Family Photo

Our first family photo at our local beach last weekend. I know you think we are crazy for so much beach time, but reality hit me on Wednesday when I was touring the local Catholic School. PE class for year 4 is surfing at the beach across the street. Luca and Scout don't know how lucky they have it, in the mean time I'll be spending as much time at the beach as possible, I want them to get A's in year 4 PE right? -kel

Daddy's Little Girl

Mark and Scout at Yum Cha.

South Curly

Yesterday we had our first family outing to the beach, the water was beautiful and we avoided the sharks that have been spotted all over Sydney in the last few weeks. Luca has become very confident in the water and is working on his sand castle building skills! A great time was had by all, here's to many more Saturday's spent at the beach as a family! -kel

Scout snaps

Bubba Scout Ferguson

Luca has been taking the big brother duties very seriously. Helping me choose Scout's clothes, telling everyone her name, Bubba Scout Ferguson (Bubba is an endearing term for all babies in Australia) and teaching her the fine art of the nose kiss. Am loving my time with both and amazed at how much little Scout looks like Luca! -kel

Week 3

It's been a hectic three weeks but I am starting to get over the sleep deprivation and learning the art of juggling a two year old and a new born. Luca and Scout are both doing great, Luca is very interested in his little sister and Scout is happy to eat and sleep all day long. I am enjoying being an at home mom able to go to all of Luca's activities this week. Thursday it was off to the Opera House for a kids show followed by a picnic at the Botanical Gardens next door. Luca enjoyed the show and the picnic, since this was his first trip to the historic spot I went a bit picture crazy. Thank you for all of the well wishes Scout is amazing we are are overjoyed to have her in our lives! Oh and for those who are wondering Scout is named after Jean Louise Fintch from the book "To Kill A Mockingbird" an all time favorite of ours. -kelly

Our daughter - Scout Andrine Ferguson

We are blessed and in awe to announce the birth of our daughter Scout Andrine Ferguson on Friday 23 Jan, 2009, at 8:19am. To say she is perfect is an understatement. Kelly and I have been dreaming and talking about her future a lot over the past two days and we are already getting great pleasure out of Luca's reaction to her. We are incredibly happy and thank you all for the congrtaulatory messages we have received.

The Ferguson Trio's Final Gig

One week out from the new baby being born, Luca's new brother or sister - we are excited. Coming to a venue near you the Ferguson Quartet as of next weekend!

Knowing that Kelly and I are not going to be able to get away by ourselves too much over the coming months we had Luca stay with his grandparents (the Australian varierty) for a few hours on Saturday and went to the movies to see Benjamin Button. I know Kel gave the movie a big thumbs up and Brad Pitt a bigger thumbs up.

We did a Ferguson Sunday morning special today and headed north along the beaches about 20 minutes to Avalon. There is an exceptional French style bakery that we get to about once a month and we ususally stock up on a week's worth of croissants. While we are out there we usually have a picnic breakie and often it is at North Avalon beach. If the weather is lousy it can be in the car looking out at the surf, but if it is great like today we go and sit on the beach. Luca enjoyed checking out the rock pools for crabs and throwing rocks to watch them spalsh in the water - typical boy stuff.
As well as family and friends we write this for Luca to hopefully enjoy when he grows up - it is now also for his brother or sister, our new baby. I am excited for what this new little person is going to bring us, and knowing how much Kelly and I both love our siblings, how awesome it will be for Luca. I pray everything goes well this week and can't wait to tell you all about it.

Sydney International

Two sporting posts in a row…truly a first for me! Last night I was lucky enough to get tickets with two girls from my office to the Sydney International Tennis. This is one of the pre-Australian Open tournaments being held in Australia this month. We had fantastic seats, court side, 5 rows back from Serena Williams. The match we saw was a quarter final between Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki. I was expecting Serena to smash Caroline, but was in for a great surprise when the match took almost 3 hours, ending in Serena winning 6-7, 6-3, 7-6. We had a fantastic time, the venue was amazing, the seats were fantastic, the weather was hot and the baby belly was at yet another Aussie Sporting event! Only a week to go and number 2 will be arriving, I think last night was the last of my summer sporting adventures, unless you count Mark and Luca playing catch, kick, tackle or don't spray daddy with the hose in the back yard. (another camera phone photo) -kel

An afternoon at the SCG

2 PM on a Tuesday afternoon…where else would any Aussie love to be? The Members Stand at the Sydney Cricket Ground was where me and my very big baby belly hung out yesterday. A colleague at work had Members seats to the Australia vs. South Africa Test, it was day 4 in a series that hasn’t been going very well for the Aussies. I was thrilled to be invited as I have become an avid Cricket fan over the last few years. Got to see the players up close, saw some excellent Cricket (the Aussies have actually started winning) enjoyed the great weather and generally had an excellent time with the old timers in the Members Stand. Not the best photo as it was from my phone, but I still had a great time bragging and showing the photo to Mark! Maybe I am becoming the Aussie wife of his dreams? -kel

Urban Safari

Mark took Luca to the zoo on Friday, a perfect way to kick off the new year. Favorites were the monkeys and the giraffe eating his lunch!

Happy New Year

Yesterday we ventured to the other side of Sydney, taking my good friends visiting from the states, to Bondi Iceburgs for lunch. The view was amazing and the weather was fantastic. We rang in the new year with a few friends last night and are off to the beach today to enjoy some more of the beautiful Aussie summer. Wishing you all a very happy and healthy 2009. -kel

One of My Favorite Aussie Traditions

Paddle Pops following an afternoon at the beach! Luca with his cousins Corey and Emilly -kel

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve we hosted a dinner with Mark's family, some friends and our guests from the US. A big turkey, tons of food and lots of laughs. Happy to hear about the white Christmas for my family in the states, but even happier to take a dip in the ocean yesterday afternoon! We both have the next two weeks off, our plans currently consist of more food, more friends, lots of cricket and time at the beach! Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! Here are some photos from the festivities! -kel

Party Animal

Yesterday we hosted a 2nd birthday party for Luca complete with baby animal farm. At first we thought we might have been going over the top a bit, but after an hour and a half and 12 kids thoroughly entertained we knew we had made the right choice. The baby animals (guinea pigs, ducks, chickens and bunnies) were a huge hit. Luca and his friends enjoyed the party and after a week of solid rain, we were lucky enough to have a bright sunny 100 degree day to enjoy the festivities. It was an exciting day yesterday, Luca said thank you in many ways, but the best thank you of all came this morning when Mark, Luca and I all slept until 8 AM, a first in two years! Our little man is growing up. Six weeks until his life is turned upside down and he becomes a big brother. Somehow I think this might mean another two years until we sleep in again!-kel

Santa 2008

Our annual Santa visit in the city turned out to be a great day with a few unexpected twists! After a morning of talking about Santa, looking at last years photo and saying Ho Ho Ho we were all looking forward to the visit. Neither Mark nor I ever thought we would have our photo taken with Santa again however, after we saw the total and complete look of fear in Luca's eyes when we got to see Santa the only photo option was a family shot. The team at David Jones was amazing, an although he looks happy as can be in this shot the real Christmas miracle was that we didn't leave with a tear stained photo! He was clinging to Mark and I like his life depended on it but after a little coaxing and some funny antics from Santa's Elves we got one smiling photo! After we left Santa was still on his mind and he hasn't stopped mentioning it since. While it was a bit hectic, he actually seemed to enjoy the experience. Now we'll see how he goes next year! -kelly

Deuce

We've been trying to get Luca to understand that it's his special day all week and not his mate Sean's whose birthday was a couple of weeks ago. I think he finally understood today, well I know he did, when I came home from work the first thing he said to me was "happy birthday Luca".

We love the little guy so much it is so great to see him a bit puzzled by getting gifts but generally being so happy with each one that we have to ply it away before he will open another one.

Our boy is nearly 2!

This year has gone very quickly. I was playing with Luca this morning and he was entertaining me with a duck hand puppet, this time last year that was one of his favourite things, the difference being I was doing the entertaining and he was the audience. Luca at North Curly