bump shot... 20 weeks

we posted this picture on facebook this week, of madeline with a picture of her baby sibling with the caption, "she wanted a dog - we hope she's not too disappointed when this arrives in february next year." i am sure she won't be too traumatised by it considering how much she loves other peoples babies and always wants to cuddle them, hopefully this will remain so - and she won't be too jealous when her mummy has to cuddle one all the time, for hours on end. fingers crossed...

here's me today - 20weeks+2days along - just past halfway. i wonder how big i'll get this time...? hopefully i'll be as comfortable as i was with madeline (ie. not big at all haha)

19week+2days and clearly impressed to have my photo taken... :)

i have to report just how lucky i have been this time around - i was soo sick with madeline, from about 8 weeks til pretty much half way through my pregnancy. i didn't want to eat anything at all - and although i did not crave anything (much to my poor husbands disappointment - i swear he was looking forward to being sent to nando's for something late at night) there were days when turkish bread and hot chips were the only food options that didn't make me want to straight out gag. i jokingly said more than once that i wouldn't be surprised if maddie was born a potato. sidenote... she loves both of them now - thanks mama...

this time - not sick at all. there have been a very few days along the way when i have felt slightly off - but nothing like maddie... i kept waiting for the wave of disgustingly, nauseating sickness to hit and hit hard, but it seems to have been missed, and am i ever thankful. memories always strike me of driving a work car down west coast hwy following a funeral arrangement and having to pull into a turning lane so i could vomit my little pregnant heart out in the median strip. i am 100% pure class, there is no arguing that. it keeps being suggested that perhaps this means baby k2 is a boy... i would suggest if you want to know, you better keep reading. x

ultrasound baby k2

today we got to see babyk2 for the first time. doug came with me for my ultrasound so we could see our little monkey on the "big screen" 

all is good and well and it has 10 fingers and toes, and is snug and comfortable growing away in my belly. 

  

doug isn't into surprises as much as i am, so he asked what sex baby k2 is, and we now know... what's your guess? 

i'll be halfway this friday - i can't believe it's come around so quickly - i guess it's not as hard when you're not feeling violently sick 100% of the time. haha

i can't believe how good technology is though, to be able to see baby up close and personal when it's so tiny - when i was a baby - this wasn't even an option.

plus, they can pick up so many things before birth, to be able to prepare mums and dads for what is to come, all miracles of modern science. i guess this, thankfully, is the reason there are a lot less issues in childbirth and thankfully again, a lot less women dying in childbirth. phew!!

this little monkey will be here before we know it, so i'm getting myself ready for the ride. a two year old and a baby? i think i can, i think i can...

one thing is for certain, i can't wait to meet it! :)

master the tempest is raging

i love it when i learn something new at church on a sunday - sometimes i feel like i've got it, and then bam! something new! if it's about a hymn - that's an added bonus for me. take this sunday for example, the lovely girl who organises the music in our relief society took the time prior to conducting the opening hymn to tell us a brief history of the hymn "master the tempest is raging" (lds hymns 105)

this hymn was written by a woman of the baptist faith, during one of the lowest times in her life - having lost her beloved brother to a disease, to which she had already lost her father. the saddest thing to me, is that this was probably something back then, that could be fixed with a course of antibiotics these days...

the song was written originally to be heard as a conversation between christ and his disciples, "carest thou not that we perish?" "how canst thou lie asleep?" with christ answering their pleas... "the winds and the waves shall obey my will" "peace be still" over time the words were changed to reflect those we now sing, but it was so lovely to hear the original story and to know of christ speaking to his disciples. "peace be still" such a beautiful message.

i especially love the final verse "master the tempest is over" "with joy i shall make the blest harbour and rest on the blissful shore". i love knowing the christ stepped up and calmed the storm, to save those he loved - and that he can do the same for us... if we only but ask.

pumpkin cheesecake

pumpkin & cinnamon cheesecake

base:

1 1/4 cups milk arrowroot biscuits

1/4 cup caster sugar

100g butter 

filling:

 500g cream cheese 

1/4 cup caster sugar 

4 eggs 

1 cup cooked mashed pumpkin (butternut) or whatever kind you fancy!

1/4 cup plain flour 

2 tsp ground cinnamon 

2 tsp vanilla extract 

and to make it...!

 preheat oven (180 degrees) blend base ingredients and press into springform tin. bake base for 10 mins on moderate oven and then turn oven down to 160 

beat cream cheese and sugar, then add eggs and beat until smooth. fold through remaining ingredients, pour over base.  bake 40-45 mins until just firm.

...................................................

it was gorgeous holly's (from work) birthday today and i made pumpkin cheesecake! i asked her what kind of cake she wanted and she said pumpkin, so i simply smiled and got to work. i am sure she had no idea that i would actually do it, but i did! pumpkin cake, of the cheese variety. so yum!!

i must admit, the recipe isn't mine, my friends cousin actually passed it on to me at a family bbq cause i liked it so much - and i'm going to do the same cause i'm nice like that!

enjoy!

james came to stay!

doug's bestie came to spend the weekend with us and the boys had the best time together - but didn't get to do much - cause it rained and rained and rained and then rained some more! i swear this is the wettest september we have had in years, i mean it is meant to be spring after all...

on sunday afternoon it seemed to clear up a little though and we drove out to swan view to the old train tunnel. i have always loved that place and doug was keen for a visit too.

you have to walk out a pathway, from which one side slopes sharply away - and all you could hear today was water rushing in the background - well, it's got to go somewhere i guess! would have been great fun to go looking for it if we didn't have a pram...

it was getting darker as we got to the actual tunnel and it looked so surreal in the light, with the water running everywhere and the darkness round about. kind of spooky and old worldly even. i have to admit, it was way cooler in the rainy weather than i have ever seen it before, even though we couldn't go in because it was all flooded...

but outside was just as good for a look...

it is the coolest place, i don't know why we don't go more often.

maddie got a bit grumpy on the walk back to the car - i think it was getting a bit too cold for her... but as soon as daddy cuddled her she was all smiles again. she was thrilled to see uncle james and would not leave him alone the whole weekend. adorable.

zara is one ❤

today we all went to a birthday party! our friends mark and jamie-lee's little girl zara turned one. what a beautiful party, jamie had clearly been hard at work and had made the most beautiful cupcakes, little treats and of course the gorgeous cake above with hootabelle from giggle and hoot. so cute!! it's almost a shame to cut into these masterpieces. 

this is the gorgeous birthday girl zara herself! what a cutie-pie. there is nothing cuter than watching a one year realise that all the presents are for them and get to ripping.

madeline had the time of her life running around the house collecting up the balloons and passing them to anyone that seemed to willing to join her. so funny. oh to be two years old again and be able to find the fun in absolute anything.

we had a lovely afternoon - and as per usual, miss maddie left with a huge smile on her face. 

thank you to aunty jamie for this lovely picture. :)

evie's blessing

yesterday we had the pleasure of being there for baby evie's blessing. my beautiful friend alex - who i have known since she was just 2 years old and i was four!! - is evie's mum. it was such a gorgeous day - and what a little doll!!! i cannot get over how cute she is, so alert (as you can see from the picture above) and is just darling. 

i was lucky enough to play photographer on the day and got to take some gorgeous pictures of alex's family (who i've known forever...) and mike's family, who are new to me, but just as cute! you can see how smitten mike's parents are with their new grandbaby.

cutest parents! they love to make evie laugh and smile and she can't get enough of them - always watching them wherever they go and following the sounds of their voices. if only my two year old was half as attentive haha.

the three generations of brennan ladies, alex, miss evie and alex's mum fiona. ♥

and my favourite - the doting dad. always the cutest pictures. i love how these little ones manage to wrap their daddy's heartstrings around their teeny tiny fingers within minutes of entering this life. 

father's day

father's day has come again - and i still cannot get over how obsessed with her daddy this little girl is! she follows him everywhere and greets him at the door at the end of each day yelling "daddydaddydaddydaddydadddddyyyyy!!!" it's exactly the way i felt about my dad as a little girl - i remember him coming home from work and rushing out to the yard where he would let me ride about 10 metres on the roo bar of his work car while he turned around to park - then would walk me into the house on the toes of his steel cap boots. my dad was and still is the most amazing dad in the world. i have never felt safer than i have on his lap as a child and he still makes me light up with just the sound of his voice. we love to joke together and even now my mother gets furious with us when we are facetiming and instead of talking we just pull ridiculous faces at each other the whole time. oops. sorry mum. i love you dad! i still consider myself the luckiest little girl in the world!

it makes me so happy to know that this little girl and her daddy are well on their way to having the same kind of relationship that i had with mine. i mean for real - look at her loving him in these pictures! she only has eyes for daddy. cutest thing out.

today also marks a sad occasion in our house - it's been 6 years today since my father's father joseph passed away - on father's day. we were incredibly close and i count myself lucky to have known him so well, when so many people have never even known their grandparents. i know he and my grandmother are together and happy, yet still cannot wait to see him again. i love you and miss you everyday grandad! x

'til we meet again...