Such random factoids....

So, whilst cruising the blogs tonight I came across one of the ones that I follow and her post today was titled "Random Facts About Little Ol' Me.

Now normally I wouldn't care about something such as this but after reading it through I thought I would give my two cents worth about myself.

{Note: I do not have pics of myself as a child to sprinkle through the piece and would not even if I did.!}

So here they are - Random facts about little ol' me

- i have two half sisters and a half brother {one half sister i have never met and have no intention of doing so}
- i once had a feral cat as a pet and named it appropriately "Cat"
- i have been to 38 countries and lived happily in 3 for an extended length of time {not including Australia of course!}
- i dyed my hair peroxide blonde when i was in Japan
- my first car was a 1963 EH Holden station wagon with no seat belts that i called Edgar Harold
- birds make me nervous and i will. never. have. one. in my house as a pet!
- i get vertigo and cannot...repeat. cannot go near an edge near a drop {even a scene in a movie including heights gives me wobbly knees!}
- i am working on my shopping addiction.
- my favourite meal is Peking Duck. my second would be the beer battered shrimp with blackberry wasabi sauce from a restaurant that no longer exists in Vegas. :(
- Olivia Newton John has been my girl-crush for all my life {i just wanted to be like her so bad. think Grease, Xanadu and Physical..come on every girl of the seventies did...who's with me? The chick has style!}
- Hugh Jackman and John Cusack are my man-crushes {Before you get all excited Darling hubby knows}
- i have a tattoo that means a lot to me and would like to get another but don't know where or what to get.
- i have trouble getting to sleep but no problems staying asleep {should I get the opportunity to do so.}
- i will not..repeat allow a spider in the bedroom. The rest of the house is ok.
- i kill cockroaches {filthy rotten creatures} like there's no tomorrow. don't come near me if you can survive a nuclear attack cos' you won't survive me! I'll hunt you down with my bare hands.
- my brother cannot eat watermelon due to me torturing him as a child. {it was my job as his older sister!}
- i also broke his foot and burnt his hand with an iron {in my defence I warned him to move his hand!}
- i saved my sister from choking when she was two. {Lauren - you're welcome! World? The jury is still out and I understand. he he ;)}
- i am the proud owner of a Picasso drawing {thanks to my darling hubby}
- i hate sand but love the ocean.
- i hate swimming in the ocean {too many beasties} but love swimming in lakes.
- i really love dance music.
- i love survival/zombie/horror/thriller movies
- i have the best job in the world and the most wonderful family to share it with.

There you go - a little bit about me. Not that you asked but now you know!

Ooohhh...

I've just realized that I'm going to have to change the header of this blog when we move.

We're no longer going to be in LV, we'll be in Portland, TX.

Portland Aussies doesn't have the right ring to it though.

TX Aussies? Nope, doesn't have it either.

Gunna have ta think about this one.

Just another thing to add to my "To Do" list.

Yay!

Finally...

So here are the Christmas piccies.

Are they fantastic? Not in a million.

You'll just have to forgive me for the selection/quality that I have but PPUUHHLLEEAASSEE remember that Storm was taking video of the awesome twosome slowly opening their gifties and I was trying to get them excited and whipped into a present-opening frenzy! {We only have two sets of hands to work with here!}

{I'm sure that Stormy will have the video up here soon and hopefully that will give you a little insight into our morning.}

We started with the pressies that Santa left in their sacks. Yes, their enthusiasm was astounding {sarcasm} and I even went to the effort of making sure that Santa's elves wrapped them sloppily so there would be plenty of "tear" spots.

{They both look like they need to go back to sleep!}

Presents from Mum and Dad next. The girls scored big but still managed to fight over one book. All the presents in the world but they both wanted the one book with a puppy on the front.

 Of course, who can forget the fur babies enjoying their pressies from the stocking. Lasted all of about 3 minutes. But hey, it's Christmas!

So, that's it. I told you that there weren't many piccies.

I didn't get any of Stormy {or myself for that matter} or any of the meal that we shared {I cooked atrociously that day - but that's another story with a very messy end!} and Stormy thankfully obviously didn't get any of me sleeping away the Kir Royales on the couch in the afternoon.

In fact if it wasn't for the girls I would forget this Christmas day all together. Such a shame considering that I love Christmas but we have quite a bit going on right now so my mind is everywhere/elsewhere. I didn't even cook a ham - just a miserable, scrawny, distasteful, rubbery chicken that made me sick afterwards. So sad...

But in all the girls loved their pressies and fingers crossed next year they'll be champing at the bit and we'll be complaining that we can't keep them out of the presents!

CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!

It's over...

Now, before you get excited I am not posting any piccies of Christmas today. {Confession: I haven't lifted them off the camera just yet and Storm has still got to get the oh-so-boring video of the girls opening the presents processed -think paint drying they just didn't get it!-so you'll just have to wait another day.}

In fact, we've been really busy getting things done around the house. Yes, the decorations have come down. The Christmas tree is...gone! The santa's are gone! Snowmen, tinsel, stars...all gone!

It's liberating.

But...

we look like we've been robbed {seriously!}. You must remember that I removed all the "year round" decor and packed it away before putting up the Christmas stuff and now I have no intentions of putting it back up again so the place is definitely lacking charm/personality/homey-ness etc. In fact I think I've heard an echo once or twice!

I'm am soooo happy that the totes are packed securely and transported down to the storage unit and out of my hair. I now have a path through the garage and can actually access the garage door without having to step over anything. Ta da! 

We have a bucketload to go {the attics are next on the agenda tomorrow - think paperwork beyond belief!} but we're hitting it hard! Only 12 more weekends to go before L.A. and Storm will be drinking with the boys icefishing for one of those.

Time is a-ticking!

Brunch with the girls

Carole called me and invited me to a get-together with some of the girls that I used to work with at Dr. T's. It was so great to catch up. These are a bunch of really great girls who I miss seeing on a daily basis. We caught up at Mimi's Cafe and had bruch (and a mimosa too!)

From left to right: Judy, Misty, Alecia, Carole and me.

 A bit of fun....

Christmas party

We had our christmas party on the weekend at yummy Buca di Beppo.

Storm and Al.

 Kerri and I.

 Joy, DV and their son, Vaughn.

 Now we had 6 adults and 8 kids in our party. 7 of them girls. Luckily we had this little area that they could kick back in.

 Oh, to be a teenager and too cool to sit down with the littlies!

Rockin' the piggies

Kendall won't let me do her hair. That is why she (and Sydney) have helmet hair. I decided that I'd had enough of helmet head so I put the hair in piggies and tried to keep Kendall's hands busy.

They looked so cute! (And they managed to keep them in the majority of the day. I only had to replace two bands and re-do Kendall's a couple of times. Success!)

See the chrissy tree behind Syd? It has a tide line of ornaments and decorations as the girls have taken anything and everything that I put up there. Oh well. Maybe next year....

Fun at the park

We've had a really interesting start to winter with only one real week of cold weather (enough to give me the poopies mind you!) and even though it's been raining the past couple of days (hey we live in a desert so I will take very drop that actually makes it to the ground) we had a couple of beautiful days in between. It gave us some time to get the girls out at the park and me some time to practice with the camera.

Kendall.

 A close up of Sydney. Now before anyone calls CPS because my kids look dishevelled I would like to offer the following in my defense. We gave the girls vegemite sandwiches to eat during the walk. Sydney is obviously a messy eater as the vegemite on her shirt rivals the vegemite left in the jar.

 That (the vegemite) and also the fact that she has discovered that she likes to slide down on her belly. More about that in 2 piccies.

 Yes, she was hamming it up for all and sundry (and having a good time as well!)

 Look at those delicious curls.

 Aw, my handsome, hairy hubby.

 Sydney discovered that she loves the slide down the slide on her belly. She did this all by herself with no prompting at all by either of us.

 And back to start it all again!

 Kendall is not so brave.

 Nope. But is it brave or stoopid she asks?

Opportunity Village

Every year November/December, Opportunity Village (a charity that provides help/training/work for the special needs members of our community) has The Magical Forest. They transform their grounds into a festival for Santa and lights and all things christmassy.

Storm and I went there years ago and promised that when we had kids we would bring them back. Guess what? We've got the kiddies now so we headed there to show them the lights.

The night wasn't that cold so I was happy to have them out and about that night so we lined up keeping some young girls in the line entertained with the twins. Yes, it appears that the girls thought it would be funny to grab every cheerio that I had in my hand and stuff them in their face (Sydney) or eat one cheerio out of my hand like a horse would eat a carrot (Kendall). So glad we could entertain.

I knew that the girls were not fans of Santa but didn't expect to have Kendall react so badly to a lifesize plastic Santa! Yes, it appears that Santa's have to be smaller than our little cherub.

Anyway, here are the piccies.

At the entrance. (Sorry - must apologize about the blurry. It was night and the auto focus focussed on the wrong thing - the sign). See Kendall checking out the lights? She loves them.

 Giant candy canes! Mmmm...I get a toothache just looking at them.

 Kendall can walk but chooses to hold our finger (lacks confidence) so you'll only see piccies of her leaning against something. We're working on her confidence.

 Sydney walking down the small slope. She is so good at walking and maintaining her balance on flat so she has a bit of fun when it comes to a slope.

 Told you about the Santa. A not-so-happy Kendall in white.

 She cheered up for the little house (it was a half-hearted smile for the camera!)

 But freaked out when it came to posing in Cinderella's reindeer drawn carriage. She was starting to get Syd down by this time.

 I stopped pointing out Santa so it became a matter of getting her to look at the camera. Didn't happen.

 Sydney was quite happy at this stage to touch (absolutely) everything and wander about.

We went out for dinner afterwards and had a great time dancing in our seats at Applebees. Yes, Applebees, the friendly neighbourhood restaurant, was rocking out the dance musak. Kendall loves a good beat and can amuse a table or two with her dance moves!

Aussie kids are weetbix kids!

There are a couple of items that are iconic to Australia.

Vegemite. Fosters. Shrimp on the barbie. Koalas. Kangaroos. You get the idea.

Something that is lesser known outside the country but equally iconic within our borders is Weetbix, the breakfast of champions. We can't buy it in supermarkets here so we have to order it {along with a few other Aussie faves} online from a company in the mid-west.

I've started giving it to the girls for brekky. It's a little messy but they're really getting into it now that the weather is cooler and that makes it nicer to have with warm milk. Yummmmm........

Yes, it's fork {I couldn't find the spoons!} but the tines are only small and the girls can still get a fair amount on it into their mouth...and their faces too.

Santa train

Last Sunday the Galvins joined our family for a ride on the Santa train.

Now I don't know if there has ever been a passenger train through Vegas or if it has always been cargo but down at Boulder City a wonderful bunch of volunteers man the "Santa train". This train goes about 3 miles towards Las Vegas and then goes backwards back to the station. It's not a long ride, nor is the view spectacular but it is the first time the girls have been on a train so it was special especially when Santa and Mrs Claus were involved!

Now I don't have any pics of Santa with the girls as they weren't exactly cooperative {the girls that is not Santa and Mrs Claus!}. Kerri did manage to get one of the girls sitting in our lap next to Santa {I still have to get it from her so cannot post it here now} and Kendall was still freaking out about him despite our presence! I'm kinda disappointed that the girls are having the "man-in-the-white-beard" reaction as it would be nice to have piccies of them every year in his lap but it seems kinda mean to put them through such a moment {especially Kendall} just for a photo. So we'll keep trying...maybe next year we'll have better luck.

Anyway, here are some pics of the train ride.
Who is that wonderful family? Oh, what joy, it's us!

 The Galvins {Lauryn was scared of Santa too so I didn't feel so bad about the girls not liking him}

 Daddy and his girls.

 Mummy and her girls. The volunteers decorate the train too and you can see a little of the deccies behind me. They must have spent some serious time hanging individual ornaments from the roof all the way down the gangway. It looked nice and helped give a "christmassy" feel. The ornaments also helped entertain Kendall who was most fascinated by their movement with the train. She was quite happy to lean back.

 Landree and Lily.

 Posing in Santa's sleigh that he most graciously left behind whilst visiting the kids on the train.

 Pity the girls can't write otherwise we could have posted their letters to Santa!