NYE

New Years Eve in our house is not really a big deal. We do think about the new year and what it might bring and we do try to set some goals, but actually staying up till midnight on New Years Eve doesn't really appeal much to us. What kind of crazy people would give up a few good hours of sleep - just to say 'Happy New Year'!!? I probably would if I didn't have 4 kids to wake up to the next morning - one of which will be up sometime between 5am and 6.30am if I'm lucky! :)

Jalen however, has been so excited all week and keeps asking us what we are going to do. Our replies of 'go to bed' wasn't cutting it for him and all week he has been suggesting what we should do - watch the fireworks on T.V, watch ABBA on T.V (Aaron wasn't so keen on that one!), play Buzz on the playstation2, or play Guitar Hero World Tour on the playstation2.

Mum gave Jay an awesome board game for Christmas. We played it for the first time last night, and decided to let Jay stay up late tonight and played it again. It is called 'Hue Knew?'.

The aim of the game is to find the two colours on the card that match - i.e. the colour matches the name of the colour. It sounds a lot easier than it is. When you find one that matches you grab the corresponding counter, and get a point for each one you get first. Unfortunately Aaron thrashes us both in it.

At 9pm we watched the fireworks on the TV that were in Sydney. Jay was so excited about them and kept asking his usual 100 questions - 'how do they make fireworks?', 'what are they made out of?', 'how do they dissapear?'..... He was so excited about seeing them on TV that I asked him if he would like to go and watch the real ones from Aurora Stadium that would be set off at 9.30pm. I had considered going to the Countown at Aurora, but it is a freezing, windy, cold day and it wouldn't have been much fun - especially for Noah and Kobe.

Jay was excited to go and see the real fireworks, and we thought we would drive and park up on the hill at Ravenswood that looks over Aurora. Half of Launnie were also there waiting for the fireworks. While we were sitting there waiting in the dark, Jay starts getting nervous! He then starts asking another 100 questions - 'can they hurt you Mum?', 'will it be scary Mum?', 'will it be really loud?'......

As soon as he saw the first one, he was sooo excited and kept yahooing and carrying on. It's a pity we all couldn't have done it together, but I definitely wasn't keen on waking Harri and Kobe up!



It was fun to go and watch and I'm sure he will want to do it again next year. I tried to talk Aaron into going up with him again at midnight, but bed is looking like a much better option :)

I'm Not A Cranky Pants!

This was so funny! My 6 month old is soooo smart! ;)

Anything for Peace

In the last 7 months or so, I have remembered that you will sometimes do anything for a little bit of peace. That includes pretending that you don't notice Kobe grabbing something that he shouldn't, as you know that if you pull him away there will be tears!

Of course there are times when I have to stop him getting into something . For some reason Noah's suction machine is like a magnet to babies. He always seems to spot it from afar and loves chewing on the tubing.

Kobe's eyes light up every time I pull out my mobile phone. I don't usually like him touching it too much, but often if we are out somewhere and he is getting restless I will just give it to him to play with. It keeps him quiet for at least 10 minutes.

On Sunday I gave it to him to play with for a little while. Later on I went to send a text to someone and it was dead!! :( Either he dropped it one too many times, or he slobbered in it too much - probably both! Yesterday I went out and bought a new one, and Kobe now has my old one as his 'toy'. Today we caught him holding it up to his ear like he was talking to someone on it!! We couldn't stop laughing and grabbed the camera but were too late. We did catch him sending a text though! ;) He definitely will not be touching my new phone!

Jalen's Blog

For months Jay has been begging me to start a blog or to join facebook. I haven't wanted him to do either, but for Christmas he got a camera and is so keen to do something with the photos he is taking.

I have agreed to let him have a blog, as long as he does it through mine, so I can keep an eye on it! He is soooo excited, and has decided to call it 'Jalen's World'. It should be interesting! ;) He will probably give a very different perspective on things in the King house! Hopefully he will post a little bit more than his Dad, and a lot less than him Mum!

Red and Blue

Yesterday while we were at Nan and Pop's, Harri tripped over and fell right into the corner of a wooden stool. It hit him right above the eye - lucky it wasn't any further down. He screamed the house down and when he would finally let us look at it, it came up in a HUGE egg and turned blue straight away.

This morning the egg has gone down a lot, and now it looks like he has a lovely shade of red eye shadow on!

Of course Jalen was very dramatic and kept asking all night if Harri was going to go blind!

Maurice's Prayer

This afternoon we went to visit Aaron's Nan and Pop. Today is their 70th wedding anniversary! They had a special write up in The Examiner about them. It made us laugh as it was so Nan and Pop! Pop is a lovely old man who just thinks life is wonderful, and Nan just says it how it is. It talked about how Nan was an answer to his prayers when they met.

Pop was telling us that 70 years ago today they were married at 6.30pm, and back then there was no daylight savings time, so when it is 7.30 pm tonight it will be exactly 70 years. He said that back then Wednesdays were the day to be married, so they were actually married on a Wednesday. I love seeing this photo of them on their honeymoon. Nan looked like quite the hottie and Pop was a bit of a spunk! Aaron's Dad looks so much like his Pop, and Aaron looks so much like his Dad!

They are still living at home, but are getting frailer every year. They find it hard to get around and do the things that they used to love so much. They were so happy to have everyone around today, and especially to see our boys as we don't see them very often. Noah slept through the whole thing!



They got three special letters in recognition of their anniversary- from the Prime Minister, the Queen and also the Governor General. Pop was quite chuffed by it all!



Aaron's Mum left when he was 11 or 12, so he spent a lot of time growing up at his grandparents house. When his Dad was at work he would be at his Nan and Pop's and has a lot of fond memories of times he spent there.

The boys were keen to go for a look outside as they couldn't remember it from when we had been there when they were younger.

When the boys saw the garden they kept saying 'this is amazing!!'. It used to be amazing when Nan and Pop were able to keep up with it and isn't as kept as it used to be, but it still looks really pretty with all the flowers.



Jalen loved exploring and kept finding little engravings in the concrete. They have been in the same house now for over 65 years, and everytime they poured new concrete they seemed to engrave something like the date and how long they had been there.


Aaron loved going around telling the boys about things from when he was little - like showing them where the fish pond used to be, and where he used to explore.


He especially loved popping the flowers that he used to get told off for doing as a kid!! I remember doing exactly the same thing up at my Nan and Pop's garden!

Everyone kept commenting on how our boys would be carrying on the King name as Aaron is the only grandson, and he only has two cousins who have a different surname - I guess that is why we had 4 boys and no girls - to keep the name going! It was nice to share such a special day with them.

In Holiday Mode

It is so nice to finally be in holiday mode. The week after school breaks up is always so busy, getting ready for Christmas. I love it once Boxing Day hits and you know it's really time to relax. I feel so lucky that Aaron is a teacher and has 7 weeks off with the boys. We are also very blessed that he has his permanency, so we know he is getting paid over the Summer and that he has the same position from year to year. It would be a very long Summer if Aaron wasn't a teacher.

I love waking up and knowing there is nothing to do. We can sleep in as long as we like (or as long as Kobe lets us! Aaron and I take turns getting up to him every second morning, so at least we know we will get a sleep in every second day). It's nice not having to drag Noah out of bed at 6.30am so he can get all his feeds, meds and nebs before school.

It's nice knowing we can have breakfast in bed if you want it!

It's great reading the paper all morning, and checking out the post Christmas sales!

For Jay and Harri the best thing is staying in your pajamas all morning playing with all your new things they got for Christmas.

and of course the best thing for me is eating all those Christmas goodies that we got!

I hope Summer doesn't go too fast!

p.s. if I don't blog very often everything is okay! We are just enjoying Summer too much :)

Our Christmas Day

The day started off at 5.04am when Jay came into our room, very excited! We told him to jump into bed with us to wait till Kobe at least woke up (usually around 5.30am), but after 5 minutes I couldn't make him wait any longer as he was just so excited. He ran out to the lounge room to see what Santa had brought him and was very happy. Kobe woke up as we predicted, so Jalen decided it was time Harri woke up as well, so we could all open up our presents.
Noah decided however that it was way to early to be up just yet, and after 5 minutes of being awake, snoozed in his recliner all morning!

Kobe was so cute - he just loved everyone opening all their presents and sat happy and quiet all morning.

On Christmas Eve we kept saying how this time last year we knew we would have a baby next Christmas, and it is just so hard to believe that Kobe is that baby we talked about and how we didn't imagine him to have such a personality and be doing so much by Christmas.

I had a couple of surprises under the tree for Aaron, and I had been hanging out for about a month for him to open them up, to see his reaction. I had booked him and Jalen plane tickets to go over to watch the first round of the AFL in Melbourne, at the MCG. He is so excited as he gets to watch Hawthorn V Geelong (the grandfinal replay!). There were definitely 'happy tears' (as Jay calls them!). I also booked for Aaron and I to take Harri and Jay to a game later in the year - this time to watch Hawthorn V Tigers - the second trip wasn't really planned until I saw they had seats for $25 each way, and I couldn't resist.

The big surprise for the boys was Guitar Hero World Tour. I'm not sure who was more excited - Aaron or Jay, but when the boys started to open it up Jay just kept yelling 'you have GOT to be kidding me!!!!'. It was so funny. Most of the morning was spent playing it.


Aaron's Dad and Step Mum, Carrol came around and Noah finally decided to wake up just after 10am. I wish I got to sleep in that long!! :)

We had saved all of Noah's presents for him to open up and it was so nice as he was so awake and alert, and really looking at them.

The BEST present we got was something that his teacher from school organised - his painting on a canvas, that he did totally independantly! On the back it says 'This masterpiece portrays a richer language than words. It evolved freely and independently. Each brushstroke is precious, with the final stroke simply stopping in a very interesting place'. It's definitely one for the wall!

I was so excited to get a dance mat game for the Wii. Talk about unco though!!

We then headed out to Mum and Dad's where we had a beautiful lunch of cold meat, and salads under the trees. It was the nicest weather we have had on Christmas day for years!



We all enjoyed laying out on the grass.






Jay is at such a great age. He is such a good boy (most of the time!) and lots of fun to be around. I don't think I actually saw him half the time at Mum and Dad's house.

Mum is the newest papparazzi in our family with a brand new camera! Now we can tease her about snapping away all the time.

After lunch Alex and Aaron put together a new trampoline that Mum and Dad had bought for the kids to use at their house.

They did a great job and it was all worth it to see the kids having a great time on it.

Before tea we opened up presents.

We do the Kris Kringle thing where each of the adults buys for another adult, and then with the kids we all put a certain amount of money in per child and then one person gets all the money for that child to spend on them. That way each child just gets one bigger present which is from everyone, rather than lots of little ones which makes it more work for everyone. It works out well for the kids as well, as it means they end up getting one really good present, instead of lots of little ones. We had to buy for Chloe and Lachie. Chloe was very excited to see her dolls house.

We had a hot tea of roast pork and turkey.

After tea we attempted to take some family photos. Steph bought me a remote for my camera! I attempted to use it to take family photos, but it just wasn't working - I probably had the camera set wrong. Steph did end up taking lots of photos with her remote though. They are classics as she just took them all randomly when we weren't ready. This one is with me trying to work out what is going on with my camera! Kobe and Lachlan both had, had it by now!

It was such a nice day - especially because of the weather, and also because Noah was the happiest and most settled he had been on Christmas day in years.