Big hair cut and walking before 1

Sunday 11th: This afternoon Ruth was enjoying the sun and Asher took the opportunity to have a cuddle.

Hannah had a very big hair cut this afternoon. This photo doesn't show the cut very well, but it does show some of the hair that was cut off. I don't know why we didn't think of cutting it shorter ages ago. Being half way down her back looks great, but is so impractical during summer when they swim almost every day at school. Every day she swims she also needs to have an Epsom salt bath to wash off and neutralize the negative effect that the chlorine has on her - so this is a much needed help.

Monday 12th: Another help to Hannah with the chlorine was to take her for EAV testing again. This will help her body to get as strong as it can be (and clear out any existing toxins) before this summer season of so much chlorine exposure. We may need to consider going again once the swimming is over for the season to really make sure her body doesn't have to keep struggling from it.
A better shot of her new hair cut. I just love her big curls.

Fun on the deck while Dad does the BBQ.
VIDEO
Showing off her walking before her 1st birthday.
VIDEO
Tuesday 13th: She loves music and it's so fun watching her "dance". This was taken 1

Time together

As we did not really know how long Asher and I would still be in the hospital, Brendon came through for a visit with the children on Thursday evening. Hezekiah loved checking out the nurses station. It was a good thing we left so quickly. A much too busy little boy. :-)
The social worker had been chatting to me about perhaps being able to claim for some help with the travelling costs with all the trips to the hospital. She also mentioned that if the family wanted to stay at Ronald MacDonald house, it could be arranged. I knew Brendon would not like the idea of having to get 4 children packed for a night out - so I asked if we could perhaps just use there facilities for our dinner and a visit.

They had never had a request like that before - but were happy for us to bring our dinner and use the space to just have some good time together. Lovely to be able to sit around a table for dinner and then have space for the children to play.
Hezekiah had wanted to give Asher a hug as soon as they got to the hospital. And then while we were here he insisted that she have a ride with him. It was such a blessing to me to see his wonderful love for her. What a great big brother he is already for Asher.
This picture is a good representation of Asher's state this week. She has had to relearn how to smile. It's sad to see this little face so lifeless.

Enjoying the other outdoor toys.
And the big indoor play area.

Hannah loved the helicopter.
And Hezekiah the car.

A photo from Friday at home. Brendon had decided to just take the day off and be home with the children.
We were very pleased when the doctors agreed that Asher was coping well with the meds and with no more seizure activity it was safe for us to head home. Brendon left the children at the Love family on the way and it was nice for us to have a quiet trip back together.

Brendon got to work on the deck a bit more. It's looking great.

It was lovely to see Asher enjoying being home again. She had gotten some bubbles at the hospital, so they children headed outside to enjoy them.

It was lovely to see Asher's improvement through the day.
By the evening we had this happy little face back and it was such a huge blessing.
Sweet thing. I have really missed her this week with her just not being herself.
It is just wonderful to see the sparkle back in her eyes.

Hair washing time for Ruth and Hannah. Ruth had a laugh at how her hair floated when she first got in the bath.
And Hannah amazed us all by actually asking Dad to wash her hair and not making a peep. Brendon had said he should probably get his ear muffs (because she normally screams so much) but she told him it was not necessary. She was a star.
And look at those lovely curls.
It was lovely to get out for a family walk on Sunday morning before church. Hannah enjoyed pushing Asher most of the way.


Just lovely to all be together again.
It was also great to get to catch up with everyone at church and for them to see Asher looking so much better than the week before.

Cat toy and cradle cap

Brendon thought this was a strange toy to get out of the toy library but Hannah loves it and the girls have come up with so many games to play with it. And then today Patches found it was a lovely toy for her to play with too. :-)

When Maureen visited last month we got chatting about shampoo of all things and so it brought up the subject of Hannah's head. Maureen very quickly said "it's cradle cap" and suggested using oil to get it off. So finally today I got around to it and put oil on her head - gently massaging it into the area where the cradle cap was. We washed her hair when Brendon got home and just like that - her scalp is clean. No more yellow crusty skin on her head. How could I leave it for 3 years????? Especially when the solution was so simple? At least it's done though. It felt like the only thing I did get to do today though. I was exhausted after our long day out yesterday and was thankful for a very quiet day at home and a good afternoon nap.

Ribbon, rinse and roast

The girls have missed a few days of practicing the violin but have gotten back into it again. Hannah always makes sure she has a turn too. Even though it may only last for a minute or two. She does hold the violin and bow very nicely and she gets lovely sounds (even though monotonous at least they are not screechy). I just thought she looked so precious with her little fountain today though. Rachel loves doing her hair (when Hannah will let her) and giving her jewellery to wear.

Today I finally got to have a look at The Fly Lady site that a friend had told me about many many years ago (and mentioned again recently). I have picked up bits of their advice from different people over the years but finally got to the source myself. And I am so pleased I did. I got started on the 31 days of baby steps of which day one is Go Shine Your Sink. So here is my sink. Looking like it has NEVER looked before. I ended up reading through the first 8 days and feel I can get all these things going straight away. So I got started on my 2 min Hot Spot and 5 min Room Rescue and have made plans to add my 15 min de-clutter to my schedule from tomorrow. Already a number of things that I have read on the site have helped me put things into perspective and given me hope for those areas in the house that I just feel I never get to.

This evening we had stuffed apples for desert. We specifically bought these smaller apples for this dish and Ruth was so excited about doing another recipe from her Correspondence School Library book (which we are borrowing through the holidays). Yummmyyyyy.

Loads of love

This morning Ruth decided she would help Hannah with that frustrating fringe that keeps getting in her eyes. She just cut it off! All of it!!

And although she got a telling off and knows to never do that again, I am also aware of the fact that she was only showing love to her sister. It's one of those things that upsets you but also makes you smile every time you thing about it.

The other love item of today was the package that arrived in the post from Nana. The girls were so excited. There were gifts for each of them individually and then general gifts for them all as well. Thank you so much Nana.

One of the favorites of the pack was this DVD. It was so amazing that Nana would include this DVD when she packed this up weeks ago. God obviously had His hand in it all as it has gotten Ruth SUPA excited about picking up very own violin. And even Hannah will ask to "watch violin".

There was another surprise in the post today. I sent this photo in a month ago and have been looking in every paper to see if it would do well. I had started wondering if perhaps there were no longer any photo competitions happening and then today I got my free tickets. When we got home I opened the paper and saw my photo had won. I am so pleased. I had been thinking for a while about what photo could possibly stand out and win because I would like to take Rachel to see a 3D movie. If I have free tickets we only have to pay in the difference which is not much. So she was also very excited that within the next 5 or 6 months we will get to do that. Now to start looking at what 3D movies are on and when we can get through to town to watch.

Hare on left and Smokey on right.

And on a totally different topic we had fun watching Smokey this morning. She spotted this hare on the drive and slowly made her way across the lawn. When she got onto the drive the hare spotted her and so she went flat. The hare actually took a step or two towards her but then Smokey got too tired of waiting and moved. With that the hare was off and there was no way Smokey would catch it. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if the hare had tried to go past Smokey. It's so much bigger than her.

A month of many firsts

I was amazed at how many things were done in June for the first time in our family.....
In the kitchen:

• Wild duck
• Gingerbread men
• Soft boiled eggs
• Granola
• Poached eggs

Family:

• Watching a big fire
• Plucking ducks
• Brendon - doing the job of a chimney sweep

Girls:

• Hannah's first hair cut (other than her fringe being trimmed)
• Hannah having room time. The first Buckland girl to drop her afternoon nap but still need to spend time quietly in her room. So a big first for Mum.
• Rachel doing a craft with her younger sisters (with absolutely no input or help from Mum)
• Having matching clothes (it's amazing how excited girls get about matching clothes)

Ruth:

• Helping me sew
• Taking a photo
• Ballet lesson

Strike a pose

Yesterday Ruth and I headed into town to get her extensions put in. I forgot to take photos when we got home so I took some today.
Here she is striking a pose with her hair tied up behind.
She is very happy with it. She wanted to have extensions for her birthday so she had the motivation herself to sit through the 3 hours it took to get it done. Not to mention the hours (well over 7) that I put in getting the hair ready over the last week.
I asked that she put some corn rows on the top so that she does not have hair falling in her face. I think it looks really pretty.

She loves having long hair again. :-)

Hannah got her hair cut on Saturday morning and wanted to pose too. I had actually tried to trim her fringe and made a mess, so Lynn sorted it out a bit and cut off all the thin baby hair. So it was her first real haircut.

She is our little Maria now (from Sound of Music).

Chooks have arrived

The weather was very strange today. At 7am you could look out the back door and see a beautiful clear sky.....
But it was actually raining at the house and this is the view from the kitchen window.
At 7:40 it was still raining and Ruth spotted this rainbow out the dinning room window.
Also notice the shape of the trees. The wind has been incredible today.

Ruth found another box with puzzles in. These are 3 piece Winnie the Pooh word puzzles (with 3 letter words on each). It's so nice having this space allocated to her on the dinning room table (where Hannah can't get to them).

Dad called just after lunch to say he was quickly coming home with the chooks.

We even had our first egg. It was in one of the transport boxes - that's why it's dirty.

And what beautiful birds they are.

Rachel trying to have a little wipe as they leave the boxes.

3 different colours. Already enjoying the scraps Rachel has taken for them.

Our 6 beauties. 3 black, 2 grey and 1 red.

I had lent our previous neighbours our camping cot and today she brought it back. She also brought her scissors along to give me a haircut. Hannah woke up when she arrived and was so interested - she ended up having a hair cut too.

Her hair has been in her eyes for a while now and although I love her having long hair, it was also becoming a problem. I had not decided if I actually wanted her hair to be cut - but the decision was almost made for me. Hannah was really keen.

Hannah's first hair cut.

When Ruth woke up they went out to see the chooks. Well, they came back crying because they were all out. They had found a gap in the fence and had thought the area next door would be lovely to scratch around in.

So nice and green out here....
Thankfully it was not too hard to get them all back in. Brendon then fixed up the fence.
The girls made a cake to say thank you for the chooks. The chooks were given to us at no cost by someone on the farm where Brendon works. He breeds birds and there are not "pure bred" and so he does not really want to keep them for breeding. We think they are lovely though and are so thankful.

And before bed Ruth finished up the puzzles. At first I had her looking for ones with blue but eventually I just sorted them out and gave her sets of 12 pieces so she could just have to sort and make 4 puzzles at a time.

And with the oven on we may as well cook some more chocolate biscuits for Dad (and there is still another tray in the freezer) and another orange cake for all of us.... :D