Goodbye 2007

Today we knew there may be a few people up at Bridport for New Years Eve, so we thought we would make the most of the hot weather and head up there for the day. It was such a beautiful day - perfect weather for the beach. When we got to Bridport we followed Simone to Mermaid Beach. The Wheelers and the Prebbles were already there.


Bishop P. had a great time stirring me all day about my blog. I know that deep down he really loves it, especially since he just started up his own :) I know he is just jealous as he is going to find it hard keeping up with an average of 35 posts per month!

The day went very fast. The kids had a great time playing with each other.




The 'big' kids had fun too!


Harri was so excited as we had been talking to the boys about going to the beach for a while. He kept running up to me saying 'you come in the pool Mum!', pointing at the ocean. At the moment anything that is water that you can go in (including golf balls!) is called the 'pool'.


The water was actually pretty warm -warm enough for me to even go in (up to my waist anyway!). Noah sat with me in the waves to cool down, and every time a wave would come up and splash us he would jump.


After a long day on the beach, Noah had enough and started yelling (just as the Corey and Kylie arrived!). We had all had enough anyway and decided to get fish and chips for tea and to head back to Collette's house to eat. Collette is away at YSA convention in Melbourne and Merilyn, the Wheeler's and the Triffitt's are staying there. I'm sure she would love to have seen all 27 of us in her house tonight!

Aaron and I aren't really big on New Years Eve - we are usually in bed at our usual time, but it was nice to spend the last day of 2007 at the beach. Jalen is a party animal and would love to still be up there counting down with everyone till midnight, but we are mean parents and have sent him to bed and are about to go to bed ourselves! What party animals we are :)

Noah's Disco

One of Noah's Christmas presents were some speakers that you can plug an Ipod or MP3 player into. They light up and sparkle in time with the music. Today was the first day that he has got to use them as he had a much happier day today :)

We decided to put them in his 'little room' so he could listen to the music while he was playing in there. He has had a 'little room' since he was a baby and it has helped his vision and co-ordination so much. When he was a baby he learned to kick the bells and wind chimes. He no longer kicks them, but now he will move his arms up to touch them. It has been the best thing for him as it is the only thing that he can do independently and he will stay in there happily for hours. He has grown out of the one he had as a baby (that we borrowed from Early Learning), but Uncle Eden made him a new one when he was down a couple of Summer's ago, and it should last him forever.

Our 'little room' is a vision therapists nightmare as we do all the things you aren't supposed to do with a child with cortical vision impairment (LOTS of colours and lights, including flashing lights), but it has worked for Noah, and his vision is so much better than it used to be. His vision teacher agrees that it obviously isn't overstimulating as it has helped him to see and he feels very comfortable in there.

Today he had a little disco happening. It was so cool to see his eyes when the music would stop and then start up again. He would look at the speakers and have this look on his face like 'what happened!?'.

Extreme Sports

According to Steph, swimming in an outdoor pool in Tassie (even in Summer!) is considered an extreme sport (especially to a Sydneysider!). Today it was pretty warm (up to 30 degrees!) so we decided to go up to the Gorge for a swim. Just after we got there the clouds came over and it even started to spit, but the boys didn't seem to mind.

I didn't venture in - I didn't think it would help my chest infection, and didn't have the energy anyway. Someone had to keep Noah company on the side - especially since he was singing the same lovely song he has been singing all week :(

The boys had lots of fun, but they all said the water was freezing.



They would get out of the pool shivering and warm up a little bit and then go back in.



Hopefully with some more hot days the water in the pool will start warming up, and then I will be brave enough to get in too.

Watching the cricket

This is what happens when Harri and I watch the cricket together. How boring is it!? I really can not understand anyone who loves test match cricket.

Grumpy Golf

Because I haven't been feeling well all week (my cold has turned into a chest infection) I have been laying around doing not much at all. I haven't had the energy to do anything, but am still going out of my mind being stuck at home all day. Today I thought we would go out and do something no matter what. Noah woke up grizzling again, but we thought he may cheer up if we went out for a drive. We asked the boys what they wanted to do and they said they wanted to go to the tailrace park at Riverside.

On the way there I saw the sign for Grindelwald and whispered to Aaron that we should skip the park and take the boys to play mini golf. They have wanted to go for a long time, and we have never been out there so we kept driving past the park. Harri started to get upset when he saw we went past the park, but we told them we were just going to go for a little drive to show them the special houses and Swiss village at Grindelwald.

When we got there the boys were quite excited to see the village and shops.

Jay saw the mini golf sign and was very good and said 'can we come back here another day to play mini golf!?'. We told them that if we wanted we could play today and there were lots of excited screams!




Noah wasn't at all impressed with it all and just decided to scream the whole time (and it wasn't an excited scream that is for sure!).

The boys had lots of fun playing golf and it would have been great, except that Noah was so grumpy and yelled the entire time. Not relaxing at all for us - or the people around us!


Harri was hilarious and every time Aaron would putt the ball, Harri would run and pick it up for him and say 'here you go Dad!'. He didn't quite get the concept of the game. Then he would deliberately try to hit it into the water so he could fish it out with the net. He kept saying 'I want to hit it in the pool!'. The people who were waiting behind us were very patient! :)





By the 15th hole I had enough of Noah yelling and gave up and sat down with him. It still didn't settle him, so when the boys finished playing Aaron took him to the car to give him a feed and to see if he could get him to settle down. The boys then had a great time feeding the ducks, and playing on the pretend ship.



Aaron said as soon as Noah heard his ramps coming out of the van he settled down. When we got back to the van he was as 'happy as Larry' sitting in the back. He is still a little grumpy now we are home, but not yelling like he was. I think we may have to take a trip to the Dr to get him checked out to make sure it isn't his ears or something that isn't always obvious.

It's a .........

boy!! Yes - can you believe it!? We are going to have FOUR boys!!!!

This morning Aaron, Jay and Harri came along to my 18 week scan. Noah was home with Di. I laid on the bed and I told that lady that we were hoping to find out what it was if we could. I told her that we had three boys and that I actually wouldn't be devastated if it was another one and she said straight away 'well, that's what it is!'. She said it was very obvious that it was a boy and we could tell too :) He even gave us the thumbs up!

Last week I actually said to Aaron that I would love four boys. Of course I would have loved a girl as well, but I love my three boys and I thought that another one would be great. They will be great mates growing up and I know how to handle boys! Aaron said today that I must have been preparing myself. Jalen really wanted another brother, but Harri wanted a sister. When Jay found out he was very excited! I said to Harri 'well, Harri you are having a brother' and he said 'No, Jalen wants a brother, I'm having a sister!'. Since we have come home though he now says he is having a brother. At least he has just over 5 months to get used to the idea.

Aaron is happy. He would have loved a girl, but isn't disappointed it is a boy. I was over everyone saying it was going to be a girl and because I didn't mind either way I thought we would find out this time and tell everyone (so they can get used to the idea before he comes out!) . We didn't find out with Jay or Noah, but did with Harri but just didn't tell anyone.

Now we have a HUGE dilemma of picking a name for him! It was hard enough coming up with three boys names that we liked and agreed on! We had about 5 girls names that we liked, but no boys names. I'm glad that we have 5 months to think of something. Today Jalen suggested 'John'. Nothing wrong with the name John, but I just don't think it fits in with my other boys names. Aaron told me that it is his turn to name this one, since I chose Harrison and also decided on Noah (between that an another name), but I don't think I will leave it totally up to him. You never know what he will come up with!

A better day

Noah woke up bright and early this morning and I was waiting to see what kind of day we would have. He had a bit of a grizzle this morning, but I could just tell in his face that he was going to have a better day. Yesterday he just didn't look right - like he had a headache or something. You know that kind of look when someone has a migraine (I know those as Mum and Aaron get them often!). Today his eyes looked brighter and his face looked relaxed.

We decided to brave the Boxing Day sales as I had run out of some herbal meds that Noah uses and I only buy them at my favourite shop - The Chemist Warehouse, as they are so much cheaper than every other chemist. We got into town about 9.30am and I was really cranky to see that the shop wasn't even open! What do they think it is - a holiday or something! :)

We decided to have a look around at the sales, but didn't find anything too exciting except for the usual half price Christmas cards and wrapping paper which we always stock up on for next year. Jalen did better than any of us getting lots of new clothes and spent his pocket money on some Pokemon toys that were 75% off. He was very happy!

The morning wasn't a total waste as we ran into Naomi Ellis (Pawson) who is down for Christmas. It was great to see her. Aaron and I were saying how she never changes. It is always good to see her.

Just as we got into the car I noticed someone with a Chemist Warehouse bag so I ran down to see if they were open. Lucky they opened up at 10am. I didn't really want to go back into town this week with the crowds (and the boys!). Noah will be happy to have his olive leaf extract and acidophillus again.

My cold has hit in full force today and I can't taste a thing. I'm glad it wasn't like that yesterday! It is great having Aaron home as I got to have another nanna nap. I feel like such an old woman.

Noah has been really happy and settled most of the day. He is enjoying playing in his 'little room' where he has been watching his new glitter lamp that he got for Christmas.

Christmas Day

The day started with Jay waking up at 5.45am and coming into our bedroom. He was so excited and I told him to wait till 6am and we would then wake up Harri and Noah and open up our presents, so he jumped into bed with us. He was very keen to see if Santa had written him a note, and was so excited to see that he did! At 6am we dragged the other two boys out of bed and it only took Harri a couple of seconds to realise what day it was. Harri and Jay were both so excited to see their presents from Santa. Noah on the other hand decided he wanted to stay asleep.


Jalen was so excited to see a new basketball ring outside. We spent a lot of the morning outside having shots.

Noah woke up for about 30 seconds so we quickly started to unwrap his presents with him. He then decided he wasn't really in the mood for it, and went straight back to sleep. We continued to open his presents without him.

Aaron's Dad and Step Mum went to Melbourne this year to spend Christmas with Aaron's sister, so it was the first year we could really relax at home in the morning as we had nowhere to go till lunch time. It was nice as the boys could play with all their new things and we didn't have to rush.

Harri thought all the chocolates and lollies were great and got stuck into them straight away. Jay on the other hand hasn't eaten one all day! He is so different to Harri.

The boys were excited as for breakfast they got to have cereal that we only let them have on special occasions - Nutrigrain and Cocoa Pops. We also had more yummy fresh fruit, pineapple juice and eggs and bacon.

Noah finally woke up at about 10.45am but obviously wasn't feeling well and started the day off yelling. I knew it wasn't going to be a good day.

The early start was obviously too much for Harri and Noah as they both slept on the way out to Mum and Dad's.

When we got there the boys were so excited to see that Grandma and Grandpa had a new swing set, blow up pool and sandpit.


For lunch we had prawn cocktails, ham, lots of yummy salads and seafood. This year it was only Mum and Dad, Nicki, Alex and Maddi and us. The boys were hanging out for Nicki and Alex to arrive so we could open up more presents (like they didn't have enough already!). We weren't sure whether Nicki would even make it or not since she is due in two weeks and Maddi came 16 days early. She is still holding on though.

Everyone was very happy with their presents. This year we decided (thanks for the great idea Steph) that we would all put in a certain amount of money per child and then split the money evenly between the kids and one person would buy for one child. That way each child gets a bigger and better present instead of lots of little ones and it saves having to buy for lots of kids. It worked really well. Harri was very excited about his tool set and fishing rod from Jared and Becky.


Jay loved his night vision goggles and game from Nicki and Alex. I don't know whether they helped him play his nintendo DS better or not :)

After we opened up the presents the weather started to warm up, so the boys thought it was time to go outside and test out the slide on the swing set. It is a slide where you connect a hose into and it turns into a waterslide. We didn't take any bathers out so Jay decided to just go in his undies and Harri didn't want to wear anything at all! The boys had an awesome time and Harri just kept cracking up laughing every time he would hit the bottom and slide across the grass. His little bottom was very red by the end of it!



While the boys played we all sat outside and enjoyed the sun. Even Noah cheered up for a little while, but it didn't last long.





For tea we had yummy turkey, roast vegies and gravy and for dessert it was chocolate mousse, pavlova and fresh raspberries and cream. Because I have this horrible cold it was the first year in a long time that I didn't pig out and make myself feel sick! I didn't even eat any chocolate (till now!). I was glad that I could at least taste it though.

After tea we made the most of Dad's round hay bales in the paddock for a photo opportunity.

Noah was still yelling at 7 pm so we thought it was time to head home. He hasn't had a happy day and when he is like this it isn't very relaxing at all.

Except for Noah being cranky we had a really nice day. We missed Eden, Steph, Chloe, Jared, Becky, Kelsea and Chrish but hopefully next year we will all be together. Mum and Dad may have to extend their dining room!