Enoch Lost a Fifth Tooth

These are the best pictures and if Enoch was old enough to care he would be furious for me putting them up but lucky for me he is young enough to enjoy all pictures of himself even if he does have scabs on both nostrils and one near his mouth.

I wanted to clean up his face but then I found out it didn't come off-poor guy.  Anyway you can see where he has lost one more tooth.  And the same tooth on the other side will be gone any day as well.

If he wasn't constantly loosing the money he earns/gets then he might be rich by now :)  Love you Sweet Boy! Can't believe you are growing up so fast.

Going Out To Play and Coming Right Back In

My Ethne girl thought she wanted to get bundled up and go outside to play but...

A few minutes later she wanted to come back in and warm up. It was just too cold. Then...

She wanted back outside with "brodders" to try again. Here's to hoping it will be warmer this time.

But oh wait. It wasn't. And she fell down and scraped her cold little had and "brodder Evra" brought her back inside for hugs and kisses and making it all "go away".

Hike To Red Rocks, Through Devil's Gate And to The Seals :)

This was a beautiful hike. A LONG hike with three little kids, but a beautiful hike nonetheless. 

It's really hard to have a picture do justice to something that God has created. Especially when the photographer is such an amateur ;)

Amazing Ocean waves. Love.

This girl spent her time in and out of the child backpack. 

Finally got to these guys-the pay off

Climbing rocks and looking for seals

Swimming 

This guy was friendly

Dad taking a rest after carrying Ethne all that way :)

Night With Dad and Spiderman

I went to the store one night and when I got home the kids should have been in bed, but instead this is what I found:

 I got out the camera and got a few photos. I broke the trance and asked them to look up. They did, but reluctantly as you can see. Ezra's eyes are still looking at the screen, Garrett has a fake smile, Enoch isn't smiling at all and Ethne was telling me "I wat-ching Spid-a-man, Mommy".

 Then for scriptures and prayers and "Coral Island" they were so funny I got out the camera again.

 Ethne loves to hop on Ezra's bed and snuggle up to him.

 Enoch in his top bunk-

 Being silly-

 Maori tongue-

 We LOVE playing together-

Ethne Eating the Breakfast She Later Threw Up

So this morning we had Yogurt, banana and raisin bread toast for breakfast.  Ethne luckily only made it as far as the yogurt thank goodness because the poor thing got really sick to her stomach and threw up.  She threw up again a short while later and hasn't felt well the rest of the day.

 But really does this look like the face of a little girl who is going to be sick?

 She slept in really late this morning too. She woke up at 9:15 (which feels like 8:15 since we just had daylight savings) when she usually is up by 7am.

 She looked a lot taller when she woke up too.  But then I wondered if it was just the hair adding 1.2-2 inches :)  She is so cute.

Poor little thing. They only thing she has kept down now is two gingernut biscuits. Poor sweet baby girl :(  Hope she feels better soon.

I Wish All My Friends Lived in Australia

Ezra: I wish all my friends lived in the same place. Australia.


Mom: why Australia?

Ezra: "because I want to go there and live there until I die."

Mom: oh so you want all your friends and family to be there with you?

Enoch: "but then CA Grandparents wouldn't be CA Grandparents anymore."

Whole Wheat Pancakes With A Surprise

My kids love my whole wheat buttermilk pancakes. All week they have begged for them and today I finally gave in and made them.  Ezra asked if I would make the "special" kind meaning he wanted me to put cinnamon and nutmeg or something similar in them like I do during the fall and winter. 
I said yes, but decided to add a little surprise to the pancakes as well. They love when I do things like that and to me it is a great culinary experience for them to try to guess the spices or the other ingredients. So I grated up some green apples and added them to the pancakes with cinnamon and allspice.  They had a rough time trying to figure it out at first.  Ezra and Ethne ate them first. Ezra's first guess was based purely on sight and said "onions?"
Nope but a good guess based on sight.
Ethne's guesses were even better which is really impressive given she is only just 2 years old. I didn't even know she knew what we were doing but she picked out a piece of grated apple and said "cheese?" I said NO not cheese. She said "Butter?" I said no not butter.

BUT those were fantastic guesses. She watches me cook a lot and I frequently weigh my butter and then grate it into my flour when baking. It looks just like that.  And the cheese here isn't orange or yellow as you may call it- it is white. So when we grate cheddar cheese it also looks just like the grated apple.  So impressive Ethne Girl.

Then Enoch climbed up and took a look and said- "potato?" No but another excellent guess.

I explained that they should pay attention particularly to the taste and texture and it only took one more bite of Ezra doing that and he said "APPLE!"

Good Job Ezra!
I asked what kind of apple and he said "Green!" I was impressed. It just shows what a little training can do :)

Enoch The Teacher

Ezra no longer comes to me when he has a question about his math. I will be standing right there and he will say "Enoch, did I do this right?" or "Enoch, how do ya do this?" Enoch tells him and they both go about their business. Enoch just did that same math last year and so he knows it all well. I can see great things coming from this :) Way to go boys!

Five Years Old And He Knows Everything ;)

The boys were just having a really confusing conversation about when Sat. is coming. One asked if it was tomorrow. The other said no. They went on and on and finally one said "is it the day after yesterday?" (meaning the day after tomorrow). I piped in with my mom brain while serving up pancakes--The day after yesterday is tomorrow :)
Ezra gives me a confused look and says "no, the day after yesterday is today!" 

How in the world does a 5 year old know SO much?? Stinker. 

Our Crazy Weather Today :)

It must have been the snow post I put up today that brought on all this crazy weather. Right now it is 10 times worse than these pictures just from the last 10 min since I took them.  I can't believe it. It was raining today then all of a sudden there was lightening, thunder, and all this--sleet, hail whatever you call it it's crazy :)

My kids yelled "mom, it's time for another Christmas Movie Night"

 Bring on the hot chocolate cause the weather is NOT fine :)

Snow in Wellington

I am so sorry that it took me this long to get these pictures up. I have to admit that I am one of those people who believes if it is going to be insanely cold than you better at least have snow :)  It was so fun to get some snow-especially since I know Ethne did not remember her last encounter with snow.

Every time the snow would come down the kids would run out doors and play. Then when the rain would start they would run back in. There was no particular pattern to the crazy weather. It would rain, then snow, then sleet. There was crazy lightening and thunder and wind that kept you awake all night.  But it kept coming back to snow and sleet and that was really fun for us.

Ezra refused to put on a jacket so he played until he was almost frozen then I brought them all in for a hot bath and some hot chocolate or tea.

We did crazy winter things like watching Christmas movies, drinking hot chocolate, and snuggling on the couch with blankets and books.  We read a lot and enjoyed just being together.

It made it quite hard to work up a sweat while working out :)  I still had frozen limbs for the first 20-30 min. of every workout for a week.

This is our street out in front of our house.  When the kids were all snuggled in their beds for naps/quiet time I went out to try to get some pictures.

It was so magical that I ran down to the beach and got a few photos. This is right by the water but taken to the left of the beach so you can't see the water.

On my way back I got a few photos of the postman. Here they all ride bikes. Your mail doesn't not get picked up only dropped off. If you want to mail something you go to a post box.

This picture is out of order but for some reason it wouldn't stay where it was supposed to so I gave up trying to make it.  Sounds like my children :)  This is our backyard. I thought that palm tree needed to have it's picture taken in the snow since that is something I have never seen before. Palm Trees in the snow-who would have thought right?

Here is the close up of the postman. He stopped to talk to me for a sec and said he never thought he would be delivering mail in this sort of weather.  From what I heard it only snows here about every 40 years.  Interesting that we had an emperor penguin show up from Antarctica and now this :)  We are getting some unique experiences here in Wellington, New Zealand.

Here is the picture of the ocean in the snow. You can't really tell though because the fog over the water was so thick. Oh I should mention that was the last day our mail was delivered for several days. A lot of schools were out and people were housebound who lived up in the hills because a lot of the roads are tiny and almost vertical. Craziness :)

 This was a classic moment for us this winter. My kids have spent so much time sitting and playing and watching movies on top of this heating vent.  The take blankets and school books and toys etc... and sit on the vent to keep warm :)  Notice Ethne Girl is in her jammies. That is to stay warm. She has thermals on under the jammies because her room stays so cold at night. Then on top of that she is sleeping with about 6 blankets (thin ones).  Poor girl. Every night Garrett or I go in and uncover her head before we go to bed. She burrows all the way down in the covers to keep her face warm :(  Sweet little girl.

Overall it has been really cold but we have made some great memories this winter :)