Hannah's birthday!

Well, better late than never! Hannah's birthday was a couple of weeks ago and we now have a 13 year old in the house!! Here's a bit about our girl Hannah:
1. She has a very dry humour which I appreciate.
2. She has gorgeous green eyes.
3. She is a natural with kids.
4. She is a sheer brilliance on the netball court
5. She likes neatness and order...yeehaa!
6. She is a talented designer and drawer.
7. She selflessly puts others before herself.
8. This year in particular she has demonstrated a strong and robust adaptability.
9. She looks after her brother and sister.
10. She is a caring and helpful daughter.

We are very thankful to God for her! Here she is waiting to get her ears pierced with friends.

Pretty nervous at this point!

Cake at Grandma and Papas with the cousins

More cake with friends......and her very "secure in his masculinity" brother....

Cuteness

Soph recently won the Target colouring competition and the prize was a $50 gift card from Target! Seeing she has been off school all week with an ear infection, we headed off to Target to see what took her fancy. (once the antibiotics kicked in!).Here is what she came up with. Seriously, how cute -I want to eat her! Well, that's $18 down and $32 to go!

Computer is finally up and running again -we're back baby!!! Actually there isn't a whole lot to say after that big build up ,now I think about it. We have entered birthday season around here -most notably in 3 short days Hannah will be turning 13! Years of waiting for facebook and pierced ears are about to pay off ! In between sickness, locking ourselves out of our unit, getting used to not having a dishwasher and pretending to enjoy my new gym membership, we have pretty much been putting together prayer letters, display boards for our presentations at other churches and emailing schools in Suva to work out where to send the kidlins.Tony is heading to Fiji on the 16th to speak at a conference and after that to look at schools and housing options for us which is great and not something many (if any)missionaries normally have the chance to do -so we're thankful! Some recent snaps...

Out to watch the boy cousins play soccer

Now you see it.....

Now you don't!

Open Day at school

It's all been a bit quiet here lately blog-wise. We've been busily travelling all round the countryside (ok, the central coast...) as part of our deputation ( speaking to other churches about Fiji, raising awareness, supporters and financial support) and enjoying meeting some super people. Tony also got to speak to some students from Moore College about what we will be doing in Fiji, which was fun and encouraging.....and a great chance to meet up with friends for a coffee,,,or three...or four...!
Other than that, we have celebrated Tony's 38th birthday- pretty quiet really, but not without an enormous amount of sugary goodness! Of course he looks 28 still....and I have no problem with that....

Looking after Pepper at the Lakes camp

Canoeing at camp...bbrrrr...

Powerhouse Museum

Daddy's birthday pancakey/waffley breakfast!

Birthday walk down at Clarkes Point

Playing puppies

I think he was disobedient and was turned into a horse....

This week has largely seen Tony and I dishing out panadol and wetting facecloths for our sick kids. In between all that though, we had our first week of full time work in at the CMS office in the city. We were basically learning how to present for our time on deputation with the 4 churches that we get to visit. Not feeling too panicky about it yet, but give me time..... Anyway, here are a few pics from the last few days.. and as always,food is a major theme in our activities!

A bit of holiday baking!

Mastercheffing it up with friends.

"Tropical Surprise"- the winner on the day.

Playing hairdressers with Daddy.

A wonderful surprise in the mail for Soph -a pen pal set from her new pen friend Gracie in Melbourne!

Back in Sydney Town

Well, we've been back home for a couple of weeks now and it's been a flurry of activity - setting up in a new place, visits with grandparnets and cousins, but mainly just sickness! Tony sick on the lounge for a week(which never happens!) and now Ethan has taken his place on the same lounge with the same temperature and bottle of lucozade next to him on the coffee table. Poor thing- you know its bad when he can't even watch Horrible Histories because his eyes are too sore! Very much hoping it doesn't last as long as his dad- there are too many fun holiday activities planned with his cousins while Tony and I are in at the CMS office for the week.
Some highlights of being back are seeing relatives from NZ, being back at St Albans, being part of family birthday gatherings again, rather than via skype and, excitingly, going to see YTT live at Chatswood. Realised my childhood dream of being in a large dance group holding a microphone is still very much alive!!

Bye Melbourne

Me with a beautiful 7 year old gal

Ethan back from camp in one piece!

Me with my beautiful 12 year old gal

Attempting to pack everything we own into the car boot!!

Never too old for merry-go-rounds. Giddy-up!!

I'm writing from freezing Canberra- which means we have finished at SAH and our time in Melbourne has come to an end. We had a busy and emotional last week of the course and really didnt enjoy having to say goodbye to everyone. The graduation ceremony was a fantastic way to end though and we loved sharing it with not only our classmates but also our great friends the Bakers, the Prices and my cousin Melanie. Praying now that we will take and use all that we learned in the last 5 months -not only the "book stuff" but from the infornal chats from a wonderful staff team. Now to enjoy some quieter time before the craziness of deputation, in between catching up with some old friends in Canberra.