Life as we are living it : )

Hi everyone!!
Yes I no its been a long time since Ive updated our blog but better late than never I say.
Things have been going well for us here in Perth. I celebrated my birthday last weekend which was pretty good. Andrew threw a surprise bbq for me and I got some cool pressies and spent a few hours with just about everyone that was important to us. I have such a wonderful hubby xxx
The kids are all healthy and happy. Kaytlynn has started playing hockey and is really enjoying it. Unfortunately I got a bit annoyed as the school did a public weigh-in (dont ask me why) and when they took Kaytlynns weight, she was a healthy 61kgs and the other kids laughed at her. God kids can be such little #*#*#*#* when they want to be. Katy was quite upset but AJ, her uncles and aunties and I managed to boost her confidence again and she happily played her tournament the next day. They won 2 games out of 5 yay. She had her 1st sleepover here in Perth last night and had a wonderful night helping her friend Alysha celebrate her 11th birthday.
Kyla is busy freaking her dad out as she breezes through teenage-hood. Did I say breeze? Maybe for her. Kyla, my niece Sharlene and I did a couple of girlie hours yesterday at the mall as we chose some hair dye for Kylas hair. She had been on my back for ages to let her do it so I finally gave in. Kyla finally settled on a blonde hair lightening kit. What a mission!! It had a cap included; you know one of those hair caps with the holes in it. I thought that it would make the job easier but boy talk about time consuming pulling strands of hair thru little bitty holes with a little bitty hook thingy. It didnt help that this was the 1st time that I had ever dyed hair this way so lucky instructions were included :P The end result is pretty good so once I can pin her down long enough ill take a photo and share her new look. Has made her look older though, something that is freaking her dad out. School is going well for her as always. Our young brainchild.
Not much is happening with Liam at the moment. He is enjoying school but shying away from any sports activities. Not really showing any interest in anything right now. Hes into more of the technology era which is good but not. We encourage his friends coming to play and vice versa and get him out of the house and away from the PS2 and 3 and the computer as much as we can. Hes become a bit temperamental though (males dont do the PMS thing do they?) and continues to be a real daddys boy.
Maddisyn is going okay at school. She is attending more regularly as for a while there it was a real mission to get her there.She would cry and yell and become real emotional about it that it sort of made me think that something was happening at school. But when I approached the teacher about it, she assured me that all was well. So I started to make her go all the time and now she seems to be all good about it. I think maybe I was being taken for a ride..... Anyway, art is Maddys thing. Shes forever creating little pressies or drawings for Andrew and I and they are so beautiful that we will treasure them always. She seems to have the creative gift that Andrew and his family have.
Last is little Ethan. Hes growing big and strong and possesses the same outgoing attitude to life that his dad and Uncle Gerard have. Its funny isnt it. You and your partner make these little people but they can also posses the good (and sometimes the bad)bits from other family members as well as yourself. Ethan wants something in his life, he works hard to get it, whether it be by crying, tantrums, smiles or kisses, he gets there in the end. His hair is getting pretty long, to the point where everyone who doesnt know him, thinks hes a girl at 1st glance, even though hes dressed like a boy. We are reluctant to cut it as the blonde streaks in his hair compliments his looks so well that we want to hang onto it a little longer. Vain or what but I guess that as long as he continues to look like the same, we can hang onto our baby a little longer too. Or maybe not. His toilet training is at a standstill. I have been so lazy with it but Andrew is getting a little fed up with nappies. Our kids are usually toilet trained way before this age 'sigh' Soon, I promise.
As for Andrew and I, well we continue to enjoy the lifestyle that Perth enables us to have. Theres no place like home, but this will do us for now.
Hope that all is well with everyone. Sending you all our love and thoughts.

A bit of a catch up.

Well its been a pretty good last couple of weeks.
My sister Joanne and her son Stacie came to visit us all the way from New Zealand. They stayed with Karleen and Davy but we saw them regularly which was good.
Stacie was such a smiley and smoochy baby and such a pleasure to have around that it was hard for us to let his mum take him back home to NZ. Joanne seemed to have a pretty good visit too but with the rest of her family back home they eventually had to leave I guess.
As much as you love your children there is always things that will happen that will scare the shit out of you and that is known as one of the downfalls of having kids.
For example;
Sunday night I went to drop Joanne off at the airport, leaving the children in the more than capable hands of my husband and brother. From what I gather, at some point during the afternoon, while Andrew and Davy were watching their rugby, they realised that all the kids were in the lounge apart from Ethan. Andrew had been talking to him not long before. Anyway Andrew got up to go and search him out, but Ethan was nowhere to be found. They checked everywhere, even going as far as checking the neighborhood, but still no Ethan. After a while everyone was becoming frantic and the adults were on the verge of having heart attacks and calling the police when Andrew found him, curled up in the foetel position, right up against the couch in the darkest corner of the lounge on the floor, fast asleep, unaware of the panic he had caused for the past half hour.
Talk about a parents worst nightmare.

Self portraits

Just a couple

Full on

This weekend was pretty full on.
After an early wake-up on Saturday and a trip out to Henderson to see the launch of Silver, we rushed home to prepare the house for the onslaught of partygoers that were due later on that day to celebrate Liams 9th birthday.
Then while Andrew took Liam, Ethan and a couple of his friends to see Spiderman 3 (they met up with others at the theatre), I rushed out to do some last minute things before they all congregated back at my house. All of his pressies , other than the AFL ball that Aunty L and Uncle D got him, were Spiderman which was pretty cool. He even got us to buy him a PlayStation2 so that he could get the new Spiderman game that had just come out. We didnt realise till later that he could have played that same PS2 game on his dads PlayStation3!! Everyone seemed to have enjoyed the movie and after a lot of food and cake, we were all happy to just sit and chat amongst us adults while the kids caused havoc.
Andrew went around spraying everyones hair pink and purple, even Miss Ruby didnt escape! Unfortunately we were all too tired to grab the camera and take some shots, sorry.
There was a sweet moment there too where I was on the trampoline with Ruby and Jasper and was gently bouncing Ruby on my lap and her big bro was booinging all over the place like tigger and the giggles and sheer enjoyment on their faces was priceless. Unfortunately not priceless enough for anyone to grab the camera and take a shot or vid. Im sorry but by then we were all just so buggered!
Everyone finally left just after 6 and Andrew and I had a chance to wind down. Liam had his friends stay over as well.
Sunday was ok. My kiddies made me lovely homemade Mothers Day gifts which are way more precious than any thing they could have bought at a store. I really am the luckiest mum in the world.
ps. It was Karleens birthday yesterday and to celebrate, a few of us are off to the pub on Saturday for Ladies Nite. It includes a full buffet dinner and some nice men dancing. I will try to remember to get some photos of our night out :P

A Hard Years Work

Well finally, after a years worth of Andrew, Hopa, Davy and their trade assistants blood, sweat, and lots of moaning from their wives, this is the end result. A luxury yacht named Silver. Okay so they didnt do it ALL by themselves, but they shaped, prepped and final coated large parts of it, and earned the reputation of being one of the best teams in the business and so rightly deserved. Its a major accomplishment considering that the boat had been in the making for the last 2 years or so and their team had made such an impression that they have been given the job of the next boat similar to this. So proud of my husband and brothers.
The top few photos are of Silver leaving the shed where it was made. The two large trucks are what towed it to where it was to be put in the water. Its funny how the 1st truck is connected to the second truck, which has a veery long trailer on it to accomodate the yacht. Then its placed on the wharf (the two bottom photos) and then the trucks disconnect from the boat and the wharf is lowered beneath the boat untill its floating in the water and then towed out further by two tugboats(the last photo). A looong process!
The whole thing was covered in the State paper due to it being the largest boat that has been made in Western Australia. Once I find out where Andrew put his copy I will post it so that you can all read it

Ooooh

I found this photo from Karleens camera while i was borrowing it for a look and nicked it to put on my blog. This was taken during the school holidays while we had taken them for a day at the park.
It amazes me how well these two interact, they are so very close. Ethan can be so protective of her as she can be with him, and tho they have their bad days, the next day it will be all forgotten and they are best friends again. It so great to have two cousins grow together and know that the bond they share will probably br lifelong.

Photo

Not much has been happening in the Lazarus-Barron household.
Andrew works, I maintain the house and the kids go to school. Liams birthday is approaching fast and we have his birthday wishlist so that makes things easier. Then Andrews two weeks later aargh.
Here are one of the photos that the kiddies posed for the week before last. Wasnt too impressed with them but they were still worth getting. Have the rest on layby so once we have them, ill post them. Hate the fake smile that my oldest son has, but judging from some of his father when Andrew was younger, we all see where he gets it from!