Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Last Few Months and Welcome Adelaide Rose

It has been a long time since I have updated my blog. My life became hectic and I had to have a priority list just to make it through, but more about that later.

First, I will fill you in on what we have been up to for the past few months. Life hasn't been dull that's for sure!
Here are some of the amazing things we have been up to as the Whiteman Family.

We did our first family camping trip and it was a success! We decided to go somewhere familiar so stayed in Port Stephens (where we lived for a year). We set up two tents and were just minutes from the sand dunes and the beaches. The kids did really, really well so now we have the confidence to do more camping trips with them.









I had Colour Your World Conference at the end of March which was an unbelievable week of serving in television as a producer and watching people's lives be impacted. The highlight for me was having the opportunity to be an assistant producer on our latest album called Faith + Hope +Love. If you don't have it yet it is a MUST!









Also related to Hillsong Church...we had an unbelievable few days at staff retreat in Leara in the Blue Mountains. I was a stunning time of year with the leaves all changing into their fall colours. The mornings were brisk, but the sun shone and made the days gorgeous. This was a great opportunity to get to relax and "mingle" with the more than 200 staff and there spouses and children. I had to drive each day over an hour to get there because I was needed at home but it was well worth it!









Craig and I had our 7 year anniversary in March and celebrated by getting a hotel in Sydney. We walked to Darling Harbour and had dinner at the Meat and Wine Co....highly recommended. Spending quality time together while Felicity and Rowan were being minded by Grandma and Pop was priceless especially knowing number three was not far from joining our lives.









We also took our close friends Ben and Helen up to Port Stephens for the day to celebrate Helen's birthday in April. They wanted to hire quad bikes out on the dunes so we joined in on the action. Of course with the kiddos we followed along in our four wheel drive and took photos of them having time of their lives. We absolutely love taking people to the Stockton dunes, they are beautiful and it always seems you are in a different world when out there exploring miles and miles of sand.












Unfortunately, all the fun came to a screeching halt when Craig unexpectantly injured his back. After an ambulance trip and bed rest for weeks and weeks and weeks Craig is only now starting to regain most of his mobilty. His injury happened the first week of May. I was due in June with baby three. I was needed more at home so decided to take part of my maternity leave early from Hillsong Music and continued to work for Hillsong Television two days a week. The past few months have been some of the most trying times I have had in my life but also a time of growth as I have been able to see how much I can handle. Craig's family were incredibly instrumental in helping us get through this period and without them I think we may have suffered more.

I finished work on the 19th of June and on the 27th of June at 4:20am we welcomed Adelaide Rose into our family! She weighed 9 pounds 3 ounces and was 21 inches long. She is a stunning red head and has brought our growing family so much joy already. Felicity is a fantastic big sister and tells me that Adelaide speaks Spanish...too funny! Rowan had to warm up to the idea of being a big brother but now he loves to share his toys with Adelaide and can be a bit protective.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Glow Worm Tunnel






We had a wonderful day out visiting the mountains west of Sydney. Since buying our four wheel drive Craig has been wanting to take it off road, so this was our opportunity! We spent about 30 minutes on a dirt track just to get there and being 6 months pregnant I felt every bump :-)








Once we were there it is only a kilometre to the tunnel itself and it's a beautiful walk with caves and water, bridges and stairs along the way.










The tunnel used to be an old train tunnel and when you go inside you can see the black on the ceiling of the cave from where the steam from the train used to hit. Now there are no more tracks and all that is left is the tunnel and the glow worms that have taken up residence there.










As long as you have a good torch/flashlight you can get far enough into the tunnel, turn your torch off and see a see of glow worms. Felicity was fascinated and everyone had a great time even though our torch stopped working just as we got to the tunnel.




Felicity did a wonderful job along the hike and kept calling us slow pokers and she was a fast poker..where does she get the energy? She practically ran the entire way there and back...needless to say the car trip home was quiet!

Felicity's First Day of School






I can't believe it but Felicity has had her first day of school! She started Kindergarten on the 29th of January and has loved it. She loves wearing her dress everyday to school and I must say it makes my life so easy knowing what she is going to wear everyday. On Monday's she has sports and wears her sport uniform consisting of a polo shirt and green shorts and her sports shoes.



Her first day of school was a breeze, no dramas, no tears, just a goodbye and that was it. Craig picked her up from school and she was upset because she didn't want to go home. That's Felicity for you!




Now that we are three quarters of the way through the first term I can see that she is settling in beautifully. She brings home a book 4 nights a week for us to read together and I can't believe how well she is picking reading up! She loves to practise her writing and will sit at the kitchen table and write and write and write...of course until Rowan interupts and steals her pencil :-)




I'm so proud to be a mom of a Kindergarten student, it has been so much fun.