Annual thang... maybe??

Oh boy.. I always have so much to write and update on, times slips away though. So much is always happening that I kinda forget to document it all.

My babies are turning four next week..yikes.. yep four! and boy am i happy to call these two OURS.

Millie - The chatterbox. No matter whether she is talking to someone or herself this girls doesn't stop! Never a dull quiet moment in this house. Still loves dressing up although now it isn't every..day wear. Holla! Loves writing shopping lists  amd drawing pictures. This girl still amazes me at the things she knows and understands.
Poppy - Ever the dream child. So loving, kind, patient and emotional. Millie is so lucky to have a sister that gives into her every want. Poppy loves animals and babies. She loves watching movies, if she could watch one every minute of the day this would be totes alright with her! Although we have limitations to a show of an afternoon. Loves riding her pony and would do so everyday if would saddle her pony up.

Millie and Poppy are turning four on Tuesday so we are having a birthday party for them at home this saturday. Today was rhe day that we done lolly bags, wrapped pass-the-parcel and planned the big day. Pulling out the jumping castle is top of the agenda.

Girls have been riding their ponies quite a bit. Both girls are now trotting in the houseyard on their own.. Although the horse needs a little *mum* encouragement to get into a trot.

Very happy to say that the vege garden is thriving. Albeit the horses did get into the yard in the middle of the night, must have been too dark to find the produce. When MM told me he had found them in the yard I walked straight out the back to see the damage.. glad to say all plants intact! We grown fantastic lettuce, of all varieties.. although not so good with strawberries. Just can't get those babies to thrive. We have got lettuce (3 x varieties), capsicum (which is delish), snowpeas, celery, chives, tomatoes, spinach just to name a few. All going superb and helping to produce some gourmet meals.

The girls have started Preschool School of the Air.. (homeschooling for bush kids). They both love the work and look forward to each day. They are doing so well. Hopefully I'm doing ok as a teacher, sometimes its a struggle to swap roles from mother/teacher. But were getting through it.

Exciting news is that we put a pool in during summer. Living by the river has always scared me and even gave me nightmares BEFORE i had the girls. Now knowing that they are improving everyday that they are in that thing is truly a blessing that we could get one. Still a long way from be 'swimmers' the girls are improving none-the-less and are getting more water wise.. maybe that me in their ear everyday about water safety.

The country out this way is very dry. It has been about 10 months since we have had a decent rain. There have been a few showers here and there they all seemed to miss us. During summer MM was busy chasing waters every day as we are not only keeping up with our sheep and the agistment cattle , we are also watering a few thousand goats at any one time. Pressure was on throughout summer, we are slowly easing into winter and with another quite a few loads of goats carted off we are hoping for some rain to see us through winter and ease water problems.

Til next time,
Rebxx

No excuses..

Yep.. I have no excuses. It has been awhile and whilst I still enjoy reading some of my favourite blogs I haven't wrote one myself for awhile.

So I'll have a catch up with the girls. They are 3! Yes THREE. We made it to three years!, two and a half years ago I didn't think that was going to happen.

Millie: This little girl is just so smart. She astounds me with the things/subjects she talks about.. and she talks ALOT! She goes through stages of her favourite toys, sheepy was a favourite for quite awhile, then the girls were given toy chipmunks each. So Jeanette got lugged around every.where. She has also loved her little purple horse and is just getting into ponies and barbie dolls.. arrgh , how many shoes does a barbie need?? Millie loves dressing up, she wears her pink fairy dress that my sister bought her about 12 months ago everyday day over whatever she already has on and of course accessorised with a necklace. The only time I can wash these is when she is napping, thank god they dry quick!

Poppy: Has just got the bug for dressing up girly too. I think this happened when we went to a friends 4th prince and princess dressup birthday party. Although Poppy accessorises with a tiara and gloves. Cute. Just impractical at times. Poppy just loves babies and animals, she could spend all day with the horses.
Yep. Horses. We got two ponies about a year ago, Coco and Milo. They are adorable and the girls love them. The girls have ridden to Pony Club and had a great day, well half day. They were so exhausted, I think from the anticpation that we left after lunch and they were asleep in their car seats before we had even left the PC grounds. We don't get to take them riding often, summer time we do more so. Whenever the ponies are hanging around the house we'll take them for a ride. At the moment the girls are looking forward to riding on the Show, only two weeks away. I'll try and remeber to post pics. We have got their little outfits all sorted and they are going in the fancy dress section and look adorable.
I also bought myself an Australia Stock Horse. Elle. and what a perfect match up we are. I took her to our first outing a few weeks ago and did soo well. I wasn't even expecting to be called in. But ened up coming home with a Reserve Champion Senior Rider, 4 first places and 4 seconds! Stoked;) Looking forward to going for long rides with the girls when they can ride on their own.
Station is going great. We had to move because of the floods.. again! But heh you should see the clover along the floodout river country, superb. I quite like moving out the back of the station, no power (generator power only) so its back to the kettle on the stove..I'd hate to keep track of the toast I burnt though, so many times I'd sit it under the grill and what for it to pop.. definately missed the toaster. We got the grass going out there again although it was much easier then the year before, just need water this time. So the girls had a swing set out there that passed the time. Being further from town I didn't get to take the girls in for as many playdates as usual, but it was great family bonding time as we seen much more of MM.
We have just finished shearing. This year was a milestone, the girls and I helped out alot more. We got the shed and quarters cleaned and ready for the shearing team. Helped with some of the mustering and even ran things at the shed for a couple of days whilst Craig was still bringing more sheep in. The girls were fantastic, whilst I was backlining and drafting they quite happily played around the shed/yards playing in the dirt. They love pushing sheep through the yards, they clap there hands whilst saying 'push up, push up'.. I'm sure they can't wait til their a foot taller though and don't have to cop so much dust.
MM has got some amazing number of goats of the land since we have moved back.. (we couldn't cart goats during the floods as trucks couldn't get in/out of the property due to creeks).. MM hired a plane and had himself and four other on the ground and cleaned them up. That was a few months ago, and I think he is planning another clean up again soon.
Last christmas we stayed home, the girls were spoilt by Santa. They got so much. But I'm sure the best present they got was their trampoline, and hasn't that got some mileage so far.. At least once a day the girls are jumping, hoping, dancing and chasing each other on it.. its huge.


I'll leave you with a few snaps of the last year.



Rebx


Poppy on Milo

Girls going to playgroup

Loving on their ponies

Lambs during lmabmarking

Yummo cheescake that girls love... oh and the mumma too

Their first sewing lesson

Millie taking her dolls for a walk

Getting smokos ready for shearing

Pizza night

Shearing

Girls first sewing creations

Millie & Poppy with Elle, Coco, Milo and Isa the cat

Girls at the pool, during swimming lessons

The creek just started to flood

Cousins in the back seat during the girls and I trip to Toowoomba to visit family

Off to the races

First day at Pony Club

Poppy writing her own name

Millie can too

Normal everydaywear.. and thats Jeanette

Lambmarking (sorry I can't rotate..)

OK so that was alot of photos... but we have had a great yearx

hhhmmm so its only been 8 months since my last post.. must. try. harder

So whats happened since August??? Well we have done sooo much!

We have played with play-doh

We have played shop keepers

Early September was shearing and that just flew straight by me. The dad was off before daylight and home at dark. The girls and I kept busy, painting, dressups, colouring in. But we needed a change so during the week a couple of times we took the journey to the shearing shed and listened to the buzz of the handpieces and watched the shearers do what they do best.

Millie with her new friend

Girls playing with the lamb

Hubby and I

We also had a family wedding back in my hometown of Cobar, great catching up with everyone. Now that my family is all so far apart I really look forward to weddings and Christmas catch ups. Seeing how much my nieces and nephews grow up each time I see the astounds me.

The colour workshop - great ladies day

Later in September I held a workshop at home and had ladies from around the district pop in for the day. The Dept. of Industry and Investment along with Centacare organised some Professional Colour Experts to come and teach us what colours worked for each person. Really it was just a fun catch up day with some excellent company.

One of the two kittens with Poppy

October we welcomed two new family members... no not twins!! Two kittens. They are joining the mice killing ranks with our older cat Diaz. They are such delightful little kritters, the girls are forever picking them up and putting them down the slippery dip and yet they don't seem to mind. We love these two.

November seen us splashing some paint throughout the house, and I'm happy to report that the whole, yes whole of the house is the one colour! YAY, such a big house.. when we first moved in we stripped wall paper, patched up holes, ripped up 50+yr old carpet, installed a new kitchen and yes a dishwasher, double YAY! So now that the rest of the house is painted we now have to install the laundry and down the track its only the two bathrooms that could do with some work. But hey, we're getting there!

Millie

Poppy

Wiggles concert - Adelaide

Girls first trip to the beach in Adelaide

Late November we took a couple of weeks to have a little family holiday. This saw us catching up with friends in Adelaide and we all stayed at a resort by the beach which also had a great pool and play area... the girls loved it! We timed it also so we could take the cherubs to the Wiggles concert. They rocked it! Although my princess' both had a short nap each during the show, but I was sort of expecting that.

Stansbury Park - One of the stop off for Fish n' Chips whilst at Balgowan

After Adel we went and seen hubbys grandparents for a few nights so they could see the girls. Following on from that we went for a few nights at a small coastal town in SA, called Balgowan with mates. What a gorgeous little place that is! Plenty of beach space for the tots to build castles and the dads to fish. Oh and they also had a great little park. There were so many little towns close to Balgowan, and I think we popped into all of them, play here, fish and chips there and so on.. After our last stop over at another friends station we were on our way home from a really terrific get away... and just what hubby needed I think!

December...oooh what a month! With all the rain up North we knew that the river was going to rise and had the potential to flood in some areas over the Christmas break. So after talks with the local Water authority we packed up our essentials and move to another house on the station, Bono Tanks. This was very tedious, we packed the horse float with all the kids essentials, cots, toys, high chairs, clothing.. along with loading a trailer up with all shed tools and equip. The truck and other work utes had to be moved also. As well as 5 dogs, 2 kittens (yes Diaz stayed at home and is defending for herself) and 5 chooks! Oh and so much more that I can't even remember. So anyhew that was all relocated and we went to Cobar for the Christmas break. When we got back to Bono and the water was still low enough to access our main house. We contacted the Water Authority and were advised that they thought that it would remain just a high river... so yep everything was moved back to the main house. What we didn't plan on was the six inches that fell over 3 days in that first week of January that topped up the Creek and cut off access (2 foot over our access bridge). Luckily hubby was on the ball and as soon as it started spitting we got all the vehicles on the other side on the Creek 'just incase' and thank god he did. So we had to get all our essentials back to the other side of the Creek all via a little tinny. And here we are today, 4.5 months later living in a little house, very modest, the old kettle has been pulled out and gets a workout daily. The loungeroom also boast that it's also the office, sewing room, play room and storage area! We are all sharing a bedroom, and surprisingly the girls are handling it quite well, although they do have days that you have to constantly walk in and tell them to be quiet whilst their jumping, singing, dancing and giggling at each other when its nap time..

February, March and April have all been relatively quiet, with only a few trips into Broken Hill to take the girls to Cubbyhouse, Kindergym etc. A trip in for St Pat's Races and a girls trip in to see Dorothy the Dinosaur!

The girls and I heading into Dorothy the Dinosaur (the sewing machine has been ticking away on a few cute outfits)

I have also been busily sewing for my two babes and nieces and nephews. I will post some pics next blog.

The girls have been fantastic, they can talk so clearly, although they've always been good talkers. But now we can have conversations. They are like little sponges, soaking up every little bit of info. Like out of the blue the other day whilst out driving around the station, Millie seen a roo and promptly said 'oh, no baby in pouch'! Hubby and I were a little dumbfounded. These two are always surprising us. Poppy has Beiber fever, she walks around the house singing 'baby, baby, baby ohh' repetitively. Another favourite at the moment is Baa Baa Black Sheep. The girls also can count to ten and say the alphabet, they've known these for awhile now. I can't believe in one month my babies will be 2. I'm such a lucky mumma to have two gorgeous girlsxx

Too busy....

It has been awhile, just too busy..

This week we had two days that the power was out and rather than start the generator I thought the girls and I could experience no tv, UHF, radio or phone... quite nice although it would have been good to have the microwave to heat up bottles... the girls get a lil' impatient when it comes to bottle time. We had fun doing some arts and crafts, had picnics, as usual read lots of books and I also cleaned out the girls built-ins.... so many clothes for 2 x one years olds!

We have had a pretty busy couple of weeks, so I though I'd share some snaps.

The girls love to have a play in the dirt while we cut firewood.

Besides getting firewood we have not long finished lamb marking. So off we hiked, packed lunches, packed dune buggys, their tractors and trucks and off to see the lambs.The girls knew with each trip out to the paddock they would get a ride on a bike.

I love that one, with Poppy doing the 'Rock-On' fingers!

Millie climbing the fence... one day she will be a great helper.

Poppy

moving rams..

they also love going and checking how many eggs the chooks have laid.

The station is still looking pretty green, hopefully we can score some more rain in the next few weeks to keep it nice and lush. MM is happy with last weeks muster of goats, so a few days later a b-double came and picked up 1000 to head to Melb, a further 400 to BH and 440 lambs off to Ouyen. Not a bad week.

Yesterday MM and I got stuck into some gardening. We started with the veggie garden and re-planted this seasons vege. I can't wait for the cherry tomatoes, very yummy in the summer. I think I do best at lettuce, you name it whatever type I can grow it! oh and weeds... we also started on the rose garden, aaargh, so much clover. We managed an hour yesterdaY afternoon and another hour today. Hopefully by tommorrow afternoon it should be de-weeded..phew!

Oh, I nearly forgot... I have borrowed a friends horse. Just on loan to see if I can find enough time to ride, sadly it's not working out as I'd hoped. Luckily Walker is a fantastic horse, I think we suit each other, he is older and only wants to be ridden a couples of times a week and thats about all I can give him. The girls love taking him for walks and riding their bikes over to feed him. So I thinks he's more therapuetical than anything for all of us. Whenever I hear the girls 'click clicking' at the window, I know he's outside chewing on the clover.

Til next time,

Rebxx

Just another week....

As promised, my babies first birthday party....

Well we have just got back from our trip to Cobar. The girls travelled really good with a couple of stop offs to eat and have a play...thankgod for playgyms in the middle of nowhere!! We had a great time catching up with family, dinners, card nights and a night out... yep we were both sick afterwards, we are so out of practise.

Back home now and have plenty to do. Catch up on some yardwork. We need to do some painting before we get ready to tile. Then the house will be nearly finished. I'll have to post some photos of the house next blog. Thats after we get our camera fixed also :(

Just before we left for Cobar MM sold some lambs, and he is very happy with the prices. Best he has ever got...maybe time to hit him up for a couple of ponies for the girls hehe. The place is looking pretty good, or so I'm told. The girls and I haven't been out too much lately, luckily we have good weather at the moment so a trip out to the paddock is in order.

A couple of weekends ago MM took the girls and I in town for lunch and a trip to Copi Hollow (lake) the girls loved running around the grass and having a play on the playgym. I can't wait for summer so we can pull the boat out for a ski!

Best get going, one of my girls just woke...

Just a quick catch up....

Just thought I'd write a quick catch up... First of all our babies turned one on the 14th May. I think they had a wonderful day, so many friends came and the kids all played fabuously. The girls received plenty of pressies which they love, plenty of books which is great cause at the moment the girls love grabbing a book and perching up on my lap for storytime. We read at least 20 a day... We also ended up getting the girls a jumping castle as well, they love to have a jump and go down the slide.. will post some pics next blog.
It was great to have the weekend in town for Agfair, got to catch up with so many friends that we don't get to see often. Had an agents bbq, which we could take the kids along too, so that was great, and the kids loved wandering around checking everything out.
We are off to Cobar next week to visit family, a much overdue visit. I can't wait for Grandma and Grandad to see the girls, they will be so suprised at how much they have grown and of course how super talented they are... they know their eyes, mouth, ears, head, hair, toes, fingers, can clap their hands and the cutest thing is when you ask them to go upside down, they put their head on the ground and bums in the air... too cute.
Had a trip into town yesterday (on my own) to get stores, a haircut and do a lil' shopping for the girls and myself... totally forgot about dad who needs new underwear and socks ooops!
Better get going, have lots of washing and tidying up to do before the girls wake from their morning nap.
Will post some happy snaps next time. Til then, Rebxx

Its been awhile...

MM has some family and friends out at the moment and have gone shooting, so what better was to spend my time by blogging...right?

So much to write about the girls, I'll start with Millie. She now has 5 teeth!! and guess what she's walking... well nearly running actually!! Loves playing with her toy horses, and having a dance.

Poppy still only has two bottom teeth, but I'm thinking that there may be another one or two coming through at the moment. Poppy has just started to stand, I don't think she'll quite make walking by their birthday...

Yep, in a fortnight my babies will be 1. The year has flown. We have sent out invites, organised party food (need to get more as MM and I have ate quite alot of it..oops!) and decorations, can't wait til the big day. We've got the girls a playgym to put in the yard, they are also getting a table and chairs setting and a seesaw from family. The girls now love going outside for playtime, and I love getting out of the house.

Recently we spent a fortnight in Broken Hill and worked on our townhouse as well as took the girls to kindergym, cubby and a few times to the park. I think they really enjoyed the socialising. Last week we went to a NSW Farmers meeting on another station 60km from Bono, the girls played with the other children and were fantastic, even though we got home quite late!

Great news is that while we were in BH we seen a paed and we are now on a medicated formula as the girls didn't seem too comfortable on the previous ones.... and guess what they have slept through ever since that first bottle...finally...sleep! I finally feel human again.

Today we went to Kieara (a set of yards and shed) and had lunch with MM. The girls loved having a play and they love checking out the sheep. I'm sure they will be great helpers one day.

The vegie garden is going well. We have two types of lettuce, cucumbers, broccoli, sweetcorn etc. We have to make some room somewhere to plant the pumpkin and potato though.

We're looking forward to heading into BH next weekend for Agfair. I love having a look around the stalls and it's a great spot to catch up with everyone.

Better get to bed, its late.

Night night....