Buckland Blog

Boxes out and bags in

2012-01-29T21:00:00.078+13:00

Brendon's foot was much better yesterday and so he walked down to the shops to get a couple of things I needed. Ruth asked if she could ride with so that Dad could check her riding skills. He was happy with her riding but told her to stop and look behind her before crossing at the shops as she has not practiced looking back while riding. Later in the day he saw her practicing looking behind while driving around the garden. She is a very determined little girl.

Really moving around his cot now.

Hezekiah has been feeding again at around 3 or 4am since we moved. I was not sure if my milk supply had been effected by all the extra stress - so I wanted to make sure he was getting enough and fed him when he woke. On Thursday though I decided to help him stretch to a 3 hours routine. He had started to not look very hungry when he woke for a feed after 2 1/2 hours and although I had to hold him a couple of times to get him to the 3 hours, he quickly settled into the new routine himself. My goal in this was to make sure he was drinking really well at each feed so that he could start going through the night again. I was really missing those 8 to 9 hours. I thank the Lord that he has gotten back to that so quickly. The first couple of nights he woke at 3 or 4am but I was able to get him back to sleep without feeding him - so I felt improvement had already been made. (On Sunday night he slept through.)

Brendon and Rachel headed into town by 10:30 to collect a play house we had bought for the younger girls. The sellers (and a friend in town) helped load it and 2 neighbours who work with Brendon helped off load it this side.

The girls were thrilled. Rachel knows she is too big to play here often - but she has already been invited for tea. I know they are going to spend many happy hours playing out here.

I got some more weeding done in the morning (Brendon, Rachel and I got loads done the previous evening) and in the afternoon we put the sprinkler in the hot house to get that nice and soft so we can weed in there. Ruth decided to have some "water fun" and would stand over the sprinkler - completely soaking herself.

I have finally gotten back to working on her hair again and am now sure we will get it all tightened before we leave for SA.

Here is a shot of Ruth's new tooth - coming up in the correct place in her mouth (her baby teeth had been pushed forward from all her dummy sucking at night in her first 4 years). The baby tooth is loose and we are hoping will come out on it's own (and not need to be pulled). We keep saying how funny it will be if it comes out at the airport on Friday. Rachel lost a tooth at the airport when we left SA.

Brendon and I got boxes down on most of the veggie garden yesterday. We don't have straw to put on top yet - so had to use wood just to stop them from blowing away. This is so that we don't come back to a jungle as it controls the weeds so well.

We had a very full afternoon as we also had a local builder pop around to chat about our garage. I had finally cleared the one side of the garage to find that our car does NOT fit through the doorway (only just). We chatted about options and he asked if we would like it done while we are away. If that could happen it would be wonderful. So here is the before photo.

While we chatted to him Rachel was playing with Hezekiah. He would grab her top and roll himself over towards her. They played so nicely together.

With things possibly happening in the garage while we are away we needed to move things around (getting the sides of the garage clear). So Brendon brought all the book boxes in and piled them behind the couch (this trolley we are borrowing from Alby has been a great help). These boxes will be unpacked once our book shelf has been made.

My goal today however was to get all the other boxes unpacked. I had done all the nicely marked, packed and recorded boxes but still had 5 boxes of hastily packed things that were really horrible to do. I knew that sorting was needed and so had been putting it off - with the boxes lining the passage wall. I finally got them done today and so the boxes have officially been replaced by luggage bags - which are now lining the passage wall. We got so many things marked off our "to do list" today which was great. The only negative is that Rachel and Ruth have had runny noses this week and Brendon started feeling sick today. So he is taking flu tablets and we are hoping we can all be well for our flight on Friday. Wow - I can't believe we only have 4 days left before we fly.

Dogs, cats and a TV

2012-01-27T21:00:00.001+13:00

Monday: Rachel loves the idea of riding to the POBox to fetch the post. It's a shorter trip than our old driveway. The big difference now is that she must wear her helmet. Ruth wanted to ride with her but I need Brendon to check on Ruth's riding ability before I allow her on the road. It will be much easier to ride on a lovely road compared to our bumpy old driveway - but with the trucks that can come down the road I am not going to take any chances.

Our one neighbours children came over with some cookies today (and a friendly "Welcome to the neighbourhood). They breed dogs - so it was quite appropriate to get dog biscuit shaped cookies. :-) I just managed to get a photo before they were finished. They were lovely shortbread cookies.

Tuesday: Never too big for a swing. I am a little nervous with both of them on there but Hannah really enjoys swinging with Rachel. You can see all the weeding that is needed in the vegetable garden behind them on the left.

We got started on the other veggie patch today as there were not too many weeds and some potatoes.

As a reward for getting that all done the girls got to eat some fresh peas. Ruth does not like peas but did not mind a few fresh ones.

Wednesday: Dug up some more potatoes - enough for dinner - and Rachel made sausages and cooked up all the different sized potatoes. They also picked some more peas and had fresh peas with their meal. Rachel was thrilled to have a meal that was almost totally"home grown". She said Dad helped grow the pig for the sausages - so that counts too. ;-)

We also had the cat flap installed today. The girls enjoyed watching how it was done.

And as soon as it was done Hannah had a closer look. I watched her see if she could get her head through. I am glad she can't. When she saw me watching her she had such a cute smile. The cat flap looks nice though. Hopefully the cats don't take too long to learn to use it.

In the afternoon our project was the TV. After setting the TV up here on the Saturday after moving in we decided that we liked it in that spot and at that height. So we have moved the TV cabinet into Rachel and Ruth's room and mounted the TV onto the wall (the bracket was one of our shopping items last Friday). This is much safer too and Brendon said insurance companies are not paying out for damaged TV's due to earthquakes anymore - so it's good to have it safely bolted on. We had to move the aerial though and the cables that I ordered arrived today. That meant Brendon had to get under the floor again (which is NOT fun) but it was good to get it all set up. Now the free view decoder, DVD player and hifi can sit on the bench and not on the floor. Unfortunately since the move the hifi is not working. Brendon took it to a friend to have a look and he said when he set it up at home it worked perfectly. He returned it to us and it won't work at all. So very frustrating.

Hezekiah really enjoys playing with
his toys and putting them in his mouth.

The laptop also played up today and the girls could not do their on-line math. I tried to fix it on my own and then ended up spending almost an hour on the phone with three different companies - one call went to India and the other two to the Philippines. I was so glad when I finally had it working again (and so were the girls). I am also having trouble with my home computer not starting up properly and Brendon's ride on won't start either.
Thursday: Today Brendon managed to borrowed a ride on from the farm and I cut the grass for him so that he could sit with his foot up. He has a nasty bite on his foot and it is really swollen.
I cut his hair for him yesterday and went to get my hair cut today. The lady felt so bad about my last appointment not happening (my name had been rubbed out but no one had cancelled it with me) that she did not charge me for the cut today - so that was nice.

I finally got the one side of the garage cleared today and so we could try and see if our van would fit. It is just too high. The garage doors are really old though - so we will have to look at re-doing the doors completely.
Friday: Only a week before our SA trip. Brendon really wants to get the weeding done before we go as we don't want to come back to a jungle. Rachel has been helping. Once I had fed Hezekiah (and taken this photo) I headed out to help too (from 7:30 to 8:30). Hezekiah was happy to sit in a stroller and listen to the doves while we worked. We got so much cleared which was great.
I have also finally gotten back to tightening Ruth's hair. So hopefully I will have that all done before we leave too.

Tiger is back

2012-01-22T21:00:00.010+13:00

What a relief to get a call from the lady at our old place to say that Tiger is there. Brendon went past yesterday on his way home from work - wondering if he had made his way back. So Brendon picked him up on the way home from work this morning. I was so pleased to see him. He was wet and hungry when he got here - but he is home. Thank you Lord!
Later in the day (once he had filled his tummy and dried off) he wanted a cuddle and got a nice one from Rachel. I have often heard of cats making their way back to old houses but it's the first time I have seen it for myself. And it was over 5km that he traveled. I wonder if he was perhaps missing Rachel and thought she might have been left at the old house. Hopefully with her home now he will settle properly here. We are getting a cat flap put in on Wednesday and I am sure that will also help.

Brendon and I put the last of the lace curtains up today. We really did feel quite exposed without them even though there is not all that much traffic on the road. I suppose that's what comes from living with no neighbours for over 8 years.
Rachel took this photo and realized she needed to force the flash. Well - it would not work. I got so upset - thinking my camera was broken with less than two weeks till our overseas trip. Thankfully I had a look later and saw that the function button had been bumped. Once I had that back to it's normal setting the flash worked fine. What a relief. I think I have really had enough of camera's breaking in the last 4 years.

We had quite a lot of rain in the morning but then the sky cleared and we had beautiful sunshine. It was lovely out and the girls even helped get some weeding done.

Later we heard thunder and saw huge black clouds heading our way - so we quickly put the tarp on the wood (which we wished we had done yesterday). This had been an extra item on my list of things done last week as I helped Brendon offload 3 of the 5 loads. So perhaps these things are all adding up to my tiredness. I must add though that Brendon does keep telling me to take it easy.

It's been a bit like watching a one day cricket match though. I started off with 40 boxes to unpack (some were not numbered and on my list) and only 20 days till our SA trip. I got it down to 19 boxes and 15 days but finally today I got it down to just 7 boxes and 12 days. There is definitely a psychological advantage when it's less than 1 a day. I won't drag it out but at least I know I am close to done now.

Swin week finally finished

2012-01-21T21:00:00.037+13:00

Friday: Hannah started crying again before she even got in the pool. She said she needed to go to the toilet so we had a little chat while we were there and she stopped crying and at least had the first half of the lesson without tears.

Thankfully Ruth has no fear of getting her face under the water and so she is getting her things done easily. Here her "helper" holds a hula hoop and she swims under it.

Brendon got home a little early and so just after 2 we were on our way to town. We had quite a long shopping list that we hoped to get through and were thrilled to get everything. We had Brendon's choice for dinner (KFC) and then headed over to the airport to pick Rachel and Hayley up. Unfortunately I forgot my camera at home. It would have been wonderful to take a photo of all the girls and family as they were re-united after the week at Jamboree. They chartered the plane just for the girls so it must have been quite an experience - the flight alone. Their flight was a little late and only arrived at around 6:30. We got some food for the girls on our way home and were finally home around 8. Brendon and I then watched the rest of Defiance and that was the sum total of his birthday. What a pity we could not do anything more special for him.

Saturday: Swim week finalized with the demonstration and presentations this morning. Tears from Hannah again unfortunately but Bronwyn managed to get her to at least blow some bubbles and then she could get out.

Because they were just quick demonstrations - done one group at a time - I was able to watch Ruth a bit more which was nice. she is thrilled to be able to kick with the board without her helper holding her tummy up.

She also does a good job of going on her back without help too now.

And then to fetch a stick from the bottom of the pool. It may sound simple but it can be quite something for a lot of the children. So well done Ruth.

Then it was time for certificates and ice lollies.

They thanked the parents for bringing the children and this year I really did feel it was a huge effort from my side. I was so thankful to finally have it all finished. I think with the move and Hannah's crying it was just a bit much for me. I was exhausted by the time we got home on Saturday. Perhaps added to today's stress was that Tiger (Rachel's cat) has been missing for over a day now and I can tell it's really upset me. I do pray he is safe and that we find him soon.

Friends came over for lunch (and to pick up the extra dish washer we now had and have given to them). Dave is a builder and is going to help us put book shelves up on this wall. So it was good to chat to him about it all and Brendon and Dave even popped over to the Stern's home so that he could see exactly what we wanted. So watch this "space".

They had to leave by 2:30 so it gave Brendon and I time to get some things done around the house which was great. I don't think I will see wonderful sunrises from this house but at least I got to see this magnificent sunset from my kitchen window.

Of helpers and hats

2012-01-19T21:00:00.083+13:00

Tuesday: Rubbish collection today and we were warned by Alby that there is a dog that likes ripping up the bags - so don't put it out the night before but rather in the morning. So Brendon took it out on his way to work at 5:30. This was obviously way too early as the dog got to it anyway. My wonderful girls put it all in a new bag and even took turns holding and packing. It's so nice to have our rubbish collected though. It's been over 8 years of us having to get rid of our own rubbish. We just have to get used to having neighbourhood dogs roaming the streets.

It was good to get the laptop set up for the girls. There are only a few toys available and so it's nice for Hannah especially to have something different to do.
Swimming lessons have been terrible this week with Hannah. She has cried non-stop every time. It has been so frustrating. I am thankful that she has done what has been asked of her - she just cries while doing it. :( I have tried to encourage her and I have reassured her numerous times that no one is going to put her head under the water and she only needs to do what she is comfortable with doing. The poor child just seems terrified.

On Wednesday the Spencer family came for lunch after swimming lessons which was great. We had a lovely picnic lunch under one of the big trees in our garden which was fun.

I also got this photo of Rachel (sent to me from a friend of a friend who visited them). All looking so happy. I was surprised to see how tall Rachel is compared to the other girls. :-) Facebook is great and through that I found out about a live camera that was set up at Jamboree and at any time I could have a look what their weather was like. They even saved 4 photos from each day (morning, noon, afternoon and evening) and so I could look back over the previous days too. It was nice to see that it had not been raining and I think the bit of cloud each day would have helped it not to be too hot.

I had a look at the GGNZ facebook page and found this photo too. What a lovely one of their opening ceremony. Now we know why a "sun hat" was not on the packing list. They all got one in their group colour. What an experience with almost 3,000 people at Jamboree.

Thursday was freezing for us with such a cold wind blowing. Hezekiah was kitted out with hat and socks for our trip to the swimming pool. When I arrived Kerry said "he looks like a flower". I thought Brendon would not be pleased to hear his son described like that but when I showed him the hat on he said the exact same thing. ;-) At least the hat has blue and green on it and the pictures are of bugs.

We got our first Courier delivery today - a gift from the estate agent. Brendon had wondered about it - thinking we would probably get something and he was right. It gave us some nice snacks for our trip into town on Friday.

On Wednesday afternoon Brendon and Ruth went into town to pick up the new bunk bed we had ordered. While they were out Hannah and I chatted to Grandpa and Nana on Skype (our regular Wednesday chat) and I enjoyed the technology that is now at my fingertips as I took the laptop and walked them around the house and around the garden.

I had done so much unpacking on Tuesday and Wednesday that I decided to have a break from that on Thursday and surprise Brendon by having the bed made. I managed to get all the frame pieces put together (all the darker pieces) but as Brendon was home by 3 and I had the swimming lessons to go to in the morning - I ran out of time. He was thrilled with what was already done and he then put all the slats in and it was all done before 5. There were 50 pieces of wood - so not a small task. It was great to then have the evening off and we enjoyed watching "Defiance" once the girls were in bed.

Swim week begins

2012-01-16T21:00:00.047+13:00

We had our first recycling collection this morning and we had loads of boxes to leave out for them. It's been good to see boxes being unpacked so quickly. They did not take the box with all the Styrofoam in - but we can get that picked up with the rubbish tomorrow. It was great to finally throw away all the boxes that we had kept for specific items (like computers, TV, DVD player, hifi, microwave and other kitchen appliances). I am glad we had all the proper boxes as it made it safe to move the items.

Brendon is so pleased to finally be in his own home though and so is thrilled to finally throw them all out.

It was quite chilly this morning and when I went to put the stuff out I realized why. There had even been a dusting of snow on the mountains overnight.

This is the view down our street into the centre of Hawarden (with the mountains in the background).

Ruth was up early this morning and helped me take out the recycling things. She also then spent some time outside - just enjoying the nice warm morning. I love watching the girls with their imaginary play when they don't know I am watching. Hannah was sleeping late - so she had some time just on her own which was nice.

At 10:45 we were due at the swimming pool for Ruth and Hannah's lessons. We missed swim week last year as we did not register the girls early enough. So although Rachel missed it this year with being at Jamboree Ruth has been so excited about it. She is tall enough to be in the "big pool" this year and I know she is going to do really well.

Hannah had a great start to the week. She was thrilled that Katie was in the same group as her.

Hannah did really well and was even blowing bubbles for her teacher. Unfortunately the last thing the teacher wanted to try today was to get the children to hold the board on the front and lie (supported) on their back. Hannah freaked out and would not stop crying. What a pity to have such a good lesson end so unhappily.

The girls went exploring more of the garden this afternoon. They found some cauliflower growing in the hot house and even had a little nibble (I could smell it on their breath).

Alby popped over after work today to help Brendon move some of the bigger furniture items into the house. I needed to make sure they could easily get to where the items needed to go so I put Hezekiah in this stroller and the girls kept him happy while I helped the men. He loves being outside and the girls loved pushing him around.

The Move

2012-01-15T21:00:00.094+13:00

Dave arrived at lunch time with a HUGE flatbed trailer and two strong teenagers to help us move. They took a load of garden things over and by the time they were back for the second load Brendon was home and helped them get the tramp onto the trailer. I was so very thankful that it could be taken - as is - and did not need to be dismantled.
At 2:30 I wrote: "Girls are helping dad offload at the new house so I can sit quietly feeding Hezekiah.
I think I needed this break." And then just before I wrote "Well - that was the calm before the storm. Just as I finished feeding Hezekiah they arrived back ready to start on the house (they had taken outside things first). There were 3 adults and 8 children moving things out of here at such a pace. Two big trailer loads are off. Hopefully they take a little while to unpack so that I can get the last stuff packed. Including the computer. Hopefully Hezekiah can have a nice sleep now and let me work."

I managed to get the computer packed but Hezekiah did not sleep well and so my sewing cabinet and desk were just "emptied" onto the study floor so that they could take the furniture on the flatbed. So much for leaving things for Saturday.
Brendon organized some fish and chips for everyone and then we headed over to the new house so that we could set up beds for the night.
We headed to bed at 10 but I just could not sleep. I kept thinking about all the stuff on my study floor and eventually told Brendon I was going to go over to the house to do a bit of packing. So at 11pm I headed over and spent about an hour just getting everything into boxes. Thankfully I then had about 4 hours of good sleep and was busy again by 4:30am.

Ruth is thrilled with our fruit patch and has already
started picking.

Once everyone was up and fed we headed over to the old place to get the last boxes and get cleaning done. I had to watch the time carefully as I had to get Rachel to a pick up point at 8am for Jamboree.

We headed home for morning tea (and to off load) and then back to do more cleaning. I had not even packed my pantry on Friday - so everything was packed very quickly on Saturday as we had said we would be out by lunch time. Alby arrived again with the 4 younger children and they helped with the last clean up at the house before lunch. What a blessing.

Lovely red currents.

It was an incredibly difficult 24 hours for me though and I told Brendon it was probably the hardest 24 hours of my life. I felt as though I had not done enough planning and packing before hand and it all just felt a bit "out of control".

I think I also missed that womanly help that I had at our last move. I have often heard people talk about moves as being among the top most stressful things to go through and I never really understood that until now (even though we moved 10 times in our first 10 years of marriage). This was the hardest move by far. I am sure Rachel's Jamboree and having a baby to feed added to it all - but I am looking forward to being in this home for many many years to come.

One of the things that was quite overwhelming was the fact that there were boxes and furniture everywhere. The house felt full and the deck was loaded up too. I never got a photo of the garage but it was so full and disorganized (that was why they ended up filling up the deck). It was wonderful having all the children helping - but I think there was just one adult extra needed to direct where everything was put. Brendon and I were just too busy elsewhere.

I was very grateful to our friend Jonathan who came out from town to help us on Friday and then slept over and helped us the whole day on Saturday too.

He was able to help Brendon with moving furniture around so that I could focus on getting the kitchen a bit more organized (as well as continuing to care for the children) and start unpacking a few important boxes. The girls had fun with Jonathan too.

One of the things Jonathan suggested and helped with was getting the TV set up so that Hannah could watch a DVD (and thereby give us all a bit of a break from her too). I think she benefited from just slowing down a bit after all the excitement of the move.

Steve then brought dinner for us (although he could not stay as he had other children at home to feed). It was such a blessing to have a warm cooked meal. Ruth was also such a big helper through the day. Here she is packing the sleeping bags away as we finally had all their bedding out and set up for Saturday night.

On Sunday morning I got the luggage bags opened (for everyone to find clothes for the day) but did not get around to unpacking them so the cats decided they would sleep there for the day. I am thankful they have coped fine with the move.

Ruth has been waiting for our move for another reason. She has always wanted to hold Hezekiah "standing up" and I had told her that once we were in the new house his neck may be strong enough for her to do that. Well - she had not forgotten and so she finally got what she has been so looking forward to.

I popped over to a neighbour yesterday to report our phone that had not been connected yet. She had a beautiful arrangement of flowers on her table - all from her garden. We were so blessed on Sunday morning when she popped in for a bunch for our table. She then invited us for dinner too. Blessing upon blessing.

Oh - and I must record what happened when I phoned about our home line. After telling the operator what the problem was he asked "are you calling from home?" Um - no - I just told you my phone is not working..... I had to laugh.

Ice creams and thunderstorms

2012-01-12T22:00:00.002+13:00

Monday: Hezekiah was a bit unhappy last night before he went to sleep so we put JAM on (a music video - Jesus And Me). Within minutes we heard a call from the bedroom asking what we were watching. Hannah asked if she could watch JAM in the morning. So after breakfast she I put it on and she danced for Hezekiah.

The countdown to our move has definitely begun. It's been great to get some sorting and packing done every day. What a good opportunity to start working on the ice cream in the freezer too. I can see ice cream pudding happening every day this week. :-)

Tuesday: We all really enjoyed the thunder storm this afternoon. It reminded Brendon and I of SA. It had been terribly hot and it was wonderful having the lovely cooling rain. It was a first for Hannah and Ruth though (a lovely big afternoon thunder storm where the house is even dark because of it) and dear Hannah says to me "Mum - be careful when you come down the stairs". She thought the thunder would make it dangerous in the same way an earthquake does.

Rachel had shown Ruth the box
that she had drawn on when we
packed to come to NZ. So Ruth
asked if she could draw on one too.

So I explained to her that the thunder was just a noise and it could not hurt her. A bit later she was chatting to Hezekiah and saying "are you scared of the thunder? Don't worry - it can't hurt you."

Poor Ruth. I am tightening her braids (doing just a little bit every day) and she said today "I wish I wasn't African. I wish I did not have such difficult hair". :(

Once I have tightened a few I
braid them together.
We hope to do at least 12 braids
a day which makes 2 big braids.

She does not want to shave it off though and it is getting wonderfully long. So she puts up with it. Thankfully we don't have to do this too often and it's a lot better than combing it out. I put this on facebook and was so surprised by all the lovely comments from friends about how lovely Ruth's hair is. I think she is feeling much more positive about it now.

He looks so cute
in a golf shirt.

Wednesday: A very busy day today with Kerry and some of the children visiting in the morning (which was wonderful) and then an appointment with the homeopath in the afternoon. Hezekiah's fungal / thrush rash has just not cleared up and so I took him to her. I also managed to stock up on medication for Brendon (who got a headache again today) and Ruth (for her hay fever and the sore legs that are bothering her again).

I borrowed a box full of DVDs from a friend for this week. So the girls have had LOADS more TV than they normally do. It has helped me to get a lot more sorting and packing done. Kerry had an appointment to go to and so we had a couple of the children here while she was busy. I put a movie on for them and managed to get loads of packing done which was great.

We were back quite late but Brendon had the fish and chips cooking and ready when we got home. He had also asked for a list of things to do once he was home (he gets home at around 3 and we were only home around 6:30). He brought the washing in, burn rubbish, packed up the girls computer and vacuumed upstairs. It was wonderful to come and up and have half the room done and dusted. I still need to work on the rest of the room - but it's great to see that half finished.

Thursday: Loads of sorting and packing got done today. I asked the younger girls to get their sandpit stuff sorted and packed into a box. A little while later I saw all the little cakes they had made along the edge. I then reminded them that they were supposed to be packing.

I noticed Hannah then came in and left the "work" up to Ruth. If you double click on the photo you can see a bit more detail and you will notice that it almost looks like Ruth has a gap in her bottom teeth. The tooth is not out yet - but the big tooth is definitely pushing it's way up. The big tooth is behind the little one though (in the correct place in her jaw - remember how bad her bite was from the dummy). So she knows she really needs to wiggle that baby tooth out.

And don't worry - I did not let Hannah get out of work. I asked her if she wanted to do some vacuuming for me and she was so excited to help. Rachel and I had taken Hezekiah's cot apart (much easier to move) and so she cleaned up before we put the camping cot in that spot.
We had another thunder storm this afternoon and there was a lot of thunder before the rain came. So it was nice to see Hannah playing outside and not worried about it but rather excited and singing about it. We are hoping they get to see a lovely lightening display while we are in SA. It's light till 9pm here - so they only get to hear the thunder.

After dinner the girls had ice creams outside and Brendon and I took the bunk beds apart (much - much easier to move). So the girls had a night of "camping" like Rachel with their mattresses on the floor.

We start moving tomorrow afternoon and have decided to get the beds in first and basic kitchen things and then whatever does not get done on Friday can be finished off on Saturday morning. The girls are SO excited about sleeping in the new house TOMORROW!!!!

Bugs and boxes

2012-01-08T22:03:00.040+13:00

Ruth is such a good sister and
often rubs Hezekiah's sore gum.

Thursday: Brendon felt terrible today with not only the sore stomach but also a splitting headache and nausea whenever he moved around. So he slept most of the day except for a couple of hours in the afternoon when he could not sleep and so lay on the couch watching a movie with the girls.

These girls make me smile.

It was a very long day for me. I got quite a bit of sorting and packing done which was great but I was exhausted by the time 7:15pm came around. The girls got ready for bed and Ruth said "Mum - the long hand is not at the 6 yet so it's not bed time yet." My response: "Today has been a VERY long day for me. So guess what? It's bed time."

Hannah really enjoys playing the
Reading Eggs games on the laptop.

Friday: Brendon had today off for working last weekend and I am glad he did as he spent most of the day in bed again. He was feeling better though and was able to eat a little bit. I think it was very frustrating for him as he had hoped to get a lot of packing done today. It was a very hot day though and so I asked Josie if she would take the girls down for a swim.

Once Hezekiah had woken and fed I headed down with him. The girls had just finished their swim and so they sat eating the food I had brought and watched Hezekiah while I got 20 lengths done. It was wonderfully refreshing and great to get a 500m swim. I walked 1,5km this morning and the exercise does feel good.

I even got some sewing done today. The material and cushions have been sitting around for years. Nothing like knowing my sewing machine is going to be packed away for a while to get me motivated. I also changed this dress into a skirt for Rachel which she is thrilled about.

The girls also got to put on their Cinderella play for us today. They had lots of props for every scene (and even had the stage marked off with bikes). It was really well done. They have been practicing for over a week so were thrilled to finally get to show it to us. I like how Rachel has done the choreograph for this scheme. This is where Lucifer (the cat - notice the ears) comes in and dirties the floor that Cinderella has just cleaned. She then chases him out.
I wanted to show you a scene with Hannah in too. She was the step sister practicing her music when Cinderella comes in with the invitation. Ruth does the step-mother role really well. Sorry about the bad sound. You don't realize how loud the birds are until you take a video. :-)

Saturday: Thankfully Brendon was feeling much better today and so lots of packing got done. The girls room is getting packed up with boxes. The lady who will be moving in here started moving her things in today too. So she is filling up Rachel's room and the garage. This has honestly been the most stressful move we have had (far more stressful than our international move). Trying to make place for someone else but not having any place for us to start moving to has been hard. But at least we know we are doing all we can to help out.

Hezekiah sitting in the walking ring
for the first time. He enjoys being able
to watch everyone from this angle.

Other exciting news as that Ruth has her first loose tooth. I don't know how long they can take to actually come out - but it will be very funny if it comes out at the airport on the day we leave for our SA trip. Rachel had a tooth come out at the airport when we left SA.

Sunday: Packing and sorting and more packing today. Nothing like a move with a few weeks notice to get you sorting through things and throwing away or giving away loads of stuff. We had a really successful day and got half of the items on the "to do list" done.

And it finally happened - I planned the meals for the week so that we could start packing away pots and pans.

And to add to the business Rachel leaves for Jamboree on Saturday too. So she has been practicing packing her box. She did it on Saturday but it took over and hour to get everything packed. Today she got the box packed in 20 min (with an extra 8 minutes to check her day bag and tie up her box). She has decided that she will practice again on Tuesday and then of Thursday she will do the final pack and re-seal all the bags to get some extra air out of them all. It may sound like a simple thing but the box needs to be packed in just the right way to get all her sleeping gear and clothes (for a week) in. Her excitement is growing by the day.

3 months

2012-01-04T22:01:00.003+13:00

Wow - three months already. And as hoped - his colic has cleared. He is already struggling with the first bottom teeth though - poor chap. Thankfully they are not keeping him up at night and he has settled into going 9 hours at night now which is wonderful (having dropped the 3 or 4am feed).

6.4kg and 65cm. So he is keeping up with being top of the charts in his height and following the curve nicely with his weight too. Crazy that he is already wearing clothes that are 6-12 months.

The children's monthly photo was not any better this morning than it would have been yesterday. This was the 5th morning of having Hannah feeling unwell. I like this photo though as it captures a bit of Ruth that you don't always see in photos - that silliness that gets Rachel giggling. Hezekiah looks likes he's saying "not the camera again!!!" :-)

This one's cute as it looks like Hannah and Hezekiah are chatting about something serious.

And another one. Even getting a smile from Hannah.

Just before lunch time Hannah seemed to instantly "come right". She finished the porridge that she had asked for and only nibbled at earlier and started talking and walking around. It was incredible to see. I realized how quiet she had been over the last 4 days. It was also amazing to have her ask me a few times in the afternoon - "what can I clean?" So I had to find little jobs for her to do. Eventually we got her into a cooler dress and Rachel was thrilled to have the 3rd actor back so that they could have the full cast for practice.

Unfortunately when Brendon got home he was not well. His stomach was sore and he was just exhausted. He has been tired the whole week - so perhaps he has been fighting the same bugs as her. So one up :) but another one down. :(

And so, 2012 begins

2012-01-03T19:00:00.004+13:00

Sunday: Hezekiah is getting really good at grabbing his toys. He loves this rabbit as did the girls.

Unfortunately Hannah was still feeling sick today. No fever - just a sore tummy so she is not eating much at all. She played some computer games in the morning and then had a nap on the couch. Brendon worked till lunch time and then we all watched Cars 2 together in the afternoon.

My goal for Sunday was to get Rachel's campfire blanket finished. I had over 70 patches and badges to sew on and it took ages to do. I am glad it's done. Top left are all her Brownie patches. Bottom right are all her Brownie badges (ones she has earned and which she wore on her sash). The diagonal lines are the swap patches that she has gotten over the years. I think it will look lovely when she wears it and I think all the badges make it warmer too. ;-)

One of the 3 musketeers was
missing today. It was a little
cold out so they pretended
it was snowing.

Hannah spent most of the day
on the couch again.

Monday: Although Brendon worked this morning he was done after 3 hours and home just after 9am which was lovely. We were off by 10:30 though to take Hannah to the doctor. It was day 3 of her having a sore tummy and not eating anything. Just as we got to the end of our driveway she vomited. So we turned around, cleaned everything up and headed off again. The receptionist gave her some water which she then vomited up a few minutes later.

Hezekiah had a bad day today
and struggled at nap times. He
was far more comfy in Dad's arms.

Half of the younger girls bedroom
is now being used to store boxes.

The doc is sure it is just a tummy bug and we were thankful that was the end of the vomiting for the day. She continued to have a sore tummy through the day and just nibbled on coco pops and sipped on water.

Thankfully Brendon and I did manage to get some packing done in the afternoon which was great.

Tuesday: Another day on the couch for Hannah. At least she did manage to eat a little bit more today and she has not vomited again. But poor thing.

Brendon and I manged to get quite a bit packed too. We are now storing boxes in the lounge as well. We are also clearing Rachel's room so that the lady moving in here is able to start bringing boxes during the week before we move. So Rachel's bed has now moved into the library (with boxes and empty bookshelves filling the other side of the room). She was so excited about "sleeping upstairs" though. Ruth and her did some sewing this afternoon and chose to work in "Rachel's room".

Hezekiah didn't have a great day again today so we will have to do the 3 month photos tomorrow. Perhaps Hannah will be feeling better and we can get an updated photo with all 4 of them.

The last of 2011

2011-12-31T21:00:00.000+13:00

On Thursday evening we had dinner with new friends. Rachel was thrilled with the kittens they had and Hannah had a great time on the oldest daughter's harp. First photo - concentrating really hard. Second photo - smile for the camera. It was interesting to watch her play on it when it first came out. Then the daughter played a few songs for us and gave Hannah another turn. Well the sounds she then got out where really lovely. She obviously saw how to pluck the strings individually and did a good job of it. Such a beautiful instrument and one I always thought would be wonderful to play. I don't suppose anyone has a hard they would like us to baby sit for them. ;-)

Hannah has really enjoyed having the cats sleep on her bed lately. We have noticed that if she has one of them on her bed when she goes to bed at night she is quieter (and does not bother Ruth as much) and gets to sleep quicker. I found the cats like this the one morning. She had tucked them up nicely.
We have been keeping Patches in at night since her attack. We are hoping to put a cat flap in at the new house. One of the small benefits of owning your own place.

We did not have any major plans for Saturday as Brendon worked till lunch time. Hannah was also not feeling well and hardly ate anything through the day. In the afternoon they all watched a movie together. Even Hezekiah enjoys watching the TV.

And Hezekiah has settled into a wonderfully predictable routine. There are odd days when things differ slightly - but on the whole it follows this pattern. It's a first for me to have a predictable day and it's rather nice. The feed that is not on the "schedule" is the early morning one. He normally feeds between 3 and 4am but has had a few stretches till 5 or 6. Hopefully it won't be too long before he drops that one all together.

12 weeks and first swim

2011-12-27T21:00:00.024+13:00

I can't believe how big Hezekiah is getting. He was a bit sleeping after his milk this afternoon when we took these photos. He is the chubbiest baby I have had. So in that way he is different to the girls. But it's not because he is "drinking me dry" as many said he would. He still only drinks from one side at each feed.

He is getting really strong too. And can you believe - just as he starts getting over his colic his first tooth is worrying him.

"Who me?"

We noticed it already over the weekend as he started drooling so much and was just not his happy self.

We do still get a lot of lovely smiles, but we also have a bit of grumpiness to deal with in the day. He loves having someone rub that bottom gum for him (and you can just see the white of the one tooth under the gum). At only 3 months it seems this tooth may bother him for a while before it actually appears. Poor chap.

He is on the move too. I put him down with his head on the white toweling nappy (spoeg lap) and he ended up here!!!

He has been in disposables for the last 2 weeks as he has had a fungal rash. After a week it was almost clear and so we put him back in his cloth nappies but the rash flared up again within hours - so we are back to disposables. It's quite an adjustment for me to be using disposables all the time. :(

It was such a hot day that we finally ventured down to the pool at 6pm. Rachel did really well getting her head right under the water. This is a big achievement for her.

I love these two with their matching towels.

I was blessed by a stranger today (who is no longer a stranger). Mel came up to me and asked if I would like her to hold Hezekiah so that I could have a swim. And it was such a hot day I was so thankful for the lovely refreshing swim (and good exercise too). We then sat chatting for ages. What a blessing.

Just as we were getting everyone ready to go Brendon decided to see what Hezekiah felt about the water today. The last time I put his feet in the water he screamed. Today however it was obviously warm enough for him to be happy. So we quickly put togs on him and let him sit in the water. The girls were SO excited.

After I had taken some photos we thought he had had enough so we were changing him. He was kicking so much that we quickly took him back (with nothing on) and let him kick in the deeper part on the edge of the black area. I think the togs were making him a bit cold and he is far more used to kicking around in the bath with nothing on. He had a fun few minutes and officially had his first "swim". :-)

Cats and cuddles

2011-12-26T21:00:00.014+13:00

We enjoyed watching Patches cuddle up to Tiger this afternoon. The second photo is quite typical of Hannah - she very quickly got a "no" from Mum and Dad. Tiger always looks so much bigger than Patches so it was a surprise to see how long she is too. Her leg is doing a lot better as she has started limping on it now. Before she would not put it down at all. We hope it continues to improve.

Brendon worked this morning as he will be doing for all 4 public holidays over this period. It's a nice way of adding days to his leave as he gets a day off for the public holidays that he works.

There was a movie that we wanted to let the girls watch at 5 and so they decided to rather cool off with the sprinkler and not head down to the pool. Unfortunately our Freeview decoder overheated and so they missed the movie after all. It sure was hot today though.

Merry CHRISTmas

2011-12-25T22:00:00.001+13:00

It seemed really appropriate that the verse on the calender that is above the Jesse Tree said "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?"
I am so glad we got to do a Jesse tree again this year as it really did help keep the focus on Christ.

The girls really love the new Christmas song they have learnt.

Christmas weekend

2011-12-25T21:00:00.032+13:00

Hezekiah almost rolling over.

Yesterday after lunch we headed over to the Sterns. We had a lovely time of fellowship with them and enjoyed a bbq tea together. Ruth was pleased to be able to help with the meat.

Ruth also entertained us by seeing if she could fit underneath the side table.

Hannah and Ruth had a giggle session. Rachel enjoyed watching Happy Feet and reading a book. Unfortunately the Stern's children had stayed in town yesterday - so it was only our children.

Thankfully Hannah and Ruth kept each other entertained most of the time and Rachel always loves looking for a book to read on their big bookshelf.

On Sunday morning Rachel was up early as usual but had to wait a good hour and a half for the others to wake up. And even though there are not many presents under our tree it's still exciting for the girls.

And yes - they DID all "just" get books. ;-)

We seem to have started a bit of a tradition to use the grandparents money and our own to buy one "big" gift. The first year it was the netball hoop, then the trampoline. This year we are planning on buying them a Wendy House for the new house. We will look at organizing it all once we have moved in. As we are leaving for SA 3 weeks later - it will probably be done when we get back. As Nana said - it will be something for them to look forward to after their exciting South African holiday.

We headed into town for church this morning. The girls have been practicing a new song that the children sang during the service. This must have been one of the main highlights for Hannah today.

Then we headed over to the house of one of the Pastors for a shared lunch. There were over 30 people there and we had a lovely time. The girls especially had fun as there were so many children (especially little girls between 3 and 6 years old). Unfortunately this was the only photo I got (just before we left). We were just having such a lovely time of fellowship the camera was totally forgotten.

Week before Christmas

2011-12-23T21:00:00.003+13:00

Monday: These two having a great time of imaginary play.

Tuesday: Ruth has been asking if she can do the dishes for ages. Have you ever heard of a child asking for a chore???? She does have the job of unpacking the dish washer and sometimes complains about that. So I told her she would only be allowed to start washing dishes and packing the dish washer when she did her job without complaint.

Well - she has not been complaining and has just sort of "taken over" from Rachel with rinsing the dishes and packing them into the dish washer.

We also managed to get one batch of Christmas cookies made today. It's been something that I have been sad about - that this month is just too busy to do our normal cookie card things. But at least we have some biscuits to share with visitors. We tried a new recipe and although they did not press out very easily (it was the recipe that goes with the electric cookie press) they do taste wonderful. No icing needed this year. These are good on their own. I did add Almond essence to the recipe as we are really used to that flavour in our Christmas cookies.

And then we headed off to Amberley for Carols in the park. It was all quite last minute and just "spur of the moment" type organizing so we put the chops I had taken out in the fridge and we got take aways for dinner. While we were waiting for the food I managed to work out how to turn the 2nd row of chairs around and so we had a picnic in the car (the breeze was a little chilly). This was a highlight for the girls - they thought this was SO much fun.

Wednesday: Little boy in brown. It's been so cute to get some of the different t-shirts and shorts out for Hezekiah.

We had another spur on the moment plan today and had Bob and Lynn over for tea. It was lovely getting to spend the time with them. They are the girls local grandparents and really enjoy time with them. Not to mention always having Christmas presents for the children.

Thursday: We took Patches back to the vet this afternoon for a check up. She is still not putting weight on her leg and it looks really skew. It was quite an emotional afternoon and a long story with all the decisions that we had to make (not wanting to spend loads of money on things like x-rays which won't even help her get better). The main strain was when the vet said the recommendation is 5 weeks of cage rest. I knew this was just not something we would be able to do. Brendon explained this to the vet later in the afternoon and the agreement was made that we will just wait and see.

At least my little boy in blue could cheer me up
with his wonderful smiles.

The vet had given more pain killers for helping reduce the bit of inflammation that was still there and more antibiotics to make sure there was no infection. I was really encouraged by the improvement that Patches has made though. The vet was able to really examine her leg and she did not complain at all. At one point she was lying on the table purring.

Friday: This week was a first for me. On his own Hezekiah fed at almost exactly the same times Monday through Wednesday. On Thursday he started the day half an hour earlier (7am) and I thought this would be a really nice pattern. So today - even though he slept 8 hours and only fed at 6am, I fed him again at 7 thinking we could just copy the previous day.

Well - he then had such a long sleep and went 3 1/2 hours rather than the normal 2 1/2 that he has been doing for weeks now and changed the whole day around. I had to laugh at the end of Friday because just as I thought I would have a predictable pattern with him - he threw it out.

(Note: On Saturday and Sunday we started at 7am and we have had identical days to Thursday - so perhaps there is a chance I can have predictable days after all. At least until he goes through a growth spurt or changes to a 3 hour routine).

Friday Afternoon: This afternoon could be summarised as an earthquake afternoon with four big quakes over 5 that we felt out here. The forth was a 6 and really shook us around. I was sitting at the computer with that one and the whole desk was shaking from side to side. Brendon was down stairs and immediately ran to Hezekiah who was sleeping in his cot. We are very thankful that they only shake us and don't do any damage out here. After the first one Ruth was wondering if more buildings had fallen down in town. She was right as we heard in the news that a damaged building did in fact fall. Thankfully the girls are not too upset by them. Rachel was the most upset with the first one as she was downstairs with Hezekiah while the rest of us were upstairs. When Brendon got down to her she was holding Hezekiah (he had been playing on his mat) and Brendon said she was as white as a sheet. She was worried about something falling on him. Poor girl. She obviously remembers the baby that was killed when a TV fell on him in Feb. We do praise the Lord for our safety and that no one was killed with these quakes. What a hard thing for everyone in town to go through - just before Christmas.

Packing weekend

2011-12-18T21:00:00.065+13:00

When Brendon works on a weekend (every 3rd) he is allowed to take the following Friday off and not take leave for it (more like unpaid leave). For the first time he decided to take the day off on Friday so that he could get some more packing done. Even without Dad waking her up before 6am when he leaves for work - Rachel was up by 6. Both cats getting a cuddle while she reads her bible and devotional book.

I had planned to take the girls to play centre - so we left Rachel at home with Dad and headed off. I am glad we went as we were the ONLY ones there. The teacher enjoyed the quieter day and just loves spending time with the children making things. Ruth got to paint her butterfly puzzle. It looks great.

Dad had another well deserved sleep in on Saturday (only getting up after 7:30 which is REALLY late for him as he is normally up at 4 or 4:30). I got some nice pictures of the younger girls as they came through and said good morning to Hezekiah.

A little later I got an excited call from the girls to come and see the deer in the field next to our house. I don't know where she got out from. There are a couple of deer farmers around the area but normally the fences are really high. They were so excited though. I can't wait for their excitement when they see all the antelope and other animals during our South African holiday in Feb. Brendon's parents have organized 5 days at Mabula - our all time favourite game reserve. I am so looking forward to it myself.

The negative for Saturday was that poor little Patches was attached by a wild cat and her back leg was badly hurt. Brendon eventually took her to the vet in the afternoon. The vet on duty was up at Cheviot - an hour North - so it was a change of plan for almost 3 hours of his day. Ruth went with him though and the vet gave her instructions on how to look after Patches. Ruth will be giving her tablets for the next 5 days. He had to sedate her in order to examine the leg properly as she was just in so much pain. She was still sleeping when they got home. Poor thing.

Rachel was told she had to do a Jamboree packing practice by the end of the weekend. It was a good way of making sure everything has been labeled. She is in the light blue group - so we used light blue ribbon with her name and ID number on. This is the box everything fits into including her bedding. As she will be going on an airplane she is only allowed the one item with specifics on size and weight. She does have her day bag with raincoat and lunch box that she will take on the plane.

You can also see the HUGE book she has been reading over the last week or two. Almost through it now. She has really enjoyed it.

You can see Patches lying in the sun there. She is still not putting any weight on the leg but is looking more herself which we are all pleased about.

We got quite a bit sorted in the library this weekend. Six bookshelves are now unpacked, cleaned and ready to be moved. 18 boxes packed.

We are now using the library to just store things that are ready to go. Thankfully the art shelves (to the left) are still accessible so that we can carry on working on our Jesse Tree plates.

Hezekiah went 9 hours on Friday night which was great. Still no clear pattern but at least the nights are getting more regularly longer.

Rub and roll

2011-12-15T21:00:00.004+13:00

Ruth was excited about getting to build the butterfly that she got as a gift on Tuesday. She patiently pushed out all the pieces and then sanded the edges carefully. The plan is to paint it at play centre on Friday as we suspect there will not be many people there.

Wednesday saw us down to the pool again. This time before dinner. It's great to get down regularly as Hannah is getting a lot more relaxed about being in the pool now.

Ruth jumping in again. This time remembering to hold her nose. Again the pool was really quiet which was lovely. There were only 2 others there.

We have gotten a few more plates finished for our Jesse Tree. Rachel's angles on Jacob's ladder. The girls had fun making Joseph's coat and then Rachel and Ruth made small bundles of grass to represent Joseph's dream of his brothers bowing down to him.

It's looking nice. The girls loved sticking all the pieces on for Moses' basket and I love that fact that it's nice and close to the ground and Hannah often looks at them and talks about the stories.

Everyone enjoyed watching Hezekiah try and roll over today.

Here is a little video clip of him managing to get his foot over.

Play Centre Christmas Party

2011-12-13T21:00:00.043+13:00

Today the Play Centre had it's Christmas Party. The details were to bring a $5 present for each child. We then found out that a "Father Christmas" would be handing out the presents. And what a way to arrive. :-)

Ruth had come up with the idea of her choosing Hannah's present and Hannah choosing hers. We bought them when we were in Kaipoi for the Ballet concert - and the girls wrapped them for each other too. So when Ruth's present came out the bag Hannah immediately said "That's Ruth's."

And she knew hers was from Ruth and not Santa - but it was all very exciting for her none the less.

She was thrilled to find that Ruth had chosen a phone for her. She had been quite upset at the shop when she chose a phone for Ruth but then wanted one for herself too. She also got some Dora bouncy balls which she thinks are "really cool". She was also very happy that Katy was at the party. They play so nicely together.

Rachel played her Carol music again and again the background noise is just too loud. The Play Centre teacher told me afterwards that she got many lovely comments about her playing and that Father Christmas was especially impressed.

It was an incredibly hot day though and so after dinner we headed down to the pool to cool off.

Hannah practicing blowing bubbles.

Hezekiah was also so hot - so he enjoyed some time with nothing on to help him cool off. He was NOT interested in the cold water (cold compared to his bath) and screamed when I put his feet in. The water was a lovely 26 though and the rest of the family really enjoyed it. For most of the time we were the only people at the pool - so I was on duty with Hezekiah. Brendon offered to swap but it was too late. We only got home at 7:30pm and it was still 26 degrees outside.

Please notice my jewelry. I decided to buy two sets and I think I might be able to get used to wearing dangly earrings.

Clean and pack

2011-12-12T21:00:00.048+13:00

On Sunday after lunch Brendon decided to sort through his cupboard and take out all the clothes that he will not wear again. Thankfully he still fits in the suit he was married in - not bad for almost 15 years later. Ok - he had to wear a belt back then.... hehe. He had a 2nd suit though that he knows he will never wear again as well as a couple of jackets. So while we were busy Hezekiah lay on our bed. Hannah decided she would play with him. She was a princess and he was a prince. So sweet.

Rachel, Hezekiah and I headed off to the toy library for an hour in the evening to help with some year end cleaning. Hezekiah was due for a feed during that time - so he had to come with and I did some card sorting with my free hand while he fed. When we got home Brendon had packed another 5 boxes.

Hezekiah has had a lovely pattern of night sleep this week. He generally gets at least 5 hours in a row but worked it up to 8 hours on Saturday night. He was back to 5 on Sunday night - so I know he has not settled into a predictable pattern yet. He is only 9 weeks old though - so he is doing really well.

I got the girls helping with some sorting today. I got them to clean all their play dough toys. They had a fun time with that. Especially Hannah. She just loves playing with water.

The lady who is moving into this house when we move out organized for someone to come and clear out the overgrown veggie patch. His weed eater and rotary hoe were far to loud for Hannah though (who wanted to watch what he was doing when he first arrived) and so she got Dad's ear muffs.

She enjoyed having them on so kept them on when she went to play in the sand pit. Such a funny wee thing.

Christ and Christmas Tree Festival

2011-12-10T21:00:00.043+13:00

Our friend who gave Rachel the earrings to sell for Jamboree fundraising sent us two boxes full of beads and things. She was doing a clean out in her craft room and we feel so blessed with all that she sent. She also sent some necklace and earring sets so Rachel spent 3 hours outside the 4 square this morning doing some selling (and chatting). She did really well and sold around $75 worth. She also chatted to a few locals and everyone seems to know we will be moving into Hawarden. She even met a new neighbour who has horses. The lady told Rachel she could possibly get to have some lessons with her. You can imagine how excited Rachel was about all this. It's funny that we will be moving into the village but will end up having horses around us.

While Rachel was out the younger girls watched this Bible movie. It starts with creation and goes up to Abraham's offering Issac. It was wonderful to get to reinforce the stories we have been talking with our Jesse Tree. Hannah was really impacted by the last part - when Abraham has to offer Issac. She knew Abraham would be told "NO - don't kill Issac" but she was crying when Abraham put Issac on the wood. It really helped her to understand that the ram took Issac's place. Afterwards Ruth said "ok - so Issac is like us and the ram is like Jesus." It was wonderful to know that she has really understood what this story (and the whole idea of the Jesse tree) is about.

I was especially glad to have such a Christ focused morning as we were off to the local Christmas tree festival in the afternoon. The girls were pleased to see the Play Centre tree that they helped decorate. Sarah's one for the Music group was next to it - what a clever idea with the balloons.

Perhaps next year we can use all of this year's paper plate decorations and put up a Jesse Tree again.

A highlight for the children was when "Father Christmas" came. Even though Hannah knows it's just a man dressed up - it was still loads of fun for her. Again my girls did not do well at the lolly scramble (something I am glad they are not good at). Rachel took them over to Santa's helper and she made sure at least all the children did get a lolly or two.

Another big reason for being at the festival was that Rachel got an opportunity to play the Christmas Carol Medley on her violin. Sarah organized for all her singing pupils to sing through the afternoon and it was lovely that she thought to invite Rachel to play too. The video is not great as I was too far away and the noise from outside the tent was quite load (I only realized this when I watched the video at home). She did really well though. This is just a section of the song to give you a bit of an idea. The violin teacher said she did really well. Rachel has not had any lessons this year (only the few she had over a year ago) and so she has done really well to teach herself this peace. Perhaps once we have moved into Hawarden it will be easier to organize lessons for her as she will be able to just walk up to the school.

Play Centre and Tree Planted

2011-12-09T21:00:00.010+13:00

It was really quite at play centre today because the primary school was having their year end price giving and many mothers were attending that.

The girls did not mind though. They got to make a lot of decorations for the Play Centre Christmas tree.

And Rachel even got to make some angles for our Jesse Tree (as well as helping with the play centre tree).

My Indian and my clown.

It's been great to get our Jesse Tree "planted". This year it's going to be made out of paper plates - stuck on the pantry cupboard.

I am so thankful for a face book friend who is posting the pictures of her plates. I am so thankful to be able to use her ideas.

Busy Birthday

2011-12-08T21:00:00.001+13:00

We did not have anything special planned for today but ended up getting a call from the bank to find out if we could see them this afternoon. So Rachel had a turn at keeping Hezekiah happy for a while so that I could get everything ready for our last minute trip out (even though it's only 1/2 an hour away). We had a lovely afternoon together. After the bank we popped in at the dairy so the girls could have an ice-cream. Then we spent some time at the library (we don't often get into the Amberley library which is much bigger than our local one). On the way home we bought fish and chips and did our now traditional fish and chips picnic on the lounge floor.
I got so many lovely messages on face book and chatted to both my mom and sister. I spent quite a bit of time today just looking at my children and thanking God for His wonderful blessings in my life.

Our house!!!

2011-12-07T21:00:00.000+13:00

We had a small delay in meeting all the conditions of the contract on Friday last week - so it was extended till today. Today all conditions have been met and so the contract is officially unconditional and the deposit has been paid. The settlement date has also been changed from 16 Dec to 13 Jan - so we have a few more weeks to pack.

View from the road. It's a corner site.

View from the deck. We can't see any neighbours so we still have the country feel.

View from the garage side along the front lawn.

Turn around - the view of the garage.

View from the back corner of the property where the chook run is.

Turn to your left a bit. The property is on two lots - so a lovely big back garden.

View of the back garden from the other corner.

Hezekiah on video

2011-12-06T21:00:00.008+13:00

Hezekiah seems to get shy when the camera comes out - so it was lovely to be able to get this clip of him.

He gets quite serious sounding when he starts to get tired.

Sweety pie.

Last and first

2011-12-05T21:00:00.014+13:00

Today I chaired my last Amuri District Girl Guiding Meeting. I have been the District Co-ordinator for 2 years now and finally decided that life is just too busy. I really enjoyed my monthly meetings in town but the traveling for that has also become just a bit more tricky having a baby who needs me for food. It was great helping in this role and I did learn a lot too - about Guiding and myself.

The girls were thrilled to get started on some Jesse Tree decorations today. We will not be moving before Christmas anymore (I will give more details in Wednesday's post) so it is great to have the time to do a Jesse Tree this year. A face book friend has been posting the photos of what she is doing with paper plates this year so we are getting all our ideas from her. What a blessing technology can be.

Ruth painted the rainbow and we got some really lovely indigo and violet colours mixed. Once the "proper" painting was done Hannah used up all the extra bits in painting the newspaper. When I asked her to tell Dad what she did today she said "painted indigo-violet".

Curd - already cut.

And my "first" for today was making cheese. I looked online and found two almost identical recipes for cottage cheese using rennet - so I gave it a go. It was lovely to get to use my thermometer, rennet and cheese cloth for the first time. Not to mention "cutting the curd". And what a lovely afternoon snack.

Brendon suggested adding some chopped up gherkins and so we had that on crackers to add to Rachel's baking for this evening's meeting. Yummmyyyyy.

2 months

2011-12-04T21:00:00.010+13:00

I got dressed before the girls this morning and my new pink feeding top obviously made quite the impression as this was the result. Copy cats in pink and white. :-)

A day late on the monthly photos again - but at least I remembered. He is over 5,8kg already - so he has put on 2kg in 2 months. It's also getting much easier to get those lovely smiles on camera. He is such a happy little boy.

A good time to get one of all of the children again too. It will be interesting to take one of the 4 of them every month.

I wonder if he will want to do sky diving like my older brother.

Play time with Dad. Ruth was playing hair dresser and washing Dad's hair.

Ballet concert 2011

2011-12-03T22:05:00.027+13:00

So much excitement for today with the Ballet concert this evening. Brendon had Hezekiah in the pouch so that I could get some things done at a quicker pace in the morning. We left just after lunch for the afternoon practice and then had our traditional MacDonalds dinner before getting back to the hall by 6:30. With the venue being over 45 minutes away it's not practical to head home in between.

It's always so exciting to get dressed and get makeup done.

Ruth with the Lullaby league girls.

Rachel was the barrister. She was a bit nervous about the wig at first - thinking it looked silly. But she soon got comfortable with the dramatic side of tonight's performance.

It's the first time the ballet school has put on a story for the whole production. It was a great success and everyone enjoyed it. I think there were a lot of men and younger children in the audience that enjoyed tonight's "story" far more than having to watch a lot of dancing that does not necessarily mean anything to them. Hannah certainly LOVED the performance. She has been "Wizard of Oz" mad over the last few months with all the practices.

It was nice that "Dorothy" was just behind the girls in this photo. The girls were so impressed with her costume. The lion, scarecrow and tin man were excellently done and I wish I had gotten a short video clip of their "We're off to see the Wizard" dance as they danced so well together and their costumes were really excellent.

When we left Ruth asked if we could go past the houses with the lights again. She remembered us coming to see this house on the way home last year. So we made a quick detour again and it was nice for Hannah to get to see it for the first time. We only got home at around 10pm - so it was a really long but lovely day.

The Wizard of Oz - Videos

2011-12-03T22:00:00.010+13:00

Pool and pattern

2011-12-02T21:00:00.001+13:00

We headed off to the pool again this afternoon. The girls were excited about seeing the "Westpac Choppa". Unfortunately the negative side of that was that someone actually needed it. We saw the helicopter and an ambulance at the rugby field on our way past and then as we were getting out at the pool we heard it take off.
We had a lovely time at the pool. The temperature was up to 25 today and after the others had been in for a while I decided I would also get a few lengths done. Hezekiah and I had been sitting in the sun as it was after 5:30 and I knew it would just be healthy exposure. It was so good for us both to get some sun. He was so happy there he just lay there with a friend while I had a swim.

I had started to keep track of Hezekiah's feedings times last weekend as often Brendon would ask me "when last did he drink" and I would have to sit thinking about it. So it was a good way of keeping track and also of seeing any patterns. What it did make me aware of though was that he has just hit a growth spurt and so instead of going 2 1/2 or 3 hours between feeds he all of a sudden just needed to be fed every 2 hours. Hopefully things settle again soon. I am just so amazed that at 2 months he is still only feeding from one side at each feed. No matter how much I try to encourage him to take more - especially with this growth spurt. But he can clearly only manage one side at a time for now. So much for this HUNGRY BOY that will have such a HUGE appetite. Perhaps it's still coming. :-)

Walk, wiggle and sWim

2011-11-30T21:00:00.035+13:00

Hezekiah does really well at falling asleep on his own at nap time - even without a dummy (which I am thrilled about). The only problem is that often his tummy wakes him up half way through nap. Often the easiest way to help him get back to sleep is for us to "go for a walk". The treadmill is great because I can walk for as long or short as I want and don't have to walk 1,4km to get to a nice smooth walking surface. Sometimes he will be fast asleep within minutes and then I can stop when I want and get some other things done.

Hezekiah not only wiggles up in his cot on his back - he wiggles forward while on his tummy.

And check out the beautiful moth we spotted today.

It's been lovely and hot and so we headed down to the pool for the first time this season. The water was only 21 - so chilly for us parents. The girls had fun though (and Brendon did do a few lengths when he finally got in). Ruth is already tall enough to stand in the "big pool" so she will have swimming lessons in the big pool in January which she is very excited about.

Hezekiah and I sat in the shade. Even at 4:30 it was still really hot.

Hannah was thrilled that her friend Violet was there.

Vote and big improvements

2011-11-28T21:00:00.003+13:00

Saturday was voting day. Such a contrast to the long lines of waiting in SA. This was all the traffic we had in front of us (and they were done by the time we got there). ;-)

I thought I would take a photo of Hezekiah's nappies for those who have never seen cloth ones like this before. The velcro make them really easy to get on and off as well as getting them to fit nicely. They also have poppers on the front so that you can change the size. On the left is popped to the smallest - how we used them in his first few weeks. I tried today to put them at the biggest - but they are still a bit too big. So we use them on the middle size now and they should last till he is out of nappies.

I tried to get a photo of his beautiful smile too. Left - a nicely focused shot but just as the smile as is starting. Right - such a lovely smile but unfortunately out of focus. Such a cutie though. The girls are really enjoying him more and more all the time. I keep trying to get a video of his lovely smile and precious noises but he is quite shy of the camera still.

For the last few days Hezekiah has been waking up in the morning because he needs to wee. It was the same again on Sunday and after being awake for a little while he fell asleep on the bean bag and woke again when it was time for milk.

He had also not done any poos since Friday and as expected - on our first trip to the church in town - he filled his nappy DURING the service. This in itself showed me that there was a huge change in his gut as up till Thursday he still had the very typical new born pattern of pooing every time he fed.

On Monday when he pooed in the potty I was thrilled to see - for the first time - normal poo and not the foamy gas filled stools he has been having for so many weeks now. His gut is obviously maturing and changing and it's great that the improvement is so visible (with him using the potty).

He still has a lot of gas but at least I know change has happened and the end of this struggle is now much closer. And perhaps having dirty nappies to clean is also close to being finished. We already get so many poos on the potty.

I had to smile and take a photo when I saw this. He had wiggled his way right up to the top of the cot.

Boxes and packages

2011-11-25T21:00:00.004+13:00

On Thursday Brendon got the boxes down from the garage. The older girls were off at an extra Ballet practice for the concert. Hannah felt very obliged to help as she had played in the car the other day and unbeknown to me had left ALL the lights on and the door open.

So the battery was flat and we had to push the car out the garage. She was a great helper though and enjoyed carrying some "big boxes" upstairs. We still have Elliott boxes from our move to NZ (40 of them). This will be the 3rd time they are used and Brendon will be glad to get rid of them and finally be in his OWN home.

I asked the girls to play with Hezekiah for a bit so that I could get some things done. This is what I found a little while later. King Hezekiah. The dress up has already started. Rachel said she is looking forward to when his head is big enough for him to wear the crown. :-)

On Friday there was a lot of grass cutting happening around the house. Poor Ruth is struggling with itchy eyes and coughing because of it. Her coughing has been quite bad so I took her to the doc this morning. I am glad I did as her chest was quite wheezy. The doc gave her an asthma pump for the times when it is really tight. I really look forward to getting back to the homeopath when she is back next year so that we can help Ruth with this long term and not just keep using the quick fix - symptom treating stuff.

The girls last posting for the year arrived today from the correspondence school. It's always fun to see them unpack and explore all the new puzzles, games and books. I asked the teacher if she could find any resources on South Africa with our trip in Feb coming up. She sent some lovely books. I think Rachel will start a unit study on South Africa too over the next couple of months.

Hannah having some fun sorting through Ruth's counting game.

Brendon tried to charge up the car's battery at the farm but it is dead. He had to go an buy a new battery today. Apparently if you get more than 2 years out of a battery it's a bonus - so the battery was actually quite old already and Hannah's light playing was obviously just too much for it.

First half

2011-11-23T21:00:00.022+13:00

Ruth doing "Moving to Learn"
things with Hezekiah.

The first half of this week was so busy for me I felt like I had already had a whole week by the time I got to Wednesday. I had a late night on Sunday night and again on Monday night getting all the paperwork sorted for the house. We ended up going to the Justice of the Peace to get forms signed in front of him on Monday and Tuesday (I only got to the 2nd lot of paperwork late on Monday night).

Such fun music.

We have posted most of the stuff off in courier bags as there is quite a bit that needs to get sorted out by next Friday. We have 10 days to get everything sorted and then the contract goes unconditional.

The girls have really enjoyed their bike rides down to the post box - a good 700m ride. Today I snuck some biscuits into the bag Rachel took so that they could have a mini picnic once they had the post. Unfortunately Ruth hit some big stones and had a nasty fall. Thankfully there was not much bleeding but poor Hannah was sent to call me while Rachel pushed Ruth back on her own bike. Once Hannah got home I headed out in the car to pick Ruth up (and check on her - I had no idea how bad it was) and her bike.

She bounced back to her happy self soon enough.

Hannah so enjoys celery. We often have to limit how much she eats in one day. It's a favourite snack for her.

Hezekiah getting nice and strong. I often forget to put him on his tummy but Ruth reminds me. :-)

He still struggles at time with his tummy and wakes in the middle of his nap. We have found that sometimes having a cloth nappy close to his head helps him to settle. I had to laugh when I saw him today. He had pulled the nappy over his head and happily slept like that. I don't think I will be using the nappy much any more.

Drawing Lessons

2011-11-21T21:00:00.004+13:00

A local home school group organized drawing lessons in town. Ruth's lesson was first so Rachel and I (with Hezekiah) headed off to get a load of errands done (including getting Rachel's Passport photos taken).

Ruth did this picture of a hedgehog. They were given just a few markings to help them get the basic shape right. She did such a lovely job. Especially noticeable was the effort she put into the eye. The teacher has told them about the light reflecting in the eye and she put that lovely sparkle in.

Rachel did this drawing of a deer. They were specifically shown how to do the shading and I think Rachel has done a wonderful job for her first go.

Once again the children were given a paper with a few markings on just to help them get their basic shape right. I was really impressed with what Rachel created.

While she was busy Ruth and Julia got playing with lego. They started building a bridge but I told them it looked like the Ancient Roman Aqueduct.

It ended up being HUGE.

There were a number of children attending the lessons and I think it was really enjoyed by all.

As Julia was the only one in the Love family wanting to do the animal drawing this week (cartoons are next week) she came with us and Hannah stayed with the Loves. This made it much easier for me. It was a very busy day though. We got home just in time for Rachel to head off with Dad to guides. We counted 12 different things that we got done today - not to mention the drawing lessons.

An exciting offer

2011-11-20T21:00:00.081+13:00

I joined the girls at play centre on Tuesday. The water play must be Hannah's favourite area.

They had the play dough outside this week. At one point there were a number of children around the table with one of the "teachers". They were all making pizza and talking about what they were putting on theirs. No one could guess what Ruth had made for her pizza. It was olives. None of the children even knew what an olive was. :-)

Hezekiah got his first John Deere Tractor today. A gift from the Ravn family (one of Brendon's bosses). The wife had told me that she was at the shops with one of her boys and she asked him what she should buy. He said he clearly remembers the John Deere tractor he had as a child and how much he loved it. So a very special gift. Hezekiah will just have to wait a few years to play with it. :-)

We have been so blessed by all the cards and gifts we have received. Rachel loves putting them in size order when the counter get cleaned.

Two of my favourite ones are the smallest two. A personalized cross stitch card and a book mark. People are so creative.

On Wednesday the girls were all wearing pretty pink dresses so I thought it was a good time to get a photo of them all. Hezekiah was not so sure about being propped up on the chair though.

Hannah then wanted me to take a photo when she was holding Hezekiah.

And as expected - Ruth then wanted a photo taken too. :-)

On Thursday Ruth had us all laughing at the dinner table. Her poor eyes have been quite itchy with the hay fever again this year and unfortunately the homeopathic medication we had for her has run out and the homeopath is overseas. So perhaps the cucumber was soothing. We have had to go back to using the anti-histamine and eye drops but hopefully once the homeopath is back in January we can get her onto more natural medication and a long term solution. Last year she only needed to take the medication for 2 weeks and she was fine for the rest of the season.

The girls computer has been playing up a lot lately and so we decided to get a cheap entry level laptop. The size of the computer is just huge compared to their old one (500MB compared to just 18MB) and so I hope to load as many of their games onto the computer as I can (and not need to use the disks every time they want to swap games). Going through all their games Ruth noticed the typing game and has said she wants to learn to type. So this week she got onto the game for the first time. She diligently went through the first lesson and the long page of asdfjkl; combinations.

On Friday night Brendon and I (with Hezekiah) went to the farm's year end function. We had a lovely evening and the girls had a great time visiting with Bob and Lynn (our old neighbours).

Our exciting news this week is that we made an offer on a house in Hawarden and the offer was accepted. We now have 2 weeks to get a few things sorted before the contract is unconditional. It's going to be a very busy week ahead.

We already stayed up till after 11pm on Sunday evening getting paperwork sorted for our KiwiSaver Deposit subsidy application. We have been members of KiwiSaver for 3 1/2 years now and so this is what is helping make it possible for us to have the money for a deposit (this and the wonderful blessing Brendon's bosses have been to us).

Marae visit

2011-11-14T22:00:00.017+13:00

The older girls were thrilled to be able to join the local school for a field trip today.

We were at the school at 7:30am and the buses finally left at 8am. They headed off to Onuku Marae near Akaroa - some 2 1/2 hours away.

As there was an accident on the road they only got there around 11am.

They experienced the powhiri, the laying down of the hangi, and eating the hangi food for dinner before returning home - arriving at 9:30pm. I had thought Ruth might sleep on the way home - but no - she was still to excited about it all. They both had a wonderful day and we are so thankful to the school for allowing them to be a part of it.

Hannah has really been enjoying Letterland lately and this morning she spent ages going through the book with the cd. The first time around she used Ruth's alphabet puzzle and some letter cards that have been done.

Then she wanted to go through it again and had fun getting the appropriate fridge magnets to match up on every page.

She enjoyed cutting the lawn with Dad in the afternoon. I am glad she had an enjoyable day and did not miss her sisters too much.

Weekend without Rachel

2011-11-13T21:00:00.002+13:00

Rachel was off on her pre-jamboree camp this weekend. With Friday being a holiday the camp started on Friday morning. She got a lift with the other girl going from our area - so I only had to drop her off locally (Brendon was working in the morning). I was impressed that I had everyone ready to go by 7:30.
As Rachel had some special treats for her morning tea and lunch I decided we would have a treat too - chocolate covered strawberries. Yummyyyyy.

Hannah has started washing the scraps dish once it's been emptied for the chooks. It's lovely to have them wanting to do work around the house. What a blessing. And please also note her "crown". The girls all got to spend $2 at the shop on Thursday for being so good at the doctors rooms. This was Hannah's choice. She loves the crown and we love the fact that it's keeping her hair out her face. :-)

Ruth loves spending time with Hezekiah. I know the girls are going to really enjoy it when he interacts more with them.

Ruth giving him a tummy
rub to help with the cramps.

On Friday Hezekiah had such a good day - we started thinking he had gotten over his colic. I then made the terrible mistake of eating coleslaw on Friday night though and did not relate that to his bad day on Saturday and had more on Saturday night. So the poor lad had terrible tummy cramps on Saturday and Sunday. Silly mommy. The cabbage will have to be eaten by the rest of the family.

Brendon and the younger girls cleaned out the now-empty wood shed. The farm will be splitting wood in January and have said we can fill up again then.

I never showed you a picture of the finished work out the front. Looking so nice. The rose bush that was in the corner must have been growing for many many years without being cut back. It was quite hard work to get it cleared out but it looks great now.

Debatable

2011-11-10T21:00:00.003+13:00

Enjoying a nap in Mum's arms

We had a long day in town today as we took Hezekiah in for his circumcision. I know this is a very debatable topic and something that Brendon and I never thought would even be an issue (for us our son / sons would just obviously be like their Dad). I know things have also changed a lot in SA over the last few years, but in NZ it is almost unheard of now days unless for medical reasons later on. So it was quite a task to even find a doctor here. Eventually I called a Jewish church in town to find out what they did. I had found a clinic in Auckland that performed circumcisions and they say they have people (mostly Jews and Muslims) coming from all over NZ. So I was very thankful that we only had to drive the hour and a half to the other side of town.

Friends thankfully allowed us to use their home as the base for the day as the procedure was done at 8:45am but the doctor wanted to just check him at 4:30 in the afternoon before we headed back home.

We got some shopping done and then spent the day relaxing at their home. Ruth really enjoyed playing with their dog. :-)

I was thankful to have Brendon with me as I was rather nervous about the day (not only the procedure but the long day in town - we left at 6:35am and were only back home after 8pm). A friend in SA had mentioned something about her son's circumcision almost 5 years ago and so I had written to her about it and it was so nice being able to talk to someone who had been through it and could encourage me. As she said - it was no big deal and as the doctor had said - within 4 days the Plastibell was off and it was all done.

Peddle, paint and patient

2011-11-09T21:00:00.009+13:00

Ruth is doing so well with riding on the bigger bike without side wheels. Hannah got the smaller one with side wheels and is getting really good at riding on the drive too. So the girls now love riding down the drive to have a picnic at "dragon tree" (Hannah named the tree at the entrance to the property). It's a 700m drive - so they do a good 1,4km ride every time. They are going to get nice strong legs. For a little while Ruth would need a bit of help to get going - so when she was off she just kept going. Rachel would patiently ride slowly at Hannah's pace. Ruth is doing well though and managing to get started on her own too.

The girls are just loving the long sunny days. It always amazes me how strong the sun is. There was a bit of cloud about on Tuesday so I hung Hezekiah's nappies on the clothes horse so that I could pull them inside if it did start to drizzle. Hannah was upset about the fact that they were still a bit yellow after the wash. I assured her that after just a couple of hours in the sun they would be white again. And they were.
And for those who are wondering - the super absorbent material folds in half - inside the fitted outer that gets put on like a disposable with Velcro straps. There are so many cloth nappies to choose from here. Each baby has had a different set and so far these are working really well. Each has their own advantages. They are all great though. So much better than the huge toweling nappies I used in SA.

On Tuesday Ruth came home with all her artwork from last week. I had watched her on Wednesday and was amazed at how much time she spent painting (and specifically hand prints last week). She really loves art and I am so glad for the regular time of painting she gets now - twice a week.

One of the feathers fell of one of Ruth's creations and so Hezekiah became Peter Pan. :-)

Hezekiah was also Hannah's patient today. She has had so much fun with the medical set.

Fireworks

2011-11-05T21:00:00.040+13:00

There were fireworks planned for last night but it was too wet and windy so they were postponed to tonight. We could see this morning how much snow had fallen overnight. How strange for November. So beautiful though.

It was a beautiful day today which allowed Brendon to get stuck into the garden again. He had his helpers again and they managed to clear out the whole area.

What a difference. As we thought would happen we found a nest in here with a dozen eggs in it. Later Brendon found two more nests. So 24 eggs collected today and not 1 of them was bad. We had omelette's for dinner. :-)

I stayed home with Hezekiah while Brendon took the girls to the fireworks. And it's not just boys who like to see fire trucks.

And a real treat - to climb inside.

Ruth too.

You can imagine that with all that snow about it was rather cold out. The girls were well wrapped up though.

There was a huge bonfire which Hannah was rather afraid of. Brendon said afterwards that perhaps she just heard "bomb" and was scared that there would be a big explosion.

Brendon was surprised that it was allowed on such a windy night. But the fireman seemed rather relaxed about it all.

Rachel was excited to get to see fireworks live for the first time. She missed them last year as she was on a Brownie camp. They were disappointed with the whole evening though. The place we went to last year - although a little further away - was way more organized and had a lot more things planned for the evening.

The fireworks themselves were even bigger last year. So I think next year we will plan to do the extra traveling.

We were prepared this time for Hannah's sensitive ears. ;-)

Cars, cat nap and colic

2011-11-04T21:00:00.038+13:00

Play centre again this morning with Music. Hezekiah even managed to sleep with all that noise (he should have been awake though - he was just too tired).

Back to the toy library this morning to get something different for Hannah's room time. They always have such fun on the first day. I love the way Hezekiah watched them playing with the cars. Not long my boy - and you will be joining them.

Brendon was pretty exhausted when he got home this afternoon. Hezekiah had been struggling with a sore tummy so Brendon said he would hold him (often it helps not lying flat on his back). A little while later Rachel saw this and could not resist taking a photo.

We all had a laugh when Hezekiah seemed to be trying to eat his octopus.

Thankfully the nap helped energise Dad and so Hannah got him roped into a game of Doctor.

He was also a great Dad to Hezekiah and gave him a lovely massage this evening. He has really been struggling with gas this week and after me spending two days trying to burp him for hours I mentioned the struggle on face book.

A friend then contacted me and helped me to understand that with colic the struggle is more with the gas in their gut. So massage is a great help in getting some of that gas moved along and out. It is so nice to finally know what we can do to help him when he is in so much pain. We do hope he grows out of this soon. Poor little guy.

1 month and mozzarella

2011-11-03T21:00:00.020+13:00

Hezekiah is 1 month old already. Rachel reminded me to take a teddy photo. I looked back and noticed that I had forgotten about this first photo for Hannah too. So nice to have Rachel to remind me. :-) And nice that Hezekiah even had his own teddy for this first photo. We have named the teddy Jonathan (after the gift giver).

Maureen visited again today. He is already 4.85kg - a good 1,12kg in a month. He is 59cm which is 5cm more. I had a look at Rachel's baby book and she put on 1,2kg and grew 5cm. So very similar gains for the two of them in their first month. It will be very interesting to see how it changes in the months ahead.

The girls made mozzarella cheese at play centre on Tuesday.

Rachel and I were quite jealous - we will have to learn how and make it at home some time. :-) Today the girls used their cheese to make "pizza" bread for lunch. Rachel even cut the bread in pizza slices. I think we will be making home made pizza in the near future. :-)

Lovely play centre

2011-11-02T21:00:00.023+13:00

On Tuesday the girls brought home the art that they had created previously at play centre.

Finally my desire for the girls to get to paint every week has been fulfilled. :)

The girls were thrilled to have two days in a row at play centre this week as the Correspondence School teachers had planned a visit for today. They are based in Wellington and try to get together with the children at least once a year.

Hannah was so excited about meeting Jill (above). When Jill sends her new posting she includes a letter to Hannah. On the top of the letter she puts a photo of her holding one of the pictures that Hannah has sent her. Something so simple has had such a huge effect as Hannah recognised the picture (the funny man she drew) and enjoyed talking to Jill about it today too.

I left a bit early with Hezekiah and Rachel and the girls got a lift home with Kerry. They were thrilled to have the Spencer children at the get together too.

Sky, land and sea

2011-10-31T21:00:00.028+13:00

Yesterday Hezekiah started sleeping in his cot during the day. Left: This is the view he has out the window.

Right: Sleeping peacefully.

We did a sort out of the girls cupboards yesterday and now that they are more organized the girls re-found their "African" clothes and were excited to wear them today. Hezekiah had a lovely lion shirt to go with the African theme too.

Unfortunately Hannah's dress is too small already. Hopefully now that Rachel remembers she has the skirt she will wear it more often. It really is a lovely one.

Rachel was really quick with her school work this morning and so the girls headed outside to play. It was wonderful that their game ended up weeding the vegetable garden. Well - at least starting on it. It's just got so overgrown over the last couple of months.

Brendon did the Guide run this afternoon / evening and brought fish and ships home for dinner. The girls were so excited about my idea of an indoor picnic.

Smile

2011-10-29T21:00:00.043+13:00

Monday was a public holiday so we headed into town to fetch Rachel once Brendon was finished his mornings work at the farm. She had a wonderful weekend at camp. I took this photo from Lynn's blog (our friends from Timaru who were also at camp). Rachel was so excited to tell us about the speaker who was a missionary. She has been reading so many biographies of missionaries that she was THRILLED to meet one. She also recognised the names of many of the missionaries he mentioned in his talks and she was even more excited when she heard that he would be going to CHINA!!!!! (The topic of her latest unit study)

Not even 4 weeks old and such
lovely big smiles.

On the way home we got the usual grocery shopping done as well as real spoil items - some feeding tops for me. I am not one to buy new clothes but I had seen a friend wearing one of these tops and they are just great. Rachel even convinced me to get a dress too. So watch this space - at some point I am sure there will be a photo of me and one of my new tops.

Hezekiah was 3 weeks on Monday and when Maureen visited on Tuesday he weighed 4.54kg - up another 350g in the last week.

The girls were back to Ballet this week as the holidays are over and we also went to Music and Movement on Friday. It was great for the ladies to meet Hezekiah and also for me to meet the Play Centre Lady. From now on play centre will happen on Fridays too - so it will be a lovely fun filled morning out.

Brendon got to spray the weeds on the drive today and the girls enjoyed having the cows so close to the house.

I love the way Ruth will sit and tell Hezekiah stories.

And Rachel is such a wonderful big sister too.

This weekend I introduced the girls to fried banana. Brendon and I used to often have fried banana with our fried egg and I can't believe we have never done it for the girls. It was a huge success and I can see that we will be buying even more bananas in future. :-)

Hair and Hurrah

2011-10-23T23:59:00.001+13:00

I finally got all of Ruth's braids tightened today.
Brendon and I (with the rest of New Zealand) were so pleased that NZ won the Rugby World Cup. Hurrah!! It was a late night with the game only starting at 9:30. Rachel stayed up to watch it on camp too.

Cow, carry and cut

2011-10-22T21:00:00.024+13:00

The girls were excited about being allowed to go and watch the Frosts working with the cattle this morning. Normally Rachel is with but Brendon was sure they would behave themselves.

After a while I put Hezekiah in this pouch and went down to get a photo. I ended up having a lovely chat with Lynne and by the time I got back Hezekiah had had a nice long sleep.

Brendon finally got his weed eater working consistently - so he enjoyed getting a lot done in the garden with it.

He spotted one of the chooks enjoying this "perch" and it makes a pretty photo. She looks a bit like a statue on there. :-)

Ruth having a chat with Hezekiah - asking him to roll over onto his back again. He was falling asleep though. He had a good day though. He even took the 2nd side a couple of times.

PS: Perhaps he was just making up for the milk he spat up the day before though as it was only the one day.

Synchronised gardening?

2011-10-21T21:00:00.007+13:00

One of the great things about summer are the beautiful long days. This allows Brendon to start earlier in the day (when the sun comes up) which means he is home earlier. He can even be home by 3pm which is wonderful. He has some afternoon tea and then on a lovely day like this he can even get some gardening done. I just love these two photos. Is there such a thing as synchronised gardening. :-)

Hezekiah enjoying a nap. He won't fit in here for very long.

This afternoon and evening we were glad we had not gone to camp as Hezekiah got sick - twice - soaking all his clothes. That would not have been nice to deal with on the road or at camp.

Such a sweet little thing. I do hope his tummy will settle down soon. I was able to buy some colic powder yesterday and we are hoping that will help.

Even though it was still holidays today and there was no Music and Movement

- we still popped out to return items to the toy library and look for something more. The girls were thrilled with this stable. As the horse had a saddle they decided to try and find someone to ride it. They ended up bringing the barbies down and they had a wonderful time playing together before bed.

Tiger things Hezekiah's car seat is a wonderful place to sit.

Oldest sister

2011-10-20T21:00:00.022+13:00

We headed into town this afternoon to drop Rachel off at the Scotts as she will be traveling with them to church camp tomorrow. She has been so excited and has been counting down the days.

We managed to make an appointment for Hezekiah to see the chiropractor too as he seems to be really struggling with the colic. It will be good to at least know that if there is something physically causing it that she would help him.

We had a lovely meal with the Scotts and a great visit. The younger girls were so pleased that we were not just dropping Rachel off but that they would get time to play with Rebbecca too. Ruth was a bit teary when we left but I am sure she will enjoy being the "oldest sister" for the weekend.

2 weeks old

2011-10-17T21:00:00.017+13:00

What a beautiful day today.
Maureen weighed Hezekiah at her visit today and he is 4,19kg - 330g up in a week - so he is doing very well. He is not the hungry boy that every one said he would be - well at least not yet.

He still only nurses from one side and no matter what I do to try and get him to drink more he will just not take more. He knows that it's enough I suppose.

He has been struggling with tummy cramps - similar to what Hannah struggled with in her 2nd week - so we have been giving him some of the same meds we gave her and hope that they will help him.

2nd weekend

2011-10-16T21:00:00.002+13:00

On Saturday Brendon was pleased to be able to get loads of work done in the garden again. He had already cleared out all these branches (mostly from the very overgrown and never pruned apple tree).

He had his trusty helper with him and they even managed to rope Hannah into helping for a while. I was impressed with the size of some of the branches she pulled away.

It was quite cold out and so I wrapped Hezekiah up and headed out to keep them company (and enjoy some fresh air). He fell asleep though so I left him inside with Rachel and got some gardening done too. It was lovely. Not only the fresh air and exercise but the fact that I could bend over so easily. :-)

The weather was a lot nicer on Sunday and so we could get a nice new family photo outside.

Another one with Hezekiah and I.

I must also note that Tiger is much happier now that Patches' cone is off. We had to laugh at him playing with her - with his tail.

2nd week

2011-10-14T21:00:00.001+13:00

Tuesday: The girls showing Hezekiah the dress up dolls that Hannah got from the correspondence school library.

Wednesday: Hezekiah's first trip out the house.

Brendon hurt his neck and knew he needed to see the chiropractor to get it sorted out, so he headed into town after work. He got some dinner while in town and so I went to buy frozen pizza for our dinner. There is no point using a nice big meal when one of the adults is missing to enjoy it.

Some cuddle time with Ruth and enjoying a bath with Dad.

Back to work

2011-10-10T21:00:00.032+13:00

Brendon went back to work today. It was wonderful having him home last week. The girls are great though and understand that when I am feeding I can't just get up and do something for them. It's also great that it's school holidays for the next two weeks which means no ballet or Guides to worry about. Another blessing is that the children's computer was fixed and back home last Thursday - Hannah is the one that had missed it the most. She is teaching herself the alphabet with the Letterland game and is also learning to recognise numbers from a preschool game. It amazes me to watch them learning so quickly.

Hezekiah will have 3 sisters to read to him. What a blessing. Hopefully they will be patient enough to read all the books about trucks and cars too. :-)

Last week Patches went to the vet to get speyed. Unfortunately the local vet is rebuilding and so we had to go to Amberley. They have a different way of stitching up and so poor Patches had to wear this cone for a week. She had already pulled one stitch out before she left the vet and so had a staple in. Later in the week the staple was looking so loose that she had to have that one taken out and 2 new ones put in (thankfully a friend could take Patches for us). Brendon had picked her up last Thursday and given me a lovely quiet morning at home. They picked up the computer then as well and enjoyed an ice cream at the Amberley "dairy".

1 week

2011-10-09T21:00:00.019+13:00

Sarah treated the girls to a few hours out today over lunch time as there was a function on with one of the local churches - they came home with ALL BLACK face painting. :-) While they were out Maureen had her visit. We weighed Hezekiah today and he was 3,86kg - so up by 130g. This is great as often they can drop from their birth weight and it can take a week to just get back to their starting point.

His skin was slightly yellow today from his neck up but he is becoming more wakeful which does help with the feeding. He got some lovely sun today (and a nice massage from Dad) and showed us how strong he is already. Oh - and please note that beautifully cut lawn. :-)
Steve and Josie also brought a number of meals this evening from ladies in the church that we visit in town. What a blessing.

5 hours

2011-10-08T21:00:00.007+13:00

It was wonderful to get a solid 5 hours of sleep last night. Hezekiah will often go for 4 1/2 hours after his last feed but as he has decided that the last feed is around 8 or 8:30 often - I generally don't get to bed very soon after that even though he might be asleep. Last night however he had his last feed at 9:30 and I went to bed with him. What a difference it makes to have so many hours of sleep all together. Hopefully it won't be too long before we can have that more regularly.
His skin is looking much better but I know he needs to get in as much milk as possible. This has meant that he ends up feeding almost every hour.

He has his main feed when he wakes up and then when he is ready for a sleep an hour later I give him a "top up" from the same side - just to get whatever I can in.

Brendon was pleased to be able to get into the garden today. His old Springbok rugby jersey is his regular gardening shirt. It's at least 12 years old - so it's doing really well. I just loved this photo of him with his son though. Too precious.

It was lovely to have a visit from Steve and Josie this morning too. I always love the range of topics we end up talking about when we have visits like this.

Hannah was thrilled that her Correspondence school bag arrived today. It's always so exciting to open it and see what has been sent (especially when the bag is so full and heavy). This month's "big" item was a medical set. I can see lots of fun happening with that over the next month.

Lots of photos and a funny song

2011-10-07T21:00:00.036+13:00

Hannah up early again today and just so pleased with her little brother.

She is pleased that Dad was home this whole week too. She has enjoyed having him around to read to her. That was the one advantage of a wet week - keeping Brendon indoors. If it had been dry he would have felt obliged to get out do gardening. So it was nice to have him home and indoors. :-)

Hannah enjoying some cuddle time with Hezekiah before heading off to Music and Movement. Dad took the younger girls today (along with a book for himself to read).

And while they were out we were surprised by a visit from Lynn. She had knitted Hezekiah a beautiful jersey and had some other lovely presents for him too. We ended up having a nice long visit and catch up. Lynn always enjoys hearing all of Rachel's news and Rachel always loves a good long chat with Lynn.

I tried to get a nice photo with Rachel and Hezekiah but he was a little squashed up in this one.

Thankfully there was lovely sun this morning for him. His jaundice is looking a lot better but his eyes are still yellow. Maureen did tell me that they would take a while to clear though.

After lunch it was a bit cooler but he still got a few rays. Froggy legs again. :-) And sleeping with his arms up - just like Rachel and Hannah did.

I even got a little nap with him this afternoon.

Unfortunately there are many fuzzy photos from this last week. And it's not only Rachel who is having to learn how to get the new camera to focus nicely. :(

How I laughed when I heard and then saw these two. Hannah just loves "Somewhere over the rainbow" and Ruth learnt this accompaniment from one of Andre Rieu's concerts. :-)

Sun please

2011-10-06T21:00:00.004+13:00

It's been a bit wet and chilly this week which makes it really hard when your little man needs sun for his jaundice. Thankfully it was already looking less intense today and even his urine is becoming more dilute. It's hard when the jaundice causes baby to be so sleepy and so does not really want to drink all that much but the milk is exactly what will help him.

At least he was awake long enough for me to get a photo of him with his eyes open.

His eyes are really dark which surprised me. I am so used to European babies having blue eyes but his are brown right from the start.

Thankfully later in the morning the sun did make an appearance and so he could at least get his little legs into the sun. The girls enjoy talking to him and showing him all the different toys. We had to limit the number of toys they hung up to 2 for now - otherwise this poor little man will be quite overwhelmed. I have already seen Hezekiah fixing his gaze on me and "tracking" as I move from side to side. It's just amazing to watch them grow and learn.

Little froggy legs. I think he spent a lot of time like this in the womb too as I often felt a leg on either side of my tummy.

I bought some cheap disposable nappies for this first week. No one wants to clean cloth nappies with meconium on them! And the disposables are easy enough to keep off his belly button too. So once the cord is off he will move into his cloth nappies

I was feeling much better today physically and emotionally. It was a rough day yesterday but once I realized that it was just the roller coaster of emotions that goes with the milk coming in - it helped me to just go with it (ie not worry about just crying for nothing) and know that things would be better soon. I was glad it was only the one day and I felt myself again today.

I had to smile at the irony of things last night as my breasts were so full though. For the last few months of the pregnancy I could not sleep on my back (not wanting to cause any circulation problems) and last night I was pinned to my back as it was just too painful to be on my side. This too will pass though. :-)

Of milk, tummies and potties

2011-10-05T21:00:00.023+13:00

Some things I forgot to write about yesterday was that I could already hear Hezekiah gulping as he nursed. Even when Maureen visited she said she heard "frequent swallows". So he put in his order for milk that first night and it's already on it's way.
Another note Maureen made yesterday was that Hezekiah "Christened Belinda!! Probably won't be the last time." All mothers of boys know what this is about (and many others of you can guess from the common baby boy nappy changing videos on AVF).
So even though this photo was taken on the 20th it does fit here as I put him on the potty when he was just 1 day old. I had potty trained both Ruth and Hannah as babies and was a little unsure about how it would work with a boy. I did not start this early with Hannah (she was at least a week or two old) but decided that if he was going to wee (or pee as they say in NZ) when his nappy was taken off then he may as well do it on the potty. The main difference was that I used a little bowl for Hannah at first where with Hezekiah I needed to go straight to this potty (with it's higher front bit).
Note: At the time this photo was taken (just over 2 weeks old) Hezekiah was already really good about using the potty. It was even easy to tell when he was finished his poos as he would do only then do a wee.

I took a photo of his cord today (already getting nice and dry). Before the birth the girls had asked about it and I could not find any photos of their cords in that first week. So just for the record - this is what it looks like as it dries out.

Last night Hezekiah settled at about 10pm and slept till 5am. The only problem was that I did not sleep well at all. I lay awake listening to his breathing and worrying if he was ok. There were times when his breathing was so incredibly rapid that I got quite frightened. Eventually I asked Brendon to get his watch so that I could count his breaths in a minute. This was a good thing as it made me realize that it was not all the time. It did fluctuate quite a bit and Maureen had told me about this too.
The negative today was that Hezekiah was starting to look quite jaundiced - all the way from his tummy up. Even the whites of his eyes were yellow. It was far worse than what the girls had. After chatting with my mother a few days later I learnt that my brothers struggled with jaundice far more than us 3 girls. So perhaps that pattern will be the same with my children.
Again Maureen was such a blessing - giving me all the encouragement that I needed through this. It's hard to deal with a problem (even if it's small) when the emotions are doing their thing with the milk coming in. And boy did I have a day of it today. Eventually I had a slight fever and had been shivering with cold. I called Maureen and she reassured me that it could all just be with my milk "coming in". Brendon had helped me to check and make sure there were no blocked ducts causing infection (that had happened with Rachel). Maureen suggested I have a nice hot shower and really massage the breasts and get some of the milk out. Well - I must have had the longest shower I have ever had. I was in there for ages. I did feel so much better afterwards though. This little boy did put in a big order for milk and has now gotten all sleepy with the jaundice. I do know though that this too will pass.

First day

2011-10-04T21:00:00.034+13:00

We had a good first night. Hezekiah fed on and off from 9pm till around 1am but as he was in the bed next to me I could dose as he nursed and was not exhausted from it all. He then slept till 6 which was wonderful and meant that I was well rested in the morning. Hannah was up early and it did not take long for Hannah to ask if Hezekiah was awake. She was thrilled to come and have a little chat with him.

Nice to get a clear photo this morning of his sweet little face.

A friend called to ask if we would like her to take the younger girls to play centre this morning. What a blessing. Fun for them and a quieter house for us. And she dropped off this lovely pie for our dinner. Blessing upon blessing.

Hezekiah's skin is quite dry on his hands and feet so Brendon and Rachel put some more oil on him this morning.

Rachel also got some more cuddle time with him.

Maureen also came for a visit this morning. I am so very thankful for the wonderful, amazing care that I am receiving. To think that Maureen will be visiting almost every day this week and then visiting every week till he is 6 weeks old. And all of this incredible care does not even cost us a cent. I do feel so very blessed and I regularly thank the Lord for Maureen and the blessing of being in New Zealand.

The girls had a wonderful time at play centre. It's school holidays for the next 2 weeks and so all the dress up things get washed. Anna thought the girls might like to borrow these outfits for the holidays. What fun.

Our lion and tiger saying hi to their brother.

Hezekiah sleeps in this little bed in the lounge during the day. We want him to be used to the noise in this house. Patches decided she wanted a closer look. I quickly took a photo and then told her she was not allowed in there again. :-)

Welcome Hezekiah

2011-10-03T19:00:00.229+13:00

For those of you following a link to this page you may want to read about our long weekend first. :-)

9:20am - just 8 minutes old

By 5:30 this morning the contractions were coming 5 minutes apart again and I decided to get into the pool. We were not sure at this stage if they would fade off again or really pick up but decided that if things did not pick up over the next few hours we would probably head into town - so why not use the pool. By 6 the contractions were just 3 minutes apart and I finally had some pain in my back. Amazingly this made me feel wonderful as we had been waiting for baby to engage and with back pain starting it gave us the hope that he was actually starting to move down. By 6:20 we felt sure things were a go and so Brendon called Maureen. He then woke Rachel up so that she could help with topping up the pool and giving us things to eat and drink as by this stage I needed Brendon in the pool with me.

An excellent shot of the 3 vessels in the cord.

Maureen arrived at 7:45 (she comes from town so we knew it would take over an hour for her to get here) and I was so thankful to have her here. I was feeling rather tired by this stage and I told Maureen "I don't want to do this any more, it's so hard." By now the contractions were lasting over a minute and were coming every 2 or 3 minutes - so I felt like I did not get much of a break in between. I suggested we call Sarah so that she could bring the girls - Ruth really did not want to miss the birth. Maureen also called the 2nd midwife - Sandy (the idea is that the 2nd midwife be there for the actual birth - we waited too long with Hannah and she did not even make it). By 8:30 they had all arrived and Sandy could take over the note taking (I have full records of everything thanks to the lovely Maternity Notes book they use here). Josie also arrived at some point probably assuming baby had arrived and just wanting to help - so she was in the kitchen with Rachel - washing dishes and sweeping the floor. I remember so clearly feeling very overwhelmed and so Maureen said "ladies - we need to pray" and I had 4 Christian ladies in the room praying for me (the 2 midwives, Sarah and Josie) - what a blessing.

Some skin to skin time with Dad.

Sarah then took the younger girls upstairs and she told me afterwards that when I was quite loud they looked a bit concerned and so she said "isn't she doing so well, I was so much louder when I had my babies" and that totally relaxed them. What a blessing to know the younger girls were so relaxed through it all.

By 8:45 it was clear my body was starting to get ready to push him out and so Maureen encouraged me to put my hand down and feel my baby's head (as I remember both my midwives doing at the previous births). I got a bit of a shock though as it was not what I expected. I could feel his head but it was still a little way off and I felt something "in the way". I asked Maureen to do an internal so that I could understand what was going on. I had an anterior lip (where the front part of the cervix has not quite moved out the way yet). So Maureen said I needed to breath through the contractions and not allow my body to push. Wow! How do I do that!!!

Some skin to skin time with Rachel.

The next 10 minutes were so hard but I felt so supported. Maureen was right in front of me and breathed through every contraction with me. I remember being so fixed on her eyes - it felt like I was hanging onto her for the strength and support I needed - and physically I was too as I remember squeezing her hand as I tried to focus on relaxing my cervix and not allowing the pushing that was so incredibly powerful. Brendon was also still helping as he supported me in the pool in all the different positions I tried.

3.73kg and 54cm long

Eventually at 9:05 I decided to get out of the pool so that I could get on my hands and knees and see if that would help keep baby in for a little longer. Just 4 minutes later I felt he was coming and was concerned about the lip and if it was out the way yet. Maureen said it must have been as baby was on his way. Afterwards we spoke about it and said it must have been the movement of getting out the pool that actually helped. Just 2 minutes later his head was out. Maureen got a bit of a surprise as the membranes were over his head. She managed to break them so that if he got a desire to take a breath there was nothing over his face. A minute later he was out. The cord was around his chest and had wrapped around his foot too and had pulled tight on his foot as he came out. Maureen quickly loosened it but it must have caused him a bit of stress as he passed some meconium.

1:10 - Dad putting some oil on him

So another very quick 2nd stage - just 7 minutes. The notes in my book say "The girls so excited baby is here. We have a baby brother." Something I will treasure for years to come is Hannah singing Hezekiah a lullaby just minutes after his birth. What a blessing.

Brendon then put a hat on Hezekiah and used some dental floss to tie the cord (much easier to put a nappy on without the bulky plastic clamp) and cut the cord. Hezekiah then started nursing and latched so well with strong sucking. He had a good long time at the breast - changing sides every now and again just as Hannah did.

2:50 and a nap in bed together

During this time Maureen checked the placenta. She knew from last time that I was keen to have a look myself so she set herself up in front of me and we all watched. Another precious memory will be asking Hannah 5 days later what she remembered about his birth and she said it was "seeing his house". She knew about the placenta and cord and it was obviously a wonderful highlight for her to actually get to see it. And I love how she called it his "house".

Brendon then got busy emptying the pool and packing that away (with Maureen and Rachel helping). Sarah had taken the younger girls to spend the day with her. By midday the rest of us were enjoying some toast and the note in the book says "Hezekiah having his first cry. Didn't enjoy being changed from one side to the other!" So he nursed for around 3 hours before finally being weighed and checked.
I remember Maureen asking us how much we thought he weighed. I said 3,5kg as that was what Hannah was and he seemed similar. Brendon said 4kg as he was sure I was way bigger in the pregnancy. Maureen said 3,7 or 3,8 and he was 3,73kg. Spot on. :-)
Maureen left just before 2pm. She stays the extra few hours just to make sure that everything is going as expected with Mother and Baby. She was again such a blessing to me through this whole pregnancy and I really thank the Lord for her.

Just after 3pm Kerry dropped in with a meal and a smile and to take Rachel to Guides. It was lovely to see her and it was also nice that Rachel did not miss out. Thankfully she was not up earlier than normal and was not too tired to go. Rachel was such a blessing to us especially during the hours before Maureen arrived. It was lovely having her at the birth and she was thrilled to be a part of it all.

By 4 the younger girls were back and Ruth was thrilled to get her first cuddle with her new born brother. She had said before the birth that she hoped he was not born at night as she did not want to miss the birth. I am so glad my younger girls could be cared for so wonderfully (on Sunday and Monday - thank you Sarah) but also get to be home for the birth and also enjoy this special time with him on his very first day.
Above all I want to thank the Lord for all these many blessings. A couple of days after the birth a friend asked me what Hezekiah's name meant. As the meaning of names has never really been the focus for Brendon and I it was something I had to then go and look up. I was in tears as I read "The Lord strengthens". What a perfect name for this little one - the Lord really did give me the strength for his birth. We pray too that the Lord would strengthen Hezekiah and work in his heart so that he may "Trust in the Lord" and "cling to the Lord" and "not depart from following Him" (2 Kings 18:5-6).

Long latent labour weekend

2011-10-02T23:00:00.010+13:00

5:15am - finally day is coming after a long night

On Friday night I did not get much sleep. From the time I went to bed I was having contractions every 7 minutes. Eventually after an hour it was just too uncomfortable so I got up and they eased off. Back to bed and the contractions were back every 10 min.

Hannah was up by 6:30
Playing a memory game with Dad

Watching a movie.
Funny cat.

Again I got out of bed and within half an hour they had eased off and I tried to sleep again. Now 4am Saturday morning and they were back more intensely every 5 minutes. I could only cope in bed for half an hour with these and then had to get up.

Sat - 1 Oct - not long till I am
a mother of 4 and not just 3

This time they continued till 7 but were easier to deal with being up and I still managed to rest in between.

Once the family was up things quietened down for the day. I was so thankful that it was Saturday as I got to sleep a number of times through the day which helped tremendously.

Got some photos taken on Saturday as at some point this latent phase will move into active 1st stage and we will get to meet this little man - perhaps even on his due date.

Thank you cards that Rachel and I made.
She finished them off on Saturday.

Thankfully Saturday night was a lot better and I got to sleep well until around 2am. I spent the next hour very uncomfortable in bed with stronger contractions every 5 min. Spent 3-4am out of bed and they eased off again so I went back to bed. At 4:15 however my waters broke. Maureen arrived at 5:40 and checked on me and baby. I remember her saying "we are committed to birth now" and we were all thinking this little one would be arriving on his due date. Maureen got her birth kit set up and Brendon got the pool filled but contractions settled down again.

The BIRTH DAY cake Rachel made for her brother.

The 25 hours that followed my waters breaking were not easy emotionally - waiting and wondering and praying for wisdom. Thankfully a friend took the younger two girls for Sunday and they slept over there on Sunday night too. Maureen spent the whole morning with us and then visited a friend for a few hours after lunch. She was back for a check up around 5pm and we chatted about our "plan of action" for the next 12 hours. Brendon would check my temperature every 2 hours and he also decided to use Maureen's sonic aid to check baby's hear rate. We knew medically they don't like waiting more than 18 to 24 hours after waters break for active labour to start but we also knew that there was no infection and baby was fine. So we waited.

Last week in September

2011-09-30T21:00:00.023+13:00

Ruth has been playing netball a lot more recently and so Brendon moved the net down to it's lowest for her. We also suggested she use the light beach ball as her arms get tired from throwing the heavy one. She gets quite a few shots in. Perhaps we have a Silver Fern in the making. :-)

I just love how tolerant Patches is of all the positions Ruth puts her in. We need to organize to get Patches spayed soon as she is around 7 months old already and we don't want any other tom cats coming around and fighting with Tiger. It looks like she may get her op done next week.

With such longer days Brendon starts work earlier which means he gets home earlier. Afternoon tea time when he gets home and then it's a great time to get some work done in the garden.

The girls are always keen to help and so this week he got them to clean out the other boxes so that we can plant more pansies. The pansies have done so well - they went right through the snow and they are still looking really good.

With due date approaching we tried to see if we could get any of those lovely belly photos. This was our best effort. Any day now and we get to meet this little man.....

Ruth's hair has been well over due for tightening but I was aware of not wanting to put too much strain on my back in these last weeks of the pregnancy. This week I decided I may as well get some done and just make sure I stop before my back gets sore. You can see on the photo how much the hair has grown from July when it was last tightened. The braids on the right have now been done and the one in my hand shows the growth - a good inch of hair (the braid starts between my two fingers). I was quite pleased with what we got done but realize it is going to probably be a long process of just working through it all.

It's become a common sight this - our chooks walking around the garden.

And so lovely to watch these two playing together.

And finally a photo with Rachel in. :-) The girls have enjoyed Dad being home earlier in the afternoons. After work (in the garden) there is still time to play. And yes - the girls are all dressed to match with identical NZ T-shirts and their home made denim skirts.

Spring

2011-09-25T21:00:00.043+13:00

We had a beautifully warm day yesterday (Saturday). Brendon made sure he got out nice and early to get the grass cut. He had his usual helper but this time Ruth's helpfulness had an effect on Rachel. While Brendon and Ruth were having a break Rachel went out and did some raking up. What a blessing.

We had friends coming over after lunch and so the girls decided to take their lunch down to "dragon tree" (the tree at that special spot at the end of the drive that I showed you last Sunday). Rachel specifically asked to get the wagon from the toy library on Friday so that she can give the younger girls a ride when they get tired of walking. They have also found a "short cut" through the fields. They just love going out together and have a wonderful time. The friends only arrived at 2:30 so they had a lovely long play out there today.

It's always amazing to see Ruth with Patches. I remember saying she used to wear Smokey as a scarf but I think Patches is even more willing to be moved into all funny positions. Can you believe she can sleep like that?

As it was such a beautiful warm day and we were all in summer clothes by the afternoon (yes, Ruth changed tops as she was just too hot with a long sleeve on) I asked that we all go outside to get a new family photo. The girls had a lovely time playing with Dad and we got a lovely photo too - including the 39 week tummy.

We had such a different day weather wise today (Sunday). It was raining in the morning, we had beautiful sunshine after lunch, hail in the afternoon and then snow in the evening. Welcome to spring where you just don't know what you will get.

Drive, drink and drill

2011-09-23T13:00:00.002+12:00

On Monday afternoon I was on Guides transport and so Brendon ended up having a whole lot of other errands to do as our beef was ready to be collected this afternoon (45 min away). He picked the younger two girls up once he was done with work and then headed off. The other big item on the "to do" list was picking up the baby's car chair. It's common to just hire these first baby seats in NZ and Rachel was just amazed at how small the head cushion is. It's made her a little bit more excited about meeting this tiny baby brother of hers.

Brendon was out for 3 hours and I was so pleased to hear how good the younger girls had been. They only got home and had dinner at 6:30 - a good hour and a half later than normal.

On Tuesday Maureen came for my 38 week visit. She brought my blood results from last week and although my Ferritin and Haemoglobin are both up a bit (and well within a safe range) my Platelets have dropped just below the ideal range.

There was nothing she could suggest specifically to do to help get these levels up but after some research on-line I found some suggestions were

The girls sorting out our
family vitamins for
the next 3 weeks.

Vitamin C supplements (which I already take), Flax seed oil (which I happened to have in the fridge) and berries (and I had a bag of frozen berries in the freezer). So this week I have started having a berry and flax seed smoothie (with kiwi fruit and banana included) for morning tea. Hopefully my levels will come up. She will test again on Monday next week.

Otherwise it's been a quiet week. Both ballet girls are so excited every week about their practice as they are working on their end-of-year production - "The Wizard of Oz".

On Thursday I downloaded a free trial version of Reflex Math and the older girls are so enjoying it. It's basically a Math drill programme where it custom builds the drills (in games) for each student. So Ruth is just starting on basic addition while Rachel is working on getting her Multiplication quicker. It was so funny to hear Rachel ask Brendon to wake her up early on Friday morning so that she can get her other work done quickly and have time to "play" on Reflex.

Flower show and special spot

2011-09-18T21:00:00.002+12:00

The girls have been so excited about going to the flower show today.

One of the reasons was to see how well they had each done in the colouring in competition. It's the first time Ruth will actually be "entered" as they only have winners from age 5. Well done Ruth for coming THIRD.

They were thrilled to get a ride in a donkey cart.

And Rachel managed to come FIRST in her age group. Well done Rachel.

This girls have found a new favourite playing spot - way down at the end of our drive. It's quite a walk for Hannah (700m) so they timed it on Saturday and Sunday morning so that they could get a lift home with Dad. They then also came up with this plan to play there after lunch on Sunday and have us just pick them up from there when we left for Bible study. This plan was fine. The only problem in the plan was that they had brought Patches all the way down with them too (you can see her to the left of Hannah). She normally walks with them for a while but turns back at some point. This time they picked her up when she got tired. When we got home we stopped and called for her but probably did not wait long enough. When we got to the house she was not there. Normally she jumps out in front of the garage as soon as we arrive - so I suspected she was still at the tree. My wonderful husband got back in the car and drove down to look for her. We were all very pleased when he arrived home with her.