Happy Birthday Frankie Lulu!

Wow, I can't believe the last time I posted was for Piper's 5th birthday, and now here we are with our baby girl turning 1 last week.

It has been a long time between posts, I am hopeless at lying and there has been a lot going on in our little world. While we have known for a couple of months some big changes were ahead we weren't ready to make any public announcements until details were finalised. You will notice I also stopped blogging during the first half of my pregnancy for the same reasons, I can't blog when I am only telling half the story.

All is in motion and there is no turning back - we are coming home.  Our house in Dubai has been packed into a shipping container and we have moved in with friends for the next month. We are coming home to Australia just in time for Christmas and the fun of an Australian summer.
We are returning to somewhat of a sea change rather than Melbourne and a change in roles of sorts. Naz is returning to work with Fire Brigade and I will be continuing my project role here in Dubai but working from home for a little while.

I am going to work backwards and get some post and photos up of the last few missing months. In amongst the craziness there have been some fun times, trips to Paris, and Sri Lanka, an amazing effort by Naz in the Dubai Half Ironman and other triathlons, and lots of fun sister moments.
I have decided to get these up and more of our final weeks in Dubai to close out our blog of our Middle East adventures, a nice little memory the girls can read and see one day.

Below are some pics of our Frankie Lulu on her 1st birthday.

A New Kind of Normal

Well here we are mid way through February already! After an amazing 6 weeks home in Australia we are back in Dubai.

Goodbyes are never easy and this time it was harder than ever to depart. In fact where possible, I just totally skipped the goodbyes this time.

This week is a big one for us - the beginning of our new 'normal' life and routines. I returned to work on Sunday and so far we are surviving. There were a few tears, mostly mine and surprisingly, a couple from Piper. It turns out our Daddy's girl has enjoyed having me around these last few months more than we had realised.

Frankie seems to be doing what she does best - cruising along and taking it all in her stride. She is as chilled out as ever, and thankfully still sleeping 10 - 12 hours straight at night.

All in all we are happy, healthy and looking forward to some adventures and a fun year!

Below are some more pics from our time at home with family and friends x

Four generations

Shelly Beach, Phillip Island

Beautiful day for paddleboarding..... if only my body was up for it!

Cousins

Fire fighter for a day

Last week Naz organised a day for Piper and her cousins to visit his fire station in Melbourne and play fire fighters for the morning.
I have to say I was blown away by the effort Naz and his colleagues put in to the morning. It was an awesome insight into their jobs and life at the station.
There are no words to describe how much the kids loved their adventure at the fire station.

A catch-up in pictures

We watched Uncle Simon jumped from a plane

Just a speck in the sky

Cousins

Friends

Happy New Year

We are still home in Australia enjoying some downtime as a family of four before I head back to work in the not too distant future. Although not all of us are relaxing in the sun (on the rare occasions it shows up... bloody Victorian weather), Naz is still working this month at the fire brigade and is spending a lot of time travelling between the beach house and work.

We enjoyed a fabulous Christmas and New Year with family - lots of kids, food, drinks, laughs and the usual interesting moments.

Our Internet access has been very intermittent but I will try and put up a few more posts this week of our time in Australia.

Cousins

Europe Road Trip - Part 3

My last post was written shortly after Naz and Piper departed for a month in Australia leaving me sad and lonely on the other side of the world. Since then a lot has happened.

48 hours after they departed and completely, coincidentally, I was required to head to Melbourne to work for 3 weeks, you can only imagine how much I needed to stop and consider that request. Given I was originally supposed to be working in Washington for August a change to Melbourne and a chance to catch-up with family and friends was a very welcome change.

So with travel and work commitment I have not blogged in over 4 weeks and here we are now in September.
We are all together back in Dubai but as usual life is never boring. We move house this coming weekend, the new school year started today and I have hit the 30 week mark (all healthy but feeling very pregnant now).

I have posted up some final pics below from our European holiday (which seems so long ago). I will be back later this week with some Piper school pics and a baby update x

One of our favourite discoveries - Lake Achansee, Austria. We cycled 20km around the lake this day (this pregnant mumma needed a rest day the next day).

Piper decided on this holiday clothing was optional.... no matter where we were! This was our lunch stop on our bike ride.

Cycling - Lake Achansee, Austria

Lunch in the most beautiful city ever - Salzburg, Austria

Posing in the square at Mozart's museum - Salzburg, Austria

Streets of Salzburg

Walchansee, Switzerland - stunning rural town

Walchansee, Switzerland

Zurich Switzerland - beautiful but wowsers, most expensive city I have visited!

Triberg Falls, Black Forest - Germany - this hike tested my preggy belly!

Munich

Munich, Hofbrauhaus Beer Garden - sausages and pretzels for lunch of course!