Can't quite believe it but in the space of 3 weeks we have sold one house and bought another! Hugely relieved and excited! This weekend was so good for us, we had alot of ups and downs in the space of 3 days as we realised what we'd had our hearts set on there for a while (living in Keri Keri town itself) actually wasn't the right thing for us after all and we have been extra lucky to have an alternative present itself and completely fall for it and get it at a price we could afford! Convinced we have an angel out there somewhere watching out for us...

So we are now soon to be the proud owners of this lovely Villa, with a flat section and three paddocks to play with (and no doubt extend our menagerie)...the only thing needing work is the main bathroom...but hey DIY man extraordinaire has to have something to do in his spare time aye!!

Located in the wee country community of Ohaeawai (oh-high-why) between Keri Keri and Kaikohe, where Jims work is based and which on our second visit we are now really warming to...just like a Huntly in the North I reckon! So we are perfectly placed in the middle to the boutiquey, cafe, Arty charms of Keri Keri and to the down to earth, good old fashioned service charms of Kaikohe...whose skate ramp by the way is waaay better than Keri's...which apparently is very important!

To all whanau and friends who may be interested in visiting, we have tons of space annnndddd the pub and dairy are in walking distance....(as is the school and playcentre)...now what could be handier than that!! Don't worry Jim can source plenty of reflector jackets for that wee walk (stagger!) back home along the roadside...sorry no footpath...yet...but we will be putting a submission in to council very soon rofl!

No scrapping done whatsoever recently but I would like to share the link to Lianne and Jo's fab new blog Scrapping the Teenz so if you own one of these creatures be sure to checkout some great inspiration for cool ways to scrap them!

Just a quickie cause we are off up to Keri Keri this afo....taking the boys for a look around and we the good news is our house is sold, went unconditional yesterday so we are going to do some house hunting up there too!

It was Josephs school cross country yesterday and here he is running and laughing and waving to the crowd lol!! Did so well, didn't stop once. Also a few pics of his number one supporters who spurred him on with much cheering from the sidelines...

The buzz at the moment seems to be all about the Dove campagin aimed at raising self esteem in young girls and seeing the beauty in everybody....Yay for Dove...and yay for Ngaire for posting an awesome challenge relevant to this on her blog....such a cool blog she has...must go there more often!

...As a Mum of three boys though I would like to say don't forget the boys too! They are every bit as sensitive as us females, they tend to just bottle it away though and I think the message should be nuture self esteem in all our children and each other!

I did this layout a while back just for fun, it makes me laugh...I guess I just accept the way that I look, my crooked front tooth, the laugh lines...or crows feet lol!, the glasses, the hair that never does what I want it to do!! As long as my boys and Jim love me for me than thats all that matters... thats what makes me feel beautiful.....some days are harder than others I must admit though...after a day hanging at home with the housework, three noisy grubby bundles of mischief (aka the boys!) in my jeans and t-shirts, pottering in the garden....beautiful is probably low on the list of things I am rofl!!

And just a reminder Wednesday is the deadline for this round at NZdares...have you dusted of the childhood pics yet...I have seen some real cute ones around...

Mine is a baby pic, there wern't that many to choose from...the joy of being the 4th kid lol! but I love the quote from the plunket book I found, it suited the pic down to the ground!

This was shared recently within a group of my online scrapping friends and I thought it very, very funny....

The Ellen Show was on and she read this submission to a contest from aviewer:

So, we had this great 10 year old cat named Jack who just recently died.Jack was a great cat and the kids would carry him around and sit on him and nothing ever bothered him. He used to hang out and nap all day long on this mat in our bathroom.Well, we have 3 kids and at the time of this story they were 4 years old, 3 years old and 1 year old. The middle one is Eli. Eli really loves chapstick. LOVES IT. He kept asking to use my chapstick and then losing it. So finally one day I showed him where in the bathroom I keep my chapstick and how he could use it whenever he wanted to but he needed to put it right back in the drawer when he was done.Last year on Mother's Day, we were having the typical rush around and try to get ready for Church with everyone crying and carrying on. My two boys are fighting over the toy in the cereal box. I am trying to nurse my little one at the same time I am putting on my make-up. Everything is a mess and everyone has long forgotten that this is a wonderful day to honour me and the amazing job that is motherhood.We finally have the older one and the baby loaded in the car and I am looking for Eli. I have searched everywhere and I finally round the corner to go into the bathroom. And there was Eli. He was applying my chapstick very carefully to Jack's . . rear end. Eli looked right into my eyes and said "chapped". Now, if you have a cat, you know that he is right - their little butts do look pretty chapped. And, frankly, Jack didn't seem to mind.And the only question to really ask at that point was whether it was the FIRST time Eli had done that to the cat's behind or the hundredth. And then I decided I really didn't want to know...And THAT is my favourite Mother's Day moment ever because it reminds us that no matter how hard we try to civilize these glorious little creatures, there will always be that day when you realize they've been using your chapstick on the cat's butt.


Until I saw Samuel had raided my handbag this afo......



All I can say is thank god we don't have a cat.....and thankfully the dogs butts are too hairy to get that close too.....I can just about handle the fact that he is carefully applying it up his nose ROFL!!!

Big YAY going out to Vicky and Trina for 'surviving' the comp over at SBO and becoming new DT members there....have much fun ladies!

And weren't the NZdare girls toooo cute when they were just little!!!! and I'm sure they still are now lol! Some simply gorgeous layouts being produced for Andreas challenge to scrap a photo of yourself under 10 years!! Can't wait to see everyones entry's....wheres mine you say!! I guess I should be brave tonight and drag out the cardboard box with those pics of mini-me....now this could be fun.....and funny lol! Are you up for a laugh too....I dare you!!!! and don't forget if you pass by the NZdare blog we love to see comments....even if you are just laughing at our pigtails lol!!

Its funny I don't usually think about what brand of supplies I'm using on a layout and subsequently my stash is a huge mish mash of all sorts of different stuff, whatever catches my eye really...I'm not one for matching and co-ordinating too much lol!

So Trinas dare over on the NZdare blog was a bit of a challenge for my poor scrap stash!! My reliable friend Basic Grey won the day with pp, tags, letter stickers, rubon and chipboard plus a dab of paint and a bit of penwork.

You've still got time if you havn't put a layout together for this one...deadline 6 pm Wednesday 9th May. You could win some loverly new Junkitz goodies to add to your stash!

OK so who wants to buy a house? Come on...its very very clean rofl!! I never knew the kitchen sink could sparkle like that...very pretty! Spent all weekend giving the garden its Autumn overhaul too, yay for good weather!

SBO survivor is on its last round....the final four are all exceptional scrappers, but I do have my favourite and my fingers are tightly crossed for her this week! Have fun with this weeks challenge ladies!

Samuel earned his "I destroy because I can...but I don't mean too" badge well and truly yesterday...He is in love with his Bob the Builder DVD that Gran and Pop gave him before they left...to the point that he has figured out how to put it on himself....which we (or maybe that should read I) thought was cute ...until obviously he didnt think the DVD turner thing wasn't popping out fast enough for his Bob habit and he yanked it out and now it dosn't pop out or pop in at all....its buggered!! Dad didn't think that was so cute but I just hid knowing I let them do stuff like that but they really shouldn't be doing because they don't know how much DVD players cost lol!!!

Oh well good news is I don't have to cancel our subscription to DVD unlimited because we can watch them on the laptop weeehooo!

Just realised....not looking forward to doing all the address changing stuff that comes with moving...

Here are a couple of pics from this week of my chocolate brownie making 'helpers'...hmmmm lol!