Where have we been?!

I haven't been on this site for almost 3 years, so this blog is not exactly up to date. But that's ok, because I now hope to post regularly on what's going on in the lives of the Hendersons!

Since my last entry, a few things have happened!

In 2008, Alan's mum Joycie was diagnosed with cancer. To show support and to help raise money for the Cancer Council, Caitlin, Robbie and I all shaved our heads. We collectively raised around $1500. As it turned out, Joycie didn't loose all of her hair from her Chemo treatment, but we didn't mind that we had! Joyice responded really well to her treatment, and her cancer has gone into remission.

Caitlin and I with our shaved heads

Our business Minibeast Wildlife was growing in leaps and bounds. We had begun to breed minibeasts to sell online as pets, and they were very popular. We also had a lot of school bookings coming in, so by the middle of 2009, we had 3 casual staff working for us.

In February of 2009, we had a new baby daughter! Saige Jessie was born at around 12:40pm, and about 14 hours after her cousin Fynn in Alice Springs. Saige completed our family of four girls, and did her part to give Alan his own little team of CATS (Caitlin, Annie, Tayen and Saige). This 'phenomenon' was discovered by my sister Sonia after Tayen was born, and knowing that Alan had yet another girl on the way, we just had to complete the puzzle!

Saige at only a few hours old

At the end of 2009, we sold our house in Bacchus Marsh. We decided not to buy a new house straight away, but had trouble finding a rental until 3 days before we had to be out of our house! We moved into a lovely place in Bacchus Marsh in March 2010 after 7 years in our previous house. It was a little emotional closing the door for the last time, with so many memories that had been created there.

Our old house at 8 Jones Court

After a few months of looking to buy the perfect house in Bacchus Marsh, we decided on a whim to have a look at houses in far north Queensland. One thing led to another, and we purchased a house in Kuranda, in the rainforests north of Cairns. We intended to put our house up for rent for at least 6 months before we would consider moving into it, but opportunity knocked on our door, and we found ourselves with work in Kuranda. Our business Minibeast Wildlife secured 3 months of animal wrangling for a Discovery Science documentary called Monster Bug Wars. Alan had worked with them previously last year with the museum and Beyond Productions contacted him again about shooting 6 more episodes. This meant that we would leave behind our jobs, family and friends. After 11 years at the Museum for Alan, and 10 years for me, it was a tough decision to leave. It also meant that we would be leaving Caitlin and Annie behind. Caitlin is in the middle of her screenwriting course, and had moved in with her boyfriend Adam, so she is quite settled in Victoria, and we were confident that she could survive without us! (not that we can cope very well without her!) Annie is nearing the end of year 12, the crucial final year of high school, and wouldn't be able to join us either (another fact that made our moving very difficult) so it was Alan, myself, Tayen and Saige that made the journey into the unknown. We figured that sometimes you just have to give it a go, so we packed up our lives, and moved to the Forest House!