Kindy Photos

The yearly photo. It did come in colour but thought I'd put it on here in black and white just for a change.

Nana's birthday

She's 96. Go Nana!

Yes I'm still alive

It's the beginning of the second week of the school holidays, and today we went to the zoo. We made it before the rain appeared which was good but the boys were pretty much done before we got to the rhino's (which luckily was nearing the end). We're now veging out waiting for Nan to come and pick up Ammon and Leah for a sleepover. Caleb is in bed and I'm wishing I was there too.

I have been called as the 1st counsellor in the Relief Society. Kinda glad that now I don't have to do the RS newsletter - it's like pulling blood from a rock. Everyone wants one, but noone wants to give you anything to put in it. I guess I still have to do the ward one. That's no easier.

I think I'm too tired to write any more, it's making my mind go blank. But I just wanted you to know I am still here. Still doing my thing and trying to stay sane amongst it all. :)

Fathers Day Pics

Attitude

Why is it that when you see something isn't working, you just bury your head in the sand and hope it'll change on it's own?
We've watched our lovely firstborn for some time now grow an attitude to rival anyone double her age and tonight we have FINALLY decided to knock it on the head. How? Beats me. If you have idea's we welcome them with open arms.
However, the first one is banning Sky Channel 40 from our home. It's her favourite tv shows such as Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, Shake it up, Zach & Cody etc... and some of it can be quite funny. But when you actually watch it for a while you can see how full they are of kids who defy their parents, go behind their backs, talk back to them, say whatever they want without consequence and all you hear in the background is the fake audience laughter. That is NOT the kind of person we want her to be.
She doesn't know this yet, I'm sure it'll go down a charm when we tell her. I even rang Sky to see if I could turn it off, but unless we upgrade to My Sky that is not an option, so we'll just have to tell her the new rule and see if she obeys.
So, if my kids come to your house we would prefer no channel 40 if possible please. We're also going to limit their TV to Saturday mornings till 10am only plus a church DVD on Sunday's. Nothing during the week. Our Ammon is addicted to TV, but that's because I turn it on for him and do not alot else with him. If he's entertained then he is fine. This is where I have to change me. Oh boy.
I threatened withholding her extra curricular activities but that's not realistic as she participates in teams with required numbers. Basketball they have no spare people, Dancing their routines are already set and jumpjam is a certain number too. So to punish her with those punishes the other kids in her teams and that's not fair. However she did get chosen for an afternoon basketball camp with the NZ Breakers team, so we can pull the plug on that one if need be. She's so keen to go too.

Our Apple is in the shop, we thought our bluetooth connection was faulty but the service people say it's working fine, so we now have to send in the keyboard and mouse for them to test with it. I still don't like Apple's. I'm almost hoping it's not fixable and I can get a refund and go back to a PC. Oh I wish. Probably won't happen though.

Nathan no longer works for himself, he is an employee of Vodafone again. He's happy. Same job, less stress and niggly problems. He likes that.
My work is plodding along. I spend too much money there though. Bought me some Ugg Australia slippers the other week - LOVE THEM!!

I also got my hair done on Saturday. Wasn't that happy so had them fix it up today and now I am. I am probably one of the few females who actually has grey highlights put IN her hair, but I've stopped fighting with my white-lock and am trying to blend it in now. It's a change (shrug).
Caleb is 14 months old now. He's starting to say Look, HooHoo (for an animal) and Gone Gone. Says Mum, Dada and Nan. Calls Papa Dada too. He pulls you where he wants to go, or points if you're holding him. Loves bikes, being outside, the pet shop, water and eating soap.
Ammon is still at odds whether he likes kindy or not - depends on the day. Rides his white bike really well now, loves playdates, his telescope (or looking scope as he calls it) teddy and sleeping like Little Bill on TV - who only wears pyjama pants to bed, no top. Ah... yeah... it's apparently not winter in our house at all!
Leah is still mega slow in the mornings, likes to swim and would happily play with her brothers rather than her friends. She likes school and does well enough at it.

Alright here's to our new lifestyle. Give me strength.

For Rose & Jean

Here's Ammon on his balance bike. Speedy!

Chicken Pox

Here's some pics of the kids welcoming Daddy home from his weekend in Adelaide. They were SO happy to see him. Plus some from chipmunks with the Bells/Prattley's.

We've had a chicken pox invasion of late. My poor Caleb has it bad. Especially on his head and groin and even has some in his mouth and on his eyeball! He's still fairly happy though. Ammon has it pretty mildly.


And here is one of Caleb. I had left him in his highchair having dinner while I went to start his bath. Leah and Ammon's noodles were cooling on the table. When I came back this is what I found. . . .

Australia

My weekend went TOO fast!

Friday I flew to Sydney for our company awards night. Normally this is a stand-around-eat-hardly-anything type affair, but this year we had a masquerade ball with 3 course sit down dinner and entertainment. I had a great night.

Saturday morning Regan and I flew to his place in Brisbane for me to spend two days with my nieces. I have 3 GORGEOUS nieces living over there. We had a beautiful BBQ lunch provided by Danielle (I love your cooking Dan!) with all the family, lots of fun play time, a visit to Ikea, lots of Aunty cuddles and a strong urge to live closer to them. I loved watching Regan and Dan with their girls, they are so fun and so.... present. What great parents you are. :)

Andre's new place is lovely and the outside space is going to be so great in Summer. I'm jealous of your pool. Enjoy having Mum and Dad to give you breaks this week - isn't it handy?

All too soon my time was up. I could easily have stayed another couple of days. I had the opportunity too but didn't think my family would survive till then .

The only downside of my weekend was my flights. I was originally supposed to fly Hamilton-Auckland-Sydney-Brisbane-Hamilton. Instead it went Car-Auckland-Sydney-Brisbane-Auckland-Bus. Got home 2 hours after I was supposed to. I think the lesson I learned here was just fly from Auckland. Both Hamilton flights had to be cancelled due to technical problems with the planes. What a kafuffle!

But I'm home and my kids are happy. My husband is VERY happy to not be a solo Dad anymore.

I went this morning to watch Emerson get her Basketball certificate during assembly for winning their division final, tried to visit Nana but she wasn't home, then took the boys swimming. It was Ammon's final swim for the term and he even did all his water safety in the cold pool today. He was great! Of course Caleb didn't want to wait to swim in the warm pool, so kept dunking himself in the cold pool too. Eventually got purple lips and we had to leave Ammon to warm him up. He was fast asleep half way home in the car. I'd love to have a sleep right now but Ammon is wide awake. Oh well. Early night tonight I guess.

Will put up photo's when I get some from Regan and Dad.

July 2011

Well it's a busy month ahead.

Nate is off to Adelaide tomorrow till Monday 4th to visit Renee and her new baby daughter Ava and to be there for her blessing. On Friday 8th I go to Sydney and Brisbane till the 10th. School Holidays start on the 15th, then on the 22nd Nate has to work in Wellington for the weekend and then I'm off on a girls weekend from the 29th-31st to go to Time Out For Women.

Mum and Dad are in Brisbane for two weeks and Nate's Mum is in Adelaide for a few weeks during all that too. There is going to be a fair amount of solo parenting coming up!

I think we might run away to Auckland this weekend and visit the Bells if my kids are feeling healthy enough, otherwise we'll take up the option of a day off school and do it.

We discovered Caleb's 9th tooth yesterday - a molar. No wonder he's having trouble sleeping. Ammon hasn't been sleeping well either. Leah wouldn't go to bed tonight till Daddy did. She is really upset that he is going away. It's fine for her to go away but not her Dad. It's like he is her constant, she knows where he is and it really throws her when she can't picture him at home. She was the same when he went to Queenstown. I'll try to distract her with a campout in the lounge one night and taking turns with Em & Am to sleep with me in our bed.

Ok - can hear Ammon's coughing. Time to go attack him with the Baby Balsam (junior vicks) so we can all get some sleep. ;P

help

Does anyone in my family have a photo of Emmy's cake from the birthday we had at Dolphinz Swim School? It was at a pool at the back of a house and we had it all to ourselves. The cake was a blue number 5 I think.