Wednesday, June 11, 2008

To bring you all up to speed.

Hi all,

I have not forgotten you, however I have become hooked on playing with facebook. Feel free to track me down on it and nominate me as a friend if you haven't already done so. A fair bit has happened since my last update. The main highlight being Sabrina turned 1!!!! Yeah we made it!!!! Here are some pics of the said birthday girl. I must confess that this year has gone very quickly. She is now the proud owner of 4 teeth. Two of the top ones finally came through the other week. We are still working on the other 4. She is into everything, loves reading and playing with her books, phone and putting things into other things.

My One year old.






Maddie is doing really well at school and is enjoying it immensely. She is currently up to home reader level full pink and is on list 40 with her sight words. She is constantly striving to get to that next level. This is a good thing now but I am alittle worried if she doesn't grow out of this obsession as it could come back to haunt us later in her schooling. Here is a picture of her in her winter school uniform.



Nathan update... same as always. Work, Work, Work.

My update... I am currently in the middle of the Annette theatre, weekend away and live show season. A few Friday's ago a group of us went to see Mums the Word 2: the teenagers. (Even though I don't have teenagers yet) it was very funny. We all had a great night. On last Saturday night I finished Christmas. Nath got us tickets to see Phantom of the Opera at the Lyric Theatre. This is a show that I have wanted to see for many, many years. (since it was last in Sydney) I had a truly wonderful time. It was all that I had expected and then some. Alittle dark in parts but that is what the story is. Nath wasn't that into it. We managed to get a really good deal at the hotel Menzies in town for the night which turned it into a great weekend. Next weekend a group of us are going away for the weekend, a MeTime Ladies Retreat. Should be really good, am looking forward to it.
Hope this blog finds you all well and safe. Catch up with you really soon.
Love
Annette


Wednesday, March 26, 2008

My Easter Bunnies

Hi all,

Hope you all had a great Easter and enjoyed spending time with family and friends. Here are a couple of pictures that I took of the girls on Easter morning. The Easter Bunny delivered bunny ears and toy rabbits to our house as you will see.





We celebrated the Easter Sunday with Mum, Dad, Louise and Michael having a BBQ in the back yard. It was a very enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon. After lunch Nathan swapped the swing set combinations around so that Sabi could also enjoy a swing. As you can see she does enjoy it.





On Easter Monday we packed ourselves off and headed over to Jill and Bruce's for a Webber roast and catch up with Terry and Lyn, Steven and Deepa and their little one Amy, Andrew and Karissa and of course the hosts. It was great to catch up with them all again.

Quick update... Nathan is still super busy at work. Maddie is now up to List 18 in her sight words and is loving school and is getting over her cold. Sabrina now has 2 teeth (if you look carefully on the first picture of Sabi on the swing you can actually see them), is crawling lots, starting to pull things off the furniture and is coming down with a cold. (oh how I love it when they get sick... NOT!!!!) and I am surviving and haven't got the cold yet, touch wood.

Catch up with you again soon.

Love
Annette

Monday, March 3, 2008

Jill and Bruce's 60th Birthday Party

On Friday night we held Jill and Bruce's 60th Birthday Party under our outside entertaining area. It was a really good evening. There was Jill, Bruce, David, Janette, Kathryn, Danielle, Pam, Zoe, Hayley, Andrew, Karissa, Marjie (Karissa's mum), Nathan, Maddie, Sabrina (in spirit as she was already in bed) and myself. Fortunately the weather was relatively kind to us and whilst jackets were required it was not too blowy, cold or wet.

Andrew did a Weber of roast meats whilst Nathan cooked up the baked veg in the oven and on our bbq. We had birthday cake and cheesecakes for dessert.

Here is a pic of the birthday cake that I made for the birthday boy and girl.



And a couple of pics of the birthday boy and girl.




Love
Annette

The Boats!

As you may have read in blogs further down, Nathan and I went out on a B and B sail boat on the weekend of the 23rd February. It was absolutely perfect. We could not have asked for a better couple of days. It was sunny but not hot, breezy but not windy or rough. Nanna and Pop kindly watched our girls while we were away. I think they all had a good time (well they tell me they did). We caught the train in and had lunch with our friends from Melbourne that were up in Sydney to see the Cunard ship - the Queen Victoria. (Oh did I mention that she was in Sydney on the day that we chose to do the B and B. I am taking credit for the day however if the truth be known I didn't know until after we had booked it.) It was great to catch up with Silv, John and Mon. We then caught the light rail around to the fish markets (wasn't as good as what I remembered from years ago when I last went) so that I could get some prawns for the boat. At 4.30pm we got to our boat. A 38 foot cruising yacht called Sha Meduza.

Here is a couple of pics...



Craig, our skipper sailed us around for a little while past Queen Victoria so that I could get some pictures. She is one huge vessel a definite to go and see.













Then he moored us in Balls Head Bay for the night and left us to return again at 9.30am the next morning. It was such a perfect night that we were able to eat our platters (part of the package) up on deck and enjoy the city lights.

The next morning Craig returned to fetch us and then take us back to Darling Harbour for breakfast at a local cafe.


All in all a brilliant weekend. A once in a lifetime, must do experience.

Love Annette

Here is what the girls look like this week.

Hi all,


As it has been a little while since I have put up some pics of the girls here are a couple.


News time...


We survived the week and weekend!!! It was one huge week and weekend for us beginning with the boats (I will do a separate blog for this) and ending with parties galore on the weekend (separate blog for this one too), with all the prep work in the middle. Needless to say I am hoping to get back into my normal week pattern this week and catch up with all my friends.


Maddie now has her home readers happening and so every afternoon we now need to read and journal comments in our home reader manual. (I thought blogging was all the creative writing that I would have to do... ha!)






Sabrina now has a tooth!!!! After a sleepless Tuesday night we cut our first tooth on Wednesday afternoon. When it is fully through I will attempt to get a pic of it to prove that it finally happened. She is also getting bolder every day. She now knows what the word "No" means and chooses to ignore it completely. If you retell her no then she promptly waves at you as if to say "I am going to do it anyway and if you don't want to see me do it then you may wish to turn away now."




Have a great week.

Love
Annette

Friday, February 22, 2008

Quick Update

Hi all,

I am just coming up for a quick gasp of air before life begins again. The last couple of weeks have been hectic to say the least. All is well in our Mackay household. The littlest member and Mummy went to stay at Tresillian for 5 days earlier in the month to sort out her sleeping and feeding issues. It all went really well. Sabi is now sleeping through the night Yippee!!!! and is eating properly now. Was a very worthwhile thing to do. In hindsight we 1. should have gone when Maddie was little and saved a whole heap of pain and 2. should have gone in earlier with Sabi. The good thing is that she has pretty much kept the routine that we established up there. She is now crawling and getting into everything, saying hello and waving, still no teeth but who needs them anyway.

Maddie is doing really well at school. She is now on list 7 for her words. After we finish list 8 we get our first home reader. This is the goal that she is trying really hard to achieve. She did however get the student of the week award yesterday in chapel. So she is really proud of herself, and rightly so. I am not sure what we needed to do to get the award but we will gladly take it.

Nath is really busy at work as he has picked up some more responsibilities.

Tomorrow we are going on a B and B on a sail boat on the harbour. Can't wait!!! Hopefully the weather holds out and is nice and calm and fine and the girls are good for Mum and Dad. The other good thing is that the Queen Victoria and the QE2 are in port this weekend so it will be good to get a look at the boats from a different perspective.

On Friday night we are hosting a 60th birthday party for Jill and Bruce. So we are headlong into yet another busy and full on week.

Hope to have some pics of the girls and boats up for you all soon.

Love
Annette

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

My Little Girl is not so little any more

Well, it had to happen. Maddie had her first day at big school today. A big day for all the family. Maddie must have been pretty excited as this morning went off without a hitch. Pretty much back into the same routine that we had used for preschool. ie Have everything ready the night before so that all you needed to do in the morning was get up, have brekkie, brush hair and teeth, get dressed then out the door. Ma and Pa came over to see us off and to take some pictures. Then we were off. We got to school nice and early so that we could see what the routine would be for tomorrow when we have to line up for assembly. Mummy was doing ok until it was time for Mad's to go in and then Maddie started to cry and well her mum couldn't let her cry by herself so joined her, which left poor Daddy to actually take her into the room whilst Mum babysat Sabi in the pram outside. I promise to try harder tomorrow and will not cry!

Maddie's school day for the first 2 weeks finishes at 12.30pm. So at 12.30pm her two parents and sister (who had missed her all morning) were dutifully in attendance. She was all smiles when she came out and was very proud of her home reader bag which had her homework. (Yes HOMEWORK on the first day of school) and other notes for us in it. As a treat for surviving we took her up to the donut shop for a milkshake and a celebratory donut.

Here are some pics of the momentus event. (PS note the snail with THE bag)