Christmas Day!

I could hear little quiet voices."What is the time?" I thought to myself just as Jayne bounded in full of excitement "Santa's been!!!" She was doing some kind of excited dance on the spot. I looked at the Clock 3:57AM!!!! "Go back to bed!" i groaned closing my eyes. "I don't want to" said miss Jayne, "Who else is up?" i asked her "Darcy" she told me. So i got up and went out to the tree. "What time did you get up?" I asked Darcy " "10 to 4 " He told me with a big smile "Can we open the smallest present?" "No!" i said "But you let us last year" he complained. "yeah but it wasn't 4 o'clock in the morning either" I thought to myself. "Go back to bed" I said to him as i walked slowly back to my bed. "Mum?" he called, " "Yes?" i said as i walked back to the rumpus. "Can i sleep here?" " I smiled and said "Sure" So he got his sleeping bag out and Jayne came out and got hers too. Darcy showed me all the presents and he had put them all into piles according to whose they were. So i went back to bed and was reawakened at 5am by the voices of Darcy,Jayne,Edmund and Lizzie excitedly talking about all the presents they had got from Santa.So i wiped my eyes and got up to see what they were up to. Lizzie jumped up when she seen me"Can i get Daddy up now? please?" "Sure" i said. Our rule is they can't open up any presents until Mummy and Daddy are awake. So i heard her jumping on Daddy and i heard him tickling her back, then he slowly emerged from around the corner to which there was a unison of ripping paper. We didn't even get a chance to get the video camera out. lol. So after all the pressies were opened we had waffles and pancakes with ice cream and maple syrup and fruit juice and the kids were all able to start playing and organizing there gifts and eating there stocking treats. Fitzpatrick went over to his mums after Breakie so he could finish putting in her new Kitchen so it was ready for Christmas. We went over at about 4pm for Christmas dinner, which was so yummy! His mum is a really good cook. Then we just chilled out and the kids played with their Aunt and cousins. I think we headed home about 10pm. Now to enjoy leftovers and treats for the next coming weeks ;)

Pre Christmas Lunch at the Beach

Every year we do a Pre Christmas Lunch with our good friend Edward,Eleanor and their son Branden, Last year we went to Wivenhoe Dam and it rained but we had a great time! This year we decided to have it at the beach and of coarse it was raining(The wettest December no less!)So the kids were all prepared with new togs and couldn't wait to try them out! I had bought a new pair of togs in Cairns and wanted to try them out too! So we arrived at Moffets beach, it's really nice there, and set up our lunch under the gazebo in the pouring rain. the kids were all "Can we go for a swim yet?" a hundred times while we were setting up lol! So we had our lunch and poped our Bon bons. Then Eleanor and i went down with the kids to the beach..It was lovely and warm in the water and we had the clouds lighten up and stop raining for a while so that was good! But then Eleanor started freezing and her lips were turning blue lol so we all got out and had nice warm showers and went back to our table for dessert, then we did a swap over and Edward and Fitzpatrick took the kids back down to the beach while Eleanor and i caught up. (we hadn't seen each other in a while) So when the boys got back with the kids Eleanor and i took all the kids down and got them changed and on the way back of coarse Lizzie tripped over and and skinned herself. So we had to do the band aid Treatment as usual. lol Poor little thing!
So we sat around and chatted while Lydia chased the albatross in the rain. (Lucky i had bought three changes of clothes for her). Then we headed off about just before dark, in the rain :) It was so much fun though!

Cairns Road Trip

My Cousins baby girl was getting Christened..They live in Cairns so we decided to drive up for it. We left at 2:30am Friday, i had packed the car the night before and filled the front up with snacks for the kids,so i only had to transfer sleeping kids in to the car. So off we went..I dozed on and off until it was light and we stopped at McDonalds for brekkie(i do like there bacon and egg muffins..yumo) and kept driving making good time.We stopped at Rockhampton to visited Ftzpatricks cousin and her new Little baby Beau..He's so cute! So that was a nice little rest stop. Then we headed on up to Mackey where we stopped for the night, we got there about four o'clock in the after noon. We stayed with a good friend of Fitzpatricks.His house was lovely, the back yard was the beach and you could hear the ocean as you were going to sleep, Lovely. I went to bed early but Fitzpatrick stayed up and caught up with his friend and went over old times etc. Then at 3am we did the stealth ninja and loaded all the kids in to the car so we didn't wake up Fitzpatricks friend. Mackey was flooding in parts at the time so that was a bit exciting. We had to cross 3 lightly flooded roads at Bowen and it rained the rest of the way up to Cairns and we got there by 1:30pm.I went and did a little shop,bread milk,cereal that kind of thing, in my Pjs :)I had been in my jamas all day and so i just went shopping in them as well lol. So then we went to check in at the coconut resort and we had a little tour which the kids loved! They had heaps of activities to do there. So we got to our cabin and got all settled in and of coarse the kids couldn't wait to do everything there! So we went to the waterpark first even though it was raining and the kids had a great time. My cousin and his wife and baby stayed there too. They were not far from our cabin. so that night we had dinner together organized what we were going to do for the next day.
Next day we went to the pools and the water park,played tennis and mini golf and giant chess and played in the playground and badminton and played on the giant balloons (which are like trampolines) Later we went over to my Cousins mums place and caught up with her and her hubby and didn't get home until late :) We are both big family history buffs. On Sunday we went to our church service in the morning then went to the Christening after that. It was there baby's first birthday too. So after the christening we went back to My cousins parents house to have a bit of a party. It was such a lovely party! The next day on we went on the Karanda sky rail and train and wondered around the Karanda markets. Thanks for a lovely early Christmas present xoxo! Left my hand bag on the sky rail shuttle bus, bummer! but the bus driver had found it and put it away safely for me, so we had to drive back to the train station to get it lol! Our holiday was way too short! It was so relaxing and fun, i didn't want to come home!
We left about 6am the Tuesday morning and got to Rockhampton about 9pm Stayed there overnight and then we didn't leave until about 8am for the rest of the journey home.I was a bit snap happy on the way home and i took a lot of photos of the flooding on the sides of the roads to Which Fitzpatrick was teasing me about :)It was lots of fun and the kids only had 1 disagreement the the whole time we were away! Fabulous!

Junior Masterchef

I was cooking dinner on Sunday night when i asked Jayne if she could do her job,which is to set the table. She told me that it was too hard, so i told her i would swap and she could cook and i would set the table. Jayne readily accepted my offer :) I told Fitzpatrick about my swap, for which i received a stricken look and groan. Monday evening approached and i called Jayne to let her know she needed to start dinner and i would set the table.So i left Jayne to get to work supervised by Fitzpatrick and nicked down to the shops for some stuff(Thinking i might just buy some back up dinner)I sent a text to hubby to check how it was going....I was asked if i wanted burnt garlic bread and half peeled potatoes lol. I arrive home to my darling daughter, wearing her togs and her swimming cap, with all her hair tucked up inside, with burnt garlic bread on the table and potatoes half peeled all over the kitchen and Jayne with a band aid on her finger from the potato peeler,which she had put on her self so the first aid box was out on the table too. Lucky i bought dinner :) Fitzpatrick asked her "Do you still wanted to cook?", "Yes daddy, Tomorrow we are having pizza" Said she smiling sweetly..

Lizzie and today

My Brother and his family came down to visit us yesterday and stayed over night and because Fitzpatrick and my self went out to The "Hollywood" stake ball all our kids went to nannas and had a sleep over. (Nannas are great). So this morning i went and picked them up and their cousin came for a drive over with me to pick them up. Lizzie was very excited to introduce him to Aunty Hannah..Conversation goes like this(Lizzie speaking):"Hannah this is a new kid...we didn't grow him.." lol

After that we went to Harbour town and did a bit of outlet shopping, it was a lovely breezy day and it was nice to stroll around with my brother and his wife and their kids and just catch up :)They headed off to visit my mum next so they went their way and i came home and we went to a friends little girls baptism which was lovely so it has been a great day and it wasn't raining!!

Birthdays

Lizzie turned five today!! She has been counting down since June. We were going to have it at the park but it has been so rainy that we changed it to home,which turned out ok :) All the kids had a great time and it was nice to catch up with friends as well :) My mum came down for my older brothers wedding and stayed for Lizzie's party and then Edmund and Jayne went home with her for school holidays, they were so excited to go to grandmas house, Lizzie was upset because she wanted to go but then i reminded her she had to go to the dentist tomorrow and then she was all happy again :)Lizzie has been so excited she is five and is telling everyone she meets. Happy Birthday sweetie!!

Date night

Mr Knightly and I went out for a date night last night with Edward and Elinor. We went to Elio's an Italian resturaunt, they have very yummy food! We had lots of fun catching up and having lots of laughs as usual. I was telling Elinor about my blog and how every one has an alias when Mr Knightly pipes up that his name is "Mr Knightly" and he didn't like it and that he wanted a better name lol So i have to change his alias to Fitzpatrick (his choice!!!) So from now on he will be Fitzpatrick :D He is so funny!! So after dinner we went to the movies to see "The last airbender" It was really good, alot of like.. yoga moves happening and karate movies in it, even Fitzpatrick liked it :) Then of course after the movie the boys were doing the actions and Fitzpatrick was still doing them when we got home and he has been airbending this morning too. lol. So funny.

Breakfast

So this morning Lizzie was making herself breakfast,she was having crumpets, and her Dad come into the kitchen and said "What type of honey are you having?" and picked the bottle of honey up to check out the flavour,(It lovely honey my mum bought back from Western Australia) When he gave it back and left the room she said to me "It's not honey, it's ninja turtle blood" and proceeded to put it on her crumpet..lol

Wiggle Parade

The wiggles were at Dreamworld today and as my kids are wiggles fans especially Lydia and Lizzie we went along thanks to Mr Knightly winning tickets :) We got early passes so we were able to enter Dreamworld at 9 am so we got PRIME spots right where the wiggles stop and we waited and waited as the parade didn't start until 11am...it was worth it :) It was a great mini concert and Parade and we all got a high five from Jeff and Ryan one of the wiggly dances. We were in such a good spot they came right up to us and the kids where so excited. Lydia was about jumping out of her skin and kept trying to escape to get up on stage. After the concert we went around to wiggle world and then walked around a bit then took a train ride to lunch then we headed over to Whitewater world,it is so good! WE went to wiggle bay for the little ones for a while then went over to the pipeline one for the bigger kids but they all went on it.. we are definately going back it was so fun. Mr Knightly louged on the recliners there and had a break (his knees where a bit sore and he thinks he was suffering from being out in the sun waiting for the wiggles;) We were able to leave about 3pm as everyone had the shivers. Then we stopped on the way home and got ice creams.

Ginger Factory Trip

We got to the weekend and decided we wanted to go do something so we decided to go to the Ginger factory in Buderium( actually it is in Yandina ) So we called Elinor and Edward to see if they were up for it and of coarse they were so off we went for the day! Had a nice trip up and had a look at all the ginger, Mr Knightly loves ginger so he was grabbing heaps of stuff :) I don't like it so i just browsed at everything, Then we went for a look through all the little boutiques they have there, I loved "The Doll House" absolutely gorgeous! Then we went over the road to the Macadamia Nut Factory where we sampled all the different coated nuts. Edmund is highly allergic to peanuts but we have recently found out he can eat tree nuts so he was excited to be able to try them for the first time, And the verdict was :.... He spat them out!!!! He didn't like them at all by themselves and i had to get a drink for him to wash the taste out! lol! It was about lunch time then and everyone was getting hungry so we (as usual)had organized to picnic somewhere so we went to a Lake out there which had a nice little park and BBQs. It was a very windy road and when we pulled up at the car park poor Jayne was out like a shot and vomiting up in the bushes :( Poor chooky, But after a drink and rinse out her mouth she was fine.It must of been the curvy road. Well the boys got BBQ-ing but it wasn't cooking very well so Edward got out his trusting camping stove and put the snags on there :) All the kids had decided to build a fort out of sticks on the playground equipment, which you had to have a secret password for:) So they were all collecting sticks and logs etc.We had lunch and were just sitting around chatting when Darcy come screaming up to us he'd been bitten by some ants (the way he was carrying on you would of thought it was a bite from an extremely venomous animal!) So Elinor was in panic mode :) and ran down to get the first aid kit, I just said show me where it has bitten you, to which he exclaims " MY LEG,MY LEG, MY LEG!!!!" and falls into the camp chair, Talk about drama queen lol, So i got him to take of his shoe and sock so i could see, and he had two bite marks which Elinor sprayed with Stingoes and gave him a bit of chocolate cake! And then Mr. Knightly was making him laugh to take his mind of the pain in his ankle from the bites. So soon after that we packed up and went for a drive through the hinterland (which was beautiful!), on our way home. It was about 3:30 i think and i really felt like getting Fish and Chips and going to the beach for dinner so we decided to do that :) We went to Caloundra to Moffets beach (very nice) and no doubt you know, the kids got wet and we had to change there clothes, And Then we got fish and chips and had dinner and the kids played pirates in the playground,Jayne being the evilest pirate had to be captured the most by Captain Edmund :) It was about 7pm when we left and drove home. Then we went through Maccas and got ice cream cones for dessert to top off the day :)

Catching up!

Am i a slacker or what :D I haven't posted anything for ages so this is going to be a quick catch up....

Just planning our next holiday, which is to cairns, catch up with my cousin and his wife and their beautiful little girl. I can't wait! My sister and i went to cairns on a Contiki tour before i was married and it will be so fun to do it again! I love road trips!

Sorry it's just a quick blog today

Canberra / Snow Road Trip

This road trip has been planned for two years,we decided to do a road trip to Canberra with our very good friends Elinor and Edward and their son Brandon.Last year we went to the Bunya mountains together for a long weekend to "test" to see if everyone got along ok for an extended period together and that worked out well so it was all steam ahead for our Canberra Trip! We have been hunting snow gear and organizing all the warm clothes and booking accommodation both at Canberra and a Jindabyne, two days before we were to leave Elinor had a phone call asking us if we still wanted our rooms as they were going to give them to someone else!! Well Elinor sorted them out and our accom. was secured again. The night before we left we had a bit of a celebration..
and we packed a few of our bags into Edwards ute tray as we were a little pressed for room in our car..

3am we left Sunny Queensland(It rained most of the time we were away i heard)and headed for Canberra, along the way some silly pilot ute stopped in the middle of the road with no stop lights and Mr Knightly had to very quickly pull of to the side of the road to try and avoid hitting him(or so we thought)When we pulled over at Goodiwindi for brekki we discovered that we did hit him ...just..! So next stop was Coonabarabran for lunch and a toilet break!We had a few more short breaks along the way,the toilets at Gilgandra were a bit chilly on the bottom cheeks..next stop Canberra were we arrived at 7:30pm!!

Hervey bay / Bundaberg road trip

Mr knightly got called to go to Hervey bay for work so we decided to do a road trip up there :) We left at abt 8am (Hubby was going to leave at 3am but slept in. he he)So i packed snacks etc. for the kids and everyone had there drink bottles which is a must for all adventures. We got to Hervey bay about 10:30am and Mr knightly got to work and the kids played Tiggy around the Chapel grounds and Lydia drank so much water from the bubblier that i thought she would be wee weeing all the way home :) While they did that i caught up on a bit of family history, on which i had stocked some research into the car for on the way up and about.Lydia chased some birds and Lizzie tripped over (of coarse) so we needed some first aid and nappy change for Lydia. After that we went and got lunch and decided to go visit my Brother in Bundaberg. We got out "Lee" (that is the name of our navman, Mr knightly named him lol)and typed in my brothers address and off we went, apparently about 1 1/2 hrs drive....NOT!!! It took us up back roads etc. So Mr knightly ignored him and we just went our own way and got back onto the highway and eventually got to Bundy lol. We stopped at woollies and re-supplied the car for on the way home. we got to my brothers in time to catch him before he went to work, and we had a couple of hours there and enjoyed catching up with them and all the cousins got to have a bit of a play and catch up to :)I think it was especially good for Darcy as he doesn't have any Boy cousins his age down in Brissy and he got to hang out with his male cousins which are around his age. It was good to see :)We headed off about 6:15pm, grabbed drive-thru, and headed home.. Mr knightly bought me a book for my birthday so i read it n the way home and i finished it just as we pulled into our street at about 10:30pm. the kids where fantastic the whole day only one slight disagreement and that was about half an hour before we got home.The only thing that i will say about the trip was that someone MUST of eaten something because the whole way up and back we were getting "Lethal gassed" out!!! We would have to put down the windows (that was if Mr knightly would unlock the auto windows) to blow the smell out!!! The kids loved it with the windows down and the the wind was blowing everything about and Lydia was yelling at the top of her little voice "Windy,Windy"!!!

70's night out!

 
My Mr Knightly all dressed for the night, Strike a pose honey!

 
Mr Knightleys Dad, looking pretty hot!
 
Mr Knightlys mum `Stunning'
 
And me , i loved my hat :)

A few things we are up to....

So my husbands has bought me a professional juicer, which I'm quite happy about but unfortunately i haven't been able to get to use it yet as he has been juicing everything in sight and Darcy has been using it a bit too. lol. I just wish it were summer so i could use all the summer fruits for nice drinks.

I've also been hitting the shops pretty hard :) We have a 70's party to go to on Saturday night so I've been hitting the shops with my mum and with Mr Knightly's mum looking for just the right "thing" it has been especially hard to find something for hubby,but have finally got something,i will post pictures after the event :D I have also been shopping for snow gear for our trip to the snow in a few weeks and have got all snow geared up for under $50 for the whole family and found some stuff for our friends as well, awesome!

Sunday Trip

So Sunday morning we got up early and left for Gympie at 6am so we could get to church for 9am start. We got to Gympie early so we went for a drive by where Mr Knightly used to live and looked at his old house then we went to the park and got changed for church,after church we went on a family history trek. I was getting Lizzie dressed into her clothes when she asked me..
"Mum after we kill the people can we play at the park?" lol Of course i just smiled and said "Yes sweetie, but we might go to the park first :)" I did also mention that "the people were already dead and we weren't killing anyone". We had a lovely picnic at the park and let the kids have a bit of a play so they were happy before we headed to the cemetery to search for my ancestor. The kids had a great time looking for the right name on the grave stones and Lizzie was excited to find a picture of Jesus on the cross and was telling everyone about it, they also had a great time on the road looking at new things that they hadn't seen before and playing games. I didn't find my great great uncle but i did get phone numbers and an idea of what I'm looking for so that was good. I'm very lucky i have a very supportive husband, he doesn't mind me asking him to stop in at cemeteries or going places looking for all our rallies.♥

Evil eye/ My Mr Knightly

I thought i would do an update on my eye :) The specialists have said that something is going on in there and i have to Keep an "eye" on it! lol It has a thickening and it has a cavity so they are concerned...What i'm concerned about is i STILL don't have any super powers from this freaky thing happening in my eye!! At least i could get super sight "able to see mobile phones anywhere, except when encased in lead of course!" lol ,which would have helped on the labour day weekend!:)But as i have no problems with my sight i'm quite happy to go back for my check ups every two months...


I better also explain that my dear beloved hubby is quite put out that he doesn't have an alias on my blog so i'm giving him one...poor baby was feeling left out :) So i'm going to call him my Mr Knightly ;) Just so that you all know who i'm talking about from now on and i'll go through my other blogs and change his name. lol

Labour day adventure

Our plan for the labour day public holiday was : Go to toowoomba so hubby could do a small job for work, meet our friends at the park for morning tea then go down to crows nest national park for a bit of a bush walk and lunch then head home :) But as all Brown adventures nothing goes to plan and someone always gets injured or vomits :)and so this was a regular adventure....

We got up very early on Monday morning and made it in good time to Toowoomba, I stayed with my lovely mum while hubby went and did his small job...2 hours later (which we had planned on) he came and picked us up to head to the park, I'll be the first one to put my hand up "I can't read a map to save my life!!" And yes I'm sure Mr knightly knew that when i married him (or maybe it was in the small print..lol) And YES i got him lost we should have turned right not left! So we were late..I did say "sorry" :) So we had morning tea and my sister and her family also met us at the park which was great. And the guys did the usual-footy and Frisbee, while the big girls monitored the children and made sure the big boys behaved themselves..yeah good luck i hear you say!
After a while we got going to crows nest for the rest of our day,so we could get to the picnic area by lunch :)

Along the road we unfortunately came upon an accident and after four fire trucks, six ambulance and four police, and Mr knightly having a good sticky beak and got all the goss on the accident we had to go back and go down a detour road. So we got to the national park and decided to have lunch straight away because everyone was fading away! so on entry to the walking trails there was a sign saying that you shouldn't touch the water as there had been a sewage spill..well you could imagine all the "poo" jokes etc that was the main topic of conversation lol. It was an enjoyable walk though, coming to the end of the walk we seen a rock wallaby which was exciting and of coure we seen Mr knightly in various poses on top of rocks etc and jumping over poo creek and Edward falling INTO poo creeks lol.

We got back to the rest area tended to all the wounds that Lizzie and Jayne had just got walking(Tripping)across the car park and had some snacks and drinks and toilet stops then we decided to head back to toowoomba and got to the picnic point BBQ area and i think it's a look out too. so we all got into our cars and we noticed something going on in Edward and Elinors car so we pulled back in to find out if everything was ok....Edward can't find his mobile phone..Oh no!! so we looked in the cars, in the eskies, around the picnic area, on the road, at the toilets, IN the toilets (they were green toilets, yum the smell :) "Oh no could it be some where on the trail???" Aargh!! So mr knightly and Edward went back and did the bush walk again looking for the phone while my sisters husband kept trying to call his phone but it kept going through to the message bank..Could it have fallen into the poo creek?? so Elinor and i continued to search for the phone and then to speculate where it could be.. Elinor had ideas that it was a conspiracy between the big boys so that Edward could get an iphone lol
The boys returned with no phone, nothing more to be done so back to town we headed, along the way i wanted to stop at a roadside stall and buy a pumpkin $3 for a Huge! qld blue..yummo, my fav. type of pumpkin. And behold the phone!!!! Elinor had checked the glove box and there it was lol lol Poor Edward no iphone for him :( lol
We got to picnic point after dark but there was lights and so we rugged up the kids it was a bit cool, and sent them off to play...Playgrounds are danger zones you know!.. First Lydia came a cropper on the "Safety" see saw and Brandon was injured on the peddle chair ride and he wasn't even riding it, on that note we left the park and followed my sister round to her place and picked up some stuff and said farewell :) It was great to spend the day with her and her family. Homeward bound we stopped at old faithful (MacDonald's) and had dinner,and the kids played on the playground...sorry ...danger zone.. where Jayne got stuck in between the curly bit of the slide! so i had to go and quickly rescue her. so that ended our dinner at MacDonald's :)

Got home and transferred all the kids into there beds and settled in for the night, or so i thought! I woke up in the middle of the night to Jayne vomiting up all her MacDonald, yes and it continued a further three times! I woke up a tad tired in the morning....hubby having slept through the whole thing!

I love our Road Trips!!!

ANZAC day breakfast!

I really enjoy ANZAC day and as i love doing family history i feel fairly close to my ancestors and especially on ANZAC day as we have a history of service men in our family..i often think about my grandads oldest brother who was killed two weeks into his service in France 1914 and my grandad served in darwin when it was bombed and lived to tell the tale. How sad that wonderful young men and women had to die because of political tug of wars and power struggles. But also how proud we are that they stood up for the right and saved our country that we may worship and live in freedoms.


On a lighter note, our ward has an ANZAC breakfast every year at the park and this year was no different, sausages,onions,eggs,bacon on bread, food always tastes better on the BBQ i reckon! And of coarse the kids run wild and the adults have a great chin wag and catch up :) though i must warn you that children must not go on the spinney rides at the park AFTER they have had there breakfast! Yes of course it was Lizzie! Vomiting all her breakfast up in the sand... Lucky i always have clothes in the back of my car for just such occasions (vomit on shirt) Washed her down, changed her shirt and banned all my children from ever going on one of those things for the rest of there lives! lol..we will see how long that lasts:) but apart from that incident the day was a great success, the kids played 'Red Rover' climbed trees, played touch footy with the big boys and ate everything in sight!!(well Darcy ate everything in sight lol)

Not long after arriving home all three girls were fast asleep and so was hubby! So Darcy and i played 'Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego' (Which after long searching i have finally found, games from my childhood!!sigh)the boys loved it! i also got all my washing done and baked a cake, which has already disappeared. so i thought I'd just do a quick blog before bed, i have an early morning and my final test for the week for my eye before i see the specialist on Thursday..I'm really looking forward to the next long weekend, i love long weekends ;)

eye sight is a wonderful thing!

I thought i would blog this to get it out of my head! :) Last Wednesday i had a blind spot and though i wear glasses i can see fairly well with out them with only a little fuzziness, but on Wednesday it was a spot i could not see out of at all.. it was quite annoying actually i kept thinking that something was in the way and i was constantly wiping my eyes. i made an appointment with my optometrist and i had two lots of tests and was sent to the PA hospital for more tests and i have hopefully my last test today.. I have a lump behind my eye and they don't know what it is, most of the time i feel confident that everything is fine and there is nothing to worry about but occasionally i feel abit worried that it's there.. I'm trying to be brave and i don't want to worry anyone. After all these tests on my right eye i feel like i have one big bright eye and one normal one(maybe my evil eye is coming out, like in the far side comics lol)

terrible twos

Well my little Lydia just turned two! She had a great day! Grandma came down to vist and Nanny,Poppy Aunty Hannah and Uncle Luke came over for cake and she enjoyed the cake very much! I think she has been in the terrible twos since she turned one though! lol hopefully she doesn't have long to go and it will be over..cross fingers

Movies

We have a reward chart system for chores for the kids and when they have completed their jobs they get so many points and when they get to a certain amount of points they get a reward,something special with either myself or my husband and they get to pick what they want to work towards.Darcy had finished his quota of points and so we went to the movies as Daddy is not into such things as previously mentioned :)..we went and seen "Alice in Wonderland"...It was awesome and against my wishes it was in 3D (The last time i seen a 3D movie i got a real bad headache and have always avoided them until now but i really thought it was in 2D until i had already purchased the tickets..Oh well so i thought i'm going to just have to go and do this and i wish i had a painkiller in my handbag for afters lol but i didn't even get a headache and i absolutely loved it! Darcy and I had a great time together just the two of us and we shared a big popcorn and a Large drink together..i really love spending time with my kids :)Lizzie is next and she wants to go to the movies next too.. So i wonder what we will see???knowing her it will be "how to train a dragon"! yes she is into TMNT and Pokemon and cars and all that sort of stuff lol has no time for jewellery but does like bratz and barbie on occasion aaah she reminds me of me :) lol

Easter School Holidays

Well we are at the end of another Easter school holiday and the kids are already asking when the next school holidays are...My sister and her family came down and stayed with us for the school holidays and the kids had a great time playing with their cousins and Lydia had a great time over loving baby lachlin :) My sister left on Saturday and the last two days Lydia has been walking around the house calling out for her cousin Nicholas..she finally came up to me and said "Nick Nick gone!" holding her little arms out to show she couldn't find him "I know" i said "we'll see them again soon " She just looked at me and said "Nick Nick gone" again. I think she misses them :)


I love to visit with my sister, there is nothing like having family around especially when they are one of your closest friends as well :) They did their thing and we did our thing and caught up on Friday and did sea world together. Which was heaps of fun and the kids had a ball! It is amazing how much enjoyment i can get out of watching the joy on my kids faces! Both Mr knightly and i took turns staying with Lydia(who is too small for alot of the rides) waiting for the other one to go on the rides with the other kids..Poor Mr knightly even endured rope burn on one of the rides to go on with Edmund and then going on the merry go round with Lydia (when she woke up) three time in a row and got a bit merry go rounded out! Darcy,Edmund and I went on the Bermuda Triangle ride with Andrea,Graham and Ethan(I'm sure i didn't get that wet last time i went on it!!)i was pretending to be really scared and the boys were laughing at me, obviously they thought it was funny! and then Lizzie,Darcy,Jayne and i went on the Viking ride and got all wet:) But it was all worth it to see the kids having a great time and watching their eyes light up at seeing new and exciting things!
On Saturday we went for a drive in the afternoon to Kalbar, it was a lovely drive out into the country side and always makes me yearn for a farm of my own..I told Mr knightly he shouldn't take me on trips out there as i always want to move out to the country then!
Sunday we had General Conference and so we stayed home and watched it on our TV. Mr knightly hooked it up to the Internet. They where excellent talks and then he went to the Priesthood session with his Dad at the chapel.

It has been a really good holiday :)

Kids Easter moments

We were discussing how Jesus was put in the tomb and a big stone was rolled in front of the Tomb so that nobody could steal Jesus body when Jayne says to me "But if they put a wooden door on and sticky tap then nobody could get out!" Sticky tape can stop anything apparently :)

I was setting up the DVD for our Easter devotional on Sunday night and Lizzie came in to my room and snuggled up to me while i was watching the movie and she said to me " That's Jesus!" and i said "yes, This is about his life and when he died and was resurrected" she just sat silently and continued to watch it as i pointed out different things in the DVD then we got to the part where Jesus walked on the water to the disciple who where out on their boat. Lizzie: "Oh no there he is again!" ha ha. Speaking of Jesus.. It was so cute i couldn't help but laugh..

Easter

I was doing research on how to be more Christ orientated over the Easter period and to focus on the true meaning so i was surfing the net and found some really awesome ideas! So on Monday night for family home evening we started with the "Triumphal entry of the Savior" and read Mark 11:9 then on Tuesday it was "Jesus washing the Apostles feet", Wednesday was "Jesus praying in Gethsemane" Thursday was the "Betrayal of Jesus" and Friday was the "Crucifixion" Saturday was "Jesus tomb" and Sunday was "Jesus shows his wounds" I printed out all the info and got the pictures organize and some recipes that go along with story etc.. the i got my weeks mixed up! Arrhhh! So on Wednesday night we did a catch up on Monday and Tuesday night and then did the rest on there appointed nights :)The kids had a great time doing this and holding up the pictures etc. On Sunday night after our lesson we made "Resurrection Puffs" they were supposed to be rolls but i did them in puff pastry they still turned out really yummy! So what you need is:

Preheat oven at 180 degrees C
Puff pastry (as many sheets that are required for you family)
Marshmallows chopped in half
melted butter
cinnamon sugar

Cut the pastry sheets into four squares
Get a marshmallow which represents Christ and dip it into the melted butter which represents the oils of embalming,then dip the marshmallow into the cinnamon sugar which represents the spices used to anoint the body.
Then put the marshmallow in the middle of the puff square and wrap it up like a little purse This represents the wrapping of Jesus body after death.
Place in the oven which represents the Tomb.

Cook until lightly golden.(10-15 min)

When the puffs have cooled slightly open your puff(Cloth) and discover that Jesus is no longer there,He is risen. (The marshmallow has melted and the pastry is all puffed up and sweet, but empty)


The Kids had a great time doing this and Edmund was so excited he ran downstairs to tell the the others that Jesus has risen! While our puffs where in the Tomb (oven) we watched a DVD about how Jesus was resurrected after three days and ascended on the Monday back to our heavenly father. When the DVD was finished the puffs were ready!

Lizzie enjoying her Resurrection Puff



On Friday we had "Hot Cross Chocolate fudge Muffins" As my kids and hubby can't stand hot cross buns ( It's a fruit issue! he he) So i decided to do muffins instead...AArrhh so delicious..I'm never going back to buns again!!


I put white chocolate crosses on the top..and the inside is all fudgy and gooey..heaven!!

So we have school holidays now and My Hubby is also off for the week so I'm looking forward to some good times....

Cross Country and the Easter Bonnet Parade

Yesterday was cross country! Jayne came third in the year 1 girls and got a green ribbon..She was so exciteed showing everyone her ribbon. Edmunds race was next and he had to do two laps of the coarse and was coming 2nd at on stage but on the second lap slipped back to 11th and i could see him chatting to one of his friends on the last lap as he was jogging/walking. :) He had previously been protesting going to school in the first place as he prefers short distance running to long distance. Unfortunately Darys race was postponed due to a heavy load of rain that decided to decend for the remainer of the afternoon. So he gets to race today. He has to do three laps. We'll see how he goes...

The year 1 and Preppies had the annual Easter Bonnet Parade at school this morning. Jayne has been counting down the days and singing like a little angel practicing all the easter bunny songs. She woke up this morning so excited and was practicing jumping like a bunny all over the house, every couple of minutes she would say " Mummy do you want to see me hop like a bunny? See how high i can hop? " lol So we all rushed off for the parade which included the parade and looking in their class rooms at all the things they have made and then an easter egg hunt and morning tea. It was a lovely morning and Lizzie and Lydia had great fun dancing along to the music. Edmund had told me he felt like vomiting this morning so he came with me...suprisingly though he didn't feel sick when we got to the parade...funny that!

The start to the weekend

Friday night my husband i went out on a date night,movies and a dinner,which is a miracle because anyone who knows my husband will know he doesn't "Do" movies, so we met up with our great friends Elinor and Edward and had dinner to celebrate our wedding anniversaries (which are close together)we had a great night chatting and catching up without children interupting us wanting to play Bratz. :) We went to the Beach House resturant it was very good the boys got huge meals and the one that we ordered (we though we could share it as they looked like big meals) was tiny in comparison! Dang. Oh well, more room for dessert...Which was Cold rock, yumo! Mr knightly got his and went and sat in another resturants seating area so he could watch the football and eat his ice cream, as it was on the big screen there...all by himself as Elinor,Edward and myself were a bit shy to go and sit there but eventually we went over hiding our ice creams lol. We then went to the movies and we seen "The Blind Side" Which was really good and our friends went and seen "Avatar" in 3D.. we got out at the same time which was very well timed..Darcy had calculated that we would only have a wait of 3 minutes between the finishing times of the movies..lol We worked all this out before the night. We then went to McDonalds for late night snacks and drinks. We got home at 1am in the morning! Lucky the kids were sleeping over a Nanas house :) Unfortunately we were not able to have a sleep in, we had to get the kids at 7:30am..but it was a casual saturday which was good.Sunday we had ward conference at church and it was fantastic! I really got a lot out of the speakers and lessons. Sunday afternoon we went over to Mr knightly's parents house for a big family lunch and had a great time and the kids had a ball. This morning hubby woke up and said to me "Please don't keep me out past midnight again,.." Poor baby..still hasn't recovered lol This is coming from a guy who stayed up for three nights straight when he got home from his mission??? lol must be getting a bit old ;)

Jayne telling me and her dad about her day at school..."Mum did you know i got tree blood on my hand today? ..But i washed it off all by myself!" She smiles sweetly then skips off..Mr knightly and i are left silently laughing..Tree Blood???? lol

weekend adventure

So Saturday morning started with a fabulous breakfast down at ye olde chapel (Relief Society celebration breakfast) had a great catch up with family and friends then i got home about 8:30am and organized our picnic lunch etc for our day of driving and visiting, Jayne and Lizzie's cousin had a sleep over much to their delight, they had built a cubby from the curtain and had slept in that with all their doonas and pillows...so i dropped their cousin off at Nana's house and had to go get some maintenance equipment and petrol for my husband who decided to mow the lawn while i was at breakfast but had run out of petrol with only two strips to go! (the agony for my perfectionist husband!! he he) so i delivered the life saving petrol and the "blower" and he was able to finish his two strips :)..so i packed up the car and off we went on our trip...So we headed up to Toowoomba and of course half way there and with no rest stops in sight Lizzie tells daddy" I 'm busting...NOW!!" so we had to make an emergency stop on the side of the road, you know the two door open for privacy thing, :) so then every back into the car to finish our trip...next stop was to meet my lovely sister Andrea and her husband and their little family at a fete though it was only a short visit due to the petrol episode i love to see my sister and her family..so we walked around the fete, where the children had to go to the toilet numerous times, and looked at the stalls. My sister makes fabulous jewellery and there were quite a few jewellery stalls there and i must say Andreas are much more stylish. So After our 45min stop at the fete we headed of to Wivenhoe Dam to meet our fabulous friends (whom I'll call..Elinor and Edward and their son Brandon) for a BBQ /picnic and a play at the park...I'm happy to report that there were no accidents(miracle!!) though Lizzie and Jayne did get a bit wet but they didn't need a change of clothes(Which i now keep in the back of the car for such moments), The boys made a bush hut out of branches etc. and we did see a Koala high up in one of the trees, we found two hats and nearly lost a pair of shoe... but we found them just at leaving time..So at 6pm we have to leave the park because it closes and we decided to go home via Somerset Dam and then go through the Clem7 tunnel under the Brisbane river. As we were driving past the the dam we had to slow down for a 4WD that had stopped on the road, when we went past the car there was a huge snake on the side of the road that the 4WD was looking at. Mr knightly reckoned he should've done a "Crikey" and jumped out of the car! Ha ha ! It was a really nice drive with a lot of bugs and moths hitching a ride with us on the front of the car! Well we got to the Clem7 tunnel and on entering the tunnel Lizzie pipes up " But you can't see the water daddy!?" to which i replied 'that it wasn't like the tunnel on MarioKarts that you could see through!' To which the whole back of the car groaned and Edmund says "Well that's boring!"..some tunnel :) We arrived home about 9pm and did baths and bed...It was a great day out!!

So i picked up my kids from school at the usual time of 2:30pm and told them we had to go to the dentist for check ups..they love going to the dentist...so we arrive and i tell Jayne please only have 1 cup of water from the water dispenser..meanwhile Lydia has already poured every one a up and is still going..so i remove her from the water and set her up with some blocks of large lego which she proceeds to bash Edmund over the head with, so i sort that out and the dentist comes out to explain that darcy will have to go and see an orthodontist about his teeth(great!) so while i'm ditracted with the Dentist Jayne is drinking as much water a possible, probable due to the fact the the surgery has no public toilets *sigh..So next is Lizzie to see the dentist and i explain to the kids that they can't have a balloon today because mummy has an appointment at 3:30 and will not have time for them all to get a balloon today. So lizzie comes out an i wait to pay at the counter..The nurse asks jayne "Would you like a balloon?" which miss jayne answers " Yes please!" so they all get balloons and Edmund couldn't decide what colour he wanted..mean while Lydia has discovered the water dispenser again so she starts filling up her cup and pouring the water in the bin..Great! so i snatched her away from there and tell all my children to line up near the door at which point jayne tells me she is "busting" So Darcy says he'll take her up to the public toilets for me, such a good boy, so on Darcy and Jayne leaving to go through the mall Lydia escapes but luckily her balloon got caught in the door so we were able to detain her from running out.. so i finally get to the counter pay and make appointments, 5 helium balloons are floating everywhere and 2 had to be rescued off of the ceiling and when i finally got to my next appointment it was 3:40....needless to say i was a tad relieved to get home :) ha ha

Childrens names:-

I just thought i would make a note about my childrens names, i will be using alias for my kids name just for privacy issues. so as you will be able to tell i love jane Austin and as such i have named my kids after such characters just for my blog :) Darcy 10 yrs, Edmund 8 yrs, Jayne 6 yrs, lizzie 4 yrs and Lydia 2 yrs. anyone who knows my family will know who is who :) so let us start our adventures together .......

Hello world and welcome to my life!!