The Next Morning...

So, this was the very next morning...New Year's Day!! For some reason I just could not sleep in. When I woke up, this was the first thing I saw. It just melted my heart!! I just love it!!

(Yeah, we slept right on the mattress...our sheets somehow fell off the line the day before and were so dirty so they had to go through again...yes, we only have one pair of sheets!)

It reminded me of a photo of myself when I was closer to Amelia's age. My Dad and I always used to take Sunday afternoon naps together. (I am assuming this was a Sunday afternoon, evident by the white collared shirt my Dad was wearing - you only see him in that when it's Church related. Good times!)

Belated New Year's Eve photos

I've fallen a little behind lately, but here are our photos from New Year's Eve. (This was the same day as the Reptile Park, Amelia was thoroughly pooped that night!) We decided it was too much effort to fight Amelia and take her down into the city that much past her bedtime and heard that they did some local fireworks over the water near our home. It was beautiful! Albeit not nearly as amazing as Sydney...oh well, maybe when Amelia is a little older.

Waiting for darkness to settle in.

Amelia was not excited about staying up so late past her bedtime.

Not happy at all...

That is, until we ran into some friends from Church. Then Amelia perked right up!!

Darkness falls.

Hey, you guys should come see the view from here!!

And then, the game started. Us moms are still not sure which child initiated this, but it was just too stinking funny! Keiana would line up a row of Burger Rings (like cheetos but in a circle and not quite the same flavour,) and then Amelia would take a turn...

Then Keiana...

Then Amelia...

Then Keianna...

Oh, it was just too much fun!!!

Australian Reptile Park

Over the last two weeks Brad has been home for a Christmas Holiday.  It's been so nice having him around home, he's just gone back to work this morning and Amelia keeps asking where he is.  Oh well, we'll look forward to his next holiday.  

While he was home we took advantage of the local attractions and headed to the Reptile Park just up the road from us.  There are a lot of photos here with this post, 15 to be exact, but this is just the beginning, not to mention the video.  And we wonder why our hard drive keeps filling up so quickly!  Sheesh.

Part of the fun of the reptile park are the free roaming Aussie critters.  They are so tame that you can hand feed them.  Amelia didn't quite know what to think of it.  

Not sure of the giant Tortoise.

A cool hawk in the back.

These things were massive and yet so tame.  It was so cool.

OK, I love love LOVE these next few photos.  Brad was trying to get Amelia to look at the camera and smile and these are the result.

After a little snack.

Almost got it...

Now you got it!  The typical open mouth Daddy smile!  (Or maybe she's just showing us what she ate.)

This may have been a little mean, but look at that face!  Priceless.  No wonder she didn't sleep well that night.

More giant stuff.

Christmas Morning

And finally here are our photos of Christmas morning.  Unfortunately the best stuff is on video and we don't have enough room to edit them so photos will have to do for now.  Last year Amelia was just too little to be able to know what was going on, but this year she had so much fun as did Brad and I.  

Brad and I woke up way before Amelia did, we thought we'd go in and wake her up and this is what we found.  So we decided to let her sleep a little longer.  

Finally awake and downstairs to open pressies.

First time going through a stocking.

Amelia found the best stuff straight away.  Chocolate!  And she wouldn't let it go.

Feeding her new baby.

Kim's knew kitchen decor.  Thanks Smithies.

Ho hum...now what?

Oh a puzzle!  

Brads nice little beach mat!  Works wonders.

Helping Daddy open his presents.

Christmas Eve

So here we finally have our festivities from Christmas Eve.  We invited the Smiths over for some homemade pizza and to run through the nativity.  It was a lot of work with three little kiddies, but we sure had fun!

To start the night off, Isobel and Amelia decided to work on some hair and make-up before we began the nativity.  While all the adults were distracted making dinner, the girls ran upstairs and discovered my primary stuff and took the liberty of rearranging the letters for me.  

Amelia!  What's that all over your face?!

What Mom?!  I don't see anything.

And then on to the nativity.  Sharon was our wonderful narrator, Isobel played our Mary, Joseph played Joseph (it was only fitting), Amelia was a shepard, Kim was the Angel, Brad was the king and a shepard and a wise man, and Paul played a wonderful donkey and camera man.

Preparing for their parts.

No Joseph, only shepards sit here.  You go be with Mary.

The wise king.

And somehow we survived...just barely.