Duane's Rock Climbing Adventure!

Duane had a fantastic time away last weekend in the Blue mountain on his rock climbing adventure. He climbed with instructors from the Australian School of mountaineering in Katomba. He learnt a lot about safety and technique. He said that Katomba was great place with good eateries. Unfortunately it was raining to much on the Sunday to climb again, but as compensation he is getting another whole weekend to be taken whenever he wants between now and next August! So hopefully I (Rae) might be able to go next time too! We will just need a babysitter... but it's a fair way off for now!

Our Baby Party!

We had an awesome afternoon a couple of weeks ago, when we had the great pleasure having some lovely friends over for a little baby party! Many people we had not seen in a while took the drive to Canberra, and it meant so much to us! Some of the girls organized a couple of games, including a "guess the content of the nappy" game, which luckily was all forms of chocolate, but they were still warm from the microwave, and that in itself was more than a little off putting to most people!
We would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who traveled up to see us, it meant a lot to us! And we hope to see many of you again soon, cos I'm sure baby cuddles are worth a little drive to Canberra? :-)
Thank you too for all the wonderful presents and beautiful cards, it is wonderful to know that our baby will have so many loving wonderful people around them!
Big Hugs to all,
Duane and Rae

Nursery is mostly ready, now we just need a baby!

The nursery has been a work in progress for a little while now, but we think we are now mostly done! Since Duane only ever has Sundays off, it's been going in bits and pieces, but we are feeling so blessed with all the lovely gifts and particularly all the wonderful bibs, burpers, wraps, quilts and nursery items that Kim has been busy making!

Here are just some of the items, The Lemon and white nappy stacker and matching change table organiser also has a matching mosquito net and cot quilt! This is our ebay bargain change table as well, only $15 and it is even the same colour wood as our lovely cot!

The nappies have all been pre-washed several times, and are stacked ready to go. Duane still wants another nappy changing demo lesson, but other than that we are all set! They are much easier than traditional terry squares, so he is feeling pretty confident. :-)

The teddy chain has a special corner hook, and there is sure to be some more soft toys and teddies added to it soon.

The bassinet is going to be in our room for the first little while, as the nursery is a bit of a distance away, and is shown here with one of the beautiful cross stitches that Kellie has been making for us.


And here is the little (but getting bigger so quickly!) kitty who would LOVE to claim the nursery as her own... hmmm...
She is particularly fond of the change table, but I'm sure once she has the smells associated with it as well, she will not be as keen! She is very well behaved around our friends little baby, so we are hoping she will cope quite well to the new arrival!
All the small sized clothes and bassinet linen are washed and put away ready for a little one, and as Duane is taking a full month of leave, he should have a few days in which he can get the capsule installed in the car, and other such last minute jobs.
So we are very excited that it is only a matter of weeks until we will have our very own Green Baby!
We hope you are all well, please feel free to leave us messages in the comments section, and there should be quite a few new photos soon! Just waiting to get them off the camera and onto something that Rae can use on the laptop, so that posts can come much more often!
Duane and Rae xox

YAY! A picture of Duane!

Just thought we should prove Duane is still around and as handsome as ever... *grin*
This is Duane and Rosa, taken just before Danielle and James's Engagement Party in July. Unfortunately our camera batteries died and we didn't get many photos... But we did have a wonderful time! It was also the very last time Rae left the house without being completely confined to the wheelchair, and so we very feel glad that we were able to go and spend such a lovely time with everyone!

We would like to introduce...

PEANUT!!!
Peanut is finally together, after having all his pieces knitted - then left lying around our lounge room...
We are glad to report that Sora and Peanut are good friends, and there has been no stuffing leaks from their "playing", so that's good. And as he has no buttons or joints, we are hoping Beanie and Peanut get along great as well!
For the record, the name Peanut came from looking very peanut shaped for a few days while his arms and legs where being stuffed, and it has just stuck!
And this picture is just for the fun of it, this is the roof of our BLACK car this morning, pretty isn't it! Makes things hard for Duane in the mornings though, he always has to allow time to unfreeze the windows!

In other news...

Duane had a wonderful birthday last Wednesday (apart from having to work and then have a meeting, so his day was rather full!), and we have been busy playing his new board game . We still haven't had his birthday dinner though, as he came down with the flu the following morning, and still hasn't recovered, so it has been postponed until he can taste things again! In the meantime, Andrew has also come down sick, Rae is just getting it now, and even Sora has been sneezing etc! Hopefully it'll all ease soon!

We have also been blessed with many visitors over the last week, so life has been very busy, but it is great catching up with people!

And we are off to Sydney for Danielle and James' Engagement party this weekend, so this is sure to be new photos soon! (It's about time Duane was actually IN some photos... so lets make that an aim!)

love and hugs,

Duane and Rae

Beanie has been doing some serious growing!

Well it may be cos Beanie hit my ribs and now has to go out, or it may be a huge growth spurt, but the belly seems to be getting bigger everyday! It's a good thing though, got a lot of growing to do, and it's the final triemster, so go for it Beanie!!!

Well we have started a bit of a stocktake, having a look through all our baby stuff (most of it we haven't bought, we have been given so much!) So these pictures are just the 0000's that we have, and there is a similar amount of 000's! So we are all set for the first little while after bubs is born! We have also put up a pic of our new baby bath, and on the wall behind you can hopefully see the showerhead atachment that is part of the bath, so we don't even have to worry about filling and lifting the bath, and then it has a plug and hose to empty too! Rae is particularily happy with this set up, no bending required!! WOOHOOO! :-)

And we have comments, YAY!!! Thank you!!
Nathan and Emily, don't meantion the names thing... we haven't thought about it in months!!! And we know we need to get a move on, so we'll get back to you... *grin*

Love and Hugs,
Duane, Rae & Beanie

We have Mitten success!!

This is much better, this one will fit! and the pattern is so much straighter as well! Still need to go get ribbon to put in though...

I am already half way through it's partner, I think I almost have the pattern memorised now!