Guess who is 6 months!!

We love this wee man very much.

Especially with the smiles.

They are contagious.

:) Who does he look like?

Amelia's photography.

And again.

I've always enjoyed watching my babies develop new skills.  To us they are so basic (the skills that is) but they are the starting point for so much more.  A baby needs the strength to be able to crawl, and balance to be able to stand, and more strength and balance to walk etc.  What is even more cute to see develop is the child's character.  And Keithie is showing quite the character!  He is our strongest baby yet.  Even in the womb he was a strong baby in comparison to the others (his kicks and punches were very strong).  When he was first born he was already keeping his head up and the midwives were wowed over his strength.  Jett is going to put his strength to good use when he is older such as cleaning the car and mowing the lawn... :D  Keithie is also energetic, not slow like Aaron was, but energetic like Owen was.  He is also a very smiley baby like Aaron was.  So...we've got quite the mixture. :)  One of my favourite things to see first thing in the morning (you know when I'm still half awake but Keithie is wide awake) is to look over to his cot and between the rails see him talking to himself and then once he sees me he gives this gorgeous big smile...ahh, it is lovely. :)

Auckland Museum

A very large waka (canoe) or rather a war canoe.  I forget how many warriors they were able to fit in but it was around 100 or so. 

One end of the waka.

 So yes, we went out today (Monday is J's day off)  so we opted for the Museum.  Good thing we did too as it began to rain heavily while we were looking around the museum.  I really wanted to get a picture of the outside...because it has these lovely Grecian or Roman (don't know the difference) columns/pillars, but like I said it was raining.  :)  The museum is free for Aucklanders.  If you can prove you live in Auckland that is!  So free for us! :)

Scallywags!  These two are good friends.

The kids enjoying running around on top of a miniature map of Auckland and area.

 They had a kid's section at the museum which was pretty exciting for the kids (the above photo is not in that section)!  Hands on stuff is great, and being able to get very close to cockroaches is double great too because we all know how much mommy likes those buggies! 

Letter to Diana written after we went to the museum.

Letter to Anne Roos... we was eating! LOL

more

Me and Tanya

L-R Monique holding Laura & Bianca holding Maria

Keithie and Laura

Rev and Mrs Rayner with Owen

We thoroughly enjoyed having them!

Photos! :)

Amelia asleep.  Notice the purple bear is perfectly tucked in.

Gotta like how kids sleep!

Your smiling aren't you??  I knew it!  I wonder who can not smile at a cute happy baby!

Amelia and her new best friend Diana. Amelia has a lot of "best" friends by the way. :D

So this is what happens when you discover the camera still works.  You turn on the bedroom lights and take pictures of your sleeping children regardless if they wake up or not.  Yes I am slightly crazy.  :)

But isn't this exciting?  I gave one last try to see if the camera works.  I wiped the areas where the batteries would be in the cam. and then popped new and good (a good brand) batteries in and voila it worked!  So we are happily taking as many photos as we can, because really who wants to lose these cute cute moments of Keithie?  Not I! :)

webcam photos

Thanks to my mom for taking most of these...yes we still do not have a camera, and I'm not sure whether to buy a new one or get the Nikon fixed.  The Nikon is about 4 or 5 years old now.  Advice please?

And isn't my 5 month old growing fast??  He is no longer that newborn baby but he has become this very active rolling around and trying to crawl boy.  They don't stay little for long at all.

Tomorrow morning D.V. Jett arrives back from Scotland I'm just a *little* excited (more like jumping up and down excited).  Tomorrow afternoonish the Rayners arrive, and the communion begins Thursday.  So we are in for a busy but I hope blessed weekend!

The Lord is my portion

Something I read this evening that was very comforting... to read more of the same go to: Daily Need Divinely Supplied

THE LORD MY PORTION

"The Lord is my portion, says my soul; therefore I will hope in Him." Lam. 3:24

It is our great privilege, beloved, that we live in a portionless world. This is both our distinctive badge and our Christian charter. When God parceled out the land of Canaan among the tribes of Israel, He made an exception in the tribe of Levi, to whom He said, "You shall have no inheritance in the land, neither shall you have any part among them;" assigning as His reason, "I am your share and your inheritance." The gospel teaching of this is obvious and significant. As the Lord's true priesthood, this world is not our portion, nor earth our rest. It may have required some painful discipline, and no small measure of faith, on the part of the devout Levite, as he gazed upon the fertile meadows, the watered plains, and the vine-clad hills of the Promised Land, before he was made willing to relinquish it all for Him who is invisible--and it needs no little teaching and discipline of our God, and no little faith on our part, before we are led to give up the world, the creature, self, and all, for Christ--satisfied to have the Lord alone as our Portion, and heaven only as our inheritance.

But the Lord will not put His people off with anything unworthy of Him to give, or them to accept. He has set them apart for Himself, and Himself apart for them. "All believers are the Lord's CLERGY; and as they are His portion, so He is theirs." (Leighton.) "The Lord's portion is His people, Israel is the lot of His inheritance." "The Lord is my portion, says my soul." His love to us was so great, that when He could give no greater proof of that love, He gave HIMSELF. Nothing more could have expressed the yearnings of His heart, nothing less could have satisfied the desires of ours.

And oh, what a Portion is God! All that He is and all that He has is ours! Every attribute of His being is over us, every perfection of His nature encircles us, every pulse of His heart beats for us, every glance of His eye smiles upon us. We dwell in God, and God dwells in us. It is not the world which is our portion, but HE who made, upholds and governs the world. It is not the creature who is our portion, but the Lord of angels and the Creator of men. Infinite portion! illimitable power! immeasurable grace! boundless love! all-satisfying good! all, all is ours!

And what a Portion, O my soul, is Christ! A divine Christ, a redeeming Christ, a full Christ, a sympathizing, ever-present, ever-precious, ever-loving Christ.

Believer in Jesus! make the most of your portion. It is all-sufficient for all your need. God has, perhaps, made you poor in this world, that you might be rich in faith and an heir of that kingdom of glory, the New Jerusalem, He has prepared for you--whose foundations are precious stones, whose walls are jasper, whose gates are pearls, whose streets are pure gold, and through which softly flows the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb, in the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river is the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruit, and yielding her fruit every month. All this awaits you! Hope in the Lord, hope in adversity, hope in trial, hope against hope, for God in Christ is your present and eternal Portion. "The Lord is my Portion, says my soul; therefore I will HOPE in Him."

Camera is no more!

That title is very sad.  Because well, our camera has decided not to work anymore which means, no photos!  And no little video clips.  This is not good.  Because Keith is doing a lot of cute cute things that I want to capture before he gets too big!  I'll have to figure this out, but for now we are cameraless. :( On another note, Jett is coming home tomorrow D.V. from Grafton.  That man has been away so much since last fall.  In fact I counted that he will be gone about 5 months in less than 12 months by the end of this month.  Sorry if that didn't make sense, I don't really have brains at the moment to go back and try to fix. :)  Anyways, Jett got his Kiwi driver's licence, I'm next at some point.  His TX license was about to expire...oh this coming Friday.  Yep, somebody has a birthday coming up!  Which also means we have our anniversary coming up.  It was our bright idea to have his birthday and our wedding side by side (11th & 12th).  Owen's 3rd Birthday is right around the corner too, and I have a feeling we'll do the present and cake thing before Jett goes to Scotland (next week).  So, there you have our little update. :)

Photoshoot photos

During the last visit at my mom's (before we left Canada) my mom paid for a family photoshoot.  I'm now getting to the posting of our family photos.  Samuel, you would've done a much better job I think!  But nevermind, we can't always get perfection...and certainly not with wee children!

Photo #1

Photo #2

Photo #3 lol!

Owen, Amelia holding Keith and Aaron

This is probably my favourite.

Ok...I have to admit I start laughing and almost crying at the same time looking at this picture.  This is me with my siblings. L-R: Ben, Jackie, Me, and Jeremy  Love these guys so much!

Amelia. :)

Keithie :)

And now it is nearly lunch time, which means I need to start making it because for some reason lunch doesn't make itself.

Around the back yard

 

 

My laundry lines and Aloe Vera plants.

Kids play yard...just need some table and chairs for ourselves!

Another piece of our yard looking out the white gate see above picture.

I do not like this new blogger format...it is messing everything up for me right now!!  I wanted to write a bit before the photos and it won't allow me to do so without messing up the pictures dreadfully.  I have limited tech skills!  Anyways, just a few pictures of the outside around the house. :)

Mommy's of many littles

I have been searching. Searching for a method or a way, that would solve all of my difficulties as a mommy of little children (with no older kids to help, or outside help). It has taken me almost 7 years and 4 babies to discover that there is no real solution (unless you've discovered the solution please let me know!!). I've discovered helps such as routines (and you should know that I really really like routines), but there isn't a solution to the heavy workload, the crying babies, the tantrums, the fighting children, the many many messes (ie. diapers, potty training, crafts, playing in the dirt etc), laundry, the lack of sleep (a very big one for me), and not to mention pregnancy things (morning sickness...or all day sickness etc) and the emotional drain on the body too. There may be a solution if you can afford it, but no one can teach or train your children for you as you would.

I've recently read a book on managing a large family but it was worthless for me. Because I do not have children who are old enough to be able to share the work load. The book itself said that if your a mommy of only littles it is basically just hard going until you have one old enough to really help. If someone would've told me that, I wouldn't have bothered buying the book. :) Now that being said I would clarify that Amelia is of age to learn, as is Aaron, but again, this is something else I have to do before they are able to be big helps, we have to teach them.

So how do you encourage one who is a mommy of littles and only littles? I think the main answer is quite clear. We need to be daily clinging to the Lord. He alone can give us the strength to continue "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." Some people can live week by week (so to speak) but when your a mother of many littles we often live moment by moment. I find if I'm praying more, praising more, reading more (even if its little bits) and loving more the day goes smoother. What else could I add to that list?

Instead of searching for a solution, I need to be resting upon the Lord.

Note: As I wrote this I worried about people thinking, either 1. I'm looking for help, or 2. I'm complaining of my station in life. Neither are true. I'm just jotting down a few thoughts I had today. :)

more pictures

Can you guess what this is?

It obviously goes here. I told Jett he had to get this up before he went to Gisborne.

Oops. Flash! These are my lions...er, our lions. My talented husband drew these way back in '95ish.

And dis is my kitchen! (Which is messy...oops!)

And dis is my baby chomping on blanket/duvet (nom nom nom!)

Very cute he is. :)

Are we getting anywhere with the boxes?

Until next time... :)

First Impressions

I've been trying to get to this for half a week...really! But every time I sit down to write a bit, something else comes up that needs to be done. I could wait till I'm fully settled in before I write a blog post here, and I will wait till then for a proper introduction to our home. So, for now here is a wee bit to wet your taste. :)

The first flight to LA went well, and getting to our connecting flight was easy and fine (we made it in decent time John!) the long haul flight went very well too, surprisingly it didn't feel like almost 13hrs! The kids did very well, and there really isn't much to tell of that flight. So we arrived finally after almost a year of waiting...to a sunny, bright Auckland. It was lovely to finally meet & greet some of the congregation that day and the next!

A short drive and we arrived home. I couldn't (and am still having a hard time) believe that this was the subdivision we are going to live in...so beautiful (think trees)! And after a week living here, you can tell that it is nice and quiet too.

Someone (I have yet to find out who this was!) put this lovely bouquet of flowers on our table, which was very welcoming!

But what first greeted us was in the living room/lounge...
Thank you Monique for the sweet gifts, I really like my mug!
Thank you to Ida, Melissa, Ann, Yvonne & Linda for the lovely meals! It was a huge relief for me not to have to cook for the first little bit! And the meals were very tasty! :)

Also thank you Melissa for letting me borrow your cot & a few toys!

The manse is just gorgeous. I felt I was dreaming coming up the drive way...it just looked too beautiful to be real! I mean who has lovely gates like this?
See what they did to the garage doors?? LOVELY! Jett's study is so spacious and bright - I know he is going to enjoy it very much!

And that is our lovely van...very very nice!
Home!
The room you see with the two windows (blinds up) is Aaron & Owen's bedroom plus play room. to the left of that you see a patio door (is that what they call a ranch slider?) and that is our large, bright bedroom.
But that is all I'll share...because, everything is kind of disorganized at the moment. Dressers are coming Monday/Tuesday so at least I can get our clothes sorted - very messy otherwise!

We've done a lot of this in the past week and we still aren't through.

Yes, books and more books!

What a mess.

So we have much, much to be thankful for. The Lord has provided so much for us and He continues to provide. I don't think we can thank the congregation here enough for all their hard labour in getting the manse ready. We greatly appreciate it, and I can't say enough how beautiful this home is!