A big week

March 31, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

It’s been great. But I have very few words. There is so much I want to say but my brain is just happy to smile and nod. So I’ll try and upload some photos to share.

Okay. So I tried, but it didn’t work. I’m on my nephew’s MacBook Air and I’m having issues with uploading my photos from my phone.

So I guess I’ll just have to use my brain after all. Okay. Here goes.

We flew down to Melbourne, (Melvin according to Chanbe) all 11 of us, last Thursday, and picked up our hire cars to drive down to Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula. Our traveling party consists of our family of five, Hubs’ sister and her group of 5, and Hubs’ brother, and we’ve been having a grand old time.

Okay okay. Everyone keeps telling me to suck it up and try harder to upload photos. FINE! I’ll try!

First, there was this guy. On the Tuesday before the Wednesday that we were flying down, I was in an absolute tizz. I dropped a coffee off to Hubs around 11am and he told me to take a deep breath, go home, and play with the kids. I told him I didn’t have time to play with the kids, and he told me I didn’t have time not to play with the kids.

He melts my heart. We had a simply marvelous time building lego and reading stories. I tried not to look at the time and tried not to think of what I needed to do.

Then there was this little cherub:

She just cracks me up. My little Quinndy comes out with the funniest things and she loves her new little jeggings.

And my little Darby-doo.

My little guy who sleeps, eats, and gives me lots and lots of snuggly cuddles.

So I did get around to packing, and I was in a much more calm state when we boarded the plane Wednesday morning. Traveling alone with 3 children was a little daunting, but with my positive attitude, wonderful flight crew, and helpful fellow passengers, the trip was an absolute success. And the kids loved the train from the airport into town.

Dad picked our bags up from the airport, and Mum and I took the kids into town, then onto Hubs’ sister’s house. We spent the night there then all flew down together on Thursday, taking up most of 2 rows. We arrived at our holiday house after 9pm that night – HUGE day – and then spent Friday morning just chilling out. I had booked myself a pedicure and massage for Friday arvo which did not disappoint, while the rest of the gang hit the op shops and got some cracking bargains.

The wedding was absolutely delightful in every way.

Sarah, the bride (Hubs’ cousin) asked me, and many other guests, long ago for photos from our own weddings, and she made placemats out of them:

How cool is that??? We each had a placemat themed with a family members’ or friends wedding. It was such a lovely touch. SO much thought, love and detail went in to the day, and the bride and groom had a great time which at the end of the day, is the main thing. But I just realised that I don’t have a photo of Sarah and Justin on my phone – I was too engrossed in the ceremony.

We’ve had lots of down time and fun time here, including in the pool…

(Not me – are you crazy??)

We head back to Brizzie tomorrow and will all stay over Easter which will be nice. I’ve been really looking forward to this trip for 6 months, and it has met all expectations.

Until I blog again…

ummm what?

March 10, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

It has NOT been that long since I last posted!?? I mean I’ve been thinking about blogging every day. That counts for something doesn’t it?

Too much is happening and my brain is mush. I’ve been unpacking boxes like a mad woman and they’re still not done.

I did do a fun little project today though. I turned this:

Into this!

Which was fun and exciting since I’m not really known around these here parts for having any idea about design! It’s for the kids play room for toys and books.

Anyway I’m seriously falling asleep here. I promise I’ll be back here again sooon!!

Another update

February 23, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

We’re in Brisbane.

Mum and the kids and I flew down this evening. Hubs suggested it and i agreed. He and Darby and I are flying to Melbourne this weekend for a wedding so there wasn’t much point in hanging around up there when the was no power.

He is staying with another Doctor we have been friendly with this last month, as he had electricity, being on the same grid as the hospital. We are so grateful for him opening his place to us – we’ve been hanging out there the last 2 days enjoying the air con.

It’s been rather hot up there…

This is me after busting my arse all day yesterday with Dad, getting all of our stuff out of the temp house.

We can’t move in to our new place til the floors are finished and they can’t finish the floors until the electricity is back on!

It’s all very amusing. So if you’re in Brizzie and want to catch up I’ll be here all week. Try the beef. It’s from Rockhampton.

A before and after

February 22, 2015 / Renae / 2 Comments

Before:

Oh man. I don’t think Quindy’s hair has ever been this bad. I’m normally pretty good at staying on top of the knots. And by that i mean once a week I spend 10 minutes working conditioner through her hair and pulling apart all the knots amid protests of “don’t dooo dat” and then comb out the rest afterwards.

This mass took 20 minutes, 3 lots of conditioner – I used about 1/4 of the bottle – and then 10 minutes of combing. She was not happy.

But the after shot?

Totally worth it.

Oh boy

February 21, 2015 / Renae / 2 Comments

Wow. What a day. The cyclone was pretty crazy and a little bit exciting at times. This was our view for the day:

And the rains came down…

We watched as the water rose up in line with our trailer. Thankfully it held on and I believe everything inside remained dry!

Weer lost power very early on and it’s still off. Apparently it will be days if not weeks before it is restored.

And then there’s the new place.

We went over to clean up today. I don’t have the brain space to even think about our next move right now. We’ll just see what tomorrow brings.

It could have been a lot worse.

Cyclone Marcia

February 20, 2015 / Renae / 1 Comment

Marcia Marcia Marcia.

I’m sure no one else on the Internet has written that today. I’m so funny. As some of you may be aware, we recently moved to Rockhampton, and in turn moved directly into the path of a Category 5 cyclone. Woops! We also bought a 65 year old house with the contract settling 2 days ago. We figure it’s lasted 65 years and numerous storms, surely this one won’t knock it over! Maybe we should have settled next week!

The temporary house we are in has a rather leaky roof and is in a very low lying area. It is high set but I’m a little nervous about the few pieces of furniture we have bought from garage sales that we’re storing under the house. That part isn’t built in.

Anyway we’ve done what we can and now we wait. Apparently Yeppoon is getting hit pretty badly right now. Before we moved here, a number of people said “don’t live in Rocky, live in Yeppoon. It’s much nicer out there.” I’m kind of glad we didn’t listen 🙂

Apart from the whole “cyclone” thing we are doing really well! Mum and Dad have been up here for a week and we had a little party for Quinn’s 2nd birthday last weekend which was lovely.

We’ve also had some work done on the floors of our new place in preparation for us moving in. Here’s the last couple of weeks in photos!

I got another haircut!

The kids helped me make gnocchi

Quinn chose this bag to take with her to kindy drop off which amused Chance’s teachers and the other parents.

I made Quindy a froggie cake for her birthday

Which she ate happily

Ouma came up for some lovely cuddles

There’s been a lot of this going on

We removed all the carpet from our new place in preparation for getting them polished

So far they’ve gone from this:

To this after sanding. I know, right????

Darby-doo had his 10 week check last week and weighed in at a healthy (whopping!) 7.3kg. He is doing marvelously and even letting me sleep most of the night!

And then there’s the cyclone.

So that’s us up to date for now. I’m a little excited that this is my first cyclone which I know is morbid and I’ll probably feel very differently in a few hours but for now the novelty is there.

I’ll try and do an update in the next few days!

Happy birthday to Quindy

February 1, 2015 / Renae / Leave a comment

Our dear little Quinderella. Holy moly you’re a cutie.

Those big brown eyes. Those gorgeous blond curls. You steal the hearts of all you meet and you have definitely stolen ours.

You are such a cheeky-chops and you get away with far too much, but no one seems to notice.

You love picking up your bag, my keys and whatever sunnies are lying around, and announcing you’re going to the shops. I ask what you’re going to buy and the answer is almost always the same.

“Ice and fruit and yoghurt.”

You love pretending to talk on the phone, and you use whatever is available to you at the time. Today you picked up a little hard paged book and pretended you had a flip phone.

You love your big brother Chanbe, and will follow him and copy whatever he does. Even when he turns on you, you can generally hold your own, and can give as good as you get. Not that we encourage such things off course….

Your latest antics are pulling a “funny face” when I’m trying to take a photo.

And even though you’re still not quite sure what to make of Darby, you do love to give him kisses and cuddles. I won’t mention the donks on the head though…

So my darling baby girl, keep smiling. Keep charming people with those eyes and curls. Keeping making Chanbe laugh with your silliness. Keep making your Gran and Grumpy smile at your sassy strut. Keep giving your baby brother kisses and cuddles – he’ll be giving them back soon enough. Keep your Dadda wrapped tightly around your little finger. And keep being my baby girl, just for a little bit longer.

Happy new year

December 31, 2014 / Renae / 2 Comments

It’s nearly midnight and we’re still awake. And on purpose! Hubs left for work an hour ago and the kids have been asleep since 8. And now it’s time for Mama bear to bid 2014 farewell, thank it for the experiences and the life lessons, and for my darling little boy, and say hello to the new year. A year full of promise for our growing family.

See you on the flip side.

Our “little” 2 week old

December 21, 2014 / Renae / Leave a comment

Our little Darby is 2 weeks old today. Except he’s not that little. He is our biggest baby, and the way he is feeding, he’s going to be off the charts just like Chanbe was in his first 12 months. But he’s still our little guy for the time being.

I think the period where they’re under 2 months has the biggest “aaawwww” factor. You can still refer to their age in weeks without sounding pretentious, they still have that newborn look, and they don’t mind being handed around for cuddles. Which means I have another 6 or so weeks of this:

Aaaaawwww 🙂

The difference a few days can make

December 16, 2014 / Renae / Leave a comment

Darby Jacob. What a guy and what a name.

Hubs and I had settled on a girl’s name a few months ago, and it’s a corker. I’m going to infuriate you by not sharing it here, as it’s still number 1 on our list if we happen to have another girl. Boy’s names on the other hand don’t come so easily to us, and a week before Darby was born, ie his due date, we had settled on a name but it just didn’t pop for us the way the names “Chance” and “Quinn” did.

And we still hadn’t decided on a middle name. Hubs isn’t a fan of middle names in general – probably because he doesn’t have one – and wanted to leave this baby middlename-less. l was not convinced and in fact was quite adamant that I wanted to use another family name.

So I emailed my wonderful mother in law (I think this was 4 days before Darby was actually born) and asked her to share all of the male family names on her side.

Jacob immediately stood out to me and I had it semi approved by Hubs. Now. If you want me to tell you where the name Darby came from, I wouldn’t have an answer for you. It literally popped into my head on Friday the 5th of December and so I added it to my names list on my phone. And do you know when I suggested it to Hubs? About half an hour after our little man was born. While we were trying out other pre-discussed names on him.

Hubs is very hard to please when it comes to names, but he loved it. Well I think he liked it and it grew on him very quickly. It was just one of those names that popped for us and even though I’ve never much bought into a name “suiting” someone, it’s very easy to call him Darby and it just fits.

The point of this little story? If Darby was born on time or even just 4 days earlier, he would have a completely different name and that’s kinda weird for me.

Does he look like a Darby?