Ummmm…that’s all I could think of as a title for this photo.  This is the result when Caleb gets into his little sister’s hair accessories:

Huaaaahhhhh, look out, it’s….it’s….it’s a crazy nearly 4-yo with headbands that are too tight and pink flowers on his arms!  And if that isn’t enough, then check out the back:

It was warm today, but not hot enough to swim, so we decided to go to a park for a picnic lunch and a bike ride/stroll.

Caleb had his first stack on the bike!  I was pushing Holli in the pram, and James was a few steps in front of me when I noticed Caleb leaning to the right, but the bike was going to the left as he ran off the path and headed towards a wire fence.  I could only get a ‘James!’…’James!!!’…’JAMES!!!!!!!!’ out as I realised we weren’t going to make it to him in time, and even though James took off running, Caleb hit the fence and went right over the handle bars!  I cringed as I watched him get up, but he was fine and didn’t even cry.  The pride was hurt a little, but he got back on that bike and rode again.  That’s my boy!

Just a day at home today, and the weather is heating up again.  Not enough for me to want to go near the pool yet though, I like it bath temperature, but James and the kids were keen.  So my day 3 photo is just a bit of pool fun.

I’m on such a roll with this project so far, but it’s only been a few days, so maybe the novelty will wear off.  But I hope not because I’m loving it!  I’m also enjoying visiting some of the other girls blogs and galleries and checking out their photos.  I’ve set up a group in the sidebar of my blog for my Project 365 Buds, so if you’re doing the challenge and want me to add you, just leave me a comment and a link so I can find you!

We went for a day trip to Phillip Island today to go and visit some friends, and although too cold to go to the beach, we just had a great time hanging out, having lunch, swimming in the pool, and being a little silly, as you can see from my Day Two photo!

Holli was trying to copy the other kids, and loved re-enacting on-demand!

So, I was a really, really bad blogger for the most part of 2008, and now 2009 is here and I still don’t feel any pressing urge to blog (mostly due to lack of time), but one goal I have for 2009 is to take more photos again.  And to help me along, I’m playing in Deb’s Project-365 Photo-a-day challenge at Pickleberrypop!  That’s right…take at least one photo a day, for 365 days!  I don’t promise to post a photo on the blog every day, sometimes I might, and other times I might just post a weekly wrap, but I really want to do this.

The very FIRST photo kind of seemed important to me, so here is what I came up with:

These are the people that will more than likely feature highly in my project-365 this year, they are everything to me, so I wanted to start the year showing them at-ease, at home, on holidays, having fun.

Do you think you’re up to the Project-365 challenge?   If so, come join us!

I can’t blog!  I’m not even sure I want to at the moment?!  I know it’s just a time thing…blogging takes time, and I just don’t have a lot of it right now and I don’t think that is going to settle down anytime soon because it has been like this for months now.  I have even contemplated just shutting down my blog, but I don’t think I can do it!  Though I do curse Kate for getting me into this blogging thing in the first place - I even abstained from it for ages, but it got me in the end.  I’m even a shocking blogging buddy and hardly ever comment on anyone’s blog any more.  What’s wrong with me?!

Anyway, I got my hands on a few of the professional photos from the wedding last month - totally gorgeous!  I need to get around to blogging some, I know, I have so many people asking me to, so right now, please be happy with just these two, which totally melt my heart…

Holli is in the back, I am following behind:

This is Caleb kissing the bride, I could look at it all day long!  It was late afternoon, hence the glow: 

Thought it was about time I got back here!  I think I have stayed away from it because there is just so much to say that it’s a bit daunting to start, but here goes!  First up, the wedding that Holli and I were in last Thursday.

The Hen’s Day

On Saturday the 19th April, only 5 days before the actual wedding, we held Jo’s Hens Day.  We started with a Kitchen Tea at Jo’s place, where we had around 45-50 girls attend, so it was pretty big!  We had some delicious food, yummy punch (because I made it! LOL), and even alcoholic jelly shots!  We played a few games: Answering 12 questions about Jo to see who knew her the best, standing up with both hands on head and being asked risque questions - when the answer was no, you took one hand off your head, then the next, then sat down, so the last person standing is, well, pretty raunchy! LOL  The girls were asked to make penis’s out of playdough, oh, and there was a game of pass the parcel with a few naughty gifts being unwrapped here and there.  Then we went inside to watch a video that some of Jo’s friends had prepared, which was an interview with Steve, to see how well he knew Jo, and the boy was spot on!  It was a great afternoon with heaps of laughs.

We then boarded a mini bus and drove into Crown Casino in town, and we even had front-row parking thanks to my DH (James) and his work.  Off to Fusion we went, to watch a show called ‘Princes’ - basically a bunch of 5 male strippers prancing around on stage, dragging the Hens up there with them!  I can’t say I was wrapped when I heard we were going to Princes early on in the organising stages, but it was a really fun show, and nothing distasteful really at all.  Jo’s stint on stage was so funny, and actually, the best of the lot we think!  Here are some pics of her being swooned by ‘The bods’, the pics aren’t the best quality (taken on my phone):

We stayed at Fusion for a few hours after the show for the nightclub, and then we went partying to another club.  I had a great night with all the girls, and drinking with my SIL and another friend and not getting home until 3am!  No hangover either - yay!

The Wedding

The wedding was on Thursday 24th April, and it was going to be a perfect day weather-wise.  I arrived at Jo’s place just before 9am before heading off to the hairdresser’s in Essendon at 11am.  I had no pre-conceived ideas of how I wanted my hair done, and the bride wasn’t fussy, so I told them I wanted half up-half down with the rest left up to them.  I ended up with exactly that, but the half down was swept to the side, and the half-up was gently curved here and there (hard to explain), but I loved it!  Then it was off to Crown Towers Hotel for makeup and to get ready - we were ready early, so we had a few glasses of champagne and were nice and relaxed.

We arrived a little bit late to allow for one of the flower girls who was running late - she was one of 10 flower girls!  When we got there, I couldn’t wait to see Holli, who by then (thanks to Mum and my friend Donna) was dressed in her gorgeous flower-baby dress, with her hair up, and sitting in a wagon that was made by one of the Dad’s.  GORGEOUS!  I actually didn’t let her see me in case she wanted me to pick her up, and she was sooooo good!  She happily sat in the wagon and got wheeled down the aisle with another little girl in front of her, as I promptly followed.  The service was a full mass and was loooooong!  Ok, it wasn’t that long, but when you have 10 flower girls ranging from 9 months to 7 years, things were a bit restless, but overall they were very well behaved.

The bride - OMG, stunning!  Jo wore a Marianna Hardwick beaded dress, which was fairly slim-fitting and simple, but very elegant.  She was under strict instructions from the groom not to have a long train, which she kept to as the dress only had a short train, but she made up for it in veil - all 6 metres of it!  He wasn’t impressed, but eh, the dress needed a little something more, and the veil was perfect for it!  Plus, it was us who had to fix and straighten the darn thing all day until the reception!  Jo really did look like a supermodel, I only wish I had some photos to share, but being a bridesmaid meant that I couldn’t exactly have the faithful Nikon hanging around my neck!

The photos were taken in a garden in South Melbourne, a narrow cobblestone laneway in the city, and the Post Office in Bourke Street (GPO).  The locations coupled with the bride and groom will make for some amazing looking shots.  We then arrived at Studio 3 at Crown Casino for the reception where my feet were about ready to scream out loud being stuck in the ‘toe-killers’ all day, but I had to make it at least until after the bridal dance!  The speeches were fantastic, and very touching, and my BIL who was the best man did a really good job on his.  When it came time to do the first dance, Steve and Jo took to the dance floor, followed soon after by the bridal party…all except for me!  My partner was nowhere to be found!  Turns out he was in the men’s room, so luckily James stepped up and took his place until he returned!  Ah well, what can you do?!

After I literally kicked off the heels, I proceeded to spend the rest of the night on the dancefloor, having an absolute ball with all my friends, as well as a bunch of Jo’s friends who I had got to know over the last few weeks.  They were known as ‘The Bubble Girls’ because of their short ‘bubble’ dresses, and they were all so nice, I’m really going to miss hanging out with them!  The bride is 11 years younger than the groom, and my friends and I are all more around the groom’s age, so there is a bit of a generation gap, but it just made things even more funny!  After the reception, we ended up at ‘The Pub’ at Crown where we sat and had a few drinks and chatted the night away.  James and I finally made our way back to our room at Crown Promenade Hotel at 3am, and it took me around 30 minutes to take all the pins out of my hair and wash my makeup off!

So all in all, a fabulous day!  As much as it has been great and such an honour to be in the wedding, I am also really looking forward to life getting back to normal again.  You can only palm your kids off to your parents so many times, iykwim?

Other news

Going to keep this brief…Holli has been taken off all dairy, which includes changing formula, to see if the rash she has had for months now will finally disappear!  Too early to tell yet, so stay tuned!  Holli is still very much toothless, and still not crawling, but close….oh so close!  She does like to stand up though, and is pretty proud of herself when she manages it!

Not much different with Caleb really, he was very well behaved at the wedding and didn’t even cry when, um, he fell backwards off the church seat!  He’s a pretty tough little thing!  He’s enjoying life, and still driving his parents crazy at times!  Oh 3 is such a fun age!

I will update this blog again…soon!I am in a wedding this week, and with two young kids, it’s been pretty full-on trying to organise things for it around them.  Holli is in the wedding too - she is one of 10 flower girls, yep, a photographers worst nightmare!  Though from what I hear, the photographer is quite looking forward to it!So stay tuned for all the Hens Night/Wedding wrap-ups! 

Life is crazy again, not much time to blog, so I’ll just give a few quick notes and some of my fav pics from the last few days.  Last Sunday we went to one of the local parks to play some cricket, go for a walk, and then we headed to the ice cream shop for a treat!  Love this photo of my boys:

Caleb is right into ‘best friends’ at the moment, and often tells Dad, Oma, Opa, Holli and I ‘You’re my best friend’.  I’m so glad we’re friends because I love him to bits, but it’s so nice hearing that, melts my heart every time.  He’s also loving using scissors, and cuts something up every day!

Onto Holli…she went through a rough patch for probably close to 2 weeks there.  I suspect teeth, and then towards the end she got a cold on top of that, so there wasn’t much sleep happening, let me tell you!  I was so worried she had changed and that she wouldn’t go back to how she was, but she’s back to her normal, happy, content, sleeping self again!

These were taken today, just before a dip in our pool:

My, what BIG eyes you have!

Holli is rolling around the floor a fair bit now, but not really showing any signs of crawling yet, which is fine by me!  She is really eating well now, but it took a while to get there.  Put a rattle in her hand and she instantly knows what to do with it.  Put Caleb in front of her and she instantly smiles - she has only got eyes for her brother most of the time, it’s so cute, he makes her laugh!

A few weeks ago I met up with Deanne, a friend from quite a few years ago who went to Ireland to live for a while but is back in Oz now!  It was fantastic to catch up and felt just like old times.  We both share a love of photography, even though we are still both beginners really, so it’s great to have that in common.  Look forward to the next catch-up!