More holiday news

Well the snow has now gone from the ground. It is very odd to see the grass in the backyard and in the streets. It's now become more like a normal English winter, that is damp, dark, foggy, and cold (not very cold though). I'm glad we got to see some snow and for the kids to have a chance to play in it. I suspect it will be something that Mitch, at least, remembers for a long time. For the little boys there are always the photos. I hope it doesn't snow again otherwise I suspect we will be stuck here judging by the inability of the English airports to handle a bit of snow.

Yesterday I got to do something that I had never done and that was meet an iStock friend in real life. For those of you who don't know, I sell photos through a site called iStock, and there is a thriving community of photographers from around the world who get together virtually and share tips and encouragement and general life stuff all the while competing against each other for sales. It is surprising how well we all get along! Anyway, yesterday I got to meet Jo, his fiancee Angelina, his mum Dee and Jo and Angelina's little boy Stephan who is a month younger than Sam and Lucas (also Jo's mum Dee was there). I've known Jo through iStock for a few years and we have quite a bit in common given the age of our boys so it was fun to actually meet him in person. I and the boys (Meeks was off in London having tea at the Ritz - more on that later) traveled down to East Sussex which was about an hour and a half long drive through some of the worst fog I had ever seen. We took some photos of the boys playing together (we are photographers after all!) in Jo's nursery "set" and then went back to his place for lunch. There are a few shots on Flickr, but I haven't had time to process the best ones. Many thanks to Jo and his family for their hospitality.

Yesterday Meeks, Krissy and Lorraine went into London yesterday for a girly shopping trip and tea at the Ritz. Apparently they all bought new boots and ate cakes, pastries and cucumber sandwiches :)

In other news, it feels like Sam and Lucas's talking has come along a lot while we have been over here. They are both trying lots of new words and becoming more confident with the words they have. They love their little cousin Hannah and are always saying "Hi!" and running up to touch her when they see her.

To has been a bit of a rest day and tomorrow we're off to see Uncle Jamie and Auntie Phaik in London. We're going to visit the Natural History Museum which has dinosaurs!

There's only a week to go which I'm sure will happen so quickly!

Christmas

Okay so it's a few days late, but finally some Christmas images. Many thanks to everyone who cooked ... which I think was everyone, but mostly Glenn and Krissy.

More snow fun

While there was still snow on the ground we thought it good to get out and play in it. Near Krissy and Glenn's place is a park with some fun equipment to play on ... in between having a snowball fight.

More sledding pics

I'm running a bit behind in the posts. Before Christmas, Poppy and I took the boys sledding again, this time in a park near Nana and Poppy's house. Here are some pics from the day:

Sledding in the backyard

Yesterday we had lunch in a real English Pub. Getting there was a bit of an ordeal, first we had to clear 2 inches of snow off the car then we had to get the kids rugged up (I thought it was hard getting the kids ready to go out at home, but when you add 17 layers of puffy clothes plus beenies and gloves it takes forever. Driving on snowy roads is quite tense. Most of them were clear, but our street wasn't clear and even when the roads are clear you drive around at half the normal speed.

The pub had flagstone floors and very low ceilings and the food was very nice. The little boys had sausages and mashed potato followed by ice cream. Lucas was a little champion. He ate one and a half of the big sausages and a big helping of mashed potato and did it all using a spoon all by himself. He then moved on to the vanilla ice cream and ate most of that and when he'd had enough started feeding me and Mitch.

When we came home Mitch, Poppy and I did some sledding in the backyard. A selection of the shots are below, but there are heaps more on Flickr here.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Well here we are in the very cold and snowy UK. We're staying in a little village called Lightwater which is in Surrey (which is South West of London). If you're wondering what it looks like, imagine the village from any English comedy or drama from the 70s and 80s (e.g. Some Mother's do have 'Em) and you wont be far wrong. I'll post some photos of the village a bit later, it's very cute especially in the snow.

Let's take a couple of steps back though. We left on Wednesday afternoon Sydney time and the trip was 24+ hours of hell. Mitch was great, but the little boys hardly slept (It didn't help when the airline left the lights on on the plane all the way to Singapore where we arrived at the equivalent of 12:30am Sydney time) and when they weren't sleeping they were whining and crying and writhing and ... well Lucas vomited on me on the descent into Singapore. We arrived in London very early (5am) on Thursday morning. There were issues with the gantry which meant it took ages to get off the plane and we got off last because it would have been impossible to get all our bags and things with people queuing up behind us ... which unfortunately meant we were last in the queue for Customs. We were incredibly fortunate that a Customs lady took pity on us and we were jumped almost to the front of the queue, then it took ages for our bags to come out during which time the kids were crying again. Eventually we made it out of the airport only to find we had to take a bus to the car rental place then our type of car wasn't there so we had to get a different one and then spent ages figuring out how to fit the car seats then finally drove to the exit gate only to find we had picked up the wrong car (there were three cars of the same model sitting next to each other with number plates that only differed by one letter) so we drove back in, moved all the luggage and refitted the car seats and eventually got on the road to Lightwater.

Okay enough about the trip here. I don't want to think about it again ... ever ... or we might not be able to get on the plane to come home!

So back to the snow. It snowed a bit yesterday evening and had a big dump this morning which is when we got the shots below. Mitch had a ball playing in it and the little boys were adorable in their little all in one outfits.Sam was in the blue and Lucas was in the red.

 Mitch cops a snowball

It's great to be here and we're looking forward to our time here very much. A huge thanks to Krissy and Glenn for putting up with us all!

I should add there are a bunch more photos on our Flickr page. The link is on the right of this page or follow this link to a slideshow

Pre-Christmas Christmas Dinner

We had our family pre-Christmas Christmas dinner today. Ganny and Grandad and Mike, Amanda, Lilly and Will joined us. All the rest of our family is in London and we're looking forward to seeing them soon. It was a beautiful hot sunny day (a bit different to what it will be like in London!) so it was perfect for playing in the back garden (once it had been mowed - all the rain we have had recently means the grass is reaching "has this house been abandoned" length in between mows) and having a good long swim. Mitch has come so far with his swimming even in the last month. At the start of summer he was nervous even to step off the steps in the pool and swim to me when I was 2m away. Today has was able to swim a whole lap of the pool. Added to that today was the first time he was able to tread water with his head above the water (a very valuable skill to have I'm sure we all agree!) and float unaided on his back. His confidence is through the roof and he is so pleased with himself. Obviously though he knows never to go swimming without an adult.

Anyway, here are some photos of the day.


After all the swimming and playing we had a delicious Christmas dinner that Meeks had cooked for us. Ham and turkey and roast vegetables and Christmas pudding with ice cream and custard. There is plenty left which I'm looking forward to eating over the next few days.

Preschool Christmas Concert

Mitch had his preschool Christmas concert tonight. He and the other kids sang Christmas Carols and then Santa came on a fire truck. It was all very exciting.

Mitch was very cute

 On Santa's firetruck

 Sam and Lucas had loads of fun playing in the playground

Boys in the garden

Sammy and Lucas were mucking around on the bench at the back of the garden the other day, I ran to get the camera, but as usual their fun had pretty much finished. I did manage to get a few cute shots though.

Sam is on the left, Lucas on the right.

18 month olds

Last week Lucas and Sam passed 18 months. We didn't make a big fuss over it or anything, in fact I didn't actually realise until the next day. In any case I wanted to take some really nice photos of them at 18 months so we could remember them as they are now. I'm at home by myself today with the twins as Meeks is off at work and Mitch is at pre-school so I thought I'd do it today. The problem is that it is almost impossible to keep them in the same place at the same time, so I figured I'd pop them in the cot together and see what happens. You might remember this shot from when they were almost 1.

Well here they are now ... laughing

Shouting ...

And telling Daddy to put the camera away

The past 18 months have been very, very hard at times, but we have three beautiful boys and we thank God so much for all of them.

PS: That's Sam on the left and Lucas on right if you were wondering.

Reptile World

I had the day off work today so we decided to take the boys up to Reptile World at Gosford for the morning. It was a surprise, so we bundled them into the car and told Mitch we were going somewhere that was a surprise and it would be fun. Imagine his disappointment when we stopped at Coles on the way. After assuring him it wasn't our final stop, we set off again and soon all of the boys went to sleep which was great because they had all woken up at 5am. They are all sleeping in the same room because Poppy is home from London for a week. Going to sleep is fine, but waking up in the morning is not so good. Mitch has a clock in his room normally and knows he's not allowed to get up before there is a 6 on it. Unfortunately, there is no clock in the little boys' room so he just gets up whenever and generally wakes his brothers up too. Or they wake up and see Mitch is on their floor and think it's party time. Anyway, I digress.

We arrived at Reptile World (okay it's really called the Australian Reptile Park, but we just call it Reptile World) and woke all the boys up and Mitch was soooooooo excited when he realised where he was. He kept telling us he had been there before and had really wanted to go there again and now here he was and then started jumping up and down in excitement. We had been unsure of whether to go because the weather was overcast and a bit dicey, but his reaction showed us we had done the right thing.

We went around and saw the attractions and Mitch loved it. Lucas and Sam loved it too, which is great - last time they went to a zoo in Victoria in March they weren't really old enough to know what was going on and just cried the whole time. We saw birds and two Galapagos Tortoises and kangaroos and dingoes (for some reason Mitch is fascinated by them) and wallabies and echidnas (which Lucas and Sam especially liked).

We also saw a reptile show where Mitch got to see (and hear) a rattle snake and a Burmese Python and even got to touch an alligator's back. There were heaps of other reptiles and there was also spiders and frogs. All in all a boys' paradise of slimy creatures and creepy crawlies.
All of the boys got to pat a kangaroo too which Lucas and Sam were very excited about. The kangaroo was fortunately very patient because at times all three boys were trying to pat it at the same time. Lucas and Sam were very cute with it.


Here are some photos of the morning ...

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.
When we got home, it was time for everyone (except me) to have a sleep.

Goodbye Grampi

This afternoon Grampi Bill Youll passed away. He was at peace and apparently ready to go. We recently celebrated his 90th Birthday with the family. Here is a shot of Bill with all the grandkids and Rob at the 90th Party.

 He will be missed by all of us.

Update from Meeks

Believe it or not, this is actually the first time I have blogged (at this rate I'll be on facebook by 2020!). I thought it was time for a new update but sadly there are no photos or video today. Life has been busy, the kids have been sick all week (colds, fevers, vomitting) so there hasn't been much sleep for Dave or myself. On the up side, Marion came up from Victoria to visit. The kids just loved all the attention, cuddles and playing and it was lovely for me to have a bit of help in the first week of school holidays. We went down to Clontarf one day and Mitch had a wonderful time collecting shells with a little girl he befriended. He paddled in the water, which turned into a run, which turned into a spectacular full-bodied immersion. It was hilarious to see him fully clothed, soaked from head to toe.....until I realised I didn't have a change of clothes for him (not a single garment). Guess who rode home in the car completelly nude! The twins had a great time too. Sam enjoyed chasing birds and paddling his feet in the water and Lucas who had been miserable and crying all morning was really happy to be outside in the fresh air.
For week 2 of the school holidays, I have booked Mitch into Soccer Clinic which he will absolutley love. Mitch is also off to see "The Gruffalo" at Glen Street Theatre with Gannie and Lilly in the middle of the week which is a real treat.
Apart from being a bit sick, Lucas and Sam are doing really well. Lucas has perfected the art of kissing his mummy (video to follow soon). It's so gorgeous watching them play when they don't know you are there. Last weekend the two of them were playing peek-a-boo from behing a tree in the back garden, taking it in turns and laughing so cutely. We were watching them from the back door. One of those moment you wish you had the video camera out. Lucas just loves books, he's always bringing you one to read. Sam loves racing to the door as soon as he senses you are leaving, so he can say "bye, bye, bye" for ages, even after you've left. For a while he was saying "die, die, die" so I'm glad he's finally got it right. They have also perfected the art of the double hug (when they both come at you for a huge cuddle), it's moments like those that you forget what's hard about twins. We had their hair cut last week (quite traumatic) and they look a bit more grown-up now. What is a bit tricky, is that Lucas' hair cut has made him look a little more like Sam. Mitch has often since got them mixed up and I have to admit, I have had to resort to other distinguishing features (freckles) for clarification.
Mitch is getting so good with his drawings, he'll spend hours drawing elaborate pictures of monsters, aliens, animals, boats and helicopters (such a boy). What is really lovely, is you can now mostly tell what it is he's drawn because the shapes, proportions and features are really distinguishable. Mitch is becoming a bit of a fashionista. He often remarks on random people's clothing and will ask people if they like his shirt or outfit. He continues to be fashion advisor for mummy (who has recently bought new skirts and dresses because that's what Mitch likes) He now dresses himself in the morning with the only instruction being "long or short" and he does a good job at matching colours and patterns. Even as I was writing this last sentance, Mitch came running from his bedroom to me, struck a pose, and asked what I thought of his chosen outfit. It's all quite amusing!
Anyway, that's enough for an anecdotal update. Maybe, I'll blog again sometime.

Grampi's 90th and Rob's Farewell

Today we had a lunch at Mum and Dad's to both celebrate Grampi's 90th and to farewell Rob who is heading off to the UK for 12 months to continue his studies in Law.

Grampi and all the great grandkids

Uncle Rob and the twins

And a bunch of other images from the day



Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

Vege Garden

One of the great things about moving into Nana and Poppy's was the vege garden. We get broccoli, snow peas, spinach and a few different types of lettuce. A bit later on we'll hopefully get potatoes, cabbage, broad beans, tomatoes, garlic, chives and strawberries. When we moved in most of the plants were quite small but due to good weather and Meeks' diligent weeding we have had a continuous crop of great veges. Mitch loves playing with his toys in and around the veges and enjoys picking the snow peas too - in fact he even helps Meeks with the weeding!

Here are some shots of the vege garden:

Mitch's soccer

On Thursday morning Mitch plays soccer at a local indoor sports centre. He absolutely loves it. He has a couple of really great coaches called Luis and Woody. They are really great with the kids. They do a number of little skills practices like kicking and throw ins and goalie throws and passing and dribbling and also a special trick each week - this week was the circular ball hop, where you hop on one foot and roll the ball around you with the other. Very tricky and to tell you the truth none of the kids could do it but they all had fun trying. At the end they all have a short game. Mitch listens really well and has heaps of fun and looks forward to it every week.

This week I was working from home on Thursday and managed to go and watch him play.

Here are some action shots:

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

Boys in the bath

The boys don't always have baths together, but when they do it's very cute. They love to splash and make a mess, which this video clearly demonstrates! Mitch does most of the splashing. That's Lucas on the left and Sam on the right. Little cuties!

Boys morning in the park

First of all an apology. We've had some internet issues and have been unable to upload much in the last few weeks, so there is going to be a bunch of new posts so keep reading!

A couple of weeks ago on a Saturday morning, I took all the boys to the park to play and give Mummy a chance to have a break from them all. I used to take Mitch to the park a lot but hadn't done it with all three boys, so off we went. I was a lovely sunny morning and the boys had lots of fun. Now that Lucas and Sam are walking it was funny watching them wandering around the park. Mitch of course loved climbing to the top of everything in sight.

Here is a slideshow of the morning. Lucas is in blue, Sam is in red.

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

Mitch playing kicks in the garden

I took some video of Mitch kicking a ball in the back yard today. He did it over and over and over again and wanted to see the video after each one. Here is a compilation:

Lucas and Sam walking video

Just a little video of Lucas and Sam walking.