Skipper's 2016

Skipper is now two and a half and such a delightful little man.

He is full of smiles and lots of words. He loves reading books, loves Bob the Builder and Octonauts. He's quite active (what boys aren't?) and loves doing "shows" for us on the trampoline.

Skipper has enjoyed the baby animals on our little farm. Today we had two goslings born, and whilst our Gander will not let anyone near, Skipper happily looks on from a distance.

Skipper is thoroughly delighted with his little sister. He readily sits next to her when she is in the bouncer and plays with her. He is amazed at her little hands and feet and wonders over the grip she has with her hands. Skipper doesn't like to hear her cry and will find her dummy to bring it to her. He's quite gentle and caring with her.

Rosebud

When we knew we were expecting this gorgeous little lady, Joybug was always certain that our baby would be a girl and desperately wanted to call her Rose. Thus we have given her the nickname Rosebud for the blog.

Rosebud is now seven weeks old. It's been a long seven weeks for Rosebud and Mama. On the day we were to be released from hospital, Rosebud was found to have high levels of jaundice requiring days under UV lights. I was allowed to stay in the hospital longer whilst we waited for the treatment to work. When we were released a few days later we were told to come back in for follow up tests in two days. By then Rosebud's jaundice levels had increased significantly and she was continuing to lose weight. She was required to be readmitted, placed under lights and have her feeds via a nasal gastric tube.

Rosebud was losing weight because she was tiring out quickly as she fed with her tongue tie, the jaundice would then increase and make her more tired, which made it harder for her to feed...and down the cycle went. We discovered that she had a blood incompatibility issue which was causing the jaundice, so it was not your average run of the mill "new baby" jaundice. Left untreated it could cause brain damage and even death.

To get out of hospital they require baby to be on all suck feeds, so we gave up attempting breast feeding and moved straight onto a bottle. We bottle fed Rosebud for three weeks solid with little to no attempts at the breast as we endeavoured to help her gain back her weight, strength and health. There are many benefits to bottle feeding, with everyone being able to have a go at it, and most importantly Christian being able to wake up for morning feeds and allow me to sleep in and get some rest. At four weeks we started to attempt breastfeeding. Finally last week we attempted breastfeeding only, with no bottles. We managed to do this successfully in what has turned out to be a super busy week, with Christmas services and a three day Christmas catch up with my family.

We are all thoroughly delighted with Rosebud and her smiles and now gurgles.

Joybug's 2016

I really liked that we got to go to the Blue Mountains.

I really liked Uncle Michael's bus. We went for a ride in it and it has no seat belts. I said "thank you" to him. We got to have fun on the ponies. We got to have a fun time with cousins. I like how we got to have a Nerf gun fight with Grandfather. We had a fun time at Christmas with our family.

I really like feeding Rosebud and holding. I like carrying her around. I can't wait until I am an adult and can have babies of my own.

Joybug has pushed really hard at her school work this year. She really enjoys maths and reading and writing and drawing and anything classified as schoolwork really.

Tank's 2016

This year we had two ducklings. We liked them but they died. We got to go swimming and we got to go to the new pool at Jindera. At home we made a water slide.

Rosebud is my new sister, she is cute. She likes to play with me. I like to get Rosebud to pull my hand.














Ned Kelly was a famous bushranger so is Dan Morgan and Captain Thunderbolt. Ned Kelly was in Victoria new us, but Dan Morgan was in our area. We like to visit Morgan's Lookout. I found how Morgan got up to the top of the rocks at the lookout. I found a metal pin and a rope that he could have used. I also know where Morgan slept. Granny and Grandfather live where Captain Thunderbolt roamed.

The Man's 2016

One of my most favourite things that we did this year was going to the Blue Mountains and Canberra. I really liked the place that we stayed at the Blue Mountains. Going to Canberra was really fun because we went to Questacon and The Mint.

I also liked going to the Henty Field Day because there was lots of stuff to see and lots of freebies and we went shopping for free.

This year in November we got a new baby sister, we have nicknamed her Rosebud for the blog.

This year was really fun and I have really enjoyed the Christmas time with our cousins and wish we could spend more time with them. I am really looking forward to the New Year.

Princess' 2016

This year has flown by very fast. We have done lots this year!

This year we built the cottage and finished it. It was really cool seeing the progress on the cottage.

We did translating with Hanna Schultz. Of course it was only short sentences. We had lots and lots of fun translating the sentences. Hanna is translating the Bible for people in Papua New Guinea. You can read her blog here.

We also went to the Blue Mountains. We had lots of fun meeting Tante Waltraud (Aunty Waltraud) and going to a museum with her. We also went on a wild goose chase with Grandfather, Uncle Danny and Aunty Annette. The wild goose chase was looking for Alastor. Alastor is a hidden family place where my Great Grandfather came to know Jesus. It has a fireplace and a throne and a name tree. I call it a wild goose chase because we went the wrong direction bush bashing for three hours! We also went to the Jenolan caves and they were very beautiful.

This year we have made many trips to Canberra. We went to the Tom Roberts exhibition and Old Parliament house. We also went to the New Parliament House and Questacon. Questacon was AWESOME! It had a drop slide and taught you about lots of things to do with science. We also went to The Mint. The Mint was really cool with a staircase of coins and lots of interesting facts about coins and the making of them.

Rosebud was born in November this year. She was jaundice so she had to stay in hospital a little while.

This Christmas Mama's family have come down to visit. We have having sleepovers and lots of activities run by Uncle Simon.

Tiger's 2016

This year has gone by very quickly and a lot has happened in what seemed like a short time.

This year we have made multiple trips to Canberra and there we visited Questacon, the houses of parliament, the National Art Gallery, The Mint and various museums.

Earlier in January we had another tornado which mainly hit our neighbours.

This year we went to the Blue Mountains and had fun with Grandfather, Tante Waltraud (Aunty Waltraud), and Uncle Danny and Auntie Annette (long time family friends of Grandfather and Granny). While there we found a wild wallaby which we fed and patted. We also went to Jenolan Caves.

We had a super moon just after Rosebud was born...
I held it for a bit

We went to the Henty Field Days and had fun looking at the farm stuff. This year I had work experience in the shearing shed and occasionally got asked to be a Rouseabout.

This year in November we got a new baby sister.

It has been an exciting year nd I look forward to Christmas and the New Year.

Best News

15 years ago today, Christian and I shared our first kiss. 10 days later we were engaged, and 5 months after that married. Yes, it was and still is a whirlwind romance, with two real tornados thrown in for good measure.

Today, we share our seventh child, a wonderful blessing to all of us.

Her name is: Bethany Anne.

She was born at Wodonga Hospital at 8:44am on Tuesday November 8th 2016, weighing in at 4.4kg or 9 lbs 11oz.

Bethany means House of Song, and we pray this little lady will love singing praises to our great Father and our King Jesus, as much as we do. Anne means Grace, a reminder of God's great grace to us through Jesus, but also after my mother, who has been so gracious and caring during all seven of our children's births (and of course as they grow also). We look up to you a great deal, Mum. and pray our daughter gains some courage, strength and faith in hearing your story.

Yes, this is Sarah Joy's 7th caesarean section, 2nd surgery for this year and 10th surgery since we have been married. Recovery is hard, but God is with us and continues to sustain us.

Visiting can be arranged through Christian.

The Circulatory System

I have recently started a Khan Academy course on the human anatomy and physiology and have decided to write blog posts on the different systems of the body, so here is the Circulatory System.

The Circulatory System includes the heart (pump) arteries (outflow pipes) and veins (inflow pipes). The heart acts like a pump to push oxygenated blood around the body through arteries to give the cells food and oxygen, and to pump deoxygenated blood back to the heart through the veins. So let's see how it works.

Let's say you're an oxygenated red blood cell and you're starting your journey in the Aortic arch you will go out to the lower body in one of the three arteries. As you go through the body the arteries will start to branch off and get smaller. You will go past lots of cells and tissues giving them your oxygen and they will give to you their carbon dioxide. You will then go into a vein and make the journey back as a deoxygenated red blood cell. Eventually you will come to the Inferior Vena Cava (if you had gone to the upper body will have come to the heart through the Superior Vena Cava) from there you will go into the Right Atrium (this is from the person who owns the heart's perspective) and when the Tricuspid valve opens (the valves opening and shutting make the lub dub (S1 S2) sound you hear)  you will be pumped into the Right Ventricle. From there the Pulmonary Semilunar valve will open letting you be pumped into the Pulmonary trunk (anything with the word Pulmonary means it has some thing to do with the lungs). From the Pulmonary trunk you will branch off into either the right or left Pulmonary arteries, You will then go into the lungs. Passing by the alvioli you will get oxygenated and give the lungs the carbon dioxide which it will exhale out. You will then be an oxygenated red blood cell again!

From the lungs you will be pumped back into the heart via the Pulmonary veins. From there you will make your way into the left atrium. When the Mitral valve (here the Bicuspid valve) opens you will go into the Left Ventricle and finally when the Aortic valve opens you will be back inside the Aortic arch ready to go back in to the body many more times (unless your owner is a crazy one and cuts him/herself and you find youself outside the body but lets hope that doesn't happen).         

Well that is the Circulatory system for you and I hope you go back just that little bit more smarter.

By the Tiger

Alastor Adventure by Princess

Auntie Annette tending the fire.

Me on the throne of Alastor.

We got ready to go to Alastor (a special family place) with Grandfather, Uncle Danny and Auntie Annette. We got in the cars and began driving. We were in the Blue Mountains. We drove straight through Blackheath and down a winding road into the Megalong Valley. 

Daddy on the throne of Alastor.

We parked the cars and began walking. It was so extreme and adventurous all at the same time. After two hours of extreme bush bashing we were starving hungry, exhausted and desperate to get there. 

We sent two of the adults to get the cars and walked further down the road. When the cars came we drove up the road and to find a place to have lunch but before we could have lunch Grandfather found Alastor. 

Some of the beautiful fungi we found.

It was beautiful, and we were successful! There were cliffs towering majestically overhead. To the right a stream bubbling softly over rocks. To the left the queenly moss covered throne of Alastor. There was a name tree with names carved into the tree, and a moss fireplace. 

We had lunch and went to explore our superb scenery, with moss covered boulders, fungi and rainforest trees. It was so wild yet so beautiful. We stayed for a few hours before we left. We had so much fun. Finding Alastor was really an adventure.

Can you find the A in the cliff ?

Written by Princess