Pics of the kids from late December to early January 2009

Brady playing in the new fountains at Cammeray

Anna near the Cammeray fountains in Brady's crocs...

my friend Julie was also there for this but I don't have a picture!

Anna and Brady on New Years' Day at the North Sydney playground

Daddy helps Anna ride the zipline

Today I saw my first wallaby carcass on the side of the road...(worth mention simply because I don't often feel that I'm in another country anymore, but when it's clearly a wallaby and not a deer, I do)...

On another note, I was so happy to see Obama inaugurated today. It was a true moment in history and the whole world was watching it happen. I am always amazed by how much the rest of the world pays attention to American politics when, for 34 years back in the States, I cared very little. I hope he does a great job as our President!

As for what's new with us, not much. I'm loving getting out and about with the kids this summer and it's so nice that they love the beach. I'm really going to miss having beaches so close when we move back to the States since the likelihood of us living near a beach is slim. They both love the beach and it's so nice to get in the water on a hot day! I just love summer in January!!

Palm Beach

I wanted to share a couple of pictures of us on the beach in December. We drove about an hour north to Palm Beach, which is just gorgeous. We weren't really planning for a "beach day" so we didn't bring suits or toys, just ourselves and the camera. It is so pretty that Blake and I decided we need to go up for a weekend next time!

Brady and Mommy on the beach

Trying to get both kids to pose for a picture

(I was going to run off if they did, but that didn't happen!)

Daddy takes over looking after the kids... at this point Brady couldn't stand it anymore and stripped down to play in the water properly

Brady just LOVES the beach

And finally, a pic of Blake and I just after Christmas on our way out for the night

Happy New Year everyone!!

Some other daily pics

Here are a lot of random pictures of the kids from the past month!

Brady being silly on the lounge

Brady on the "train" in a new playground

After a day of "potty training"... ha ha! Wearing Morgan's clothes because they both ruined thier own and we were at Morgan's house...

Anna and her baby...

Another of Anna with a different baby... she has lots of them

Anna on the train at a Chatswood playground

Anna stayed up way too late in this pic and the flash on my camera was NOT her friend!

Morgan and Brady, BFF at TAFE (this was after they had been riding cars down the slides and had apparently ticked off all the students who were there to help... TAFE is like community college and the students help out with this particular playgroup)

Anna, Allison, Rachel, Kara and Tessa at TAFE playgroup on the last day before 23 Feb!! Gotta love the close-downs around here!

These are from the Brightmore Reserve in Cremorne... the kids love it! They have a bike track for the kids to ride on and they also love the surrounding area like this fountain.

Kara and Tessa

Me warming up Captain after his romp in the fountain

Anna, Morgan and Brady in the fountain

Some of my girlfriends here, Rachel and of course Kara out on the town for dinner!

Having fun with chopsticks!

Happy holidays!

Summertime!

Sooo happy that it's here! We are loving it so much that I never get online to update... so here are a few recent pics from the past couple weeks...

Anna Paige "train wreck" Watermeier...

I know, I know... she looks so cute. How can I call her train wreck? I promise you... spend 5 minutes...

At the harbour beach, Clifton Gardens, one of our favourites

Here she is in Brady's sunnies (aka sunglasses). He HAS to have them when we go to the beach but then refuses to wear them. They are definetely a fashion statement for women.

Brady getting ready to ride his boogie board!

On the beach with Mommy

Love to you all. Merry Christmas!!!

Kids in Springtime

I've been so bad about putting up new pictures in a timely manner, so here are a bunch from the past month. We've been doing great over here... Kids are growing like crazy and their little personalities are coming out more and more. Brady has been a sponge lately when it comes to learning more and talking like crazy. He LOVES his numbers, letters, words, ANY book he can find and all the new shows on CBeebies (the new BBC kids channel). He's very organised and likes to pick out his clothes as well as dictate what Anna should be doing and when... he's quite the character and is so loving these days. Of course, he's still a monkey and will climb on anything at any time... thank God he's getting big enough that I don't get scared at the littlest thing any more! Anna is a train wreck (as we call her in the sweetest possible way) and is getting very demanding and coming into her own. She'll scream "MOMMY" for the slightest little thing and loves to play with Brady and Morgan (Brady's best friend) until Brady pushes her down. She's growing a lot lately and is now able to stand up to Brady a bit, although he's still got a good 10 lbs. on her... so she usually loses that battle!



Blake and I are doing great... nothing much new to report on our end. Still waiting (and will be waiting for a while) to see what happens next after we move. It's looking more and more like we'll be here 'till June which is great news for us. We've had fabulous weather lately with lots of sun and cooler evenings and Blake's had a lot less stress with work than in the past, so that's been a very welcome change... guess this is what happens when you close down a business as opposed to driving revenue!

So here are some recent photos of the kids from mid-October to mid-November...

Brady playing the keyboards while Anna sings... the next Partridge Family!

Anna Paige in front of our house

Our Halloween party in the park... Kara and baby Tessa as an angel

Halloween party with the American Society of Sydney

(conveniently held at the same play area as our Wednesday playgroup!)

Anna was some sort of fairy/butterfly and Brady was a surfer... but he was too busy playing with Morgan for me to get a picture of him

Anna at 6:15 am on a Sunday morning... realised that she was wearing a black and white sleeper when we woke up to watch the FL/GA game... so I remedied the situation quickly with Brady's old hat and shirt! Seems it worked quite well for the Gators!

As I said, Brady is very organised... wonder where he gets that from??

Here is a train configuration he put together all by himself (I'm serious, I asked to play trains with him and he told me to go sit on the couch and relax!)

Brady HAD to have this hat from the discount store in Crows Nest... he looks a bit like a glittery gangster who wants to watch the Wiggles DVD here... and the blue on his face is left over from him being a surfer from one of our Halloween parties!

Anna eating a cookie at Friday playgroup

I am still trying to encourage Brady to go potty on the potty and not in his nappy. He is NOT interested at all. Out of desperation I bought potties for both of them and Anna is taking to it already. She tugs at her nappy when it's dirty and has even ripped it off to poop in her crib... The other day she did this and when I put her on her potty I realised we were about to get the real deal, so she transitioned to the big one!! Here is our 19 month old potty training, unlike our 3 year old.

Our great friends Lynnette, Cobus and Christian bought Brady a really cool backyard pool for his birthday. Unfortunately they are in Perth for a month and haven't been able to play with it yet! Here are Anna and Morgan enjoying the pool...

More backyard fun... the kids running through the hose while Daddy waters the new grass

Today (Thursday, 13 November) we went to the beach in Greenwich with Kara, Morgan, and Baby Tessa. We had heaps of fun and the kids loved playing in the water!!

Brady borrowed Morgan's CUBS shirt while he "surfed"

Kara got in the water to play with the boys for a bit

Brady "surfing" again

Kara and Tessa on the beach



Brady playing in the water

Kara helping Morgan "surf"

Anna checking in on Tessa sleeping

The boys playing in the water

Anna "posing" on the beach... she was trying to crawl backwards into the water since she was a bit scared of it...

Me overseeing the 3-way battle over the boogie board...

Cheers, everyone!!