Birthday lunch

The "where's my cake board, quick the icing is melting, where's a picture of Bob and Larry, Mom you forgot the noses" version of a veggie tales cake. It was super yummy though.

Uncle Jason

Tilly

Jim

Leah

ummm...yes...that's my son

waiting for cake

adults chatting

Bob and Larry--made by Dinah
Bob's nose--made by Vivienne

opening presents

Asher, Nathan and Emily

Birthday Girl

birthday girl's requested breakfast

wearing her new dress. I'm glad she likes it!

opening her present from Grammy and Papa

her Mama-made birthday dress

a new digital camera

her new doll from Grandma and Grandpa

Happy Birthday, Catie

These pics are the earliest I could find on the computer at the moment. two pics from her 3rd birthday which I found appropriate as she wants another VeggieTales birthday. =) The other pic was from when we first got the camera and she was almost 2 1/2. She was so little!!

Anyway, Happy Birthday to my big 8 year old!!

insert clever title here

The morning didn't start well. I wasn't careful to make sure that the house was tidy last night so we had to start the morning by cleaning up. And I didn't sleep well so was a bit of a cranky mama. I knew we had to get started or it would be worse tomorrow. So we started with a craft project. And it was just what we needed. Got the paintings done and got stuck into the schoolwork. It went really well after that.

This afternoon was hearing tests for all 3 girls. Beka's results were discouraging but nothing more than we expected. Tomorrow we have a dr. visit to talk more about it. And we'll do another hearing test in 10 weeks.

Tomorrow is another busy day. We need to get stamps from the post office to mail off the Christmas thank-yous we wrote last week and a birthday card for a fun little cousin. Then a quick trip to get what I didn't get grocery shopping tonight, a trip to the dr. and off to friends' for a birthday BBQ. Josh is home on Wednesday and I think the girls have plans to talk him into washing the cars. =) Catie's birthday is Thursday and her plans include pancakes for breakfast and mostacioli for dinner with cupcakes for dessert. I need to make a dress between now and Thursday. hmmm...guess I should be working on it now. Maybe I'll give it to her on Sunday at her birthday dinner. =)

Anyway, guess I should do something more worthwhile of my time than watching tv and blog surfing. TTFN!! =)

Back in the swing of things

haha. I'm punny!

Well, today we're starting schoolwork. HBCA doesn't start until Thursday but we decided to start today. The girls were asking to all last week so I might as well do it while they want to. Plus Catie's birthday is on Thursday so we might not even do schoolwork that day. Wednesday is Australia Day so Josh will be home but we will probably still do schoolwork. I spent a few hours last week getting the schoolroom ready and organized. I took the workbooks to McTaggarts Printers here in town and for $22 they chopped all the bindings off. It was $22 well spent so I don't have to tear off several perforated pages per child each school day for the next year. Then I bought file thingies for each girl and put their work in them. I also have a hanging file for each girl with folders for Monday - Friday. That way I can pull out their weekly work and put it there. They can pull out that day's work and put it on their clipboard. And there is room left in their file thingies to put all the completed papers. Hopefully more organization=more getting done. =)

funny boy

Beka's new purple cast

went to the fracture clinic this morning with Beka. They said to allow 2 hours but we were only there for 1. YAY!! the doctor looked at the x-ray and said that there were two dark spots that meant there were little cracks in the bone. One just above the elbow and one just below. He then took off the temporary cast and checked everything out. He moved and poked and prodded and was very surprised when Beka said that none of it hurt. She could squeeze his hand, etc. Then he said that while little kids heal very quickly there was no way it had healed in 4 days so she was going to get a proper cast. However, he said to make another appointment in two weeks and they would take it off then. So only 2.5 weeks in a cast! YAY!!

well....

so far my "stay home and establish a routine" week has not been successful. =) Church was late on Sunday night so bedtime was late, Beka spent the afternoon in the hospital on Monday and we had dinner with friends and another late bedtime. Went to the doctor for Catie yesterday then over to see the Sauvageot's house-in-progress then dinner with them and another late bedtime. Today I have to take Catie to get blood drawn so Jennie is bringing Ben and Emily over to watch the other 3, then she'll leave Ben and Emily while she goes to a meeting. We're also getting a new fridge delivered today. YAY!! no more leaky non-sealing fridge. Tomorrow should be quiet, Josh and I have Bible study in the evening but hopefully Chantelle can babysit and bedtime should be normal. Friday morning at 9 Beka has an appointment at the fracture clinic. With it being one of the first appointments maybe there will be parking and they will still be on time?? I can always hope! Not sure what the weekend holds but Monday afternoon I have all 3 girls booked in for hearing tests. It'll be good to get the results of that. I'm planning to start schoolwork on Monday as well. And Wednesday is Australia Day and Thursday is Catie's 8th birthday! Maybe it will slow down in February! =)

p.s. wanna see what the grocery shelves looked like last week? check it out

Beka's new accessory

Beka came home from the hospital with a temporary cast. The x-ray didn't show a break but with the swelling around the elbow the doctor assumed that there is a hairline fracture just below the elbow. So here's to 8 weeks in a cast!

oh boy

Grandpa and Grandma stopped by on their way up north for a few weeks to say goodbye to the kids. Emma (who is OVER saying goodbye and VERY tired) started crying. This made Grandma cry. Grandpa went outside to check on something and Catie and Beka followed him. They decided to show him how they climb the mango tree. Beka then proceeded to fall out of the mango tree and hurt her arm. So she was, of course, crying. This upset Catie and she started crying. I snuggled with Beka with an ice pack on her arm and called Josh. By the time he came home she had stopped crying but was very pale. We weren't sure about the arm but decided to put it in a sling and she could ride with Josh to the airport and if she were still in pain he would take her by the hospital. Well, moving her arm/elbow to put it in the sling made her cry again so he decided to take her straight to the hospital. And that's where they are now. oh boy.

We're home

well, we made it home. barely. The trip started off to be very promising. Security was a breeze at the airport, no body scan or pat down. Then there were extra seats on the plane meaning we had three rows of 3 seats to ourselves. The girls spread out and slept the whole time. When we got to LAX we only had to walk about 5 gates and we were at our gate. We didn't even have to change terminals and go through security again. What a blessing!! However, once we got there we heard the words "extremely overbooked". ughhh!!! They not only didn't have a bassinet for Nathan but we didn't get an extra seat either. BUT they did upgrade us to premium economy. This was a big help. Because while we still had to hold Nathan the entire time at the least the seats were bigger with heaps more foot room and they reclined more. The girls slept pretty well and Josh and I even slept some in spurts. Nathan slept for about 10 of the 13+ hour trip. But he was pretty wired when he woke up and did not want to sit down. or eat. or have a drink. or play with toys. He just wanted to run around. But we made it. And then within a few minutes of getting off the plane we got the news that Gympie was flooded and Grandpa and Grandma couldn't meet us at the airport. And we might not be able to get home. After making it through customs where we realized 1 suitcase was lost and the customs officer took heaps of my stuff =( we made it out into the wet mugginess that is QLD. It only took us 2 hours! We headed to Dan and Jen's house and prepared to be stuck in Brisbane for a couple days. Josh kept looking online and we found that someone had made it through Gympie and we should be right to make it home. So we packed up quickly and started driving. The rain was pouring down, we could hardly see in front of us. As we got closer to Gympie we could see where the water was right up to the edge of the highway but it wasn't on the highway. And in Gympie we were detoured around a low spot but it was all good. The rain cleared after Gympie and we soon came to Maryborough. We had heard one of the bridges was closed so came in a different way. We made it all the way through only to be turned around on the MAryborough/Hervey Bay road because a bridge was under water. So we backtracked a bit and got back on the highway and came to Torbanlea. There was a bit of water on the road but it was safe to drive through and about 20 minutes later we were home. HOME!!!

This week has been crazy. We found out Monday morning that Jason was a couple hours behind us from Brisbane on Sunday but the road had flooded again and he had to turn around. VBS started Monday morning. And we invited friends for lunch that day. A short while before they came we realized that there was mildew on all our chairs and table, the doors and baseboards, the pillows on one couch and on the arm of one of the recliners. I also opened up the dishwasher to realize that the once clean dishes in there were all moldy too. I washed the dishwasher again on it's hottest cycle and Josh wiped up the chairs. On Tuesday some girls staying with Floyd and Gwen because they couldn't make it home to Gympie offered to come over and help clean up. They scrubbed the table and chairs and doors and baseboards and helped sweep/mop the floor. They also took care of Nate so I could finish unpacking. This was such a big help. The girls have been so excited to go to VBS each day but they are SO tired. Nathan is loving all the "new" toys he found. He plays so well by himself. And he just jabbers away as he plays. We found out how blessed we were to make it home on Sunday as Brisbane has been majorly flooded this week and we wouldn't have been able to make it home for quite awhile. Thankfully as far as we know all our friends are safe. We are blessed that we haven't had any flood waters but we are experiencing some panic buying and the grocery stores and fuel stations are pretty much empty. Thankfully it didn't happen until Monday afternoon and we got most of what we needed on Monday morning.

So here it is Friday morning. I'm a week behind on memorizing Philippians. We're already half way through the first month of the year! But at least the house is tidy and we have another week before we have to start school. My big goal for next week is establishing some sort of routine for school and chores.

Ta Ta For Now!! =)

Coming Home!

We've had a fabulous time but right this minute we should be on a plane coming home!! Now hopefully everything has been packed and the bags don't weigh too much and they find their way to Brisbane safely. oh and that we find a way to get them all home to Hervey Bay! Josh says they won't fit in the Delica. HA! =)

I've been blogging from a new laptop!! And the first thing I did was go on etsy and order some decals. We got a great deal on the laptop so I didn't get a red one like I wanted. So I got red flower decals and they came yesterday! =)

Build-A-Bear

The girls got to visit Build-A-Bear for a Christmas present. I had a coupon that expired last Friday so we went last Friday. =) The girls had fun picking their bear, stuffing it, fluffing it and picking out a set of clothes. Catie picked a white bear and a doctor outfit and named her bear Dr. Ariel. Emma picked a bunny rabbit and a cute little turquoise and white outfit and named her bunny Hippity Hoppity. Beka picked a bear from the Halloween range that has candy corn all over it. She picked a purple outfit and named her bear Beka.

Going Bonkers

The week before Christmas Mom and Dad took on a Herculean task. They kept my kids (including Nate) for an entire afternoon and evening. During this time they took them to an indoor play place, an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet, and a school Christmas program. CRAZY!! =) Anyway, these are pics from Going Bonkers, the indoor play place.

playing in the snow....sorta

Last year there was lots of snow here in Texas. One of the ladies from church, whom everyone calls Granny, froze some snowballs. She sent one home with Dad on Sunday night and we got it out tonight to play with. The girls had so much fun throwing it to each other and eating it. =)

Bummer: it is forecasted to snow on Sunday! Sunday!!! Two days AFTER we leave!! grrrr!!!!

ICE! at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center

pretty amazing what they can make out of blocks of ice, ay? The exhibit tent was kept at about 12 degrees Fahrenheit so it was pretty cold. Good thing they loaned us such fabulous blue parkas. =) Nate looked like a penguin in his. If you'll notice in the photos with the kids that Beka and Justin were looking pretty sad. This was because they were freezing. Their lips were blue and Justin was crying. =( I think Josh felt the same way. =)