Christmas day

This year it was Mr Divines brother and his wife's turn to host xmas day.

Oh what fun was had (my photos are in backwards order)

To finish the night my sis-in-law had sparklers which Boodles and her grandma played with.

There was fun in the pool.

Here's us girls. Katrina, Toni, me and Jacqui.

My gorgeous kids in their xmas outfits. Yep! Kind of corny I know, but I just had to make them matching outfits.

My two beauties in their outfits. One was a top and shorts and the other a dress. You know, the same but different.

I hope you had a blessed Christmas.

Steel Mill Christmas Party

My hubby use to work for the Steel Mill. Even though he's left, we still belong

to the Christmas Club. Every year they put on an amazing party for the kiddies.

I am loving this Christmas photo. It's so hard to get 3 kids looking in the same direction.

Who cares that it wasn't in MY direction. hehe

Our new kid

Mr Divine wanted to get a new lawn mower.......

and he did.

Meet Clara-belle.

31/2 weeks of kid cuteness.

But the thing that excites me the most is.......

I now know I will not be that crazy cat lady later on in life (like I thought I would). I will now the the goat governess.

Sick,sick,sick

I haven't been posting as everyone has been sick.

First Boodles got Viral Bronchitis. Which in plain english is a bad cough which meant time off school before the school holidays.

Then Peanut caught Chicken Pox. So we spent all the school holidays at home.

Then Peanut came right and Lulu had the Pox. She had them really bad.

So there goes another 10 days of my life I can't get back.

Today is the first day in about a month that all the kids are back at school or creche.

Then guess what.........? Yep! I'm sick with a tummy bug.

I really hope Im better by tomorrow as we are having a powhiri at school to welcome the new kapa haka teacher.

Pop over to Dees blog if you are a New Zealander and join in the fun.

Mika- Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)

Its my birthday today so I thought it deserved a theme song. This goes out to all us ladies out there with curves. Enjoy.

I'm flying Jack, Im flying

Need I say more. Think Titanic.

Boy! Does this man crack me up.

We took the kids to play on the pirate playground at Kaiaua.

Even though it was a rainy day, I didn't think I could cope with the bedlam inside. So I thought...take them outside so everyone could hear them. hehe

Kaiaua serves up the best fish and chips known to man.

This is how the locals collect drift wood. With tractors.

During a quick break in the weather we set the kids free on the beach.

The little kids slept on the way home and I think I could do the same.

2 year celebration

Two years ago today Peanut and Lulu came to live with us.

You can read about the first meeting here.

So our tradition is to go to dinner each year to celebrate.

Our daughter Boodles took this photo of us.

Here's our gorgeous Lulu (now 4yrs).

3 of our beauties.

Boodles (7), Peanut (3) and Lulu (4)

Dad's girls.

Father and son.

My gorgeous family. We all look so normal. hehe. You would never know that just before this photo Peanut did a huge burp and we said "say pardon" and he said "more" and let out another one. Yep that's my boy.

And later on Lulu was crawling around on the floor looking for her lost chicken nugget.

Happy 2 year anniversary family.

Storm Damage

New Zealand was hit by a huge storm last night. We got off quite light.

Our shade sail tore so Phil had to deal to it (see that stripped thing to the right? Its our peg bag that's tied to a line. As you can see its nearly flying).

A tree came down in the back paddock and took out a fence.

And this tree in the front fell over.

And here's Phil picking up the washing that has been strewn around the property. My neighbour 3 houses up the road tells me my knickers on her roof. lol.

Our posties fibre glass boat came through his ranch slider last night which would have been handy if their property flooded and friends nearly lost their roof. They had to re-fix it on this morning.

Flooding

We have had some bad flooding around our area.

Here are some daffodils.

The Waikato (pronounced Why-cut-oar) river spilling over the road.

See that post behind me? That's where the boats normally launch from.

This photo is just down the road from me. The flax bush is usually part of the garden and the white line to the left is the car park.

This house is going to need a boat to get to it.

Can you see the fence line in this paddock? NO, neither could we but it is there.

Our new arrival

Our new baby chick is part of a modern family consisting of two mums.

Actually the chook with its back to us (Aretha) is mum to the other black chook (Cher)
and for some reason they have taken on the role of co-parenting.

Filing cabinet makeover

This is one UGLY filing cabinet. It has a grey veneer that was kind of chipped and that helped add to the ugliness.

I looked up filing cabinet makeovers and found this one that I found inspiring.

I had a sample of Vision wallpaper that has a lovely textured suede feel and cost $7.00 (available in NZ at Resene). I turned it into this......

Oh so pretty. I am loving my new, old cabinet.

Boys at work

Peanut loves helping his dad doing all the farm chores.

Today it was wood chopping.

What a pair of cuties.