Surprise!! I'm back

Well hello there.

It's been a L O N G time between posts, but I do have a good excuse.

On May 7th this year, our family welcomed our new little girl, Charlotte Emily Dye.



She's such a precious wee thing, and an incredibly good baby, which is a big shock to the system after Ashley! Charlotte sleeps anywhere from 4-8hrs a night, which make mummy very happy.

In other news, I have finally gotten a "tumour"-thingy removed from my thumb this week, after a lot of dramas to get it done. Note to self, next time I have a blood blister, leave it alone!! I popped the blister, and within a week or 2 it had turned into a rather gruesome looking lump. Still, it's taken care of now, so all good.

Also, I have finally gotten back to scrapboking again. It's a little slow going tho, especially trying to balance scrapping time with a baby and a 4 and a half year old. I really must credit a wonderful new Scrapbooking site with giving me back my mojo. A lovely lady (yes you can blush Shell) by the name of Shell Honig, has started her own online store, forum etc. It's simply wonderful and I recommend that you check it out (if you haven't already)

Well, now that I've finished tarting up the old blog, I'll sign off for now and attend to the kids.

Ciao for now.

Happy New Year

Well, here we are.

2008.

So, another year ends and another one begins. Of course, in typical fashion, the end of 2007 was rather hectic, which was always the case, but made even more so 4 years ago!!

I had the standard end of year scrabble with work, except this time it seemed worse than it has in past years! I don't think I'm cut out for that sort of drama and stress anymore, in fact, I've decided that I'm not going to allow myself to stress anymore. Let's see how long that one lasts huh?!

Of course, the lead up to Christmas and the New Year on the personal front always has it's own amount of stress attached to it as well. First we start December with Steve's mum's birthday, followed not long after by Kirstin's birthday and of course, the event that came about 4 years ago, Ashley's birthday!! We had a lovely little party for her at home, complete with party food, presents and feeling altogether over indulged by the end of the day. Here are a couple of shots from her day:






Of course, straight after that (being that her birthday is on the 23rd!), we had the family Christmas gathering at mum's place on Christmas Eve, Fiona and Roger came down from the BOI for xmas, so we had everyone there. It was a lovely evening and I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.







So, on Christmas day, Steve had to work in the morning and little miss Ashley got very excited by the fact that there had been no presents under the tree when she went to bed by in the morning there was. Unfortunately, mummy telling her we had to wait until daddy got home to open them didn't work and she came tearing into the kitchen yelling "look what I got mummy!!" having just torn the paper off one of her presents!!! Very cute. Of course, that sped up the process of going back over to mum's for lunch and after that, we headed back home so that she could open everything else with mummy and daddy. Next stop was Steve's sister Louise's place for his family's gathering and then back home.

Boxing day was completley uneventful and after that, the reality of having to go back to work hit on the 27th.

Last night for New Years Eve was COMPLETLEY boring. Ashley and I were in bed by 9.30 and inadvertently caught midnight only because the neighbours were making such a huge noise! Of course, I still had to work today (blah!!!) but it's Steve's birthday so I came home early, and mum came over to drop off his pressie and the White Chocolate Mudcake that she had made for him. Ashley and I made dinner for daddy tonight and the day is almost over.

Well, another year and of course, this year we have the exciting thing of looking forward to the arrival of baby number 2. I'll hopefully post again next week, but really need to go to bed now cos I feel like I'm starting to ramble.

Have a Happy 2008 everyone.

Catch up time

Well hello again.

As per usual, it's a long time between posts. I just wish I could find the energy to keep this updated on a more regular basis. My life seems to be this never ending cycle of work, home, eat, sleep....work, home, eat, sleep...work, home, eat, sleep... you get hte picture. I now know how a mouse on one of those wheels feels. Constantly running but not getting anywhere!!

Surprisingly, in the last few weeks I have managed to do a couple of things that go outside the previous mentioned cycle. As mentioned in the last post, Steve and I had our 5 year anniversary. With all his secret planning we ended up at the Waitakere Estate Lodge for the evening. It started with a lovely dinner and then a gorgeous room for the evening. I missed Ashley (as I always do when she isn't with me), but it was really nice to have a night off from being a mum for a change. Here ae a couple of shots of our room from outside, and the inside:




On the tuesday before all this happened tho, I was lucky enough to get to see "We Will Rock You" at the Civic. Fiona and Roger were going together, but Roger had to get back up north for work, so Fiona very generously offered me the ticket (thank you so much Fi, I really appreciate it!!) What a fantastic show!!! It has got to be one of the best things I have seen for a long time. It was so well staged and held your attention the entire time. I don't think there was a single part that I sat there and thought "ok, next scene please". And just to make it even more fabulous, Mig Ayesa was in the lead role. I think he's brilliant and I was so gutted that he didn't win Rockstar INXS, but atleast I got to see him live doing this. Steve went by himself on the 3rd to last night of the show and the lovely man that he is bought the Mig cd for me, and even waited to get it autographed for me. And just to put the icing on the cake, the following Monday the cast all flew out, and on one of the rare occassions that I was able to venture out of my little hole at work, I happened to bump into Mig and he said Hi to me. Very cool.

Ashley had her Xmas pageant/party at daycare yesterday, and her sectin of daycare (called the "Rising 5's") did a Hip-Hop dance. The cutest thing I've ever seen, my lily white girl trying to be a home-girl. Still, she did very well, one of the few kids that didn't get stage fright and she boogied the whole way through. Of course, the highlight for all the kids was the arrival of Santa and the receiving of pressies, and here is Ashley's moment:



My girl wasn't at all shy, she was the first and only kid to climb up on Santa's knee to receive her gift (a new Barbie doll). Gotta love it.

Well, I think it's time to finish off this post. I'm getting tired (still suffering the tired thing although I'm into the second trimester and I'm supposed to be feeling "vital and glowing". What a crock!!!) and little Miss needs a bath. Hopefully, I get the energy to post again before the end of the year. If not, have a Merry Xmas and all the best for the New Year.

Yeah, I'm slack, I know.

Hello there!!!

Okay, so I'm completely hopeless and the worst person in the world at keeping my blog updated.

I plead "preggy brain", that I am now calling "Goldfish Brain", as I'm lucky if my memory lasts more than 5 seconds at the moment!!!

Yes, we are very happy to announce in the Dye family, that we are expecting another little bundle in May 2008. I suffered really bad morning sickness for the first 11 weeks and was completely exhausted all the time (well the exhaustion bit is still on-going at the mo). The morning sickness was a bit of a surprise as I never had it with Ashley and I was always a big believer in the "mind-over-matter" thing, always convinced that morning sickness was all in your head, but I take it back now!!!!

Not alot else has been happening really in the last month. Work continues as it does. I'm not really overly happy with where I'm at right now, but still, I'll persevere and see where it all goes.

Next week, Steve and I celebrate our 5th Wedding Anniversary. I'm quite looking forward to it. Steve has been very secretively planning something, and I don't even have the slightest inkling what he could possibly have up his sleeve. Still, it will give me something to blog about in the next week or so, so that's always a good thing.

Well, miss Ashley is "feeling a bit weary" and so is mummy. Not to mention the fact that my custard brain is going in circles, so I can't think straight enough anymore to write anything else tonight. As soon as I can eget my scanner to work properly again, I will post bubs' "first picture" on the blog.

Yes, I am still here!

Hello there,

well, you could easily be forgiven for thinking i had fallen off the planet!!! I know, it's been to long between posts, but I have been really busy that's all.

In the middle of September, Steve, Ashley and I went on holiday for a week up to Steve's sister's place in Whangaparaoa. It's such a beautiful setting and so quiet and relaxing, which is exactly what we all needed. Kirstin, David and Devin came up to visit the first weekend we were there and some of Steve's friends from work popped up as well. Other than that, we just had some much needed family time together. We took Ashley up to the Waiwera in the middle of the week and she absolutley loved it!! She had the most adorable smille plastered on her face the entire time we were in the pool. She was getting very brave towards the end, jumping off the little steps on the side of the pool, regardless of whether mummy and daddy were ready to catch her or not!!

Of course, once the holiday was over it was back to work, which quickly put paid to the relaxing and recharging that had happened the week before!! Everything has been really full on for the last couple of weeks, as on Monday just gone, Travelex opened at the airport. It has been a pretty manic time I must say. Obviously, the first week has had it's fair share of teething problems and dramas, but I can only hope that it starts to settle down from now on, otherwise I don't think I'll be able to stick it out!

Well, Kirstin has tagged me again as well. I'm supposed to come up with a word or comment that describes me for the each letter of my name. Hmmmmm, a bit of a challenge I must say, but I'll give it a go:

Tempermental - But who isn't?! Seriously tho, I'm surprised my DH puts up with me. I can have a real Jekyll/Hyde personality swing in 2 seconds flat, and he unfortunately ends up on the receiving end of it most the time. I am aware of this, and I do conciously try not to do it, but sometimes the emotions get the better of me and I'm off!!

Romantic - I'm a hopeless romantic a heart. I love a good old fashioned, soppy girly romance flick and adore hapy endings!! I love the whole romance bit; chocolates, flowers, candlelit dinners etc. Is there any hope for me?

Ashley - Ok, I know that sounds a little weird as a word to describe me, but this adorable, loving little girl is the absolute centre of my universe. She makes me smile, she drives me mad, she pushes me to the absolute limit half the time, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I can't and don't want to imagine what my life would be like without her!

Crazy - about the other important person in my life, my gorgeous hubby Steve. As previously mentioned, he is incredibly tolerant of me and all my mood swings and quirks, but he is also the most loving and wonderful man in the world. He has his little quirks that make him just so cute (and he'll kill me for saying that), but I love him to pieces and wouldn't have him any other way.

Empty - As in I can't think of a single thing to describe me for the letter E, so this one is going to remain unfilled, sorry.

Yellow - Meaning "scaredy-cat". Alot of people think I'm brave because I can be this feisty little "pitbull" but in reality, i'm scared of just about everything, heights, thunderstorms, geese, confrontations. You name it, I'm probably scared of it.

Well, that's that. I've done my tag, but I have noone that i can tag, so my branch finishes here.

I've updated my blog, which has been a long time coming, but I won't make any rash promises that I will do it more regularly, cos then I'm just setting myself up for failure.

See you whenever I update next.

Bye. ;-)

Me again

Well, I'm sitting at home sick today, so I figured I may as well take the time to update my blog.

I haven't done much scrapbooking at the moment, but then I haven't really had alot of time to do anything much latlely. I was in Sydney, Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed of last week doing the training for my new job at the airport. WOW, what an eye opener!! I can't believe how much is involved in it all. Obviously, for privacy reasons I can't discuss too much on a publicly viewed blog, but I'm really glad I got to see and learn what I did. Of course, I flew back into Auckland on wednesday night and straight back into work again on Thursday, which is going to be full-on until evrything gets going at the airport, I can hardly wait!!

We had a very busy weekend just gone. Went Father's Day shopping with Ashley on saturday morning, then we went and visited Mum for afternoon tea, and after that, we picked daddy up from home and went to visit our friends Belinda and Rowan and their little girl Olivia. We don't catch up with them nearly often enough, and as such, we couldn't get over how much Olivia has grown! They have number 2 on the way in December, so it was great to catch up with them again.

Sunday being Father's Day, we had a bit of time with Steve in the morning before we headed off to Kate's place (one of Steve's nieces), for a Father's Day brunch with his family. After that, Steve dropped me and Ashley back home and, unfortunately, he had to go to work, so Ashley and I had a sleepy afternoon cos I wasn't feeling well, which of course leads into why I'm home today. Ashley has had a cough a for a few weeks, and naturally mummy and daddy got it also. I think mine has been made worse by being on a plane just as it was starting to kick off. Now, I have this revolting cough that is making my chest, shoulders and stomach hurt like crazy!! Still enough of the medical 101.

I guess I'll sign off now as this is turning into a fairly large post for me. ;-)

Ciao.

Hello again

Well, I figured I'd beat Kirstin to the punch before she gives me grief for not updating my blog again.

It's great to see so many people (other than Kirstin) visiting my blog page and leaving comments. Thank you all, makes me more inclined to make sure I keep myself up to date online more often!!! ;-)

In the last couple of weeks, not alot has been happening beyond the usual work/home dance that seems to be life. Steve and I took Ashley to the Museum, so that Steve could see the "Egypt; Beyond the Tomb" exhibition (Ashley and I went and saw it with Mum a couple of weekends before this), and Ashley had a wonderful time having a look at the World War II planes in the "Scars on the Heat" exhibition. She also had a ball running through the "1866 Auckland City Street" part of the Museum too. Took alot of convincing (and the bribery of Fish 'n' Chips!!!!) to get her to leave!!!

Well, I'm going to head off to bed now. Very busy week ahead at work as everything starts to heat up with the Airport opening. I'm off to Sydney on Sunday for 3 days of training for my new role at the Airport.

How Exciting?!!!!!!!!! :)