Christmas part 1

Who still posts about Christmas in February and late february at that.... oh that would be me...

This year I wanted to enjoy our Christmas just as much the last and it was even more exciting because Ej really grasped the concept of Christmas and was so excited about Santa that it made everything super magical. This year we added lights into the mix and it was so very fun.

The balcony all lit up at night

 The Christmas tree with the Christmas book advent activity in the basket next to it, which was a blast.

 This year I decided against the activity advent because I didnt want to commit myself to too much. We did however add a new tradition that was a big hit. We started the Elf on the Shelf tradition and Ej proudly named our elf "john john" whom he loved to find each morning after john john had gone back to the north pole for the night and reported on Ej's behavior of the previous day. Ej was not allowed to touch john john or else he would lose his magic but he could talk to him as much as he wanted about anything he wanted. Wow was that so cool to our little man. He still mentions telling john john about different things.

And below Ej taking a little Christmas themed bath. I found the idea of a blog titled "In leiu of Preschool" about themed baths using foam which sticks well to bathtub walls with water and so we made some fun shapes and he played for quite a while in these fun baths.

 And this was Christmas eve morning. It was sucha  great day...

I know it's lame but to be continued....

How now Brown cow

Back from Hawaii and access to our pictures. I am HOME! It feels so good. Vacation was so wonderful, I definitely felt like I got a good recharge and regained motivation and energy for some good things coming home. Its nice to not be living out of a suitcase and moving every week or so. Its nice to be back in our routine. Whatever that looks like. I often feel like our lives need more structure and have learned that our life as the Moon family is very unique, far from normal and yet we still have things that go on routinely. Not typically on the same day each week but nonetheless happen.

Anyhow back to the update. I thought I would do a highlights of previous months but I dont know if I will be able to just brush over everything so quickly so I may just be posting as normal things from the last couple of months and try to catch up without too much fuss.

Back in December we had the chance to go with a couple from our church out to their cow farm and feed their cows bread from another church member's bakery (the leftovers they cant sell) and it was so much fun.

Here we are unloading the bread, opening the bags full of bread and making sure all the wrappers are off

 Ej starting to take the bread to leave it in piles for the cows once they come in the fence

 Ralph bringing in the cows so they can feed and pointing out different things about his cows. Those cows have a piece of his heart for sure. He has named each one and tagged them and is having a hard time with the fact that he needs to get rid of some because they have multiplied beyond his capacity. There was even a cow with the same name as Ej which was so cool!

 After we fed them we took a break and had some morning tea (snack) and enjoyed the views. The boys took a tour of the property while I stayed behind with Lorraine and gleaned knowledge from her wise and experienced life as a mother of a large family.

 Ralph taught Ej how to play a game that now I cant remember the name of (that's what I get for not blogging it right away) that is similar to horse shoes/ring toss. But this was made out of rope hoops and a wood pole

 Ralph showing off his skills with a whip and teaching the Mister about it all

 Mr. Moon having a go with it. Him.....not so successfull- he actually had the whip backlash and hit his cheek one time...ouch! But he had fun practicing and one time got the satisfaction of the perfect whip sound.

 Ej's cow

It was such a blast, and something that we will definitely do again!

back on the bandwagon

So I don't have much for you all today. But I know that I need to start blogging regularly again, otherwise I will just fade out. Which would be sad because then it would be hard for family and friends to keep up with us and I wouldn't be able to print out our blog and have our family scrapbook so easily accessible.

Currently our little family is on a big adventure in the Rainbow state of Hawaii. There has been lots of moon family tales to tell since the last time I posted. Since we are in Hawaii I have no access to our pictures from the last two months I will just try to get into updating what we are up to now and upon our arrival back home do highlights from around October on to now that way everything is documented and everyone can be in the loop.

With it being the summer in Oz we have spent lots of time outside in the water and have made extra effort to spend more time at the beach this year. Christmas was so fun and EJ really got into the magic of Christmas making it the most fun one yet with him. Mr. Moon received skydiving tickets from me and that brought on adventure for us all.

New years was quiet and then Mr. Moon set off a few days later to Hawaii. EJ and I joined him a few weeks later and we have been enjoying the escape from the heat, the lower prices and the blessings of having a military base at our disposal. My parents and family friends came and we had the fun of enjoying their company for a week and this next week Mr. Moon's parents are coming for his graduation from the NCO (Non Commissioned Officer) Academy and some vacation time.

Then its back to Oz to welcome some more Moon's for our first family visit since living down under. We can't wait!

This year will go by super fast for us I think. It's the year of company, the year of finding out our next assignment in the military, our last year in Oz. Being here in Hawaii I have realized just how many things I miss from living in the states, but also how many incredible things I am going to miss of Australia, a piece of my heart will always belong there even with all the rough stuff.

So folks, here's to updating more. Getting pics up when we get access to them, and to updating less on facebook. To me it's so hard to update everywhere, it seems to be one or the other for me. More people seem to see things on facebook, but I can't get as detailed-print as easy-and I can easily update here and still see what my friends are up to on facebook. Problem is to stop taking so many phone pics and more with our actual camera.

Basically this year is back on track with blogging. I don't know how often, but it will for sure be more consistent. We did get a new computer afterall that is so much easier and nicer to work with than our tiny netbook that got the job done but was so little it got frustrating.

Cheers mates, see ya real soon!