Christmas in Holland

This is the home of my cousin....I am wishing to be there... not only to visit but to feel the wonderful snow...this is their Christmas for 2010

This is their surroundings...... just love it...but I suppose they might like a bit of what we have..although it's again in the 100 deg today so maybe not !!!

Sunset from a distance and an update about my shoulder

This photo was taken from my backyard...... the redder the sunset the hotter the next day will be.....so I was always told as a child...and yes it was hot the next day......I would have loved to have been sitting on the beach to watch the sun go down...I will do that in a coming day or so.....for now I am not a happy girl..I can hardly move my right shoulder...only a couple of centimetres in any direction, it is so painful, can't stand not being able to do what I want etc....I'm not a good patient !! have had a scan and x ray and off to the Doctor's again today. Have been and will need to go to Hospital and have some calcium removed from my Bursa....which is the lining between the bones in the shoulder....didn't want to go on about this...so I thought I would tag it on this...all will be well have a little more movement today being the last day of the year. All will be well. I'm sure when I will have it removed I will be back to normal......

Boxing Day

We spent the afternoon with Nanna, much to hot to go outside so Euchre was on. Nanna many years ago used to play this game with some of the girls.... Even though Nanna is now 92 she still is very much on the ball....this is a farewell photo with Nanna she really feels that she will not see them again...... I don't know about that as she is doing really good for her age.....but it was a happy goodbye for now.

There off to the U.S.A.

It is with a heavy heart that we announce that our beautiful family are leaving us. Luke has got a job in Seattle America....they leave on the 24th of January ready to start the 1st of February.....This will further his skills in Computing and will ultimately lead him onto greater things. We are happy for that plus Luke's Mother, Father and his three brothers live there presently and as sad as we are, they are overjoyed and we're happy for them. They will live with his family until they get their own place. We have been blessed for so long having all our family be so close to us for so many years...we did know that this time would have to come....but you can never be prepared for it. Not me anyhow, Our Nic will be lost without her Sister, as will Naomi...these two are joined at the hip...so to speak ... they see each other each day and the little ones play together all the time....little Kobi will lose his best buddy, but he will start school next year so the separation will be a little easier, the rest of the family are happy and sad all at the same time.....but that is how it is and we do wish them the very best. For now it is about all I can say. Sorry if this comes over a bit selfish....it is just all a bit hard...... May God bless them and keep them safe .....

Christmas 2010

Christmas day was sssssoooooo hot we had every air conditioner on to make things a little cooler...and of course the spa was a relieve....except the temp. in there was 40 deg. Tony had to have the hose running in their and let it overflow to put some cold in and get rid of some of the heat...... it was a really hot day and today isn't going to get any better.... poor Tony was unwell all day has been for the past three days.. unlike him

Christmas Day 2010

This is Peni's present..... except she wasn't allowed to play with it!!!!! what a scream..... I think this is the first time Sione has ever played with a train set...and the boys were trying to have a race whose car could get around in 10 laps and come first..

Little Naomi got a little Puppy, which she ended up calling Mr Potato Head...she is the real little mother....she is such a darling.

But of course most of the kids wanted a hold and play and Manly was no exception..... in fact Mr Potato Head spent pretty well every moment being carried around or hiding under the couch.

Except when he went for a walk in the pram.....brrrrmmm brrmmmm.

The Baby Jesus arrived early

Last night we had the Nativity play at Vanessa and Brendon's ....Maya was the Best Angel ever she played her role perfectly......Naomi was the Cow !!! the outfilt only fitted over her head...even though it was a bit noisy at times... it didn't matter as it was delightful....a beautiful Mary and a Handsome Joseph who took the their roles very seriously... I told little Maya just pretend you are talking........ and off she went her little mouth moving all the time without a peep coming out of it.......we could hardly contain ourselves, it was sooooo delightful and funny..  purfick!!!!!!

Lacey in the background was a Shepherd just in case you were wondering....haha,,,,   Manly wouldn't stop kissing the baby Jesus the baby Jesus was under him, he also was a half dressed Shepherd...he would not put on the headgear..... I'm sure our little presentation was acceptable to He, whom we celebrate......We decided next year we must include the Inn Keepers.....

What's the time Mr Wolf?

An old game played in a differant way....they loved it, this was in Dunsborough......no flies there !!!!! it was a wonderful day, it's so lovely in these areas....... I could live there, but no !!! no family and no Temple the two things that are really important to us..... so it will just be for holidays.

Finding a date !

I have searched and asked many for a death date for Tony's Uncle Peter. We knew that he had lived in Busselton so while there we thought we would go to the Shire and see what we could find.....as you may have guessed I'm into Family History.
Anyway the Shire said that they had no Peter Mc Gurk on record......gosh where could this man be!!! I had searched Bunbury and surrounding areas to no avail.... as we were turning around to leave the lady at the counter said " Oh if he has been cremated we would not have him on our record" Now I find that most unusual when a person dies he should be on the shire's record but anyway she said go to the Funeral Director in Busselton if he was cremated they will have the record. So with a renewed hope off we went..... But after giving his name and details that we had she too said he was not on their record. Walking away and just getting into the car the lady calls out to us I think I have found him........ yes a miracle!! there he was, and now after a long search I finally have his death date. Which now makes one of Tony's family records complete....So at both places it was at the last moment we were told to try somewhere else and also that the Lady from the Funeral Director's found him. Our search would have ended there without anywhere else left to go .We were very happy...For us it was our little Christmas Miracle .I'm putting this in...so that if you are ever stuck in finding a death date..... you may have to search at the Funeral Directors  !!! I couldn't find him on the BDM for W.A. either....

Our Uninvited Companions !!

As you can see, the first opportunity we had was to go out and buy these fly nets.......

It was impossible to eat or even sit outside without these tiny little flies....we even found several of them in our cars as we were travelling home.......out they went as soon as we could shoo them away......little Peni would not wear a net so she had them around her eyes and around her nose all the time.....but it never bothered her as it did us seeing them there........she is the loudest and the funniest on par with Manly.....sssssooooooooooo cute !!!

Sione's Livingstone Seagull

Going to the beach with Sione is a holiday in itself.....there is nothing that man doesn't know about the sea... all his childhood and young adult life he lived meters away from the sea and that was his playground and school, there were no toys or even things what we would call normal living things such as electricity ( that only comes on for a few hours during the day and still does) Anyway He caught a Seagull that we all scoffed at that he couldn't do... but he did. of course !!!! They eat them back home he said...oh really!!! shock, horror. from us...
We were so amazed at the behaviour of the rest of the seagulls as you can see once Sione caught it, by laying out a fishing line in a circle on a rock, then placed a bit of food in the middle.....the rest you can imagine...... the other Seagulls just flew around in circles above the one that was caught, as you can see in the above photos.

What was also amazing is that the other Seagulls once THE ONE had been released sat with their backs to the one who was caught facing away from it....... and left the one sitting by himself....... after some time he did join the others...... not sure if he was accepted back with the group as we left......but ALL very interesting.....everyone should have a Sione in their family........life has never been the same....in a good way of course..

Our 2nd holiday in Busselton

Yes.... there all ours and aren't we the lucky ones !!!

Papa takes them all for a ride......they loved every minute of it......the next day Sione and some of the kids went out as well as Nicolette in another boat......the wind was so strong that it took them out to sea much further then they wanted.......both had a real job getting back in.....Nicolette had to have Sione's help to get back in, it took over an hour and much energy.....and many stingrays under their little boats.... some of the little ones were a little scared...Later Naomi came and saw that the little boats were sitting on the sand, so she thought that she would have a go...she had the same problem and had great difficulty in getting back to shore!!!!.luckily we were not there to witness this as I would have been a little panicky as well....... of course if I had've been there I could have swam out and saved them !!!!!!!

Waiting

They are all waiting for the Lord to arrive as you can see, what you can't see is Tony and I are as well..... The Nativity Scene has been lost in Transit from America and I would say may not arrive at all, let alone for Christmas......... but this is poignant for the lead up to Christmas.
It's a time to say that The Saviour is ALL important in our lives and we believe in HIM and for us and our family HE is the center of our lives and it is an honour to know and believe in Him.

Darling little Lacey

This would have to be the VERY BEST photo of this darling little girl.....looking at her Daddy

She just loved the Train and sat there for ever so long as it went round and round....she is a delight in every way. Always smiling.......ohh just wanna hug her right now... except that will not happen, she is not a hugger!! only to her Mum and Dad and Aunty Nic.

Goodbye Perth

We have learnt by experience to give out balloons to see which of the groups waving goodbye to their families was ours as we left for our holidays on the ship......as you can see the yellow balloons worked very well....we also had yellow balloons. ...funny as it may seem even though we were only gone about a month it was a teary time.......

A better view Vietnam

This is a better view...again how did they ever get down such a tiny hole....but they are a much smaller build type of a person.

Can you see the barbs in this much bigger hole, if you jumped into this one..... goodness knows the horror of it. Today it's a whole differant country altogether..... one of Tony's friends lives there and he loves it........ He loves the people and their ways.
How he deals with the traffic is beyond me, it is the worst traffic I have ever experienced. On our table of eight from the ship and we were only there a day we reported 4 accidents...one was a beheading.......which left the Lady who saw it traumatized.

Tour in Vietnam

Isn't this amazing this is how the Viet Cong went down into their hideout and really where they lived..... Tony went down one of these when we went to Vietnam last year.....although the hole he went down was much larger then this.....There was no way I could do it without having a panic attack....once you go in you can't back out....... some of the openings actually were traps where they had large spikes sticking out.