My lil' Ella Bella Butt Butt

Kids are all one of a kind.....and this saying is so true of my lil Ella Bella. Here's some of the happs in her world lately

I needed a blood test so we went out to see Phelbotomist Extrodinaire (Aunty Beezy) in Kumeu this morning. She was telling me the other day that she thinks it's good for kids to see their Mums have blood tests so they can realise they're not bad and scary. Wise advice I think, even though I hope Ella won't ever need one in her whole life!

A couple of nights ago using Mum and Dad's bed as a trampoline turned into a bloody mess (literally!). Ella came running out of the room screaming with blood dripping from her face. I was scared it might from a tooth being knocked out, but it was just a bleeding nose from bumping it on Faith's leg

One of Ella's fun things to do is play with pens and put the lids on her fingers

She loves to line things up (like pens, blocks, puzzle pieces, stickers, lollies, anything)

Last week I heard her running around saying 'come on horsey'. When I saw her 'horsey' I was miffed......an unravelled roll of masking tape?!?!?1

Ella insisted on putting her knickers on herself...good one!

Green fingers

I've always enjoyed gardening. As a child/teenager I'd have bursts of gardening out the back of Mum and Dad's house.....with varying success. I remember doing great courgettes one year and beans another. The mint that Mum and I planted was very very successful....I've learned from that never to plant mint unless it's contained in a pot!

After we moved into Robertson Road last year I was chuffed and excited at the prospect of being able to start a vege garden after 4 years of living at Pupuke....driveway at the front door, concrete path at the back door. No place for a patch :(

I was a bit late in getting started (boxing day) so it didn't do too well. We got about 3 good tomatoes, quite a bit of  spinach and not much else. I was hopeful about my cauli and brocolli but they ended up going to seed.

This year I'm pretty determined to get it going really well. So far we've planted lots of seeds that are growing away on the deck in little pots.

We've got cucumber, cherry tomatoes, courgette, peas, beans, basil, brocolli, cauliflower, strawberries, chives....and a lemon tree and passionfruit vine as well.

I'm excited about this for a few different reasons:
-getting out in the fresh air to work in the garden (a little exercise!)
-spending quality time with the girls (and Daddy Joe) and teaching them about nature
-eating healthy food that we've grown ourselves
-saving money by growing our own veges

I'll keep posted with our progress.....

This was the garden along the front of the house in the pictures on trademe when we first came across the house

The garden along the kitchen window before I had a go at it.

Front of house before we moved in.

Now ready for planting

This was the grassy patch behind where Joe parks his truck. Now it has a lemon tree, about 6 tomato plants, oregano, fennel and flat leaf parsley.

This has a mixture of vege seedlings + the love rocks that we painted last week for FHE. We hope the family of rocks will look after our garden and help the veges grow big and yummy for us!

Dry Packing

On Tuesday 26th August, 2008 I did dry packing for the first time. I know the date precisely because the next morning my waters broke with Faith and the day after she was born.

Anyways, since that very first time when Barbara Custer showed me how to do it, I've thought it's a brilliant idea and wanted to take advantage of it. Do other people just think they'll be ok with no food in a disaster or something? I'd hate my family to go hungry and watch my children starving just because I didn't pack and store food in case of a disaster (that will surely come one day!) That reminds me, I need to get on to storing more water.

Since moving to Henderson Stake I haven't done much, only a couple of sacks of rice. So it's time to get back into the habit of adding to our food storage. On the 1st thursday of each month I'm aiming to add to what we've already got. Even if it's just one $5 bag of flour like I did last week. It all adds up right.

Now that the girls are getting older I figure they can get involved too, either by pushing on the foot pedal or drawing on the bags or something. Then we'll use Daddy Joe's muscles to carry the bags to the garage. Seffy can help by looking cute and watching!!!!

There's info about the basics of home storage here if you're reading this thinking you might like to start/continue on your welfare gathering. I think it's about time I looked over myself it to check off how we're doing. I know we're definitely lacking with water which is a bit of a worry. And I remember hearing once that general conference time is a good chance to check children's packs and possibly change the clothes they've got as they grow so much. Better do that since it's conference this weekend......Actually come to think of it I have nothing for my Seffy so there's something I need to do pronto!

And speaking of Conference, here's some pics of how we did it this year.....We got in our church clothes and got the girls set up with popcorn, church books, Friend Magazines, colouring pencils, etc. Seffy laxed out on the tri-pillow and me and Daddy Joe sat on the couches reading. I really liked doing it like this.

The Armor of God

I always do our FHE lessons....always.
 A couple of weeks ago I asked Daddy Joe to do it. He moaned and groaned about it and then said 'well give me an idea at least!!!'.

So I suggested teaching the girls about the Armor of God.

I think it was a novelty to have their Dad teach them something in that setting (not that he doesn't teach them things all the time!) & I think he liked doing it as well. Maybe I should call on him to do it more often.

Ella was pretty excited to dress up in the 'armour of God' that was found in the garage.

I'm not sure how much they'll remember specifically about what the armour of God means, but I know they'll remember the night Dad got his work things out of the garage for them to dress up in!!!!

Pizza Pizza

Last week I did something for the girls that most kids would have done in their lives at least once.....topped their own pizza.

I made the pizza bases (thanks for the breadmaker Aunty Nae and Uncle Stanie) and then prepped the stuff to go on top. I was quite excited about getting the girls up at the table to make their pizzas cause I thought they'd really love it. I was half right.

Faith did, Ella didn't. She smiled when everything was put in front of her and then went mental when I put the tomato paste on the base for her to spread out. I have no idea why, but I couldn't talk her around to joining in. She ended up crying hysterically in her room while Faith and I made the pizzas.

When they came out of the oven she was super excited to see 'her' pizza and eat all the pineapple off it!!! Kids!!?!?!? Sometimes they make no sense.