Happy Saturday Morning!

Look!  It's us!!! TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!!!
do the amount of exclamation marks, suggest how excited I am?

On Wednesday at 4.50pm, Lauriel and the kids arrived!  We are no longer in a long distance relationship, we no longer have to say "I love you" over the phone or via text (though we still text it to each other - old habits die hard), we no longer have a count down to when we can be together again, we are no longer saying 'when we live together'....  We ARE living together. 

The four kiddos waving Poppa off, on Friday morning.

The children are all getting along well - and most surprisingly, Eloise and Gaby appear to be getting on extremely well.  I'm not sure why they are getting along well, but we sure as hell aren't questioning it!  Gaby seems to understand that Eloise doesn't like being crowded by her, and enjoys having time to herself - while Eloise seems to have more of an understanding of what this time is like for Gaby, moving houses, leaving her Grandparents (& her father, though that's not as devastating for her).  This morning they enjoyed drawing Big Fat Gypsy-esque dresses & girls, and awhile later they were colouring in together.  Perhaps creativity is their little niche, as far as having things in common goes.

Eloise & Gaby sitting in a tree...

 Yesterday we had our first family photo taken - which also counted as our first Christmas photo, and first Santa photo.  Yes, we ALL got our photo taken with Santa.  They had a hard time fitting us all in the frame.  It's rather weird when your family suddenly doubles in size - who would have thought the impact would reach as far as the bloody frame on a camera????  We pick up our photo today, and yes - of course we will post the photo!  Last night we took the 3 oldest kids to have a look at various Christmas lights around the eastern suburbs, and I think they all had a good time - perhaps if they are good we will go hunting for lights, another night...  Especially if they go straight to sleep afterward, like they did last night.  Sleep has probably been the one area where we've had some little issues - that said, they aren't rowdy or whiny while trying to go to sleep... I think the three older ones are just enjoying the novelty of having someone else in the bedroom with them, to talk to and laugh with...  I do hate to think how many rolls of toilet paper have been gone through though, because all of the older kids seem to need to go to the toilet about 50 times before they do finally go to sleep!!!

The kids have had a lot of time with Nan and Poppa - and I think it's quite the novelty for them, to have a little boy in the house!!!  Eloise and Gaby enjoyed a supermarket trip with Nan, and I think Aidan is chomping at the bit to have a little ride on Poppa's motorbike!  Nan and Poppa seem to be enjoying having all the kids in the house, but we might see if they still feel that way in another few days!