The sun is shining!

We are really enjoying the spring and it is feeling more like summer is closer every day. It is our first summer as parents and when you are experiencing a first summer with your infant, everything is just a bit more exciting! Emily had a visit to the beach with her friend Mia yesterday (and Mia's parents, Guy and Cheryl), and enjoyed sitting in the water and avoiding the waves with Daddy. Mind you, Bryce didn't really try to avoid any; he was more interested in showing Emily how to body surf the waves.


I think she just enjoyed being along for the ride in Daddy's arms! Bryce is sporting a great cycle tan, courtesy of the ride he took in the morning (although Bryce tends to have a cycle tan most of the year anyway). Bryce and Em had the morning to themselves, and I went out for a ride myself up one of our local hills. So tough, but nice to feel intense muscle work again! Walking with the buggy just doesn't quite get the lactic acid burn we so enjoy!

On Saturday, we visited John and Cushla for the day, along with catching the tail-end of Henry's cricket game. It was nice to see Rob, Rachel, Henry and Charlotte; and Henry and Charlotte really enjoyed playing with Emily. They made her smile all afternoon and sang songs to her if she got a little grumpy which changed her mood around quickly.



Bryce and I have been competing for crazy dreams lately. I seem to be almost over by nightly-nightmare of Em being squished under Bryce in our bed (only have it about 1x a week now!). Bryce, however, had a dream the other night that there was a cashier stand at the bottom of our driveway and he tried to take a pinecone from the yard, but the cashier wouldn't let him go anywhere without paying $2 for it; despite his protests that the pinecone was from HIS yard. I think the lawn is doing his head in, at the moment. Now that we have SUN on our grass and the moss that had overtaken our back yard is dying away, Bryce is now quite aware that he wants his beautiful velvety green lawn back that he had a few years ago.

This picture is of Emily in a gown we found in Bryce's baby stuff, and the plastic teddy bear is his old one as well. They sure made things that last, back then! It is some hardy plastic.

Before and after

We had a stand of 9 pine trees on our neighbours property cut down last month. The trees basically stood between us and the sun for half of the day, and fully blocked the sun from our house during winter.

The view from the deck. The before image doesn't convey the full height of the trees, they were HUGE.



From the back lawn the height of the trees is a bit more apparent. The lawn was full of moss due to being semi-permanently in the shade, a couple of weeks of sun and the moss is dying off fast.



From the side of the house the full height of the trees can be seen, dwarfing the house.


And now all we have is blue sky!

The "shadow" becomes firewood

The past month has seen great change at home. Full details on the before and after shots will come at some point however it's worth noting the work in progress. We've had a stand of 9 huge pine trees cut down on our neighbours property, trees that lay between our house and the sun for most of the year.

The trees were dropped and cut into firewood length rounds by a tree contractor, and the neighbour and Bryce have been doing the hard yards splitting the rounds into firewood using a hydraulic splitter. Two full workdays done and we are about three quarters of the way through the pile.

Then there is the fun task of stacking, well supervised by the house chief.

7 months and growing fast

It's getting harder each month to take this photo lying down, so we've switched to sitting. All is good for a moment before the lack of toys within arms reach means that the "7 months" sign becomes very interesting.

Free time? What is that?

Amidst the craziness of a 6 month old with a cold, volleyball season and having all the titanic trees cut down in our backyard, it has been hard to find time to do much of anything else. Happy to say that Em is on the mend, and weathered her first cold well. I had a minor sad moment after trying getting her back to sleep one night and she was having such a hard time breathing from the coughing and snuffly nose. You really do realize how much they are a part of you when they are sick and you can't take the discomfort away for them.


My volleyball team at the College is doing very well. We have made it into the finals for the top division in Wellington and have been undefeated until now. They are a great bunch of girls who have a lot of energy and spirit, and fantastic skill. It has been amazing seeing them grow and improve for the past 4 years.

I have had my own success in the past week: first, being shortlisted into a group of 3 for the Wellington Coach of the Year for College (highschool) sport, and then second, for actually winning the award and receiving a trophy at an awards ceremony on Sunday.

It was a very exciting night and I was thrilled (and very surprised) to have won above all the other fabulous coaches around Wellington. It was weird, as this year, I have been pregnant, or away from school with Emily, so I hadn't felt like I had done as much as other years for the Volleyball programme. However, the announcer who outlined my accomplishments at the ceremony addressed the past 8 years of work I had put into the Volleyball program at school; so I felt a bit more worthy then!

Bryce is busy being "Head Parent in charge of Bedtime" around here. With my volleyball practices twice a week and games, he has got Emily's bedtime routine down to an art, and enjoys telling me when I get home how he found a new way to settle her, if she wakes up at all.

Emily is becoming more active and really enjoys sitting on her own and taking toys out of containers or boxes. Our little girl is quite the independent player; although she always prefers to go outside and watch what everyone else is doing too. She will be 7 months old this weekend; amazing how fast she is changing!