New Year's Eve...

This time of the year is a special time to spend with the kids as they are growing older. I am explaining to them that it is the end of one year, the beginning of the next. Really, if you look at it, it is just another day, another night and another day. But I think it is important to give the kids perspective on the things they have acheived in the year that has gone, and to praise the wonderful things they have done and to encourage them to keep on trying their best, because their best is all that they have to offer. For me as a parent, I always and forever praise the good, acknowledge the not-so-good for what it is worth and try to redirect the not-so-good things.

An example would be when Tom broke his arm. Easily prevented if he had not tried to scale a tall fence to get the football that had been kicked over it....then again, wrapping in cotton wool is not always an option if you want your kids to learn and grow.....and so he learned the hard way...not without me feeling gut wrenched....more to come in the future I am sure!

Nicholas has been an avid Bionicle Constructor, this is a good thing, and yet it has its short falls. for instance, leaving little pieces of Bionicle on the floor can hurt Mum's foot at 2am when she goes to check you are covered with blankets and are not upside down in bed!! Lesson learned, put bionicles away son! LOL

Sarah loves to sing, and so we made a message on the answering machine together. It is from an old song I know, "Hey, how you doin'"? Sorry you can't get through, why don't you leave your name and your number, and I'll get back to you!" Well, I always wanted to do that, and now, I have done it. Just Do it! Oh, and for her not-so-good thing is that she cut her fringe off so short that I cannot do anything to correct it, moral of the story is, Don't try to cut your hair by your own self! (I know it is the opposite of the Just Do it! slogan)

Mia has had a wonderful year of growth, not just in height either. Her ability to see things like a Hawk sees things is unbelievable. Even in the dark..her idea is that her eyes change from blue to green and that gives her the ability to have night vision...riiiight!

Hubby and I have been married 13 years back in September this year. Please do not think I am mad, but I have got to say that I love this person more than anyone ever. We might drive each other insane, even though we spend alot of the time passing each other at the door due to our work commitments, but we have one plan in action, and that is to bring up our kids in a good environment around people with equally good intentions.

With that I want to say that I hope everyone has a very safe New Year 2009. Hugg those that matter to you, tell them they matter to you over the phone if you have to, but just do it. You just never know what life is going to be like in the next second, minute or year!

It was awesome!!

So this is just an example of just one of the many bay window displays at Sam's house, the man who lives a few blocks from our place. This one had all the ice skating figures and Christmas trees and villages, so lovely.

This was Santa..of course! He handed out lollies to the kids and he had his house decorated madly with Bing Cosby singing figures, inflatable snow machines, the lot!

Christmas Day was great. We all woke up early and Santa got me the LIPS singing programme for XBOX 360. I was way way impressed! I just love singing and one of my favourite songs is on the list already, Khe Sanh by Cold Chisel. Hubby and I sang duet to this...full volume! HA!

We stayed 3 nights at my Aunt's place up the bush. There were 30 people at my Aunt's for Christmas lunch. It was a really hot day and so my cousins all had water fights with water pistols. It is just so lucky they got alot of water in their water tanks and dams when we got that deluge of rain 2 weeks ago.

My cousin's new wife got drenched by my Uncle. At first she was really cranky about it, but then she got EVEN! Haha, you ought to have seen my Uncle.

I took the kids to my cousin's bush block for a swim the day after Christmas. They canoed and paddled on a surf board. We got to see lots of wild life...kangaroos, galas, cockatoos, wild geese and ducks...and a tiger snake that decided to have a swim at the same time as us.....of course we evacuated the water promptly.

We drove back to the Big Smoke (the city) yesterday and I worked an afternoon shift in Emergency Dept. It was definitely business as usual for this time of the year.

Children everywhere!!!

Today at 11:23am my cousin came through the door with 3 of her children. I then promptlytold her to leave right away, both her and her husband...but that is ok, I was not rude, we were being jocular. I am minding her eldest 3 kids so her and her hubby can go have a fun time at his work Christmas party. Do the sums, I have four kids, she left three with me..that makes SEVEN kids!!!
Ok, time to open the bar here, Southern Comfort or Dimple? Lots to choose from as we have alot in the bar, we just never drink any of it.
Seriously though, my cousins are from the bush and they are so wrapt to be here in the big smoke. We just walked back from the park. They rode their scooters and bikes and walked Bondi on his lead. They read awful graffiti on the slides, paint/texta still wet in fact. Someone will receive a phone call on their mobile for no-good-reason just because of what is written..leave it up to you to guess what is written. "Ring a r%$t" basically, but even worse than that, the language, it is worse than what I hear come out of the mouths of the drunken people that are bought into my place of work!
The gifts are all wrapped, and some are not. The ones that are not wrapped will be going into Stockings and new pillow cases I got for the kids. The pilow cases are a good idea, number one, it saves wrapping paper, maybe even some trees(aka the environment) and number two, the kids will be able to use them practically.
We will be cooking the webber chooks (chicken for you out of towners) to take to my Aunts for Christmas Day lunch. They get consumed first out of anything that goes on the table really. Then my Aunt's pork, my cousin's lamb and my Aunt's prawn cocktail (yummo).
Mostly I am looking forward to relaxing in the bush setting, just watching the kids get have a ball wih their cousins.
Tonight I will take them all for a walk to see local Christmas lights.

Yummy things..

This was what my birthday cake looked like, that is before it was devoured by my children, and of course, my dear husband who bought it! It was a chocolate mousse-cake from Ferguson Plarre Bakehouse.

This is what Mia made for me yesterday when I was cleaning out cupboards. She walks over with the plate, cut up banana, a strawberry and some coke zero..which she promptly drank half of the coke zero herself :)

One day last week Mia made me some Salada biscuits with sliced banana on them and some gherkins...right on!!

Local Christmas Lights..

This image was taken by Sarah, my 7 year old little miss.... it is of a place near our house. It is a little unit really. The gentleman who decorates it buys a few more of those rope light creations each year and places them neatly on tall over the place. It is not over done like some of the places, it is actually pretty to look at. That and the "Jack-in the box" Santa on their drive way.

We have placed some lights on a little tree out the front of our house, they look nice when we arrive home at night. Then, our Christmas tree has some flashing lights, it is enough I think.

Work Christmas Party 2008...

Today, despite the wettest few days Melbourne has had in 3 years, the end of yea Christmas Party went on. Three of the kids went on the Harley Davidson ride...very very cool!

Nicholas flew like a bird on the Bungee Trampoline Ride.
Sarah giggled and giggled and could not flip around like Nicholas did just because of the giggling!

Sarah was super impressed with Rusty the Pony.

Mia was equally impressed with Chelsea the pony.



Oh no, a present mix up..Nick got a "girls aged 9 Gift" to begin with. Santa is just explaining how things can go wrong sometimes.. and of course, Nick is lending an ear.

Here they are, my four kiddies. Mia is still a bit funny about the man in the red suit, and so Nicholas had to hold her still. Nick got a building set, Tom got a Volcano Kit, Sarah got a jewelry box and Nick, Mia, she got a dancing singing Disco Doll!! Yeah!!

37 today..

Yes, I am 37 years old today. I have been spoiled...I got cards, flowers, jewelry and hugs and kisses. I feel very blessed :)

My cousin's Aussie Bush Wedding...

The setting for last Saturday's wedding of my cousin to his fiancee was at his farm which is about an hour's drive out of Melbourne. This is the rotunda that he made. It has a wood fire inside it. The bride-to-be did a lovely job of decorating it for the ceremony.
The guys arrived on time carried on tray of a massive Wrangler Utility...a very country style wedding :)

The bride, she arrived fashionably late..some 40 minutes late in fact :) The girl to the right of the image is my "little" cousin Nyssa, she absolutely towers over me at age 15!!

The ceremony was lovely, even if it did sprinkle a little rain at times, something that nobody complained about because we really do need the rain here, and my cousin's dam is indicative of that, it is so low in water capacity right now compared to last Christmas time. Mia took this wonderful image of the new Mr and Mrs wedding couple :)

Off to have images taken at Malmsbury Botanic Gardens aback of the Wrangler. My cousin Nyssa looking gorgeous and cheeky to the right of image, my new cousin "the Bride" and my other "little cousin" Callum with the pointing the finger stance...bundy rum in his stubbie holder of course!

My four kiddies, Nicholas, Tomas, Sarah and Mia. Tom's motor bike in the background. I could not get them to sit still here, they absolutely love the bush, and they ran off as soon as the shutter closed on the camera.

Ethan, my cousin's boy, with Tomas and little Finnley at the front.

In our caravan, this was a camping bush wedding, dance til you drop party :) Back left then to the right and to the front are....Nicholas, Sarah, Aidan, Alyssa, Finnley and my Mia. Between my cousin and I we have 9 children.... Tom, Ethan and Bryleigh are missing from this picture.