April at Marmalade House ( and a bit of March ).

A walk around the garden first…

And then across to the Cottage….

Easter with this gorgeous gang. Meeting the babies for the first time. 

Amy and Helen have been uttering these words every night now for eight weeks. 

A new garden family photo tradition…….under the jacaranda tree. Started when it was first planted and Jack was a baby.

Strawflowers….seeds from Frogpond and originally planted there for Amy and Helen’s wedding. We’ll keep growing them here too. 

And towering above them, this new-to -me tree dahlia. Covered in buds at the moment with just a couple of blooms open. They’re a pretty lavender pink. 

Gorgeous autumn colours on the crepe myrtle.

Our kookaburra friend that seems to visit every other day. 

Bill and Jack having a chat with him ( and a nosy neighbour over the fence).

Yellow tailed black cockatoos. We normally hear their loud screeches before we see them. . It’s the first time they’ve been to our birdbath though. They’re a large bird with yellow patches on their cheeks and yellow panels on their tail feathers. They eat the seeds on our hakea trees.

Time for a vegie patch makeover. All hands on deck.

Baby clothes for days. Mostly gifted or op shop purchases. I’m loving being the one who sorts and folds them into piles. 

Looking forward to seeing what’s been happening in the Fairy Garden over the next couple of months. 

Some new plantings …

Oh dear…..that sounds like me.

This also sounds like me right now…..

But just look at them………

Sugar and Spice and everything nice

These precious identical baby girls have finally arrived home to Marmalade House and we couldn’t be more excited.

Dulcie June in the dark pink beanie weighing 5lb 1oz and Lenny Louise in the pale pink weighing 5 lb 10 oz.

Meeting his baby sisters for the first time..

A late afternoon photo on the doorstep on arrival home…..

 Bill and Jack are completely outnumbered now.

We’re all still marvelling at how this miracle even occurred. 

To be perfectly honest, the last few weeks have been a blur and we’ve all just moved in to survival mode. To make it even trickier, the hospital tags have been removed from the twins……so now it’s anyone’s guess who is who! 

Amy was admitted to hospital on Feb 16 and the babies were born on Feb 19. 

They were 36 weeks. 

They remained in the Special Care nursery for 8 days and we were able to visit them there. 

Amy was taken to Intensive Care on day 5 with preeclampsia which subsequently frightened the life out of all of us. She remained there for three worrying days.  The babies were taken to her by Helen and the nurses for their feeds. 

Finally leaving Special Care for the first time.

Sleep deprivation is a thing.

I’m not sure that Amy and Helen’s eyes have even closed for the last two weeks, let alone gone into sleep mode.

This is their current state……

Summer in the garden at Marmalade House and The Cottage.

This is what picking flowers looks like now….

…..and sometimes that’s as far as they get!

Helen and Amy are doing an amazing job with the babies and Jack.

We are in awe of them.