Holidays and Baby

Some how Christmas has come and gone and we are already into the new year. December has held some many exciting things that the month has just torpedo past us. Judah turned 6 on the 12th and we had the most wonderful birthday. We went out to this wonderful family pub and inside they had an old train car that they had restored into a kids play area. That night there happend to be a clown so the kids got to have their face painted and baloons as well. It was so great and Judah was so appreciative of every gift he was given.
The next big event was the end of the school year. With the came all of the end of year class parties and such. I can't believe Judah is going into year 1 in February. He had a great year and he won a silver merit certificate which was just fantastic. He really is a great student. It was hard to say good bye to his teacher because after a year I feel like we had just worked each other out and now I have to start all over again with a new teacher. That said I am hoping that when Heidi gets to Pre-primary that she will have Mrs Barclay. We also had all of Heidi's orientation for her to start Kindy next year. I think she is going to just love it and her teacher for next year is wonderful. I'm a little sad to see her big enough to be a school kid, even if it is only for a half day, but I know she is ready for it and that it will be just fantastic for her to make some friends her age.

Once school was out we had Murray's work Chirstmas party. It was an entire afternoon of eating, playing cricket (or watching in my case), the kids splashing in the kiddie pool, eating some more, and chit chatting. It was a really fun time and although I did have my reservavtions about going, it ended up being just great. After the party we came home, finished last minute packing, and went to bed early to be rested to leave at 4AM for our flight to Brisbane.
Our trip in Brisbane was a wonderful time for family. We had lots of time to spend with Murray's family, but we also had sometime to get out just the 5 of us and spend some QT with our kids. We did lots, and lots, and LOTS of swimming in the pool, ocean, and river. We all came back much tanner then when we left. We went ice skating one day which was just hilarious. Heidi absolutly loved it, Judah got use to it, and Wesley wasn't quite sure about any of it. Heidi and Judah started out very tentative but by the end had found their ice legs. Wesley on the other hand had no fear, and had to take a few falls before he finally decided to let daddy help him. Having to do something with help, though, is not worth doing in Wesley's mind so he spent most of the time "driving" the daytona video game. We also took the kids out to see the movie "City of Ember". What a great family movie, plus it was nice to sit in the Air Conditioning for a little bit and escape the heat. We were blessed with wonderful weather, which was a God-sent. Brisbane is usually misserably hot and humid around Christmas but the first week was lovely and cool and the second week we were at the beach house with AC, so it was never unbearable. We got very little rain so we had plenty of opportuntiy to be out and about. Wesley split his forehead open on the shower so we spent Thursday night in the emergency room getting it glued and buterflied bandage. What would a vacation be with out a trip to the ER? The last day we took the kids to the Big Pineapple and they got to have ice cream sundades for lunch. They were so big that I couldn't even finish mine, which is a lot to say since I LOVE ice cream. The looks on their faces when we put them on the table was priceless, but the mess afterwards was just sticky and gross. I am sure that was probably the thing they all remember most.




After all that fun it was time to come home, without Judah though. He has stayed behind for an extra week and will be flying back with his cousin Madi on Sunday. I was a very good mum and didn't even cry when I said good bye to him at the airport even though I really felt like I needed to. It has been so weird not having him around the past few days that I keep wishing Sunday to come faster. Heidi and Wesley are missing him too, which makes it all the more difficult. But Sunday will be here soon and then we will have not only him back but Madi will be here for a week to visit us. So I am trying to spend this week getting lots of fun stuff organsied for Madi's visit.
After all of that excitment we had our final high, and that was our scan yesterday for baby. We got to find out that our baby is a little girl, which was so very wonderful to hear. I feel like I now just need to get use to the idea of baby being a "her" instead of an ambiguous "it". It was wonderful to see her wiggling and flexing and moving around. Heidi thought it was great to hear her heart beat and see her little ear. Wesley liked seeing her little feet and I just loved the 4-d scan were I could see her face. It looks as if poor darling as her mother's nose. Murray liked seeing her heart beating away. The technician said everything looked good. The only real news was that she thinks our date was out by a week, so we are now working on baby arriving sometime in the beginning of June rather then the end of May. Heidi said in the car on the way to the scan she would say "oh man!" if it was a boy but would still love the baby, so she was over the moon when the technician said Girl instead of boy. Although Wesley said he wanted a boy, he seemed just as happy with a sister, and Judah squeeled with excitement when we called and told him. So boy, girl, boy, GIRL it is!!!



And that, in a very lage nut shell, is an update on all we have been up to. What a wonderful and eventful year 2008 ended up being, and I am excited to see what 2009 has in store.