HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!!

We celebrated two special people last month!  A wanted to have her birthday at the bowling alley this year and it was so much fun!  She invited a few classmates and friends and the adults even got in a few games on the side.  On the day of the 12th, they had their birthday breakfast and opened some gifts.  That night, we got dressed up and went to dinner at Jamie's Italian in the city.  After dinner, we came home and had chocolate cake complete with candles and wishes!  So hard to believe this precious girl is 9 already!  The last picture is from this past week.  A had her track and field day for school and she did AMAZING!  YES, AMAZING!!!  She has really kicked it up in sport this past year.  She won first in her heat for the 100m and got 3rd overall, 1st in the 200m, 4th in the 400m, (she came from the back of the pack and zoomed past about 25 kids to move into 3rd and got beat by an arm at the finish), 3rd in the long jump, 3rd in shot put, and tied for 3rd for overall age champion.  She is also doing so well in basketball and riding!  She attended basketball camp last school break and came away with the scholarship for a free camp for "being such a great player showing the potential to go really far in the sport".  PROUD PARENTS!!  Enjoy the pics and God bless!

March, April, May....catch up photos!

Hi!  Life is a whirlwind and time just keeps ticking away!  We celebrated Easter, took a little mini-vacay to Rainbow beach, did school cross country, had a child of the week (last week), a little fun in the rain puddles, and are enjoying life all around.  But still missing the great state of Texas.  A is busy playing basketball on Saturdays, riding horses, doing gymnastics, and studying hard in school even though she doesn't like it.  E is doing gymnastics, swimming, learning piano, and reading easy chapter books now!  We love our girls and all that they are involved in but even more just enjoy seeing them grow into beautiful little souls! Hope everyone is doing well!  God bless and enjoy the pics!

2nd Place at Riding 

Getting the Easter nests ready

Family Selfie

Rainbow Beach

Mr. Kookaburra says "hello from down under!"  He let me take several pictures!

A little Sunday Baking

Enjoying the rain puddles

Child of the Week "For her reflective, insightful contributions and the maturity she displays in all learning situations."

UPDATES, CATCHING UP, AND MORE....

Yes, it is the end of February already and again, we are in full swing.  Life never seems to slow down, in fact it seems to go by quicker everyday.  I finally found a few moments to sit down and upload pics to the computer and update the blog.  We went home to Texas for the holidays, had fun as we always do, made a stopover in Walnut Creek on the way back to Oz for some R&R with the sister and cousins, and made it back to Brizzy with 5 suitcases, 2 kids, and hope for the new year ahead! HA!  A had her First Communion when we were home, and she has now started Year 4, YES, YEAR 4!  She is a bright kid with an even brighter future ahead of her.  She is very grounded in her faith, loves to read, ride horses, do gymnastics, play basketball (I might be biased, but the girl is showing signs of having some good ballin' skills!), and still picks the guitar.  E is still the singer in the family!  She is reading, writing, counting, doing gymnastics, swimming, loves to ride her scooter, and started taking piano. Brandon is staying busy with work and Mom's taxi is in full swing for 2016!  Hope everyone is doing well!  God bless and enjoy the pics!

Our Beautiful Candy Canes on Christmas Eve

Growing Up in the Church

Traditional 1st Day of School Photo 

A Little R&R Time on One of Many HOT Brisbane Days

HERVEY BAY AND BIRTHDAYS

YEAH!  I can now post a few updates!  Sorry for the delays!  We are still kicking along down under and time is flying by so quickly!  My parents came to visit last month and were here for E's birthday.  It was so great to have a piece of home here for a little while.  E turned 4 and she didn't want a birthday party this year because she said, "it's too loud when so many people are here!  I prefer to have sausage sizzles and a strawberry cake with ice cream."  So, it was sausage sizzles (hot dogs) and strawberry cake with ice cream.  We had been told that seeing the whales here is a once in a lifetime experience and it was every bit of that if not more!  We did see them breeching the first year we were here while camping but getting to see them up close left me speechless.  Words can not describe seeing such a large creature have such grace.  Absolutely beautiful!  Hervey bay is about 3 hours north of Brisbane and is noted as the whale watching capital of the world.  Every year the whales migrate from the cooler waters north of Australia down to the warmer waters around here to calve.  We were able to see quite a few mothers and calves playing around in the bay.  It was amazing to hear them slapping the water with their fins, breeching, and swimming in pods!  We were very blessed to see such an amazing display and as Dad said, "I'd never thought I'd be on the bottom of the world watching whales!"  Enjoy the snapshots!  Oh yeah, I turned 40 in July and my birthday present is the cute little fuzz ball we named Bribie-an Australian Shepherd who has fit right into our family!  (Bribie is the name of an Island about an hour from here that we make frequent visits to) God bless and love to all!

Yes-I'm 4! 

CRUISIN' THE WATERS OF HERVEY BAY

BRIBIE JANE

TO BE CONTINUED....

Hello everybody!  I felt the need to update those of you who follow the blog or just check in every now and again.  My apologies in the lack of updating.  It's not that I haven't tried or wanted to!  My computer has decided to only upload pictures to a certain day so for the time being, it is not uploading any new photos from my camera! I have tried on several occasions to assess the problem and figure it all out, but to my own dismay, it looks as though the Apple store will be checking things out for me.  As soon as the issue or issues are resolved, I'll be back to posting pics!  (hopefully it's the computer and NOT operator error!)

We have been busy to say the least!  We celebrated two birthdays in June, the BIG 4-0 for me in July, and are now in mode to celebrate a big 4 next month!  We had some of my very best friends and one of my own "adopted" moms come over for a visit last month, spent time in the rainforest with them during Queensland's coldest weather in 10 years, and just had fun catching up and spending time with a little piece of home.  The girls are thriving and growing like weeds.  E is now reading books!  A is excelling in school! She was recognized for placing in the top 11% out of all of Australia in her age group for Science testing!  She is still riding and jumping horses and E is still singing away and doing a little gymnastics class.

Again, my apologies for no pics, but promise to have them up as soon as I can!  God bless and love to all!

PORT DOUGLAS VACATION

Mossman Gorge

We finally made another trip here in Australia.  Over the 2 week break from school we traveled up to Northern Queensland to Port Douglas to visit what every local here says is a "must do", so we did!  Port Douglas is located a little north of Cairns (pronounced Cannes) and it is famed for "where the rainforest meets the sea".  It was beautiful!  We did a tour of the Daintree Rainforest learning about different plants and animals, the Skyrail and the Kuranda Scenic Railway over and through the rainforest, we took a river tour to see if we could spot some saltwater crocodiles, saw some beautiful countryside filled with sugarcane, visited Mossman Gorge to hear the tales of the Aboriginal people and see how they live/lived.  (I say lived as well,  because as most things, they are becoming a thing of the past, being forced from their heritage by none other than the government)  We all had a fantastic time seeing another part of Australia.  I think the most interesting part for me was listening to the tour given by a young man of Aboriginal decent.  Their people have made it a point to pass on as much of their heritage and culture as they can.  We witnessed children as young as 5-6 doing the dreamtime dances in the streets.  The dreamtime dances are stories that have been passed down from generation to generation telling of the great water snake (river) that moves throughout the land, stories of the emus being chased by the river snake, and so many more.  We even got to hear the famous didgeridoo (proper name is the Yikki Yikki), have traditional tea and damper (biscuits), and so much more!!  There is even a plant that grows in their forest that they gave to the enemies during the war to wipe with after using the toilet....I think it's comparable to our bull nettle in Texas!  And I know I wouldn't dare wipe with that!  HA!  The paints the aboriginal people use are natural bug repellents and made from clay that they just mix with water.  I could go on and on!  We even got to see the endangered Cassowary in the wild-I didn't get a picture because it was too fast!  We had plans to go out to the reef again, but decided a day by the pool would suffice since we did part of the reef last year!  Enjoy the pics and God bless!

Standing under the canopy of the rainforest next to the Giants of the Rainforest. (huge trees)

Family Photo (including Heart the Cat)

The 3 Things every Aboriginal takes with him.  A stone, boomerang, and shield.  We were told you are a skilled hunter if your boomerang doesn't come back! (I'll let you think about that one)

Our 4-Wheel Drive tour guide preparing the traditional billy tea.  He took the billy (bucket), put it over the fire to make the tea, then he swung it around in front of him like a windmill 4-5 times to move the tea leaves to the bottom of the billy.
Amazing....none of it spilled out!

 This plant is called the Wait-A-While.  (no joke)  If you look close enough it is covered with spines that grow facing upward.  So if you happen to be able to go up this plant, you will have to "wait-a-while" to get down because you will get caught on them.  The Aboriginal use these plants for hunting and fishing.

A sending out a distress call against a Red Cedar.  The tree is hollow so if you get into trouble you take your stone and hit it as hard as you can against the base so the sound resonates through the forest.  It's their nature made SOS!

Traditional Smoking Ceremony Fire-We all had to walk around this twice through the smoke to cleanse ourselves before we entered the rainforest which is sacred to the Aboriginal people.  Our guide had to introduce us to his ancestors before we could begin the walk.  (he had to let them know he was bringing in guests to tell us all about their heritage and hunting grounds)

Had to take a pic of this sign! 

The Kuranda Scenic Rail-train ride from the top of the rainforest town of Kuranda back down through the rainforest to Cairns.

The only croc we saw on the river tour.  He was about 1.5 meters, according to the guide, which is big enough! (he's a bit hard to spot...he's on the log hanging out)

SCHOOL EVENTS AND EASTER

It has been a couple of months and time is still flying by!  A's school had their swim carnival the end of March and she did awesome!  She got first in her heat for the backstroke and second in her heat for breast stroke!  Then in April, they had their annual cross country meet and she came in 13th place out of all of the Year 3 classes (approx. 112 kids) She ran so hard and kept up her pace the entire race around the course.  We celebrated Easter weekend at church beginning on Good Friday.  We were asked by Father to carry up the large cross for veneration as a family.  E was so proud!  She held on so tight to the cross!  We had some friends over for fajitas and all the trimmings, the girls built their annual Easter nests, hunted eggs, and enjoyed the day!  

SWIMMING SUCCESS

FOCUSED ON THE RACE

OUR EASTER BUNNIES

SILLY GIRLS AFTER A SWIM