Another Teenager!

As most of you know, Joshua turned 13 on Jan 27th. He had a really nice birthday (so he tells me), and was able to have the company of Thomas, his cousin from Melbourne and their family with us for a few days. Josh flew down to Melbourne on Jan 16th and stayed a week with Thomas, before travelling back to Sydney with their family on the 24th Jan.

He had a great week and I was glad he had the opportunity to challenge his independence.

He is now officially a teenager, although he is so tall, he seems older than he is. Josh has grown so much in the past year and now is the same height as me... or maybe even taller!

Mitchell was uninpressed with Josh's demonstration of how much he has grown compared to him. Mitchell still has 14 months to get there!

A ray of sunshine

I woke up a few days ago to a misty morning. It had been really hot the prior day, but the temperature had dropped overnight and it was quite foggy. I looked out of the kichen window and saw the rays of sun trying to break through. It looked magnificent and I caught some pictures before it disappeared.

Bailey's bedroom

Our whole house looks very 'generic' at the moment, all painted one colour and with so many other things to finish, we have not really spent any time or money on personalising the boys bedrooms.
For a bit of a birthday surprise for Bailey, we started on his room first. I didn't change the colour of the walls, as I have been a bit short of time, but I painted his brown wooden bed with white paint, bought new linen and decorated it in a nautical theme. I wanted it to still be young boy-ish, but something he won't outgrow in a year or two.
We bought him a lamp and side table.




I asked him if he would like to paint his own art work for his walls. (Always a little bit risky as you can't predict the outcome!)



Of course, I suggested how he should do it, but he painted it himself. We were both happy with the outcome! He even signed it 'skipper,' which is our nickname for him.

A week at Hyams Beach

The day after Bailey's Baptism (29th Dec.) we left on our holiday for Hyams Beach. Hyams is a 3 hour drive south from our house and is one of our favourite places. The sand is so white and it is not as tourist covered as the north coast. This is the holiday we take at this time each year, at digfferent spots with Andrew's other brothers and sisters and their families and his Mum and Dad. The kids love hanging out with their cousins for a week, and Andrew loves the fishing. This year the houses we rented backed right on to the beach, so it was super convenient.

Bailey and Lachlan had a great time in the waves body surfing, and digging in the sand.

Josh and Isabelle building their sandcastle.I could get used to this... it was one of the few moments Andrew was not fishing!

Andrew had his biggest catch ever during the week. He pulled in 10 king fish with Jordan and Bailey one day and they came home with grins from ear to ear. We cooked some of them up for dinner for the family that night and still have a freezer full which we brought back home with us.

Bailey claims his was the biggest, telling me, "Dad had to hold the rod, while I used two hands to reel it in."
Jordan helped Andrew scale and clean them all. Yuk! A job I was glad not to have to do.

When the boys weren't at the beach, there was still plenty to do. Apparently Bailey was teaching Isabelle the finer points of chess. I am thinking that one lesson from Grandpa Otterson two years ago must have gone a long way!




This was the view from the boat of the light house at Jarvis Bay. Andrew braved the choppy seas for another day of fishing. This time he had no luck as a seal was trailing the boat and kept eating anything they attracted.

The local area we stayed in is a National Park. It really is beautiful.

In all it was a great week. We will definitely be back.

Bailey's Baptism

The next big thing on our calendar was Bailey's Baptism. I can't believe that all the boys have now been baptised. How time flies. Bailey was so excited about his day and that he was being baptised on his actual birthday.

Bailey had wanted his own alarm clock for his birthday present so he can wake up for school on time, so we dicided to get him a nice watch instead (with an alarm function). I am a little wary of the whole alarm thing though as I am not one to wake a sleeping child!! Besides that, Bailey is up 2 or 3 hours before school starts already.

We got him a G-shock, so hopefully it will endure the adventures of an 8 year old. I wish they were 'lose-proof,' then we would be set.

Bailey's baptism was lovely. He is such a good boy by nature and took his baptism very seriously. He looked so handsome in his white clothes. I guess that is the last time those white trousers will be needed in our family. Lynda and Dave.. you guys are up next! Need some white trousers??After Bailey's baptism we had a family gethering back at our house for dinner. Tara and Greg came to the baptism and back for dinner and it was nice to see them after a long break. We miss them since they moved to Canberra.

Christmas Day

I know it is almost a month since Christmas, but I figure it is better late than never, so here's what we did on Christmas Day...

We had had the kitchen company at our house until 8.30 Christmas Eve, installing part of the stone for the benchtops. Although it didn't all get finished, we were able to use it Christmas day, and Andrew had plumbed the sink in, so it was functional. Not my ideal way to spend Christmas Eve, but I was grateful they made it to us at all, after their machines for cutting the stone broke down.
Our morning started bright and early at 6.30am, much to Jordan's horror. He had stayed up late the night before helping to assemble the trampoline and figured the best Christmas present would be to NOT get woken up at the crack of dawn by his brothers. He was a good sport though and soon got into the spirit of things, hunting for presents under the tree.

Thanks Mark and Jeni for Bailey's present. He was especially excited about the peanut butter cups!

Mitchell in his new trail bike protective clothes. He has barely worn anything other than these since christmas!

Josh putting on his 'excited face' over his new mobile phone.

Jordan looking a little more awake.

Seeing the trampoline for the first time...

We had to set it up in the garage so they wouldn't see it out the window before we got out of bed.

We had a nice morning, the boys were excited with their presents and we had even manged a few surprises despite Mitchell's sneaking and peeking!

After getting my camera (as an early Christmas present in October), I didn't think I was getting a present, but Andrew and the boys really surprised me with a small digital TV I had been wanting for our bedroom.

We ate our traditional christmas breakfast of apple cider, croissants, and strawberry yoghurt with added fresh strawberries along with chocolate and goodies from our stockings. Any food is allowed on Christmas!

At about 11am everyone started arriving for Christmas lunch at our house. More presents and more food. We had ham and turkey, June's chicken and almond salad and lots of veges. Desserts topped it off with Pavlova, trifle, chocolate cheesecake, christmas pudding and fruit platters. In all we had 24 people, but still had so much food left over. Everyone contributed to the food and it was all delicious.

By 5 in the afternoon everyone left and I crashed, the christmas lead up getting the better of me. It was a fun day and the kids had so much fun running around with their cousins, riding motorbikes and swimming and jumping on the trampoline.

Christmas over for another year!

Back to blog

I have really missed blogging. Every time I think I can sit down for a minute to catch up, one of the boys will need something, or someone will come by, or the phone will ring and then another day passes. I


t has been such a busy few weeks with starting with our friends Peter and Meaghan and their two children visiting us from Port Macquarie on the 21st Dec. for the night. It was lovely to see them, as Pete is one of Andrew's closest friends. They left the next day to visit family for Christmas.







Andrew's mate Pete.. Ruth you will remember him, as he stayed with you a night with Andrew a few years ago.

An hour after they left, 14 kids arrived for Bailey's birthday party.

Bailey had great fun at his party. We took the kids bowling and it was a crack up to see how some of them bowl. After bowling we transported them all back to our house for food and birthday cake.

Some unusual bowling styles!

Back home for presents and cake.

That night Andrew's sister Caroline and her family, who were visiting from Brisbane, came over with the Langleys for dinner. They brought the food to us which was a nice change from party food we'd been scoffing all day. Caroline has 3 boys, so my boys love it when they visit.

Caroline, Andrew's #3 sister

Meredith (Andrew's #2 sister) and daughter, Emma.

It was a busy, but fun day, and due to the time of year Bailey is born, it was his first ever birthday party with friends rather than just family.