RIP

This evening my dad slipped from this world into the next. I'm so grateful Katie and Rory were with him. He chose the perfect moment as Rory read the 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' to him and played his 'land of hope and glory' CD. I visited him earlier today and was priveleged with what was probably his last communication before they upped his morphine because of the pain. No matter how prepared you are....you're never prepared. I wish my little Angus was old enough to remember the great man who's name he bears. I'm not sure what more to think tonight I'm just so very tired so i'll leave it there.

Erin

Erin is just the cutest little thing ever. Lots of giggles, squeeles and Growls. This is her about 11 months.

Christmas

How cute is this! A wreath of chocolate biscuits iced to look like mini fruitcakes. It was a christmas present from my lovely visiting teachers Cathy and Debi.

Gluten and Dairy Free gingerbread that turned out REALLY yummy! Inspired by the Texan Irelands! Thanks


When we were all asleep, Seth was up playing Santa. He decorated the table, and the kids got to open a present each as we opened the rest with the extended family later in the day.
One of Erins Christmas presents, a doll from my Nanna. Its the first doll she's had or even seen, it was so cute watching her with it.

A Proud Moment

Last night was Seth's graduation. It was a good experience to go, lots of pomp and ceremony, but worthwhile as I missed my own graduation and Seth missed his from his first degree. He's worked really hard over the last two years and this year took on Honours as well as his normal studies. His effort was well rewarded tonight as he got his very own spotlight graduating with first class honours.



The support team: ME and below that on the left his Honours supervisor Jane and right, his lecturer Noliene.

For those interested here's the video. I only took the honours graduates and Seth is the very last at the end of the video should you want to fast forward the first bit.

Random bits

Seth has been doing the vegie patch in previous years however he was too busy this season. So I tried my hand at taking over....its been so exciting. This is my little salad patch in our front garden - lettuces and tomatoes and beans. As you can see we're inundated with lettuces...so yummy! In the big patch we have pumpkin, corn, potatoes, beetroot, silverbeet, capsicum, strawberries, more tomatoes and zuchini. And we've just harvested our purple garlic.

Oh this, I better explain...Its an angel mobile I made out of tissue paper and other bits and pieces. Behind it on the wall is an 'artsy' wedding picture that Seth just loved...showing off the car and the ring...and a bit of me I suppose. Last year Seth decided to make me some picture frames for Christmas, and in true Seth style the project got bigger and better until we had 4 of those gigantic frames in the picture. Unfortunately only one is up so far ...I secretly think Seth is hoping to give me one a year for the next 3 years so he doesn't have to think anything else up, hmmm, we'll see about that!

Last but not least, two new additions to the family. First is my Nanna who has come over from South Africa to stay with us. She's good fun, but i think she actually might prefer animals to people. Since she's arrived Coco the beagle pup has moved from dog food to people food, nanna cooks big meaty dishes every day for the dog and I often see her slipping coco bits of chocolate or chips or ice cream. Poor Coco's getting so fat, but since nanna has arrived she also gets to sleep on beds and couches much to my moms annoyance! My mom decided that in light of Nanna's love for animals we should get a whole host to keep her busy...so besides coco, she's raising a baby chicken (which is supposed to go live with the others when its bigger but nanna has already informed us she's keeping 'trixsy') and now, a baby wallaby. Its very cute and is kept in a pouch and needs to be fed every 4 hours. We got it from some friends who go hunting. It'll be a zoo round here soon!

The Sandpit

In my quest to entertain the kids, we've put together this beautiful sandpit which the kids are just loving! Just over a ton of beach sand and a load of big logs which bishop chopped up and delivered to us...even i'm enjoying playing in the sand!

Angus and Oupa

Icy Poles

This was taken a few months ago. In trying to keep up dads liquid intake he started having lots of icypoles. Angus cashed in heavily on the deal...and loved to share one with Oupa!

Dads in Eldercare at the moment as its been a struggle for mom to look after him in his deteriorating condition. He's not far from home and gets lots of visitors though. Yesterday he came home for the day, and got a chance to talk to his brother and sister in WA before mom took him back. He was in tears....and cried as we put him in the car and said good bye...it was heart wrenching. What a humbling experience for all of us...as we watch this great man who I've never seen shed a tear in all my life weeping like a little child.

We love you Oupa!

Camping

Friday night was a ward camp based on our 72 hour emergency packs. It only ended up 3 families, Bishop and Pam, the Hutchins and us. I thought it was rather intrepid taking the babes on their first camping trip so young....and we paid the price for our adventures. The kids were so taken with the new environment neither would sleep till about 11pm. And then Angus spent the night doing acrobatics on Seth and my head. Erin would only sleep while nursing which made it really uncomfortable for me...I let her though so we had some peace in the camp and didn't keep everyone else awake!

All in all though it was great fun and we'd do it again at the drop of a hat....i didn't get that many great pictures...but here's what i managed.

Family portrait 2007

November 20th was our wedding anniversary, and I decided that we should take a picture of the family every year on that day....I thought it would be really cool in years to come to see how the family evolves. We took a whole bunch....the bigger the family gets the harder it is to get everyone looking decent, happy

Been a long time

I haven't blogged for ages and i'm still not sure if i'm going to be devoted to keeping this up as i have so many demands on my time, however i thought i'd give it another go.

Firstly, a tribute to the most adorable 11 month old girl ever. Erin is so full of personality and character - and so different to Angus - that its just fascinating to watch her. She loves to babble and scream and is already such a drama queen it makes Seth and I chuckle all the time. She also just loves music, when i sing or play music her whole body begins to bop up and down and she shreeks in delight. What would life be without her!!!

Now as any mother knows you cannot offer tribute to one child while leaving the other out. He's a boy, he's two, and he has a 25 acre backyard...what more can I say... but: this one's for Angus!

Solids...or not

Erin has been getting so excited when anyone eats around her, her whole body goes stiff and her arms shoot out and the mouth opens. So I gave her her first bit of rice cereal, but as you can see from the pictures she was less then impressed however....the spoon was a winner!

home remedies

We've been a bit of a sick house for the last few days, except for me thank goodness. Seth was really congested and tried the breathing in hot eucaluptus steam under the towel thing. He said it worked wonders. Angus has been looking aweful, watery droopy eyes,blocked everything poor thing, anyway he stuck his head under with Seth to give it a go...as always i was ready with the camera.

In the Kitchen

I have a wonderful husband who happens to also be a marvelous baker of the yummiest goodies...aren't I a lucky woman! Actually its a bit of a love-hate relationship: I love to eat his scrumptious treats but then feel aweful. I've been counteracting the aweful with two things: my 3x weekly walk/run and breastfeeding my two kids! I also make sure I include lots of healthy things like beans and lentils and veggies in our diet, but i figured it'd be more fun to feature Seths yummy sweeties rather then my lentil stew on my blog!!

So above we have the most delicious ever caramel slice that Seth made last night.

It was Katie's birthday yesterday, but we had her birthday dinner tonight...I rushed over with my camera but we seemed to be the only ones that weren't camera shy. I'll have to be a bit more sneaky (or forcefull) about my snapping!



In this cold weather, you have to make the most of every bit of sunshine!



When he's not trying to kill her, Angus really loves his baby sister Erin.









Last night we had an activity at church about your body being a temple and taking care of it physically and spiritually....and I got to have a make-over. Jaclyn did my make-up and Alison did my hair, it was good fun. So I came back and took some pictures....and then Angus woke up. He's had a bit of a cold and I thought he'd just settle down again so I lay down on his bed with him, but he was wide awake. Anyway, before I knew it, it was 1am and Angus and I were still up. He was having a lovely time playing with his blocks and reading books and I was half asleep on the coach grunting every now and then to let him know I was still with him. Then Erin woke up and woke Seth...who stormed out the bedroom wanting to know what was going on. He soon had Angus in bed...who yelled for about 10 minutes and went to sleep. Angus was restless again tonight....so for now my 2 cents is I'm grateful for my husband!!!

Keeping Warm

What else is there to do on a cold wintery day but snuggle down in bed with a good book. Angus loves to drag all his bedding out into the lounge and then getting under it. He's a funny boy, our house is a bit of a work in progress, and so Seth just hung a door on Angus' room the other day...well the last few nights I've put him to bed, after a few minutes snuggling and a little song, he tells me to go and shut the door on the way out, he has no night light...its pitch dark in there....its just not what i expected from a little kid not even 2!

Snowfall

On Thursday morning, mom and I decided we'd grab the kids and head up the road till we got to some snow...it didn't take long and was worth the trip. Angus was quite intrigued, but got really excited when he realized he could eat it too. I told him he could taste the snow fallen on the plants so as to distract him so i could take some pictures....by the end his hands were so cold that I carried him back down to the car with his hands shoved inside my jumper to try and warm them.

In the old days

A few mornings ago I looked out the window to see heavy frost on the ground and a light snow fall. Apparently according to the older locals it used to snow quite abit down here, but we don't get much these days. The kids have been pretty good being cooped up inside. It helps to have mom and dads place only a few metres away from ours...so when we really need a change of scenery I go over and let the troops loose on them. And we generally get out to feed the chickens and go for abit of a walk or outing somewhere. The other day we went up to visit Peter and Dawn Woolley, they grew up around here during the depression and the World Wars. We got to hear all about what life was like for him as a young boy....life was SO different. There were nine kids in the family, and he told us they had double beds and used to sleep about 3 boys to a bed. He added that if they had visitors, they'd top and tail with 5 in the bed. They had a tiny house situated between two rivers and said he distinctly remembers 3 places the roof leaked when it rained and how his mom would rush around with buckets collecting the drips. From the age of 5, it was his job to bring in all the chopped wood, but by 7 had to do all the chopping too. It was a really interesting visit.
He also showed us how they used to make torches with a tin can and candle, so today Angus and I made one while Erin was sleeping. Angus loved all the hammering and nailing going on...he's such a boy!!!

Homeschool

http://lds-nha.org/benson.pdf

Here's a link to the interesting phD by Reed Benson who was President Ezra Taft Bensons son. Its really long but is worth sifting through. If you want to look at it you'll need to copy the link and paste it in the address bar of a new internet page.

Coco

The dog has a name: Coco. She found a dummy Angus must have dotted somewhere and came bounding out with it in her mouth. It was so cute we decided she could keep it although Angus was prepared to fight her for it!!!

I realized i didn't have any pictures of dad and Erin yet, so we had a fun little photoshoot. Dad is doing amazingly well and outlived the doctors prognosis and also survived a bout of pnemonia. Its so great to still have him around. He jokes and says its getting embarressing as he's given his farewell talk at church twice now. We've had lots of family members coming over to see him too, from Western Australia and South Africa. Thats been a wonderful blessing, seeing them all. I think its sad when someones death precipitates a family reunion, its nice to be able to get together while everyone is still present.

Every morning when Angus wakes up, we get Horatio the guinea pig out of his cage for a carrot and this morning... for a read too apparently! Horatio has been a great beginners pet, he just sits there quite placidly and Angus has learnt how to hold him correctly and feed him and clean his cage.

Friday night was Seth and my date night and we got to spend it in the steam room that mom finally finished building. Dad started it but it has been unfinished for so long because he has not been well. It was so fun and relaxing!!!
As we decided not to have a TV in our home we are aware of the need to create fun, exciting and relaxing alternatives for ourselves and our children. There are many options, but i think they all just take abit more effort then turning on the TV. It seems to really be teaching Angus to become a peaceful content child and be able to entertain himself creatively. Often I have to take care of Erin and he has become wonderful at seeing I'm busy and just finding something to do. At first i felt bad for him but i think kids get a bit too much stimulation in our modern world, so now i'm just happy watching his mind open and develop. Oh, and he hasn't even fallen out of his bed yet!!!

Holidays

Seths had a few days off plus a long weekend, which has been so much fun. Seth also built a bed for Angus, he did a great job in a day or so and Angus is having his first nap in his new big bed right now....I'm waiting to hear a thud!!!

I've also been able to catch up with a few special friends from the past which has been really exciting and meant the world to me!!! And...I cleaned out our heat pump filters which we haven't done since we moved in. We've been complaining for so long how cold it is and how useless the heater was...but, problem solved, the house is now toasty warm and cosy and the heaters working like a charm! Winter should be much more bearable now.