Under Contract!

Ashleigh & Matt are finally 'under contract'. This is major exciting! The great Australia dream has been slowly slipping past many of the young ones but much to our joy they are on their way. I might add in fine style as well. This house is awesome! Plenty of room for the snakes, shingle back lizards, rats, dogs and cat.






Lucy is totally sold on her sisters new house because it has a toy room. She doesn't get that the toys will all go before Ash moves in , I think she may be up for a little disappointment. Me on the other hand are totally in love with the kitchen. Matt and Ash always niggle each other over who's turn it is to do the dishes. Problem solved and who wouldn't want to keep this kitchen clean and tidy.




For the boys, the shed out the back has a big work bench and is totally powered. Matt is a very clever boy. He makes fantastic snake enclosures and restores VW cars that he shows, so to have this great shed is perfect for him.



Downstairs is awesome as well. the man that they bought the house from was a builder so he has done a fantastic job on finishing everything off really well. The office and playroom will become a home for Matt's lovely mother. She has been a widow after loosing Matt's dad to cancer when Matt and his brother & sister were babies and she has worked hard to raise them on her own. Dedicated her whole life to her family which is amazing. Not only did we get Matt who we love but his mum is the perfect 'mother in-law'. Ash loves her to bits and is more than happy to have her with them.






Needless to say we are all bursting with excitement at the news of the last week. Ash & Matt's house, Dan's mission call to Albania & Cait & James are off on their first overseas holiday. I love having a big family, it sure is a blessing.

Daniel you have been called to serve in....

The Albanian Tirana Mission!!!! Now this is followed by screams and where is Albania? Yes we are VERY excited. Poor Dan had to wait for all his sisters to arrive and his Nanna. He held it, put it down, played with the ipad, paced the floor. Finally 3 1/2 hours later, everyone arrived and he could open the letter.



Dan has been planning, praying, preparing for his Mission for many years now, so this is just such a fantastic time to be finally holding this call to serve the Lord as a Missionary in his hand. The stress of waiting was getting to him. Volcanoes holding up the mail didn't help this either.




This would be us all saying Albania. Lucy is holding the fish she caught yesterday just so that she wasn't left out of all the excitement.

Winter Holiday's Australian Style

Well semester 1 is all done now and its time to kick back for the holidays Australian style. Of course what do you do during winter holidays in Australia you ask, well we go to the beach. I love the weather this time of year. The days are mild and the skies are blue.


We headed off to our local beach because the girls had been itching for a swim. The day was so so lovely. We climbed the rocks, rode scooters around the paths and built sandcastles until sunset. It was such a great day.


I love our Brisbane weather! As usual I had plans of keeping the school work going through the holidays but when we all wake up and see such a beautiful day we just head out and do...

She came Second!!

We were very happy to learn that Jessica came second in the Photography competition. Needless to say she was over the moon. I now have to stand aside while she takes the photos when we are out.




We head to Lomandra park for FHE on Monday night to toast marshmallows. It's been so cold for us here at the moment. I realise that in Brisbane the word cold doesn't even rate on the 'coldness' meter when we just have to wear a jumper, not even a really warm one to beat the cold. No snowing in for days on end, so I do get it that I have no business complaining about the cold. We did have fun toasting marshmallows though.



ps one or two more sleeps and the mailman will be here with a certain mission call. Now that I will keep you posted on!

Jessica Behind The Lens

After I arrived home from my weekend away we headed out for a bush walk. We live right near some beautiful spots to walk & this time we took the new camera for a spin. Jessica has entered an art competition in the Photography section. So this is some of the photos she took.


















































































These are the photo's that she submitted to the competition. One colour one black & white with a quote from Confucius

"There is beauty in everything, just not everyone see's it".

I thought not bad for her first time out with the camera. I took a couple as well but I can't wait to start my photography class next term.




























I will let you know Monday how she went.

Do You Know What Grown-ups Really Do?

After a wonderful weekend away with Ashleigh, oldest daughter aged 22, I discovered that there are such things as Restaurants . Not McDonalds, but real ones that cost lots of money for a small, but very delicious meal.

Ash & I went up to stay the week-end once again at Joan & lee's unit (thanks again) which is a hop skip & a jump from Sunshine Beach. After a nice sleep in we headed to Hastings Street Noosa, to find something to eat. Aroma's is apparently the ultimate place to be seen and to check out everyone walking along Hastings street. Aroma's cafe has, as Ashleigh informed me because she has been there, Parisian style seats and round tables with the chairs facing out onto the street.



The food was amazing. Ash had Eggs Benedict & I had Potato Pancake with poached eggs and tomato relish on a bed of fresh basil. It was sooo good. The little fellow in the photo above was our dining neighbor. Noosa is rather a posh sort of place with everything horribly over priced to lure the tourist dollar out of everyone's pocket. We headed straight to the bookstores of course. Ash & Matt are about to buy a house, so we popped into some home wear and decorating stores along the way. I went into all the stores that I wouldn't go in with the little ones.

Dinner was equally as lovely. King Prawns on sourdough bread and some relishy stuff and seafood pasta for Ash. Once again sooo yummy. It rained all the time we were there but it was so lovely to spend quality time with Ash. We could talk in whole sentences without someone jumping in, and just generally hangout together doing nothing really. Need to do it more often! Ash gave us a weekend at a Resort down the Gold Coast for our anniversary so Mark & I are going to take that one very soon. We won't know what to do with all that grownup time together.

It was nice to come home though to all my little people and Ash headed back to her house with Matt sick, 2 dogs that missed their 'mummy' and a mountain of snakes waiting to go into hibernation for the winter. Thanks for a great weekend!

Play Dough Play Day

This stuff is a always a hit & so easy to make. We needed a change from from the lego overdrive that we've had going on at home lately. So Play Dough it was. Oldy but always a goody!



This is my favorite recipe:

Shortcut Cooked Play Dough

1 cup salt
2 cups plain flour
2 tbsp oil
4 tsp cream of tartar
2 cups of boiling water

Method: Combine ingredients (except water) in a bowl. Pour the boiling water & stir. Knead lightly on table top. This will store in an air-tight container in the fridge for months.




Check out the aprons! These too are tea towel aprons. Cute hey. Now you can see why I'm crazy for them. I never knew there was so many cute aprons out there.