Josie Elizabeth Myola Hogan

Our perfect little baby girl came in to the world on January 29th at 1.27pm. Mum had what's known as an 'easy labour' (don't know where they got that one from - wasn't that easy if you ask me!:)), she was induced at midnight and her waters were broken about 7am that morning - and we were straight in to contractions. Jess was in labour for 6 hours in total and managed in the end without the epidural, even though she was screaming for it halfway through! Josie came out screaming, kicking, wee-ing and poo-ing all at the same time. Ayden, Mum (Ellie) and Aunty Brooke were great support for Jess, we were lucky that Brooke made it - she came running in to the birthing suite about 11am! Dad, Mum and Josie stayed in hospital for 4 nights learning how to care for each other. When it was time to leave going home was all a bit too much for the new mum and the tears were flowing when they rolled in the driveway.

Now after a good few days at home our little family is settling in and adapting to their new addition! Below are a very small sample of the million photos we have snapped so far - enjoy!
Thank you for all your kind wishes, cards, flowers and gifts - they made us feel very special!

Lots of love to all - until next time with more Josie photos xxx

First moments of life

First cuddles with great Grandma and Grandfather

First cuddles with Ellie and Pa

Photos with Ellie

One of many cuddles with Aunty Brooke

Already watching telly in bed with dad

Mum obviously opened the curtains too early!

First stroll in the pram - she loved it!

Josie loves dad giving her bath's, mum tried once and she screamed the whole time!

xxx

Pregnant Photos

Hi all, hope your all well! Heard from most of you over the hols and got lots of chrissy cards with updates, which was really great! Thanks! Just another update on the belly. It seems to have grown quite a bit in the last few weeks, all is going well we're really just waiting to go in to labour now! Somehow it doesn't quite feel like the real thing - I know that will change in a hurry!

Brooke comes home in about 2 weeks and Mehdi may follow a few days later. She has 5 days here so I'm trying to get baby in to the right frame of mind (hope it's working). Mum is coming to visit us and help me out around the house (getting ready) on Thursday and Grandma and Grandfather have also decided to come to mum and dads in about a week! All very exciting, can't wait to see G&G, we haven't seen them on the GC for ages! Ayden is back at work and getting prepared for the arrival as well - or so he tells me. I'm still not sure how cleaning out the shed and organising his tools/machinery is preparing :)?

My girlfriend, Debbie has a flash camera and took some great photos for us. Thought I'd share some of them with you! Thanks Deb they are really great xx

Love to all and we'll be in touch!

Ayden, Jess and Barkiss xxx

Seasons Greetings

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! We have just come back from a great 10 days with mum and dad up on the Sunshine Coast. We had a really great time eating (too much of course), drinking and swimming! Below are a few photos to illustrate. Hope you all had a great holiday xxx

The second night up north we had 'tree setting up night', complete with egg nogg of course.

Ayden and I getting through the tree.

Dad pretty much supervised the whole time, decoration placement was very important :)

Putting the finishing touch on the tree - the Angel. It was mum and dad's turn this year.

The finished product - beautiful!

Mum and I found these Reindeer ears (they light up and play Christmas tunes) at the $2 shop and couldn't resist. Dad wasn't so happy!

Barkiss wasn't so sure either :)

We packed up the table and chairs from the pool area and decided to have our Aussie Christmas down the back amongst the trees, it was really nice and cool!

We had all this beautiful food - enough for 20 people, we managed to put a descent dent in it though!

Mum looking gorgeous as always - wearing a Christmas present (pearl necklace).

This was our setup - you can see the chook house in the background.

Getting ready to start the feast!

Happy New Year!

This was our possie for new year - we had packed a picnic and gone down to the river at Noosaville. It was a really nice night - we ate and drank (AGAIN) and watched the sun go down.

We were all wishing this was our boat - anyway the night sky was just as nice :)

Dad enjoying the view and the beer.

All our home made dip and goodies to get us through the night.
Unfortunately I couldn't last all night - we ended up seeing the fireworks on the telly at home for our new year (sorry guys).

Thanks for having us for Christmas mum and dad, it was a great holiday xx

River Grace Ellen Wallace

River was born on 23rd December weighing 9pound 6 (she obviously couldn't wait till 09 for a visit from santa :). Mum Taryn was in labour for many hours but finally gave birth to a healthy and beautiful baby girl! Mum, Dad and River are all doing very well! We went to visit the new little family a couple of days ago, I didn't want to leave - River is such an angel! Hopefully her little friend is not too far away (I'm getting wiery)!

Congratulations Brad and Taryn - she is beautiful!

Baby Shower

We had such a great day, it was very hot so we tried to stay inside with AC on! There must have been 25 guests in all, I was amazed we were able to fit in our small living area! I was told to leave for the morning so I went to buy a dress for the occasion while mum, Brooke, Amanda, Deb and Taryn made the house a big baby space! There were so many decorations and the food was beautiful! Thank you girls for making the day so special! It was great that Brooke was home for this occasion too, we missed her at the hen's - it's never the same without her little touches! We drank, ate and played games well in to the afternoon - a great day was had by all! Bub would like to thank everyone for their gifts - you're all so generous, thank you xx

We had american cheesecake (my fav), it had little babies on top, so cute!

Mum and Brooke did an amazing job with all the food! I had to go out for the morning so everything was a bit surprise when I got home. I'm so lucky!

Baby is even more spoilt! These are all the gifts - I couldn't believe how many there were. We got some beautiful and very useful things! I won't make a list I don't want to miss anything out!

The girls did an amazing job on decorating our little house - there were baby themed things everywhere! Once again very spoilt!

Brooke made the nappy cake - she's so cleaver! There were lots of little prezzies poking out everywhere.

We all wore name tags - this one didn't last long :)

These are the beautiful ladies that decorated our house and made the day so special! Taryn, Amanda and Debbie (frm left).

I think we were playing games at this stage - Mum looks like she's having fun! Mum, Janesse and Peta.

I wish I had the shot we were posing for - anyway Brooke and I cutting the cake.


Playing another game! Hopefully I won't have to do that too many times :) The name of the game was to correctly guess what was in the nappies (it's funny to see people smelling nappies and having them that close to their faces!), I think in the end there was a chocolate one, a garlic one, some vegemite (of course) and something I don't remember which is probably why I didn't win!

BRACE YOURSELF!!!

Everyone has been asking for belly photo's so here goes:

Brooke and I enjoying the pool in our backyard - eating chips and drinking soft drink! As you can see I don't see the sun much these days :)

This photo is horrible - Ayden took one while I wasn't watching, but I suppose it shows off the belly! Those PJ's used to fit me!

Newcastle

Hi everyone,
These are just a few pics of our time in Newcastle. We went down about three weeks ago for a post wedding party. Ayden's best man Doug and his wife Eve got married in Fiji and had a party at their home afterwards so we could celebrate with them. Ayden went out on a make-shift bucks night the night before the party and wasn't in best form, but he made a really nice speech and we had a great time! I found something to wear quite easily so I was very happy too!
The following weekend we went to visit mum and dad, they have made some amazing improvements to their house - lots of trees have been removed and it's looking much tidier.
Just this weekend mum and dad came to visit us - we had an interesting weekend! We didn't have anything to do on the Sunday and decided to go for a drive - we ended up out behind Beaudesert. Mum and I were looking forward to lunch at a winery or some sort of boutique hotel (we had passed lots on the way), but by the time we were ready for lunch we arrived at Woodenbong where the only place to eat was the Caltex. I ended up with hot chips and a cornjack and mum refused to eat anything :)
Unfortunately we all arrived home to find Boad (Ayden's best mate (his 12 year old dog)) very unwell. In short Boad is now in doggy heaven - it was very sad to say goodbye and we will miss him a lot!
Hope everyone is well and sorry it's been a while since an update! Brooke and Mehdi will be home in a couple of weeks and we're having a baby shower - so I will update again after that!
Love to all xxx

Ryan and Ayden after their second night on the grog - still looking cheerful!

Doug, Eve and Duke

Amanda, Felicha and I - it's getting dark - Amanda and I retreated shortly after :) I was very happy that there was another pregnant friend there to share the day!

Flick and Juli - saying hello to baby :)