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Home & Family

.Christmas 2013.

Happy New Year everyone! We’ve had a fun and crazy couple of weeks in the Coward household, I thought I’d better share some photos from our Christmas celebrations before 2014 soldiers on anymore.

This Christmas we got sick – yippee! I think the end of the year and break from routine messed us up a bit and there seemed to be someone in the family sick from the last week of school until just a few days ago. I came down with the flu a couple of days before Christmas and felt pretty rotten for the rest of the week – and managed to pass it onto most of the extended family members too (sorry guys!) Despite the sickness we still had a fun Christmas and lead-up to it. I hardly took any photos because I was happier chilling on the couch but life goes on, right?!

Here are a few snaps from before and during present opening at Mum and Dad’s house…

 

The kids were really cute and so so so excited about Christmas. Amongst other things, we wrapped up plane tickets to New Zealand for them to open on Christmas day. We planned our trip to visit family a few months ago but have been keeping it a secret from the kids. They were so excited and we’ve been counting down the sleeps until we go – only 4 now!
We are loving school holidays, it’s the best feeling not having to be rushed getting ready in the morning. I feel a bit bad because we have been having a lot of home time, but it’s taken awhile to get back on top of things after being sick and the general Christmas busyness and knowing that we are going on a holiday next week I don’t feel too guilty because it’s going to be fun, fun, fun when we get to New Zealand!

 
 
January 2, 2014
Home & Family, Ottobre

.Harvey: 6 months.

 

Yay! We survived the first 6 months of baby-life and celebrated with a half-birthday!

I’m happy we have reached the 6 month mark. I love having tiny, cuddly, sleepy newborns but always find the 3-6 month age difficult. They start to wake up more, and want to do more but their little bodies aren’t physically ready to sit and roll as much as they would like. Once we hit 6 months it gets easier though and I feel like we are getting into a much better routine.

 

Turning 6 months brought about lots of change…which wasn’t initially a good thing because he got really unsettled. His sleeping went even more downhill and I decided to get serious with trying to get things sorted out. I read Save Our Sleep and adopted a few principles from there which really helped a lot. I couldn’t commit to the whole strict routine that is suggested in the book but the bits and pieces I did use did seem to work and put us back on the right track. He went from waking every hour or two during the night and only having 40 minute naps during the day to sleeping from 7pm – 3am or 4am (with a dreamfeed at 11pm that I cut out after about 1 month). And then usually sleeping again until around 6am or 7am. It is heaven to have my evenings and a bit of solid sleep back again! We are still working on longer day time naps but every couple of days he will sleep for 2 hours unassisted so finger crossed that will turn into more of a habit on his own. Harvey also made the move out of our bedroom into a room on his own which helps with sleeping so, so much. He is out of the hammock and into a cot and not being swaddled to sleep anymore. That was such a hard habit to break, I don’t remember the other kids caring so much about being wrapped to go to sleep but he really loved it. He started rolling around his cot too much though and I didn’t want to keep his arms restricted if he was moving about.

Harvey started on solids about 2 weeks before he turned 6 months and happily guzzles up every little bit. I don’t think we are going to have any issues with this boy and food! He has happily eaten a whole range of fruits and vegetables, some weetbix, and chicken but his absolute favourites are banana and greek yoghurt. The yoghurt especially – he cries when it is all gone and will keep eating it if I offered it to him, which I don’t because he is still pretty spewy and yoghurt spew is not good news!

He also started sitting on his own this month which has made him heaps happier, it is much easier for him to play with toys and things around him and see what is going on now. And his rolling is out of control, he moves around the room so fast now and sometimes will even make his way to me when I am in the dining room or the kitchen!
 
 

You are growing up way too fast little boy! Slow down for the next month, okay? I don’t want you to lose those chubba cheeks yet!

 

December 16, 2013
Home & Family

.Old Granny.

Today we remember my Old Granny and celebrate 81st birthday.
Her name is Marie (pronounced mar-ee) and she passed away when I was 5 years old.

{Grandad
remarried a few years after Old Granny died, which I guess is the
reason my young siblings and I nicknamed her “Old Granny” not to be
confused with the new!}

Being
so young, I don’t remember a lot about her. But I do remember soft
cuddles and when she would drive us in the car without touching the
steering wheel and amaze us with her “no hands” trick! I do have a vague
memory of sitting in the chapel at her funeral and the coffin sitting
at the front of the room. Mum says that at the beginning of the funeral,
I said is a very loud (and I’m sure, high pitched) voice “I know who’s
in that box!”

{Lil was sure this photo of Carli and I was a photo of her and Maya!}
I
do know that she was loved by all. She was a spectacular Mother, and
yearned so much for Motherhood. After difficulty having her own children
she adopted 3 more who are as much a part of our family as everyone
else.
I
have always loved this photo – I love that it’s not all smiles and
posing. And I love the vintage house details and reminder that we are so
very fortunate. Grandad says that they had just moved to Tasmania from
Sydney and it was freezing cold. This photo was taken on Christmas Day
and Granny was so cold (I think there was snow on the mountains) and
grumpy about it that she spent the day with her feet in a bucket of hot
water trying to keep warm!
Grandad and Granny have just been visiting us from Sydney and being Old Granny’s birthday this week, it was the perfect time for a family visit to the cemetery for FHE.
We cleaned up her (ahem!) slightly overgrown grave and Grandad told us stories about her…how they met, their careers, membership in the gospel, family and other fond memories.

The rain started sprinkling down while we were there. Just light enough not to be a bother but enough to remind us that although the memories are sweet, her departure is just as sad and difficult for those left behind, particularly Grandad and her five children.

Before we left home, I sent the kids over to our neighbour’s house to collect flowers for the grave. (Our garden is low in the floral department and Mrs Polley is away for a few months and won’t mind!) Lil carefully placed the flowers in an Urban Flower-worthy arrangement.


Grandad asked us to visit her grave more often and talk to her, he said that it is important that we talk to her. And we will. I know I still have a lot to learn about life and sacrifice and commitment from her and Grandad. Their lives were 100% devoted to family and the church.
I wish my memories of Old Granny weren’t 26 years old. I
wish she could hold her great-grandchildren and share her mothering
advice with us and be the one telling us that she hated being cold when
they moved to Tasmania. 
 
But we have stories and memories and a growing family, Marie June…your legacy lives on. I hope we make you proud.

November 21, 2013
Home & Family, Ottobre

.Harvey: 5 months.

We’re back again with yet another post about Harvey – I think this blog should be called the Harvey Show because that’s pretty much all that goes on around here lately! We love him so though and he definitley has entered our family with a whirlwind of change!

5 months still brings a lot of finger sucking and chewing anything he can find…dare I say it could be teeth? Who knows? Oscar and Lil didn’t get any until they were 1 but Tommy was 6 months when his sprouted so you never know. Actually, reading that post about Tommy sounds so similar to Harvey at the moment – except Harvey’s sleeping day AND night is rotten! We are going to move him out of our bedroom tomorrow night and get tough, hopefully it won’t take too long for him to settle into a better sleeping routine and sleep for more than 40 minutes at a time! At the moment, he spends pretty much the whole night in my arms…lucky he’s cute.

 

Although I have barely touched the sewing machine since Harvey came along, I have managed to sew a couple more outfits for him recently. This “Nukkumatti Baby Sleeper” from Ottobre 6/2012 became one of my favourites. I’ve also made it here and here, but both of those versions are too small now. They were both worn a lot though so I was happy to sew up another one and I love the ease of the invisible zip and contrasting cuffs are always a winner with me.

 

The fabric is Lillestoff Pirates from Crafty Mamas. I think it is sold out there now – you gotta be quick!

He’s definitley getting a lot stronger and more active, he has started rolling around and still loves having a jump in his jolly jumper. And we continue to get lots of lovely smiles like these ones…

 
November 9, 2013
Home & Family

.Oscar’s Baptism.

 
Last Sunday Oscar was baptised as a member of our church. It was a really special day and we were so proud of him and of his decision to be baptised now that he has turned 8. He was so excited during the week leading up to his baptism and we made a big deal about it all week, having a special Family Home Evening, having them missionaries over for dinner to talk about it and also having our Home Teachers come and give a message about baptism.
We wanted him to have a lot to do with the day and he decided who was going to speak and say prayers at the baptism and what songs were going to be sung. We also got him to write out the programme in his own handwriting – this is going to be a tradition in our family as it will be a nice, personal keepsake for them to hold on to. (Lil painted a picture of Oscar being baptised that we used inside too.)
Jaron and I were feeling a little nostalgic all week – it really does only feel like a couple of years ago we were having our first baby and starting a family, yet here we are after 12 years of marriage and 8 years of children with a “big” family for this day and age!
 
 

Time really does go too fast. Oscar being baptised signifies the beginning of having older kids, everything is going to happen so quickly now. Before we know it he will be turning 12, then 18, then heading off on a mission and leaving home! And the others will quickly follow behind him. 

Funny how for the first few years of being a mother everything seemed to go so slowly. We were stuck at home (we only had 1 car until Lil was born so had to walk everywhere!) and every day seemed to drag on. As soon as they hit school age though, time just seems to fly by. They leave for school in the morning and before I can manage to get much done at all it is time to pick them up again! On Sunday evening I have grand plans about everything I’m going to accomplish during the next week and before I know it it’s Sunday night again and my list looks pretty much the same as it did a week ago!

I’ve had a few reminders over the last few weeks to take time to slow down and “smell the roses”. I’m finding it easier to drop the unimportant tasks and focus on the here and now…the little things that will make a difference to the children and our family. Everything else can wait and I know that if I focus on the important things then I will find time for everything else.

 

We were so grateful to friends and family who joined us for Oscar’s special day. I love that we are surrounded by so many wonderful people who care about our family and teach my children how to be Christlike through their quiet examples. 

Happy Baptism Day spunky boy!

 
October 26, 2013