MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hi all,

I hope you all have had a great Christmas. Our girls (and us) have really enjoyed it this year. Maddie got into the whole Christmas thing with much encouragement from preschool. She has been very spoilt with the gifts that she has received. Sabrina just liked the fact that 1. people came over, 2. you got to play with lots of wrapping paper and 3. there is new toys to play with now that the people have left. According to her I can do this... it ain't half bad.

(Pictures will be coming. I got a new camera and it has all the Christmas pics on it, I now need to spend some time and figure out how to get the pics off it.)

So much has happened since our last blog. So to quickly bring you up to speed here goes...

Nathan - busy at work. Need I say more. We have a couple of days in January that he is on holidays so this will be good. He is working this year between the Christmas and New Year period. It is the first year in quite a few that he has done this at it is sort of "his turn". Still didn't make it any easier this morning when he went out the door. He has also had to be quite busy looking after his girls. (further info, further into blog)

Maddie - has now finished preschool and is now waiting till the 30th January to start big school. This is going to be an exciting time for her. Mind you in saying that this morning she wanted to get dressed to go to preschool as "it is Thursday Mum, its preschool day" none to happy that she isn't going today to catch up with all her friends. We got Maddie as her big Christmas present this year a proper keyboard, so in the new year I need to find someone who I can get to teach her as I am not doing it, I need it to be external to the family so that she will actually listen to them.

Sabrina - has gained some mobility. Over the past couple of weeks she has each day been surprising us with the amount that she is doing. First with rocking to get her toys, then rolling to get them now dragging to get them. Our house is about to enter kiddie lock down again. I keep forgetting how much work there is in having a little, little person. She still doesn't have any teeth however produces enough dribble to go through many outfits in one day, so I would say that they are not too far off. She is getting over the flu at the moment, which has meant a couple of scary. long nights for her parents with high temperatures and lots of crying and not much sleeping. We also had Sabrina's dedication at the beginning of December. This was a special day for us. It was also good to have our family and friends around us for this event. She has been getting into her toys that she received for Christmas in a big way. She really enjoys them.

Me - existing. I have had a bad case of flu following the Dedication. (Nath has needed to take time off to look after all his girls as I have not been able to do it) Last night is the first night where I haven't coughed all night and actually slept (with Sabi's usual feed me breaks, but they don't count). I was also really spoilt at Christmas and received a new camera plus other bits and pieces.

Hope you are all well, and I will pop some pictures up shortly.

Love
Annette

Very Quick Update

Hi all,

Sorry, I only have time for a quick update. We are in the middle of planning for Sabrina's Dedication service on Sunday and the following get together/lunch.

Maddie had her orientation day at Bethel a couple of weeks ago. It looks like her class will only be small but that is a good thing. It will mean that she won't be a number and can be herself. She is currently devouring any activities that I can give her and is constantly pushing herself. She is starting to get excited with the prospect of Christmas being just around the corner.

Sabrina has been alittle challenging since my last blog. (One of the reasons why I haven't blogged recently) I had forgotten just how long the nights can be. And with having Maddie as well I haven't really been able to catch up on sleep. Who says sleep deprivation is not torture!
She has started sitting up by herself, rolling over, reaching out to get her toys, getting stuck and screaming to get unstuck please. She has also started wriggle / comando crawling very slowly when she is in the mood. She is now eating "proper" food and is slowly growing.

Nathan update - working hard!

Annette update - trying to survive!

We had a really good weekend last weekend. We went down to the coast house. FINALLY!!!! It has only taken us since last Christmas. Mum and Dad have done a really good job at the renos and have turned it into a really comfortable place to be. It was so good to get away from Sydney! We needed to break.

Over the last couple of weeks she has been busy meeting the rest of the family. Ie we had lunch with Nath's Nan and Eck the other week as they were up from Melbourne, and this meant that we did the show and tell in the office as well. Fortunately both girls behaved on the train, in the office and at lunch. It was a rather big day for all. Then whilst we were down the coast we caught up with GG (my grandma). I am now pleased that all have now seen each other.

Hope to put up some more pics soon.

Love
Annette