Christmas Day was full on – Em, Ickle and I spent the morning together opening our presents and headed o the airport to pick up Ickle’s special Christmas Day guests. We spent lunch at the Botanical Gardens under a big shady tree with a yummy picnic – there was a few Rainbow Lorikeets throwing bits of seed at us which I think made an interesting impression on our international guest

After heading back to the airport mid afternoon we took a very tired Ickle home to have a nap before heading to see the rellies. By now my cold was starting to get the better of me and I jumped in to bed for a nap while Em tried to calm a very tired Ickle. Some time later, I became aware of Ickle crying and started to wake up when the door came flying open with Em yelling that Ickle wasn’t breathing; I don’t believe I’ve ever moved so fast. I flew out of bed and to the other side of the room and grabbed a blue Ickle from Em’s arms. By the time I had her in the right position and was automatically checking for obstructions she was breathing again. Em and I both have first aid certificates and knew exactly what to do, you just don’t expect to ever have to use your skills on your own child. As there was no obstruction we knew Ickle’s body should shut down and automatically start to breathe again while she was unconscious though thankfully that didn’t need to happen. Em and I started at each other holding Ickle, me wanting to be sick and her looking frazzled from holding a screaming bubs for over an hour and then watching her start choking.

Ickle was pretty much exhausted after that and went to bed to sleep for the rest of the afternoon. We didn’t stop worrying until after she woke up for a milk drink after dinner and was her happy self again. We spent the rest of the night with Em’s relatives and Ickle opened about a million more presents and gave kisses to all the rellies before we headed home late and all went to bed.

Next year we’re spending Christmas in Sydney with my family, hopefully our only story will be too much pudding

This year has been action packed for our family, starting with telling both set of parents about their en route grandbaby, growing that grandbaby and bring her safely in to the world where all hell broke lose.

2007 started with Em turning the ripe age of 28 just days after the year began, we celebrated with friends and turned in before midnight like the good grrls we are. Em continues to be very happily employed and working with a great group of people. During 2007 she received numerous certifications and management training opportunities and continues to skip on her path up along the yellow brick road.

Em was also elated when her pet project “RidingSA” was launched in July and is now a major social hub for motorbike riders in South Australia. Em has been lucky enough to connect with some great new friends through the site and events it holds and plans to use the site to raise funds and awareness for some of our treasured charities here in South Australia.

Renee has issues writing in third person narrative about herself. After losing much of her intelligence following the birth of Dakota, Renee spends her days pouring over cookbooks searching for delicious and nutritious foods to feed her family. Unfortunately this does not translate to a well fed family however Renee makes up for this will baked goods for all occasions and feels she has mastered the art of pancakes for Sunday breakfast.

To counteract the proven intelligence decline, Renee has been overjoyed to discover she now has different visual art abilities and has been using them to create some great looking websites and take some photos of Dakota. Or maybe her personal expectations are slipping. Work for Renee has been steady and enjoyable with many projects coming her way; she hopes in the new year to take on more challenging projects as well as learning different skills for her profession.

2007 saw the arrival of Renee and Em’s daughter, Dakota. Dakota arrived protesting after being forcefully evicted when she decided she did not want to relinquish her squatters rights. Subsequently, Dakota screamed for two months after her eviction, shouting long and hard about the violation of her rights, only to be restrained and pacified by giants who did not seem to speak her language. This made her very tired and she slept a lot to regain her energy. A tactic of dark time waking was quickly abandoned once Dakota realised she was only receiving shrinking rations at this time and she found it in her heart to allow the waking hours between 6pm and 6am to be stolen from her, which made the giants very happy.

Dakota’s current interest is feet, and anything else within grabbing distance, even if it is not within grabbing distance if it is accessible within a lunge/roll/cry then it should be chewed on fervently. She is fascinated by print on fabric and especially loves to try to take the cookies from Renee’s Cooking Monster PJs and remove logos from Em’s t-shirts.

For us, this year has been a lot about change and growth. We welcomed a new member to our family, said goodbye to an existing one and learnt a lot along the way. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our friends and family for their support this, and every year, you all mean so much to us.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year and a safe ans successful 2008!

We’re sick.. the kind of sick where you don’t want to get out of bed. Ickle has been sleeping most of the day which has let Em and I do lots of napping. Updates to come

A quick post to send everyone a Merry Christmas!

Please enjoy the finalists for our Christmas card this year.

We had guests!

Our friends’ daughter gave Ickle some toys and bibs and we ate pancakes

Tomorrow Santa Claus is on his way so it’s the last day of Christmas. To celebrate, today Ickle opened a small safari lion – again great for chewing on! She’s had a few dodgy days and has been indulging in the two ses, sleeping and screaming so she opened it and went to bed early.

Em got me a card reader for my computer, something I was really needing about a weeks ago so I can see it coming in handy. And Ems present today was a battery charger for one of our Wiimotes so no more blaming poor performance on the battery

I think I’ll head to bed early tonight as tomorrow is a big day!

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!

My true love gave to me..

A Jamie Oliver Flavour Shaker – I think it confirms I should cook more again

Em was happy to open the first 3 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy soundtracks.

And Ickle opened a special present from Nanna Kez – a bouncing Tigger! She watched it warily for a while then tried to pin him down while he jumped.

We also booked our holiday today – 6 weeks around the world – Singapore – Athens – Frankfurt – Toronto – Edmonton – Vancouver – Auckland and then home. I think after that trip we’ll need a holiday!

I’ve Scene It!

I should expand that shouldn’t I? Em got me Scene It! for the xbox 360, we played it tonight and I’m declaring myself House Champion (10 points for Gryffindor!)

Em got a few more DVDs, The Gods Must Be Crazy and Footrot Flats.

Ickle hasn’t had a chance to open one of her official 12 days presents today, we spent the morning with friends for breakfast and she kept her Aunty Mish company for lunch while I went to my work Christmas lunch. She happily opened a present from Sheila, Arthur and Siobhan, it was a puppy, she loves it and it playing with it now

Only 4 more sleeps until Santa comes! (Well, a few more for Ickle)

Hooray for the 8th day, we’re getting closer to when Santa Claus comes!

Today’s present was extra special for Ickle, it came from her Uncle Weigen, Aunty Juls, and her cousins Nina and Sam. It was very exciting and she opened it up in a cafe which added to special 8th day present. Ickle loved the robot she was given and secretly, Mum and Mia thought it was very cool and momentarily forgot it was Ickle’s present

I gave Em a present that I still laugh over, it’s a “Mr Perfect” tshirt.. I really appreciate the irony.

And I got a massive wooden chopping board, I think it’s a hint from Em to cook more – woo hoo!

I know, I’m getting a bit lax with the updating

Today has got to be my favourite present for Cody – she got 3 magnetic bears that attach to each other, they are very cool and apparently taste great.

Em got some socks and jocks again and what did I get? Oh yeah, gold class cinema tickets, two! I’m not sure who I’ll take, maybe I’ll just go twice

Firstly, a great big Happy Birthday to Unky Baa and Uncle Superman!

Today was the two in one day for Ickle, who didn’t seem to notice which isn’t suprising, I can show her magic tricks and she’s not impressed at all, what a hard audience! Tonight before we headed out to see Unky Baa for his birthday dinner Ickle unwrapped some magnetic friends! They are three odd shaped teddy bears with magnetic hands and feet so they connect to each other. A brief lecture on poles and magnetic attraction fell on deaf ears however the teddy bears tasted good according to Ickle.

Em was the very happy recipiet of Sweet and The Empress of the World (which I hear we already need the sequel to!) and I got.. socks and a big ball from Wahu with the promise we’ll take Ickle to the beach when she’s a bit bigger.

Now if I could only remember what Em got for the 5th day!