Taispot

Wedding Photography..

2011-11-17T02:47:00.000-08:00

...is sooooooo not my speciality!!!

It was so lovely to be involved in Sam and P.J's wedding. It was tonnes of fun spending the day with the family and experiencing the dynamics as they got themselves ready, went to the temple, rushed to the reception, strolled down the beach for photos and then finally said goodbye to eachother. Job really enjoyed it too, especially the reception. He gets emotional whenever he talks about it :)

But....

Count me out for any future wedding photography. Although I really did have fun, I'm just nowhere near qualified to take these sort of photos. Now dont feel like you have to comment and tell me otherwise (Lisa) I know how my photos look, and I know what proper professional pictures look like. I am so relieved that this wasn't a job I was doing for some strangers or I would have felt immense pressure. The Honey family knew my insecurities but wanted me to take photos for them anyway. It really was a special weekend and I can completely understand why photographers enjoy shooting weddings. It really is an amazing experience, and one I will leave to them from now on ;) So if anyone ever asks me again to take photos - you know what the answer will be. I have been practicing my 'no' in front of the mirror - I am prepared!!

-Except for you Anita, you know I will take photos for you when you get married. You better not get anyone else! ;)

So, here's some of my favourite shots. I am trying my best to stop looking at all the mistakes. I never realised how may times I cut peoples feet out of photos - and sometimes, their arms!
-And don't even get me started on the ISO. Hahaha

Thank you Honey Family for the experience :)

Trick or treat!

2011-11-09T02:53:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, we had some cute little (and not so little) trick-or-treaters come knocking on our door. I woke up Job, haha just kidding, I think he was already awake this time. The kids ran to the door and then ran back inside saying "Mum, don't go out there, Sam is really scary!"

A little bit aprehensive of what we were going to see (and with Sisi tucked snuggly into Jobs neck) we came to the door. Not at all scary....just some very cute little witches.

Hang on, what's that ugly thing in the background??!! This photo cracks me up!

Now I know where Archie gets his hair from

Double Trouble

Does this man look scary to you.... ??!

The only thing that frightened me, was when Kym took her mask off.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!

One of the cutest witches going around

Joe's turn with the ugly mask

Kym stealing Archies lollies. (If you wanted some lollies too Kymbo, you only had to ask)

Cute Hanisi showing me her lolly bag

We got a kick of having them drop by. Afterward we wished we had have been better prepared so we could have joined them. We'll have to wait until next time :)

Sleeping Beauty

2011-11-08T05:06:00.000-08:00

Sunday afternoon as we drove home from church, Job and I watched the kids as they sat in the back, heads bobbing up and down as they drifted in and out of sleep. The only one truly asleep when we got home was this little princess..

Sometimes I am struck with how beautiful Sisi is. Yes I am biased I know, but I just love her dark locks and beautiful skin. She looks so sweet when she is asleep. I always fall in love with my kids when they are sleeping - it must be because its the only time that they are so well behaved :)

I love the quote by Joe Houldsworth - "The only thing worth strealing is a kiss from a sleeping child."

And dont think I didn't steal a few kisses from those beautiful Tongan lips

Sunday - our favourite family day

2011-10-24T04:49:00.000-07:00

Sunday is my favourite family day because it's the only day of the week that the TV and computer dont go on (apart from the occasional peep at facebook!) After church, Sisi has a sleep while the kids and I pig out on whatever food we can find left in the cupboard. Job watches us, amused at what sort of food combinations we can come up with. He is usually fasting and has to wait for his. So once we've stuffed ourselves, we take the opportunity to play some board games while Sisi is still sleeping. Once she wakes up.....board games are over. It must look like some sort of '30 second game evacuation' in the house. When she wakes up, someone yells "Sisi's awake!!" and we all rush around, picking up pieces and quickly packing things away in a crazy type of frenzy before she comes down the hallway and discovers us.
Try playing a board game with our little Sisi and you'll understand why.

So after the mad board game clean up, we'll often continue to play other games, ones that Sisi can join in with (and ones the often send Job off to sleep on the couch) I have taken so many photos and so much footage of our Sunday afternoons together but I am learning that if I spend too much time looking for photos and videos my blog never gets done. I am also learning that I desperately need to organise my photos! So in an effort to continue blogging, I am only going to post some pics from Sunday last week and maybe when I get time.....or not, I'll post all the other fun things we have done (including family wrestling...there needs to be footage of me throwing Job on the floor!)

The Sunday just gone, we added a new activity to the list, probably our favourite one so far. We had to make a drop to the Terrys, so we took the dog and went for a walk. I should probably also mention that the Terrys came to our house first and woke up Job and myself. We had accidently fallen asleep on the couch! Must have been another game of duck, duck goose that sent us both off to sleep ;) Haha, Sundays are also sleepy days for some reason.
So anyway, on the way to the Terrys we came up with the brilliant plan that we wouldn't knock on the door as usual, but rather sneak up and knock - and - run. We cut accross the vacant blocks near their back fence when suddenly we saw Sam in the backyard. I yelled "Everybody Down!!" Instantly we all dropped to the ground ninja style and started crawling and ducking along the grass trying to get to the fence line and out of sight. I wonder if any of the neighbours peered out of their windows and thought we were Charlies Angels. We were all hiding behind their neighbours fence when the neighbour came out. He politely ignored us (which helped Job and I keep a little dignity)
So the 4 kids and the dog went up to the front door, left a little package on the doorstep, knocked and bolted back to the fence where Job and I were waiting. We were all squealing and shooshing eachother. I'm sure the Terrys (and the rest of the neighbourhood) could hear us. The kids weren't sure if the Terrys heard the knock so they went back but got caught. Mission Failed! The Terrys had no idea there was a mission at all. Lani had a chat to Mariah and the girls and then we walked back home. We had so much fun in stealth mode we decided to do the same thing to the Clarks and the Rogers, but were caught out both times too. Looks like we'll have to work on our stealth mode for next time. It could become a Sunday tradition...next time I'll have to take the camera. Job and I laugh hysterically whenever we think of all of us dropping down low on the middle of the vacant block....surrounded by houses....and windows. It would have been hilarious if Sam had have turned around and saw us.

Ah, good times. I do have some photos handy of the Sunday beofe that (8 days ago) we played quite a few rounds of celebrity heads. I don't know who Sisi had on her head (it may have even been blank)

Samuel the Lamanite, The Wise Men, Blank piece on Sisi's head (I think) and The Brother of Jared

Not sure how JJ ended up with that funny looking peice of paper. Wait. Job did that one ;)

Strippling Warriors and Gadianton Robbers

I love this photo of the boys, this was taken at the end of the night. The rest of the pics and videos will    never make it to the blog as you can see on the bathroom floor where all their clothes are :)


                      I love the fun you can have with your family within the walls of your own home.

Teddies and Kisses

2011-10-19T05:44:00.000-07:00

These are all the Teddies I am asked to kiss each night when I say goodnight to Lani

She has them all lined up on her bed during the day. I remember doing the same thing when I was younger. I don't rememebr expecting mum to give them a kiss but I do remember the names of some of my favourite teddies....actually they were stuffed dogs - Emily and Robert. I remember some of Kym and Toni's toys too. Next time you speak to Kym - ask her about Potty Bear ;)

hahaha, don't laugh Toni, or I'll have to mention your rug. I don't have to mention mine as this is MY blog :)

I also remember doing this...

....giving my teddies prime position on the bed while I tried not to fall off the edge.

*Sigh* I think I miss my teddies, they were much more comfortable to sleep with than a husband and children! - and they didn't make funny noises durung the night!

...Wasn't it somebody's duty to inform me of that before I got married?! ;)

Rehearsals!

2011-10-18T04:20:00.000-07:00

I thought it was about time I had a follow up blog on the kids music.

We went through a bit of a slump where I wasn't teaching the kids much in the way of music. We were way too content lounging around doing who knows what else instead. About 5-6 weeks ago I decided it was time to start a fresh. I found a really good website where you can listen to, and print out kids music. I have been using some of the songs for the kids but the thing I love the most, are the pratice charts:

The chart covers a whole month. We told the kids that if they met their weekly goals for the month, we would have a little reward for them. We began last month with smaller ammounts of practice time. Lani started off with 5 mins a day, Benny 8 mins and JJ 10 mins. They filled their entire charts and even practiced a little bit extra. We were very proud of them and gave them their little rewards a week ago (a lego person each).

Even Sisi got one! They loved opening up the packet to see who the mystery lego characters were. Of course Benny was disappointed that he didn't get what JJ got.

I have been telling the kids that they'll be putting on a concert soon. We thought the perfect time to do so would be next week while my mum and (other) sister are here visiting. I made up some invitations but didn't get them sent out in time, so mum and Toni, you'll have to count this as your invite :)

...and with the flash...

The kids have been practicing hard. So far, for the first week of the next rehearsal month, the kids have put in double time. They are eager to finish their songs before the concert.

As usual, I don't know who's more excited, them or me.

Here's a sneak preview. I found this video that Job took of Lani. Judging by her hair, I'd say it was 2-3 months ago. This is the first song Lani chose to learn on the piano. Its from the Barbie movie 'A diamond Castle.'

She can play the whole song now, plus three others.

Sometimes the kids grumble, but most of the time they are happy to practice and enjoy showing us what they can do. The practice charts really help too!

- If anyone would like to take over teaching Benny, let me know!

Noah

2011-10-16T22:16:00.000-07:00

It's been a while....

I know I often blog in bursts these days because I get too busy (usually paying attention to my kids) but this time its been a while for a different reason.

This cute little 10 year old boy passed away.. (here he is with his mum on his last birthday in June)

Lisa (Noah's mum) commented on her blog the day this photo was taken that she hoped Noah would be more awake for his birthday next year :) Noah was born with hydranencephany, meaning he was missing most of his brain. I don't think any of us thought so much about Noah's disibilites, we all just saw and knew him as 'Noah.' You can read lots more about Noah and his awesome family here on Lisa's blog. Although he didn't live long enough to celebrate his eleventh birthday, he outlived his life expectancy by 6 years!! Good on you Noah!! Heavenly Father gave him 10 years to bless the lives of everyone around him.

I didn't know Noah as well as many others did. I've been a bit slow building friendships over here. I still feel like a bit of an outsider in a place where so many people are related or have grown up together. Most of the members at church share a history together. I came to know Lisa through my love of photography. She takes beautiful photos and once I found out she also liked tim tams, I was hooked! I didn't feel entitiled to shower Noah with cuddles and kisses as others did because I didn't know the family so well (stupid I know!) but I did have many quieter moments at church when no one was around and Noah was parked quietly in his wheelchair in one of the hallways, to have a quick chat and give his chubby cheeks some kisses :)

Along when so many other family and friends, I have been thinking about the Kings a lot over this last two weeks. They are loved by so many people and I think its because of they shared Noah with everyone.

If I ever lost one of my children, I would curl up in a dark corner somewhere and hybernate. I'm pretty sure I would want everyone to leave me alone. The greateset lesson I have learned from Noah and his family is how to share yourself. I'm sure it will take me a lifetime to be able to do what they have in these short years. They have the ability to completely share their joy, their pain and grief with people around them. Maybe they learned this special gift from Noah himself. :)

When we loose someone we love - especially family and even more so - a child, we mourn for what 'could' have been. The Kings had 10 wonderful years of what 'could' have been, with Noah.

I love this photo of Noah and his older brother Jaylen. This picture is also from his birthday. Jalen felt that Noah didn't have very much time left and so he got some extra cuddles in :)

The service for Noah was just so beautiful. So so beautiful. I felt privilleged to be able to help with the music and contribute to the photos. The Kings gave such moving talks and I think Noah would have been especially proud of his brothers!

At the cemetary, there was lots of colour....beautiful flowers and decorations, a bubble machine and colourful balloons for all the children to release into the big blue sky.

It truly was a celebration of Noahs life!

Thank you King family, for teaching me so much more about love and sacrifice xx

Disco Dancing!

2011-09-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

I wanted to title this blog 'disco fever' but a friend has already used the title and I don't want to be a copy cat!

This afternoon...or evening (when does afternoon turn into evening anyway...) At 5pm, the kids had their school disco. We love discos and dancing!! We were a little late as we had to wait for hot lips to get home. When we arrived I thought Benny and Lani might take a while to warm up to the scene (as the usually do) but to my suprise, they jumped straight in. The first dance called for partners - who better to partner with than your older brother :)

...and younger sister. Sisi loves to sing and dance, she busted a move the whole time.

    It was fantastic to see ALL the kids dancing. They had a dance instructor who has been at the school this
    last week teaching them the dance moves. She was up the front on the stage guiding them through each
    song.

Here' s Sisi getting cosy with a couple of Bennys friends

Benny and his friend Alex playing air guitar (no wonder Benny is taking a while to learn the guitar at home, look how he's holding it!)

Bennys teacher snaps a photo of some good looking kids ;)

The Dads

Charlotte and Sisi having a dance...

and Lani and Chelsea (they'll be 6 soon!!!)

Job even got a chance to get his groove on

............or maybe it was just an excuse to flex his muscles

I think the kids loved this dance the most. It was 'Kung Fu fighting' - they call it 'Kung Fu Panda.'

The younger kids had their disco from 5-6pm, after that, it was the big kids turn. JJ (who'd been sitting down watching the younger ones) suddenly came to life when his friends arrived.

The first dance was with partners..

Silly Ben chased JJ around once the song had finished, chanting "JJ danced with a gi-rl!"

The bigger kids disco was a total contrast to the little ones. The music was louder and the light went out. It looks like it was light in the photos because I had the flash on but it really looked like this a lot of the time:

The kids had lots of time in between rountines for freestyle dancing

JJ with two of his good friends, Jordan and Sam

Playing a game - they were meant to construct the letter 'm'

The Wonderful Kiosk Ladies :) - The kids were able to buy food and drinks throughout the night..

There was an air guitar competition. Everyone displayed their best air guitar moves while the dance instructor walked around and chose 6 of the kids to compete at the front. Here's some of the younger kids:

Much better Benny, your guitar is the right way round :)

...and here's one of the big kids, grade 5/6 teacher and our Stake President

One of JJ's friends - Jordan, was chosen to dance at the front

The boys cheered him on...

He couldn't believe it when he won!

I was so disappointed to find out that all the videos (except for the short one above) didn't come out. I'm not sure what happened, its a shame to not have the little kids dancing to Kung fu fighting - and Jordans air guitar routine, it really was the best air guitar anyone had seen.

It was such a good night, a big thank you to the teachers and parents that made it all possible!

Poor Job and some toy stuffing!

2011-09-26T03:53:00.000-07:00

Hahahaha...

Sorry, its a funny one...I'm going to get in lots of trouble for this post, but I think its worth it!

I love Sunday afternoons. After church (most of the time when everyone is home) we hang around, chatting and playing games. Usually during the game time somewhere, Job nods off on the couch. Yesterday we wrestled for quite a while (Job and I came a draw at two all) and then played duck, duck, goose. Job claimed he was dizzy from duck, duck, goose and went and lay down on his usual spot. Sisi had just recently pulled the stuffing out of a toy snake and left it all over the floor.

The kids and I couldn't resist......

Hahaha, poor Job. It's always got on my nerves the way that he can sleep at the drop of a hat. Throughout our 11 years of married life, he always dozes off. If he's not working and we go to bed together, he always falls asleep first. Often he comes home from work late at night, wakes me up, has a chat and then two seconds later zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz - while I'm left lying there unable to go back to sleep because some rude husband just woke me up! Well, I found something to help myself feel better. I was showing JJ what I do to him when he falls asleep on me. If you can't sleep at night while your spouse does, and you want to amuse yourself, I highly recommend it.

JJ had a few turns too..

I know we shouldn't do it, but its just too funny not to.

He even got a cute little kiss (notice the fluff collection on the couch)

                                    Sleeping on the couch at our house is not the greatest idea :)

A 5 year old example - and hanging out with my kids

2011-09-23T05:36:00.000-07:00

What?! How can September nearly be over and I haven't even blogged August yet?!!

...breath...

ok, I'm forgetting about all that. Tonight during movie night, Lani (who was cuddled up on my right hand side) turned to me and said - "Mum, sometimes I kind of cry because I love you so much."

Lani is such a little sweetheart, she is also a fiesty little thing if you get on the wrong side of her!! But when it comes to her feelings, she is so open, honest and sincere. We love her kind and gentle heart.
We have a really big day tomorrow, lots going on including this house going up for Auction. I considered skipping out on movie time just this once to start cleaning up. I am so glad I sat on the couch, in between my two girls, sharing icecream with chocolate topping and maltesers. I could have missed some of the most tender words I have ever heard. Lani is so good for me, she teaches me everyday how to show love.

...and speaking of love...don't you just LOVE sitting around in the loungeroom on a Thursday night taking photos???! You know you do.

The kids and I are so good at bumming around. Often when Job is not around, schedule goes out the window and we just hang. They get to bed a little late, often music, readers and homework get skipped, but we have fun. Their favourite nights are the ones where I tell made up stories. A couple of months ago I started a story that they ended up naming "Quest to Lollypop land" The story lasted a couple of weeks, each leg of the journey took around half an hour. We're in the middle of the next part of the quest, JJ had called it "The Quest to the magic fountain." I make up the story on the spot, so the kids and I never know what is going to happen next, often they help tell the story too. There's always suspense and danger - sometimes Lani and Sisi get worried during the story. They are so cute! These nights are always a bit late because the story goes for a long time. So last night when we were meant to be doing music lessons, we were playing around with the camera and telling stories!

I started off on the couch taking some shots witht the girls..

Then JJ jumped in

Poor Ben, look at his red eyes. He saw us taking photos and felt left out so he cried - funny Ben, we love u!

It got a bit crowded on the couch so we tried the floor. Benny tried pushing the button but we couldn't quite get it all together... (I am so pasty and white next to my kids!)

Don't ask me what JJ and Sisi are doing??!

...then we tried lying on our tummies.... nope, didn't work either! hahaha

Then I remembered that Lisa had told me how to set up the automatic timer, here's the kids watching me while I set up the camera..

On jumps mum...hooray! Not too bad :)

We'll have to catch up on music and homework another day!

My music, for the very first time

2011-09-12T17:05:00.000-07:00

I've been looking forward to doing this blog for the last three weeks. It was that long ago that I went to Melbourne and recorded my music. Last December I wrote my first musical fireside, it was a Christmas one and we put it on here in Launceston. I thought it went really well, East and West ward members did such a great job, many of them singing in a musical fireside for the very first time. I always wanted to get a proper recording of the songs so when the tax man gave us back some money, it was time!

The whole weekend was such a thrill, I don't know where to start :)

I met up with my five fabulous singers at different times on the friday to rehearse their parts. It was so nice spending time with Leanne and Beau who hung around for the whole day. Leanne took some video footage while we were practicing. I love these small snippets because they show nothing in particular, no music or rehearsing, but they make me laugh and remind me of the time we spent together.

This is Laura with Leanne - practicing for the Mary and Elizabeth song 'because of you'. lol at Leanne, haha

have a listen to how beautiful they sound together at the studio:

I should probably give a brief explanation of what the music is about, in case there is anyone reading this who didn't see the fireside or been swept up in my ramblings about it. The whole production is seen through the eyes of a 5 year old girl (who was played by my cute niece Chelsea) She can't sleep on Christmas Eve because she is too excited. She calls out ocassionally for her mum and begs her to retell the story of the shepherds, angels and wise men etc... Her mum sings her special lullaby to settle her to sleep. She is visited throughout the night by characters from many years ago who sit by her bed and tell her what happened the night that Jesus was born. She is visited by people like Joseph, The shepherds, Angels, Elizabeth and even a donkey. They all sing to her while she listens and participates. Finally she follows the Wise Men and finds the baby Jesus. She gives him her special music box which plays her lullaby. I titled the fireside 'A Christmas Dream' indicating that it is up to the individual to decide whether or not Chelsea is actually dreaming.

For the sake of recording the songs, we didn't include any dialogue etc. Just the music!

After a late Friday night rehearsing, we headed over to the other side of the city early the next morning to Steve's house to record. Leanne and I left her house at the insane hour of 5.15am. We were too excited to feel tired. We arrived, quickly took a couple of shots (of course!) and then got stuck into some songs.

This is Steve (the engineer) and his sweet set up.

Leanne warming up!

While we waited for the others to come, we recorded her singing the lullaby and the donkey song. The donkey song a new song I wrote, we didn't sing it in the fireside. Before I left for Melbourne, I thought the collection needed another song. I really like this one and I LOVE Leanne's voice, she has such a beautiful tone. Here's a little bit of 'The Miracle' aka 'donkey song'.

Unfortunately since we were busy with everything that goes into recording, we didn't get proper videos of the singing. We had such a limited amount of time to record 9 songs that we didn't have time to take footage for the blog. Leanne did manage to get this video of Beau singing 'I am the King.' (The wicked King Herod song) This one was a hit with the kids. Job and I remember hearing them walking the hallways in the chapel the day after the fireside singing "I am the King, the King, the King, the King, the King!"

This is what it sounded like the day before...hahaha!

Who can forget Kirk when he played King Herod. He did such a great job. Sorry for the dodgey video...it a recording of a recording...

It was so nice to see Laura again. I hadn't seen her since we were 14? ish... I was so thrilled when she agreed to sing and she even brought another singer to the group - Brad. They know eachother from musical theatre and he is a member of our church too - small world! They sounded fantastic together, they were the pitch perfect pair :) I don't have any photos of the two of them :( - The best I can come up with is a shot of brad blinking, hahaha, sorry guys. This is the two of them singing their duet as Mary and Joseph..

The other singer was my dear friend Moli. He is such a sweatheart and has the most beautiful voice.

He sung 'Faithful Ones' which is the song the Angel sings to the shepherds. He also sung as a shepherd and a wise men (as did Brad and Beau)

Here's a snippet of Moli's song..

I love the way this next song came out. This was the first one I wrote. The three guys sounded so good together. And they didn't even whinge (too much) about having to sing in the lower register. For three tenors who love to sing high, they were often out of their comfort zones. I think they sound awesome...

Its a shame we didn't have more time to add layers of vocals to make it sound like there are more men singing. When we did the fireside there were 17... (including my two little shepherds :)

Here's the three of them singing the wise man song. This clip isn't what we recorded, it just them warming up, but its nice to be able to have the video so you can see them singing..

And who can foget our own lovable wise men..three of my favourite people (especially the hot polynesian one ;)

The entire experience was so much fun. Recording in a proper studio was amazing. I was buzzing for days afterward. The feeling of actaully doing what I know I am meant to be doing with the gifts God has given me was such a rewarding feeling and it completely outweighed the love I have of taking photos. I still love my photos, but I know even more so now, that music is my biggest joy. I have already started on the next one!

I'm looking forward to recording again, I hope I can round up my five talented friends again.

Here's a few more pics of the day..

A very expensive microphone - I can't remember if Steve said it was $4000 or $6000 dollars

I love this guy, he is so talented. Someone needs to hurry up and discover him.

I'm so glad Leanne had my camera, she is one of the most artsie, creative people I know and she got some
really good shots. She also made some really cool videos....

The only shot I have of you Laura :( - Your hair matches the mic! :)

haha, this was the guys creating the sound effect of the 'boom boom' in the wise men song.

Bad photo (taken by me) but this was the chill out zone where they'd wait between tracks.

Beautiful Leanne

All of us :)

I am so grateful for the experience and can't wait to do it again!!!

Power Rangers!

2011-09-08T03:57:00.000-07:00

Our kids watch Power Rangers everyday. Even Sisi is starting to ask for Power Rangers now over Barbie. I blame the power rangers for all the play fighting that happens in this house. Its funny to watch them when Sisi gets involved - the boys are really good with her, they let her win :)

Benny blew on her and she fell down!

A powerful blow by Sisi....

.....and they're down!!

Just in case you were wondering what she had on her bum - its a tag, she dresses herself :)

Lani's date

2011-09-07T04:51:00.000-07:00

A couple of blogs ago I mentioned we had begun dates with our kids again. We're lucky at the moment that we usually have time daily to spend with each of our kids. Job has finished school so he spends a lot of time teaching and playing with them, and I'm mum, so I'm always hanging around :) We are still loving the dates though, as they are extra special time!

Yesterday it was Lani's turn to have a date with her dear old dad ;) She really wanted to go on a picnic with Job but when they planned on leaving, it started to rain.

So they had an indoor picnic instead. Lani set out their special picnic food on her bed and waited for Job. She started on her smarties while she waited....

Special picnic food - Lani's favourites (Ham, strawberries, yoghurt and tiny teddies) The peanut slab belongs to the big peanut of the house..... (no, not me!!)

Eating their chocolates first?!? - I'm sure that's not the way its done ;)

It was so cute to listen to them chatting away while they had their lunch together. Part of their conversation was about Lani possibly starting Gymnastics next year. She is already a little monkey who climbs and hangs off evrything, we think she'd be a great little gymnast. She is really excited to give it a go. It would be good for her confidence too. She also wants to play the violin, so we have been talking about her having lessons. Unfortunately since I can't play it, we'd have to find a teacher and pay for lessons. We'll also have to get a violin! Very exciting.....but very expensive. So we'll see, its all in the plans. Job spent the last part of the date showing Lani some clips on youtube of both gymnastics routines...and violin solos. They had such a nice time together. I was touched again by just how much our kids love that special time together with us.

Yesterday was Jobs priviledge to have special time with a special little girl....

.....and that special little girl treasured her time with her dad.

Sleeping buddies

2011-09-06T06:35:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned in a past blog that my kids are restless during the night - Some of the symptoms of their food intollerances manifest themselves strongly at night unfortunately. Although they are not so great at staying asleep - they are wonderful at FALLING asleep. They'll fall asleep anywhere...
I always remember when Benny was only 2-3, he would fall asleep at my feet on the cold wooden rec hall floor, on a Sunday during relief society. If he was tired, he'd just lay on the floor....anywhere!
Sisi is the same, if she's really tired when we're shopping, she'll just fall asleep in the trolley. She fell asleep in nursery a few weeks ago at the table while eating her lunch - wish I had a photo of that one :) I even remember having to grab her when I saw her swaying on her feet one day, she nearly fell asleep standing up.
Here's a couple of shots of her recently:

She fell asleep watching barbie songs at the computer (She's still in her pjs in the middle of the day, lol)

In the middle of the hallway

I've just spent half an hour looking for the cutest photo but can't find it. It was some of our kids and the rogers, sitting on the couch together and Sisi is fast asleep...

Last night, I went into Lani's room to tuck the kids in before I went to bed and this is what I found:

These two have always loved sleeping together - its one of the reasons they share a room. JJ will tolerate sleeping with someone else, but Lani and Benny seek eachother out. I tell them to sleep in their own bed, especially for Bennys sake who's ezcema will flare up easily from being too warm while sleeping beside another body. But we usually find them like this. Sometimes we move Lani back her to her bed on the floor, othertimes we just leave them. They have slept together so often over the years that it's hard to separate them now..

Ths funniest photo I have of these two is from a couple of years ago:

I have better versions of this photo somewhere, where you can see Lani's face, but I can't find them.
See what I mean? My kids can fall asleep anywhere.....sometimes in the funniest locations and positions - how uncomfortable would this be??!
I cannot fall asleep anywhere or anytime but Job on the other hand.......

....hahahahaha, there are so many photos.......but I might loose MY sleeping buddy if I put them up!

We love conference!

2011-09-05T03:39:00.000-07:00

I've said it before, so here I go again - Conference weekends rock!!

The Rogers and us really enjoy making a special weekend of the church meetings we attend in Devonport on the Conference weekends every six months. This time we thought it would be nice to do something different from the traditional cheese, rasberry, chocolate factories and cherry shed. We took the kids to see the Mole Creek caves instead. It was extra special this time too because mum was here for a visit.

We arrived with a few minutes to spare to have a snack and let the kids stretch their legs.

I never get sick of watching the our kids playing with their cousins. They are all so close.....

Close enough to fight, and then love eachother again 2 minutes later.

This photo reminds me of....

...this photo

I found Benny getting up to no good and decided it was time to head to the cave!

We walked through a beautiful forest to get to the cave. On the way, Joe jr got bitten by a monster bull ant

:( Kym took him down to the stream to relieve his stinging hand in the cold water.

Kym is a star and Joe carries the cripple

Mum looks after Parchie (affectionately known by the family as 'poo')

Sisi waits outside the toilets while we have a quick stop...

....before gathering at the meeting point.

The caves were so much fun. We had a really good tour guide. He was funny....and very informative. The kids were so excited - especailly to see all the glow worms. We weren't allowed any cameras where the glow worms were. They looked much like stars in the night sky.

Charlotte brought her own camera too.

Some parts were a bit of squeeze (not for me of course....*a-hem*)

A really old and well protected stalagmite (did I get that right??) the tour guide quizzed us on stalagmites and stalactites and their spelling.

It WAS well protected until Parchie stuck his hand in there!

Eeek! Two Tongans!

And that is where my battery ran out. Did I bring the spare one I spent the night before charging?? Of course not, that's way to sensible. Luckily I left it in the car, so I could use the camera again once we were out of the cave. We finished our awesome tour and were greeted by rain so we sat in this cosy little shelter (behind mum and I) and had lunch.

Once lunch was over, it was time to get Joe and Job to their Priesthood meeting! They were only 5 minutes late :) - That may be a new record.

Kym and I have this first shift with the kids. It was nice to have extra pair of 'nana' hands to help out. Because of the rain, we went in search of a play centre as opposed to the normal park and beach. While we were trying to find one and getting very lost, it stopped raining.....and we ended up at-

The beach! The kids LOVE going to the beach at Devonport, it has become tradition. They spend most of the time hunting for crabs.

Chelsea spent the entire time in this position - looking for crabs and starfish.

Sisi was grumpy when we first arrived as she'd just woken up from a nap in the car.

This picture makes me realise that Charlotte is getting older way too fast!

Sisi was most comfortable watching Parchie try and pick up the crabs

A little encouragement from Aunty.....

...and she's still not convinced.

Drawing in the sand - much less scary than holding crabs!

JJ was strong enough to hold up the lighthouse!!

Hahaha, what a mean mum!!! - She was trying to stop Parchie from running up the steps (and onto the road)

When this happened, Kym and I looked at eachother and said "Here we go again!" We had told them not to go into the water as we hadn't brought towles, blankets, clothes or anything! Same thing happens every year. We laughed wondering if we would ever learn our lesson and remember to bring spare clothes and towels. The kids ended up wearing their dads jumpers.... crazy kids, it was actually cold too!!

Sisi found that when her pants got wet she had a problem..

Solution!!!

Kym's impersonation of a crab

Me telling Lani not to throw sand (and taking a photo at the same time) - does anyone do that?!?

You may be wondering where our extra pair of hands was??! Mum was sitting in the car while we at the beach. She wasn't quite silly enough to sit in the cold....at the beach :) For us, its tradition. The kids love it and they don't even feel the cold....until they get out!
We get them rugged up and ready for the boys who take the next couple of hours while Kym and I (and mum this time) go to the adult session of conference. The boys gave them dinner (fish and chips) and watched a dvd. I think we got home around 10pm?? - And then got up early to do the trip again in the morning. An extra hour earlier this time as we had to get to the chapel for an early choir practice. Choir was great!! I was so proud of the East/West members who sung.
Mum left to go home (back to Melbourne) after dinner. I think she may have needed another break by the looks of it :) - We love you mum and nana!!!!!

Date with Ben

2011-08-23T06:40:00.000-07:00

It feels like forever since I've done a blog post. Having the flu hit our house has really shaken things up! I was behind in my blogs before getting sick, now I think I may have completely lost track! I have so many things to blog about now, but I will start with today.

Today Benny and I had our date.

Job and I used to take turns taking each of the kids out one at a time on a special date, but we all got busy and starting forgetting. Eventually we stopped all together. We have just recently started back up again and I'm so excited about it. Life is so busy that I don't get enough time with each of my kiddies - not as much as I would like, so these dates are just gold. So priceless.

Benny was so gorgeous. He's been counting down the days to this afternoon. He was so excited this morning as he left for school knowing that when he got home we were spending special time together. He chose to go on a picnic, so before I picked the kids up from school I packed a snack with his favourite foods - a ham and cheese sandwhich, packet of chips and a milky way. We don't have a picnic blanket so I packed an old towel (my dad will recognise it, lol)

Job snapped a shot of us before we headed off down to the river for our picnic

On the way to the river, we rode past the cemetary. I have always enjoyed visiting cemetaries. No I don't have a morbid fasination with death, its more a reverence and a connectedness that I feel, sort of like being closer to Heaven. I always find it hard not to get emotional when I see the headstones of little children. I have visited different cemetaries with the boys over the years and they enjoy visiting them too. Benny was keen to walk around and read all the headstones.

This one was especially sad (and a little strange), three children from the same family

Most of the graves were over 100 years old..

Some of them, we couldn't make out, the engravings had nearly completely worn away.

We even found a man who lived to the age of 100.

Once we'd finished, we rode on to the river and passed the cute little lambs on the bank. They were so noisy, baa-ing back and foward between the mums and they're babies - sounded a bit like the noise at our house...except that we're much louder

Once we were at the river, we rode down to our usual spot at the jetty - only to find that it was completely underwater.

If you look closely you can see the outline of the jetty under the water, to the left of the twig. (Maybe try closing one eye and tilting your head to the left...;) - haha, who really did that??!

Benny chose a patch of grass to lay our picnic out on.

It was so much fun hanging with my Benny. The most special thing about having dates with the kids is how special they make you feel. Benny thinks that spending time with me is the best thing in the world - how can anything ever replace that?

Benny with his imaginary fishing rod - and green fish

The ducks enjoyed eating our crusts (I don't eat my crusts either!)

There's no better way to spend time than with those we love. I loved this afternoon, I think even more than Benny did.

Chucking sickies

2011-08-09T03:23:00.000-07:00

Literally!!

I hate it when my babies are sick - especially when it hits all of them.

I got home from a night away in Melbourne and found Lani had been unwell. The next day Benny had it and a few hours later it hit Sisi. Its a nasty bug, so nobody come to our house for the rest of the week. The kids have been taking turns with vomitting, fevers and headaches. This is what the house looked like yesterday.

JJ was the only one that went to school and I was hoping he wouldn't catch it. Kymbo came past last night as she knew Job was at work and thought I may need a hand getting the kids to bed. They were in bed when she got here but it was nice to have the company and she helped me drag out the big mattress so Job and I could sleep in the loungeroom with the kids. I didn't get much sleep last night, there was lots of moaning and grizzling. Sisi had a temp most of the night. I caught up on a lttle sleep this morning with Lani.

Unfortunately during the night, JJ came wandering out form his room crying with a tummy ache. There was a spot left on the couch and he has been there most of today. Here are the kids now.

My poor little miserable girl.

I'm sure I'll be in for another sleepless night tonight. Lets just hope I don't get it - or even worse, Job. He likes to moan and groan louder than the rest of us put together!

TOFW in Sydney

2011-08-03T05:58:00.000-07:00

Yipee, I am finally putting this blog up - and only a week and a half late (pat on the back to me!)

So TOFW (Time Out For Women) was just that. Time to get away from normailty for a day or two and share one amazing day with a couple of thousand other women from around Australia. Unreal!

So here's where the journey began -and look who I had to sit next to on the plane!

Hey in all fairness to me, this is the only photo I have on the plane. Even if I managed to get take some more shots, it wouldn't have mattered as she looked like this for the entire trip :)

Ok, here's what my pretty sister really looks like. Here we are at the airport wondering where our mother is?!?! Mum flew into Sydney from Melbourne and us from Launceston. We arranged to meet at the car rental office but mum wasn't there. She claimed we weren't there either. It took us a few minutes to realise that we were at two different locations. Us at the domestic terminal and mum at the international - not like Melbourne or other normal states where the terminals are connected, Sydney has a 4km gap between the two! Luckily a nice lady drove mum to meet up with us.

While we were waiting, we noticed some weirdos. Can't believe who Customs are letting through these days. Her face even distorted my lense and I lost focus! ;)

Once we finally figured out who was driving, and where were going, we headed off to our Motel. We did what all normal people do when they arrive at their hotel/motel and jumped on the beds. We laid down for a few minutes and then my tummy started growling! - I know what you're thinking - happens all the time!! yep, sure does :)

We had arranged to meet up with some Melbourne friends but we (or maybe I) was too hungry to wait for them. So we drove a few metres up the road and found this Chinese restaurant. It was seriously yummo!! We completely stuffed ourselves and headed back up the road to flop onto our motel beds....again.

There was a bit of a delay while mum emptied her entire handbag looking for the key to the door!

Chill out time for the normal people...letting the food settle...

while the crazy exercise woman tries to work hers off immediately after consuming it!

Once Kym had worked off her fried rice, we drove to Olympic Park to meet up with some of our Melbourne friends. It was so nice to see Kelly and Bronwen as I still miss them.

By the way, that's not my chocolate cake and ice cream in front of me, not sure who put that there?!

We headed back to the Motel (which coincidently turned out to be around the corner from where Jobs family live) so I dropped Kym and Mum off to get their beauty sleep and I popped in for a quick visit with Lois (my sis in law) and Jobs mum.

Lois didn't stop talking until the early hours of the morning! - lol, look how red our eyes are.

My thief of a sister stole my camera in the morning and took this one of me fast asleep. I didn't realise how cute I look when I'm asleep ;)

Kym complained that I wouldn't put any embarrassing shots of myself on my blog. So just to show that I'm not a spoil sport and am quite willing to embarrass myself as I embarrass others, here's the video Kym took:

Once I moved my bottom out of bed, it didn't take us long to arrive back at Olympic Park. We were just a little excited!!!

The corridors were packed with women waiting to get in.

Because we had arrived early, we were lucky to get a good seat, not too far from the stage.

Mum and her invisible friend.

One of my favourite photos is not of anyone in particular but of the piano. Yes, I am a sad person.

We missed you Mariah!

Some of the Tassie girls

Riff raff ;)

The events manager from America saw Lisa and I in our true paparazzi forms and asked if we'd be happy to take some photos for the TOFW website and possibly the church news. We told her we'd think about it..

NOT! Lisa played it cool but I felt like I had just been nominated for an Oscar! I finally had permission to wander around taking as many photos as I wanted to. The organisers ended up using many of our photos on the Time Out For Women webite and in this video.

I especially enjoyed taking shots of the mums who had brought their babies along for the day. I couldn't walk past this cute little boy without taking a dozen photos, he was just so gorgeous. I love it when babies try to eat their mums faces.

Unfortunately I don't know enough about photography to take good inside photos, but that didn't stop me :)

We even got free tote bags

Ok, so little about the conference. The theme was 'Choose to Become.' We heard from 5 amazing speakers. I loved every one of them but Laurel Christenson and Brad Wilcox were my favourite....I think, they were all so good!

I learned so much from each of them but mostly I was inspired to be better. I learned form Laurel that Heavenly Father expects greatness from each of us and that he knows us so well that where we are today, is no suprise to him. Brad Wilcox helped me to better understand the Atonement and how the Saviour is ALWAYS there for us. I love how he talked about 'being' - we are human beings, not human doings :)

I was really looking forward to seeing Hilary Weeks. I love her music but I also wanted to ask her a few questions about my music. I found her reserved chair before the function began and asked the lady sitting beside the chair to move her handbag so I could get a shot....of the empty chair..

She looked at me and said "why don't you wait until she is sitting in it" I said, "No way! Then she'll know I'm stalking her!" this is how I stalk from a distance. I did manage to get closer...

...and closer..

Woohoo!

It's thanks to Kym I got that photo. She also signed my music book and told me I could email her to ask all my questions about publishing my own music. I had an awful miagraine at this point and just wanted to head for the car but Kym insisted I get this photo... and I'm so glad now. Kym was my claim to fame as she had met Hilary Weeks during her trip to America. Hilary recognised Kym as soon as she saw her.

I just pointed to Kym and said "I'm with her."

She was amazing on stage. She sung and played better than I expected! What a legend..

We had many more photos with friends and a few with Sheri Dew, but there is just too many to include here. It was so nice to see friends and family that I haven't seen for a long time.

One of the faces I miss terribly :(

Oh, and a shout out to my sister in law Lois, for wearing her glow in the dark jumper. You couldn't get lost in that jumper....very clever Sis (aka plutonium rod) hee hee

Tassie bunch

All gone things must come to an end, and so it did. I am a better person for having gone. One of the best parts about leaving home for a short while is coming back. When the kids saw me at the airport, they looked like they had just seen Santa!

A big thank you to Joe. Without him, I doubt we would have made the trip, in fact they wouldn't have let me in the door as he bought my ticket. Kym, mum and I had never heard of TOFW until Joe introduced it to us. Thanks also to mum who organised and paid for the car and accomodation. Thanks to Kymbo who was lots of fun and bought us dinner......and thanks to myself for coming along and sponging off everyone else!

A heavy heart.

2011-08-01T17:25:00.000-07:00

I am feeling awful this morning. Uncharateristically like me, I know. I came across a photo that has cut very deep. Its a photo taken by Kevin Carter - a photojournalist in 1993 during the Sudan famine. It is of a little emanciated girl crawling towards a food camp a kilometre away. A vulture lurks nearby waiting for her to die. Kevin Carter won the Pulitzer prize in 1994 for this photo that shocked the world. Today it has shocked me. Although the photo itself is devastating, what made me break down in tears, is knowing that the photographer did nothing to help her once the photograph was taken. No one knows whether she made it to the food camp or not.

I am feeling very gulity as I wash up our breakfast dishes with left over porridge and two pieces of bread that I put in the toaster and forgot about. My kids felt a little slighted this morning because we ran out of weetbix so they had to have porridge or toast.
It is easy for me to judge the photographer for leaving this horrible scene once he snapped his shot, but in all honesty am I any better than him if I see what's happening to children all over the world and then turn my back? I often do nothing because I feel helpless. There is one of me...and so many of them.
A couple of nights ago we had a lengthy family discussion on gratitude for our food - it was prompted by Lani's refusal to eat her dinner. She hardly ever eats her dinner and I always remind her that some children have nothing. She doesn't understand and I've tried to explain it to her so many times. So I got onto the internet and showed my kids some pictures (ones I felt were age appropriate) of children and families in Africa. They saw some pictures of hungry children and other pictures of families who were left homeless due to natural disasters. Lani was moved and fought back tears while JJ started planning where he was going to build all the hospitals in Africa. I'm not sure what Benny felt, its hard to tell with him. We all shared a general feeling of helplessness and then gratitude. Job and I told the kids that we are planning to serve a humanitarian mission when they are all older. I also explained to JJ that he could get into some humanitarian work through school when he is a teenager. Then as a family we decided to sponsor a child through world vision. I think this will be good for the kids who have all agreed to donate some of their allowance. They will be able to write letters, send stickers etc and help brighten the life of one Child. Hopefully in the future, we'll be able to sponsor more children but for now one is a good start.
There is so much more I wish I could do for suffering children and families. It is something that plagues me regularly. I will be so much more grateful to Heavenly Father for everything our family has and will stop wasting food and water. I am thankful today that we have been born in this wonderful nation. I love Australia. We are so blessed here. Next time I worry about what we're going to have for dinner, I will remember that somewhere else in the world, another mother has nothing to feed her children.

Love Letter

2011-07-27T16:51:00.000-07:00

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

Krazy Kids

2011-07-27T03:26:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-07-26T06:04:00.000-07:00

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..

2011-07-21T08:28:00.000-07:00

...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 :)

Westbury Maze

2011-07-16T21:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this blog is only ONE week late!

Job and I wanted to take the Terrys somewhere fun as a way of saying thank you for supplying us with so much wood over the last couple of freezing months. Wood is so expensive to buy and so having friends who are able to help us get some for free is such a huge blessing.

You know when you have a friend who doesn't ask if you need help...they see a need and fulfil it without asking? Well the Terrys go one step further - They ask, we say NO!! And then they do it anyway :)

Trying to think of somewhere to take a family who has been all over Tassie was a bit tricky. Then we remembered they mentioned they had never been to Westbury Maze. Perfect!

We were lucky it didn't rain like it had earlier in the week, it was still pretty cold however! It's very cold this winter! Last winter was our first one in Tassie and it wasn't that cold at all, in fact I remember lots of warm days. This winter was a bit of a shock! Its still beautiful here, I still love it, but its flippin' freezing!

We got to Westbury Maze just after lunchtime. We figured it best to run through the maze first and then eat. There was no way the kids would sit still to eat first. We were going to have a bit of a race and I was going to take a photo of everyone outside of the maze but Sam cheated and took off first - with most of the kids. Mariah and I figured we'd better catch up and Job had to wait for a few minutes and give the rest of us a head start. Job is REALLY good with mazes unlike me, I am dreadful. For someone who loves puzzles so much it doesn't really make sense that I have such a lousy sense of direction - and then for someone who is useless at puzzles, he is great navigating mazes and remembering which direction to go when we are driving.
I have been to this maze 4 times and I still get lost each time. I have never made it out on my own. Last time I came with my friend Kristy....

We eventually made it to the middle but got stuck trying to get out. The kids came to our rescue which is just as well as she had a flight to catch straight after and we were getting worried she'd miss it!

The time before that was when Kym and I brought our younger sister Toni for trip..there is a very embarrassing picture Kym took of me with my bottom up in the air trying to crawl under one of the hedges as I got stuck trying to get out. Obviously I'm not sticking here!!

And before that was the first time that we'd been as a family and it was with John and Lois (Job's brother and his wife) they're kiddies and Job's parents. Jobs says he got to the platform first, lol - wonder if you remember it that way Sis???!

Job also went to the maze on a school excursion.

So back to the present...because of his mad skills, Job held back for a bit and let the rest of us go in first. Because of my mad skills at getting lost, I went in after Mariah. Like all other years, I got lost and Job came and found me.

So that was then..

and this is now:

Must be a dad thing :)

So....back to the beginning. We headed into the maze.

Mariah and I went our seperate ways following our children. Job caught up to me and led me into the platform in the middle. The kids were already there (they cheat though - everytime!) We encouraged Mariah with our voices and she found us in no time...

This is us on the platform. I am asking Job to pass me the camera as I can see little millys head bobbing up and down over the top of the hedges. Check out Lanis paper. She drew herself a map in the morning (with a bit of help from mum:) to bring with her so she wouldn't get lost in the maze.

Here was the view from where we were standing:

The Terrible Terrys

The Terrific Tais (some of us)

Time to head back out to the entrance and have our picnic! It was also time for me to get lost...

After what felt like 15mins of walking around in circles, my honey came back in and rescued Sisi and me. It was Sams fault I got lost in the first place as he took off with Sisi and I had to chase her to make sure she didn't get lost.....I know, ironic.....or moronic? anyway!

Here's us stuffing ourselves with bread rolls, chicken, ham, cheese, salad, grapes, watermelon and biscuits.

After lunch I asked the kids to run back into the maze so I could get some photos of them.

I really like this one of Hanisi..

Sam also snuck into the maze to scare the kids..

Caught!

Here's the funny face of the day. Not sure what's going on but it looks like Sam really doesn't want a hug??!

or maybe he's being strangled?!

or maybe Lani did a fluff??!

So......a drive to Westbury wouldn't be complete without a trip to Andys - even on a cold day. We all got ice cream except for Job who got a pie (a hot pie on a cold day. what was he thinking?!)

Here's the little ones..

When the girl making the ice creams passed Sisi's to me, I wasn't sure she was going to be able to get her mouth around it...

...she proved me wrong - look at that tongue!

Going inside was definitely a good idea!! brrrrrr..

Don't ask me what Job's doing with the jumper around his head..

Fun Fun Fun!

Once the ice creams were finished it was all over - time to go home.

Much to the disappointment of Hanisi

Oh, and on the way home we pulled over so I coudl take some photos of some sheep. No its not the New Zealander in me (smarty pants who thought it) I just loved the different textures in these shots.

I feel sorry for the sheep though - it doesn't look very comfortable. Where are they supposed to lay down?!

Thanks Terrys for another fun day :)

The River

2011-07-15T05:47:00.000-07:00

Check out this picture - isn't it trippy??!!

Is trippy even a real word?

How about this one....

Is it just me or does it look like the trees are dangling from the sky?

I love Perth the river. We go down there as a family often to walk the dog and play. We arrived there at the perfect time of day today - around 4.30pm. The kids and dog took off down the hill and I followed very slowly behind. Then I gasped (firstly because I was out of breath getting half way down the hill from the car) and secondly because the water and the trees looked so beautiful. Do you think I had the camera on me? Of course not. I had to dive back home and get it. Wonder if I'll ever learn...

So beautiful. Today it was nice to hear Job say that he never wants to leave Tasmania.

Is it any wonder..

And just in case you are wondering. Job and I were being very responsible parents, keeping an eye on the kids......

...from up here.

I'm sure if one of them fell in the water, Job would have made it down the hill in time to save them. Then MAYBE I would have made it down the hill in time to save HIM.

Since the recent burn baby burn! blog, I have been calling Job 'Hot Lips.' He gave me a half hearted attempt at the lips while one eye played on the phone and the other eye watched the kids.

After a while, we called the kids and dog back up to go home.

Such a beautiful spot. Whenever we come here to the river I feel grateful that we moved over.

..And this is where this blog would normally end, except that on the way to the car Sisi accidently fell into a pile of leaves. None of the kids had even noticed the leaves brushed off the side off the footpath until then.

You know what happens when you put leaves and kids together..

I never get tired of taking photos of children playing in the leaves.

I was able to get all these close ups because the kids kept dumping leaves on my head!

After waiting up near the car for us, it was obvious we were going to be a while. So Job came over and joined in.

I love this sequence of shots that shows Sisi's cheeky face and how much she enjoyed throwing leaves on my head - over and over and over!!

Cheeky!

While the rest of the family was having fun, poor Benny was in a bad mood. Aparently the others took leaves from his own 'leaf creation' on the footpath. He showed me where it was and it took up pretty much all of the leaves. Job and I tried to explain that the kids had to get the leaves from somewhere. He was so upset he stuck his hand all over something prickly. We had to go to the chemist and get some medicine as we weren't sure if he was having an allergic reaction or not.

By the time we got home. I knew he was fine. It was just the itch from the plant combined with his state of grumpiness that made him appear off.

Poor Ben!

A New Scooter!

2011-07-14T04:36:00.001-07:00

The kids have been saving their allowance for while now. We asked them if they'd like to buy something from the K mart toy sale (which was meant to end yesterday but has been extended for another week)

We just recently added Sisi into the budget to receive allowance too. The kids spent days dreaming and wishing over the catalogue. Sisi was really excited to get a scooter. This is the one she has been riding since she could walk. It's JJ's old one from when he was a toddler.

The photo doesn't really show how decrepit it really is. Our neighbour in Melbourne pimped Sisi's ride when he added the two big wheels on the back. We actually left it out for a tip run on a few ocassions but it ended up making its way back into the yard. We even left it behind deliberately when we moved here to Tassie, but it still found us!!You can't really tell but the front wheel is buckled and the whole thing wobbles when Sisi rides it - It also rolls crooked so she falls off it all the time! She didn't mind though, she loved that scooter and whenever we went for a walk she would run and get her scooter. Job and I would say "Oh no..." to eachother as we knew it would be a very long walk. Every now and then we hid it in the shed. We're such mean parents :)

She was sooooooooo excited when we picked up her new $20 tinkerbell scooter on Tuesday night. She waited very patiently while I assembled it. She even got to stay up late and ride it up and down the hallway. Today she rode it outside for the first time. We went to pick up the bigs kids from school this afternoon. I made sure we left early, but we were still late as Sisi likes to stop a lot along the way!!

Everytime a truck passed...

...she stopped to point.

She also stopped a few times to pull some tassels off.

Once we picked up the kids, she enjoyed scooting along side Benny (whenever he went slow enough for her)

And then.....she fell and hurt her finger.

She showed Benny..

...scooted up to the end of the path...

...and showed JJ.

Then we crossed the road and she found Lani.

We came around the corner and she finally cheered up when Benny started to race her..

......for a few seconds as least.

Phew! Tough afternoon :)

Blankets, more than just warming.

2011-07-14T03:03:00.000-07:00

This is what I see the mornings I try and make our bed. (I don't make the bed every day) !! gasp, shock... horror??!! It's okay, we're still alive and healthy.

She loves to crawl in between the blankets while I'm trying to make the bed. I fluff up the blanket high above her head and let it fall back down on her. This game goes on for as long as my arms can stand it! Its a good workout actually, making the bed over and over again :) One day I wont have a cute little brown curly haired bundle getting in my way. How Sad...

Sometimes Lani complains when she is making her bed saying "Mum, I can't get the lumps!" She brings it out for me to fix - which is just a case of shaking the doona evenly through the doona cover. Whenever I straighten up a blanket, all the kids come running and either jump on top or run underneath. Sometimes if I am extra busy, I fix the blankets in secret (its almost like hiding a chocolate bar) So I was fixing up Lanis doona a couple of days ago when the three big kids found me. We had a good game going on, so I got Job to take over for me so I could grab the camera. Thanks for amusing us Honey!

Life is beautifully simple when you see it through a childs eyes.

Burn baby burn!

2011-07-13T04:43:00.000-07:00

Three weeks or so ago, Job decided he wanted to get back into shape. He also decided that I would be his personal trainer. mwahahahahaha!! He will probably live to regret that!

This is a little snippet of one of his first training sessions on the dredded hill.. (taken on my phone)

I wish I knew how to transfer the videos from my phone as I have a couple of good ones from that day of him running up and down the hill with weights.

Here's another session when it was too wet to go outside. He slacked off a LOT in this workout, I had to keep giving him incentives to get his butt moving - in the form of punishments :) I told him to bench press Sisi as many times as he could in 30 seconds. He did 16 the first time and 19 the second. He wouldn't go past 19. Finally I told him if he didn't get a move on, I was getting the camera out - worked like a charm! Amazing what a little motivation can do.

We always have fun. I could easily blog every workout as they're all filled with laughter - usually at him being silly and me having to dish out consequences!! Saturday before last Saturday (I am very late with this blog) I had a lots of little incentives -5 of them!! We went to the kids school oval and worked out there. I had the kids chase him while he ran an obstcale course, laps around the oval and sprints. We had Bennys friend - Alex over for a play day so he came along and chased Job too. He's a cute kid - I couldn't resist taking a photo of his beautiful blue eyes! - I am so used to my kids dark brown eyes.

So I started Job off with a quick warm up lap of the oval..JJ pulled out a few metres in front half way round. I yelled out for Job to catch up, but he didn't quite make it!

It was so good to have JJ there to keep Job on the move. JJ had a rest while Job did a few more laps :)

Then I had the kids chase him as he completed an obstacle course 3 times through. This included tricep dips, a race to the top of the climbing frame and a couple of travels across the flying fox.

JJ tried to catch him by jumping on

Then we did some upper body work..

Upper body endurance - (with lots of facial expressions)

Burn baby!!!! (haha, I LOVE being the author of this blog!)

Then Job and the kids chased eachother around the tyres that form the perimetre of the playground - they had to be careful to step in every hole. The chase finished when the first person was caught. That person was Alex who tripped over - notice how Job barely checks to see if he's okay....and keeps running! Sad Honey.
(he really WAS okay :)

I noticed just after Alex tripped that I couldn't see Benny anywhere - he was meant to be running too - chasing JJ. Here's where I found him. Such a Ben!

After a very short break to get his breath back, we started the sprints. The goal was to do 10, 10 sec sprints as fast as possible. I put a plastic cup down as a marker after his first sprint and he had to hit the same marker each sprint - (to make sure he wasn't dropping speed) Kym and I found this very hard when we did it one morning, we didn't even complete the ten (unlike fit Mariah :) Job took it all in his stride as usual and I am so glad he gave me all the fantasic facial expressions he is so good at!! Hahaha, he loves sticking out those lips :)

JJ was awesome! He did every sprint with his dad. The other kids joined in too on many of them..

(again, check out the lips!)

Hahaha, this blog is way too much fun!

hee hee hee, ok, I'll stop.

Maybe just one more...

Hahaha, I'm going to get in lots of trouble!

Ok, moving on from Jobs nice Tongan lips :)

here's a shot of the cute kids

During their race I watched them through the view finder of my camera, snapping away. After a few seconds I couldn't see Benny anywhere. With my eye still looking through the view finder, I called out "Where's Benny?!" Sisi pointed him out to me. Trust him to be the first one to pike out!

So while I stood on the oval with the stop watch, I was entertained by a cute little girl who wanted me to chase her everywhere..

...and Benny and Alex hanging around. I don't think Alex wanted a peck on the cheek Ben!

It's nice how whenever one of the kids has a friend over, the other siblings get along with them too.

So...

The workout finally ended with the plank. Whoever held it for the longest was allowed to give the 'loser' a chosen consequence. Guess who won??

About 30 seconds in and Job feels the pinch. He tries to make JJ laugh but JJ just ignores him, lol!

37 seconds and it gets serious - heads down to concentrate

Job's signature yell as it gets more difficult (JJ chilling out on the side)

Pooped!! (he stayed like this for a while)

A quick chat before...

Punishment! He didn't end up doing 20 more sprints. I talked JJ down to 50 mountain climbers. When the three of us girls do this exercise, our kness touch our arms - Job must have short legs?!

On the way out to the car, the kids were so excited to see the local magpies and hawks playing on the footy oval. Benny kept saying "Mum, its like the real thing!!"