First date of Christmas

I know I know the Christmas tree isn't supposed to go up until the 1st of December but it's my favourite time of year so I couldn't wait any longer and we put it up! Three weeks isn't long enough to get to enjoy the pretty lights and baubles anyway. Technically this is Ava's second Christmas but we only got out of hospital on Christmas Eve so this year is a lot more exciting! We love getting out all our little Christmas trinkets that we bought while travelling. It's nice to get them out every year and remember the places we were. Our favourites are our snowman from Scotland, a wooden spinner from Germany and we have a beautiful hand blown glass Christmas tree from Venice.

Last days of spring

We spent this morning down by the water, Ava had a ball splashing about and watching the tiny fish swim past, she also had to bring her new favourite toy Stripe the Zebra to enjoy the sand and sun.

12 Dates of Christmas

I've seen this idea on a few blogs that I've been skipping through and thought it was great so had to steal. You pick 12 things you do every year for Christmas and turn them into dates (really spend time doing them with your partner/family and have fun)! Most that I read were American and had dates like "pick out a tree" and " drink hot chocolate in your winter woollies" obviously, being in Australia we use the same tree every year and I don't think anyone in Queensland let alone Australia would be wearing their winter woollies at Christmas time. So we changed our dates and came up with these.

1. Put up tree and decorations
2. Wrap presents
3. Make Christmas sweets
4. Christmas movie marathon
5. Christmas light drive
6. Buy new Christmas pjs
7. Window wonderland
8. See Christmas carols
9. Dinner date
10. Sleep under the tree lights
11. Christmas photo
12. Christmas Eve book reading

We're really excited to start, Damo and I both love Christmas and with Ava, this year is going to be even more special! It would be great to hear if you have any "dates" that you do every Christmas.

Little clapper

On Friday while I was out wedding dress shopping (wow there's a story for another time how DO you decide on a dress)?! Ava started clapping for the first time! We've been trying to get her to do it for a while now and while she is good at banging blocks together or our hands she would never do it on her own. Now for the past few days we hear little hands clapping all the time and its beautiful. She's such a clever cookie and I love seeing how proud she is of herself when she learns something new.

Dressing up

Since having Ava, Damo and I have only had a couple of nights out with out her - the first one I posted on here back in July (it was messy)! Then last night we had Damos brothers 30th at a place called the Gunshop cafe. I was pretty excited that I got to wear my new heels and do my makeup AND wear my hair out! But the whole night Damo and I kept asking each other "what do you think Ava's doing"? And as much as I love getting dolled up I really missed just sitting on the couch cuddling my little girl, its amazing how much can change in 12 months! Also a big thanks to my mum and dad for looking after Ava (and for sending me numerous photos and videos of her throughout the night)!

From my phone

So I've just downloaded the blog app for my iPhone I can't believe I didn't do this earlier! It's going to be so much easier than uploading all my pics onto the old laptop blah blah blah. So hopefully this works just as well, I'm assuming there maybe some layout differences but just bear with me and hopefully I will be able to blog a lot more and have plenty more pics of our little family to share! Like these ones of Ava at the park this morning - sorry in advance for so many but I think they're all adorable so couldn't leave any out.

Lunch time

This is one little girl who loves her lunch time - her fav at the moment is rockmelon. So glad we don't have to force her to eat her solids.