McBonbon Christmas!

The Christmas mood struck the McBonbon household this week and because our kids enjoy doing arty stuff so much, we decided to let them get their creative freak on!  We purchased some baubles from the Warehouse, along with some foam stickers, and voila! Christmas art!

Emersyn very hard at work!

The kids each decorated their baubles and then we took the requisite photos of the kiddos with their creations.

Of course what use are decorations without a Christmas tree?  The Christmas tree went out and then the kids were given the all important job of decorating the tree... and I have to say, they didn't do too bad!  Naturally there were photos taken with the tree before we headed outside to decorate a couple of the trees in the front yard... with all those left over decorations it seemed like the right thing to do (even if most of them have now blown off in the wind...).

The kids were all very well behaved so I think we may do some more Christmas art over the next couple of weeks, before Lauriel, myself, Emmy & Gab head down to Christchurch and Eloise and Aidan go to spend the Christmas period with their dad.  I am pretty sure there will be some Christmas baking done as well when we find the inspiration!

Eloise & Gaby showing off their baubles

Aidan & Gaby with their baubles...
trying to smile into the sun. 
Fail.

Emersyn & Eloise with their baubles

Our crazy foursome...
getting them all to smile & look at the camera wasn't working...

As always four children smiling and looking at the camera wasn't working
.... funny faces it is!

Final product! 3/4 kids looking at the camera, 2/4 smiling... good enough for me!

Decorating one of the trees outside

I happen to think it looks awesome!

Little update from the old married couple

I've been very busy with uni work, so haven't had a chance to update the blog...  Well, I could have, but I hate giving half-ass updates on here.  It HAS however been a month since the blog was last updated, so here goes!

The children are all well.
We are well.
We are happy.

Really, what more could we ask for?

Life has (predictably) gone back to normal after the wedding... Which is nice, really.  The kids are

Family time at the park!

to enjoy it!  Gab continues to read up a storm - I think having Eloise around has encouraged her to read outside of school - the two of them always have a book or two on the go, which is really great to see.  I love that our children are readers.

Aidan is making great progress at school, and got a 'Positive Person' award at the end of term assembly last month... Him and Gaby are currently enjoying searching for snails and worms, and playing outside on the bike.  They have the ability to fight a lot, but when they aren't getting on each others nerves, they have an awesome little relationship going on!  Being that they are so close in age, I guess it is to be expected... and it means that Aidan can protect Gaby from all those evil teenage boys when they are a bit older.

Emersyn... my little baby.. she's almost THREE.  I don't know how time has gone so fast, because I'm sure that it was just a few months ago I was celebrating her FIRST birthday.  Emmy loves Eloise, and is constantly by her side... it's very sweet, but not doubt also a little annoying at times, for Eloise!  Emersyn loves preschool and always comes home and tells us what she's done that day.  Usually it's 'went outside'... and for awhile it was painting painting painting.

As for us???  We are already an old married couple.  But I don't think that's as much of a bad thing as it sounds... I think it means we are comfortable enough with each other that we can just be ourselves and do our own thing, and don't feel the need to have to impress the other person.  That said, all my study has been taking it out of me, and I feel awful for not being able to stay up past 10pm - and even moreso for falling asleep within minutes of going to bed.  I hope that when my exams are over, I'll be a bit more like the old Emma!

At the rugby in Palmerston North

We are looking very forward to our night in Hamilton next weekend - we get to see our boys playing, and we also get a night in a fancy hotel, courtesy of a very generous wedding gift!  We did recently have a night without children - we went to Palmerston North (as you could guess, for rugby) and the kids had a slumber party with Amy, Kallum and Ellie.  It was lovely having that time alone - and the time away from home... and I finally got to experience what Palmerston North has to offer...  We crossed another rugby stadium off our list, and got to quench our thirst for rugby.  Perfect!

Speaking of rugby, on June 22nd we are crossing another rugby stadium off our list - AND seeing the All Blacks... v France! 

I will now sign off, we have kids that need to be fed!

Introducing.... Mrs & Mrs Masson-Oakden!

WE ARE MARRIED!

... and do I ever want to get married again?????  NO.
... am I madly madly crazily in love with my WIFE????  HELL YES!

the cops that turned up at our hens night... that WEREN'T strippers...
.... what are the odds???

I have always heard that weddings are stressful, but I never understood just how true that was until the last month or so.  Planning our wedding wasn't stressful when it was deciding a date, deciding on a venue, purchasing dresses and shoes.  But then the big 'one month to go!' mark rolled around, and suddenly there were 1,000,000 decisions to be made, decisions about seemingly pointless things (to me, remember - very un-girly), that I couldn't really have cared about whatever we'd decided...

BUT seeing it all come together as beautifully as it did (hugely in part to the amazing Kath and Sophia), I see now that those 'pointless' things we needed to decide on were all equally important, and without them the wedding would have been just another day.

with my Mum & sister before the wedding

I don't want to talk about the stress any longer though, because it's all in the past now - and it all seems so unimportant, because that stress led to the best day of my life (tied with the birth of both of my babies, my niece and my nephew).

The weather forecast was for showers, but we woke up to BLUE SKY, and throughout the morning the sky turned grey, but it didn't really look like rain... until about an hour before the ceremony was due to start.  We got to the venue and it looked like it'd rain, but it also looked like it would hold off.

The gorgeous Mrs L. Masson-Oakden

We began our march down the aisle.  And it began to rain.  Heavier and heavier and heavier.  By the
time we got to the 'altar' (read:  goalposts) it was starting to rain heavily - and it proceeded to get heavier right throughout the ceremony.  You know what though?  I hardly noticed it.  I KNEW it was raining (my hair was saturated, my shawl was saturated, my face was saturated), but it all kind of took a backseat because the only thing I was focused on was Lauriel, and the fact we were finally getting married!

Our walk down the aisle... in the rain... and wind...

After the ceremony we were supposed to do a sand ceremony, but it was too wet, so the table carrying the marriage register was taken into the changing rooms under one of the grandstands.... the food table was carried through, all our guests came through - and the next two? hours were spent socialising in a rugby changing room.

Lauriel saying her vows

It was strangely perfect for us.

We always joked about getting our photos done in a changing room - and well, ALL our photos (sans a few) were done in one!  I am sure people will look at our photos and go "WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING?", but what we were thinking is "this is the low key wedding that suits us, just like we always wanted".  We got to spend time with family and friends, we had refreshments, lots of laughs were had.  What more could we want?

After we left the stadium we went to the

After signing the register

Brickhouse for our reception, the girls did an amazing job setting up the room, and walking in I felt truly happy.... wet, but very happy!!!!!  The meal was lovely, the speeches made us cry, and again lots of laughs were had.  It was brilliant, it was exactly what we had hoped for.  Again I am sure a lot of people will raise an eyebrow at how low key it was, and the fact our guests had to purchase their own meals... but from the start nothing about our relationship has been traditional, so it makes sense we had a very untraditional wedding and reception!

After the reception it was back home with our

Our beautiful wedding party

four gorgeous kids and two of my best friends in the world.  The kids went to bed - and were asleep within minutes, then we did what we do best.

Got out of our dresses.  Put on our jammies.  Got the appropriate snacks from the cupboard.  Flopped down on the couch.  Turned SkyTV on to channel 30.  And watched  1 1/2 games of rugby.  And we couldn't have been happier.  (minus the loss) it was the perfect end to a perfect day for us.

I would now like to thank all of you who played a part in our big day, particularly our bridesmaids and Marion, our cake making

the four most wonderful, beautiful, amazing bridesmaids
who ever existed...

queen, my Aunty for doing our professional photos for us, Sharyn for all her help over the past few months, Amy for making the GORGEOUS flowergirls dresses, my sister for planning the hens night, my parents for being as wonderful as ever.... and EVERYONE who sent us good wishes for the day, and who was thinking of us, whether they were in Wanganui, another part of New Zealand, another part of the Southern Hemisphere, or in the Northern Hemisphere.  We love you all!

We both have unofficial photos up on Facebook, and I will post a link to an online album for the photographs my Dad took... then when we have our professional photos, we will put them on Facebook and on here.

First Official Family Portrait

As promised, here is our first official family photo.... The dude in the red and white isn't actually a family member - he photo bombed! 

I apologise for the quality of the photo - it's a photo of a photo....

Merry Christmas!!!

Happy Saturday Morning!

Look!  It's us!!! TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!!!
do the amount of exclamation marks, suggest how excited I am?

On Wednesday at 4.50pm, Lauriel and the kids arrived!  We are no longer in a long distance relationship, we no longer have to say "I love you" over the phone or via text (though we still text it to each other - old habits die hard), we no longer have a count down to when we can be together again, we are no longer saying 'when we live together'....  We ARE living together. 

The four kiddos waving Poppa off, on Friday morning.

The children are all getting along well - and most surprisingly, Eloise and Gaby appear to be getting on extremely well.  I'm not sure why they are getting along well, but we sure as hell aren't questioning it!  Gaby seems to understand that Eloise doesn't like being crowded by her, and enjoys having time to herself - while Eloise seems to have more of an understanding of what this time is like for Gaby, moving houses, leaving her Grandparents (& her father, though that's not as devastating for her).  This morning they enjoyed drawing Big Fat Gypsy-esque dresses & girls, and awhile later they were colouring in together.  Perhaps creativity is their little niche, as far as having things in common goes.

Eloise & Gaby sitting in a tree...

 Yesterday we had our first family photo taken - which also counted as our first Christmas photo, and first Santa photo.  Yes, we ALL got our photo taken with Santa.  They had a hard time fitting us all in the frame.  It's rather weird when your family suddenly doubles in size - who would have thought the impact would reach as far as the bloody frame on a camera????  We pick up our photo today, and yes - of course we will post the photo!  Last night we took the 3 oldest kids to have a look at various Christmas lights around the eastern suburbs, and I think they all had a good time - perhaps if they are good we will go hunting for lights, another night...  Especially if they go straight to sleep afterward, like they did last night.  Sleep has probably been the one area where we've had some little issues - that said, they aren't rowdy or whiny while trying to go to sleep... I think the three older ones are just enjoying the novelty of having someone else in the bedroom with them, to talk to and laugh with...  I do hate to think how many rolls of toilet paper have been gone through though, because all of the older kids seem to need to go to the toilet about 50 times before they do finally go to sleep!!!

The kids have had a lot of time with Nan and Poppa - and I think it's quite the novelty for them, to have a little boy in the house!!!  Eloise and Gaby enjoyed a supermarket trip with Nan, and I think Aidan is chomping at the bit to have a little ride on Poppa's motorbike!  Nan and Poppa seem to be enjoying having all the kids in the house, but we might see if they still feel that way in another few days!