I know this really cool girl called Sam. She is an artist. And she is my sister in law!
We (the fam) have been at her for ages to get her act together and start selling her custom-drawn family (or friends) portraits.
How rad are these? This is Sam with her siblings – they look amazingly similar to their real-life versions.
I’m so excited that Sam has started to offer these custom-drawn portraits to YOU! Aren’t they the best, they make me smile really big every time I see them.
There are lots of different options for you to choose from to make your portraits exactly what you want – read more about the details on Sam’s design blog here.
You can choose to have your portraits in black and white or colour (as shown below) – with or without borders – and she’ll even include your pets if you want them! I love that the portraits come in pdf/jpeg digital format so that you can use them for anything you like – print and frame to decorate your home or give away as presents, use them for your social media profile pictures, pop them on your blog, the sky’s the limit!
My sister and her crew are getting ready to take part in a 100km bush walk for charity and Sam whipped them up an awesome portrait – isn’t it the best?! (Go here to donate to their walk).
I’m off to look through my photos and choose one of each of us to email through to Sam – it’s only been on my “to-do” list for a couple of months…stay tuned, I’ll share our family portrait soon! In the meantime, visit Sam’s blog for more information about getting your own custom-drawn family portrait!
Hello blog! We’re still cruising along in new baby mode. It’s nice to have an excuse to slow down and chill out with lots of snuggles – especially when it’s cold outside.
Little Harvey Charles turned 1 month old this week. He is such a treasure, we are all smitten with his round face and chubby cheeks and soft double chin. And he is growing like a weed, still spewing terribly but obviously it isn’t affecting his ability to gain weight! This week he started giving us some cute smiles – especially first thing in the morning when the sun rises and he wakes from the night. Funny how you can’t imagine how a new baby is going to fit into the family but once they have been here for a little while you can’t imagine how the family could feel complete without them.
Remember when I hinted that his name comes from a Thomas the Tank Engine character? Well, here is his fellow train – Harvey. Harvey (the train) is described as relentlessley cheery, big-hearted and helpful. Let’s hope the name comes with the characteristics! Although the Thomas books did give us the initial idea to name him Harvey, his name does have special meaning in our family. Jaron’s great Uncle (so, Harvey’s great-great Uncle) is also named Harvey. The kids and I met Uncle Harvey and Aunty Jill when we went to New Zealand a couple of years ago. They are the sweetest couple and he is a well-loved uncle so it just seemed right that we name our baby after him.
With Uncle Harvey and Aunty Jill in December 2011
Harvey’s middle name, Charles, comes from my Grandad. Although he is hardly ever called Charles (most people know him as Chick) we loved how the names sounded together and can’t think of another greater man for him to be named after.
With Grandad and Granny in February 2012
But if you ask Tommy what his baby brother’s name is he will likely answer you with “Borris” or “George”. Seriously.
Since he was born, Tommy decided that his name wouldn’t be Harvey at all!! I think it might have something to do with Tommy being put out of place with the arrival of the little man, this was something that he could be in control of, so we’re rolling with it to keep everyone happy!
On Saturday we celebrated Tommy’s 4th birthday. We were very conscious of making it extra special for him as he has had a big couple of weeks adjusting to the new baby so didn’t want him to feel like he was missing out because we are tired – it was tough, being woken up early on a Saturday morning but we managed to drag ourselves out to the lounge room with cheery faces to watch him open his presents! Pete the Cat is an all time favourite in our house and he was very excited when he opened a new Pete the Cat book and toy. He also got a racing car track which I anticipated would give him hours of entertainment when the big kids are at school (so that I can sleep on the couch!) but so far Oscar has claimed it and Tommy has hardly used it!
Lunch request was McDonalds – we tried really had to convince him that a cafe would be much nicer but he had his mind made up!
And dinner time request was pancakes with strawberries – too easy!
We saved the birthday cake for Sunday evening so that we could share it with our extended family. A couple of weeks ago I bought a new birthday cake cookbook and it has been well-read ever since! Tommy choose “Pigs in Mud” from the book and I put Jaron on pig making/decorating duty – he always does a better job with the cakes than I do!
Tommy was very impressed until Uncle Ty stole one of the pig’s heads and melted it into the pancakes he was making!
Mum and Dad bought Tommy a ukulele for his birthday and it is by far his favourite present. He loves having things the same as Poppy Tom and declares that he and Poppy are “best friends” because they both have brown guitars with holes in them! Now, if Dad can teach him how to play it perhaps we will have a budding little musician in our home!
Happy Birthday little Tommy! You are a delight and need to stop growing up so fast!
We’ve survived two weeks of newborn-madness in the house. And apart from keeping kids fed and dressed, a semi-tidy house and lots of baby snuggles nothing else has been achieved! Harvey is two weeks old today and is already changing so much. He seems so much more awake and alert and this morning he cooed at me – not yet little boy! He has mostly been sleepy and settled, but he is super spewey and suffers with a bit of wind. Hopefully it will pass with time as his tummy matures and he gets used to life outside the womb. Our nights have been mostly pretty good, he feeds every 3-4 hours and is usually finished and back to sleep within 45 minutes.
Tommy has been a bit of a handful, I thought he would be though. He has been the baby for so long and has really noticed a shift in family dynamics. He is much better towards me and the baby now, but is still very demanding of me and wanting to be doing something with me all the time. He loves Harvey though and since we came home from the hospital has been calling him Borris! Lil is a great little Mummy, loving lots of cuddles and admiring Harvey’s every move. Oscar was a bit stand-offish to begin with, but that’s normal for him when it comes to any sort of change and he gives us updates on what Harvey is doing all the time now.
So that’s the quick update for now – we’ve been so blessed to have friends and family bring us meals around since Harvey was born and are back to the “new normal” this week – wish us luck!
He arrived! Meet our newest addition to the family –
Harvey Charles
born Monday 27th May
5:26am
7 pounds, 12 ounces
50.5cm long
What a blur this week has been! I can’t believe that my little man is 1 week old tomorrow – so sad already that the first week is over (although, I’m happy to have the first week of breastfeeding pain behind me!)
I really didn’t think I could match Tommy’s labour with one just as good (as far as labour goes…) but little Harvey has topped them all!
I love a good birth story and like to have them recorded for later on when my memory fails me so here goes…
On Sunday we went to church as usual, I was telling everyone that there wouldn’t be a baby until Thursday (my usual 6 days over) and had lots planned to keep me busy for the beginning of the week. I had been feeling hardly any signs of birth – braxton hicks weren’t painful and would come and go quickly, I only had one night when I woke up with soreish contractions but they went away after a couple of hours so I really wasn’t expecting anything to happen until the end of the week.
That night I felt really tired and went to bed pretty early (unusual for me), my body must have known something was going to happen and was prepping me! I woke up at 3:30am on Monday morning with contractions that were about 10 minutes apart and were quite painful, but didn’t get out of bed for them as I was sure they would stop in an hour or so. After about 15 minutes I woke Jaron to tell him what was going on (and to get him to rub my back!) but told him not to wake up too much because it was bound to be a false alarm.
After another 15 minutes the pain became really intense and I couldn’t lie down anymore so went out to the loungeroom where I could walk around a bit more. At 4:30am things really started to change, I was feeling shivery and started shaking and was feeling really spaced out – it was so surreal, like I was in a different place, so I got Jaron up, he called the hospital to see if we should come in (they said to listen to my body and do what I felt like I should do – I was so confused but decided we should probably make a move!) then he called my Mum.
Mum arrived at 5am and by then I was starting to feel panicky and a really heavy bearing down sensation (I was transitioning but didn’t realise it at the time). Jaron and I quicky jumped into the car and drove 15 minutes to the hospital. Half way there I got the urge to start pushing and couldn’t resist it – Jaron called the hospital as we were driving and they said to try not to push and hold on until we got there. Ha! It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do!! Thankfully, we made it to the hospital, I was in the middle of a contraction and had my eyes closed but as soon as the car stopped, my door whipped open. I remember thinking to myself, how on earth did Jaron get around to my door so fast? Then when I opened my eyes, I was greeted with a whole entourage of medical staff with a trolley, wheelchair and a bed! Usually I would have been a little embarrassed to be carrying on in front of so many people – let me tell you, it was REALLY hard not to push, I felt like an animal!! But funny how when you’re in labour you couldn’t care less what anyone sees or hears!
I was wheeled upstairs into the birthing suite, we got there at 5:15am – had a contraction as I was getting off the wheelchair, another one when I sat on the bed and my waters broke, then in the next contraction I pushed as hard as I could (my strategy for getting babies out fast!) and Harvey was out in one big push!
The whole experience was so surreal, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but another half hour would have been nice because everything was so rushed and intense. But I’m definitley not complaining, it just took a few days for us to get our heads around it all!
He’s here now and as cute as can be! These photos were taken when he was about an hour old, he looks so smooshed up and chubby and has really changed already in just 1 week. Harvey is our biggest baby – almost 2 pounds heavier than Tommy was! And half a pound bigger than Oscar and Lil. He is perfect in every way, I’ll leave you with a few more “fresh from the womb” photos and will try and pop back with some more from the rest of the week soon!
