Changes....

Some things have changed and are about to change around here....

1. I had to finish work at the end of August... I was having trouble keeping my blood sugar levels under control and the diabetes doctors said it's time for me to have a rest before the baby comes.... (it's not due until the first week of November) so that means I've got some time to nest, rest, organise and re-organise, and spend time with my kids and husband before one more is added to the family :-). But I must say... I am loving being at home.... it's what I have always wanted.... I just hope that we can make it work that I can permanently stay at home.

2. The down side of finishing so early is that I had to start my paid parental leave earlier..... which means it will run out A LOT sooner than I hoped (like when the baby is just over a month old) .... not sure what I'm going to do after that but I'm sure it'll work itself out.

3. My kids are growing WAY TOO FAST! The other day I looked at Little Miss and noticed that the top that she was wearing has suddenly become too short in the body as well as the sleeves..... I just got it for her 3 weeks ago! What is up with that?

4. The Lad is talking a lot more now.... he's like a little parrot, but he's so deliciously cute.... especially when he says his sister's name.

5. In  6 months time we will have a school girl! Where has the time gone?! But I am looking forward to all that stationery shopping, and book covering, and helping with homework.... what I am not looking forward to is making the school lunch!

6. Matthew got a new job! In I.T! Yay! He is now the new Junior Applications Analyst for RD1. I'm so proud of him! We're so happy - especially me! He has been doing some BIG BIG hours lately - he works so hard, and never complains and we really appreciate it, but it's not fair to be doing the hours that he has been. Anyway.... he will start his new job on the 1st of October.... so here's to some normal working hours for him, and yay for us being able to have dinner as a family, and having him home at night and on the weekends! the not so yay point though.... MAKING HIS LUNCH!

One thing about his job is.... he's now going to be paid monthly.... this is giving me nightmares already. I need help people...... how do we transition from a weekly budget to a monthly budget? especially when our funds are already very limited and short with me finishing work early?
Any tips or advice for living on a monthly budget would be GREATLY appreciated! We're starting fortnightly grocery shopping again so i'm hoping that will save us a little bit of money that we can put towards something else. Please help me!

Anyway that's about it for a little update from us. I'll keep you posted on how things go on the grocrey/budgeting topic.

:-)

First Cast

So we got our kids a trampoline for Christmas.... we taught Little Miss about the importance of closing the zip and being careful when getting on and off so she didn't hurt herself. (Parents of the year award) HAHA .... From then on she made a point of telling everyone else to close the zip and be careful when they were on it.... (we thought our advice had sunken in)... UNTIL... yesterday she didn't take her own advice and jumped right out through the open zip and onto her arm and now has a buckle fracture, so is sporting her very first cast.

She'll be wearing this cast for the next 10 days and then a fibre glass one - so she's busy thinking about what colour she would like to have!

(Talk about giving me a heart attack!)

Deeeeeeeelicious!

The Lad...

PLUS

Little Miss...

EQUALS

Deeeeeeeeelicious Children! I'm so lucky!

A Picnic at the Lake

Today we went down to the lake and had a little picnic, to welcome this new addition into our family...

I've wanted one of these FOREVER but they've always been way too expensive.... but I found this one on Trade Me - and I LOVE it!

We enjoyed nice sunny weather down at the lake, and some nosey hungry ducks came by to see what we were having for lunch

Little Miss enjoyed riding her bike along the lake... with Daddy and Nanny close by to make sure she didn't ride into the water!

Along the lake a little bit we found a train, so we stopped and had a play on it...

It was a little bit of a squeeze to get in the train with this 26 week
pregnant belly! 

Family Photo - while trying to explain to Nanny how to work the camera

Little Miss and Nanny

There goes that belly again!

Daddy and Little Miss poking their heads up over the top of the train.

What an awesome day!
Our picnic basket will be getting a lot of use from now on!

The cutest thing EVER!

So my amazing clever Sister in Law made this gorgeous present for Little Miss for christmas... I am totally in love with this guy!

He is so adorable I can't stop looking at him! He has the cutest little white shirt, vest and the most gorgeous jacket, not to mention the adorable ribbon bow tie.... EVERYTHING about this guy is delicious!

Look at the back of this jacket....

Cute huh?
LOVE HIM!

Christmas Eve...

It's christmas eve - I can't wait until tomorrow for Little Miss to open her presents!
We've been chillin out today...

Little Miss has been busy outside as we had a nice day

Hopefully next year we'll have a bigger pool - but she was quite happy with this one today

Catching Bubbles was a lot of fun too!

The presents are under the tree, (the bike will come out once Little Miss is asleep) and the stockings are all ready for tomorrow - SO EXCITING!

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Christmas is Coming!

Not long until christmas now.... our advent calendar jar is nearly filled with little boxes. I'm so excited!

This morning I dug out of my linen cupboard this Duvet cover I had on my bed when I was a little girl... Love it! Now it's on Little Miss' bed. :-)

Tonight I'm going to start on a little project for our baby boy... stay tuned.
We're on our first day of toilet training Little Miss... hopefully it will be goodbye nappies soon!

Being prepared...

I've been meaning to do this post a while ago, but just havent got around to it.. until now.

This year we've been working on making sure we're prepared for an emergency by getting our 72 hour kits ready.

Our church counsels not only to be prepared with food storage but also for emergencies.

Bit by bit we have been getting our kits together....

Here are a couple of photos of parts of our kits....

Here we've made 4 snaplock bags - one for each person with some essential items... for Nan and Matthew there is a roll of toilet paper, some scented nappy bags (incase there is no where to dispose of the toilet paper - eww I know but ya never know), and some hand sanitizer.

In mine there are some... ahem... essential lady items, toilet paper, scented nappy bags, and hand sanitizer. In Little Miss' bag there are some pull ups, nappy bags and some baby wipes. These are just the right size bgs to fit in our bigger bags.

Next we have our billy's...

In here we have our little gas cooker all folded up inside its cute little container, a couple of tealight candles, some waterproof matches and our gas canisters. The candles and matches don't have anything to do with the cooker, it just seemed like a good place to store them to make use of space in the billy. But then again ya never know - we may have to cook using a candle and the matches. :-) Everything fits nice and snug inside the billy's.

I just found another good blog called prepared LDS family http://preparedldsfamily.blogspot.com/ here they have some great tips on what to put into your 72 hour kits, and where to store them, and also some great food storage tips. Check it out if you're interested.

Life...

Things have been busy around here lately....

- Matthew has just started back into his school year
- Matthew also works very hard when he is not at school to help support our little family - I know that he is tired and I really appreciate him and what he does to help us out
- I've just been made the supervisor of the Under 2's license at my work
- There has been lots of sorting out and changes made at work since I've taken on this role - I hope I can do a good job
- My Nana has settled into living with us, and is a great help around here - we love having her here
- I wonder if sometimes she thinks we are a little crazy and wonders what she has gotten herself into
- I had high blood pressure a couple of weeks ago, but no one knows what it was from
- I have to have some more tests done in a months time - oh joy
- Our Little Miss has suddenly acquired an attitude, and acts like she is 16 years old already
- I decided I don't want her to become 16 because I'm not sure i'll be able to handle the attitude then
- Then I remember that this is my chance to learn to deal with the attitude now so i'll be ready in 14 years time when she does turn 16
- We want to have another baby
- But then sometimes I think I don't because I don't want that one to have an attitude too
- But then I think "what the heck, lets have 10 more"
- Then I think, "what was I thinking saying that"
- We're trying
- Little Miss will be 2 next month! I don't even know where to begin to organise a party
- I decided that I want the party at some kind of playground place so I don't have to stress out about it or do the clean up - is that bad?
- I'm tired
- I'm sick of flies hanging around my house and thinking it's ok to sit on the end of my nose or the lenses of my glasses
- Little Miss has decided that she doesn't like sleeping in her bed and comes into ours in the middle of the night
- This makes us tired, cos we don't like legs and arms in our faces!
- Little Miss has decided that some nights it's ok to be awake at 3am in the morning ready for the day
- It's not ok
- It makes me tired, and grumpy which isn't nice or fair, but I'm working on it
- But that's the joy of parenting right?
- I love it how my Nana just came in and got rid of a grasshopper that was crawling around my lounge floor, because I didn't want to go near it
- I love it that I went out for Valentine's Day dinner with my husband last night, and that he went and got more water for us to drink - because I like it when he does little things like that :-)
- We're going to move to a bigger house in a month and a bit so we're getting ready for moving

That's all I have to say right now. The End. :-)

Love....

I'm loving these arrangements in our house right now...
The corner cupboard in our kitchen.... my new favourite red and blue dessert cups - I have many plans for these cups - I am totally in love with them right now - I love my husband for buying me one set for christmas, and I love my Nana for buying me another set so I now have 8 of each! Can you feel my excitement??


I love that my pantry is now finally organised and that everything is exactly where I want it to be

I Love this little arrangement on top of the Bookshelf in Little Miss' Bedroom (yes those are pictures of us with our Little Miss)

The Little arrangment on top of our entertainment centre - I love this because the picture behind was taken on our wedding day, when our little family first began, and the glass block in front of it symbolizes the whole meaning of family for me - I love my little family and I'm so happy that we can be together forever

The little arrangement on top of our bookshelf - again Family is very important to me - underneath the word family is a statement that says.... "cherish your family". Love it.

These are just a few of the things that I am loving in our house right now, each for different reasons, but I love the "homely" feel that each of these little arrangements create

Do you have any little arrangements in your house that you love at the moment??

Summer Fun, and yummy treats

We are all in holiday mode at the moment.... enjoying the sun and relaxing as much as we can. I go back to work next week, so I'm making the most of my holiday.
Here are a few snaps of what we have been up to this week in our house...
A new skirt and shoes for Little Miss...

Little Miss had her first plane ride on Monday.... It went surprisingly well.
Sitting on the plane...

Having a ride in the luggage trolley...

and.... Our Little Miss now sleeps in her big girls bed.... she's doing so well.... our Little Girl is growing up so fast!

and yummy treats on a warm summer's day.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that all your dreams come true and you accomplish all your goals.... I've set a few... I just hope I can achieve them! :-)

Hello Christmas

Christmas has arrived in our house. Here is our tree, complete with stockings underneath waiting to be filled, and our new advent calendar bags - days 1-5 already consumed.


and.... my favourite thing about christmas.... our window nativity scene



I love Christmas!

Happy Anniversary to us!

On Sunday this handsome man and I will celebrate 3 wonderful years of married life!

These photos were taken for our wedding invitations...

Today my lovely husband brought home a surprise for me....

My favourite flowers - yet to open up and show their beauty

AND....
Caramel Mudcake from the Cheesecake Factory!

YUUUUUUUUM! Isn't he wonderful? I think he is!

Happy Anniversary to us!

Bless my husband!

Since working full time I don't really have the energy to do the grocery shopping after work so my wonderful husband has taken on this responsibility while I stay home with Little Miss... this is a good thing for me as it stops unnecessary things finding their way into our trolley which means we don't spend as much on our groceries which is also a bonus, and also my Husband is great at comparing items and getting the ones that are best value for money which helps when the budget is a little tight too, and not to mention he's really good at sticking to what's on the list, whereas I tend to buy things because I swear they are calling to me!

Anyway,

Tonight onions was on the list... I'm talking just a couple of Onions as we ony need them for a couple of meals for this week (last time he came back with a small bag of onions which was ok - I wouldn't have minded that again actually)

This is what came home with him tonight...

It's the same size as a sack of Potatoes - BLESS HIM!

Too Cute!

Writing letters to family back home.

Sunday Lazing.....

Well we've made the big move and we are now in Hamvilleton (Hamvilleton is the new name I have decided to give Hamilton - don't know why or where it came from but I like it)

Life here is great so far - we are loving it! I think this is possibly one of the best decisions we have ever made so far!

Anyway, it's been a busy week filled with travelling and visiting, sightseeing, and the occassional bit of shopping for house accessories.... Yesterday was the first time we have been able to properly relax in a while - and will probably be the only time until we're all settled into our new house.

At the moment we are staying with Matthew's Auntie and Uncle and their wonderful family here in Hamvilleton until we can move into our house on Thursday... our Little Miss is having the best time ever - chasing around the younger boys and is absolutely having the time of her life!

Although sometimes too much excitement and playing gets the better of her.... she has now adopted one of the beanbags in the lounge - this has turned out to be one of her favourite napping spots....

So cute huh? In this photo she comes complete with the aftermath of a Sunday treat chocolate biscuit (lucky Sunlight soap and I are best friends!)

Also... note the toys scattered around everywhere - she's made herself right at home!

A what sandwich??

So..... As you all know, we were due to leave Dunedin today (Monday 19th) but another hiccup prevented us from going once again.... This time our Little Miss got sick with Bronciolitis and we were advised it would be best not to travel so we delayed our ferry crossing until tomorrow (Tuesday).

Tonight, in preperation for our long journey to the ferry, I decided to be a good wife and mummy and make a packed lunch for us to eat on the way so that as long as our Little Miss is sleeping, we can continue driving.

So I prepare to make sandwiches, and Patricia is standing beside me watching - she says to me, "would you like some spreads for your sandwiches" and i say, "spreads, what do you mean"... she then looks at me puzzled and says, "you know, like Marmite or Jam"

I laugh and say, "nah, i've got Lettuce, meat, cheese and tomato, so I can make 'Man Sandwiches' for Matthew"....

BLESS HER HEART.... She replies,

"Oh, you want Antique Sandwiches"

LOVE LOVE LOVE her!

Here is what an Antique Sandwich looks like:

Gone....

Sold!

Family Update...

Well I thought it was time to update you all on our family situation...

First of all the rumor is true - we are moving to Hamilton.

Some of you may know the reasons why we are moving and some of you may not so I thought it was time to clear up the confusion ... Matthew and I have talked about moving a few times since we've been married but it has never been the right time... until now - everything has fallen into place and our house is now on the market. We will be moving as soon as it is sold.

Some people have asked us why we are moving... we're moving to Hamilton because Matthew will study for a Bachelor of Information Technology at the Polytech there.

Why is Matthew studying in Hamilton rather then Dunedin.... Matthew is going to study in Hamilton because while he is studying I can work full time there and make enough money to support our family while he studies - something that I cant do if i'm working here in Dunedin (even if I worked full time).

I've been offered 3 jobs - so the next big decision for us is to choose which job i'll be taking!

Some people are worried about us going there.... why? Because they think that we will find the cost of living more expensive and rent etc etc, and they also think that we haven't thought about this properly... don't worry about us! - we've worked everything out VERY carefully, and looked at ALL of our options and this is the best one for our family right now at this time - from the places we have looked at rent is cheaper than our weekly mortgage repayments, food is always going up in price anyway so it wont be much different to living here, and the bonus is that we wont have to pay rates or house insurance and all those lovely other things that come with owning a house.

We are taking a step backwards by going from owning a home to renting but taking this step backwards means that we can take a million steps forwards in other ways that will be better for our family in the long term.

So that's our reasons for moving to Hamilton - we are very excited about this and we know that Heavenly Father has blessed us already - we know that this is what we need to do at this time.

We will miss Dunedin and all of our family and friends here (you are all welcome to come and visit anytime!) but we are looking forward to having a fresh start and a change.

Moving on, the main reason for this post is because I want to show you all the amazing job that my wonderful, fantastic husband has done on getting our section ready so we can sell. (also a BIG THANKYOU to all those other people who helped Matthew when I couldn't both inside and outside)...

When we first moved into our house, there were bushes and trees EVERYWHERE! Over the last 2 years Matthew has been digging here and there, and attacking them with the chainsaw and taking them out - now that they are gone there is so much more light in our house and around the yard - it looks so good.

So here are some photos of the wonderful work Matthew has done (thankyou Honey, you've made the place look AMAZING!) - I'm really sad that we're selling though - because we wont get to enjoy our nice yard for long!

First of all check this out...

Matthew and Mikey digging out the last huge tree stump from our front yard...

It took both Matthew and Mikey to move the tree stump!

It was huge and the hole that was left looked like a giant meteor had landed in our front yard!

Walking up the path...

Front yard...

Street View...

Backyard...

and the grand finale....

Our BBQ area!

Looks AMAZING huh???