Catching Up

I have not been home much lately so have not had any time to deal with my photos and blog. So, here we are! These are just some random photos from the last few weeks. I'm watching some of the Rugby World Cup England vs France game at the moment, so forgive me if there are typos in this post! :)

Zoe "helping" with the washing.

Looking good Zoe!

This is the tooth brushing step (when we can get Zoe to stay there, that is).

I helped Sophia make some snowmen with her play dough. Those round things on the front...they are supposed to be buttons. :)

Sophia's "bandage" to help with a "bump on her head."

These were the springs that used to be holding up Sophia's mattress. I forgot to take a photo of it still on the cot. They have been around since I was a baby, and were getting rusty and catching the mattress and making holes in it. We had a good craftsman, Martin, make a wooden replacement.

He made this out of recycled New Zealand Rimu. It's so beautiful, it was a bit of a shame to cover it up with a mattress! If anyone needs anything done, I highly recommend him!

The girls here enjoying an All-American snack of graham crackers and milk. Thanks for sending some to us, kind people in Alabama!

I have a photo of Sophia with these on somewhere, but my iphoto is still so messed up that I can't find it! I wanted to see how similar they look. Oh well. Maybe I'll find it one day. They both think they're so cool wearing their sunnies. :)

Spring Cleaning

After all the sickness, we had to do some serious cleaning. The carpet especially was not looking so great. Travis picked up a Rug Doctor and got to work. He cleaned the carpets in Sophia's new room, the spare bedroom, and our rug in the lounge (that just kind of smelled like feet).

This is a photo of the water after it had been run through the carpets. Gross! We obviously should have done this ages ago!

Our house was turned upside down! Thankfully the girls went to the neighbors' for a couple of hours so we could get some things done without having to worry about what they were getting into. Thanks Francoise and Jill!

Clean carpet in the new spare bedroom (Sophia's old room). I believe Lori and Joe will be the first guests to use this new spare room. Sorry it's so small!

Sophia's new bedroom trying to get dry. Actually this will be home to Zoe as well. We will be moving her in soon. We'll see how that goes! I'll post pics of this when it's all set up with their things back on the wall.

Reflections on Being Sick

WARNING: This post may be a bit graphic for some readers! To the left is a photo to set the scene for you. :) Travis called this "the double ended flu" and you can see we were prepared.

This has been a pretty tough winter with sicknesses for us. The past month was especially bad with a really bad cold for almost 2 weeks, then a flu that got to all of us. Zoe was first on a Wednesday night, then Sophia started on Friday evening. Travis was up with her until about 5 am and slept for about an hour before it hit him. I got up about 45 minutes after he did with the same thing.

Around 8 am I called our neighbors to see if someone could come over to help with the girls as Travis and I were still getting everything out of our systems. Jill came and took care of the girls while Travis and I took turns in our little toilet room. This was an occasion when we really could have used more than one! Catherine came over to relieve Jill, and then Sandy came with the ingredients to make what always sounds so good to me after being sick...chicken noodle soup. Sandy and Catherine helped move the laundry along, which was so helpful since we went through every sheet for Sophia's bed we had, plus one of ours Travis put on there when all of hers were used up. Sandy stayed pretty much all day, and even came back that night when Sophia threw up two more times.

The next day did not include much more coming out of our bodies, but Travis and I still felt awful, especially Travis since he had hardly slept the night before. Jill came over again, as well as Catherine and Sandy, and this time Andrea too.

Being sick is so much more difficult with kids! I mean, it's horrible enough when it was just us (we got it over Christmas two years in a row), but it's even worse when there are little ones who still need to be taken care of. We are so incredibly thankful for our good friends who came over to help us cope. Sandy and Catherine both got sick after being here. Andrea got a bit sick, but Jill was the lone one who survived coming here and not getting it. They sacrificed their health to help us. We are so blessed by the love we received! We were also really thankful it happened on a weekend so people were actually around to help us.

Travis and I were talking during/after this episode that we take our health for granted pretty much every day. Most days we wake up, our bodies are able to get out of bed (even if they may not feel like it), and get going with our day. We can walk, see, talk, drive, make food, get little ones dressed, eat, shop, play, laugh, work, etc. I am not thankful enough that my body works as well as it does. Seeing my grandparents get older shows me that my body will not always work this way. One of the last things my grandpa said to me was, "Don't get old Brooke." Well, that I cannot help! But I can be thankful each day that I have the strength to do the things I need to do.

Wynyard Quarter

We decided to get out and enjoy the sunshine yesterday morning and went to explore the newly redeveloped Wynyard Quarter on Auckland's waterfront.

A piano just sitting out for anyone to enjoy. :)

Sophia and I on a somewhat pointless walkway (it doesn't go very far, and doesn't really take you anywhere different from point A to point B), looking down at Zoe and Travis.

I love that this view is walking distance from my house.

A big boat down in the harbour.

Goofy face of Sophia throwing sand at the playground.

Zoe trying to play as best as she can! She will be unstoppable when she can walk on her own. She did enjoy a snack of sand, as well as going up and down the steps.

There's the walkway in the background. The park designers have tried to incorporate the industrial area into the design of things, which makes for a very interesting place.

More of the park and the Skytower in the background.

I thought these toilets were clever. :)

Being Home

We have been home a lot lately because Sophia and I have been sick.

These first two photos show the disadvantage of being home more often (the mess they make!). I am glad they can play so contentedly at home though, and I'm glad they love books, especially Sophia.

Here is the advantage...dinner is ready at 11 am. :)

Too bad I left the burner on for about 2 1/2 hours without realising it! Doh! Thankfully it wasn't too bad and we were still able to eat it. I have GOT to get a new slow cooker.

Just a Few Pics

I am trying to be better about snapping pics as we go about our life. Here are just a few from the last couple of days.

I was folding the clean washing and Sophia was playing with the dolls' house we got last week at the toy library. It's up on the table to Zoe (aka Destructo) can't get it.

Also while I was folding the washing, Zoe found a bottle that was meant for storage and was just chewing on it and bringing it everywhere with her.

It's been so cold here in the mornings, I decided to get Sophia a robe, or dressing gown, to wear. I think she likes it.

We just picked this up from the toy library today. It's supposed to be a butterfly, but we think it's a bit off. Oh well. She loves it so far and it's a good one for the winter. :)

Here's our little butterfly eating her dinner.

Zoe's First Birthday (a few weeks late)

I've been neglecting my blog again, but here are some pics from Zoe's first birthday, finally! We had a mid-winter feast and included Zoe's birthday as part of it. With an older sister, she doesn't get to be the center of attention very often, so she enjoyed it very much.

This is the little cake I made for Zoe from my mini-bake oven cake tins that my mother saved. Thanks Mom!

And here's the cake for the rest of us.

Very happy birthday girl!

Singing "Happy Birthday." She was a bit confused by the candle.

Yay!

The icing was her favourite part, once she got into it.

Let's wash it down with a beer, shall we?

Happy Birthday my sweet Zoe girl! You are a pleasure to have as a daughter; a challenge at times, but very much a lovely girl. We are so glad you are part of our family.