Water Baby

This morning we took Nathan to the pools. We have been getting him used to having water splashed on his head, and putting his face under in the bath, so he had no worries at the pool. He loved his bright orange ring that I bought him from the good ol Warehouse, and lazed about in that most of the time.

Santa comes to Playgroup

Santa came to visit us at playgroup on Thursday. Lucky Nathan isn't old enough to notice that his mummy forgot to bring a present for Santa to give him and was happy enough to play with his friends discarded wrapping paper.
He's not to sure about this Santa business, who is this funny man with the big white beard??

New Poll and Video

Check out the new poll and video in the sidebar...

WOW We're 30!!

On the 23rd Nov I turned 30 years old and Dean quickly followed on the 25th. We still feel quite young and don't have many wrinkles popping up so it's all good! We are very blessed actually to be healthy and happy and look forward to many more happy, healthy years.
I had a nice day on my birthday, Nathan and I went to the movies then we picked Dean up and had sushi for lunch on Mt Eden.
Our celebration on Saturday was cool. Unfortunately the bad weather meant we had to cancel our bbq at the park, but we had one at home with a few people over. That night we went up to Khuja Lounge where we had a private room and caught up with friends, had a boogie etc.

Bring on the Holidays!!

We took a trip to Te Kaha on the 19th/20th Nov which is on the East Coast of NZ. This is where we'll be having our Christmas break. It was a busy weekend for the blokes, getting into some hard work. They're fixing up the shed so we can have our sink and fridges in there, and they're also putting in a flush toilet off the side.. back in the day we had to endure a long drop :-/ They're also building a deck attached to the shed which will be covered and will have our bbq cookers and open fireplace. We had beautiful weather so a lot got done.

The Commando Crawler

Well Nathan has been honing his crawling skills and has moved on to what we call the commando crawl which comprises of a drag of chest and a push with the legs. He has been pretty cruisy with it up until today, using it only when he really really wanted to get something. This morning he found a new vigour for it and managed to find the cat's plate in the kitchen, and while in the office he got into everything and even under the desk straight for the array of power cords. I'm getting the feeling the eye's in the back of my head are going to develop real quick.
Check out the video action----->

Mum's Day Out

Saturday was a pampering day for Lisa and I, so we left the bubs with their dads and headed off for a massage and to get our hair done. Luurvley!! The dads did a good job with the bubs too. Here they are ready for their day. We came out looking pretty cool thanks to Mel and Claire our hairdressers extraordinaire!

Where in the World part 2...

Well, so much for weekly geography lessons - I always come up with brilliant ideas, it's just the follow through I have trouble with. But better late than never. Anyone know where in the world this google earth photo is taken from? Leave you answer in the comments section.

Things that blow up

We started Saturday with a nice quiet lunch with Nanny and Poppa at Surreal Cafe, Whenuapai. Nathan's love of trees, flowers and grass (actually his love of eating them) could make this place his favourite spot.

Guy Fawkes Night

Well NZ still commemorates the day when some dude named Guy Fawkes and a few others tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament in Britain about 400 years ago. We do this by letting off fireworks on November 5th. But not only on the actual night, some idiots like to do it in the few nights leading up to it, around 2am and a few nights afterwards. In the little valley we live in this echos very loud and wakes Nathan up :-/ But on the actual night we decided if you can't beat em, join em! So we did enjoy them for a little while (see video also) Now where back to wanting them banned, as we fall off to sleep with what sounds like world war 1 going on outside.

Little Horses and the Neighbours

Last week on a visit to Aunty Lisa's house, Uncle Troy took Nathan down to check out the mini horses, he even got to sit on one. Then then Jacob and Sam from next door came over to show Nathan how all his hard work growing his teeth will be for nothing when in a few years time they're gonna fall out... That's Jacob with the gummy smile.

Another Trade Me Score

This is the highchair we scored a while ago off Trade Me, pretty cheap. Anyway Nathan loves to eat his food in here, and sometimes his foot!!

Working Bee out West

This weekend the hilliards set about doing a big spring clean around the house. There were windows to be washed, concrete to clean, gardens to weed and plant. Troy helped out, bringing his work truck with the hardcore waterblaster so we could blast all the mould off the concrete. Nathan went to his nana Miriam's on Saturday so we could get stuff done, and on Sunday he hung around to oversee the proceedings. After all the hard work he got to help out by being dad's beer holder.

Nathan's BLOG

Hey everybody...
Welcome to Nathan's Blog. We are going to post weekly updates on how he is going and what we've been up to. Feel free to visit us here as often as you want. It's a pretty cool way of documenting things. If you want to create one of your own it's real easy, just go to the top right side of this page and click 'Get Your Own Blog'. Let us know if you do!! I've Started this one from scratch so some of the pics you would have seen on our old msn groups site, which we've run out of room on which is why we've swapped. Also check out our video links section. You can also make comments or say hello on the site by clicking on the comments link at the bottom of each post.
If you want to see the pics in their right order start at the bottom of the page and work your way up...
Luv the Hilliards

Friday a Big Day

Today we went to Dean's Uncle Baker's Funeral. Nathan got to meet some of the family he hasn't met before.

Then we went to the Parent and Child expo and scored lots of freebies and got lots of information. Here's Ayla and Lisa at the mini farm.

Labour Weekend

Our mission this long weekend was to head to Te Kaha, East Coast, NZ to where my family has some land and where we camped every year as I was growing up. On Saturday we went to check out how it was looking as it's been a long time since we've stayed there. It was looking a bit worse for wear, but we were all very excited about what we're going to do to get it up to scratch and we're looking forward to spending many a summer day there fishing, diving, swimming and relaxing. Sunday was spent at Uncle John's house in Opotiki sitting around with the whanau relaxing in the sun watching the boys play soccer. Then Dean and I headed to the Mount with a mandatory stop at the Ohiwa fish n chip shop to pick up some oysters and kina, yum yum! On Monday Dean and Dad went out fishing and got a good catch of snapper. So it was a great weekend all up, roll on summer holidays!!

Sun's Out

Yay we are enjoying another lovely day. Nathan and I went for a walk to the Library to return some magazines and Dean's golf book, and to get out more magazines and another golf book. It's a half hour walk with a big hill involved so it's a good way of realising how unfit i am... (will be joining the gym this week!!) Nathan enjoyed the kiddies corner and even made two friends, two sisters who bought him toys to play with but were't too impressed that he was 'dribbling over the library's toys'. We txt dean to meet us at the park for lunch and we scored a ride home with him too.. Too full to walk the rest of the way :-) or maybe more like couldn't be bothered.

Monday Outing

A trip to visit Lisa Morris at her lovely house surrounded by Native bush. Nathan and Ayla enjoying the sun.

Trip to the park

We enjoyed some better weather on the weekend and took advantage by going out Sunday afternoon to scout a spot for mine and Dean's 30th birthday bbq. We checked out Coyle Park in Pt Chev and it looks pretty cool. Nice view, interesting wildlife, plenty of space to kick the footy around and a park for the kiddie winkles that come. Just praying for a nice day now. We're also having a night thingo too, somewhere in Aucks, yet to be confirmed, you're all welcome by the way. If a paper invite doesn't make it your way, just come along :-) The look on Nathan's face is his pram face. He seems to really chill out in his pram and just cruises.