Love Letter

                                 I woke up this morning to find this placed outside JJs bedroom door.

Krazy Kids

My kids crack me up.

All the time.

Our house is a very noisy house.

Here's why:

Many of the wrestles end in tears :)

I especially love JJ's comment at  .45  where he says "Now this is a little bit violent so make sure your children dont see us."   I think my kids assume every video of them is for the blog.

                                                               Haha, Benny is so funny

I love my crazy kids.

At the river.

I know what you're thinking........again?!?! right?!

Yes, we were at the river again this afternoon.
I thought Lani looked cute in her op shop outfit so I grabbed the camera as we walked out the door.

Today we went to the river to: a) take the dog for a walk, and b) feed the ducks our 'stale-about to go mouldy' bread. We save our crusts throughout the week and lets just say, we've had a lot of crusts! We had so much bread that the ducks couldn't get through it all. We'll have to go back tomorrow.

So even though I haven't blogged about 'Time out for women' yet, I wanted to have a play with these photos of Lani because she looks so dang cute! I'm not meant to be playing around with photos.....

....maybe I'll start not playing around with them tomorrow.

I LOVE taking photos of Lani. Unlike me, she is very girly. She's sweet and cute and everything a little girl should be. Don't get me wrong, she does have a feisty side, a VERY feisty side. Job will swear she gets it from me, but I keep reminding him that she is very much like her Aunty Toni (who is also very feisty!)

 I love her cute poses.

                      These ones are my favourites. Taken as she twirls around and jumps over rocks.

   I asked all the kids to stand together for a 'quick' photo. You wouldn't think it would be that hard to get a decent photo of the four of them - well it is!! I only have one photo of the kids that sort of looks okay and its the day that three of them had face paint on!

       Attempt 1.

      Attempt 2.

      Attempt 3.

                                   Attempt 4. Benny has enough and decides to go for a wander

                               Attempt 5. Benny comes back, Lani blinks!

  

                     Attempt 6. Lani blinks again.

                        Attempt 7. Benny blinks!

                     Attempt 8. and JJ is over it!

    Then the kids hug eachother for a photo but JJ gets knocked to the ground. Once he gets back up, he's not in the mood for anymore photos. The others try and cheer him up but it doesn't work.

                                    Hmmmmm, I'm sure I'll get a good shot of my children ONE day.

                                                          Meanwhile, I have Hotlips :)

                                                                  Notice his hands?

                                               He's clenching his fists together to flex his biceps.

                                   He laughed when I told him I could see what he was doing!
                      
                                                         Hee hee hee....hot stuff right there :)

We missed our Family Home Evening last night and thought it might be nice to have it down at the river. After the prayer, some songs and testimonies, hot lips-I mean, Job, gave the kids a lesson. He has to give a talk on Sunday at church, so he practiced on the kids. I just love how they're all paying attention, lol.

   I love this quote that my friend Bronwen had up on her facebook wall:

'A wise parent would never miss a chance to gather children together to learn of the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Such moments are so rare in comparison with the efforts of the enemy. For every hour the power of doctrine is introduced into a child's life, there may be hundreds of hours of messages and images denying or ignoring the saving truths.'.  -Henry B. Eyring

                                               I will be trying harder to make every moment count.

9 years (and two days) ago..

                                            ...this beautiful little baby boy popped out into the world.

                                                   This was him a few minutes after he was born.

                                                                       Pregnant me.

Instead of typing out his birth story, here's a video. The kids asked me about JJ's birth while we were having his special pancake breakfast. I didn't realised the camera was on when I started. I also forgot how fast I talk. If you want to understand anything I'm saying you may need a computer that allows you to playback in slow motion.

Mum was at the hospital when he was born and looked after him for the first couple of hours while Job juggled spending time with me in recovery and holding his new son back in the room. I hemorraged a bit after I had JJ, so I had to stay in recovery for a while. Not one of my fondest memories...

Mum and Dad                                                              Kym and Joe (you look lovely Joe)

              My Sister  - and Brother                                     

                                                               Job changed his first nappy.

And Kym gave him his first bath.

Five days later we left the hospital. As soon as we arrived home we had a picture taken of our brand new family.

He was a gorgeous bub. I had lots f trouble feeding him as I did with all my babies. This picture was taken just after I fed him (as you can see he is drunk on milk) I remember feeling completely inadequate and grossly underqualified to look after this tiny little package. I was also very tired but hid it behind my smile like I always do.

He was also fair when he was a baby. Look at the difference between his skin and Jobs'. As he got older, he also got darker. All our kids have been fair when they were born - except for Sisi.

I loved to make him laugh. Its one of the great joys of life when your baby starts to laugh.

After he was born, it took us three days to agree on a name. Eventually we went with Job - after his dad. Because he is Job Junior, his name has been shortened to J.J. Job seniors' name is actually Siope - the Tongan translation of Job. His cousin named her son after him - Siope, and our JJ has the same name but in English.....confusing?? Well here's the three of them; Siopes or Jobs, however you look at it.

Haha, nothing has changed - he has always loved TV!

..And he has always loved Charlotte.

His Second Birthday

                     He also had a special friend he grew up with in Melbourne - Hannah Davenport.

          Him and Benny with their uncles. He has his Uncle Erics (on the right) middle name 'Christian.'

He was such a cutie growing up. We never realised how easy he was until we had Benny!

He has been an absolute joy to raise (so far!) He has always been eager to please and do the right thing. He has also been a great Older Brother to all of his siblings, often showing a lot of patience with his younger brother ;)

He also has a wonderful sense of humour - he has had this as long as we can remember. He is very loud, and loves to laugh. He loves funny movies (Even tonight he was laughing at something I said when I put him to bed, he laughed so much he could hardly breath.) I found a snippet of a video of him nearly three years ago watching Home Alone.

    

He is the only 'cool' one in our family. Aparently he's a cool kid. JJ's friends love him. He has always been quite popular at school. Even as a prep, the girls in Melbourne would always say 'Hi JJ!' and he'd just shrug, lol. We don't know where he got the 'cool' gene from?!

In a nut shell, I would describe JJ as colourful, smart, fun, thoughful and loud :) I wouldn't change a thing about him.

Last year was an extra special birthday, as he got baptised.

His Family came from Melbourne and Sydney to be with him on his special day. Here he is with his Grandparents (on Jobs side) at Tasmania Zoo.

This is where we all stayed. Lots of fun!

So! The night before his birthday this year, JJ didn't sleep a whole lot. He was way too excited and kept checking throughout the night to see if it was morning time. We told his he had to wait until 6.30am - as Job and I don't get to bed until 1am the nights that he works. He came busting into our room at 6.30am on the dot! We told him a couple of days earlier that we didn't have his birthday present yet (we are buying him a mini lap top with our tax return) but we needed to get him something to open on his birthday so we got him some lego and some lollies. He loved the lego. He went straight to his room and put it together.

                                        Lani helped me make the pancakes for breakfast.

                               I had written some messages on a heap of balloons the night before.

We woke up to find that Benny had found the permanent marker put high up in the cupboard, and had decorated his own balloons....as well as a little bit of the couch!!!

Its says : JJ is a very good runner because he is 9.

                                   He also hung this from the door way for JJ to see:

                     JJ's first phone call of the day was from his Uncle John, Aunty Lois and Lotte.

He also got a suprise visit from the Rogers who stopped in and nearly took him out with some party poppers on their way to school:

   The fortress with the skeleton inside was JJ's brithday present. He assembled it quickly......then we went to

                                  ...the post office to pick up his package from nana (my mum)

He loves this jacket and wears it all the time. Benny also loves it unfortunately and keeps trying to pinch it.

JJ lets him wear it at home as long as he gives it back when we step out the door, lol. Great present mum.

The birthday card makes fluffing noises. The kids have been playing with it ever since.

We headed off to crazy mini golf. I highly recommend it, we had a blast. I can't remember the final scores, all I know is that I won, and Job lost, hahahaha.

In the mirror maze (I took the shot like this deliberately in case you're wondering)

   Lani was getting frustrated on this hole as she couldn't get the ball through the rotating piece of wood.

After the golf, the kids played on the jumping castle and JJ spent some of his money on the chocolate maching. Money well spent! Benny got upset because he wasn't allowed to eat lots of the chocolate. He kept trying to sneak some into his pockets.

   JJ and I versed Job and Lani at this game. I stepped out to take a photo and Sisi took my rods, she    wouldn't give them back!

                                           We defeated team 'hopeful but disappointed' 6 to 4.

   It was very difficult to get the kids out of that place. But we finally enticed them with the promise of a yummy lunch. We stopped off at K mart along the way so JJ could spend his birthday money from his nana.

                                                              A scooter....

 
                                                            ...........and some lego

He had enough change left over top buy our fish and chips for lunch, hahaha. Don't worry when  you read this mum we'll pay him back!

We went to city park for the rest of the afternoon to have lunch and for JJ to ride his new scooter.

We hung around walking and playing for the rest of the afternoon. We played a really fun game of chasy around the rotunda, we made up our own rules. Job and I had to catch the kids beofer they made it from their hiding place to the rotunda safely. I was having way too much fun chasing the kids to get the camera out. Often you miss the best shots because you are a part of them and they are too good to miss out on..
                                   
                                 JJ also enjoys playing chess with Job on the giant chess board.

                                                       We saw the monkeys.....

...hung around in the greenhouse..

...and played with the water fountain. 

On the way back to the car, I noticed that Job was doing some weightlifting.

When we got home, we had an hour left to quickly clean up the house a little and cook for JJ's birthday dinner with the Rogers and Terrys. While I was making dinner, mum called and had a chat with JJ. Its a cute video - but its too long - sorry mum!

      JJ, Charlotte and Chelsea helped put the finishing touches on the cake. JJ designed this cake himself. It has vanilla, choc mint and cookies and cream ice cream. He told me which lollies to buy for the face.

                                        I love the red candle that Chelsea put in upside down.

We got the chocolate fountain ready..

...and tried to sing happy birthday before the cake melted. 

Yum!!

                             After Dinner his Grandma and Grandpa rung to sing him happy birthday

The Rogers bought JJ a booster deck to go along with game we have called Killer Bunnies. He LOVES killer Bunnies. Unfortuantely we don't have any video or photos of him opening the present, but he was over the moon!! The Terrys gave him a cool aeroplane that flies really well. Once everyone had left we put the other three kids to bed and let JJ stay up to play Killer Bunnies with Job and me. I mustn't have recorded the end of the game properly as I lost the last two minutes :( but JJ kicked our bottoms!

                             A great way to end a great day for the birthday boy! We love you JJ.

                                                      My pie-sy (nickname) and me :)