Enoch's 8th Birthday

Sunday the 3rd, out oldest child turned 8 years old. He is such a great kid and we love having him in our family. He is super excited to be 8 years old and be getting baptized. He is a little nervous but also really happy about it. For Enoch's birthday dinner he wanted Sushi. I spent an entire day cooking and preparing sushi for this boy. I must love him a whole lot :)

 Cucumber and green onions

 Chicken strips with Panko bread crumbs-fried

 Sushi rice-lots of this

 Finished product included-spicy mayo, teriyaki chicken rolls,

 Philadelphia chicken rolls, CA rolls, teriyaki salmon rolls, tempura sweet potatoes,

 tempura shrimp and bacon rolls,

 Strawberry and tangerine spiced salad with lime and orange zest

 more shrimp tempura rolls

 tempura sweet potatoes

 People-Uncle Dave and baby Dex

 The cute Anderson family with Ethne, Lacey, Dave and Dex

 Ezra and his sweet little face.

 Uncle Neil

 My beautiful Devils Food Cake cupcakes with chocolate ganache, toffee and meringue caramel buttercream frosting-these bad boys are more than just a cupcake. They are 5 recipes in one cupcake. Amazing. Not as beautiful as Jacquie's(she taught me) but they sure did taste as good.

 Enoch opening gifts-money!!

 beautiful Camilla who is leaving for her mission next month. We are going to miss her.

 Linkology game-Fun!

 Brothers-reading card from Aunt Amber and gang. Yea for more books to read.

 Eating cupcakes which Dex called Dinner :)

 blowing out matches since we somehow managed to loose the only candle we found in Grandmommy's house.

 All together-This is what Birthday's are about. People you love getting together. Missing those of you not here, but not gonna lie-we had FUN without you! ha ha-just teasing. At the end of the night we played Enoch's new Linkology game and talked and laughed and really enjoyed each other. Happy Birthday Enoch, We love you lots. You are one special boy and we love having you in our family.

It's Been An Ethne Morning

This morning has been full of Ethne quotes. She has really been cracking me up.

Ethne: Mom, how do eggs blow on dey self?
Me: They don't. Why do you think they do?
Ethne: Because I blew on my egg and it blew back. How does it do that?

Ethne: mom, this food is yumalicious.
ME: What is yumalicious?
Ethne: It's food dat's good and not bad. It's healfy food. They want us to jus eat healfy food dat's good for us.
Me: who does?
Ethne: Jesus

Ethne: why do people bring der stuff dat's not real to de zoo?
Me: what stuff?
Ethne: stuff dats not real like babies and stuff?
Me: You mean like dolls?
Ethne: Yes.
Me: They just bring it because it's fun and they like it. Would you like to bring baby Camilla to the zoo?
Ethne: Yes.
Me:  :) I thought so.

Ethne: mom, who's in ya heart? Mom, who's in ya heart?
Me: who is in my heart?
Ethne: JESUS
me: oh, guess who else is in my heart?
Ethne: who?
Me: you
Ethne: but how did I get inside your body cause I'm right hea-uh....

Ethne: mom will you get me some mor-uh sireal?

Me: in just a minute I am trying to get this squash cut up and in the pan

Ethne: um, mom we-mem-buh I like it wraw?

Me: yes but I am making butternut squash pancakes so I need to cook it

Ethne: ew

Me: it's not really a proper pancake it's more like a savory crepe

Ethne: what?

Me: it's not really a proper pancake it's more like a savory crepe

Ethne: WHAT?

Me: Ethne, I just told you

Ethne: Yeah but my ea-uhs are tie-ud so I can't he-uh yo

Swim Lessons in Coogee Australia Term 3

This post is dedicated to our favorite swim instructor Bob. This was the boys last term with Bob as their swim instructor. We were so so sad that he was not going to be teaching anymore and we missed him greatly that last term. He taught the boys so much and he was so good with them even though they were a huge handful for him. Enoch wasn't so difficult but Ezra as per usual gave him a run for his money.

Enoch as you can see is doing much much better than before. He has really learned a lot and improved.

His breathing is good and his arms are straight but those legs can't seem to keep from bending :)

Ezra with Bob. I love the smile on Bob's face here and the lack of emotion in Ezra's. Quite the juxtaposition.

Ezra is doing really well also. He can swim all by himself but he still has a style all his own that Kept Erin and I laughing every week. Here he looks like a frog but usually he looks like a sea lion.

Kicking hard

Almost there

Home Safe

Working on strokes. Gotta get them just right and timed with the breathing.

Looking good buddy

Cheerleader's Ethne and West like to cheer everybody on and stick their hands, as well as toys, in the water.

Dorth be sure to show Craig the support we lend to his emotional health by dressing our cheerleader in a shirt with an alpaca. I know it does his heart good to keep the memory alive :)

Encouragement and instruction. Bob was so good at this.

He also had the patience of a saint. I never could have made it through all those terms, especially in the beginning when they cried every week, without a guy like Bob. 

Big breath

pretty good arms there buddy

Enoch's turn and for some reason Ezra was worn out and needed a little support from Bob.

Ezra-"In the arm's of an angel...." Wish I had a better picture of that instead of Enoch's head. Not that it's not a pretty head, it's just that it was a sweet picture of Ezra and Bob. 

Floating on their backs. In the beginning of term 1 this was something I wasn't sure I would see for a very long time without tears. It scared them both and Ezra refused to stay on his back and would panic and roll over.

As you can see though they are doing awesome now. So proud of my boys and good ole' Bob.

This post is old and making me realize I better find them some swim classes here soon so they don't loose ground.

Adventures in Babysitting

In Sydney we have some really great friends that we just love. They have two little boys who are so cute and so fun. We play with them a lot and we trade off with babysitting. We decided that before we move we should do a weekend babysitting trade off so that Garrett and I and B& E could each get away for a couples weekend. Garrett and I went to the Great Barrier Reef and then B&E went off on their own adventure.  These are some of the adventures we had while they were gone.

We had SO Much fun-

 Gorilla's
On the bus on the way home from Maroubra Beach this afternoon-it was raining.
Ethne(3): "We should have brought a gorilla.
Dad: "You think we should have brought a gorilla? I think a gorilla would be too big."
Ethne: "See(points to lady with umbrella getting on the bus) she has a gorilla."
Dad: "I don't see a gorilla"
Ethne: "See right theyah. She has a gorilla"
 Forest(5): "Ethne it's not a gorilla it's a BRILLA"

Eyesight
At breakfast this morning Enoch was naming off people with good and bad eyesight.
Enoch: "Ezra and dad have bad eyesight and Ethne and Wesley and I and Forest have good eyesight"
after talking about it for a bit Forest pushed away his food, laid his head on the table, and started crying saying that Enoch was being mean.
Garrett: "What's the matter Forest?"
Forest: "Enoch is being MEAN"
Garrett: "How was Enoch being mean?"
Forest: "I feel like he's leaving me out. He's saying I have good eyesight."
:(

Uh-Oh-My house is NOT little kid proof.
During nap time I thought Wes was asleep because he was SO SO tired(falling asleep on the bus on the way home. I had to give him the ipod so he would stay awake) and he went down without even crying. Well that and the fact that he was completely quiet made me think he knocked out right away. Well, he pooped and then couldn't go to sleep and he got up and went in my bathroom and got into my makeup. He took the makeup into the bedroom and played in it. All over my bedding :( G cleaned up the blowout and I cleaned up the makeup. Here's to hoping it comes out and no more purple eye shadow.

P.S. Don't worry it miraculously came out of the bedding :) YEA!