August Highlight: Nana Lilly's Visit

Nana Lilly (Damo's mum) came for a one week visit from NZ to meet her new twin grand babies Montana and Lucas and of course visit her other Aussie grand kids Keira and Lilly.

It was such a memorable moment when mum finally met our twins in person for the first time and gave them the kisses and hugs she had been wanting to do from when they were first born.

Another memorable experience was when we left the babies with Damo and I took my mother in law to the 24 hour Kmart at 3am in the morning where we shopped up a storm. Afterwards,  we picked up McDonalds breakfast to bring home to the family at 5am.

Lilly slept over and shared a bed with Nana and you could hear them chatting in bed as they went to sleep and chatting in bed again when they woke up. The next night Keira shared a bed with Nana who read her bed time stories. Such special moments which I'm sure both girls will remember one day.

Unfortunately, Nana's stay went by far too quickly but we all had an enjoyable time catching up, laughing, shopping, eating, eating and more eating - that was just us adults. The kidlets got spoilt with lots of hugs and kisses!

We look forward to seeing Nana Lilly again and the rest of the family when we all go to NZ in Dec :) xo

Here are some pics of my children and their Nana Lilly: (Note I took the pics of Keira and Lucas while I was holding Montana hence the frame being out of alignment)

Lilly with her two Grandma's Nana Lilly and Nanny Kate:

My children with their two Nana's  my mother in law and my mum:

 

 

My dad jumped in this pic:

Keira-isms: Blowing Dandelions

We moved into our current place in November last year - a month before the twins were born and just before Keira's second birthday. It's a little house built in the 1950's with a back yard and a large front yard that has trees, plants, flowers and dandelions.

Keira loves picking the flowers when we go outside. She most always picks a flower before she gets into the car when we go out and one when we return home. Most of all she loves dandelions. She will either blow them or shake them. Just when I think there are none left,  new ones sprout up so there always seems to be an endless amount of dandelions for Keira to play with!

I'm always finding little crushed flowers in our car, in her bags, around the house, in our bed room and even in our bed. I don't get angry. I just think to myself.... Keira's been here :) xo

Playing with my new toy

I bought my sisters Canon DSLR camera when she bought herself an upgrade. She gave me a good price and I was excited to finally own a flashy dashy camera! Even though it's second hand and it's at the bottom rank of DSLR cameras - I love it and I was eager to play around with it straight away which happened to be the weekend that my niece Lilly was staying over.  

 

Now, there was no instruction manual included (my sister is yet to give it to me) so I just basically did a point and shoot with no idea of what I was doing. We all had fun though and here are some of the results of our playful photo shoot in my front  and back yard. All unedited.

 

Lilly getting close to nature with our back yard tree - the top shot is my favourite



I took a few pics of Lilly and her cousins -  I shot these pics in the wrong spot as there was too much shadow caused by the sun but it was hard to move the twins around plus it was starting to get windy so I had to do a quick photo shoot hoping I'll get some half decent shots!

Lilly and my adorable little man Lucas

 

Two beauties. My beautiful Montana was all smiles for the camera :)

 

 Lilly and Keira started to get sick of posing and just wanted to play around the front yard





Lilly showed off her gymnastics skills (she asked me to make sure I included this cartwheel photo)

 

Jumping around.... 

 

Ring o ring o rosie....

We all fall down....

 

The girls had fun playing in the front yard and I had heaps of fun playing photographer although it's quite evident that I need some photography lessons. I am hoping to do a basic photography community course which my sister did and recommended for new starters.  I don't want to be a pro, I just want to learn how to make the most of my new toy, capture lots of memorable moments and have fun along the way :)

July Highlights

Lia's Birthday

My cousin Lindsay (Lia) celebrated her 23rd birthday on 20th July.  Lia has been doing 'work experience' with me since when she was 15 years old! Her first job was assisting me with the clean up of the events storage room when I was a PR Assistant at Marrickville City Council. This room was called the 'cage' and it was situated underneath an old town hall. Not the place one would like to clean out alone! Even now, we cannot look at flags or banners the same way! I got her to work by telling her it would be good work experience for her and she could put it down on her resume. I then started working at Cancer Council as an Events Coordinator where for the past 7 years Lia has volunteered at my events including Australia's Biggest Morning Tea, Daffodil Day, Pink Ribbon Day and has been a Fairfield Relay For Life committee member for 6 years. In that time Lia completed her HSC in the States top 8%, graduated with a double degree in Economics and Commerce (or something fancy like that) from University of New South Wales and now has a HR job at a top firm so obviously she does not need to volunteer with me for experience any longer! This year she told me that she wants to volunteer for another charity.........as if I'm going to let her go!!! Haha

Apart from being a wonderful volunteer, Lia is also a talented cake baker/decorator. We give her a theme or concept and the result is a brilliantly decorated cake. So, for her birthday this year, her sister Tildy, my sister Flavia and myself went all out to make some delicious desserts for her. This is the result:

Clockwise from top right: Creme Brulee by Tildy and red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting by me, Triple layer white buttermilk cake with buttercream and coconut icing Birthday cake made by me, White chocolate oreo cheesecakes made by my sister and Strawberry fruit jelly made by my Aunty Zinda. Lia was impressed by our efforts and felt the love.  It was all so delicious!

Happy Birthday Aunty Lia! Keira and Jaime love singing Happy Birthday and blowing out candles

Cheeky cousins creating their own fun at the party. Jaime rode the bike pulling Keira who was sitting on a chair behind him and then they swapped. Clever kids :)

Lilly's Visit

Cousin Lilly stayed over for a weekend. It was great for me as I had an extra pair of hands from a very willing helper! The pictures above are snapshots of what Lilly did over the weekend which included looking after the twins when we were at Play School, changing nappies, feeding the babies their solid food and comforting crying twins (she was pretending to scream in the picture or did she really want to scream? haha) Lilly also played with Keira and read her books. What a wonderful help she was and great practice for when her twin sisters arrive. She is going to be a great big sister! xo

Play School

Play School has started and on our first day, it wasn't as hectic as we thought it be! Hopefully it will continue to be haha but I know that Keira and myself had an enjoyable time.  They had a fun lesson on the Human body and next month they are learning about the Olympics :)

The 2-3 year old class learning shapes and colours. Hyrum looks disinterested, Mercedes is concentrating on colouring in, Kingston playing with cars and Keira playing with shapes.

Lilly is back!

After living in Tamworth for a year, cousin Lilly and her mother Natalie are back in Sydney and are here to stay! Lilly's dad Bowen is Damo's brother. When Bowen and Natalie divorced and Bowen moved back to NZ, we regularly had Lilly over on the weekends from when she was was 6 months old for so she is like our first daughter. We missed her so much when she moved to Tamworth but we are so glad they are back in Sydney and now Keira has a girl cousin to hang with :)

Nat and Lilly are currently staying with Nat's mum Kate who are my children's 'white Nanny'. Nat is also back because she is expecting identical twins in November! How exciting for Lilly to have her own little twin brothers or sisters.  

Last Sunday, we caught up with Nat, Lilly, Kate and Dees at the Fish Markets as they just live down the road in Glebe. It was a sunny, windy day but it was great to see them as Lilly missed her cousins and her Aunty and Uncle of course! No doubt there will be plenty more catch ups in the future now that they are back plus Nat and Lilly need as much twin practice as possible! ;)

Happy to have Lilly back in Sydney! Lilly, me and Keira

 

Master Lucas and Aunty Nat

 

Damo, Lucas, Keira and Lilly

 

Miss Montana and Nanny Kate

I'm so glad my twin pregnancy is over! Lilly, Nat, me and dirty Keira in the background

Aunty Dees with her gorgeous nieces - Montana, Keira and Lilly

Gaybo couple pic haha