A Busy Week of Ups and Downs

Last week was a pretty hectic one around here. We had a beautiful mini holiday with my family, which we do annually. We hire a house with 4 bedrooms and each little family bunks in together for the long weekend. It's always so fun, and we feel so lucky to still have family holidays, even though we all have families of our own.

January 2014 - Four Things I Love Right Now

Well, hello strangers!  I am so glad to be back!  Other than a few requested recipes and organising projects here and there, I have taken a rather long blogging break, while I settled into my new life as a mummy.  I can't thank you enough for all of your support during this time, and in the meantime, I have loved the interactions I have been able to have with many of you over on my Facebook page.

I must admit I was a bit sad to see the end of 2013.  It was honestly one of the best years of my life.  But, here we are in 2014, so if it is even half as great as last year was, it is going to be just wonderful!

Let's kick off the new year with four things about me right now... (I know its February - this post has been a long time coming!)

I just love being a mummy
I guess its no surprise to anyone, but I fell in love with being a mummy from the moment my darling daughter was born.  I just love everything about it.  Yes, we have had our ups and our downs, but not one day has passed that I haven't thanked the universe for giving me the gift of motherhood.  It was something that I had dreamed about for many years, and I often wondered if it would be all that I had hoped for.  Now I can safely say that it exceeded all expectations that I ever had!  I have been so fortunate to have been given the most wonderful little 'textbook' baby.  She is just a delight and we often look at each other and wonder how we managed to get such a happy, content little girl in our lives.  We are so, so lucky!    

And yes, I am a lot better at putting on cloth nappies now that I have had a bit of practice!

A New Look & A Weekend Update

I guess you have noticed that things are looking a little different around here!  I am so excited with my new blog template, made by the very lovely Sharnee at Suck My Lolly Blogger Templates.  I love everything about it - the pink and brown (my two favourite colours), the layout, the fonts, but most of all I LOVE the little bows!  Aren't they just adorable?!

I went with one of Sharnee's Premium Templates - Pinkaholic.  She was kind enough to customise it for me, making a few slight changes that I requested for a small additional fee, and I am so happy with it!  And I have to say that she is just the sweetest lady to deal with - loved her customer service :)

Other than a new look for the blog, this weekend was heaps of fun around here...

We celebrated my niece's 2nd birthday on Saturday.  How cute are these cakes that my sister bought from Woolworths?  They were so yummy too!

Cleaning Up After the Storm

We were very lucky during the recent bad weather, to have not really been affected.  We are so grateful, it was just heartbreaking to see so many people lose their homes and prized possessions in the floods - I can't even imagine how devastating that would be.

For us, we had lots of rain and wind, but no threat of flooding, and luckily, we kept power for most of the time too.  

When we first moved into our house over 8 years ago, we cut down any tall trees around the house.  However, we still have plenty of huge gum trees scattered around the yard, which regularly drop branches during storms.  But this time, it wasn't a branch that fell, it was a massive tree!  

Wet Weather!

After such a hot, dry summer I guess we all knew that there was going to be some pretty wet weather just around the corner...  This wild weather in the south east of Queensland sure has come as a surprise though!

When we woke up to miserable weather yesterday morning, Mick went out to check and clear all of the gutters, as there was lots of rain predicted for our lovely long weekend for Australia Day.  After raining all day yesterday and last night, and then absolutely pouring for most of today, I thought I would share some snippets of how much water has actually fallen here...

This is our dam in the front yard.  The rock wall that you can see just above the water level is at least 1 metre high usually.  Yesterday our dam was at its lowest point since we have lived here for the past 8 years.  The waterline was well-below the footings for the rock wall.  Today you can see that it might not be long before the water actually breaks the bank!

A Little Update - August 2012

My life of late...

A beach walk.

A boat ride.