Wednesday, March 30, 2011

When you build a house...

Get the driveway done at the same time. Yes. Do it, otherwise you'll be sorry.
This is just one of the many things we learned during our housebuilding process. We were stretched for money and thought that it'd be easy to live without a driveway until we could afford one. WRONG. The dirt, the dust, the mud...it made life with children extremely difficult. Bearable, yes. But very very unpleasant. It seemed like everything in the house was covered in dust and dirt. It got into the carpets, a fine layer of it covered everything in the garage. Cleaning was futile.

Now that I'm back at work full time, the bank has so graciously 'given' us the money to do our driveway. Who knew that a bit of concrete or asphalt would be so expensive! We are in the wrong business. I wander if it's too late for another career change?


The day the diggers, trucks, steamrollers and team of 7 men arrived, was a very exciting day indeed! Wyatt climbed up on a box so that he could see all the action too.


The men hard at work...it wasn't a painless process. We had to get the crew to come back to the house THREE times to do repairs and finish the job. (not to mention the cracked front tile, chipped plaster on the house.....grrrrr!) Don't you just LOVE tradesman? But finally we have a driveway, and the children can play outside mud and dust free. Oh, wait...they're boys! They'll never be completely mud and dust free. The driveway has made our house look so much better. Don't you agree?


Love the curbing to help keep our gardens (yes...there are two planted already) under control. We can fit about 7-8 cars parked tight. Maybe we should have a party to test it out?



Look the tiles are grey! The rest of the tiling will be done this week


After the driveway was in, we joyously (and I do mean joyously...it was a big occasion!) water blasted the mud and took out every item in the garage to clean. It felt so satisfying to clean off a years worth of filth that was slowly eating away at our happiness. Yes that's a bit extreme, but I wouldn't wish a mud pit front lawn/driveway for anyone.


Beg, borrow, steal. Get it put in with the house.

Now onto the rest of the landscaping. It's massive. A massive section, and a massive undertaking. Luckily we have entrusted the help of an landscape architect to design it for us. Best decesion e-v-e-r. It's going to be fab, and all we have to do is condition the soil (it's mainly clay), grow the plants, get more contractors to do all the hardscape, and win the lottery. We'll do it piece by piece.


This summer the goal was the front entrance way gardens, the retaining walls (still a work in process) and the driveway. I love how it looks so far.
Our big section, requires hundreds (maybe thousands) of plants. Maybe I'm a bit out of touch...but concrete and plants?! Who would have thought they'd both cost a small fortune. My investigative skills led me to discounted plants from city council and also a plant propagator who has just about anything you could want for a fraction of the cost of the nurseries....but they are tiny.


Our plan. Buy the small propagated plants, repot and fertilize them, then watch them get established till they are ready to be planted. We have a couple hundred scattered around the yard growing, and will plant a few more hundred this fall.

Special shout out to my mom, who helped us replant many of these when she was here for a visit! I admit, that I actually like the job of repotting the plants, and look forward to our next order of several hundred propagated plants.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Shelly gets crafty

James is away (yes...again). 5 weeks - but sometimes comes home on the weekends. The boys and I have gotten into a pretty good routine while James is away, and things usually work like clockwork. Well just cover your eyes when you walk in the house and through the landmine of laundry, toys, and leftover food crumbs on the ground. The weekdays are hectic. Very hectic. It's all go until both boys are asleep, and then it's cleanup kitchen time - you'd be suprised how long this takes. One of the pitfalls of having a large kitchen. If I'm lucky I get maybe an hour and half of 'free' time (for TV/internet/reading/baking). Last week I was ambitious and tried to beautify the house with a few projects. I made this...



To keep me organized. I'm a fan of weekly menu planning, and this will save the lists that always seem to get lost. It's a whiteboard thingy for menu planning, so when I'm half asleep at 6am and running around sorting out bottles and school bags I'll remember to get the meat out of the freezer. I'm pretty chuffed at how it came out.



Before you say it....No, I'm not that clever, I stole this idea off the internet. I've been a bit addicted to some blogs about crafty home decorations on the cheap. You'd be suprised at the millions of blogs out there by stay at home moms. Don't ask me how these people have the time to do it...but they do, and there are plenty more projects from them that I want to steal.



Guess who is finally on the road to be toliet trained? YEEEEEEESSSSSS!!!!!



Speaking of blogs - I was feeling pretty lame about my own. Sometimes I wander why I do it? Does anyone see it? Maybe it's just a good way to record things about my children. Children. That's all I ever blog about. It's as if my life has become completly boring, and I have nothing clever to say or do. Hmmm, I must really get a life.



My cousin Melissa started up this really clever blog a few weeks ago. Yep, she's one of those crafty stay at home mom types (and her blog is awesome by the way!) but she has over a thousand followers! A THOUSAND. So I was feeling a bit pathetic about my own.

I often think about things to blog about (mainly musings, and other random things) but then whenever I do finally find the time to sit and type I forget all that stuff, and revert to 'life' aka children updates. Okay, will make more of an effort to be interesting/crafty/inspirational/supermom/event organiser/wife.

Ha! Sure.....

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Bubba one

3 years ago when we first entered into the world of NZ parenthood, the term 'Bubba' or 'Bubs' (slang for baby) really iritated me. I refused to use it. Who would call their baby such a thing? Several years later I now use it as a term of endearment. It just rolls effortlessley from my mouth...you, Wyatt, are my Bubba and last month your turned one. My how things change.

This week you have begun to master the art of walking, and you think it is the coolest thing in the world. You walk a bit like Frankenstein - arms out in front of you, legs kicking out in front of you, till you lose your ballance and fall down. You look so proud of yourself, when you are walking, and indeed WE ARE very proud of you. Claps, cuddles, and laughter encourage you to keep going.

You crawl faster than the speed of light, and often you chase your brother around the house on all fours - walking can't quite get you there fast enough. You have no sense of fear. You like to climb up on the couch (where your brother sits perched in the corner watching cartoons) and then tumble off when you lose your ballance. Your sense of adventure has made us very aware of where you are at all times. This year has gone by so incredibly fast. You still feel very new to us, and it's hard to believe that you are already one. You have become very vocal, and like to chatter and babble away to no one in particular. You like to make yourself heard, and especially like to pick up the phone and say 'Da-da.'

Your favourite things are pushing the buttons on the telephone (luckily 111 has yet to be dialed!), opening up the microwave, unrolling TP, taking every tissue out of the box, dropping things into the toliet (my cell phone was the latest casuality), throwing balls, and your of course your big brother, Luca.

You are my little dancer. When you hear music, your whole face lights up, and you start shaking your head and bending your knees. You like it most when I dance with you - the more crazy the better. Your love being dipped down low and raised up high. Perhaps (shhh don't tell Daddy this plan) you'll want to take dance lessons when you are older. Everyone knows that guys that can dance get all the girls, right?

Grandma Cassie was visiting us for your Birthday. I feel so lucky that she was able to help us celebrate. She made you a pretty amazing tractor cake, and we invited close family and friends round for a BBQ dinner and cake.

You are more relaxed than your brother was at this age, and a much better sleeper. Dare I say that from about 6-7 months you sleep effortlessly through the night. Perhaps I'm jinxing myself by declaring that...You even take naps in your cot, which we struggled to get Luca to do. I think that's the 2nd child syndrome. The parents have figured out how to do things and we don't stress as much along the way. That, and a fairly structured bedtime routine helps.

I've spent countless hours with you balanced on my hip as we go about our everyday routines. I cherish how you grab on to my shoulders and shirt with your pudgy little hands - like a monkey clinging on for the ride. Still my favourite part of the day is putting you bed to night. I feed you a bottle (he's still a baby, ok?) and then pat your back as I wait for that gut wrenching burp to come out. You then rub your eyes, yawn, and put your head on my shoulder before I put you into bed. When I wake you up in the morning, you lay that little head again on my shoulder and give me cuddles. Warm, just woken up baby cuddles. There is no sweeter moment in life.

I love you Bubba~

Mommy