400 Horse Open Sleigh.
I think I forgot to write about this in my last whirlwind catch-up blog. The Saturday night before Christmas, we took the boat out for our first night cruise. The Coen’s came along for the ride. We blasted Christmas carols and cruised the canals to check out the Christmas lights. Our canal was full of festive cheer. The other canals were not so much. We rode around for about an hour before we decided that there were too many Scrooges around. But we still had a good time. It was a beautiful night, just chilly enough to sit under a blanky and feel “cold” – just like back home…sort of…

Boxing Day.
What the heck is Boxing Day? It’s a national holiday in Australia. The day after Christmas. So I had to go to work the day before Christmas – Christmas Eve. But don’t worry, the day AFTER is a holiday. Not sure why? To break down all of the toy boxes to put them in the recycle bin? To park 10 km (a long flipping way) from the shops to buy more boxes (I sure hope those deals were worth it)? Or to celebrate boxing kangaroos? Or to go to the bottle shop and buy a box of stubbies (beer)? Or an excuse to spend the day in the pool (that’s what we did). Whatever the reason, I was happy to not be at work.

Step Up 5.
So yes, maybe I should do a better job of preventing my 4 year old son from watching certain movies. But he LOvES dance movies. See?

“Mom, my favorite is the girl in the pink shirt.” (Bra). “Why Ty? Why is she your favorite?” “Because she has sweet moves.”

“Mom, how old do you have to be to kiss a girl?” “18, Ty, 18.” “Can you be 4?” “No, 18.” *counting under his breath* “4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12.13.14.15.16.17.18. Are you SURE I can’t be 4?”

Nothing more awesome than eating mac-n-cheese on the couch.

“Mom, can I try the move where I jump off the wall?”

“Mom, I can only kiss you. And dad. And Lily. But that’s it.”

PS – there is a Step Up dance movie workout video that will be arriving at our house as soon as the Australian Post can deliver it.

PPS – you should all be jealous of the super sweet dance party that Ty and I have during the closing credits. Oh yeah.

Big Hero 6.
On the day after Boxing Day (not sure what that day is called) we went to swim lessons and then surprised Ty by going to the movies. We saw Big Hero 6 – cute movie! Lily does surprisingly well during movies. I had no idea how much she loved popcorn. Do NOT take the popcorn box away from the baby.

Blanky.
Speaking of things I didn’t know about my daughter… She has been using the same little pink blanky at daycare for a year. Every Friday it comes home with us and we wash it, put it in her bag, and back it goes to daycare on Monday. Um. Whoa. Sister LOvES her blanky. I feel like an awful mother for not knowing this. She literally carries her blanky around wherever she goes. It is kind of cute. Where have I been all her life?

Ladder.
And speaking of Lily. Crap. She has figured out how to get around our makeshift baby gate, which was a ladder with a piece or two of cardboard stuck in it. Yes. We are redneck. If you couldn’t tell by our Christmas tree, we like cardboard. So we might be a little redneck, but it really is (was) effective. Not anymore. So now our daughter has a nasty bruise on her cheek (I think she did it on the steps) and her favorite game is climbing the steps. And I will have a heart attack. But she has to grow up sometime. Where did my baby go?

PS – she also loves rocking out to Step Up movies. She has sweet moves.

Undeck the Halls.
Saturday evening we took down all of our Christmas decorations. It was a good opportunity for me to do some major cleaning underneath furniture that we normally clean around. And sometimes you just need to rearrange your living room. So we did. Not sure I love the new layout, but we will try it for a few days.

Decluttering.
Sunday morning we decided to be productive. Lily has had a growth spurt and is now officially too big for 12 month clothing. I went through all of her clothes and pulled down her last bag of clothes from the US – sizes 18 months to 2 years. She is getting so big!! Once I finished that, I was on a roll. I posted a bunch of things on gumtree (like craigslist) and am hoping to get some of our things sold. Jay and Ty went through all of the toys and pitched a bunch of broken toys. They also set aside a bunch of toys to donate to daycare. I was very proud of his ability to do this task without freaking out. But we had to make room for some of the new toys they got for Christmas.

Toys.
Speaking of toys. I think that I have picked up toys on a constant basis for the past 4 days. And done dishes. And picked up toys. And changed diapers. And picked up toys. And moved Legos off the table. And picked up toys. If there ever was any doubt, no I cannot be a stay at home mom. I sure hope Em knows what she is in for! It’s a good thing my kids are cute.

Random.
We spent a couple days of shutdown not doing anything newsworthy. Ran some errands, picked up more toys, did more dishes, got hair cuts, sold some baby stuff (gumtree is fun!), watched some movies at home, learned new magic tricks, talked about not kissing girls until you’re 18 about 100 times (really need to be more selective about what I allow Ty to watch on TV), did some work to try to clean up my inbox, took naps. It was just what we needed to unwind a bit.

Bundy.
We are now on the road head for a little mini vacation to the Bundaberg area. We are staying in Bargara for 3 nights and are going to hopefully watch some sea turtles hatch Thursday night. I can remember watching documentaries on this awesome natural event when I was a kid – can’t wait to see it live! We don’t have plans other than that, so we have no idea where we will end up the next few days. Should be an adventure!

G’day mates!

Golly! ‘Tis the season to not have a moment to write my blog. I don’t know what the deal is, but I have been “flat out” as they like to say down under. Christmas shopping, Christmas teas, Christmas lunches, Christmas presents, Christmas programs, broken systems, and kindy graduation. That just about sums up the last month. I probably don’t need to bore you with all of the details, so how about if I just attach some pictures and if it is worth commenting on, I will. I have been feeling like I have been lagging behind on everything – including my blog – so this is a quick catch-up…

Ty had been rubbing his eyes constantly for a few weeks. Every so often he develops a new nervous twitch, and at first I thought this was one of those. But it went on longer than the others, so I took him to the doctor. He needed some eye drops. And I needed alcohol. Who knew putting eye drops in a 4 year old’s eyes could be so stressful.

We got a package from Aunt Staci! Full of all sorts of goodies. Thank you!!

Jay and I went to see the Hunger Games movie in style. We sat in the Gold Club Lounge. Whoa. Fully reclining seats, only about 20 seats in the theater, appetizers and beer served during the movie. Awesome.

Christmas decorating!

Have I ever mentioned how much Ty loves Legos?

Starting to get hot – love having a pool to cool off in!

Jay joined in the office Movember fundraiser. I was so glad to see December 1 arrive. Lily was sad – she liked petting dad’s face. It was all worth it – jay raised a lot of money for charity and he won an award for the Best Mo.

What says “Christmas” more than a blow up Santa in a ute? Nothing. The answer is nothing.

Let the baking begin. Gingerbread houses, Tim-Tam balls, sugar cookies…yum!

Lily is obsessed with this hat.

Love the mud flaps on this truck…and this camper is about the only one Jay would approve the AFE for.

Santa sightings!!

Now THAT is a proper reusable shopping bag. We are thinking we will take it to the grocery store.

The school year ended. Lily has grown heaps in the past year. She has had lovely teachers at daycare in the Infants room – Miss Steph and Miss Tia. We are all going to miss them!

And then Ty finished his time at Bonny Babes. I went to his graduation ceremony thinking I would not be one of those moms that cries at my son’s preschool graduation ceremony – but when Ty started crying I couldn’t hold back the tears. My baby is growing up. He is so excited to go to big kid school, but was sad about leaving his friends and teachers behind. He is such a sensitive little man.

Ugh. Our good mates, the Torrey’s, had to move back to the USA. :(. While I am happy for them to be able to be home for the holidays, it isn’t going to be the same here without them. They were our primary local support family for our first year here. I am certain that our transition would have been much more challenging without their assistance. They were always cracking us up with their stories about things going wrong. Ty loved the kids – and they were always so patient with him. We miss you guys!!

Sanctuary Cove had a Christmas celebration. They had all sorts of fun things to do – petting zoo, pony rides, best face painter ever.

Entirely too many presents. What do you do when you have a cheeky toddler that likes to reach through the redneck fence around the Christmas tree and tear the presents? You add a redneck cardboard barricade. And then you fill it to the top. Spoiled kiddos.

Jay and I had to work Monday thru Wednesday (actually I didn’t stop working through the weekend – long story – I basically broke the system and it took forever to fix it), but daycare was closed. We were lucky enough to have some awesome people watch the kids for us. They brought their dog over, went out for a picnic and a play in a park, made cards, swam, played Legos, read books. Pretty sure the kids would have rather gone home with them than be stuck with Jay and I. 🙂

Yep, too many presents.

Ty was sooooo excited for Christmas. He spread reindeer food in the front yard, left milk, cookies and a carrot out, and couldn’t wait to go to bed. He woke up super early – wide awake and ready to party!

We spent Christmas day assembling Leogs, playing with dolls (trying to overcome my fear of dolls), playing kitchen, cooking a ham and cheesy taters, and building the extreme marble track – like Mousetrap on steroids. Fun times!! Merry Christmas mates!!