Holidays.Are.Fun.

Australia Day on the Gold Coast

Girls getting toenails painted

Dreamworld theme park fun (fun for kids, grandparents mostly looked after the baby!)

Waiting at the airport, kids perused the books in the bookstore and sat in high chairs! 

Shh, don't tell the bookstore! :)

Opening Christmas presents from cousins and grandparents. 

The anticipation is oozing from Laura!

Yay for orange Lego!

Littlest is very proud of having something very grown up that no one else has!

How can we make the time slow down? 

Small things

Sometimes it's the small things that make our two countries different. 

Like the average car size. 

Or the size of the drinks here. 

It's pretty hard for them to accept that they paid the same amount 

for half the quantity as in America and no free refills here!

Welcome to Australia Mom and Dad! 

Lunch at the beach to welcome them here...

To the 3 weeks ahead, please go oh-so-slowly!!

Merry Warm Christmas

Looks like Santa makes it to the Southern Hemisphere for a warm Christmas morning!

Must be hard to continue on northward tonight to the cold...

Merry Christmas to my family far away. 

Missing you today.

4 kids and foster care

We've started doing foster care. Something we've been working towards for a couple years now, and had put off doing because we were moving house and renovating... But we decided it was time, and wouldn't you know it, the very day we rang the department (at 1pm) to say we had a bedroom ready for a child (we nominated 0-3 years old), they rang us back (at 5pm!) to ask us if we wanted to have a placement of a 2-day old baby. I think my response was "umm... I'll say yes." And then I rang Andrew (who later pointed out that may have been the wrong order for things to happen in!). But I knew he would be onboard. Shocked, but onboard.

So that was over a month ago, and now little Baby C has been in our house for a month. She's lovely and cute, starting to smile a bit, and we are all loving caring for her. Nick is totally soaking up not being the youngest, Laura is loving having a little baby girl, and I think Daniel is taking it all in and enjoying her while also protecting himself. It's unknown how long we will have her, of course. The state has to figure out her family situation, and there's no quick answers to these things. But Daniel articulated very early on that the longer we have her, the harder it will be to say goodbye. Without a doubt. But here we are, trying something we know we have to try, and praying that we do it in a way that is right for our family and for the child(ren) that come into our house. But at the moment, it's all about newborn routine and although I haven't had pregnancy and birth to recover from, I now have not slept through the night for a whole month, which I (not-so-graciously) pointed out to Andrew when I was feeling particularly overwhelmed the other day. But mostly I am happy to be caring for a child that needs a home, amazed that things in our lives have come together to make it possible, and super thankful for the people around us who are helping immensely. Because I need it. 4 kids, geez.

And of course I can't really post pictures of her... :(

Hair...

...it's been a very big deal in our house lately...

Exhibit A

Daniel has lots of it and wants it to stay that way

Exhibit B

Nick had lots of it and wanted it too, that is until a certain Uncle (see Exhibit A) suggested he try going bald, which he then desperately begged for. 

Such is the perogative of a 4 year old. 

But I'm the haircutter in this family and I refused. 

Such is my perogative! :)

But we compromised and cut the longest the clippers would allow.

Everyone thought he looked like a different child and needed a new name, so for about a week straight he was Josh. Now periodically he tells me that when he is allowed, he is going to change his name to Josh. And all that effort we put into choosing Nicholas! Humph. 

I quite like the new look actually.
(but don't ask Aunty Sharon about it cause I'm still in the bad books for not getting permission, ha!!)

Exhibit C

Laura has always wanted long long hair, 

and she loved its status as longest in the family.

Then she decided to go short and I cut it 

about as quickly as I could reach for the scissors. 

Before-school hair management is now quick and easy 

and self-maintained for the most part! And she loves it so that's the great part.

Yay for hair, and less of it! 

Now Andrew wants me to go short...

Home

So, we moved into the extension and said goodbye to the builders, reluctantly, as it's nice to have people around with drills and saws and nails, and generally all the stuff close at hand (and the know-how to use the stuff!) that you could ever need to fix or make just about anything... I mean, I like to do things myself, and Handy Andy is always at my beck and call of course... But seriously, we can't do much of the real stuff, so having a couple builders around is pretty handy. People think I should have been sick of them, sick of making coffees, sick of the interruptions, etc. Not really. Have a leaky tap? Fixed. Have a ding in the wall? Painters to the rescue. What's to get sick of?!!

I guess I haven't posted much about the house... I don't like admitting how much of my energy it has required over the past months. Maybe not blogging about it made me feel like it didn't take up so much... It kind of did though. 

This is the kitchen. And I do like it a lot. 

But truthfully it does look a bit like someone else's house.

Ok, that's better. Now that's my house. :)

The builders hadn't quite left... the site dog had made himself at home and wasn't happy being told it wasn't his place anymore!

The mixer shelf... 

I admit, I teased my sister about devoting an entire cupboard to a mixer. 

For goodness sake, an entire cupboard!

Umm, I copied her and I love it. Baking made easy.

What to bake first? Cream filled cupcakes of course. 

I haven't been able to bake in my own house in months! 

The builders having a coffee on their last day. 

Is it weird if I think I might miss them? 

Nickity Nick

Older brothers and sisters are great. Cause you get to know exactly how old you are. 3 1/2 wasn't good enough, then it was 3 3/4, then 3 11/12ths... and although he had no clue what that really meant, he did know that it was better to turn 4 than to turn 3 12/12ths. Smart kid. :)

Nick has liked green since before he turned 2, he's always loved anything round (or not) that can be kicked or thrown, and (my personal favourite), he's left-handed. Can't get better than that. Well, except for the cheeky smile and the tight-around-the-neck hugs.

Happy birthday happy kid. So glad you are in our world, you were truly a well-timed gift for us all. 

As he likes to say, "Watch out for Nickity Force!"

Red plate specialness (carrying on my own family's tradition).

Double birthday smiles. Happy birthday Beth.

A birthday game of duck duck goose. 

Oma was gracious enough to enjoy the '4' cake with Nick. 

Snow

Ahh, we made it to the snow finally. Perhaps the last of the year. Maybe it's because winter is over that it's exciting to go up the mountain and get cold. In the middle of winter it's cold enough without going to find snow!

Andrew looks a bit concerned that I'm going to throw a snowball at him with my free hand!

Kids were very impressed that I remembered to bring a carrot for Snowy!

A hard day at the snow :)

Photo albums

Found 4 years of photos of Laura in the snow in the same jacket. 

And they say kids grow out of clothes quickly... ha!!! :)

2009

2010

2011

2012, with spare snow in the hood for snowballs. 

A sister's gotta do what a sister's gotta do!

Hi Summer!

Hey there Summer, Laura can't wait to see you soon!