ENJOYING THE SUNSHINE

A beautiful sunny day at 'The Bay' (Port Stephens) ... it really felt like Christmas Holidays!!



Yesterday, with a few friends, we took the 4WD's onto Birubi Beach for the day.

The men done some fishing ...







the kids swam, dug holes & made sandcastles ...







the girls (that being the wives/mums) got to chatter & relax ... perfect!

Took lots of great photos ... should make for a good excuse to do some scrapping over the next few days before i go back to work!!

Hope everyone has recovered from Christmas!

JULIE x

BOXING DAY BIRTHDAY

Today is my niece Jessica's Birthday ... a big 10 year old!





It only seems like yesterday that we had celebrated Christmas Day and were all staying at mum's when all the excitement began in the wee hours of Boxing Day ... a bit of a suprise cause she came 2 weeks early ... i think it was the craving of milk & choc chip cookies which Karen feasted on at some ungodly hour of the night that done the trick !! (which i happen to have a photo of ... he he!)

Anyway, it's a bit tuff celebrating your Birthday on Boxing Day 'cause everyone is exhausted from all the preparations & celebrations of Christmas Day but our family always makes an effort to keep them very seperate so it feels just as special as a birthday on any other day of the year ....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS JESSICA !!!

ALL OVER FOR ANOTHER YEAR!

There's nothing like the excitement of Christmas (or the madness leading up to it!!).

Blake initially woke at 3am (yes, that is not a typo), came into our room and announced that Santa had been .... i do love the excitement of kids at Christmas but 3am is just a little bit early! I told him to hop into our bed and go back to sleep just for a few more hours .... after the usual "i can't go back to sleep" and the tossing and turning, he did go back to sleep until 5am!!!!

So up we got ....




Santa excelled again this year and the wish list was fulfilled!

We had a great day ... love doing the family thing ... ate way too much food ... and crawled into bed exhausted at about 9.30am last night.

Mark was rostered for daywork today and Blake & I had one of those much needed "chill out" days ... this morning we had birthday cake for breakfast with my niece and then spent the rest of the day at home ... needless to say Blake was totally occupied with all the new toys etc which means i had the plesure of laying on the lounge to watch a dvd (chrissy present) and didn't do much else! Love it!!

Hope Santa was good to you all and Boxing Day was relaxing.

Now to the next celebration of farwelling 2007 and welcoming a happy & healthy 2008!

JULIE x

t'was the week before Christmas ....

I am soooo disorganised this Christmas!
Really looking forward to Xmas Day ('cause i love Chrissy and all) but i just can't get motivated.
It may have a little bit to do with our rediculously busy social calendar (not complaining ... but just a little too chaotic at the moment)!

2 Weekends ago we had 4 Christmas Parties and 1 Birthday Party, last weekend was finishing off the Christmas shopping ... Sunday night we finally put up the Christmas tree (which still doesn't have any decorations on it - certainly hope to have that task accomplished by Christmas Eve!!); in between all of that we have had school Christmas Concert and farewell for our principal. Yesterday i had a Hearing at Newcastle for work, back to the office then back to Newcastle in the afternoon, Yr 6 farewell in the afternoon/evening and DH had his work party .... 3 Christmas social gatherings this weekend ... did i mention that i've been feeling a little tired lately?? But it is all good - i do love Christmas, i do love Christmas, i do love Christmas ...... !!

In all this busyness, i have had no time for scrapbooking :O( but do have a few pics from Blake's Christmas (School) Concert to share (it was a bit dark in the auditorium which made it a bit tricky!).

This group photo is Blake and the main group of his best mates. To the left is our retiring principal (who is a lovely man and will be sadly missed) ... to the right is Blake's teacher from this year - Mrs Mac (as the kids affectionately call her) came to our school this year but is moving on to a new school next year ... Blake has had a fabulous year with this great lady and i think i speak for most parents when i say we were blessed to have the year with her - Blake was quite upset this afternoon and has been for the past few weeks dwelling on the fact that it just won't be the same without Mrs Mac as school next year (even though she probably wouldn't have been his teacher anyway).




Cheeky buggers!




This photo is a little blurry but it says a lot about a principal happy to sit on the stage after the concert and have a chat with the boys.




I'm frazzled and off to bed .... hopefully will be back in the next day or so to share a pic of our decorated Christmas Tree !!

Cheers,
JULIE x

AWESOME !!

It is 1.30am and i have just returned home from a night in the vineyards at the Elton John Concert ... totally awesome!! (My sister and i took Mum as a suprise early Christmas present)!



A thousand+ crowd totally entertained by one man & his piano ... he was brilliant ... pure talent!

Off to bed now for some beauty sleep ... :O)