More of the Girls

I'm having so much fun editing the photos from the photoshoot with the girls. I'm not sure whether it's a good or bad thing though because at night I sit up editing and think 'just one more' and four photos later I'm still editing and drag myself to bed WAY later than I should be.

Here are a few more that I've had fun playing with. How beautiful are these girls!? Oh to be young again :)

Photoshoot

Last week Makayla and Tayla asked me if I minded taking some photos of them for fun. I thought it sounded great, so we organised to meet at the Punchbowl Reserve. Morgan also came which was great, as it was so fun taking photos of the three of them together. They were typical teenage girls of course, giggling and mucking around the whole time, but it also meant I got lots of fun photos.




Each of them are beautiful - inside and out.






These two were cracking me up - they are typical sisters. Hugging each other one minute, and yelling at each other and wrestling the next!

I stayed up way too late last night playing with the photos on photoshop and still have LOTS more to play with. If only I didn't have to sleep at night! :)

Move Over Boys!

Last night the new Hawks TV show for kids aired for the first time - it is the same as Hawks Kids but is now called Hawks Active. At the NAB cup game in February we were interviewed for the show. The funniest thing was the guy remembering us from interviewing the boys before.

We thought the boys had been on too many times and it was our turn! ;) Check it out. Jalen was excited to be on again as well, and Harri was devastated they didn't put him on :) Nicki said it sounded like Jay said 'Cyril might get more 'girls' which may be true, but he actually said 'Cyril might get more GOALS' :)

Child Studies

This year I was asked again to go and talk to the Child Studies class at Kings Meadows High about Noah. This is the third or fourth year in a row and the poor teacher is probably getting so sick of the same talk, but she said it's always interesting to hear how things have changed for Noah and to see how much he has grown (which is a LOT this year!).

The students are always really interested and seem very overwhelmed with all the information, but always ask really good questions. This year one of the girls asked me why was Noah still alive and almost 9, when the Drs told us he would only live for 2-4 years. I told her I didn't really know, but I think a lot of it has to do with the care that we give him. I think being proactive with the Drs and therapists and finding alternative therapies also really helps.

Noah wasn't feeling very happy when we were there, so he has his uncomfortable face on.

About A Boy

A while back my very talented cousin Toni asked me if I thought Harri would like to model for one of her patterns. I asked him and he was VERY excited to do it. For weeks he had been asking 'when is Fiona doing my pattern!?' as she was going to be taking the photos for it.

He was so excited to go out with Fiona and get the photos done - that was until he spotted a dog or two! Harri still freaks out whenever he sees a dog (thanks to a nasty dog across the road who scared the wits out of him one day - lucky that dog is now in a 'better place' after attacking an old man - I'm sorry the old man was attacked, but am glad it wasn't Harri in the end!). We finally got him past his fear of the dogs and Fiona got to start snapping some photos.

I love watching her in action.

She is so casual and calm about it all and knew how to keep Harri happy and not stressed. He was great in the beginning and then after a while he kept asking 'how many more photos are you taking!?'. We then had to find ways to make him laugh so he was still happy to do more. A little bit of bribery (hot wheels cars) didn't go astray either.

Fiona got some great photos. I couldn't wait to get home to get them onto the computer to see how they turned out. I loved watching her edit them before she sent them off to Toni.

Here are some of ours and Toni's favourites.



and this is the cover that Toni decided on in the end. I think it's time to get him an agent! ;)

I'm excited to see it out in the shops - not that I ever will since I'm not a sewer, but I can at least imagine it sitting on the shelves with people seeing my cute boy on the front (and not to mention the cute hat and satchel) and grabbing it to buy :)

Brown and Gold

This year Aaron is VERY excited as we purchased a family membership for Hawthorn, which means all of us are now members (yes I said it, and the scary thing is that I now get just as excited as the boys!). We thought since they were playing three Saturday games at Aurora this year, it was worth it to be guaranteed a seat and it also meant the boys got all the cool gear from the club to go with the memberships.

It finally arrived yesterday after lots of grumbling from Aaron saying 'I've been a member for 12 years and I have to wait this long!?". The boys were VERY excited to get their gear on. Harri wanted to also put the brown and gold striped face paint on for the photo, but I wasn't keen on having to wash it off before bed.

Looking forward to another fun year of Hawk stalking, Fab Fridays, Super Saturdays and games at Aurora.

Wasting the Days Away

Oh boy! I have found a new love in life - photoshopping! Thanks to the very talented Fiona I have learnt a lot and am having so much fun trying new things on my photos. I still have a lot to learn, but am finding I'm getting faster and not having to re read my notes all the time about the things she has taught me.

On Saturday Jalen, Harri and I went out to do a few things and decided to go up to the Gorge for a walk. I could spend hours just snapping away with my camera and the boys are very patient with me - usually letting me take whatever photos I want. It has been so fun to come home with some photos and start playing with them in photoshop. These are a few we took on Saturday.

Harri was laughing at Jalen when I was teasing him about a girlfriend - trying to get Harri to laugh - it worked!

Harri is such a great poser! He went up to the sign and said 'Mum!! Take a photo of this!' as he stood there and posed for me.

He then went a layed on the rocks and straight away knew how to pose (thanks to Fiona doing a photoshoot the week before!).

Jalen on the otherhand is very hard to get natural looking photos as he always seems very tense.

In the end I told him to not look at the camera as he was trying way too hard :)

The boys loved doing some fun jumping shots for me.


It's so easy now to just waste my days away photoshopping instead of the things I should be doing - like housework. I think it's a good waste of time though - as I remind Aaron - I'm preserving memories :)

Awesome Uncles

While Chrish was down from Sydney we got together for a family tea and Mum and Dad's. While us girls were all busy getting tea sorted, I looked out the window and saw Jalen bombing around on a four wheeler with Eden. Eden and Steph recently bought a four wheeler and Eden thought it would be fun to bring it down for everyone to have a ride. Jay was loving it!

Eden and Chrish gave it a bit of a beating while they went on their recent fishing trip and the poor bike was going, but had to be push started everytime it stalled.

Jay didn't seem to mind at all and just loved going around the paddocks with his uncles.

I couldn't stop laughing at little Alex and Kobe perched up at the fence watching what was going on. The girls didn't care at all and were happily playing away, but the boys wanted to be in on the action.



Kobe desperately wanted a go and so did little Alex who kept crying when he didn't think that big Alex was going to take him for a ride.

Lachie also wanted to get in on the action. I think we will be having lots of fun times on the four wheeler at Mum and Dad's from now on. The boys will be wanting to go out there even more than they do now.

It was the last night that we got to see Chrish before he went back to Sydney :( He is so great with all the kids, including babies. Lincoln wasn't happy but as soon as Chrish picked him up he just stopped crying and stared up at him, and fell straight to sleep. I think we need Uncle Chrish to move home to help out with the kids as he is so great with them all :)

Our Stephen Bradbury

Jalen is not a swimmer at all. Actually he's not really sporty at all, but doesn't mind getting in and having a go at something. Last week was his school's swimming carnival so Kobe and I went along to watch. Kobe was of course very excited to see Jay and especially excited to be at the pool with him!

Jay decided to just go in the novelty events which I was happy about as I knew he wouldn't stress over things too much but would just have fun.

It also means you are almost guaranteed to get some kind of ribbon as they usually only have 4-5 in an event.

Kobe was so cute cheering him on the sidelines all the time.

That was when he wasn't having a play in the pool.

Jay was so pumped after the kickboard race. They were warned that they had to do it properly and kick the whole time rather than standing up. Jay always tries to do the right thing, especially when told by a teacher so he kicked the entire length of the pool, up and back, while the other boys all decided to stand up every now and then and take a big leap before kicking again.

Jay came fourth (out of four!) but the teachers awarded him first place for 'doing the right thing' and not cheating. He was SO happy. I couldn't stop laughing as he said it was like the 'guy at the olympics (Stephen Bradbury) who was coming last in the speedskating, but ended up winning gold when all the other skaters fell over just before the finish line.