Merry Christmas from us!

Merry Christmas!

We've had a wonderful month looking at our advent calendar learning of the Christmas story. It's been wonderful to dwell on the birth of our Saviour all month and the children have learned so much. I've really loved it too. Not only watching the kids learn, but reiterating the story for myself.

We've looked at why the angel said "Do not be afraid", why Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem, the fact that the shepherds hurried to see Jesus, that God used angels to proclaim Him. One night Lyle also read the story of Zechariah, Elizabeth and John, explaining the connection between John and Jesus, how the wise men knew of Jesus birth, that they gave him gifts, what those gifts were . . .

and most importantly WHY Jesus came to live on earth.

He came to earth,

He lived a perfect life

He was punished by God instead of us in death,

He rose again and CONQUERED sin and evil.

(we get to dwell on that again in Easter!)

William seems to be hooked Easter, he constantly repeats (when he see's a cross on a church or anywhere) "Jesus died on the cross to f'gave our sins".

I can't resist adding this. We bought the boy a totem tennis set for his present and he LOVES it. We put it outside this morning and, for the most part, he's doing pretty well.

I love it when that camera button is pressed just at the right moment....

I'm convinced he'll improve.

Last Day of Kindy!

Today we reached the next of many milestones in our daughters life - her last day of Kindy! It's been a wonderful year - in great part due to these two wonderful women.

Mrs Male

Mrs Shearer 

Emma's teachers have been simply amazing. I don't even have the words to express how much I have loved them being her teachers. They had such lovely organisation of the classroom and yearly program that each child in their classroom thrived. William slowly became a part of the furniture in that room this year. The Mrs Shearer in particular was very kindly responsive to him as he grew. He would frequently pick periwinkles from the outside plant and bring them into her as we arrived at kindy.

Because Emma's at a Christian kindy it's been a joy to know that she has had that influence on her life at kindy. The fact that God made the world and everything in it has great impact on how we live and treat others in our daily lives. Having taught our kids this truth it has been excellent to see it followed up in her education.

For their last day the children hosted/had a Christmas party to which all the parents were invited. We had loads of fun. My favourite part of the concert was a darling boy who held the bright star. Mrs Male read his cue and a moment later he realised and said "oh, that's me isn't it?!" and raised his star up high above his head. He is an adorable little boy.

Emma was a sheep. She was going to introduce the concert along with her bestie Alex, saying "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this is the activity* of Jesus" (*nativity) She was practicing all week but on the day the pressure was too much!

Here is my sheep and her fellow sheep.

The children all chose their parts. I have to confess I was slightly jealous when I saw the beautiful angels dressed up,  but she was a great sheep.

(that silly camera face smile . . .)

Here they all are (Em in the front with her fellow sheep) singing

Party food galore! They made their own bon bons, placemats, party hats, and gifts of tic tac toe for us parents! (i.e. their entire term of craft was Christmas themed.)

I thank God for the joy of being her mum,

I thank God for the privilege of watching her grow,

I thank God for the unique, amazing person she is,

I thank God for her. *sniff*

Farm Day (snapshot from September!)

Kindy does a farm day each year and not only are parents encouraged to join in, little brothers were too! which made one little brother rather thrilled. 

Emma and her friend, Ben. I couldn't have snapped a better picture if I tried. I love that she is such a sweet friend to others.

On the big BUS!

He was mesmerised (I suppose his carseat and our car doesn't allow him to see out the window so well) and he thought the 'big boy' seatbelt was very fun.

Ready for a horse ride!

He rode with Alicia's little brother, so cute!

They were both rather scared of feeding the calves. I remember doing this when I was four, I was petrified so I didn't have great expectations for them.

BUT . . . .She was very brave to feed the pig!

Holding a chick.

This was my favourite part - they both milked cows!! I'm pretty sure I pushed in, I made sure they were at the front of the line because my mum grew up on a dairy farm and I had to let them have a turn!

It was a fun day. We love kindy.

August 2013 CATCH UP!

So I have to confess. Now that I own an iPhone, I really don't get on my computer that much anymore! That to say this poor blog is lacking some love.

We've loved living in our new house. It's taken the children a little while to feel it's 'home' but they're settling in very well and we are having some very fun times.

This little man is growing up too fast. He's started sitting here in the mornings while I make my cuppa first thing.

And this big man is now officially an AUSTRALIAN

Aussie Aussie Aussie!

Oi Oi Oi!

We went to City Hall for the ceremony and it was a lovely night out.

This is Emma's bestie Maddie. Mads had her 5th birthday party. I've loved their friendship for Emma's sake. Mads is from a christian family who have connections to my family and it's a joy to see their friendship. I can see the Lord blessing me through Emma having a sweet friendship in her first year of education.

Aaaaaaand we have mischief.... yes that's toilet roll from the bathroom, through the hall, the kitchen and out on to the balcony. It stopped shy of going off the verandah all the way down to the first floor. I'm glad, it would have proved too much fun for it to not happen again.

The kids have figured out selfies on my phone.

Lyle and I had a wonderful weekend away to Sydney to visit our old pastor and friend Mark. We were so thankful for our time with him and the counsel he gave us.

(I love that you can see the waiter/photographer's shadow on me. ha!)

And these two really are besties. I'm so thankful for their relationship.

They have fun together, and they're cute!

This is kind of a sad picture actually. All the books you see in this photo were destroyed in the bath that evening - the little mischief maker couldn't stop himself and somehow all of them ended up in the tub . . . they keep me busy.

New House

Usually being quiet on the blog is a hint that life is busy. And this last month has really been that. I'm not sure that we've done too much really, but we have moved house, and anyone who's moved knows that it can be quite an effort. I thought that all the international moves we've made have been big, but in reality when it comes down to it we only ever have suitcases to take with us. This time we moved houses within our city walls so we had to haul all our furniture with us.

Here's a few photos. It's a renovated Queenslander. Meaning it's a really old house that's been raised up high and built in underneath. The really old part was built in 1924 which I think is just so cool. It does mean however that the window's don't exactly shut, the wooden floor boards have massive gaps filled with 89 years of dirt and the paint has been coated and re-coated over the years, but it's just beautiful and we're happy here.

The renovations have been done well and we're finding it a comfortable fit for our family which is great.

This is sunroom. Although we affectionately refer to it as the 'cat room' because when we first viewed the house there was a cat dozing on a couch in the warmth.

Stained glass window in the dining room.

I have a permanent flower in my house.

The hallway. I really like that there's a hallway, with the open plan living in modern houses it almost feels luxurious to have a hallway as now they seem to be a waste of space.

I'm still thinking through what to put on the walls, but at least we have a rug!

The outside deck upstairs (there's one downstairs also)

The children and I were enjoying the morning winter sun, watching the 'big kids' walk to the local primary school.

Decoration

Sunset.

As you can see this house has been raised quite high which provides some lovely views.

Sweet Blessings

We have a lovely, wonderful servant hearted friend, Jill staying with us this month. It has been a BLAST. The kids adore her - she reads and reads and reads to them and I adore her - she washes my dishes. Oh my. WHAT a friend, right?! (actually she's doing them as I type).

Lyle was away this last week and it has been great to have not only another adult around, but such a sweet friend. She has been a faithful example of servanthood and patience and I'm so thankful for that. I've experienced some truly encouraging, timely and convicting conversations with her - all a sweet blessing from God.

With the boy still needing his daily nap we haven't been out and about too much, but we have made it to Lone Pine, South Bank and to JC Slaughter Falls up at Mt Coot-tha. The Mt Coot-tha trip was almost a lovely one - but frankly during the course of the week the children were becoming quite ferrel with Daddy away (combine that with my lazy parenting and it leaves us with a rather unruly pair of Wetherston offspring) so we left pretty rapidly after arriving. Nonetheless it wasn't a complete failure and we (Jill) managed to capture some darling photos of the kids.

At Lone Pine waiting for the Sheep Dog show to start.

Feeding kangaroos (PS We ate kangaroo for dinner the other night)

Yes, he is trying to eat a leaf . . . I'm so proud.

With Jill at Mt Coot-tha. William was hilarious. He was looking away and pouting and at the last minute he flung his head up and smiled. He's so cheeky.

JC Slaughter Falls

 Will found a broken stick that he aptly used as a fishing rod and did some fishing! It warmed my heart to see his imagination at work.

The End.

My Daughter . . .

Emma did something cute the other day. Well, she does cute things most days but this was particularly sweet. I was sitting at the dining table, we'd finished lunch, then she disappeared for a while. She came to me and said "mummy I have a surprise for you, come with me and close your eyes." So she took me by the hand repeating "close your eyes, keep them closed" and guided me into the living room. When we arrived she said "now open your eyes . . .SURPRISE!! I made this for you, so we can snuggle!" She had taken her pillow and my homemade blanket and placed them on the couch for us. SO STINKIN' CUTE!!! I raved appropriately and then told her I HAD to get "a photo to show daddy" so I actually ran to get a snap for him.

His response was "she knows you well." which is true. She does, and I really love that. As each day passes my heart grows larger for my children, I don't know how it happens, it just does. We snuggled and giggled for a short time and I predictably fell asleep. I woke up to her shoving one of her dolls in my face which in retrospect is funny. Then Will woke and joined us. It was a fun afternoon. My kids rock. Even if it did mean that I'm still behind on my laundry three days later because of my nap I wouldn't exchange her for anything!

Family Photo

Lyle's birthday was on Mother's Day this year. Every few years it falls on mother's day. I'm not too sad about it because my birthday is on the 3rd so I feel specifically loved within the preceding week which makes it a less bitter blow. It will be nice when the children are older and able to bring us both our morning coffee.

So, being a special day we decided to try for a family photo. If we'd thought of it earlier we would have done it in daylight hours and had a person take it. As it was we remembered just before their evening bath time, propping the camera up on a wheat bag sitting on a chair and Lyle, using the timer and Lyle flying around the chair, picking up Emma and hoping for the best . . .after the first photo, William was determined not to smile until we figured out how to 'gently threaten' as to not produce tears and a red face for our photo.

But here we have it - The Wetherston Family, May 2013

Daddy 31, Mummy 29 (yes, I'm lying joking), Emma 4, William 2.5

Brisbane River

We went for a walk to a new park the other day, along the Brisbane River. It's a beautiful season we're in at the moment i.e. not 100+ degrees eish. It's still super hot during the day, but at least you can use blankets at night and feel cosy!

Daddy wasn't looking in this one - but the kids were!!

My two darlings (despite Will trying to choke me)

The river . . . (I constantly say to my husband,

"My grandma remembers when the water was blue"

it's now a gross brown . . .shame that.

"He thinks he's four, like us"

At kindy, a mother told me her daughter said "Emma's brother is so cute, he thinks he's four, like us". Which is quite true. It was one of Emma's three friends. She tells us about three specific friends who she dearly loves playing with. Will has picked up on this very quickly and when he talks about Emma's kindy days he mentions Maddie, Alex and Timmy. They're a sweet group of friends and I'm so encouraged to see Emma making friends, enjoying them and learning so much. William has launched into kindy as quickly as Emma has and I'm sure he quite believes he truly is four like his sister. Will has a glimpse of kindy at drop-off and pick-up time and totally feels like he belongs there. We're working on leaving kindy 'without fussing'. "Do all things without grumbling and complaining" (Philippians 2:14) has been quoted a LOT lately from my mouth! 

{side note: Maddie's uncle is close friends with my brother - Emma's uncle. SMALL world! Her mum and I were so excited to make that connection.}

At home I'm noticing massive changes in Emma. She's growing in maturity and discovering her sense of humour. I sometimes feel a little sorry for her - that I don't respond her to her the way her friends at kindy do. It's a good thing, as my role is very special and I am the only mum she has. But there are moments when, in her silly four-year-old-ness she says something or acts a certain way and her friends aren't around to enjoy it with her. I love seeing it though, it's a little revelation for me of her 'other' world of her growth and development (mainly consisting of cute silliness).

Anyway, thats all basically a super long introduction to this photo! I've been slowly teaching Emma to read, using a reading computer program. She's doing so well. We usually try to do it during Williams afternoon nap so he doesn't get jealous. But on the odd occasion he'll wake up and join us. It's lovely having our two children close together in age, he is absorbing so much from her.

This picture is adorable. Emma is sliding a picture of a spider into an 'S' box and William got right in her face and said "Careful of scary spiders, Emma!? No touch!"

These two are SO adorable, and such blessings to me.

Cute Girl

Here are two pictures of my darling girl. One taken in April 2010 (age 15 months), the next in April 2013 (age 4).

This is at a park near my folks house - we drive past it a lot (especially lately - I've been over there almost every day to be with mum post "she-fell-over-and-fracture-her-jaw-surgery". hectic hey? She's on the mend though) and each time she asks "Can we play at the boat park after Granny's today?". So finally one afternoon last week I made an intentional trip over to the boat park for an afternoon play and couldn't resist taking the latter snap of our chicken.