At the Beach..

Our Boxing Day was pretty quiet, but the fun began at 5.30pm when we went around to 126 James Street for a BBQ (also with Dean & Gaynoll).

We had a great time over dinner and a game of Trivial Pursuit. Lachie was still awake at 10pm, so both he and Fletcher are now having an afternoon sleep.

This morning I've been to get a haircut (God Bless my hairdresser, I always seem to get an appointment about half an hour after I phone up) and then some friends from Auckland called in to visit this morning.

And the weather is at last lovely blue sky!

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

Lachlan opens his new airplanes & helicopters. He took them to Christmas Service this morning and he didn't want them opened for ages. He's in bed now, tired out from a very busy day!

Zac opens his new Veggie Tales DVD. The boys then watched it!

Ben opens his new Nike shin guards for soccer next year....

and models them.

Fletcher received (from Wintersons) a Fisher Price toy called "Roberto" and his tractor and associated construction stuff. He & Lachie have already enjoyed playing with it on Christmas morning.

Lachie opens his Christmas gift from the Wintersons. Everyone looks pretty excited, don't they?! Its great, Ben & Zac have taught Lachie to be excited about presents! He received a great "Thomas Build Me" game.

One great thing about our house is that it has a great back yard and a lovely big silk tree for shade. So today after church we had Sarah & Andy, Abby & Grant around for lunch. We sat outside all afternoon at our picnic table, it was great.

We have people around for dinner shortly. I should go and make a salad or something.

Busy day tomorrow getting what we need for Christmas Day!

Home Again

We decided to try driving home from Havelock North in the morning, rather than the evening. So we left Mum & Dad's at 9.30am this morning. We managed to do the whole trip without any stops, and were safely home by 1pm. The boys ate on the way and slept for an hour or so. They were pleased to be home to their own toys.

Both me and Jamie went out and did jobs this afternoon and Lachie enjoyed playing with his cousins.

Last night of course, we got to enjoy the 6.8 richter scale earthquake that was mainly focused on Gisborne. Of course Napier isn't too far away from Gisborne and so we felt it a treat. It was rolling and just went on and on and on and on!

A Saturday with jobs like laundry and lawnmowing is ahead!

Unfortunately, the rain has been coming down for the last few days. So that dashed my hopes of going swimming or getting out and about much.

Went for a drive with Mum and the boys this morning looking at all the new housess in the neighborhood.

Picking up Jamie from the airport this afternoon!

H a v e l o c k

We arrived at Mum & Dad's at 10pm last night. We find night is the best time to travel for the boys and we don't have to make any stops. I imagine though they will be pretty whacked today. Fletcher has already gone down for his morning sleep and it is only 9am!

Taking Jamie to the airport soon, he is going to spend a few days in Wellington with friends he went to Police College with.

More later!

ps. It is such a hot day here already!

Here are my cutie-pies sitting at their little table tonight, just finishing up a bit of dinner. Fletcher was trying to steal Lachie's garlic bread so I gave him a slice of his own. Fletcher has been doing a bit of walking today - not too far though. It would be great if he acquired the skill by Christmas!

Welcome...

...to my new look site. It was time for a bit of a change and I hope you like it.

After a period of prolonged silence from Lachlan on Thursday morning, I went in to my room to find he had gotten into my lipstick. Silly mother that I am, I didn't rant and rave, I just said: "Can I take your picture?". And then after I had taken the picture I told him he was NEVER to get into my things again! He actually did a pretty good job on the top lip, don't you think? Considering he had no mirror....

Later in the day I dropped Lachie at Zoe's house, and Fletcher at Connor's while I went to a work lunch at Roquette Restaurant. What a treat! And I was the first to order dessert.

This morning we went to the park with Auntie Sarah and Zac - what a lovely hot day it was! It was good to get out of the house as Jamie worked a night shift so was trying to sleep. It is just impossible to keep the boys quiet so its best to leave! We had a fun morning.

At 1pm today we went and watched a Police Dog Display at the Intermediate School. Unfortunately Mum, I didn't take my camera. It was good fun - quite brief today. Jamie was the villain - next time he'll be showing off his handling skills!

The Winterson boys were here for dinner tonight and then down to bed in our room while Martin & Sarah went out for dinner. All the boys had a wonderful time playing together.

I'll leave you with a shot of Fletchie after he woke up from a wee nap today. Look at the curly hair! He's been a bit of a grump the last few days with a big fat molar coming through.

Wednesday

It was our first night in our house last night (Monday night we stayed at Ian & Christina's - to give the house time to dry out). Jamie was back to work and so was I for the morning.

I finished up work a little earlier so I could run to the supermarket. I needed to do some cleaning while the boys were asleep and I had no cleaning supplies! I can't go after Starlights because Fletcher needs to come straight home for a sleep. Here's my little sweetie showing his dexterity. He enjoyed himself this afternoon walking around behind the doll's pram.

And here is me and Lachie tonight after we read a story.

Now on to the Cool Stuff

We picked up our first concept plan from the architect last Friday. Here is a picture. I hope you will be able to click on the picture for a larger image and hopefully zoom in. We are pretty pleased with it but will probably make a few changes - mainly just to the size of the living area. We would welcome all your input!

Our New Pad...A Novel

Yesterday, Monday 10 December, I arrived about 9am - Jamie had arrived a little earlier and had gone to get the moving truck. Just after I got here he arrived with the first load of furniture.

And now let me tell you about said house. I think we'll start with a "Good" list and a "Bad" list:

Bad:
~~Mouldy walls and ceilings
~~Some mouldy patches on the really old carpet that should probably be just pulled up
~~The previous tenants had been told commercial cleaners were coming in. Unfortunately they weren't told the commercial cleaners were only employed to clean the carpet and walls. So they just packed up and left. Oven sprayed, but not cleaned, dirty cupboards, dirty toilet, dirty bathroom.......
~~Smells not soooo good - because of the carpets being cleaned (least I hope that's the reason) - but hopefully we have improved that running 3 de humidifiers over the last two days. You know how some families have a funny smell? I hope we don't turn into the Smelly Kerrs!! I've been praying the fragrance of Christ will permeate the rooms!
~~The windows need repainting (here's an example) - one window has practically no paint and is rotting..mmmm lovely

~~The rubbish that Jamie picked up from around the section that will be removed tomorrow.
Here's a pic:

But, we are very thankful for the opportunity to live here, so now I will list the good:

Good:
~~Its a wee bit bigger than James St. The computer fits in the lounge. And the kids room is really big.
~~It has a great fenced back yard for the kids to play in.
~~The bathroom has only a shower over the bath and a sink - my cleaning is much reduced!
~~The neighbour came over to say hi tonight and commiserate - her house is much the same - and she says we can use their trampoline any time we like.

Jamie has already been doing some trimming of overgrown bushes and he is outside now doing the edges before mowing the lawn. Hopefully we will be the best gosh darn tenants this house has ever seen!

Our Move & a Week at Lake Rotoma

Well I guess you could say that our move went pretty smoothly. We moved out all the furniture on Wednesday the 28th and spent that night up at Lake Rotoma. Thursday morning Jamie came back over to get a head start on the cleaning. Lachie had some tummy issues that day so I stayed at the lake until about 12pm, before coming over to give a helping hand. In the end Sarah came over and gave us an hour of her time to help us clean up. Martin was also very helpful the day before, bringing Jamie & Millsy morning tea and also mowing our lawn for us.

We had dinner with John and Moana and then headed off to the Lake - at 40 minute trip (nothing to big city folk of course).

Jamie had that Friday off and I came back to Whakatane to go to work.

We had an enjoyable week at Lake Rotoma but we were glad that was all it was, a week. I came over for stuff like coffee group and work, but actually did pretty well not coming over every day. Still used lots of gas!

Last Transmission before we move!

Hey y'all. As you know settlement date for our house is this Friday the 30th. So we have decided we will be out by Wednesday afternoon so that we can clean on Thursday, and be ready to hand over the keys at any time on Friday.

And there are still plenty of more boxes to pack!

We can't move in to our rental at 213 King Street until about the 10th of December. So our temporary residence will be with Jamie's parents at Lake Rotoma.



It was an amazing hot day today. I went out to the Berry Farm this afternoon with Sarah and Zac and my boys, and then Zac came to play here.

So not sure when my next update will be!

We've been out to the section this morning. We met an architect and an engineer out there. The engineer because we were wondering whether we had to do masses of costly retaining, but he seemed to think we would be fine.

As for the architect - we need something specially drawn up for the site. We have had two building companies go and have a look, but then they just go through their standard plans and see what will fit on. And for the size of the section (566m2) compared to the size of house we want (approx 200m2) its a bit tricky! So we met with Martin Jackson who is going to give us a quote before he comes up with some scheme plans. Me and Jamie were very impressed with him and have a feeling he will come up with something pretty fantastic.

A friend of mine built a few years ago and they just picked a plan they liked, which was then plonked on the section with no regard to facing north, etc. We don't want that!

Jamie is just mowing the lawns before he goes to work this afternoon. We have to be out of our house in a week and we have packed two boxes! Still don't know when we can move to our rental in King St..

This was the sight that awaited me when I walked into the bathroom the other day - my boys brushing their teeth! Lachie has a bit of an obsession with toothpaste, I guess he thinks its quite tasty. After dinner mints would probably be a good snack option for him!


Anyway aren't they cute? The picture is a bit dark though. I am buying two calendars through Starlights which feature their hand prints.

Fletcher is growing so quickly!

Sunday morning was a bit different - Jamie went off to run in the annual Toi's Challenge. I went to church with the boys, but not for very long. At about 10.30am we went down to Rugby Park to see Jamie finish up the race. He did a very respectable 1 hr 56 min.

After the boys had their 'naps', we called down to 126 James Street. Here is Fletcher showing us his skills behind Ben's trolley. Remember when Ben was pushing it around?!

Then we all zipped out to Coastlands to show Martin & Sarah our section, and then on to the Berry Farm for an icecream. A great way to spend Sunday afternoon!

Anyone got an idea what I could re-name my blog? Leave a comment or email me!

Well I am sure you will enjoy the pictures that follow. I copied this pic of me Sarah Nic and Dad off Mum's blog. It was taken last Thursday the 8th of November, yes, MY 30TH BIRTHDAY. Happy birthday to me. We had a nice lunch together at Sarah's on Thurs and then on Saturday went with some friends to Roquette Restaurant for lunch.

This afternoon me and the boys had a lovely time in the back yard, playing on the swing and slide, playing with the ball and motoring around in the little red cart. Isn't Fletcher adorable?

Today we signed a contract to purchase a section at Omega Place, Coastlands.

Here is a shot of the 'beach access' sign at the end of the street. And the walkway is completed concreted. How marvellous.

This is a view of the street from the beach end. Our section is up the back on the right, if you look very carefully you can see a "Ray White" real estate sign on it. Will let you know how things progress.

After church on Sunday and after the boys had had 'naps' we drove over to the beach for an icy treat.

Lachlan pretends to be grumpy

Fletcher on his First Birthday!

Isn't he lovely? I must say I am taking lots of pictures of him lately because of his cuteness. I'm pleased about that 'cos they say the second child doesn't have nearly as many photos as the first.
As for the day, we had coffee group as usual with all his wee friends - although he did sleep through much of the party! Then at 12.3opm we picked up Grandma from the airport to spend a few days in Whakatane!

Yipee, my computer is back in AKSHON!

The computer guy took it Tuesday and it was back today (Friday) afternoon. Not bad. He replaced the video card and installed some ethernet thingee. Which is great because surfing the net is so much better - I used to connect using the USB thingee, which wasn't very reliable.

This morning I dropped my boys and their great-grandfather at Ann's place, and went to the Home and Garden show in Rotorua. It was OK - nothing to write home about though. And then I went and bought a new skirt from the House of G. A denim one - perfect for summer!

The other news is that our house went unconditional yesterday (Thursday)! Yay. We got a nice hamper from Harcourts for our trouble. I have already eaten the chocolate! And so the purchase of a section begins in earnest....

Have a good weekend everyone. I shall try and take some pictures and post them soon.

PS. I have now been blogging for one year!

A Post from work

Hi all

I am just posting at work - my first check on the computer in a while. I called the computer guy to our house yesterday and he took it away to be repaired. We were having major computer issues so I thought I'd better get it sorted. So that is why I have not emailed or blogged!

We made an offer on a house at Ohope last week but we couldn't pay the price they wanted. Fortunately we've changed our minds back to building, so we're not too upset about it! We are meeting with a builder tomorrow to discuss.....our house should go unconditional (or not!) tomorrow.

We are investigating where to go next - if a police house isn't available, we may ask if the new owner will rent our house to us!

Back to work..

Havelock North

Hello from Mum & Dad's. Jamie arrived home Friday night. We had a busy Saturday - Jamie trimmed the hedge and mowed the lawn. We went to an Open Home and then to visit our new niece, Chelsea Mary-ann Kerr born last Wednesday. She is lovely! So tiny.

We had a great time Saturday night with all the Kerrs at our place for a slap-up dinner.

The car was packed up yesterday afternoon and we left Whakatane at about 6pm on our way to Mum & Dad's. We did have a few stops but made good time.

Have a good week!

Its been a busy Saturday morning for me mowing the lawn. I must say that I am very proud of my efforts - I think I did a better job than the guy from Jim's Mowing who did it last week and the week before.

Lachie is having a sleep - we enjoyed Abby & Grant's hospitality last night, and though I put him to bed there, he didn't go to sleep. 9.30pm is pretty late for a two year old!

In other news, we signed another contract on our house on Wednesday. It will be a few more weeks until we know whether it is unconditional. Meantime I am daydreaming about our new one!

A Weekend Away

Me and the boys got back from four days in Auckland on Tuesday night.

We stayed with Stephanie and Jacob and had an awesome time.

Saturday morning we caught up with Auntie Nicole and went out to breakfast and then to the playground. After that we hit the mall and did some shopping - I made a few purchases with store credits I had!

Late Sunday morning we headed to the zoo. I was excited to take Lachie as he is a bit older than the last trip and could appreciate it more. And indeed he did! He was very pleased to see the giraffes but then got a bit upset when we saw the rhino and the elephant. But he soon warmed up to the elephants and it was no problems after that. The highlight though, was probably the monkeys zipping around the trees.

The other highlight of the trip was having St Pierre's sushi not once, but three times. Can't beat it!

So a big thank you to Stephanie and Jacob for looking after us so well! Looking forward to doing it again. Enjoy the pix.

Lachie warms up to the elephants

Fletcher relaxes in the stroller during our lunch break

Me & Fletchie look at the kangaroo!

Lachie enjoys a popsicle at the end of the visit to the zoo. Fletcher ate mine!

Lachie, Jacob & Fletchie do a bit of colouring after a busy day at the zoo

This weekend I was busy....cleaning the house! What a drag. Some people made an appointment to come through Saturday afternoon. So I spent Saturday morning getting it all looking tidy and then took the boys to the playground - the weather started off bad but turned beautiful.

Sunday after church I did some more tidying jobs as we had an Open Home at 3pm. The weather was iffy, so I was pleased to come home and find that five groups of people had been through!! Of course, more importantly is whether any of those people want to buy it...I am catching up with the agent this afternoon to find out.

Lachie is at Starlights this morning - me and Fletcher dropped him off and then went to do some odd jobs in town. Here is a picture of Lachie - I took it on Saturday after we got home from the park. I guess he just couldn't decide which car to take to bed, so he took them all!

How quickly the week goes by! But we have been keeping busy. Poor Lachie was sick after daycare on Wednesday so I was busy cleaning that up in the afternoon.

Yesterday we had a great day, we went up to Lake Rotoma for the day. It was Poppa's 86th birthday so he was there too. The boys enjoyed playing with Grandad and had good naps in the afternoon. I went for a walk around the beautiful lake while they slept. We drove home with Poppa at about 5pm. I never seem to do stuff like that during the week - for some reason I never think I have the time!

Just been for a nice walk up to the store. On the way back I stopped to chat to the neighbour, they have put their house on the market today. Their place is a little bigger so they are not 'competition' I shouldn't think. But hopefully it will bring people through our place!

OK, what I need you to do is start at the bottom of this post - look at all the pictures & their captions, and then come back to this paragraph.

The boys are in bed after a busy morning at Karen's for coffee group. Abby showed up with her beautiful Fijian sun tan! As always it was great to catch up with everyone.

Jamie headed off to Trentham/Wellington on Sunday night. He stayed at a friend's place Rotorua on Sunday night so that he didn't have to get up so early Monday morning. We seem to be keeping busy here at home without him.

You can see from the pictures what we did Sunday afternoon....

Nothing much else is happening on the house front - we seem to be getting people through but that is all!

Anyway enjoy the pictures and I shall try to post again soon!

Lachie didn't want to go on the train but he did want to play at the park. It was shorts & sandals weather! I need to go and get him another pair of sandals because he has grown out of these.

After church we went to the River Edge Park & Miniature Train. I took Fletcher for a ride on the train. He was a weeny bit scared as it was quite loud. After the train ride we went to the park - Fletchie loves a swing!

Lachie had a great day yesterday, at Starlights in the morning and then to play with Ben & Zac briefly in the afternoon.

Fletcher now has all four teeth on top - they just need to grow full size.

Me & the boys playing before bed, a few nights ago. That's a shape sorter on our heads.

Last week Jamie bought a new mountain bike off a guy from work. He's gone for a ride over to Ohope via Burma Road, to try it out. (We sold his old one thru' an ad in the Beacon - it sold in about 2 hours and we had lots of calls about it over last weekend and even thru' the week!)

Lachie went to stay with his Nana and Grandad yesterday so it's pretty quiet around our place. This morning Me Jamie & Fletcher went for a drive over to Ohope.

We had two lots of people through the house yesterday but nothing to get excited about. I don't know what happened with the people who came through twice last weekend.

Its a really beautiful day here today - and warm! So hopefully we will get out for a walk later.

I hope you enjoy that photos, the first in a while. Ben and Zac were here briefly on Monday afternoon which is when I snapped Ben & Fletcher.

Its been a quiet week - no news on the house front. Just been up to the usuals!

You gotta watch this

where was I....?

OK, yes some people did come through the house today so lucky I went and tidied up when I did. While they were here I went down and caught up with Sarah & Zac. At 12pm I picked up Lachie from Starlights and he is still at Zac's playing.

This morning we discovered a cat that had been under our house for a few days. A couple of nights ago I heard a cat meowing and thought, "I bet that cat is under our house", but then by morning I had forgotten about it. Yesterday afternoon when we got home from Lake Rotoma, we heard it under the deck. We have no idea how it got under there. Anyway, Jamie fished him out this morning. Fortunately, he had a collar on with his name, address & phone number. He was Oscar, all the way from 61 James St (we are 224), so he went on quite a hike! He had been missing from his place for about two weeks. Lachie kept calling him "Poscar" which I think was a combination of "Puss Puss", "Oscar" and "Priska" - who is one of his carers at Starlights!

Lastly, yesterday I went to an open day at Port Ohope, a bunch of new sections have come on the market. Where would you buy - Coastlands or Port Ohope?? Leave me a comment or drop me a line!

Well it's been a week, where do I begin??

The latest drama was that the contract on our house fell over on Friday (the 7th). The girl who wanted it unfortunately couldn't get the finance. However, that disappointment was blunted by the fact that we had two people lined up to come through for a look, at the same time as we found out it was not going unconditional.

So we had another lady through on Saturday morning and she came back with her man yesterday afternoon.

Anyway, I've just had a call that some one else wants to come through this morning, so I better go tidy up in case that does happen. More later!

Monday Monday

I'm sure I have entitled many a post with that, but however.

Lovely sunny day.
Boys in bed.
Breakfast dishes done.
Grocery shopping done.
Laundry done.
Just got to get ready for dinner!

Just taking a moment to check things on the compooter. We had a good weekend. Saturday morning I went to the Ohope Craft Market with Abby, which was fun. Then I had my sister-in-law's baby shower at 12pm so that took up most of the afternoon.

We had an open home yesterday afternoon but I suspect nothing will come of that - the girl who has the contract on it came through with her pals, a single lady, and another couple. Apparently the couple thought it a little small and the single lady didn't say much at all (apart from that it was a nice place, of course).

This morning I went and did the groceries at 8am - before Lachie went to Starlights. I thought I did pretty well considering I left my shopping list at home!!

Have a good day!

We got a conditional offer on our house yesterday. So that's pretty cool. But I think I am experiencing a bit of "seller's remorse"..! All going to plan it will be unconditional on 7 September.

And that's all I have to say about that!

Its been a busy weekend!

Saturday morning we went up to Joseph's for his first birthday party. So it was fun to catch up with friends there. During the party, I got a call from our real estate agent and we set up a time for people to view our house at 4.30pm. So we came home around 12pm, put the boys down for their naps and tidied the place up! I took the boys and Zac to the park during the viewing. Anyway the people stayed for ages and the agent said it went very well. We will hear exactly how well tomorrow - whether they make an offer or not! Meantime, we got another call this afternoon and have someone else coming for a look at 10am Monday!!

Me and Jamie are now all "Bourne-d Out". We want to go and see The Bourne Ultimatum, so we decided we had better rent the first two out so we know what is going on. We had to get The Bourne Identity on VHS! The lady at the store asked Jamie "do you still have a video player?". Hmmm...anyway we might get to the flicks this week.

This afternoon me and Lachie went to the Wintersons as it is Zac's 4th birthday today. Lachie had a great time playing with all the trains and I had a great time gas bagging to Sarah & Gaynoll. Jamie wasn't feeling very well so he stayed home with Fletcher - sounds like the two of them slept the afternoon away!

Hopefully I will have more news on the house front tomorrow night! Have a great week.

On the Market

We listed our house for sale this week.

Click here if you want to see the real estate agent's page on the Web.

We would like to buy a section and build a new house. So we will see how that pans out. Of course I will keep you posted. The house was listed Wednesday morning and we in fact had someone through that afternoon. But I don't think anything will come of that - the agent said they were just seeing what their money could buy here in town. It sure was a nice way to kick things off! We are not having an open home this weekend, but next. I do not know how I am going to keep the place tidy enough - and I think we need to do a bit more tidying up over the weekend!

Jamie's gone fishing today....me and the boys went for lunch at the Rose Gardens, a play at the playground and a few jobs in town. The unfortunate thing about this particular stage we are in is that Fletcher has a morning and afternoon nap, while Lachie only has an afternoon nap. So by the time we got out the door at 11.15am, after Fletcher's nap, Lachie has started to head downhill and we have only 2 hours before we have to be home for his nap. I imagine in another 6 - 8 months they will both be napping around the same time.

Another busy weekend tidying up around the place - we had one friend come over to prune our trees and another to do some plastering! Jamie will be doing some painting over the next few nights - after our new bifold door was put in two years ago we never finished it off properly. So by the end of the week it will be done!

Sunday night we went to the Wintersons to celebrate Ben's 7th birthday! Happy birthday Ben. We got him some cool quiz cards so it was fun asking him the questions, and being asked. He's a clever cookie, that boy.

Lachie was playing with a microphone at their place too - he was so cute singing away with his microphone (the Harold song) and then Martin got out his video camera.

I went to work last Thursday while Jamie stayed home with the boys which was great. And Friday I didn't do much ' cos I had a wee cold. But that healed up really quickly.

Fletcher has two teeth coming through up top - and I can see a couple more on the way. He can now get himself from his tummy back to sitting up.

Jamie and I are going to do a session (hopefully more) of a Marriage Enrich course. So last night we started off by filling in a questionnaire about our marriage that gets sent to a computer for analysis.

More soon!

Here is Fletcher and I guess you would call it his 'commando crawl'. He's just been doing it in the last couple of days.

See Fletcher Crawl!

Some pix of the boys

Fletcher likes to stand up in the bath now!

Fletcher in his highchair watching his brother's antics

Its a cold night here - colder than we've had for a while. Jamie is working a late shift so I am on my way to the woodshed for more firewood!

Over the weekend me and Jamie got into some spring cleaning. Jamie washed the house, which took most of the day. I cleaned skirting boards and ceilings and walls. And the oven - I did such a great job I kept peeking inside to see how shiny it was. I felt sad that I had to spoil it by making lasagne last night. Lachie stayed with his grandparents for the weekend so that we could attend to our tasks pretty much uninterrupted. But Jamie did wake Fletcher up from his afternoon nap by cleaning outside his bedroom window.

I went to the orthodontist last week. You see, I have a tooth coming through and there is no room for it, and my bite is all wrong. He said that I could do with braces, but I don't have to. Something will eventually have to be done. So I've just got to decide whether I have $5000 to spare for orthodontist bills!!

Fletcher is now pulling himself up on the furniture and sort of crawling around. He doesn't know how to use his legs properly - he gets into crawling position but doesn't know what to do next. I've tried to show him!

Lachlan is also great. I was reading a magazine last night and he pointed out the letters 2 and 0 on the cover to me! How impressive was that?

I also took both the boys to the Plunket nurse this morning after coffee group and they are both going great. Unfortunately I can't compare them at similar ages - I missed Fletcher's 5 month check (but did get to Lachie's) and I missed Lachie's 9 month check (but did get Fletcher's). She said I should take Lachlan to see the dental nurse. That shouldn't be a problem, he loves brushing his teeth lately and loves the taste of the toothpaste.

Bye for now!

Jamie

If you'd like to see a news bulletin from last week, featuring my husband, please click here.

A note on the video..

I heard Lachie singing one of the songs from a Thomas story & dvd the other day, so I decided to

video it. This was taken Monday morning. Its actually his second attempt - Jamie heard his first

and encouraged him to sing a little louder. And even since yesterday his pronunciation of the words

has become clearer. He's certainly not shy about sharing this song with others! I know you will

enjoy it. Sorry its a bit dark.

Been out to coffee group this morning. Good to catch up with everyone. Then did a few jobs and home to put the boys down for a nap! The rain has started up again so I have thrown my laundry in the dryer.

Here is a photo taken last week of the boys in the bath together. Ever since we stayed at Mum's, Fletcher wants to sit up in the bath now. They don't usually bath at the same time, but may occasionally overlap!

Say Goodbye to frozen peas!

I usually buy frozen peas just in case we need a green vegetable with our dinner, and I don't have anything more exciting. Well, no more. I have started buying frozen stirfry mix instead, with neat things like red pepper and snow peas in it. And with the price of red peppers etc and all the other vegetables you need to buy to make a good stirfry, I find it quite cost effective! So there's your little culinary tip for the week...

Me and Jamie have just been doing some jobs around the place on a cloudy Sunday afternoon, while the boys have naps. We went to church this morning and Mark V spoke. Speaking of jobs, I should go and do something about the two loads of laundry I have done.

I will try and post some pictures at some stage!

My first August post!

Sorry its been so long! I guess we have had another busy week here. I always feel like I don't have the time to post, but I should probably just post snippets when I have the opportunity.

Lachie has been home all week as he has a bit of a cold - no church last Sunday, no Starlights and no Mainly Music. I think he has been finding it a bit of a drag really!

Me and Jamie went to a Marriage Seminar at church two nights this week. Mel came and babysat the boys Wednesday night and Nana Ann on Thursday night.

I'm just going to do some work so I better get on with it.