Bryce on Truffles

23rd April 2008

This is Bryce's first time on a pony.

I have a lovely friend named Lyndal, whom I have known since primary school, who has a few ponies. This little one, named Truffles, is about 12 hands high and was bought solely for the younger children who come to visit and have a pony ride. What a wonderful priveledge our children have!

Bryce looks as though he is quite happy to be up there; he is almost four months old. Bianca is holding him.

Garry's birthday

April 21st 2008
This is Garry's birthday.

When the children have their birthday's, they sit on the floor in a circle so they can all see, but when it is our turn, we adults sit on the couch, so they all crowd around to see. It's fascinating to see what is coming out of that giftwrap!

I like everyone to have something to give, and usually make sure there is a package for each person; often, however, we'll make a quick trip to the two dollar shop, and the children will buy a gift they have chosen and paid for themselves. So there are plenty of gifts. I tend to buy Garry what I think he needs - socks, underwear, clothing of some kind, chocolate..., so it is probably quite nice to see what unusual items the children have bought.

Here is Jarrod, Garry holding baby Bryce, Danielle and Diana.

Blankets for orphans

This is the first blanket we made to send overseas to a needy orphan. Bianca and I knitted most of the squares, with a few coming from our de Boer friends and one or two from Monique or Jarrod. We sewed them all together - Bianca chose the order - and then I crocheted around the outside to finish it off. We sent it off via England to South Africa. We really enjoyed making it, and while there was the odd patterned square, most of them were plain knit, and we were able to make one square each evening during story time. In 2008, we started another blanket each; with Jarrod and Monique doing squares for yet another one. Nana Jago contributed quite a few squares for that one too, while she was staying with us in June. Bianca is about halfway through her blanket, I am over halfway, and we need to do black squares for the third one.

We also did a bit of knitting for other charities: beanies, teddies, aids baby jumpers; most of which we haven't sent off yet. Then I got into knitting dishcloths - of all things!

Seven years old!

5th April 2008

Later the same day, we celebrated Monique's 7th birthday.

This is Monique with cousin Rita (and half of Nathanael). We cut her chocolate cake into the shape of a number seven.

Our tradition is for the birthday 'person' to choose what they would like for dinner and dessert and who they would like to share their celebration with. This time, Monique shared her birthday with her cousins, Rita, Nathanael, and Abby. Usually we have dinner, then open the gifts. Then return to the table to sing Happy Birthday and cut the cake, and have dessert.

She got the aforementioned kit and rug, etc, and also a cushion-sized latch patch with a butterfly on it. From the relatives in Wellington, she received a pretty dress, DVD, and a voucher to spend. The children always enjoy spending their vouchers! And, now she is old enough to go to Every Girls Rally. Yay!

Monique playing soccer

5th April 2008.
This is Monique playing soccer. She was the only girl on her team, and actually she was a year younger than the boys, as well. She really enjoyed playing and we could see definate improvement throughout the season considering she had never played before. She once won 'Player of the Day' and got the trophy for a week, a certificate and a voucher for McDonalds. Towards the end of the season, we had very few games as the weather kept the fields too wet for practise or play. She had a fantastic coach who only ever had positive things to say, though she wasn't the most productive player! She bounced a lot, smiled at people, and twirled; and wasn't nearly as focussed on the ball as the boys were. It was a good experience, but I'm not sure if we will do it again.

Pete's 30th birthday

March 29th 2008.

We celebrated Pete's birthday a few days late. One of the children bought him a packet of stick-on moustaches and we all had quite a bit of fun with them. He turned the big 30!! but he doesn't like to be reminded of it.

Here is Pete with Jarrod behind, and Monique, Diana and Danielle in front.

(And, by the way, I would like to clarify something. The time shown as my 'message posted' time is the time it was in the American state hosting this blogsite at the time of my posting. It was not the time here in NZ.)

Storytime

March 1st 2008.
This is storytime at our house. When baby is young, (he is two months old here) we are more comfortable in the bedroom; most often we read in the lounge now. The children all love being read to and I usually read a different story to each one, so this part of our bedtime routine can take quite a while. I also love reading to them, so it is good for us all.
Our reading as at today is: Jarrod - The House of Sixty Fathers by Meindert deJong; Monique - Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder; Danielle and Diana each choose a picture book for that night. Bianca doesn't often get read to now as most of what I would read to her, she reads to herself.
From left: Jarrod, me feeding Bryce, Monique holding Diana, Bianca, and Danielle is off to the left of the photo. Bianca is knitting strips for a blanket to send to orphans overseas; the other strips are laid out on the bed.

Bryce

This is Bryce at 10 weeks of age. He packed the weight on right from birth, so when the children got whooping cough and he was the last to catch it (we didn't think he would), it didn't really affect him much. He certainly didn't lose any 'condition'.

He is quite a relaxed little boy, capable but in no hurry to do anything. He crawled at 6 months, and at 12 months is taking quite a few steps before falling over. So, not quite walking yet.

Although he also likes to sample the food off our plates, he much prefers to breastfeed. He's just not interested in eating much. He also likes to 'graze' the floor. But he certainly doesn't look any the worse for it, and eating meals will happen one day!

Danielle's 5th birthday

19th February 2008
Danielle's birthday. She turned five years old. I tried to ice the cake with a pink princess, but the icing was a bit moist and it spread a little. A fat princess! :)
For gifts this year, I had a theme. I gave each of them a polar fleece rug of their own, and a plastic lidded container to use as a kit - to keep rubber stamps, scissors, pencils, stickers, sellotape and dispenser, stapler, etc in; and some things to put into the kit; coloured card to make cards with. I try to give each one a book, too. And Danielle also got a princess torch. And a chocolate bar. Garry always gives the girls flowers.
And when she turned five, she was allowed to get a library card of her own (which I look after). She is now old enough to get her first pet, and she would like a rabbit. Maybe soon...

New Year's Presents

You will get to see these dresses quite often. These three each got one as their New Year's gift from us and they have been well used. They have wings on the back and are 'fairy' dresses, but we call them 'pretty' dresses and therefore they have been used for many things - princesses, dressing-up, dancing, twirling, etc. They are showing a bit of wear-and-tear now, but that is to be expected. So, from left, Monique, Diana and Danielle. Monique is holding a wand - in case you were wondering.

A New Baby

So, at the same time as we were buying the business and all the other things involved with that, we added a new addition to the family. Bryce Garry came to join us on December 24th at 10.34am and weighed in at 7lb15oz.

I found it really difficult to get my head into the right space for his birth with everything else going on, so Garry and I headed into the local birthing unit to have him. That was good for me. I was able to relax and finally accept that this birth was going to take just as long as the others. I had had pains through Saturday night and thought we would have him on Sunday, so organised a friend to take the children for the day. Garry and I went for two walks to encourage the labour along, but things slowed down and nothing much was happening. Bedtime is usually when it starts in earnest. I got Garry up at 1am, and he did some work for the business before we left. Pete came inside to sleep in our bed and be there for the children if they should wake up. (He didn't get much sleep as Diana kept flinging her legs over him or headbutting him in an effort to be as close as possible.) I was able to hop into the birthing pool which really helped with the pains. After the birth and the one hour of body-to-body contact required, Pete and the children came in to the unit, and we all went home. So nice to be home! And it was wonderful how God provided that one day for Garry and I to be together and become bonded in order to bring another beautiful soul into the world. Thank you, Lord. This photo is of Jarrod holding three-week-old Bryce.

Buying a business

Well, in December 2007, we bought a business in partnership with my brother. The previous owner had been trying to wind it up because he couldn't sell it; so not a particularly good way to start out, but maybe the only way we could. We brought my brother Peter over from Australia to help us run the business and quickly set up a room in the garage for him. We also had to change banks as our bank wouldn't lend us the money. During the few days between the public holidays in December and January, we moved the business to another warehouse. This is Ben (our nephew - Richard's son) and Garry in the new warehouse. It is still a little untidy! We are now fazing out some of the gift lines and working to increase the main product lines. This past year has given us a couple of good months; Garry has been to China in October 2008 to source new products or new suppliers for current products. That was interesting experience! Pete finished up at the end of December and is now doing some work for the company that our brother Paul works for, so Garry is on his own. The children and I help out a little as we can.

Athletics fun run 2007

The children are taking part in Athletics - this is their second year. The club is just across the road from our house. Every year they have a Fun Run to raise money for prizegiving, etc. They are segregated into three age groups and run around a bigger or smaller track depending on their age. Each time they complete one lap, they have a mark put on their hand or arm by a mum helping out, and at the end of the one hour time allottment, the marks are tallied. Previous to the fun run day, they have asked relatives and friends to sponsor them per lap, or to give a donation. This photo shows Bianca (middle right) on the larger 4oom track, and Monique behind (looking towards the right) on the middle 200m track. Monique completed 42 laps; Bianca did 21; Jarrod 24. They did the fun run again last December - this time Monique was on the larger track and Danielle was on the middle one. Once again, I didn't take any photos.

December 5 box of goodies from Holland

I'm going to put use this sort of like a photo album, and I want to start just over a year ago. This one is of the children enjoying the box of goodies that came from Holland (thank you Henk and Marijke) in December 2007. I didn't take any photos this last time (Dec 2008), and we actually only opened the box a few weeks ago. We ration the biscuits and chocolate out, so we enjoy them for quite a while. From left - Bianca, Danielle, Jarrod, Monique, and Diana is at the front.

Starting...

Monique suggested we start off with a photo of our family, so here it is. This was taken last February 2008, so it is a wee bit old.

Our reasons for starting a blog was so that our friends and family overseas could see some photos and hear what we have been up to, without me having to send each one a long email which takes me hours to type up and edit etc. I will miss the more intimate contact; however, I had completely missed keeping up with some of our friends and family and this hopefully will help to rectify that problem. And, yes, it was a problem.

So, to introduce us: We are Garry and Tanya Jago with our children Bianca 12 years, Jarrod 9 years, Monique 7 years, Danielle 5 years, Diana 3 years and Bryce 1 year.