Christmas

Stefan and I spent Christmas Eve wrapping presents, mostly for the kids, and decorating stockings, and it felt like a little rite of passage of parenthood.  I said to Stefan that I felt like a real parent after doing it!

We have been trying to teach our kids (well, just Holly this year) that Christmas is all about JESUS, so we spent a bit of time on Christmas morning reading through the story of Jesus birth (from a kids picture book) and we prayed together too.

Then they opened a few presents before we went to church.

 Later that day at Oma's, and the next day at Nanna & Grandpa's, and then again today at home they got to open many more presents.  They are very fortunate kids!

Here are a couple of videos of them opening a present from Opa & Mima (thanks Opa & Mima!).

Going for a ride

We used some Christmas money from Uncle Ian to get a bike trailer and helmets for the kids.  Tried it out for the first time this morning.  So much fun!  Here are some photos

Zac didn't love his helmet... hopefully he gets used to it!

Shopping... again

I think I wrote once before about Holly and shopping, but just had to have another post on the topic.  Holly just loves shopping.  The other day I popped into Jeanswest (supposedly briefly) with her and Zac.  Holly was in seventh heaven!  She just wandered around in awe, touching all the "pretty skirts". [Sidenote - pretty much everything counts as a pretty skirt.  One day I told her that her t-shirt was a short short pretty skirt (in order to avoid changing her clothes into an actual skirt/dress) and since then she will only refer to t-shirts as short short pretty skirts.  She'll even say to me "I love your short short pretty skirt Mummy".]

Anyway, I picked out a t-shirt (I mean short short pretty skirt) to try on, and Holly came into the change room with me.  I was ready to leave fairly soon after that, but Holly was so upset.  She just wanted to stay and keep looking at all the clothes.  Then she wanted to go into other shops to look at more!

Oh dear, what IS she going to be like at 14???

Our little people person

Our little boy just loves to be around people.  If one of us goes into another room he will crawl after us as fast as he can.  He hates to be left alone, and just wants to be around people (preferably being held!) all the time.  In the mornings when he is up before Holly (which is all the time), when she starts to make noise, he's always the first one to notice, and crawls up to her door and starts banging on it.  We've recently started to open the door a tiny bit (without Holly seeing) so Zac can push the door open and crawl in.  It's so cute seeing their reactions!  Holly is so delighted to see him, and excitedly tells me "Zaccy opened my door" when I go in.  Zac of course is thrilled to see his big sister, and grins and giggles.

Bath-time fun

I love this video!  Little glimpse into how Holly likes to tell Zac what to do (with all the authority of a mummy!).  Love that Zac seems to listen to her for a few seconds, then keep going anyway.

Hair cut

This is a bit belated (haven't posted for a while!) but Zac had a hair cut a few weeks ago, and looks so different, so thought I'd put up some photos of him.