kittin kaboodle!

This is Max and Gabriel

AWWWW how cute is that

Max waking up

We went to my Aunty Judy's house on Saturday for a BBQ tea and we came home with "Max" This is MAX....Max is a Ragdoll kittin and we are not sure if hes a boy or girl hence the name if its a girl its short for Maxine if its a boy its short for Maxwell. The kids love him/her and Gabriel finds the kittin alot of fun with lots of questions "wheres Max" is the usual one. Litter trained and loving all the space and attention Safi is still not overly keen but it'll be fine :o)

Chrissy photos

Xaviour again with his award and his grade 6 Graduation papers. We got his school report which showed him as above average in all areas of work. Very proud mum and dad.

Xaviour recieving his award prize of a book :o)

Xaviours pressentation evening, Xaviour won the Information and Technology award! Well Done :o)

hmmm Jasmine and Niamh



Jasmine,Gabriel,Niamh relaxing

Niamh fell asleep next to dad busy girl

Gabriel helped Niamh try out her new birthday pressie

Big Kev!

All the pressies on Christmas eve. Xaviour was checking them out.

Xaviour was very keen to open all the pressies :o) With 4 kids and Dad and Robyns pressies the tree looked very healthy

Christmas visitors

We've done alot of traveling over the past few years for Christmas day we've been to Melbourne and to Mother Jackies but I had not had my dad at my house for Christmas day. Having made this observation I told dad last year when he was here for Niamhs birth that I wanted him and Robyn for Christmas this year. So on the Sunday before Christmas I picked dad and Robyn up from the airport. The weather was typical, hot one day, cold the next, buring in the sun the day after that! We had fun going into Launceston to get last minute Christmas food supplies and hanging around the house dad was very relaxed (see picture) and Robyn just enjoyed getting a chance to do some reading. Christmas day was fun with lots of paper flying and a few surprises! ALlen and I as we have in past years bought something for the house we decided to do this as we figured we had enough personal days during the year eg birthdays and anniversary to get each other something. Soooo This year we bought "Big Kev" yes we have named our new table hehehe. ALl those who live here will get the joke :o) Dad totally spoiled the kids which was nice they just could not believe their luck!

We ate heaps of food, I did heaps of cleaning up. We all had a great day :o)

I'm looking forward to next year when we have Erik here and we can share a summer Christmas with him.

Niamh's birthday

Yes I know it was 2 weeks ago! Ive been kind of busy since then :o) Anyway here are the pressies and her cake and yes her first birthday was fun, she has a great time eating cake and making a huge mess :o) Now we are looking forward to another full year.

delusions of .....

What do you do on a day when its wet and I mean really wet its cold and there are predicted winds of up to 150km an hour? You have a garage sale thats what! Yes we decided to decluter again I have a theory "if you have not used it or worn it in the past 12 months then you probably wont so get rid of it!" So the whole family got in on the act of cleaning out some stuff. Xaviour was great putting the Xbox out with all its bits and pieces, games. Jasmine who is a bit of a pack rat found a few little things, I got rid of some cupboards that were not being used the old kitchen table and chairs as well as some baby stuff. Yes its time to "de-baby" the house, we decided that we have enough children and are NOT having anymore! Phew! So out went the port-a-cot, baby swing and a few other pieces. I had it advertised in the local paper so even though it was pouring rain we still went ahead with it. We made some money and I got rid of all the big stuff, Allen even got rid of some things :o) I did have it adversied till 2pm but at 11.30 Id had enough I was wet and cold and wanted to go inside where it was warm and dry, so thats what we did.

Allen mentioned that we'll try again next weekend bu I said thats Niamh's birthday so thats been put off till the new year :o)

Now all we are doing is waiting to see if the Carols by Candlelight will be called of this year or not? Jasmine is singing quite a few songs this year, even though this is her last year in the Sing Elon chior I was still looking forward to going. The wind has died down now and its just the rain we are worried about Im not sure what they are forcasting for tomorrow evening last year it "sprinkled" but pretty much dry. I have a feeling that this year is a no go but we have to "wait and see" what the sound guys say...... Ive added some pics from last years carols here in Launceston as well as the big ones in Sydney and Melbourne. We usually get around 15-20 thousand for ours its held in the city park in the middle of town

Playgroup christmas

It was our last playgroup for the year on Monday and we had a small Christmas party with Mrs Claus. We were asked to bring a small plate of food to share and I made a cake for Niamh as its her birthday in 11 days :o) The kids had a ball eating and playing and running around the kind area :o) Mrs Claus came by and handed out a pressie for each child (these were supplied by the parents) Gabriel was excited to go and get his bag which had a matchbox car and a spade for the sandpit. We left a little bit early and when we got home the little kids went straight to sleep bliss......
Allen had a good day with another interview for a job hes had a few but no actual job yet Im hoping that changes soon :o)
Ive also been contacted by a "friend in the U.S" who has told me that I need to be more mindfull of what I type on my blog because Allens children read it. So I'll be very specific here 1. The only reason we are getting any money this month from the government is because we are considered LOW income right now becasue Allen isn't working. 2. The kids (meaning my kids) are "cleaning up" this yearbecaue they have a very cool grandfather (again my father), who is earning alot of money and knowing our financial situation has decided to buy the kids a heap of pressies this year because we can't. I hope that clears everything up.

Ohh and this late news Jasmines best friend Christian likes to have fun with her phone and he took her baga nd found her "pad bag" and played with her pads including taking one and sticking it on his head ! It was so cute that I had to put it here hahaha

Niamh and her cake

Allen and the little kids

Mrs Claus giving Gabriel his pressie

Niamh eating a bickie

Niamh and her friend Nat, Nat and Jess love her and fight over holding her :o)

more cooking and Chrissy lights

Ive been doing alot of cooking of late. Ive been making Jackies yummy bread sticks mmmm and I made a tray full of fudge with macadamia nuts, then because Jasmine was going to camp I made some mini quiche's I made a total of about 80? I gave Jasmine about 30 of them and the rest I left on the tray cooling overnight this morning I went to morning tea and when I got home wooshhhh they were gone! All of them! He swear's he didnt eat them all but hmmmm he was the only one at home?

Anyway I made some more and I actually got to try one :o) Then I went out and put the lights up, I still have about 4 more sets to put up but its looking good :o) I also have the tree up and my nativity set out.Its begining to look alot like Christmas.....

Its Christmas time

Its December so 1. Its officially summer time and 2. Its Christmas time :o)
I put the tree up on Saturday Im not allowed to put it up till after Thanksgiving. I colour co ordinate our tree which my kids find annoying but hey I dont care! This year Ive got a blue and gold theme :o) Ive still got to find the remaning lights and decorations. Ive found half the lights so they'll go up tonight :o) Ive got the nativity set out the hard part is trying to keep Gabriel away from it! Im also going to be busy today cooking Christmas biscuits and try a new cake recipie for Niamhs birthday (yes I know its still a couple of weeks away). Im also going to get my mixed fruit for the Christmas cake! I tried to get my fruit from the supermarket but they only had the one with peel in it (yuck) but the lady who owns the bulk food place in Deloraine said she would make me some fruit without the peel :o) I love small towns :o) Now all I need is the brandy to soak the fruit yummmmmmmmm..... Im making 2 cakes this year as last year I made one and Allen ate most of it so this year Im making 2. I costed it out last year and each cake cost about 60$ to make with the brandy and 5 eggs its expensive but sooo worth it.
I was very clever last week after dads visit the kids went to the school social, Allen and I went home put the little kids to bed and wrapped all the Christmas pressents :o) hahahahah My older2 are very sneaky and play lets find teh pressies every year this year its a matter of waiting and seeing :o) With the government giving us some free money this month the kids are cleaning up! They are going to be happy munchies this year. Last year we didnt have much as we had just come home from the U.S and our big holiday so it was a matter of well its been funa nd we spent what we had and told the kids it was going to be small and they were happy with that (they also had a new baby sister last Christmas).
I'll put some photos up tomorrow of the lights on the house :o)

Funny photos

Last night Allen was going through some old digi photo cards when we found all these old photos. Some are of the kids, some were of the Duke street house before I sold it, some were of the land before we started building.Some of them were funny to see so here they are.

some of the steel there was alot of it!
Timber for the deck and the footings that were in the ground

When we started unpacking it all we really started thinking what have we done?

This was a daunting task

This was our first trip to see the block before we bought it, we made an offer that night.

It really did look like a jumble of weeds

This made Allen and I realise just how much we have done in 2 years.

The front of my first house, I loved the garden here it was so nice and I loved watching things grow

This was our last Christmas at the old house

HAHAHA. Xaviour had his face painted by Allen fro Halloween that year he was only 8, he looks so cute

How cute is this! Jasmine was only 11 and allready looking like a model (height wise)

The missionaries who taught Xaviour they were fantastic

This was the kitchen in the old house I had a great time wreaking the old one :o)

The hall and front door we polished all the floors again they really did look great when we left.

This was my room, we took out the wall and made a sitting area for reading and escaping from kids hehehe

Xaviours baptism he was so excited

Xaviours 8th birthday at the play centre he was in the space room

The lounge room of the old house we took out the wall between the 2 rooms it made it so much bigger and heaps more light very nice

This was the new carpet being layed

It seemed a shame to cover the floor boards but it needed to flow so they were covered

more of the floor before the carpet went down