Reece's Xmas Play

What a proud moment for both Nicky and I as Reece and his friend Ethan opened proceedings at their annual Xmas play. He is not always as bold at home, amazing to see his confidence in front of a crowd of about 100 adults ( Our boy is growing up). As you can see all the kids had great fun here and when santa arrived , these kids made some noise 8!#*.We all had some snacks after the party and soon left as Nicky is on her way to Australia.

Lucky Girl!

I have been such a lucky girl lately. I was given the two drawings below by my wonderful caring husband. He was looking for something for me to take with to Australia and he came up with the beautiful idea of getting a drwing made of each of the kids for me. I am just so spoilt to have such a wonderful man in my life!
Then I was given a pate knife and sugar spoon from my wonderful collegues. They are from Jenna Clifford! So spoilt! Now the bug has bitten and I will have to continue adding to my collection! Thanks guys & gals!
Wait for it there is more! Yip more! My two great friends Louise and Shellee bought me this beautiful rose necklace. Plus to top it off they each bought themselves one so I was given the message when I wear mine I will think of them and when they wear theirs they will think of me.

I am just so spoilt but also so greatful for all of the wonderful friends and family I have around me.

Spoilt signing off.

Cheers

Nix

Beautiful Friends!

It is really sad for me to leave all of my wonderful friends when I leave for Oz soon. Over these last couple of weeks it has amazed me how wonderful I have felt with all of them around me wishing Heath and I the best of luck in our new adventure. Last week Thursday as this is normally the night I go scrapping at one of the best scrapping shops in Benoni i.e Scrappin Times http://www.scrappintimes.typepad.com/. Heath and Jacki had let some of the gals know that this would be my last class for a while. Well thanks to everyone who turned out to say good-bye and also thanks to those who sent messages to say good-bye. Thanks Jacki for everything - we had a great evening with our usual chatter and loads of fun scrapping. Antoinette I will most certainly remember you each and every time we page through my scrapping albums you have been a great teacher and kept me interested throughout these last 1.5yrs which is a miracle in itself.

Then to make it even more special Jacki posted on her blog a little about me and to say she is going to miss me. Thanks Jacki for the words of encouragement - you can see the post here http://scrappintimes.typepad.com/scrappin_times/2008/11/bye-nicky-we-are-really-going-to-miss-you.html .

Plus today my great great friend Louise and her hubby Bart sent me a poem together with some words of encouragement for Heath, the boys and I. The poem was just too beautiful that I said to Louise I will post it on my blog so that I do not forget about it. Here goes:

Moment in Time
by Cynthia Kepp

We talked,
We walked,
for a Moment in Time.

You passed through my life that day and left your mark.
You may never pass my way again,
Or you may stay for a lifetime.

No matter what,
I want to say thank you for the impression you made
that will stay with me for eternity.

I enjoyed the walk,
I enjoyed the talk.
I am blessed for that moment in time.

The first time I saw you I knew you would affect my life,
though your role I did not know.
There is one thing I want you to know.
I have been blessed by the effect you had on me in that
Moment in Time.

Thank you to all of you who have also sent us words of encouragement we really appreciate it and please keep in contact as we will see you all again soon!
Have loads of fun!
Cheers
Nix

Farewll Surprise @ Rodizio's

From http://picasaweb.google.com/bedingfieldn/FarewellRodizio

I was given a surprise farewell by some of my great freinds from work. I had an idea that Heath was organising something last week with them but then nothing happened so I was very grateful at the time that he had forgotten about it as I am not the best with surprises. Well I was not expecting anything as we were supposed to be going out for a quite dinner with Deanne and John (my brother and sister-in-law). When we got to the restuarant of course it was not going to be a quite evening after all.

We all had a great time relaxing eating, drinking (lots) and of course lots and lots of dancing. My calf muscles are feeling rather tender today but then again I think that there were many tender heads this morning. Thanks to everyone who came. We really appreciate the fact that you came to enjoy the evening with us! Thanks to all.

We had two photographers for the evening i..e Deanne and Louise, I have got Deanne's photos so far and I have uploaded them onto the web - there are so many it was very difficult to choose. You will find the link to the left (Farewell at Rodizio's). If any of you cannot get access to the photo's gimme a shout and I will make a plan.

From http://picasaweb.google.com/bedingfieldn/FarewellRodizio

Heath had asked Louise to give a speech and I was so worried that would be me balling my eyes but she made it alot of fun so no crying yet! Thanks Lou. Below is the speech made by Lou and Shellee.... Thanks girls!

From http://picasaweb.google.com/bedingfieldn/FarewellRodizio

Okay we did intend for this to be brief & to the point, but this is Nicky we are talking about, there is far too much to say!!! In order not to spend hours up here, we have decided to try consolidate some of the ways Nicky has impacted us by using her name, Nicky N-I-C-K-Y.

So................................

N is for being NOBLE, she hold true to her values and shows respect for others, namely friends collegues and family (even if she laughs while making a poor soul nearly swallow a clip (i.e. my husband) or calls her son Rice (i.e. shorten both Reece and Bryce and you get Rice)
I is for being an INITIATOR - And we are not just talking about work projects here, which we are sure St Gobain have been quite thilled with anyway)
C for her CURIOUS, INQUISTIVE nature - Here's an example "Mmmm I wonder how this works, or if I just change this program a little bit!" (Who's the chancer now!!!)
K is for ...... Kick Ass - which she only does if required but of course in a subtle polite way! And you thought we are going to say KIND, but this of course is also definitely true!
And Y is ..... WHY are you leaving us????? :( - No seriously Y is for being YOU, your special spirit which we will never forget. Yes we have had some good times, we most certainly won't be short of memories. So this is to say thank you from our heart and to wish you and your family all of the very best, you certainly deserve it. We cannot wait for all of your updates and especially visits!!!!

From http://picasaweb.google.com/bedingfieldn/FarewellRodizio

Thanks to everyone and now this is on our blog it is recorded for me to check out whenever I am feeling down. Remember to come and visit us if you are ever around Perth - we would love to see you all!

Sleep tight!

Cheers
N

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