Happy Happy Everything!!!

First of all....Happy New Year or Kong Hee Fatt Choi to everyone!!! It's the Year of the Rat this year....my Dad's year and having just come back from holidays...my brain was not really in tune with when Chinese New year was happening.....I was half wishing that maybe it happened while we were on holidays. hehehe

By the time I found out, it was the day before Chinese New Year. Mad panic as the eve of Chinese New Year is usually a family dinner affair....it's called reunion dinner....usually the whole family gathers and we share a nice meal together. But...it was also the night of the Crop for Kids committee meeting!!! So not much time for a long leisurely dinner...hahaha...who am I kidding? We never have a nice leisurely long dinner with my dinosaurs.....I cook...they wolf it up and we're done!! But there are also other preparations that needed to be done.....like house cleaning and decorating!! Luckily Jordan was home that day, so we cleaned and put up our decorations. Then I rushed to the local shops and bought lots of traditional sweet things to have in the house during the new year.... a few things to make for dinner. We ended up having our favourite Teriyaki Pan fried Salmon and a big plate of garlic prawns with garlic shoots. Quick to cook and yummy to eat.

While I was cooking, Jeromel came in to the kitchen and helped me make up my trays of sweet treats that I usually have in the house during the New Year. I had bought quite a few things and he said we have too much, so the sweet boy made up a tray for the Vass family as well. No pics of the trays.....they were devoured before I remembered to take pics.

On the first day of the new year....there are certain traditions....ok...there are a lot of traditions...but i pick and choose which ones I want to follow. LOL....see...there is one that says...you shouldn't wash your hair....pfft to that one. Then there is a handy one which says no cleaning...or rather no sweeping otherwise you will sweep away your luck for the year. Now...that I can do...no problemo! The boys particularly like the one where they get Ang Pow (red packets with money in it)...and they totally love the one where you're not allowed to scold or get angry . Then there is one that says ....no sharp things like knives or scissors otherwise you might cut your luck.....this one is good and bad. It's bad if you really want to have something that comes in a bag...that is impossible to open. It's bad if you have a package arrive that has been all wrapped up in sticky tape. But it's great...coz you can't cook without cutting anything. So I love this one! Usually we have steam boat....every eve, I will cut up all our things for steam boat so that on new years day, there is no preparation needed...but no time this year...so we do the next best things....I get Jordan to call our favourite local chinese restaurant and make a reservation for dinner. LOL! On the spur of the moment, I invited the Vasses to join us for dinner and we had a great time chatting and eating and eating some more. Can't believe we ate a banquet as well as 4 plates of salt pepper squid!!


Happy Birthday Tia!!! How gorgeous is this family??? Truly stunning!! Tia celebrated her 6th birthday party at Hungry Jacks and we all had a fabulous time...esp Jeromel!! This sweet sweet little boy is the newest member of our family....Tyrelle Gerard. Isn't he gorgeous? Althea and Tyrelle came to visit me on Monday and we had a fabulous time chatting and catching up with all the family goss. Tyrelle ate, slept, pooped and pooped some more....even pooping on my tshirt, my pants and the doona!! hehehe....pooped so much his Mum had run out of nappies. Typical boy!!!

Fast forward a few days...and it's Happy Valentine's Day!!! Joseph and I went out the day before Valentine's day....it was just more convenient for us to go out on the Wednesday as all 3 of the boys would be home together. Joseph surprised me by taking me here.
Absolutely gorgeous restaurant and yes, despite the cold, we dined out on the balcony and just absorbed the gorgeous bay view. Then it was still early...so we went to crown.....thinking that after a while...we might want some coffee and dessert....but after a little play (I won $90)....we were still stuffed from dinner...so we gave up on dessert and coffee and came home.

Valentine's day....I invited myself over to Felicity's for a coffee and ended up having lunch as well. So good catching up with her. Jeromel made some heart shaped cookies in school today and brought 2 home to share with us. Sooo cute!!
Ok...couple more things to share....scrap related...although....I still haven't done any scrapping since I got back.....no photos printed yet....slack huh? Between updating my travel blog, sorting through photo files, buying uniform, buying books, tertiary, secondary and primary enrolments, and catching up with online friends....hehehe..I haven't had the time....well I thought I might scrap this weekend and then Julia saved me....she went me a few discs with all the shows that I have missed....so I have been catching up on Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Prison Break and criminal minds. See...I'm a very busy chook!!! I'm still behind with Lost, House and Desperate Housewives. So maybe no scrapping for another week!!!

Ok....layout in Scrapbooking Memories.....I was invited to do a layout and make up an accent based on the Love theme....so this is what I came up with...

Title says....Kisses & Huggles..and see the little chipboard boy? I love the textured side of it...so I've just lightly inked it.....it's from Crop for Kids......it's limited.....and for charity....so go and buy yours now!!!! Click hereThis is the little accent I came up with....Scrapware scallop frame ....and I stuck some transparency behind it...and then just put a cute little photo of Shania and some rub ons. I think this is Shania's first time in an Australian mag!!
Okies....I got tagged by the gorgeous funky Jorja...so here goes

You must post the rules before you give your answers. You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name. Each fact must begin with that letter. If you don't have a middle name, just use your maiden name. After you've been tagged, you need to up-date your blog with your middle name and answers. At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and need to read your blog for details). My maiden name was CHONG.

Chubby
Homebody
Obsessive Compulsive (about certain things - did I just break the rule?)
Nagger
Generous

I now tag the following people:

Vita
Sri
Jessie
Jasmine
Kylie

Ladies...I'm not going to tell you that I tagged you....if you read this bit...then you're tagged.