Photo a day 2011

Indiana's Favourite Passtime.... Jumping!!!!

Liberty "Im two"

Happy New Year!!!!!!

Well, another year has arrived!!

2010 was full of ups and downs!
The best part was Indiana arriving in our family, on Liberty's birthday!
My two little girls are wonderful and bring us so much joy!!!

They are great sisters and they get on so well!!!

We celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary, My brother and Siany got married! My grandparents left the country and then came back!!!

We had lots of wonderful times!!!
The down was definitly my appendicitis. Getting so sick after my operation. Dont even get me started on the state of the public hospital I spent a week in!!! But im on the mend now (finally) and we are looking forward to a wonderful year ahead!

Im not usually into new years resolutions. Usually I dont make any. This year however, I seem to have HEAPS! One of these is to take a Photo a day 2011 again!! I did it in 2009 and it was hard work every day, and it cost a heap to get it printed into TWO blurb books. But I look back on those books and the time it took and the cost was TOTALLY worth it, so im doing it for another year!! wohoo!!!!!!

It's also a great way for our friends & families over in Switzerland and New Zealand to see what we are up to on a day-to-day basis and watch the girls grow!!! Please let us know if you are watching! I like knowing who is looking!!

So,
CLICK HERE

to be taken to my photo-a-day-2011 page.

Happy New Year!!!

Xx Jess

My Little Family..

Xx Jess

Indiana's Birth Story...

I woke up on the morning of the 25th May 2010 with a few period pain symptoms, and I said to Matt before he left for work “I recon this baby is coming in the next 24-48hours”. Matt kind of just laughed.

Seeing as it was also Liberty’s 2nd birthday her Grandmamy & Grandpapa were just up the road at the local hotel. Mum arrived at about 9am and I figured these little ‘on and off’ again pains were most probably contractions. So I told mum and whilst she played with Liberty I went and properly packed my hospital bag.

The day went on as normal. Dad arrived and at about 10am. I had a ‘show’ so I called Matt (at work) just to let him know not to go too far!
- by this stage, im still not in pain, just having little twinges every 10 or so minutes -
Matt turns up at home about 5 minutes after my phone call!! Hahaha! So sweet! I told him that I still don’t think this baby is coming today. Then I feel as if there are no contractions at all. Hmm. So Matt, Mum, Dad, Liberty the birthday girl in her new birthday outfit and I all go on a walk along the lake. I walk all the way to ProKayaks and not have any contractions, Uh oh, I think to myself, I’ve just got everyone excited that there will be a baby soon and now I don’t feel anything! That didn’t last long! The contractions came back, along with the arrival of John and Sian (Liberty's god parents/Aunt/Uncle) arriving to see Liberty and help prepare for Liberty’s birthday party in the afternoon. We all eat lunch.

At about 1pm I’m having contractions about 10minutes apart and although they are still painless I can feel them!! They are more annoying than anything else.
I call the hospital at about 2pm as I feel they are getting stronger, the midwife asks me if I want to come in? “Not really” I reply as I don’t want to waste all my time at the hospital when there is a party going on at home.
Not long after the phone call to the hospital my contractions begin getting painful so Matt and I decide to leave home. Mostly cos I don’t really feel like getting laughed at by the family (oh, and John is freaking out! Haha).
So we kiss Liberty goodbye and wish her a happy birthday! My family is left to set up for her birthday party in the afternoon.

All of a sudden during the drive to the Hospital, my contractions begin HURTING! But I still don’t think that im that far into my labor as in between contractions I feel fine and Matt and I chat away! During our drive and in between contractions Matt and I laugh and confirm our Boy and Girl name that we like, oh, and work out how we are going to spell both these names…
We then arrive to the hospital entrance. I tell Matt that im feeling fine and not to drop me at Emergency, Im fine to walk from the carpark. I have a HUGE contraction in the car at the carpark – ouch!
We then get out to walk.. Im still fine between contractions but walking up the hill from the carpark takes a while as im having to stop for 3 painful contractions.

We arrive into the hospital and Im taken straight to a delivery room. Im still feeling fine between contractions and enjoy chatting away to Matt and the Midwife whilst we fill out forms. I tested positive to Group Strep B so I have to be put on IV antibiotics for the rest of the labor, but the midwife decides to check how dilated I am first. She checks, and im not sure of her answer, as now my contractions seem to be one on top of the other. She leaves the room for a second opnion.

Whilst she’s gone I feel strange, kind of like I need to poo. It then becomes impossible to hold it in… I start screaming, and POP, my waters break. Matt is doing a wonderful job, as he is the only person in the room... Not for long though, as the midwives have heard my screams! Haha! It wasn’t a poo I needed to do as I then give birth to our beautiful Daughter, Indiana , 3.35kg and 51cm!! Only 20minutes after arriving at the hospital!! No IV antibiotics were given, there was no time!!!

I did require a lot of stitches for the 2nd degree tearing I got from the fast birth. I was given gas for that!

Once Im up and showered I felt great! Not tired and not too sore either! Im on cloud nine with our beautiful little baby girl with a mop of long, thick blonde hair on her head. She is perfect.

Matt calls home, Liberty’s party is in full action, he lets everyone know that Indiana has arrived quickly and safe! Everyone is amazed that she is already born!!
Indiana spent her first 24hours in special care as her heart rate was low but then she was all ours!!! She fed well and fast from the first feed and she is adorable!!

Here are some photos of her first moments after her birth...

Me holding Indiana just moments after she was born (still looking a bit blue!)

Matt holding Indiana for the first time

Getting checked by the midwife, and also getting a little pinker!!

Look at all that blonde hair!!
i LOVE this photo!! This is Liberty in the hospital carpark, walking to meet her sister for the first time, with flowers (for mummy) and a gift for Indiana in her arms...

Our little family of four... (Indiana is 3 hours old here)

Kissing our babies... (Indiana gave Liberty the baby she is carrying, as a gift. Liberty gave Indiana a stuffed elephant)

Xx Jess

tie dye

Yesterday Matty and I along with Liberty went to Centro to escape from this....

The dust storm that suffocated Sydney and plenty of NSW yesterday!! This is a photo of the roof of my silver car!

So, whilst we were shopping ~to escape the dust~ I bought Liberty some much needed bigger singlets! I actually bought them in a size 2 so she'll be able to grow into them! They only had white ones which Matt and I thought were a bit boring so we went to the sewing section and they had about 3 colours of dye to choose from, so we chose purple!

When Libby went down for her nap, I did the dyeing...

Here she is wearing one of the singlets (whilst also doing some crazy acrobatic stunt - haha)

Im happy with the results of my first time tie dying singlets for Lib! It was good fun to do too!!!
Now, to go clean the kitchen from orange dust and purple dye! hahaha
Xx Jess

best friends

For the last couple of months I've been looking after Arabella 1 day a week (sometimes more, sometimes less). Its been good fun! Liberty and Arabella get on so well together! Bella is 5 months older and I think Libby looks up to her and is learning lots from her! They are both the sweetest little girls! Im so lucky to be able to watch them play together so often! I hope they will stay great friends whilst growing up!
Xx Jess

* dont forget to check out my photo-a-day-2009 flickr account HERE.

Say What?!!!

Just wanted to jot down all the words Libby is now saying! So, here goes...

mumma
dadda
'buhbye' (for byebye)
Uh oh
gone
more
"guck" (duck)
"dath goo" (thank you)
"guh" (for both Grandmamy & Grandpapa)
bubble
ball
sock

Thats all I can think of at the moment. Her newest words are; more, which she loves to use after every snack I give her (haha) and also "dath goo" (thank you) which she mostly says when passing someone something, which I guess is normal as I always say thank you when I pass her a toy/food. So I now have to figure out how to get her to say thank you when she has recieved something not when she is giving it.

She knows her animals. She will point to them or pick them up out of the pile. She is starting to do a few animal noises too. She's done the duck noise for ages. She can now also "mooo" and "woof" when she feels like it! haha.

She understands in French where her ears are and i think she is pretty much understanding the mouth and tummy, again, in french.

She runs.
She dances.
She gives kisses.
She throws little wobblies.
She can be clingy.
She is mostly social.
She is adorable!!!!

We love her so so much!
Xx Jess

*nearly forgot to mention how much she loves 'The Wiggles'!!! Loves them!

"family day"

Every wednesday Matty takes the day off work (he works weekends) and we have a "family day" we even used to do this before Libby was born! I love being able to spend time as a family!! Some wednesdays we dont do much, just hang out all together and sometimes we do fun and exciting things! Living in Sydney means there is always somewhere beautiful to go to spend the day!

We drove to Manly and caught the ferry into the city! It was such a nice day and we all enjoyed the ferry trip....

When we got to the city we walked over to The Rocks and looked at a few shops and then Matt saw a little cafe where basically everything was gluten free or at least had a gluten free option. So I said we definately had to have lunch there!! We both had kebabs! Wow! I gluten free kebab! That was the first time i've had one of those and it was yummy!!!

We then walked back to Circular Quay and hung out there for a while before going to the Opera House and for a walk in the Botanical Gardens whilst Libby had a very short nap!

Then it was the afternoon and time to hop back on the Ferry and head home!
We had a wonderful day!
Xx Jess

what a toy!

When Libby was about 9 months old, I decided she needed a new bath toy. It was late, the shops were closed, so... I improvised! I got a plastic cup and pierced lots of holes on the bottom of it with the belt buckle holey thingy on my swiss army knife, I gave it to Libby and realised the water wasn't folwing out fast enough so I added holes all around the bottom edge of the cup. Voila! Done! A plastic shower cup!

She is now 14 months old and is still playing with this home made toy the most during bathtime!!! As you can see in the background... the expensive fisher price bath toys hardly even get used! Its all about the cup!!!

I wanted to share this with anyone reading who has little kids! Its a good fun bath toy! And no, she doesn't drink from the cup as the water flows out too fast! And she's usually too interested in watching it flow out or trying to catch the water with her free hand! Too cute!
Xx Jess

a 'taste' of summer..

Yesterday the mercury topped a nice 26°! Its still oficially winter here in Sydney! It was so nice! And today is a beautiful warm day again!!! How exciting! Im loving this weather! Its so nice to see Libby's skin too! Its been all rugged up since we got back from Hawaii! I think Libby is loving this warm weather too! Thanks to Matt and I giving her a yummy iceblock to eat and get all sticky with!

Here's to many more sunny, sticky and fun days ahead!!!
Xx Jess

big appetite!

Libby LOVES her food! She isn't fussy at all. She'll eat just about anything! We are very lucky to have such a good eater!! I'd have to say she is loving eating corn on the cob at the moment! I've been cooking up lots of it for her!

And every day she is getting better and better at using her fork! Still a way to go though!

Just thought i'd share!

Xx Jess

this little piggy

Liberty is starting to get long hair! its only long at the back though, so its a bit of a mullet at the moment! I cant bring myself to cut it as I know it will grow nice and long soon! Today I put it into her first set of piggy tails!! How cute!!! She is growing so fast!!!!
Xx Jess

This time last year...

We were on holidays in Perth! Look how tiny Liberty was! She was only about 8-9 weeks old!
I cant believe how much she has grown in a year!
I think its time for another holiday again! heheXx Jess

Liberty and the goat...

She has no fear of animals! She loves them all! Too cute!
Xx Jess

long time no post

So, its been forever since I just did a random blog post! There are a few reasons,

1. the lack of interest in this blog. I know, I do actually blog for myself, but it used to be great recieving lots of feedback - thank you to you guys who do still comment!!

2. As im posting a photo a day for all of 2009 over HERE, I find it hard to know what to write about on here, seeing as im basically writing out my daily events over there!

3. Blogging takes forever! And Now that Libby is walking, she is constantly bringing me books to read! I cant say no to her sweet little face!

BUT...

Im going to give it a go! Okay, here I go... posting about some random everyday things that have been happening with us lately....

Liberty is growing so fast!! She is very social and loves everyone, everything and food! haha!

She is getting very clever! If I ask her to pull out any of the animals (pictured below) she can do it!!

Im trying to teach her to do animal sounds but so far we havent really succeeded in doing that! She makes a funny sound when she see's a duck - which is cute, and I think she's trying to say "moo". But its definately a work in progress!!!

We haven't spent too much time at the beach, I dont really know why as Libby LOVES it there! We took her there one afternoon - it was so cold - but Lib didnt care! She thought it was hilarious when Matty was doing this....

Here you go Daddy, a shell for you.

Thanks Libby, I know exactly what i'll do with this shell...

hahahah, Liberty thought it was fantastic!!!

We went to a wedding on the weekend. It was the first time leaving Liberty to be babysat by friends and not family. I nearly cried dropping her off, not that I didnt trust our wonderful babysitters, It just felt strange leaving her for the 1st time.
The wedding was very fancy and beautiful! Every single detail was accounted for. They had a wedding planner, candles, lanterns, a singer during the wedding, a band during the celebrations. Enough food to feed a small army! Matt and I especially liked the way they were married and it gave us many ideas!
I didnt take my good camera to the wedding, which I ofcourse regretted! But I got a cute photo of the 4 adorable flower girls! As I dont know them, I wont post it on my blog.
The foood...... Oh my, IF you like oysters, this wedding was for you! They had a table full of natural oysters! Here is a piccie of the cheese platter and lollies they brought out later into the evening...

And here is a collage of Matty, Libby and I getting ready for the wedding.

Well, i'll leave it here for now!
Till next time...
Xx Jess

another video...

Only cos she is so funny.....



Xx Jess

getaway

Earlier this week, we went up to Katoomba for a little getaway!! It was good fun! We went and enjoyed a hungi at Sian and John's house to celebrate Sian turning 22! We hung out with mum and dad, and John and I went iceskating in a little rink (more like an ice cube than a rink) set up for the school holidays! Libby loved her time away!
Here is a little video of Libby playing with Ruby my cat, if anyone still reads this blog!!
Xx Jess

*Happy Birthday Matty!!*

Yesterday was Matty's birthday!!! We didn't do much for his special day as the poor thing had to work at ProKayaks all day then off to his 2nd job in the evening. I did make him some super yummy meatballs and mash for dinner when he got home and we played some games, ofcourse, i let him win seeing as it was his birthday - hahahahha!

In the morning after Libby had her bottle next to him in bed, I brought him his pressies from his sisters. Libby had a ball opening them all up. In the gifts there were a couple of bags of lollies, Libby carried them around with her practically the whole day! Too cute!

I have never been so un organised for a birthday before. I still had no gift for Matty! I'd ordered a couple of things online but they didn't arrive in time. So, Libby and I rushed to Warringah Mall to go and do a spot of shopping. I hope he like what I got him! I was hoping the main gift would be in the scratchie tickets I got him!! I was hoping he'd win the jackpot..... hmmmmm..... nope, he did win $10 tho!

Here are a couple of photos:
The first one is of Matty's birthday last year! And the second one is, obviously, of his birthday this year! I cant believe how much Libby has changed in a short year!!! Last year she was only about 6 weeks old, so tiny and precious. Now she's a little toddler (13 months) who's walking around, has a huge personality and is still so, so precious!
As you can see, Matty is a very proud and wonderful daddy!

And Libby gave Matty a wonderful gift for his birthday.... she did a poo poo in her potty (for the 2nd time)!!!

Happy Birthday Matty!

We love you ♥ Jess & Libby-cakes