Our Christmases

We celebrated Christmas with my husband's family interstate this year (we do alternate years in Melbourne and Hobart, especially important now given that grandchildren are involved!), and it was a busy, whirlwind of an adventure filled with family, food and time spent in the inflatable pool that Rowan received. He was a tad overstimulated on the day, not thinking much of opening presents (though exclaiming with joy about clothing with tags on it!) and taking a couple of bites of Christmas lunch before turning it away and asking for strawberries. Very typical Rowan. 

Here are some pictures from our Christmases (the week before we celebrated with my family, who live in Melbourne)

Rowan with my Mum (his Nana)

He served himself up Christmas dinner with my family and was ever so proud!
(biscuits and dip) Needless to say, a plate of 'proper' dinner was also added to his tray.

He was absolutely ecstatic about getting his very own police car
(Rowan had been trying out the buttons on one for several weeks at a shop apparently)

Playing peekaboo games with my Dad.

This picture (and the ones following) were from our Hobart Christmas.
Rowan received an electric car which he had fun 'driving' all around the decking.

Bath time adventures (we don't have a bath at home, so this was a novelty)

Fun in the sun, in the pool. :)

Walking with Daddy on Christmas Eve in Richmond.

Drinking water out of a goblet on Christmas Day (before abandoning his dinner in favour of strawberries).

A family picture, also taken on Christmas Day.

Plane-spotting before it was time to leave Hobart.

Rowan's Photobook

I never got around to posting pictures of our Christmas presents to our families back in December (mainly due to them reading this blog and wanting things to remain a surprise!). We had books from blurb.com printed of Rowan's 2011. This started off with a few ultrasound and belly pictures (aww) and progressed to 10 pages of images per month post-bierth, resulting in a whopping 100 pages - WOW!

The quality of the printed images is surperb and we sprung for extra-thick pages, which really added a professional touch with the finished product (including a full-bleed photo cover). Everyone loved the books too! We didn't print one for ourselves because we'll be covering the first 12 months in April, the project is saved on our computer to make it easier for adding additional pages. :)

Here are pictures of the photobooks:



This Week in Scrapbooking

I've been working on more of the layouts in Rowan's Christmas album this week, Artscow (a printing website) have a 50% off sale on photobooks at the moment to be used before the 31st of December, so I'm attempting to get it all done. Besides, I don't want to be scrapping about Christmas in April, anyway! ;)

Here's a few of the layouts I've completed recently:

We Skyped on Christmas morning with my hubby's family so they could see their first grandchild open gifts. It was pretty cool connecting the laptop up to the TV so we could see their faces easily. :)

Credits
Merry & Bright Bundle - by Designs by Kat https://scraporchard.com/market/Merry-and-Bright-Digital-Scrapbook-Bundle.html
Fonts: Eight Fifteen [titlework] and Courier New [journalling]

Rowan (8 months old) has his first-ever picture with Santa. We'll ignore the fact that he cried immediately following the photo though. ;)

Credits
Kit: Christmas Blessings - by Captivated Visions & Litabells Designs https://scraporchard.com/market/Christmas-Blessings-Digital-Scrapbook-Kit.html
Template: Ianthine Templates - by Scrapping with Liz https://scraporchard.com/market/Ianthine-Digital-Scrapbook-Template.html
Scribbles Alpha - by Chelle's Creations https://scraporchard.com/market/Scribbles-Digital-Scrapbook-Alpha.html
Fonts: Howser [title] and The Great Escape [journalling]

Journalling reads: "When you started teething again during December, the race was on... what would come first: Christmas or your two top front teeth? Tooth #3 came down during early December and tooth #4 finally came in with 3 days to spare - phew!! You were so miserable cutting that fourth tooth, and are happy to see you back to your happy, smiling self!"

Credits
Kit + Alpha: Be Merry - by Secret Stash https://scraporchard.com/market/Be-Merry.html
Be Merry Overlays - by Secret Stash https://scraporchard.com/market/Be-Merry-Overlays-Digital-Scrapbook.html
Template: Chopped Paper Temps - by Scrapping with Liz https://scraporchard.com/market/Chopped-Paper-Template-Digital-Scrapbook.html
Font: CK Ali's Hand

Christmas Day itself was quite eventful, will be back shortly with a proper recap of what turned out to be a day to remember!



Christmas Eve



This time last year I sat in Hobart watching Carols by Candlelight with my prgnant, swollen feet up, nursing sunburn. And this year... I nursed my baby before watching the Carols. ;)

I've often wondered what Christmas with a child would be like. I remember it being a magical time from my own childhood, surrounded by family and doing things such as sneaking lollies and chips from the coffee table before lunch with my cousins, giggling at our secrecy (which of course, wasn't so secret!). While Rowan won't remember in future years what his first Christmas was like, we'll have plenty of pictures to show him when he's older.

For now, we'll enjoy the da-da-da-de-de's and ga-ga-ga's while our eight month old pulls up at everyone's legs and demands infinite solid foods and afterwards comes crawling back into the comfort of my arms for quiet milk feeds, before he's off again exploring the world.

To all my friends, thank you for being here and for supporting us in every facet of our lives. Merry Christmas to you all.

Wordless Wednesday

Our Christmas card for this year. Merry Christmas from Matt, Rowan and I from me to you. :)

Wordless Not-So-Wednesday

Our Christmas Tree

Despite having a mobile baby in the house, we decided to put up our Christmas tree this year. It feels great to have such an outwardly sign of Christmas in the house, and is filling me with relaxation in the evening when the lights are on (mainly after Rowan's gone to bed, as to not be too tempting for him!).

The first day he tried everything in his power to get to the tree, since then he's been looking at it but not too focused (thankfully). That all might change soon when there's a few presents underneath, but we'll see!

Journalling reads: "Rowan has been so very interested in the changes to the loungeroom for Christmas, from helping Daddy with the lights to touching the decorations. Since he is getting so mobile now, we have had to put the coffee table in front of the tree as to form a barrier. Hopefully by another couple of years we’ll be able to move it away again!..."

Credits:
Kit & Alpha: Glad Tidings
Template: Photo Blends Templates - Scrapping with Liz
Font: Segoe Print

I'm loving the idea of celebrating Christmas with a baby for the first time. <3