Royal Wedding!

Photo via OK Magazine online.

Although I am on a bit of a blog break...

I just wanted to pop in and say how excited I am today for the Royal Wedding!!!

We are having a lovely time in Noosa, and even got a little burnt yesterday on the beach.

It is seriously "Pregnant Lady Capital" up here! Everywhere I look it's another pregnant lady... I'm convinced I don't look pregnant and just fat, but Erin guarantees that I do look like I am...

Anyway... It's a great day! It's Royal Wedding Day!!! We are going out for a lovely lunch today so we can stay in tonight, order room service and watch the tele! 

My sister is having her own Royal Wedding Party in Melbourne and one of my closet friends is in Sydney too. 

What are your plans on this special Royal Wedding Day?

Our Wedding Photos...

Family Easter

We have been away for Easter with my family and my aunty, uncle and favorite cousins!
When we were young we always went to Tocumawl. It's on the border of VIC & NSW on the Murray River.
There isn't much to do there, but we loved it!
We had a boat and learnt to water ski from a very young age. That's all there really is to do there!
Mum and Dad bought a place up there again a few years ago and it has become a bit of a family Easter tradition now.
Dad is a major sponsor of the Tocumwal Cup (Horse Racing) so we always head to the track on Easter Saturday for a bit of fun.
I took some photos early on in the day...

A half decent photo of Mr and I

My sister and I LOVE these little pancakes!

The whole crew sitting down to lunch

Uncle 'Gibbo' being silly with dad and Mr.

"National UDL Day" - where else but at the races...

And just to prove that we really were at the races... Horses...

We had a great day. And actually came home winners!

Sunday was a great day. Sun shining again. Lots and lots of eggs.

We always head into town to the markets. Picked up a few things for Bug.

Mum bought this beautiful cream/white knitted blanket for Bug too. I can't wait to use it!

Monday was heading home day for us.

Love spending time with my family. I miss them.

Off to Noosa to celebrate our wedding anniversary tomorrow for a few days! 

So I'm taking a bloggy break and will be back on the weekend.

Hope everyone had a great Easter whatever you did!

One year ago...

One year ago we said I do.
One year ago we said I will love you forever... Till death do us part.
One year ago we exchanged rings.
One year ago we declared our love in front of our family and friends and God.

Its been a big year. So much has happened.

I'm looking forward to the future and what it brings for us and we grow our family.

We are away with my family (how romantic) but have a trip to Noosa for 3 days leaving on Wednesday to celebrate just the two of us.

I love my husband more today than I did the day I married him.

xoxo

PS: Happy Easter! A day to indulge in lots of lots of chocolate!

Anniversaries

Sunday is going to be our first wedding anniversary.
The first year of married the symbol is paper...
As a wedding gift to my husband to be, I bought him a voucher to the day spa at The Four Seasons in Sydney.
For our first wedding anniversary I have got him another voucher for the day spa.
It's a voucher! It's paper! It works!

The Four Seasons Sydney

Weddings Engagements Babies

I have an engagement coming up.
I have a wedding in June that we are invited to but not attending (Italy).
I'm having a baby...

I wanted to get something lovely for the couple for their engagement and also something wonderful for the couple getting married...

For our engagement 2 years ago we received a beautiful Kate Spade Mr & Mrs. photo frame that I just LOVE.
I have been searching EVERYWHERE for them and finally came across them online at Nordstrom at a reasonable price and the shipping although not cheap was not a killer either.

Just down on the right hand side it has Mr & Mrs engraved. You can take a better look HERE.

I think these will be the perfect gifts for the amazing couples! And small enough and compact for the getting married couple to take with them as they leave Australia on the 23rd of May to go and live in NYC!

While I was at it, I spotted the same frame, but a little different...

Down the bottom of this one it says ...And a baby makes three. Take a better look at this one HERE.

PREFECT! I bought that one for us! Its going to look great on top of the fireplace next to our Mr & Mrs frame in out new house I think!

Cluck Cluck Cluck

On Saturday I had my friend Emily's (Emme) hens.
We met in the city at a bar about about 3.30 before going up to the ACP Park Street studios for a photo shoot with a very good friend of hers.
Theme - Little Black Dress.
I was sent these few photos yesterday as a sneak peak! (Shh... These are secret photos. I really shouldn't even be posting them! So if you know Emme, one on the girls in the photos or you are one of the girls... Please keep it a secret and DON'T TELL ANYONE please)



The beautiful bride to be with her FENDI shoes!





The bride with her 2 x residing in Australia (but English) bridesmaids.



Having fun with Champagne! The whole crew!

The photographer in the shot! Bride in be LDB! Having a bit of fun!

I can not wait to see the rest! Especially the ones of the 'Balmain' crew!

We then headed to The Marble bar for a few drinks before having dinner at Cafe Sydney.

Dinner was divine! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Cafe Sydney and will jump at any chance to go there.

After that, instead of heading out to another bar or club, we decided to head back to Emme's for a bit of a dance off in her lounge room!

It was fun! I was dead tired and left them all to it and got home at about 1.30am! 

The lucky girl is getting married in Italy in June. We unfortunately wont be attending. With a baby on the way and moving into a new house the funds just don't stretch that far.

 

Fun stuff!

On Sunday I went to a garage sale in Paddington with a friend.
We wasn't exactly what we thoguht it was going to be and I suppose we could say we were a little disapointed really...
But! We did still come away with some bargains!

I bought this beautiful pink scarf

I think it will look great when my wardrobe deminishes down to nothing and I end up in black... It will be winter, so I suppose its not all bad and the scarf will help brighten things up a bit.
Grand total price for scarf - $2

I also picked up something for Lady Bug.

I know she wont be able to use it for some time, but it is in 'new' condition and its wodden, and for $1 I couldnt resist!

Last night I came home to a big package!!!
Some black dresses for me to try and borrow for a "Little Black Dress Hens" I have on Saturday, some peanut M&M's and a gift for Lady Bug! All from my sister or Aunty Emma!

My sister bought this little jumpsuit about a year ago I think? She was going to give it to a friend when she had her little girl about 6 months ago, but decided she loved it so much that she would keep it for me or for her, depending on who had a girl obviously.
She showed it to me a few months back, was completley excited about it, so I kinda knew it would be comming our way after the "It's going to be a GIRL!" announcement on Monday.
And how super cute are the little mary jane socks with frills!
You never can go wrong with Bonds!

My mum has already been out shopping I am told, and even called me about a cot the other day! Some fancy porta cot with all the fancy bits on it to keep at their house... Plus she wants to buy a pram to keep at thier house too... Less for us to worry about when we come to visit she said...
Woah Mum! I know your excited! So am I! But we dont need all this stuff straight away!
Lets just wait and see what we need!
The total opposite of the inlaws though... Which I suppose I always expected.
I dont even know if Erin has told them that we are having a girl yet or not?
I certinally havent heard from them? - But this doesn't surprise me or upset me in the slightest.

(Crap photos still... Still using the Blackberry... Need to locate camera)

Coach till the end

Via www.theage.com.au

Hi. Good Morning. This is probably not something that will interest most and something very different to what I might normally post.

But, I feel compelled to post.

This bloke Ray Carroll... Or, Mr. Carroll as better known is the football coach at the school I went to.

He is finishing up at the end of the season this year.
He has been so poorly treated and I am disgusted that things like this happen.

This guy is an all round top bloke and an Assumption College and Football institution.

Read the story HERE

It's a G I R L !

A - MAZE - INGGG! 

I don't have the words!

She has my nose! (Little) 

Erin thinks she has my lips!

She was wriggling around a whole lot too! - Just like me - a fidget that can't sit still.

I just hope she loves her sleep like her daddy!

THE best was when they showed us a picture of her nose and mouth and her mouth was moving all around like she was eating and swallowing... Again Erin said - just like her mummy - always eating...

No DVD :-( they don't do them at RPA. But there is a 3D/4D place just near us in Drummoyne, I'm going to contact them about how much they charge and maybe go and get that done one day?

So now instead of just 'Bug' for a nickname... it's "LADY Bug" 

That's all for now! We are going to go and have a celebratory drink... I'm allowing myself a small glass of champagne to celebrate! Maybe even pink champagne! 

(apologies for the bad shots... I can't get the home scanner to work and I couldn't wait to post! So these are pictures of the scan pictures taken with my Blackberry)

We gots the table!!!

Remember the table in the house we just bought?
Well we made an offer to the owner and it's now ours!!!
Now to find some chairs that will look good with it...
And need to decide on 6 or 8 chairs...
I'm thinking 6 for around it all the time, and an extra 2 for if we have more people over... But not sure where we would keep them?
Maybe one on our bedroom? But not sure about the other?

Ok! So now I'm off!
This is where I am going:

Thanks to Jaclyn Little Paper Trees for the heads up on it!
Hoping to pick up some great things!

The naming debate

So far we have actually short listed 5 girls names and 6 boys names.

Hopefully on Monday afternoon we will be able to narrow it down to either just the girls names or just the boys... This finding out the sex of your baby is never a guaranteed thing...

How do you choose a name for your child?

This child is going to have their name FOREVER.

This is one damn hard decision.

Does it go with our surname? Will it still sound nice and/or professional when they are an adult?

Will they get teased at school and long into adult hood? 

Do you take into consideration the meaning of the name? (And why is it different depending in what book or on what website you look?)

There are so many questions...

So, my name is Samantha. When I was younger I actually wasn't a fan of my name. Now I love it. My folks did well.

My husbands name is Erin... Yep, spelt like a girl... And he was teased like there was no tomorrow as a child. Would you believe that one of his closest mates names is Rene? Crazy huh!

The decision so far is, find out the sex and if people ask we will tell them. There wont be any big announcement and if people don't want to know we wont tell them. But I will be telling you all here! I promise!

The next decision is that the name will be kept a secret. Only the two of us will know. We aren't even going to discuss the short list... Well... But maybe I have already told my mum and my sister... Oops! Shh, don't tell!

But, I am happy to share those names here...

Girls Names (In no particular order... Or maybe they are?)
Ruby
Charlotte
Maddison
Molly
Violet

Boys Names (In no particular order - These ones really aren't!)
Thomas
Cooper
William
Lachlan
Liam
Joshua

We are quite traditional. And have picked quite traditional names. There were a few others we did like, but we know of other people that love the names (James, Mia, Oliver...) and would either love to call their child by that name or already have.

How did you choose your child's name?
How did you feel about it?
Why did you choose it?

Feeling a little bit cheery

Picked up my new specs today! 

And just in the nic of time. I'm off to Batemans Bay in about 30 minutes for work.

I am very happy with them! I can see properly and the prescription is so much better for me now.

They are such lovely local people that I go to, and today when I was leaving, he wished me luck with the pregnancy and said after the baby comes, if I at all feel the prescription is not right anymore to come back and he will do another eye test and if I need new lenses he will do at 50% off. for me.

(I received a whole lot of blog love when I was feeling really down yesterday. Thank you all so so much. I still worry. I will feel much better on Monday after the scan I know it)

Yes,. I am frigging pregnant...

I'm just over 18 weeks pregnant.
But if you read my blog regularly then you know that.

I don't actually look pregnant. I would be lucky to have put on even 1 kilo yet.
But you know what? I don't need people to keep telling me "Oh my God! Look at you! You can't be pregnant! You must be lying! Where are you hiding that thing?"

At first it was funny. And I could laugh it off.
Now it's not.
I worry.
I worry that all is not OK. I worry that the movements that I 'think' I feel are not really the baby moving but more my imagination. I worry that when we go for the scan next week there wont be any heart beat.
I worry.

I'm not sure if this is 'normal' or if I am being paranoid.
I try my best to not worry. But it's hard.

I know people are only joking and being light hearted. But it is really getting to me now.

That's all.

Nearly Easter time!

So its 3 weeks till easter!
It's 3 weeks till our first wedding anniversary too!

I currently have a subscription to The MasterChef Magazine.
I think I arranged it back in the day during the huge MasterChef hype. I don't think I have ever cooked a thing out of it... (But my excuse is that we done have an oven - not long now though!)

Anyway, the current issue came the the post the other day

I was flicking through while watching My Kitchen Rules...
(are you sensing a bit of a pattern here? food mags, food shows... But I don't even cook that much!)
Anyway... I spotted this!

Now isn't he/she just the cutest!
I decided that its a girl bunny and more so it's a girl 'pregnant' bunny!
I thought this would be the perfect Easter gift for me!
Low and behold! Its from Belle Fleur!
Bell Fleur is only about 1 - 1.5 km's from where I live!!!

Are you allowed an Easter wish list? If so this is what I want!
And for $21.50 I bet she tastes divine!

(Apologising for the crappy photos. The cameras gone missing and I'm still using my Blackberry to take photos)

Spensive Saturday

Today I went to Baby Kingdom.
I have been doing quite a lot of research on different brands, prices and comparing EVERYTHING.

We had decided on the Mountain Buggy Swift for our pram a long time ago.
We know many people that have the Urban, but all now wish they had the swift.
We decided to get it in flint (Grey)

It is around the same price everywhere. $600 including the carry cot.
Having the carry cot is going to be really handy in the first few months. Especially when we go to Melbourne to visit my family. Bug will be able to sleep in it, instead of sleeping in a porta cot.
We also got a fleece liner and the storm and sun covers for it too.

We had always agreed that we wanted white furniture.
Originally we were going to get Boori. But then someone told us that King Parrot is also made by Boori, but is cheaper!

Bassinet. $199 including the mattress.

The Yarra cot. $399 including the mattress!
Very happy with this as it is normally over $500 plus the mattress.

Change Table. King Parrot Scout. On sale for $249. got the change mat thingy too. Will get some nice baskets to put on the shelves to store nappies and all the bits and bobs we will need to have on hand.

The car seat. Safe and Sound Premier. This seemed to be the same price everywhere we went and online where ever I looked.
It can be used from birth, but we are leading a friends capsule. They loved the capsule for the ease of it, being able to pull the baby in and out of the car without waking it and also not needing to worry about the pram every time they went out, because the baby could just stay in the capsule.
So we will give the capsule a go, it may not be for us. But it's free! So why not!

We also got the hygiene nappy thingy, that you put the dirty nappies in and they seal them up so there is no smells and lots of liner bags for it.

And do you remember the old bouncers that our parents all seemed to have for us?
Well my husband just loves them and although we have a bouncer (a different one) being lent to us, he wasn't hearing of it and wanted the bouncer.

We decided on Mint for the colour. Suits and boy or a girl and we just thought it was the nicest colour.

So all in all it was a very spensive Saturday morning... A $2000 morning actually. 

But now we have so much stuff! Was very happy with the extra discount we negotiated and have become VIP members or something so we will always get 10% off full priced stuff.

There is still so much more to get, but it's nice to have made a start.

We wont be picking it all up until we move into the new house!!!

And will be picked up before the first weekend in June, so that when mum and dad come up to visit, dad and Erin can put it all together and we can make up the babies room!!!

Friday Foto FAIL

We tried taking a quick shot of my very slowly growing belly this morning...
Well um, I looked smaller than I did two weeks ago! So there's no fortnightly update photo Friday today.
Instead I thought I'd rave about my great purchases yesterday!

Did you hear that Best and Less had a 40% off Bonds sale yesterday? Well they did! I headed up there yesterday with one of the girls from work.
Love bonds undies! And picked up 5 pairs of their "Skimp It" range for between $5-6 each!

They are normally around $12-15 each, so a great bargain I thought! I got a few different colours and patterns and proceeded to throw out some old pairs last night.

One of my pleasure purchases yesterday was a little something for Bug!

Couldn't help myself! I think its super cute and it suits a boy or a girl!
Now I'm waiting till we find out the sex of Bug before I buy anything else...

Talking about Bugs sex... Many many people think Bug is a girl. I have no idea, no inkling, no gut feeling. Nothing.
Honestly I really don't care either. I will really and truly be happy with either.
Just happy, healthy, ten fingers and toes. That's all I want.

The biggest talking point lately has been me and my high heels... I'm sure there is going to be people starting to take bets on that soon. How long will I wear them for? when will they start to see me in flats? Will my feel swell? Will I end up wearing heels to the hospital when I go into labor?
Hmm... Well all I have to say is that I will wear them for as long as possible! I love my shoes! And I will just lower the heel height if I have to! But, who knows? We will just have to wait and see...