Summer days

It's been HOT! Not a fun adjustment coming from DC winter, but we are living in a house with air conditioning and certainly putting it to good use.

Now that we have the internet up and running I can start posting more family pics...

Emma being three for the first time!

 My incredibly cheap decoration

(yes, singular, as in, "I'm such a bad mum I made one decoration for my daughters birthday" ha!)

 Emma with her cousin Finn and the Hungry Little Caterpillar cake.

The face was squashed against the lid, but thankfully I was able to sort of drag it back into something like a caterpillar face.

Swimming with Daddy after eating some caterpillar.

I've discovered a great and cheap way to entertain the kids on these hot days - a bowl and some ice.

 Apparently it's really funny....

 They've been asking for ice ever since. It's sweet because they will sit together and giggle. I love watching their friendship develop.

Happy 3rd Birthday Emma Grace!

Sunday was Emma's 3rd birthday. Undoubtedly the most traumatic so far . . .she was excited to go into Granny's Sunday School class (my mum teaches the 3/4 year olds) and poor Emma was so overwhelmed. I stayed for a while at her request then snuck out, only to be called back again shortly afterwards by one of the other teachers. I was glad to have the privilege of watching her in her first SS class.

She was practically skipping (not that she can actually skip yet, she does more of a  dainty horse-trot) along with Lyle to the car afterwards telling him about Zacchaeus being up the tree. I think she called him the 'little man' which is fair enough, I had to google how to spell him.

My parents very kindly purchased a bike for our princess (and we bought the helmet, ha!)

We celebrated with Emma's cousins at my parents house (we were thankful for the pool on a hideously hot day). I made some cupcakes and a round cake and turned them into the Hungry Little Caterpillar.

Afterwards we had a swim and in the end we had a very tired, and very happy 3 year old girl.

Martin Luther Quote

Taken from The Gospel Coalition blog yesterday:

In fact, Luther's translation would be so influential and widespread that German humanist Johann Cochlaeus pretentiously complained that,

Luther's New Testament was so much multiplied and spread by printers that even tailors and shoemakers, yea, even women and ignorant persons who had accepted this new Lutheran gospel, and could read a little German, studied it with the greatest avidity as the fountain of all truth. Some committed it to memory, and carried it about in their bosom. In a few months such people deemed themselves so learned that they were not ashamed to dispute about faith and the gospel not only with Catholic laymen, but even with priests and monks and doctors of divinity.

Update

All is well with the Wetherston's.

We have moved into our new house - which is great. The kids are sick - much less great. Random fact: William is allergic to Emma's antibiotic so I feel slightly paranoid whenever I prepare to dose them up multiple times a day!

Our house feels massive in comparison to our little 2 bedroom apartment in DC. It's such a sweet blessing from the Lord. Emma woke this morning in a terrified state to the 'monkeys' disguised as Kookaburra's greeting the morning sun just before 5am (oh summer . . .) and managed to find her way to our bed for a couple of hours. Yesterday it was 3am as she was just plain terrified being yet again in a new environment. I suppose the 5am was more pleasant than the 3am. William is thankfully oblivious but unfortunately his middle ear is in cahoots with Emma, waking him up all through the night on and off.
Aside from the size of our new place I am blessed with it being built all at the same time. A lot of the houses in these areas are Queenslanders (google it, they're beautiful!) built many moons ago and it's near impossible to find one that hasn't been renovated in some way - perhaps something to do with those once fashionable outside toilets?! This house has continuity. I think mentally and emotionally I need that after the past year filled with so much transition.

As of right now we still have bits and pieces to acquire, but we certainly have enough to live. Somehow Emma is the only one without any furniture (she's sleeping on a borrowed mattress) in her room. Golly, now I'm going to start analysing her terrified state of being blaming a lack of secure surroundings in her immediate vicinity . . .(kidding).

I'm sure pictures will make their way up here again soon and I can continue to brag about how darn cute my beautiful children are. Thanks for you prayers friends! The Lord has been answering them.