Lately my life has been so busy, I barely have time to think!!! I haven't been on here much lately because my computer for some reason hasn't been loading up minti properly, but  it seems to be working really well today.

Ethan turned two on the 25th of October and he had a wonderful day.  He's grown up so fast.  He's a very smart and mature little man, who knows way too much for his age!!! And I never tire of hearing him say "I love you Mummy".  For his birthday, he got a scooter, a tricycle, a Thomas the Tank Engine book set and a Jet plane shape sorter from his family.  From Nanny and Poppy, he got a pair of Summer pj's and a pair of sandals, and got lots of lovely presents at his party which he had at McDonald's.

Michael Paul is nearly four months old now and is also growing up way too fast!!! He's a real chatty little baby.  He's just getting over an ear infection and finally seems his happy go lucky, usual self again.  He looks so much like his father, especially when I went to my mother in law's place and saw his baby photos!!! The resemblance is amazing!!!

My husband is now working, his first official day of work was last night - I'm so proud of him!!! He really deserves the job.

And the final news is...I'm pregnant!!! Yes, number seven, wow!!! So far, the pregnancy has been good.  Not sure of my due date yet as I only had the official blood test by my GP on Tuesday.

Michael Paul with his Auntie Elyse.

On the 9th of July at about 6:45 a.m., I woke up just before my alarm to back pain which I realised was actually contractions.  I didn't think that my membranes had ruptured, but according to the midwife, they already must have as there were no gushes during labour.  At the start, the contractions were irregular, going from six minutes apart to eight minutes apart, but by the time it got to 8:00 a.m., I could see that they had gone to a regular five minutes apart and were getting closer and closer so I made my way to the hospital. 

I got dropped off at the door at 8:30 a.m., got into the elevator and felt the need to push!!! I was hoping I'd be the only person in the elevator so it would go directly to where I needed to go, but no such luck!!! I really could have had him in the elevator, the need to push was huge.

Finally I get to the floor I need and get to the pregnancy assessment centre, but it was closed...help!!! So, I just manage to get to the door of the labour ward and press the button and manage to blurt out, "I'm in labour", and a lot of people come running to the door.  Luckily, I'd already called ahead to say that I'd be there soon, so they had a birthing suite ready for me, yay!!! I really like the birthing suites.  I got in there and got on the bed and I think it was three pushes and Michael Paul was born.  He was 8 pound 1 ounce and 54 centremetres long.  And born with a tooth!!! They took it out on day two as they thought it might cause problems later on down the track considering it didn't seem like it was going to be in there for long.  Now he already has a second tooth, and we're not sure what will happen there, but this one seems more stable.  Apparently so we were told that there is a one in three thousand chance that your child will be born with a tooth or teeth.  His gums are incredibly lumpy, especially at the bottom, so I think he will end up teething quite fast.

The proud father with his son.

What happened is that he was playing footy in recess and must have come out second best in a tackle!!! He still can't remember much of it - he thinks he passed out at the same time it happened.  All he remembers is that he was playing footy and then he remembers kids around him telling him that he should go to the sick room.

Nathan ended up staying in Tuesday night as he couldn't go into surgery to have the arm straightened and set in a cast because they had an emergency come in.  Thankfully, he went into surgery first thing Wednesday morning, so by the time we got there to see him, all he needed to wait for was an x ray and the doctor to say that he could go  home.

Now he's coping really well.  I'm hoping that it heals quickly without any mishaps.

I must admit that I thank myself lucky because in the same room were two other boys that were way worse off than Nathan.  One had been hit by a car and had been in there for about 17 days already, the other (who we knew) got his pelvis crushed by a tree and had already been in for 21 days...!!!  I also hope that they are out of hospital soon.

Here's wishing that everyone at minti stays safe over the Easter break.

Take care,

Tanya xo.

Right now, I'm incredibly thankful that I have my 13 year old son home with me.  I'm also thankful that my other boys are back with me too.

Basically what happened was that my four eldest boys were with their father, and my 13 year old son had enough of his father and his grandparents picking on him so he got his bag and ran off!!!  From what I've been told, this must have happened around three o'clock this afternoon.  The bad thing about this is that I didn't find out until about three hours later when I get a text from my husband because there is the boys' father  yelling outside our house asking for Nathan to come out!!! I wasn't there at the time, I was at my Mum's house.  After I find out, I frantically text everyone I knew, but to no avail.  Then I finally spill the beans that I know to his father by texting him "What have you done this time to make Nathan run off? How long has he been missing for?"  Then he calls back and as I imagined, we ended up in a huge argument!!!  It was why I didn't call him in the first place, I was so angry!!!

Anyway, when my sister came home, Mum and I went down the road to see if we could find him and on the way out of a shopping centre in our area, there was the boys' father with my other three children!!! Well, I lost it and said that I wanted to take them home - I didn't want them going missing aswell!!! Well, we ended up in a fight, so security had to call the police on us.  Once I explained to the police, they let me take the boys home.  When I started walking away, he started abusing me, and I told him that I was allowed to take them home.  Thankfully, on the way home with the boys, I get a text from Michael saying that Nathan had come home.

I was just so angry that my son was missing three hours and I had to find out through my husband.  If my husband wasn't home, who knows how long it would have taken for me to find out? In those three hours, I could have been searching for him too, but he didn't even tell me.

I'm just thankful that my son's are all safe and sound with me tonight.  I look at him sitting on the lounge now and all I can do is smile.  I feel like the luckiest person in the world right now.

I hope that I never have to go through that again.

Just letting everyone know that our wedding was absolutely perfect, we couldn't have been happier.  The past six weeks or so of organizing and frantic buying paid off.  Our backyard wedding was an absolute success, and reports so far have been so incredibly positive.  My neighbours on both sides watched the ceremony and really enjoyed it.  Everyone made such a fuss over me and I felt like I was in a fairy tale. 

Thank you everyone for your well wishes on my previous blog.

Click on the link below to see some of my wedding photos taken mostly by my brother Andrew.

Tanya

www.acapsoft.com/photo.php

Just letting you all know that I haven't blogged for a while because I've been busy with my wedding preparations.  The wedding is tomorrow at 1:00 pm.  The weather is forcast for 21 degrees tomorrow so it's going to be a beautiful day.  As soon as I can, I'll blog again with photos of the special day.

Take care everyone, and Happy Valentine's Day for tomorrow.

Love Tanya xo.

My life has been fantastic!!! In case you haven't heard the news, I am now five weeks pregnant to my awesome boyfriend.  He's just as rapt as I am.  This is his first child so I am so happy for him.  He's a great father figure to my boys and treats them with the repsect and love they deserve.

Since Ethan's birthday (25th of October) he's been sleeping in his toddler bed and finally I get my bed back, yay!!! Last night he was put in bed around 9:30 by my boyfriend and he didn't wake up this morning until 8:30!!! That's really good for Ethan.  Slowly he's getting used to settling himself again like he used to when he was a newborn.  Unfortunately, I pulled a muscle in my back a while ago getting Ethan out of the cot and had to have him in my bed because I couldn't lower him into the cot.  Then he got sick and wasn't breathing properly so  I was told to keep a close eye on him and that's how he got in the habit of sleeping with me.  My other boys never really slept in with me, except for when Nathan was breastfeeding as he had me on call 24/7...lol!!! Other than that, they all managed to setlle themselves quite well.

Last Saturday, my boyfriend and I went to see Jimmy Barnes - wow, he was awesome!!! Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos, but I did get some video of him until my memory card got full.  The concert went really fast to me because I was really enjoying myself.  Expcept that it was a standing room only concert and my back and legs got sore and because of all the pushing of people to get to the front (Mchael and I were already at the front...lucky us!!!) it got to the stage that I couldn't even stand up straight, I was on a lean.  How uncomfortable.  He was worth it though.

Anyway, time for me to get Matty and Aaron into bed.

Hope everyone has a great night!!!

After sharing a bath with Aaron, he opened his presents with help from Daniel and Aaron.  He got a 5 piece room in a box, a Lightning McQueen ride on car, a Hot Wheels car carrier with 5 cars and wooden alphabet frame.  I also went to Big W and bought him another Lightning McQueen car with his birthday money.

Mum and my sister minded Ethan for a few hours so I could get a cot mattress for his toddler bed - I did have three cot mattresses, but threw them out in the move as I thought I'd just be hoarding them and never use them again.  Ethan will not sleep in a cot on his own, he sleeps in my bed.  He has since I did my back in months ago - my back is fine now, but not long after that, he got really sick and got very clingy.  Nathan wants me to put the toddler bed in his room so he can sleep there.  I'll give it a go, but I don't think he'll like being away from me!!!

My boyfriend cooked loads of lovely treats, like pavlova, and chocolate spiders....YUM!!! He also cooked me stirfry...delicious!!! I asked for seconds, but unfortunately there was none left .  He's an amazing cook.

Ethan's cake was one of the Freddo ice cream cakes.  He really enjoyed it until he started screaming - think he put too much in his mouth at once and it was too cold!!!

He's still awake, hanging out with my boyfriend - where does he get that energy from??? He's only slept about one and a half hours today, and that was ages ago!!!

Time for me to try and get him to sleep...goodnight!!!

Tanya.

Just a quick blog to say that things are busy as usual.  The Royal Hobart Show is currently on so my boys have had Thursday and today off - today was a student free day ( where were they when I was a kid???).

Today I had to go out briefly to get the remainder of Ethan's birthday things for tomorrow!!! Tomorrow...I just don't know where the year has gone.  At times it has been difficult because Ethan and his brothers have been quite sick on and off the past four months or so, but looks like things are finally coming right.  Ethan is a lot happier in himself and is becoming a lot less clingy.  He finally got a third tooth a few days ago which seems to have made a big difference too. 

I got Ethan's first haircut on Wednesday and he looks absolutely adorable (but then again, of course I am biased!!).  Part of me didn't want to cut his hair, because it just reminds you that he's growing up way too fast, but the fringe was in his eyes annoying him and the sides kept sticking into his ears.

Tonight I have to wrap his four presents, write in his card, and I am going to blow up loads of balloons as he really loves them, so when he wakes up in the morning, the lounge room is going to be filled with them!!! I did try and get him a helium balloon today as he enjoys chasing it while he's crawling around, but the place I went to was out of  helium.  Oh well, I will go out and buy one tomorrow for him.

I better get a move on with everything!!! Nathan is making dinner so that will make things a lot easier.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

Tanya.

Sorry to everyone who has been so friendly and given gifts and sent me emails and gifts, etc.  I've been incredibly busy with life in general and I haven't really been on the computer much these days.

For the past few months, my boys and myself have had a lot of sickness, especially Nathan and Ethan.  Ethan has been sick for months on end and it's only now that I can see he is finally improving.  The medication that he was given all the time did not get rid of the "bugs" that he had in his system.  Now he's on the right medication and hopefully by the end of the week he should be a lot better, yay!!!

If you have read my friend's blog (libbyliincoln) you would know that I now have a boyfriend!!! He's a really great guy, and the fact that he is younger has not been a problem at all.  He's way more mature than any other guy I have been with and everything is great.

Yes, I am now in my four bedroom house, and still haven't got it the way I want it.  Matthew's room should be finished today.  Probably if we all hadn't got so sick, it would all be sorted by now.  I didn't really want to rush it anyway, as I have made sure that I haven't kept anything that I won't use and I got rid of so much rubbish!!! I also even went through my clothes and got rid of clothes that I still do like, but I don't think I will be wearing anymore.  They say that if you don't wear something in a year, it's usually a good indication that you won't be needing it anymore.  Unless it's something special like a keepsake or special clothes for going out. I ended up giving them to my friend's daughter and she was rapt.

I will update my photos soon so you can see how much my boys have grown - Nathan is now taller than me and he only just turned 13. 

Better get some work done, I am having my water cut off between 10:00 and 12:00 today and I only got told yesterday.  I thought they were meant to give you at least a week's notice for interruptions like that. 

I will try and get on here at least once a week.  Hope everyone has been keeping well.

Have a great day,

Best wishes, Tanya.

Just a quick blog to say that I am hopefully moving!!! Yay!!! Housing Department has a four bedroom house in my area - I still can't believe it.  They won't tell me the exact address though until I patch up the holes in the walls.  I have a house inspection on Monday, so I am hoping I can get them done by then. I am so scared though as this is the first time I have had to move as a single Mum and although I did the majority of the last move - pregnant with two toddlers in tow, I still am a little freaked by it all.

Oh well, better get to it.  Not that I can do much as I haven't officially been offered the house, but I will get as much things done as I can.

I hope everyone has had a great week so far.

Blog again soon

A few weekends ago, I was chosen by my friend Libby (libbylincoln) to be one of her daughter's godparents.  I felt so honored!!! I It was a lovely day, except for when her baby daughter and my baby son got sunburnt.  I felt so guilty - never again!!! Well, I got what I deserved, I also got sunburnt and VERY badly too.  Mine is still peeling.  Thankfully, Ethan's was gone in about five days. 

Sorry to everyone I haven't contacted who has kindly contacted me - this week is the first time I have been able to leave anything on minti!!! I have been able to get into my account, but when I try to do anything, like leave a blog or a comment, it just wouldn't allow me to leave it.  I would go to all the trouble of typing it, and then when I went to save, it wouldn't work!!!

Ethan the last few days has been a little grumpy - his sleeping  habits have gone all over the place.  I am hoping it's just because the boys are home during the day and have interrupted his day naps.  Either that, or he's going through another growth spurt - not that he's ever seemed to have stopped!!!

Oh well, gotta go, he's awake again - didn't think he would sleep right through this early.  He usually goes to bed around 11.

Take care everyone,

Love Tanya xo.