Love, bubs and life on our little farm

A lovely lady has requested some completed photos of Bronte's room and I am more than happy to oblige :)

Miss B's room is a mirror image room to Elka's so it was fun making them different! Elka's is done in lilac with green touches, polka dot curtains and a chandelier (link here to some old pics). So for Bronte we chose pale pink (Dulux Tea Party in Quarter Strength, isnt that a great paint name for a little girls room!) and decided to be a little different and team it with black and white to add a little edge.

Elka's "thing" is stars, and Bronte's is owls, so there is a slight owl theme also.

My mum sewed the double block out curtains for me from fabric I chose (I have a huge thing about japanese blossoms). The majority of furniture is from IKEA, including another bookself-convertible change table as we fell in love with it for Elka. Great use of space and just detach the change extension table when you are done and you have a sweet set of shelves for your kids room. There is a pendant frosted glass lampshade as the main light, which looks lovely but Jase does hit his head on it.

I lucked upon the toy box in a hardware store of all places and love it! The owl mobile above the change table is sewn by me, as tradition, as I also sewed Elka's star mobile above hers... I was worried that the black floor rug would be too heavy looking for a babies room but it looks great and Bronte loves playing on it.

So here are the pics!

Hot
Lying on our back lawn with the girls, thinking how much I love living here, looking into the bush for the little wallaby and discovering instead that the koala was happily munching leaves above us (pic above). I love that my kids see these animals every day in the wild.

All the wonderful friends that have recently announced their pregnancies! There are a heap and I am just so happy for everyone of them :)

Looking forward to a spa treatment day tomorrow. Massage, facial, foot treatment and my eyebrows, bring it on! Much needed after lots of painting and puttying on the house.

The surprise baby celebration I am throwing for two friends this weekend - its a little glam and will be lots of fun :)

Going back to work in two weeks. I seriously can't wait - very excited! I love my job, I love the challenge, the chaos, the mental demands.... and I love having that responsibility and purpose to my life. I feel lucky that I can stay at home with my kids if I want to, but it just isn't for me.

Getting back into horse competitions - first comp in two weeks!


Not
Stressing a little about taking all of my parents animals while they go overseas for 2 months. Is going to be a lot of a load on our property!

The amount of work we still have to go painting etc on the house and the expense of the driveway landscaping is freaking me out a bit too.

Realising that I am only in my twenties for three more weeks! arrgh!

It hasn't been easy to finish off our house extension considering it basically did not stop raining since our builders hand over in Mid-November. Hence why I still have so much exterior painting, timber staining and concrete painting yet to go. We also have the little matter of a whole lot of driveway landscaping and some post and rail fencing to go in along the front of the deck for the horses (who are loving the temporary fencing to lean through to get the green grass on the other side, of course), which will also have dog wire on it to complete the kid-proof yard fencing so they can't get to the dam etc.

But despite the bad weather, Jase did manage to whip up the first of many retaining walls/planter boxes that will break up the slope between the carport and the bottom bit of yard (where the pool will eventually go). He is getting pretty handy considering he has never lived on land before and works in an office :)

I planted in the hedge of golden canes and lugged umpteen wheelbarrows of soil down from our top level gardens in sloppy mud and rain, fun times! It was nice to sit back on the deck and enjoy the view when it was all done.

So three weeks of holidays for Jase wasn't completely wasted from a farm work perspective! (yes I am a slave driver)

So I am a no fuss cook. I love to cook but I don't like to fiddle. And my presentation skills are particularly lacking, I just don't have the patience. I am well known for holding up my quiche or lasagne in the dish and declaring "Look! Looks nice hey?" and then proceeding to slop it onto the plate where it looks much less alluring but (importantly) still tastes good.

The other week I put my hand up to make my brothers Birthday cake that was going to a restaurant and being served to a big group of people. So I wanted it to be good, but it had to survive a 40 minute drive and be something I could prepare whilst juggling the two girls.

I had earmarked a simple recipe for dressing up a Butter cake or Sponge that I had seen in a magazine and I decided this was the time. And it was perfect! And so delicious that my brothers friends raved to him afterwards about how good it was (yes 30 year old men discussing cake!).

And all I did: cooked a double batch butter cake so it was tall, cut it in half and - this is the important bit, filled it with cream mixed with a few spoons of lemon butter (buy it in a jar in the jam section) and dressed with fresh berries. Then refridgerated it. The sweet yet tangy lemon butter taste infuses through the cake and contrasts with the freshness of the berries, simple but really memorable.

I love Miranda Kerr - I think she is so pretty and so dignified. I also remember her when I was an awkward early teen reading Dolly and she won the Model Competition, I swear she still looks just as young (I don't!).

She also had a whopper baby which I can relate to - I had a 9 pounder too. And I love this pic that she has released as her newborn shot. I's bliss, it sums up everything you feel snuggling with your newborn in bed resting. And of course being Miranda, she looks as beautiful on the outside as the rest of us feel on in the inside when doing this.

And even better she is breastfeeding in the picture. I love breastfeeding and I am big pro-breastfeeder. And of course I understand that some women despite how hard they try just can't. And that is fine, because happy Mum and happy bub are all that matter when you get down to it.

But pictures like this are great because they reinforce to the uneducated public that breastfeeding a baby is normal and that gee you can't see any more boob than a cleavagey top or in a bikini. My pet hate is people that think you should hide away to breastfeed. I refuse to feed my baby in a cold tiled parents room that stinks like nappy bins and is loud and echoey. I have always happily sat down on a quiet bench at the shops, under a tree at the park or ordered myself a hot chocolate and settled in at a cafe to feed my baby. I wouldn't know if I bothered anyone or not because frankly I never cared enough to look around to see who is or isn't watching. My breast is not on show - my bubs have always attached quickly and easily. When they were fussier as newborns it was Winter both times, and I often wore a light scarf as part of my outfit anyway which is handy for draping over the feeding side. My babies hated having their heads covered with feeding wraps (and fair enough too!) so I never bothered with that.

And I have to say I would often choose to feed at Coffee Club Cafes as they always display an Australian Breastfeeding Association sticker on their entry door. I loved that little reinforcement that they were actively welcoming a feeding Mum.

I think the worst I have ever felt was when at a friends place, who also had a breastfeeding baby, I was feeding and chatting in the kitchen, when her husband walked in. He saw me feeding, looked mortified and ran out as fast as he could. He then wouldn't come back inside to fetch the sausages for the BBQ until I was finished. I felt so uncomfortable, like I was doing something wrong. I then found out that my friend fed in her bedroom if there was "male company" in the house as she put it. Far out, I felt like we were in Victorian England!

Perhaps it is the fact that I was brought up in a hippy area near Byron Bay but breastfeeding is so natural and normal to me, I am quite disappointed when I meet people who think the opposite.

So props to Miranda in all her glowing new Motherhood. Because she has released a photo that "male company" is sure to see and it is just so perfect and sweet.

So Bronte started school today. Jase kept asking if I was OK about it. And I was. None of the mother guilt and sadness about missing every minute of my bub's day hit like it did with Elka. Instead I just felt confident that daycare will help Bronte as she is a very anti-social baby and will cry at people if they even just say hello.

Elka was very excited to have a companion and a second school bag to pack. I surprised myself at getting us out of the house in just over 1 hour after I woke the two girls, hoping to keep that up so I can still start work early like I used to.

Bronte wasn't too keen on the nursery when we got there. She knew something was up but the disraction of new toys and other babies was enough. It only took a few minutes for her to be settled and playing. I waved goodbye and headed off and..... she didn't even cry. I stalked in the hallway watching her and she was happily eating a ball and playing with another baby and her carer. Well that was anticlimatic, I thought!

I left her for a few hours and when I returned she was tucked up in bed and her carer was raving at how easy she is to put to sleep (put in cot, count to three and Bronte is asleep, she is a champion self settler). Apparently she cried if anyone tried to talk to her but as her carer said, providing no one gave her eye contact she was happy. So a big success. I am really pleased and I am confident her shy behaviour will improve in leaps and bounds with the wonderful staff at our centre.

Tomorrow I will leave her for a half day whilst I spend the hours at the big shopping centre down the road. I have some leisurely errands to run, some presents to buy, coffee and magazines with my name on it and if I feel so motivated a pedicure. Oooh yes its tough!

So I have a 2.5 year old who may as well be turning 13. She has Attitude. So much so that people who spend a fair bit of time with us actually comment on it. Elka has always been a precocious child - advanced in her development and too smart for her own good. And I promise you, I am not bragging. In fact I commented today how nice it was that Bronte has been much more "average" so far in the speed of her development. Unlike Elka who was walking at 9 months, had a great vocabulary by 12 months and using advanced concepts at 18 months. Now at 2.5 yrs old, she plays with 5 year olds if given the choice as they will converse with her and play make believe games and so on. All good and well of course, and I am planning my retirement based on her certain success in some wonderfully paid career (please read with heavy sarcasm, I have no plans to be an academic stage-Mum.... I am much more interested in pushing her endlessly in sports of my choice that I failed in ;) )

But seriously, I am finding her Terrible Twos (don't talk to me about the upcoming Terrifying Threes!) an interesting time. She can be a bit of a bully at playgroups etc and I do come home from some social occasions shuddering a little. She isn't a big tantrum chucker, she is more about the stealth warfare and embarrassingly picks on smaller weaker children. And not in big noticeable ways, more in that ostracising way, where she tells them they can't play or they have to go away. She once walked up to a little kid in a play area and just simply screamed into his face until he broke down and cried. It was horrible. She fortunately doesn't tend to try to hurt Bronte, but she does love to try and wake her up (thank Wiggles for that one!) and she will sing extremely loudly in the car as soon as she sees Bronte's eyes close.

And if I confront her about doing something wrong. I will often say "What did you do wrong?" To which I get back crossed arms, teenager attitude and a very sullen "Nothing". Yes really my two year old mutters "Nothing" at me. I was expecting that from her when she was thirteen.

We typically punish with 1,2,3 and consequence, ie taking away her Bunny comforter, turning off her favourite show or bringing her home from wherever she is. Mostly works... but she is pretty hard to intimidate! Typically if I say, "Elka, stop that or I will take Bunny", she will then throw him to the ground and say "well I don't want him anyway". Takes the wind out of my sails! Likewise, we had to give up on Time Out as she would just do the naughty thing and then put herself in Time Out afterwards quite happily.

But like all parents and toddlers, we win some, we lose some. And sometimes the sheer brashness and resistance to intimidation that Elka has, will just bring us unstuck and we will laugh and laugh.

The other day we were driving down to the Gold Coast in some heavy rain, we were about 20kms away when Elka started trying to wake Bronte up with deafening yelling. Jase warned her "You better stop that or I will stop this car and get you out and you can walk to the Gold Coast". Well there is silence from the back as Elka considers this and she then pipes up with a thoughtful "Well did you pack my umbrella?". I did my best but the giggles started.

And that is why we love toddlers even when we are ready to punt them over a mountain.

I was trimming back some bushes in the garden this morning, my mind not really on the job as I was listening out for Elka who was inside watching tv and Bronte who was asleep. When all of a sudden, I came face to face with this fellow!



He is quite a good length for such a small head (his body goes up and then down the branch if you can't quiet get your eye in) but nothing to be concerned about - just a brown tree snake. He is the second I have spotted in a couple of weeks. The other was bright green with gorgeous aqua spots down his sides, just stunning (I can admire their beauty even though they make my hair stand on end!)

The best part is - when we bought this place, there wasn't a single garden, not even a shrub! And we picked the large lawn across the driveway from the house for our "rainforest garden". A hard task when we were starting with bare earth and a 10 year drought. We planted palms, birds nests, bromeliads, frangipanis, monsterosas, figs and so on... and we lost a lot and re planted and we added more in and as the bigger plants grew and created shade, we could add in ferns, orchids, ginger plants, aloe vera, gardenias and anything else tropical and lush that we could find. Four years later and with a lot of hard work we have thick green gardens with paths through them, a seat and the beginnings of a water feature, which will be finished when the girls are older and less likely to fall in it..

And that little snake is a good indication that the lush plants have become a haven for tropical animals. And a good reminder to me to be more attentive to what I am trying to chop with secateurs!

This photo sums up the pain and sorrow I feel about these floods. This is baby Montana being air evacuated out of Forest Hill. She is safe and I am so thankful but she represents to me all the little ones that were in danger like her, tiny and vunerable like her and that didn't make it out of the flood waters in time. The little four year old boy swept to his death as he was trying to be placed in a rescue boat... and all the other heartwrenching stories.

Can you even imagine having to write your baby's names and details on her arm in texta, because you are worried that something could happen to you or her? I got goosebumps just trying to imagine it.

The poor little country kids and animals that have suffered. A sad week for Queensland.

The flooding here in SE QLD is beyond words - we have had months of endless rain, the ground is soaked, creeks and dams are swollen and now we are experiencing flooding and flash flooding like we have never seen before. The SE's major dam is 190% full and will overflow its walls unless massive amounts of water is let out into the Brisbane River, adding to the Brisbane flooding.

I have never seen anything like today with Brisbane workplaces sending their employees home and shopping centres shutting their doors. I cannot believe that we are going to see flooding surpassing the 1974 floods in the next few days - I have grown up with the 74 floods being the ultimate benchmark and it blows my mind.

The flash flooding in Toowoomba is haunting me - the poor helpless people swept to their death, the people sucked out of their homes and even reports of people trying to get out of a house as it is washed away. As a Mother, the stories of Mums and babies being swept away is like a nightmare. I can't even imagine trying to keep my two little girls safe in flood water or trying to get them onto the house roof. I hugged them just a little harder today.

As for us, well I am so thankful we are safe and our home is dry(ish). Our dams are overflowing, our paddocks are covered in water and we have some water lying behind the house but nothing too bad. We have roads cut around us and can't head east, west or south at the moment and the north access is pretty close to being cut also. But Jase is home safe and his Brisbane offices are being taken over for emergency reasons so he will be working from home this week anyway (not that he could get in there anyway). We wisely saw the weather predictions and anticipated todays flooding and did not take Elka into daycare in Brisbane so she stayed home safe with us. So in all I am feeling very blessed but edgy, as although the rain is forecast to stop in the next few days which stops our local river from flooding, we will be back in this situation as soon as the rain returns (and it will since this rain event is forecast to stay here until May, let alone that we are now entering cyclone season).

I am just hopeful that everyone stays safe and that we don't hear too many more tragic stories

So its only four weeks until I head back to work. I have decided to go back three days a week (last time I started at two days a week but it was a waste of time for experiments as you need more days to get most done).

I am mentally ready - I am stircrazy in the house and looking forward to the new challenges I will have of heading an entire lab section (made up of full time staf whilst I am part time - that will be a juggle!).

I have the girls booked into daycare three days a week from next week so that I can ease them into the routine. It will be a big adjust for Bronte as she is very orientated around me and has only just started letting other people babysit her. But I will spend the first couple of days either with her or just leaving her for a few hours. Will also ensure that I am emotionally equiped for the long work days as I will have adjusted to having the girls away from me after an intense 9 months of living and breathing them.

Work also means lovely clothes - I like to put effort into my work outfits even though I am a Scientist and tucked away in lab wearing lab coats! I have hit up Cue for a cute dress and I am on the hunt for a nice new tailored jacket in dark charcoal or black. I am actually quite partial to the Target work clothes - they have cute designs for great prices. So seeing that they had 20% off work clothes this week, I headed in and grabbed a cute tuxedo styled blouse with ribbon belt and a stylish little pattern dress (pic below) - it looks great on actually, the band around the waist is great for emphasising and cinching in ;)


Next on the list are some leather shoes - I don't wear heels as we are on our feet racing around ALL day and we are required to wear covered toe shoes in case of spills etc so I tend to wear ballet flats. But I did spy some gorgeous padded leather black shoes with a bow on the toe (I am a sucker for bows!) and a teeny sweet heel that I think I could definitely wear and be comfortable. They are on my hit list ;)

Oh and did I mention that with the two kids in daycare for the three weeks before I go back to work, I have lots of child free pampering planned. When else will I get the chance to have the kids in care and days to myself!? So I am planning mani/pedi's, a massage, shopping... oh and a few long days at home doing house painting and farm work of course! But bring it on!

A big thank you to Kerry at the Haphazard Blogger for nominating me for the Stylish Blogger Award.


The requested tasks are as follows:

* Thank and link back to the person who gave me this award.
* Share 7 things about myself.
* Pay it forward to 15 recently discovered great bloggers.
* Contact those bloggers and tell them about the award.

1. I had never properly held a newborn baby before my own and (still) will only hold other people's babies if they really want me to. My mum was seriously concerned that I didn't have any maternal instinct. Fortunately, I love holding my own little ones.

2. I have an addiction to Manchester, I could spend ridiculous amounts of money on bedding and I actively avoid stores so I don't have to face temptation. The Pillow Talk catalogue is my favourite junk mail.

3. I love fashion and even as a poor student put a lot of effort into my outfits and make-up. I can't understand how some people can not care about their appearances at all. I even put (light) make-up on to just go out pick up milk from our local village with the kids. Murphys Law has of course resulted in the times I don't being the times I run into everyone in the district I know. I also blow dried my hair whilst in labour with Elka so that it looked "nice" when I got to hospital... I also straightened my hair less than 10 hours after giving birth both times despite passing out from standing up. Hmmm starting to think perhaps its me with the problem and not the people that don't put effort in!

4. I don't feel guilt for working despite having young children and the fact that we could live without my salary. I love my career and it is part of me.

5. I learnt to drive a manual car at age eight and everyday my brother and I would drive our farm car one km up our driveway to catch the primary school bus. We would leave the key under the pillow we used as a booster... We also only really locked two of the eight exterior doors in our house if we went out and we all slept with our bedroom glass sliding doors open... I miss feeling that safe. (Although that said, one very early morning some old biddies who were completely lost but thought they knew where they were, drove into our farm, wandered past our guard dog and opened my glass door and came into my bedroom nattering away and scaring the life out of me as a sleeping eight year old!)

6. I have trouble getting some of the blogs I follow to come up in my updated list of new posts so I often miss visiting blogs of fantastic people that read and comment on my blog and it frustrates me endlessly.

7. When I was on Schoolies, I drank something ridiculous like 13 shots of tequila in the one night (obviously the official final number got a little blurry!), when I went to bed I read a book for an hour or so to feel sleepy (!) and remembered most of what I read. I also woke less than 4 hours later with no hangover and went for a 2km jog. I miss being young, invincible and stupid sometimes.

as for tagging 15 people - arrggh I have had two glasses of wine so am lacking motivation and most bloggers I read seem to have already been tagged, so I am just picking two - Sarah and Mel :)

So I was going to blog about the great day we had at Australia Zoo and the great work that they do** but then I got distracted watching Keeping up with the Kardashians episodes on the web and now I am feeling particularly brain dead.

I have a terrible shameful love of bad reality television shows. I do sometimes worry if they will seriously make me stupid or a vacuous person. But I love to watch them for the clothes/make-up/houses/cars etc and I do tend to stay pretty cynical and distant about the "storylines" (yes I am justifying watching them! Guilty much!?).

Funnily enough, when we were at Australian Zoo as we entered the Croceseum there were release sheets up everywhere stating that a reality show was being filmed and that by entering we were giving permission for ourselves to be filmed. Of course I was intrigued... but also quickly distracted by a hungry bub and a toddler that is super keen on Bindi. I did however notice a very tanned blonde enter the nearby VIP seating with a huge group of kids, who were then joined by Terri and Robert Irwin and not long after three cameras and a still photographer. I KNEW the face but it took me the whole hour long show to finally place the reality show. I don't know if it is played in Australia, perhaps on pay TV which I don't watch.. but it was Kate Gosselin and her sextuplets and twins from "Jon and Kate plus 8". I have never seen a single episode but being the gossip website tragic that I am, I have seen plenty of gossip posts and pics of her.

What I found fascinating was watching the reality tv filming - I mean Kate and Terri (and the kids) had cameras directly in their faces throughout the show and related people just milling everywhere around them. I guess you get used to it, but I couldnt imagine doing anything but embarrassed smiling and self concious hair flicking the whole time a camera is trained on my face!

You know the thing that stood out most to me when I was trying to place the blonde. I could see she was clearly the kids Mum, I mean she was handing out wipes and taking dirty ones and stashing them in her bag since there was no bin around just like any Mum does for her kids but she was so well groomed, tanned and toned and... for want of a better word shiny. Not a little grubby, tired and sweaty like the rest of us Mums hoiking around spewy bubs and Bindi-obsessed toddlers were. In particular, not how I imagine I would be looking like if I was travelling with my eight kids hehe. Mind you I did read that she brought no less then 3 nannies with her (who were nowhere in sight when the cameras were out I did note).



A whole different life really. Reality? Hmm not so much. We had the "real" day - packed lunch, rain, plastic $4 ponchos, cold wet feet and lots of quiet private jokes, laughs and memories :)

** and for the record, commercial as it may be these days. I have no end of admiration for the good that Australia Zoo does for wildlife. What a great place - their hospital is amazing. I have been lucky to be inside behind the scenes due partly to my Mum being a koala rehabilitator and also thanks to me supervising two Vet students who did collaborative research projects with the hospital vets. I am very inspired by their dedication and facilities.

Its been two years since I had my last skin check and living in Queensland and being an outdoorsy person with our property and my horseriding, it is an important thing to make sure is up todate.

Not to mention that Jase's uncle passed away from melanoma a couple of years ago. It was so tragic - he had a small mark on his forehead and by the time he got around to visiting the doctor about it, the cancerous cells had spread into his skull and he passed away so quckly. And this time last year, we went through a fairly serious removal of a melanoma from my Dad's back, where he had a fairly sizeable piece of his back literally cut out. So yeah I guess skin checks are something I am pretty serious about.

We have a skin cancer specialist that holds clinic at our local doctors surgery a couple of times a week - they book out weeks in advance so it pays to be organised. But they are thorough, photograph any moles they are suspicious could pose a problem in the future for reference and only cost $28 for a once every two years check up. Brilliant in my books.

And I am happy to report that the one mole they were keeping an eye on for me has actually reduced in color and that there is only one other one that needed photographing. As I have very fair skin and despite careful use of sunblock have had more sunburns and exposure than I want to think about, I am relieved with this result. I did have two harmless sunspots that the Dr burnt off for me with liquid nitrogen (ouch!) so I now have two huge blisters on my forearm which is in the perfect spot for the kids to knock!

So I am "good" for another two years... how about you?

I like a little bit of reflection every now and then. I do believe in the saying "you need to know where you came from, to know where you are going".

So I am taking a moment to review my 2010.

We kicked off the year with a lovely holiday away for our 5th wedding anniversary, leaving Elka for 5 days with my parents. It was invigorating to remember how we operated as a couple without children, even though Miss B did accompany us as a 26 week belly bump!


I worked myself to the bone, getting things organised in my lab before I left on maternity leave, training new staff and completing my research grants. I was rewarded for my efforts with a very nice payrise and later in the year despite being part time and on maternity leave, I have been promoted to being in charge of the section I work in. I am really happy with what I have managed to achieve!

Jase was headhunted for an exciting new position which came with high risk but also potential for great rewards. Not to mention that it came with a lovely (and timely due house extensions and my maternity leave!) payrise and also fulfilled his goal of reaching a particular government level that he wanted to acheive before the age of 30 (an impressive feat!).

I watched Elka grow from a cute 18 month old to a fiesty and inspiring 2.5 yr old. She has the endless ability to frustrate me to tears and make me laugh and laugh all in the one minute.


And of course we took our little property that we adore and made it into somewhat of our dream home. We drew the plans ourselves, handpicked our builder and spent long hours liasing and researching to make it just what we wanted. The builder started work two weeks after Bronte was born and it was a tough couple of months for me stuck in a construction zone with a toddler and a newborn full time. But we are just so happy with the end result.



In all it was a dream achieving kind of year. In fact so much so that we have basically acheived every little dream that I used to wish away for when I was sitting in the freezing cold in Canberra desperately writing my thesis and pining for the warmer climate, horses and land and being close to my family.

And what will 2011 bring us?

Well still lots of work on our house - we havent finished the exterior painting, we have the huge amount of timber verandahs to stain, the concrete verandahs to pain and endless amounts of landscaping and driveway work to go. I go back to work in February and I am excited for the challenges my new position will bring. I am not looking forward to settling Bronte into daycare as she is very Mummy clingy, but I am sure it will do her good.

Jase's job will get busier. I have some work trips already on the horizon. We are hoping to squeeze in a family holiday. I have plans to get back into my horse competitions and hone my fitness, I have lost my baby weight but could do with some muscle toning. We have some very elderly sick relatives so it envitably seems it will be a year with some sad moments.

My girls will grow, we are sending in Elka's enrolment forms for her chosen school and I will hear Bronte start talking and watch her start running.

We are planning a (my side) family holiday to Italy to rent a villa in 2013 so we will will work towards that.

but overall, a quiet year, a "consolidation" year as Jase calls it. Time to sit back and recover from the massive life changes and expenses we have experienced this year.

I don't do New Years Resolutions but I am determined to ensure that the smiles and laughs outweigh the stress and bickering. That the family time will glow warm in our memories and that we soak up the little moments that pass too quickly.

And I wish you the very same for your 2011. xoxo