Lyle's new camera flash!

For an early anniversary/Christmas present Lyle received a new camera flash and here are some first attempts with it!

Emma's first pair of shoes, half the time she frowns at them the other half is spent trying to eat them. But I think she likes them.

flying!

cuddles...she was a little over the photo shoot by now

Why we don't let Emma feed herself

Usually when Emma eats she isn't allowed to touch the spoon, her bowl or her mouth . . .but of course finger foods are different! I gave her a teething rusk the other day and this is the result . . . I love that she even has some in her eyelash!

Chasing Ducks!

Ella and Emma

We have some dear friends from church whose little girl, Ella, was born on the same day as Emma! They also have an older son, Jacob. On Sunday they came over for lunch and as well as some great fellowship we had such a laugh at our kids! I had to choose only a few of the pictures we took, but oh my word, this is so cute! I love that Emma totally got tackled, its so funny, serves her right for not sharing. I hope that Ella didn't cry because of Emma, she had only just woken up and I think was hungry, so she probably wasn't up for a photo shoot!

In photos 1&2 I think Emma is trying to eat Ella and in the last two pics Ella does the best dummy spit ever!

Youth group and pumpkins!

Friday night (October 30th) we had the youth kids over to do some pumpkin carving. I was so impressed as being Aussies none of them had done it before! The pumpkins looked great and we had a really fun night. We ended up with two winning teams because we couldn't decide! (I don't have these in order at all sorry!)

Lyle judging

The carvers displaying their skills!
Jordan and Jonathan, they won on precision


Bek and Hannah - they won for creativity

the leftovers, yuck!

Jake and Tim, I think Jake's enjoying himself a little too much!!

Jordan digging in

Brendan got so into it that he actually broke one of the knives!

Crawling Girl!

At 8 months, 1 week and 3 days, Emma crawled.
She wanted.....the baby wipe.

8 month old photo shoot

How do you make a little girl happy? Give her something pink... and dress her in brand name clothing - my hair dresser gave Emma a Guess top...I don't even own any Guess! Go figure.

Teeth and play time

So Emma is almost 8 months old and we love her more every day (I'm sure I've said that a few times on this blog!!)

It is SO beautiful so watch the way God designed the development of a human. Watching Emma discover hands, feet, learn to kiss (very sloppily! haha), roll, crawl backwards (not forwards yet!) is such a joy.

Mostly I am amazed by her comprehension. She knows who's special in her life, our daily routines have taught her to expect to see daddy or mummy in our bedroom first thing in the morning - if one of us isn't there she'll look towards the en suite and wait! It's very sweet. I'm amazed at how she raises her hands up to me to be picked up - no one taught her that she just does it. it's so cool.

Here are some teeth - it was really funny trying to get this photo!

I wish this were her clapping, but she's just laughing, she does have the coordination for it though! Just another step in growing up!

getting on her knees!

my gorgeous smiley girl!

I LOVE it when she looks at her hands

Her hair is getting super long, it gets in her eyes now!

play time!

It's so fun watching her learn!!! I love being a mum.

Sydney holiday part 2

Here we have Emma on her first plane flight! We have a little bit to learn about sleeping arrangements for Emma Grace before our holiday to SA in December...sigh

Bronwyn, Alex, Alannah, me, Emma all waiting for the train to the city.


Emma, Alannah and Alex after our big day at Taronga zoo, it was so much fun to have these two older girls with us to enjoy the animals!

Annabelle entertaining Emma - she was not short of attention it was lovely!

Playing with Annabelle and Alannah

(who has chocolate on her face, gotta love 3 year olds!!)

Sydney holiday part 1

We were so privileged to have a little holiday recently to Sydney. We stayed with my roommate from college, Bronwyn and her family. With their four children Emma was thoroughly entertained at every point - it was great!!

and here we are.... Sydney Harbour Bridge!

A lesser known view of the city as we left on the ferry towards manly

Ta-da! I must pause here to say a massive THANK YOU to Bronnie for babysitting Emma while we saw The Mikado here, it was brilliant fun!

a view from the ferry - the architecture of this place really is amazing

The bridge and the opera house

Emma's first time at the beach!!

I'm sure she's thinking "what's the fuss about?" we expected some reaction from her feet touching the sand but got nothing!

Taronga Zoo! the seal show - she's waving at us

the shows they do are so fun, he said that we must be careful around our marine life or they'll die and then she flopped onto her back, so cute.
An excellent jump I must say!

Gorillas!!! the babies were so cute, it was a good time of year to go as there were lots of new born animals around

Kong...thought he was so special he just sat with his back to everyone!

The Wetherston's at the zoo :D

This is an amazing view for a zoo hey?

This girl is a wedge-tailed eagle, they're massive!

I'm sure the keeper wouldn't like her photo, but this gives a little perspective of the size of these amazing birds! Their wing size gets up to 2.3 metres!

my favourite pic of the day - the baby gorillas were really very cute!

7 Months

Emma is 7 months old and we cannot believe how fast our year is going by!

She's already helping mummy with the laundry

It's actually been heating up here quite significantly. Sunday afternoon we spent time at mum and dads and we figured we'd try to help Emma cool off by sucking on ice :)


mmm yum

"hey, I can do this myself!" but then her fingers got too cold so she dropped it and let Lyle hold it for her again!

I was amazed that when we put these on her she didn't even touch them, what an awesome baby!

'Head shots' needed in a models world right?

Singing

Drop the jaw to hit the high note

Sad

Happy

(I kid you not, this photo was taken moments after the previous one...

models are so moody!)

Happy Father's Day!

In Australia Father's Day is the first Sunday in September. It's kind of nice in that it gives us a break between mother's and father's day. Emma bought Lyle a Springbok supporter jersey! woo hoo. He was pretty happy about that. We also had my parents, grandma and brother's family over for a BBQ. My nephew Finn is getting so big and is so cute, so I can't resist posting photos to brag about him!

The three dad's of the day!

Mum with (my fat) Emma Grace


Finn having a big tickle from dad!

Finn also helped uncle Lyle do some gardening

And of course, as every 2 year old must do - learn to show off his muscles!!

(see? told you he was cute!!!!)

Happy Birthday Finn!

Our nephew Finn turned 2 on Sunday. Saturday afternoon we went to his birthday party. My sis-in-law made a fantastic cake and we had a really lovely afternoon at their house :)

eating the coloured popcorn

think I'll have some more, thanks!
Finn is so sweet, he just sat down of his
own accord to have a chat to Emma :)

A sweet kiss for cousin Emma

(actually this is a bit of a favourite pasttime for him, we'll see how

it goes when his baby brother or sister arrives in September!)

Emma's first time sitting on grass

My favourite photo of the day

"Eeeee, I'm wearing daddy's hat!!!"

Cute outfits

We have received so many gorgeous outfits for Emma from so many people it's really a huge blessing. I think I've bought her maybe three things since she was born!
This one from great uncle Les and great aunty Marlene - Thank you!

Little fingers and little nails

So babies have really, really, really, reeeeally small hands...and hence, small fingernails. I've sat with Emma in the past, nail scissors in hand and ready to cut, but could never gain the courage to do so, so I'd resort to biting (I know it's terrible!) or just tearing - sounds painful, but they're so soft it doesn't phase her. The other day I finally got the courage to cut, it was easier than I thought due to the fact that we're getting scratches on our faces from Emma!

I figured that being outside would be a good distraction for her

Emma learning the "all done" sign

Happy that the ordeal is over with no fuss!
(except for the camera...and loads of attention from mum and dad)

I sit!

but I still don't roll . . .

Psalm 127

~Children are a blessing from the Lord - Psalm 127:3~

I remember reading this verse when I was pregnant with Emma and it blew me away. I knew the verse - but in differing versions it says that children are a "reward" or "heritage". Meditating on this is truly overwhelming because I can't think why I should be rewarded in anyway.

Emma Grace is 5 months old and as we enjoy her more and more each day I realise just how much of a blessing children are. Though totally undeserving of her and the joy she brings us, we are truly blessed to have her in our lives. God is good!

Foodies!

Emma actually ATE solids! We've tried a number of times over the past month with no luck. She is hilarious. She would get the tiniest portion of rice cereal mixed with milk on her lips and totally gag. Mum suggested giving her just milk on the spoon so she could figure out what was going on. So today I did that and whatddyaknow? mum was right. of course :) so Emma happily ate some rice cereal for morning tea and was very pleased with herself.

These photos are actually about a month old and this is the first time we tried.

I'll post some "smiley eater" pics soon :)

Shmodels

We went for a drive to Cleveland yesterday. It's on the water's edge, from there you can see Stradbroke Island. We often bemoan the fact that we have terrible lighting in our house for photos, so we were glad to get some in before the sun set.

I still can't believe I let Lyle convince me to allow our 4.5 month old to sit in a swing by herself!!

first model pose


I told her the Springboks might beat the Wallabies in September
Haaaahahahahaha

How photogenic are these two?!

Having a giggle with dad

Not sure how clear it is, but lately (probably because I do it to her) Emma Grace is forever sticking her tongue out at people! She LOVED this, I could hear her laughing from where I was.

To be a shmodel one must first learn to do the model walk...

But one must learn to stand first!

(look how tiny her feet are compared to Lyle's hehe)