What a busy weekend

The weekend has sort of crept up on me this week, not that I'm complaining it just means its closer to holiday time (6 days...not that I'm counting or anything). So Friday we went into town at 7pm, in an attempt to avoid the crowds, it was mildly successful but probably not worth waiting around all day for. We tried to finish our Christmas shopping and left with all but 2 presents bought. On Saturday Aarahi started work early and finished late, lucky it is the last Saturday shift for the year. On his way home he went and picked up my 6 year old cousin Bronte. She was coming over to spend the day helping me with making some Christmas presents and getting stuff ready for our Family Dinner on Sunday. She was a fantastic help especially with Auron. She entertained him, shared her lunch, and cuddled with him while they watched Harry Potter while I cleaned up the HUGE mess we made. In the Afternoon we went and FINISHED our shopping!!!!!!!!!!!!! everything is now wrapped and packed up into the suitcases to bring over next week. Man will I be gutted if they lose those suitcases! After Bronte went home, I got on with cooking/glazing the ham for Sunday. My initial plan was to skip church, yes I know naughty me, but Aarahi so kindly accepted the assignment for us to speak.

Oh we both have new callings at church. Aarahi is Young Mens President and I am an adviser in the Young womens.

Right so Sunday, talks went ok I guess. The topic was "Giving is the True Spirit of Christmas". When I was thinking about this as I was wrapping up the last of our presents I kind of felt like my Mum I guess, there are a ridiculous amount of presents all wrapped up, all carefully selected, for those that we love but not one present under the tree has our name on it. As a teenager or child this would have bothered me immensely but last night as I placed the last gift into the suitcase I felt happy, joyful even, at a job well done at the happiness Aarahi and I have found in shopping for each of the recipients. I have no doubt that the gifts will likely be forgotten after a week or two but it was more than a joy to give. It kept the kids in our thoughts throughout the year as we looked for little things they might like.

Ok enough of that, our christmas dinner we had here tonight was good fun. The food was good, we had glazed ham, roast pork, roast veges, steamed veges, salads, trifle (made solely by Aarahi, he even made the custard from scratch, with eggs and milk) choc ripple cake, santa hats, icecream, and probably some other stuff that i forgot. Man I feel fat. Can't wait to do it all again next week....and the week after.

We also opened some presents. We did not so secret santa with our family here and Auron opened his big present which he loved...see photos...

Well Auron's just broken into the cookie jar so better go deal to him.

Auron and Bronte watching  Harry Potter

I ATE DADDY"S MANGOES!!!!!!!!!! 

Auron and Tiarne. He got a new hat too!

Santa's Lil Helper

My big present, a Lightning McQueen motorised quad bike. I love it, its still charging at the moment so i will have to wait for tomorrow before i can give it a real ride.

He really does love it. Keeps trying to climb on but cant quite get his leg over.

Christmas baby in his new christmas top

Bronte making the Santa Hats

The leftovers, was too busy eating to take photos before most of the food was demolished

Santa's hat brownies

Aarahi's YUMMY trifle.

Choc Ripple cake

Um yes I am cute and I'm going to eat as much cake as I can while you let me

Yum eating the cookies....

Only 1 week 6 days!

Yup only 1 week 6 days til were coming home! (Aarahi gets annoyed and says I should just say 2 weeks so it seems like it comes faster)

It was Aarahi's birthday on Monday...it was a disaster so we rescheduled it for Saturday to make up for  it. He got some/lots of chocolate, a cake and the box set of Pirates of the Caribbean, which we haven't watched yet because our DVD player has suddenly stopped working. I also made him whatever he wanted to eat for breakfast lunch and dinner.

Aarahi's passport came this week aswell which is a relief. They had sent back his application form because he hadn't signed it. They said that once we sent it back it would take atleast 2 weeks for it to be processed and have the passport sent out to us. This would have ended up being only 2 days before we were due to fly out, but it turned up the day after I sent off the signed form. Blessings or what! Speaking of blessings I went to pay our power bill this week and realised once I got to the post office that our power company had given us a $400 credit for being loyal customers for ONE whole year. That's like 6 months FREE power!

On Thursday Auron and I went to the city to go see Anita (we stayed with her family in Brisbane). She was playing in the National High Schools Volleyball Tournament. Her team did really well and it was really awesome to be able to go and see her play. I almost didn't recognise her! On our way there we took the wrong train and got a bit lost on the way home.

I went a picked up some material and other things from Spotlight to make Auron some of his Christmas presents and to make some things for our Christmas dinner we are having here with my Aunt Uncle and Cousins next week. So it's been a bit of a busy sewing week, not so easy when Auron wants to "help".

 This little Pukeko is a climber, he climbs on everything! He climbed up on the couch and then over it. Here he is having a break in the middle. He's also figured out how to climb out of bed (our bed). The other day he got out of bed before I woke up and wandered off down the hallway to get up to some mischief. I found him playing in his room pulling all his clothes off the shelves. 

 These are Aarahi's attempts to baby-proof the TV and Christmas tree. A wall of nappy boxes washing baskets and toys

Trying to keep the baby away from all the cords behind and inbetween the couches 

Anita and Auron at the Volleyball

Sydney!

WHAT A WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was so much FUN. We left Melbourne at 730am for Sydney Saturday morning, unfortunately we had to be at the airport at 530am ugh too early. Auron's first flying experience went well, the seats on the airline we were on were the most squishy seats ever though.It was literally like a tin of sardines. The flight went really quick though. We then caught the train into the city and did a little sight seeing. Well pretty much just the Opera House and Harbour bridge we didn't have too much  time on our hands. We also went for a walk around the Botanic Gardens and the Harbour. It was such a BEAUTIFUL day not a cloud in the sky. We then met up with Aarahi's cousin Ashleigh and went up to our hotel. We actually stayed at Rydges which is where we stayed for our wedding. The room was pretty much exactly the same too which was cool. We then headed off to the wedding where Aarahi got to see a few of the guys that he served his mission with. I on the other hand got to hear some of the mission stories which I'm sure he intentionally neglected to tell me. When we got to our table (all mission boys and wives) we were the only ones there for a good hour or so seeing as the rest were late or didn't show. That was fine with us though we lots of the entrees ourselves....what fatties. There was SOOOOO much food! it was a huge wedding around 300 guests. We actually saw our friends from our ward there, surprised much! There was heaps of dancing and FIREWORKS! yes fireworks inside haha it was so much fun.

We left before it ended because....did I mention we left the baby with Ashleigh? well I was having too much of a hard time being away from him. Its was the first time he's been looked after by someone other than us, and 4 hours was enough, lol mummy wasn't coping without her Pukeko. Turns out he was perfectly fine haha.

Today being Sunday we slept in late then went down the the Hotel restaurant for breakfast which was a mix of cereals, toast and bacon and eggs etc. It was only an extra $10 on top of our room and you could eat as much as you wanted.

We traipsed back into the city had an icecream from Baskin Robins (it's a really nice icecream place we don't have in Melbourne) then back to the airport to catch our flight home. We finally made it home at 6pm this evening and we are exhausted...Auron on the other hand is full of beans.

Here are some photos from our adventure....

 Auron's new portacot. We got it for our travels back home because its folds down small enough to fit in my hand bag and only weighs a few kgs.

 Waiting waiting waiting for the plane

Pretty Harbour Bridge

Our big standing up baby. 

Opera House with Daddy

The cool little train that we didnt ride on because it was stupidly expensive

Our Uglyness

There was a Pohutakawa tree in the Botanic gardens.....

....and this is what it looked like haha

Riding the horsie

Playing on the grass. He didn't quite know how he felt about it but after awhile he got used to it.

 

Crappy iPod camera photos.

Waiting for the plane to take off sucking on my dummy so I don't get sore ears.

And lastly on our travels we found a street for nanny Kaye

An Early Christmas Present

This week marks the week our washing machine died.....a long slow and painful death. Painful for me more than it I think. It had had trouble spinning out for the last few months and would beep every 5 mins. This didn't usually bother me so much and soon became part of my daily routine of visiting the laundry every 10mins or so, but this week it got all a bit too much. So early Tuesday morning I went online and bought my Christmas present a BRAND SPANKING NEW WASHING MACHINE! and boy do I love it. After Aarahi and Auron this washing machine which I've named Edward (we name all our appliances) is pretty much top of my list and love of my life this week. A load of wash now only takes an hour instead of 5! Our old washer has done us well and was bought for us last year by the Kirifi family when we had nothing, and I will be forever grateful to them for not having to be 5 months pregnant and having to hand wash our clothes. They are an awesome family. I had a slight tear in my eye as I watched the man wheel away the old washer, not so much for the washing machine (I hated that thing ) but for what it represented, the love of another family for us in a time of need.

In other far less exciting news...well nothing really. I thought I lost my passport this week and spent a good few hours destoying our house looking for it. I found it in the washing basket which I had emptied twice and hadn't found it. I've been trying to convince Aarahi to let me put up the christmas tree up but with no such luck. I think he may cave if I call it a family home evening activity. We bought some nice decorations for it from Kmart yesterday. Shucks they have good deals. $10 for 70 decorations AWESOME.

Oh just to report back on our exercise efforts...I would say above average. We exercised all but one day but we never made it to a run or jog, mainly because I realised I dont actually own any sports shoes or clothes.

I hope all the Palmy kids enjoyed their primary presentation, let us know how you went.

We have some new missionaries in our newly formed ward, both of which are from NZ and one is a McPhee that used to be in Otumoetai ward a few years ago. It's a small world after all.

 Cuddles with Daddy after mowing the lawns

 Admiring Edward the washing machine. He stood here for a good 30mins just watching the clothes go round and round

Soooo CUTE. This is his new stretch n grow thing. He usually doesn't wear them because his legs are too long to fit them but this one has no feet and is a size one so fits perfect!

A bit of this and a bit of that

A report for this week....very uneventful. Auron is sick with a snotty nose and a little cough. He's a good sick baby though not too fussy.
We have been busily planning our America trip for next year. Lucky Auron will get to go to Disneyland for his birthday, not that he will remember but I have no doubt he will rub it in his siblings faces....haha at least that's what I would have done.
Over the past month Aarahi and I have been trying to better our attempts at personal scripture study. We implemented "Alphabet Scriptures". On Mondays at Family Home Evening we pick a topic for the week starting with the letter of the alphabet that we are up to. For example so far we have done
A: Abrahamic Covenant
B: the Beatitudes
C: celestial.
The following monday we follow up on how well we did and what we learnt. So far....we've been pretty average.

We have also decided that we are too fat and need to exercise more. So each day we are going to go jogging...hopefully we can stick to it. I will report back next week, we start tomorrow.

Auron's been doing good, started doing some standing by himself. Just a few seconds usually when he's playing with his toys standing up next to the couch, he lets go of the couch for a few moments and stands alone.

We went out to dinner and desert on Saturday. To a burger place like burger fuel. the burgers aren't as good but the chips are amazing. Then some spanish doughnuts for desert which we ate in the car on the way home.

Here's the photos for the week.

I can't believe it's almost the end of the year!

Is is just me or has this year just disappeared? seems like just yesterday we were getting ready for last Chirstmas and now its almost time to get out the Christmas tree again. I'm so glad I did most of our Christmas shopping throughout the year we got good deals and arn't burdened with having to face the made Christmas rush or impromtu overpriced gifts. We decided that this year we would buy for all the kids back home seeing as we havent been there for the past 18months or so to give them the usual treats that Aunties and Uncles give their nieces and nephews. The girls have been easy to buy for and my cousin Tiarne is coming over this week to help me finish off the last little goodies for the girls. The boys on the other hand are hard to buy for, I left that job to Aarahi who quite often wants to keep the gifts for himself. Auron wont be getting too much. One big present and new clothes and a few new toys. He's not going to care he will just want the wrapping paper.

This week Auron has been enjoying being able to sit up at the table with us to eat. He has a new highchair thing that you just attach to a normal chair. He loves it thankfully, already associating it with food. This kid is a garbage guts, he eats anything and everything (except broccoli). He often finds food laying around that he's previously dropped and puts it back in his mouth. He ate some play dough the other day, must've thought it tasted ok.

Last week our ward was split in two, we're in the new ward. We were hoping to find out who our bishop was today but no such luck hopefully next week or something. It's a bit of a strange feeling being in a new ward. Most of the ward is from our old ward but they also pulled a few families from another stake. Feel more sorry for them I think. At the moment we have morning church which is nice but no doubt we will be going back to afternoon church next year. I HATE afternoon church. 3 years of afternoon church is going to kill me. UGHHHHH never mind.