Sunday, December 30, 2012

Quick 2012 Wrap Up...

And yep, it WILL be quick LOL  Apparently it's dinner time :/  Kids want feeding - funny that :P

Anyways I know this blog has been a wee bit neglected (ok a LOT!!) and I apologise.  Our life has been thrown upside down and turned inside out throughout the year that has been 2012..  So much has happened, and we've been through a lot, but we are happy to see the end of the year and be able to say "We Survived!!!!"

So in brief.....

Aerynn has been very ill :(  We still have no diagnosis despite 6 weeks as an inpatient in the Melb RCH and 2 other weeks running all over the lower SE of SA and western Vic for tests and the likes...  We are however slowly piecing together what may be happening.  The current suspects are not what we first thought.  We are actually looking at a form of dwarfism called Russel-Silver Syndrome along with suspected Paediatric Crohns Disease.  Neither we could have foreseen and all we can do is wait for the formal diagnosis and roll with the blows as they come.  I have been blogging about Aerynn's health and journey to diagnosis and beyone on a separate blog here:  Aerynns Journey

We moved to Victoria, into what was meant to be a cosy little cottage, only to discover it was far from that... imagine a neglected shack with no floors (well huge holes to through to the earth below that were covered with chipboard if we were lucky), no insulation, mouse and mosquito infested, constant earth faults with the electricity, plumbing that didn't work and the landlady from hell...  Far from cosy!!  We moved there on the understanding all work would be completed on it within 3 weeks of our move in date - pfft... nothing done other than receiving excuses and in the end abuse :/  We stuck it out there for the 6 months of our lease and then moved back to SA where we have a great home now in Nangwarry :)

The kidlets have become chicken breeders!!!  Yup, they breed a bantam breed of chicken called Pekin.  They are the most friendliest little birds out and they love their new hobby, and I have to admit the free-range eggs are a HUGE bonus ;)

Aleks has settled into highschool really well and is looking forward to studying more to do with computers and possibly looking into IT as a future career path.

Kahli has graduated primary school and will be starting year 8 high school at Penola next year :) 

William is still our prankster...  Nothing new there!  He'll be in year 6 next year and our oldest at primary school **gasp**  where does the time fly!!!

And Little Dommy has started school already!!!  He had 3/4 a term of kindy after we moved back to SA and has LOVED it!!  He really has thrived!!!  That said we will be getting him investigated for possible aspergers/autism spectrum disorder in the new year at the request of the kindy.  We suspected this may be the case, but having his quirks highlighted in a class of other students of the same age make it a widdle bit obvious ;)

And Aerynn is our little Aerynn...  She's still little (only just moving into size 00's at 17 months old) but hitting all her milestones right on track or even a little early with some of her fine motor skills!!  She's talking, babbling, running, jumping, climbing (oh my grey hair!!!) and well, just being a delightful little toddler :) 

What else... ummm  Nathan is still at kmart, still umpiring and driving us all insane :P  I'm allowed to say that cos I live with him bahahhahaa   

and me, well nothing much changes here... still working on building my photography business, trying to find time to craft when I can :)

I guess I should admit that along the way of working through the year we discovered that despite our best preventative measures our family will be expanding again by 2 little feet :/  Little Toby will be joining our family sometime late March.  We have no definite due date as we found out too late to be exact but it's a surprise that we were NOT expecting!!!  PS:  this is still not common knowledge, if you have mutual contacts (in particular certain family contacts - and you should know what I mean if you are aware of said contacts) we would appreciate this not be gossiped about...

So all in all 2012 has been a bit of a challenge, a lot of surprises and quite a bit of frustration.  We're hoping that 2013 will be a lot more settled and bring with it a few more smiles, answers and positivity :) 

Well, it was kinda short :P