Hilliards Out West

Thursday, June 04, 2009

My little Helper

Kael came to spend the afternoon with us, after a little play with Maia she went to bed. Not one to sit around and do nothing Kael got stuck in and helped me sweep up ALL the leaves out on the driveway, man there were heaps!! He didn't grumble and was quite happy with his rake and broom. He only took a couple of breaks to chase Lolly cat. After a good solid hours work we came inside and he down 2 bikkies and a big glass of juice - well deserved!

Out the dining window

Today sitting at the dining table looking out at the beautiful day, I captured a few nice things to share with ya'll. These being part of the beauty of where we live.

Harakeke - Flax

Piwakawaka - Fantail which was fluttering around

Some boats chugging by

1st Month @ Dawnhaven

Well even though no one had commented on whether to keep the blog going, I thought I better keep it up every now and again just for my own records as it is good to go back over and see what we've been up to... So here is a house update...

Our first month in the house has been great. Good to have our own space again and to get our things out of storage. Our weekends have been busy with a few projects and we've had a few troopers on hand helping out which is AWESOME!!! The first big project was emptying the pond which is had DANGER written all over it, emptying it was one thing, keeping it empty was quite another and involved Dean digging a drain to put a drainage pipe in. The boys did a great job getting it to the point it is now, 1/3 filled with scoria. Now the next part is to fill it right in and turn it into a garden of some sort. The other mission we had was to put curtains in the house, as it was just too cold without them and not very energy efficient. So the Mum's helped with that job which was great as it involved a bit of sewing and I'm a bit clueless when it comes to that!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

WHO IS STILL OUT THERE

Hi Everybody who still visits us. I am just checking in as I know we still get a few visitors. Are there any visitors on here who don't see my pics on Facebook that think it is worth keeping this blog alive?? I am getting a bit slack at this blog but will keep it up if people are still visiting and still keen to keep up with what the Hilliards out West are up to.

Please leave a comment over the next couple of weeks if you are keen for me to keep going?? Otherwise I might just update my Facebook with pics etc...

Avanti Farm Day

Deans boss had us out to his Farm for the day. It was great weather and nice to catch up with Dean's workmates.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

The Countdown Begins

The kids and I have had good school holidays away - part of the plan being that we would be distracted from the normal routine and time would seem to go a bit faster and that we would get back to Auckland and the countdown until we are in our new house would be a matter of one week away.

So now the countdown begins, our settlement date is next Thursday 30th April. We don't have access to the house until lunchtime, so the plan is to go in then and assess the amount of cleaning etc to be done (I suspect a lot). We will get the carpets cleaned as the previous owner had a dog, and well you know it would just be nice ay. So hopefully the house will be all nice and sparkly ready for moving in on Friday. Being a weekday and helping hands will be a bit low, we have decided to just get removal guys to do it - a treat for Dean to not have to lug all the big stuff up the stairs.

We have now been out of our own home for four months, which has been a long time - but we are grateful to have Dean's parents who have taken us in for most of that time and put up with us :) Although there is some work to be done in the new house I am looking forward to having my own home again. We will plod along on the renovations and will do it a bit at a time. Any renovation tips out there, pass them on!!!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Easter 2009

We've had a busy Easter this year. While Dean had to go North for a funeral the kids and I headed South as planned for Easter and the school holidays. We got to the Mount on Thursday afternoon missing any Easter traffic.

Good Friday we headed to Ohope to join Aunty Louie and 6 of her mokopuna. When we pulled up Ruka came out and said "Nan!! Where's my cousin?" Nathan rushed to take his belt off and they were off. Saturday morning we jumped in the car again to venture around the Coast for a day trip to Te Kaha picking Aunty Sharon up on the way. We spent a beautiful day up there having lunch and just relaxing while the kids ran around and had heaps of fun. Until Nathan got nipped by a big spider. He was playing up the hill in the Manuka with his cousins when he got a bit stuck. I went and helped him down and we were walking back to everyone else when all of a sudden he screamed in pain, I thought a wasp might have been down his top but out fell a massive spider, he freaked even more when he saw it as it was HUGE!! He was a bit shaken up after that and it was getting on so we headed for home. We got home and Jamie, Ngawiki and four more of Aunty Louie's moko were there so we had 12 Grandkids all up, 10 of hers and 2 of mums. WOW. It was pretty hectic, but heaps of fun. We fed them and put on a DVD so we could have some peace and quiet :)

Easter Sunday was Ruka's 4th birthday so we had a few more of the whanau head over for the day. We did a big feed in the hangi steamer and enjoyed another sunny day together. The kids were pretty exhausted when we headed back to the Mount later that day.