Wagga Wagga Family Holidays

Last weekend, we drove to Wagga Wagga for my Aunty's 60 birthday celebrations. We arrived Thursday night and went to Aunty Su's house for a celebration with the rest of the church.  It was great to see everyone in our old church.  My Dad, Mum and brother also came over from Adelaide and my brother, sister-in-law and their 2 children came over from Sydney, along with my Grandad and Grandma from Sydney. With me living in Canberra and all my family so far away, it was SO great to see them again.

On Friday, all the families with young children, went to Wagga Zoo. We had a lot of fun watching the kids feed the animals, get excited about hungry donkey's and playing on the playground. It was also a great opportunity to get family photos.

Livi, Lydia and Brodie feeding the ducks

Zac feeding the donkey

Lydia feeding the donkey

Zac and Ben

Zac, Livi, Kayla, Lydia and Darcy

Zac

Zac, Livi and Lydia

My bro Chris and Me

Zac and Me

My nephew - Darcy

Zac and Kayla

Debi and Suzi deep in conversation

Zac and Ben

Suzi and Darcy

Playing with stickers

On Friday night we had a family birthday celebration at the RSL Club.  It was so good to be able to catch up with cousins, uncles and aunty's, grandparents, etc who I hadn't seen in such a long time.

Lydia and Olivia - Best Friends

Young ladies out for tea

'Cheers'

On Saturday we had a small family celebration for my Grandad whose birthday was on the same day as my Aunty. We went out for a nice picnic where the kids ran around, played on the playground and fed the ducks.  Ben and I were especially excited because we got to take some photos of the kids and the 4 of us in the park where Ben and I used to go often when we were dating and engaged.

Pretty Lydi

My Dad and brother Nick posing for an 'intelligent photo'

Cousins - Livi, Darcy, Zac and Lydia

Lydi girl

Something's funny

Nephew - Darcy

Zac and Lydi

Where's Zachy?

There he is!

Our little family

My beautiful kids

Saturday night we went to Hogs Breath Cafe with Ben's family for Daniels birthday.  It was a nice family time and a great big meal.  Ben, Daniel and my brother Nick then went to the movies and the rest of us went home to put the kids to bed.

On Sunday we went to Church and were able to catch up with our old church family again.

Overall, it was a wonderful weekend filled with lots of family time and great catch up chats. The only down side was that my sister and her family were not able to come and we missed them a lot.

But, happy birthday Aunty Su, Grandad and Daniel.

Miles

My nephew Miles turned 4 last Wednesday.

Happy Birthday Miles. May you be blessed this coming year as you grow to know and love God more and more.

So, this song is for you Miles. I pray that you always know that you are a treasure from the Lord to us all (especially to your Dad and Mum).

Love you Miles

Looks like her Daddy but takes after ME

I'm always making lists - 'To Do' lists, 'cleaning' lists, 'people to talk to' lists, etc and now my daughter is taking after me. After breakfast, she gets a pen and paper and makes her 'list'.
Lydia needs to constantly know what time it is, what day it is, what the date is, and every single thing we are doing in the day so she can get organised.
A while ago we bought her a clock, so she would stop coming into our room before 6am asking us if it was 7.00 so she could start her day.
And this morning, Lydia and I made a calendar.  Lydia really enjoyed colouring in the activities and drawing some of them. We only made it this morning but it is already working wonderfully.  Lydia now gets to go put up our daily activities every morning and she knows exactly what we are doing :)
It has also made her stop asking when we are going to Nanna and Papa's because she can see we are going in 4 days :)

I'm not a very crafty person (as you can tell from the pictures) but Lydia and I did have fun making this together this morning.  I'm sure we will make a better one someday but for now, Lydia is very pleased to know that today we are staying home and she needs to tidy her room and toy room...what a day to start on !

Little Monkey

Aunty Penny took some photos of this little monkey while we were chatting to her on skype.

A VERY happy Independance Day

On this day four years ago, my life change changed in a lot of ways.

After spending many hours late into the night packing my bags and organising my room the night before, my Mum, Dad and best friend Mary took Ben and I to the airport to say goodbye . . . I was leaving home.  I was leaving my parents, my family, my church, my job, my Adelaide and going to Wagga Wagga to be with my now husband, Ben

Me, Mum and Sister Penny at farewell

Me and best friend Mary

Ben and I had been dating for over 2 years.  With Ben living in Coolamon and me in Adelaide it was hard but we were continually getting to know each other with Christ as the centre of our relationship. While chatting for hours on end on the phone, we would pray together, share what the Lord had taught us, ask random questions about each other and just get to know one another.

So, back to the 4th of July . . . It was a very confusing goodbye.  I was very sad to be leaving my family and friends but very excited to be moving closer to Ben and starting a new and exciting chapter of life. I got on the plane with a mix of emotions.  I was sad but happy, nervous but determined, excited but terrified.  I didn't know how to be sad and happy at the same time.  I still feel sorry for Ben during that plane trip - he had to put up with me crying one minute and then totally overwhelmingly excited the next.

So, Ben and I flew to Canberra and then drove to Coolamon (Ben's parent's house). I'm not telling you the whole story of how Ben proposed (coz its a secret) but Ben asked me to marry him, to spend the rest of our life together loving each other and serving God together.  After getting to know Ben and seeking God's will concerning our relationship, I realised that he was the man who I had prayed to God for.  God had given me a man who I could love, honor, obey, follow and serve God with for the rest of my life...so of course I said a VERY happy "Yes"

Ben, you are my best friend, my confidant, my love, my man.

I love You 
Thank you for asking me to marry you

And so now we are married