New Plymouth trip

Our first Family picture since having Connor. Man it took along time to get this

Jeff and our awesome kids

Our little treasure

Such a happy fun baby

Our little stud

And our cheeky princess

Hi well its been a bit and I have loads of new pictures so i will try and update as I can. A couple of weeks ago we went to New Plymouth its about a 3.5 hour drive, now in NZ this is a drive that you need to make into at least a weekend to make the trip worth while. We did it in One day there and back, people thought we were nuts, and looking back now maybe they were right.
Connor now hates the car and his carseat, Hayley asked the whole way there that annoying question " Are we there yet?" and Caleb well he was fine. We borrowed my parents vehicle which has a DVD player in the back for the kids so that helped alot. The purpose of this adventure was to get a washing machine, as ours was slowly dying. We crammed as much into our day as we could and had a great time, until we had to get into the car again.

Hayley makes Connor giggle

Hayley can make Connor laugh better than any of us. She just has to look at him and he starting giggling.

Connor Crawling

Finally I have found how to upload videos so hope this works. We were missing the application to do so.

Connor is now crawling

Connor is getting round real good now.

 And he loves his food

 

I sent Hayley to have a sleep and this is how I found her.  I assure you we do have beds but for some reason she choose to sleep in a box.

 

Well i have tryed my best but this thing does not want to upload my video of Connor crawling

Connor 7 months and Hayley the Butterfly

Well I can't quite believe it myself but Connor is now 7 months old.  Where has the time gone.  he is learning so much at the moment I can't quite keep up with him.  Just before he hit the 7 month mark he started crawling.  In the space of 2 days he learnt to unwrap himself in bed and make a right mess of things in there, and therefore is not sleeping very well during the day, he also learnt to pull himself up on things so we are getting a few bumps to the head at the moment.  And yesterday he leant that he can crawl out of a room and into another.... he was super excited about this, though the kids are not so pleased they will be learning very quick to put things away if they want to keep them from grabby hands and a slobbery mouth.

He is pretty good at sitting on the potty

Oh mum don't take pictures if me on this

 

He is getting much harder to take pictures of cause he wont stay still

When Hayley was at kindy last week there was a lady that was doing face painting, she did an amazing job and this is what Hayley looked like.

 

Our Snowmen

When I was at work I can complied a collection of offcuts of the plaster material that usually get thrown out.  I had wanted to create something with the kids so we man snowmen.  Oh such a mess but we all had so much fun.  Caleb was so proud of his that he even took it to school to show off.  Heaps of the teachers came to see it, and all the kids are now wanting to make their own.  So yeah Jeff was even impressed with our efforts.

Caleb and his Christmas snowman

See they actually quite big

Hayley with her snowman

Its almost bigger than she is

They welcome all who come to our home.

My poor kids the following morning they ran to the front door super excited, so Jeff and I followed them to see what was going on. When they got to the front door they started crying.  We asked what was wrong, they told us there was no snow yet.  They had thought by putting out the snowmen it would make the snow come to our place.  We have promised them at some stage we will make it to the states for Christmas so they can have snow.

Happy 4th Birthday Hayley

Well our little princess turned 4 on November 3rd.  So crazy how fast this has gone by.  Hayley requested a Strawberry themed party, she wanted food that all contained strawberries and a strawberry shaped cake.  Luckily strawberries had just come into season.  She invited a few friends from Kindergarten to join in her celebrations.

Hayleys strawberry cake

 

 

All her strawberry food.

A guy from church offered to come and make balloon shapes for the girls.

Light Party ( New Zealands version of Halloween)

 

 

 

Here in NZ Halloween is looked upon as something very evil, they are trying hard to push it but it hasn't really taken off, so instead Churches started up a lightparty alternative.  It has got quite big with most churches and schools taking part.  It kinda like a  mini carnival and kids get to dress up and have a blast, its very safe and family friendly, our kids had a blast.
Hayley as a Butterfly came 2nd in her age group for the dress up part and Caleb came first as a Sheriff Cowboy.
 Caleb cried when I drew the stubble on his face, he said it made him look mean, so I found a sheriff's badge as he was good again.

 

Connor is now getting up on his hands and knees, and is able to rock back and forth he will be away in no time.

Back Yard Campout

 

Thanks Mark and Kristy we still use this tents whenever we can.

 

 

Well while Jeff had some time off the kids decided that they wanted to go camping, so we thought we would give it a try in the backyard first and see how it went.  The kids were super excited and they had a blast.  The Night was cut short for Hayley as she got a blood nose around 11pm. At 5am Jeff and Caleb came inside frozen.  But it didn't put them off they were wanting to go out again the following night, but this time they camped in the lounge and we had a great night.

beach holiday

For some strange reason it would let me right any info under the pictures, so here it is.  Well we had a long weekend off over here and Jeffs birthday also feel during this week so he was given a day of work.  So we decided Jeff may as well take off the 3 remaining days and make a proper holiday of it.  So we pulled Caleb from school for the week and headed over to Papamoa to my parents place and stayed there while they were away. 
We had a great time going to the beach most days, and then going for a walk around the Mount, which is usually a 45 min walk, but it took us 2 hours, the kids were exploring little sheep trails everywhere, and then we stopped at an area we were could explore rock pools which the kids loved.  We did this same walk again the following days as the kids enjoyed it so much, only this time they were way more adventurous and the walk took us 3 hours.
Before we left we brought a very cheap backpack for Connor which was so great to have.  He enjoyed the view and slept quite well in it also.
It was great to relax and not have to be racing round everywhere.  Looking forward to going again when it gets a bit warmer.

holiday at the beach

Mummy and Hayley down at the beach

 

Connor gets his first taste of sand.

 

Jeff and Hayley exploring the rock pools

 

Connor looks almost bigger than Caleb

Me and my cute little man

Our cute 6 month old

 

 

 

The weather is warming up, and we are getting ready for summer.  Connor is growing well, starting to move around alot now.  He can get onto his hands and knees now, but then just face plants.  He can wiggle round on his tummy and get mostly what he try's so hard to reach.  His weight has slowed down now and this month weighs 8.5kg or for you Americans out there thats 18lbs 7 oz.

Connor 5 Months and beyond

Connor in his Tigger Jumper thing, which as you can see he loves. You Cant see but he now has 2 teeth which he cut last night.

Look I can sit, well actually he has been sitting for about a month now.  What a cleaver boy.

Chilling with Daddy, he loves the I Pod, which makes his dad extra proud.

Offical 5 Month Picture.

I weigh 17lbs 6oz

I measure 26 inches

Another 5 Month picture, just before he weed on my bed.

This is what happens when mum leaves me with Hayley.

Connor sleeping on the couch....so adorable

Just kidding mum.