The Date

Its been at least 3 or 4 years since Dave and I have been out on a date. I know its amazing but since Nicholas was born Dave is very I mean very protective of his son and moreso now that Kate is here. He finds it hard to leave them hence we have not been out together on our own for such a long time.

Anyway on Thursday night I was on facebook attending my garden patch and my fish pond when I noticed Ange was on line alas a conversation commenced and Dave and I thought it would be good to have Haki and Ange over to play Aquire. Ange replied love to but they were off to the pictures to see Wolverine. Lucky them I thought I wish I could go!! I said to Dave "could we please go with Haki and Ange to the pictures?" I hadn't even asked Ange if we could butt in on their date. (I think I was expecting Dave to say no for two reason its a week night and he doesn't like to go out then and second he couldn't possibly leave the children). To my amazement he said do you think Alison would look after the children for us??? Nearly falling off my seat with shock I said of course she would as I lept from my chair and ran into the lounge to ask Alison. Yes she said. So back onto the net and asked Ange if we could come too? Ange being the beautiful person that she is said YES and even more cool Haki and Ange would pick us up.

Children still up YIKES have to move fast bye Ange see you soon. Dave tended to Nicholas who was trying to convince his dad please dad can I come I'll be good. I attended to Kate who was most surprised to be getting her night time top up early. As usual when your're trying to get organised and get children to sleep they tend to pick up on the excitement of mum and wont settle as good as you would like. So out comes mum magic back rub and a soft little song and YES she's fast asleep.

Whilst all this was going on Haki and Ange were outside waiting and bless them instead of coming in and knocking on the door they text us and waited patiently. 2020 out the door lept into the car I was so excited and Dave seemed very relaxed. We held hands it was gooey but cool.

The movie was awesome, the company real awesome, the date a success.

NB The coolest thing was Haki and Ange take their own supply of treats which they shared with us. I hope we can go on more dates now that Dave can trust someone with our children.

Thanks so much Haki and Ange for allowing us to share your date with us. I know that alone time is really important and precious for you and Haki before the exciting arrival of your little one.

Ben moves in

My son Ben has officially left high school and has moved into our house. Mix feelings about it and a little worried. Lets look at the positives:

• First and foremost I have all my children in Dunedin. It's taken 14 years to have them all in one place so very happy about that.
• Having Ben live with us might help him gain a testimony and get baptised into the church
• Ben can help with the little ones i.e take Nicholas to soccer practice and maybe look after the children while Dave and I go out on dates (another post to tell).
• Ben is great at playing with Nicholas and Nicholas loves having his big brother around.

The negatives:

• Ben eats like a horse and drinks milk like a fish we need our own cow.
• Ben is 16years old with no qualification trying to find a job will be hard
• Ben is great for winding me up and Dave and him generally back each other up
• Will Ben and Dave stay friends or will it be another Stacey Dave relationship???

Don't get me wrong I am so excited to have Ben with us but I know there are going to be alot of adjusting to do. It was fasting testimony yesterday and I fast for the first time in a long time. It was hard real hard but I hoping my fast will help Ben find a job.

The Atonement

I am so blessed to be in Primary with such a wonderful teacher/1st councillor/bestest friend/my nightshift entertainer Ange. I am what you would call a little slow when it comes to understanding the gospel. I try really hard to work it out for myself but alas I always seem to fail. On Sunday Ange was teaching the children all about the atonement and it was like the penny dropped for me. Oh my gosh I was always thinking well yep there's that word atonement and that it was a special gift given to us from Jesus Christ and generally I would be happy with that explanation, but like other things in the gospel I really wanted to know so what does that really mean? Why is that word so important? How does it link to repentance? How did it come about etc? Feeling stupid does prevent me from asking the questions because I think other would think well she is stupid. Fortunately for me Ange's interpretation was brilliant. She started with two pictures one of the Saviour praying in Gesemane and the other of a little girl they were side by side (close together). Then Ange chose children to dig deep into her bag to pull out a sin and with each sin we were ask how big we thought the sin was how far would the gap be between the little girl and the Saviour. With each sin the gap was wider and even deeper like a pit. It was amazing to see the children interprete how big the gap was for each sin. David ( a valiant boy), had his arms wide apart (i.e real bad sin) for not wanting/whinging about FHE. Nicholas thought the gap was very wide for every sin, from lying to poking your brother/sister. Once the gap was made Ange asked the children how could we get back to being close to our Saviour and our Heavenly Father. To be honest I just thought you repent and Bob's your uncle. Oh how wrong was I and then that word Atonement came into the light Ange had made these awesome pavement blocks out of paper with a letter on each block that spelt the word ATONEMENT and it was put on the board between the little girl and the Saviour it was a bridge that allowed us to get close to our Saviour again. Moreso Ange took it a step further by asking the children how can we cross over that bridge to feel close to our Saviour and we went through each sin and made suggestion how we could right that wrong. We had such a joyful time playing hot n cold game to find the pavers (I think I was doing most of the yelling). I liked Ange's lesson so much that I gave it for FHE mostly to help reinforce what I had learn't and to see how much Nicholas remembered. Well because Ange is a brilliant teacher Nicholas remember most of it as he reminded me at the end.... "that's the lesson Sister Cook did on Sunday in Primary". So thank you Ange I look forward to many more lesson's from you!!!! (Actually you should teach all the time) I know I'm greedy. How big is that gap in the sin rating??? Love ya

Is Kate a boy or a girl????

I maybe biasis but I do believe that my Kate is a cute beautiful girl. I mean she has all the girl bits n pieces. Then why is it that other people don't see her as a girl. Here are some examples:

At Dave's Motatapu run I dressed Kate in blue pants with pink flowers and a white frilly neck skivvy and we were sitting in the sun while Dave recouperated. Kate walks over to a complete stranger pointing at him. I went over to pick her up and I said "come on Kate"to my surprise the man said "he's a jolly looking chap" he's not shy"in which I replied she's a girl her name is Kate. Did he not hear me when I picked her up calling her Kate???

Dave's graduation I dressed Kate in pink pants with spot and a pink sweat shirt. One of Dave work mates was also graduating too. I had Kate in the pushchair and I said hello to Paddy to which he said "he's a happy chappy" In horror again I replied "SHE"S a girl KATE is her name"Oh my gosh she was wearing pink. He apologies and said I should have known I have 4 girls myself.

Then yesterday I went out for lunch with Stacey at a cafe. I dressed Kate in blue denim pants with pink flowers on the bottom a pink skivvy and a blue denim jacket with heaps of PINK flowers. When I walked into the cafe there was a lady I knew who I hadn't seen for quite sometime. She then asked me what's your little boy name ARHHHHHH but still polite I said once again "she's a girl her name is KATE"

Those are but a few occasion but there has been more Kate even wore a pretty little dress and some random wally thought she was a boy come on!!!!!

Is my child destine to be lable a boy oh my gosh if a dress isn't convincing enough what is???

She wore this outfit to the aftermath at Dave's graduation after changing her from pink pants etc