Christmas Day...

The boys were up early on Christmas morning, to try get a quick body board in before heading off for our family lunch.  Jake was super, SUPER excited to get his new suit on and try it out!

The three boys waiting for us outside.  Not sure what Michael & Jake were disagreeing on here, but Jake doesn't look very impressed with Michael.  It's funny, the three of them get on so well.  Naturally, they do have their disagreements and Jake and Michael are particularly similar.  Jake has a tendency to overreacts and Michael likes to tease him to get the reaction.  Jake rises every time.  Cameron's the more laid back one, who just listens and laughs at the other two being silly.  He's ridiculously funny.  The most important thing for me though, is that they're always excited to see each other on a Friday and they're sad to say goodbye on a Sunday afternoon.  It's all good life lessons, especially for Jake, who's totally over-indulged all the time...

 All "my" boys heading down to the beach...

 I need to print one of these, I love them...

 

 Jake flying his board like a kite.  The weather was pretty grim on Christmas, but it couldn't keep the kids out of the water.  It was actually stunning on the beach, nice and quiet...

 Putting on the new flippers he got from his granny & grandpa...

 One last look at me over his shoulder (total bedhead going on there)...

 And off he goes.  Hahaha... look how dirty his bum got from sitting in the wet sand.  Black next time...

 Cam didn't even slow down, let alone look back.  Jake was already in the water and it was too much to bear...

 Michael decided to stay on the beach and play catch with his dad instead...

 Which left me alone with the gulls...

 It wasn't long though before he grabbed his board and headed for the water too...

 The boys all grew their hair in the holidays, it was fun...

 Over at Nini and Pa's house, it was great excitement as the kids got stuck into unwrapping their presents.  Corky was thrilled with his star wars Lego - he's very into Lego at the moment and all his constructions are left in tact on every open surface in his bedroom.  Not sure how Jo manages, but it looks AWESOME...

 It was Rylee's first Christmas too.  He was pretty into the present unwrapping too...

 Mmmm... wonder what's in here...

 Bi is into all things girly - she loves Peppa Pig, Polly Pocket, Barbie, Princess Sofia - the list goes on.  It's fun buying for a little girl for a change...

 And look at her pretty Christmas dress...

 Ag man!  Rylee was actually just into the paper.  We bought him an awesome pool, with toys to go in it...

 Jake took on a far more sedated attitude towards opening his presents this year.  Sob, my baby is growing up far too quickly at the moment!  Somebody press pause, please...

 We'd really struggled with Jake's skin and it'd just start looking OK and then get worse.  It was OK on Christmas, but by Boxing Day, it looked dreadful.  And by the time we eventually got to the doctor on the 27th, it was even worse...

 Our pretty Christmas table with our home made crackers...

 Jake's sunflower was the centerpiece...

 We all did a bit to help out - here's Jo whipping up one of her fantastic gourmet salads...

 Our feast - a mixture of hot and cold, salads and veggies.  It was as divine as it looked.  Pudding was just as amazing and I'm only just beginning to feel hungry again...

That last part was a joke.  I'm always hungry!

Sending love,

Sue XXX

Lazy summer days...

 The holidays have come and gone and it's back to school and the usual hum-drum of every day life.  The holidays passed by surprisingly quickly for us.  Some moms have been thrilled at the idea of getting kids back to school and routines, while Jake & I could definitely have done with another few weeks off.  Our holiday was lazy and relaxing and just about perfect in every way - we ate too much and slept even more.  Jake had a break from his meds and it's been nice to see him enjoying food so much.  He even put on a little weight!

Jake got off to a good start yesterday - he is with the teacher he'd hoped to be placed with and had a great first day back.  The real work kicks in from today though, they'll be starting to tackle work and I'm sure he'll be full of grumbles when I fetch him later.  Homework sucks, to put it bluntly.  I know it's a fact of life and I guess all the hard work in the term makes the holidays all the more enjoyable, but still...  We are already looking forward to the Easter break!

Jake and I didn't actually spend too much time at home this holiday.  My cousin moved in to our house for a few days and we took advantage and moved temporarily into our beach house with Marius and his boys.  It was fantastic, but more about that later.

Jake's veggie patch was doing super well until we moved out.  Marius had helped us put up a shade cloth and it was all looking so promising...  Jake had the promise of butternuts and patty pans and more tomatoes than we'd know what to do with, but unfortunately, the wind has been awful until now and I don't think the plants were watered as much as they'd have liked.  Before we "moved out", Jake's first sunflower opened.  He was thrilled - we all love sunflowers and they hold special meaning to us because the ward my dad had his transplant done in, is called the Sunflower Ward.  There's obviously also the Sunflower Fund, which raises money for the bone marrow registry.  Jake decided that his first flower was for his Pa...

 Look at our gorgeous veggie patch and green garden!  A lot of the plants have come to their end now and the garden is coming up for a good clear out.  We have 5 baby watermelons still growing nicely, so the clear out has to wait a bit...

 Also before Christmas, I managed to take some new photos of Rylee for Rosie's gift.  She had been wanting some updated photos of him to put up and so it was the perfect gift.  He's such a little character though, with such cute facial expressions!  His hair has a definite auburn tinge and he's very mobile these days, crawling around all over the show.  He's also got a couple of teeth...

 Nini is so silly... 

 Huh?

 Eating leaves is funny business...

 This is one of the ones I printed for Rosie...

 I think this might've been the only picture where he actually looked at me...

 A serious moment...

 Auntie Sue... did you know how irritating you really are??

 Help me Nini... Please....

 WHAT??!  This stocking is empty!!

 We spent Christmas Eve with Marius' family.  Christmas takes on a whole different meaning when the kids aren't all that excited about waking up to open presents.  They actually opted to open their presents on Christmas Eve, something I've never done before and which felt very weird for me.  Makes Christmas morning a little flat.  Marius' sister, her boys and Marius' mom joined us.Trying to get our three to behave properly for a photo is just about impossible though - they're ridiculous...

 Nice try...

 The boys, especially Cameron, were thrilled to find a can of whipped cream for each of them under the tree.  This photo of Cameron cracks me up every time I look at it...

 And Jake tried to get as much in as he possibly could.  Poor Jake developed impetigo during the holidays too.  Disgusting, I know, but it is what it is.  It means that he didn't really want to be in any photos and my holiday photos are surprisingly few.  You can see it in the pic below - it started as a little pimple, that he scratched, obviously getting the bacteria into his blood and then it popped up in every open sore he had.  With the holidays, it got quite out of hand before we got a doctor's appointment and he needed 2 courses of antibiotics to clear it all up.  He's better now and there's thankfully no scarring...

YAY!  It's good to be back!  Promise to post more photos soon.  Hope you all had a great festive season - what did you do???  Wish you a happy 2015!

Love,

Sue XXX

Sorry...

I'm sorry I've been such a slacker with my blog lately...  my dad told me I shouldn't worry about it too much because I don't have that many readers anyway... I'll have even less now that I've had a little break.

To be honest, we've been so busy, especially at work and I really need to do something about getting internet services linked up at home - I just haven't had time for anything.

Home's been pretty chaotic as well.  We're moving out of our house for a few days while my cousin moves in and I've been cleaning like a mad woman.  It's easy to ignore your own mess until you have to share it with someone else.  Jake and I will be moving in with Marius and his boys for a few days and we're super excited about having more time with them!

In other news, Rylee was Christened at the beginning of December!  Rosie and Gareth had a little service at home, with just the family and a handful of friends.  It was lovely and we all enjoyed a scrumptious breakfast after the laid back service, run by Gareth's brother.  Rosie made it very special...

 Rosie and Gareth are great parents and Rylee's such an easy, laid-back baby.  He's got 2 teeth now and is moving everywhere, pulling himself up onto everything...

 One of me with my sisters and all our kiddies...  Aren't we lucky????

 Bi enjoing a cupcake...

Aside from that, since exams ended, we've had a LOT more stress-free time off.  Our weekends in Blouberg have been fabulous and I've realised just how much I don't enjoy school.  We are all enjoying having a break!!  Did I mention to you just how very, incredibly, super smart this boy is?  Considering all the problems he's had and the fact that we had to change his meds just before exams... Jake came 4th in his grade.  4th!!!  That's out of about 180 kids!  He totally outdid himself and I am SUPER proud of how hard he worked for his amazing results.  I personally think that's the most important thing, not the fact that he came 4th, but the fact that he worked so hard!!  Did I tell you I'm so, so proud??!

 Marius loves having all the kids around too - the boys are lucky to have such a hands-on dad, who makes the most out of every second he has with them.  That's Michael doing a backflip into a wave and Jake's in yellow, Cam in blue...

 Jake's a lot more nervous of the water than Marius' boys.  Michael and Cameron are like 2 little fish.  Jake gets a piggy back ride whenever he feels a bit uncertain, which makes me feel quite relieved. 

 Oh look... they've spotted me...

 This is one of the only photos I've edited out of this lot...  this is the view of the mountain from "our" beach.  Shame... poor us, having to spend the holidays here... ;o)

 Hi Jake...

 Cam knee boarding on his body board...

 See... there's Jake watching...  Marius is the whale that's dived under and splashed Michael in the face...

 All my boys having fun in the sea...

 Towards the end of last term, Jake took part in the annual sports day.  He did really well in his race too, came 4th in the 100m sprint and made it to the final, where he came 5th.  That's Jake in front of the boy in the stripy shirt...

 In fairness, Jake did stumble, so he was disappointed with his heat, but I thought he was fantastic...

 Jake's braai'ed for me a few times too... he's getting quite good at it now...

 Mom and I made Christmas crackers for our Christmas lunch, complete with hats and jokes...

 Jo bought the cardboard crackers for us, and we put material on the outside to glitter them up a little...

 We had a whole production line going in my lounge and Jake even got stuck in with helping us.  They were fun doing, especially with a couple of glasses of wine and the yummy braai Jake made us.  We did struggle a little, but it was a fun evening with my mom...

 and the junk in the crackers this year, won't be such junk.  This is Bi's one...

 We've been working quite hard in our veggie patch too.  Jake's sunflowers have come up beautifully again and because my dad was treated for his leukemia in the sunflower ward, Jake decided to pick his first one for my dad.  Jake's hiding behind the flower, so that you can't see the fever blister that he picked and spread all over his chin.  Granted, it was his first, so he didn't know what he was doing.  And he's had a haircut since this picture was taken - thank goodness...

We've had a few blossoms since the one above and Jake's even taken a second to my dad.  Our veggie patch is really looking great this year, so fingers crossed that my cousin looks after it when she moves in too...

 Marius helped hugely by putting up a shade cloth for me - it's made a massive difference.  'scuze Duracell's ears...

And that's it from me till 2015!  I'm going on leave from today, until the 8th and I can't wait!!  I am going to do so little!!  Tonight, Marius' family is coming over to his house for dinner - we're having steaks and tomorrow is lunch with my family - we're having a fairly traditional Christmas lunch, with salads too.  Marius wasn't expecting to have his boys, but a last minute change of plans means that they'll be joining us tonight and opening presents with us tomorrow morning.  We are beyond thrilled!

Hope you all have a very blessed, safe Christmas - I'll see you in 2015!

Love,

Sue XXX