Jones Family Christmas 2007

This is a photo of Zach and my Godson Steele.



Every year on the Sunday before Christmas we get together with the Jones side of the family which is my Mum's brother and sisters and their families. There are now 3 generations that get together so there's usually about 30 of us. We only get together usually once a year so it's a lot of noise and conversation flying and now that we have 6 kids under 4 it's a lot of fun watching them 'helping' to give out the presents to people. We all share from year to year who's house it takes place at and this year it was Aunty Wendy and Uncle Noel's. They live on the canal at Bribie Island so it's a great spot - although for us as parents of young children you have to constantly watch that the kids don't decide to go down the hill to the water for a spontaneous swim. Luckily all the kids were good and no fishing of children out of the water took place.

This is my Nanna!

I took this great photo of Zach and my Mum the other day. Mum is a great Nanna to all her grandkids and you can tell from this photo how much she just loves being with them. Thanks Mum, you're the best!

And on to solids we go!

Recently Zach is watching us more and more as we eat and drink and if you're holding on to him at the time he reaches out for what your eating or drinking to try and get it so we decided it might be time for solids. I think every baby's face the first time they taste solids is memorable and of course Zach's was no disappointment. As I was home by myself it was hard to hold the camera, take the photo and give him the food so this photo was as close as I got.

Bin Boys

For a while now every Friday Lochie listens out for the Garbage Truck and when it comes to our Street which is usually around lunchtime he runs to our bedroom at the front of the house to watch the truck pick up the neighbours and our bins, empty them into the truck and put the bins down again. Then either that night or the next morning, depending on what time Jas gets home from work, Lochie then goes out and helps Jason bring the bins around to the side of the house again. He's so strong he can pretty much pull the bin by himself - and we're very into doing things by ourself at the moment - drives me and Jason crazy - especially when we can't even shut a door or kitchen drawer as Lochie wants to do it himself! I'm all for independence but he sure takes it to the extreme sometimes.

5mths and still going strong!

Mr Zach is now 5 mths old and growing bigger and stronger every day - just ask my back by the end of the day. Thank goodness I have a wonderful husband who helps out when he gets home every night and gives both the boys a bath and gets them dressed for bed. Zach now loves sitting up more than lying under his playgym so thanks to an idea I got from one of my friends (thanks Ang) I'm currently using one of my laundry baskets to help him sit up and also keep all his toys within his reach. The photo also is a great shot of those very thick thighs that we tell people about. He loves working them out by standing up on your lap and jumping. He's so strong I can hardly hold on to him when he does it. I think this little man is going to be go, go, go when he's up and walking.

Happy 40th Birthday Jason!

My wonderful (and still youthful) husband turned 40 last week. On his actual birthday which was Tuesday we had a cake before the boys went to bed so we could sing Happy Birthday (more for Lochie's sake) and then we headed of to have dinner at one of our favourite restaurants while my Mum babysat the kids. I have another story about our dinner which I will explain later but back to the Birthday Boy. Jason decided some time ago that instead of just having a party for his 40th he wanted to do something different and memorable to mark the occasion so he decided that he wanted to do Tandem Skydiving. So on Sunday we and a few family and friends headed off to Suttons beach at Redcliffe (which is about 15mins north of our place) to watch him jump from 14000ft. It was a beautiful day and Jason was more excited than nervous. The jump went well and we all cheered when he landed safely. We then had a cake for him at the beach and then came back to our place for lunch as it was pretty hot at the beach and there was heaps of people (My Mum and her friend Barbara had arrived a 7.45am to get us a spot as we knew it would get busy during the day - thank you Mum!). We all then sat down at home and watched the DVD of the jump which was awesome. Jason said he had a great day and was glad that he did the jump for his Birthday.

Ok, now the story about our dinner on the Tuesday night. We were sitting in the restaurant (I won't name names) and I felt something run up the top of my leg and between my legs (I was wearing a skirt, I never wear skirts! Note to self - always wear pants) - I just froze as you would do in this kind of situation - well I didn't want to yell and make a scene. I told Jason and then tried to get rid of get rid of what every was there with my hand. Every time I put my hand close I felt tiny barbs sticking into my fingers, this is when I got a bit scared and worried that it might have been a wasp or bee or something similar. Jason gave me a tissue and I tried to remove it with that. After a few attempts I pulled the tissue out and all I could see was a leg. At this point I realised that I had to get up to get up to get rid of the rest of it so I very calmly got up and walked to the ladies toilet. After reassuring myself that nothing was left on me or my skirt I returned to the table and noticed on the way that there was a dead cockroach on the floor a few metres away from our table. I realised that this must have been the culprit and called over the waitress who apologised and said they had trouble with this from time to time as the restaurant was open at one end and so the little bugs just fly on in. We got a free desert and hot chocolate drink thanks to our friend which was very nice but I think I would rather pay for desert next time than go through that again.

Dreamworld here we come!

Every year Jason's work puts on a Childrens Christmas Party for their employees and their families. The last 2 years were Australia Zoo and this year it was Dreamworld. They are pretty awesome parties with not only entrance to the venue but they then put on a buffet lunch for everyone and Santa usually visits. Well we headed off to Dreamworld thinking that Lochie would hopefully get on some of the rides as he had gone on one when we went to Australia Zoo recently but apparently we were wrong. He was very happy to walk around and to look at the animals and other attractions but any talk about going on a ride or even the train that goes around the park he was very strongly against. Luckily for him every time we went to get on the Train it was either full in the part where they let you on with prams or the Train wasn't there. We did have a lovely day overall and Lochie had a lovely time playing on the train outside the ice-cream shop(this one didn't move or toot it's whistle which was the problem with the other one), and in the wiggles playroom for kids. It was a very different experience of a theme park for me as I'm a real adrenalin junkie and usually go on every scary ride I can. Jason encouraged me to go on one but it just didn't feel right with no one to share the excitement with on the ride (usually my sister Ros is my ride buddy, and she wasn't there). I'm looking forward to when our kids are old enough to come on the rides with me. Hopefully at least one of them will like it as much as me.

Christmas is here - hooray!

I love Christmas! I love putting up the tree (although I'm sure my husband would say I'm a bit pedantic about where to place the ornaments on the tree). I love advent calendars and counting the days down with Lochie - especially this year as he understands it even more. I love wrapping gifts and then watching the person open their present on Christmas day and hoping that they will love what we bought for them. I love getting the perfect gift for someone and watching their surprised look of delight on their face. Most of all I love being with my family and enjoying just being with them and experiencing the day through our children.
















The innocence of a baby and the attitude of a 2.5yr old! My line of "Lochie if you put the Santa hat on and let Mummy take a photo I won't ask you to wear the hat again ok" thankfully worked or otherwise you would only be seeing a photo of Zach - such a sweet baby!

3 Work Colleagues and now 3 Mums

I must have an uncanny ability to get pregnant at the same times as my friends. When I had Lochie, my 3 good friends from school and I all had babies within 3 mths of each other - all boys. This year I had Zach and then 4 of my work friends all had babies within 6mths of each other - all boys again. I caught up with 2 of them recently. Pictured is Debbie with baby Alex and Mary and baby Ben. We are hoping to do the same as my school friends and I and catch up on a regular basis to watch our babies grow together.

Ah the peace of using Hi-5 on TV

5mins before this photo was taken these three angels were running around the house like mad hatters and just as loud. But now look at them, what a change the sentence "would you like to watch something on TV?" has.