Sixth one.....

NOVEMBER 2012

OK...where did the time go?  Henry is now 6 months of age and beginning solids.  We've had a bit of an issue with his weight gain (he is only 5.4kg) which the specialists tell me is related to his bad eczema.  The solids were expected to help with increased weight gain, however he took a long time to get the hang of eating off a spoon - much longer than any of the others - and weight gain continues to be an issue.

Biddy's kinder hold their end of ear trip at the the Cobden Miniature Railway.  The kids travel by train to Camperdown and then by bus to Codben. They love it.  This is Biddy and some of her friends on one of the tiny trains.

 As most are aware Biddy's birthday is on Christmas day, so as a result, we always bring her party and celebration forward a whole month to the last weekend in November.  This year, she wanted a Princess party which delighted Bella no end!  This was the cake I made (super simple...just swiss rolls covered in icing).

Biddy and her best friend Lily

The King and Queen!

At kinder, they don't have birthday cake, but they do have fairy bread which the birthday child makes assisted by some chosen friends.  They also get to wear the birthday hat and pass around the fairy bread.

Yes...another update

OK....after a break in transmission, I am back, updating the blog.

OCTOBER 2012
During the school holidays, Mark and I took the kids to Melbourne Zoo for the day.  It was a great day, but it was PACKED.  Probably not the best of times to visit, but the kids loved it nonetheless.

 A couple of months ago, poor Henry developed an issue with his boy bits and required ultrasounds and subsequent treatment to get things back on track,  This particular day, I had to take him to the Royal Children's Hospital for a xray of his kidneys and a dye job up his tackle.  The student nurse who was working in the xray department was more than happy for a quick snap with him.

 Silage season.  Always busy and always stressful.  Although I should say that it is less so these days.  I can remember not that long ago when silage seemed to take about a good week (weather allowing) and we had to have a huge team on hand to drive tractors, rakes, mowers, and a seperate lot of staff to milk cows.  Now, silage is pretty much all over and done with in about 3 days.  This is bale silage bieng done in the pics and in the above photo, the 3 tractors on the left are contractors and the green one on the right is Mark on the tedder rake.

ooops...blockage!

I love this pic.....with the cows in the background heading home to be milked and Mark in the foreground working like crazy to get the feed to give to the cows in a few months time.

Fourth update....getting there!

Quite a bit happened in September.

SEPTEMBER 2012

Fathers Day.

This is Moshabelly Penguin, a class toy designed to stimulate creativity within and outside of the classroom.  Moshabelly came for the weekend of Fathers Day.

 Having fun with dad!

 Poor Henry has developed a severe case of eczema.  This is a rude shock as none of the other kids has it - although we call Biddy"Lizard Girl" because she has such rough skin. We have to see the dr about treatment for this as it makes him so miserable.

August saw my Father-in-law celebrate his 70th birthday.  I made the cake and after a bit of thought and changed plans, I arranged for a picture that I had taken of him driving the Chamberlain to be printed onto icing.  The sentiment is a rip off of the badge on the front of the Chamberlain tractors.

For his birthday, all Alan wanted was a family portrait done.  We did a huge extended family shot and then each sub family broke into their group an we photographed separately.  This pic is a snap of the kids waiting for our turn.

 Footy Fever.  I don't care if they barrack for another team (of if they don't barrack for anyone....I think this would be worse!), but they WILL dress in Magpie colours for school and kinder dress ups.

 I finally got my act into gear and got Henry christened.  The priest for the celebration was not Fr Michael because of his being on holidays.  We asked Monica and Libby to be godmothers.

 In the Christening gown that was Mark's and has been worn by all the kids.

 The cake.....a rip off of one of my stamping techniques!!

Tom with his godfather, David (Mark's cousin)

Third update

Still with me?

AUGUST 2012

 August saw the Olympic Games and with it, various activities throughout schools and kinders.  For the 2 weeks Wydinia kiddies dressed up as an Olympian.  Given that August is still pretty cold, I opted to bang one of my old waterpolo hats on her head and dress her normally.  She kept it on all of the day!

 These pics are the follow up to the removal of the cypress that I mentioned a couple of posts back.  Because the trees in the yard had been planted only abut 15 years ago, they had always had the protection from the cypress from the elements.  Once they were gone, the house trees (all natives) are now bearing the brunt.  For this particular tree, it was all too much and it came crashing down ON TOP OF MARK as he was taking washing off the line for almost the first time ever!  As you can imagine, he is wary of going near the washing line again.  The only real bonus for me (leaving out the fact that Mark was not killed), was that I got a brand new washing line that is spiderweb free.

 Another tooth gone.  #7. Tooth Fairy working overtime.

 My cousin Monica made her deb back in August and I travelled to Melb with just Henry and mum to see her.  She looked beautiful and so happy.  This pic reminds me that I have to process all the pics I took of the day/night and give them to her.  Just another job unfortunately.....sorry Monnie!

The bouncing baby boy.  Quiet content.

Next update

JULY 2012

Another month and another birthday.  This time, Tom turned 7yo and in a break from tradition, chose a non dinosaur themed party.  This time, it was Angry Birds, which has become one of his favourite things to spend time on.  The only trouble is, that he has only been able to play it on Mark's or my phones and this is not always convenient for any of us.  Cue here his present from Mark and I.  An iPod.  His is exactly like an iPhone - does nearly everything the same, except it is not a phone.  He was almost beside himself.

Young Henry....another month older.  I managed to finally find some time and make the thankyou cards and photo for Henry's arrival.  They came up a treat.  The pic below shows the front and back of the card and the vellum envelope that it slotted into.

 Tom lost tooth number 6 ( I think...from trying to count new teeth in this pic).

Get ready for a HUGE update!!!

Grab a cuppa for this update.  In fact, I am breaking it all up into segments in order not to bore the pants off you all.

I have to go waaaaaaay back to June of last year (ridiculous!)...

JUNE 2012

 Bella turned 2yo a month after Henry was born.  She is going through a Peppa Pig phase, so this was the cake.  She is also pink mad, but as I didn't think that the boys that were coming to the party would be all that rapt with dressing in pink, we made it a pink and red theme.  Everybody got into it and it looked great.  Easy theme.....pick a colour!

 We finally bit the bullet and arranged for the dirty big cypress tress just west of the house to be pulled down.  This decision has come after many years of complaints about how the trees were affecting the pastures and the tracks.  The view is extremely different now that they have gone and I cannot believe the effect that they had on the weather that hit the house (see more of this later as an example).  Now, the rain and wind belts the windows on the west side of the house where before this never happened.  All of a sudden we feel like we are at the mercy of the elements.  A new shelter belt has replaced it, but the effect of it will be a few years away yet.

Just shy of 2 months old, I managed to snap a few pics of our new addition.  This nappy has a matching shirt that was just too cute for words.

Ok...this is getting ridiculous

The length of time between posts on here - despite tantalising promises of updates - is out of control!  I see that I have missed Christmas updates and pictures, our Apollo Bay beach holiday, Biddy's 1st day of school and my birthday (ok...my birthday was only last week, but still...).

I really, truely, need to pull my finger out.

I will....I PINKY PROMISE...update this in the next few days.  I have to, because this time next week, we will be in Adelaide on the start of our big push west.  Yes, we are embarking on our 2nd ever BIG family trip.  This time we are headed to Perth and the south west region of WA.  We will be gone for 4 weeks (taking the kids out of school for the last 2 weeks of term and also the school hols) and hopefully in all that time, we don't kill each other.  I'm not hopeful.  Bella can't get past Camperdown without starting to whinge and moan and bang on about the same thing over and over and OVER again.  What hope is there on the long haul across the Nullabor?

I will be updating the trip as we go (similar to how I posted when we went to Darwin) so report back.  In the meantime, I will catch up on all things Billing related from November to now in the next few days (in amongst packing and getting ready to go!)