it's growing...

I just had the second official scan and everything is fine!! We didn't ask whether it's a girl or a boy we want the surprise at birth ;-)

Pics of kids by Margus Dec 2010

Most of those you might have already seen on Facebook but for those of you who are not on FB, here are some nice photos taken by our family photographer Margus. We are very lucky to have him as a friend :-)

Joe & Lisa 25th wedding anniversary

Congratulations Joe and Lisa!!! We love you!

I kept missing the right moment to get the smootch on the camera, they were too quick! :-D lol

Chicks

We have been thinking of getting chicks for some time and now we have finally done it - we are farmers now :-D The chicken enclosure is in the corner where we have this huge jacaranda tree. We have 4 of them - Blacky, Brownie, Lara & Oprah. Hopefully in near future we will have our own free range eggs in the fridge :-) yeaeee! I can't wait.

Jacob looooves his chooks. I should mention at this point that we got them from his school. They have this wonderful program called "Chicks-R-Us" where they have a small incubator with eggs in the classroom for 3 or 4 weeks and children get to see the chicks hatch out. They feed them and look after them for couple of weeks and at the end of it, they can buy chicks for $10.00 each. The rest go back to the farm. So that's where it all started.

Today he was sitting in the with the chicks for loooong looong time, just watching them and patting them. He wants to spend time with them so that they get use to him and won't be so scared any more. He loves picking them up and holding them. So cute!
Farmer Jacob

At the moment though, we have 7 chickens in total + 1 rabbit. 3 chicks (Kentucky, Fied and Chicken) and the rabbit (Jacklina) belong to Frank & Maria but they are on holidays overseas at the moment, so we are looking after their animals. Joe & Lisa are going on holidays too in January, so then we will also have their bird Nokia. It's not just a farm any more, it's a ZOO! :-D lol

Christmas lights

In Australia it is common to hang lots of Christmas lights outside your house to make it all nice and pretty and Christmasy for the passers by. Some families go to a next level. They put so much money, time and effort into this, it becomes a seasonal sensation with people from surrounding suburbs coming for a drive through the street just to enjoy the sight. It is fantastic! Kids love it. Every night there is a horde of cars and pedestrians just slowly strolling up and down the street, taking pictures and enjoying the Christmas spirit.
It's a really nice tradition. But it makes me wonder... because they don't have snow here and no reindeer... do you think they compensating for something? :-D

This house got to take the first prize! There was no spot left of just plain grass, everything was covered with lights and decorations. They even had a laser show on the side-wall of the house!?! The Santa and the polar bear at the front door were pretty much life size and they sang Christmas carols, even the mouths were moving!!!???!!! Awesome! And they had turned their double garage into a two separate Christmas scene displays complete with life size figures of Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and 3 wise men. Wow!

Those BIG round eyes looking around, taking it all in...

Massive ginger bread house at the gate.

This house also had a green laser show on the floor of their drive-way.

More lasers.

Gingerbread cookie factory

Yes it's this time of the year again...

This is the final product but it all started with Jacob eating half of my cookie dough... Mixing the icing colours.

Cooled down and spread out, ready for icing.

Jacob's little hands cutting the cookie shapes.

"Mummy, I just looooove your gingerbread cookie dough!" he said to me.

Silly me, I volunteered to bake some cookies for the Christmas raffle at the school. Three baskets for the raffle, one to Phil's work, one to my office, one to Anni & Birgit in Queensland (I hope they didn't break in the post) and the rest... well, Jacob has polished them all off and it's not even Christmas yet. So I had to make another batch today for Christmas. House smells like cookies right now :-) yummm