We’ve moved …

http://www.nowthenhabibi.com/

NDISB April Blog Train

Welcome to the NDISB April Blog Train! We have a smashing collaboration kit for you, celebrating Mother Earth.

Here’s the kit preview:

And here’s my part:

This is the link for the Word Art. Please use coupon code: NDISB-BT-MazWA-t34hi

And this is the link for the QP’s. Please use coupon code: NDISB-BT-MazQP-m92uj

Your next stop is Tahera’s blog.

If you feel lost, the list to the whole train can be found on the NDISB blog.

**You can only use one coupon code per transaction, you will need to repeat this process for each contribution to the blog train** Keep going with each blog train stop until you have the entire kit, all of the word art and the quick pages!!

Enjoy the goodies!

**Please note that due to the fact that we are from all over the world and live in different time-zones… some of the blog posts might not be ready when you arrive. Please move along to the next blog on the list and check back later for those post/s. Thank you for your patience, we hope you have fun and enjoy the April “A Natural Earth” Blog Train kit.

PS… Watch for the next NDISB blog train in June!

Happy Birthday dear G!!! Happy Birthday dear G!!!

 

Happy Birthday dearest Geeee-eeeee, happy birthday to YOU!!!!!

You know how much we love you, and you do know how much we miss you. So, here’s a little somefink for now:

and if the above doesn’t work, here’s the direct link:

http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j46/maz_08/?action=view&current=gbday09.flv

I miss you more than I could possibly express in words, you are my soul mate, my love, my best friend forever and I can not wait to see you again. Hope you have a totally fab day {ok,  have a totally fab Saturday, as I reckon flying on your b-day is not exactly the best way to spend it, lol!}

All our love,

Gideon, Marianne, Kaydin, Jackie & Lara

Tonight is blog update night

I'm not allowed to scrap or browse the galleries or play on the forums, until I've done this! {Ok, I've uploaded 1, just one layout!}

What's up with us? Not much and plenty all at the same time .... Jurie came to visit for a day, the Kaydin does new things all the time and work for Gideon is a wee bit stressful at the moment. There's been a lot of turmoil in the construction industry lately, as you can imagine, with the credit crunch going on, a lot of projects have been put on hold and some have been cancelled all together, it's been interesting to say the least. So, for those of you that want to come visit ..... G, Bea, Dilly, Annet, not picking on anyone here, just throwing some random names out there .... you might wanna start thinking about actually doing it, there's seriously NO telling until when we'll be here.

Right, onto the photo's, I'll start with Jurie's visit, we took him to the dunes, took the toy cars with, fun was had by all ...

I keep on telling you people, but you don't want to believe me, this is SERIOUS stuff.

It's a science really.

and obviously any discussion is much more productive with lots of admirers (sorry, advisors)

Kaydin practicing for his own remote control car:

one obviously needs to understand all there is about tyres, before one can have one's own r/c car:

The art of building a tower with them is clearly of the utmost importance.

Flying cars are all the rage these days:

It's a serious hobby, I keep on telling you all, you just won't believe me!

And finally, some interesting rock/sand formations:

FIRST in line .... when cute was handed out

Kaydin is now learning a new word almost every day and he's starting to make these two-word sentences. Jackie is now "Da-da". A car is a "ka". Please is "a-bie", which is his interpretation of the afrikaans word "asseblief", thank you is "dan-dan", (afrikaans = dankie). Chantel became "Tella", going downstairs is "a", (afrikaans = af) this also applies to lights being turned off, and when he says that Gideon is downstairs he'll say "onne", which is down (afrikaans = onder). "Anne" (ok, not as in the name, you need to read the letters a-nn-e, that would be other, or depending on the context, could be another (afrikaans = ander) It's totally cute.

A favourite is to spend time with Gideon when he's working on is r/c car (I keep on telling you people, this is a serious hobby), he'll then go back and forth from the dining room to the kitchen getting his dad a beer, and or throwing away the empty can and getting a new one and closing the fridge door ..... are we talented or what? The point I'm getting to, is that while this whole to-ing and fro-ing is happening, he does this little run (the child can not walk, he runs, he runs everywhere), he looks like that little cartoon character that used to be at the end of a TV program called Alias (also at the end of Lost) "Bad robot", it's too funny, I can totally picture Kaydin running in the grass like that:

Mr. Bug day

Bug day was large, it was huge, it was the highlight of the week. I saw this poor guy a few times around the house, never managed to catch him, then one night, before I went to bed, he was strolling towards the stairs, I though, well, it's now or never and the child would be just thrilled to see him .... so enter, Mr. Bug:

The poor dude, he had no idea, no warning, not the slightest hint of what was about to happen:

nope, not a clue

and no, the fascination didn't end here ...

Kaydin's making he's own "goggo's" with his hands here, they were dancing, and while he did that, he was calling to Mr. Bug "come goggo"... I'm sure Mr. Bug was by now wishing this would just end and wondering why he would choose to be this child's entertainment?

no, he's not squeamish, at all

We made the goggo "go to sleep" soon after this, no, we didn't kill it, we sent it to the neighbours

Some more photo's from earlier that morning, the boy is just so HAPPY if he can play in water ...

And if you didn't know, Oupa Didi, here's a photo of YOU! . Yes, we had some KFC the other night, Kaydin was quite happily munching along when, he started saying "Didi-Didi", while pointing at the KFC wrappers .... so, there you go, we didn't know that Oupa Didi was the original Colonel Sanders. I of course think the child is a genius for making the connection!

Right, now onto some of my life. When I don't do the SAHM-thing, I like to fiddle on my laptop. One of the things that I'm really into at the moment is a strange American hobby called "digital scrapbooking", it's friggen awesome, to be creative while I'm on my laptop, man that's like serious heaven to me!! A by-product of this hobby, is that I also spend some time on internet sites, where other addicts gather, we share our art and we talk in the forums and it's quite fabulous how one can make online friends and know what's going on in their lives! Take the recent fires in Oz for example, man, the whole Snap and Scrap was worried that our friends down-under are ok and that everybody was safe. It's such a wonderful thing, friendship, be it online or in real life, some days, I'm not sure what the difference is.

Another by-product of this hobby is that, should you happen to make layouts (we call it LO for short) that a designer or even a site-owner like, they may invite you to join the Creative Team (CT) for that site, or for a specific designer. Sometimes they will place an ad and you can apply to be part of a site or a designer's CT. Now yours truly here has managed to get herself into both those positions actually, lol!! I get to scrap with Bree of Scrap'it's awesome designs, as well as being on the CT for Snap and Scrap, MKC and most recently, Natural Designs in Scrapbooking.

Why all the ramble? Well, because I've decided it's about time that I share some of those LO's with you .... so here, to celebrate Mr. Bug:

and for a font challenge on NDISB, here's my Dream Baby:

and to showcase a charity kit, called Lifting Hopes that Snap and Scrap is hosting .... the boy got up to all kinds of mischief, I can't help it, he gets a whole new personality when he's in photoshop, lol!

so, there you have it, my other life revealed, be prepared to see some more

And then on a sunny day you get this lovely surprise in your inbox {it NEVER ceases to amaze me, who the people are that read my blog!!} Thanks Marilyn!!!!! You made my day a whole lot happier who knew ... ?!

I got tagged as well, by the lovely Tina!! Now, I honestly need to go think about who I'll tag, but in the mean time, here's the gist of it:

The rules are:

•Go to your photo folder in your computer
•Go to the 6th folder of photos
•Go to the sixth picture
•Put the picture on your blog and a description of it
•Invite six friends to join the challenge
•Link them in your blog.

oh LOL!!!! I bring you chubby-baby!!!!! what a hoot!!! I remember this day quite clearly, we had just came back from the dunes, he's daddy was playing silly buggers and he had his first pair of camo pants on!!! A whole 5 months old!!!!

ok, so who am I going to tag? ....

Katie

Mitz

Pene

Melissa

Charlie

Caryn

We send much love to all!!

Birthday Photo's

As promised

Opening pressies first thing yesterday morning

rrrrrriiiippping the paper :)

test driving the toys:

Giving his dollie a hug

 

blowing the candles:

the cake:

a family portrait:

and the birthday boy was in bed by eight!!! Totally exhausted from a day filled with awesome pressies and love and attention and of course, chocolate cake

Thanks so much to everybody that send him wishes and made his day so special, I told him about every message!

We send love and light!

Happy 2nd Birthday Dear Kaydin!!!!

May the year ahead be even better-der than the last!!

Last year this time, you weren't even walking yet, and now, well you just don't stop do you? You don't even sit still in the bath!!! You're always going, going going!!! I SO love that about you, you've turned into such a cutie-pie little boy! You're sense of humour amazes me daily!! Especially when you do the "eyes" thing when we eat {reminder to self: GET that on video!!} it's just too funny!!

The way you're starting to talk, imitating every word we say, is just so precious! You call yourself "Nini", I'm sure it's your way of abbreviating {WHY is that such a long word??} Kaydin. I love that you're so absolutely adorable, so much so, that people, who meet you for the first time, comment on how amazing you are, and I know, by the way they say "amazing", they've noticed that special Kaydin-factor, that's what I call it. You have a way of looking at someone, you just make our hearts melt, my love!!

I love that you love your Daddy with such utter abandon and enthusiasm, to the point where he can't go upstairs, without you getting upset! {I do of course also utterly adore how the Daddy is just totally in love wih the boy and tries so very, very hard to be a good Daddy, at which, my love, may I just say, you are completely successful}

But what I love most is the 15 minutes before you go to bed. I give you a bottle and you tell me the stories of the day {while I try to sing a lullaby, it's not too successful at the moment!} You'll say: "Pappa WHAAAAA" I say: "Yes, did Daddy scare you" {a favourite game at the moment} and then you call "Lala", "Pappa", "mmmmmmma", "Nada" {which is Gideon2 by the way} .... you go through your whole repertoire of words and take a few sips of your milk in between. When you're done, you push the bottle away, I then ask: "are you SURE you're finished", at which point you just push the bottle further away and say "doedoe". We then look at the stars and the moons that your night light makes and then I get a big hug and a good night kiss and a quite resolute, "doedoe" and "bye-bye", I cover you with your blankie, send you an air-kiss, *mwah*  and you're off to sleep ..... this is my favourite time of the day .....

We love you so very much darling Kaydin, we wish you a blessed and happy, happy birthday!!!

 

 

{I will update with photo's later today }

the BIG update post!!

Alright, fasten your seatbelts!! The wedding was awesome! I couldn't be happier for Bea and Wimpie, and they are just SUCH an adorable couple!!!

 

Our visit in SA was just awesome, I LOVE going home!!

And when we got home to Abu Dhabi, it was back and forth about the house-move and then finally, we moved! So, right now, we're in our beautiful new house. There are still a couple of boxes that needs unpacking, but we're mostly settled. I love this house, it's fairly close to the shops, yet still out of town. It's a very new suburb and we don't even have street lights yet!! The garden is MUCH smaller than the previous house, but hey, we've got GRASS!!!!! {NO, not THAT kind, lol!} Green, green grass!!!! So beautiful! Gids of course, made provision for flower beds when we put the grass in, so we're just waiting for Ouma Hettie to bring us the herb seeds!!

said grass:

The Kaydin is awfully cute, learning a new word almost every day, the other day, he said "Jackie"!!! well, ok, not quite, it came out "Ghekie" but we SO know what he means, and of course all the hand clapping and "well done's" just adds to his excitement of the new word he's learned!

 

Playing the other day .... Gia-Michelle, if you listen closely, you'll hear him say "ganga" 

 

Christmas in Abu Dhabi

So the G-man's leave was cancelled {we're not talking about it} which means we're here for Christmas. It's not the end of the world though, the weather is positively awesome, we had a whole 10ºC  (that's 50F to my American friends) the other morning and the days are gorgeous at no more than 26/27ºC (that's about 78F) it's awesome.

So getting into the Chrissy spirit, we have a beautiful tree and I got all creative and made a Christmas wreath {Marinda's totally chuffed, 'cause she got one too, happiness all round, what can I say, I like to share}

Then we had the oh so important Christmas card photo shoot:

Kaydin, come stand here in front of the tree and smile, please?

 

hhmmm, no? ok, Daddy, please come and help me here?!

Daddy put him on his lap, and proceeded to tickle him, I kinda new it wasn't going to be too helpful, but hey, I got some awesomely cute shots :)

This is the card I made, we asked him "how does the baba smile?" and this was the response, just hilarious!!

 

in other news:

well not much actually, like I said Gideon won't be on leave this year, he'll take Christmas day off though. We have friends coming over for Christmas Eve, going to unwrap presents and have a merry good time, then Christmas day at the neighbours, where we plan on stuffing ourselves with some good food.

My mom arrives on the 27th, we've been telling Kaydin that Ouma (grandma) is coming for a visit. Now, if you ask him who's coming to visit, he'll say "mmmmmma" and then when you ask him when she's coming, he answers "nnnnou-nou", which is "later". Shame it's been "nou-nou" for about a month already! lol!

Kaydin and I joined the mad people that wake up early to go ride their remote control cars, he SO enjoys it, got some nice shots:

We went camping a few weeks ago, just way too much fun!! This was the sunset:

 

And Kaydin has a new girlfriend (sorry Jo!!, these long distance relationships never seem to work, lol) her name is Francesca and let me tell you, she's a looker!!! Her mom's gonna have to buy a shotgun in a few years time!! hehe, the shotgun will be for the OTHER boyfriends, as Kaydin's got dibs on this one!!! And yes, if you were wondering, she's Marinda and Oscar's adorable little darling, I tell you, she was first in line when "cute" was being handed out, oh, ok a very close second to the K-dude, lol!!

Kaydin showing her his car, she's a girl though, not really interested, heheee

Did I mention that it was COLD?! We froze our nunu's off!!! My boys, nice and cozy the next morning:

Gideon, practicing for number two:

Kisses:

(no, I have no idea why he's pulling, that face, lol!!)

The camels came for a visit, and they weren't scared of us... at all, they just kept coming closer!!

And if I remember correctly, Chantel didn't even use her zoom lens on this one:

{Credit to Chantel for the pics of the next day}

Right, and tomorrow (or in a few hours) it's run, run, run, to get this house in order for all the people coming over! YEAH!! can't wait!!

We send much love to all. We wish you a blessed and happy Christmas and a wonderfully prosperous new year!