Proud Mamma

Today i was going to do a post on our wonderful weekend with our family and friends, but my lil blue eyes is sick. He has a tummy bug which has been going around. I'm not proud he is sick, but i am very proud of his older brother our cowboy. I now know that when it's really needed my cowboy will listen and follow instructions 100%. So i thought i would base my post on our cowboy. While blue eyes is having another nap.

Here is blue eyes having a blast in the water on the weekend.

This is my cowboy doing what he loves best, helping me in the kitchen!

This was taken on the weekend as well.

Now while blue eyes has been sick today, our cowboy has helped me by getting me some towels and wipes while i kept blue eyes calm so we could clean him up. Cowboy has also tried to keep blue eyes happy while i cleaned up some mess as well. And as we speak cowboy is going through all our toys trying to give each one to blue eyes to see if he wants to play... awwww cowboy is trying so hard to make his brother happy. When it comes down to it the good things they do definitely out ways the bad. I'm so proud to have such a wonderful 3 yr old. Now i wonder if cowboy is able to cook dinner, not sure how that will work out tonight. Toasted sandwiches might be the go i think!!



Who couldn't love that face, such a cheeky boy! xo

Wishful Thinking

Over the last few weeks, my wonderful boys have been trying my patience quite abit which has lead me to do quite alot of wishful thinking and here is some of it.....

First of all some results of my boys fighting..

A bite mark on cowboys cheek, doesn't look so bad in a photo.

Pay back i think this time was a bitch, cowboy got a good one on blue eyes with my kitchen spatula.

Now some wishful thinking..

I wish i could spend more time watching my boys playing and not fighting.

I wish my boys could actually sit and play without me there so i can watch peacefully.

I wish i could have as much energy after a horrible nights sleep like blue eyes has.

I wish i could watch the news at least once this week.

I wish that Ben and i were able to have a conversation once a day or every couple of days without interruption.. (haha i always laugh at that one, even if its screaming the boys have something more important to say!).

I wish it didn't bother me as much that the boys want to help me with my crafty things (this is why i pretty much no longer do adult craft only kiddie craft, as i spend more time cleaning up after them and less time enjoying myself and de-stressing).

I wish i could get loads more cuddles/kisses and snuggles from the boys instead of them hitting/biting/ jumping and pulling my hair.

Every time i go to bed of a night i wish that blue eyes will sleep at least till 3 am so we can get at least a few solid hours sleep.

When we eventually rise and shine of a morning (when it's finally daylight) i wish that maybe today i wont be as cranky from tiredness as the last.

I wish my boys wouldn't play on my tiredness and crankiness as much as they do.

and finally one more to add to the last one,

I wish my boys wouldn't out smart me as much as they do, Shows me just how much they have grown and how they keep growing up way to fast!!



Today i did some cooking, which is another thing i love to do, sometimes helps me to de-stress. Only tho when my boys don't want to help. Today was not a de-stress day. Both pulled the chairs over to help. Blue eyes did not want to let go of the spatula for me to be able to cook our fritters..

Cheeky turkey, he is a great mixer, fritter mixture everywhere!!


The end result Zucchini and Parmesan fritters.


These fritters are a huge favourite in our house, you can practically put anything in them. The boys favourite is cheese and bacon.. mmm yum!! The recipe is so easy, i will add it in below for you!. Time for bed again. I'm trying to read before nodding off to sleep lately, it's going ok so far! I'm not a huge reader, never really have been. But over the last few years I've been trying to read some more to get some quiet me time. Hasn't really worked. You see I'm still reading the same book i was reading when i fell pregnant with Angus..... Problem is i only get time to read when the boys are sleeping which is usually when i need to be sleeping as well!! So we will see how it goes. I'm really wanting to finish the book I'm on so i can start a book one of my really good friends got me for my birthday. Hopefully in the next few weeks i will be reading it!! hahahaha i make myself laugh!! Goodnight. xo.



Best and Easiest Fritters Ever... (recipe originally from my Mummy)

Ingredients
1 cup s/r flour
pinch salt
1 tbl spoon melted butter or oil
2/3 cup tepid water
1 egg white

Instructions
1. Sift flour and salt into a bowl.
2. make a well in middle.
3. pour in oil or butter.
4. Stir flour gradually with the back of wooden spoon.
5. Add water a little at a time.
6. Beat into a smooth batter.
7. Add extra ingredients you wish to add.
8. Beat egg white stiffly.
9. Stir it in very lightly last of all, just before using.

I have found that when cooking these you need alot of oil in the pan, seems to help them rise a little better (not quite so healthy tho). And if you make the fitters to big they will not cook very will in the middle. Hope you enjoy making them as much as we do!

Plants are Emerging

Well the potatoes that we weren't sure of actually growing are doing their job properly, we have 3 little potato plants popping up, hopefully more to come.

This is the biggest potato plant in the patch.

This is an idea Ben got off my mum. Using toilet paper rolls to raise seeds. It's working. Ben planted corn in these so far all but 2 or 3 have emerged. Now to find somewhere to plant the corn...

3 of my lettuce seedlings are getting bigger. I need to move the ones at the front more into the shade i think. They are getting too much of the mid day sun.


This is a photo of our Jacaranda tree, it is at the front of our house. I can't quite remember the time of year they flower, i thought it had already happened. But it's decided to flower while trying to grow back its new foliage. And it has a heap more buds as well. That's all from me for this post, it is just about my bed time (need to start going to bed earlier). Then i might start keeping my energy up during the day, if blue eyes lets me sleep during the night. Seems to be a never ending cycle. On the upside he is finally saying some new words. My favourite "apple" it's so cute the way he says it! Anyway off to bed. xo

My Favourites

At the moment my favourite thing to try and do is cook, well try my hardest to cook! And my all time favourite cookbooks at the moment are these lil beauties.

Both were given to me and both are fantastic, so many recipes to choose from, and yes only 4 ingredients which i love the most. You can of course add more to them if you wish. They have everything from morning teas, sauces, main meals, what to do with vegies and another of my favourites DIPS. mmmmm i'm loving dip and biscuits!! Yesterday i made guacamole, the garlic i used however deff kept the vampires away but it did not take away from the taste it was very yummy. Below is a another homemade dip. Its something Ben and i whizzed up ourselves a few months ago. Home on a Sunday with biscuits and no dip waiting for the footy to start, so we used what we had in the fridge/cupboard and came up with this beauty and we can't go past it at all.

MMMM yum!!! I'm not yet prepared to give out the whole ingredient list but the main base is sour cream, yes sour cream it's what we had in the fridge upon first making it and it doesn't taste as good with anything else, and there is tomato, i might give you one more cause you can see it haha parsley (homegrown i might add!) Dip seems to taste oh so much better when it's homemade, actually i think everything does. The labour you put into makes it very worth while. I'm very good at making dips, i love making dips (i can't burn them!!) Anyone who knows me knows that i do like to burn things, my hands, my food hey why not the tea towel left on the stove!! And my home made bread i'm trying to perfect is not left out either..



Yes it does still look good, but just a little over brown than i would like. And yes i put a timer on but it went off and i got distracted, then 10 mins later oh crap my bread!! My mother-in law has put the bread bug in me she makes her own and i love home made bread its so much yummier (and better for you) than shop breads. I'm experimenting at the moment with putting some extra grains in. So far I'm going really well with it. Although i have to put the smaller grains in so our cowboy doesn't complain about them and pull them out of his bread. Another hurdle to overcome with feeding a "big boy".



Both my boys usually go to daycare (my mum's she does home daycare) 2 days a week. My wonderful mum is taking a much deserved holiday for 2 weeks so i need to start planning some activities/outings to keep us all sane ( well just mummy and daddy, all they seem to do lately is fight, the boys that is!).

This Wednesday one of my close friends is asked us to go to a market within our local region, i can't wait i have only been twice so am very looking forward to it. And to get the boys out of the house, with one of their much loved aunties. That's one day down what to do for the rest!! I tried some painting with them the other day. Not kiddie painting on paper, but my crafty painting.... Who's good idea was that one!!! Our cowboy was good, Blue eyes on the other hand, well he enjoyed it. Me not so much. I was trying not to put paint on his brush, i thought i could get away with it. He new better, walked over what we were painting to dip the brush, then back onto the cement, ( lil foot prints everywhere). He then decided he had enough with mummy and cowboy getting cranky with him, time to go see the dog. Luckily he didn't make it to Bruce, but he did wash his brush in Bruce's water bowl. Came back to show me his lovely cleaning effort only to walk back onto what we were painting!!!
Oh my lil blue eyed rock star always entertaining, even when i am trying to be stern...



I was going to put a cute smiley photo up, but i have hardly any photo's of blue eyes sitting still, and i love this photo. One of the few times he has actually fallen asleep by himself!! Hope you all have a great start to the week!! xo

Spring

The front garden, this used to be all grass, we used the wood chips from the old gum tree that was cut down out the back and the rocks from a bloke at work. I will post some before and after shots another time. This garden is just below the road and is pretty muck road base and clay.

Pink Evening Primrose, Nan has thease in her garden and mum pinched some for me.

White Evening Primrose, this does so well in the crappy clay soil.

Mock Orange

Iris

little lemons

Potato's have sprouted

Mums Pumpkin This fella I found while spraying . It was massive!

A bit scary!!

Wyatt was playing in the sand while I was taking photos ans asked me to take one of him.

So happy!


Well i thought I better put a post on here, I cant let Cass have all the fun. Today I was up at about 7:30, had a late night and now have a bit of a cold but didnt stop me from getting the whipper snipping done. I also raked up a few more leaves to add to the massive compost we have down the back. I then went over to a mates place to fix a couple of holes in his wall from a party last weekend. The people responsible are giving me a carton for it. I then came home to tidy up "The Bar" I will post a few pics later on down the track. Its getting pretty hot now, its 1:33 pm and Cass has been baking bread for the last 2 hours. So there are a few photos I took out and about today.

Vege Garden

This is our sad lil vege garden... When we started it last year it was just an experimental thing, having fun to see what we could grow. (or what could get eaten to bits).

We have now decided to build a proper garden, with raised beds. We will do them one at a time. The left hand side of the garden has some pumpkin at the front and potatoes at the back. Ben is not sure if the potatoes will take as they were leftovers from the last time we tried potatoes and they had already well and truly sprouted in the bag!! So the bed on the right where our little celery plants are growing (which have been in for i would say almost 3 months), haven't been doing very well, this will be where our first bed will go. The pots in the middle have my lettuce in them. I haven't grown lettuce in pots before,will see how they go! The last lettuce we grew was cos and it was fantastic all 8 seedlings did really really well. We had alot of lettuce, so alot was given away!!

We have great plans to try and grow alot of what we eat!! Ben's mum and his cousin have been growing alot in their gardens, and we love the idea of growing our own aswell. Saves money, gets us outdoors more and the boys love to help especially when it comes to picking, although they can be a little ruthless!

Most of the pots in this picture are native plants, but ben also has in this row a potted lemon, which just had heaps of flowers. We got 4 lemons off it last time. Its starting to do really well. And he has a kumquat (i think thats how its spelt..) which we haven't done much with. Blue eyes likes to pick the ripe fruit off it (he seems to know which is ripe and which isnt), he doesn't like it though. He makes the funniest faces, but he keeps going back for more!! We also put some of them into a rumtopf (alcoholic liqueur thing) which should be ready at new years!! Right at the top of this photo is what we tried to do with the potatoes.. Not quite sure how to explain it, this is why i wanted ben to help me to these sort of blogs, such a greater gardener than me, i just water and pick the rewards! We made a circular wire frame i guess and put the potatoes in the bottom i think and straw on top as the plant grew thru the straw, then added more straw. Unfortunately the tatties only grew in the bottom where the dirt was. So back to the drawing board for potatoes!!

I have been talking to ben for awhile about making a chart for our cowboy. He is growing very fast and needs a little guidence to get things done. Just simple things like getting himself dressed and eating all his dinner. So i decided to make a chart that we can put stickers on and if he has stickers on everything at the end of the week he will get some pocket money. I was going to go out and buy a whole heap of stuff to make it with. But realised i had some scrap booking items (were a prezzie from my mum ages ago). I've always wanted to try scrap booking but haven't really got around to it. I'm a little crafty but my craft is painting. not so good with the glue and fiddle bits.. So i sat down today while blues was sleeping (still is) he had a bad night sleep last night and is a little off colour, and i put it together. I realised when i went to glue together, that i don't really have the right glue for the job. Oh well, i'm not trying to win an award and it still looks good! I'm going to put it in a plastic sleeve so i can easily take the stickers off each week. Hopefully it will work!!

I couldn't get a great photo of it, but you can get the idea of it. Well i'm off to check on blue eyes, don't particularly want his temp to go up, bens at work now so i really don't want another convulsion while i'm by myself so i'm prepared to let him run around naked this afternoon to keep him as cool as possible, actually that does sounds nice and cool!! (pity i'm not little anymore!) Have a great friday afternoon! xo

Afternoon Playtime

Most afternoon's we have our late afternoon playtime, which is usually right before i make dinner. Most of the time it makes them happy enough for me to make dinner without any troubles. Our playtime now consists of alot of swinging, thanks to daddy hanging the swing off the camphorlorel (not sure if that's spelt correctly) tree in the back corner or our yard. The boys love it and fight over it. The cowboy loves to go very very high. As you can see in the picture below blue eyes likes to remind me to push. One of his latest words which he loves to say alot while swinging..

Our cowboys latest game playing has to do with fighting, any sort of fighting.. Guns, swords anything he can think of. His favourite is to be a ninja turtle or Ben 10. He is very funny to watch while playing these games by himself, but not so funny when trying to fight his younger brother..

Yesterday i forgot to mention our dog. He is a pure bred border collie, with wonderful markings. His name is Bruce and he was our first baby. We got him before we were married he is now 5, and is wonderful with our boys. They love him to bits as much as we do. He has his own distinct personality, which from what I've been told most of Ben's dogs had. But i love that and wouldn't want a family pet any other way!! Last week we got his annual vet letter in the mail reminding us about his vaccinations, very important but costly.. Especially when it comes at the same time of year as the paralysis tick come out. Last year our beloved Bruce got a nasty tick, roughly a week after having his needles. And of course there was no way he was going anywhere so we spent and arm and a leg at the vet with their special serum.. it worked thank god life without Bruce would not be the same. So this year i am on the ball and have already put tick ointment on him which also needs to be done again this week.

The boys not only like to sit next to Bruce but sometimes on him, he just lays there and does nothing, waits until they are done.. very patient..

Bruce also likes afternoon playtime, well he actually likes to play anytime, even during the heat of the day in summer he brings his toy up to play. That is the only time he gets impatient and gives off a yelp/bark/ or growl to remind you he is there to play as well!

This is not the best photo, but i love photo's of animals in flight, he looks so happy, in his element!!
Now to a funny story, our cowboy has shown blue eyes how to move the kitchen chairs up to the bench to help... GREAT!!!! Here he is below trying to help with dinner...

That's not the funny story, just what he did to distract me.. while i was taking photo's of blue eyes and keeping an eye on dinner, i had forgotten i left our house phone (cordless) on the middle bench. Well our cowboy found it.. Not long after getting blue eyes down i heard a phone dialing and thought it must have been on TV. Then realised cowboy had Ben 10 on ( we have now watched it hmmm a million times) i new instantly it was our phone, went looking for cowboy in the toy room asked him were it was and i heard this faint "Hello".

He had pressed redial and loudspeaker and called his granny!! He then went to speak to his beloved granny for about 10 minutes when blue eyes stole the phone and grumbled some words and pressed some buttons. Cowboy eventually got the phone back and asked for His Pa.. He then spoke to pa for quite a while and when i said dinner was ready he hung up on him!! He may have said i love you and goodbye, but it's not always clear as he is concentrating on the hang up button!! Very Very cheeky!! I'm sure Granny and Pa got a big kick out of it. And a big lesson learnt from mummy, Put the phone back up high out of reach!! lol

Hope you enjoyed, i will talk again soon xo

Welcome

I've been contemplating for awhile whether do start a blog or not. We have some close family members that have blogs and we love reading them. I always thought that we probably didn't really do alot of interesting things to blog about. But recent events with one of our sons and our future dreams and plans i think might prove quite exciting to blog about and share!

So while our youngest, our blue eyed rock star is having his daytime nap and our oldest, our lil cowboy is watching a movie ( the original Willy Wonka, of all the movies available to watch he wants what i think is one of the all time great movies, obviously i love the movie to death as well!) I'm sitting here working out how to use this. I was hoping for some help from my always clever husband who knows alot more technical things than i do, especially to do with computers but alas he said it was up to me... great!! And he had to go to work..

So actually typing something is easy than i thought! So know i should probably write a little more about us. Myself (Cass) I'm a stay at home mum with our 2 boys, hoping to study something in the future to allow me to work from home (will see how that works out). Always running after our boys, learning how to deal with toddler hood and I'm a big boyhood!! And boy what a learning curve it is. Know i now why everyone says parenting is learnt on the job! Everyday in our house is different to the last. My wonderful husband (Ben) works at our local meat works, loves his garden (would love to spend more time in it) and loves his fishing and camping and taking photo's. I guess you could say he loves being outside, which is where i think our boys get it from. Our 2 boys, Our oldest is our cowboys who is 3 and is growing into big boyhood, which is a learning experience. And our youngest the blue eyed rockstar who is just about 1 and half, who likes to keep us on our toes in everyway!! So i think that may be enough for now, i might add in some photo's if i can work out how!! Wish me luck. xo

Our family trip to the beach for Father's day the other week. (trying to teach the cowboy how to fish!)