Photo time

I seem to have been very slack with taking photos lately.  With Sarah we had millions of photos every month organised into  folders on the computer, then printed out and stored in photo albums.  Now we take a few photos every month and I haven't printed any since Becky was born!

But I did manage to find a few cute ones from the last month or so.

Becky is very into big people food now - no more baby food for her!

She loves to sit up and the table with us and eat he dinner, and then when she has finished she usually starts on Mikes's or mine. 

She will sit there for ages picking up left over individual peas and corn and eating the lot.  Then she moves onto the next plate.

By the way, every girl needs to eat dinner in the buff.....

More Becky being gorgeous.....
The easel is a major hit with both Becky and Emily.  I love crossed ankles and the look of concentration on her face.

 We may have had a terrible summer, but autumn has proven to be rather warm. Her are the big girls relaxing in the sun looking all cool!

And with the Hurley girls dividing up their Easter Egg hunt haul. I love how they automatically dicided to do this so that everyone got the same amount!  they are four gorgeous girls!!

Our new house

So onto the house we bought!


When we were looking to buy we really thought we would stay in Botany Downs/Howick.  We love the area and the kids are settled at their school.  We looked, and looked and looked but we couldn't find anything that really fitted what we wanted.  And if it did we either missed out on getting it or it was plaster board.  The thought of buying a leaky house scared the crap out of us.
Then one day I saw a house in Half Moon Bay, one street away from a street I grew up in.  It sounded great and I knew already that I loved the area.
Suddenly we were thinking of moving slightly further afield. 
We went to looked at the house and LOVED it.  
It is huge - more space than we will know what to do with, and room for the boat.
The upstairs is a pretty normal 4 bedroom home - around 240m2.  The bedrooms are all massive and although the interior is dated it really doesn't need anything doing to it in a hurry.
Downstairs there are two (yes that's right two) rumpus rooms, a study and a laundry.  OMG we will have room for all our crap and more!!!!
I can't wait to banish all the kid's toy and assorted paraphernalia downstairs.  
I'm a bit worried about Becks and the stairs, but I figure we'll either get a gate or she learn how to navigate them pretty darn quickly.


Here are the picture of it from the real estate agents website.

There are lots of things we want to do to make it ours.
Top the list is getting rid of the good old 80's arch way and updating the kitchen.  But they will have to wait until we have the funds to do it.


I will post photos of it with all our furniture when we move in.


We probably will be moving the kids to the school which is literally 5 minutes up the road when walking.  And funnily enough it is the school I went to!  It will be funny to be back their as a parent instead of a student.  I hope they have as good a time there as I did. 

So what's been happening....

It has been a crazy month!
We decided last month to put the house on the market.  We had been thinking about it for a while, but them dismissed the idea as we couldn't find anything we liked to move to.
Then one night I found a house on Trade Me. It looked fantastic.  It was in Half Moon Bay and one street over from a house we lived in when I was about 10 years old.  We loved the area, the schools were fantastic and it was literally spitting distance from my mum. It had a reserve at the end of the cul-de-sac and the house was HUGE.
I think we feel in love with it before we even looked.
The next day we went and looked at it and were sold on it.
The only problem was it was going to auction in a week!
We rang the real estate agent told her she had to sell our house in less than a week.  No pressure there.
Bing, bang, boom our house was on the market.
That next week was insane. We had over 40 groups through the house between Tuesday and Friday! By the Friday night we had 3 offers and we were sold. But we had to be out in 3 weeks.
Holy Moly.
Not only sold but for a fantastic price that was more than we wanted.
Now all we had to do was get the house we wanted at the auction.  I don't think Mike or I had slept in over a week with all that was going on.
The auction was nerve wracking and seemed to go on forever.  There was fierce bidding and at one point I really thought we were going to lose the house.  But we got it. Whew.  Thank god we got the extra money we did for our house as we needed every cent to get the house.
We were so shaky after the auction that we had to sit down and have a stiff drink....luckily there was a bar at the auction venue.
The problem was there was going to be 6 weeks between settlement dates. Bummer.
Thank god for Cathy.  She and Paul very kindly offered us the use of their house and decamped to Pauanui for the 6 weeks. What a sister!!!!
So we packed all our possession into a container, stored the overflow at mum's and were out before you could blink.
And now we are, living at Cath and Paul's counting down the days until we move into our dream house.
Not your average month that's for sure!

Here are some pictures of the old house, it scrubbed up pretty darn well!

We miss it, but can't wait to start on a new adventure.

The finished bathroom....

Ok, it has been a long time since I have posted - but I do have an excuse.
We have packed up and moved!!!
Well actually we are in limbo at the moment camping at Aunty Cath's.
But I thought I had better put in some pictures of the finished bathroom....even though we no longer live there!

It turned out great in the end.  Even though the builder rushed a few things and Mike had to fix them.  We got to enjoy it for all of 3 weeks before we upped and moved out!  At least the new owner doesn't have to live with the tip that was the old one.

It was great to see the house finally finished - all our ideas come to fruition.  

More to come on the move!!!

Bathroom renovations

We've been meaning to do our main bathroom up for years now - actually since before Emily was born.  But time, money and kids have got in our way.
Well finally we have decided enough was enough - the grotty old bathroom must go!
Mike was going to do it and the laundry, but after doing the laundry he realised what a big job it was going to be.  There are simply not enough hours in the day to get it all done. And with him doing it after work and on the weekends the kids and I would never see him.
So we decided to get a builder in to do it - yay!!!
Several quotes and a couple of builders who instilled no confidence in us later, we found a great guy that didn't cost the earth.
Today was Day 1 of the great 'Bathroom Reno'.

Here are some before pictures...

It looks pretty inoffensive in the pictures, but honestly it is horrible.  The previous owners put it in themselves and did a terrible job!
It's a DIY disaster.
It's actually not that old - maybe 8 years, but I've seem 30 year old bathrooms in better shape.

And notice the paint samples on the wall?  We painted those there before Emily was born!!! We have well and truly decided on the colour - she is nearly 6!!

So here is what it looks like at the end of Day 1

Progress for sure!
The builder thinks he will be all done and dusted by Friday which trill me.

And a photo of the girls being silly just for Grandma

These girls.....

I am seriously in love with these girls!!!!!
They are just so overwhelmingly cute and lovely at the moment.....all at the same time!
Everyone is happy, healthy and in a great mood - life is good.  I'm sure it won't last, but I am sucking the all the joy I can out of it at the moment.

The big girls are loving school.  They have fantastic teachers and are eager to get there every morning.  We had fabulous parent interviews last week - glowing reports for all.  We were beyond chuffed and I took the girls out to celebrate on Saturday.  There is a dessert restaurant up in Howick that the girls love to go to.  Ice-cream sundaes were the ticket of the day, and even mum got to enjoy one as I am finally able to eat dairy again now that Becky is bigger and tolerating dairy in her diet. (yes I am still breastfeeding the little monkey!) We had a great time and they felt very special.

Becky is just a joy at the moment!  She is so cute I just want to cuddle and kiss her all day long.  I love this toddler age, where they are doing and learning new things every day.  She has us all in stitches with her antics and usually has a smile on her face.  Of course there is a bit of typical toddler behaviour thrown in.  Sobbing on the floor, pulling of hair, and standing up in the high chair to name a few.  But she says 'Muuuum' and I forgive her everything.  Awwwww.
I counted the other day and I think she has around 12 words now, and understands everything we say to her. We play games where we tell her to do crazy things and then laugh at her when she does them.  The girls are having fun getting her to put their washing in the washing basket and taking cups to the kitchen.
I'm hanging onto every little stage as she is my last baby and she is growing up so fast.  Only a minute ago she was a tiny newborn and now she is strutting her stuff and dancing up a storm with her big sister.

Mike is a happy camper too!  He has got out fishing a few times, bought some new stereo equipment on the weekend and isn't having to do the work on the bathroom himself!  What more could a boy ask for?

The bathroom renovations starts on Monday and I can't wait.  We're a bit worried about just how much water damage there will be once the old one is ripped out, but thankfully we have a great builder to take care of that instead of Mikey having to stress.
I'll take some before shots on the weekend so I can post progress photos.
I'm sure it is going to be a long week living with the chaos, but we have been through worse, and the end result will be sooooo worth it.
I've totally given up on the old bathroom and you should see the toothpaste stuck in the sink - it is a sight to behold.  I wonder how filthy it can get between now and Monday......

Danny the Dog

Grandma has a gorgeous Dachshund called Danny. 
 He is a favourite of all the kids, but Becky in particular seems to adore this dog.  And the feeling is mutual.
Tonight Grandma came for dinner and of course brought Danny.
I was in the kitchen but I could hear Becky's squeals of delight as she met Danny on the driveway.  She went crazy!
She spent the next wee while showering Danny with love and affection....

She is just so gentle with him.  She pats him, rubs him and seems to love to look at his teeth for some reason. Danny is so patient and loving through all of this and only pauses soaking up the love to eat the cat food or chase said cat.


We love having Grandma and Danny for dinner!


In other news, the Great Tummy Bug Debacle of 2012 seems to almost be at an end.  Rebecca still has a touch of something (all hail those who change her nappies), but Sarah is a box of fluffies and Emily finally has her appetite back. Now we just need to feed her up.