Christmas Eve with the Leones

Stan & I have been married for 9 years now & for the last 8 Christmases we've celebrated with the Leone family in the morning & then the Ormsby family in the afternoon.....however things are always a lot more rushed than we'd like them to be, so this year we tried something a little different, which made things so much better :) :) :) 

Instead of catching up with both our families on Christmas day we met up with our Leone fam on Christmas Eve.... Boy am I so grateful that my boys have the coolest cuzzies! And we're so lucky to have Aunty Jose & Uncle Mattsy & their crew just a couple of streets away from us :)

Spence was just a little bit excited to be kicking off opening pressies for 2014 :D

You can't beat the facials of little kids at Christmas - I love how the excitement is just oozing out of them!

He LOVED his new shorts & t-shirt from Aunty Jose & has been trying to wear them every day since lol

This big boy has been opening pressies for a good few years now!.... & still loving it ;)

Blakey's first real Christmas :) (He was only 5 days old last year so that didn't really count!)

The cuzzies (Ben & Josh were there too, but I didn't get them in the photo!)

Love this gorgeous girl x

And her adorable little bro! (Hard to believe these two are so closely related!)

It was such a cool, chilled out night just exchanging pressies & eating brownie & icecream together. The kids all had a blast hanging out & being silly & then it was off home to bed to set up for Santa's arrival!!!.....(to be continued....)

p.s Just on a gross note - Spencer walked straight into our house after we'd driven back from Jose's & vomited all over the tile floor in our entrance way. He had stuffed himself full of so much chocolate & dessert, that his poor little body just couldn't cope!!

Mac's last day of year 2

Mac finished up school on Tuesday the 16th of December this year - which was a whole 2 weeks ago I know, but things have just been so busy that I haven't had a chance to write this up until now :) I still remember so clearly the day he started in Rm 5 with Ms Lovegrove back in February so it was a little bit hard to believe that the year was all done & dusted just like that!

Things were really busy with selling the BMW & then car hunting on the week he finished up, so organizing the teacher's pressie & little class treats was left right up until the last minute.....I was super chuffed with the cute little design the noodle boxes from Spotlight had on them this year though. I thought last year was cute, but these were even cuter :)

Mac & Ms Lovegrove. She's been such an awesome teacher!

I didn't manage to get a pic of the card we made for her this year, but when the printer ran out of ink just as I was trying to print Mac's photo for the front of it that morning, I tried to convince him that it'd be fine to just give her a normal Christmas card instead....but he got all choked up & said in a sad little voice 
'but then she won't remember who I am' haha. Good to know he thinks so highly of himself ;)

Mac & a few of his besties, from Left - Jaylin, who came from China a few months back & couldn't speak any English!, Mac & Ethan

Noah, Mari-Lyn & Mac

12 out of his class of 20 (you don't have to come on the last half day if you don't want to - & apparently you don't have to wear uniform either, which we didn't know!)

And last but not least, here is his final report to wrap up Year 2. We were super impressed with how he's tracking as well as his improvements in attitude & effort since his mid year report so here's hoping that next year is just onwards & upwards from here x

No empty chairs 2014 - Celebrating Mama xoxo

Well I had the coolest weekend just this weekend past, Celebrating Mama. Saturday was 8 years since she passed away so I decided that I wanted to be at the temple where I could feel closest to her. I loved the year that Stan & I got to have going down to the temple with Mum & Dad so I always picture us there together every time I go.

The other cool thing about the trip down that day was that I got to have Dad come along as my chauffeur :) Stan & the boys decided not to come since the weather was pretty shocking, so it was really special to be able to have quality time with my Dadda all the way down & back! Of course we had to make the compulsory stops at Pokeno & Mama's Donuts so they made the trip even sweeter too ;)

Then on Sunday afternoon we carried on the weekend with dinner & our 2nd 'No empty chairs' FHE (See our 1st one back in 2012 here). Love being with my fam bam & there's nothing I want more than to be with them for all eternity! Here's all the pics....

All the kids were taking turns trying out the Heke's new exercycle :)

Funny how this boisterous & larger than life 4 year old gets so shy & coy when she's put in the spotlight x

She wanted me to take a photo of her beautiful french braid that Mummy had done for her for church :)

Precious Pod xoxo

Our family definitely wouldn't be as cool without her in it!

Can this cutie boy even see outta those super smiley eyes??!!

If Uncle Stanie's chair was empty we'd have no-one to do the thumbs up in all our photos lol

There was 26 chairs in all for the fam

Everyone cracked up when we realised Uncle Pete was sitting in the high chair lol

Disclaimer: Grandie WAS at this dinner, but he wouldn't allow any photos to be taken so that's why there's none of his handsome face this time round....

Click here to watch Pod's gorgeous talk. I just spent the last half an hour trying to load the youtube clip but it didn't wanna cooperate, so here's the link instead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06btnrD-BWI   (Make sure you go there - she's so cute!)

After FHE Ella wanted to me to come & see their pretty new duvet covers :) I would love the same cover for my own bed - such a cool colour!

Mac & his dessert bowl - Reeses slice (Stan's 1st attempt), Lemon cheesecake & boysenberry icecream. Yum! 

I forgot to take a photo of our mains, but we had yummy chicken & rice, the chicken salad that everybody loves - but without the chicken lol, rolls & garlic bread. I'm sure Mum would've been more than happy with the delicious spread :)

And then after Grandie had left, it was out to do a few fireworks. (It had to be after he'd left cause otherwise he probably would've reported us to noise control haha)

The Heke kids getting their groove on to the dancing fireworks (there was one that they thought sounded like you should dance to it - what did you guys call that one Mell? I can't remember?)

This little big man loves fireworks these days, but still likes to keep a real distance - unlike his cuzzy, Seffy "no fear" Heke who wanted to be right up in there lighting them all by himself!!

Just a few more sparkler pics. I was hoping to be able to do some words with all us adults there, but the box only had 6 sparklers in it so they had to go to the kids :)

Mell did do a pretty cool heart for me though....

Can't believe it's been a whole 8 years since Mum passed away already. Hate the distance that keeps growing since I saw her last, but so grateful to know that when I see her next, we'll never ever have to be separated again :D Love you forever my precious Mumma xoxo