Heat, Homesickness, Dentists and a Birthday

As Christmas time approaches I tend to get a little homesick. It has been 6 years since I have spent Christmas with my family. For years we had spent Christmas with the same families. I remember the last Christmas pretty well as it was the day Aarahi proposed properly (we were actually getting married 4 weeks later). Shane and Teri arrived on Christmas eve and Aarahi got to meet my special little girls Teuila and Mei. Before Aarahi came along and I had my own kids those 2 girls were my whole world so him meeting them and them actually liking him was a pretty big deal for me. I remember when I dated someone else and Mei was not impressed at all and ended up sleeping with me for a few weeks and following me around like a little puppy dog.

As much as I miss those Christmases the reality of it is that it was probably the last one for all of us. We are all growing up and getting married having kids of our own. We have in-laws to worry about now too. I'm not even sure if Mum's house would be able to hold every one in a few years time once more grand babies start arriving (hint hint Tearai and Arpege). Hopefully we can do it all again one day. Teuila can make the pancakes.

Ammon turned ONE today. This year has gone by so fast I really can't believe it. I only had one goal for Ammon and that was that he would be sleeping through the night by his first birthday. I am happy to report that he is indeed sleeping through the night. He is the happiest little man around. I think if I let him he would eat watermelon until he turned into one. He hates eating bread (Aunty Kristen will be happy about that one), but he will happily sit under the table and eat what even scraps that end up being dropped or he will rummage through Aunty Sarah's bin to find some delicious rubbish. We like to keep the immune system working hard around here. Ammon is much more of a Daddy's boy than any of the other kids ever were. He will choose Daddy over anyone else. Ammon love swimming. He is not happy to just splash around in the paddling pool, he wants to be in the big pool and diving under the water. We love having Ammon around, Heavenly Father knew just what we needed when he sent Ammon to us.

Melbourne just had it's first heatwave of the season. 3 days over 40 degrees. It wasn't pleasant but I think you just get used to it. We ended up staying at  my cousins on Saturday as we only have one room with air conditioning. Our new house has aircon in every room thank goodness. I took Auron and Lili to the dentist on Saturday. I have $2k to spend on each of them for dental care each year so thought I better get on to spending it. Both kids were cavity free!

We have Progress!

I kept stopping at starting the blog from last week and now a whole week has gone by. Oops. Lets just say Aarahi had a good birthday. He got a game he has been wanting for awhile and I let him play all day long with minimal disruptions. Then it was Sunday and life was back to normal fitting in a spare 15-20 mins to play after work if he's lucky. Speaking of work he is still working like a crazy man. He is training for something so he needs to be there an hour earlier to do that.

We got good new about our house. After a huge 8 month delay (they had to redo all the pipelines along the huge main road our estate is off as the were too old) we finally have work started on the land building the roads and driveways etc. I was doubtful that they had really started but we went for a drive out there last weekend and they were well and truly under way. Hurrah for progress. I went out there again today when I was in the area and they have already dug out the roads and curbs. There is a tonne of huge boulders and rocks waiting for removal. It made me super happy we paid the $500 excess fee otherwise we would probably be expecting a 20k bill in the mail like some others who decided to take the risk. So the deal is construction of the roads/underground plumbing gas etc is due to be finished in March, Titles should be release within a couple of weeks of that then house construction the following week. I took some photos so you can all follow a long with us.

Unfortunately the delay means our mortgage needs to be resubmitted in February but we got the all clear from our mortgage broker that we will be fine but not to go do anything crazy like rack up a huge debt or something.

We paid the final payment for our Cruise and booked our hotel for Sydney. I had previously booked at another hotel but found a better place for $100 less a night so switched. I am the Queen of holiday bargain shopping.

On Friday we went to do Christmas shopping. The kids each had $20 each to spend on their not so secret Santa. Auron had picked Lili and got annoyed after roaming the isles of Target that he couldn't what he wanted to buy her or whatever he thought she would want cost to much money. He was also grumpy and a little tearful because he was up at 5am! We had lunch which made him cry when his drink was all gone and I only offered him water when he was still thirsty....OH THE HORROR!!! I was about ready to give up, especially when Lili needed to go toilet (yes we went toilet before we left home and when we first got to the shops!) She then proceeded to take 40mins sitting there saying "nope not finished yet, there might be more" By then I had REALLY had enough and picked her up and told her that her poo would just have to stay inside until we got home. We shop for another 20mins before my nephew Izayah needs to go toilet AGAIN this time he demands he gets a nappy put on him or he's going to pee in his pants (he is 5 1/2 and hasnt worn a nappy in years) So he does, manaage to push out a bit of pee enough to wet his pants a little. UGHHHHH can you see why I might possible be crazy??? But WAIT it gets better. As we are walking to the the bathroom AGAIN Ammon throws up all over himself and the pram. Being the organised mother that I am I am only armed with wet wipes no spare clothes. We head to the family bathroom 5 kids in tow. (I should mention here how thankful I am my cousin was with me). I clean Ammon up and take his clothes off, he graciously missed gettting anything on his pants. Sarah dries Izayah's pants under the hand dryer and then we carefully take some clothes off a sleeping Hale so I have something to put on Ammon.

Then I ring Aarahi and admit defeat and he comes to rescue me.

Later that night after recovering Lili and I went shopping. (Auron went to be early because he didn't want to eat his dinner) It reminded me of sweet childhood memories when I used to go late night shopping with my mum. We got separated in Kmart and then all I could hear was Lili calling out "beautiful Mummy, Where are you my beautiful Mummy"I totally made my day and made me remember that even though some days are hard and you feel like you are failing, you really aren't, you are just having a bad day.

Note the land photos will have to wait as I can't find my phone. Probably in the fridge or something like that. For now I thought we could have a look as some old photos.

Primary Presentation 2015

On Monday we met up with Sarah and her kids at the shopping centre to get some Santa photo's. We don't really do Santa but tell our kids that it is always fun to enjoy the magic and imagination that Santa brings. I had to have a little talk to Auron before we left so that he didn't tell his cousin. The kids were super cute and we had a nice Santa. We also scored a 50% coupon for frozen yoghurt so I managed to buy 3 big bowls full for $6, cheap treat for the kids.

The last few nights Ammon has be refusing to eat dinner. The last few nights Ammon has slept 7pm-7am without waking. I don't know if there is any link but I really just can't work the kid out. Aarahi and I have been sleeping so well that we stayed up til midnight watching Netflix. Oh my gosh how good was that!!!!!!!!! We need something new to watch, we just finished Last Man Standing and Psych.

On Saturday Aarahi has some friends over to play Risk. Seriously boring stuff in my opinion. I took the kids to my cousins and we had a baking day. Unfortunately by the time we finished we didn't want to eat any of it because we spent to much time taste testing as we went. Cookie dough is so good! When I got back home my house smelt like stinky boys.

Yesterday the kids had their primary presentation at church. They both did well, Lili kept asking for another turn with the microphone and if she could say the closing prayer. I'm glad they aren't afraid of public speaking. At the start of the presentation I had 13 3/4 year olds I was watching. By the end of it there we probably 6 left sitting up on the stand. It was HARD work. I had kids saying "I don't like her, I don't want to sit there" "I'm going to to be sick" "Im tired" "Sis Matthews he's saying bad words""hey he's stabbing me!" "ew I can feel you breathing" also by the end 4 of those 4 kids were fast asleep and yes we were sitting in the front row. It must have been good entertainment for the congregation. Afterwards we had photos then went to watch a movie and eat some yummy snacks. Those snacks never tasted so good.

People keep telling me that these two look the same so we took a photo to compare. Two cool dudes!

Renee has taught Auron the art of selfies. This is only one of probably 50 they took

That Time ALL the Toilets Were Blocked

Another week over and a new one about to start. We had home school group on Monday. We were a full hour late since I have to wait for Aarahi to finish work so I can use the car. He is still working tonnes of overtime. Thank goodness only another month or so of that left. As soon as Christmas is over work will slow down.
After our meeting some of us went to Lego club, I picked up my nephew Izayah along the way. My cousin warned me that he would probably need to go toilet (he has a history of holding it in then bursting, even when you try to make him go) So we get to the library and the kids finish their work and of course Izayah now wants to go toilet just as they are ready to do their presentations. We rush to find the toilets....ALL OUT OF ORDER!!!!!! not even joking. The whole complex. Our closest toilet was over at the shopping centre. I tell the kids we need to go and Auron kicks up a stink because he was next to present to the class, but Izayah is hopping around grabbing his crutch like a lunatic. Thankfully the librarian comes over and says quick just let him go in the blocked toilet. Phew crisis averted albeit disgusting but little boys don't care. We get back just in time to hear Auron speaking to the class.
I have continued my cleaning. Aarahi took about 5 bags of clothes and blankets to the charity bins yesterday. Sorted out the kids clothes, and bagged up all the ones that don't fit, and then moved them all out into the garage. I donated Aarahi's favourite church shirt without telling him. I felt guilty the whole day. All I could think was "I can't believe I am turning into my mother" because this is totally something she would do. I remember her disappearing a decent amount of clothes she didn't like, such one of Alby's hideous shirt (we were all with her on that one) and some of my sister's "hoochy" shorts that barely covered her bum...like to see you try wear those now Eleanor! Turns out he didn't really care that much about the shirt.
Yesterday Auron and I went to give blood. Well I gave the blood he was just there to watch. He loved it and told the nurses all the things he had learnt. They were great with him, asking him questions and really making him think. I got a bit faint after it was all over so had to wait awhile for my blood pressure to go back up. While we waited we played games, Auron really likes the rhyming game, it reminds me of playing with Teina in the car when he was the same age...even at almost 15 it's probably still his favourite car game.  All in all it was a good experience rounding up all our learning about blood.
At church the kids practised for the Primary Presentation. I left Ammon down asleep in his pram while I was up on the stand with the kids. I watched these two little girls push him around until he woke up then play with him for about half an hour. I had no idea who these girls were as they aren't in our ward. Then they asked their Aunty if they could get him out, she was like "who's baby do you think that is?" they thought it was her baby I saw them laughing about it. I didn't care I was just happy that someone was looking after him. He then got passed around a few other people the rest of the day, he ended up hanging out with Bishop in his office by the end of the day. Already having to visit Bishop's office and not even one yet!

Planning and Cleaning and Planning Some More

LAst week was the week I said no more to the junk! Our house is very quickly becoming too small for us. There is so much inside such a small house that it feels like I am surrounded my "stuff" So I started with the dining room and pulled out EVERYTHING and threw away probably 80% of what was on drawers and on shelves and in boxes. I went through the kids school boxes and tossed pretty much everything except a few special pieces of work. After the dining room looked nice and empty I moved into the lounge and repeated the process. Lili was no help, she's a hoarder and wants to keep every tiny scrap. Auron on the other hand I put to work sorting out dvd's and books. 5 hours later it was like a new house. My goal is to get the whole house emptied out before the end of the year. I am not exactly sure where I am going to put all the rubbish though...

It was definitely a sorting out week last week. I managed to finish planning the whole school year out. Next year is the first year Auron is actually supposed to be in school. Since he has tested out of both of the first level of Math and Language Arts curriculum that we have I am just waiting on the new materials to arrive in time (hopefully) for January when we start again. We have a 6 week on 2 week off routine going from end of January to start of December and only working from Monday - Thursday with Friday reserved for going places/catching up/service projects etc

Along with the planning theme of the week I priced out our trip to the USA which is in a little over a year. We are going with my parents and younger siblings. Planning is always the key! We don't use credit to pay for our holidays so I need to have every dollar planned down to the cent and start looking for deals at least a year out and then have everything except spending money paid for in full before stepping foot on that plane. It adds a little more pressure when you are spending your parents money too. My mum offered to take the kids back to Melbourne for us so we could go to Mexico for a week too. I laugh a slightly evil laugh as I imagine her taking three little kids on the plane. It's not for the faint hearted I tell you. I am well practised at flying with kids but for someone with no experience....and taking my little sister Claire also (she's a bit nuts) I think my Mum may need another holiday.

Aarahi's picked his funeral songs this week. It's depressing, he bought them on iTunes and wants to listen to them all the time and then make me listen to them. I don't know why he would want me to be contemplating his funeral but should anyone want to know he wants Goodnight My Angel by The Men of the Tabernacle Choir and some other song they sing that sounds like Lord of the Rings. I think its called Homeward Bound or something like that.

On Friday night Aarahi and I went to stay at a hotel in the city for the night.It was an early birthday present for Aarahi since December is just crazy busy. When I booked it I thought it was a great idea to have a kid free night away. However the closer it got the more apprehensive I got. The night before I ended up bringing Lili in to sleep with us, just because I was feeling a little sooky about leaving my babies. They were fine and didn't even care that we left them. I was okay too once I finally was able to walk out the door and leave Ammon with my cousin.

We had dinner at the night markets. Then went to the hotel and ordered room service for dessert. It was SUPER flash (read ridiculously small and insanely expensive)

We must not forget the biggest news of the week! Ammon is a walking boy! And yes this new found skill has been used to torture Lili immensely.

I have no new photos this week so enjoy one of a baby Auron

Lili is THREE

I'm getting behind again! I have spent a lot of time writing up the kids individual blogs that the last thing I really feel like doing at the moment is writing more. I am trying to finish their blogs so I can make them into books when the year ends and I have a LOT to catch up on....like 20 posts each that I have started but not finished.

Last week we celebrated Lili's 3rd birthday! I know everyone says it but I can't believe how fast they grow up. The night before her birthday I had a little cry to Aarahi that she was growing up too fast, and that soon she would be 30. He laughed and me and told me "Darling, we aren't even 30 yet" But I am sure if you asked our Mum's they would say just the same.

Lili has been our hardest child, pushed us to our limits. Literally from the day she was born she was the WORST sleeper! I looked at Aarahi a month or so ago and said "I can't believe we made it through that" BUT even though she has been our hardest she has brought us the most incredible about of joy. There is something about her that can just make you melt. She is so full of love, forgiveness. Oh boy I am so thankful for her ability to forgive. Sometimes I have not been the most patient with her but she never holds it against me. I am forever apologising to her for not being understanding or taking the time to giver her what she needs. Lili confident, she knows what she wants and there is not persuading her otherwise. She loves to learn and has the most incredible imagination. I love that I get to spend all day listening to her little stories and games she has going on with her toys. She love Auron, they are each others best friends. If we go out anywhere without Auron she always wants to make sure we have something to take home for him. Ammon on the other hand....she wants us to take him back. I don't blame her. It seems Ammon's mission in life is to bug the heck out of her from the moment he gets up until the moment he goes to sleep. He bites her feet, pulls her hair, steals her toys, generally mauls her. She spends a good deal of time in the middle of the kitchen table playing because that's the only place he can't reach her. No kidding though, he love loves loves to annoy her, probably because he gets the best reaction from her high pitch screaming "Ammon's getting me AGAAAAAIN" Lili love primary and to sing, and memorise scriptures. She is determined to keep up to Auron and loves to correct people if they get their verse wrong.

For her birthday we went out for dinner with friends. She also came with me earlier in the day to pick out decorations for her cake. For the last few months shes wanted a minion cake but changed her mind last minute for a Peppa Pig cake. We had a little party with her cousins on the Friday and ate cake and swam in the pool.

Oh goodness let me tell you about the swim in the pool. So after an hour or so everyone decided to get out. It was nearing 5pm and getting cold. I get Lili out first and take her togs off. She makes a mad dash for this bucket next to the pool. She then proceeds to squat down and pee into the bucket! We were all just staring gob smacked. Ohhhhh but that's not the best part! She gets up and puts her twel around her, then Izayah comes running around the corner and jumps into the pee filled bucket. Then Hale pee'd on the side of the pool. I don't know what was up with Lili because since then she has pee'd in and empty bath and pooped in the shower with both her and Auron in it. Why you may ask? Because I like too was what she said.....

Today Lili and I went Peppa Pig live on stage and the theatre. She was in heaven! After we left she cried because it was over and while we walked back to the train she told me thank you so much Mummy I love being with you and going to do special things. I love that kids so much!

Auron and Aarahi and Ammon went to a  Lego exhibition too. They had a lot of fun.

Before I end today I really must say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped us to raise our beautiful little girl. A special mention to a few, Mum, Nana, Aunty Mel, Sotarah, The Kayrooz Family, Marcelle, Sarah, and Nanny Kaye. Thank you for you love and devotion that you give to our little princess. We are so thankful for all you do along with the rest of our lovely extended family and friends.

Birthday Girl. Note that her top matches her cake...complete coincidence 

Cutes baby Elephant

Dressed up for the All Blacks Win. Ammon had an All Blacks top on too, but it was hard enough getting a photo with two kids looking at a camera...this was take 300000000000

The cake that drove me crazy because Lili and Auron insisted they help. She cried when I told her we ate it all, sobbed her little heart to sleep about her cake being all gone and whyt did we eat it??? 

Waiting for the show to start

Lili loved her first theatre experience. We will be definitely be going again for sure 

The kids have loved the Dolls house that Bishops family kindly donated. Complete with dolls "Great! Finally some boy dolls"' is what Auron said.

We picked up a box of delicious cupcakes from a little shop in one of  Melbourne's  famous lane ways to take home for Daddy and Auron. 

Auron LOVED halloween. Here he is with his Girlfriend Renee. Too bad she is secretly taken. We just wont tell Auron that.  

Best part of the Lego exhibit Auron said, and the huge HULK. 

See Look how fast she grows!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 30 in no time. 

A Bit of This and a Bit of That

I have been delving into more of my family history this past week and cam eup with a few little surprises. One of my great great great....uncles helped to build the Manti temple. He was also choir director for 25 years... have no idea what choir but unfortunately his obvious musical ability did not make it this far down the generations. Hopefully we will be able to go visit the Manti temple when we are over there in 2017. 

We got the title transfer for our land in the mail today. I doubt it will title at the end of December like it is supposed to (was really meant to be August) but whatever. It will happen when it happens. It will just sit there increasing in value, while we keep saving like crazy people. We don't have to pay the remaining of our deposit until it titles so the more money we have the better. Luckily for us it is already worth more than we owe which is nice. Two of Aarahi work mates are building on the same street as us which will be convenient for carpooling at 4am...Hopefully they will be able to keep each other awake. I am so looking forward to living out in the country a bit. The drive out to where we are building is beautiful especially in spring time. Lovely tree lined roads and kangaroos and animals in the paddocks. The area is set for a huge amount of development so no doubt in 10 years time it will look a whole lot different. 

Our TV broke last week. I was a sad time. Especially for Aarahi who wanted to watch the All Blacks game. It was even sadder for me when it cost twice as much as first thought to fix it. I run a tight ship with out finances and things like this really really annoy me. If it's not one thing it's another right? Aarahi has a ridiculous amount of leave and RDO's so he got one of those paid out so as to not disrupt the fine balance I have going on.

I lost Ammon this week. I thought he was in the bedroom where the kids were playing. They came out and I asked where Ammon was. "I dunno?" I looked everywhere couldn't find him. Finally looked outside in the back yard and there he was laying down in a big puddle splashing away in the rain. I'm not sure how he got out there, probably followed Auron or Lili out there. He was not happy when I bought him back inside. 

Aarahi and I bought some Book of Mormon Study Guides that we are LOVING. It has been the favourite part of my day for the past week. Our scripture study has been sporadic at best since having kids. Let's be honest once you get the kids into bed all you really want to do is sit in silence and peace without someone yelling your name every 20secs. Yet this past week we have quickly got the kids into bed as fast as we can so we can do our scriptures together. They would be great for teenagers and adults alike. If you are intersted you can find them at https://www.theredheadedhostess.com/

In a couple of weeks we are celebrating Aarahi's birthday a bit early because December is already crazy enough. We are going away for the night CHILDFREE. I am still not sure how I feel about it. I am kind of excited but apprehensive. I think it will be weird, but we have lots of nice things planned and Aarahi is super exited about it. 

Well it's 5pm and Aarahi just got home from work. It's been a long day. His work is moving accross the road to a new facility and he got the "honour" of being the moving crew haha. 

Quick take a photo of me

Lili wanted to feed Ammon a Chocolate Yoghurt (a very rare treat in this house) I told her not to let him have the spoon, next minute she's telling me proudly that she taught him to use a spoon. He ended up covered head to toe in yoghurt. 

Introducing our new baby, Baby Stuart. Lili has been a great little Mummy to her minion, this is where I found him when I went to bed. 

Auron made this really cool car. It's hard to tell from the photo but it was pretty fantastic with lots of different parts that did different things 

The Week at Our House

It's been a quiet week for our little family. I we haven't really gotten out much. I think we were all in need of some down time. Aarahi was sick a couple of days and had one day off work. It was lovely having him home. The big kids and I went and did groceries together and picked out a Halloween costume for Ammon. He's going to be Buzz Lightyear. Super cute. They love coming to the shops because we usually get a special treat when we are finished. We try to take each of them out by themselves at least once a fortnight. Lili came with me earlier in the week to pick something up from Coles. While we were there she asked me if we could get a bubble machine. Knowing how much she loooooves bubbles we had a look and found one for $5. $5 well spent.

On the weekend we went and bought some seeds to plant. Auron has been all about growing plants and gardening lately....must be in the blood or something??? Aarahi however can't stand anything to do with gardening, too many years spent in the kumara patch as a child I suspect. Lili wanted to plant strawberry seeds but we compromised on buying actual plants instead, hoping we might have more luck. Unfortunately they are still not growing fast enough for her liking. Here's hoping we get more that $21 worth of strawberries out of them, because that's how much the plants were.

Ammon is such a mischief. He is in to EVERYTHING! and more importantly (for him anyway) he has figured out how to get Lili and Auron to do pretty much whatever he wants. In the mornings the kids are early birds usually waking up just before 6am. As for me, I don''t personally want to get up at that time. Auron usually comes in and gets my phone and iPad for him and Lili, and Lili then goes and gets some toys for Ammon to play with. Then they all go back to bed for another 30mins. It's lovely.

Lili had a rough day at church, everyone was touching her hair... Just so you know, she really really hates people touching her hair. I know its cute and all and it's really hard to resist pulling those little curls but please don't. It hurts her and makes her hate her hair which is really sad. Then after church she got her finger jammed in the chapel doors.

We had a singing practice for our Primary Presentation next month at the end Auron sung a solo of popcorn popping. It was super cute! He has got the sweetest little spirit. I love his little child like faith. He is working hard to memorise the Articles of Faith and our weekly family scripture. So far he has 5 versus memorised. We are really enjoying all the new questions he has. The other day he asked me where babies come from. I told him they come from Mummies tummies when they have husbands. Later I heard him tell Lili that when she gets a husband she's going to get fat.

Aarahi gave a wonderful talk today on the Resurrection of Christ. He always gives wonderful talks, Ilove hearing him speak. Unfortunately my children weren't the most well behaved today and I struggled to hear the whole talk.