Happy BIrthday Jesus!

Josh, Isaac and I had so much fun celebrating the birth of Christ at our home on the 25th. We do miss the snow, but the Lord truly blessed our day and we have much to celebrate. I will post pictures from our team Christmas dinner later. Happy Birthday Jesus! We love you.


 

Tinakori Bistro

On December 23rd our team celebrated a summery Christmas Season at the Tinakori Bistro. The food was delectable! The boys were so excited about their meals that they were literally savoring EVERY bite... yet another place to take visitors. We proceeded back to our home after our delicious meal to open Christmas presents and eat more food-oreo shakes and chocolate brownies. Yummy.

 

Yummy Carrots

Isaac really enjoys his carrots. I love the picture of him at the bottom with his carrot go-te.

 

Jingle Bell Rock

A few nights ago at the dinner table Josh and I started singing "Jingle Bell Rock" to Isaac. Things got a bit carried away...here is Josh singing to Isaac. He loved the Christmas songs! 

Silly Isaac

Here is a picture of Isaac trying to figure out who is talking to him from behind.  

Daddy Time

Josh feeds Isaac every night at 5:30 so that I can make dinner. They both enjoy spending quality time together. Isaac is always so eager to eat that he reaches out and grabs his bottle the moment he sees it. He takes both hands and shoves it into his mouth!

I'm Talking!

For the last couple of months Isaac has been blowing raspberries, smacking his lips, making popping sounds with his mouth, and babbling, but yesterday he started talking...baby talk that is, but it is so cute! He has been repeatedly saying, "dadadadada". He is so proud of himself. I just wish you could see how big he smiles after talking to us. He also has two more little choppers coming in on the top, so he is chewing on everything again, including this huge coke bottle. Josh thought it was funny to see such a little guy chewing on such a big bottle. Isaac also loves chewing on tags, the ones that hang off of every toy. I think he enjoys how smooth and slippery they feel when they are wet.

Pictures for Mel

Mel, I took these pictures for you when Josh and I were in Disney Land the summer of 2004. I am a big slacker, so I never sent them to you. Sorry. The picture of me with Mr. Toad always makes me laugh...we posed for you.
 

Mr. Toads Wild Ride

I have so many favorite memories of my cousin Mel. Every day I experience something that makes me laugh, or makes me smile, and I think to myself...Mel would have thought that was so funny. She use to tell me that driving in the car with her dad, my Uncle Mike, was like being on Mr. Toads wild ride. I can picture her now, explaining something crazy that Uncle Mike did while they were driving together. I was just thinking about her this morning, which is why I am talking about her. I was thinking that my life over the past few months here has felt like Mr. Toads Wild Ride. For the last two weeks Josh, or Isaac has been sick. It started with Isaac's 6 month immunizations, which left him a bit cranky for a few days, then he caught the stomach flu just as he was feeling better from his shots. 4 days of tossing his cookies, temp, not eating, the big D, and lots of calls to the nurse. not fun. Just as Isaac was feeling better....then Josh got sick. He has been sick for 5 days now. It has been a bit tiring for mommy, but even as I write this I think, man, I have nothing to complain about compared to Mel. She was sick for way longer than 5 stupid days. Anyway, Mel, I guess I just wanted to tell you that I miss you and I am so proud of you for your courageous battle with cancer. You are my hero. I love you.  

Maranui Surf Club

I took the girls to one of my favorite cafes this week for accountability. The Maranui Surf Club is definitely one of those cool places that I will take anyone who comes to visit us...hint hint. The eggs benedict is a tasty choice, but I had the granola with fruit and yogurt this week and it was so good. Here is our self portrait...as you can see, my arms were not long enough to fit all of us in. You can just barely make out Becky on the left and jen squeeking her head in on the right. Thankfully a lady sitting next to us was gracious enough to take a good picture of all four of us together.

 

Gravity Discovered

Mr. Isaac is pretty close to sitting up. He can al....most do it without help from mommy and daddy. He enjoys dropping and immediately retrieving things from his little orange chair. It cracks me up when I look over and he is sitting in his chair completely surrounded by toys that he has dropped on the floor. He has nothing left to play with and he looks at me like I had something to do with his toy-less-ness. He is trying to drop his bib in this photo. He is looking to drop his keys in the bottom photo. Silly.
 

Christmas in the Summer?

Our little Christmas tree is up, the stockings have been hung (not by the chimney, but along the door frame) and the Christmas bells are ringing. Thankfully it has stopped raining and the sun has decided to join us over the last few days. Our Onslo Church home group had a special Christmas party last Sunday and the guys got a bit crazy...they decided to pull out the fake orange and green snow and ran around like little boys attacking eachother just as we were about to open presents. It was actually quite amusing. Here are some of the pics from our party. Above- Clockwise starting from the top left: me, Kelly, Rachael, Kirsty. Sally and daughter Hannah. Michelle and me.
Below- Clockwise starting from the top left: Blaire, Hunter, Stewart, and Hunter once again.  

Saucer for Hire

I really wanted to purchase a saucer for Isaac to play in, but they are way too expensive here. Turns out that you can hire toys, saucers, car seats, baby buggies, etc. from this awesome home based business called, "Baby on the Move!" Isaac is really enjoying his saucer, as you can see by this photo. He loves to play with the toys and puts each and every one of them in his mouth.  

Touring the City

Recently Josh, Isaac and I did a splendid walking tour of the city. Our adventure began at the train station in the heart of the city. Isaac is waiting patiently for me next to our train.
I love the houses here! They are all unique and colorful, like this house in the photo. I love the red door.
The advertisements here crack me up. You see a lot of funny adv. here like this one. Another favorite of ours in seen in the Dominos pizza window that reads, "Release the bloke from within!"  

Old St. Paul's

We stopped at the Old St. Paul's church which was built in 1866 by Bishop Charles John Abraham. It was nice to be inside sheltered away from the wind! You probably can't tell in these pictures, but the wind was whipping around like none other.  

The Thistle Inn

We stopped at the Thistle Inn near the end of our walking tour and ate a little snack. It is one of New Zealand's oldest public houses as it was originally built in 1840. It use to be only a few metres from the harbour and patrons often arrived by boat, but the city has expanded so much that it sits quit a ways back from the shore line now. It is a quaint little place with great food!