Bloom

Even though it's winter now and the weather has been wet and gloomy the last few days, the house is full of laughter and happiness, as if the spring is in full bloom. I love listening to Sabina's laughter and watching Elena's cute little smiles. My heart melts every single time when I looked at them.

Anyway, enough blabbering there because I can go on and on talking about my kids. Yes, they are the center of my universe, they mean the whole wide world to me.

Now, back to the main point of my post, I'd like to show you another FO (finished object). Woohoo!!! I'm on a knitting frenzy!!! I finally finished knitting the Bloom dress a few days ago. The lace section was a breeze but don't get me started on the ribbing section. Did I tell you I dislike knitting ribbing a lot? They're a PITA.

• Pattern: bloom by Georgie Hallam
• Needle: 3.25 mm, 4.0 mm and 5.0 mm
• Yarn: Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 8 ply in Baby Blossom

Even though I knitted this dress in the medium size, which is suitable for 6 months to 4 years old, I couldn't wait but put it on Elena. I think she can start wearing it now :)

Don't you think she looks super cute and adorable?

10th Baby Surprise Jacket

As Elena has just turned 3 months old a few days ago, our normal daily lives are back into routine as I readjust our lifestyles with 2 kids. I'm still learning to juggle everything but I'm glad to say, I'm doing OK so far. In addition to that, I even managed to squeeze in some knitting time too!!!

Believe it or not, this is the 10th Baby Surprise Jacket (BSJ) that I've knitted. It's definitely one of my favourite baby patterns to knit and it's the first time I've knitted one for my own kids. Yeap...Sabina didn't get one. Oooops...sorry Sabina!!!

I managed to finish knitting this little jacket 2 months ago, just in time for the colder weather. Elena seems to be happy doing some modelling shots too!!! Do note that these photos was taken about 2 months ago. Did you notice that she's gotten really chubby?

Here's the project info if you're interested:

• Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann
• Needle: 4.0 mm
• Yarn: Bendigo Woollen Mills Harmony in Coral

I'm so glad to be back in my knitting mojo although progress is a little bit slow. However, at least I get to have a little bit of some "me time". Always remember, no matter how busy you are with your family, you must set some time aside for yourself. Most of the time, mothers tend to forget about themselves, always putting others first. We need to learn to reward and treat ourselves, once in awhile. After all,  a happy Mummy = happy kids and family :)

Introducing Elena Xu

Firstly, so sorry for the short 2 months hiatus. I'm sure most of you all know that I have a good reason for that. Not long after my last post, I gave birth to my second daughter.

I would like to introduce you to my second beautiful princess, Elena Xu.

Sabina has been really good with her, as you can see from the photos. She absolutely adores and loves her little sister!!!

Now, we have become a family of four. I can feel my heart is bursting and overflowing with love!!!

The little one is already growing so fast. Just so you know, she's already 2 months old now!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and is looking forward to the new year!! I know I am!!!

We had a lovely Christmas Day with lots of good food and surrounded by friends. In fact, we even had two Christmas meals in a day!!! Christmas lunch at our friend's place and Christmas dinner at our place!! I'm sure all of us were in some sort of food coma that night!!!

Anyway, for the first time ever, I've decided to cook a traditional Christmas meal, sort of. This was our menu:

• Christmas Honey and Marmalade Glazed Ham
• Bread Rolls
• Coleslaw
• Potato Bake (cooked by my dearest friend)

I actually bought the leg of ham from Woolworths just a few days before Christmas and was frantically looking for recipes on how to glazed a ham as I've never done it before. I think I was a little bit too ambitious and was stressing myself at the same time with "What if it doesn't turn out ok?", "What if it taste yuck", and so on. Did I tell you I've never made bread rolls before too? I was trying to do a lot of things from scratch with my new Thermomix and I'm just glad everything turn out ok!!!

Also, all three of the dishes that I prepared were all made with my Thermomix. I must say, it has been used quite a lot lately and I'm absolutely loving it. It definitely has to be one of my best purchases for the year 2014.

Last but not least, happy new year to all of you!!! Wishing you lots of love and happiness. Thank you Lord for blessing me with a wonderful husband, my lovely daughter Sabina and another baby on the way. Can't wait to start the new year as a family of four.

Learn, Live and Hope

In light of what is happening lately, we must remember to learn from yesterday, live for today, and continue to hope for a better tomorrow.

I pray that the Lord will comfort the hearts and bring peace upon the families and those who are affected by this tragic event in Sydney.

First Day of December

For once, our Christmas tree is up on the first day of December. All it needs now is a nice tree topper, a tree skirt and lots of presents beneath the tree! Ho Ho Ho!! Have you all put up your tree yet? Do you have any Christmas tradition?

This year I've been quite organised compared to the previous years as I've almost completed my Christmas shopping!!! Just a few more presents to buy and I'm done!!! I'm actually quite proud of myself this time around as I'd normally leave it till quite last minute and then it's panic mode!!!

However, with a toddler now, I do find it hard to leave things to the very last minute. Planning ahead and being organised do make things a lot easier, and I have to find that out the hard way.

Speaking of some home-made presents, I've been searching the internet for some nice recipes that will make small Christmas gifts. Do you have any go-to and fail-safe recipes to share?

My Latest Kitchen Gadget: Thermomix TM5

Yes, I've jumped on the Thermomix bandwagon and I'm really glad I did. I've been wanting one since I attended a demo quite awhile ago when they were still selling the old model. My dearest Mum decided to give me her Thermomix since she hardly uses it and I used that opportunity to trade it with a brand new model TM5.

I placed my order in the beginning of October and it was an agonising 6.5 weeks wait for it to arrive!!! Boy am I glad when it did arrived and guess what I cooked as our first meal a few days later?

I knew what I wanted to cook as my first meal after I attended my second Thermomix demo as I was completely blown away. It was the Salmon Velouté Meal. I love that dish so much because you're actually cooking 3 dishes at the very same time!! You get a really nice potato and leek soup, a side of vegetables, and the beautiful Salmon, served with a lovely sauce. Even Sabina loves this dish!! She kept asking for more!!

Since I had my Mum and Sister with us at the same time, I decided to cook the Chilli Mussels with Thyme and Tomatoes, and also prepare the Lemonade drink. It was a total hit among my family.

I can't wait to try out more recipes with my new gadget. What's your favourite Thermomix recipe?

It's a Girl!

As mentioned on my previous post, I went for my 19th week scan yesterday. I didn't really sleep well the night before. Maybe that's because I was too excited and couldn't fall asleep!! Anyway, hubs is really really happy with the news because that's what he wished for. Every single day, hubs would tell me, "I really want another girl". Thank you Lord for blessing us with another beautiful daughter into our family.

Pregnant and Being Sick

Being pregnant and coping with morning sickness was bad enough. Furthermore, my morning sickness this time was a lot worst. However, nothing prepared me when I was down with glandular fever and suspected bronchitis at the same time. 

It had been quite a horrible past few months with me being quite sick. Firstly, I had been trying to get rid of a chest infection since June but it was so stubborn, it won't go away. Then I had glandular fever middle of September. I've never felt so sick in my life before and it is definitely one of the worst feeling ever. One moment, I'll be freezing cold and the next minute, I'm boiling hot as if I'm on fire. I was down with high fever continuously for a few days and after numerous blood tests, urine tests, etc., I was finally diagnosed with glandular fever. Prior to that, I've never even heard of this sickness before!!! It is awful. I had no energy and constantly feeling exhausted. My hubs had to take time off from work just to look after both Sabina and myself. There were times I feel so hopeless because I was unable to do anything at all. Most of the time, I'll be either sitting on the sofa or just lying in bed. It took me more than a month to recover and feel ok again!! I do not want to get this glandular fever ever again. Had it once is definitely more than enough. It is definitely an experience I do not wish to go through again. 

On a positive note, here's my first bump shot when I was at 17 weeks pregnant. It was still a tiny little bump last week. Thank God morning sickness is over now and I've got my appetite back. Hopefully I'm beginning to put on some weight now as I've lost quite a bit of weight when I was sick.

I'll be having an ultrasound scan this coming Friday and will be able to find out whether I'm having a little girl or a little boy. Stay tuned if you want to find out :)

MIA and an Annoucement

Firstly, so sorry for the lack of posts and the unannounced 5 months hiatus and missing in action (MIA). A lot has happened in the short 5 months and there will be too much to update in just one post. My daily live has sort of taken over and zapped out all my energy and being sick for a month was not fun at all either, but I'll update you all on that some other time.

The most important announcement for this post is this:

Yes, I'm having another baby!!! We are all very excited and I can't wait for the next scan end of this month, where we will be able to find out whether I'm having another girl or a boy. DH wants another girl badly and he's been telling me that every single day. However, Sabina's already a "Daddy's little girl" so I myself am hoping to have a "Mummy's little boy". However, having said that, I'll be happy with either a boy or girl, as they are greatest gift and blessing from God.

This is my favourite ultrasound scan for now. Love its little feet!!!

Hello, I'm Peppa Pig!!

Did I mentioned to you before that "Peppa" was one of Sabina's first few spoken words? Everyday at 5 pm I would switched on the ABC for Kids channel on TV for her, so that I can prepare and cook dinner without having her clinging onto me like a little koala bear. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But I do notice that she tends to like Peppa Pig. One day, when the Peppa Pig programs started, she shouted, "Peppa"!!! I was soooooooooooooooo amazed and of course a little bit jealous at the same time too because she hasn't said the word "Mummy" yet!!

Anyway, I think that's when I started buying Peppa Pig items/merchandise for her. Her very first item was a Peppa Pig handphone. That was a very impromptu purchase actually. We were shopping for nappies at Big W when I saw the handphone. It was a big mistake when I showed it to her. That's because, she wouldn't give it back to me!!! Therefore, I had no choice but to buy it!! HAHA!!

Second Peppa Pig purchase was again made at Big W but I initially wanted to get her a Peppa Pig jacket but the smallest size they have available was a size 2 and it was way too big for her. I was a little bit disappointed because I did drove all the way there and didn't want to leave empty handed. Therefore, I decided to check out the books department to see if there's anything suitable to add to her little library. Lo and behold, Peppa Pig books on sale for just $8 each!! I showed Sabina the book and asked her "Who's this?" and she answered "Peppa!!" What a smart cookie. 2 books ended up in my shopping trolley and we were happy.

3 weeks ago, there was a "Peppa Pig" appearance at Target and of course, I took Sabina there so that she can have a photo with her favourite character!! She was so happy when she saw the Peppa Pig mascot from a distance. However, when it was our turn to take a photo, she cried!!! LOL

Anyway, my sister asked me the other day if Sabina likes Peppa Pig more or I like Peppa Pig more. Erm...I think I might have a slight obsession with Peppa Pig now??

Lastly, I know this is a little bit late but I hope all of you have had a nice Easter break. I still haven't eaten our Easter eggs yet, I meant Sabina's Easter eggs :P

PS: Did you notice the bucket is a Peppa Pig bucket? LOL