Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, Eliana and I went to Nowra Wildlife Park with my sister and her family. It was a small but beautiful park with a river on one side and rugged rocks and cliffs on the other. We got a good dose of some Aussie animals like koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, and of course, crocodiles, snakes, goannas and lizards.

Eliana was more interested in climbing fences while the reptile show was on.

She loved feeding the animals!

The wonderful Lakelins - they are taking good care of Eliana and me while Nate is away.

Eliana is all smiles while eating some of Wooz's chocolate mother's day mud cake. She wasn't so happy once it was all gone! :)

We made it

Eliana and I made it to Australia a couple of weeks ago. The Lord was so good in caring for us over the long trip. He even gave us our own row of seats on all 3 flights!

After about a week of adjusting to the new time zone (14 hours in front!) we are loving being here. The only thing missing is Nate. Oh, how we miss him! Only 5 days to go until he arrives!

Milo

Some of the things on my list of top 10 things to do when I first return to Australia are...

1. Drink a Milo

2. Go to the beach

3. Sit in a coffee shop by the beach sipping a flat white.

4. Buy some authentic Aussie ugg boots (not the brand name type).

So how excited do you think I was when our friend returned from a trip to LA bearing this gift...

THANK YOU Chris! You made my week! :)

Less than 6 weeks until Eliana and I head to Australia! Nate and I are planning on doing our best to fill a whole suit case full of Milo for the return trip to Louisville.

You know you're not in Australia any more....

...when you put plastic on your windows to reduce your heating bill

...when you become familiar with a car ice scraper and no longer mistake it for a dust broom

...when you park next to a pile of snow taller than your car at the grocery store

...when you have to start your car 5 minutes before you go anywhere

...when your nose is red from the cold yet 4C and sunny is a beautiful day to you

...when the weather man predicting a week in the 50sF/10sC gets you excited.

I have been feeling elated because Eliana and I can go for long walks again, because buds are appearing on the trees, because the days are quickly getting longer and because magazines have bunches of tulips and Spring themes on their front covers. Today it is predicted to be 52F/11C and I am VERY thankful for this 'warmer' weather! :)

20 weeks, 2011

We are carrying baby #2 right now. We are due on May 24th and have our tickets booked to go back to Aus to have the baby and catch up with family and friends. I am halfway through at 20 weeks. I'll be 21 weeks tomorrow so we had to quickly take a photo to compare with Eliana's 20 week mark. I would have liked to have been all done up and on the beach like 2009's 20 week photo, but because I remembered to take a photo at 11pm while watching the National Championship game with Nate, a shot in my trackies will have to do.

There doesn't seem to be much difference (except in the weather, which is below freezing today), but I think I'm a bit bigger with "little Louie". We're not going to find out the sex again but we're both guessing a boy so far. Either way, we are greatly rejoicing for bub 2 and for the blessing to travel Down Under and see everyone!

Christmas crafts

Here are some aprons that I made over summer while I was still full of energy. This one I am particularly fond of. It was my first sewing project and I made it with no pattern and for free using a dress, some lace and a pair of black pants that someone was discarding.

This was my 2nd project and, wow, it was sooo much quicker and nicer using a pattern. Thank you to the ladies at church who helped my sewing grow!

And this apron was made from a pattern found in the Excellent book "A is for Apron". I have borrowed this book from the library 3 times now. It has lots of funky apron ideas and they make great presents!

I've never been one to do crafts before but I have lots of friends that are into it - so when I was invited to a Christmas wreath making day I joined in for the love of fellowship. Here is my finished project, thanks to the help of Jael! Sometimes I like it and sometimes the words 'bling' and 'tacky' come to mind - which is why I'm not a craft person - I can never seem to get the colour/design right. I obviously like this one enough for it to make this post though :)

And here is my latest Christmas project. Do you all know about Picassa? I LOVE it. It's a photo organising program that you can download for free. Look at the fun things you can do with it!

Winter Birthdays

One thing that blesses me in our marriage is that I love surprises and Nate loves to give them. So this year for our birthdays Nate told me to pack my bags as the 3 of us were going on a journey somewhere. He never let on where we were going until we arrived - in Gatlinburg. Nate had reserved a cabin in the Smokey Mountains complete with log fire, hot tub, a pool table and an air hockey table! It is an adjustment for me to go from celebrating my birthday with Summer pool parties in Australia to Winter get-aways in the States but I couldn't have asked for a better way to enter into the 30s. Thank you, my most wonderful hubby.