WIndy start to the school holidays

Just before the school holidays started we got quite a bit of rain...

The water pooled outside our back door.

And even at school, where Flynn loved to go and jump in the big puddles.

We lit a bonfire in our back yard wondering if the warmer weather was ever going to come to Tassie!!

But the rain kept coming and then the wind started...

It blew our trampoline into our swing set which slammed into one of our windows and broke it.

But the next day was GRAND FINAL day and the kids' favourite team was in the grand final so as long as they got to watch it on TV, they didn't mind a bit of wild weather.

It was very exciting when they won...

SO exciting in fact that the kids were just too excited to clean up their grand final day junk food mess!!

On the morning of the grand final, Jonty and Flynn were invited to their friend Abby's 4th birthday party.

They were very excited because the theme of Abby's party was horses and if the rain held off there were some horses going to make an appearance at the party.

We were very lucky that the wind and rain held off for parts of the party that were outside as Abby's Mum Ashlee, had organised some great party games.

The horses were a great hit. 

Flynn was not scared at all and even had two turns.

Jonty however was not interested in the horses  and preferred to play on the pretend ones.

So even though the holidays look full of wind and rain, there is no doubt the kids will have a great time and a well-deserved rest before the last term of school begins.

Toby comes to town

At the beginning of this week, we had a lovely visit from the Bells. I hadn't seen Toby since his blessing back on the 4th of August so I was looking forward to a visit and to see how much he had grown.

Hallie was especially looking forward to them coming and had asked me to make sure Collette and H ayden were up before school finished so that we could go and meet them after school and walk home together.

The boys loved having Hayden around and Jonty especially loved it, getting Hayden to play lego with him and the wii.

Flynn also loved hanging out with Toby and was very gentle with him, although Toby doesn't look too happy in this pic.

And I can't believe that Toby's pjs used to be Flynn's.

We spent a lovely two days together, just hanging out and chatting and catching up and Toby was such a good boy sleeping from 8.30 - 6am. It must have been all that stimulation of SO many extra kids around him. ;)

We took Toby for a drive to the ETC and had a really yummy lunch.

Bath -time was especially fun.

And finally after alot of photos I got one of Toby giggling and smiling at the girls. Pity it was just a iphone quality one.

Come again soon baby Toby.

Fukuoka Japan {Jayme's mission call}

 

 Last night we headed over to the Wheelers after tea for a very exciting announcement. Jayme had put his mission papers in for our church on the 6th of August and now exactly a month later on Friday the 6th of September, his call had arrived in the mail. Jayme was in Melbourne on Friday and not back until last night so Lisa excitedly rang him on Friday to tell him it was here and so it sat on his bed until he got home last night.

Of course his plane was delayed which added to the anticipation so by the time he got home it was almost 8pm.

Jayme anticipating opening the envelope. (such a Jayme thing to do with his sense of humour) :)

We couldn't get started right away because there was ALOT of technology to set up with Skypes to my sisters Collette in Hobart and Jess in Melbourne and Jayme's girlfriend who also lives in Melbourne. And then there were some of Jayme's friends too. So all this probably took another 20 minutes or so.

Simon trying to get Jess on Skype while Flynn slept through the whole excitement.

The excitement really started to build as we realised that all the Skypies were in place and we were ready for Jayme to open the envelope.

I think in the room we had my Mum, the Launceston East ward missionaries who were on loud speaker with other missionaries that Jayme knows serving over here in Tas, Jayme's grandparents, Noel and Margaret, our brood of 7, the Wheelers and Emily's boyfriend Michael and Tayla who was juggling skypers very well.

And then I think we had about 7 people on Skype ready for the announcement.

In our house we had placed bets on where Jayme would be going. Whoever won got a big block of chocolate. I chose New Zealand, Simon-Japan, Hallie-South Africa, Sarra-Indonesia, Jonty-Australia and Oliver-Brazil. Flynn just continued to sleep. 

We were all very excited for Jayme and the atmosphere was very happy and jubilant as we all knew that it didn't matter where he went, going on a mission was going to be one of the BEST decisions he will ever make.

As Jayme read out his destination we couldn't hear all of it as we were all screaming with excitement as he read out JAPAN!! 

He is to be at the Provo MTC on the 10th of December, just two days after his 19th birthday where he will spend 3 months before entering the Fukuoka Japan mission for the remainder of his 24 months. It is so close to Korea and we were in Pusan (Busan) this time last year. Maybe we should have waited until next year so we could have popped over on the ferry (about 6hrs) and visited with him. :)

We couldn't be happier or prouder of our nephew.  We have 3 nephews out on missions from Simon's side of the family and now 1 from my side so that makes 4 now and I am so proud of these wonderful young men, for their examples of selfless sacrifice and courage to face life in a foreign country and devote 2 years to inviting people to learn about Jesus Christ.

The vid announcement

Jayme's announcement on Instagram :)

 

Now to buy Simon his big block of chocolate.