Just dipping my toes back in

Well, I think that may have been the quickest year yet!  And yet, one of our hardest.

It was mainly complicated by a crazy busy year for me at Uni.  Although the previous years have been just as hard, this year I was exhausted and drained as a culmination of 4 years of study, shift work, being on call AND having a family came to a head.  We did it though and I think we have all came out mentally unscathed!  I am now officially a Registered Midwife AND I have a job in the only position I applied for.  So although the craziness of being a student midwife is now behind me, I realise that the real learning now begins - but I'll at least be getting paid for it!

The holidays are nearly coming to an end, but I am so thankful that I've spent lots of wonderful time with the children - I probably wont ever have a big summer break like this again now I'm getting back into working land.  We've had a great time though and are all feeling ready to tackle 2014 with enthusiasm, excitement and only a little bit of trepidation!  I'm also ready to get back into blogging now there may be some free time coming my way (or am I just dreaming?) - either way, I want to get back into recording our life.  Not just for the kids to look back on, but for me to see how much we have to appreciate.  Sometimes life has been so busy I forget how awesome it really is.

Kirsten xx

I'm back!

It's been a long, long time between regular updates, but I'm determined this year to keep at least a monthly update of whats happening in the world of The Penneys.  I was hoping that over my break I'd be able to do a big catchup on posts, mainly birthdays, Christmas and all the important things, but it seems I was too daunted by the task, so stuck with a firm favourite - Procrastination!

So commiting to monthly updates seems a little less overwhelming, and some I can fit into our busy schedule.  I'm starting to think that this year might be easier for us all, well much easier than 2012 anyway.  It was a good year, but exhausting and probably the hardest year we have had as a family. 

I do feel overloaded with things that I need to write down, so I think I'll do a blog post for each family member to get all that out of my system.  Then I can start guilt-free, with a fresh and relatively up to date blog! 

Arrival of the Elf

Our little Elf arrived in quite a dramatic fashion!
It was just on dark, about 7pm, and the kids were set up in the lounge room about to watch "The Polar Express".  We'd had a lovely relaxing day at home setting up the Christmas tree and decorating it, so were looking forward to a nice quiet night at home.  All of a sudden there was a loud bang outside.  The kids were initially frightened, but we had a peek out the window and saw something just outside on the grass.  We all went outside, and there on the lawn was our Elf.  He was in a gold sleigh with ice, snow scattered around him.  The kids were a little scared at first, and weren't sure if he was safe to touch.  That soon wore off though, and they both excitedly picked him up, along with his letter and passport.  I read out the letter to them and they were both so amazed and happy that we had our own little Elf visitor for the holidays!

After much deliberation, our Elf was named "Twinkle Elfie" and they decided he can be a boy or a girl!  Twinkle sent the rest of the night tucked up between the kids watching the Polar Express.  Every so often I would hear them say to each other, "I can't believe we have an Elf!  Can you believe Santa sent him to us?  I love our Elf so much!"

I can't wait to see what mischief Twinkle gets up to tonight!

Here's what the letter said:

Mr and Mrs Claus
12 Reindeer Way
TheNorth Pole
9999

Dear Grace and Xavier,

I am delighted to present to you your very own “Magical Christmas Elf”.  This special elf has traveled all the way from Santa’s House, in the North Pole and is here to visit your family this Christmas season.  Your Elf will return back to the North Pole on Christmas Eve.  As there are so many elves here, I haven’t named them all!  I’d love it if you both could think of a name for your little elf visitor.

This special Elf holds magical powers.  During the day your Elf likes to sleep and rest, but at night he has been known to get up to all types of mischief and loves to find new places to hide! 

Each morning when you wake up look for a new clue and it will help you find where your Elf is hiding and tell you what they have been up to!  He has a little book with him, could you please fill it out if he gets up to any mischief?

Your Elf is very excited to have found a lovely family to stay with for this little holiday.  They have lots of fun and exciting things planned for everyone!

Yours Merrily

Santa Claus

A special visitor is coming...

We have a very special visitor coming tomorrow and I can't wait!

I'd heard that Santa was sending Elves out to special families, so I asked if we could have one come stay with us.  They will be arriving sometime tomorrow (1st December), and I am beyond excited about introducing our little Elf to the kids.  However, I've also heard that these little Elves have been known to get up to lots of mischief!  So I'm expecting quite a lot of cheekiness happening in the month of December.

~~Elf with his passport and introduction letter~~

Girls day out

Grace and I are headed up to Brisbane tomorrow.  We are going to have a beautiful day together visiting the museum, gallery of Modern Art and the National Library.  We are also going to have a lovely  lunch together and maybe chat over a babycinno or 2.  Oh, and go see Mary Poppins!!!!

I'm so excited about this.  I knew as soon as I saw this advertised that I'd love to take Grace along, but I was a little disheartened once I found out the crazy price it was.  I've been scouring ebay, gumtree and all other classifieds over the last few weeks in the hopes of getting a good deal.  Then today, one of my stalkbook facebook friends announced they had 3 tickets to sell for tomorrow's matinee - perfect for me!!   I sent a text out to all my friends who I thought would be interested, and the lovely Amanda was first to reply with a YES PLEASE!!!!  I haggled the price of the A reserve tickets down from $360 for the 3, to a much more affordable $200 for all 3 tickets.  They look like relatively good seats from the seating plan, and I called Qtac who also said they are a great spot.  I'm a little concerned as they are towards the back of the stalls, but  apparently lots of this show happens in the air so we should have a good view!

Grace is bubbling with excitement, and I just hope she can contain herself for the nearly 3 hour show!  Just before Christmas we sold her dolls house (she'd only ever used it a handful of times), so the $80 we got for that is going towards this luxury purchase.  I had to justify it somehow, as really at this crazy expensive time of the year, I should be thinking about bills, school fees and all the associated costs - but this is too good an opportunity to miss!  Grace has had a love of live theatre since I took her along last year to see Beauty and the Beast.  I promised her then that it would be something that we did together every year, whether it be small local productions, or big, extravagant ones - this will be our special little thing together.