These guys...

Lucky they are all so cute!

X

 

Merry Merry Christmas one and all!

What a lovely holiday we have had here in Wellington! Christmas Eve day was spent waiting for Jacob to finish a short work day, listening to christmas songs, and reading The Night Before Christmas!

Christmas Eve was pretty icky weather, rainy most of the day, gusting winds, but Jacob being a brave cook, headed out to the BBQ for some tandoori chicken and an oven roasted terakihi for the fam. Odd combo, but so yummy!

Our first whole fish! Love it! And I think we'll be seeing more of them! The rest of the evening was getting ready for a lovely Christmas... Washing hand-me-down wooden blocks, decorating chalkboard toy boxes that Jacob built, drinking wine and snacking on mince pies.

So, the next morning...

Then off to Auntie Lisa's for an amazing day of feasting, beautiful weather, and warm family fuzzies...

Santa Etta

Silas opening a rather important gift from Opa

Monkeys all around!

Hendrik loves his monkey!

Timmy may be a bit over Christmas...

Cheese of the addictive variety

Etta's Adventures in Cheese Appreciation

Opa and Silas

Yes. Turducken.

Layer upon layer upon layer....

Thank you Lisa, Paul and Jeremy for an amazing meal!

And somehow I ended up on the wrong side of the camera. A rare sight.

A little playtime before...

... an beautiful Christmas dessert!

We hope everyone has had an amazing holiday filled with joy, love, family and the warmth of summer!

xo

 

First Birthday, done.

What a day! Thank you so much EVERYONE that came - near and far!! X

The Birthday Boys

There are heaps more photos....

Remember that table?

So now for a little while, we've been using this amazing amazing table...

All built my the amazing Jacob. Part recycled gymnasium floor with the free-throw line, part rimu posts from someone's old decking, lots of glue and lots of nails and a whole lot of sanding!

Putting the top together, and hand carved-planed posts magically turn into legs!

Timmy, give us a size reference. Thanks!

Sanding and planing the top. 

Framed and looking quite posh!

So proud of this guy! (sigh-love!)

Ok Bruce. Your turn.

The legs going on!!! Woooh!

A few more coats of varnish to go!

Done and looking completely amazing!

The table seats eight, but a Chili-Cook-Off with about a dozen rad peeps, no problems!

Not bad for Jacob's first major wood-working project, huh?! It looks so amazing! The amount of work that went into this, I feel like I'll never quite know, but I know he worked his cute butt off. Seriously. Work of art. And mostly from recycled timber and such!

I'm still so impressed! 

Our new home...

Finally.

After a couple heart-wrenching days, we have all arrived here in Wellington, safely, in one piece, a little tired and confused, but so happy!

I was absolutely heart broken when our lovely little dog-boys were picked up in Melbourne by Barry from JetPets. Seriously. They had barely driven away before I completely lost it and broke down into tears in the front yard. But in less than 36 hours, I was so happy again to see those little curly, wagging tails! Thank you to everyone who made their journey easier than I could have imagined. They are now happy and mostly settled into their new home, new city and making new mates at the dog park. Also, they get on with their cousin Lucy like a house on fire!!! Wednesday, the 3 of them met up at the dog park and then were kindly invited over to dinner up at Auntie Lisa, Uncle Paul, and Cousin Etta and Lucy's for some hangout time. They have been having a blast!

T. Dog and B. Ruce's first trip to the local dog park. So many new mates!!!

And so the living and working begins at Laura Ave. Over the last few days, we've been trying to clean up the inside and attempting to get rid of the musty smells. Considering the house has been a rental for ages, there is actually A LOT of work to be done. Little things that are fairly easy fixes haven't been touched and the garden and porches are overrun by ivy. The back of the house, where we had some new drainage install to stop the damp and land slips from the hill haven't been cleared. Little things.

Overgrown.

Monkey-boy Jakey!! Watch out for that... powerline.

Almost made it to the back of the shed.

The ivy and wisteria have completely overtaken the shed. Inside and out.

The overgrown wisteria is down! Mostly.

Apparently, we have a fence!

Slightly cleared, but in serious need of some mulching.

Some well deserved Hell Pizza and beer. Nice stubby holder!

Monday, Jacob will be going back to work and I'll be here doing more cleaning, filling nail holes, all that fun stuff.

Thank goodness for coffee and our first yummy breakfasts. 

The camping life.

Again thank you to everyone who has made our move and transition easy. Especially to Jacob's family and sister Lisa who was amazing to set up the Rocket (coffee machine) and hooked us up with a few essentials so we could live like humans in an otherwise completely vacant house.

Thank you thank you thank you!!!