Summer holidays

Here are a few more photos from our time up north over christmas/New Year's. I've also added a couple of photos of a bit of work around the house we've done and Beck's new car!!! (I wouldn't mind swapping cars with her now!! :-) )

(CLICK ON THE PHOTOS TO ENLARGE!)

Josh playing with his new tent and tunnel.



Our beach trip to Bland Bay. Josh had a swim and built a sand car with Oma.





Josh playing with his tools and workbench (probably one of his favourite presents alongside Thomas)



Back at home and playing outside in the sandpit (which still has no sand).



Josh being Josh!!!!



He loves the dombi van!



Mums new car!!!






And last in this update a few photos of the spa pool/deck area with trellis up now too. We have put in trellis gates around the house too so that Josh is now 'locked' in :-) Looks good and the roses we planted round the front of the house as well as the new steps leading to the front door make a huge difference - it actually feels more and more like a home rather than a house on an empty section!

The end of 08

Sorry to those that keep checking back and have found no new updates since September. The end of the year kind of disappeared from us!

We have now sold the beetle and the garage is starting to look pretty empty. Finally some space to get back into the stretched kombi - will need to get on with it as we don't have any VWs anymore now.

Not much really happened (other than the beetle selling) between the last update and christmas. in November we had out first christmas with Donna and Rex (Beck's mum and new husband) as they were heading back over to Australia to continue their 'year' long holiday. Our second christmas was also early this year with Ross and Maz (Beck's dad and new wife) which would mean we wouldn't need to drive back from my parents between christmas up there and new years. Had a nice day out at Ross's work christmas work function for employees kids; it was huge!!! Set up like a big fair at the sports grounds with bouncy castle, rides, etc.... And all just for employees kids. Below are a few photos of Josh with his first ice block and the animals at the 'farm' from the Steelmill christmas function, as well as some from our christmas with Ross and Maz and a couple from at my parents. There will be more photos from our time up north but I have to load them onto the computer first!

Josh got the hang of opening presents real quick - only problem is that the paper can not be re-used once he's opened the present!! :-)

One of the favourites probably was Thomas - not a day when he doesn't want Thomas up so he can drag his toys into to play or just to play 'hide and seek'. With all that use it's no surprise that Thomas somtimes needs a little rest (and so did Opa so they had a nap together!!) :-)

One of the day trips to Russell from mum and dads and Josh had the dipping chips in sauce figured out real quick - wonder who taught him that??? Grandma???!!!??

His sandpit that he got from Oma and Opa - though we didn't bring the sand back with us and dad hasn't gone out to get him some for at home. We have filled one 1/2 with water so he could play in it though and he loved it.

Swimming and getting Beetle ready for sale

Spent a bit of time last weekend cleaning our beetle so that we could take some photos and start listing it in various places. It is now for sale :-( !

Also went swimming with Josh and Ross and Maz. Josh loves the water and is almost a little too confident at times! Not sure where he got that from (love of the water that is! not the being too cocky! :-p) as neither Beck nor myself are really 'water rats'. He goes swimming basically every week with Ross and Maz during the week so it was well overdue that he showed his parents how much he loves the water! Grandma got him a ride on the school bus after his swim - not sure if that is part of the normal routine!! I guess that's what grandmas are for - the things you wouldn't get from your parents! :-)

Brunch with Marcus and Toni

Had brunch with Marcus and Toni (our old neighbours from Papatoetoe) and Marcus took some nice pics of Josh - so here are a couple: (click to enlarge!)

Weekend with Oma and Opa

Josh and daddy spent a weekend up north at my parents (Oma and Opa) as Beck headed south to Hamilton to spend a night out on the town with Fleurt.

Had a good time up north with the weather being OK - not the best but at least we got a little bit of a walk outside and said hi to Luky and the cows. Josh now knows what the cows say - muhhh muhhh! He looks like a real little farmer in those overalls! He even helped with the cooking and drying dishes!

Finally a few more photos

Not sure how many of you actually look at this site - to date no-one has complained about lack of updates so maybe not too many of you look at it?

Anyway - finally got some more work done in the garden over the weekend and almost finished out planter boxes (haven't started on the ones round the front of the house yet though!) Also bought a spa pool so have a little work there to fit this in alongside the new deck we built last summer. Have it in the garage at the moment so that we can use it - so nice being able to soak and relax at night once Josh has gone to bed. Josh hasn't been in it yet though I'm sure he'd love to - will need to turn the temp down as it would be too hot for him at the moment.

Josh has been to a homeopath as we are trying to get him to stay off the antibiotics for his tonsils. They'll probably still have to come out but at least if we can keep them under control and keep his immune system up so that he doesn't get sick all the time then he won't need to be on antibiotics constantly! Time will tell if the sulphur tablets he's been given help or not. Will see the homeopath again in a couple of weeks - would be nice if he didn't get sick again over that time.

Other than that he is doind great - he loves being outside and helping daddy. And he's quite happy to do his own thing while daddy does his and doesn't really get in my way often. Will need to put up our trellis gates to close in the garden round the back of the house so he can run around without disappearing out to the garage or the cars. He hasn't gone down the drive but is pretty quick at making a dash for the cars parked round the front or to go and knock on the garage door!

Planning to go up to my parents this weekend (just Josh and me as Beck is going to Hamilton), since they havn't seen him for almost 2 months now as they've been in Germany.