My girl, you are growing.

I honestly cannot believe how fast this year has gone.  

It feels like the years before Nelly arrived were nothing, that I took off my sunglasses and everything got brighter the day that she was born.

Because I am in a mushy mood, look how she has grown.

I still can't believe that you are mine.

She was about 7 days old here. 

She would just sleep and eat and then fall asleep again. 

I didn't know what to do with you, did I just sit and watch you or would you be okay when I walked away? How would I have a shower and be a meter away from you?

The weather was so hot, I worried you would sweat but then I worried that your tiny feet and hands would get cold if not covered. What a dilemma. 

Who could forget the George Costanza phase at 1 month? Who doesn't love a good receding hair line?

I didn't realise at the time just how hilarious she looked. Thank goodness for photos as proof.

Your personality really shone through this month, you would smile back at me instantly with your mega watt grin as soon as you saw me smiling at you, like a fool in love.

You hated Tummy Time but loved going for walks in the pram.

She's like a little prawn dumpling here, and you know how I love a good prawn dumpling.

I think this was the first month that you got sick. I held you so close to me, cuddled up to me like my life depended on it.

I didn't realize at the time that I also had a raging fever because I was so preoccupied with trying to make you feel better and it wasn't until you started to sweat because my body was so hot against you in our embrace.

This is the month when her legs decided to grow like weeds.

I knew then that you were to be your fathers daughter, and will one day tower over me.

Hello, Pingu.

We went on a family holiday to Vanuatu this month. You loved it, you slept better than ever before and hardly made a peep.

I spent the second last night of our holiday awake all night as I could hear a mosquito buzzing around and I was adamant that it would not get you. It did. I tried all my mosquito-killing-ninja moves, I promise. 

You learnt to roll this month, remember? I took you to Perth to see Aunty Cat and she taught you in one day how to master the roll.

Still cute. 

This photo took ages to capture as all you wanted to do was roll and move around, you were over the photo life.

This was probably the month that you slept the worst. You didn't want to be alone, you had to be in my bed with me. If I dared to move away from you once I thought you had hit a deep sleep cycle you knew instantly and would either cry out or roll towards me, nestling in my underarm. 

It didn't even matter that you woke me all night long. I knew that it was my fault for not having you in a better routine and I felt bad that you were so unsettled and tired. 

We didn't drive much this month. I was scared that I would fall asleep at the wheel and hurt you. 

We walked three times per day and the neighbors began to look at me like I was mad.

Great hair month.

We finally went to Sleep School at the very end of this month. It worked so well and you and I are a better team because of it.

You've put on weight (hang on, so have I...), you've started to crawl, you sleep 12 hours at night and you don't even use a dummy any more you clever girl. You're amazing.

Look at that plump-ness.

I can't contain you, not that I would want to. 

You crawl under the couch, you sit and look out the window and you love it when we water the garden together, getting a shock every time that you run your hands through the light mist of the hose. 

I actually love hearing my alarm go off at 7:30am as it means that it is time to wake you and see your delightful face.

You have two bottom teeth and a top one breaking through the surface but you haven't complained much at all.

You say Mum and Mama over and over again. I try and teach you to say Dada as well but we both know how I love hearing you say Mum and Mama.

You can't quite work out how I manage to make the Cruskits go 'crunch' with my teeth, why can't you do it?

EIGHT MONTHS. ARGHHH.

There was no chance of me taking a non blurry photo here. You kept blowing raspberries at me and rolling and crawling away faster than I anticipated. Laughing in my face.

You are now 8.3kg and 73cm long, however the maternal health nurse didn't even have your legs fully straightened out so I think you are longer but never mind. 

You're such a big girl now.

You love feeding me and then laughing like mad when I nibble at your delightful fingers.

You don't want to sit in the bath any more, you just want to stand up. You're a slippery one. 

You're a gem.

WaterWipe Review

I don't know about you but in my life, wet wipes are used for more than wiping little butts.

They have helped me through the tough jobs such as cleaning my cars dash board, mopping up spills from the floorboards and even gotten a stain out of a top on the odd occasion.

I'm not at all a 'wipes snob' but when offered the chance to trial WaterWipes I was quick to jump to the chance. 

When I first had Nelly, I had great plans of using only pure cotton wool and water.

Well, that didn't happen.

I just buy what ever wipes are the cheapest to be honest. 

In unrelated news, how cute is that photo of Nelly. Seriously. 

WaterWipes are 99.9% Water and 0.1% Grapefruit seed extract.

That's pretty damn pure.

I have never ever looked at the ingredients on the back of a wipes packet, until about 5 minutes ago when I went through my stash of empty packets that Nelly loves to play with.

Holy crap. Why are there over 15 ingredients?

What the hell are all these things that I cannot even pronounce? 

Nelly doesn't appear to have sensitive skin at all, she's never had nappy rash before but now I am wondering what exactly have I been putting on to her butt, her hands when I wipe them clean and the occasional face wipe?!

The WaterWipes are soft, moist (however I would prefer them to be a bit more moist, but not as disgustingly wet as the Huggies wipes) and have no scent which is a plus in this house hold since The Husband has ridiculous hayfever and sneezes at everything. 

I cannot fault them at all. They don't glide over the butt like the other wipes, which I am guessing is due to the purity of them. 

The only thing that scares me? The price. $7.58 for a pack of 60 wipes. That's about 13c per wipe.

The other brands that I use are far more cost efficient:-

Coles Comfy Bot 80 pack $2.70

Coles Fragrance Free Thick 80 pack $3.00

Aldi Mamia 80 pack $2.49

Curash 80 Pack $4.00

Woolworths Home brand 80 pack $2.49

Anyway, you can see where I am going with this. They are expensive. Seriously, expensive.

 

So, I'm off to look into the ingredients of wipes and what possible effects they have on skin.

What do you use for the kids in your life? Do you know what all these long ingredients mean?

You can purchase WaterWipes online here, or at Coles and BiLo.

TRICK SHOT NELLY!

This, my friends, is Trick Shot Nelly.

She spends her time wearing LA Lakers gear, wiping her brow with her sweat bands and hanging out in the jolly jumper practicing her slam dunks.

She is awesome, as you can clearly tell.

Nelly and The Husband have teamed up to create a video for the ESPN Trick Shot competition where they both feature, which if we win could see us flying to the US and watching the New York Knicks.

You have to be in it to win it! 

We need to make it to the top 5 and then it goes to a judging panel.

As we have only just uploaded the video we are a bit behind in votes and need to get over a thousand so here is where y'all come in!

If you could please follow THIS LINK and vote for Nelly to win, I would be so grateful.

You can vote multiple times using your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or GMail accounts but it might take a bit of time in between voting for it to give you the option to vote again.

It literally takes 5 seconds to vote. 

Thank you so, so, so much to everyone who has voted so far - it's much appreciated.

I never said that I was a pro at Windows Movie Maker haha so don't judge my video or messy house!

CLICK ME AND VOTE! 

CLICK ME AND VOTE! 

CLICK ME AND VOTE! 

CLICK ME AND VOTE! 

Red Lips/Red Nails

I started the night of looking polished and then I stepped outside my front door and it was akin to stepping in to a vortex of wind, dirt and general grubbiness.

No matter what I look like when I leave my house, I always look 80% worse when I reach my destination.

I will never be that person who can have perfectly styled hair, make up applied to perfect and be wearing white jeans without smudges on them. I don't know why.
Something is clearly missing in my genetic make up.

I have a strict lipstick regime; apply foundation to lips, completely line lips with lip pencil, apply lip stick with brush, blot and repeat 3 times, apply lip gloss.

Yesterday my lip liner broke when I was only half way through application of my bottom lip and of course there was no sharpener to find, that would have been to easy.

By this stage, I was already running late and didn't have time to remove lipstick and start fresh so I just carried on with the lipstick - it was a bit of a fail.

I was being lazy and didn't wash my hair, instead putting some big curls through my natural curls and then brushing it all out into these waves, but as you can imagine by the time I arrived at the engagement party my roots were oily and the bottom was knotty.

It is time for me, and everyone else, to come to terms with the fact that if I don't have my hair done at a salon that it just looks lousy. 

I'm wearing this chevron dress from Country Road (unsteamed, surprise surprise) which I picked up for the pretty price of $75 last week.

I had tried it on a month back but didn't love it for $180 but quite liked it for $75 if that makes sense.

I'm not afraid to wear stripes.

I'm in charge of our garden and as you can see, it is lacking in the love department. 

 

To match my lips (Chanel Gabrielle by the way) I wore Sephora by OPI - Mr Right Now. 

I need to get back into the nail polish game, it's been too long.

I can't think of a couple that are more loving and deserving of happiness, not to mention drop dead gorgeous - congratulations to Celeste & Christian on their engagement!! 

You should see her ring, amaze. 

The downside of taking a bag - having to hold it.

The upside to taking a bag - filling it with cake and lollies.

It's hard having friends this good looking. 

November 9

This past Saturday saw my oldest brother, Joseph, get married to his long suffering time girlfriend, Emma.

The wedding was held at the RACV Golf Course Resort, Cape Schank.

Due to the weather, the ceremony was moved in doors and overlooked the golf course, I really do think the room was perfect for a ceremony - it was full of light with a beautiful view. What more could you possibly ask for?

We left Nelly with her baba (grandmother) and piled into Liz's car, with Liz and I in the very back. 

It was just like our childhood all over again, 7 kids crammed into a landcruiser - those very back seats were never not in use.

Speaking of the very back, one family holiday where we drove to Queensland, Joseph was in the very back and for some unknown reason decided that the 'secret compartment' in the very back was the perfect place to keep his hamburger safe.

Needless to say, he forgot about it.

It was days and days before anyone worked out what the smell was. He probably ate it a week later.

What have you gotten yourself into Emma? Poor girl.

The ceremony was absolutely beautiful, with my mum holding up the iPad whilst skyping with Cat and Mike the entire time so that they could watch it live. 

I had to put her on mute after she started sobbing before Emma had even walked in! 

When Emma walked in, sobbing herself, she saw the iPad and stopped her bridal walk to wave and talk to Cat - it was so adorable.

Caro and I matching the colour scheme wonderfully, if you ask me.

We don't muck around.

Sisters are doin' it for themselves!

We are all wearing Liz's dresses here.  The dress that I intended on wearing had no chance of doing up, with The Husband making that very clear when he attempted it so Liz lent me a bunch of dresses to try on and I decided on this navy Cue dress. 

There are no photos from the back but it is strappy and has a little mermaid ruffle thing under the butt.

I was lucky enough to be given these flowers and vase as a thank you for doing a reading during the ceremony, however after a few champagnes I forgot to take it home but Mum came through with the goods and dropped it off to me the next day.

Twice cooked pork belly with sweet potato puree and caramelized apples.

This was my entree and it was freaking amazing. Can you believe I have never had pork belly before? It's just not something that I would normally order, but I didn't want the duck pancakes. 

The Husband was looking enviously at my plate so I let him have half and he agreed that it was delicious. 

Asian style duck pancakes with mint and coriander salad and a ponzu dressing.

Missing one sister, but as you can see I have added another to my collection. 

What else to do with a chocolate heart than to become a pirate?

I didn't have time to go and get a blow dry which is annoying me now since my hair is so flat.

Always, so, so flat. It kills me. 

I started the day with these boring Tony Bianco heels as it was wet and miserable, but changed into my blue strass Louboutin wedding heels to get the party started.

Barossa chicken  breast with seasonal vegetables, kipfler potatoes and gremolata sauce.

Grain fed eye fillet with skordalia mash, broccolini and juniper berry jus.

Fancy that, Joey scrubs up quite nicely.

Emma looked incredible, she made such a beautiful bride. 

I couldn't resist patting Jo's belly all night, it's so weird to see her pregnant!! 

I love a good family shot.