Another big helper!

This was the tail end of her concentration, she did nearly half the load!

Christmas day, a joy-filled celebration!

There were stockings full of good things. Hope is still to finish opening her's, it is too much fun taking things out and putting things in!


This was transformed into....


This beautiful creation. Heidi has the perseverance needed to create such a master piece, we loved it so much it became the table centre piece later.

Sledging fun was had by all. Hope most of all I think. She sat at the top and rocked and rocked, then gave up on the imaginary sledge and popped onto her tummy and pushed off. We caught her! It is all on video along with a classic of Kurt and Heidi going so far at the bottom they cross the path and go through a hedge at the bottom! I will post them when I get them (on a different camera).

Presents were a wonderful end to the day, so much love and care went into them all. THANK YOU to everyone who made the effort to get them here. We are blessed by you and love you. I am always humbled by others organisation and motivation. I will strive to meet your high standards next year.

The snow is falling again this afternoon so we are cosied up making a paper dolls house out of cardboard boxes, imagination and sticky tape. There is laughter and joy filling the kitchen, we are blessed.

Merry Christmas!
We are enjoying the preparations here, as many of you are getting tucked into bed!
May Christmas day bring the joy that was intended by the most wonderful gift, Jesus.

Are they twins?

Who needs toys?

Hope's party day

We had a fun packed day on Saturday with friends, which we used to celebrate Hope's birthday.
There was sledging.....which we all enjoyed.

Babies bundled up ready for hitting the slopes.


Heidi has a red coat this year. She is with her friend Audrey and her beloved Little Jones.
Then back to Kurt and Holly's for food....


and drinks. Holly makes the best coffee's in the world!


We had birthday cupcakes after a loud rendition of "Happy Birthday".

The plan was to have a catterpillar cake, but after a few mild disasters we christened these cupcake bushes and realised that they were cute enough!

Adorable! She was so thrilled to be allowed to pick one and have it to hereself!

Mmmmn, icing is good, why is it that you never let me have it before?

Suddenly this was all that was left!

And if that wasn't enough in the day, we headed off to Zoolights. Basically the whole zoo is swathed in lights and there are things like fire-pits and people making ice-sculptures and crazy fun games like making igloo's out of polystyrene blocks!

Happy 1st Birthday Hope

We have had a beautiful day celebrating the gift of Hope.

We started with breakfast. Mmmmn, baked oatmeal and pears. Our Hopie loves to eat but she always polishes off large quantiities of this.



Onto pressies. Thank you everyone for all the lovely things that you sent. She gave us a wonderful entertaining time opening them and playing with the paper :)

Her big sister bought her this ball with her own money!
And it smells like a blueberry. Which is a little gross, but Heidi was thrilled with.


After pressies we took the girls swimming. It was a lot of fun and Hope was thrilled with it.
She slept very well too this afternoon.

In a slight change to the expected order of event we had a little soiree for Tom's birthday more than Hope's, although the loud singing was for both of them. A curry feast was enjoyed by all.

By the end of the day my small girl cuddled onto my lap and snuggled for a while. Instead of nursing she just closed her eyes and fell asleep!

Wonder what time of the night she'll be up for a feed?

We love you Hope. You fill our lives with so much joy.

BTW we are having a Hope party on Sat :)

Just one more sleep

My mind is wandering today.

I remember this day last year, one of fun. Trip to the midwifes to check my little ones heartbeat, sledging (for everyone else), supper at IKEA (I only ate 3 meatballs and wondered why I was not feeling well), picking out the Christmas tree and good friends bringing it home for us, siting with them long into the night with the white board with many combinations of names and Tom's tally chart and my pleas for the ones I liked, then running upstairs when they had gone and being very ill.

I spent the day so carefree, and not knowing that I could be getting excited.

Today we are getting excited, and praising God for this monkey we love so much.

It's coming Hope, just one more sleep :)