Some Final Memories Of 2011...

It's hard to believe another year has come to an end, I kinda blinked and 2010 2011 was gone! I'm not sure why but as the kids are becoming older it's all passing by so very quickly. Throughout the year there were *heaps* of moments I didn't quite find the chance to add to my BLOG but really wanted to, memories I'd like to keep here for the future so I can look back and remember... remember how our family loved one another and brought others into our lives, lost family and friends now in Heaven, celebrated huge milestones and mostly tried to live a life with faith & gratitude to God for giving us the grace & beauty of each new day. So it's a VERY long one but here's some final posts & photos I haven't shared yet from 2011...

____________________ Longboarding Craze ____________________

I seem to hold my breath every time Alex hops on that longboard of his! This year has definitely seen him roll rather than walk...he's had his fair share of scrapes and bruises but he *adores* it. He looks so little here too, taken on the 14th of January he's grown so much and is now taller than me making me officially the shortest person in the house... LOL

____________________ Emmy Starting Year 12 ____________________

Emmy accepting one of her Senior badges from a Sister Of Mercy, Sister Mary Lawson. This badge was for the SoM's 150 years of service in Queensland. Sister Mary received the AM in the Australia Day honours this year. Emmy really seemed to connect with her, a woman of such grace and faith. A beautiful moment. :)

____________________ Our Model ____________________

Over several weeks Emmy attended a course after school and here she is at the Deportment and Grooming graduation night. The girls learnt alot about presenting themselves well in life and for work and also how important it is to be proud of themselves.

...and our confident girl on the catwalk.

____________________ Gracie Turns One ____________________

Our cute little niece Gracie turned one on the 21st of April (which also happens to be my folks wedding anniversary date!) and her parents had a HUGE birthday celebration for their princess so off we all went to Maleny for the weekend. Here she is with the exquisite hand turned rattle made for her by Hugh.

________________ Camping Together At Easter _______________

____________________ Baking ____________________

I always love baking and luckily Michael, the kids and their many friends love it too! LOL I must have made many dozens of cupcakes this year which I love to decorate (including these pretty chocolate ones with marshmallow flowers), baked some "whoopi pies" very yum and my sister found me a HUGE stockpot so this winter we had quite a few soups too.

____________________ Ripley's Believe It Or Not ____________________

Mid year I noticed one of those daily deals online for passes to Ripley's Believe It Or Not at the Gold Coast (only about an hour or so away) and decided it would be really fun if we could take all the kids and their special someones with us as a bit of an early birthday pressie in August. All the kids actually had been begging to go so I picked up passes for us all! The kids were really little the last time they'd been and everyone was keen. Surprisingly it turned quite chilly at the coast that day but we had such a nice time anyways.

Nick and one of the street performers.

Michael and the kids watching Nick with the performer in the Surfers Paradise Mall.

Inside the museum, Michael and Alex next to the tallest man in the world moving statue. Whoa!!!

Me with this creepy exhibit!

We saw heaps of really interesting exhibits, some quite amazing! Everyone had a go at the laser wall at the end of the museum. Can you guess who these two are? Yep it's Michael and I waving our arms about, reminded me of angel wings when I saw the photos. :)

____________________ Nick is 18 ____________________

Hard to believe but our baby boy is now officially an adult! On the first of September Nick turned 18. We had lots of discussions about the type of gift we'd like to give our young man with Michael very keen for him to have an "experience" rather than a thing if that makes sense. With a great deal of excitement (and ok some anxious moments on my part) we decided to give Nick an interstate trip to Sydney, a chance to see a bit more of our beautiful country and spread his wings. A chance to plan a trip, organise flights, accomodation, sight seeing events etc. All very valuable experiences for a first time young traveller. He'll go hopefully in the new year with his special young lady. I think he's pretty thrilled with his gift!

As usual I organised a balloon bouquet for our birthday boy! We had a black and silver theme for his party too.

On the actual night of his birthday Nick chose his favourite Indian restaurant "The Mehfil" (which is ours too) to celebrate! It was wonderful having the kids partners there as well, our family table is certainly growing. Here is Nick with his much loved girlfriend Emily.

Me with Nick, can't believe I am the mother of an 18 year old! LOL

Afterwards at home we had a yummy chocolate profiterole treasure cake from The Cheesecake Shop.

Nick and his very proud Dad!

Nick and his September born siblings!

Being such an important milestone we also had a big extended family party for Nick with family coming from up north to help us celebrate! We set everything up at home by the pool.

I loved getting all of the food organised for such a big event, lots of planning and preparations but well worth the effort when Nick saw his birthday feast.

...and another cake for the big party day! Happy birthday Nicky love. xx

____________________ Father's Day ____________________

~September 4~
For those of you who know my gadget loving hubby his Father's Day pressie is no surprise! LOL He's always loved remote control cars and helicopters, I'm sure half the gifts for the boys over the years were secretly for him to play with too. hee hee Here he is with his new helicopter, it's a beauty! Funny story though: as we were all out watching him fly his new copter on the nearby oval it went into a tail spin and headed straight for our pool! After it hit the water it went kinda crazy and the remote control would no longer work. With Michael watching it disappear into the big blue he set off on foot through the bush to try and follow it. Emmy and I watched for a bit longer and then grabbed the car keys as I thought I knew where it may have landed, IF it landed at all. In a million to one chance we found it!! It could have landed anywhere, someones back yard or the thick bush that our estate is nestled in, but there it was on the side of a back road. Luckily we popped it in the boot as half way home we hear this crash, clatter and bang as the copter "woke up" and was flying away in the boot! Oh my, what a fright it gave us but a BIG giggle too.

____________________ Sebastian's Funeral ____________________

Reading my bible, the one I have had since I was a little girl. I'm not even sure I can write the words that should go along with this post... it just seems too unreal, too hard, too... well just still too emotional. This year my beautiful friend Natti and her hubby Greg found out they were expecting a little boy, so very special! They also found out that their precious baby boy had Trisomy 18, a genetic condition which heartbreakingly means bubba would "not be compatible with life". I can't tell you all how many times I shed tears for Nat and her family, how many times I prayed and how many times I asked Him why! Why! And Nat, oh Nat and her FAITH, that pure brave faith she has shone through it all, giving us all a glimpse of the blessings God has given us through their much loved little Sebastian. I wasn't sure I was going to make it through the funeral, I have been to so many in the past two years I wasn't sure I was emotionally strong enough for this one. But of course I wanted to be there for Nat, for her family, for Sebastian... and mostly to thank God for looking after my friend over the past several months. She asked us to wear red for Seb on the day, and I knew exactly what I would wear, it now reminds me of him every time I go out in it and I quietly feel God with me.


____________________ Emily Turns 17 ____________________

On September 13 our gorgeous girl turned 17! She still takes my breath away when I look at how grown up she has become, especially this year, her final year of school. Here she is with her birthday flowers from Sean, the first time our Miss 17 has had flowers delivered to her door.

I baked Emmy some cute yellow birthday cuppies to take to school for her and the girls, yes, even big Year 12 girls like birthday cake I was told, particularly when Emily's mumma bakes them apparently!! *grin* Isn't that so sweet? They are yellow of course because that is Emmy's favourite colour. :)

For her family birthday tea our pretty girl chose Hog's Breath Cafe that had finally re-opened after the massive floods earlier this year. Have to admit, I totally *heart* those curly fries!

...and of course a very special ice cream birthday cake before bed (yep Em is in her jammies LOL), especially created for our birthday girl with a rainbow base, boisenberry balls on top with chocolate panels on the side - all tied together with a lovely yellow ribbon.

____________________ Family Holiday ____________________

Towards the end of September we decided it would be nice to go away for a few days together as a family, so we booked the unit we'd had for our honeymoon almost 24 year ago. With the kids getting older it's becoming harder to find time together to go away, especially with Uni and school schedules as well as work for our teens. Sadly Nick's young lady Emily had to go to hospital the very day we were to leave for the coast. Nick came to us and said he just couldn't go, not with his Em so sick. I was a little disappointed he couldn't come with us but also so PROUD of the kind hearted young man he had become. Emily's parents treat our Nick like gold, we truly couldn't be luckier and knowing he was staying with them while Emily needed him made it that much easier. Here's a photo I took one night, so wished I'd taken my tripod. The view from our balcony of the lights at Surfer's Paradise.


____________________ Our Alex @15 ____________________

The birthday of our last September born munchkin Alex, he's 15 now and rapidly growing up! This year Alex has been working at the local Fruit Market which he LOVES. I wasn't so sure about him working at such a young age with school and all but you know our Alex is such an active and adventurous BOY, he *needs* to be occupied in a meaningful way and this job is just perfect for him. He's become so much more settled at school, we were thrilled with his report card comments, being on task and giving it your best is so important.

This year all the kids had a birthday tea out at a favourite restaurant and Alex chose for our family to go to Sizzler. This time we invited his lovely girl Jade to come with us to celebrate Alex's special day. As young as this pair are, they have been together for a year now, which in teen terms is quite a while! We love Jade, she's cute, funny and totally "gets" our Alex and his crazy ways. Our Al is such a character. They laugh alot which makes me happy and is as it should be at their age. Took some candid piccies of the pair at dinner and I have to smile... so very Alex & Jade! *grin*

____________________ Emily's Graduation ____________________

After all the studying and exams Year 12 is over for our Emily who graduated from St Mary's College in November. It'd be fair to say Em was very much looking forward to finishing school and moving on to further study teaching and caring for little ones in Early Childhood. Emmy attained her Certificate III in Childcare during her Senior years too so hopes to work with young kiddies, she's such a caring girl and so suited for this path...

Our Emmy, on stage after accepting her certificate, right in the middle of her graduating class. I've actually taught a number of those faces when they were little primary school kiddoes. :)



A final goodbye in the Rose Garden of the College grounds...

...and with her best friend Shani.

____________________ Off To Schoolies! ____________________

On her way! Now this was a BIG one for us. Yes I know Nick went last year for a week to the Coast with the thousands of other graduating seniors but for some reason it was just that much more anxious for me to see our daughter head out our front door for a week away from us. The girls had an apartment right in the heart of Surfers Paradise so they could walk to the beach, shops etc and Em had worked out all the meals and together we'd all done the grocery shopping for the week. So organised compared to the boys I have to admit! LOL I was driving the girls which meant I could help settle them in before driving home. The wonderful Red Frog people who look out for the teens during the week greeted us at the apartment entrance with one sweet young girl asking me how I felt about leaving our daughter for the week and offered me a red frog to help with my nerves. How cute! Emmy of course was perfectly fine, apart from a touch of the flu while away and came home safe n sound. Prayers answered. :)

_________________ Our Little Niece Gracie _________________

Had a wonderful but too short overnight visit by Michael's brother Luke, Charmaine and of course their VERY adorable daughter Gracie. Oh but she is the cutest little toddler ever.


_________ Beautiful Morning Tea For Donna's Birthday _________

It was my beautiful friend Donna's birthday a couple of weeks ago and as luck would have it the 13th was also a Tuesday so of course we planned something special. There is a cute little cupcake shop that has the most divine treats so we headed there for the day. With Rebecca away on their big family holiday to Perth it was just the 3 of us this time but how lovely it was to play ladies for the day together.

We will definitely head back there for some more of these yummies like the ones here ( had my very first red velvet cupcake too!)... I can't wait to take Emmy for a bit of a mother & daughter morning.