Fealy Family Photo Shoot 2016

I feel like all I do on the blog these days is apologise for the long stretch is has been since we last blogged! Gah!  Anyway, we are here and still kicking along.  Things are busy, so busy in our little Fealy Family world.  To be honest, I think we have let things get out of whack a little – family time seems to have been pushed out due to farm stuff, scouts stuff, my volunteer/work stuff, kids stuff – so much stuff!  When we headed off on our trip to travel oz, we did it to try to simplify our life and change some habits – this was fairly successful on our trip and we had planned to try to keep some of that simplicity in our life when we moved to Blue Sky, but we’ve let all the ‘stuff’ creep back in.  I don’t really know what the solution is – it all feels important, we’ve no idea what to let go of, but as a start, now that the craziness of mango and avocado season has finished, we are trying to prioritise some family time again.

So here’s a bit of an update on the Fealy Family as at April, 2016.  

We are very lucky to have had my cousin Sarah visit recently and take some beautiful photos for us which are all featured in this post.  If you ever need a great photographer check out Sarah Kendall Photography – tell Sarah we sent you and I’m sure she will look after you!  The last time we did a family photo shoot was just after Kipp was born and you can see all the pics from that here.  Kipp has just turned two this month so we will start with him 🙂

This kid is the sweetest, most ratbag bub out of them all!  He is spoilt rotten by everybody but has so much personality.  He is just starting to talk and the older kids all love hearing him try to say their names.  Tractor and bike were his first words, closely followed by pump, truck, mum, dad, sister and Jacko.  He’s still struggling to say Toby – it usually comes out Toto.  Kipp loves to be outside or in the shed/tractor/bike with Dad.  Inside he is only happy if he can watch ‘Cars’ on TV on play with the vacuum cleaner.

Next up is Lexi who is nearly seven – how time is flying!

Lex is totally outnumbered by the boys in our family but she holds her own.  She loves to play in the craft room making all kinds of things, colouring in and picking flowers to leave as ‘surprises’ for us on the kitchen sink or beside our beds.  Her room is always a pigsty no matter how many times we tell her to keep it tidy!  She loves going to gymnastics and is getting the hang of hockey this year.  Lexi is beautiful, funny and very kind but with a huge dash of stubbornness thrown in – we’re hoping that will stand her in good stead in the future and not work against us!

Toby’s turn now.  Toby is turning 9 and is still our gentle soul, still our worrier and still our stickler for routine.  He is very smart and funny and is always kind and helpful and the first one to get stuck in to any jobs we need doing around the house.  He is enjoying reading all the Harry Potter books at the moment which is keeping him out of trouble!

Lucky last out of the kids is Jack.

Poor Jacko was pretty sick on the day we did these photos and he is 11 later this year, so getting to an age where he is not that keen on having his photo taken anyway, but he did his best.  Jack is our serious, responsible kid.  He does a terrific job at school and was very chuffed this year to be elected student councillor by his class for the first time.  He is really enjoying his music, playing both the Trombone and the Piano – we love waking up in the morning to the sounds of him on the keyboard.

We are super lucky to have all four of these amazing, different little people that belong to Matt and I.  We are loving seeing them grow up and especially with the older kids – are finding that life is getting a little easier these days with them being able to help out around the house, help look after Kipp and do lots of things for themselves – hooray!

So that just leaves Matt and I.  We celebrated 13 years of marriage this month – feeling much older and a little wiser and tired! But still grateful to be sharing our crazy life with each other.

Matt is glad to see the end of our third mango and avocado season – hard to believe we have that many under the belt already!  He is still enjoying learning the farming ropes and feeling like he has the farm a little more sorted out each year.  This year Matt will be on the AMIA Board and is involved with our local fruit and vege growers association and a scout leader too – so plenty keeping him busy!  Oh – and he has just started back playing hockey in Cairns which is making sure he is feeling every bit of his 36 years of age every week hehehehe!

So that just leaves me!  What to tell you?  That I don’t sleep enough, eat too much chocolate, drink too many V’s (terrible habit), am not exercising enough (at all) and growl too much at the kids?!  That’s all true but I’ve got a few other things on the go too. I’m still the volunteer blogging team director for Country to Canberra which I really enjoy, I’m the Group Leader of our local Scout Group which takes up a lot of time and I don’t always do a great job of keeping up with. I’m also trying to find my feet with some work that I might be able to sink my teeth into with a local group called Startup Tablelands – all to do with Innovation and Entrepreneurship – super interesting, but again a lot of voluntary hours in there.  I have a little bit of paid work doing some bookkeeping bits in pieces, oh, and I recently had the chance to write my first ‘View from the Paddock’ article for the Queensland Country Life which you can check out here.  Again not a paid gig, but a challenge and a thrill to be featured nonetheless.  So lots going on, but not a lot of profitability happening which is pretty poor form from an accountant!  Still trying to get that profit, plus purpose balance thing to work!

So that’s us.  Busy, not perfect, messy, happy mostly, still trying to get the balance right, too over-committed but determined to be a part of our community.  Trying to fit in as much family time as we can over the next few quieter months on the farm, and rethink a few of the things we have going on.  Not enough planning and goal setting happening I think.  Still lots to tell you about a few different bits and pieces so must make time to post here too, stay tuned 🙂

Nearly forgot – we were featured over on the Travelling Australia With Kids website recently – you can read our post here.  Lots of fun going back through our trip memories to write the post.

Hope you guys are all well.

Love The Fealy Family xoxoxo