Everything Leads to Progress

Here is a review of our last couple months...

CHRISTMAS

My favourite time of year! I went a bit overboard with Christmas this year. I justified getting things for the house and filling the new space as part of our Christmas expenses. It didn't help I didn't do my normal budget because we were in the U.S., and moving, and ...well there really isn't any excuse. 

For the first time since being married we got a Christmas tree! I had so much fun putting it up because Sakura would grab ornaments out of the box and hand them to me. It just felt nice to have a tree. 

We were visiting friends for Christmas Day so we had our family Christmas dinner the night before. It was a late night getting Sakura to bed, but I still made sure I watched The Muppet Christmas Carol!

Christmas morning I made ebelskivers and eggs for breakfast and got to watch Matt and Sakura open presents. I bought everything (including a couple things for me), but as Matt didn't know what I had bought it was fun to see what he thought. Sakura wasn't really into the unwrapping as much as pushing the gifts around.

My favourite part this year was my gift to Matt. I had coordinated with some friends he had in California to get a copy of an X-men game they used to play. They actually shipped it to me while I was in the U.S. and I had been hiding it from him. He knew I was going to try to make a version, but not that I had actually gotten the complete game. His reactions are always pretty mild, but the fact that we played it that night together is a pretty good sign he was excited about it. 

We were invited by some friends to spend Christmas day with them. I'm so grateful because we likely would have been bored at home. This made the day special with a big lunch, games, and just enjoying time with good people. Sakura loved it!

VISITING SYDNEY

After Christmas we had decided to drive to Sydney to visit friends and Matt had some painting work there as well. 

It was so awesome to see our friends again and their babies which are all around Sakura's age. The downside was that it was VERY hot in Penrith. When we got there it was over 35 degrees Celsius. Luckily Matt's job was in an air-conditioned unit.

Best way to deal with a hot day - get WET!

New Years Eve was fun as all the kids had finally gone to sleep and we stayed up playing a game of X-Duels (the game that Matt got for Christmas). It was way past all of our usual bedtime and I think in the future we may just go to bed after the early fireworks show and call it a night.

The best part was that all of our friends have a child Sakura's age and we got to watch them interact. She had a blast with new toys, new friends, and her absolute favourite event - Wet N Wild!

Reading time with Lyla

Superfight - with the Calverts

At the park for a birthday party!

Featherdale Wildlife Park with Jett

I miss our friends in Sydney, playing games, and whatnot, but I love where we live now - everyone just needs to move closer to us! We made sure to take it easy on the drive back and visit some beaches, eat good food, and visit some old friends that moved to Coomera.

Raw Energy - this place is so good! (Gluten and Dairy Free Options)

Port Macquarie

One of Sakura's favourite fruits - Giant sized!

Friends in Coomera 

JANUARY

Matt didn't have to go back to work till the 12th of January so we spent our time after Sydney organising our home. We finally unpacked the majority of the boxes. Through some cabinet donations from friends that are renovating, Matt finally got his juice/appliance bar. He built and put it all together and it has been wonderful!

Now that things are back to normal we are trying to be more social this year. We now have a games night once a week (whether people show up or not). I'm trying to be more diligent with a formal Family Home Evening each week and I am scheduling more social things to keep up with friends. So far we have had some successful game nights and fun playgroups.

Newmarket Pool - only $5!

Playtime at North lakes Library

How I managed to get some work done including a video call.

Exhausted after a long day of playing

Sakura just loves pushing things around! Sahara was not amused.

I am also trying to do more things I enjoy this year such as sewing, baking, and reading. So far for January I sewed a handkerchief skirt, made some pumpkin cookies, and finished reading a book called Leadership and Self-Deception. I've also finished a good audio book called Nonviolent Communication. I'm also almost done with Hold Me Tight by Dr. Sue Johnson. I think it will be a great year if I can just stick with it all.

Australia day we decided to go to an event on Bribie Island. When we discovered they wouldn't let babies go on the mega slide we went to Woorim beach instead. The water temperature was like bath water and so clean and clear! The sand was nice and soft with very little debris as well. It seemed like the perfect beach, but there were blue bottles everywhere! Sakura and I walked for a while on the beach while Matt met us farther down with the car. While walking she was playing with her feet than started crying and wanted to be picked up. She reached towards her foot, but I couldn't see anything and there weren't any blue bottles. She calmed down after about a minute so I figured she might have stepped on a rock in the sand because I couldn't see anything else. We decided to brave the water anyway and watched carefully for floating jellyfish. Sakura loved the waves and was happy to go quite deep. It was hard to convince ourselves to get out of the water. Later I noticed the tell-tale signs of a blue bottle sting, a small line of red dots on the top of Sakura's foot! She definitely had been stung, but either she took it like a champ or it was very mild from her mild crying for about a minute. 

Woorim Beach

Bribie Island

We finished the day by playing games with friends. It was a wonderful day and we hope to visit our new favourite beach much more often!

Not much more to report. Sakura now knows to say "Shade" when looking for the cat and "ump" when she wants to be picked up. Her favourite things are water and slides so I got lucky when I found a $15 used water slide. She now has swimming lessons once a week and has absolutely no fear. She will jump into the pool without me because she is so anxious to get in the water. Sakura also goes under the water with a giant smile all the time. Love it!

I am weaning her, but teething makes it hard. Our new strategy is for Matt to always put her to sleep and I turn the sound off the monitor off at night. She now settles back to sleep a lot quicker and I am a lot better getting 7 hours of sleep. Why can't all the teeth just come in at once? Despite all the pain and runny noses she has four top teeth, two on bottom, and one molar. I am much better at handling her tantrums though and it's a good thing because we are now nursery leaders! She has been amazing with all the nursery kids and she loves singing time. Matt and I feel this will be good practice for learning how to manage multiple small children at once.

Special news - my sister is getting married! I will be going to Utah for my sister, Serisa's wedding from 20 March to 10 April. Matt can't come this time, but I'm so excited to be there long enough to help with some things.

My other sister Carina - she was Sakura's regular babysitter my last visit in Utah

I hope to get much better at managing my time and have a better routine this year so we'll see if I can stay on top of a monthly blog from now on.