Whoops!

We haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I promise. At least not yet!

Life is extremely busy, but what's new? I do apologise for not updating more.

Anyway, just a quick note to say Roland is still working hard, Jacquie is training hard at the gym to prepare for the police fitness testing, and Erin is being, well, a typical two year old!

She is a very talkative and clever wee girl at the moment, and she has started to show us she is interested in potty training too. We will see what unfolds in the next few weeks, but won't rush things as it is still winter, and this is all pretty new territory.

I promise there are more Canada photos to come - I think I will just have to pick out a few of the best for this blog, and put the rest in an online album for everyone to see.

Speaking of blogs in particular, I have started up two new ones, well sort of 'new' anyway:

The Uphill Battle is Jacquie's new food and fitness diary - not very exciting, but more of a tool to keep me on track!

Mama Bird's Creations is a crafty type blog, mostly for Jacquie's stuff, but some of Roland's things might start making an appearance in there too ;)


That's all for now though folks, again my deepest apologies, and I will try to remedy our 'slackness' in posting again soon!

Love,

Jacquie, Roland & Erin

Whistler, British Columbia

We arrived in Vancouver, BC, and were met by Papere & Mamere (Maurice & Carol), and from there we drove straight to Whistler where we stayed for two nights.

The lodge we stayed at was great and the beds were quite comfortable, as Erin can attest to!


The next day we did some sightseeing, including going up and down Blackcomb skifield in an open chairlift!



There was also a bouncy castle in Whistler village that Erin enjoyed very much:


We drove on from Whistler to Salmon Arm, BC - we all became quite seasoned road-trippers!



Fortunately we took a few pit stops along the way to stretch our legs and enjoy the beautiful weather...


OK, that's all for now - more photos to come soon of the rest of our travels!

Love Jacquie, Roland & Erin

Canada 2008 Retrospective

Hi folks,

Apologies for the lack of communication (again) in the last few weeks - we have just been having so much fun on our holiday here in Canada that there hasn't been as much time to get on the internet as usual.

So, the plan is that we'll let some of the photos speak for themselves!

We're on our way back to Vancouver this afternoon, we'll spend one night there and then fly back home to New Zealand.

Love Jacquie, Roland & Erin

Quick update - we're off!

Firstly a quick apology for not updating much, if at all, lately. Things got left by the wayside, and then as some of you will know Uncle Ray passed away so that changed our plans a little. We miss you Uncle Ray!

Anyway, we are still off on our big trip to Canada tomorrow, so exciting!

We are pretty much all packed, except for a few last minute bits and pieces.

Speaking of whom, here are a couple of photos taken quite recently - she is getting to be such a big girl, can't wait for all you guys out there to meet her!

I don't know when we'll next have access to internet, as we land in Vancouver (BC) and then drive through to my Dad's in Cold Lake, Alberta - which will take a few days with Erin in tow. See you all on the other side of the world !!

Love Jacquie, Roland & Erin

xoxox

Bald and beautiful!

So for those of you that haven't caught the news already on Facebook or email - Jacquie took the plunge a few weeks ago on the 11th of April 2008.

As a fundraiser for The Leukaemia & Blood Foundation NZ, she shaved all her hair off and in total managed to get $750 in sponsorship.

Here is the before photo:

And after:

And if you're brave enough to watch, here is the YouTube video!

Even with the weather starting to cool off a bit it hasn't been too bad - there have just been lots of warm hats and scarves involved!

Lots of Love,

Jacquie, Roland & Erin

Serious Girl

A great big belated THANK YOU to Grandma Sandra for the pyjamas and other beautiful clothes we received the other week - they are gorgeous! And clearly, getting ready for bed is serious business...








More photos to come soon of a few new bits and pieces in Erin's room, including a beautiful new butterfly hanging from Nana Trish.


We will also have photos of the great new fence Roland and our neighbour Noel, put up last weekend.


Mostly, we are still busy working, and slowly organising things for our holiday to Canada - only five weeks to go!

Lots of Love,

Jacquie, Roland & Erin

Photo update!

I didn't want it to have become April and I'd only made one entry for the month before, so I have sorted out a bunch of the most recent photos for everyone to enjoy.

Back on the 24th poor old Jacquie turned 26 and we had a lovely pre-birthday dinner at mum's the night before - it was a lovely evening so there was BBQ steak, lots of salad, and cake!

Erin also loves to potter around at her nana's house and generally be a goofball... here are a couple of examples...

Erin was also very clever and picked up very quickly how to help nana clean all the slobber off the windows!

We have also been having regular demonstrations of how clever Erin is at getting into her big bed all by herself, and then tucking herself in with her favorite 'baby'.

Seeing as it was also Easter Weekend we had Erin's first ever 'egg hunt' planned, which she greatly enjoyed - no photos of that though, sorry :( I think that will be the first and last time Erin ever has chocolate *before* breakfast too.

In other slightly bigger news, we have a new car! Unfortunately our poor old Honda has come to the end of it's lifespan, a little prematurely, but it was better for us to fork out for a car we could rely on AND wasn't going to cost us more than its own value in repairs and maintenance (not to mention the price of gas / petrol). No photos of the actual car that we bought, but here is a photo of the exact same model - a Toyota Corolla FIELDER (2000):

It drives really well and has a bit more space than our old car, AND best of all (well, sort of) the air conditioning actually works!

Last but not least, the preparations for our trip to Canada are still slowly coming along, lists are being made and suitcases are soon to be dragged out of the basement and dusted off.

Anyway, in my efforts to lose a little bit more weight before we do head off on holiday in a few weeks time I had best sign off and get going on our exercise machine for a while :)

Take care everyone!

Lots of love,

Jacquie, Roland & Erin

Slide!

So thanks to Erin's nana signing up at a toy library for us (thanks Nana Trish!) we now have access to a plethora of different toys for two weeks at a time. Our latest picks have been a GIANT slide (at least to Erin), and this thing called a 'Spring Bug' - here are some photos!

In other Erin news, she now has her top two eye teeth and the bottom two are still making their way up. She is also starting to fit some size two clothes - unbelievable!

In Roland & Jacquie news life is much the same, flat out during the working week and then catching up together on weekends! The weather has been interesting though, sunny and hot some days but there has been a lot of rain lately too. We are back down to a single car, which is manageable - although we really appreciated the loaner from Nana Trish too while it was here. Roland is considering cycling to work a little more often now, and is still playing squash at least once a week. Jacquie is continuing to learn the ropes with her job but enjoying the challenge, and hoping to secure something full time in the near future as well.

That's about all from us for now though, take care folks!

Love Jacquie, Roland & Erin

Chomp Chomp!

So it looks like Erin is at long last cutting her eye teeth, there are three out of four poking through the gums now that we can see. Not an easy task getting a peek in there though! All that is left after these are her two year molars, we may even have a full set of chompers by the time we go on our trip to Canada.

Speaking of trips, Roland is off to Sydney this afternoon for a week - lucky him! Mind you, it is for work so probably not *that* exciting. It will be an interesting week here at home, but we should manage OK.

Anyway, here are a couple of (very) recent photos of Erin in her new big girls bed! :-)

That's about all for now folks, take care!

Love Jacquie, Roland & Erin

Grr !!

Silly old blogger just ate our big update post, grr !!

So here is a photo in the meantime and a bigger update will be coming soon - promise !!

Miss Couch Potato


Take care,

Jacquie, Roland & Erin

Things we have been doing lately!

Playing with Mega Bloks



Folding like a pretzel



Learning to brush our teeth



Playing in our paddling pool





Daddy has been busy doing more work in the back yard, and is installing a new rotary clothesline, photos of that coming soon.

Mummy has also been busy sewing and organising all her crafty things, here are a couple photos of her 'sewing nook'.






The holidays will be officially over soon too, we (Roland & I) are back to work this Monday, so we will do our best to keep updating things.

Take care,

Love Jacquie, Roland & Erin

Our Official Christmas Card for 2007

Our deepest apologies if it seems to be a bit blurry, this is mainly for anyone who hasn't / couldn't receive(d) it by email. You can also click on it to see a bigger image ;-)

Lots of Love from Jacquie, Roland & Erin

Even more gifts! (and some news)

Well first things first, the biggest news I think since our last update, is that I (Jacquie) have finally gone back to work! I think we have all benefited in various ways from me staying home with Erin, but the good thing is that I am only working part time for now so we are still able to keep some balance in there. It has been very exciting but also very challenging, I haven't been in a 'regular' job for quite some time now - so the old grey matter has been aching a little with all the extra effort.

Anyhow, we have a couple more photos to show off, mostly to say thanks to Grandpa Maurice & to Carol for the things we were able to get for Erin for Christmas (plus a playhouse update).

As previously mentioned there was some furniture from The Giddy Giraffe, and here is a photo of Erin sitting at her lovely new table and chairs set:



I will try and get a photo of the beautiful new storage unit in her bedroom once she is awake later today.

As for the play house that was a present from Erin's 1st birthday, it has finally been moved to it's permanent resting spot - and all the loose boards from the little front patio have been nailed back place as well. The main things that will need doing now are to give it a good water blast, vacuum the inside, and give it a good sanding - then the real decorating can begin. Here is a photo taken just today of Erin checking things out:




Our plans for Christmas include going up to Grandpa Ted & Jo's place for the day and have a Christmas lunch with them and some of Jo's family. They live right by Snells Beach up north, so we hope the weather is nice and sunny to go for a Christmas Day swim!

That is about all for now, there are lots of presents still to be made and wrapped, so when all that is done there will probably be some more photos.

Until then, take care folks!

Lots of Love from Jacquie, Roland & Erin

Aren't we lucky!

Just a quick photo of Erin with one of the lovely gifts given to her by her Nana, whom we all went and had an early Christmas dinner with last night - seems Erin has the right idea about going shopping already!



Here is another photo of her just generally being a cute little monkey...




More photos and news to come shortly!

Love Jacquie, Roland & Erin

Long time no update!

OK, this time we'll start with a few photos and then update with the latest Bird news :)

Miss Erin contemplating pouncing on Possum the cat.


Wondering what mummy is pointing the camera at her for :P


Trying to get a glimpse of the "baa baa" next door - our neighbours have a goat named Spirit that Erin just loves to bits!



So we are now well into the 'silly season' and the weather has been particularly good - we have had lots of outings to local parks on the weekend and Erin especially loves going down slides. Only four weeks or so until Christmas too - crazy! We have arranged most of Erin's gifts and there will be photos coming, some of it is furniture from The Giddy Giraffe

Roland is still hard at work as usual, and juggling squash during the week and usually plays 2-3 games unless there is a tournament on (in which case he will play more). We have his work's Christmas party to attend next Friday, which will certainly be interesting! The first time we will have been out together and Erin-less in a little while.

Besides Erin-wrangling, I have been trying to devote some of my spare time to my new "business" venture, feel free to check out the website - Mama Bird Designs Although I will still be looking for paid employment to start in the new year.

As far as new things in Erin-world go, she is just motoring ahead and LOVES to talk - some of it we can understand and the rest is in Erinese ;) Her favorite things at the moment are butterflies and pussy cats.

And even though it's a little while away yet, it looks like we will be going on our first overseas holiday as a family in June / July 2008 - four weeks in Canada, yay! On one hand we are very excited, but on the other hand it is going to be a very interesting experience travelling with a nearly 2 year old.

That's about it for now though, so until next time please take care :)

Lots of love,
Jacquie, Roland and Erin

Happy (belated) Halloween!

OK so Halloween isn't so much of a big thing here in NZ, but we decorated this year anyway! Here are a few photos:

Candy



Front door


'Ed' the skeleton


Ghosts and bats

Cobwebs


Front gate



We're not sure whether we actually had any trick or treaters this year though, because we ended up going out for dinner and didn't get back until a little bit later. We did leave a note on the door though, to wish all the kids a safe and happy Halloween.

Take care everyone!


Love Jax, Roland & Erin

A new toy!

Someone has been very lucky and spoiled, and got a new Playskool toy from our lovely next door neighbour Jan - a cool mini racing track with three little racing cars. She loves it, and makes lots of "brooommmmm broooooommmmm" noises too.

And here is a shot that we thought was kinda cute - She was playing 'peekaboo' with the camera. It's a bit pink because the curtains in Erin's room were still closed.

That's about all for now folks, take care !!

Love Jax, Roland & Erin