Little goings.

I can't seem to keep this boy from growing up... :(

Has it been awhile since I posted?  Hmm, time seems to fly by.  We've been dealing with a lot of car issues in the past couple of weeks and a nasty cold/flu bug (though not the vomiting one...yet).  Thankfully the car issues was mainly maintenance stuff that needed to be done.  But still...WOF, the radiator decided to leak fluid everywhere, engine light on, and a new battery...hmm. :)

In other news look what is popping up in my wee garden!!!

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 Yes wee bean plants!! So excited!

And below is Amy digging in what was a flower garden. *sigh*

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 And Aaron caught midsentence (he does this on purpose to make a goofy picture)

Keithie weethie woo as Aaron has called him.

 

 Aaron's kind of humour...not sure what it means but. :D

 

 Amelia washing my dishes. She was enjoying it seriously, the photo just doesn't show that.

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This is actually an old picture.  Because the skirt is nearly done but just a wee preview of what I've been up to.

And now I must get off, the children are needing attention.

It has been how long??

Has it really been since the 24th of July that I sat down and posted here?  I mean a picture post, or an updating post.  Sorry everyone!  But if you knew how much we had to do in the past month...!  Sooo where do I start?  Well, we had John and Naomi, and then John only and then both again (yes it is confusing) for at least a week and a half.  We also had two Manse Nights for the youth in our church.  And of course I'm schooling Amelia and Aaron and trying to spend time with Owen.  Keith gets attention regardless, but it is the middle children that can be neglected, at least that is from my experience.  Amelia is almost done her grade 1 Language and Spelling.  I have yet to see her finish her Saxon Math.  I will not be buying Saxon again for her...I think they could've made it at least somewhat colourful for the first several grades!  Probably it would've been better if I bought the manipulatives to go with it but well you try to pinch pennies (ahem dollars!) here and there.  I've already bought her Grade 2 Math, Language and Spelling from Abeka, but I would really like to get another Apologia Science book and maybe just maybe dive into some History.  I really want to know what The Mystery of History is like so if you've done quite a bit of it please leave a review I want to hear from you!  Yes, I am rambling again!  So with Aaron what am I doing?  Well, he is practicing how to write letters and it is rather hilarious to watch.  B's end up with three humps usually...the X's look more like T's and so on. At least he is trying.  I'm going through Amelia's K4 readers with him and he seems to be doing quite well...at least when he isn't being a goof!  

Oh no!  He can pull himself up!  And I actually caught him getting himself up on his feet with out holding onto anything!  I hope walking isn't coming too soon!

He really wishes he could be out there too.

Aww!  Seriously he is like this most of the time!

Cauliflower Bean Casserole = yum!!

Well!  Here I am typing with one hand and holding baby in the other as wells trying to cook dinner and write up a blog post...yes ridiculous I know.  I am putting him down whenever I need to do something dangerous in case you think I don't care about the safety of my child.  He is not very happy right now. :(

So, I'm typing this to give you a yummy casserole that Ida gave me which is what I'm making right now too.  It has passed 4 Smith's and they all gave it a good grade (oh one of those Smith's was me, ahem).  So have a go at this because it is filling due to fat content, but delicious though easy!  And you know how mum's want easy yet delicious meals! :)

Cauliflower Bean Casserole

1 cauliflower cut into florets 

1 bag of frozen green beans

1 small onion chopped

1 package of bacon

1 cup of grated cheese

1 cup of mayonnaise

1 cup of butter (yes the original recipe calls for 1 whole cup...I put in maybe 1/2 cup don't do this to the mayo though, because the mayo gives this dish its delicious flavour)

So you cook up the cauli, the beans and fry up your bacon (I snip mine in half before hand to make it easier to eat) and your onion if you don't like too much of the raw onion thing (husband).

In a large casserole dish mix the cooked stuff together.  Then I guess you melt the butter or at least soften it enough to mix with the mayo and you mix that into the mixture and then you top it with the cheese and bake it at 300 for 20 minutes.  Enjoy :)

All right I have to grate my cheese now! :) 

Happy 6th Birthday Amelia Jane!

We are having a quiet day here.  I decided not to do the birthday party thing.  It just seems like too much work.  I also don't want my children to expect a big thing every single time.  Maybe next year I'll try to manage one of her friends to come and play, but for now I think we will keep it family time. :)  

I finally made her cake this morning after I substituted a couple of ingredients (I didn't have quite enough cocoa, nor white sugar).  She said she would like a chocolate cake with pink icing so that is what I made, nothing fancy...I don't have energy for that but I do enjoy trying to make things cute like: Owen turns 1

Birthday girl.

:)

 

LOL we don't look alike do we?

Sorry for all the photos of me but Amelia wanted to take them, and I wanted one with just the two of us since we are outnumbered in our family!  So she is six today.  Can't believe it. 

Another week

At this moment Amelia is trying to play by ear the "Happy Birthday" tune on the keyboard. (Somebodies birthday is coming up.)  Aaron is uh, lets just say he is busy.  Owen is playing in the playroom.  Keith is taking a morning nap.  And Mr. Smith is preparing for tomorrow's services.  And you know what I am doing. :)  I wasn't planning on doing this today, but I figured it has been awhile since I updated this little page.

It is busy.  Life is.  

We had John and Naomi for the weekend.  And on Monday we went to the Museum again (it was raining so no bush walk). Amelia was thrilled to know it was raining, I think somebody likes going to the Museum!  Jett was off to Gisborne for two nights (Wed & Thurs).  I went to Melissa's for dinner on Thursday which I really enjoyed!  

Isn't he just a doll?

 I love this little man!

 Even if he is just a wee bit too active!

 This small park is maybe 5 minutes of a walk from us (if that far).

 Quite nice I think!

 :)

Jett brought home fruit from the Gueze's (Gisborne)  Yum!  His fruit is so much better than the supermarket! And yes those are the green fuzzy kiwi fruit.  (The mesh bag is holding golden kiwi's from the supermarket. And there are some oranges there that came from the Jago's.) So many thanks to the Gueze's for the fruit!  If I had their address I could properly send a thank you note...anybody have it off hand? :)

 

Now I had better get to cleaning my house.  Looks quite messy and dirty at the moment!

what we've been up to

Hello!  I know my mother is wondering where I've been maybe you have too.  I guess blogging isn't something I find a lot of time for.  But I can assure you that I've been busy.  This is the first week of school holidays (2 week break between the terms)  and it is pretty much over.  Not sure what I've really accomplished in a weeks time but nevermind I have high expectations...too high. So in the past two weeks or so...

We've been to see Kelly Tarlton's with Rosie, Linda and Hanna.

Keith is teething... :(

We caught nasty colds.

Aaron is doing so well on the potty so we rewarded him today with a new train.  This is very exciting news for us. :)

We visited the Verheijs (er I did with the kids) and had most of them over.

We had the Van Kralingens for dinner.

I got a deep cleaning schedule in order, and set up something for every day (you know: Monday wash day etc....monday is not my wash day just so you know). 

I started to put that list into practice.

And now the photos....

My little helper feeding Keithie.

Sitting on the sea turtle at Kelly Tarlton's.

Aaron was very unsure of this...see he "was" scared of sharks.

Wearing Mommy's glasses for a second.

This is what happens when you give eager children a bucket of "sidewalk" chalk.  They were pretty good that afternoon!

This is what happens when your child is such a wriggler...or more like a bouncer and half crawling at the moment!

Aaron eating his well liked Golden Kiwi fruit.

Amelia eagerly reading a letter from her cousin Savannah.

 

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

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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!