Christmas Clothes

synchronized swimming

The Young Women Leaders decided to expose their amazing talents at the Ward Variety Show. It was tons of fun, we got to embarrass ourselves and let people see us in our swimsuits, yikes!!!!

GOOD TIMES!!!!. We ended up with bruises and such but I really enjoyed getting to know the other leaders better. Nothing like swimsuits to forge a bond.

The Christmas Story

My little Angel..

Anya's school did a Christmas Pageant this morning and it was super cute. Anya has been excited for days and made a card for John specifically, so that he would come. When she woke up this morning, John of course was gone and she was so sad. "Mum, Dad promised that he would be there why did he go to work?" I reassured her that he would be there but she wasn't convinced. She looked so cute as she walked out onto the stage and she was soo excited when she saw John. "Daddy you came", it made her day...and broke my heart, she misses John so much these days.

Anyway they all sang beautifully and Nadia proclaimed that when it was her turn she was going to be an Angel as well. But she was not going to be just any Angel, but a pink Angel.. hey what ever floats her boat.

Getting Ready For Christmas

The Kids loved going out and getting the Christmas tree, and what was supposed to be a stressfree loving family outing was well lets just say the girls had fun.... I always remebered having fun when I was a child getting the tree decoated for Christmas, that was because the ornaments were my mother's...

Needless to say I have lost 2 ornaments and it is only the 5 of December, the girls have been so careful too. But I have faith in them and hopefully we will have something to hang on the tree next year.

Beautiful Fall Weather

The weather is so beautiful and I love being outside, it is crisp and fresh in the morning, sometimes a little too crisp, but then it warms up wonderfully in the afternoon. We love seeing the changes in the colors. Yes there are actually trees with leaves that are changing. It makes you grateful for all that the lord has given you.

Halloween again

The girls had a blast running around the different houses, Nani however was sick and was such a trooper, this was after everything and we were on our way home..

And she is OFF!!!

Anya decided 2 weeks ago that she wanted to ride her bike with her training wheels off, we just shrugged our shoulders and gave her a chance and look at this wooohooo.... she is riding like a champ watch out tour-de-france here we come.

She loves it and occasionally freaks us both out with her crashes. Take this morning for example when she gets nervous instead of slowing her legs down they get faster, she was going so fast that when she crashed into the column at the office she ricocheted off it and ran smack into the opposite wall. I cracked up laughing as it was a sight to see and seeing me laugh she thought it pretty funny herself. She picked herself up dusted herself off and proceeded to walk the bike from then on...I guess it was too scary for her and she has done no more riding since then, but we will put her back on later today and I think she will be alright don't want her to chicken out when she is doing so well.

Anya had a pretend birthday is school with another class mate, they had cupcakes and played man ..I want to have a pretend birthday I think we should look into doing this every year.

Trick or Treat

Anya for some reason kept saying trickle treat ,we tried to correct her but hey a four year old knows everything. In the end we just told everyone that she had an accent...if I can get away with that excuse why can't she...

Halloween

Well Nadia was Nemo and Anya was Mulan and John and I were big babies, we had lots of fun at the church trunk or treat but the kids had more fun knocking on doors, practising for the mission.(=

Ballet

Nadia started doing ballet with Anya she is super flexible and unfortunately Anya takes after her mum and is not. Here is Nani doing her thing.

Rainy Days

We Love the rain the girls love to splish and splash and play. We went and got some umbrellas today and we acted like we were Mary Poppins.

I remember playing in the rain when I was a girl and twirling my umbrella, I had such fun and I can see how much fun the girls are having and it makes me happy. They were sooo excited to play in the rain with their umbrella's

My Little Angels!!!

can't you just imagine halos around their heads

My Little Anya Bannanya

My nani-kins

This look is ALL Nani

Nadia the apple eater

Anya the apple picker.

Hay Rides

YEEE HAAAW

Picking Apples

The girls loved picking apples I had to bribe them to leave the orchard. Anya calls the place the 'apple porch" I tried to corredt her but she just said that this was our secret way to call it. Okay who am I to dampen the mood.

Apple Butter Festival

There were a ton of things to do at the apple butter festival and the kids had a blast!!

Festival Time

Mum the Monster

This morning the girls were acting like I was a monster. Yelling and screaming and trying to hide every time I walked into the room. They play so well together and are really good friends. I hope that their friendship will last forever. This is them hiding in their "cave" from the scary monster. What a great thing it is to have an imagination.

Nadia sleeping yet again!!

This girl is amazing if she is tired, she is out....She lets out a scream for you to leave her alone and then goes back to sleep. It must be her super power!!

Nadia was super tired yesterday and in the hope of keeping her up and having her go to bed early I placed her on her bike thinking that she would stay awake and play...ahh NOPE!!.

She fell asleep right there on the bike it cracked me up....Super cute.. These photo's are not the best but it shows a little how sleepy she was.

Anya swimming

DO you ever have those days when you are sooo proud.

When Anya learnt to swim this was one of those days. She is such a natural athlete and while I am glad I am also noticing that because things come easy for her when something is a little hard she wants to give up. Not entirely but I can see that hard work is not fun for her and because she isn't used to struggling she doesn't like it and would prefer not to do it.

How can I help her to be one of those people who don't give up. who look at hard things, grit their teeth face it head on and whistle a happy tune. I know these people exist well maybe not whistling a happy tune but they still have and face challenges head on without complaint.

THe answer is I guess is by trying to be one of those people myself but I was hoping for an easier way(:

I am just thinking aloud today and this seems to be where my thought are going off into cyberspace, so anyways.... back to the video,

I LOVE THAT MY LITTLE GIRL CAN SWIM!!!.

Both Anya and Nadia make me very proud!!

Here is Anya yet again playing with the kittens that have adopted us. Please come and save us ..........you know you want some kittens.

Sleep over with Luke

Anya loves to play with her friends , she constantly asks for people to come over which is gret as they keep both of my kids occupied. Luke came over and they watched a movie in the princess castle. They loved it and now keep asking to do it again

B-ball contemplations

I have decided to hang up the shirt or is it hang in the towel what ever it is I am not going to play basketball any more(hopefully this feeling will last). Today I had a game and it was very dirty, hence I was very angry. I don't enjoy being angry at the other players and I don't enjoy getting after the ref's. This evening John made a comment about the officiating his exact words were "nothing like a conflict of interest" he said this because the ref was the husband of our opposing team's coach and to say the refereeing was bad was an understatement. Anyways the ref heard him and kicked John out and shouted at him and the kids kicking them out as well. Both Anya and Nadia didn't understand and were both upset at someone yelling at them. Who kicks a 2 and 4 year old out of a gym??? On the way home I thought about how we can't protect our kids from everything and it made me sad. They were really sad and worried and that breaks my heart especially as they were just innocent bystanders. Anyway hence the retiring from the game, it is not worth the bad feelings and the injuries and unfortunately there are not nice people there as well. John is making an official complaint just because he can and he for once was in the right but that doesn't take away the bad experience. I will say this though on the way home the girls and I had a great discussion about choices and they were both telling me what happened and their feelings which I appreciate, i love that they can come to me and tell me what they feel from feeling hungry to feeling sad, to feeling confused. I pray that they will continue to do so through the years and that we can learn from each other. Anya could tell that I was frustrated and told me that I needed to apologise which I think is wise counsel.

Long Days

Well today was a hard day for Anya, she got her shots yesterday and because of that had a fever and was achy, and then to top it all off she fell off the monkey bars right onto her head. Luckily Lindsay was here that that was a huge blessing, John also came to check on her and there was nothing serious but she is super sore and bruised, (a sprined neck) and she doesn't even want to go to school which is saying something. Anyway the day is coming to and end, I have to keep an eye on Anya and John is on call but other than that we made it through the day and on days like this that is saying something.

Labour Day Holiday

Well we had a very productive and fun holiday. I thought John was going to be busy all day so I siked myself up keep the girls and myself busy also, and then 2 hours after he left John shows up on the doorstep with the day off. We kept ourselves busy and then played with some members in our ward. It was a beautiful day and the girls played and played and then came and played softball with the adults. Anya hit the ball really well and Nadia just argued with me the whole time about how she could play and hit the ball all by herslf and that I needed to leave her alone.(lovely..... she is only 2, don't I get anytime to baby her!) Oh well we had a lovely family day which was a nice surprise and we got to play int the sun before the nasty mosquito's came out.

The Kids and Dad

I love this photo and wanted to put in on my blog, I think John looks handsome and that the girls look cute as well.

Daily Activites in the life of the chiara girls

We went and worked out today and after a friend invited us to swim with her and her 2 kids at the public pool(just as a disclaimer no one was around). As we didn't have any swimsuits I just let the kids go in their undies(panties). They made me proud looking like real island kids running around and swimming. I told John later what we did and he was a little umm embarrassed/surprised I guess is the word, well lets just say he wasn't as stoked as I was. Hey we had a blast!!!

Playing house

The girls decided to play house under the table with my sheets, cheap fun and it kept them entertained for ages. Every time I came to check on them they squealed like little pigs and called me the big bad wolf. Anya started doing googly eyes to keep me away...

School Time

Anya had a meet the teacher "T" party today and she loved it. She was so excited to go to school and even decided to do her homework before school. I know she will have fun and I hope that she will learn a ton and that this will be a great experience. I want her to have the best, better than I ever got and this is a great pre-school, but it is funny how much you can love a little person and how you will do and sacrifice anything for them. It is also funny how much you worry for them... This is pre-school for goodness sake yet I prayed and worried and contemplated and researched and called everyone to see where we should send her. Oh well hopefully it won't be a glorified playgroup.

It's a doggy world

Our neighbours just got this pooch and Anya was all over it poor dog. My child is an animal lover, which I think is fine sometimes but not when she brings every stray home, that drives me bonkers as we have every type of animal hanging around the house

Wormy Wroms

I am going in the garden to eat worms!!!

The girls had fun digging up worms and playing with them. John and I just watched and enjoyed, and reminised. We remeber playing in the garden and playing with worms.

Sickness yuck!!

Nadia has been throwing up for a day now and losing it out the other end as well. I have found that I am not a composed person when my children get sick and I tend to get upset and sad when I see them soo sick, John calls me a woosie pants which I am but they are my babies and I worry for them. Needless to say I had loads and loads of laundry and had to clean up puke all over the carpet....I am done!!!. Hopefully the rest of us don't get sick, John has a day off tomorrow so it will be just our luck if we were sick then.

Out of Diapers

Well it is official we are out of diapers. Nadia is dry through the night and has been for about 2 weeks now. Wow... I thought I would love it but actually it is not as cool as it seems. Today we went to a playground to play and lo and behold the girls needed to go poop. Both of them and what was there around, ohhh a stinky outhouse. mmmm lets just say that I prefer the diapers right about now. No I am proud of the girls and it is cheaper not having to buy diapers, but now my girl is no longer a baby, she is a big girl now as she constantly reminds me.

More Pics of Anya's birthday

More pics of Anya's birthday. Kui got her this tracksuit, it is super cool and she loves it. "Go New Zealand"

Anya is 4

Anya had her birthday yesterday and I think she had fun we had cake and icecream and had her favourite dinner which was steak, baked potatoes and corn...yum yum. It is amazing how time flies, my baby is really no longer a baby and while I love that she is growing up and learning , some part of me is sad as I feel her baby years slipping away.

Smoothie Time

John got a free coupon for smoothies in the mail and so we hung out and treated the girls. They loved it and stayed outside slurping away at their "mooothies" as Nadia puts it.

Play group at the Rogers

We had a blast today at Cody's house, the girls did not want to leave. I am glad that there are fun people to hangout with and keep me and the girls busy during the day. Because of this we are not so lonely for John and again I count our blessings that we actually are staying here and that John is doing anesthesia. The Lord truelly new what we did not. We needed to stay here!!

Flower wishes

The girls both pick these flowers outside, this morning the girls were picking the flowers and blowing on them and making wishes. It was super cute and I was able to get some cool pics by the brick wall.