Ashley's 8th Birthday

Well today is my little girls 8th Birthday. 8 is a big deal, I cannot believe how big she is getting. I remember the night she was born.

It was a Thursday night and Adam was at a Scouts activity, I put Samuel to bed and knew I was in the beginning stages of labour. When Adam got home I told him that is was most likely going to happen tonight so he started timing contractions as we watched TV. I remember being upset because Samuel would not be my little baby anymore. But I was also excited to meet the new addition. We did not know the sex of the baby, so everyone was excited to find out what the baby was. We soon called my Mum to come over to watch Samuel. Adam's parents were in England for his cousins wedding so we did not contact them just yet.

We left for the hospital at about 1:00am, we made a quick detour to Adam's parents house because Adam forgot to grab some change so he could call them. I remember sitting in the car wishing Adam would hurry up, I didn't want to have the baby in the car. The contractions were happening every 2 - 3 mins by then. We finally arrived at Modbury hospital where I was immediately taken upstairs. Adam was left behind to fill in paper work and move the car. He quickly joined us and it was a good thing he was quick because I soon started pushing and then out little girl was here. We had only been at the hospital for about 1/2 hour. She was beautiful, at least to us. She had the normal baby squishiness and looked a bit like her poppy. She took a dummy straight away and we did not get it off her for another 18 months.

As I reflect on that night, I think how blessed I am to of had 3 beautiful, healthy children. They are all unique and special in their own ways. As Ashley has grown she has defiantly turned in to her own person. She is a determined, bright and generous person. She is always thinking of ways she can help people, especially her teachers at church. She always develops a bond with them that last beyond them being her teacher. She is a girl who knows what she wants and she is an expert at the LOOK. I see myself in her so much, but I also see a beautiful young women blossoming. She is such a girly girl and I feel bad sometimes as I am not. It is a good thing she has a dad who loves to buy her dresses and pretty things. She loves to play with her younger brother Joseph, they get along so well and this is partly due to the fact that she like bossing him around and he lets her to a certain extent. This has been their relationship since the beginning. Samuel does love his little sister, but he will not be bossed around by her so this can cause a bit of contention, but I am sure this is true of most families. Ashley is a blessing to our family and I would not have her any other way. I love my little Princess.

Catching up

Well so much has been happening and I just don't get time to write it all down. It is now week 7 of term 3 and Joseph has started school. So I get to spend my days at home by myself. I've got to admit that I quite enjoy it. Not than Joseph was a problem or anything like that. But not having ot go out for the Kindy run or having the TV on all day, just being able to sit and eat my lunch without haivng to share. It is nice. It took Joseph a little while to get into a routine and after the first week he decided he had had enough of school. It was a nice place to visit but not to stay. So it took another week or so to convince him that school was fun and that he should not miss out. It helps that his teacher is really good. What didn't help was that he kept falling over and banging into things. I think in the first 2 weeks I got 4 yellow slips from the office telling me that Joseph had hurt himself. Thankfully that has stopped.

Samuel is doing really well, he is picking up on his reading. I found him the other day in his room reading a book. He has now decided that he would like to try and read the Harry Potter books, we will see how he goes with the first one. His glasses seem to be making a difference and we have noticed the change in him.

We were having a few rough weeks with Ashley, 6 year old girls just don't seem to be very nice and she was having trouble finding a friend, but that is all sorted now, well at least for this week. She has found a nice little girl to play with and they seem to be getting along well.

Broken arms and School visits

Well the last time I blogged was just after the last holidays, and here we are nearly about to start some more, in about 2 weeks. This term has just flown by, we have had broken arms, school visits and much, much more.

Joseph turned 5 in May and has been going to school on Wednesday mornings until just after recess. He loves it, he keeps asking me when he will get to bring a reader home and i can just see him soaking it all in. Every week they come home with something they have made, we have had a mask, a teddy bear and a monkey. He is in a class with about 15 other children and 12 of them come from his kindy. So he doesn't need to worry about making new friends not that I thought this would be a problem for him. He's speech is coming along really good now. He is remembering to start his words with correct sounds and he is getting much slower in his talking which makes it easier to understand him.

Samuel has had a very eventful couple of months. On a Monday morning I had dropped everyone off at school and kindy, I was getting ready for my Relief Society Presidency meeting when I got a phone call from the school. The told me that they thought Samuel had broken his arm and could I come and get him. So at 9:30am I went back to school to get Samuel. We can home and I called Adam to let him know what was going on, he told me to take Samuel to the hospital and he would meet us there. So off we went back to my work. We were not waiting long, we were out of the hospital by 12 noon. He had broken his arm down near his wrist and had a temporary cast on. We had an appointment to come back in a week to get the fibreglass cast on. Samuel was a trooper, he went to school the next day, I think it was more to show the cast off then anything else. He was pretty tired after that so he got a day off. He only had his arm plastered for 3 weeks which was good. He was very happy to get it off, so was I now he could finally shower properly.

We went and got the kids eyes tested the other week and discovered that Samuel needs glasses, so we went and tried some on. It was quite hard to find a pair that suited him as he has quite a big head so he didn't fit the children's sizes but was too small for the adults sizes. We eventually found two pairs that we all liked and now we are just waiting for them to come in. Today Joseph and I go to get ours eyes tested. Joseph kicked up a stink when he didn't get glasses so we will get his eyes tested. Hopefully he does't need them, Ashley's eyes were perfect, so she was also upset she didn't get glasses.

Out and about in the holidays

So school holidays are over again, and life is about to get back to normal. I love my kids and love it even more when they play nicely together. They have not been too bad the last two weeks, there have been some nice moments, like last Saturday when I didn't see Ashley or Joseph for the whole day because they were happily playing together. But there are also bad moments like fighting over whose turn it is on the Wii. I am happy they can go back to school and have more things to do. The first week of the holidays we didn't really do anything but this last week we were out for 3 days. We had a primary activity, the kids did all kinds of crafts. They painted boxes and doorstops, they made jewellery and strung string on blocks of wood. They had fun. We also went on a picnic with one of my friends from work and her boys. The kids got along great. They have never met before, but there were no problems. Then on Thursday we went to a play Cafe with Lachlan coming along. The kids had a ball, the only bad part was when they all had to get off the equipment because another kid wet their pants. We went home not long after that so it didn't effect us much.

Today I am getting ready for Church and my last day as Music leader in Primary. I am getting a new calling. I am happy about my new position, a little bit sad about leaving primary, I love the kids and the sweet spirit they have. I have learnt so much from them.

Such is life, moving so fast

Well life is just moving along. Lots is happening and everyone is very busy. This week we all went to the dentist. Well the kids did anyway. I am happy to report that all is good, no problems with any of them. That is a huge relief, our teeth are so important but also very expensive if something goes wrong with them.

The kids are all doing good at school, we had a CYH appointment for Joseph because he is nearly at school. They checked his hearing, eyesight, height and weight. He is doing good in all areas except his weight. Apparently he is severely underweight. She was going to refer me to a nutritionist but I told her that he is not lethargic and he has heaps of energy and she said that was good. So he just seems to burn up any food that he does eat. The other kids are progressing at school, they have both gone up levels in their readers and they are getting more homework so that is good. They are all enjoying Gymnastics and seem to have lots of fun. The club has doubled in size, another group merged with us so we have more kids but we also have more instructors.

Adam is really busy at work, but he is also busy with Church stuff. Adam and I are the Session Directors for TFY (Time for Youth) this year so that is keeping us both busy. There seems to be an endless list of things to do. It is in July so hopefully the second half of our year will be less busy.

Well thought I would just finish with a few funny photos -

We love our dog she is a part of the family. We even send her out to work. LOL

Christmas, School Holidays and sickness

Well what a couple of weeks, I cannot believe that there are only 2 more weeks of school holidays and that Christmas has come and gone so quickly. We had a fantastic Christmas, the kids loved their presents, I also loved mine, Adam decided to surprise me with the 12 days of Christmas. So one Sunday I got up and their on the table was a beautiful plant with a card attached. He continued to do something every morning, so that when I got up at 4:15 am there would be some special surprise waiting for me on the table with a little poem attached to it. It was great I really looked forward to getting up and seeing what there was. He also spoiled me on Christmas day. We had a great morning with just the kids and us, the kids were able to play on their new trampoline, and investigate all their new toys. We then went to Aunty Margaret's for Christmas dinner. It was great, everyone was their and the kids had a ball.

Our new grass is also going really great. We got some new plants for christmas and I haven't killed even one yet. I have a habit of killing plants but I have told Adam it is because they have been inside plants and I have to much control over them, outside they can do what they want. Anyway they seen to be doing really good. Adam has to mow the lawn every week it grows pretty fast but it does look good, now we just have to do the rest of it.

We also went to see the Panda's, they were fantastic, they were still in their inside enclosures but we could see them fantastic. We couldn't get good photo's though the glass was too reflective. The kids loved seeing them, they were each given a mask as well.

Well now with the sickness part. Ashley started getting this really horrible cough just last week and it has turned into the flu kind of. Joseph started feeling sick on Saturday, he was fine one minute then literally the next minute he is complaining of a headache and promptly feel asleep. On Sunday I started to feel sick I was off work on Monday and Tuesday but I went back today. The doctor is not sure what it is but she said it sounds like the symptoms of the flu. On Sunday night when it didn't get below 30 I was in bed with chattering teeth, freezing cold. I seem to of shaken it off now and hopefully it will stay away.