Little boys

It's been a while since I put up a post about anything to do with the boys. So here goes.

Lucas and Sam are growing up quickly. Both boys can walk around now if you hold one of their hands. They're not quick and they're not terribly steady, but they think it's great fun. They're not up to standing up by themselves or walking by themselves yet. Aside from that they furniture surf like professionals. Lucas also likes climbing up on things like the couch and recently Mitch's little table. This is obviously a concern because he hasn't figured out how to get off yet, so if one of us isn't around watching, he will fall off.

They have started saying a few words like "Mum" and "Dad" and they also say "Hi" and "Bye". They have also starting repeating back animal noises like "Woof woof" and monkey noises and cow noises "Mmmmm".

Here are a few photos of them together

 

And one of just Sam:

And one of Lucas:

Unfortunately we're still having issues with the boys sleeping at night. They still wake up multiple times which makes it very hard for both of us, although mostly for Meeks.

Mitch is a good big brother. He loves his little brothers and loves pre-school and riding his bike. Here is the three of them together

And as a final shot, Poppy has been making us bread lately and last night he out did himself and made a crocodile out of bread!

Thanks Poppy!

SOLD!

Well it's been a whirlwind week with a crazy last 24 hours.

We had a couple interested in the house after the first Open House last weekend. They came back on Monday night to see the house again. Meeks had a slow cooking curry on which filled the house with beautiful smells and we put the fairy lights on on the deck and well ... it must have done the trick because we spent the rest of the week negotiating with the buyers and agreed on a price yesterday which we were very happy with and I think was fair in the current market. We finally officially exchanged fairly late in the day last night (Friday).

It is a huge relief to us that it is all done and dusted. Only having to have the house on the market for a week is a huge blessing. Having to pack all the kids stuff away every time we had an Open House and clean up was quite tiring, mostly for Meeks admittedly.

Then as an added surprise this morning, we were sitting inside enjoying not having to worry about cleaning up for another Open House when we heard a huge bang outside. We ran out and found that a truck going past had caught the power wire going to a post next to our driveway which runs power to the house at the back. As the truck drove on it pulled the wire and snapped it and also pulled down the pole and the pole crashed onto our fence and broke it. The truck disappeared off up the road oblivious to the chaos behind it. Anyway, after visits by the police and power company, the outcome is that we have a broken fence and the people at the back have no power until they get someone in to fix the post. They're not home and she's very pregnant, so they could even be at the hospital. I'd hate to come home to that.

For Sale!

Ever since Lucas and Sam wereborn we knew it would only be a matter of time before we had to find a bigger house. Through a series of events we have decided to sell our little house. Here is the web page on Domain. It will be hard leaving here. We have lived the majority of our married life here (only just) and there are so many memories. It is the first place we were abl to make "our own" by renovating and decorating as we liked it. It is where we brought all of our boys home to and it has been the only home they have ever known. We're going to make a video with Mitch so he can have something to look back on as he grows up so he can remember it.

The market is pretty strong at the moment, so we're hoping we'll find a buyer who takes a liking to our house's charms and offers a good price, but at the same time are trying to be realistic about what we will get for it. Fingers crossed!

Laughing boys

Lucas and Sam are starting to interact more with each other and it causes some very cute moments like this.


Sorry about the terrible camera work.

Silver on iStockphoto

In December 2007 I started selling my photographs through iStockPhoto. Basically I take photos of things like people (I can't sell photos of people without a Model Release which states the person in the photo has agreed), landscapes, objects, food, whatever and upload them to the iStockphoto website and people all over the world buy them for use in websites, magazines, newspapers, advertising, books, products, etc. When someone buys a photo you get a cut of the purchase price. The process is such that you don't actually know who has bought the photos or how they have been used (there is a fairly strict set of rules about how you can use them though, so they wont turn up somewhere unsavory). I have been told about my photos appearing on websites like Yahoo.com, ABC Nightline news in the US, various technical websites, and a number of other places. There are a few examples here.

On the iStock site you rise up levels depending on how many sales you have. Each level is repersented by a little film cannister (which is a bit of a throw back to the old days because almost all photos submitted are digital - although there are some scans of old film shots). In September 2008, I was awarded the Bronze cannister when I reached 250 sales. I also went exclusive at iStockphoto which means that I don't sell my photos anywhere else (there are a number of other similar sites out there). This meant I got an increase in what I earned per sale.

Yesterday, I was awarded the Silver cannister for reaching 2500 sales. It has been a fun process uploading and selling photos and has more than paid for itself and indeed has helped us to pay for various things over the past few months which has been great. The next cannister is Gold but it is not until 10,000 sales which is a long, long way away!