A weekend away in Sun Peaks

A couple of weekends ago I went away with the Elders from LEFC - we had a weekend in Sun Peaks which is about 3 hours away and up into the mountains; We had a fun time talking about church, quad biking, and playing settlers (In no particular order!). Below is a little video of some of the fun we had.

We're home!

Well there is so much news really, and very little time to write! The real big news is that we moved into our house yesterday; 53 packages were unloaded into our house following a 10 month journey from New Zealand (via Bridgwater, Somerset). Having not had any of our possessions for almost a year, it was wonderful to finally unpack, and for the first time be 'home' since May 10th 2008. Photos and video to follow in the usual style!

Phoebe is doing incredibly still! She is taking more and more feeds from the bottle, and is also starting to breast feed. She took an entire feed from Laura this afternoon which was incredible. They are now increasing the number of feeds that she takes from the bottle as she is gaining strength and the stamina to be able to cope with it. So she's now weighing 2309g (5lbs 1oz) which is awesome; We're blown away by the progress she has made - she feels (and looks) so much like a real baby now. She had her second eye test yesterday and we are awaiting the results from that, so we'll let you know how she goes; They are wanting to see her again in a week, but that is all we know.

Gracie is on wonderful form; She is loving being in her own house and has played so beautifully the last 2 days - I think she is so happy to have all her toys back with her after such a long absence! It's so great to see her really thrive. Tomorrow Laura will walk to church for the first time (as we're now 5 minutes away) and I will lead worship at the 10:45 congregation for the first time - it's going to be a great day. As ever, here are some photos.

Gracie watching some TV while waiting for the furniture to arrive!

We're moving in!

Today Paul went into Vancouver to clear our shipping through customs...it went through without a hitch and our stuff is getting delivered on Friday afternoon! We are feeling very excited that we will finally be in our own home (although living with John and Allyson since we've arrived here has been amazing). It's been almost a year since we have lived in our own home as a family and we feel ready to do so again! Thank you everyone for your prayers.

Both of our gorgeous girls are doing well. Gracie is just adorable at the moment and makes us laugh so much. She has recently started roll-playing with her toys and it is hysterical to listen in to see how she views the world; my favorite is when one of her animals falls on the floor and she says 'oh sweetheart' and gives them a big hug!

Gracie and I went into the hospital this morning and Gracie got to cuddle Phoebe for the first time which was lovely-it lasted for about 45 seconds-but it was still very sweet! The hospital have a free babysitting service for siblings of children in hospital, this is run by volunteers each weekday morning which we have been using. This has been amazing as one of my biggest problems is finding time to see Phoebe but not wanting to be away from Gracie for a long time, I can now go into see Phoebe and take Gracie with me which makes life a little bit easier!

Phoebe is still growing! She now weighs 4lb 10oz. Her weight gain has been so good that the dietitian came to see her and they have cut back on the HMF additive they give tiny babies...this is good news as it just brings us a small step closer to bringer her home! Her second eye exam is going to happen in the next few days. Phoebe will go on a little day trip back to Vancouver by ambulance for this as they don't have all the equipment at Abbortsord hospital.

We'll keep you posted with the results of the eye test in the next couple of days, and we'll get some photos of the new house once we've unpacked over the weekend. God is so faithful to us!

Gracie and I having a picnic at the hospital

Gracie has her first cuddle with Phoebe

What Church Looks Like!

As I said earlier in the week I spoke at Church on Sunday morning; As I started the talk I took a photo of the church for you all to see - I'm sure you're keen to know what we've come to. It looks a little different as of today as we took all the pews out and put chairs in! The talk is available online now so take a listen if you want by following this link.

My First Half Marathon

On the 2nd July this year I went for my first run in a very long time... I ran 1.6km and it took me 15 minutes (I know this because I logged it on www.mapmyrun.com). 

It was an absolute effort, but none-the-less I decided that I would run on a regular basis to shift some weight, and to improve my general health. 

On the 29th July I turned 27 and received an iPod Nano, and a Nike+ sports kit (it measures and logs all your runs). Soon after I decided to enter the Auckland Half Marathon to see if it was something I could achieve. 

Since the 1st of July i've run 683km's,  lost over 2 stone and have made running a major part of my daily routine. 

Yesterday, I finally ran the Auckland Half Marathon, and I achieved more than I ever thought I would!!! I finished the course (21.1km) in 1h:31m:24s which is an amazing time for a first effort. It's a great run, on which you get to run over the harbour bridge, although I don't really remember it! shame... 

Out of a field of about 6000 runners I finished 206th overall, and 110th in the 16-34 year old Male category. I even beat former All Black Ian Jones which is pretty cool.   

In honesty it was utterly exhausting, but it was totally worth the effort and I've got the bug!!! I'm considering entering an event in a months time, and would plan to beat that time; I'll keep you posted! Here are some photos...

Receiving some pre-race physio from my good friend Si

In my gear, ready for the race

Laura & Gracie waiting for me near the finish line

Completely exhausted!

Ah... post race massage! 

The official results... click on image to see full size

Please Sponsor Me!!!

Some thing a little more formal... I'm running in the Auckland Half Marathon on Sunday 28th October, and I've decided to raise money for The Heart Foundation which is the official charity of the race. Please click on the link below to go to my sponsorship page, where you can make an online donation with your credit card. 

This is my first ever half marathon, so I've got no idea what to expect but I've been training hard, and am hoping to finish in under 1hr 40 mins - we'll see how I do! 

Thanks for your support! I'll try to get some pictures up, although I don't tend to let Laura photo me in my running gear! 

My sponsorship page is here or www.heartracer.org.nz/paulkingsleysmith

An eventful week...

This week I (Paul) went away with the staff from St Paul's to a beautiful place called Tarawharanui; It's a national park an hour or so North East of Auckland. I thought I'd write about it because I had a couple of experiences that I've not had before.

Firstly, on Wednesday afternoon we took a rowing boat out to a place in the bay, where we dived for scallops - this was great fun, although diving down to 5 or so meters and then trying to find scallops proved to be exhausting. We took 34 scallops back to our bach once done and they were cooked up and served as a nice mid afternoon snack!

Yesterday (Thursday) was even better. The team were sat on the deck having breakfast at about 8:30 when one of the team members spotted dolphins in the bay. We wondered down to the beach and watched them for a while, until I was able to persuade Mike & Rachel to go out in the rowing boat with me to get a closer look.

We got out in to the bay and they seemed quite happy to have us around, so we decided to jump in and swim with them - we swam with them for about 30 minutes or so, which was utterly exhilarating! 

Given that we weren't in wetsuits, we decided to head in to avoid hypothermia, but returned 30 minutes or so later with wetsuits, flippers, snorkels & masks, and spent a further half an hour swimming, diving, and playing with the dolphins - it was certainly the best experience of New Zealand that I've had, and one that I'll never forget.

Our Holiday in Oz!

Two weeks ago we went on holiday to Australia with our friend Alana for her birthday which was so much fun. We spent the week in Caloundra on the Sunshine coast soaking up the sun and playing in water. The weather was just beautiful and we all enjoyed a bit of sun and relaxation. Gracie had her first real experience of sand and sea-she wasn't overly keen on the sand but jumping in the waves was a big hit!

We also visited Australia zoo which was amazing. We were able to walk, sit and stroke kangaroos, stroke koala's as well as seeing loads of other animals. The highlight of the holiday was going to underwater world and watching the seal show. Although the actual place wasn't amazing the show was such good fun that we went back for the second showing later that day. Here are some photos for you to enjoy!

Gracie thinks her outfit is hysterical!

Jumping in the waves

Hanging out by the surf club (for all you Home and Away fans!)

Cooling down in the very cold water!

Hanging out on the beach at Maroochydore

Laura and Gracie by the beach

Gracie meets a Kangaroo

We meet a kangaroo too!

Shots of the beach at Caloundra

Paul & Gracie at their favourite Juice Bar

Paul doing the BBQ!

Gracie loving her spoon!

Tired at the end of a busy week!

A perfect Saturday...

Laura is feeling a bit better today, so this morning we headed out to our friends Dizz & James in Oratia - they have a fantastic house on a huge section in the middle of the bush; it really is perfect. At this point I should mention James' new shed - he built it himself from scratch over the christmas break, and I can honestly say it the best shed I've ever seen!!! Photo's to prove it! (from Dizz's blog)

We had a sensational brunch with them before piling into their newly aquired 17 year old minibus type people mover thing. We loaded a couple of longboards, and headed off to Piha, which is a very rugged west coach beach, made famouse for having 'The Piano' filmed on it.



The weather was absolutely perfect and there was some great surf, so James & I went out into the waves for some fun. Surprisingly, I found out that I can actually surf, and caught a few nice wives and rode a couple into the shore.


After the beach, we headed back to theirs for a beautiful roast lamb on their deck. This evening we've got our good friends Greg & Yona and Aaron coming for a BBQ. Clearly Gracie will be too tired to make it!!!

What's Up?

Hi guys, sorry it's been a little while since we've posted anything of any great substance. The last week, Laura has been pretty ill which has been a lot of hard work or us. She is on antibiotics, so should get better soon - it's made for quite an unsettled week though.

Gracie is utterly gorgeous - she is growing heaps and is becoming more and more responsive to us. We're now getting loads of smiles and some baby talk... very cute. Here is a little video of us yesterday having some baby chatter on the sofa.

And a cute photo of her sleeping in her cot yesterday.

A Tour of the house...

Blogged with Flock

Presents for me!!!!

I'm getting slightly fed up - Gracie gets all the presents!!! so, if you'd like to buy me a present, point your browser to my Amazon wishlist - there is plenty on there that i would love to receive!!!

Things we're using on the web!

Since we have moved away from our original blog at www.thekingsleysmiths.co.uk, I've been looking around the web trying to figure out the best ways of freely storing photos, videos etc on to the web. I thought I'd share with you what I've found, so that you could start your own blog if you wanted to.
We've just started using a browser called Flock - it is a really nice simple interface, and integrates perfectly into blogger, flickr, and photobucket. It has some great extensions, as well PC/Mac compatibility.


Gmail really is one of the greatest email providers I've come across - i've had free accounts with almost everyone. I've paid for email accounts, but none of them compare with Gmail. Google have really done well with this - so much storage available, and so many integration with all the other Google apps.


We've taken advantage of the new version of blogger - it is very easy to have fun with the template, and with the addition of widgets, it is possible to do so much more with the look and feel of your blog. With the new ease of use, or blog will have template changes regularly.


We've been uploading photos through Flickr - it is simple enough to use, and as I said before we are able to upload photos through our Flock browser. It is as simple as dragging the photos we want into the browser, giving them a name, and hey presto!!! From within Flickr, we can then post photos to our blog, make slideshows, print them, abd heaps more.


This is my latest discovery - while I've used YouTube for ages, and laughed with the rest of the world at the hilarious videos to be found, I've not actually started using it to upload videos until recently. It's great! We are able to post our videos of Gracie, and embed them on our blog so that you can all view them - how cool is that.


Because we are using a Mac, we have had some problems with having webcam chats with people on PC, but Skype have a version which allows webcam chat between PC & Mac - thanks Skype! We're currently using their beta version 2.5 for Mac. Skype is free software that allows free calls from computer to computer, and very cheap calls from computer to landline. It's worth a download!


I am also using Myspace as a way of keeping in touch with new and old friends; I have a Myspace Music account, so will post some music up there once I can get my recordings sorted! It's great fun - you'd be amazed at how many old friends I have found on here!

mmm - I wonder where Gracie gets it from?

mmm - I wonder where Gracie gets it from?, originally uploaded by thekingsleysmiths.

We've been trying to figure out why Gracie loves to sleep so much.... this is me on Saturday night watching a movie with some friends!!!

Introducing Gracie May Kingsley-Smith

Gracie was born at 9:48 on the 10th December (her due date). She was 7lbs 10oz and is absolutely gorgeous. Both Gracie and Laura are doing really well.

Here are a few photos, ranging from 5 minutes after the birth, to 3 hours after.