Thank You Aunty Merryl!

Will post more soon about our Christmas but just want to say thank you aunty merryl for my lip lacquer and belt! I'm sure you'd agree it makes my lips just beautiful!!!

coastal cousins

Sorry we didn't blog yesterday. We had a lovely day. Had Leetice's friend over in the morning for breakfast and then we had lunch with just the five of us. It was kinda nice. Even managed to do the roast vegies, etc. Hard to believe, hey. We then played "Buzz" on the playstation, watched a good Christmas movie on the TV and went to Caloundra at 6 pm. Had a good night with the relatives and played buzz with 8 people. We all enjoyed our presents and missed having the rest of the family all together.
We did try Aunty Merryl to sing grace with you too, but you weren't answering. Boxing day today and it's overcast and windy so we are having another quiet one. I guess there will be some cricket to watch and a shop to visit. Lincraft has 50% off material. Off to have a cuppa.

bush christmas 2007

Lauren and her dog Tess, Janine with new pup, Bootlace.

Happy Christmas to all the cousins and others. We checked out the dams yesterday and found this one full to overflowing, approx. 3 times its normal capacity - great!!! Poppa and Lauren tried some flying but are still trying to land at Caloundra. Keep a look out for them!

Christmas morning started with everyone greeting Nana and Poppa on the bed. After our devotion time we had a quiz to sort out fact from fiction about the Christmas story and most realised they were a bit rusty on the facts. Nana did a loose version of the Christmas story using the different chocolates. A lazy day reading, eating great food, Monopoly (nana won) and using her new toy, the Cuttlebug.

Enjoy your holiday

From the bush cousins

Christmas 2007

Howdy all. Christmas on the farm was a little quiet without all the relatives. Thank you all for all the lovely presents. We went to church this mornig. I picked up a load of New Guinea nationals who are down for Christmas with their relatives. There are about 18 of them in one house! Home by 10 to put the roast in the oven. We had four guests - Peter Willison, his two sons and daughter in law ( the girl I was mother of the bride for) Doug and the kids are enjoying their Christmas present. Doug thinks it was for the kids but I think it was really for him! We all got showered in dust and the track over the sand heap is getting worn. I will miss singing grace tonight with Peter and Steven...can't wait for next year.... we'll have to sing it twice!

Hope you all had a lovely day...I'm now going to get my hair straightened by Kimberley with her new toy

Love from the Hardwicks

busy time of the year

G'day nephews & nieces,
Just thought I would wish you all a very merry christmas and a happy new year. No doubt we will see some of you on Christmas day but to the Muckadillians, hope you have a good one. Uncle Kerry and I spent 9 days with a group of 14 young people doing Christmas programs in 18 schools. It was lots of fun, but quite exhausting. Our reward was 3 days on great keppel at the end! We should have a family get together there some time, See you soon, Janelle

Our New Nephews

I thought I'd just play the bragging aunty for a sec here and introduce you all to Zach & Nate. They are 18 wks old but were born at 28 weeks so they are just now 8 pounds. (Zach was 980g and Nate was 1050g when they were born). They were in hospital for 10 weeks and in and out of intensive care. Naturally Pete's sister Bron and her husband Trev were very protective of who held them etc. because they were so susceptible to infection and the like. So here is a pic of Aunty Anna and Uncle Pete getting their first cuddles about 2 weeks ago. Oh, and they're identical! Fun hey! I'm holding Nate and Pete has Zach....I think.

Wedding Anniversary No.6

Ok - prepare to be blown out of the water ladies! Men - prepare to be put to shame!
Today is our 6th wedding anniversary! Unfortunately Pete is in Sydney at a 'Wild At Heart' men's conference with Steve...did I mention they're not allowed to have mobile phones at this conference!?! So I've spent it all on my lonesome..no, I lie..I had to work so I spent it with about 100 stressed out Christmas shoppers.

Anywaaaaays, Pete decided we should celebrate on Wednesday night since he was leaving Thursday. I got a big bunch of flowers on arriving home, I cooked his favourite dinner and then I was told I had to get ready cause we were going out! I was told we'd be doing lots of walking so wear good walking shoes and he put on jeans so I followed suit on that. We drove about a km down the road to the Petrie hall to go to...wait for it!....a ballroom dancing lesson!! I couldn't believe it!! So after I got over the romantic gesture part of it, I started freaking out that I was about to look like a real unco! We had a fantastic night with 50 new friends (all at least 20 yrs our snr), learning the quickstep, the chachacha, the rumba and the jive. Sounds impressive right!? Ok, they were extremely beginner versions of those dances and at one stage the entire circle dance was stopped so we could get some specialist attention, but wow it was fun! Next time however, I will not be wearing boho sandals and jeans...all the other ladies were wearing heeled dancing shoes and swirly, elegant skirts..the men collared shirts and shiney black dress shoes.

I am pretty sure we will be going semi-regularly next year AND we will definately be dragging along some friends and family!!

21st & 1/2 Bday party

Here is just a happy snap of my b'day party. It was good to catch up with everyone and it was fun just being able to relax (when it was all over). There was a little accident at the top of the stairs with the beetroot, however we didn't tell anyone, as Aunty Lyndal came to the rescue with more tins of beetroot.
The next photo is the siblings plus one, Olivia.
The final photo is of Suzzy, myself and Kym. I teach with these ladies and they flew down just for the party which was great.

Hardwick hello again

Whats happening? Hasn't anyone got any news?
Did you here about Janine? No room at the Inn
Tomorrow I am leading the Christmas Service at Aloomba. I am using Janines story about not finding any accomodation in Townsville (due to Elton Johns visit) as my illustration. Thanks Janine!
Christmas party here last night for 26. It seemed to take all weekend to prepare. We had a lot of fun even though it was 37 degrees all day. The kids ended up having a water bomb fight at 8.30pm to cool down! The airconditioning didn't have any effect.
Doug has grinded back the concrete at the barracks in prep for tiling. You should have seen the mess on my newly painted walls!
Mitchell has had his first day of holidays. Home alone with Dad popping in between fertiliser runs. The cane is growing at an incredible rate and so is the grass.
School christmas night Friday and church family fun night this Saturday.
Kimberley is looking foraward to all the socialising
Thats all for now
Merryl

Hardwick Hello