The hills are alive.........

.............. with the sound of music..................

Yesterday afternoon our family was fortunate enough to be able to attend a performance of The Sound of Music at the Brolga Theatre here in Maryborough. The company perfoming it was Savoyards, up from Brisbane where Stu and I lived and met before we were married. They've just finished their season down there and toured the show up here for one special performance (we like to think, just for us..... but it's really because our town happens to have a state of the art theatre :)). In fact, my grandparents founded Savoyards back in the 1960's. They mostly did Gilbert and Sullivan musicals back then, but now do all sorts of classic and more contemporary musicals. 10 years ago (the last time the company did Sound of Music), I played Liesl and Stuart played Rolf! Very romantic indeed it was, as we were dating at the time and madly in love at the tender ages of 17 and 18. Ahhhh......

Anyway, it was great to take the children to the theatre once again and expose them to a passion of ours. They are getting to love it too!! William slept through the whole show which was great for me (though my arms were like lead by the end of it). Isn't he gorgeous? 5 weeks old already!


And here are the promised pics of Medieval Day. The children did rotational activities like crown making, family crests, cooking some traditional medieval style food, jousting, etc. etc. through the day. Great fun!!




Stuart in his attire. Funny how it suits him. I often think we were born in the wrong era!! Either Medieval times or the Edwardian era for me................



Will managed to sleep through lots of the noise. Gotta love newborns for their portability!!

Happy Sunday everyone. :)

A day out

Yesterday Saraya's junior school was participating in a regional sports carnival. However, it was to be hosted by a school about 45 minutes drive from here, the students were to be transported by coach, and the day was going to be about 8 hours long for the kids ............ I decided that it was too much for Saraya at her age, and because of having a newborn I was unable to drive her myself this time. We all plan to be there next year!

Today the term ended with a Medieval Day. Yay HOLIDAYS!!! This was primarily Stuart's day (we both have an interest in Medieval history), and ran many activities through the afternoon. Both of the little boys and I were out at school for the day with Saraya (in costume!) and had a blast but are exhausted! More about today, tomorrow. :)

With the free time we gained yesterday, I decided to break out of our normal routine and do some fun stuff with the kids. It was great! We started the day with our morning jobs, and the children had some freeplay time and watched Playschool while I tended to William and packed some lunch to take out with us.

We were about to walk out to the car at about 10:30am but when I tried to find the car keys I quickly discovered they weren't anywhere here......... after phoning Stu, I found out he had accidentally taken them to work with him in his pocket!! Grrrrrr............................

Thankfully, another teacher who lives nearby was about to head home as he had forgotten his tennis gear. So he was able to drop the keys off for me! "Hooray!!!" chorused the children, having thought our day out was going to become our day in.

So, we headed into town. We met up with my friend Helen and her daughter to Ellie at the hall next to our church, to make princess (and prince) crowns for today.

William had a decent sleep in the stroller which allowed me to help the children with their artwork. Hooray for two free hands!

Then on to Queen's Park (our favourite park in town, just in our own street) for a picnic lunch and a play. "William's first trip to the park!" as Saraya exclaimed.

It's a gorgeous old park, complete with a traditional bandstand. Last time we were here, there was a brass band playing for a special market day event. Elijah decided that since there was no band this time, he would provide the entertainment.

Marmite sandwiches, grapes, dried apricots and some muffins for lunch.

This is the Mary River.

The fountain in the park is always surrounded by gorgeous flowers. You never know what colour they'll be from one month to the next.



Saraya decided to climb a tree on our way to the playground area. This resulted in both children ending up in the tree, Eljiah's first tree-climbing session. Fun, fun, fun. And we never actually got to the playground.............


This is a photo of William sleeping in the sling while the children were climbing the tree. He slept most of the day while we were out and about.

I need to go serve out dinner - everyone is exhausted and the children are getting fractious. Fun days out! Looking forward to the weekend tomorrow..................

Wordless Wednesday

Will we ever get well?

Wow, this Winter has surely hit hard. EVERYONE in town is sick with something. There are several tummy bugs going around, as well as a variety of coughs and colds and flus. The classes out as school are only half-full most days.

I work hard to keep my family healthy, and we usually manage to escape these Winter blues.... but not this year! Elijah and Stu and currently fine, Saraya is recovering well though still has a lingering cough.......... my throat however is quite sore, especially through the night, and my sinuses are all congested. Could be worse, and I'm eating everything good I can get my hands on and taking extra vitamins, and willing it to go away before it manifests! I don't have time to get sick. Poor little William is still struggling along, in fact this afternoon his nose seemed to block up again. One of his eyes is weepy and his nose is actually running this time - last week it was just congested inside, with nothing running out. Is it a new virus or just an extension of last week's?

Please pray for him, just that he'll get better quickly and that we won't have to end up back in hospital or needing antibiotics etc. etc. I hate seeing my tiny bub unwell!!

Stay well everyone. :)

Jane Austin heroines

Heather got me onto this........

Click on the Jane Austin link on the left below for some fun! (just scroll down...)

Female readers out there, take the Jane Austin heroine quiz and find out which heroine you are most like....... And then set yourself the challenge to read the relevant novel if you never have (or at least watch the film :)).
I am, apparently, Elinor Dashwood. I can see the similarities. With Emma Thompson's portrayal of the character that is - I have never actually read Sense and Sensibility, but LOVE the film. So my challenge now is to read it!

Have a great day everyone.

And so life continues...............

Life is settling down again. Ah, the beauty of normality!

William is recovering really well. He is still suffering with a bit of congestion and a slight wheeze, but his feeding and sleeping is fairly well back to normal. He is happier and more alert again, and it's so nice to have my little settled boy back!


It struck me today that when you have other children it's a beautiful distraction when things are difficult. And how they need you to just keep things as normal as possible. It reminds me of being in labour - such a great distraction having my older two children around, just being themselves!! Anyway, I think their zest for life is helping all of us move on from the difficult parts of this week. We've had a great Saturday today!

I just thought I'd post some photos of things Elijah was up to earlier in the week before William was unwell.

Captain Elijah - with a smile and a surly face. He's been playing lots of pirate games lately.

This is Elijah turning his Ukulele into a violin. Yes, he's using a hobby horse as the bow! Such creativity I never knew was possible in a 3 year old!!

We had fun blowing bubbles earlier in the week as well. I like this last photo. :)

Well, one more week of school before the Winter holidays begin! It will be so nice to all be home together for 2 weeks. Hopefully I'll be posting lots of pictures of our garden renovations! That is, assuming that they happen. Lots of great family time anyway. The times I always appreciate the holidays Stuart's job provides......... busy terms, but great holidays.

A big adventure

Well. What a week it's been.

My poor baby got worse on Tuesday night, and by yesterday morning was so congested he was really struggling to breathe. His breathing was so noisy, and rapid...... and he was starting to get quite distressed. So, off to the hospital we went. Saraya was at school, so it was just Elijah and William and I. We were taken straight in and given priority consultation which was good as sometimes at the local hospital you can wait hours before being seen. I presume being a baby and obviously having respiratory distress, the nurses were keen to have him seen to straight away.
After being examined by a couple of nurses, a doctor and his senior colleague, and having a chest x-ray (horrible for William; I had to hold him with his legs extended and his arms up above his head), the doctor announced that we would need to be transfered to Hervey Bay hospital (a half hour from here) to be examined by the paediatric doctors there. And worse still, we had to go by ambulance as they were not keen for me to drive him up there myself as they wanted to closely monitor him. At that point I totally lost it!! It all sounded so serious. I remember Elijah looking up at me with big eyes and then just hugging me and kissing me. I was sleep-deprived and hence very very weepy. The nurse kindly phoned Stuart at work for me, and Stu managed to come straight up and have the rest of the day off to be with us. I cried and cried when he got there! I don't like hospitals and being there alone with a sick baby and a toddler who was trying so hard to be a helpful boy made my emotions really run.
Anyway, I was surprised when Cathy showed up unexpectedly......... she had known William had had a hard night, and managed to track us down. :) I felt so much better having familiar faces there with me. Stu livened things up for Eljiah too, and they managed to find some fun things to do while we waited for the ambulance to transport us.

It took over an hour for it to come, but finally we were on our way. Stuart and Elijah travelled by car, and I went with Will. He looked so tiny in the big baby capsule they had strapped to a hospital stretcher........... I couldn't stop crying for him! He was just so uncomfortable and looked so helpless. I sat by him and held his hand and just kept telling him how brave he was and that he would be fine.

Once there, we were seen by the paediatrician. She was happy that William's chest x-ray looked clear, however he has an upper respiratory tract infection which is viral (so no antibiotics needed, thankfully). She decided we would need to be admitted and stay for at least 24 hours so they could observe him and monitor his condition. Oh, how desperately I wanted to go home! I was so dissapointed we would have to stay overnight as I wanted to be home with my family, and didn't want Stu to leave me. But it's necessary when you have more than one child! Stuart and Elijah headed off fairly soon after we were settled as Elijah had been hanging around hospitals the whole day at that point. And so began my little vigil with William. After many hours of just holding him and struggling with his feeds, rocking him while he slept, etc. etc. his little nose finally started to clear. He settled into a deep sleep late last night, and by morning today his breathing sounded fairly normal again. What a relief for him! I praised God.
We were once again seen by the paediatrician. She and her colleague agreed that if William continued to feed well, and kept his stats positive, we would be able to go home this afternoon.

He did, and we did!!

It is SO good to be home. I missed the other 2 children and Stu so much, and the comforts of home. (though thankyou Stu for packing me my bag of bits and pieces and Cathy for delivering it last night- and keeping me company:)).
William is sounding a little chesty tonight as the mucous is settling on his chest now that it's moved down from his head. We need to watch his temp as that could indicate a secondary bacterial infection if it goes up. We have the vapouriser on and I'll be monitoring him closely again tonight.

I'm so tired physically after nights of being mostly awake, but mentally and emotionally I feel abundantly blessed by my family, and the support of so many friends who obviously care so much for us. Thankyou!! And I'm just so relieved to see William more comfortable.
Thankyou so much Heather for your kindness, and prayers!! I look forward to communicating with you in the following days.

Laura Ingalls Wilder once said "I think home is the nicest word there is".
I am certainly inclined to agree!

Sick children

Well, today was not an easy day in our household. Firstly, William has caught a cold from somewhere and is really blocked up in his nose. How awful, to have your first cold at 3 weeks of age! So many people around us are unwell....... it's hard to avoid at this time of year. It's awful seeing William struggling to breathe with all the congestion. He just needs to be held all the time as putting him down causes him to get more blocked up, gag, and wake up crying. He can only get decent sleep when he's being held upright. Which of course means that I've been holding him virtually constantly since Saturday afternoon, day and night...............

We're getting loads of cuddle time - I'm trying to keep positive and value that time with him! It's just hard when there are other little ones also needing me.
Poor Saraya woke up with a sick tummy this morning, and proceeded to vomit a couple of times through the morning. So no school for her today! Elijah is mostly well, just off his food and a bit pale over the weekend. What a houseful of unwell kids! It's not fun and I'm so glad we rarely get sick.

Right now I'm just counting my blessings that I am well. I need to stay well so I can take care of everyone else! Praying for better sleep tonight, for Will's nose to clear up soon, for Saraya and Elijah to sleep all night and wake up happy and well in the morning.......... and for Stu and I to both stay well.

Can't wait for full health to return! And to be able to sleep properly again, with free arms
so I can lie in any position I want. :)

I'm sure hoping tomorrow is going to be a better day.

Small accomplishments

Today I got my floors done. Yippee!!!
Doesn't sound like much, but with a newborn in the house, and two other little ones keeping me very busy, it felt like quite an achievement. :)

Well, it was the first time they had been vaccumed and mopped in over a month. They look so shiny! Hooray for today! Thank-you God for William's big big sleep this afternoon, happy children, and a wonderful husband who comes home and plays with them while I keep mopping.

Post-Script............ We had Claire visit yesterday, and the all-important weighing..........
..................... William is now 10 POUNDS!!! Yes, he has put on 2 pounds in 2 and a half weeks!
Amazing what breastmilk can do. :)

Our Blessings

2 and a half weeks old. So new, so little, and so gorgeous!! William will be weighed tomorrow and I'm very interested to see how much he has gained..... he's getting a little rounder, I'm sure.

Hanging out with big brother.....

and big sister!

The children love to hold William and do it so well....... very helpful when I need to brush my teeth or go to the bathroom! Saraya especially is a big help and I'm very thankful for her.

Happy Birthday Elijah!!!

Our beautiful Elijah Samuel turned 3 on Saturday! Here's a picture record of our day.



It started with some stories with Papa cuddling under a blanket...............





while Saraya decorated Elijah's presents with stickers (the wrapping paper was plain black). The finished product was really nice! And she enjoyed it too.




Elijah is........... Captain Feathersword! I bought this costume on Ebay and it's gorgeous. The best bit is the feathersword itself. It says "Ahoy there, me hearties'" and laughs like the Captain himself. Very cute!




Finally.... the little keyboard I purchased for Elijah about 6 months ago could come down off the top of the bathroom cupboard, out from it's hiding spot! It was just the hit I knew it would be with our little musical star. He spent virtually the rest of the day exploring its various functions and performing to himself or anyone who would listen. The microphone is a little grating...... but I guess we'll get used to it. :)




A game of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" with Nanna and Stuart, followed by the decorating of biscuits. We took these happy biscuit faces to church with us yesterday as part of the party morning tea we shared for Elijah with our friends there.




An outdoor concert over lunch from the two singing siblings. Notice who's wearing the costume now? Elijah changed into his new Wiggles outfit. It's a size 3, but really much too big for him! He's still a fairly little guy for his age.



Stu found these pirate plates. He thought they'd go nicely with the cake. Elijah loved them.



And here it is....... the cake itself. Thanks Mum for the help!! If you can't tell here, it's a number 3 cake, decorated in a sea theme complete with little lego pirate men. :) Elijah's idea. The brown part is "treasure island", surrounded by yellow smartie and jelly bean sand. The pirate captain awaits the rest of his crew.


The day finished off with a playschool dvd (some quiet time for all!) and a cuddle with Grandpa.

It was a relaxing, peaceful day. I think Elijah really enjoyed himself. As is tradition, he got to decide what his birthday tea would be........ and he chose pizza. Not lovely homemade pizza -
"No Mamma, pizza from the pizza shop" he clearly declared! Well, fine then. So an easy tea it was.

Happy birthday little man. You are a delight to us all and we love you!