About time....

It's been another month and a half - oops!

My world is pretty upside down at the moment. Without going into too much detail on the good old WWW it's suffice to say that things are pretty sh*tty :( My beautiful mum has been diagnosed with cancer just a few weeks after christmas. In a cruel twist of fate, this is not the only cancer diagnosis we are coming to terms with at the moment. Dan's Mum also received the bad news that she has cancer just a week or so before christmas.

Since the new year has begun, we seem to have had one blow after another. I am busy trying to sort the big boys out as we struggle to figure out what is going on with Lachlan. He has had me worried for at least a year now but his teacher confirmed my worries and let me know that he is way behind his peers at school and seems to have some learning/concentration issues - who knows what's going on there?? We have a Paed. appointment for him in June to watch this space

We have also been following up on something that was picked up for Cody last school year - he has a moderate hearing loss in his right ear and after several different appointments to specialists and audiologists today I took him to have a hearing aid fitted. Now the poor little boy is complaining that everything is loud... he'll just have to give it a chance to get used to it and see if it helps him at all.

Since we found out about our mums I have had a pretty hard time myself. It's hard for me to admit but I have really fallen in a bit of a heap and have arranged to get some in home child care for the little ones while I wade my way through my issues. We've had the carer here for two weeks now (for three days a week) and I qualify for 13 weeks fully paid for by centrelink (so 11 to go!) In a way it's good to have the help and it frees me up to look after myself a little more, but on the other hand I am finding it a bit difficult as I can't hide behind the craziness of everyday business and it leaves me time to be in my own head, which I'm not liking too much at the moment :(

Anyhow... it's all a bit miserable at the moment so I won't bore you all with any more of my sob story... hopefully I can come back soon with a bit more cheery news!

Marns
xx

Almost three months....ooops!

It's been almost three months since my last post... sooooo much has changed!

I don't even know where to begin. We welcomed our second daughter Isla Jayde Horton into our family on the 3rd of December and she is an absolute delight. We all love her so much and she has just fit right in.

Christmas was nice. Darrin and Cameron came home and Rod and Dana were here so for once we were all together! Of course the time went too quick and after a few weeks they returned back to the UK.

The school holidays have been and gone. The kids have now returned to school and are settling into the new school year. Cody is in Pre primary and Lachlan is now in grade 2! They both seem happy with their classes and I am hopeful that they will have a good year.

We have had some really terrible news with some health issues in our extended family since Christmas and without going into it in detail, things are tough :( I've typed this paragraph three times (in different ways) and then deleted it again! I think I will leave it at that for now. I'll update some more down the track...

We still have the block in Wellard though we are now pretty uncertain about what we are doing! The house has been pulled off the market for the time being - I just couldn't cope with all the stress so we'll give it a few more months and then re-evaluate and make a decision.

The dynamic duo are still keeping us on our toes and as cheeky as ever. I am dealing with a lot of anger and frustration from them at the moment and am not really sure what to do with all the hitting, pushing, hair pulling and agro that they are displaying towards one another - I am just crossing my fingers and hoping that they outgrow it - SOON!

I think that's about it for us... so now I am updated I will try to keep up and post more regularly ;)

M.

So much has happened

since my last post! firstly the twins are finally walking!! Yay!! They are so cute the way they toddle around the house and seem so much happier now that they are a little more self sufficient. They have also been teething (with those yucky eye teeth) so that has been fun for all (NOT!!) but they seem to have settled down a bit this last week so fingers crossed they will be happier for a little while now.

I have had them both at the skin specialist last week for their discoid excema and I am so glad we have finally had it seen to! It was getting to the point where they looked all manky and scabby all over and were super irritable all the time from it. I felt so sorry for them but nothing I was doing was helping to clear it up and it was driving us all insane!! Now they have been prescribed a MUCH stronger steroid cream and I can see a huge difference in just a matter of days. We are taking them back in two weeks so the Dr can see the improvement and decide where to go from there but finally we have a definitive diagnosis and a treatment that works.

We took delivery of our new car a few weeks ago. It's a Toyota Hiace commuter and although I can't say I am in love with it (after all - I never dreamed I would become a bus driver!!) it certainly makes life easier. The kids are really comfy in it and have heaps of room. We can take extras in the car now and the boot is really massive so serves all our needs and I am slowly getting used to driving and parking it. It's actually not too bad to drive - It's just the getting used to where it starts and ends when parking it that I am still nervous about but I am sure I will get there soon.

I am now 36 weeks pregnant and trying very hard to remain positive. I need to keep reminding myself that although I am 'over it' bubs is far better off in than out even at this point and there is a reason people are pregnant for 40 weeks. This will be my last pregnancy and although I am ready for the next stage of our lives there will always be a part of me that misses the miracle of making a whole new person and creating life so I am trying my hardest to cherish these last few weeks and remember it all - soon it will just be a distant memory!

The big kids are getting very excited now about the impending arrival of their baby sister! Niamh in particular is looking forward to being my little helper - she is such a little mummy!! I think she will drive me batty but she will love being a big sister :)

It's Niamh's 3rd birthday this Sunday too! I can't believe how fast she is growing up. We are planning on a simple one this year for her - just a sausage sizzle at home for the family and a cake - not sure which cake yet but as long as it is pink she is happy! I will make sure I get back and post some pics of the birthday girl after the event.

M.

After our relaxing break in Busselton....

I need a holiday, ha ha ha!

The kids had a great time though! We stayed at the Mercure apartments right on the beach front and although the weather was pretty dodgy the whole time we were there (Thurs, Fri, Sat nights) we still managed to get out and about and do enough to keep the kids entertained. The twins were little delights though.... they really don't seem to enjoy car rides or sitting in the pram and they made sure we knew about it at every possible opportunity!

We took the older ones in the indoor pool/spa a few times and we watched DVD's, played board games and hung around in the apartment as well as a few little bike rides between the rain showers! We went out to Dunsborough and Margaret River one day and did the whole chocolate factory/Simmos ice cream thing so the kids were pretty happy with that :)

But.. all good things must come to an end and we are back to the daily grind now! Lachlan is off at school for his last week of term 3 (can you believe how fast that has gone??) and I am back to doing a tonne of washing and cleaning and trying desperately to sort this house out!

On the house front - we are at a standstill at the moment! We are still trying to patch and paint and clean so that we can put this place on the market but we have signed up for the new house with RedInk (subject to sale of this place) so we are slowly moving in the right direction! The block should settle tomorrow (was supposed to be a few weeks ago but the sellers weren't ready yet!) Once we settle on the block we can take a look at the shed and see if it's any good for storage and we can start thinking about our next move. I am feeling really overwhelmed at the thought of trying to sell this house (actually, of trying to keep it clean and presentable for sale) while going through the life changing events of adding baby number 6 to our family but I guess we will manage - somehow!

I am now almost 30 weeks pregnant - not long to go in the scheme of things now. I am trying really hard not to think about this pregnancy too much as I don't want the end to drag on. I have a feeling I am not going to find this last 10 weeks as easy as I have found the beginning. Max and Blake are really hard work at the moment - they are just such heavy lumps and are not walking yet so they require me to lift and lugg them everywhere. They are also into absolutely everything all the time and the only way I can keep my sanity is to keep them in the playpen as much as possible. I feel a bit bad about that and I know I can't keep them in there forever but at the moment I just don't feel like I am physically capable of keeping up with them if they have the freedom of the house. I need to be a bit more careful though - just last week I nearly did a repeat performance of my last pregnancy when I was carrying Max and stepping over the playpen. I tripped and stumbled - kind of throwing him out in the air and was so lucky that I managed to regain my footing before dropping him and myself to the floor! I must have scared him (poor little guy, cried a bit!) and I know I scared myself so note to self : be more careful!

I am still trying to focus on getting ready for christmas and the kids birthdays so that should take up a lot of my time and energy over the next few weeks! I have started my Xmas shopping but I am nowhere near finished yet so that is the challenge for now - to get it all done before I am incapable of doing it!

Tomorrow is Cody's sports day at school and he is very excited that I will be there to watch him! I hope the twins are as excited to sit in their pram all morning ;) I'm going to need a lot of snacks and bribes to survive this one! I'll try to come back with some photos of him over the next few days!

M.

What a healthy bunch we are!

Well, after my post last week things kept going downhill! Blake's rash just got worse and worse and he looked terrible. He had the crusty scabby patches all over his back and chest and then developed a fine sandpaper like rash between the big blotches that covered him pretty much from head to toe! We ended up at the Drs and after taking one look at it he declared that it was a bad eczema flare up with an infection on top of it! Poor little man was so itchy and so miserable! We have now been prescribed an antibiotic for the infection and a cortisone cream for the rash and I am to take him back on mon to see how he is going and decide if we need a referral to a skin specialist. I must admit that after two days of the treatment he is looking a lot better already. The bad patches are much less red and although he still feels terrible all over he is starting to look a bit clearer.

I also ended up going downhill! I had that major headache and it still hasn't really gone away yet. I went to the Drs and was told it was a sinus infection so I am on AB's too and it is slowly improving. I'm on my 8th or 9th day now with this headache but thankfully is is now at a tolerable level so I am just trying to ignore it!

As a result of being sick the house looks like a tip site! I have been unable to bend down and pick stuff up or hang washing out so I have sooooooo much catching up to do this weekend :( To top it off, I was supposed to be working my way through sorting this house out this weekend so we could get onto painting and patching the walls in preparation for putting it on the market! Now thanks to having been sick I guess that is postponed for another week! Grrr!!

On a more positive note I can report some good news :) Rod and Dana had their second bubby yesterday morning in Kalgoorlie! A beautiful little girl named Grace Lillian! Welcome to the world little girl and congratulations to Rod, Dana and big sister Caitlin! We can't wait to meet her and have a cuddle!!

M.

I like to sing...La La Laaa Laaa Laaaaaa!

Yep - you guessed it! We went to the Justine Clark concert today! We ended up taking all 5 kids since Max and Blake were free if they sat on our knees and to my surprise the babies really really enjoyed themselves! They sat and watched the whole thing clapped and cheered and waved their arms around and Max even had a little sing along on my knee "Laaa Laaaa Laaaaaaaaah!" So cute!! The other kids really enjoyed it too. Neevie happily danced and sang away through the whole thing. Lachlan and Cody were a little more reserved at first (I think Lachie might have thought he was too cool to sing in the beginning but it got the better of him by the end!) They all chatted about it all afternoon long so I am pretty sure they had a good time!

Other than that we are still dealing with illness in this house! I am really really tired of it! I have personally been battling a head cold for weeks now and it just won't quit. I have had a headache for four days in a row now and it is really quite debilitating! I have been unable to do much at all as bending over to hang washing/pick up toys/even pick up kids makes my head thump! It hasn't helped that I have a tickly cough and every time I cough I have to hold my head and wince in pain! I really hope it is better by tomorrow - otherwise I think a Drs. visit is on the cards for me later in the week!

Cody has has asthma issues for a few years now but never clearly diagnosed. He was always wheezy in winter as a baby and now in childhood he is pretty bad following a cold every winter. He has major coughing fits that almost cause him to throw up and render him useless on the couch when he is really bad. Thankfully I took him the the Dr last week and we ended up getting a proper diagnosis and a prescription for a new tablet called Singulair that is taken one a day as a preventer. So far he has been taking it and it has really made a difference I think/ We have gone to only needing Ventolin a few times a week (usually still after running or playing outside) as opposed to needing it every day without fail before!

Blake has had a really nasty rash on his back, sides and chest for four days now. I have no idea what it is any more. Initially I thought it was eczema, then I thought it might be ringworm given it's patchiness but the antifungal cream is not really working on it and it looks almost as bad today as it did the day it came up (Friday). He is really aggro and itchy and as soon as you give him the chance he is scratching at it till it bleeds on his chest (so he has had to wear those bodysuit singlets every day and has really quick baths while we hold his hands down). The only think I can think is that he already had eczema (mild) on his body and the day before it came up bad I had given him some 100% orange juice, which in hindsight was a bad idea. I have a Drs appointment for him on Thursday so we will see what the Dr says. I have no idea what to do for him now so I am hoping the Dr gives us a solution - fast!

Max has a few small patches on his back but nothing like Blake so who knows if it's contagious or a skin allergy or what...

Now... for other news....

Just in case I didn't have enough to do at the moment what with having five kids under 7 and being 25 weeks pregnant we have bought a block of land in the last few weeks! It's something we have been umming and aahing over since easter but we finally bit the bullet and did it! The block is in Wellard (in Homestead Ridge) and it's a half acre so we should have enough room to build a nice big house and still give the kids lots of room to run and play as they grow up! So now begins the process of sorting, cleaning and patching our house and putting it on the market. Then we will need to figure out where we are going to live while we build (should be real easy renting with 6 kids - NOT!) and it's pretty unsettling to think that I really want to start thinking about this baby and setting up for her arrival but I have to push it out of my mind since I don't even know where we will be living and where 'home' will be when we bring her home!!! Talk about crazy stuff!

Aaaah, Life is never dull in a large family!

M.

rain rain go away....

I am soooo over winter! It seems we have been sick in this house for a few months solid now and I am so tired of it :( I wish winter would just go away and the kids would get rid of all the bugs and germs they are sharing so freely amongst each other!

The twins are still sick - it seems to have lasted the longest in them. Thankfully the gastro is long gone but they have pretty horrible colds at the moment and so as a result this last week was a shocker for sleep. Not too good when I am 23 weeks pregnant and starting to get uncomfortable as it is, and then my husband is getting up at 5am every day to go to work - working till at least 4.30pm and then on days like thursday he went back to work once the kids were in bed and came home at about 11.45pm. He has also gone into work for a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday mornings this weekend!! It seems like he is always working at the moment!! I shouldn't complain as I know he has to do it and it's all for us in the long run but man, I am tired!!

There are a few other things going on here at the moment but I will write about them when they are more set in concrete. We should be getting the new car in a few months time so that will be exciting and everyone is looking forward to our new baby girl joining our family.

It's both Dan's and my 30th Birthdays this year (Dan in July and me in August) so we are doing a combined birthday party/dinner next weekend for our families. I have a bit of work to do this week cleaning and preparing for that but am now looking forward to celebrating that (I didn't want to do anything initially but now am glad that we are doing a 'small' family event.) It's still going to be a big enough crowd with all our lot here, LOL!

Ok, well... kids are screaming and it's all falling apart here so I'd better go sort them out!

M.