Lights, Camera, Action!!!!

Posted on October 29, 2014 by natalietrew

There was plenty of sunlight, an amazing photographer behind a camera and lots of action…particularly from Bailey’s bottom!!! Our photo shoot for That’s Life magazine was a huge success!!!

When I accepted the offer of being apart of That’s Life magazine’s ‘Realvolution’ campaign, I never imagined it would involve having a 2 hour professional photo shoot and from that having the most precious moments captured forever as a memory. Since becoming parents, we have had many family portraits done. We usually get them done every few years now and only had them done a year ago. I’m stoked we’ve had the opportunity to get them done again and am so happy with how they have turned out!

During the two hours, I had 5 wardrobe changes, several different combinations of family shots were taken, a dozen different poses from myself were shot and even our beloved dog Sonny got was involved:) It was a nice relaxed afternoon in the comforts of our own home with a photographer who was so friendly, calm and patient!

Working with kids can be so difficult, but thanks to my son who let the most almighty, loudest piece of wind pass that I have ever heard in my life – to the point that it made the ground shutter and the photographer go bright red and LOL, we got some great shots with everyone’s happiness beaming and shining through the photos!

These are some of the photos taken…

I love family photos…they always make me feel so proud of what Kane and I have achieved! For us to get to That’s Life magazine it required me working hour after hour writing blog after blog, until that one day someone found one of my pieces. But the reality is as a team My Party of 5 work together for anything to happen, this whole magazine experience has been an awesome way to celebrate us!

100km in November!

Posted on October 25, 2014 by natalietrew

It’s time! Time to set a challenge!

Now that it’s November (I still can’t believe that) and only one month away from the festive season, I have set myself a challenge to run 100k this month! A month ago I wrote a blog 20/20, which was an insight into my school holiday challenge for myself – 20 days straight of exercise! Now that I’ve achieved that and made it to the other side of a massive but awesome October, I’m ready to push myself a little further than I normally run and instead of running an average of 18-20k a week, to successfully achieve this challenge I need to run an average of 25k a week!

Today I started my challenge with a fast 5k of 24 minutes and felt fantastic!! My plan is to run either three 5k a week and a 10k or two 5ks a week a short distance of 2,3 or 4k and a long distance of 11 or 12k! I have not put any pressure on myself to run any major PBS this month but would love to increase my longest run to 15k.

If you are a regular follower of my blog you would know the love I have for running and keeping fit and healthy. It’s been 3 years since I started on this journey and I’m so happy that one I started and two that I’m still going strong. But every now and again I like to mix things up and throw a challenge into my already crazy busy life – cause clearly I am crazy and not busy enough lol!

So now I challenge you! I challenge you to choose some form of physical activity that you wish to challenge yourself with this month. Create a goal, make a plan and stick to it! I’d love to hear about it if you do!!

I shall keep you posted with how I go:) Happy exercising!!!

Laughter…good for the soul!

Posted on October 18, 2014 by natalietrew

Our world we live in is so serious. It’s so busy and repetitive. Respect is something that fades more and more each year and words such a bullying, cyber trolls, depression, anxiety and the like are frequently thrown round like a rag doll. How did we get to this point?

In my opinion, good old-fashioned laughter isn’t used enough anymore. Life is so busy now (which is hard to avoid) but due to all the hustle and bustle we all live each day, people forget to stop breathe, smile and LOL! Shop assistants aren’t as friendly or helpful as they use to be and when I go for a run in the morning I always lift my head to say good morning to people just to be faced with them eyeballing the ground. If you ask my mother, she would say – “but you’re to the other extreme love….you’d talk to anyone and laugh at anything!

All I know is for me, laughter is a good dose of medicine. It’s great for the soul. It can turn a mood right around. It can turn a bad day into a good one. It can get your mind in gear to tackle the harder obstacles in life. I still remember the week we painfully sat with my precious nana, while she was slowly drifting away, we still had moments of laughter in the room. It wasn’t disrespecting the moment at all. We knew that nana could hear us and she would have wanted that as nana loved to laugh. She battled Parkinson’s for many years before she passed away and I think her ability to laugh right to the end contributed to her long jevity.

I’m so lucky that I am surrounded by many people who I can have a good laugh with. My husband and I after 17 years still laugh together every day. When we have get togethers with my family, there is always fun and laughter echoing through the house. I particularly laugh with my mum and sisters and I have many friends who I share laughter with as well. I love that my kids make me laugh every day. They all have such funny little characters and a child’s laughter is like music to my ears.

I find myself laughing wherever I go….I laugh at work, in the school yard, at the grocery store, at the television, at things on Facebook and Instagram, with my specialists and doctors – most importantly I can laugh at myself! My life is far from perfect and I face some hard days, this is when I draw on laughter the most and watch an episode of Friends or look at photos that make me laugh. I always say if I didn’t laugh I’d cry!

Today’s catch up with my two oldest dear school friends was a classic example of how laughter is good for the soul. A common denominator of our friendship is laughter. We use to laugh so loud and hard at school people would think we were nutters. I still vividly remember a trip we took to Sydney we spent the week laughing so much our stomach muscles were sore. But whenever I walk away from my gals, I always feel happy and uplifted. We don’t get to catch up as often as we’d like, but when we do we have a lot of laughing to catch up on and that we do!

I’ve been through and watched a lot of people in my life go through heartache. Life is too short not to laugh. Life is too precious not to enjoy it. If people would relax just a little, not be so serious and laugh more often, maybe just maybe our world wouldn’t be filled with so much crime and hatred, instead more love and happiness!

Really – laugh….it’s good for the soul!

A Decade of Marriage…

Posted on October 16, 2014 by natalietrew

10 years ago, at 3.30pm on October 9th 2004, I married my best friend, my lover and the man who would become the father to my children….we became husband and wife, Mr and Mrs Trew!

The day was magical, everything I’d dreamt of since I was a little girl. The big white dress, lots of pink, a pretty cake and most importantly there was definitely love in the air. We celebrated our day with 150 family and friends, ate beautiful food and danced the night away – my husband even did a strip dance to the Grease remix song – I still giggle when I think of this lol….all in all it was a wonderful celebration that was all about us and who we are! If I was ever given the chance I’d relive that day in a heartbeat!

10 years on and how things have changed! So much has happened in 10 years. We have shared so many wonderful memories together I don’t even know where to begin!!

The greatest achievement in our ten years of marriage though is creating our party of 5! Our three babies are our pride and joy and we are so proud of them. We’ve certainly had our ups and downs as parents, but with each hurdle thrown our way, we’ve jumped over it together (sometimes we’ve had to pull each other over it lol) but we’ve always come out the other end stronger.

We have laughed out loud lots together, shared in each other’s grief of the loss of loved ones, nurtured each other when sick (Kane has done this for me 10 to his 1 lol), been there for each other when we’re feeling down and supported each other with whatever we’ve wanted to do!

We have turned our house into a home, creating an environment where our children feel loved and safe. We have invested, bought several cars and been on numerous holidays – our first trip to America being our biggest highlight to date.

Our 10 years of marriage have been great – not perfect, but what marriage is! Marriage like parenting, was never meant to be easy. It’s something that has to be worked at everyday! It’s never meant to be taken for granted and needs to be nurtured to grow. It’s like a rollercoaster – you enjoy the highs and hold on during the lows.

To celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary, we tossed up many things to do. We went from staying at the Stanford Plaza for a night, to having a balance of time away with the kids and on our own to all of us together for three nights at our favourite Palm Beach resort. We made it a family occasion as that is what is so important to us!

We had the most amazing weekend. The weather was sensational, the kids had a ball. We ventured to the beach, the creek, walked through the mangroves and scooted to the park. We swam so much the kids must have been water-logged!! And of course I enjoyed my runs along the beautiful water front!

To top off the weekend, my lovely parents came down and stayed with the kids so we could go out and celebrate just the two of us! We had such a great night at Jupiters Casino eating loads, drinking a few and losing money on roulette! The night was topped off by a stroll along the beach watching the moon rise and watching the fireworks that were on at Southport! It was perfect:)

These past 10 years have been a real learning curve and as each day goes by we will continue to learn. We are so blessed to have some of the most amazing people around us who inspire us to the best we can be. Particularly my beautiful parents who are celebrating their 43rd wedding anniversary today.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the next 10 years holds for us. From this point we will continue to love and nurture each other. We will continue to enjoy our beautiful precious babies. We will continue to work very hard at building the life we want for ourselves and our children. But in the immediate future we will enjoy our first trip to America as a party of 5…only 7 weeks to go!!!!

Happy 10 year wedding anniversary Kane Trew…I love you with every single beat of my heart!

20/20….

Posted on October 6, 2014 by natalietrew

Today marked 20 days straight of exercise!

20 days ago, I finished work for term 3 and started what would end up for me, because I work part-time, 20 days of holidays. I set myself a challenge that I would exercise every day of my 20 days off and I can happily say that I completed my challenge today…20/20 done!

Over the past 20 days, I have run more than 50km, walked for hours, done a total of 40 minutes worth of planking, boxed for minutes on end and have done numerous amounts of squats, leg raises and lunges! And I’ve enjoyed ALMOST every second of it lol! Each day I would exercise for half an hour to an hour and in 24 hours that’s so simple to accomplish.

My love of exercise and particularly my running, is not only assisting me in keeping fit, lean and healthy, it’s my therapy. It keeps me sane. It helps me stay on top of the craziness that life brings when you’re a working mum of 3 kids under 8! It’s the only time I can focus on the thoughts in my head and where I spend a lot of time planning projects or daily chores. It’s my time where nothing else matters except for me! Most importantly it’s my energy….if I start my day with exercise I accomplish so much in my day – it makes me happy and I always feel fantastic after it!

There were only a few times over the past 20 days where I had to force myself to complete my daily exercise but I did it! Because the kids have been on holidays as well, they enjoyed many days with me and would ride their bikes while I walked or would plank alongside me. It’s been enjoyable for everyone!

I love my active lifestyle that I live. Between exercise and healthy eating, it’s not only giving myself the best chance of keeping my heart condition at bay, it’s leading a good pathway and setting a positive example for my very active children. I’ve been living this exact lifestyle for 3 years now and I haven’t yet steered off track. When I am feeling a bit flat or am in need of something to spice things up, I set myself a challenge like the one I’ve just completed. It allows me to regather and refocus on something new…like they say change is as good as a holiday!

My next challenge is to run 100k in the month of November 😳….wish me luck!!! 👍
I shall keep you posted!

My Place of Peace:)….

Posted on October 4, 2014 by natalietrew

Soft sand between my toes, cool breeze in my face, the sound of crashing waves – my place of peace is definitely the beach!

Since I can remember I’ve always LOVED the beach. When I was a little girl I would burst with excitement at the prospect of going to the beach. When I close my eyes, I can still visualise driving up the road waiting for the water to appear. I would sit there with the intent to scream with joy as soon as I saw the first glimpse of the ocean and you know I still have those same feelings now as an adult.

The beach is one place where I can be and feel as though the worry of the world is lifted from my shoulders and I only feel a sense of peace. I could sit all day and gaze out at what I would say be the most beautiful thing to look at. It makes me happy. I always feel content. I feel calm and confident when I’m at my place of peace.

Now that we have our own children, it’s become a very regular place to visit. The kids have discovered a love of the beach like their mumma and it’s so nice watching them laugh and have fun just like I did when I was a child. My favourite holiday moments and time as a family is always at the beach.

Last weekend was our final getaway for the summer to Palm Beach. It came at time where all facets of life were at their peak, but the moment I stepped foot on the beach, everything that I’d been feeling was washed away and my sense of peace and calmness was back. We had a ball just like always. The kids had a sneaky day off school on the Friday and we spent the morning on the beach (which we practically had to ourselves) playing ball, swimming, digging holes and searching for shells….it’s moments like this I absolutely live for!

The beach is also one of my favourite places to run. I always love a good barefoot run or a nice steady long run which always seems so much easier when you have such a amazing view to look at.

Some would ask if I love it so much why not move?? My husband would in a heartbeat, but I love it for somewhere to getaway to. I’ve spoken to many people who have moved to the coast because they ‘love the beach’ and hardly go to it as life becomes so busy they don’t have time! I have too many reasons to stay living where I am and am content keeping my place of peace somewhere I can go for a holiday away from my normal life!

Life is so fast these days and the pressure and demands put on people is becoming phenomenal. For me to deal with this, I rely on my place of peace as a means to recharge and regain my sense of peace and happiness, which allows me to tackle what life throws my way!

That’s Life….’real IS perfect’!

Posted on October 4, 2014 by natalietrew

I still can’t believe it!!! Me in a magazine!!! Who would have ever thought when I started writing my blog two and a half years ago, I’d feature in a magazine along with my beautiful family, all thanks to this little website I created -‘My Party of 5’! Everything I stand for and my blog stands for, is represented from being in this magazine feature and it makes me very proud to be sharing it with the people (you) who have supported me by reading my blog posts!

Last month I received an email asking if I would be interested in being apart of a campaign that That’s Life magazine was running. Two things came to mind straightaway….1. How bizarre – that was nana’s favourite magazine and 2. surely this is some sort of gee up!! Well it turns out it was no gee up and it makes me even more chuffed that my first (and probably only) magazine appearance is in the magazine my dear nana loved to enjoy every week for many many years!

I expected the article would require a photo that I sent in along with a few lines by myself, but it’s been so much more than that! I still remember the phone call that was made to me asking when I would be available for a photo shoot!!! My excitement was controlled during the conversation, but once I hung up the phone my little OCD brain became over stimulated with thoughts about, clothes, hair, jewellery!!!! The photo shoot went really well. The kids were so excited that they were going to be in a magazine and we had the best photographer who worked so hard to get some great shots! After 5 outfit changes and two hours of posing and smiling I was exhausted lol – it really isn’t as easy as it looks lol!

The blog post that was discovered by That’s Life, which prompted them to contact me, was the one I wrote about how I’ve ‘earnt my tiger stripes’! It was agreed by That’s Life and myself to include a section of that blog to accompany my photos! From that final phone call that basically sealed the deal, it would be two weeks until the article came out in the 43rd edition of That’s Life magazine! What a long two weeks to wait. I was excited and slightly nervous as to how the article would feature as it bared the part of my body that I never show – my belly!!

The suspense was killing me yesterday. I was hoping I’d find a newsagency that got their shipment of copies in early so I could buy it late yesterday. No such luck lol, but thankfully Kenny our newsagent man had his ready and waiting at 6.30am this morning. As the kids and I turned each page of the magazine we waited in anticipation. My heart was beating faster than normal and then there, right before our eyes was me (OMG) and me and my family (OMG) – we were really in a magazine!!! I’m so happy with the article – I’ve had a smile on my face all day – even when the car broke down, nothing was taking me down today lol!!!

I feel so privileged to be apart of an amazing campaign that That’s Life magazine has put together. I’m a huge advocate for women feeling good about themselves. Society puts so much pressure on women now to look a certain way, but if we all had a good hard look at ourselves, we are fabulous just the way we are! The ‘realvolution’ campaign is so inspiring which is why I agreed to be apart of such a campaign, in the hope that I inspire other women to feel good about themselves!

Being happy with yourself is not about having the perfect body, it’s about being happy in your own skin with the ‘real’ you – that is perfect! I encourage all my women followers to jump on the ‘realvolution’ bandwagon and shout to the world why you are awesome! What’s perfectly real about you? Find a photo of yourself that depicts this and celebrate ‘real is perfect’! And don’t forget to grab yourself a copy of this week’s That’s Life edition, as you could be in the running to win numerous amounts of awesome prizes!

Never in a million years did I ever think my blog would lead me to this day. I’m so glad I decided to write a blog. Not only does it help me to debrief with myself, if each blog teaches or inspires just one person at a time, then my job is being served! Thank you to everyone who has helped me to get to this point, because without people reading what I write, it would just be a personal diary of my thoughts…My Party of 5 is so much more than that….who knows where it could take me from here!

This one’s for you nana xoxoxo!

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