February 2012

Back into the swing of regular life.  Tom back at school and starting in grade 1.  Biddy starts at 4yo kindergarten and Bella starts 1/2 day a week at occasional care.  This now gives me 4 hours on a Friday to myself.  Kidless.  Bliss.  But let's face it, I use this time to do all the little jobs that have piled up throughout the week that you don't want to do with small kids in tow, such as the banking, post office, shopping, in person bill paying, etc.  The 4 hours FLIES.  And then it is followed by about 2 hours of going backwards and forwards in picking kids up again.  Thank god Tom is on the bus.  That is one time saving.

A Yellow Day.  With Nanny.

Ready to face the world without mummy...*sob*

the water play was an immediate hit.

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Tom managed to loose tooth #3.....right before school photos!  Happened last year too.

Mark took delivery of our brand new Claas tractor!  The one that this replaced arrived at the dealership the day that tom was born.  Mark would let them deliver it to the farm until we returned from Melbourne with the baby!  So it was coming up 7 yo and had done a LOT of work.  If it stays true to form, Tom will be 14yo when we get another replacement!!

How happy does he look?

Some preggy pics

For those of you wondering.....no, this pregnancy was not planned.  but it wasn't completely avoided for either.  We just figured that if it happened, it happened.  And for those that are counting, this is pregnancy #11.  Like the other kids, this pregnancy has been closely monitored and I have had to take various hormone supplements to ensure the viability.  It sounds a drag, but you do what you have to do.

Because of my age, I had to go for an amniocentesis.  I did the same with Bella too.  I hate them, not because of the actual test, but the whole waiting game afterwards.  But everything is fine in that regard.  And NO, we do not know the sex.  It is amazing how many times we are asked this.  I guess a lot of people find out these days and that is their choice, but it is not mine.  So much of my pregnancies is planned, monitored, watched, tested, probed, poked etc...it is nice to have at least one surprise in it all.

This pregnancy has been completely different to any of the others.  I have been much more active and in fact, have not really shown that much.  I payed racquetball right up to 19 weeks (even playing int he grand final....which we won!) and no-one knew I was expecting.  I did loose 11kg just before getting pregnant, so that may have something to do with it all.

20 weeks & 2 days

25 weeks

27 weeks and 5 days

32 weeks

34 weeks and 5 days

I recently had some professional maternity pics taken by Wal Slow form South Western Studios.  I have only seen the proofs so far, but they are GORGEOUS.  Jan (Wal's wife) and I discussed what type of pictures I was after prior to the session and now my choices are just so damn difficult!!!  As per every pregnancy, we choose one to be enlarged to go on our bedroom wall.  Mark reckons that this is definitely the last kid we are having because we are running out of wall space!  Ha ha.  In the meantime, more preggy snapshots are coming!

January 2012 - part 2

The beach escape!  Trying to tear Mark away for the farm in January is a lot like trying to exptract all his teeth with no anaesthetic.  It just ain't gunna happen.  But we did come to a compromise and we were very lucky on the booking side of things.

As a general rule, trying to book anywhere along the GOR in summer holidays is a nightmare and is something that needs to happen 6 months in advance.  We decided to try our luck at Apollo Bay, because this is technically sort of within Mark's CFA area and close enough to home to fly back if needed for CFA duties (oh, don't make the mistake in thinking he would fly back for FARM stuff!!! ha ha ha....he is 100%, totally wrapped in CFA stuff at this time of year).  But would we get in anywhere?

As luck had it, we were able to secure 4 nights (usual is 7 - 10) because of a cross over in bookings.  It also suited well for me because I had a class that I had just booked and needed to be back in Colac for on the weekend.  So it all worked out.  The kids got their beach holiday - although it wasn't all THAT warm in the water - and we got a mini break away.  Especially not knowing if we could get away in 1st term school holidays due to the baby.

Biddy in her brand spanking new wetsuit.....all of a size 3!  And her new boogy board.  The gear encouraged her to hit the waves.

Riding the waves

The obligatory sand burial.  This time....Biddy.

Bella and I.  Looking a touch cold.

On one of the days, we took the kids to the Lighthouse.  Despite living so close, neither Mark nor I had ever been there.  And the surprise was...locals get in for FREE!  Yay.  So that saved us about $30+.

Mark is not fond of heights.....he walked up poked his head out the door and walked straight down!

Biddy, on the other hand, is the complete opposite and I had to stop her climbing on the rails for a better look! 

A bonus of the stay was a night-time carnival on the foreshore.  We took the kids down on the last night.  There was enough for the bigger kids to do, but not a lot for littlies like Bella.

Biddy nearly drove us nuts wanting to have a go on the reverse bungy.  She loved it

Tom also wanted a go, but he is as scred of heights as is his old man....check out the face.  He was happy to come down after 5 minutes.

On the dodgems

January 2012 - part 1

Lots of photos in January.  And what I have for you is just a selection.

We took the kids to Melbourne to the museum.  We drove to Geelong and then caught the train to Melbourne.  This gave them the experience of a train trip (which was exciting for them), but also strung the day out a bit longer.  Plus, we didn't have to pay as much for fuel and nothing for parking.

The MAIN attraction as far as Tom was concerned!

This was a bit of a cool pic

Christmas 2011

I thought that I would keep this post separate from the rest of the December posts...

Christmas-time at Craiglands.  Becoming a more exciting and much anticipated day of the year as the kids get older and work out what is going on (ie presents).  This year Bernie, Bret and Monica came and spent a few days with us, adding to the chaos that is our normal lives.  The kids were way too spoilt but everyone was well and truly blessed.

The kids received a trampoline from mummy and daddy this year.  A very popular acquisition to the backyard play equipment.

Bret.....being Bret! 

Bernie

Mum and Bella

Mark

Mum and Mark

Mum, Judy and me.  Getting ready for lunch. 

Carving the turkey.  Bernie and Tom

 Can't forget that Christmas day is actually Biddy's birthday.  Here she is with her birthday cake aka our 2nd dessert! (coconut and strawberry pavlova stack).

4 years old today!!  Happy Birthday little girl.

Our 2011 family Christmas photo

December 2011

Mum turned 70 on December 7th.  She looks good hey?  Every year my mum's extended family get together for a Xmas BBQ in early December, so we took the opportunity to also have a cake and to sing Happy Birthday to her.  The cake was a white chocolate bourban cake....quite more-ish.

Mum's b'day cake

 At the Xmas BBQ, the kids get a present out of the Santa Sack.  Tom was absolutely delighted with his present this year - an Angry Birds game.  He is just soooooo into Angry Birds at the moment.  It was the best 0.99c iPhone app we ever spent!!

A warm day in December....

 Last day of daycare and school.  Next year, Biddy leaves daycare behind and moves into 4yo kinder.  She is in the same complex,, but will have different teachers.

Biddy with Vicki

What a difference a year makes.  This photo of Tom makes him look like he is in about grade 2!  His first year of prep done and dusted!

With Judy Carr - one of the prep teachers

With Nicole McNamara - his prep teacher

With Angela Kelly, St Mary's school principal

At the end of the year, we lost one of our cats.  Felix was about 16yo and was on a steady slippery slope of health.  In fact, he had an abscess removed from his neck that he never really got over and in the end it was all a bit much.  However,  living on a farm means that you really need a cat and our other cat - Spare - is also getting on in age.  The kids and I thought that it would be good to give Mark a new cat for Christmas.  Problem: kittens are few and far between at this time of year.  Luck was on our side when a St Mary's school family had an unexpected litter.  The kittens were far too young to be picked up prior to Chrissy, so we went out the week before, took a photo and gave this pic and a sachet of kitten food to Mark for Christmas!  We were only going to get the orange one, but the tortise-shell one was just so damn cute.  Mind you, there was another one there as well that the family tried to give us!  But I think 2 is enough!

Fred and Ginger....except the sexes are the opposite way around!

 After a significant period of time with no poultry on farm, it was time to get some new chooks.  Mark's sister got onto a free range business that was closing up shop and had chooks for cheep (!  get it?!), so we grabbed 5.