Today was SO stinking hot! But for some reason I didn't turn the AC on. I dont know why, but I have been reluctant to ever since we got solar panels on our roof. Adam, being the accountant and all, has been calculating all our savings and it is pretty exciting seeing how much we are saving on our energy bills. But at the same time it is pretty silly because now we are cutting back on things, like I only run the dishwasher after 8pm because its off peak and cheaper. Crazy stuff! But I am sure the novelty will wear off and I will succumb to comfort instead.

So today Annabel went to preschool, and I spent the day cleaning the house from top to bottom. Adam's brother Andy arrives here on Saturday which is very exciting! I haven't seen Andy since Annabel was 9 months old and he hasn't even met Amelia yet! So we are all really excited to see him and the rest of the family. In fact, Adam's parents are the only ones on Adam's side who have met Amelia. So it is going to be a great family holiday this year! We haven't ventured back to the US since Amelia was born, the trip seemed a little to daunting with 2 small children. But once our kids get older we will get back into it again. I'd love to take the girls over for a holiday and catch up with everyone there!

So the plan is to have a joint birthday party for the girls while everyone is here. I went online today and found the cutest Little Mermaid party stuff. My girls absolutely LOVE mermaids and Disney princesses, so I figured it would be the perfect theme especially since we are having the party at the beach. Earlier last year my Mum had made the girls a mermaid tail each, she was always sewing and making great things, so I am going to have the girls wear them. It will be really special and nice to know that Mum is apart of their birthdays.

It strange though, because Mum has been gone for 12 weeks now, and even though it has been awhile I still feel like she is going to come home. I guess it take awhile to sink in. Although I just try and be practical, and tell myself that there is absolutely nothing I can do about it, so I just have to get on with it. And its true! But one thing I am grateful for is that she is not sick anymore, and I dont have to worry about her. I was always worried. I dont like worrying, so I am choosing not to, well, trying not to worry about things anyway! I am missing her though, so very much and it is hard to think that she isn't coming back, ever. But one day at a time. I mean who knows the world could end tomorrow, and Jesus Himself could be taking us all home. Too much thinking though, I wreckon!

So anyways, back to the birthday party. It should be a great day for the girls, I cant wait to see their faces! I cant wait to have everyone here, and relax and have a great time. A good holiday is definitely needed!

Happy 2nd Birthday Amelia!

Happy Birthday Meelie Moo! Yesterday was Amelia's 2nd Birthday, and also Australia Day (26/1). The lucky little munchkin will always have a public holiday on her birthday, and will never have to go to school or work! Its hard to believe that my baby is already 2, which means Annabel will be 4 in 2 weeks!!!!
So yesterday we decided to take the girls into the city to South Bank for a swim and to join in all the festivites going on. I was really bummed though because my camera's batteries were flat and I didn't get any photos while we were there. The girls had a great time though, swimming, eating, playing, and watching everything that was going on. There were so many people there, but not so many that you were overwhelmed, but enough to create a great atmosphere. Lots of families celebrating, and everyone was dressed in the red, white and blue colours of our flag and there were flags everywhere, in many different forms and shapes. Adam's parents had sent the girls a cute American outfit for Christmas, all red white and blue, so they wore that and blended in very well! Its great that both flags have the same colours!
We ended up staying in the city for 5 hours, but decided to leave after Amelia was starting to lose it, and needed a sleep.
We then came home and rocked out to Guy Sebastion and Beyonce. The girls loved having their own little disco! We didn't have a proper birthday party for Amelia yet, because we decided to wait until all of Adam's family were over and have a joint party for the girls while we are away. So we had dinner and then the birthday cake. Amelia was so excited and Annabel equally excited when we brought the cake out with its lit candles on top. Singing happy birthday is by far the most exciting part of having a birthday. I think if thats all my girls ever got they would be stoked! I would love to be a kid again!

So the last couple of weeks have been busy! I have become really slack with my blogging and need to get back into it again. I dont want to turn around one day and wish that I had kept track of all things we've done as a family. Like my scrapbooking which has been untouched for months, and many months again before that. It seems though that my kids hate it when Im on the computer, but when I have the time, there is always something else I need to do. At night I am to tired to do anything except veg on the lounge or simply go to bed! I just need to post little blogs more often I guess!



Anyhoo! This past weekend we went up to friends Mark and Jody's place.They have Mia and Bella. Annabel and Mia are best friends. They haven't seen each other for ages, as we have been away and they have been away, so we the girls (and us adults!) were so excited to have a good catch up! It was great! We went out for Thai and we stayed the night, so it gave us plenty of time to chat away once the kids were all asleep without the need for babysitters. Mind you though, we didn't end up getting to bed til 3am! I have no idea where the time went, nor how I managed to stay up that late! Im lucky if Im still awake at 9.30pm! So we had a great catch up and the kids were so good.



Annabel however has been a bit difficult lately. Listening seems to be a real struggle for her and a constant battle for me! I thought "maybe she has something wrong with her ears?", but no. Mention the word chocolate and she tunes in quick smart! I just feel like Im yelling at her all the time and sending her to her room. Im make her stand in from of me and look me straight in the eye when I speak to her to make sure she is listening. She does all that except listen! GRRRR!!!! I get so frustrated! So now I have to make her repeat everything I say. Her mind is always wandering, and I realised that that concentrated look on her face was her listening hard to hear the TV to see which one of her shows was on! If only she would listen so closely to me! I guess my constant nagging is not working! So anyways, we are working on this "listening thing" now, and hopefully I can bring her attention back to me.

Camping trip

So christmas was over and it was time to get ready for the New Year! We had decided that we were going camping with my sister Jo and Steve and Nic on the way back for a little holiday and break the 10hr trip up. We left early on New Years Eve, and made it up to Stewarts Point by late morning. The 4 hour trip was alot easier! My sister had all the campsite set up and all we had to do was blow up our airbed and put it in the tent! It was great! The campsite was right on the water exactly 1 meter from the water's edge. It was a river connected to the beach, which was just over the other side of the mangroves. We camped there once before when Annabel was a baby. Camping is a huge Australian tradition. Every year, mainly at Christmas, families will go camping for a week or 2 to camping grounds (usually the same one) with friends and family. This camp ground was really nice as it had nice ementites and powered sited if you wanted them. There are camp grounds all up the coast, and we hope to get into the swing of camping as our kids get older. I always loved it as a kid.

Annabel and Amelia loved it. Annabel is a real little camper, she just lived in her swimmers and collected shells and both girls did alot of fishing. Because we were right on the water we would just cast a line out and the girls sat there on there chairs waiting for a fish to bite, and one did! Annabel caught herself a decent sized breem! It was actually quite big! The funny part though was that the hook wasn't in its mouth, she somehow managed to catch it with the hook in its back. Not funny for the fish though, but I have never seen a fish caught like that. She was very proud of herself!

My brothers and brother-in-law, all love fishing. My youngest brother Tim came camping aswell, and he and my Brother-in-law Steve and nephew Nic, all went out in the boat everyday catching alot of fish. It was great! We had an awesome fish fry for New Years Eve. They would catch everything from big fish to small fish for live bait, and nippers and pippies and they had crab traps out to catch all the big mud crabs which they did. Annabel and Amelia loved looking at all the different things they caught.

We only stayed for 2 nights, I could have stayed longer but we had to get back because Adam had to go back to work. But we are keen to go again next year!

Amelia sat there for ages waiting

for a fish to bite

The campsite

2 little camping munchkins

swimming at the little beach

The fish that Annabel caught

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was different but it was still a great day. We all had a huge breakfast on the BBQ of bacon, eggs and some croissants and bread rolls and so on. Needless to say we were all stuffed, an lunch was still to come! The weather was perfect, it was hot but not to hot. The girls had fun opening all their presents from everyone. We had a simple lunch with salads, chicken, ham and bread rolls. It was hot so we didn't want to do to much cooking. I made some mini pavlovas for desert and we had an assortment of slices and things. The girls ran around all day and there were toys spread from one end of the house to the other. Because it was hot we turned the hose on and the kids all ran through it to cool off and have fun. By the end of the day we were all tired and full to the brim. I was very happy to go to bed and catch up on all the lost sleep from the night before!

~Happy Birthday Jesus~

All tinseled up!

Playing hungry hippo!

My Dad with the girls

Very pleased!

The girls eagerly unwrapping

their Christmas presents

Final Good Bye....

So the night before Christmas both my girls woke up at least 5 times! They just wouldn't sleep! It was quite ridiculous. I told them that Santa doesn't come unless children are sleeping. Eventually they went to sleep but I was so tired the next day.

My family and I had decided that we were going to scatter my Mum's ashes on Christmas morning. My sister had collected them the week before and we thought that it would be nice to include Mum in our Christmas celebrations even though she wasn't here. It was sadder than I thought. We all woke up early Christmas morning, the girls unwrapped all their presents (they were thrilled that Santa had come!!!) and then we all headed off to the beach, with Mum wrapped in her neat little parcel.

Before Mum died, she had requested that we scatter her ashes in the ocean at the beach we always used to swim at. Every afternoon when it was hot Mum would take us there after school and we would all swim. Mum loved it there. So that morning my brother took his boat and he and my 2 other brothers and my Dad, went out in the boat while the rest of us stood on the shore and watched. My Dad had the honour of delivering my Mum to her final resting place. It was the final good bye. I didn't think I would be as sad as I was (I've had many sad moments, but I was feeling pretty strong at this point), but it was very emotional but beautiful at the same time, because it was just what Mum wanted.

When they all came into the shore we all through a rose into the water and they drifted out to sea with the current.

Annabel, however, didn't want to throw hers out, she said to me "Mummy, I want to keep mine forever and ever." She was sad, and cried. We didn't tell her exactly what we were doing, but we told her that we were going out to beach to say good bye to Margie one last time. I told her that Mum wasn't going to be there, but she thought she would be and she was upset when Mum wasn't there. It is so hard for their little minds to comprehend death, its hard enough for me to.

So then after our final good byes we headed back to my Dad's for a big Christmas brunch together.

The last few weeks have been very busy! Getting ready for Christmas driving the 10 hour drive to my Dad's, having Christmas, catching up with people, and then a 3 day camping trip on the way home and then back home again. Sometimes I think you need a holiday to recover from a holiday!

So we drove down to my Dad's house 3 days before Christmas. The girls were really good on the car ride down, I was really surprised! Annabel tends to get car sick so this time I gave her a car sick pill and it worked a charm! Not only that it made her tired so she did a lot of sleeping. We left at 1pm so Amelia was also ready for her nap so both of them slept for a good chunk of the way down. It was great!

We arrived late that night, but Annabel was awake and ready to play. She was so excited to see my Dad and wanted to sleep in his bed with him. I let her sit in there for awhile with him, which turned into and hour and half of talking. I dont know who was worse, Annabel or my Dad! He was just as excited to see her as she was. So eventually we all went to sleep, only to wake up bright and early and excited.

The few days before Christmas we decorated the house and it was very exciting. It was also sad knowing that Mum wasn't there, but we kept it happy for the girls. Before we came down Annabel really wanted to sit on Santa's knee and have her photo taken. It surprised me because she was always so scared of Santa. But we lined up for 20mins and both girls sat there and had there photo taken. Annabel was so excited about Santa coming it was really cute.