Our super hot, awesomely fun trip to the Goldie (for Carl & Brooke's wedding!)

A few weeks (actually months ago now cause it's taken me so long to post this!) we got back from an amazing, fun-filled 2 weeks on the Goldie. The kids had been hanging out for this trip for a few months since Uncle Carl & Aunty Brooke announced they were getting married in Jan, so when the day to leave finally rolled around the excitement levels were through the roof!!

My iphone died while I was over in Oz though so unless the phone guys are able to recover my pics & videos from the airport & the plane (Spencer's 1st ever time on a plane!!) we'll never be able to see just how excited the boys were, but trust me they were totally hyped :)

Here are the pics of our awesome trip that I managed to get on the big camera - I still haven't managed to replace my lens so way too many of the pics are out of focus, but I had to include them anyways cause they're the best I've got & I don't want to forget any of the memories of our amazing time!

This guy clowning around hassling Pete & his bum bag lol

A fun game of family feud on Friday night to kick off the family reunion

Then Saturday morning was onto the minute to win it games

It doesn't really matter who wins as long as someone beats Azza haha.....this is him giving Mac a little team talk about letting him shoot & Mac sorting the super important job of picking up the bullets lol

Dad & the bros before heading out to Carl's boys dinner the night before the wedding

Who looks as amazing as B Rocka after just having had a baby a week before?!

So blurry but I love the way these two love each other & are always 
up for a little posing for the camera xxx

And how adorable is this little cheeky face! x

Trying to get a nice cuzzy photo with the newest arrival, Lukey - not an easy thing to do obviously, so this is the best I got!

The little bro on the morning of his wedding!!! Pretty cool, calm 
& collected & super excited to be marrying the girl of his dreams <3

Our good looking children....I know I'm biased but I seriously think 
all the cousins from our family are super handsome/beautiful!

Mum would've been so proud!! Just imagining her on the 
other side of Carl in this pic xxx

And just to finish off a few pics from the professional photographer....Brooke was the most stunning bride! Carl really did hit the jackpot finding an eternal companion that's so beautiful both inside & out. And not only that - she sung him a song at the reception & her voice is amazing!! So exciting to have another special sister & aunty join the family xxx

Our GC holiday is definitely one we'll never forget & can't wait to do again someday....just preferably not in Jan in the 35-40 degree heat next time!!! 

Christmas 2016

Well after HUGE anticipation, Christmas 2016 is done & dusted! It started for us on Christmas Eve with presents & dessert up at Aunty Jose's house & then carried on with presents & church on Sunday morning (for me only) & our usual yummy as lunch at Aunty Mells. This year has flown by pretty quick seeing as it doesn't really seem that long ago that we were swapping parcels at the end of 2015! Here are all the pics.....

Red envelopes with money from Bubu :)

Spence finally got 2 packs of the water balloons he's been DYING for from Aunty Jose & Uncle Mattsy - along with $20 spending money for Australia! Woohoo....talk about spoilt :)

Then Mac got a Stephen Curry basketball & spending money, lucky boy!

The dessert spread....we probably really should've communicated better cause we ended up with 2 cheesecakes lol. Mine was an experiment cheesecake top & brownie bottom recipe along with a strawberry sauce that you pour all over the top. Worked perfectly & was pretty yum, but I think I'll just stick the biscuit base next time :)

After that it was straight home to get ready for bed & Santa....

These guys were just a teensy bit excited until Spencer hopped into bed & started freaking out about Santa actually coming into our house...he got pretty majorly beside himself & was too scared to fall off to sleep, so in the end I had to text Santa to ask him to please just leave the presents on the deck this year. He was still a little bit worried about the whole thing though so I'm pretty sure I ended up falling asleep before him....& then woke up in a panic at about 1:30am thinking oh man I fell asleep & haven't put the pressies out yet! Thank goodness I still had heaps of time!

So yeah, in the morning this little guy was super stoked to get his remote control car from Santa :) He'd originally asked for a dinosaur, but I didn't wanna get him one cause he doesn't even really like them anymore & I knew there was no way he'd really play with it - not for long anyways....so I put the idea of a remote control car into his head & after a few weeks it'd completely stuck! Another reason I was keen on him wanting one is cause they came up on an awesome special at the Warehouse so I'd already gone ahead & got it for him haha....

So anyway, all was good in the hood, until we cut open the box & put in the batteries. After that we tried to turn it on & got absolutely NOTHING!! Man what an epic fail on that account cause it was the only toy in all his presents so he was pretty gutted that he had no toys to play with for the rest of the day :(

Thank goodness we managed to rectify the whole situation today though & swap it up at the Warehouse for one that works! He's been playing with it all afternoon now & totally LOVES it :)

Mac with this imitation "Go Pro". He was probably a little disappointed that it wasn't the real deal, but I know that'll all disappear once he's actually tried it!

Christmas pics with my boys x

I'm trying to remember & make more of an effort to be in more photos with the boys cause I know how priceless our pics with Mum are now that she's gone.... & if anything ever happens to me I want the boys to have memories galore!

Joe's usual cooking the barby shot :)

The mean spread - Mell's chicken coated wedges always top 

the list for me!

The little energizer motormouth conked 

out for a little cat nap after lunch :)

Cuddles with Indie on her 1st Christmas x

The waterballoon fiend ;) Couldn't handle getting wet though! 

What the heck?! He was crying to Uncle Jo about how he got water on his face lol...Strange kid 

A few tears from Spence & Ella - they loved dishing it out, but found it 

a bit hard to take!

The next door neighbours just had to look in on all the excitement while wishing that they were part of the fam!

I got sunglasses for all of the kids for their Chrissy presents & the kid I thought would be into them the least was the one that wore them the whole afternoon without even taking them off!

I think this little critters finally got my name down....man the number of times she's called me Aunty Mell lol

Mell's mandatory kitchen prep shot

These guys spotted noodles when we started on dessert & were desperate to have some seeing as I always say no to noodles at home...so Uncle Jo cooked up 8 packets in the pot & the boys were in heaven!

The next Christmas victim around 4pm in the afternoon....

Pic of the Christmas Day cuzzie crew 2016 (minus Jords & Spency)

And that was pretty much the end of an awesome day right before we rolled home to bed!

Up at the mall today Spence had a turn in Santa's chair before they pack it all away again until next year!!!! Bring on 2017...

Just a quiet couple of weeks now until we set off to Australia!!! x