Catching up on Pictures

Well, we finally figured out how to fix the problem we had with downloading pictures from our camera to our computer. So I thought I would post a few pictures we have taken over the past few months. Here Célia has gotten into some flour and when we found her she looked at us like "What?" with her big innocent eyes. (If you click on the picture you will see she got almost as much on her as she did the floor.)

This next picture shows how much she loves her mom. She has been pretty big into posing for the camera lately.

Here she is watching TV. I just like this picture because she looks so cute with a baseball hat on.

Here she is helping dad wash the car. She loves playing with water.

Here she is wearing a really cute outfit that her Nana bought for her. I just love the sandals! Oh, and she rarely lets me put her hair up so when I do I only get one chance at it. So sometimes it looks pretty funny but I have to leave it because she actually let me try.

In this next picture she just wanted me to take a picture of her eating. We have a student from Taiwan staying with us at the moment and for the first few weeks she took pictures of all the dinners we ate and Célia thought that was pretty cool. So one day at lunch Célia went and got our camera for me to take this picture.

Halloween really isn't celebrated very much over here but we were invited to a Halloween party this year. I went as a mommy mummy and Brian went as a cereal (serial) killer. As you can tell I worked and slaved over our costumes! My mummy wrappings didn't stay up past the door but that was okay with me because it got very warm very quickly wrapped up in all that toilet paper.

Here is a picture of Brian's first attempt at surfing (That's him on the right). Yes, we have been in Australia for three years now and he only just got around to trying it out. I was a little bummed that I couldn't go as well but I can't see how I could have paddled on the board in my condition!

Here is a picture of Célia helping me make Pumpkin Bread. As you can tell, she loves to help me cook (although there isn't much that I let her do yet).

Oh, and for anyone interested, here is the recipe we were using (it is absolutely delicious):

Pumpkin Bread

3 1/2 cups flour (I do half plain and half wholemeal)
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg
3 cups sugar
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups fresh pumpkin, 16 oz if using canned pumpkin
1/2 cup water, 2/3 cup if using canned pumpkin
1 cup vegetable oil (I usually do 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 water and it still turns out really good)
1 cup chopped pecans (optional - I usually don't use)

Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Combine flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add eggs, water, oil and pumpkin. Stir until blended. Add nuts. Mix well. Pour into two 9x5" loaf tins. Bake 1 hour (I usually have to do 70 min in my oven) or until done. Cool slightly and take out of pans to let cool on a rack. This tastes best if you wrap, refrigerate and wait one day to eat it. It keeps well in the fridge and can be frozen.

Well, that's all for now. Brian is going to post about his recent trip the the Philippines. I hope you all enjoyed the pictures and I encourage you to try the Pumpkin Bread.