Fun with my Macbook

My laptop takes photos....and has a fun little feature called 'effects' you can use while taking a photo . . .I started with taking a normal photo just to update where I'm at with this pregnancy (I'm now 35.5 weeks along, yay!) then decided to see how fat I could make my belly, and conversely how small I could be (this time breathing/pulling my belly in is making NO difference at all! haha)

The 1st photo is how I actually look (no it's not the exaggerated 'fat picture') 2nd is skinny and the 3rd one is just really funny (except it's probably not funny to my mum who was apparently about that big with me! sorry mum!)

Happy Birthday Grandpa Gary!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Gary.

We hope you have a wonderful day!!

Crash!

Mac's 1st Birthday!

Our nephew Macca turned one in September - he has the coolest birth date 09-09-09! Couldn't even do that if you tried hey?!? It's been so fun to watch him grow up - he's only 7 months younger than Emma. I love that she has a cousin who is the same age as her!

Emma loved Aunty "Binna"'s cake (the girls got skills she makes the greatest cakes for her kids)

Macca with Grandpa

A toddler at play

Our little thrill seeker!

Silly time with Daddy

Here are our chins

Blinking

nose!

tongue

Emma has finally developed the 'cheesy camera smile' as most toddlers do whose parents relentlessly stick cameras in their faces and say "SMI-ILE!"

A big baby kick!

I'm presently trying to take an afternoon nap, but the baby has decided that its party time. So I thought I'd try to get it on record. Here's a 10 second clip where you see it kick. Only once, but it's a big kick! I realise, watching this, how heavily I'm breathing too - probably because my lungs are competing for space in there!

ps - I am aware that this may be incredibly boring for some people and super exciting for others, if you find it boring, I'm sorry for the boring post! :)

No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!

DISCLAIMER: this is the first time I've seen Emma jumping on her bed, and no it shall not continue as a practice in this household :)Actually, I've never even seen her do it on our bed, so here's hoping it isn't a secret habit of hers that she developed in 2 days that we must now break! hehe. Kids are awesome. What a blessing!!

Emma's Toddler Bed

Yesterday, Emma jumped on her new bed and said "I big girl!" Lyle and I were so stunned that we looked at each other and took a minute to respond to her!

She really is a big girl. She's talking for one, which does not cease to amaze me!

I was talking with a friend on Monday and in the Lord's providence when I mentioned that we were going to buy a bed this week for Emma, my friend replied "oh, you can have ours!"

How great is that?! This little bed is a huge blessing to us. a) it's free b) it's low to the ground c) it's really small and d) it's expandable! it fits perfectly into the space where her cot was, so I've had to do some tricky re-arranging of her room in preparation for baby to join her! Tonight is her first night in it, I checked on her a little while ago and she is fast asleep - with her head at the foot-end hehe. I'm so thankful for my little girl and great friends who so willingly bless us!!

A friendly heart

Yesterday we went shopping to buy Lyle some new clothes. Not surprisingly I detoured us momentarily into a children's clothing store. A little more surprisingly, Emma made a new friend . . .I'm not sure what exactly this is a sign of, but she loved these mannequins, it was really cute. She was sad to leave them.

18 month old photo shoot

A friend of a friend has taken 18-month-old photo shoots of all her children. It's easy for us to see why, as 18 months is such a cute stage of life.

So this afternoon we went out hoping Emma would be in compliance. At one stage we need to coax with 2 bikkies (cookies), but overall she was a champ!

Photographer: Daddy

Location: Botanic Gardens

Outfit: Granny

Scenery and general cuteness: God

Daddy now wears glasses sometimes. Emma thinks they're quite funny. Hopefully she'll overcome her giggles soon, I think wearing new glasses needs reassurance, not laughter!

Finn turns 3

Emma's cousin turned three this week! We went to a delightful party on Sunday afternoon to celebrate with him. His mum made a brilliant boat cake (I might have to hire her for Emma's 2nd next year!)

Emma and Finn having a hug - by the look on their faces I think it might have been a hug under duress!

Here's Finn on his big boy bike giving a BIG smile!

And this photo pretty much explains Emma's mood for the day. She was rather excited.

Emma having a laugh with Grandpa.

GO BOKKE

Emma watching the All Blacks against the Springboks - daddy's working hard to train her well.

"Hello"

Here's Emma saying 'hello'. it was one of those very spontaneous things that children do. If I'd known she was going to be super cute I would have turned the camera the right way around. So perhaps just turn your computer screen on its side for a moment. Or your head I suppose.

The Lost World

This week we were blessed to enjoy God's creation away from the city! I think it has been years since I bothered to look up at night and the stars were astounding.

We feel very refreshed. And are quite convinced that we shall own a little farm one day...

As if heaven isn't enough

As I was bathing Emma a few nights ago, my mind turned to the repetition of our evenings.

We have dinner, bathe, get ready for bed. It's nice that we have a routine that she's familiar with, but sometimes I find bath time a 'hassle'. I realised that it's only by the Lord's grace and strength that I am able to continue serving Emma as I am called.

I reflected on Romans 11:36 "for from Him and

through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever, amen".

It is only because of and FOR His glory that we have Emma in our lives and the immense joy that she brings us. God's ways are above our ways and although I do not understand why I am so blessed in this life, I am so. very. thankful for it.

The next blessing

Here is our next bundle of joy! Due December 3rd (but I'm hoping for a November baby!) I had the 19 week scan on Friday and everything is looking great with both myself and baby. We never had a 4D scan with Emma, so seeing this scan was such a treat! Initially baby kept putting its hands in front of its face - we realised it was trying to get thumb to mouth. It was very cute.

We do know the gender, but we are keeping it to ourselves :) This isn't to infuriate anyone I promise! I loved having Emma as a surprise, but with this baby I'm glad to know now as strangely it's actually helping me to be more excited. I suppose we did all the 'firsts' with Emma and now it's 'let's get it over and done with'. This pregnancy hasn't been as easy as Emma's so I'm glad to have seen these 4D pictures and know the gender. It's been a nice treat.

I am so thankful to the Lord for His abundant blessings. Lyle and I have a number of friends who either have no children as yet, or are trying for more with no results and I am humbled to think that so far we have such an easy road regarding pregnancy. It's so hard to understand God's ways when things are tough, but I have to confess I struggle to understand His ways in this area of our lives when things are so easy. It seems that my life just keeps getting better and better with no end in sight. Sometimes it makes me sit on the edge of my seat waiting for tragedy to hit. Of course if it does I know that it will be at the hand of the Lord and a blessing - as the only course of action will be to come before the Lord and grow closer to Him. For now, I thank God for our next little child and look forward to meeting it at the end of the year!

Emma's Crush

At 16 months Emma has a crush on a boy (a married man at that!!) This is Danny. He and his wife Jo work with us in the youth group at our church and they're an awesome couple, we have great fellowship with them. Emma LOVES Danny. He came over to our house the other day to meet up with Lyle and my parents were here. Emma also loves my parents. So it provided quite the laugh when she was willing to leave granny and grandpa's attention, go into her room, and come out with a book to hand to Danny. She does this so often to him that he even recognised that it was a new book... She has good taste. Danny's a great bloke. Although married and almost 30 years her senior. Hopefully in the future she'll learn discernment!

Swagger Wagon commercial

Shout out to all my "soccer mom car" owner friends :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUG3Z8Hxa5I&feature=player_embedded

Run, laugh, play, repeat.

We try to get out on a saturday morning and have some family time. Yesterday we went to a massive park near our house. It was so great to get out and have some fun. Emma ran and ran and ran! There is such delight in seeing a child enjoy themselves. She chased an ibis at one point until she was close enough to realise that she was smaller than the bird . . .She also had a good look at some ducks - her sound for a duck has always been "duck duck" not "quack quack". It's very cute.

Lyle said this photo looks like his cousins on his mothers side - at least we're beginning to figure out where Emma's looks come from!

having a look at the ducks - I love her pouty lips! (her forehead is not 'mis-shapen' [is that the right word?] she hit her head HARD on Friday night, leaving a stunning egg)

The running begins! We took loads of photos of her running, but I realised that as cute as it is to us, they pretty much all look the same, so I'm limiting my selection to one :)

Everyones favourite past time

After a few practice runs I managed to convince Lyle to let her go down the slippery dip without his assistance

(he looks nervous)

and she didn't even face-plant! :)

in case you're wondering what she's doing - she's waving at me

NB: This photo provides a brilliant view of her bump and bruise (socks so don't go with wooden floors!)

Emma LOVES older children. Here she's doing the 'I'm-laughing-so-hard-it-hurts' laugh

Finally we ended with some morning tea before going home for nap time!