garden, turtle and beyond

Last week for Family Home Evening it was all about planting a garden.  We went to our local home improvement store (Bunnings...it is just like The Home Depot...and it has the same affect on me as The Home Depot.. could walk around that place for hours). 

Of course the kids had fun with the dirt.  We had wanted to plant a garden last year but never actually got around to doing it so we are pretty excited about it this year.

 muddy paws

A little tender mother daughter moment with the plants. :)

Alrighty, so we have beans, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, tomatoes, onions, zucchini & carrots.  Exciting stuff!

To end our gardenie ish FHE we had dirt cups for dessert.  Always yum!

I have a few bits and pieces from the last week or so.  I loved this pic of Lucy and Jack.

This pic cracks me up.  Alivia made Rex a whole king costume and he totally loved it.  He sat there on his throne and ate it up.  He was serious as can be too!  It was hilarious!

Jack loves his hands.  You will often hear him gagging because he has both fists in his mouth.  e loves sucking on his fingers.

Here Lucy is being a turtle.  I love the fun things kids come up with.

Last night we met some friends at the beach for a BBQ.  Rex & Kip both had their Cheeky shirts on.  Rex is being cheeky and not smiling. :)

birthday boy

We had fun celebrating Rex's birthday last week.  He loves Lego so this year his cake was a Lego cake.

Opening presents is always a highlight...

For breakfast he requested a bacon and cheese roll...followed up by a nice goblet of milk. :)

I remember one year, I think it was his 3rd birthday, we gave him a box of brownies and he went crazy, he was so excited.  This year I wrapped up a pineapple and he was thrilled!!!

I also made him a ninja outfit.  He wants to start a ninja group with his mates.

We had friends over for some cake and ice cream and sparklers.

Lots of yummy cupcakes for his class at school.

We celebrated Rex's birthday with our friend Wes who was also having a birthday (Wes is the dad to the non Finch kids in the picture.)  We celebrated by going together to see Despicable Me.  Cute movie!

He may have been a little excited about his Lego airplane. :)  Happy Birthday, Rex!!  Hugs and kisses all around.

two hands old

REX!!  We had one happy boy this morning!  One of the first things he said when he woke up is that he is no longer one hand old...he is two.  Rex turned 6 years old today and can now use both hands to show people his age.  Pretty exciting stuff! 

{i love his dirty, chubby face in the photo above}

i love the relationship he shares with alivia.  They have been two peas in a pod since he was born.  I love the relationship he has with all of his siblings...even though he & Lucy fight like cats & dogs on a daily basis.

He as always been a sweet boy.

he has always loved being free to run around in his undies...

he loves his 3D glasses and wears them all over town...it is pretty funny and pretty darn cute..

his chubbiness as a toddler killed me...i loved it!

{look closely you can see the drool string dangling from his mouth....oh and his snotty nose. :) }

serious ghouls

lettuce heads...a favorite at our house

He has always LOVED dressing up in costumes and getting into character...

He has always kept us laughing...he is one of a kind and we love him!

Sometimes the costumes were WAY too small.

i love his brown eyes!

i love all of his hundreds of drawings we have scattered around the house... 

We all love our Rexbo dude!  Happy 6th Birthday, handsome boy!!

all smiles

Mr. Jack is 4 months old.  A few weeks ago he was weighed and he tipped the scales at 6.8 kg. which is roughly 15 lbs. I believe.  He is starting to get taller..and still sporting his round belly.  He is such a happy baby.  All of my kids have been fairly great babies, but Jack just seems to have this calmness about him.  I felt that from him the second he was born when the nurse handed me him all burritoed up.  He just stared at me and didn't cry much.

A few days ago I was putting things away and he was in his bouncer chillin and I stopped, looked over at him and he was starring at me.  I have said this a million times, but he truly melts my heart.  He gave a me a little wiggle and a huge grin.

He loves attention and will generally flash you a smile when you look at him. 

 He is also a rolling maniac at the moment.  I had him on the floor in my room and I went to throw something away and when I got back he was gone.  I panicked for a sec and then I heard a sucking sound and found him under my bed, one fist in his mouth and the other hand holding his toes.  He paused from eating his fist,   then he smiled one of those huge eye disappearing grins.  He is just tooo dang cute..dang it!  I love him!

Jeff and Ashley bought him a three pack of Utah Jazz onesies.  It is never too early to introduce them to sports, right?  I have been a Jazz fan since I was a little girl.  I played basketball and always wore #32 in honor of Karl Malone & my friend Melanie wore #12 for John Stockton.  I had a poster in my bedroom of Karl Malone by a mailbox holding a basketball and it said, "The Mailman delivers."  Pretty funny stuff.  Anyway, so we were very excited for Jack to wear his Jazz attire...thanks J&A. 

Yesterday,Alivia was asking me how I share my love between daddy and all the kids and  she wanted to know how much I love all each them.  She asked me how much I loved her.  I had to tell her that there is no possible way to even describe how much I love her.  I can try, but I think a mother's love or a father's love is too deep for words.  I think she understood...but it got me thinking.  I often look at my little family and feel really happy (don't get me wrong, I truly love them...but,I don't always love every minute...refer back to my wanting to pull my hair out post a while back...:) BUT, I am trying to enjoy life, motherhood and everything that goes along with it...more and more).  They make me happy and I feel really, REALLY blessed to have what I have.  Make sense? In a nutshell, I love my husband...I love my kids!

fun times with jeff, ash & jamo

2 weeks of fun

We really love having our families visit us.  My brother Jeff and sis in-law Ashley and nephew Jamisen were here for the last two weeks!!  I know how long that flight is, especially with kiddos, so we are really grateful they made the trip over.  The time always goes in a flash...but we are happy we had two full weeks with them showing them around our hood. :)

We spent plenty of days walking around and exploring downtown Sydney.  I pretty much stink when it comes to directions...I gave them several not planned driving tours around the city as I tried to find spots to park...it almost became funny as I would take a wrong turn or go down a road or car park and then have to flip the car in reverse.  We did a few trip to the city while the kids were at school and Jared was at work....so I was on my own to be the tour guide...kinda scary when it comes to directions....I have to go a certain place a gazillion times before I remember how to get there.  Jared is a champ when it comes to tour guiding and directions..I think I'll hire him :).

We had to stop at the Gelatissimo stand for some gelato in Daring Harbour.

oh and of course a quick stop at the Lindt Chocolate Cafe.

We took a ferry out to Watson's Bay...Jeff & Ashley took the hike up to the beautiful lookout while I stayed at the bottom with the kids and strollers.  It is whale watching season so Lucy & I were looking for whales...we didn't see one, but I got some good pondering in...the ocean does that to you...I love it.

There is a delicious Fish-n-Chip shop at Watson's Bay...the sea gulls were surrounding us doing some "mine, mine" action...finally Lucy gave in and threw a fry to them...there was a full on battle happening right before us.

Some of the highlights from their trip were:

*going to Parklea Market on the look out for the perfect pair of Uggs for Ashley and finding other Australian souvenirs to take home.

*We went to Manly beach and decided to try a new burger place there called Burger Me.....ummm, Gag Me is more like it.  The burgers had a funky shape and they were purple.  We all tried choking it down and didn't talk about how gross it was until we were on our way home...we all kept having scary flashback.....grossest burger yet! (And it was Ashley's bday...bummer bday lunch)

*Loved all the sights in the city...Opera House, Botanical Gardens, Pancakes on the Rocks, Ferry rides, Circular Quay and Darling Harbour.

*Driving out to the Blue Mountains.  Jared and Jeff went on a beautiful hike with a friend and we picked them up later and went on a beautiful drive.

*A few occasions when we all crammed in the car...naughty...I know.  That was an adventure.

*Featherdale Wildlife Park...Rex hopped off the path to see a rooster...rooster didn't like it...rooster let Rex know by flapping his wings, jumping on his head, scratching his face and pecking his forehead.  I didn't see it, but everyone else said that it would have won the grand prize on America's Funniest Home videos.  Poor kid!

*We took a 3 day trip 3 hrs. south to Jervis Bay.  I had booked a cabin in a place called Sussex Inlet.  We didn't realize until we got there that the last half hour is spent on a bumpy dirt road surrounded in bush and kangaroos hopping by your car.  It was incredible and the only way to the place we were staying.  We were the only people staying there.  The beaches were gorgeous, we went kayaking and had kangaroos visit us at our cabin door.  (one more Rex story...Rex thought the sliding door was open and went charging into it...smacked it...sliced his lip, chipped his teeth...poor kid again...he is always getting hurt.  Funny thing is, I have spent the night in the emergency room with all of my kids except Rex.  Alivia had stitches twice and Lucy was sick and Jack was sick just this last weekend and had to stay the night at the hospital.)

The water was crystal clear, unfortunately it was kinda breezy, but we still had a good time.  We also went to Hyams beach which we have been told has the whitest sand in the world.

Hymas Beach..of course the pic doesn't do the place justice.

We drove down through the Kangaroo Valley...probably one of the most beautiful drives.  We stopped at a great look out.

I made my kids fan their beloved mother...then they had a sword fight.

Sussex Inlet

The beach had a ton of huge sea shells...we brought home a great collection.  Jeff eating brekky with the kids at the cabin. 

(the long white shell looking things Rex called shark tongues.  He said he wants to sell them...cute!)

moi, Jeff and Ash sporting our blackish hats

Rex & Jared wore their wet suits and headed into the waves.  Rex was awesome on his body board!!  He loves it.  Jeff had a turn with the wet suit and took Rex out too.

Ahh, all of us on the last night.  We miss them...tears have been shed...even today...Lucy cried and told me she wanted Jeff, Ashaaleee and Jamisen to come back.  We loved having them with us!!

We took 10 million pics so I made a slide show above with some of our favs. :)