NEWNESS

yay so we've moved into our new house 2 weekends ago now and it has been quite full on. I have felt pressure to get the unpacking done asap as baby is due in like 6 weeks aaaaaaaaahhhhhh.....

River told me very strongly today that he wants her name to be Monty! I've tried to explain Monty is your friend and we are going to choose a different name but since Sunday he came up with that name and he's sticking with it. haha. oh dear. I'm sure whatever name we end up deciding for his little sister he will either love or grow to love :)

Soooo we have moved into a new house, in a new area and are preparing for the birth of our new baby! much going on. The new place is lovely and we feel very at home here. The packing is almost done and then I would love to get my creative fingers into some decorating. River's room was the first to be set up and he loves it. Whenever someone comes over he is so proud to show his new room with his big boy bed!
We have also really enjoyed cooking in our new kitchen and River loves to get up and help. We've been playing cool games outside like cricket (i think i'm teaching him the right rules) and making little pretend ponds for his toys to play in. When you open our back gate there is a whole other world to explore and a park within sight from our front door so the location is perfect.

so I usually find night time is a good time to get excited about the new baby as that's the time I can read up on things and refresh my memory about babies and childbirth and just get used to the fact that i'm having a little girl :) I am so tired right now though. I havn't been having my daily naps and i've been waking up at 3am for the past 4 nights because River has been having nightmares. Actually really cute nightmares though once it was  he was afraid cause I went on a train without him and the next that he missed out on church and the other times he just wouldn't tell me. Poor kid. It is nice to be able to sing some songs and say a prayer and see the peace come into his face as I kiss him goodnight (when i should be kissing him goodmorning) and know that he understands it's just a dream and everything will be alright.

At the moment River is really big on helping me do little things which I love and am trying to exert the patience to encourage him to do it the proper way and not get frustrated when it takes ages. I am reading and excellent book called "Small Beginnings" I borrowed it from a friend over a year ago and have kept many of the principles in my head but decided to buy it the other day for $4.00 (bargain) on ebay because the principles in this book are so true and the author Barbara Curtis has amazing knowledge (as a trained montessori teacher) and insight (from having 11 kids haha) into bringing out the best in your child from an early age so I am determined to use it as my second bible and really apply it to my life as a Mum. Would definately recommend it to ANY young Mum.

Ok so i'm out of time it's 10:40 and I havn't showered or put myself to bed yet. Obviously...

pictures coming soon

xo Anita

As time goes by

so the past two months have been... shall i start by saying great and then finish by saying challenging :)

hehe... Well let me put it down into a nutshell. We found out we're having a GIRL!!!!!!!! Which River apparently already knew.

"River, we're going to find out today if the baby is a boy or a girl now (going in for our scan)"
"It's a Girl"
"Oh ok well just so you know it could be either a boy or a girl. We don't know yet."
"It's a girl. It's a Sister."

So along with every other amazing quality we've been learning our son has we can add psychic to the list.

My Sister Stacey and her husband Darren came to visit for four weeks from London which was great. It was like they'd never left really. River still talks about how stacey made cookies at our house (something that doesn't happen often. I'm a muffin mummy) and also tries to play a game with me where he gets you to scrunch up your face and then he presses your lips to make you "nice" something him and Stacey did lots of while they were here.

We went camping over easter holidays and I have to admit the parts I liked the most were when we finally had River asleep and sat around the campfire :) Yeah wasn't the best experience due to River's craziness and i'm not going to go into it cause it will just upset me.

Pretty much we hit the terrible twos big time a couple of months ago and we've been hearing about it everyday since :)

We've gained a new found love for the lion king and wrestling. River's favorite game to play with Jimmi is 'donk' when he gets home from work. The most i've been able to work out from this is that they play music loud and run around and jump over the top of each other and 'donk' into each other. I was having a shower while they were playing and heard a blood curdling scream. Oh boy.... so to explain River charged at Jimmi and Jimmi jumped over the top of him and as he went to fall over he fell into the corner of the plastic container right into his eye :( Aaah i really don't understand some things boys enjoy doing. Fighting and wrestling heheh.

Pretend games are not just a short spurt of fun but an all day event to which River gained himself another injury the other week.
We were once again re-enacting "long live the king" and I had been instructed to pull his arms as he dangled over the arm chair of the couch. Although i knew how common this injury was in 2 year olds and knew that it could happen from a game as innocent as this I ignored that voice in my head because the demanding voice of my son over-rides that quite often. So the moment he plonked himself down further to the ground i felt and heard the joint in his elbow pop out. Yes I actually dislocated my son's elbow. Poor kid. He sat there holding it in the spot that felt comfortable and cried out when it was slightly moved. As I carried him to the car he explained how much it hurt and said to me,
"Mummy, I'm scared."
As sad as it is to see your kids hurt knowing that they would be able to fix it easily I was able to appreciate the sincerity of his fear and the total trust he had in me to take care of him.

Thankfully Grandma was free to come up to the hospital with us. Thankfully there weren't too many serious injuries on the sunny coast that day and we were able to go straight through the emegency room. I was very impressed with his bravery and the doctors were very impressed with his language skills. As he pronounced to one of the ladies the thing around her neck was a 'stethoscope' she ran open mouthed out of the room to bring more hospital staff in to swoon over my little boy. The procedure of re-locating his elbow was done in a matter of seconds by the hands of a very skilled physician and we left there with two stickers on our hands and a new lease and energy for life he did not have 10 minutes or so before.

Along with these pretend games is light savers with Uncle Ammon. He cannot get enough when we go to Brisbane to visit my family. He would quite happily sword fight all day pretending he's Flynn from Tangled fighting Max and Peter Pan taking on captain Hook. He has learnt boys are more fun to play with as he's had his Auntie Hannah exclaiming "I'm scared" when River came at her with a sword even though she was armed and Mummy saying "You need to be gentle with Mummy." haha... It will be very interesting to see what our little daughter is into. Will she want to do everything her brother does and therefore be more tomboy or will she just play fairies and tea parties off on her own like I used to. We shall soon see!

River has been doing so well in his swimming class kicking and paddling under the water on his own reaching from mummy to the teacher. He loves his lessons so much and is starting to look toward swimming on his own with a teacher :) (as am I with my big belly and not to mention the cold weather).

Last week after class they had a jumping castle for little kids outside the cafe so we stayed and had some morning tea and River was able to run around from the jumping castle to the table for a bite of muffin and back to the jumping castle. It felt nice to not have to rush to the next appointment or activity after swimming as we usually do. And it also felt good to not have to worry about kids pushing him around in the castle because they were all the same age (well not really anway :)

River is very excited about his little sister but also apprehensive about the changes that will take place. He felt her kick for the first time the other day. I wish we could have filmed his face. It was so adorable.

More big news for our family. We will be moving house not this saturday but the next which is the 4th June. We are really excited to be moving into a bigger house with more space and a laundry! hehe... Never thought i'd get so excited about washing but I actually am. River is looking forward to having a big fully fenced yard he can run a muck in and Jimmi is super excited about a double remote garage and having our bed in the middle of the room again (as apposed to against the wall. Our invention to make room for baby).

We have really enjoyed our time living where we do now and I think we will miss the area. We have excellent neighbours not to mention some of our neighbours are our family. Very convenient :) and not Jimmi's work headquarters. One of our neighbours came over and saved me from near insanity today when she brought over some clothes for River her son had grown out of which was an excellent distraction and then when seeing what a hard time I was having she went back home and got some toys for him to borrow. what a legend! and then our other neighbour brings us fruit all the time and invites me over for coffee's. We love it. so we will definitely miss this place but are looking forward to our new adventure :)

And now i just remembered I have to make note of the beautiful flowers at the top of this post. Jimmi had some flowers delivered too me today which was an awesome surprise as I was slaving away in the kitchen hehehe. They are beautiful pink lilies and they smell gorgeous. Ah and he is awesome!

Ok i'm going to finish with the quote of the month from River...

Mummy: "River, you're classic."
River: "I'm not plastic!"

haha classic!

Ok here for some pics

Jimmi's Birthday Celebration at Ma & Grandads'

Helping Daddy eat his Birthday dessert at Thai Frenzy

learning that daddy has stretchy skin

Easter Decorating at Bunnings family night

so cute... trying on mummy's uggies

 dressing up manny in the new babies clothes

Daddy teaching River how to do 'Peace'

Watching Bambi with Uncle Ammon in the back of the car. Yep you can tell by the look on his face this is pretty much his favourite movie. I think it must have been the part where Bambi is learning how to talk :)

catch up ball

Hi to everyone who reads my blog. Or read my last post in august last year. I don't blame you if you have given up on me that's ok. Apologies to my sister and sister in law who are overseas and do such wonderful blogging for everyone else and have been haggling me about getting my blog under control.

I'm sorry excuses are lame but it's my blog so I can say whatever I want. lol. My excuses are end of last year my time spent outside of motherly and wife duties were to start up an exciting business 'Sunshine Organising' with one of my best friends Carrie. We worked hard setting up our business and had our first official launch promoting us at some Markets and got very positive feedback but then we decided to both get pregnant at pretty much exactly the same time. Our dates were originally a day apart  Now from my scan i've been moved back to the 10th august (a week away from Carrie's date) so NATURALLY we started feeling yuck and like we couldn't cope running a business and doing all the work to start it up at such a crucial time in our children's lives and with the new pregnancy. It was a very hard decision to put the business on hold. But I know once my child rearing has finished if I ever am in a position where I need to work it is all set up for us now. It is a big relief to have made this decision and i'm grateful for the lessons I have learnt.

Ok so back to daily basics We've just had lunch and R-man is down for his nap. It is great that he is still doing it (even though sometimes he plays for the majority of time before falling asleep). I don't mind as long as i'm getting some time to myself in the day to do the things he doesn't let me do (literally).

So the baby (house) is growing inside my tummy and i'm going for a scan very soon. My blood pressue is really low at the moment so all day today so far i've been needing to lie down and put my feet up :( Still managed to go outside and play soccer with the little man and lion kings and chalk drawings then it just got too much and so we came inside and did some reading.

R-man is still loving too read and has memorized many of his books (not that i'm encouraging memorising because i don't want him to get that confused with reading) but it is cute when we get the 'Home Among the Gum trees' book out and he sings the whole thing.

He is becoming a really good little singer his favourite songs at the moment are 'You're the Voice' - John Farnam. He gets on his guitar and sings it, also anything from lion king and tangled especially hakuna matata and strangely he has learnt 'Walking in a Winter Wonderland'. He has learnt this from watching Mr. Kruegers christmas. He has forgone all other church movies for this one and each sunday he wants to watch it. He sits there and watches the whole thing. I'm sorry but no matter how many times i've seen that movie i shed a little tear in the last scene when little Clarissa says "I love you Mr. Krueger" and then the narrator speaks about how Jesus has said it to us all in so many ways. Always touches me and i'm glad I can share that with my son and talk to him about those things.

He loves nursery and often he comes home singing songs and quoting little stories they do like "Mr. Crocodile". He loves to cuddle up and sing songs together. Sometimes before going to bed he likes me to stay and pat him and sing him some songs.

Painting has become a newly celebrated daily activity. It is the first thing he asks to do when he wakes up. We go out onto the deck and paint before we come inside and have breakfast. Pretend games are also a big hit in our household. Often we have to act out we're the characters from the Lion King or Winnie the Pooh. Jimmi plays Mufassa and tigger. Myself Sarabi and Kanga and R-man plays Simba and Roo. This is something I think I have instilled in my child unintentionally because that was what i enjoyed doing most as a child as well.

R-man is swimming like a little fish in his swimming class and he is starting to do things he has been scared of for a long time (running across the mat and jumping off.) This exercise is to help them get used to being on a flotation device and also being on a boat.

On Fridays I have started doing a Mum's squad. Swimming is the only physical exercise I can handle at the moment and I love it too. I take R-man to the creche for an hour while I go and swim and then I go pick him up and we play in the kids swimming park, eat lunch at the complex and then go home for a nap. It's a fun way for him to finish the week. The creche is really good as well because they are able to see me swimming in the pool and the ladies there are very lovely and there are a lot of good age appropriate things for him to do (unlike the creche at the gym he used to go to).

So our weeks seem to go a little something like this

Monday - do shopping, run errands, doctors check ups etc and play time at home and of coarse FHE. (Excluding this Monday because we put him to bed and had Hannah come and watch him while we went out to our friends for a young marrieds FHE which was awesome cause we havn't done that in awhile. R-man wasn't feeling well so we thought it best to not take him) Thanks Hannah btw!!

Tuesday - Every fortnight a R.S Presidency meeting in the morning till lunch time.

Wednesday - Stay home :) or have a play date with friends if we have missed each other over the past week or two.

Thursday - Swimming lesson in the morning

Friday - Squad and more swimming (we'll see how long this keeps up till winter hits us)

Jimmi on the other hand has been working very hard and long hours to catch up on a lot. They have been wiring up a new store and that has put them behind on a lot of other jobs as they had a strict deadline with that particular large job. But we are happy that he has a job and the work is there. This week his Dad is taking a well deserved holiday with Cathy and another employee has gone overseas for a holiday as well. So Jimmi has his new apprentice to work with. So very, very busy for him. So I need to make sure i've got the fort held down here when he gets home and things are nice and pleasant :)

Oh R-man's eczema is getting better as well which is awesome. I'm almost ready to take away his strict diet restrictions and see how he goes?? Any thoughts. I'm not sure. I would feel so bad if it got bad again just because I didn't want to keep up the effort in that area.

We've been starting toilet training which is very exciting. I read 'babywise' by Gary Ezzo to help me out in this area and so far the techniques are going well. I am doing it gradually and R-man is going to the potty maybe 4 times a day. The other times are in his pull ups but we'll get there. When we went to the shops to pick some undies and special potty training treats we got 'Chugginton' undies and River picked a packet of small chocolate easter eggs. He has loved getting them when he goes and even kisses it before opening it. Very cute.

He is really excited about our Easter Camp coming up soon and especially his Aunty Stace and Drea Potty (aka Darren) are coming over from London for a visit!!!!!!!

Ok so the story about Drea Potty... I started showing him 'Bear in the Big Blue House' episode all about potty training. In the show there's a random segment where 'Shadow' sings a song about the potty and it's like "potty hey hey hey potty. china, alaska, mexico everybody's got to go. potty hey hey hey potty" and so on and then R-man started calling it Drea Potty. Random. We sat in his bedroom 2 nights ago with jimmi's iphone talking to Stacey and Darren on skype and I told them about this and R-man was cracking up (like I do when i've got the giggles and its late at night) and was telling darren that he says "Drea Potty" haha. gold.

Well I know this has been very long winded and not terribly entertaining but if I stick to a weekly routine of blogging i'm sure it will get better right?

Well xo to you all

love us

Here's Some pics for you all

He loves building temples with the jenga blocks. Structurally Jimmi and I were really proud of this one. It took a lot of effort for Jimmi to get R-man in the picture with his creation.

Sitting in his undies holding up his chocolate egg!

Our Sunday tradition. Jimmi and R-man get up and make pancakes while i sleep in. Last Sunday I actually got up early so I made some bircher muesli (jimmi's fav)

Their first boys camp. Neither of them had a very good sleep. R-man didn't understand why I didn't come so the night was a little bit hard. Such a little mummas boy.

Last week Snow. This week, Garage Sales?!

Snow bunnies we were last week and we had an absolute blast. R-man did fabulously at "Snow Nursery" and still talks of his time there fondly. While he was there Jimmi and I shredded some sick powder (yes opposite to what i was expecting the snow was amazing and we had awesome powder in most parts). It snowed 3 of the days we were there. Jimmi picked it up really well and was always trying to take more risks than me and go off any little jump he could.... something happened to me after I had a baby you see. I became what Jimmi would describe as "soft" and he's right. haha.

Anyways so we'd have breakfast at 7:30 than drop R-man off at 'snow nursery' at around 8:30-9am and then at the end of our snow exercise between 2pm-3pm we went and picked up our little man to play in the snow. We made a snow man and went taboganning. Mostly little R just loved hanging out in our hotel room or the common area and fireplaces and upstairs playroom especially the 'cubby house'. So after dinner each night we'd take Lil R up to the Kids Club Lounge and play around.

We really enjoyed the quality time together and the fun adventure it was. Travelling was not the funnest for the poor little guy as there was a 6hour drive from Sydney to the Snowy Mountains luckily we had some break time with Handy Manny and Charlie and Lola.

So back to the real world again we are feel rejuvenated and elated! & starting to plan next years family holiday! For this weekend though Garage Saling I say!

blogging baby

Ok i know it's been awhile since i've blogged. I guess i've just been too busy living my life. But i do see the importance of keeping a record hence the reason i started this blog.

I've recently quit my studies for the moment because I really don't think I can fit it all in. I think that's my problem and many other women in this world we feel like we have to do WAY too much. We have to do it All! Well my Mum said to me yesterday something really important "If you try and do everything you won't do anything well." and she's absolutely right.

So my life now consists of being a mother, wife, homemaker, R.S counsellor, Part small business owner and a lover of life. That's right ladies and gentlemen. I am making a pact with myself to love my life, because yes River will kick me and hit me tell me "No!" for NO good reason.... but he's also the cutest little boy i've ever laid my eyes on and gives me big hugs and kisses and says "Yes please Mummy" and is just so dang fun! And yes Jimmi will..... hmmm i really don't have anything to complain about Jimmi online considering the fact that I work any issue I have with him out before I have a chance to complain haha. I think about things that might annoy me but then realise that it's all fixed up within minutes (usually). I think what i'm trying to say is that I have an amazing husband who also gives me kisses and cuddles and says "Yes please Neety."

haha pretty much i'm the luckiest girl in the world....

Ok soooo enough of my deepness. Next up and more importantly Our FAMILY HOLIDAY (Watch this space)

Gotta love it

a new bad habit. Ah children and their lack of hygene and social skills.

River's first dress up party

Dressing up as one of the three bears (along with Mummy and Daddy) at Aunty Britt's 18th.

funnes

yey! It was the Queens Birthday today and thanks to her Jimmi got the day off. It has been an awesome weekend. I love loooong weekends. That means more Jimmi time! On saturday we got heaps of morning chores done around the house our highlight was going to the beach and kicking around a ball (and of coarse Jimmi finding a surfboard at a garage sale on the way there. his long awaited birthday present)

And then again today we got to go out on another family outing. In the morning Jimmi watched the world cup. We played together. I started helping Jimmi organise his van and then we went on a picnic. YEW! It was windy and cold but very pretty over at Lake Baroon and River had heaps of fun chasing some chickens and just playgrounding it with us (we had fun too.) Then FHE We've started actually having 'Family Home Evening' with River and he loves it and I do too.

Highlights of the past month (or two)

- River's ever growing personality.

- Starting to show affection to teddy's etc. we had a birthday party for one of his favourites Pooh Bear. Was heaps of fun.

- Recognising so many family members and friends and talking about them. Making new friends.

- Seeing him start to go up and play with new kids himself at the park, in nursery etc.

- New words. "Safe" (when I sit him up on the bench to help me cook. He's just reassuring himself) "lucky" (i'm not sure what context he's using it but I think he's just saying he's lucky, we're lucky.)

Noah, Prophet, Eyring (Henry B. Eyring). We have a picture from the Ensign of the prophets and apostles on his wall. He swears one of the seventies is our cousin Jonny. I told him it was someone else but he was adoment.

River has also been trying to run away from me a lot. It's quite bedazzling to me how he can be so clingy and upset when I try and leave him in nursery or with someone he's not quite sure of but when we're out in publice (where we know no one around) he's quite willing to go "away" as he calls it. I just stood there and watched him go about 100m ahead at the beach and head on up the stairs. When he checks on me and finds me coming his way his frustration shows that he just wants to do this on his own. haha.

He is the brightest spark i've ever seen & I feel so priveliged to be his mother. Things aren't perfect he's an extremely cheeky little monkey but he is learning and seeing him grow is amazing. I see older boys in varied ages and get excited for that stage in River's life. Like everyone says i'm sure it's going to come very quickly so i'm going to try and sit back and chillax! I'm sure he's going to tell me that when he's older too.

Rocks.

Yes! I'm finished uni and my mind is free! never completely but almost. I've just been going through photos and feeling a little sad I havn't started a blog sooner to progress my little families development over the past 3 years (beginnning at it's creation) so i'm going to share some memories to peice it all together (when my comp decides to not take forever to load photos)

It's also making me realise It's so easy to get stuck in the rut of day to day living. Getting this done and that. Sometimes I forget about the big rocks in my life. For those of you who know my Dad will know exactly where I got this analogy from. If you don't you do now ;)

The big rocks in my life (the most important stuff) is almost always what gets left out first to do the menial things (like laundry haha those guests who visited my bedroom this Sunday know it is full of it). As Sister Beck said in General Conference we get caught in the think of thin things (I think it's Sister Beck who said that).

So back to the rocks. The analogy goes like this. You have a jar and lots of different shaped rocks to inside the jar. If you start by putting in all the small rocks you won't have enough room for all the big rocks. Buuut.. if you put the big rocks in first all the small rocks will just fit in the cracks easy enough. Aaah so to put it plainly

I guess i'm just realising that I can't/won't take my beautiful family and beautiful life for granted!

I made it / am making it!

Ok back to what I previously wrote about university frustrations it's all good. I've got my last assignment to do & although it's a pretty hard one i'm safe to know even if I don't do well I will definately pass overall as i've done well enough on the other assignments. feeew!

I'm so ready for a holiday!!!! Well more importantly I know Jimmi is ready for a holiday and that's exactly what we're going to get. That's right In 3 weeks we're heading South for the winter. Are we crazy? Yes. haha no think about it my friends that's where the snow is. I can't wait to get on a snowboard and shread some sick powder (even though we don't really have powder here) i'll just pretend. I know it will be awesome & it is Jimmi's first time snowboarding so he's very pumped.

Well about a million things have gone on & I wish I started this blog long ago but oh well. I'll just start from now. Just to let you know before I begin & really get going with this blog I don't think i'll have the time to read over what I write so apologies if I mispell or have poorly structured sentences.

Ok so what's been happening...

Ma and Grandad came up the other week and brought me up a sewing machine I can borrow so I have started making my first little project and i'm really excited to finish it. I'll post some pictures up when i'm done.

River is talking far advanced for a 17 month old and I am having actual conversations with him continuously throughout the day. Nothing passes him by. I just have to point at something once and explain what it is (or for him to pick something up from my conversation with someone else) and it's stored away in his amazing little brain for him to bring out for future use as he pleases. He remembers all our friends and family (yes if you have met River i'm sure he remembers you by now). He loves all his grandparents, great grandparents, aunty's and uncles and buddies and talks about them often. For an example of what i'm trying to explain we were at my parents the other day and Britt was putting her shoes on. River recognising the shoe picked it up and said "Carrie's". I couldn't help but laugh. He remembered that Carrie had the same shoe as Brittany and I said "Yes, Carrie has those same shoes doesn't she?" His reply, "Yep (nodding head) Tana's Mummy". It just melts my heart how extraudinarily magnificent their little minds are and how fast they are absorbing and growing and truely, sincerely taking in every little thing we say and do. Definately makes me want to be better every day and improve myself.

Well first off I can send myself to bed. I have no idea why i'm up this late. I've been doing my assignment then figured i'd end my night on a good note doing something I enjoy... Goodnight and hope someone enjoys my blog!