A late, and super quick blog this week!

Amira laughing because she just kissed Tayla (who looks rather shocked)...



Zac's somewhat gothic clothing style...



... and one of them together.



More next week!

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Quiet week back at work this week :(

Amira, always the first one up in the morning, is ready to go for the day with her backpack before the rest of us are out of bed.



Not one to be outdone by his sister, Zac is up and at 'em too! I think his mattress is glad Santa brought the kids a trampoline for x-mas.



Last week Amira was still a little unsure about the whole walking thing. If she fell over it was easier to crawl from then on. This week she's running everywhere!



Zac agrees Amira looks cute in pig tails.



Ha ha! I don't have to go back to work!

The last week of holidays...

As we still weren't 100% sure whether the kids were incubating chickenpox or not, we stayed away from most people again this week.

Which meant a lot of jobs around the house got finished! Like the kid's table for the cubby house.



And the quilt I made for Amira's cot, which matches the walls in her room. Pity she is not sleeping in there anymore!



She loves it anyway. It was a challenge to keep her off it whilst I was actually sewing it!



It was 41deg on Thursday so at 5pm it was off to the beach...



It was so crowded! Amira is still a bit overwhelmed at all the kids, sand, water... she stands still and just points saying, "Ooooohhhh!"



My little baby! We are having a laugh at Zac running through the water fountains at Glenelg.



Amira chatting away in some new clothes I bought at the sales. After trashing her white pants, I thought maybe black would be a better colour on her! I think she is trying to explain that the remote just happened to be there - nothing to do with her playing with it at all!



Judy bought Amira a cradle for Christmas and she loves it for all the wrong reasons. We find her standing up in it, trying to rock it with her feet like she's surfing. Or pushing it around the floor.



Amira is turning out to be a real dare-devil child! She loves standing up and running along our couch, and has fallen off and whacked her head. So the last time she climbed up I gave in and just moved the kid's padded foam sofa on the floor next to the couch so that if she fell she would have a soft landing. Gunny walked in the room and found her ready to JUMP off the couch onto the flip out sofa....! &^%$#! Cheeky girl.

After saying Mum, Dad, and Tayla, guess what her next word was?! (Answer at the end!)

Oh and last pictures - our passionfruit vine finally flowered!!!! They are so exotic, I had never seen them before and the structure is quite amazing.



Gunny had to put up a 2nd trellis as it was trying to grow up onto the roof of our house, as well as the neighbours!



On the swing this afternoon, Amira called out, "Higher!!" ... what have we created??!!

Ahoy there! The cubby house is now a pirate ship...



... run by two evil pirates! Zac says Amira is the more evil pirate, which she loudly denies.



Zac looking angelic, dressed up for the neighbour's wedding... it was lovely! He handed out fans and rose petals at the ceremony.



Later that day he transformed back into his mischiefous self and was climbing in and out of windows to Amira's delight.



Amira is gorgeous and she has us laughing almost every day with something new... it has only taken her this long to try to brush her hair because I usually only do my hair on work mornings when she is in bed... so she was fascinated when I pulled out a hair brush for the wedding.



Zac's writing is improving and now Amira is saying "Tayla"! She STILL won't say "ta" for anything - she knows if she says "nah nah NAH NAH NAHHHH NNNAAAHHH" loudly enough(imagine hands out trying to grab at this stage) a passer-by will cave in eventually.

Unfortunately half the family have been quarantined with chicken pox, so if you haven't seen us around, that's why... only Zac and I seem to be immune!

Post Christmas Fun!



Nana, Michael and Jacqui gave Zac some Meccano to build. A little more difficult to destroy than Lego, but Zac is never one to back away from a challenge.







With a heat wave maxing out at 43deg, the wading pool has been getting a good work out. Grandma bought the kids the tea set which was quite popular, and the bubble machine that Mud sent was an instant favourite! It sends Tayla into a bubble-popping frenzy and I'm sure she dreams about it at night.







Zac is pretty excited about Amira's first tattoo, Spiderman of course... the kids are now sharing a bedroom on Zac's request, because, "Amira is so loud she keeps the monsters away."





Zac keeps surprising us with his literacy skills. Here he found a sticker that said "Elmo" and copied it to show us. He is also reading and writing numbers up to 100! He is just unstoppable.






Here is some more of his writing; Elmo, Zac, Amira. No help from us.






Zac showing Amira how to draw bugs while Amira eats the chalk.






One of our trips to the local swimming pool... not complete without ice-cream!





Rumour has it that Kirsten had another birthday, but there was only circumstantial evidence and the smell of coffee!






Hope everyone's New Year is filled with giggles...







... cuddles, and love!