A new year

Well just realised I hadn't posted anything for a really long time! A new year is always a good time to start again. I will do better this year at keeping a journal. So a quick update. Jake is now 10 and almost as tall as me. He is a great kid and still loves a cuddle with his mum! He does really well at school and this year will be trying some new things. He will be learning the drums and joining the choir at school, He will also rejoin the bearcats for another year at basketball which hopefully will improve his fitness. Alyssa is still dancing and loving every minute of it. She recently did a duo with carla and had a great time. She is a very good dancer and I hope she continues throughout her life dancing. I love watching her.  She tried netball last year but is too busy to do that again this year. I think she would be happy to have something on every day after school if time permitted! She is 8 and will be in grade 3 this year with one of jake's old teachers who we really liked. Maddie is a special little girl. She LOVES school and would rather be there than anywhere else. She is also dancing and has just done her first solo which was fanatastic! She is now 5 and will be in grade 1 this year. Maddie's teacher last year wanted to take her home with her! Nate is 4 and has started kindy. He has had a few hiccups with not wanting to leave me and having to start speech therapy but he enjoyed his first term in the end. He has gotten a bit more confidence lately so I am hoping that will continue this year. He still has the cheekiest smile and everyone just loves it when he smiles. I am studying this year and will probably start working at some point this year. I have also just about completed mb12wbt. I have started doing exercise every day which has made me feel so much better and now I feel weird if I don't exercise. That was one of my main goals in doing mb and I am happy to have done it. Jeff is still going between jobs but hopefully this year will bring something more permanent for him. Jeffs mum is coming to visit us at the end of January which will be good. Maddie and Nate have never met her so that will be good for them. Life is always busy but this year I am hoping to make a few changes with our family life that will improve our family. We have already started reading scriptures and having nightly family prayer so I am happy about that and the kids seem to be enjoying it. Lets hope we can continue to strengthen our family and make this a great year.

Update

Well its been awhile since I last blogged so will try my best to remember all thats been happening. We are currently in the middle of some renovations. Our bathroom has been demolished and our kitchen is about half done. We have a shower outside which I not really fond of. Found my first spider in there the other day! We were told the bathroom reno would be about 4-6 weeks but instead it will be about 4 months. Very stressful but I try to keep reminding myself that I will have a nice new bathroom soon:) We have also added to our family! We have a puppy called Rosie who came to us about 3 months ago. She is a dashound x maltese shitzsu and is very cute. Nate just loves her to pieces. They wrestle and roll around together on the floor. Mind you Nate also have scratches all over his arms from their playing. I worry about that but in the new year Im hoping to start getting her some training. She is a cute little dog and doesn't give us too much trouble otherwise. It has made the other kids not so fearful of other peoples dogs but it has made Jesse more scared! Funny kid:) Maddie has been really sick this term. She ended up in hospital last week because she was so dehydrated. Spent all day on the drip and had to go in twice before she stopped vomitting. She still looks washed out but is on the mend. Alyssa is starting Graceful girls solo and made the A team for cali. I think this year will be a lot harder for her but I think she will also enjoy it a lot. She has some great coaches. Jake has played a term of cricket but will start back to basketball next year. They are both still doing scouts which they love because their friends go. Its nice for Jeff to be involved too. Nate is still in nappies. I don't have the energy at the moment to deal with undies. Maybe in the school holidays. I did get rid of his dummy which wasn't as traumatic as I though it would be. The bottle is next to go which will probably happen soon. He only has 4 more sundays in nursery and then off to primary! Crazy how time flies. I also joined the gym recently and have enjoyed going with Kathy. I really do feel better after I excerise and I don't find it that hard to get up in the morning which I thought I would. I do get tired in the afternoon though after a 6am class. I am hoping to lose about 5 kgs but I am lacking a bit of motivation at the moment. Christmas is just about upon us and Im looking forward to all the festivities. Its a busy time but good also. I think Jeff is having a week off work which will be good. I am hoping that we can have more family time together in the new year!

Sydney Trip

During the school holidays I went to Sydney with Mum, Kathy and Eila for the Time Out For Women event. Dad had bought me the tickets for it for my birthday. We arrived on the Thursday about lunchtime and had an adventure trying to find the apartment we were staying in. We had to catch 3 trains with all our luggage. Probably not the best move as we had to carry it all up and down stairs. Eventually we got to our last stop and started walking to our hotel. We ended up walking the wrong way and had to stop on the side of a freeway. It was pouring with rain and I ended up calling the hotel to have someone pick us up. It turned out the hotel was only a 1 min walk in the other direction from the train. We were so soaked and tired by the time we got to the hotel. I think the laughs started from there and didn't end until we left to go home. I was glad that we were with such lovely people who enjoyed a laugh as much as me and mum did. We did a bit of shopping on the Thursday and had booked to go on a harbour cruise that night. Well because of the rain we couldn't get a taxi and almost missed the boat. I wasn't feeling that great and couldn't really eat much of my dinner but still enjoyed myself. Friday was another day of shopping and eating. We met Rachel after lunch and saw some sights of the city. By the end of the afternoon I think mum and eila were about ready to crash after so much walking and we eventually found the marriott where we had a nice dinner and lots more laughs! Saturday was the event we were all waiting for. Almost 2000 women gathered together at the Olympic Park for the TOFW. There was so much excitement in the air and I think we all knew we were in for such a wonderful day. It didn't disappoint. The day went by so quickly before we knew it, it was over. I was really touched by the music by Hillary Weeks and look forward to listening to some more of her music. All of the speakers touched me in some way or another. It was like they were feeding my spirit with all the things I needed to hear. I am ready to make some changes to make the next 6 months of this year better. 2 Quotes in particular that stood out to me was 'Don't be the one thing standing in your way" and "Take time to stand still and hold your children a little longer" They are only children for such a short time and then they will be adults for the rest of eternity. I came out of the conference feeling like I was doing a good job but there are still lots of improvements I could make in my life and the life of my family. I felt really uplifted. Normally when I hear about what I should be doing and so forth I get down about the type of person I am but during this experience I felt like I was doing ok and I felt like I have the strength to be a better person without getting the negative feelings I usually get. It was great to share the experience with such close friends and family. Only wish more of my loved ones could have shared it with me. I hope I can continue to develop and grow into the wife, mother, daughter and friend that I am supposed to be.

Another busy week!

I have another busy week this week as life pushes us along. Alyssa has her first sub junior cali comp this weekend. It will pretty much take up all of sat and sun. She has worked really hard this year and I'm hoping the girls get rewarded for their efforts and have a placing. I think I will be really nervous for them but I know they have worked really hard. Can't wait to see all their completed costumes. I still haven't finished sewing but hoping to have that done by wednesday. I'm also getting a massage with Kathy this week and can't wait for that. Jeff and I went to the stake ball last friday with Kathy and Matt. We enjoyed ourselves even though we thought the ball could have been better. I am so grateful for Matt and Kathys friendship. I love spending time with them and look forward to creating lots more memories with them.

Maddie's first cali comp

Well last weekend Maddie had her first cali comp. Her group competed with 6 other teams and did really well. Some of the girls were so tiny and cute. Maddie did so well again and had no trouble remembering all the things she had to do. She even tried to get the girls off the stage after the march when they wouldn't' budge. It was so cute. She is really looking forward to being with Miss Kristen soon. Hopefully she continues to enjoy her dancing. She is also starting swimming lessons this week which should be exciting for her. I think she will do great as she just loves the water and was swimming with floaties last year by herself. She is starting with Kaleb and I'm looking forward to watching them both learn to swim.

New worries

I have been most worried about Jake the last couple of months. He has started blinking his eyes a lot and sniffing constantly. First I took him to the eye doctor but his vision is fine. The optometrist suggested eye drops for dry eye. That didn't really work so I then put him on allergy meds but that did nothing as well. Next I took him to the docs and he put him on nasal spray and eye drops. That was 2 weeks ago and there has been no improvement. Back to the docs this week to see that the next step will be. Jeff looked up something called tourettes syndrome. Not sure if this is what Jake has but hopefully we can get some answers soon and Jake can get some relief.