New Years Eve

We stayed in.  Having a 2 and 4 year old makes it hard.  Ones that refuse a daytime nap and then turn into little psychos are not ones we can take out.

In our celebration of NYE, I got some sparklers.  It was the first time the boys had seen sparklers and they were amazed.

BTW Mark is with my parents at Phillip Island, I don't ignore or forget him.

So... what are you doing there Dad?

Sparkles start, smiles start.

Love the looks on their faces, having never seen them before.

No fear, just amazed.

Wow.

Thumbs up!

What do you mean you can't make it go again???

Another one before bed.. just for fun (then my battery died)

Then the fireworks start.  They are everywhere and often.  Two terrified dogs.  Looks like a minor injury on Charlie.  We get awfully cranky about fireworks.  They are illegal and they are going off everywhere - not just the city!

So 2013 was a challenge.
I started a new job, I still wonder if I made the right decision.  The pressure at my job is immense, but the satisfaction is too.
Jamie is still working night shift.  Seems to be in a better rhythm though.
Mark did reasonably at year 9.  I'm looking forward to a more productive year next year for Year 10.
Ryan is in the Pre-Kinder room at his creche.  He loves his teacher and she is awesome.  He's very good at sports and is getting the hang of riding his bike.  Toilet training went VERY well and transitioning to his big boy bed did too.
Ben moved up three rooms at crèche. He is now in the Toddler's room and is a friendly happy kid.  His drop offs are bad, but will improve.  His transition to a big boy bed was also marvellous.  Still have not started the toilet training, but will get to that around Easter time.

We went on our HUGE overseas holiday.
Worked too much.
Had a Christmas Holiday at the beach.
Worked too much.
Seemed to get sick an awful lot.
Turned 40!
Body wearing out.

My resolution for next is to be ORGANISED.  If I can be organised then all those other "normal" resolutions can fall into place (lose weight, exercise, eat better, do more fun stuff)  Part one of organisation is working - menu plan is done and freezer cooking is also done.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve.  Weather was much improved.  Got to go the beach and make a sandcastle. 

This is Sheena and Roy building a sandcastle, we were at a different beach

Ryan appears to be a bit of a nudist.  When we went the first time to the beach, we did not take swimmers as it was a bit cold.  I took a towel just in case and to dust sand off.  Anyway, Mark could not help himself and took off his top and dove in.  This inspired Ryan who stripped naked and started to pee before anyone knew what was going on.  Then he jumped in.  Stayed in for a bit and then started to turn blue.   By this stage Sheena was in up to her waist.  Roy had fallen in (see attached pic) and then even little Benny fell in, nappy and all.  So we ended up driving home with two naked, unhappy and cold children.

Perfectly timed photo of Roy falling in the ocean.

We also put out some reindeer food for Santa, got them to bed before we did the whole milk and cookie thing.  But to be truthful, Christmas is not about Santa.   No one seemed to miss it.

Sheena and Ben cooperating

All the kids trying to share some Reindeer food

More distribution.

Holiday Time - Day One Inverloch

Maybe this was day one, or maybe day two... the first two days were DREADFUL weather.  Freezing cold and rainy.  The kids mainly played Lego and cars inside, but we eventually ventured out to playground where these photos are taken.

Roy and Ryan on the bee

Roy and Ryan being posers

Ben on the bee

Opening their sandcastle making kits from their grandparents

Rewind a bit.  It's the Saturday before Christmas and we have rented a large 5 bedroom holiday house in Inverloch which is about two and a bit hours out of Melbourne.  The house is lovely, some strange furniture (ie the lounge room) but otherwise comfy with a great kitchen house.  We have come with my sister and her husband and their two children.

Easter 2013

Easter Sunday was at our house this year.  Jo, Mark and the kids came over just after 9.30 for our Easter Egg hunt.  

Seeing Jo and I were raised by the same parents, its not surprising we have very similar outlooks on the non-traditional or commercial side of Easter.  Neither of us "get" the Easter Bunny, why has that become a thing recently.  We are all for the chocolate, but getting up early to see if the EB has been and then having the kids hyped up on choc from 5.30 am just does not make sense to us.  Phew.  Finally we agree on something.

The 4 little kids all got a basket each, Sheena and Roy made theirs at school.  Sheena's was very dodgy, Roy's had structure and was actually quite nice.  My little two got pink ones from K-mart.  I'm sure they will be psychologically scarred for life.

There was a decent amount of eggs *hidden* in the grass in the backyard.  To be fair, once they'd all been collected, they went back into the collective container and re-distributed.

It was a good hunt.

Here is a cute action shot.  Ryan is running, tongue is out for added balance and concentration.

Here is our posed one.  Sheena was already inside gobbling up her stash.  Roy looks gorgeous.  

Ben is doing his "cheese" face, which now necessitates a head tilt.

Ryan is showing off his basket, and I believe also "cheesing"

30 December 2012

Tomorrow is New Years Eve.

I don't care for NYE, never have.  Its not my thing.  I don't drink more than two drinks in any sitting, I hate (HATE) seeing drunk people, I'm not a fan of crowds and to be perfectly honest, fireworks are BORING.  We sort of want to go and stay in town, then the boys can see the fireworks and we don't need to be in a crush.  But I feel this is yet another pipe dream.  One we talk about but never actually do.

Illness & Injury

We've not been "right" this week.

Firstly Ryan:
We went to playgroup, there is an outside section with a kids roller coaster (if you have a big back yard, this would be awesome). Ryan loved it, he kept indicating more, I finally got him off it and busied him with something else, but then a little girl hopped on the car. Ryan ran over, tripped on a tricycle and landed on his nose, we have a graze! Later in the day, I picked him up and collided chin with thumbnail and we have a graze! Two days later, other side of the chin collided with my thumbnail and we have a graze!

Mark:
Nothing to report. Just normal puberty stuff and a sore foot. I think that new footy boots might be in order and some good fitting runners. That kid is growing like crazy.

Ben:
He's just delightful in every way. He's so friendly.

Jamie:
Nothing to report.

Me:
As I have talked about previously here, I injured my breast, had some attachment issues and therefore have had a lot of pain. I have been expressing my milk, and all week have been feeling like I was going to get a cold / flu, but it never eventuated. I called the Breast Feeding Support Line yesterday and she felt that might have an infection... after talking about it to 7 different people (Jamie, Mum, Breast feeding lady, receptionist and nurse on the phone of GP Access, nurse at GP access and finally the doctor) I have been given antibiotics and hopefully will feel better soon. So this morning Ben had his first top up feed of formula and took to it so well. The can states for 2-4 month old make up 180ml of formula, I can express 80ml. OMG that is a huge difference.

Must start packing for Melbourne! Leaving between 4 and 6 tomorrow morning.

Thinking...

I want to visit my parents. I'm getting quite keen to do this soonish.

Next week is the last week of school for this term. Mark is going down to Melbourne for the holidays, he's flying down with Jetstar. Now my thoughts are that we change the flight, so the boys and I drive down, Jamie flies down on the middle weekend. Then the boys and I drive back.

I think it is a goer.

Need to convince everyone that this is a good idea.

General Updates.

The ski holiday was pretty damned good.
We went to Merrijig which is right next to Mt Buller. We had a lovely house that we shared with the Storer-Dunn family and the Waters family. The guys and the Waters family went skiing most days and had a good time. I hung out at the house with Connie and Toby. It was lovely spending time with her again and meeting the new nephew. He's a great little fella.

Jamie attemped to snowboard, after a day and a quarter he decided it was too painful and went back to skiing. Marko did really well with snowboarding... i loved his comment "I'm so good at snowboarding, I can do everything except stop". His version of stopping was to fall over (I beleive that it is quite common for boarders to fall). He improved out of sight once his instructor informed us his board was too big for him and got a smaller one (I told Jamie it was too big, but what do I know???)

I went walking on the first day when it was raining and sleeting. Absolutely awful. But now it is just a memory. So I'm so glad that I went up Mt Buller, just such a shame that I couldn't ski. Maybe next year I'll be able to. We have already sort of planned next year's ski trip to possibly Mt Hotham.

Then had a few days down in Melbourne with the family. Nice to be with Mum & Dad. Seeing Jo, Sheena and Roy again. The kids are growing up so fast and are terribly cute. Unfortunately they both had pretty icky colds... there sure was a lot of snot!

Coming home was a bit of a drag. LONG drive only with Mark. We drove the first day all the way to Canberra. LEft Melbourne at 7am and arrived in the capital about 4ish. We were so tired we just stayed at the motel, in bed at 6pm and watched Foxtel! The next day (Friday) we went to Telstra Tower, a look out over Canberra, it was actually very very nice. Then we went to the War Memorial, much more emotional than I would have thought. I think having a child makes war more real... if it was 100 year ago, it is only 6 years away from the first world war, there fore I was thinking Mark would have gone to WWI, made me almost cry. Only stayed for just over an hour but was still very emotional.

On holiday.

Seriously not much happening. I have cold, a nasty one, mum keeps saying its "Swine Flu". Gee I hope not. We're off to the snow in a couple of days. I need to recuperate so the house is satisfactory before going away, plus I need to pack.

Today I collected our bench top for the kitchen. Can't wait for Jamie to come home now so we can bring it in and look at it. Its quite beautiful. It was only $625, so bloody cheap too.

Our car was detailed on Saturday, its gorgeous as well. Well worth having done.

Jamie bought Marko a snow board on the weekend. Not really worthwhile as it doesn't come with bindings and bindings are very expensive. I wish he'd discussed it with me first. But he did get some gloves, thermals and goggles. He's a happy little camper.

Not doing anything at the moment, just being sick.

All is good with "little Gilford" the amnio tests all came back very good, no chromosomal problems at all. Seems to be growing well, just waiting on some movements... damnit little fella kick your mother.

Leaving for our road trip on Friday, the lovely Kathryn is caring for our dogs and we'll be heading down the F3 to Sydney then the Hume to Melbourne. Very much looking forward to it.

Decisions

I need help.

We need a holiday this year. I just don't know where I want to go. I'd like to go somewhere different.
First thoughts are:

1. South America... but where in South America, it is such a big continent. The language difference is quite scary for me. Getting there would be expensive but cheap once we got there.

2. Mexico... the language is still a problem, more beachy and quite hot. I'd imagine this would be a fairly cheap holiday as well.

3. America... I'd love to see the places I see on tv, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, New York and just doing a road trip. This one will be exy

4. Thailand... to be honest, it does not appeal at all.

5. Fiji... civil unrest.

6. Samoa... someone mentioned this the other day... .hmm might have to do some research.

7. Europe... well we've both been there, but its been 9 or 10 years and we haven't done it together

8. Hawaii... hmmm just not sure, can get pretty much the same holiday in Bali. I would really like to see an aircraft carrier though.

9. Canada... could see the rellies.

10. Ireland... I think it would be beautiful and I'd really like to go, might have trouble convicning Jamie though. For some reason I think Ireland has the same appeal as New Zealand.

11. Tasmania... boringly close but I really want to go back and get some good memories, the last time I was there was one of the worst periods of my life - I became a victim - and I want to change my memories.

12. New Zealand... again I want to rewrite my memories and travel there with Jamie

13. China/other asian countries.. once again, Asia just does not appeal to me.

So anyone want to give me their thoughts? I'm totally open to suggestions, so far the front runner in our mind is somewhere in South America. Argentina, Peru and a bit of central America ie Panama (Jamie wants to see the Prison Break prison... yes our life is totally shaped by tv)

Planning a Holiday.

Jamie and I are planning a trip to HAWAII... how cool is that?

• We both need to get new passports - very sad - they have been gathering dust.
• Book time off work.
• Book flights.
• Book accommodation.
• Work out my feelings about leaving Mark behind. We'll go to Queensland once the baby we are going to have is a toddler, ok feelings are fixed.
• Get Dad up to babysit / get kid to school.
• The SAVE SAVE SAVE SAVE SAVE.
  

A girl I worked with and a Facebook friend from long long ago have both been to Hawaii and are in the process of giving me some good tips. Tanya stayed at Aqua Wave said it was good there, so will definitely check that one out. Rhys hasn't giving me options of accommodation yet, but he will if I ask him.
Must go to a travel agent to get a good deal. Whatever you do, don't tell Jamie this, but I don't completely trust the internet and tv for that matter. I always thought Jetstar would be the cheapest. Well I just looked up Harvey World Travel and .... Qantas is very cheap - and they give you food!!! OH my goodness. I'm in shock.
I credit the pictures to this site.