wow, what a busy busy time its been...

the last few months has been extreme. we have barely had time as a family to be together, let alone get the grocery shopping done, keep up to date with washing, maintain contact with friends & family not to mention relax!!!

this year has been busier than any other with the addition of 3 new babies in our immediate family having first birthdays in amongst all the other birthdays we already have! so i came back from brisbane, straight into a bunch of deadlines then since April 7 its been happy birthday to [just immediate family]:
mum [60], dad, ben [1], shannon, heather [40], elizabeth, mike, jane [30], me, peter, georgia [2], charlotte [1], connor [1] & brad
we had parties for: mum, shannon, heather, ben, jane, charlotte, brad & connor! lots of gift shopping & homemade gift making. phew!

jeff & i celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary:
for the first time in 12 months [since just before charlotte was born],
we went out for a hot date to our favourite restaurant & a movie. a lovely night.

mum&dad left for overseas:
so i have have been super busy at work in the family business plus taking care of all the little housekeeping things for them that crop up: sorting travel plans when all their connecting flights from melbourne to abroad were cancelled, checking their letterbox, dealing with contractors on their burnt down house rebuild, banking, paying ther bills, 'assisting' my little brother with being organised & getting to work on time, blah blah blah!

so we managed to make it through the crazy birthday season this year reasonably intact. mind you, this last fortnight has been speshly hard. first charlotte was sick, lots of vommitting, in her bed, on our bed, oh the bedding washing was a nightmare! then georgia got sick, the same little sick bug i think. she managed to be sick on the remaining bedding we had in our home. on that last night, jeff & i were huddled under a sleeping bag & throw rug. thank goodness for electric blankets! the next morning we were off to ikea for 5 new quilts & 3 new pillows. our other bedding will be ok, but it is just not drying quick enough in this freezing cold adelaide weather. oh the joys of sick little ones. there's just nothing you can do to stop that delightful projectile sick!!!!! gross huh? so now we have lots of bedding on hand. both girls are mostly over their sickness now. i got a dose too but of course that always goes on the back burner when you have to keep up with everything else, particularly clingy little babies who need lots of extra cuddles & attention.

my dear friend angela:
also had a birthday in april!
&on the weekend, me & my girls were up at her house for her baby shower. this is angelas first pregnancy so it is very very exciting indeed! only about 5 weeks to go. so thats another new baby arriving in addition to my other friend sondra. very exciting all these new babies!! now that'll prolong the birthday season next year again LOL

this weekend:
we are totally 100% free!!!! we have NO plans. so we are going to spend some time together. we might take the kids to the zoo. we are going to fill the pantry with food. we are going to catch up on more washing. we are going to clean. we are going to have fun.

i am also going to catch up on emails [currently i can read them at work but cannot access them at home at all!]. i have packages of artwork to send out to my book contributors. i am going to finish setting up my new mac so i have everything i need on just the one computer - internet, mail, photo library, peripherals: printer & scanner, address book, artwork library, graphics programs - all the stuff that will hopefully make things a little easier computer wise for me than it has been for the last 2 years. the first year struggling with a poor performing pc [no doubt riddled with viruses] and the second with internet access on my old mac and everything else on my old pc. transferring files between the two via flash, then via patch cable then eventually via ipod. very draining.
but at last i have a new mac, a beautiful new mac that will hopefully be good to me!!

ok, so here are some photos from all the last few months of chaos & frivolity...

here's shannon - she turned 8

and here's georgia at shannon's party. shan had a dress up fashion party

my charlotte opening her birthday pressies

my georgia opening her birthday pressies

and georgia wearing her birthday dress [naturally pp] at charlottes party

charlotte wearing her birthday outfit [again, pp of course]

and here she is with her birthday cupcakes at her first birthday party

and here is georgia dressed up to the nine's for janes 30th 70's disco party

a mini update on the kids:
charlotte:
-is well on her way to walking completely unaided. 7 steps here, fall down, 10 steps there.... her little cousin ben [7 weeks her senior LOL] has even more steps under his belt & i think we can practically call it officially walking now so we are hoping these two little people might be able to walk up to nanny & granda [my parents] at the airport in a few weeks when they arrive home. should be very cute!!!
-is wanting to communicate so much now. new additions are pointing to bottle & saying 'btybtybitty'. she is always wanting 'up', says 'apple' about 350 times per day. loves saying 'yeah' to everything and there's lots more i can't think of right now.
-just had her 12 month immunisation & didn't even cry AT ALL!!!!!!! such a brave little sausage!

georgia:
-loving our favourite program on abc kids every afternoon 'charlie & lola'. yesterday it was not on so she said to me, 'charlie & lola on tomorrow day mum?' very cute!
enjoying playing with her dough factory, her new connect 4 game and also her new cash register [with credit scanner & microphone] that she got for her birthday.

and i think thats all for now. i have some artwork to share next post. this post was merely a catchup to reflect on, record & put to bed, some of the last few months chaos.

kate
xo