Mud Pies

We have been having some glorious spring weather the last few days. Lots of sunshine and clear blue skies - a welcome change after our wet and soggy winter!

I went grocery shopping on Saturday afternoon and returned home to find Ryan and his friend Ashley had turned the back-yard into a mud pit! They were having a great time rolling round like little piggies!

He's Home

Friday was the big day - Paul arrived home after serving 2 years as a missionary: 18 months in Serbia and 6 months in New Zealand.
We all woke up early and tied 200 yellow balloons down the street leading to Mum and Dad's house, put up a huge Welcome Home sign, got dressed and headed out to the airport - only to find on arrival that his plane had been delayed 1 hour.
When it finally did arrive we all cheered and got lots of strange looks from people around us wondering what the heck was going on.
We had brunch together and then got ready for his Welcome Home party which was at our house. Lots of people came over to welcome him home and then we stayed up talking til 2am.
The Singstar Party has been had (I remain triumphant as the top scorer for 'The Reason' haha), an episode of Sponge Bob has been watched, mission stories have been shared and too much food has been eaten....its great to have Paul home.

Elle & Ryan happy to be with Uncle Paul again

Welcome Home sign on Foster Road

One more sleep!!!!!!!!!

Elder Ardern returns home tomorrow at 9.40am. Elle and Ryan are beside themselves with excitement and can't wait to watch Sponge Bob Square Pants with their Uncle Paul - a daily ritual they had before he left on his mission (What's up with Sponge Bob anyway? Seriously, who makes a cartoon about a sponge that lives in a Pineapple under the sea????)

I'm looking forward to playing Singstar - its always a fun night when the Farthings & Manns come over to play Singstar and I beat them all at singing 'The Reason'...hahaha.

Also making the list of Top 5 Things to do when Paul comes Home is to watch Prison Break Seasons 2 & 3.

I can't believe 2 years are up already.

Snow in Serbia - December 07

Sunshine in Queenstown - March 08

Father's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day and it was the first time in three years that we have been able to share it with my Dad.

Elle and I made breakfast in bed for Jonathan - croissants, fruit and chocolate milk - which was enjoyed by all including Max the dog.

Dinner was at our place with Mum and Dad, Crystal and Sam and Grandmother and Pop Pop. Roast Lamb was on the menu - of course, followed by a delicious slice of baked cheesecake from the cheesecake shop.

And even though it was Father's Day Dad couldn't help himself and did the dishes...just goes to show what a good Dad he is.

Here's a few pictures of Jonathan with the kids taken last summer. They're lucky to have him as their Dad.

Camping at Ruapuke

Picnic and swim at Kaniwhaniwha

Yes, I love Technology...but not as much as you, you see ... but I still love technology ... always and forever

Well if you are thinking I have gone slightly nutty with that title then you are obviously not a Napoleon Dynamite Fan.

That song came to mind as I was thinking about how much technology has changed over the last 10 years. I was once again looking through 'that' box of old photos and came across all the negatives of our professional wedding photographs. It made me laugh to think that when we got married in 1998 digital cameras were hardly even heard of in New Zealand and all of our wedding pictures were on these ancient things we call negatives!

So I took them into K.Mart and a few hours and $12.95 later we had all 120 of our wedding photos on a CD.

Heres a few of my favourites.

There! I posted another blog...happy now Crystal?

So here I am

Well it has been months and months since Crystal started harping on at me to create a blog...and now in a moment of weakness it appears I have finally given in and started one.
The truth is, I have been thinking about doing it for a long time. My initial excuse was that my life was too boring and I would never have anything interesting enough to write about...but then I read Crystals blog and realised that you can write about boring things whenever you want. haha just kidding Crystal.
Truthfully, the real thing that made me decide to start a blog was coming across an old box of photos the other day... there were all sorts of pictures in there - baby photos, mission photos, wedding photos, first day of school photos of the kids etc etc...and it made me sad to think all those memories were just lying in an old box in the back of my wardrobe.
So from now on I'll be posting stuff on the internet for the whole world to see ... thats if anyone is interested :-)
Heres a few of the old photos I was talking about...how cute were we?