Our Family

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Update

Hi all!! Sorry its been so long since I've updated the blog!! Here are a few photos, below, covering the past few months - well actually since October last year (2010).

Renee's 8th birthday part with her friends and her Hello Kitty cake is the first photo. For some reason I couldn't put this on the post below, thus the reason for a different post

A Catch-up on the Past Few Months

We went for a trip last October up to Kaikoura to see the seals and had a great time at the rock pools while we were there -
Courtney - once she got brave enough to pick up the crabs ...

Courtney with a starfish ...

One of the seal pups that headed up to a waterfall to play with the other baby seals...

Courtney and Brandi looking for treasures in the rock pools ...

Jared 'patting' the seal ...

How do you get a seal to smile for a photo - apparently do some sweet talking to it ... and yes, Jared did get a good photo of it :)

Josh & Courtney looking for more treasures ...

Now fast forward a month, to November last year - here is one of the baby rabbits Josh's pet rabbits produced - a mini lop ....

Another acquisition in our family, Muffin the kitten. (The white cat who had been visiting us regularly moved with its owners at Christmas time). And of course, if you've read the story of the mouse last March then you can have a guess how Muffin happened ... Renee asks me if she can have a cat - I say 'no' (of course) so, taught well by her older sister, she goes and sweet talks her father and managed to get him to say yes! And guess what, he got a 'free' kitten (yes, I laugh, because as most will know, there is no such thing as a 'free kitten'). I think Jared also now realises that ... Anyway, she is a very cute kitten and very tolerant ... Renee treats her like a baby and likes to dress her in dolls clothes.

And skipping forward to March 2011, here is a photo of Brandi when we were at Lake Hawea. I will try and get more photos up sometime soon

Friday, September 10, 2010

Earthquake

Last Saturday at 4.35am we were awakened to a 7.1 magnitude earthquake - we are all fine, along with the house - God was definitely looking after us all! There was a lot of damage around the Canterbury area and it is quite random - one house will be fine & another right beside has a lot of damage. Christchurch had a lot of damage because of liquification - because a lot of the city is built on sandy soil. And a town north of Christchurch also has a lot of damage. Where we live is a few kilometres away from the epicentre. We haven't been out much so haven't really seen much of the damage, so we went for a drive the other day where I'd heard there had been a bit of damage and so the children could have a look first-hand. Below is one of the paddocks which was 'ripped' and part of it had dropped to a lower level (doesn't really show up in the photo much, but when we saw aerial photos on tv it was quite impressive). The road which had some big cracks in it, had been repaired by the time we went for a look. There was a real estate sign up at the gate - I presume it was there prior to the earthquake ... might be a bit hard to sell his farm now knowing there is a fault line that runs through it now... unless he knows a seismologist who wants to buy it! The photos shown here are nothing compared to in the city and surrounding areas though where some of the houses are going to have to get demolished.

Here is one of the power poles which had a lean (as did most of the power poles in that area & there was no slack in the wires) ... and also the hedge that had been straight ... the road had also dropped and realigned itself, so it was no longer a straight, flat road.

Brandi's 4th Birthday!!

Brandi's first birthday at home (this time last year we were in the Philippines!!). Brandi had been so looking forward to her birthday as everyone else in the family had had a birthday - but not her!! She had a really good day & loved opening up presents!!

Courtney really wanted to make Brandi's birthday cake, so I left her to it and headed out to do some gardening with Josh, Renee & Brandi. After a while I smelt something burning - not a good thing when there is a birthday cake that is cooking ... lets just say Courtney learnt a few new things:

1. If the cake isn't cooking fast enough, don't put it on grill !

2. If you do put it on grill, don't forget about it!!

3. When you try and cut the burnt parts off, wait until the cake has cooled or it will fall to bits!!!

So I suggested she go outside and play for a while & I'd see if I could redeem it. Its amazing what a bit of icing can hide!! And it tasted great too. Courtney & Renee also made the colour co-ordinated cupcakes.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Wax Eye Bird

This cute little bird is a New Zealand native. They are so cute & have little white feathers around their eye which gives them their name Waxeye - or Silver eye. Josh saved this little one from the jaws of the cat.

It made itself quite at home, first on Josh's knee, then his head. Josh spent a couple of hours with it thismorning before releasing it again - and even then it stayed sitting on his hand for a while before flying off.

A couple of weeks ago we went & stayed with my parents about 6 hours south of here. The children had a wonderful time with plenty to do. We went a week before the school holidays to avoid the crowds, so it was great. We stopped at Lake Waihola on the way down to Gore ...

One afternoon we headed out to a park & went on a bush walk & the children & my mum had lots of fun going on the flying fox in the playgound. Josh had taken his skateboard with him and there was a cool hill at the park (we don't have many hills where we live ... so hills are a bit of a novelty). The children had a wonderful time riding the skateboard, and running down the hill. I love the expressions on their faces!!

At the local ice skating rink ... with hardly any people there ...

Nearby to Mum and Dad's place there is a deer park so the children enjoyed feeding the deer, although Brandi wasn't too sure about these big creatures, but Gran was close at hand to help out.

It took hours & hours to drive home & I think we managed to stop in nearly every town for at least one of the children to use the restroom ... they couldn't co-ordinate things at all on that front. Then we found these cool public toilets with automatic doors, automatic flush toilets, automatic water & soap dispenser. Apparently there was even music .. Josh used those restrooms & when he got back in the van all the children wanted to try it out & I'm like 'no!' - we'll be here all day otherwise!! We also stopped at some public gardens where there are pet wallabys - they are so cute! They are a small version of a kangaroo & look so cute hopping around their enclosure.