The End of A Decade

What a special decade it has been for us with the birth of our two children. We have also endured huge loss with the death of Craig's father. It's hard to believe that this time 10years ago we were wondering if our clocks would stop or our computers would crash. Looking back, what a silly concept!

I haven't achieved all of my goals for this year but I wouldn't want to make it too easy. While my scrapbooking suffered for a while during the year, I certainly have returned to cardmaking and far exceeded my projected quota. Book reading has been enjoyable and I have a couple lined up for next year. Being positive and smiling everyday has been tough at times this year but I'm hoping to improve on that goal next year too. I'll put up my new goals for next year in the coming days.

This week we have enjoyed rainy showers everyday which have been beautiful and all is lush and green again. It rained quite a bit on Tuesday so I decided to teach Nick how to play the original Monopoly board game. Well he beat me very convincingly and wants to play it all the time now. Penny was the banker off and on.

I have worked for the last couple of days. Nick has been to vacation care in which he went swimming at the beach and tried out his new Christmas scooter at the skate bowl on Wednesday and then he went to Sizzler today and indulged. I also managed slip in a little scrapping too and below is the result.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2010!

Love, Rach xx

My Buzzy Bee

Penny received this dress up outfit for Christmas from my brother and his family and she just loves it. We think she looks pretty cute in it too. She has had it on at least twice a day since she received it. Nick has even had a try!! We almost bought the same outfit from a market stall in Coffs Harbour.Here's a picture of our furry daughters having a smooch and face wash. Holly (cat) was cleaning Zoe's (dog) face for her. They are just the best of friends.

Christmas Fun

Sanat's been!!!!

It is amazing how much preparation goes into this one special day and it seems to pass by in the blink of an eye. I think I started about 6 weeks ago but I felt pleased with how much the children enjoyed their day which is probably the most important part of Christmas for me. The children were up at 5.30am but we managed to get them to wait until 6am before we went out to see if Santa had been. Present opening was fun and then Craig's mother and sister, Annette arrived for some more present opening followed by a carving of the Christmas ham for breakfast. Toy playing, a visit to the neighbours to exchange gifts and then onto lunch with Craig's extended family. We then came home for a quiet evening feeling tired but satisfied and happy.

Penny and Craig's sister, Annette.

Penny and our beautiful Lab, Zoe who we didn't think would be around for this Christmas due to her cancer.

We are having a lovely restful long weekend catching up with friends and playing with our new toys.

T'was The Night Before Christmas...

This is one of our favourite Christmas stories which we read all year round but not tonight. We read a beautifully embossed story book about Santa's toys and a little fir tree. The children enjoyed it immensely. The reindeer food and water has been put out the front and Santa has a beer and biscuits under the tree. Sleep was not hard to come by for one little boy but as usual Penny is a little slower to sleep but is flat out now. We have been busy with the lead up to Christmas with work Christmas parties on the weekend leaving us a little jaded to say the least!!! Last minute wrapping has been complete followed by a very busy morning of work for me but a quieter afternoon. Now all we have to do is wait for the good old Santa to arrive.

Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas and best wishes for a healthy and prosperous New Year.

Love, Rach xx

Christmas Spirit

My children have plenty of it at present! They are very excited but on the down side get quite testy at times. Nick was very happy to finish school last Friday and has been quite happy to do things around home. He is very interested in Pokemon books at present and has been writing about them which is quite pleasing. Penny is unsure of having Nick home as we don't have our girl time but she is enjoying Nick's company out in the yard where they have made a cubby in the back corner garden.

We had a quiet weekend which was lovely as we all needed a recharge and catch up. We did go out to a restaurant at the beach for breakfast on Sunday which was yummy and the kids had a play in the playground.
This week I have been good and frequented the gym although my muscles are letting me know today! We went to visit a school friend of Nick's who is camping at the beach on Monday and the boys had a great time in the surf on their boogey boards and swimming. Today, Nick tried out for level 5 at swimming in which the teacher stands out of the pool and the kids swim up and down the lanes. He did struggle a bit but really enjoyed it and so he will start next year in this group. He is going so well with his swimming and has decided that eating vegetables is important after all if he wants to have the stamina to swim and play his sports. I only hope he keeps going along this track.

I have managed to complete my Christmas cards and letters and wrap and post the Christmas presents and managed to fit in a little bit of scrapping too.

Have a good week.

Our Pretty Ballerina

Penny performed in her dance concert (x3) on the weekend. She danced in 3 concerts, Saturday matinee, Saturday evening and Sunday matinee. We watched her today. Penny's act was 3rd from the beginning so she was able to come in and watch the rest of the concert which was 3.5hrs long. She loved it all. Nicholas was quite interested too and didn't want to return home at interval time with Craig. Grandma (Craig's mother) also came to watch. Penny performed very well and seemed to really enjoy performing on stage. She received a certificate at the end of the concert. Her group is called Kinda dance and they all looked so cute. Dancing has now finished for the year and next year she will go up a group to the "Tinnies". I will not stay with her for her lessons which she feels most confident and excited about. We are very proud of our little ballerina.
PS - This is post number 100! When I first began this blog I really didn't think that I would keep it going. I enjoy writing it and hope that it gives our friends and family afar and near, some idea of what is going on in our busy life. I find it quite handy to refer back to previous entries when journalling in my scrapbooking.

Christmas Cheer...

entered our busy household this week as I mentioned in the previous post. Firstly, a visit to Santa in which I didn't need to be in the photo with Penny. She was quite happy to go and climb up on his lap. Santa is being much more environmentally friendly this year by giving out tomato seeding kits so that the children can grow tomato plants for the reindeer to eat. Good idea but unfortunately ours are still sitting on the table waiting to be planted. We better get organised this week otherwise the reindeer will go hungry at our house!We put the Christmas cheer into the house on Tuesday being the first day of December and put the Christmas tree up. Seeing as it has over 250 tips to separate and erect, I decided to put the tree up whilst Nick was at school and Penny was sleeping. The afternoon was then spent decorating. They did a great job this year.

Just Survivng

This week would be the craziest with a Santa visit and swimming on Monday, parent-teacher interview and Christmas tree decorating on Tuesday, dancing rehearsal on Wednesday, work today, dancing dress rehearsal and work tomorrow and 3 dance concerts on the weekend as well as a 40th birthday party to attend. I'm just taking it one day at a time and it's running pretty smoothly. I think our little girl will be pretty tired by the end of the weekend. She was quite disappointed that she wasn't on stage for long after her rehearsal yesterday and wanted to stay and go back on. The rehearsals are closed to the public so we can't see them rehearsing on stage and just wait out the back. We will go and watch her on Sunday.
I haven't loaded my Christmas/Santa photos yet so as I promised in the last post, here is a photo of Nicholas being kissed by a dolphin in Coffs Harbour in September. By the way, he had a good report from the parent-teacher interviews. Also finished my 40 Christmas cards- Yay!!!