Sleepy Sleep over

Rich was away and Ben's preschool friend's Dad was away too so after Pre-school on Thursday (except Ben didn't end up going.. LLLONNNGGG story) Christie, Luke and Sophie came over for dinner (fish and chips), a movie (Over the Hedge) and a sleep over. For the boys it was a very giggly affair with lots of tickles and rumbles and LOTS of super hero action and for the mums it was a very yawny, 'lets go to bed at 9:30' and 'talk through the movie' kind of sleep over. The kids were so good though and although all waking up with the birds and having enough of each other by 8:30 the next morning, it was heaps of fun. (Enough to make the working Daddies jealous.)Enjoy the pics. I should have taken one of Christie in her PJs though. JJ!

Cheeky Toby

This is my little Toby James. He's so little but he'll be one the week before Christmas. I can't believe it. He's getting in a bit of bother lately as he thinks he'd like to walk around but doesn't know the best way to fall without hurting his head, especially on our hard tiles. This is often how I find him when he wakes up. He's always happy to see whoever comes in. He's also very intersted in eyes, noses and Ben's mouth and tongue.

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Happy Hubby

This weekend we had heaps of fun. Saturday we spring cleaned. I love that. We have heaps of boxes waiting to be thrown out or given away. It started when we were given a bag of trucks and all things little boys love, so I made the boys reduce their existing car collection down so that everything including the new stuff would fit in the already overflowing box under Joel's bed. It was so gorgeous to see the boys saying things like...'I'll give this to another boy'...'some children can have this too'..I love teaching the boys life things. (Just as an aside. I was challenged yesterday to concentrate on big life parenting goals rather than the smaller things. To aim for safe harbours inthe storms of parenting. Paints a nice picture doesn't it? But not just scrambling at the last minute for something to salvage your kids from wasting their lives. Like at the end of high school when you have little control and you say 'You'd better get good grades'.. or..'If only he'd just stick at his job'...'If she'd just marry a lovely young man'... Don't you think it starts before then? For example looking at real values and characters we want our children to have and encouraging them, rather than more superficial things like beauty, success and wealth. So teach our children to think of others, to be generous, to have a relationship with God. To help others, to give to the needy, rather than have our kids save up for fancy toys, clothes or holidays. The discussion I heard was also saying not to make a bit thing out of looks and beauty by putting cute photos up, and not making a big deal out of good marks at school to emphasise success. I like marking the height of the kids on the wall. Don't get that bit. But it did make me think about what it is I am saying in the Christmas letter when I talk about achievements and cuteness and activities. Should I be highlighting characteristics and values and lessons we've learned? Highlight How God is shaping us and working through us. Guess I'll give it some thought before then. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. 3 John 1:4. Back to the weekend. Rich's new work is haing a national conference next week and the Hunter region (us) are hosting a guest speaker from Canada before conference next week. He spoke at a breakfast Rich went to on Saturday morning and Rich fell in love with his personality, passion and enthiusiasm for God and what he does. So as we were cleaning up the house, Rich said 'I wonder if anything's organised for lunch with Phil tomorrow, maybe they could all come back here after being at our church'. Sounded good. Nothing like a bit of pressure to make sure you get the job finished. So we did. We had 8 extra adults for lunch until we all left in convoy for church service #2. Which also was great. While at our church Rich had a chance to explain what he does at YFCA and that although he's worked for them for a term now, he still is not paid. Which startled some people, especially those who still thought he taught at the school. It doesn't scare us to live the way we do on days like Sunday when we hang around people who work in 'faith-based' ministry too. It is actually really exciting. For ages I was avoiding paying bills and not wanting to know who would be knocking at our door for money. But Rich and I talked about it. He said 'You agreed to us doing this and stepping out. You can't now be too scared to live trusting God. When has he let us down before?' I love it when my man steps up as Spiritual leader and reminds me of that stuff. You can't have the excitement and God coming through for you when you try to control your circumstances so much that there's no need for him. And when I did pay the bills, all of them with little money for food, it was then that people gave us money. Who? We don't know. There are people out there wanting to give God some of their money for a good cause. Wanting to share a blessing. God is bigger than the Telsta man. he can see the whole puzzle and all the teeny tiny pieces that all fit together when we let him be the Master and not try to do the whole puzzle on our own with only the three pieces we are clinging to. Get it!! Me I'm talking to. This will be a 'read next week when you've forgotten' blog. I'm sure. It was exciting to see Rich proudly telling people what he does and seeing that he has a job finally that he loves and he must, to do it for months unpaid. He told me that he could see his future in what Phil did in Canada. And I can too. He needs a bit of encouraging to show us his full potential. God is showing me how to gently buff him shiny rather than sand his rough edges. He's a good egg. I'll keep him. And I have a job to do.

Sorry I know these pics are pretty dodge but what can I say...some celebs don't like the paparatzy(?). Had to be sneaky. You can see that Rich was getting pretty animated. Phill Cann is in the black shirt listening to Rich. The others are a couple from the board and Andrew with his wife Katie. Andrew is one of the co-ordinators. We'll see all of these fine people on Sunday when we go down to conference. More on that next week.

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Say Cheese!

These are the pics of the fam (oh and 1 flower) I promised to post. Enjoy!

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Mango Mamba

Is a Mamba even a dance? Oh Well I danced when I ate my mango. It smelled so good. I put all the kids to bed. And took my mango to bed with a Sudoko book and some ABC talk back for company. (Rich was out.) Oh and the ever necessary half wet-half dry tea towel. Cause you know you're going to make a big mess. I love the way the juice dribbles down my arm to my elbow. Bring on Summer. Bring on stone fruit season. I am so excited we have some baby hairy fruit growing on a tree in our backyard and when we move there were some pears growing on another tree. We have one other fruit tree that mum says is the same as her nectarine tree. YUM! YUM! I miss bananas though.

Pyjama Drama

So, we have this little boy called Joel living in our house who likes to wear shorts. Boxer shorts. EVERYWHERE!! We were trying to take a family photo this morning and in order to avoid the 'pyjama' look we compromised with boxers under shorts. How pretty! Actually I remember when my littlest sister was three and she insisted on wearing her cossie everywhere. To Christmas concerts and all through winter too. What are kids thinking? And then this week a study comes out declaring that we are over sexualising young girls. Pre-Teens (or Tweens). Apparently in some mags and clothing stores young girls are represented like women. No Dah! I could have told them that. Little girl clothes look like little mummy clothes. You can buy 000 halter neck tops for crying out loud. I'm thinking that 000 button up shirts like Dads are a great option for boys. Don't know really where I'm going with this. Let me know what you think. And I'll post the happy snap when I get it back. Have a good day!

Happy Birthday Kelly!

I'm not a poet And don't I know it I just wanted to say Have a great day I wish I was there So I could share Your day with you And your family too. A little something is on its way Happy Happy Happy Birthday To my friend Kell. Have a great Birthday.

I picked a bunch of flowers from the garden for you to enjoy.

Sorry smel-a-blog doesn't exist yet.

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Rewind<<

Hi there. We're back! What a week we had. Camp was great. No cooking, washing up, carrot peeling...Just turn up when the buzzer sounds, and eat. How good is that? The boys had a greater time than expected as we shared our house with another family with two children the same ages as Ben and Joel who also brought their bikes and played so nicely together. The kids names were Ebony (5 1/2) and Asher (2 1/2). It was such a blessing to have another mum to chat to as well. Although there are lots of people at camp, everyone goes off to activites and there is often no one around for hours, so it was great to have April around. We talked mummy stuff. It's amazing how much mums have in common just because we're mums.

Although leading up to camp we thought we were busy and sick, once we got to camp we forgot about being sick as we had so much to do. Rich was flat chat taking videos of all the activities. Riding in boats to catch all the wake boarding spills, sitting at the bottom of high towers waiting for shaky legs to jump, standing on the edge of bush tracks ready to capture the quad bikes speed past. Then rushing to the computer to make an intensely insane video to enthrall the kids for a few minutes before every talk.

The weather was perfect every day. Our boys went swimming a couple of times in the lake while Rich was out on the boats. The big kids played with Ben and Joel while Toby slept in the pram. I just sat on the bank relaxing. While the big kids were great baby sitters, the intensity of the cheek-pinching got to all the kids by the last night. April and I tried to get our kids eating a few minutes before the noise and queue waiting, which meant we were seated as everyone passed to get their meals. Perfect to get another smile out of Toby or another giggle out of Asher. I think we well and truly established that all the children were 'ticklish', 'enjoying their ice cream' and 'having fun at camp'. Everyone meant well, but times 120 it was a bit much. Having said that the kids all slept well every night.

So thank you Huggans for being great house mates, understanding my mummy spats and making camp so much more fun.

After camp we travelled to Sydney to see the fam. We figured our bags were packed, we were half way there already and more meals cooked for us. My mum and the kids left today for Japan and Thailand for a few weeks. The first real holiday my family have ever had. So we also wanted to say bye to them. We even managed to squeeze my Grandma in. Her nursing home had an open day with a Kinder Farm and barbeque that all the families were invited to. The boys had a ball. Poor Grandma. We didn't really spend much time with her though.

We swingled Chinese out of the Sharps for dinner and headed home on Saturday. Rich had to lead at church on the Sunday morning. 10 mins down the road though, the dreaded 'three lights' came on. The altenator problem was BACK! We didn't want to chance it in the dark on the freeway with three children again, so we turned around, rang Dee to organise church stuff, Sarah to come and feed the dog one more time, and knocked on the door, unpacked, made our beds and snuggled down to sleep.

We left first thing Sun morning and it is good to be home. We let the dog in and he behaved. Whether Sarah trained him or he thought he'd better incase we left on his account. Either way he was a good boy. We even went for a walk with him after dinner. The only thing about being back is that I have to cook and clean again. The washing pile is a mile high. We have no food in the house which means I have to brave to shops in the school holidays with all my brood. Last night I nearly forgot to cook dinner. it was nice while it lasted.

I hope every one is having a great time. Til next time.

Busy Bees

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SO! Life is so busy I found myself rushing to 'smell the roses' on our way out in the car to run a thousand errands. We have some beautiful flowers out at the moment. And the weather has been very 'outdoorsy'. We have had only one functioning car for a few weeks and so have enjoyed taking Rich to Guitar lessons down at the Bay. It is a great excuse to get out of the house. We have found a safe park the boys love to play at right by the water. We seem to make new friends each time. Especially if we take a footy. Kids come from everywhere to play with the boys. We love to stay until the sun sets (around 6 p.m) and then I buy the boys some fish and chips for tea. Change them into their jamas in the boot, collect Rich on the way home and straight to bed. For a very special treat we buy a 50c ice cream on the way home too. It's not the best diet but it works for me! I am loving the warmer weather and the longer days. Bring on Summer!! Rich is out picking up the 'bus'. It has just been repaired. We are lending it to a friend to take to 'Black Stump' (a Christian band weekend). We have his fancy blue car to take with a trailer to camp on Sunday and we'll swap at some point while we're away. Rich has been asked to play at a half day of prayer tomorrow before singing at a wedding tomorrow night (which he has no voice for) and playing in church on Sunday just before we leave for the week. Normally busy but do-able except that he is sick. Been going flat chat till now and slowly coming to a halt. We have all been under the weather. We expect to be attacked before we go on this particular camp because so many teenagers lives will be impacted for God and everyone going finds it so full on while they're there. We don't know why he bothers us. We go any way and relying on God more for him to sustain us deepens our faith. It should be a great week. The boys have a great time. They just run the whole week. There are tennis courts and trampolines, a huge field always full of willing participants and plenty to see and do especially watching the kids on the dirt bikes. For me I love not cooking and having lots of baby-sitters. I love just waiting to be told to 'come and eat'. And there's no washing up!! Anyway the boys are all asleep. Rich has now returned and I think I'll be smart and get some rest while the house is quiet. Not that I can blog when the kids are up either. Have a great weekend and week.

Since last time

So. It's been a while since I last blogged. Our keyboard for the computer was broken. Makes it quite difficult to write on your blog. (I did try!) Anyway we had a self-titled 'computer-nerd' friend come for lunch after church yesterday and quizzed him on our options. He agreed to have a look at it for us. Guess what? He plugged it in and it worked!! Thanks Ben. I have some catching up to do now though! Actually with the weather being the way it has been (rainy and perfect for fire-lighting).

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It has been kinda good not being able to just sit for hours on the computer (the way I have done today) cause the kids respond and would much rather me play with them. Today they have been really tired and just watched a bit of telly quietly and slept heaps. Actually it has been great not having the T.V on as much too. August was 'no t.v month' in our house and others around the world. I strongly recommend it. We were under the illusion though, that we would have a lot more time to do things and would be able to catch up on life and sleep(Cause we had been known to watch quite a bit of t.v). It didn't happen though. We did more because we didn't just sit on the couch. So much gardening We baked and made playdough. We got all the puzzles and games out of the cupboard. We stayed up later reading and listened to alot of music. Next August we will do it all again. You can read about it at ozfamily.org.au. The month went so quickly and the kids barely asked to watch anything. We told them what we were going to do before hand and waved goodbye to the t.v before we turned it off. We are watching it less now although we are glad to be able to watch a couple of shows we like. So what else? Mum came up from Sydney on Monday to help out although she usually just plays heaps with the boys and I get more done. Not a bad thing. The boys love her coming. She always has a van full of goodies to off load. Last week she brought the boys up a Bob the Builder Dress up outfit and pyjamas. So cute. She also brought a bike for Joely from the side of the road hence the new helmet. Do you think he looks cheeky in this photo? So I was allowed to go to Playtime last week. Usually it's a Daddy thing and I have a rest for a couple of hours. But they were going to the trains and I wanted to go too. I was a hoot. The Dads found the unpadded seats a bit hurty but they recovered. The little boy on my lap is Jack. Ben spent most of the day following Belinda and Jacob around and towards the end of the morning Linda had taken Joel and Joshy G out with her. It was a case of swap the kids around and make the most of it by jumping from the train to the train queue. What else? Oh we had Father's Day. It was a bit of a flop in our house despite trying to keep secrets and save presents til Sunday. Needless to say that there was nothing left except to have Grandma and Grandpa come up in time for breakfast and church (where by the way we found out that the church's offer had been accepted by the vendor on the new building. So exciting!!). We had sleeps in the arvo and went for bike rides by the lake after that. I made delish dinner before the In-Laws went on their merry way and the tired little boys went to sleep. Toby James crawling around eating charcoal out of the fire and then chasing a ping pong ball around. He's growing up so fast it's hard to believe sometimes. The sad thing is that Rich often goes days without seeing him. Hopefully he can cut back one of his jobs so that he can see more of the kids before they move out and have families of their own. Toby has two teeth and for all the breast feeding mums out there, we had two biting moments yesterday. You all know what I'm talking about. He got a 'milk-in-a-bottle-warning' and he's been a good boy today.

Oh how cute!!

Aren't children always more 'angelic' when they're sleeping? I'm sure all mothers would appreciate the rarity of a 2 and 4 year old sleeping like this with each other. Hence, why I took the photo!

In Loving Memory of Beverly Ann Govan 20.8.1968 - 15.5.2006

Matt and Bev met at college only four years ago. They had been through so much together in such a short time.

Bev was the best Mum. I was often uncomfortable as a mum around her because I felt so slack compared to her. She would have done anything for Josh.

(Above) Bev adored her boys Matt and Josh (at Joshy's 2nd Birthday).

Yesterday would have been Bev's Birthday.

Bake Off

So we haven't roasted marshmallows yet. But we did bake cookies if that counts. Shape cookies. With chocolate 'fairy poo'. 66 of them! Ben was so exhausted by the whole process that he fell asleep on the floor. Joel enjoyed double dinner by himself.

The rest of the weekend

So on Sunday we went to two different churches. Rich 'preached it up' at Hamilton and I took the kids to Bel-Air (via 130 Garden Grove Pde, Adamstown). I was on creche but snuck a peak in the back door long enough to watch the kiddies do their thing. And Joel as well (who's too young and had no idea of what to do, but it meant Ben could hide behind him.

So Exciting!!

Hey. Last night our church agreed to go ahead with the purchase of a new building. 8 years ago we started talking about it. 6 weeks ago we found a suitable property. 11 days ago we asked for pledges to the value of 1.1 Million dollars. 5 days ago everyone form church went to see the building and got very excited. As of last night we had over $1.1 Million and it's still coming in. Praise be to our faithful God and go you Belairians. Thanks to a brave leadership for standing up with a big-God-idea and I know I can't wait to move in 14 months! Yah!

Saturday's Sightseeing

So when we did finally get up and out the door, we had a very yummy, big breakfast with a beautiful view over Stockton sand dunes and the Harbour

(which I hope you can make out).

We piled into the cars and went sightseeing. Of course the footies came everywhere we went! We chose Andrew and Devina. Which meant Grandpa and Grandma had Ben and Joel! We headed into town and...kicked the footy!

When we'd had enough footy, we drove around some more in an attempt to convince our visitors to move to Newy rather than Sydney. We went to a great park called Blackbutt Reserve which is not only free, but you can see koalas there. (And much closer than at Taronga or Dubbo.) See if you can spot the tourists.

We went for lunch down to the Bay (Warners Bay). Had a few $1 Darby's Pies by the water and.....(you guessed it,)

...played some more footy.

We came back and put the two little ones down for a sleep. Before our visitors went back to Sydney. Rich showed them his office and played a few tunes on his guitar. A free show!

Why let Daddy do all the showing off? Our 4 1/2 year old can ride without training wheels now!! Go Ben!

Sorry it's taken so long to post this page.

Friday at our place

Friday morning started with the usual cleaning routine in readiness for up to 15 children for Bible Study. We get out some toys and different activities like colouring and playdough (which I found in the fireplace the other week).

One of the upsides of Bible Study. Cake leftovers! Friday afternoon was a lot quieter however.

Ben had to promise to have a sleep so he could go to the Knights game. On Friday Afternoon Richard's parents and Brumy (from Birmingham, England) cousins came up for the weekend. Andrew and Divina are looking to emigrate over here. Came this time (2nd visit in a year) to check if they def. want to move here. I think they do. The only choice now is Sydney or Newcastle. No competition in our eyes! Rich had a few guitar lessons before we walked to the club for a quick dinner.

Andrew and Joel deciding on drinksH2O for everyone. Some golden water? A little colouring in to pass the time.

Then the boys left us and we had some yummy dessert. We walked home and chattered til they returned. Manly won. But that's o.k. when you're going for both teams just in case.

Daddy bought the boys a footy each. This is Ben with his.

And Joel with his and Grandpa.

Hence it was a late night.

Next chance I get I'll let you know what fun things we did over the rest of the weekend. Except to say that I was first up. We slept in til just after 7:30 (those with small children will understand what I mean) and we were late for our 8 o'clock breakfast booking at the hotel. Surprising that I was first up. The text I sent woke up Rich's Dad who is usually the first in Narraweena to the bakery and newsagency. Whistling as he goes! Was it the comfy bed orthe late night with our boys?

This is me after I had my hair done. I took photos because I am unco-ordinated when it comes to hair dryers and brushes at the same time. I knew it would never look the same way again.

This is me and Rich. We met during High school at youth group and while we haven't always been best friends, we are these days. Toby Joel Ben