Oh Christmas Tree

It's up!

I looooooooooooooove Christmas! My children are all still young so I still get all the magic of Christmas that comes with that. Last year, our Christmas kinda sucked. Not the day itself, but all the lead up. We were going through massive fights with Jessie's mother. Things were terrible. Finally, 3 days before Christmas I decided enough was enough and we decorated and actually started to feel Christmassy.

This year, I think I'm doubling up!!! I have the bug like I've never had before. We're making teacher's gifts, classmate gifts, decorations, etc. It's so fun! But, it's keeping me sooo busy. I haven't had any time in the last week to get to the message boards I usually live at. In the last 2 weeks I've only picked up the camera to do a family session for a friend and take photos of my decorations. I miss it.

A close up -

It's still not completely finished. I just bought a star to go on top. I have some pretty silver ribbon that I'm making bows with and I also have some clear glass baubles that I'm not sure what to do with. But I think it's sooo pretty. We got tons of new decorations this year and part of that was redoing our colours on the tree.

I'm a mean mummy. I don't have the kids' handmade decorations on my tree. I've very anal about what goes on it. To make it up to the kids though, they each have a tree in their rooms.

By the way... the weird thing I did with the photo of the kids? I actually cloned Jadzia's face from another of the photos. I wasn't sure it would work but everyone I've shown has said they would never of guessed. :)

Family Photo

I've been terrible about updating at the moment. Sorry. Soooo busy at the moment. I promise to post properly soon. (Knock knock... anyone out there?)

For now, here's a photo of all 5 kids!!! I actually got them all to sit for me... yay! I did something pretty strange with this photo. If you think you know what it is... guess. I'll tell you with the next post.

Meet Danny & Myself...

We attempted family photos again today and I don't have any to show they were that horrible :-(. But I got this one... and it was aaall worth it. I used the tripod, self timer and my out of shape legs...

Like most women, I don't like photos of myself. Thing is, I realised that I just wasn't in any. I love capturing my children in photographs, capturing the things we do and the little moments. But I want them to look back and remember they had a mother too, not just a live in photographer. So this year, I promised to get in more photos. Easier said then done...

So today, after attempting to wrangle, order, move, mould, bribe, beg and plead with the 5 kids, I handed the camera over to Jadzia and Jessie for a few shots. They got to tell us what to do. It was fun seeing how they wanted us to pose. Anyways, control freak that I am... I had to use the tripod and take some of my own (lucky too, the kids have focus issues ;-) ).

I am in love with this photo. It might not be perfect but I'm trully in love with it. I'm printing this one up 8x10 for my office and when I find a nice frame I think I'm going to swap it for the wedding photo in the lounge room (sooo not happy with that one).

So, we have in-laws coming into town on Friday. It should be really good. Danny turns 30 on Saturday. I wish we could have the hugest party ever and give him the bestest presents... I hate that his birthday is this time of year. So, anyways... a bunch of us are going out for tea to a Chinese restaurant. He's getting a new XBox 360 game from the kids. He's been dying for it to come out. I'm planning on getting something for him just from me... but can't say what cause you never know if he'll be reading.

Jessie seems to be doing fine at school. She was here today and didn't really have anything to say. Hopefully Danny will find out this weekend if anything was done about the teacher that failed her. 2 girls were suspended but I really think the teacher needs to be dealt with also.

Oh oh oh... I got a new phone! It's the Motorola V3 in the hot pink! It's so funny... I'm 28 years old and finally turning into a girl! I love all the girly stuff at the moment...

Well, I guess that's it... long one tonight... hope you're all having a great week!

Friday Five #2

I'm thinking I should of included just his eyes in this one...?

This was unplanned, but I'm so glad I caught it...Hasn't come out the way I envisioned... love the smiley stamp on his foot though.
Played with some Urban Acid here.
Is this artistic to you... or just plain wrong?

A splash of colour

Princess Piper says hi...

Twirling, twirling...

Afterwards with Jack...

I just wanted to say thanks for the kind words about Jess. It really sucks. I wish I could be more eloquent but basically... it just sucks.

Things are getting taken care of. The main child in question has been suspended. So far, no news on the teacher that failed her. No contact from her mum today though so Danny was blocked out of going to the school, again. He's going to be there tomorrow when school finishes, waiting at her classroom. She gets picked up by her Nan. He wants to walk her to the car to be sure there's no reprisals outside of school bounds.

My heart hurts

Today, as I spent my day going through the usual business, this beautiful child was hurting... and when she hurts, my heart hurts.

Why? Why are children cruel? Why are girls in particular so cruel? She has lived through bullying for years now. It has hurt her, scared her, saddened her... but today, today was almost more then she could stand. She was terrified... trully afraid for her own safety.

It's so wrong! And what makes it worse, is when the teachers that are supposed to give them a safe place to learn, to protect them while they are in their care, do nothing... less then nothing actually... when their actions only add to the feelings of helplessness that she has.

I'm hurting for her... but the anger is starting to come through as well. It's so hard knowing that I can't go and roar at everyone, stay close to her to keep her safe, be there when she gets home from school everyday.

Her mum seems to have a handle on the situation. She has set things in motion. The silver lining is that her and Danny are going to deal with this together. It will be very good for Jessie to see that her parents can come together when they need to... to protect her.

I just so wish there was more I could do... I just want to wave my magic wand and make it all better...

Friday Five

I decided to pick up my camera and just take 5 photos... no redos, no deletes. This is what I came up with:

Our Buddha statue...

My gorgeous furbaby, Jack...
Pacey in the bath...
The Princess and her Daddy...
Yummmmmy pavlova with strawberries...

Lightbulb moments

The photo isn't great but I wanted one of Danny with all the kids. This was taken Father's Day this year.

I've had quite a few lightbulb moments this year. I actually like them. Not all of them are good ones. I've had to look long and hard at myself this year. I happen to think that I'm actually open to that though, which is good.

I had another one just the other night. I was talking to Danny about how I always give credit away. If I scrap a good page, I'll say it's because I got the idea somewhere else or someone suggested something that made it perfect. If I actually get the house clean, I'll say it's only because I had to. There's a lot of other examples but one of the biggest times I do this is with Danny and our children.

I was telling him that I like buying toys for the kids and telling them that daddy got it for them. I like setting up 'outings' and saying that daddy is taking us out. Clothes, games, take-out... daddy did it. If there's something really really cool, or the kids are with me when I buy/plan/make it... then I'll say it was me.

Danny was saying that it's really silly and asked me why. I told him it's because I wanted to give my children the best dad possible - it's the best gift I could possibly give them. I want them to know how fantastic he is. I want them to know how much he loves them, and how completely. I want them to know that no matter what, no matter where, no matter why... he'll always be there for them. It's the single greatest thing I can think of to give them.

He asks "but what about you?" I say "yeah... but I had a mother".

*ping*