Winter Time!

Winter is upon us. It's cold, windy, rainy, and our front yard is a gigantic mud pit. The driveway wasn't included in the cost of the house, and it's the one thing we thought we'd have enough money for....that and curtains, of which we also have none. Thank goodness we don't have many neighbors, and thank goodness for central heating. It's made our house so very cozy and warm - the rests of NZ seriously doesn't know what they are missing. I'd trade a good heating system for curtains and driveway anyday (but hopefully we'll get a driveway in the next few months).

Wyatt all rugged up for winter

Life lately has been pretty hectic - that's actually probably an understatment. James was away for about a month, then I started my second student teaching assignment (which sees me up at all hours of the night, researching and writing lesson plans) and during all this time, the kids have grown and changed right before my eyes. I can't believe that Wyatt is 4.5 months old now. He's the most pleasant baby EVER. Seriously. He's full of smiles, and giggles, and has the cutest big dimples.

A few weeks ago, James had a function at the officer's mess at work. It's the first time I had been to the 'other side' and mingled with the upper class (ha ha). WOW what a difference. Obiously there are way way way less Officers than soldiers so the bar area is much smaller, but there were other subtle differences that I picked up on too. Mainly everyone was so welcoming, and accepting. There's even a women's group that gets together and has social functions. At the NCO's mess, most of the people stayed in their own little groups. Also the men drank wine, and even though it's all you can drink for free with dinner, people were drinking for enjoyment, not for a cheap buzz. But the best thing is the free babysitting. Yep, that's right - for most social functions they have free babysitting for the kids complete with early childhood trained educators and food for the littlies. Yee-haw! We're off to Casino night this weekend, and we'll be taking full advantage of that free babysitting service.

Like I just walked out of a salon...

Prior to that first night in the Officer mess, I figured I was long overdue for a haircut (had it really been over a year!?) and in true 'just had a baby' fashion, I decieded to cut a lot of it off. I like it, and now when my hair falls out in clumps on the floor, well it's only half as long to clog up the vacuum. Oh, yeah...the nurses and midwives fail to tell you that breastfeeding causes so much stress on your body that your hair actually falls out. Hmmm, the joys of motherhood.

Winter has also meant soccer - James is playing on the Army team, so every Saturday we go along to cheer him on. He's quite a good player. If only I was 1/4 as good as him. I just had to teach a soccer unit at school, and it was far from pretty. Ha ha. Speaking of Soccer....World Cup Time. This is only the second time that NZ has even qualified for the Soccer World Cup so all eyes are on the all whites, and club and Jr soccer has been seeing positive spin offs. Who wants their son to be a beer guzzling, meathead rugby player anyways? All Blacks who? ha ha

(PS....as I write this James is already asleep. He's getting up to watch the All Whites play at 2am! I'll most likely be up feeding Wyatt at that time, but no way will I be staying up long enough to watch the whole game...I need all the sleep I can get)

Luca and Wyatt recieved a big box of clothes from Grandma Cassie - here is Luca trying to put on as many hats as he could. He wanted to try it all on before we hung it up in his closet :-)