Back in the Blogging World

Every day I intend to resume blogging, but it goes something like this: The children are entertained with their toys. I sit down at the computer. I hear a crash (Liam breaking a vase with a palm frond from the backyard) or a scream (Julia whacking Liam on the head with said palm frond). And I abandon the blogging to settle the chaos.

But today the kids are at school. They have only 4 more weeks to go (too long a commute and too expensive to continue), so I'm indulging in the little luxuries of my remaining 8 (yes, I'm counting) child-free days with blogging and watching movies while I do the ironing (can't indulge completely--there's still housework to be done).

So here's the rapid replay of our last few months:

We had a fabulous trip to the States for Thanksgiving. Lots of family and friends and even some snow! We will definitely make the effort to do it again this year, and hopefully this time can stay for Christmas too.
We left the snow in Mississippi to return for a blazing Christmas in Queensland. I hosted the McCarthy Family Christmas Party at a local park, and all the young ones enjoyed swimming and running around while the adults sought out what little shade we could find. Santa brought trains galore for Liam and a big girl bike AND a scooter for Julia. After opening presents we headed down to Brunswick Heads for our beach Christmas with Matt's immediate family (and their next door neighbors), and the children had day after day of playing on the beach, swimming in the river and riding bikes (Liam hitched a ride with either Matt or me while Julia practiced on her new bike).

Enjoying cupcakes at the family party

As close as we could get to a photo with Santa
(Liam wouldn't even get that close!)

Testing out the new train table

Christmas morning with my darling daughter who insists on wearing her clothes backwards

Matt had to work on my birthday, so after breakfast all together, the children celebrated with me at the Thomas the Train Extravaganza at the Rail Museum in Ipswich. Our friends Deb & Steve came over that night to ring in the New Year, but we were all back in our own beds by 10 or 11 (and up at 5am on New Years Day!).Early morning birthday greetings from the kiddos

The New Year brought a big change for me as I started my own yoga business, Serenity Yoga. No studio of my own yet, but I have nearly 100 clients and teach between 6-10 classes per week out of the local gyms and community centres. All very exciting! Advertising and getting everything up and running continues to consume a lot of my time, but I'm also making a point to work on my own practice in preparation for the next step -- getting certified in Yoga Therapy (to help people with serious injuries and severe illnesses, including mental health problems). I've started working with a Multiple Sclerosis patient, and that work has been so rewarding (and such a learning experience) for us both!January and February also brought household changes and celebrations. We got new carpet, painted walls, rearranged furniture and held a garage sale to start clearing out some of the clutter. Matt & I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary on January 14th and Liam turned 2 on February 18th. I'll do a separate post about Liam's party and my big boy, but the quick recap is that he had a wonderful time --presents at home and a mini party at school on the actual day and a party with family and friends (and a blue truck cake) the following weekend.My mom arrived just before Liam's birthday and almost a whole glorious month with us, playing with the children, going to yoga classes with me, and helping out tremendously around the house! We all had a fabulous weekend down in Kingscliff, NSW at Mantra Salt Beach -- sun, sand and actual relaxation with 3 adults looking after the kids -- such a treat! We were so sorry to send her off to the plane and have spent the past 2 weeks just getting back into our normal schedule.March hasn't been all about getting back to reality though. I enjoyed a blissful 3-day yoga retreat in the hinterland of NSW at Black Sheep Farm with a great group of yogis, deepening our practice with some advanced classes and soaking up the meditative mountain air. I can't say that I've been able to entirely hold that meditative, calm attitude since then, but the break sure helped!The children continue to make me laugh and also throw new challenges my way daily. Julia has been easing away (permanently, I hope) from most of the thrashing 3's behavior we'd been witnessing since December, and she has even become quite the comedian (when she's in the mood). I hear her putting on shows for Liam, complete with different voices to narrate her story lines. Liam continues to enjoy dressing in Julia's princess outfits and having his nails painted, but he is somehow at the same time all boy -- every object can quickly turn into a weapon of mass destruction and trucks and trains are the centre of his universe.

The next few months promise to be equally (if not more) hectic than the last few as we transition the children out of their pre-school and into a few new activities (soccer and dance) and as Matt completes his FINAL (yay!) semester of his Masters of Commerce degree. I take the Australian Citizenship Test on April 9th (wish me luck!) and will hopefully be invited to the Citizenship Ceremony within a few months after that. Once the test has passed, we will turn our attention to Matt's American green card and our eventual move (most likely January 2012) to the States (still not sure which one yet, but Colorado's top of the list for now).

I'd like to promise that I'll be better about blogging, but we all know how life is....

Who needs a footrest when you've got kids?!

A new favorite hiding spot

Ring around the rosy....

...they all fall down.


More fun times at the family Christmas party:

Liam loved his new wheels:

But the kids quickly found a new way to travel:

Loving the binoculars from Aunt Connie

Check out that concentration....
Liam was determined to find every last goody hiding in the stocking

Attempting a Raulston family photo
(notice Julia peeking out from behind the chairs and Liam's fake "smile")

Exciting stocking stuffers

Goggles!!
(Julia is quite the fish these days and can now swim on her own!)

Gassing up the new bike

Our new sand pit (minus the sand) from Gran & Pop

Brothers in pseudo-serious conversation

Liam weighing in on the big boys' conversation
(check out the picture above and compare father and son's stance)

The long, bouncy couches at Brunswick...hours of entertainment!

Trying on her snazzy new clothes

Trains, trains & more trains at the Thomas extravaganza:

Lifesize Thomas the Tank Engine

Riding the real train

Making an announcement to the passengers on the platform


This is how Aussies do Christmas dinner:

Prawns, oysters, lots of salads and fresh white bread and butter
(plus a ham just for good measure)

Just making sure he'll fit on the plane

1st Day of School

Julia and Liam had their first day of school last week. Apparently we are as (un)talented at taking first-day-of-school photos as we are at taking family Christmas shots. 15 pictures later, this was the best I could do....
Despite the lack of cooperation for the photo shoot, both children were thrilled to have their first day back (Julia had only been away for 2 weeks, but Liam was really starting fresh for the first time -- out of the baby room and into the 2-yr-old preschool room). I was very nervous about leaving him. He has been firmly attached to me for the past few months, and I wasn't sure how he'd fare. Within minutes of entering his classroom, however, he had forgotten all about me, and when I picked him up he was so busy playing with a classmate that he barely noticed I'd arrived. Julia was a bit disappointed that her closest school friend, Sara, would not be in her class this year, but she still had a great day. When I got to Julia's room to pick her up she told me I'd come "too early, Mama!"

It started raining when we got home that afternoon, and Julia was thrilled at the (rare) chance to don her raincoat and boots and stomp around in the rain. Liam looked forlornly at Julia's outfit (he's outgrown his coat and boots), so I loaned him my rain jacket....

As you can see, he was very excited!

Julia just looked him up and down and said,
"Um, Mama, you really need to go to the store and get him a new raincoat."
(So much for my improvisation)

My little hobbit

Happy New Year

Dancin' our way into 2010!

Halloween

Halloween is kind of a non-event around here. A lot of kids are getting more interested in the holiday (probably because of all the American shows on TV), but nobody really decorates their houses and the grocery store is the only place to get a carving pumpkin ($20 for a very small one that rotted in 2 days!). Matt likes to tell the story of how his brother Josh went trick-or-treating once when they were younger and came back with fruit, canned goods & even a pair of shoes.Not only do people not decorate though, but many houses don't even allow trick-or-treaters to knock on their doors! Ours was one of about 4 houses on our whole street that didn't have a big sign on the door, saying, "NO TRICK-OR-TREATING! DO NOT KNOCK!" Instead, we (Liam & I) dressed up as Americans ;-) and answered the door with a big bowl of candy bars (which Liam then attempted to drop into each person's bag), wishing everyone a Happy Halloween.Matt was off studying that night (yes, on a Saturday...we're both so ready for exams to be over!) and Julia was at Gran & Pop's (Matt's parents) house for the weekend, so earlier in the week we did a mini Halloween trick-or-treat through our house. Julia's friend Caydence was over here, and the girls picked out their favorite princess/ballerina outfits. Liam was not game to dress-up (can't blame him when most of his options are either covered in feathers or bright pink or both), but he did let the girls put a big hat on his head. I'd made simple little Halloween bags (about the limit of my craftiness and creativity), and I'd hidden little treats behind each of the closed doors in our house. They all thought it was great fun, and as much as I always loved Halloween, our version was probably much more appropriate for 2 pre-schoolers and a toddler (and far easier to control the sugar intake as every other door had something non-edible like bubbles or stickers).

Watergun Take Down

*Note: Julia was not injured and the rest of the video (too long to post) is of her laughing hysterically for about 45 seconds and then getting up to do it all over again (and again and again).