snap shots of our life …

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Emmy Liddell

… according to our iPhones…

: easter egg hunt winnings

: silly crafternoon antics

: hidden eggs

: nothing can stop her

: bed head

: favourite things

: in our happy place

: crazy fun

: a sweet little package

: … these girls …

: love

: fun with our bestie

: balloons

: exploring

: scootin’

: morning

: profiterols

: dada

: jumpin

: chasing birds

: healthy eating

(if you’d like to follow along on instagram you can find me as: emmyliddell)

before + after

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Emmy Liddell

// 1 + 2 first EVER bath ! // 3 + 4 blocks in the hall // 5 + 6 peek-a-boo!

i’ve just been going through some of our photos which were taken in the last few weeks & i found these before + after shots. i am finding it more difficult these days to snap our life as it tends to get quite busy around here ! but when i get the chance (or remember) i am snap happy i hope i’ll get into the groove of three kids, three & under, soon enough so that i don’t miss out on capturing any moment. these three are too precious & they are growing too fast. sometimes i wish i could just stop the clock for a few days to enjoy the chubby legs, chubby cheeks, the toddler talking, the cuddles, the quirky looks. life moves too fast. a friend of mine posted this comment on fb this morning:

“I am so sad tonight. My 6 yr old is 1 third of his way to an 18 yr old!!! Only twice as long (hopefully longer!) under my roof. Only 6 years, then he is 12! My sons get a 5 minute massage every night- i’m stepping it up to 10 minutes each. I cannot stand the fact that they are growing up so quickly! I also cannot stand that school starts in 2 days. I like just knowing that they are here, even when i am in the kitchen and they are playing lego and calling me to look at a new lego whatever, i live for it. Another perfect holiday. Play dates, sleepovers, bikes, scooters, dvd nights, late nights, miss them already.”

isn’t that just gorgeous?! i think i’m going to start that massage idea. very cool. they always say that the days are long but the years are quick during this phase of life. i feel this immensely.

he’s here !

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Emmy Liddell

just a quick note to let all you lovely peeps know that he’s here ! he’s finally here !! we are just smitten with the newest member of our family & we feel incredibly blessed that he arrived all safe & sound. this time around i am just amazed that God provides us with MORE love for EACH child when a new one is added to the family. is that how he feels about us? it must be! wowee.

thanks for taking this journey with us ! it is especially exciting times for us & we are enjoying every single minute.

these two.

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Emmy Liddell

these two. i tell you. they are the funniest pair & i just adore them. but i’m not going to lie to you … sometimes they make me go a little bit crazy.

at the moment miss v has started to assert her independence in a biiiiig way. she is one strong little lady (& let’s face it, she has to be with two brothers!). the day mark left for his trip she climbed out of her cot, refused to sit in a high chair & pretty much grew up & out of the baby stage. it was amazing to watch. i am so incredibly proud of her. she pushes me to my limits even though she can’t speak in sentences and sometimes at the end of the day i am so relieved to see mark walk through the door that i could just cry. i am learning as much about myself as i am about her. i am learning patience, kindness, gentleness, love, joy, peace, self-control, goodness… she has no fear of anyone or anything and my favourite two things she does at the moment are singing twinkle twinkle little star and her happy dance. she is getting ready to be a big sister & she is going to be fabulous at it.

joey … my oh my … i thought the craziness would end post two … but we are now on a whole new level. no-one told me about four?!?!?!?! i just love this little guy to bits. he’s my little man. he is always doing nice things for me and telling me when something is a ‘good idea’. gee, thanks little man … but at the moment, i think ALL my ideas are good (especially the ones about eating your veggies) he also pushes me to my limits. last week mark sent me an article on the four challenges of parenting a four year old. i had one of those ‘ah-ha’ moments. it must be so frustrating being a kid. pretty much all your decisions are made for you & you just have to fit in with what the rest of the family is doing. it must be so hard to express yourself & how you are feeling when you don’t even have the vocabulary. but i am so proud of him. my favourite thing that he is doing at the moment is imaginative play. today we made a milkshake out of cars, a spy glass, pink, icing and captain barnacles. he is constantly taking me on a ‘holiday’ on our ‘boat’ (aka my bed) with pretty much every single indoor and outdoor toy & any clothes that are lying around. he is so excited about having a baby brother & persists in telling me that he will be a ‘boy’ where as our ‘old’ baby (miss v) is a girl.

i swear, these kids are running circles around me & have me wrapped around their little finger. parenting is the hardest thing i have ever done (am doing), and it brings me the greatest joy.

sundays in the city.

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Emmy Liddell

this week we had a twist to our ‘sundays in the city’ trip. we didn’t actually make it to the city… but we sure did get a good look at beautiful sydney! i tell you, there is nothing like walking through a park with loads of picnic’ers about, overlooking the harbour, watching ferries & yachts, admiring the bridge & opera house … and all in a quick train ride. we love sydney. if you have never been, seriously … get over here quick !! it is simply stunning & never disappoints.

on sunday we travelled to milsons point by train, then ran around in bradfield park before munching on some snacks. oh, and didn’t i tell you? neon & stripes are the in thing this trip was totally spontaneous & i find that always makes for a better time. we were on route to purchase a soccer ball & bike helmet for joey, then detoured to the train station because the afternoon was too beautiful to miss. sydney autumn is my absolute favourite time of year. the weather is perfect during the day, and at night there is room for a good ol snuggle.

luckily mark got some snaps of me & boy liddell too. we’re bang on 38 weeks so fingers crossed we’ll meet our little man soon !!

raising girls.

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Emmy Liddell

mark & I went to a talk a few weeks ago by Steve Biddulph on Raising Girls. WOW. we have a HUGE job ahead of us raising our little miss v. it was an absolutely eye opening presentation & gave us great hope of raising a confident, independent, loving and wise woman. since the talk i have been reading his book which was only published this january. again … WOW. we have a HUGE job ahead of us. i have been enjoying the book on two levels. firstly, reading about the stage our little girl is just passing through and what lies ahead. thinking about the important people in her life and how to involve them more. gee she is one lucky girl to have two fabulous (albeit very different!!) grandmothers, two incredible aunties and a funky, wise godmother. these ladies in particular will have a huge impact on her life. secondly, reflecting on my own childhood and going through the five stages to becoming a woman. i am currently in the chapter on 5 – 10 year olds which focuses on friendship. i consider myself very poorly skilled in the area of friendship, so it is absolutely fascinating reading about the skills of friendship, how friendship grows etc. i am desperately praying that little miss v will be surrounded by fantastic friends that are loyal, challenge her, encourage her and love her. i am also seeking ways to change how i am a friend so i can become a better friend and to not be afraid of friendships.

a small but significant point that steve makes is that little girls need to explore their world. in a loving family, a girl will be confident to go about exploring the world without fear of the world, and instead with a healthy curiosity. he says in passing that little girls (especially aged 2 – 5) need to throw away their frilly dresses which restrict their ability to explore, throw on a pair of pants & sneakers and get dirty. it really made me think about how i dress miss v (and yes … i still have that privilege of dressing her, though i have been told that soon this will be taken from me!). so off to the shops i went & bought her a whole bunch of leggings, bloomers, jeans & sneakers. i am about to purchase a whole lot of Lego & I love that she is as obsessed with cars as my son. Don’t fret though ! She still loves her dolls and prams too – she has an uncanny obsession with shoes which can only come from her aunty tam & our grandmother connie who had impeccable taste in shoes. since i have already changed a few small things, then i am totally pumped to read the rest of the book and seriously think about what is being proposed for raising girls.

the week after the talk was a very wet one. it created the perfect opportunity for a little bit of exploring in the rain. so on one of the days i just opened the front door to see what would happen. and of course, little miss v (& joey) were outside in a flash … getting totally soaked & having a blast. it felt good to have this freedom & just watch them explore for a while.

next on my book list is Raising Boys.

Sundays in the city.

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Emmy Liddell

O House

Scootin’ with dada.

Pirate Ship

Scootin’.

Dinner time.

Shoe & Sock

Recently we have been rekindling an old tradition of ours: Sundays in the city. Before miss v was born, we would travel each Sunday morning on the ferry into the city. We would walk around Circular Quay, past the Opera House & into the Royal Botanical Gardens for a picnic breakfast of eggs & bacon rolls. We would fry the eggs & bacon on a portable stove & fry pan … then enjoy the sunshine, on the harbour, as a family. Sometimes my brother would join us, or my SIL & BIL. We have good memories of this little tradition.

The great thing about Sundays is that public transport costs $2.50 total per adult with a child. This may not sound very attractive, but when you have one or two little ones in tow who love to ride on ferrys, busses, trains, etc. this is a VERY attractive deal. $5 for a family outing?! Yes Please !

A few weeks ago we decided to get back into the groove of Sundays in the city. I think it may have had something to do with my mother’s group throwing me a baby shower for high tea at the Intercontinental…. Oh it was glorious ! Anyhoo, we have mixed things up a bit to enjoy the last of daylight saving. We have been catching the ferry into the city in the afternoon with a picnic dinner, then eating where we choose. Here are some pics of a trip a few weeks ago … fun fun fun.

We love the city. Let’s hope Sundays in the city continue post baby boy !

my facebook fast.

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Emmy Liddell

this year i decided to take on the challenge of having a one month facebook fast for the entire month of january. some of our friends have been doing the fast each year for a few years … and to tell you the truth, they never seem to miss out on much ! i am probably addicted to fb (like many of us!) in the same way that i’m addicted to instagram (& now vine…). i am not the kind of fb user who posts status updates on fb all the time, but i am the type of fb user who is checking it constantly. when i’m at the traffic lights, while the dinner is cooking, when i wake up in the morning or go to sleep at night, brushing my teeth etc. it’s just so easy to check fb on my phone & so i do. i feel like fb is my source of knowledge and news about the day’s happenings and it never fails.

so, for me, a fb fast was a BIG deal. what would i miss out on? would my ‘social life’ decline because i am not accessing all those party invites? how will i get updated on the most relevant news? will my ‘friends’ miss me? will they even notice that i am not on fb?

here are some thoughts on what i noticed by not being on fb for a month:

* i did miss out. but not on anything important. just a few pictures here and there, and perhaps a party invite or two… but it was not a big deal. in fact, i found that i was conversing more with my friends to get updated on what was going on in their lives, asking them to show me their pictures on their phones etc.

* i was proactive in my friendships. because i did not have my knowledge source to hand, i had to actively go out and check in on my friends. i texted, emailed … i even called people!

* i spent more time with my family. one of my new year resolutions this year is to focus on my marriage to make it excellent which has the side effect of making family life excellent too. i found that i was spending more time talking with mark about things that matter to us at the moment, dreaming about the future, basking in the excitement of the impending arrival of our third child, dreaming of what family life will be like in just a few weeks, reminiscing on great family memories and thinking about creating new ones… i also found that i was spending much less time on my phone, and much more time playing with our kids. sad, i know. this is something that i noticed really changed our relationship … we have spent more time reading books during the day (rather than in the morning and evening), playing cars or dolls etc. and i had the glory of just sitting and watching my kids play without any distraction … so incredibly rewarding.

* i found a range of other sources to be inspired creatively, spiritually and in our family life. it has been a really good change.

i still haven’t made the plunge to get back on fb, but that will happen soon enough ! i will definitely do a fb fast again for january 2014 … and i am looking forward to it.

have you ever tried a fb fast or something similar?

image from here.

firsts.

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Emmy Liddell

our little boy started pre-school last week. it was a big event for us all. we had been building up to it during the summer break, talking to joey about pre-school, buying all the essentials for pre-school, talking about new friends and teachers etc. i was a bit nervous that he would be clingy & resist going in … but to my great surprise he practically skipped in to pre-school & then skipped out at the end of the first day ! i was just stoked. he is still so small & yet his formal education has just begun. being married to a teacher, and me training to be a teacher it is a big deal that our first born has begun his formal education. we are just so excited for him. he is going to do great & i just love hearing him talk about his new friends – he’s already asking me if some of them can come over to play at our house ! what a little trooper.

this little guy is bringing us so much joy at the moment. currently he says things to me like “i love your hair mamma” or “i love to pull your hair mamma”. he is totally obsessed with my hair (always has been) & now that baby’s hair is long, he loves that too. he’s also been telling me that i have “nice feet” and “nice toes”. Well, gee thanks little guy ! I think yours are pretty cute too. he’s learning lots of self-help things at the moment & we’re at the stage where he can get his own breakfast in the morning. i cannot tell you how HUGE that is for me … it has also stopped a lot of tears in the morning because he can now get breakfast EXACTLY the way he likes it. i love to hear him play … he’s incredibly imaginative & sometimes he gets really embarrassed if he realises that i have been listening to him play for quite a while. this last week was the first time we watched the movie Cars (yes ! i know, i know… we are WAY behind the times … but in all honesty we are just doing too much during the day that we haven’t had time for movies until it started to rain!). he was SO excited to see Lightening McQueen on TV … WOW ! since it rained all week, we’ve basically watched the movie every single day.

Anyway, we just love this little guy. he’s our first born. he’s growing up WAY too fast. he now teaches us stuff we didn’t know before, and everything happened either yesterday or is happening tomorrow. we love love love him.

have you had any firsts in the last little while?