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!

Holidays

Sometimes I insist my job as mother is hard, demanding, relentless, etc, etc. And it is. But then there are times when I actually think that relentlessness is something I am coming to love. Because there is something sweet about them wanting the goodnight hug in bed, rather than just in the kitchen. And "can we just play Uno one more time?!" is really just them wanting to hang out.

And then there's vacations, holidays. Which are still relentless. All mums seem to have a different way of saying it, but basically I call it "life in a different location" because it all just keeps going.

I've had a many weeks of holidays over the past couple months (3 weeks in the U.S., followed by 2 weeks back to school, then 2 weeks of school holidays, which we have now finished). The memories are good, and the relentlessness was actually really fun.

Andrew on the plane saying, "what? flying with 3 is easy!"

Hello cockpit! So nice they still let kids do this sometimes!

Visiting good friends from Stanford meant 

new friendships for the kids. Good fun.

Amazing how playing on an iPhone can
break the ice with a 2-year old. Silly Elliott.

Annie's hair salon!

Daniel loved little Annie

The best we could do for a photo (the kids took it), 

of course only remembering at the last minute.

You did it Laurie, mother of five now!

Didn't take a lot of camping pics
(Jenn, I never actually remembered to get yours...)

 

Silly cousins after a talent show

Lots of time with cousins and grandparents

Laura the fix-it girl with her toolbelt.
I think Grandpa's handyman skills are rubbing off...

Huge American pancakes, of course! Yum.

Seems kids like to peek in on photos... :)

Making bread with my Grandma - thanks Grandma,
I know you don't measure anything normally, 

but I just want to make bread and be able to say it was your recipe!

My grandma playing on the iPad,
which talked back to her. Too fun!

Cuddles with Gramma

Good times with old friends (the mums) and new friends (the kids)

Hiking to a waterfall

Fun with Gramma and Grandpa!

Saying goodbye at the airport. Love you Aunty Jill.

Sometimes layovers can be wonderful when it means I get to see a great friend and her baby for a couple great hours while Andrew takes the kids to the aquarium!

Just before the school holidays I ended up having eye surgery. Very sorry if you would rather not see this photo, but there are some [Jenn] who love this stuff, so here it is! Red, swollen eyeball for weeks. Not as painful as it looks, but continually exhausting, and no driving for a week meant for a low-key week with the kids (thus playing Uno so many times!)

\

While I recovered in bed for a much of each day, the kids found empty boxes and played outside for hours with them on their hands. 

Childhood is so blissful.

Nick learned to ride a bike last year, but has really gotten it now!

We watched the builders every day during the holidays. 

As soon as they finished the deck we had a hot chocolate on it.

Laura and Nick got to abseil at this cool forestry exhibit in town. Seriously, they abseiled! Even if the guy was controlling the rope for them, they still were gutsy enough to step off the platform and come down. That's when you know your kids are blood-related to you! :)

A weekend at Bruny, and Dad suggested Scrabble - that's a first!

He won. 

Also a first.

So it's all relentless, but whatever, I'm going with it. It's kinda once in a lifetime. :)