Thankyou 2011.

You were pretty good to us Twenty Eleven. After a few crappy years, i'm pretty happy with the memories of the year we had with you.....

To begin with, i started this here blog, then i began a little handmade business Sadie Mae making baby & children's clothes & accessories to sell at markets with my sister-in-law, Holly. 

If that wasn't enough, back in June i re-joined the workforce in a clothing store after seven years of being a stay-at-home.

All that craziness caused me to loose a lot of weight & i began to have to regularly dye my hair, ha ha.

I discovered & became addicted to Pinterest (pinner's anonymous anyone?), i read the wonderful book Cloudstreet, am learning to crochet & have learnt to balance my work/home life.

Scarlett had a big year too, she had her first birthday & learnt how to walk.

She weaned herself off breastfeeding & began going to creche regularly. 

She has gone from baby to little girl, in almost a blink of an eye.

Amity began Prep & her first year at school. She absolutely thrived on learning & just loved it.

Her reading & writing is beyond awesome & we are quite proud of her end of year report.

She made lots of new little friends, particularly her best friend Amber.

It was her first year also of ballet, which was perfectly dainty for her.

Health wise, things were a little different - she's had numerous blood tests & xrays & been a very brave girl in the process. Some results came back good, but a few things are still being investigated.

She is under the wonderful care of a very lovely lady paediatrician.

She did however, after numerous doses of antibiotics finally overcome years of constant ear problems & her hearing is now back to normal.

The cleverness did not stop in the classroom, this little miss also learnt to ride her bike without training wheels!

And Chas......well it's certainly been an interesting year for him too.

He was in Grade One this year, with a wonderfully kind teacher.

However, our boy was lead astray by a few ratbags in his class, oh we know he's no angel, but the influences he's had haven't been very positive.

On the other hand, he made a best friend Jordan & they have a wonderful friendship.

He struggled a little with his confidence, but we are looking to Grade Two with a positive attitude.

He finally lost his first tooth this year, much to his delight. 

His hair grew to a massive mop of curls, then he caught nits. Bye bye curls.

We have watched him grow from a little boy to almost a tween - everything has to be cool.

The Bloke, well this year has been fairly uneventful for him (i think the rest of us made up for that!)

His beloved Cats won another AFL premiership,

He celebrated a 'special' birthday, 

He said goodbye to an uncle who passed away in October,

and he's done a wonderful job caring for the kids while i'm working - 

he spent a lot of time helping out in the kid's classrooms, much to the gratefulness of their teachers.

As a family in general, we had a few events too that we'll remember......

we sadly farewelled  three very close family members who have moved interstate.

A family reunion was held on my maternal side, it was a great catch up.

And then there's the animals..........it's become quite a menagerie here.

Our poor guinea pig Roxy died, so we replaced her with Snowy who too quickly joined Roxy in guinea pig heaven. The kids gave up on guinea pigs, so Lucky ('lucky' to live), our cheeky white bunny joined us & our other bunny Flopsy.

We also lost a goldfish (which the kids were quite happy to flush down the loo!) & then two more joined the tank.

Then there was the chooks. The Bloke & the kids came home with three fluffy Silkie chooks (that's what happens when you let the kids choose, they chose the prettiest), we waited & waited for eggs, but something else began - their crowing. Turns out our chooks were roosters = unhappy neighbours.
So it was goodbye to the fluffy chooks & hello to our extra friendly four new chooks who provide us well with fresh eggs.
And our Abby cat turned the grand old age of thirteen!
We had four trips to the Emergency Department, with The Bloke having a couple nights stay - in my opinion it was four too many.
So all in all, it was a good year for us.
Hopefully 2012 will be much the same.....
finger's crossed, the big kids have a great year at school & Scarlett picks up toilet training easily (eek!)
And i'm also hoping it'll include some nice new floorboards, a new camera, a new couch & perhaps a new car......but let's not get too carried away now.......
Happy New Year to you all, i hope 2012 is a safe & happy year for you filled with lots of happy memories. xxx