Hillsong & Bondi Beach

We stayed in an apartment while in Manly Beach. The first night we were there I had to do laundry since we were all out of clothes. After a few hours of waiting, and sore hands from wringing I discovered that the washer and dryer did not work. We had clothes hanging from everywhere for a few days. The air was so moist, since we were so close to the beach, and the clothes were so terribly wet, they did not dry for many days. When they did dry they had an unpleasant moldy smell. That was successful.

On Sunday we got up and took a ferry and 2 buses to get to church. We visited Hillsong Church. It was a great service. We were so impressed with everything about it. The worship was great, the kids program was fun for the girls, and the people we so welcoming and friendly. We met 2 ladies who sat with us and told us some thing we should visit while we were in town.


After church we took a bus and then a train to Bondi Beach. It was the last day of Sculpture by the Sea. We thought we should see it while we had the chance. After a great lunch we took a walk down to the beach and looked at the various sculptures.

It was a really warm day and the water looked so wonderful. Ah if we only had our swim suits with us.

Sunday Plans

Sydney Aquarium

One night, after the girls went to bed, we were in our room reading when suddenly we heard loud booms. We looked out our window and saw a great fireworks show over the Sydney Opera House. It was beautiful! It was so fun to watch the show, hear the music & the cheers.


The next day we went out to visit the Sydney Aquarium. BigZabba, who loves animals of all kind, had a super day. She loved seeing all the huge fish, and especially loved the Nemo tank. They had all the fish seen in the movie Finding Nemo. She was thrilled to see Dori. All of us enjoyed the large tanks. There were 3 large tanks that had walking tubes in the them. We walked through the tanks and saw seals, turtles, rays, sharks, all kinds of fish..etc. It was very neat. Some of the sharks were laying on the tubes so we could see their bellies.

One of BigZabba's favorite places to eat was Pancakes on the Rocks. I think she loved it so much because they served pancakes topped with ice-cream. Who wouldn't love that!?


Now it is time to leave Sydney and head to Manly Beach. More stories to come...

AllyZabba Baby Talk Give-Away

Our big announcement in celebration of our two year anniversary: We're giving away over $600 in prizes in a fun contest.

Are you good at baby talk? Enter to watch and listen while LittleZabba tries her first words. It's fast, free, and fun for the whole family. For each correct guess, you earn another entry into our drawing and a chance at over $600 in prizes from AllyZabba and our contest sponsors.

Click Here Now to see the prizes and enter for free!

Play Day

While in Australia DaddyZabba spoke at the AEAF convention. While he was busy with that the girls and I went out for a day of shopping. We spent the day with a local (my friend's sister who lives in Sydney). She took us to a little town not far from the city. There we visited a lot of cute shops and cafes. We had a very nice afternoon together.





We ended the evening with a great dinner at The Malaya. They serve the food in different courses, and we were able to try many different kinds of food. The girls however really only ate rice for dinner that night, they were not as impressed with the food as we were!

We've Been Elfed!

Click to see the elves in action!

Wildlife World

I wanted to write a bit about our trip to Australia. We had a super fantastic time.

On BigZabba's birthday we spent the afternoon at Wildlife World. BigZabba loved looking at all the bugs. She really liked the stick bugs. It was actually hard to try to find all of them on the plant.

We also enjoyed seeing the kangaroos and the koalas. BigZabba's new favorite animal is a kangaroo. She bought a necklace with a kangaroo charm just to prove it!




One of the highlights was going into the butterfly habitat. There were thousands of butterflys. BigZabba was lucky enough to have one land on her hand. She was thrilled.

To top off the day, when we returned to our hotel, waiting for us in the room was... Happy Birthday BigZabba.

Happy Thanksgiving

There are so many things to be thankful for. Here are my top 10, in no particular order...

-the health of my family
-my dear friends
-the blessing that I can stay home with my children
-my husband
-my Savior
-my home
-my wonderful children and their smiles
-my church & bible study group
-bigzabba's wonderful teacher
-the husband & wife from our church who babysit for us, who love our kids almost as much as we do!

I am so thankful that despite the hardships of the past year, God has sustained me and brought me through. Thanks be to God.

Taronga Zoo

As you probably guessed from my previous post, we are down under! We have been having a fabulous time. Today we went to the Taronga Zoo. The girls loved seeing all the animals. BigZabba even took her camera with her so she could take pictures herself! One of the highlights was going into a koala enclosure and taking pictures with the koala. The handler was so impressed that BigZabba was taking her own photos that he took us into a seperate enclosure and showed us a Mama Koala with her baby.


We saw lots of kangaroos too. We walked through the kangaroo enclosure and BigZabba was just thrilled to see them so close.



The girls also loved going to the Kids Zoo. There the handlers brought out various animals for the kids to pet. We saw a rabbit, guinnea pig, a lamb, a shingleback skink (a type of lizard), goats, turkeys, and chickens. BigZabba loved seeing the guinnea pig the most.


We loved our day at the zoo. The Tarango Zoo is beautiful. It is wonderful to sit at the bird show and look out over the water and see the Opera house and the Sydney Bridge. It is just beautiful.

Happy Birthday

BigZabba is 5 years old today! We have had a great day. Our friend Nichole made BigZabba's fantastic birthday outfit. Thanks Nichole!

Happy Birthday BigZabba. You are a wonderful little lady. You bring such joy to our lives. I love your sensitive heart, your creativity and your spunk.

Quote of the Day

While starting to watch Surf's Up, when the Columbia logo came on at the beginning she said,

That looks like Jesus' sister, but I know it is really God

BigZabba is home sick today with the flu. She has been doing her share of whining, which is ok when you feel as bad as she does. Everytime she starts whining again I think she is about to be sick, so I run to her side. (I have been doing a lot of running around so far today) Well, the whining started so I went running only to find out that the whiny voice was because she spilled some of her juice. So I said,

Everytime you whine I think that you are going to be sick. So lets save the whining for an emergency.

She replied,

Ok, like if someone took our toilet and we needed to go potty.

Yeah, just like that.

News & Notes

LittleZabba wasn't so thrilled with her dinner the other night. Do I really need to eat this Mom?






BigZabba participated in her school's jog-a-thon today. She said she wanted to try to run 4 laps (she had 30 minutes so we were sure she would be able to run more than that). She ended up running 26! Great job BigZabba!

Judson Update

Judson went to be with Jesus this morning. Please pray for his family.

Please Pray for Judson

Please pray for this dear family. Pray for God's peace and comfort in the midst of these tragic circumstances. To read Judson's full story, click here.

Picture Poll

We have been thinking about getting LittleZabba a passport. Which photo should we use?

AllyZabba Now Showing

We hope to see you there!