House Hand Over

We get the keys to our new house on Friday! WooHoo!!! I'm currently flat out trying to organise the flooring guy, air conditioning guy, heater guy, carpets, blinds... did I miss anything?!! I've been pouring over light fitting websites, trying to find "just the right ones"!

We had HEAPS of dirt moved last week, so it really feels like, we're almost there! We've got lawn areas prepped, and hopefully will get some lawn delivered late this week. And just to make our lives that little bit busier, Miss M is having her 13th birthday party on Sat! We're hoping to have a big bonfire, so her friends can toast marshmallows!

ahhhh... so much to do, so little time!

No pics today! Will attempt to post some more next week... maybe?!!!

I was just looking over the last few posts, seeing how much Tiny has changed. Its absolutely incredible. She's gone from being a tiny, scared, tearless little baby - to a confident, emotion expressing, 2 and half year old diva!!! She is absolutely hilarious. The things she comes out with really astound us! She was driving in the car with my parents the other day - they overtook a truck on the freeway, and as they drove past, she looked at the truck and said (in her best Simpson's Nelson voice) HA-HA! To my knowledge, none of us, have done that when overtaking a car or truck... so how come she has it all in context, and did that?!!! She loves to sing too! Its very very cute. And she's recently become a HUGE fan of Pooh Bear! She sings all the songs from the Pooh Bear movie!!! Its so cute!!!!

New pics!

Few more new pics for you! The house has been painted inside, now... but I keep forgetting to take my camera! Shower Screens & 2nd fix plumbing all happened too! oh! And we have a concrete path all the way round the house, so when it rains, we won't be tracking mud into the house! (hopefully?!)



Ok, the pics...







Just walkin' the dog!
Farmer Joe! (fitting into farm life quickly?!)

(trying to wink?!) this pic makes me laugh, everytime I see it!!!


Struttin' her stuff!

(I asked her to smile and say cheese... not sure what she's doing?!)

Planting trees! We planted over 100, got another 200 coming this week!

Posing! (here she IS saying cheese!)

(Sheryl, I'm so sorry about that - I didn't realise your address was on the card, it certainly wasn't done intentionally - I've deleted all reference to you from my blogs, so hopefully you can't be followed?)

(Mary McG, we (my state) only have 2 families, due to receive allocations this month - I should hear about those shortly! You could also post on the Rumour Queen forum, I'm pretty sure there is an Australian page, maybe hook up there?)

Wot's up?!!

Hope I didn't shock the socks off you too much by posting!!! Crikey I've been a slacka, eh?!!!


Well... it's been SO crazy busy since Christmas last year! Its ridiculous! For four years time draaagggggged on and on - each day felt like a week. NOW... week's flash by in the blink of an eye! Can you believe that in a few days, it'll be FOURTEEN MONTHS since we first cuddled Tiny?!!!


So, before Christmas we went on our family holiday (see pics in posts below!). January was a blur of work and packing up our house, as we moved to the country! We are living directly across the road from where we are building our new house. We were hoping to rent our house out to international students, but that didn't happen. So we thought we'd have a crack at selling the house ourselves, got a few enquiries, but no buyers. Then we thought we'd try and rent it out ourselves... and after our first ad, we scored!!! So we've just had another crazy week, moving the last bits of our gear out, and organising all the stuff that goes along with tenants!!!


I'm sure you really don't want to read my dribble - you want pics, right?!!!

First week of Feb: The Slab

The very next day: The frames appeared

Second week of Feb: The roof went on, and bricks arrivedBeautiful sightAs the brickies started, the insulation was installed, and gyprock arrived Gyprock went up (we have a HUGE room in the centre of the house, the incorporates the kitchen - which is this space - dining & lounge rooms. We have huge glass sliding doors and windows the look at the following photo)

Our view - our whole house was built to take the best vantage of this beautiful view!

Walking the dog

Our Dads put up the big shed next to the house - its 20 metres x 7 metres... it's a BIG shed!

Last week our kitchen arrived

The builder calls my front doors, my "million dollar doors", I really wanted leadlight, and wanted completely solid doors... they weigh a tonne! (they won't stay that hideous green! Thats the undercoat!) The front door opens into our big room, and you can see straight out the other side, to the view... we love it!

(Tiny appears in most photos, coz we go over to the house during the day, when the older 2 kidlets are at school! .... I just realised, they're not in any of these pics... it wasn't on purpose!!)

Tiny at playgroup!

Had to show you this pic... every girl loves chocolate, right?!!!

Tiny and Daddy on the quad bike!

Sunrise, is beautiful

Fog over the hills... I think its going to be cold in winter?!!! We're only just into Autumn!!!

I must also offer my heartiest congratulations to STACY & RYAN on FINALLY seeing their sweet sweet son, Zachary! He is utterly adorable! And also, very belated congratulations to fellow Aussie (albeit, living in the US!) FLISS & MIKE, on finally holding their gorgeous daughter, Shauna!!! HOORAY!!! **Hugs and Kisses to you both**

A Year of Tiny...

As promised... here is one whole year of Tiny...

First glimpse - ("OMG! it's really her!!! IN THE FLESH!!! it's really her!!! she's really real!!!")
Can.not belive I'm really holding my daughter.

Day 2 - looks daddy straight in the eye, mimics funny faces

Day 4 (or 5?!) Getting Chinese Passport today

Last day in Guanghzhou - Tiny pulls a face... Mummy is going into ANOTHER shop!

In chilly Shanghai! We went to the Shanghai Museum, this day.

Flying from Guangzhou, to Shanghai... Tiny's first plane trip! She celebrated, by puking all over me, minutes after this photo was taken!!! She then went to sleep!!!

First morning, at home with Big Sister and Brother.

Been home a week (you can just see a suitcase or backpack in the doorway in the background... took a while to get organised!!!)

WALKING! I think this was about a month after Tiny came home?!

Love this photo. Taken May 2009 (home 3 months)

First ponytail! Just about to meet our batch for lunch, June 2009

So cute?!!

Not always a happy chappy?!!! Tiny has always been petrified of the dogs, we had to give Milo to a friend, as Tiny just wouldn't go outside, for fear of him. She tolerated Chewy, but sometimes... as in this photo... it got all a bit too much!!!

Sept 2009, unusually warm day - so we could play outside!

Eating bubbles!

First face painting! At Maya's fairy party... Nov 2009

Fun at Playgroup - Nov 2009 (had a haircut too!)

Up close and personal!

Forever Family Day, 12th Feb 2010 - Home one whole year. (Note: "Guangdong Girl" teeshirt! Thanks Jodie!)

Forever Family Day celebration... cheap supermarket mud cake, loaded with lollies & chocolate and fortune cookies for good luck!!!

Chinese New Year, 2010

Monday 15th Feb, 2010, - on the slide at the park

Blessings abound everyday.

ONE YEAR AS A FAMILY OF FIVE!!!

WOOHOO!!! It's been ONE WHOLE YEAR since the very day that Tiny was placed in our arms. I simply can't believe its been a year. Its SOOOOOO FAST!

So fast in fact, that I even missed my January update!!! January was a super crazy month... I'm so glad its over!!! Quick recap - went back to work, kids still on school holidays, my parents came to stay, we packed to move house, Tiny kept climbing out of her cot at night, so we put her in a bed... which didn't go so well, so she's in the portacot now! We moved house, our house started construction (just across the road, from the rental we're in!), we kept our previous house and will rent to international students (so been organising that too!), had loads of issues getting our shed (barn) delivered, and loads of work issues too!!! S0 we move into February, and I've started toilet training Tiny! Its going very well. I've just gone straight to knickers, I think those pull up nappy things are just TOOOO expensive!!! We've been going four days now, she has fewer accidents each day, but there's always more success than accidents anyway! HOORAY!

So, its been a year. I sat down last night, and went though the photos from China... it's just SO evident that our tiny daughter was so scared. She was so QUIET in China!!! She is definitely NOT quiet anymore!!! You've never heard a child scream, like Tiny screams!!! Its rarely because she's upset, its because she's excited, or simply wants to be heard!!! But good grief!!! The volume is amazing!!!

Ahhh... the photos.... I was tearing up in moments! Our bald little bubby!!! I remember all the emotion of Tiny Time. Yet on the day, I was so bewildered, I didn't cry at all!!! I just couldn't believe the day had final come... that this tiny girl in front of me, WAS MY DAUGHTER!!! It suddenly dawned on me, she is real. She's not a dream, not a story figment of my imagination!!! And there she was - in the flesh. We'd be taking her home. We really ARE a family of five!!!

She is now a full blown toddler. Can pitch a fit with the best of them! Has become the fussiest eater on the planet... but can see the golden arches a kilometre away - and screams "Chippy". She's still quite reserved in groups of people. Still doesn't really like men (unless she's around them regularly - my Dad is beside himself - she'll finally sit with him, give him a kiss and let him hold her - only because they've been living here for almost 2 months!). She LOVES D0ra. I bought some NiHao KaiLan DVDs and she's pretty chooffed with her as well! She loves music and loves to dance. Clothes still don't fit her properly - I have to pin all her waistbands! She's moved up into Size 1, although, all her summer dresses are still 6-12 months! She's gone up one shoe size, in the last year, and is now wearing size 5... sort of! They're all too wide, but she copes! Knickers are a nightmare, they're all WAY too baggy. She pee'd once, and the knickers were still dry... the leg holes are so big, they don't even touch her leg, so the pee ran down her leg, completely missing the knickers! I think HMan is the favoured sibling at present... she screams his name, when he comes home from school! She does love Miss M, but I think Miss M is a like a little Mummy, and bosses her around more than she plays!!! Tiny isn't very happy when I go to work. She knows the days I'm going, by what I'm wearing!!! As soon as I come out of my bedroom, she starts whining!! She is a sugar freak! She loves to brush her teeth (good, due to the previous character flaw). Being on the farm, she has discovered a real love for Chewy dog. She follows him around everywhere. She tries to ride him (he's a terrier!) She mimicks us, if we yell at Chewy... in her tiny unauthorative voice! She loves being outside. She LOVES the shower and the bath.... and swimming pools... it'd be safe to say, she just loves any form of water! Every 5 minutes she's trying to get her gear off! She also loves to be naked! She loves her batch mates - and can repeat all their names. We see them most Monday's at Playgroup. Its so good to see them so often! She really cries now, if she hurts herself - in the early days, she'd look like she was biting her lip, in an effort not to cry. She had her last vaccinations yesterday (hooray!) and MAN! did she cry! Poor baby was NOT too happy at all. She had a few months there, when she had very disrupted sleep - but seems to have settled back down, and is sleeping up to 3 hrs during the day and a good 11-12 hrs at night (most night's she has a little whinge around 1am, but settles very quickly).

All in all. We are ever so blessed to have this tiny livewire in our family. We are in awe.

Here's my celebratory layout.

I was going to upload a heap of photos... but realised I didn't compres them! Will do it in a few days!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I was a bit slow on the "Christmas" message... so instead you're getting a HAPPY NEW YEAR message!!!


We went on holidays on 12 Dec - 28 Dec, up to the Gold Coast where it's nice and warm, with lots of theme parks! We had a fantastic time, except for the part when Mr T slipped down 6 wet (stone) stairs, and has possibly fractured his back (again).... oh, and the part, where a nob driver ran up the back of the hire car I was driving... oh, and the part where the car insurance excess cost me $3300 - other than that - it was a smashing trip!



Here are some pics:

In the rain on Christmas morning... it was still 34 degreesC!
Kisses for big sister

Us

Flume Ride at Seaworld

Waiting to take Tiny on the kiddy rides

Tiny LOOOOOVES THE POOL!

Posers at Seaworld!

Googles for Christmas:

More googles for Christmas!

Layer upon layer, of kids!

Big brotherly love!

We had "old time" photos done... Tiny wouldn't smile!

How old does my girl look, in this shot?!

Serial killer in the making?!!!

Family of gangsters! Check out the rack on Mummy?!!! Honestly... it's all the dress!

Fly Tiny, Fly!

Fashionista... heels and googles - it's all the rage, this season?!

Hangin' with Porky... (and the pig statue?!)

Daddy and Tiny chill out at Wet n Wild (its the name of the water park... not a p0rn0?!)

Christmas morning was a very small affair - because we were on holidays, gifts were light on - but thoroughly enjoyed! Tiny's absolute favourite thing EVA... is Dora. Urgh. Dora? I find her EXTREMELY annoying!!!! Tiny wants to watch her every waking moment! "Dooorah? Dooorah?"

Well, from us down under - we wish you all an absolutely fantabulous new year! May 2010 be the year that your dreams come true - May you smile and laugh more than you ever have before - May you find where your treasure truly lies.

God Bless!

xxx Love OziFamily!