Birthday Boy turns 3

The day arrived when our little boy turned 3!  I can't believe how much has happened in that time!

Presents from mum and dad were opened on the bed, before dad had to go and help some members move house for an hour or so.

Harri with his new 'big boy' bike, he loved it so much, though he seemed to already know about it before his birthday and would randomly ask where is bike was!

He is also a huge toy story fan at the moment so when I spotted the above torch in our local IGA it was a must.  We were blessed to have Umma and Pappa come up to help us celebrate, and a bonus was that it was also Pappa's birthday too! We think Harri is pretty lucky to share his birthday with such an incredible man!

Saying thank you for presents is a must!

Thank you Prebble's, Docking's, and Sayers' for all your gifts, he was very spoilt.

It turned into a dress up party!

We invited the Aimee, James, Eli, Meg and Parker over for brunch with Umma and Pappa, and we had a feast, thank you all for bringing food, it wasn't needed but was delicious anyway.

I had a few ideas rolling around in my head for Harri's cake this year, but ended up doing something reasonably simple, so I combined a dinosaur cake with a toy story cake, and used 'Rex' from Toy Story as the dinosaur.  Harri loved it...I think. lol

It wouldn't be a family get together  without a father/son arm wrestle...I think Jake won???

The birthday boys with their cakes (Pappa's was made by Eli and Meg - who did a fabulous job of making a 'boat cake')

All of us! It was a mission to get us all looking, but we did it!

Candle blowing.

We had a lovely relaxing day thanks again to everyone who helped us celebrate.

Happy Birthday Harri, we love you and your crazy ways. xxx

Brothers?

A lot of people have been saying that these two are looking more and more alike...I'm still not sure I see it, but there are resemblances.

Oakley has been enjoying the jolly jumper, sometimes he will be in there for up to half an hour, just enough time to get the dishes done.

Oakley

Harri - one thing is for sure...they both have boogers in the nose! haha

6 months!

This Boy is 6 months! can you believe it?

I can't... the past 6 months have gone so quick, and although we have had our challenges, I couldn't be more in love with this boy.

He started commando crawling this week, and has gotten very good at it, and is now crawling all over the place; which is not so good, as I now have to make sure that Harri or daddy haven't left any little things lying around for him to put in his mouth, and I will have to be more diligent with the vacuuming mopping - not my strongest cleaning habits.

He is super with eating food, he has been on solids for about 3weeks now, and he loves it, though unfortunately it hasn't helped with him sleeping better.  

He has been waking up every 1-2hours at night for a feed, he wont settle by just being held or rocked, so Im a bit of a walking zombie at the moment, hoping things will settle down soon, as I don't think I can do this for much longer, but then I think back to a lesson I taught in RS a month ago and something that was talked about was when things seem impossible, just taking it one day at a time; so I am trying to accept that maybe I can do this better than I think I can and that maybe Heavenly Father knows my limits better than me (well I knoe he does).  On the plus, he has started having bigger day sleeps, he usually has a 1-1 1/2 hour sleep in the morning and maybe another one in the afternoon, he also has his usual 30-40min one in the middle of the day.

He is also loving being able to sit and play with Harri, and Harri is pretty good with him too. 

He is starting to babble a lot more now too, I can't wait for him to start talking, I love that stage!

SO a lot has changed over the past few weeks, and Mr O is becoming much more of a little boy!

We love you, we loved you the day you worn born and we will love you forever! xxx

Badger Beach and West Head

I have been loving having Jake at home for 5 weeks for his annual leave.  Once we were back home from Hobart we ended up going camping with Jimbo and Aimee and the kids for one night (well Aim and I didn't stay with the babies, but we went for the whole day and enjoyed being at Narawntapu National Park (Bakers beach).  We participated in some activities being run by the park, including a treasure hunt on Bakers Beach, where Ranger John taught the kids about all the different things you find on the beach.  He even taught us that those jellybean shaped jellyfish, aren't actually jellyfish; they are an egg sack from a particular shell, pretty cool huh!

When we signed in to the National park we ended up buying a year pass, as it worked out cheaper, so we can now go back all year for free (though we will have to pay to camp).  Jake asked if there were any good surf palces, and the lady mentioned that there might be some at West Head; so Jake immediately booked us in to go there another day.

So off we trecked about a week later to Badger Beach/West Head.  It was a beautiful day and we took all the beaxch gear with us.  it was super hot when we arrived, and there were those annoying little flys buzzing all around us, but it was worth it for the view.

  

The water was so clear and that real cool turquoise colour.

We had the whole beach to ourselves it was awesome!

Oakley and I chilled in the tent so we didn't get burnt.

We weren't actually there very long as we had to get back home so Jake could go to his meetings.  It was such a fun day, and I love spending time with my little family.

Sleepover at Umma's

Summer Holidays wouldn't be the same without having a sleepover, I always used to love sleeping at other people's houses, they seemed so much more exciting then my own.

Harri got his first sleepover while we were staying at Umma and Papa's house in January.  Livy and Levi came to stay, so that Mummy and Daddy could spend some time (and hopefully sleep) with baby Evie.

The kids were having a great time and were all so excited.  We even had a special visit from Bek, Donny and baby Harper, and Donny's Sister Cel, Mum Pauline, and Dad Feke (not sure if that's spelt right?).  They were heading back to New Zealand the next day and came to say goodbye.  It was a really beautiful time as they sang songs in Samoan, they were all quite emotional, as they didn't want to leave baby harps and Donny and Bek (who wouldn't).

After they left it was round two of trying to get the kids to bed (as they were having stories when they all arrived) and Papa even put on some relaxing nature music to try and calm them down.  It wasn't long until Jake put Harri back in the room he was sleeping in as you could tell he was tired, but he was not going to go to sleep with Liv and Levi there, once we moved him he was asleep within about 5mins.

In the middle of the night Levi woke up with sore legs, and ended up being taken home, so in the morning it was just Livy and Haz.  They had a special breakfast of Pop-tarts though neither of them actually liked them) and some cereal and fruit.  

Livy was such a great helper with Oakley, she is going to be an awesome big sister and help to Nik with baby Evie.

The kids had a great night, and it all went pretty well considering.

Spider Man

Dress ups at Grandma's.  Harri loves dressing up lately, and so it was the perfect opportunity for Grandma to get out her garage sale dress ups and let Harri loose.  He also dressed up as a 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle'.

Love this kid! x

Meg's Birthday

Dear Miss Meggie had her 4th birthday while we were still in Hobart   It was a sweltering day and even at 9:30am it was already 28deg!  It was held at the Botanical Gardens, which is a great spot for this kind of event.

The kids did really well in the heat, and so did the adults and babies.  They all had so much fun, and I know Harri loved it, as he just loves being with other kids, no matter what they are doing.

Here are the kids playing pass the parcel, Aim and Jimbo did such a great job with the whole morning, and I loved how each child received the same thing in the parcel, even the winner, so that it was equal.

Meg blowing out her candles, Her auntie Loulou made the cake, and she did an awesome job, it's a bit hard to see here, but it was a princess cake.

Umma had a pinata that she forgot to use at Christmas, so she brought it along and it was a huge hit (literally...ok bad joke).

I didn't manage to get a close up of the birthday girl, but she looked beautiful, and it was a great morning, even with the heat - well done Aim and Jimbo on the party, and with Meg, she is a superstar!