Eleanor Renee

Bj and I would like to announce the arrival of Eleanor Renee!

With thanks to God, she arrived yesterday morning as

the tiniest, prettiest little thing of the lot!

Vitalstatistix: 828 6,5 2810 46 (hrs, lbs oz, g, cm)

She sleeps, looks cute, likes to drink and generally steals the show.

The boys love her; Q says her name very well: El A Naw

She kept me (L) up a little last night (this a.m.) and I had to sit watching music videos or something in the tea-room drinking coffee. Suuuuch a drain...

But Bj fared little better with apparently 1-2 hrs of 'solid' sleep last night. Still betta than nothing I suppose. Here's to watching this little girl grow up along side two big doting brothers!

Visitors!

Over the last week (well 6 days) we've had visitors to entertain! Well, for the most they entertained themselves! Bruce, Sarah, Kiera and Evan have come (and gone) for a short, but fun filled visit. The kids had a blast playing together (for the most), and we got to spend 2 days at Mt Field enjoying snow, sun, fog, plants, wildlife, good company and good food.

Really, it was over too quickly, but BSKE, thanks for coming and sharing some good times with us!

Now for a few photo's! All the photo's off both Sarah's camera and ours have gone into one folder on our computer, so I will attempt to only share our photo's (and not pinch Sarah's photos).

First stop at Mt Field - lunch in the sun and a play in the playground before a walk to Russell Falls!

Just had to add in this one of Evan, looking most unimpressed with his lunch!

Sebastian and his cup of tea, on the run!

Good friends! They had a blast together!

Russell Falls at it's best! Lost of snow and rain meant lots of water and noise!
Sebastian kept saying 'Water......wow!'

After our walk, it was decided we should visit Lake Dobson before checking into out accommodation! The travel up was interesting and quite slippery (for those not ensconced in a 4 wheel drive). A stop proved to be a bad idea, probably the worst place to stop as far as snow and ice went. So after much cafuffle (and holding up traffic), the chains were finally fitted to the 2 wheel drive and off we went for a play in the snow!

Some snow banks were higher than the door-meets-window of the 4 wheel drive!

Just a spectacular part of God's creation!
How can one doubt the story of creation when you see beauty such as this!



A wombat decided to run across the road on the way back down from Lake Dobson!

The boys had decided they would have a go at skiing on Saturday morning! So, before we set off on Friday, they went off and were fitted out with ski's and poles and all things necessary (including the chains we needed for our car). An early start up to Lake Dobson saw them leave about 7.45 am, wind up extremely frustrated with they way things were being run, but have a great time (and not break anything). Getting to the ski fields means a trek up either a steep gravel road (covered in very icy snow) or a cross country ski along a few different tracks. The tows are all privately run (and poorly done so if you care to sit through the whole story from the guys)!! But......they had fun and Larry has decided he wants to go again sometime this winter!

Following are a few of the photos they took while up on the top of Mt Field!

Larry 'snow ploughing' (looks more like a case of nerves)!


Bruce contemplating his navel!

Spectacular view across the valley (note the fog)!
They could see Mt Wellington's snow capped peak in the distance!

That's all I have to share today! I'm sure Sarah will update their blog with even more photo's in the near future! I might find some of the photo's they took on Mt Wellington on Monday (someone forgot their camera) and add some of those to the blog in the next few days! Sebastian enjoyed the snow more on Monday than he did on Friday (hence the reason there are no photo's of bubba in the snow)!

Til next time..........

Cubby House Fun

What to do on a cold, wintery morning?? Build a 'cubby owse' (as Q calls them). So in an effort to entertain two teething toddlers, a cubby house it was. After some furniture rearranging, this is what we came up with (using the most of the 'toy corner' and bookshelf). It had a sort of tunnel entrance by the wall!!


After both boys cracked the narnies, Granny very kindly came and took Q for a few hours while she did a few errands. Sebastian played very nicely (and contently) on his own, while I got stuck into the housework (in relative peace for a change).

Our very cheeky monkey (playing happily in what's left of the cubby house)!!

Here's a few snaps of the boys, taken this morning (both still in their pj's and nice warm, new, dressing gowns)! What am I talking about, Sebastian is still in his pj's!!

Sorry, this one's a bit blurry - he's waving a spatula around!!

I have to leave it at this for today!! Maybe next time we go to the park (like we did yesterday) I will remember to take my camera (and then some photo's)!!

Until next time...........LBQS

We went walking.......what did we see?

We were reading the book 'We Went Walking' with the boys this morning and it seems an appropriate title for our Easter activities!

We drove up to Launceston early on Good Friday (we left home before 7am so we could get to Church in time). Larry left straight after the service to go bush walking with a group of mates (and Heidi, the only female among 7 males). The boys and I
spent Friday/Saturday with Suzi and Eg, rather than sit at Mum's by ourselves!


So, Monday morning rolls around and we had set aside the day for some family time (same with Tuesday). We decided that a nice trip to Lilydale Falls was on the agenda. We did the walk to both sets of falls (quite short walks) and Q had a great time walking and exploring.

After our 'walk' we sat by the playground and enjoyed lunch and a drink before heading off for a drive. We got a bit lost, Larry's GPS lost the plot and the map was fairly useless. We followed forestry roads that were rather rough and bumpy and one was supposedly closed when we got to the other end of it (we did have to get out of the car and move a big tree branch). We did eventually find our way home again, a bit later than we hoped, and not in time to cook dinner (which I was going to do for mum and dad).

Tuesday was another beautiful sunny day! We decided Tamar Island was the go as Larry has been wanting to go there for a while. This time mum came with us! We spent a lovely 2 hours meandering to the island, over the island and back to the car (via the vistors centre). Quinlan did a lot of walking again (and exploring). We watched plenty of mud crabs, birds and a beautiful sea eagle soaring on wind currents. We crossed several bridges (I think 4) which Q thought was just marvelous (he has a bridge obsession, if you can go under something, it must be a bridge).

Needless to say, we had very tired little boys on the drive home on Tuesday night (Sebastian mostly hitched rides, but did a little bit of walking, he tends to go anywhere but the direction you are going in).

WARNING: Some viewers may find the following photo's disturbing!!!

Parental Guidance recommended for those under the age of 90. Heart attack or shock may ensue upon viewing these images! We take no responsibility for any health associated issues that arise from viewing these images!!

:=D

Ok, so maybe not that disturbing, but I thought we better show you Larry's new look (which happened over a week ago already!)!!

Will hopefully update with photo's from our Easter weekend soon!

Til then......

Mmmmmm.......

Need I say more?? Making hot cross buns at Easter is becoming a bit of a tradition in this house! Can't wait to eat them (breakfast on the go for tomorrow, in the car)!!

We hope you all have a happy and safe Easter as we remember the ultimate sacrifice of our Lord and Saviour, in His death on the cross and His resurrection.

Love Larry, Bj, Quinlan and Sebastian

Mop Chop!!

On the weekend we ventured up to Launceston for the weekend to catch up with the family! While we were at it, we visited the family hair dresser for a much needed mop chop for the boys! This was Sebastian's first 'proper' hair cut (he has had a fringe trim before). Here are the before and after photo's (no before photo's of Q though!!).

The mullet before!

Looking at the world through hair (as opposed to eyes)!

I can see!!

I look like a little boy again!

Quinlan have fun climbing!

Thanks Aunty Laura for your wonderful work! Our little boys now look like cheeky little boys instead of shaggy ragamuffins!!

Til next time............

Update!

How time flies these days! It's been a month since we updated the blog last! We've hardly taken any photos of anything at all, except for today! Not very many photo's to share today then!

It's a long weekend here and we are enjoying time in the garden! God has given us the most beautiful, glorious autumn days which we are hoping to make the most of! So off to the hardware shop we went for some plants, fertiliser and some bits n bobs. Home again to begin the list of projects for today!

Projects this weekend have consisted of mostly getting the garden beds tidied up, overgrown shrubs whacked with Larry's chopper things and weeding (Saturday's work). Today we have managed to get back into the veggie garden and we've planted seeds for carrots, parsnips and swedes after turning over the soil and fertilising (ok, I did that bit while Larry planted some other plants - red/black currants). So now we wait.....

Next on the to do list is to finish clearing more weeds in the veggie garden to plant seed potatoes. Then to start cabbage (red and green) and kale seedlings and they will be transferred once the beans and tomatoes are finished. I think we will also have young leeks to transplant once we find them amongst the weeds!

We are still picking an abundance of beans and tomatoes! Looks like I will be busy making the 3rd lot of tomato relish for this year (previous years I have had to horde the tomatoes to get the 1.5kg needed to make one yield of the recipe I use). I have also been busy with the 100's of apples that our tree has produced making them into pies and stewing them (into appelmoes). Our freezer and pantry are getting very full!!

We had also decided earlier in February to go strawberry picking so I could make jam! Some 3kg of strawberries later we had lots of jam! We also had enough nectarines (2kg) from our tree to make jam, and then more later to stew and freeze (and fresh ones to eat). This was the first year we actually got any edible and decent size nectarines from our tree!

Anyway, enough gardening news!! Some photo's to share of the boys enjoying the sunshine today, playing outside, 'helping' with the gardening and getting filthy dirty in the process (thats what boys do right??)!!

Quinlan the thoughtful one!

Watch out rabbit, I'm coming to 'pat' you!

This is how one gets around outside when they are not walking yet
(very funny to watch and he's very quick too)!

Well.....it's time to get back to organising and cooking dinner! I think it's also time to rescue Larry from 'The Destructor' (aka Sebastian) who is carefully destroying the sleepout while Larry attempts to study!

Til next time........Larry, Bj n boys!

Camping!

Ok, so here it is, finally!! Camping! The adventure we embarked on one fine Saturday morning in January, albeit a few days later than planned due to rain and flooding!

We arrived in St Helens (at Dora Point) to set up camp in a humid 28 degrees! We didn't have the worry of trying to find a decent camping spot as Suzi had already set up in a good spot a few days earlier. I left Larry and John (Bos) to set up the tent, as Larry and I always differ (heatedly) on how and where to set it up! Suzi, Eg and I took the two boys (and assortment of dogs) to the beach to cool off and play in the sand!

Our tent (and Spud)

Sebastian spent most of his (sleep) time sleeping in the stroller under the trees! He did have a bed in the tent!

Suzi's camp (we had a short driveway and a Y shaped camp - we were on the right, she was on the left)!

We spent a very relaxing week camping in beautiful warm weather! Only one light shower as far as rain went, and one overcast day compared to the 200+ mm of rain that had fallen in St Helens (and surrounds) the few days before we arrived! We spent many hours just sitting and reading or talking, playing on the beach with kids and dogs, swimming (for the brave as the water is quite cold), surfing (aka body boarding), sitting around the fire and fishing. We didn't get in as many walks as we would have liked, but we had to leave something for next time!

'The' fishing spot (at high tide, you could only fish off these rocks at low tide)

Every man and his dog (fishing)! The dogs were no longer allowed to go fishing after Spud ate the bait and Bella (Patrick's dog) ate something and got sick!

Quinlan having a turn at fishing (gotta start them young!)!

Look Daddy! A fish! (not an edible one, it was a Rass which Larry put in a rock pool so Q didn't start thinking that fish don't have heads!! It was returned to the water, a bit stunned but none the worse for wear!)

This one is edible! Patrick with an Australian Salmon (I think this was the biggest one they caught)!

The boys had a blast playing on the beach and in the makeshift sand pit at our camp site. Sebastian tried gourmet food, aka beetles (yep, that one was accompanied by a very strange face), an assortment of leaves, twigs, sticks and rocks and then proceeded to eat half of the camp site! Quinlan tried his hand at fishing and surfing (on Daddy's 'boat').

The beach!

Running on the beach (for once he didn't make a beeline for the water)!

It didn't last long though! Having fun with Aunty Suzi in the water!

We had a very enjoyable week, and came home relaxed, tanned and energized for the new year. We thank our Heavenly Father that He gives us such opportunities to spend time together and relax as a family!

I hope to be back in the next few days to add some more photos and edit this post! Right now, the photos are misbehaving and disappearing and I don't have the patience to find them!

Til then.....