it's a girl!!!

lbm3 has arrived!!

in fact, SHE's 2 weeks old today!!

after expecting her to come early like her sisters did, she made us wait and came bang on her due date! which also happens to be her daddy's birthday!

dob - 4 january 2012
time - 5:46am
weight - 4.134kg  |  9pound 1ounce
length - 53cm

she was a biggun'!!

just came out! 

still all squishy

the birthday peeps!

in the maternity ward

my! what long toes you have!

my favorite picture so far

bug and bubble LOVE her. adore her! just want to kiss her, cuddle her, say hello to her. it is so lovely to see! bubble was too young to fully understand what was going on when bug came along. it is lovely to see them take an interest in 'beetle' as i'm calling!

beetle seems like a very easy going, placid bub. all she does so far is feeding, poop and sleep! waiting for reality to hit when she's awake for longer the 45mins-hour! for now, i'm enjoying the sleepy cuddles. she is so scrumptious!!!

can't quite believe i have THREE daughters! wow! so blessed i am!!!

SYL - week 1 | what went right in 2011

some of the girls i follow on twitter were 'talking' about this. i checked it out, and am giving it a go. 

thank heavens for blogpress on my phone is all i can say, as sitting at the computer some days is hard to find time to do!

week 1's task was to 'create a list of everything that went right in 2011'.

2011 was a good year for us. not as great as we'd have liked it to be as a few things we were hoping to do didn't happen. however, i've focused on the little things, as they really are the big things in the long run!

1. We all celebrated birthdays. Bubble turned 3 and had a rainbow cake. Bug turned 2 the day after my birthday and we went away for the weekend.

2. We conceived lbm3. Pregnancy went great as far as lbn3's health was concerned, it was me who ended up a bit worse for wear!

3. The agent was named 'sales person of the year' at the company awards night. Can't complain about that at all!

4. We all experienced good health. No major illnesses, no broken bones, no hospital stays or rushes to the emergency department. Other than the common cold, and me vomiting from pregnancy, we're all as fit as a fiddle!

5. Bubble had a great trip to the farm on her own!

6. The girls and I had a great trip to the farm!

7. Business went well for the agent. Not as well as we'd like, however his business is still operating which means we have a home and food to eat.

8. Our family came and visited us numerous times. Traveling with 2 little ones is a barrel of laughs at the best of times around the city. Long distance drives? Ugh!!


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gratitude #2

1. warmer weather! it was very wet during december, so to have some hot days to begin the year is awesome!! sort of wishing the girls were here - we'd set up their dora pool in the backyard for them to play in, along with some bubble mixture to use with their big bubble wands Nanna gave them for christmas. hoping the warmer weather stays around!

2. dinner out with the agent. my grandmother gave us a voucher to use at Millone's, a local restaurant. we thought about going there for the agent's birthday, which is tomorrow. however we're kinda hoping lbm3 will be here by then! so we went last night. Millone's is one of my favorite places to eat. it is a gorgeous restaurant - i ate in the same building prior to it becoming Millone's, and the new owners have done so much with it. the food is lush - so much to choose from and all so so yummy. i had my favorite dessert of all time - sticky date pudding! wasn't as good as the one my mum makes, but then in my opinion nothing will ever be as good as what comes from my mum's kitchen!

3. fresh fruit. i finally did our grocery shopping yesterday - without the agent who went flying, so i got to do it rather quickly! i bought a fair bit of fruit - apples, bananas, kiwi fruit, grapes, strawberries, blueberries. i love fruit! especially grapes....they are quite filling too, which is good!

lists

i have become a list maker.

it's not something i set out to intentionally become either.

and it has happened since children. before children i don't think i made lists. if i did, they were nothing like the lists i seem to be making these days!

i make lists as it gets the 'things' out of my head and means i hopefully don't forget something! prior to christmas, i was making quite a few lists. they ranged from ideas of christmas presents, to christmas presents i'd actually bought, to the good old grocery list, to jobs i felt needed doing (ASAP!!) to what i needed to pack in my hospital bag for lbm3 and i. the to-do list has been re-written 3 times now i think, with a lot of things on it crossed off. things which weren't crossed off were added to the next to-do list.

in all of this list making, i realised something and posted it as my facebook status....
is it good or bad that I realise I have completed a task, yet forgotten to put it on my ever-growing to-do list, so I add it to the bottom of said to-do just to be able to cross it off? Because the tiny bit of satisfaction I feel at putting a line thru dot-points and seeing a long list of dot-points all scribbled out is normal, right?


i was reassured by my friends that i am in fact normal, and that several of them do the same thing!!


it was with relief i found this website listproducer.com which was created by someone who makes lists as well! i have enjoyed reading some of her posts, in particular this one 20 Easy Resolutions You Can Feel Good About


a few of the suggested points i already do - 4, 9, 8, 12 and 18. 


i'm taking a pregnancy multi-vitamin (4) at the moment, and that will continue for quite a while yet. once i finish breastfeeding, i'll be finding a more appropriate one to take.


the things i love to do (8) are reading, surfing the internet (facebook and pinterest are regular sites i visit!) and exercise. so i've been doing these everyday for i don't know how long now. once lbm3 arrives, not sure how i'll keep them up. exercise won't happen for a while, but thankfully i have internet on my phone!


i call my mum (9) fairly often throughout the day, not just the week. it's a bit unusual for us to go more than 2 days without speaking. i also call my mother-in-law fairly often too. 


i always open snail mail (12) within 24 hours of opening it. i'm too curious to see what's inside to let it just sit there, and i love reading junk-mail. love catalogues! 


i've occasionally sent thank-you notes (18) by text or email, but after an event such as our wedding or the girls birthdays, or even when the grandparents have minded the girls, a card has been sent in the mail. i love receiving hand-written cards and notes. a bit more effort has been put in to it i feel!


the points i want to incorporate into my life are....


7. keep a gratitude journal. i started this last night, and will endeavour to keep it up everyday. it is important to take a look at what you have in life to be thankful for, as it is unfortunately easy to forget. 


10. buy fresh flowers once a month. i love flowers. tulips are my favorite. thankfully our supermarkets stock them, so i don't have to go to a florist! will be adding them to my shopping trolley once a month. they brighten up our home, smell good and make me smile when i see them!


11. end each day with a positive thought. well, i don't think 'sleeeeeeeeep!' can get much more positive!! given i will be writing my points for #7 at the end of the day tho, i think i'll be ending the day with lots of positive thoughts!


13. unsubscribe from unwanted email newsletters. i've been doing this a bit lately. sick of so much junk mail, and some emails i don't even remember signing up for! think i'll be 'un-liking' facebook pages too...


14. eat more dark chocolate. dark chocolate is 'better' for you than normal chocolate, as it is closer to it's natural form. i don't like it. so i'm just gonna go with eating normal chocolate....not more often, less often actually!


15. say no! i started saying no to tasks for church last year. it's not that i didn't want to do them. i don't want to do them when i have a newborn! once i've worked out 3 kids, i'll then let people know i am more than happy to do tasks i've done in the past. for now tho, less is better.


17. be more patient. this is something i really must work on, especially once lbm3 arrives and the girls are back. i've had no patience with them the past month or so. it's sad, and i hate it. i'm missing them at the moment.time apart from them has helped me remember just how much i love them, adore them, and can't live without them! it's funny. so often i just want 'me time'. as carrie said in an episode of sex & the city, once a need is met, often that need disappears. anyway, one of my friends who had bub #3 in october said that being patient is a big thing she has noticed. patience is not one of my strong points, however i will be practising it with everything i can. i will be reminding myself that bubble and bug are just babies too, and they will only be wanting to help me. children, by nature, only want to please. bubble in particular is a 'pleaser'. bug not so much yet. however i will be getting them both involved with helping my look after lbm3....once he or she arrives!!!


19. learn one new thing a month. be it a recipe, word or game. i love this! i am not a cook. not at all. things i cook end up with no taste!! sad but true. however, i am willing to give things ago. which is probably why i attempted spaghetti bolognese a couple of nights ago, even tho i didn't have a couple of the ingredients! so learning one new recipe a month sounds great. a new game...? hmmmmm the agent and i were given a some board games as a wedding gift. the card read 'the family that plays together, stays together.' very true. so i think i might find these board games and we'll start playing them! as for word, well i'm an interpreter. i interpret what bug is saying, so does that count as learning new words? hope so, cos i'm counting it!!


so here is, yet again, another list!! a few other things i want to achieve this year, which i have already written about...


* read more. more novels on anything!
* date night with the agent, at least 2 per month.
* us all eating breakfast together every morning.
* girls doing swimming lessons.
* do fun runs - 5kms to start with. 
* get back to the gym to the 9:30am classes.
* holidays! weekends away. we didn't once go to the agent's mum's place last year. so travelling down there, to my parents place, and to the agent's dad's place in qld are things i want to do more of!


i love lists. i'm off to make one for today....my butt is sore from sitting at my computer for so long. whoops!!

daily gratitude

grat-i-tude
- noun 1. the quality or feeling of being grateful

I saw in the local kikki.k shop a 'gratitude journal'. I love stationary shopping, however given it was just christmas, I am not spending money unless I have to. Very unusual for me...

Anyway, the gratitude journal had a layout for the owner to write 3 things from that day for which they were grateful. This year, in going to make specific time and a big effort to reflect on each day and find 3 things I am grateful for.

Here's today's...

1. Feeling lbm3 move.
It is truly amazing feeling and SEEING the little person inside me wiggling. It reassures me that he/she is ok!

2. The Agent.
He did so much around our townhouse today, in terms of tidying, cleaning and sorting. All because of this 'nesting mode' I'm in! He cooked us dinner, and has just helped me shower as I am so tired and lbm3 is sitting on a nerve which is so painful it makes me cry. He is my rock. Right now especially, I'd be lost without him.

3. The Telephone.
Oh how hearing my girls voices makes me smile!! I'm missing them terribly right now...hormones and emotions running high!! Listening to bubble tell me what she's been doing - I went on the 2-wheeler mum! - and just hearing bug say 'hello mummy' gives me the biggest smile. And I wouldn't be able to talk to them if it weren't for my mobile, our house phone or my parents house phone! And our mobiles are pretty good for sending pictures too...



Lunch in maccas!




On the brand new trampoline mum and dad bought cos the agent broke their old one....which the frame was apparently 20+ years old!!




Eating fresh cupcakes under the trampoline this morning.

They're having a great time....if only mum would relax a bit and enjoy them!

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2012!!

Yay for a new year!!

The agent and I have spent today in a stylish way.....cleaning, sorting and tidying!! I'm completely in nesting mode. Only 3 days till lbm3's due date!!

I'm doing the 'photo a day' challenge, created by Chantelle of 'fat mum slim'.




This is today's photo...me...




The agent is now sorting out our garage, and I'm supervising. We haven't dinner and it's 8:36pm. Soooo tired after such a busy day!!

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