Queensland Floods

So much for a Happy New Year..I believe all those prayers for rain have been answered but sadly some people lost loved ones in this flood disaster. I have donated where possible but unable to help with the clean up but Fitzpatrick has been out there getting muddy and helping people in the community. It was a weird experience as we are about 15 mins from Brisbane and while we were not effected just 15-20 mins down the road there was a major flood happening. Fitzpatrick's work office is along Kangaroo point and he took some video footage of the swollen Brisbane river. He said it was an amazing sight. Hopefully we will be able to continue to support people effected by this event.

Happy New Year 2011!!!

Staying up late and making new goals for the new year..Isn't that what new year's eve is about? Well i didn't stay up late or make new goals as i pretty much have constant goals so they roll over to the next year :) But i did have a fabulous New Years weekend! I went up to my sisters place in Toowoomba for the weekend. My mum lives in Toowoomba as well so we went to dinner at her house with my sister and her family too for New Years eve Stayed til about 7;30pm as my mum was going out dancing (party animal that she is lol) So we went back to our unit where we were staying and watched the early fireworks on TV. Then went to bed. I was woken up at midnight when the fireworks went off but was back to sleep about 12:15am. New Years day we went to the park with my sister and her family and my mum and a friend of my sisters for a BBQ lunch as is the Aussie thing to do! The kids had a great time and Lizzie didn't hurt herself once! We of coarse had way too much food and i think we all rolled home. The kids had a little game of cricket and had a throw of the frizzbie. I think my sister decided she wanted to get wet as she started an ice war!! lol So much fun and bought back a lot of good memories! It was a fabulous day! It started to rain late in the afternoon so we headed back to our unit. My mum wanted me to go dancing with her on Saturday night so i went and bought a new dress,such a shame that lol, it was on sale so that's alright,right? So Saturday night i went old time dancing with my mum. It was great!!! I haven't done dancing since i got married..I so want to start dancing again(sigh)..i could of stayed all night but i had to get home..

Sunday morning mum came over to our unit and we had a BBQ brekkie thanks to Fitzpatrick's great BBQ skills and then we said our goodbye and headed for home so we could get home in time for church...which we did.

Monday we headed up to Coolum Beach for the day and yes i slip slop slapped everyone and we were only out in the sun for a couple of hours and then we went to the maroochy river and had a picnic lunch watching everyone fishing. Then we headed home.When we got home everyone got showered and ready for bed and that's when i discovered i had got very sunburnt!! Och i am really sore! So Fitzpatrick has been playing doctor for the past few days re applying sunburn cream to my shoulders and back... lucky i haven't had to go anywhere much..I've been living in my pj's so i don't have to wear a bra and have straps on my shoulders lol...next time i have to remember to re apply sunscreen to ME too!!

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!!