Oh my goodness go and get a cuppa.............

because you will be here for a while .......This is one Loooooooooooooooooooooooong post!!!
Ok I have finally got a minute or two (or an hour) to update on the last few weeks!! I have been so busy. This will probably be a jumble of bits and pieces as i am just writing as I think of it as because I want to record these memories while they are fresh.

first of all -

As you may know I turned the big 3-oh!! (along with my gorgeous twin brother Michael) on the 5th of September. I was so incredibly spoilt and felt very special. It started with me waking up on my Birthday to My husband giving me a kiss and saying "happy birthday Sweetheart" as he was leaving for work. I thought to myself oh how sweet .... and as he walked out of the room he very cheekily said........ "old hag!!" Can you believe ii!! particularly coming from him as he is older than me!! LOL!! I had to laugh. When the kids woke up they presented me with a Pete Murray concert DVD. I was under the impression that I was going to see pete Murray in concert for my Birthday and Jazzy had dropped a "few hints" that made me sure until she handed me the DVD and said with a giggle here is your concert !!! hmmmmm was I or wasn't I going. Anyway, My gorgeous friend took me out to lunch at the monier and we had a glass of Champagne to celebrate. We went out to dinner with a group of friends that night and it was nice. I wasn't sure that I wanted to have a party to celebrate my 30th, I don't really like being the "birthday girl" I would much rather throw parties for other people, but it seems the done thing so i caved to peer pressure and Linda and David and Mum's group hosted one for me. Well I had the best time. The girls worked so hard and it was lovely to catch up with my nearest and dearest friends. Among all the beautiful gifts I received was a gorgeous bracelet from mum and how sweet is this card, Mum made it for me and I adore it. She also wrote the most beautiful things in it, I am so blessed to have the bestest mummy!!! So the party- we ate drank and were merry and let me say I may have had a little headache the next day but that is Shazz'z fault because she told me that I needed to have a drink or two for her!! LOL!! Speaking of my sweet friend Shazz, look what she sent me for my Birthday!!!!!

Aren't they just gorgeous, gorgeous gorgeous!!! Thank you so much Darls, i am so blessed and they were and awesome surprise. One thing that turning 30 reminded me of (other than the fact that I am not as young and funky as I thought!!!) is how very uch loved I am and not because of the gifts either. My friend sheree representing our mum's group made the most beautiful speech at the party and I had to laugh because among the lovely things she said that I remind her of a combination of Mary poppins and Martha stewart, childcare book in one hand and cookbook/ craft book in the other!! LOL hmmm doesn't that conjure up an image.... now where is my apron LOL!!! I am truly so Lucky to have these Mum's group girls in my life, seven years and going strong. I would have been lost without them.

Anyway probably thebiggest and best "surprise" for my birthday was Pete Murray ( my favourite singer and brilliant Australian, Brisbane Talent) tickets, from Brad, as far as husbands go he is the best and it was so lovely to have a night out just the two of us, it has been a while. We went on Sunday night and it was AWESOME. he is one fabulous performer. The stage design was brilliant and he sung my Favourite song as the last song, Happy Ground- here is a link to you tube that someone put on of the performance at this concert- take note of the shelves behind him. it resembled the cover of his album and had loads of books in the shelf as well as lighting behind it, so cool!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWWHCM9F1-Q how gorgeous is this song here is another link so you can hear the words better - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wbd_cgIcPI what a cool song, his family and friends sing the end bit and it is soooo cute!! OK enough of Pete!!!

You know when you are a scrapbooker, it is rare that you get "scrappy" gifts, but for my birthday my oldest and bestest friend Nikki gave me a mini album made by her mum Shelley and it is gorgeous. Shelley put photos of Nikki and I from when we were kids (yep we did Ballet together) right up til recently and many of the photos I don't have copies of so it was wonderful. I actually got a bit teary looking at it and I love it!! It highlighted how special scrapbooking is. Thank you so much Shelley, I will always treasure it. here is a photo of it -

I also made up a kaisercraft 30 album for my friends and family to sign and to pop some photos in. you may notice that it matches the outfit I wore (yep i matched the papers to my dress- only a scrapbooker!!! ) and yes I did get laughed at by "non scrapbookers" for doing it!!
I very quickly added some of my favourite pics from my party to it so it could go on display at Scrapbook city. I lOVE the doodlebug glitter papers on the 30. The flower on the front was made with the accucut machine at scrapbook city and with a kaiser bling flower- you Have to check out the Accucut club at scrapbook city- we have so many amazing dies now robots, spaceships, card dies ribbon buckles you can cut to your little hearts content for an annual membership fee of $40 and it cuts through almost anything- acrylic, chipboard etc!!!

I just want to paste this in here too for my own records, this is what my sister Trish posted on her blog about Michael and I , there are no piccies though- I love it thanks Trishy!!

Yep that little baby on the left is now the babe on the right! My little sister is 30!! Unbelievable!!!But of course she shares her birthday with her twin brother...he however has decided that he is turning 27 this year...(until the house settles then he will allow himself to be 30). LOL! He wanted to have 3 things achieved before he turned 30, 2 are done (boat and work promotion) but the 3rd is still pending (buying a house).I don't have a baby photo of Mikey though :( but here's one with Milly (who adores her Uncle Mikey!!)I really can't believe that you guys are 30! I was about to turn 4 when you guys came and crashed my world LOL! and I remember you guys being little so vividly! Some quick memories ... ...Michael wearing thongs everywhere, including into our little above ground pool....Tammie playing with Barbie's....in fact Tammie having every Barbie thing ever made - caravans, horses, townhouses, cars, Ken, Barbie, Barbie's sister/daughter, furniture...etc etc etc (I on the other hand had 1 Barbie and can remember biting its foot for some strange reason!)...Michael pulling everything apart to find out how it worked, including a pen in Marnie's bathroom and splattering it all over her white curtains....Tammie reading Babysitter Club books...playing Softball and/or teeball in the front yard. There was a mound of dirt that had been delivered on the footpath and never got used so grass grew over it so we used to use that as home base, the water manhole as the pitchers plate and then we'd dodge the persimmons as we ran the bases!... jumping the fence to run over to the Robsons, Heinrichs or 'Jameseses' house... many many camping trips - yabbie pumping, walks on the beach, icecreams of our choice... Thursday night Dad's cooking - homebrand pizzas "Dad style", homebrand burgers "Dad style"... plus our choice of chocolate bars or Tam's standard Chomp!... Honey patrol for each other when the mustard came out LOL! ... hiding the rulers!!... sneaking Mikey into our room at night to play. He'd get down low and crawl along the floor into our room and we could never work out how Mum and Dad knew...derr, where Mum and Dad used to sit in the lounge room was about 2m from where Michael was crawling!... Staying up late and giggling then getting into trouble but putting pillows in our PJ pants in case we got a smack (and thinking we were getting away with it!) LOL! Now that I have my own kids I have to laugh - 1st I now realise how frustrating it is when you just want your kids to GO TO SLEEP! and 2nd - how Mum and Dad kept a straight face when telling us off!!... Tammie's "goth" stage...ewww!... Watching the Sound of Music - EVERY TIME it was on! LOL!We had a lot of fun growing up. We also had some not so great times but their were definitely more good times!You have both achieved so much. You've grown into amazing people and I love you both! So Happy Birthday to my little brother and sister. Hope you have a wonderful 30th birthday and that the next 30 are just as great as the last 30! Keep smilingLove Trish

Isn't that sweet, so many memories, they made me laugh and nearly cry!!!

OK enough of my birthday - other news

I never popped some photos of Jazzy's birthday on my blog so here are some. no party this year just a nice dinner with family -

oh and here is a photo of jasmine's birthday present and our newest pet Cutie!!
She had her school musical and was very good in it and overall it was a fantastic production for a primary school musical. I want to share a page from one of Jasmine's school books. She has a book called a recall book and each Monday they write in it about something in their lives it is kind of like a diary and they also draw pictures. On friday parents were invited to the classroom to look at the kids work and have morning tea and I had to take a photo of this page of her book that she created in March after receiving an award on assembly for her guitar practice. It brought tears to my eyes and was a big reminder of the power of positive reinforcement in children and letting kids know how much the good things they do mean to you as they remember.

Ethan had his book week dress up day and he decided to go as Max from Where the Wild things are. I whipped up a costume for him and I think he made a great little Max!! All the kids looked gorgeous. He is also doing really well with his drawing. which is great, one more term and he will be finished kindy and a big school boy sob sob!!

here is a link to you tube (again) to have a look at where the wild things are if you are not familiar with it. It has been out for a long time and is one of Ethan's favourites. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSkHA6IjrlY&feature=related

Ok to scrapping - not much to share at the moment as I can't share some of my stuff as yet but will do as soon as I can. I was invited By angela from Scrapware earlier in the year to be a guest designer for them and the most wonderful package of their products arrive 2 weeks ago for me to play with, they are soooooooo cool and I have nearly finished a host of projects so I can share them sooonish. I also have somethings for scrapbook city that i will have photos of this week oh and while I think of it keep and eye on the email newsletter for scrapbook city because there is a few BIG things coming, it is going to be a very exciting few months!!!!

Here is a class layout I did a little while ago. the class was coredinations cardstock. My purpose was to teach the versatility of this cool product and the joy of using the cuttlebug with it. It was a great class. Here is a card and tag too!!

Here is a layout that I did a little while ago about Ethan and his grandpa. There is journaling behind the photo. I LOVE the photo of the two of them.

Anyway if you have got this far you deserve a medal. I am impressed. I will be back in the next few days to share some scrappyness!!

Thanks for reading and take care mwah

Tam xoxoxo