My lovely friend has moved away… it’s actually too sad to think about. Anyway, we are doing this 10 photo challenge/project together, which is one more way to stay connected while she is away…

We are shooting a photo every hour for 10 hours on the 10th day of every month…

today is our first attempt…

I was hoping to have something a little more exciting to shoot today than a day at home, (maybe the park or aquarium), however, it is just the way it worked out.

Justin has been away a lot in the last few weeks. He came home from the states just this morning, managed a quick cuddle with his family, coffee, shower and then he was back at work. And it is a miserable, cold day here in Sydney today, so the girls and I have bunkered down at home and made some fun indoors. In between I have managed to do 3 loads of washing too…

Anyway, here are the shots as they happened today:

First little angel to wake – not usually greeted by mum and her camera, yet happy enough about it. I wasn’t game enough to pull the dummy out before I took the shot in case it left my first subject in tears…

7.35 am

I have been trying to get Charlotte happy enough to wear a shower cap in the shower, as her hair just gets messier and messier every time she jumps in my shower and I don’t have time to dry it, yet so far she has been so reluctant… today however, she was happy enough to show Georgie just how to do it (although this was AFTER she had already showered and soaked her entire hair!!!)

Part of the problem seems to be the smell (very plastic smelling), so she sprayed perfume in and seemed happier???

8.43 am

After the photo above I hopped in the shower. I always hope that they won’t hurt each other and make too much mess while I am in the shower, yet today I came out to find the following:

9.15 am

as they were sitting on opposite sides of the room I had to photograph them individually, yet I am counting this as just one photo for the task… and the cutest part of it is, that neither of them can read!!!

I put my camera down, yet Charlotte loves taking photos, (particularly with my camera).

Here she is photographing her ‘tangled’ doll that she will get when she achieves her behaviour goal…

and then after Georgia’s sleep… daddy came home from work! There were two VERY excited little girls:

not to mention one VERY happy daddy…

Charlotte was not keen to let her daddy out of her sight for a while, so as he was standing making a snack she plopped down behind him to eat her bowl of popcorn. As soon as he was done and ready to walk away, she wrapped herself around his legs, so he could not escape again…

Thankfully she was not really that needy, and soon went off to play. Georgie on the other hand figured “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” and hopped up on Justin (with her baby) and watched the rugby with him – while munching on a cup of crushed ice…

she soon tired of the rugby, yet I hear I have 6 weeks of this to look forward to…

then came dinner time… which is always fun, although tonight even more so as I fed them later than usual, so they were just that little less patient…

oh, and the rules of this 10 photo challenge is that I have to be in one photo… so here it is. It shows very little of my belly – which is now a solid looking 25 week pregnant belly…

and off to the bath now. This is the price daddy must pay for being away so much lately…

so that is my first 10 photo challenge completed. and it was fun. mostly just remembering to capture the everyday moments that make up my life with my family.

I hope you enjoyed them.

Jodie xx

While Justin was at work on the Saturday before Father’s day, and Georgia was peacefully sleeping upstairs, Charlotte and I had a painting session to make some posters and creative designs for her daddy…

here she is waiting for the sign to dry… it was just the bits with big blobs on them that needed their time on the sun!!!

and one of her master pieces:

she had lots of fun, although it is hard to watch a 4 year old paint and not panic about the mess…

love Jodie xx

More iphone snaps,yet here are my love bugs doing a few new things…

Here is Charlie baking her first batch of chocolate muffins

and here is little Georgie wanting a turn on the toilet. She looks pretty happy and confident on there, doesn’t she?

(for the record, it was just a practice)

and finally here is Charlie learning how to cut up a strawberry. She did an amazing job, keeping her slices thin and her fingers out of the way:

just a few fun things which are nice for me to remember…

Love Jodie xx

A couple of weeks ago Charlotte went for her first ever horse ride… When she was placed on top of the horse, she looked completely terrified and she could not manage a smile. Yet the minute her horse was moved forwards and she was next to her friend Georgina, she was all smiles. IN fact, she absolutely LOVED the experience and can’t wait to go again…

Again, these are iphone snaps as I was busy with the video camera, pram and a big pregnant belly to carry around. I could not manage my camera too…

looking terrified

and here after 30 mins on the horse… very happy and relaxed

and not even wanting to say goodbye once it was all over…

it was such a wonderful ‘first’ to watch and capture – the video tells the best story as they were chatting away like they’d ridden horses a million times before.

Love Jodie xx

We have recently had a lovely little kookaburra visit us in the backyard, and the first 2 times he came it coincided with me cooking either bolognaise or lasagne… I wondered if he was able to smell the raw mince???

Anyway, we decided we could spare some of this raw mince and he seems to have become a friend. He has even brought a few friends for meal times over the last week or two – so now I keep a packet of (non-organic) beef in the fridge, which I am happy to feed them.

Here are a couple of photos from my iphone. I always seem to have that handy, yet never my camera…

We hope he sticks around until our lovely French au pair arrives, so she can get to experience some Australian wildlife right in her own backyard!!!

Love Jodie x

This gorgeous little man is 11 days old and he is a very welcome and loved addition to his family for many reasons.

He took a while to fall asleep, yet we managed to get a few delicious photos when he was. Here is one of my favourites from today -sleeping perfection

Oh, those lips!

and here he is with his beautiful sister Ursula:

Anna and Rob, I am so thrilled for you that Thomas has joined your wonderful family.

May he bring you all a lifetime of joy and happiness.

Love Jodie xx

We love sushi in this family, although I have to admit that my favourite sushi is on the other side of the bridge… and I go there every chance I get!!!

However, we do have 3 sushi restaurants within a 2 minute walk of our house; so mostly I make do there! Thankfully the girls are not as fussy just yet!

Justin was working late the other night, so the girls and I walked up the road and they had some avocado sushi. They were busy swinging it around on their chopsticks saying “abracadabra”, yet (mostly) finding their mouths. You can see one mishap on the floor…

Anyway, this is a very grainy iphone snap, yet I love it because they had so much fun and I can see just how grown up they are becoming…

Love Jodie xx

Here are a couple of pics taken on my iphone a couple of nights ago. The girls adore those bath crayons and my walls are surely being stained from the constant wall art… well, the grouting certainly seems attached to the colour!!!

Some nights those walls are covered. Charlie is busy writing her name on any clear surface she can find; not to mention desperate to master drawing a love heart… Georgie is determined to scribble right over anything Charlie has done and then run her hand through it too…

Here was a photo taken again the following night with some of the aforementioned art work… you can see Georgie’s mouth is blue!!!

The bath always ends up a deep blue, yet they’re having fun and they can spend 45 minutes soaking and relaxing in the bath. (I have to admit I have my breast feeding rocking chair and stool set up in the bathroom so I can relax and watch for as long as needed)… the closed toilet seat just didn’t cut it for comfort!

Love Jodie x

Thankfully India was discharged from hospital after just one additional night for jaundice, so we managed to capture this gorgeous little soul at just 8 days old.

She has the most incredible, long, soft and black hair I have seen on a baby in a while. It is beyond cute.

She was a good little angel today too, and managed to have a few sleeps in between feeds, despite not loving being naked and unwrapped!

Gorgeous little India, here are a few photos for you:

Chrystine and Kevin, it was wonderful to meet your sweet little girl.

Enjoy every minute.

Love Jodie xx

Yesterday my studio was set up for a newborn shoot, yet the poor little bub was suffering from jaundice, and was re-admitted to hospital.

This meant my girls thought it was their opportunity to spin around and show off on my backdrop…

I have quite a few shots from this shoot that I like, yet as I now have the newborn images to blog from today, I am just going to post one for now…

hopefully time and health will allow me to get back here and re-blog my girls.

Charlotte tells people I am a “tographer” – which makes her my little ‘tograoher…

btw – those beads on Georgie’s ankle are amber beads for pain relief from teething…

Justin thinks I am a lttle mad, yet let me tell you, in the 5 days and nights that those beads have been wrapped around her delicious ankle, she has settled to sleep with just a couple of minutes of crying (unlike the 45 mins for nights and nights before then… and she has also not been crying and miserable in the days).

In addition, her night waking has been reduced to just twice in those 5 nights and only for a few minutes, as opposed to 2 hours at a time in the weeks previous!

So, whatever your thoughts are on these amber beads, I am not taking them off if I can avoid it anytime soon – as they seem to be doing wonders here!

Love Jodie xx