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)

WHOA!

The following story is true. Any and all characters are not fictional and do represent who you think they represent...In fact, it occurred in the Wetherston household an hour ago.

Lyle took Emma Grace into her room to change her nappy (diaper for my American readers) and this is what I hear

Emma: coo coo coo

Lyle: WHOA!!!!!!

Emma: waaaaa

Lyle (concerned): hey babe?

Liz: Yeah?

Lyle (panicked): we're out of wipes

Emma: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

So for the less astute among you...Emma had an explosive nappy, upon its discovery by her father he yelled in surprise, scaring the living daylights out of his beloved daughter, he then realised there were no baby wipes in the baby wipe box.

But never fear. Our story has a happy ending. The heroine, who shall remain nameless but we all know who she is, came to the rescue with the wipes and smile that calmed the beloved Emma. Although Emma didn't smile at her father for the rest of the 15 minutes that she was awake. So it has a partially happy ending.

The Partially Happy End.

Water, water everywhere!!!

Emma's favourite thing in the whole world is having a bath. Which is great, because typically kids hate baths, of course this might still happen in a few years but for now, we're on a good role! We'll try to get some video footage - it's too good to miss!

I love that something as simple as this is just another way in which the Lord blesses us with our little girl and brings so much joy to our lives!

This is how mummy fairs after the bath - my jeans were

super wet too, but I suppose you can't really see it.

And here's our clean little bug in a rug.