Keeping memories ~ 2012

It's no secret that 2011 was a pretty up & down kind of year for myself and the boys.

So for me 2012 was all about starting a fresh.

I've set a page full of goals, aims & dreams, all acheviable and all exciting.

The motto that seems to cover most of the other goals for our family is:

"Have more fun, take more photos and create more memories"

I love reflecting back on days we've had, remembering the warm fuzzy feeling or the smile on the boys faces 

and now with a new man and his daughter apart of our lives I thought remembering all the fun and adventures we will be having this year we needed a differnt way of documenting these.

Something fun and creative.

Where do you find such inspiration?

Pinterest of course ;)

And what did I find?

Memory Jars

There were so many gorgeous ideas.

This one below was the first one I stumbled across awhile ago

which is a jar full of all the things this ladies children were saying.

I pinned it to my board for things I wanted to do ASAP

and never got around to it!

But I have finally found the perfect time and reason to do it!

link to creator and post

Then when I searched "memory jars" to see what other inspiration I could find 

all sorts of gorgeous creations came up

Which has inspired me to create MORE memory jars ;)

As I love scrapbooking I thought using the scrapbooking ideas would make our jar a little bit more special but base the idea on, what I would say is the "original."

And I did just that, which resulted in...

THIS :)

I used a jar from a cheap shop, scrapbooking paper, removeable scrapbooking stickers, twine and a white luggage tag.

I think it came together beautifully

I decided to pop something inside to give it a little bit more interest.

The letters inside are the first letters of our first names

(all 5 of us)

Now all we have to do is fill it with photos, ticket stubs, bits and pieces and little notes about... well anything really

It can be a short note about our day or a funny thing one of the kids say

or just an emotion from a certain day.

When New Years Eve rolls around again we will sit down and go through our jar

reminising on all the fun and good times and perhaps some of the not so good too.

I would like to think its going to be a family traditon for our "new" blended family.

I can't wait to see what adventures we get up to this year

2012 is going to be a fabulous year!

How will you be keeping your 2012 memories?

Photos, blogging, journals, scrapbooking or maybe some crafty way?

*edited to link up with the Organised Housewifes Love it, Like it, Link it Party

A new Christmas

It's no secret to most that I LOVE Christmas!

Always have always will

I always try and go a little OTT

although with Pinterest and lots more blogging I can see I need to lift my game a little ;)

some of these girls are even more Christmasy then me

which I didn't think was possible hehe

Christmas is just such a magical time of the year.

This year however took on a whole new level of excitement a whole new level of magic

With it now just being me and the boys

I thought Christmas 2011 was the chance to start a new,

create new memories and new traditions

So this year I brought a new tree and new decorations in new colours
The tree and theme

red, green & silver theme

our tree

Christmas Craft & Decorations

I have also created homemade decorations thanks to Pinterest

christmas wreath and christmas candles

We are also going to bake cupcakes with Christmas toppers

Do some Christmas colouring in, Christmas painting on canvas and I re-pinned a really cute Christmas Printable that I think master J will LOVE

All my presents will be wrapped in brown paper with ribbon to match our theme and christmas tag, just for something a little different.

Our actual presents that are under the tree this year

Our New Traditons

I was hoping to get a an Elf on the Shelf but ran out of time

BUT the gorgeous Lisa of Life as we know it - Blog came to my resuce and had a spare "similar" type elf that Is on his way to out little home

I can't wait to get him I think we'll start off small this year as the boys may be a bit young but its goiung to be a fabulous new tradition as they get older!

I'm also taking inspiration from the Elf on the Shelf Breakfast

and doing a North Pole breakfast for the boys

I'm going to take them to the Old Noarlunga light set up and I thought a cool new tradition would be to make some Christmas Pizza and have a Christmasy kind of dinner too

Christmas pizza

I was going to do Christmas cards with a family photo of us 3 but because my photographer is my little cousin and she is busy at school and sport I have decided to just do a Christmas photo shoot.

We also went to the Christmas pageant for the 1st time this year which will now be an on going tradition

Our Old Traditions

We have a few traditions that will stay like

Opening one present and watching the Polar express on Christmas eve

Last year we created the boys hand and footprint decoration for the tree which I'll do again this year

And of course a photo with Santa

I will also be reading them my most favourite Christmas book the week into Christmas just as my mum use to do with my brother and I

I think I just saw Santa

I will also be posting the pages of the book on my Facebook page so you can all read along with us!

We like to leave the tree lights on over night ahang the Santa key outside Santa can find the house and get inside ;)

The boys will also leave out some cookies and milk for Santa and carrotts and water for the reindeer

 

As you can see we are fully into the Christmas spirit in the house and I am LOVING it!

Master J is defiantly at the age where he understands it so much more and I love seeing that and Lil C just gets excitied because we both are hehe

I can't wait for next year when they'll both be right in to it

What kind of traditons do you have in your family?

Are you starting any new ones this year?

2011 ~ The Best Easter so far..

My little familys Easter has been amazing this year.

I dont know why but something just felt so right!

We had decorated a small corner of the lounge room where the coffee table is

Muchily inspired by Jade of Super Organiser Mum

Master J's footprint bunny face ~ left, Easter wreath ~ middle, Lil C's footprint bunny face ~ right

Master J's bunny with a carrott ~ bottom

Coffee table display eggs in left jar, Easter finger puppets in right jar, baby chicks in middle jar

selection of Easter & Bunny books in basket

We ate Hot X Buns, we relaxed and we played with the boys.

Easter Sunday... Bunny Day was such an amazing day

Both the boys woke up early so we snuggled them up into our bed while we waited for Lil C to finish his morning bottle, and then the fun begun!

Master J found the Easter Bunnys footprints

master J jumping the way the bunny did

All the way to "The Stash" for him and Lil C

Blankets from Leroy & Lola Kids Stuffed owl from Owls 'n' Stuff Easter cards from Sonni Lou Designs

After the excitment of the Bunny Mr S cooked us up some Hot X Buns for brekkie

annnnnd unwillingly (how could i say no)

We let master J have some chocolate before his breakfst

while Lil C enjoyed his new blankie.

my smiley boy

Now i was totally against Master J having chocolate this year, apart from one small egg from the Easter Bunny so we decided to do an Easter Car Hunt instead.

I brought 6 hot wheels cars and hid them around the back yard.

Master J loved it!!

We then decided a family lunch at the Seaford Hotel was on the cards.

It was delicious! Master J had a ball playing outside on the playground and eating his "chippies"

and mummy got to enjoy a cosom slushie!

first drink since NYE!

Once we had filled our bellies and tired out the Master

we headed up to Oakbank for the rest of the day.

Oakbank is where SA's Easter racing carnival is held

and Mr S and his family camp up there every year on the Oakbank Hillside and get all dressed up for the Easter Saturday & Easter Monday Race Days.

We headed up on sunday just to relax, let Master J run wild and get all dirty and enjoy the fresh air!

Isnt that whats being a kid all about?

Lil C snug as a bug watching the camp fire

ANZAC Day/Easter Monday was Race Day! WOOHOOO

we packed up the car

cant believe the amount of stuff we had to take!

and left early to beat the traffic.

We got all dressed and pretty up there,

saved master J getting all dirty in his new clothes

the boys outfits

And made our way to the race track.

It was an awesome day.

Mr S & I put some bets on and even won most of our money back

HIGH 5!

Master J was so well behaved and even got into cheering with everyone else as the horsies ran by

 Lil C just loved watching everything that was going on.

just taking it all in

Once the day was over we stayed at the campsite for a few hours before heading home.

We all collapsed into bed exceopt for Mr S who decided he wasnt too tired to go fishing

Insert Grrrrr *here

Overall it was just the most amazing Easter.

So relaxed, so much joy.

Master J was so much more aware of Easter which just made things so much more exciting.

and

he bonded with his Nana (Mr S mum) soooo much more,

it was beautiful to see them together and hear him calling out all the time "nana nana"

Raceday was fabulous! so much fun

Master J playing planes

mummy & Lil C

Stealing a kiss & a photo

and

Going out to lunch with my little family NEEDS to be a regular occurence!

I can only hope that next year once Lil C is about 18 months old

it will be even better again.

I hope you all had an amazing Easter too

i know for me and my family the extra time off was just perfect!

Traditions...

Tonight for dinner we had some yummy Balsamic chicken and roast vegies

thankyou to miss Holly Homemaker for the recipe it was delish!

Which got me thinking of sunday night roasts dinners

which lead to family traditions.

I decided then and there that we would be having some sort of

"roast"

every sunday night.

It wont necassarily be roast meat

but it will defiantly be roast vegies and some sort of meat, even if its just schnitzel.

My partner agreed and i think master J will love it as he devoured his roast potatos and roast pumpkin

om nom nom.

So these thoughts and decisons got me thinking about all our other family traditions we have.

image from here

I love traditons i think they are important it gives us something to look forward too to get excited about its the little things in life that make the days so much brighter.

Its also something for just you and your family no-one else shares the same thing at the exact same time

So heres a few of our traditons...

Every Easter we head to the Easter races at

Oakbank

we use to camp there, Mr S and his family have been camping up there for years

since we've had master J and now Lil C it's a little harder

but one day we will camp up there again.

We still get all dressed up for the 2 main race days and have a flutter hehe

Easter Presents consist of one choccie egg or bunny a few small egss and a set of Pj's

Mr S gets ferraro rocheres and i get a Lindt bunny

Every Christmas Eve we open one pressie each

well not so much mum and dad now but the boys will get too

We also try and watch the Polar express or go looking at christmas lights.

For mine and Mr S's birthdays we always ither have homemade sghetti/lasagne and garlic bread or Chinese from our favourite chinese shop for dinner.

Every 2nd sunday (as Mr S works the other atm)

will be our

Family Fun Day

Our newest one will be a "Roast" something every sunday.

I'm also trying to bake with Master J once a week and now i think we will be doing some craft once a week too ive found some gorgeous craft ideas that we can do together

well thats all i can think of at the momment

im a tad disappointed i thought we had more :(

Im sure theres plenty more i just dont realise!

Im sure theres lots of smaller things and things we do in differnt seasons at differnt times of the year.

Anywho because it seems we dont have as many as i thought, i think its time to start adding some more!

What family traditons do you have? i would love for you to share them 

and 

the inspiration would be appreciated ;)