Weekend in Mpumalanga

We had a very busy weekend in Mpumalanga from Friday and only got back today. My two boys were an absolute handful in the car on the way down and back so not sure when we will be going on a long trip soon. :) We left on Friday morning to go and stay at a friend of mine Gillian in White River. Gillian and her husband Len live in the most amazing tranquil place in an estate but this is no ordinary estate, it is just like being in the bush. So peaceful and the views are stunning from their home. Thanks Gill and Len for all of your hospitality it was really great to see you again.

View from the balcony ~ stunning!

On Saturday morning we went into the Kruger park for most of the morning and as the weather was not too hot we got to see a fair amount of game but no cats. We saw zebra, giraffe, rhino, monkeys, baboons, buffalo, impala, water buck, elephant, tortoise, lizards, a leopard kill up a tree but no leopard :( We had a great time in the park and then headed back towards White River for a 40th wedding anniversary celebration for friends of my mom & dad i.e. John and Linda. We had a great time celebrating with them in the afternoon and then everyone dressed up for a 60's party for the evening. Thanks for the organisation Kerry & Christine - we had a great time and it was nice to see you all again.

This morning after having a wonderful breakfast with Gillian and Len once again we headed back home but as we had a show house on again and we could only be home at around 5pm, so we took a slow drive back home. We popped into the Dinosaur park at the Sterkfontein caves. What a great park - thanks for the recommendation Gill. The boys just loved it! We had a milkshake and pancakes before taking a slow drive to Dullstroom where we wondered around a bit before heading our way back home.

I only have two more weeks left before I leave for Australia, so my life is going to start getting very hectic now. The agents are in the process of reserving flights for me, as they cannot be confirmed until my visa is through. I was very proud of the home affairs department last week as it only took 2 weeks to organise Reece and Bryce's passport. It normally takes 6 weeks so they got lots of brownie points from me last week.

Off to bed as quite bushed!
Cheers
Nix

Big Changes!

Okay so we have been missing in action for a little while as we have been in the process of making BIG decisions! Yip for all of you who do not know already Heath and I have decided to move to Australia. Quite drastic but we are very excited and cannot wait to start with our new adventure. It is all very scary to start with but we are taking each day as it comes. So for the last two weeks I have been sitting at the computer every night filling in documents, scanning documents, getting copies of documents etc. This is only for us to get the visas organised. So the reason for being a little scarce. The plan at this time is I will be leaving to start my new job on 1st Dec in Perth and leaving my lovely family behind. BUT I will be back for Xmas for two weeks and then I will be going back to Aus after New Year. Hopefully by then we should be a little clearer on when Heath and the kids join me - hopefully not too soon afterwards. We are still waiting for the kids passports to be sorted but in the meantime the agency has lodged my visa and Heath's visa, they can only lodge the kids visa's once we have passports and once they have completed their medical check-up.

So while I am in Aus I have to start scouting around for a home to live in, schools for the kids and then also start scouting around for some goods places for Heath to work at. Heath has the job of sorting out the house (trying to sell still - but we may have to rent), and looking after the kids. Heath has been my saint as with the amount of documents we have had to get organised he has been doing most of the running around for us - Thank you Babe - love you stax!

So soon I will be updating you all on the happenings in Aus and I will have to teach Heath to update the blog on the happenings in SA. At the moment the boys have no idea what is going on, which is good for us as they are acting just as normal - which of course is full of nonsense.

Recently I took some pics of Bryce as he was looking so cute with his little head of curls well last week Heath had the boys hair cut as it was so hot. Well when I got home I could not believe it was Bryce as he looked so different. I still have to look twice. Reece is not so bad as I have seen him with short hair before. Below you will see what I mean:

Bryce with curls

Bryce eating watermelon with no curls!

Reece- Smiley boy

It is amazing how kids grow and learn day to day. Recently Reece has been digging in his cupboard and playing with some of the toys he has had around for ages but was not really interested in previously. Well last night he amazed us and built some boats and we just could not believe the thought & imagination that goes into building these little objects. I promised him I would take a picture in the morning but his little brother got hold of the boats before we could take pictures, so tonight he made some more - evidence below:

I will post some more later in the week on our last couple of week-ends, but I am bushed so off to bed. Night-Night.

Cheers

N

Busy Busy!

Well what a busy week-end we have had. It all started on Friday when I had a lunch in Rivonia as my company wanted to treat us all to a great lunch out for winning the 4th best small company to work for in the Deloitte survey. Well we started at 12:30 and when I left at 6:30pm the party was still rocking very strong. I would hate to know what our one director paid just for the bar bill alone must have been a hefty sum. Our company is merging with another company and we will now be called Britehouse SSD and so there was plenty to celebrate as not only being the 4th best small company to work for we were now also getting a new name so we had to show how to do it under the old name of One Arch. I think there were many very saw heads on Saturday morning! Well my evening did not end there as I had some family around at home and I eventually crawled into bed after 12:00pm. I found Heath curled up in bed with Reece as he had "just gone to check on the kids" - but had actually sneaked off as he was also bushed. Bryce had been put to bed around 9:30pm and Reece at around 11:00pm, so of course we were hoping for them to sleep LATE! No such chance they were up and bouncing around at 6:30am the next morning!

Then Saturday was no better as we rushed off in the morning to meet Reece's school teacher for next year. At least she looks much livelier than the one he has at the nursery school, so I am sure he is going to love it. Then we dashed off to Reece's swimming lesson. He had a blast like he normally does at swimming lessons. We then got home to relax but somehow or another we did not do much relaxing. Later in the afternoon we went through to friends of ours Louise and Bart for a bit of rugby and birthday celebration. Go Sharks!!! Oh- yes they did win, sorry just a bit behind the times. We had a really great evening with friends and my goodness we just did not stop eating. Thanks Louise for everything! My children once again only went to bed well after 10:30pm but at least they gave us a little lie in as they were only bouncing around at 7:30 this time. I think we are close to tiring them out for the week-end! :)

Sunday was a little more relaxing but we were still out and about as we had been invited to lunch at Natalie's house i.e. Heaths sister. We had a great relaxing afternoon chilling and chatting. Thanks Nats!

Earlier in the morning Reece and Bryce had been bugging me to eat ice cream from around 8am in the morning until around 11am I decided I had been bugged enough and was looking for a bit of peace and quite - actually a little me time to read a bit of my scrapping magazine. So below is a little evidence of them (note still in there pj's & me :)) munching on ice creams.

Just look at that face

Too cute

The moment Reece has been waiting for!

Then after cleaning them up and getting then ready for lunch I could not resist and do a little photo shoot with Bryce. He was in the cutest mood this morning and the cute curls in his hair are just irresistible so I marched him off to our bedroom and snapped away happily. He was only to happy to pose - for a change :)

Just too cute for words!

This week is hopefully a little better and not so hectic. Hopefully I should hear more about the job offer in Australia and then tomorrow I am off for an interview in Midrand at another consulting company in SA. So hold thumbs!

Chat again soon

Cheers

N

My boys are growing up too fast!

Missing in action again and once again I have absolutely no idea where the time has gone. Well last week was a little sad for me as my little baby Bryce is now in a big bed as he calls it. He has been ready to go into a bed for many months but I am the one who kept on holding him back as I thought if we put him into a bed we are doomed. He is a very early riser and we thought as he can get in and out of his bed he will be waking us up VERY EARLY in the morning. Plus then going to bed as he is a little monster who gets up to lots of mischief he would be bugging his brother. Well last week Wednesday we decided to brave the reality that out little boy is growing up and we put him into bed. Well he was so well behaved that he even surprised us. He did not get out of the bed once and slept through the night and did not wake up once. Then the funniest is that in the morning he sat in his bed calling us to come and fetch him as he had not worked out that he is able to get out himself. Well one week later and he loves sleeping in his big big bed and anyone who comes to visit he has to show them his big bed. He is just the cutest.

My other baby is also growing up too fast for my liking as we are going to his school Tom Newby to meet his teacher on Saturday morning. I also cannot believe that he is going to grade 0.

Last weekend we went off to a 21st for one of Heaths cousins. We have not been to a party in ages and it was great fun to get out again and dance out little hearts out. Then on Sunday we had my mom and dad around to celebrate my dads birthday. So happy birthday dad and hope that the next year is a great one! I have been really bad lately and have not taken any photos so sorry dad I do not even have a little pic of you celebrating your birthday! Next time we will have to make an effort.

Well on the good news front - It looks like Heath is much closer to getting a job. He has been for two interviews with Hi-Fi corporation and been through quite a few psychometric tests. In fact he is spending the whole day today doing tests. So please all hold thumbs that all goes well. Hopefully we should know very soon.

Wow - I did not realise I had so much to say today but it is amazing once you start you then start remembering everything. I suppose I should start writing a little more often, but hey to find the time. Okay alot has happened in my life in the last week as well. To start with I have not been to a scrapping class for ages so I decided Saturday morning was the day. Well I got to class to find that I was to get undivided attention as I was the only one in the class. Jackie had created a really beautiful page that I decided I was to complete with pics of my gran. I finished the layout but I have still not put any pics on the page. Once complete I will post a pic of the page as it has really turned out very nicely. Thanks Jackie!

Now on Monday morning Heath woke up to tell me he had dreamt that I was pregnant with triplets. Well I was not very impressed and told him this is not very funny! Well that morning I had a call from a company in Australia for a position in Perth, then on Tuesday I got an email from a recruiter in UK to mention they have some positions available and then lastly on Wednesday I got a call from a company in SA for a really good position in Midrand. So after all of this I told Heath - these must have been my triplets. So I am pursuing all of the options as I need a change in my job. So Monday I have an interview for the position in Midrand. I am still waiting for feedback on the rates in Australia and more about the positions in UK. So I will keep you all updated on the Bedingfield happenings shortly.......as after all of this things could just remain as normal......

Okay I think I have rattled on for long enough. Hope that you are all well.
Chat again soon.

Cheers
N

Pilansberg

Heath has visited Pilansberg 3 times in about 1 week. The first time he went he went with John (brother-in-law) & Richard(John's son) for 4 days. They went camping and had some great sightings i.e. banded mongoose, lion, elephant, zebra, rhino, impala, springbok, hippo, red haartebees, black backed jackal, tortoise, snakes. They saw the lion when they went out for a game drive on one of the evenings. There have been quite a few veld fires in the park and some of them will still going.

From Pilansberg in October

From Pilansberg in October

Heath then came back to Jo'burg on Saturday afternoon to then shoot off again on Sunday morning. A friend of ours who works for BHP Billiton asked Heath if he would mind taking a guy who was landing from Australia around for the day. So Heath did his duty and took Ben around the park. Once again he got to see alot but he was unable to show Ben lion. They only got to the park around 10:00am after Heath had fetched Ben from the airport and the temperature reached 38 degrees so the chance of seeing lion in that heat was slim.


Then on Tuesday night we went to Deanne and Johns house for a braai and not sure how it all started but before we knew it we were planning to go back there on Thursday. So everything planned I put in my leave on Wednesday morning and we were on our way on Thursday morning to Pilansberg. We were only camping and for one night so did not really have to plan too much. Deanne and John pitched their tent which has two little rooms on either side of the main tent - so all was sorted. Their tent comes form the UK and I have never seen so many guide ropes on a tent in my life - believe me this tent was going nowhere!


After arriving just after noon. We had a bit of lunch at the main area at Manyane. We had to build up a little energy before we started pitching the tent of course! It only took us about a hour to get all organised with the tent.

From Pilansberg in October

Just in time to go out for a game drive. As the park has burnt quite alot the animals are mainly concentrated around the Mankwe dam so luckily we did not have to travel too far. When we got to main dam in the afternoon we were just in time to see a herd of elephant come down to the waterhole for a bath and drink. What a great sighting - we could have sat there for hours. The baby elephants are just too cute for words, they seem to fall over there own feet but have loads of fun.

From Pilansberg in October

From Pilansberg in October

We also saw hippo, plenty plenty giraffe, lots of rhino and most of them with babies, zebra, wildebeest, red haartebees, impala, spingbok, slender mongoose, black backed jackal, waterbuck.

From Pilansberg in October

From Pilansberg in October

From Pilansberg in October

From Pilansberg in October

On Friday morning we were up and already in the park by 6:30am! But it was all worth it in the end as we got to see two lioness walking across the veld over the road and then into the distance. We found out later that the lioness that we saw (her name escapes me at the moment) is the largest female in the park. The one park ranger told us that he is sure that her skull is bigger than some of the males. Believe me she is huge!!!

From Pilansberg in October

Then to top it all off we got to see cheetah - one of my favourite :) She was not close enough for pictures and as she was on a kill she was not walking around too much. Plus, we had been told by one of the game guards that they had waited 45 minutes to see the cheetah get up. We had luck on our side and came around the corner saw the cheetah immediately and then sat and watched her for a while before she settled down again.

So all in all we had a great two days and by lunchtime we were back on the road home, but I felt like I had been away for at least three days so I was well relaxed by the time I got home and only to start the week-end.

From Pilansberg in October

Good one!
Cheers
N

Kids say the cutest things!

From Home pics

Today I was working from home and normally when I work from home I have to hide away in the study otherwise if I am spotted by Reece and Bryce I have had it ...... and do not get ANY work done. So today was one of the luck days where I was locked in the study for the day and I was able to escape them well until around 5:15pm when Reece came barging in and says "Ta da..... Mom may I introduce you to Bryce! Okay mom have a fun time...... bye.." Well I had a little giggle and thought I must start recording his little sayings as they are so cute lately.

Yesterday we had another show house and so we had to sweep, polish and polish again everything in the house. I am so tired of show houses and most of the time people are just nosing about so I hope we do not have anymore..... So of course we had to get out the house from 2-5pm. We went to my mom and dad. Dad made us a great lunch of Beef Strogonaff (not sure if spelt correctly but who cares.. :) ) rice, carrots & broccoli. It was great as we did not need to cook when we got home. Who would want to make a mess in the house that has just taken you all weekend to polish up? Well after lunch the kids went swimming again and again. Each time they thought they were cold they would get out for about 10 minutes and forgot all about how cold it was and were back in the pool. Reece is swimming really well but we told him to keep his arm bands on in case. Well at one stage I was chatting away to my mom when Reece came up to me and said "Mom, I could have drowned you know.......", so I looked at him oddly to find that he had removed his arm bands and jumped into the deep end and had swum across the entire length of the pool. Well my little heart skipped a couple of beats when I realised that we had been sitting RIGHT THERE and had not noticed...... Thanks goodness for swimming lessons..... Reece thought this was all a fat joke :)

On Saturday I took Reece to his first swimming lesson after the winter months. Well he had a blast and when I eventually dragged him out of the pool after a bit of play time. He jumped up and down saying "Mom, I had GREAT fun!!!!" His teacher was around and was so glad the hear him say that as they had a couple of kiddies who were not at all happy that swimming had started again.

In the afternoon we got together a picnic for the two of them and they sat in the front garden on the picnic mat eating chips, a strawberry sucker, some biscuits and a mug of Milo each. Well they had a ball so decided to try my luck again with some pictures. Well Reece was in his element he just kept on running around the garden telling me to "Please picture me.......". So I got a couple more cute shots of the two of them. I then put the sprinkler on to water the plants in the front and of course this is an invitation to the two of them to take off all of their clothes except their shoes (crocs)..... and run around like mad kids..... What a sight but I did not get any pics of them as my battery had died. Oh what fun it is to be innocent and have no cares in the world (sigh!).

From Home pics

From Home pics

From Home pics

I had a bit of a quieter week - work wise last week and so at the last minute we i.e. Heath and I decided to go to Pilansberg for a night camping so I took Thursday and Friday off. I cannot remember the last time I took a bit of leave so it was great. I will do a separate post on Pilansberg shortly to get you all up to speed.

Well have a great week.
Chat soon.
Cheers
Nix

Lazy days!

Okay I know I have been lazy as I have not updated the blog for a while. We have not been up to much other than taking kids to school, Heath searching for a job and then I am just plodding away at work! I have a big deadline to meet tomorrow so I will be up late tonight getting everything completed for my project.

My little monsters have actually been two little angels lately so I have enjoyed having fun with them for a change instead of screaming like a old nag bag. I need to savour this moment as I am sure the monster will come out again soon! I had a very rare moment yesterday when they were playing in the garden, so I decided to take some pics. Well they actually sat together for a little while to have a couple of pics taken TOGETHER. They are normally fighting about something when we want to take pictures.
Then Reece got hold of the camera and started clicking away and took a couple of cute pics. He has such fun when he takes the pictures and gets so excited when he see what he has taken.

Bryce is normally such a little rascal at night and does not sleep through yet, even though most of the time I think he wakes up at night and is actually just checking that we are still around, but is a right royal pain as you still need to get up to him to assure him you are still around. Well last night he slept through for the first time in a long time! yipppeeeee - not sure if it was because I made him have a rest earlier than normal. So I have tried my theory again - so we will see tonight :)

Heath went away from Wednesday to Saturday to Pilansberg with his brother-in-law John and John's son. They seemed to have a great time having a boys time out! The went camping and seemed to see quite alot in the park. I will post some pics of his trip during the week as I am waiting for him to download all of them. As Heath is away Murphy's law is that my kids will wake up super early in the morning. Just because they know that their mother is not a morning person they still have to give it a try....... so below is a pic of then playing with magnets in the kitchen at 6 o'clock in the morning on a Saturday!!!!!!!
Today Heath is back in Pilansberg taking a guy from Aus who is out here doing some work for Billiton. A friend of ours Elaine normally takes anybody who comes out to SA to Pilansberg for the day but as she is not around at the moment she has asked Heath to take the guy around. He is getting paid for it so at least it is not all for nothing.

Well my mom and dad have done the deed and booked their tickets to the UK. One-way so there is no returning now. They have booked for 3rd Dec 2008 departure. So we have just under two months until they leave. They will more than likely stay with us in the last week before they leave. Hopefully my project is not too hectic and I will try and take some leave to spend with them before they go.

We are in the process of selling our house and have had quite a few people going through it but I think as there is so much on the market at the moment everyone has a great choice about. So we have had two show houses so far with around 12 couple coming through and then we have also had the odd couple coming through during the week. We had one couple through yesterday at 4:00pm and then again today. It is great to have the interest but it is such a PAIN to try and keep the house tidy at all times. So my poor children are forever being moaned at......

Well on that happy note - cheers and have a great week!

Cheers
Nicky

National Braai day!

On on Wednesday we had a public holiday and to the general public we call it National braai day, so we did our deed and had a braai at home. We had my brother and sister-in law around to celebrate with us. Heath just loves having braais - I must confess that this is not one of my favourite meals but it is great every now and again.

The weather was fantastic and Reece and Bryce had a great time outside. They washed their little motor bikes and that at least kept them out of our hair for a little while.

They wanted to swim but it was not quite warm enough for swimming so they chose the next best thing - find the hosepipe, attach the spayer and run through the water. They were soaked but had a great time. They did venture to swimming on the step of the swimming poll for a while but decided it was toooooo cold. They must have dressed about 4 times but then landed up in the water again.

Cheerio for now!

Cheers

Nicky

Relaxing times!

Well this week-end has been great - I cannot remember the last time that we stayed at home and relaxed. I spent the morning yesterday with the boys in the garden and we ran around playing games and having fun. I then found some time to relax on the garden chairs and catch up on some reading. I cannot remember when I last read a book and caught up on some of my magazines. Heath made a great potjie so it was a great end to the day!

This last week at work has been hectic as I have started on a new project. So all the relaxing time we can get has been great!

Today the weather has been really cold and of course just the best to relax at home. We spent a couple of hours with my mom and dad as well this morning so we did get out for a bit. My mom and dad are in the process of cleaning out their house as they are moving to the UK. They are hoping to get to the UK by the end of this year, but the guy who has bought the house is dragging his heals on many issues so who knows when they will eventaully move. Wow they have alot to sort out but they have more than enough time to sort out everything. I have a good friend at work who is helping out at a childrens home so we at least have a great home for all the old blankets, towels, clothing & bedding that my mom is giving away. I have had my eye on my gran's standard lamp for many years and now I will be getting to keep it safe and sound in my house!

I actually do not even want to start thinking about my mom and dad leaving so I am just taking one day at a time. We are also thinking about making a move to the UK if Heath's job hunting does not get any better but we will make that decision by the end of the year only.

Well signing off from cold JHB - hopefully it is much warmer as the week goes by.........

Party, party, party!

Okay I know I have been missing in action and I have no excuse other than - just too lazy to sit behind the computer and write lately! So there you have it!

This week end we had two kiddies parties to attend - one on Saturday and one on Sunday. The one on Saturday was at a friends house whose little boy Braedon was turning 2. Well I thought that the party started at 11am only to find when checking the invitation that the party actually starts at 10am - beside the fact that it was already 10am and it would take us at least 45minutes to get there. So in a mad rush we ran around like mad fools dressing the kids, packing bags, packing pressies and dressing ourselves and were in the car at 10:15am. Whew!!!! It is amazing that when you have no time you somehow get a million things done :) Not sure if I would want to live life like this though. So we still got to the party at 11am - just like I thought! Thank goodness they are good friends of ours and well when we eventually left at 5:30pm we had had our fair share of the party and they still wanted us to stay for longer. The boys had partied so hard that as we drove out of their driveway they has passed out, even Reece who recently does not sleep in the car. So the rest of evening was spent lounging around catching up on my favourite series "Brothers & sisters!". I had 3 episodes to get through and due to recording them all I was able to fast forward through the ads. Brilliant!


On Sunday we had our nieces christening and her first birthday party. It was a good relaxing day and wow did we have some fine weather. I cannot believe that we are still in spring and this is the weather we are already getting. Maybe we will get some use out of our swimming pool this summer!


During the last week my brother in law Shawn was up from Cape Town on a project management course. He is staying in a hotel just down the road and we then get to see him in the evening for some supper at our place. As the weather was so great we were outside on these evenings having supper in the entertainment area. Heath took some pics of the boys zooting around outside. They just love being outside and by the time they get inside they should really be sent to have another bath! In the last pic below you can see how dirty these two little monsters are....

Also during the week Heath needed to replace the rollers on the kitchen pot drawers and as the one drawer was out this was the perfect opportunity for two little boys to find a new play area. What fun it is to be a kid!

Well keep well and chat again soon!

Cheers

Nicky

Spring day ...... maybe!

It has been a hectic week since Reece's birthday. We have had a heat wave over the last week where I even started wearing my summer clothes, great to have something different to wear and then over the week-end the weather became very windy and started getting a bit colder.



Well today was freezing so once again one of those weird cold snaps before we get the real summer coming along.



We had a party yesterday to celebrate Reece's birthday. It feels like we have been celebrating since Tuesday when it was actually his birthday. We hired a jumping castle and a slip and slide for him. He had such fun and so did the rest of the kids! I also attempted to make a birthday which was supposed to be a dragon but Reece called it his Dinosaur and everyone else called it a crocodile but anyway it took hours to make and 5 minutes to demolish - great fun!

I will publish some more pics soon - just that I have been having loads of hassles loading them lately.

Well have a great week.

Cheers
Nicky