Two big personalities!!

Hello family and friends,



It has been a while but here we are again. Our two little loves are getting so big so quickly! They both have very strong wills and personalities. Lily is a lovely little girl with big blue eyes, long curly hair and loves to enjoy life. She loves dancing, being outside, watching tv, playing with her little brother (and beating him up!), doing craft, going to pre-school, craftworks and little treasures at Church (Sunday School). She is starting to play alot of make-believe games and only just today we had to try to get her off the floor at a shop as she was being a puppy! Her vocabulary has increased and she is so much easier to communicate with. She is great company and lots of fun.



Jack is growing up so fast too! He has started the 2 year old tantrums already even though he is 18 months old. He is very good at saying "Thank you" for food and his dummy. He is starting to say more words such as puppy, birdy, book, bible, shoes, hat, i do (which means i love you!), hello and more! He is a happy little boy but certainly not as social as Lily was. He is more cautious of people and will often give new people or those he hasn't seen for a while filthy looks. It's funny! Him and Lily already have rumbles with each other and he is fighting back now. I didn't realise sibling rivalry started so young! He misses Lily when she goes to pre-school on Fridays and is very excited to pick her up with Daddy at the end of the day. Lily and Jack play well together and Jack loves to follow Lily around. Lily has told me "Jack is annoying Mummy" as he tries to sit next to her on the lounge to watch tv. But then also tells me "i love Jack". She is so proud of him and readily tells everyone that he is her brother.



Here is Jack wanting to be just like Daddy and work next to him. Jack and Lily miss their Daddy so much when he goes to work. Sometimes Daddy gets home before the kids go to bed and they run up to the door with squeals of delight calling out "Daddy! Daddy!"

This is some of Lily's beautiful artwork that she has done at pre-school and craftworks. Lily loves to paint! Her drawing is getting better too as she is able to draw circles and her favourite teddy 'big ted'. She can also draw fish and is practising putting eyes and ears on circles for faces.

Lily and Jack love to dance....here they are with some friends having a good time stomping around to the 'dinosaur roar'.

Our beautiful Lily. She is 3 now!

What are you looking at?

What a handsome boy. We went to Amanda's cousins wedding (Adrian and Emily) and the kids had a ball! Lily danced almost all night!

She even danced with Blake, Amanda's cousin! She tapped Daddy on the leg and said "I want to dance with that man" and pointed to Blake. How cute!

Watching tv with Uncle Ben.

The boys!

Lily loves Jack so much she left her mark on him! (She bit him....hmmmm naughty girl!!!)

Lily turned 3 on 29th March. This is a photo of her with her friends from mothers group celebrating all of their 3rd Birthdays.

Jack's first hair cut!!! He did so well and sat very still. The barber had this cool racing car chair to sit in!!!

Easter! The kids had a lovely time at Easter. The Easter bunny left Lily and Jack eggs in the garden. How exciting!

And Lily found Jesus too!!! We teach the kids the true meaning of Easter about Jesus. On Good Friday Daddy helped the kids make Jesus out of cardboard with pipe cleaner arms and legs and put him in a tomb (made out of a tissue box). Then on Easter Sunday the tomb is empty and the kids have to search for Jesus! Lily found him in the garage!!!!

The kids love their bibles. We read them a story every day from it and Lily knows many stories already from the bible.

More Easter eggs in the garden.

Here is the castle cubby house Daddy is building for the kids. What a great job and even though its not finished the kids loves to play in it. They both play shops through the windows and play with rocks and sand in there. Great fun!

Playing in the back yard.

Here is Lily with her birthday cake she took to pre-school. They sang 'happy birthday' to her and the other kids loved it!

Lily had an easter hat parade at pre-school and here she is with her bonnet that she made with a nest of chickens on top.

She had a ball! After the parade the kids sang songs and listened to a story about Easter from a member from the Anglican church. Jack really enjoyed it and was very proud of his big sister. She just adores pre-school! We love that it is a Christian centre and she has a few little friends from church there on the same day she goes and has many other friends too.

Here is a pic of our house.

Just sitting around...waiting for lunch!

Reading! This was not set up either! They sit near each other and read or play. I just love to watch them sometimes. They are just so sweet!

In Feb we went on our first family camping trip at Newnes. It was a fun time. But tiring! We tried taking the kids for a bush walk to see some ruins and they both fell asleep on Daddy!!!

We did make it to see some of the ruins.....old coke ovens.

These pics are back-to-front.....here we are at the beginning of the walk.

It was a bit chilly in the morning!

We had a great time! We went swimming, walking, sat in front of a camp fire toasting marsh mellows and having a nice time as a family. We want to do more camping but a bit cold at the moment.

I got my own seat! - says Jack!

Having a bath! Every child has to bath in a tub!

Our big 3 room tent!

Popcorn! We went camping to celebrate Daddy and Lily's Birthday. What a fun time!

Newnes is a great place to camp. It's great being out in the middle of no where surrounded by God's creation.

Oh and Jack is walking around everywhere! Running really! They love to go for walks and riding their bikes / trikes. Jack loves to climb and so gets a few bruises here or there. He is a true boy and loves cars, trucks, air planes and anything with wheels. If a toy does not have wheels he will push is along the ground as though it should.

We love Lily and Jack so much and we are really enjoying watching them grow and develop. We hope you enjoy seeing it too with our blog.

Love Roh, Amanda, Lily and Jack

xxxx

Ps. A special hello to Aunty Katy and Uncle Joel over in London!!! We miss you!!!

Lil Pill and Jack-a-lack!

Lil Pill and Jack-a-lack are one of the nick names we have for our beautiful children. They both love ice-cream....just like Mummy and Daddy!


'I think Mummy and Daddy put phenergan in this!'

We went on a picnic with Mummy's side of the family to celebrate Jan, Feb birthdays. Jack got very dirty in the park and so had a little bath in the sink. He only just fit!

Lily has many sides to her personality. Above she is trying to get a serious look. Below is certainly her cheeky side!

I love cake! - says Lily

Mummy and Jack. Jack has taken his first steps and is trying to walk more and gain better balancing skills. He wouldn't walk for Mummy for a while. Daddy, Granma and my friend Emma had seen him walk first!! He is full of personality and knows how to get what he wants. He cries when Lily takes toys off him. Making such a loud noise that it makes us believe Lily has done something to hurt him. Or like today he grabs his toy (it was a little ball) and crawls away as fast as he can before she gets it!!

Lily loves to laugh! She is very social and loves being with her friends. Here she is with her friend Amelia making popcorn. What a great Christmas present Aunty Katie! They thought is was hilarious watching the popcorn spit out!

And again Lily and Jack socialising with Amelia and Elijah. It's good to have play mates!

Lily started pre-school this year on Fridays. She just loves it! She hasn't cried once and wants to go each week. She loves playing with puzzles, being out in the sandpit which has a really cool house to play in and lots of toys, being on the climbing equipment, playing with her friends, painting and learning so many new skills and being independent.

She likes playing with play-doh. Here is a little creation she made. They both like sitting at their little table. Jack looks very proud when he climbs up on the chair!

It's a princess!

Lily likes princesses. She got this present for Christmas and loves to put make-up on her. She has requested Snow White on her Birthday cake this year....we will see what I can do, my love.
Hanging out with Daddy watching T.V and drinking milk.

Proud Mummy and Daddy. I, Mummy went back to work this year on Friday afternoons while Lily is at pre-school. Daddy works at home that day to look after Jack while I'm at work. I've loved being back at work getting back into using my skills as a nurse but also the social side is great. Roh has been working very hard at his job. Often long hours and lots of travelling. So, working at home Fridays has been great bonding time with the kids. Jack has been a real Mummy's boy but lately with the time he gets with Daddy he wants to go to him just as much. It's lovely.

Beautiful water babies! That poor duck always gets a good chomping on!

Lil's first day of pre-school! She was so excited! And did so well! She is doing really well with toilet training and pre-school has been a great help with that too. She is going to Uniting Kids Care which is a lovely Christian long day pre-school. Her best friend Caleb goes on the same day too. What a big girl....growing up so very fast! She is talking so well too. We are able to have conversations about her day (if she remembers what she did!) and she has such lovely manners. She keeps thanking me for cooking and thanking Daddy for going to work. How lovely! She is also very encouraging - repeating mine and Daddy's words when we go to the toilet 'Good girl Mummy. You have done a good job!'

After Christmas we went away to Tea Gardens with Rohan's family. It was a lovely time and the kids had a ball! Here is Jack enjoying playing outside. He is always pointing to go outside and gets upset if i say no. He loves the see-saw and sits on there singing 'see-saw, see-saw'. Both Roh and I love to watch both the kids enjoy new things and learn.

Here is Lily and her cousin, Faith playing in shaving cream. What a great idea Aunty Nel!

Cousins playing happily together!

Christmas was a nice time. We had Christmas day with the McDonald's and Boxing Day with the Petterson's. They now only live 20mins from each other. Here is Jack with Pa and Uncle Ben clapping.

Jack opening presents. What's this! My own vege-tails CD!!

Oh and the new cat! Aunty Katie got a new cat named Jeremiah. He came to visit Nana and Pa's at Christmas too! Lily and Jack almost smothered the poor thing while we were there. They were both so very excited chasing him around all the time. We just could not get Lily to put the cat down and Jack squealed with excitement chasing after his as fast as he could crawl!

Lily is good at opening presents. Often she helps Mummy and Daddy too and anyone else who looks away for a second! A Dr's kit from Nana and Pa. She calls herself 'Dr Feel Good!' It's so funny! She loves to play dress ups.

Opps! Jack has turned into a monkey!

Aunty Nel reading books to the girls.

Carter loves his baby cousin, Jack.

Aunty Treenie gave Lily this nurse dress up out fit....she looks just like Mummy when she goes to work!

The children are growing up so fast! We can't believe Lily will be 3 on the 29th March and Jack is just a beautiful little boy quickly growing up also. Oh and a wonderful thing is that they have both finally learned to sleep thru the night! Praise Jesus! Oh 2009 was a very tired year but we all feel quite refreshed now getting good nights sleeps. What a difference sleep can make!

A few more stories:

Lily loves to climb. I found her recently on the top of our Tv cabinet, she had done a wee all over the cabinet and been sticking stickers on the tv. Hmmm.....Mummy was not impressed!!!!

Jack and Lily like rugs. When we put one down they crawl/run all around laughing! It's very funny!

The 'I love you song' - Nana sang to Mummy when she was a little girl. Both Lily and Jack sing it at the end of their prayers. So precious!

Jack loves to copy our words and loves to sing and dance! When you put music on he wobbles around and stands up bouncing his leg up and down. He also likes to hum to music.

Lily has said to us recently she would like 2 baby brothers....hmmmm we will see! She loves babies. She will go up and look at them and then gently pat their face.

We are so very proud of Lily and Jack and hope you've enjoyed a few stories.

Love to all,

Amanda, Roh, Lily and Jack

xxxx oooo