As you may know we are on holidays!

Venice was our first stop off the plane. It was perfect for jolting us out of our post flight (loooooong flight) slump.

Venice is colourful brash, loud and in your face. You can see almost anything there from muscle men pumping weights, families enjoying ice creams to Dr Marijuana who legally dispenses the  errm medicinal herb? to cure whatever ales you.

After our little walk around venice we were off to Anaheim to rest up for the onslaught of all things Disney.

I will be back with more photos as soon as I can.

Maksi and i knocked these up the other day for his cousins and some of his little friends they turned out so cute. Hubby might even get one in his lunch box if he’s lucky.

I was really brave and let Maksi use some glitter to decorate the Heart Breakers, you could use stamps, paint, fingerprints you get the drift.

Print on regular paper, staple both sides leaving an opening at the top to fill with whatever your loves like. Then staple the rest of the heart and voila your done.

Cute, quick and super simple.

You can download them here

Juliax

“A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.”

Maksim: received so many lovely toys for christmas that I have had to start rotating them. This week it’s train week.

Leonid: Has been sitting himself up all week and grabbing at anything he can get his hands on.

Joining in with Jodi for her 52 project.

Sorry for my absence around these here parts. Life, business and my loves have been super busy. We are planning a few overseas trips this year. The first of which is only four short weeks away. We are going to the US and Canada.

We are big planners we have excel spreadsheet, boards on Pinterest and note books full of places we would like to go and delicious eateries we must visit.

I have also been reading lots of family travel blogs t0 find out how one would go about travelling with a 2.5 year old and a 10 month old. What have I learnt you ask? That it is going to be very interesting.

until next time

Julia xx

“A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.”

Maksim: riding his bike on the deck with thomas while waving to baby brother through the window

Leonid: Mastering finger foods

joining in with Jodi.

Julia xx

    “A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013″

Maksim: Practicing

Leonid: Has done this a few times this week!

Julia xx

Photo taken by this lovely lady.

( my cousin Julia is the one on the left)

On January three I was still recovering from a childless new years eve but never the less I managed to be excited about getting out of bed at six am. I was headed to The Nursery  in Canberra a super awesome one day photography workshop with the uber talented Tim Coulson.

I had read many blog posts about others experiences at The Nursery  and was hoping I would have the same photographic epiphany’s others had  and low and behold I did!

Tim made it seem so easy. I loved every minute of the day and am so glad I got this info whilst my babies are still so little. I will now be able to capture their lives and our journey together (gag) in a way that will be special and beautiful or as Aleks described my photos post The Nursery ” they are like those example photos you see on the macs in the mac store”

I still have a long way to go but I am super excited about developing this knew skill of mine.

1.  Backyard fun

2. Leo was so sick this past week but still remained his quiet , sweet self

3. + 4. Crafty fun

5, Blankie

6. Cherry pie milk shake (whaaaat!) ice cream+ milk + cherries topped with crushed arrowroot biscuits

7. ” dis nummi mama….more”

8. This sort of thing happens on an hourly basis

Julia

I’m linking up with this beautiful lady.

“A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.”

Maksim: Always completely engaged in whatever he is doing

Leonid: This poor bubba endured temps as high as 39 C this week and still he had so many smiles for us even in the high high summer heat

Linking up with the lovely Jodi here. 

Julia xx

It’s christmas again! So soon you say but yes it is christmas again in our home.

Bozik as we call it.

The traditional orthodox christmas celebrated on January 7 (based on the old Julian calendar)

The celebrations for this christmas are much more subdued ( as we are still recovering from the last one) On Christmas eve Maksi helped make bread into various shapes (my family have always made dolls).

Then in the morning as is tradition in my family the kiddies received the baked dolls as gift.

Once we downed our little dolls we headed to church then onto lunch with the family.

Simple and lovely.

Do you have any simple traditions like this in your family?

Julia xx

“A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.”

Maksim: The hair, the eyes the face, many many things remain undone while I am lost in them

Leonid: Placid, calm, happy. Our little Bucky is always a ray of sunshine.

joining in with the lovely Jodi  and her 52 Portrait A Week project.

I am excited about this new project. I take a lot of photos but don’t have much to show for it in the way of printed photographs. I plan on creating a photo book at the end of the year for us to enjoy and also to give as gifts.

Julia xx

Last night, New Year’s Eve was spent with family and friends.

We had a fantastic afternoon with the kids, playing in plastic wading pools and throwing colourful balls at each other.

We let Maksi stay up a little past his bed time before whisking both babies over to my parents place for the night so we could party child free until 12pm.

We were so excited to have a sleep in. We managed to sleep till 8:40! Which is something we have not done since before having children. Then we hurried out the door to pick up the babes because we really missed them.

I made a few resolutions before bringing in the new year but I think I may need to revise them to include some concrete things I want to check off my to do list this year.

I plan on not only making a list of my goals but also including strategies for achieving these goals.

Have you made any resolutions?
How are you going?

Julia xx