White Christmas

Our real Christmas tree, a little unruly but that suits our home.

For the first time since we were married it snowed on Christmas Day where we were living. It was not a huge amount but we loved it.

Our four beautiful children. Simon is one, Bridgette nine, (little!) Ammon twelve and

Ricky fourteen.

Here is a little video for the grandparents. Simon was wondering why him playing with his new toy was big deal but he had such a cute look on his face, I could not resist.

Rick's Birthday present

Rick's back was a little stiff on his birthday. I had to laugh when I walked in on this scene and had to shoot this video unbeknown to Rick. The kids treated him to quite a lengthy massage. I think Simon was a little put out about not being the center of attention.

Proof I am my Father's son!

Simon has been very comfortable on the stairs these past few weeks as he has been going up and down them for several months. He has been worrying me about being too casual on them. I should have put the gates back up but alas I ignored these feelings and on 9/9/09 he fell from the top stair landing spread eagle on the wood floors at the bottom. He broke both bones in the lower left arm. They are "green stick breaks" so they should heal up quickly. His cast is from shoulder to hand but he seems happier with the cast on as he can move around without worrying about hurting his arm again. Here are a couple of pictures. The boy in the one picture is a friend across the street who broke his arm a couple of weeks ago. Simon has a partner in crime!

Sheep Stations and Swimming

Our little Bridgette swam very well the other night in the swim meet. This video is for the enjoyment of Grandparents mostly. Bridgette is the swimmer closest to the camera. She did win the heat and ended up with two firsts and two seconds for the meet. Please excuse the over enthusiastic Mother cheering on her daughter, she sounds as if sheep stations were on the line! So many other great and wonderful things have happened these past few weeks but I am afraid I am too far behind so I will just start from now.

Garden adventure.

I had been waiting for a perfect day to take the kids to the Missouri Botanical Gardens and that day was Thursday. It was 72 degrees (about 25 for my down under friends) and no rain in the forecast. The Gardens are expansive and very beautiful. This photo reminded me of a scene from the Fellowship of the Ring, perhaps a little less grand!

Here we are approaching the Japanese gardens, apparently the largest in North America. The kids are fascinated with all things Japanese and Chinese so they loved the walk through here.

We had fun feeding giant goldfish, I think that is what they are called. These fish would hold their enormous mouths out of the water to catch the pellets of feed. A little unsettling.

A rare reflective moment. I think they were just tired but it makes me feel better to write reflective.

Bridgette was excited when we ran into some friends. Ryan is always fun to hang out with.

The Children's garden was wonderful. Ammon was impressing the ladies with his musical talents

The Chapman's were also visiting the gardens. Kim tried to give me some relief but Simon is a Momma's boy.

Everyone, put your hands together for.....

Our Simon constantly amazing us with his little milestones, babies are awesome!

Lots on my Mind!

My Dad had open heart surgery last week, he is doing OK and will be home soon. Of course he is on the other side of the world which means all I can do is wish him well but he is always in our prayers. My good sister Jodi has been taking care of things for him and Mum, not an easy task. Love you Jodi! We are also keeping my Grandad in our prayers, he is very close to passing from this world and we are hoping his last few days are as peaceful as possible. He has had a good long life.
Simon has been sick with a cold that became an ear infection and then a double ear infection as he didn't respond to the antibiotics. I have had just a few minutes here and there to do all the things I need to get done before Simon has to be held again. The one great thing is that he loves to be outside. I put him in the wagon and we go out into the backyard and he watches me garden. So even though the house is not the cleanest right now my yard is looking better than ever. Plus he loves the stroller so I have been walking everyday just to give us both a little peace and quiet. I had forgotten how the days run together with a baby and that a lot of it is done sleep deprived but I love it. I wish I had been as understanding with the older three, oh well, hopefully they are not too damaged! Here's hoping this new antibiotic does the trick and life can return to whatever normal is, at least before the neighborhood pool opens this weekend.
Bring on Summer. We can't wait for water guns, barbeques, swim team, movies, campouts, sleeping in and most importantly no homework!

Good bye Luna

We said good bye to our little Luna today. A nice family who live on a 200 acre farm here in Missouri were looking for a new dog as their rat terrior passed away recently. Luna took to them right away. We had been looking for a nice family who would like to adopt her and couldn't believe how lucky we were to find such a great situation for Luna.
It turns out Simon has some respiratory issues from the ventilator in the NICU, he will grow out of it eventually but they recommend not having pets until he is older. Luna has not been keen on Simon and she had snapped at him a few times now that he is crawling.
I never knew how hard it would be to say good bye to a pet. We have had Luna since she was a puppy and the house really does feel empty without her. The children are very sad, we all sat in the living room and cried together after Mike the farmer drove away with Luna. She was sitting excitedly on the front seat of his truck, happy to go for a ride. I hope she knows we love her. I think she will be happy, running around a farm with the 2 other dogs that live there and all the other animals. We are going to go visit her in the Summer.
I admit I have grumbled about the barking, the shedding, the need for a dog sitter etc but I am really going to miss her, after all she has been my little companion these past few years and I took her for granted. Thanks for the walks and the friendship Luna. Are there dogs in Heaven? I hope so!

Spring break with the super fun Auntie Jodi

My sister Jodi came to visit for ten days. We had seen her just last year so it was a real treat to have family visit from Australia again. Jodi had come to the states for the wedding of a good friend and made time for us afterward. It was by chance that her trip coincided with the kids spring break, we had a lot of fun together and the children are really missing their Auntie Jodi as am I! St Louis has so many great things to do. This is the City Museum although Jodi couldn't figure out why it was called that since it was mainly an incredible playground for children built from recycled materials. We had a blast! Jodi says the burger was representative of her time in America and that she is going home to be a vegetarian, or something along those lines!

If you look closely you can see people crawling through the wire cage bridge suspended high above the ground, Rick and the kids went through, Jodi and I were happy to just observe that activity.

You do not want to mess with these three, no really you don't, they do mean business!!

Ammon is probably about to intervene in this apparent moment of Ricky forgetting about girl cooties!

Okay we are officially exhausted!

Simon is never ready to quit playing.

Auntie Jodi sees her first American snow, it was only a dusting but she thought it was cool nonetheless.

Go Bridgette, gotta love those bumpers.Bowling was great. Auntie Jodi had a rough start when she tried to bowl the ball backwards and injure bystanders, we had a good laugh at her expense but she made us all look bad by the end when she gave us a good thrashing on the scoreboard.

Ammon is a serious bowler. The pins run for cover when they see him coming.

What is this? The professional league? Please stop making the rest of us look bad.

Ricky resting from his intense bowling strategy of using a precise ping pong method with the help of the bumpers to get a respectable score and even a strike!

The St Louis Zoo

The kids loved the hippos as the fish in their enclosure were biting the poop off the hippos bottoms. Unfortunately the photos we took of this practice didn't work out, please contain your disappointment. We are so classy!

Auntie Jodi loves the zoo, the weather was perfect. It reminds her so much of our home!

"A Midsummer Night's Dream"

A friend of mine named Erin decided she wanted to put on a play so her children would enjoy learning Shakespeare. She found an adaptation of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for children ( no running naked through forests etc). What was meant to be a small production became, well, a big production. I volunteered to do the costumes and though there were some late nights it turned out to be a lot of fun. Our friend Erin directed and the children went to rehearsals for about six weeks at her home, she has a large home so it was also the venue for the play. Bridgette was a fairy and Queen of the Amazons (how fitting!!). All the children had a wonderful time and Bridgette can't wait to do another play.I have included some great shots of Bridgette. By the way these photos were taken by the same great couple that took our family photos in the fall, Becca and Ben Munson.