Christmas Eve 24.12.07

Well, being from a Swiss background we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve!! I love it!!
We had a great christmas this year! We had my cousin and her boyfriend over from Switzerland, Mum and Dad, John and Sian, Matty and I. We slept in the Star City Apartments in the city - WOW!!!! And had dinner at Nicks Seafood Restaurant - yum! Mum and Dad paid for it all!! So Generous!!!
During the day of the 24th I had everyone over for lunch. Poor Matty had to work so we all went down and got kayaks from him and went kayaking around Narrabeen Lake, such good fun! Then we went to the Beach in the afternoon!
Xx Jess

At Pro Kayaks..

Us on Narrabeen Lake!

John and Siany

My cousin Laurence and her boyfriend Alex

My Mum and Dad

Siany and Me!John, Me, Siany, Laurence & Alex on Narrabeen Beach

Hahahha! We didnt see that wave coming!

My 'Bump' @ 18weeks!

Matty and I with a little outfit we recieved

The VIEW from our apartment!!! Took this with my new lens I recieved from Matty for christmas!!!

I love how Matty is holding the 'bump' in this photo!! He's going to be a great Dad!!Matty & ISiany and John (stole this from your blog siany!! Xx)In darling harbour

Darling Harbour: John, Sian, Alex, Laurence, Me & Matty

At Nick's Seafood Restaurant

JoYeUx NOEL...

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!!!

I know. We've still got 6 days to go but im definately feeling festive now! All my Christmas shopping is done! And Matty and I did get round to taking some chrissie photos. Here is one of the photos for this year..

I also made a little collage of the family for mum to email to her friends so i'll show you that too...

And this is little Jade who i've nannied throughout the year!! She's so cute and is growing so fast!!! She's such a friendly little girl, she give gorgeous cuddles!!

I wish everyone who reads my blog a very Merry Christmas!! Enjoy yourselves!!
Xx Jess

P.S. Dont forget to guess wether you think im having a baby boy or girl (in the side bar>>>>>>>) its good fun seeing who thinks what!!!

The most wonderful time of the year...

I saw this on Rachel's Blog and I thought it was an awesome idea! So i've decided to put it on my blog too!!!
Im not tagging anyone (i know its also a busy time of the year) but if you put it up on your blog let me know so i can see what you write too!!!
Xx Jess

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper! I like to find real nice ways to wrap gifts!
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial! Knowing my 'green thumb' if it was real, it probably wouldnt survive up to xmas!
3. When do you put up the tree? Our family tradition is to put it up on the 6th dec (st nicholas) but this year i put it up in late november because i just couldn't wait any longer!!!
4. When do you take the tree down? After christmas and i try to do it before the new year! I LOVE chrissie things on the lead up to christmas but afterwards, its just not the same!
5. Do you like eggnog? I"ve never tried it!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Oh gosh! I was so spoilet!!! But all my dolls i recieved over the years! They were the best pressies!
7. Do you have a nativity scene? No.
8. Hardest person to buy for? This year.. Matty and My Brother!
9. Easiest person to buy for? Dad, wine or chocolate!!! hehehe!
10. Worst Christmas gift ever received? a salt shaker candle that stunk!!
11. Mail or email Christmas card? A hand written card that has been posted!!! I think that is just so personal and special!!!
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Christmas with the Kranks
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? today!!!! Opsies! I left it a bit late!! However we did all matts family's gifts in august so that was very organised!
14. Have you ever recycled/regifted a Christmas present? NO
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? The leg of ham!
17. Favorite Christmas song? I saw mommy kissing santa claus, silent night (cos it makes me think of my grandpa) and Jingle bells rock.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Travel and home, as long as im with family!
19. Can you name Santa's reindeer? I dont think so.. ruldoff the red nose reindeer and his friends!!
20. Do you have an Angel on top of the tree or a star? An angel.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Eve
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? The shopping centres! There is no need to push and shove, just relax and take it easy! There is no need to stress!
23. Best thing about Christmas? Celebrating with my family! Going to the beach (fingers crossed about the weather this year!!) going to watch the chrissie carols! Giving and recieving the gifts! I love that everyone gets a gift and everyone is so festive and happy!!

**Only 15 days to go!!!!**

Chrissie Fun...

Every year.. we all do a family chrissie photo to put in our chrissie cards!! Its been my mum's tradition for as long as i can remember!! And now I do it with Matt and I too (yet to acutally DO them yet this year though) But i did go up to do the 'original' family photo! This year we asked our friend Goomblar if he could come over and be part of our chrissie card photo as most of the christmas cards are sent to family in Switzerland we like to show them part of "down under" and goomblar being a Australian Native Aboriginal we thought it would be great to have him in our cards!
Here are some of the *fun* photos we took...

Goomblar and Me

John, Goomblar & Siany

Also, Last saturday night (1st december) I was winging that I didn't have an advent calender to count down to chrissie. Sian said she'd make me one! I did think that that was very nice of her.. but I also thought it would never happen! How could she feel like going home late on a saturday night after a busy double shift and start creating... well, I was wrong... Siany DID make me the most Gorgeous and Excitng and Special Advent Calender EVER!!! I cant believe all the work she put into it, it must of taken HOURS!!! Thank you so much Siany!! I look forward to opening every envelope everytime i wake up!!
** Please note.. Siany MADE all the envelopes from scratch!!! WOW!

These are the ones i've opened so far....

Xx Jess

an announcement...

Oh gosh... its been so hard to keep this a secret for sooooo long!!
But I can finally share our news...

Matty and I are having a BABY!!!!!!!!!!

We are so excited, especially seeing as it was full of risks because of my coelaic disease, but we have passed the biggest hurdle of the 1st trimester so we are now celebrating and telling the world!!!!

Here is our baby's 1st photo... hehehe!
He/she isn't coming into the world till Late May 08.. so there is still a lot of growing and waiting till we get to meet the little one!! We cant wait though!!!

Here is a little layout i did about the pregnancy too...
We aren't going to find out the sex of the baby... we want it to be a surprise.. but i'll see if i can search the web for one of those polls so that all you guys.. my blogging friends... can let me know wether you think it will be a boy or a girl!! Any suggestions on where you find these poll thingys???
Xx Jess

Its begining to look a lot like Christmas....

well, at our place it is anyway!! (now i've got to start the chrissie shopping!!!) Not long to go now!!! I was brought up as a child to put up our tree on the 6th December - St Nicholas day. But I just couldn't wait any longer!! Cant wait for chrissie!! Its my favourite holiday!!!

Last night a group of us went to watch the Soccer at Telstra Staduim. Sydney FC vs LA Galaxy... with David Beckham!!! It was an AWESOME night!! Sydney won 5-3, so that was exciting.. but also David Beckham scored a goal too... which was awesome.. the crowd went wild!! Over 80,000 people attended!
There was a mexican wave that went round three times!! I had a really great night! These are the only photos I took, before the match started... then it was too exciting to take piccies!!

Just thought i'd say hello!!! I havent forgotten the wedding photos from the other weekend.. i've just got so much choice in photos.. it makes it hard to decide which ones to show!!!
Xx Jess

Layouts...

Well, I think my mojo is back!!! yay!!!
I havent really scrapped in about a month (besides the other week which i have to say was a layout i look at now and cringe about how much i dont like it!! I hate when that happens! Luckily not too often!)
So here are a couple to share with you all....

"jade & jess"

"mandy & paulo"

Thanks for looking!! Xx Jess

Family Road Trip..

Hello Everyone!!

Im back from my holiday with my Mum and Dad!
It was good fun! Its been years since we went on a holiday together!!
So, warning.. this will be a loooong post but i promise to put in lots of photos to keep it interesting!!!

Day 1.
Mum & Dad came and picked me up in Narrabeen to start the long road trip up to Armidale for my friend Mandy's wedding. But the wedding was the following saturday so we had 5 days before we had to be up there!!

I had one request.. i really wanted to go into Newcastle because there is an amazing shop I discovered up there a few years ago and I just had to go visit it again.. so firstly before Newcastle we stopped and had a picnic in a picnic area.. and then.. Newcastle to go to Guanabana!! I was so pleased to find the shop was still there! My parents both said it was a great and different from everywhere else kind of shop!! I didn't end up buying anything this time.. but i'll definately be making the trip back up to it soon!!
So, we hopped back into the car and we ended up staying a in posh hotel in Shoal Bay, and we had dinner in its buffet (gross!! you know when food has been sitting there for so long it gets all crusty.. it was like that)

This is my Mum & Dad the next morning after sleeping in the hotel.. on the hotel balcony - nice view, and perfect weather!!

Me down at the beach, still a little cold to swim i thought!!

Day 2.
So, we left Shoal Bay after breakfast and drove up to Foster, and arrived there in the early afternoon! We found a cabin to sleep in...

had a bite to eat... and then went to explore Foster!! I liked it a lot better than Shoal bay & Nelson Bay! I liked the town and the shops (again, not that i bought anything - besides suncream)! Mum and I went and hired some kayaks and went kayaking around this island.. we thought we were lost for a bit of it, so we ended up turing around and going back the way we came! It was so nice! The water was crystal clear! Then we went back to the park and Mum & Dad cooked dinner on the BBQ! We also went for a walk and I took these piccies...

This was a tiny stroll down from our cabin...

Same view, but this time at sunset

Day 3 & 4.
Today we left foster early again.. and headded all the way up to Nambucca Heads! (My favourite place we stayed on our trip!!) We found the best little caravan park right by the sea!!

Inside the cabin

View from the cabin
We stayed here for two nights! The beach and lagoon thingy were beautiful and we were up north for it to be warm enough to swim, which we did!! Mum and I also went and bought a blow up boat and a blow up matress to swim in the water with!! So much fun!!! We found a great place to each and ate there on both days for lunch!
There was also a lot of wild life around...

A goanna - it was HUGE!

LOOK at all the Dolphins!!!! Here I am in the boat we bought... ahhh, so relaxing!! We actually spent more time swimming out in the beachy lagoon bit not where this photo is taken! Day 5 & 6.
We had to leave paradise to drive up to destination... Armidale! We stopped in Belingen & Dorigo on the way there. Belingen was nice. When we arrived in Armidale we spent the day looking around and found a cafe that serves Gluten Free meat pies! Mum and I were very excited about that!!
We checked into our hotel (which had deers there!!) and i met up briefly with Moo who had exciting news that she's having a baby!!!
So on Saturday (the wedding day) Mum and I went to a girls champagne brekkie and then met up with dad and we went around Armidale again. The wedding was in the evening and Mum and I were taking the photos!! I will do a whole post about the wedding in a couple of days with photos and all. Here's one of the lovely bride and groom....

Mandy and PauloIt was a beautiful wedding!!!

Day 7.
We left Armidale and did a long drive.. I had a big headache unfortunately so it wasnt a fun day! We stayed the night in Terrigal and went to a yummy posh restaurant for dinner!

Day 8.
Home Sweet Home. With lots of photos to look at and friends to catch up with!!
It was a very good holiday!
Thanks Mum and Dad!!!
Xx

Hello and Good Bye!

Well, Matty is back from his race in New Caledonia. They unfortunately had to pull out due to injury. So disappointing for them seeing as they won it last time. But Matty is nice and tanned and brought home some nice photos!! I really want to go to New Caledonia for a holiday!! Looks like a beautiful island!!

The Team before the start: from left to right... Matty, (im not sure who that man next to him is, maybe the race organiser?!) Mikey, Immogen & Matty.A

Look! Part of the race involves trekking!!!! If you look closley at the photo you can see a team dressed in white ahead.. thats where they are headding towards!! So far!!!

Its good to have Matty home!!!

Last night my friend Daria, Marty and there gorgeous baby were going to come for a visit but thanks to my stupid phone.. they went to Manly instead!! But they are going to come and visit again soon .... we CANT WAIT to have you guys over and see little Kaia!! yay!!!

Today.. im off on a road trip with my mum and dad!! Its been years since i've been on a holiday with them!! We are driving up to Armidale for one of my friends wedding on saturday! So we are going to take our time and visit lots of places on the coast on our way up! Im looking forward to our little road trip!!
In which case.. I'd better go pack before mum and dad get here or i'll be in trouble (heheheh)!!

John and Siany... Have fun up in Qld!! Say hi to your dad from me Siany!!

Have a good week everyone!!! I'll be blogging next week with lots of photos and holiday/wedding news!!
Till then...

Mwah...
Xx Jess