Christmas Day

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

After a late night of bottling honey which Jonathan had just extracted from his hive we were woken at 7am by two very excited children!

It always seems a bit disappointing that it takes weeks of hours trapsing the town looking for gifts and they're all opened within 15 minutes! Even so, the kids were very happy with their presents.

Christmas dinner was at 12:30 at our house. We managed to turn our dining room into a banquet hall and made a huge table to sit 20! We had all of our family, the Farthings, Grandmother and K, Sam's parents and the missionaries. It was great having Mum and Dad and Paul home for Christmas.

We had the Warwick Christmas Dinner at Laugharne and Kelly's house at night and as much as I wanted to eat the delicious meal I was so full from lunch I could only manage a few spoonfuls! We had an awesome time playing 'rock band' on the playstation for a few hours after dinner - its great fun! Jonathan was lead singer, I was on bass guitar, Kelly on lead guitar and Laugharne on the drums. I could have played all night but the kids had fallen asleep on the couch so it was time to go!

So that was Christmas for another year. I say this every year but next year I really am going to be more organised!

Relief Society Christmas Activity

We held our annual Relief Society Christmas Activity on Wednesday 3rd December. It was a great night with a huge turn out of sisters which seemed to make all our hard work and effort worth it!

A few months earlier someone had come up with the grand idea of making each sister and apron which the other sisters could sign. They were awesome - Crystals friend Jeremy even designed a cool motif which we ironed on to make them even more special! They took FOREVER to cut, sew, iron and fold but they looked fantastic!

It hardly seems possible that I have been serving as Relief Society President for a whole year now! Time flies when you're super busy I guess :-)

Me and my counsellors Sandy and Carly wearing our aprons.

Putting up the Christmas Tree

We usually put up our tree on the first Monday in December but the Ward Relief Society Activity kept me very busy so we didn't end up getting it until Thursday.

We made our usual trek out to the Christmas Tree Farm to choose a tree and after about 1/2 an hour of searching found a fine speciman to chop down and lug back to the car.

Here's some pictures of the kids decorating it.

Koromatua School Prize-giving

The school year flew by so fast - especially this last term. Elle and Ryan were so excited for the last day of school to finally arrive!

Ryan had his junior prize-giving assembly on Tuesday afternoon and he recieved the top effort award for his class! We were so proud of him because he was struggling with his reading at the beginning of the year but with lots of hard work and perserverance he is now reading well above his age level! When his teacher gave out the award she said "this little boy gives 110% effort in everything he does and gets the results to show it".

The next day was Elle's senior school prizegiving. Not only did she recieve the Leadership award for her class but also Top Numeracy, Top Literacy and Overall Top Academic! Way to go Elle. She is a hard worker and a good student and her teacher said she really deserved everything she got.

It's Been A While!!!

I'm sorry to say it's been 3 months since I last posted on here! Useless I know but my excuse is that Crystal left on her big trip with all the photos on her camera that I wanted to use. So now Christmas has come and gone and I am terribly behind in updating the happenings in the Warwick household. Rather than just forget about the last few months I thought I would gradually get this up-to-date...so here goes!

#1 on the news agenda is that I turned the big 3 - 0. I will admit that leading up to the day I was feeling a bit depress-o about the whole getting old thing but once the day arrived it wasn't so bad. Jonathan and the kids made breakfast in bed and then I spent the afternoon shopping and getting manicures with Elle and Summer - who had just returned from BYU. Lots of people (mainly Crystal) tried to convince me to have a big party but I'm not really in to being the centre of attention so we just had dinner at home - Mexican food - and played a bit of singstar. It was nice to have Mum and Dad and Paul there after 3 years of being away ... especially because it meant I didn't have to bake my own birthday cake! Mum made the most awesome baked cheesecake ever!!! Mmmm wish I had a slice right now!

Yes, I admit, I have a slight obsession with Michael Schoffield off Prison Break ... Paul and Crystal thought they would be funny and designed me a pillow case with his photo on it.

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?