My beautiful kids - photo update.

Leon will be 11 months tomorrow and is the most gorgeous, sunny natured little boy.
He makes us laugh so much with his cute antics.....what a sense of humour!

Leon has only learnt to stand like this in the last week and now he's a bit of an expert....holding on with one hand while leaning down to pick something up from the floor...and today he was holding a toy in the same hand that was holding the playpen but he couldn't get a proper grip and so he swapped the toy to the other hand but he still wanted have one hand free, so he popped the toy in his mouth and voila!! Boy did he grin at his own cleverness.

And standing on one leg is fun too...and gets a good response from his sister and brother.

Darcy has played rugby for our local school for the last 4 years (only 1 of those years while he was attending the school) and last week they had their sports prizegiving.
We always enjoy going as it gives us a chance to see people we haven't seen in a while....and of course celebrate the children's achievements.
Darcy was fortunate to be chosen MVP for his team. What a proud moment for Mama! :)

Is that a Marmite sandwich you're hiding there Leon?

My two darling boys.

Clever clogs baby......holding on to the playpen, tiptoeing and making his latest cute face.

Look Mama, one hand!

Darcy's 10th birthday. He and Hannah had so much fun putting together the Lego sets that we got him. He got a card and $50 Australian from his Dad which was a super birthday surprise.

What we've been up to lately.

Wow it's been ages since I posted something here. We have been crazy busy for the last 5 months in particular as Hannah was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in June.
It has been a huge lifestyle adjustment and although we have many up and downs, we are doing ok...I think. : )

Last weekend Hannah went to Skyline Skyrides with other kids who have diabetes and had a blast on the Luge.

She also had a go on the SkySwing which she thought was scary but lots of fun.

On Tuesday my sister shouted all the girls a flash haircut.....this is what mine looked later that night.



And this is what Hannah's looked like. Pretty styley isn't it? She is very pleased with it.

Photo update

New pc

Just a very quick update.
We are all fantastic and are really enjoying baby Leon. He will be 4 months on 2nd of May....I can't believe how quickly time has flown. He is a gorgeous happy baby and as soon as we get some photos on this new pc, I will post them.
In the mean time here is a pic I drew in paint yesterday. The kids thought it was just beautiful. It took me about 15 seconds.....imagine what I could do in a few hours. lol

Photos

He's here!

Leon Iaveta Rutter Barnett
Born January 2nd 2009
8lb 10oz (3930 gms)

The kids are besotted with him.

Darcy just can't believe he has a brother.

Update

Twister and homemade pizzas

The kids had a game of Twister a few days ago which was great as they've hardly used it since we got it. DD11 was just about to topple over as I took this pic.



It was DD's 11th birthday yesterday and she had 2 friends over for the night. They made beautiful pizzas for dinner. They were so yummy.

Rainbow Springs

Today we went to Rainbow Springs.
We bought a special year long pass so we can visit as much as we want.

We had a picnic in the sun first which was lovely.

We saw lots of birds.

We were most impressed by the walk-in enclosures.

2nd wedding anniversary

I got some gorgeous flowers for our anniversary...


....and a home made cake. Aren't I lucky!!






Talking on the phone.


Hannah was so busy talking to her best friend on the phone that she hardly noticed me tying this ribbon in her hair. She left it in nearly all day and it looked so cute.

Happy Fathers Day

This afternoon we had a family barbecue for Fathers Day. It's been quite a while since we all got together so it lovely especially for the kids. They stuff themselves silly and then have a great time playing together while the adults sit around and gasbag (for non-Kiwis that means talk lots!!)
Hannah made an apple pie for her Granddad from scratch, even the pastry and it was gorgeous.
A few people thought it ha d been store-bought. She's turning into quite the little chef.

She's has been watching lots of E! channel on sky lately so this is her impression of trying to avoid the paparazzi!

Long overdue update

Last month Hannah and I went to the OpShop concert that was here in Rotorua. We had been waiting for it for over a month and were really, really looking forward to it. I was 15 weeks preggy then - although you can hardly see my bump!!


After the concert we lined up for autographs and we were able to get a photo of Hannah and the lovely Jason together. It's taken with my phone so it's not that clear, but still an awesome memento. I told the band that it was Hannah's first concert and they were really neat about it. They all signed a big poster that one of the advertising people gave her which was a huge bonus as they weren't giving them to anyone else. (Later that week we got it laminated and it now holds prized position above her bed.)
We both had the BEST time and can't wait for the summer concert season so we can go see them again.

It's snowing!!!

The start of our shed

We finally had the concrete poured for our double garage. We've been waiting for ages to get it started and it was so exciting to watch it being done.





It's going to be half garage/workshop and half playroom. It means we can move all the crap that clutters up the house out there and we can have a tidy house for once!! You have no idea how exciting that is for me.
Watch this space for building progress.

11 weeks today

Hannah and I were at Farmers the other day looking at baby clothes when we saw this.
We couldn't resist it....especially since it's Crusader colours.
We're going to wait a couple more weeks until I'm past 3 months before really hitting the shops! Hannah is very excited....typical girl - just loves shopping.

The Crusaders won!!!

Hooray, the Canterbury Crusaders won against the Waratahs last night.
What a game! It was a bit hairy at moments but I was very confident that the boys would do their best.
And they did!!!!!

Second rugby game and first win!!

Today Darcy had his second game of rugby and they played fantastically. I literally didn't have a spare second to take a photo as they kept scoring try after try. This season they are scoring properly with 5 points per try (they don't convert yet) so the final score was an amazing 80-10 with Darcy getting 8 of their 16 tries! What a little star! I was so proud.
He had so much fun telling family and friends.
I'll have to really try (ha ha) to get some photos next week.

Darcy had his first rugby game of the season last Saturday but I was so busy keeping score (I'm Team Manager) that I only managed to get one photo of them warming up.


On Sunday we went to an Open Day at our local Fire Station and DH had a go with the special equipment they use when they attend car accidents.



They showed what happens when a pot of oil is left on the stove. After showing us what to do to put it out, they showed us what NOT to do by poring some water on it. It was amazing and everyone was shocked especially the kids. We could feel the extreme heat from behind the safety barrier.