Chelsea's 4th Birthday

Below: With fairy godmother Renee :) Chelsea turned 4 on 25 July - we had a picnic with family and her godparents at the Kholo Gardens.

Our Block

I know I said I would post photos of the block months ago, but you know how it is!!!
1 William playing golf, view from the footpath
2 View from the footpath to the East (towards Brisbane)
3 View from the footpath to the South

Babies, Babies, Babies

Above: Raegan-Mackenzy - Danny & Samara's beautiful Baby Girl

Above: Baby Wayne Jr, William's Sister Samantha & William

Above: Chelsea, Wayne Jr & Me

Well, we have been waiting for 9 months, but finally the new batch of little ones has been delivered by the stork.



In mid May we had beautiful little Raegan-Mackenzy, daughter to Danny & Samara and a baby sister to their little boy Riley. Danny and Sam are our friends from Tassie.



Then at the beginning of June Will's workmate Ricky and his Wife Kym had a little boy.



At the end of June, Will's almost stepsister Melissa had her third little girl.



And last, but definitely not least, I would like to announce that Will & I are finally Uncle & Auntie to Baby Wayne Jr.

Wayne Jr was born on 14 June to Will's sister Samantha and her partner Wayne. We drove to Hervey bay when he was 2 days old to see them in hospital. We are so proud to have another little baby in the family and wish ALL of the little ones listed above, all the best in the future.

In only a few hours, we will be closing the door for the last time on our first home.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has given their time and effort to help us turn it from a house into 'The Berdies Nest'.

Thanks to Dad & Lynette who are always there to help us move, take rooves off aviarys, clear huge expanses of backyard rainforest and do endless trips to the dump, as well as looking after Chelsea so much.
Mum & David for always helping us move and helping so much with the backyard in the beginning.
Little Nanny & Poppy for their support and helping look after Chelsea so much.
Renee, for being such a wonderful friend and looking after Chelsea 'the little princess'
Mitchell, for always being there to lend a hand, in particular, assemble cubby houses and then 6 months later, disassemble cubby houses and formulate plans to slide them along on top of old unused windsurfers!! (Check the photos!!)

To anyone else I may have forgotten, thankyou for all of your help over the short 18 months.
In this short time, we have had so many good times in this house! usually involving good friends and family, food, drinks and lots of laughter and music!!!

We had our first party for NYE 05-06 only 5 days after moving in, Chelsea's 3rd birthday Fairy Party, Samantha's 21st (yes the bitterly cold one!!), Troy & Kylie's Farewell, my huge 25th!! Woohoo!, plus so many other family and friends gatherings.

Chelsea was toilet trained and began to talk in sentences like a big girl in this house, learnt to ride her big girls bike with training wheels and practiced her ballet and tap dancing on the verandah.

William and I are looking forward to moving on into the next stage of our lives now, which will hopefully involve building a home that we will stay in forever. Currently we are staying with William's family who have kindly given the downstairs portion of their house to us for as long as we require it. We are looking forward to having a few months to relax away from the pressures of owning a home and saving as much as we can. In addition, and most importantly, we are looking forward to having more time to spend with each other as a family and giving Chelsea the attention that she deserves.

I will still be blogging, however not nearly as frequently as before. - To keep everyone posted of course!!

William, Susan & Chelsea Leah xo

In such a time of upheaval and despite being so busy with all of the usual aspects of life, this week my thoughts have turned to something, someone, who never was....

This week coming, I will take a little time out to think of the little baby I lost late last year, whose due date is almost upon us. William and I fell joyfully pregnant in October 2006 with our second little one. We were so happy to finally be expecting a sibling for Chelsea. 7 weeks into my pregnancy however, we lost the little one who we had waited so long for.

I had documented practically every day of the short pregnancy and when tragedy struck, the easiest way for me to deal with my grief, was to write. 9 months on, I have decided to take the final step in remembering and moving on, by posting what I wrote that week.

25 October 2006

" I have been lucky in my life not to have had much grief to deal with. I had just passed the 6 week mark of my second pregnancy - I was so sure that this little one would be a boy. On Monday morning I noticed blood and my heart sank as I immediately thought the worst. I decided to see if it would ease and it did. On Tuesday, it was back again and I organised an appointment with Dr Vesey. He examined me and sent me for an ultrasound. Everyone was so good to fit us in so quickly. During the ultrasound, the sonographer said "Susan, I'm sorry, the sac is not there". I nodded with tears dripping down my cheeks. William sat silently in a chair. We left devastated at the loss of something we would never have. I drove home in my car sobbing and trying to keep my breath, at home I staggered up to our room and collapsed on the bed. That was it, I fell apart.

I remember Will's hand on my back as I cried into our pillows. How could everything go from perfect to absolute devastation in two weeks. A blood test that afternoon confirmed that I would miscarry, and early in the hours of Wednesday morning 25 October, I lost my baby. I didn't want time off work, I kept busy and managed to have a decent day. Around lunchtime my cramps and backache worsened to the point where I was using a heat pack and breathing through the pain.

I thought that I had managed to get all of my feelings off my chest on Tuesday, but tonight, Wednesday night, I can't concentrate, I'm crying and I have an incredible feeling of emptiness, and of FAILURE. I felt embarassed that we had told people at such an early stage, but in hindsight, I am glad we did. All of their support and wishes has been amazing and reminds me how lucky we are.

We would like to try for another baby, but I am worried of having my heart broken again. "

To the little one who we never knew, may your spirit soar with angels and may our dreams of your little face remind us of how blessed we were to be touched by you. One day we will meet you, in heaven.

Love Mummy, Daddy & Chelsea Leah xo

The Sad Goodbye....

Well, I have waited a while to add this post, but finally, I can do so knowing full well what is ahead. After 17 months in our First Home, we have decided that it is time to move on and begin the next stage of our life. At the end of April we put our Home on the market and within a week were bombarded by interested parties asking for inspections. Only 4 days after it went on the market, we were visited by the house's new owners, who we have been liasing with for quite a few weeks now. As at 5pm this afternoon, the Contract on the house went 'Unconditional' which for me, has confirmed, officially, in my mind, that 'this is it'. I am going to cry when I walk out the front door for the last time.... this was our pride and joy, so much effort and energy has been put into making it a home.

Our future plans are to build the home that we will live in forever on acreage. We have a deposit on a block currently (the details of which I will divulge at a later date). We will be living with relatives of William's whilst the new home is being built.

This is such a big stage that we are entering into now and I pray that we have the strength, the capabilities and the CASH to achieve everything that we hope to!

Cheers, to our First home, that will always hold a special place in our hearts.
Suzi xo

This week I flew to Sydney for a course for work. I had the opportunity to meet so many great people from all over Australia who I deal with daily on the phone. In addition, I met up with Kylie and Troy (Kylie now has a job with the company in Sydney) and got to hang out and catch up with them also. I have only attached two of the many photos which show my workmates and I 'enjoying' ourselves. All I can say is it was a great trip and I work with some great people!

I know I have already posted a photo of Chelsea in this costume, but this photo is just so much better! They have danced in two Eisteddfods, and have got a Highly Commended so far. They have another eisteddfod in a few weeks - Chicko loves going on the stage! She will be 4years old at the end of July

Aimee & Daves' Daydream Island Trip

For David's 21st, Aimee and Dave went to Daydream Island for (I think) one week. She emailed these photos through and I think they are FANTASTIC!!! Looks like they had so much fun and makes me want to go now!

Mothers Day

Chelsea and I on Mothers Day
All the kids with mum on Mothers Day night
The ''Sullivans'' shot lol
For Mothers Day this year, we went out for dinner and made fools of ourselves with the camera in the middle of the restaurant!! lol. Dad couldn't be there as he was away on a work trip and I forgot to bring my present for mum and haven't seen her since to give it to her! Seriously though, it was a great night as usual.

Dancing Practice Sunday

Yes, that's Meagan up in the air!
My Beautiful Ballerina
Chelsea's Group Costume

Dave's 21st Saturday 21st April

Chelsea and Dave
Aimee and Dave
Red Eyes Dave cuts his cake

Mum's Birthday Picnic Mid April

Mum and Chicko
Chelsea posing (as usual!)
Aimee and I

Swanbank Steam Train - Easter Monday

This old train is a great afternoon out. Click here for their website: http://www.qpsr.net/

Easter Sunday

Easter Egg Hunt with Daddy
Chelsea with her easter hunt eggs
Daddy and Chelsea at the Markets

Pixifotos March 07

Laundry Makeover

I bit the bullet and finally hauled myself into the laundry with a can of paint. That's one more room in the house where dirty blue walls are just a thing of the past. Its so clean and fresh in there that it might even inspire me to do some washing - actually, no, I'll leave that to William. In the 15months we have lived in this house, I have done about 6 loads of washing - and that was only because I was on holidays while Will was at work. I am a lucky lucky girl!!
I also rearranged our wardrobe and put some racks in for all of my shoes and bags. William came in to have a look at the finished product and shook his head. I am not going to repeat here how many pairs of shoes I own, but lets just say i could probably wear a different pair every day for 2 months. !!!!

We are so excited that the Riverlink Shopping Centre is finally finished and open. It is great to have such a nice place to shop in our area.

Hope the Easter Bunny is good to you tonight!!!

Suzi xo

4 Days in Sydney

On Thursday 22nd March, Mum, Aimee and I set off on an epic journey. Braving huge suitcase loads, obscene traffic, a cryptic Navman and me monitoring my swiftly declining bank balance after each shopping trip, we spent 4 days in Sydney.

For those of you who don't know, Aimee and I are both Blues, cockroaches, southerners. We left NSW when very young though and have lived in the Sunshine State ever since. We thought as a special birthday present for mums 'special' birthday this year (she won't let us say the age!) that we would take her back down south to sightsee our old home, go shopping in the huge shopping centres, and do the touristy Sydney City thing.

In 4 days we managed to explore the North Shore, the Western Suburbs (Paramatta, Penrith, Richmond, Windsor) headed up to Newcastle for a day to visit some friends and on the last day Sydney City.

Mum got a phone call on the Thursday - she got a new job!! and so, we all got home from the airport around 11pm Sunday night, for her to start bright and early on Monday.

I would love to go more in depth with our activities, but I think the pictures speak for themselves. All we need now is a photo of me with 20 odd shopping bags around me and that completes the story.

Anyway, in other news, Chelsea is learning her Solo Dance for Eisteddfods now. Her dance is 'Splish Splash' by Elmo - As usual we are very proud of her.

Have a great week, Suzi xo