Ella May Knight

Welcome to the world, Ella! 

After months of anticipation, our gorgeous little girl has finally arrived.  She was born at 1.19pm on Thursday 18th November.  She was 3.25kg or 7lb 5oz and was 52cm long.  She has a good head of dark brown hair and baby blue eyes.  The labour and birth were surprisingly bearable and I recovered really quickly ... must be getting better with practise! 

So far Ella has been an absolute dream baby, feeding every 3 hours or so and hardly cries at all. 

The boys are absolutely delighted with the new addition to the family, especially Liam who is besotted and thinks she is the most beautiful girl in the world.

The proud Dad moments after Ella was born

Ella having a snooze

Liam's first cuddle

Cheesy grins all round

... and another snooze

We had some visitors on our first afternoon at home.  Aunty Kerrie had a nice cuddle.

More snoozing, this time with her brothers.

Liam is taking his big brother role very seriously and constantly

checks to make sure I am looking after her every need.

... another snooze with Aunty Penny.  All this meeting the rellies is tiring!

The proud Aunty Chae.

Grandad, Chae, Jacki and the little lady.

Grandad's first cuddle.

Chae made scones for all our visitors and they were consumed with gusto (James had four).

Weekend on the gold coast

Zane's dad got a new boat a couple of weeks ago, a 38 foot launch by Riviera.  We spent the day on it on Sunday and had a fabulous time.

Leaving Runaway Bay and heading for the Spit

The captain at the helm with brother Pete

Zane and James enjoying the sea breezes

Liam, Jacki and Chae

Safety first!

Cruising the broadwater

A nice cuddle from Jamesey

Setting off to explore the islands

Checking out the action at Sovereign Islands

Sunny weekend

After all the rain we have been having, it was great to have a nice sunny Saturday morning.  It inspired us to take a drive out to Sandgate for breakfast at Sonomas, which is a really nice cafe right on the promenade.

A quick spot of colouring in before brekky arrived

Cuddles with Daddy

... and Mum

Look at that glorious view.

This was taken just prior to both boys falling off the back of the tree!  The headlock grip should have been a clue for us that something bad was about to happen ...

After a quick broken bones check (all good) it was time to sail the high seas and escape the pirates and sharks that were circling in the playground - this boat very conveniently sports two steering wheels

Liam fancies himself as a bit of a photographer.  Not bad for a 4 year old!

Not long now!

Here's a pic of me about 2 weeks ago at around 36 weeks.  I'm coming up to 38 weeks now, so it could be any day !

The Pool!

One of the first things on our agenda after moving in was to get a pool in the back yard hopefully in time for Christmas.  Unfortunately the rain has delayed things but as you can see from the pictures below we are well on the way to completion.  With all the rain and the digging, there has been sooo much mud!  The boys have been loving all the noise and action.

A "before" shot

The excavators rolling in

The first scrape

Well on the way - the first half was very quick, then they hit rock which slowed them down a lot

Goodbye lawn!

.... hello swamp.

Laying down the gridwork prior to the concrete spray

The spray - very noisy and dusty

And the end result! 

Now we just need to wait a month or so for the concrete to cure, then the pebble base and tiles will be put on, along with the retaining wall, the feature wall, the electrics and the plumbing etc, then the last job - fill it up with water!

Brent and Penny's wedding

I don't make a habit of blogging about things I'm not involved in, but Brent and Penny's wedding is too important an event to ignore, and I wish I had've been there!
They got married on the 10th of the 10th in Wanaka, Queenstown.  Apparently it was snowing outside during the ceremony and it was very romantic.
We're just waiting for the honeymooners to get back from their trip so we can hear all about it!

Penny with her nieces

The cold weather option (they ended up getting married indoors)

Zane and Brent

The happy couple

Time to relax!