1+1+1+1+1+1=6!

How the time has flown, our baby girl is 6 months old today. We are continually amazed over how much she has grown, so here are some pictures that show the journey.

First ride in the car 01/02/2011

Elizabeth loved being on her feet as soon as she new how 04/04/2011

13/04/2011

Loving the Jolly Jumper 28/04/2011

Learning to drive 20/05/2011

Reading Alice In Wonderland 09/06/2011

05/07/2011

6 months old and facing the front.

Our big girl today 29/07/2011.

Dumplings!

So after eating a delicious pizza last night for dinner made by my wonderful husband we put Elizabeth to bed and settled in for some down time, which of course included the watching of Masterchef. On a side note, I think our waist lines are going to be pleased when the series is over and we won't be so inspired to make so many crazy things, I mean a few every now and then is ok, but when you go through butter and brown sugar at the rate we have then you know that something is wrong. But back to the point, we watch Masterchef on the internet, which means we get it a bit later, but also means we can watch it at anytime, so tonight we finished watching just before 10pm, and seeing all the yummy food had made me hungry for some of the left over sweets we have in our fridge, mainly golden syrup dumplings. So with lashings of cream and ice-cream we did it, we ate golden syrup dumplings in the comfort of our bed. Who needs a midnight snack when you can have one at 10 o'clock...?

Making a Mess

We love Masterchef. I know some people might not agree with our love of this show, but we can't help it, we love it. We love watching the contestants try new things with food and produce amazing dishes and in turn we love trying to replicate some of them.

While we were in Albany last weekend we bought a pasta maker, we had been talking about getting one for a while, and we found one on special and knew that if we were going to go to the next level of competion we had to have one. There is something about knowing exactly what goes into the food you are eating extremely satisfying and I think it actually tastes better too. Slowly we are reclaiming every corner of the kitchen so with the help of some trusty appliances a bread maker and now our new pasta maker there are less and less limits to what we cam make.

So this is the messy part... Flour, flour is messy, well it can be messy depending on who is using it... and in this case the user was Ben. Now Ben is a wonderful cook, and our first night home from Albany he made beautiful fettucine with a delicious carbonara sauce but boy was the flour everywhere. And the next night, with his previous success in mind he decided to make some apple pies, but roll the pastry through the pasta maker (which actually worked very nicely) so once again there was flour all over the kitchen, but who am I to complain, I got hot apple pie for dessert and more in the fridge for later!

Our First Family Holiday

Since Elizabeth was born almost everything we do is a first; first nappy change, first full night's sleep, first smile, first roll, etc. Every week something new is added to the ever growing list of firsts, this week was no exception.

We went on our first family holiday. On Friday we traveled to Albany on the South Coast of Western Australia. Despite the predictions of some hairy weather we had 4 days of relatively beautiful, warm and sunny days. Relative because it's not quite as warm as the tropics at this time of year, maximums of 20degrees aren't quite as nice as 27's, but hey it's Albany.

My (Ben) Parents have their birthdays within a week of each other in August (each year funnily enough) and so as a newly formed "Good Family" tradition we have made a habit of going away to celebrate. The first year we went to the old Donnelly River logging village, last year we went to Busselton and this year: Albany.

We had a great time down there. For Elizabeth there were many highlights including: A first time at the beach, and a first time hiking up a mountain. Her trip to the beach was, in our minds, a bit of a disaster waiting to happen.

Elizabeth hadn't been sleeping well the night before and we had been on the go since morning so she had no day sleeps, she was in her car seat for most of the morning as we traveled around and then to make matters worse she was stuck in her pram (very upset I might add) while we walked the 6km to the beach at Emu Point. And so you can imagine that she would possibly not take too well to being thrown in the icy cold Albany water...

But guess what? She loved it, she wiggled her feet into the sand, got her clothes wet like all good children do, laughed and smiled non stop as she experienced this wonderful sensation of beach sand and ocean water. It was a great privilege as her dad to share this experience with her. Hopefully there will be many more to come.

Elizabeth also had her first mountain climb too! On our way home we went via the Porongorup Range about 40km from Albany and 50km from the Stirling Ranges. The hike we did was to Castle Rock, a hike I had done when I was at college in 2004. I was pretty certain that when I did it the first time we parked the car directly below the rock formations at the top of the hill. Maybe they moved the rocks or maybe my memory is faulty but there was no car park directly below the outcrop on top of the hill. The car park was at the bottom of the hill and we had to walk 1.5km on a category 5 trail (1 being a stroll in the park, 6 being a vertical rock climb) to the top.

It was a tough climb and the fact that we had been eating holiday food (AKA take-away and restaurant food) for the whole weekend wasn't really helping the situation. But the climb was definitely worth it, Elizabeth loved every minute of the trip up. And to say the view from the top was spectacular is an understatement. We would highly recommend the hike to anyone. As for the way down, it was much the same as going up except the strain, instead of being on the cardio-vascular system, was now on the leg muscles. Elizabeth enjoyed the first meter of the hike back down then spent the rest of the hike in a deep deep sleep. I think the toll of the holiday had finally caught up with her, she was so zonked out.

It's good to go away for a holiday but it is also good to be back home in your own bed and that is exactly where our beautiful daughter is, fast asleep and probably dreaming about her next holiday. Sweet Dreams!

The Elizabeth's first time at the beach.

Daddy I really love the water!

A "Good" Family Portrait

Just love digging my feet into the sand.

Can we come here again?

The Sisters: Claire, Nicole, Lauren and Sam

It's great going on holidays with Grandma.

Do we have to get another photo, I need sleep.

At the top after a strenuous hike (it wasn't that bad). 

This is so much fun.

 

Mummy you look exhausted but I am just so happy.

And she's asleep. Nighty night.

Mmmm Rice Cereal

We have just started Elizabeth on some rice cereal, and it has been so much fun. We thought she was expressive before, but nothing quite prepared us for the faces she has been pulling as she tastes and tries to swallow this new food.

She looks so tiny sitting up in her high chair and it is such a reminder that she is growing up, something that both scares and excites us. Check out these photos.

A Busy Busy Weekend

This weekend certainly was a busy one. Well it really started on Friday, with a plan to head up to Perth early and do some shopping before catching up with the Global Interaction crew for dinner, and although we have done many trips away from home, somehow we always seem to underestimate how long it will take us to get out the house. We finally left Wagin at about 11am and headed straight for the Good Guys in Belmont, were we had eyed off some heaters. We had also, after much deliberation (nearly 2 years worth) decided to buy a TV, not that we are connecting it to the antenna, but just to watch movies on.

So we arrive at the Good Guys and head straight for the heaters, we found on their website these really cool (well hopefully warm actually) heaters that use next to no power and are safer for children, so we thought we would give them a go. We will keep you updated to how they go. So with the heaters at the counter we moved on to the TV's. The one we had been looking at was out of stock, and so hoping to get all the shopping done without heading to another store we let the sales rep sell us on some others. Thankfully we found one that we liked and picked up a blu-ray player in the process. Next stop- Sam's parents place, where we unloaded and took a very short break.

The main purpose for us making the trek was to celebrate with some team members their impending departures. It is so exciting the first ones to be off, a big congratulations Alan who is heading to Mozambique, and Harvey and Nahtaw who are off to the Silk Road area. It was also great to catch up with the rest of the team who are building their support network. Please remember to pray for them.

So after a great breakfast cooked by Sam's mum we headed home to install our TV and heaters. So that was it, well half of it anyway. Well it is late, so from our toasty house, ready for a movie night, we bid you goodnight. Here are some pictures of our adventures, you will notice Elizabeth watching very carefully to make sure it has all been done right!

Lamb and Fire

Last night we had the pleasure of heading out to one of the local farms for a BBQ with some people from Wagin and Katanning. It was a great night with so much delicious food and great company but boy was it cold, thankfully we were prepared for the cold, complete with some warm clothes for Elizabeth. We even had a chance to catch up with some family with Ben's mum, dad, sister and brother in-law all there. I'm afraid to say that after such a hectic weekend (more about that to come) we had to come home early, but it was nice to have an opportunity to try and catch up on some sleep. Here are some photos

 The awesome fire

 Cooking the meat

 Aunty Claire with our little polar bear

A tired little polar bear with her daddy and in need of her bed.

A Sunday Casserole

I love food, it has the ability to bring people together and tonight the church got together for a night of casseroles to celebrate the end of seeding. It was a great night, with great people and great food, and an opportunity to speak to some people I often dont have a chance to.
Winter is such a great time for a get together like this, and casseroles are such a comforting food, but I have to admit I had never made a casserole before and I was a bit nervous, so after thinking about it for a few days, I found a really easy recipe for a Tomato and Garlic Beef Casserole which actually ended tasting ok. After not taking anything for dessert the last time we got together, I knew this time I had to take something nice, so I quickly wiped up a self saucing caramel pudding, which went down a treat. There was so much yummy food on the tables, a rabbit stew even made an appearance to the delight of some, I'm afraid I wasn't one of those people, but I think Ben made up for the both of us.

And The Best Husband Award Goes To....

I have the best husband ever. Really I could just leave it at that, cause all of you who know Ben know that he is pretty wonderful but let me explain what brought this on. This morning after a few nights of less than desirable sleep, Ben let me sleep in. And not just a little bit, but it was after 9:30, and I only woke up to the phone ringning. He gently woke me to feed Elizabeth this morning and then took her on his walk and didn't return for more than 2 and a half hours. It's amazing how good you feel after a little uninterrupted sleep, it honesltly set me up for the rest of the day. I have told Ben that I will return the favour whenever he wants a sleep in, but that hardly seems to show my appreciation, maybe I will have to add breakfast in bed to it :)