A LONG TIME PAST - quick recap of the last year.... PART 1

Well it has been just over a year since I last posted anything. It has been a busy, eventful year. I have been meaning to restart this for a LONG time. I have been working on creating some collages containing some recaps for the months missed; as usual things are taking longer than expected so I have decided to just get on with it.
So what has happened in the last year? EVERYTHING! We have moved states once, house twice, Wade assisted in the delivery of our baby (in the bathtub), celebrated birthdays, cried over a death (the kids great grandmother), bought a new vehicle and had family visits. Yeppers, it's been busy.

                              

We first to moved to Musswellbrook, NSW http://www.visitnsw.com/destinations/hunter/upper-hunter/muswellbrook where we stayed at a 'transition house' provided by the company. We remained there until we were able to find a place of our own. We ended up finding the perfect place in Maitland area (a little over an hour from Musswellbrook.)

During our move the announcement that the long awaited birth of Jay and Carrie's twins was sent to us. It was an exciting and joyous event! (Though we felt a twinge of sadness that we were missing meeting them.)

 Soon after our move, we made ourselves busy... getting back into a routine for schooling, then getting out about meeting people and getting involved in various community and homeschool activities such as archery, play groups and Scouts.

In September the big boys attended their first Australian camp through Scouts. It was a medieval theme so there were lots of activities involving castles, metal work and olden games like the ball and cone, trying to spin an top with a string etc. They also got a chance to storm a castle using water balloons and a catapult! They had a wonderful time and have attended a few other camps since, but none of the others have quite topped this one!

In October we welcomed our second girl and last baby. We decided to have an unassisted birth in the comfort of our home. It was a wonderful, peaceful and quick experience; so wonderful that it actually makes me sad to think I'll never to get have it again.

To few a slideshow of Lilliah's birthday (clean pics - no worries!) use the link below:
http://vimeo.com/53203325

The slideshow is beautiful! The photographs and compilation was created by a local photographer (Zoe Ambler from http://sunny16.com.au) we hired to capture our first home birth and the welcoming of our last baby. Watch it! I'm sure you'll cry like we do when we watch it. She did an amazing job! Simply outstanding!

 Unfortunately, that is all I have right now. The baby is crying, brekky is over and I need to do a quick clean-up before we start school and such. I will try to finish off the rest of those photos by the end of this week so we can be on track to share the next two years of our time here in Australia.