Gymnastics

A little while ago my sister in law's mother, who happens to be a kindy teacher, called to see if I would be a parent help for their gymnastics class.  Downside, I'd have to deal with other people's raised-at-daycare kids.  Upside, Vili would get to be in the class for free.  And so we went for it. 

Best decision ever.

Vili absolutely LOVES gymnastics.  Climbing, jumping, rolling, running, he was born for gymnastics.  In fact, since we started going, every single prayer he says starts "Dear heavenly father, thank you for this day, thank you that I can go to my gymnastics with my friends".

He has the best time there, loves every minute of it every week.  He will be devastated when the class is over.  But for now, he's in little gymnastics boy heaven.

Otai Making

Malachi's kindy/preschool has such a diversity of cultures and often parents come in and sharing different food or dance or festival celebrations with the other kids.  It's really awesome.  And considering that Malachi has been there almost 2 years, I we thought it was time to share a bit of Malachi's Tongan culture.  Since it's summer and watermelons are a plenty, otai seemed like the perfect, easy thing to make with the kids.

Tui got all the kids to help scrap the watermelon and mix it in.  They've loved it.  And they loved drinking it too! The asian kids especially loved it, and kept asking for more.

Before he turns 5 and finishes there, I'm hoping to convince Tui to teach them a ma'ulu'ulu....we'll see how that works out....

The mount

We are trying to make the best of the time we have, before Malachi turns 5 and goes to school, where we can do stuff during the day.  So we made a day trip over to the mount.  We started by hiking to the top of the mount.  It was much more vertical then Tui would have liked, but it was a great way to start the day.

 

Super pumped and ready to go!


Just some random sheep along the way - I love living in NZ!!

 
Now is that a view, or is that a view?

 Tui carried Vili most of the way and I carried Lani, and Malachi the trooper walked up himself.  So many people commented about how amazing it was that he walked the whole way, because it was NOT an easy walk up.

Then we headed to the beach for a play  (and a lie down, for those of us who were exhausted).  Malachi swam and played rugby with Daddy, Vili dug to china, and Lani ate a few cupfuls of sand.

Lani thought it would be funny to lie in the sand, regarless of the consequences (actually I think the consequence of having a sandy face made it even more exciting for her. She is so left field some times.)She thought it was hilarious.

 

 

An icecream to end the day.  

I love that my kids love the beach.  And I love that this summer has been long and warm and awesome.  I'm so sad for it to end.  But this was just one of those awesome, awesome, summer days to remember for a long time.

8 Month old Girl

(Poor baby is so neglected when it comes to my record keeping, this was written 2 months ago and has sat in the drafts folder (along with 6 other posts), waiting for mummy to finish it.)

With both of the boys my favorite baby age was about 4 months, but right now is by far my favorite time with this girl.  She's so much fun! She cracks us up all the time.

New years day she started to crawl (7 months).  It was such a funny experience.  We'd been trying to get her to crawl for weeks with no success.  Then new years day Malachi dropped a piece of cookie on the ground, Lani saw it, and she was away!  It took her about a week to figure out that crawling is not only a way to get things you want, but also a mode of transportation.  And now the sky's the limit.  Baby gates are up, doors are closed, and we vacuum twice a day. Hoi!  But I just love having a little person crawl into the room, or come looking for me.  I love finding her in random places (she especially loves being under things), and she looooooves being chased around the house.

 

A couple of weeks after she started crawling, she started pulling herself up on things - which also means she started falling off things.  Poor chicky.  Luckily the falling part didn't last long and mostly now she just makes a mess.  She loves pulling the DVD's off the shelf, and is now tall enough to reach the tissue box.  We've had to blockade the bookshelf because she did some damage there.  It's funny, it's like you JUST get over that stage with one child, just to have another one start up.

 

She loooooooves to eat.  Only self-feeding will do for her, we stopped bothering to even buy baby food ages ago because it just got thrown out (or Vili ate it).  She loves everything and anything she can get her hands on.  And she's figured out that if she crawls under the table she's bound to find the remnants of someones meal.  Gross.

 

 

Lani is talking so much more, especially when I'm growling talking to the boys, she yells at them just like me.  And she mimicks sounds too, she'll copy you if you say muma or dada or rara or baba.

 

She has this cheeky face that she makes, if she's done something silly or made us laugh.  It is hilarious.  She is such a clown.

Lani is by far the chubbiest baby we've had.  She started wearing size 1 clothes at about 7 months, not because she's particularly tall, but because she's just chubby!  She has this big belly and HUMONGOUS thighs and butt.  It makes me laugh because her brothers are such bean polls and she's this chunk.  She wears bigger nappies then Vili. I even got a picture of the 2 of them, showing how vastly bigger then him she is, even though he's 2 years older.

 

She's also our cuddliest baby.  We've never had a baby that snuggles into your neck or chest.  The boys would do it when they were tired, but she does it almost every time you pick her up, especially if you've been away.  And she is really good about being away from Mummy (so long as it's Daddy or Grandma looking after her).  I only feed her when she's going to sleep at night or for her naps, but even then, she's happy for Daddy to just rock her to sleep without it.  It's meant that I can be away from her for longer periods of time, to go hiking, or to the Temple (!!!!!!), or do stuff with just the boys.

She's taking 2 naps still, 1hr around 9.30am and 2hrs around 1pm.  She's still waking at least once in the night (no surprise there, both of her brothers did til after they were 1), but she quickly goes back to sleep once I feed her.  Still a tummy sleeper, and with her fat cheeks, it makes me wanna take a picture of her every time she's sleeping.

I feel like I could write forever about her.  I feel like I wanna capture every detail of her little life.  This girl just brings us, me, so much JOY.  

And I love her to pieces.

Christmas 2012

(This post is late. Sooooo late.  But like they say, "Better late then never!!")

I loooooooooove Christmas.  I love how everyone seems to smile more, give more, be a little kinder, a bit more patient, more willing to serve, more like Christ I guess.  I love it.  And I love that I can now pass my obsession with love of Christmas on to my kids.  We spent the month before Christmas talking constantly about Christ, and how he was born, and why he was born, and how he lived, and why he lived, and how we can be more like him.  It was the best month ever.  I don't know why we need a season to suddenly make it ok to talk about Christ constantly.  But I am already counting down to next Christmas!

We had Christmas dinner with my family the week before Christmas (coz that's when everyone was going to be around).  We did our 2nd annual Nativity play, which was totally awesome and the best part of the day by far.  I think as the kids get older and less crazy, the play won't be as awesome.

This year Malachi was Joseph, Vili was a shepherd, and Lani was meant to be a sheep, but she didn't co-operate (typical babies....) 

 

It was so good to have all the kiddies together again, even if it was just for a little while.

Christmas day we opened presents and ate breakfast. It's fun to see the kids develop in their understanding of presents. Malachi was excited about what was in them and who they came from, Vili was just excited to open a present (and took his time doing it, he caaaaaarefully pulled a tiny bit of paper at a time, and screamed if we tried to hurry or help him), and Lani just loved the paper. We have decided not do make Santa a part of our Christmas. The kids will get enough of it everywhere else, but we wanted to make Christmas in our home about Christ and about family, and so the kids knew that their presents came from Mummy and Daddy and Grandparents etc. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love that this was Lani's first Christmas, and I loved seeing how she took the whole day in and feed off everyone's energy and excitement.

  

Christmas Breakfast!!

  

 

And then we headed to Cooks beach for a few days.  I love Christmas at the beach, that IS Christmas to me.  The weather wasn't the best so we cut our trip short, but it was so great being with family and just hanging out.

  

 

 

 Merry Christmas every one!!!!