January iPhone Photos

I found extra photos on my iPhone so here are a few photos I took on my phone in January. The kids received personalised Christmas decorations from Aunty Julie. They didn't arrive until after Christmas but we're excited to use them next year.

While we were moving house in January, Nicole had the kids a couple of times for play dates. One day they played 'Pie Face' with Matthew and Melissa, they all loved it! 

Claire our neighbour gave us this gorgeous Christmas decoration that her mother had made in Ireland. We can't wait to hang it up next year. 

One of our school holiday catch ups with the Lekias's and the Pilkington's. 

Lissy and Matthew 

Zara enjoying the pool!

Lego and play dough during the school holidays 

School holiday fun!

Harrison and Sienna did a holiday swimming lessons program (VACSWIM) during January. They swam every day for 2 weeks, the Pilkington's were doing it too and the Lekias's often met us there. 

Hot chips always taste amazing after a swim! 

Zara eating with the big kids! 

Alissa went to her friend Chloe's birthday party. Fairy Skye was there and she had her face painted. 

Lissy with some of her friends - Addison, Taj, Chloe, Tilli and Charli. 

Addison, Chloe and Alissa 

Zara was obsessed with Nicole - even called her "mama" 

Zara and Papa when Papa came to visit and help us

Sienna and Harrison both passed their swimming tests - Sienna passed level 2 and Harrison passed level 5. 

Zara on the boat with Papa

A branch waterslide on Australia Day - Lissy loved it! 

Nicole and her shadow Zara 

Lissy (and Zara) adore baby Gideon 

Papa playing with Lissy's "girls" he's very patient 

The day we said goodbye to the Lekias family...McDonald's delivery for lunch (to commiserate!) 

Goodbye cuddles...

Lissy and Matthew (betrothed by their mother's!) such gorgeous best friends 

Zara giving Papa wet kisses 

Zara turns One!

Zara turned one on the 16th of January, it honestly feels like her first year of life just went by in a busy blur. She has brought so much love and happiness into our family. The older children all adore their baby sister and she always manages to put a smile on their faces - even when they are mad or grumpy.  Zara finally started sleeping through the night towards the end of 2016 which was a huge blessing. It was a long year of sleepless nights for me - longer than any of my previous babies who were sleeping through much earlier. Apart from the sleep though, Zara has been an absolute joy. We couldn't imagine our family without her in it. The big kids had so much fun wrapping Zara's presents and helping her unwrap them on her birthday. Zara loved all the attention. 

Zara loves other babies and formed quite an attachment to Gideon Lekias! She barely let him out of her sight and was obsessed with trying to cuddle and kiss him. It was an easy choice to buy her some "baby" dolls, Zara was thrilled!

We were still in the midst of unpacking our house at this stage and Zara didn't end up with the standard number one cake like the other kids (Grandma usually makes it for them too!). Zara ended up with a giant cupcake cake instead...the girls chose the roses to decorate it with. 

Zara enjoyed her piece of birthday cake and loved everyone singing to her. We just adore our Zara Maxine...she's growing up too quickly. 

Alissa's 4th Birthday

We moved into our new house a couple of days after Christmas. Clinton became engineering manager at his work at the end of 2016 and was able to move into a managers house. We were excited mainly because the house came with a pool and a big shed! We only moved one suburb over but it was still a huge job, we have too much stuff. Alissa turned 4 on the 1st of January - surrounded by packing boxes as you can see. 

She was very spoilt by parents, Aunties, Uncles and Grandparents. 

Alissa is such a character, she has us cracking up all the time. She's very hard to stay mad at because she has such a loveable, cheeky face. She fills our house with laughter and happy vibes. It's hard to believe she was only 4 weeks old when we moved to Karratha and now she's 4. 

The main thing she wanted was a "Puppy Surprise" - it's a toy dog with puppies inside it's tummy. The surprise is how many puppies you get, anywhere from 3 to 5. Here she is opening her Puppy Surprise from Aunty Kate. 

So excited!

Alissa ended up with 3 puppies in her Puppy Surprise, she was stoked! Here's a photo of the birthday girl ready for church.

 As we'd only just moved into our house, the Lekias family kindly invited us to their house for Alissa'a birthday dinner. I forgot my camera so I could only take iPhone photos. We had a Wendy's ice-cream cake for her birthday cake!

Enjoying cake with her best buddies.