I am a little bit of a blog stalker.Yup...But anyway I was reading Life of a Pint-Sized Mama today and she had written this:

To the mom who lacks purpose.

To the mom who feels like she's not doing enough.

To the mom who wishes she could do more, give more, be more.

To the mom who hopes her life's work amounts to more than the occasionally bathed child.

To the mom who feels like her dreams might be trapped under a pile of wooden blocks and laundry.

To myself. To my tired body and my eager heart. To me, as I face myself in the mirror every morning:

Your job is of incredible significance.

You mean more to your children than they know how to express.

You are a teacher, a friend, a role model, and reflection of the heart of God.

Your job is an opportunity to daily learn humility, service, patience, and gratefulness.

You will look back in not too many years and wish that there was a mountain of tiny laundry to fold.

Your lack of sleep, desperate prayers, sea of tears, and countless apologies will someday all be worth it. 

How awesome is this?!What a good reminder of what being a Mum is all about and how worth it is at the end of the day!Both Steve and I are struggling with our girls at the moment. Hes gone from 6-5,5 days a week,comes home and I'm stressed because the girls are really playing up at the moment.I don't know if its the heat,or whether its in Isabella's case because shes so more than ready for school.Either way,what a challenge.But Im glad I read this today,its a big reminder of why it is all worth it.And like I keep saying and thinking all the time,its our jobs as their parents to guide them and we are responsible for how they turn out.Instead of freaking out about it I am trying super hard to remind myself that it is an amazing privilege,and one I wouldnt give up for anything in the world.

Life of a Pint-Sized Mama

My faith has been renewed in family!My brother and I had a brother-sister date (in a non gross way annnnd I know my brother wouldn't describe it as such :p ) this morning.We ended up sitting in Starbucks for over 3 hours chatting.I decided to bring up-again-our decision to go to a LDS church,and he amazed me,no criticism,nothing.We agreed to disagree on most some things,but seriously he was more then willing to listen as I explained my reasons for wanting to try this church out.It shouldn't have surprised me but it did (in a good way lol).It has in an awesome way made me remember why I have always been so close to my brother.

Not that he will probably ever read this blog,but if for some reason you do G,thank you so much,it meant so much to me!

(oh and how much more awesome is he for going into clothing shops with me?!Don't know many brothers who would do that-I was his ride home so maybe he just couldn't escape without having to walk his way home?).

On a funny note,picked the girls up from kindy,Isabella insists to me and the teacher she was stung by a bee (she is badly allergic to them),20 minutes later,talking to a frantic teacher then another teacher tells me she pulled a rose thorn out of Isabella's finger,and Isabella still insists not only was it a bee but it was a bee leg they had to take out :p Kids are awesome!

I have hmm'ed and haaaéd about writing about this.I even wrote a post a few weeks ago and deleted it!

I have written before about what churches we grew up in,what happened for us to stop going to church.Over Christmas (because it was the first time in a long time Steve and I had time to talk to each other for longer then an hour at a time),we (really mostly me) decided we wanted to try out a LDS (Mormon) church.We have gone two Sundays and so far so good.Doctrine is a lot different to what we grew up with and its a bit hard to sort through it all.But its the first time in years (like 6!) that I have felt comfortable in a church and didn't want to head for the door and leave as soon as I walk in (spiritual stuff can give me the heebie jeebies now,but I go with my gut feeling a lot of the time,which I think is the Holy Spirit letting me know what's right and not.So feeling good in a church is my sign to keep trying it)

It is a massive step for us and not one we have or are taking lightly.We aren't decided on anything yet,and I know not everyone understands this but I wont join any church unless we do so as a family,which includes my husband.So time will tell.I have decided I don't want to be hiding anything so haven't hidden it from my family and friends (it is up to Steve to tell his family).I have had only one friend be ok with it,the rest aren't happy and neither are my family.Which sucks.I try so hard to be loving and accepting of everyone and their choices that it is hard and hurtful for me that people I love cant and aren't doing the same for me.I'll get over it haha,I mean the same people were so vocally opposed to Steve and I getting married,and here we are 7 years in and still together!So maybe we do make good choices lol.

But yeah,huge step for us.BUT it was so SO adorable and heart warming yesterday when Isabella and Sienna were playing and I could hear them singing "I am a child of God,he has sent me here".I forget that though we teach them about God at home,they have missed out on learning the Sunday school songs that we were taught.Hearing their little voices singing that melted my heart!

So for all of the 6 people that read this :p Keep us in your thoughts as we start on this new adventure!

Christmas Time!

On the 19th of December we had a bbq with some friends and their kids and trooped out to see some Christmas lights after.Our camera batteries ran out quickly so we didn't get heaps of photos (typical!).Isabella and Sienna had never been out to see the lights at the Hamilton Temple before,and Im pretty sure they loved it! (not sure as they were probably more excited about going with their friends and chasing each other :p ).

 What Steve said looked like hell :p It was at the bottom of the hill and we were told we weren't allowed down there haha.Not that Sienna listened (that's her in the little white dressing gown)

 How gorgeous is this??I have been to the Temple before but I'm sure there were just white lights up that time,this time it was so colourful and gorgeous!

 Sienna still talks to me about how Mary,Joseph and baby Jesus live at the Temple :p Trying to explain any differently to her has not been accepted.

 At the top!Best photo we could get of all of them.Who knew kids wiggled so much.Left-right,Vili,Hannah,Sienna,Malachi,Isabella and Zaria.

Christmas morning!We didn't get many photos (again!what is wrong with us?!).We spent 5 days camping out at Raglan,our first holiday in 6 years!My mum was wonderful and came out Christmas morning to spend time with us and watch the girls opening their presents.Was an awesome morning.

 Sienna wasn't so keen on opening her presents,I think us adults opened most of them for her.Lol I really thought it would be different from last year,but I guess shes just not fussed.

 Isabella carted her rabbit around for a week straight!I am so glad she likes it so much! (I now need to go and sew it back together).

The pile of presents they had was huge! Doesn't look like it here (seriously we suck at taking photos on special occasions :p ).Excuse the yuck photo of me.

 Isabella's dolls bed and bedding.

Sienna's dolls bed and bedding.

(how is this for,I shall say funny but really its slightly annoying,they don't play with them!After all that hard work haha. I'm hoping they will when the weather gets colder and they are stuck inside more!)

After opening pressies we had breakfast,went to church,came back to our tent,the girls played for a while,had lunch and then best of all went for a big swim!!!!I love the idea of a white Christmas,but I love how on Christmas Day in NZ we can go swimming!It was a relaxed day and was lovely spending it with our girls and family.

Introducing...

Introducing.....

Isabella Esther Penelope Yoke Lin Wong

and

Sienna Evelyn Abigail Yoke Mae Wong!!

Honestly nicest photo I could get today :p

Funny story...not just one of my funny stories that only I find amusing!When Isabella was born we obviously had her names picked out.Being the dorks we were,when Grandma offered to give Isabella a Chinese name,my first thought was 'that is way too many names for a little girl!'.Yup we said no.In the last few years though Steve and I have really come to realise how important our girls Malaysian and Chinese heritage are to us.We don't really identify with any of the rest of our ethnicities and those are the ones we encourage our girls to be super proud of.So Steve asked his Grandma to chose a Chinese name for each of our girls.When Steve and his siblings  were babies his Granddad chose their Chinese names,unfortunately he is no longer with us.So Grandma went to Europe on holiday jealous much?  asked her sisters for advice (there are 8 of them!).She chose our girls names as they were her Mums names,so our girls Great Great Grandma's names!How cool is that?!
Isabella's one,Yoke Lin (silent e in the Yoke) means Jade Lotus
Sienna's one,Yoke Mae (again,silent e in the Yoke) means Beautiful Jade.

I love them,and Isabella and Sienna love telling me they have Chinese names,Isabella recites her full name with so much pride,Sienna leaves out her English middle names now haha.

I love that we are able to pass some of this awesome heritage on for our girls.

'Upcycling'

Photo dump!lol nah I have just finally taken some photos of some things around the house that I love and are new(ish).

When I took the Christmas tree down our lounge felt boring and not colourful,I had some left over material so made this flag bunting for our mantle piece.I took this photo and realised that yet again our girls had kindly rearranged things on it :p Still putting it on here cos whose house looks perfect all the time?!

 THIS is what it should have looked like lol.

I helped my mum clean out a room the other day and she gave us this old tea trolley.Its like crazy old and I LOVE it!!The sides can be folded down,it has a drawer for all my crap  sewing things.And a bonus,aside from me loving it and thinking its gorgeous,the girls use it as a 2nd dining table!No more eating off our once nice footstools.

For most of our marriage I have been telling Steve I want a new bookcase.When we do have the money for a new one I cant get over the guilt of spending that much money on something that lets face it is ,mostly for me.So last week Steve bought home some pallets from work,took them a part and built me this bookcase!Its not perfect and all that but I really REALLY like it!Excuse the books being crammed in,my hubby has said he will make a 2nd bookcase this coming weekend!Im a lucky girl :D

I have really realised that even though most of our furniture is 2nd,3rd and 4th hand lol,I actually really like what we have in our house at the moment.I love that a lot of stuff,no one else has,its unique.AND I have no problem with our girls putting sticky fingers on anything (bonus!).We have been very blessed with what we have,and I am so thankful.Plus I love that even though what we are replacing old furniture with isn't new,we are then able to pass our 'old' furniture onto other people.Paying it forward!
Random post finished

(haha just remembered the new word for 2nd hand furniture, 'upcycling',makes it sound fancier anyway,and makes me laugh)

I know,I should be doing Christmas posts,and I will once I can figure out how to upload photos from Steve's phone (yeah we were awesome and forgot to charge the camera batteries BEFORE Christmas!).But right now I just really want to write about today.

I realised today that I am a freakishly insecure person haha (who isn't really??).See my Mum has bipolar.I love my mum so so much.But I find it hard explaining it to other people,especially people who haven't known me for a gazillion years like 99% of my friends.I had to tell two new(ish) friends today and seriously a big freak out moment for me!I worried they would think I'm like my Mum (not totally a bad thing most of the time lol),that I would be totally judged.And you know what?I got none of that AT all!It shouldn't have taken me by surprise but it totally did.In a good way.I felt like these people had my back and genuinely cared.It was honestly a wonderful feeling.One took our girls for the afternoon so I could deal with some of the stuff that came up.Its one of those moments where I am unbelievably grateful that life led us back to Hamilton.

AND to make today a bit nicer just before it ends, Steve's Grandma told us she has chosen the girls Chinese names!!!She wants to tell us in person on Sunday,but she told Steve that Isabella's one is her Great-great Grandmothers and Sienna's is her Great-great-great Aunty's name :) Am so friggin excited and cant wait!

So even though today has been hard its been awesome at the same time!