexter is awesome at sitting too. During the last month I discovered that he could sit already, I just hadn't tried yet! Also the talking, we're getting lots of 'da-da-da' and 'ma-ma-ma'.

Man does this boy love to eat. He is well and truly into solids now, almost every meal is followed by dessert to fill up his tummy! I'm still giving him a bottle before I go to bed at night because he's so happy to drink it down (and I love the extra smiles and cuddles too!) Have I mentioned that he sleeps eleven hours a night? (gee, this is turning into a brag session!). What a perfect second child!!

I'm pretty sure you can see it in these photos, Dex is an absolute delight!! He's pretty placid, just goes with the flow of our family. At the same time he is full of movement, excitement and joy. What a darling!!

Evie took this last one for me (don't mind the washing!) thanks cutie!

Photo hit

Ok you guys, I totally won a competition on my favourite blog, The Beetleshack! I've won an adorable pair of rubber boots that I'm hoping Evie and Dex can both wear in turn, woot!

I've had photos piling up to share with you lately, so here's a few in one big hit:

cute chubby in a swing

 Evie all dolled up for a family coffee date

we took Evie to the movies for the first time, to see Madagascar 2

excuse my huge arm!

I sewed myself this top from the Wiksten Tank pattern with thrifted fabric

I've been teaching Evie to use the sewing machine on her own, I'm such a proud mama!

always twirling, dancing and accesorising

delicious dhal for dinner, you should give this recipe a try!