Josh's 8th Birthday

Where has the time gone? I can't believe Josh is now 8 years old…

Josh was the first one up this morning and full of energy and excitement. He waited patiently in our room for Rachael to wake up and join him. Joseph was still sleeping which is a rare thing as he is usually up by 7am every morning so we let him sleep in.

Our birthday tradition is to open gifts on our bed in the morning with everyone piled on. Rachael got his gifts out and Josh began the opening. Rachael gave him a hero factory and Joseph got him some modeling clay. Then onto the other gifts…. We gave Josh a Chima (similar to hero factory) and then last but not least a build your own internal combustion engine. As soon as he opened it he was beaming from ear to ear with the biggest smile. "YES, this is exactly what I wanted" is what he exclaimed.

The morning continued as he anxiously opened the box to examine the pieces.

We had planned to take him to the Enchanted Maze Gardens for his birthday so we quickly got ready, ate breakfast and headed out to hopefully beat all the crowds.
After a lovely 45 minute drive we arrived at the park in Arthur's Seat. It was beautiful there and smelt lovely. All the trees, hedges, flowers and distant rain made the air so wonderful. Thankfully it was a very mild day.

We explored our way through a hedge maze and let the kids play on the other attractions before getting to the real excitement, Tube Slides.  The kids were in heaven and I loved listening to them cackle on the way down. Rachael's laughter was contageous.  I went once with Joseph and couldn't' believe how much he enjoyed it, it was quite the workout walking up the hill with the heavy tube. I was then surprised at how quickly we raced down the hill on those tubes.

I sat and watched them go up and down the hill quite a few times before it started to get really busy. It turned out so perfect and the kids were sad to leave. After a bit more exploring of the park each of them got their own cup full of lollies to take home.  

The drive home was beautiful as we over looked Port Philip Bay from Arthur's Seat and watched the ships and sail boats go by.

Mama and Pops had sent Josh some birthday money so Aaron took him out to purchase a gift with it. He found this really cool Hero Factory set that was originally $60 on sale for $30. Josh used what Mama and Pops sent along with some of his own money to purchase it and spent the entire evening assembling it. 

He had his choice dinner of pizza, pasta, and garlic bread and then we ended the evening with a delicious cake and a #8 sparkler on top. 

Happy Birthday to our big boy!! 

Boxing Day

We decided last minute to take the kids and go see Frozen in the theaters. It came out on Boxing Day here in Australia and Rachael has been so excited to see it. 

The first showing of the day was at 9:15 am so that's the one we went to hoping to avoid crowds and loads of people.  We ended up being one of only a couple other families in the entire theater, and the only family with 4 young children. When we came out of the theater it was so crowded we went straight home to avoid the chaos.

Going out to the movies was very expensive. $21.50 per adult and $16.50 per child. We have since found out that we can get tickets for $10/pp through our internet provider. We did get a good deal on popcorn and a collectable frozen cup with slushies for each of the kids.

The movie was fantastic, we found ourselves talking about it all day. It was nice going to an early show as the kids are all early birds and much better behaved.
I was worried about Rebecca but she was great, she stayed awake and watched the entire movie. She loves music and the music in this movie is incredible.

As the movie ended Rachael asked if we could stay and watch it again, we all would have been happy to :)

We enjoyed a nice relaxing day at home after a good lunch and chats with family back home. 

The weather was a bit cooler today and very windy. We took the kids out on their bikes to a nearby park and then flew kites in the empty lots next to our house. Another beautiful day!!

Christmas Eve 2013

Aaron has been so busy with work lately, he even had to work from home on Christmas Eve. He worked hard all morning while I got some things done around the house and the kids played.

After a brief lunch we headed out with a couple gifts to deliver. We ended up stopping at the Oillataguerre's and spent some time there. The kids played with their chickens and helped hold them while Marcelo put bands on the chickens legs to identify each one. They even got to help name the chickens. 

From there we took some snacks to a nice large Bicentennial park in Chelsea. This park was huge and had some of the coolest things I've ever seen in a park. 
We ended up spending the remainder of the evening there.

Once arriving back home I realized I would not have time to make our big Christmas Eve dinner so instead I made our Christmas Day breakfast. We had cinnamon raisin french toast topped with strawberries, bacon and scrambled eggs. Mmmmm

We all sat and watched A Christmas Carol and then the kids were off into their beds squealing with excitement and tiredness…

It was a great evening and everyone was worn out by the end of the day. It's feels like summer has officially hit with these higher temperatures. It throws me off when I am hearing a neighbor mowing his lawn while I have Christmas music blaring inside the house.

Christmas Day in OZ

Aaron and I were woken up at 6:30 this morning to the sound of little feet running down the hall and lots of soft giggles.

The kids rooms are closer to the living room than ours so they got the first look before coming to get us. The excitement was radiating throughout the house, it was adorable.

All the presents were under the tree with 4 little stockings in front. As we gathered they began to open their stockings with excitement. They were so full of joy.

We pulled gifts from under the tree one by one and really enjoyed taking our time and opening the gifts slowly. Towards the end of the gifts we did face time with Grannie and Grancha so that they could watch the kids open the gifts they had gotten for them. It was wonderful.  After that we had a face time chat with Mama, Pops and the Suxo-Sanchez family. It was great!!

For breakfast we had fruit and muffins. I then went straight into baking our Christmas dinner while the kids played happily for hours.

Around 1:30 we sat down for our lovely Christmas ham dinner. Joseph had just fallen asleep on the couch and we couldn't wake him up, he joined us a bit later. 

The food was delicious but there was so much, Aaron and I kept eating until we nearly burst.

We took a quick break to settle our stomachs before clearing up and did face time with my parents, Steph, Scott, Shaylee and Carson. It was fun watching them open their gifts from us.

The rest of the evening we spent at the beach. It was BEAUTIFUL and nice and warm (in the 90s F). There was a very small breeze but the sea was as calm as could be. Kids splashed and played in the water for a couple hours with their new boogie boards before we left. I still can't believe that we got to spend our Christmas evening on the beach,it was such a neat experience.

Before we ended our day we enjoyed Apple pie and ice cream together. We missed having family around and doing our 'usual' traditions but we really had a wonderful Christmas this year. We have been so blessed! The day couldn't have gone any better and there was much joy and laughter that radiated throughout our house. That's all I ask for ;)

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!!

The toilets

Ok I had to blog about the toilets here. They have some serious power to them.

First of all it's brilliant how they have two buttons, one conserves water (for your lighter deliveries) and the other is for your larger loads.  Both buttons produce a good powerful flush either way... Let's just say (for those of you that really know Aaron) we never have a clogged toilet over here...

Now the downside is that along with the super powerful flushes comes a loud waterfall type sound. Even with the door shut it's loud. 

Well the toilet in our room is not too far from the bed. Seeing as I was up nursing a baby at night when we were first here and drinking loads of water I would have to use the toilet in the middle of the night. This one particular time I flushed the toilet, came out of the room to find aaron jumping out of bed shouting "who's drowning" "where are they". He was seriously freaked out and it took me a min to get him calmed down and back into bed. 

We talked about it the next day and both agreed that if we used the toilet at night we would wait to flush until the morning. 

Thursday night came and as I was soundly asleep aaron flushed, it woke me up so urgently from my comfortable sleep as I literally thought a huge wave was coming at us. I was freaked and so mad once I realized what had happened.  Hopefully we can either refrain from flushing in the night or get used to it.

We have been asked if the water really does spin the opposite way and we can't be sure. It's so powerful there is really no spin, it just flows through so fast while sucking it out. I wouldn't want to fall down one of these :)

Josh

** I wrote this post a week ago, a lot has happened since but I still wanted to post what I had previously written. Josh has since then been made fun of at school from a few mean kids but he handled the situation really well. We had one really bad day where things were really upsetting him but spending a day home and having an evening out with Aaron he was pumped and ready for school the next day. He had a great end to the school year with a 10 hour camping day at school and then a half day on friday. He came home with loads of Christmas cards and little gifts. Here's to our summer holiday! **

This picture was taken on his first day of school 

We were most worried about how Josh would take this move but he is doing surprisingly well. We all have our good and bad moments but so far he's thriving.

Josh really enjoys school and has made some good friends. He comes home telling me how the kids keep saying they love his accent.

He is learning more about the australian language and is telling me new words and what they mean every day. He is also learning a bit of Chinese and is really enjoying school.

There are only 5 days left of school here and then Josh will be finished with 2nd grade. Essentially school ended last week and all this week and next is pretty much play time at school. They watch movies, make crafts and do a load of fun things in preparation for Christmas and the new school year.

He said the other day they all had different tasks to help clean the room, he chose to scrub all the walls. When I asked why he chose that one he said "because I thought it sounded like fun" ha!

One day this week he brought home some Christmas cards. Four girls in his class wrote out lovely Christmas cards to him. The next day he came home with loads more including gifts.

When I checked him out of school early on Friday he asked me if I saw this 'certain' girl in his class, her name is Jazzy and he thinks she's cute :)  She gave him a card and 4 gifts today. He's loving all the attention…  We are going to put together little gifts and cards for him to take to school on Monday. How adorable!

A few weeks ago they went on a excursion (what we would call a field trip). They traveled a total of 3 hours that day. They went to a Strawberry farm and learned how to grow and pick strawberries. They also learned a few things about being healthy and taking care of our bodies including a series of exercises and relays. He came home with his own container of strawberries he got to pick.

People seem to be a lot more health conscious over here, especially when it comes to eating healthy food. At school they have a morning snack, afternoon snack and lunch. All children are requested to have their own bottle of water at their desks and then two healthy snacks in addition to their lunch. Josh takes apples, carrots and pretzels for his snacks and really loves it. I think it helps him to focus more by eating smaller amounts more frequently. They don't eat their main lunch until 1:30, and that only consists of his sandwich and some crisps or cookie.

I am very proud of Josh and his transition. He misses his good friends back home and the luxury of riding a bus to school with is pals but he's not complaining much.
He and Rachael have become really good friends in this short time and do a good job looking out for one another. 

It's such a strange feeling to think that they will both be in school full time in just over a month. Makes me sad thinking about Rachael growing up but I am excited for her, she's so anxious and wishes she could go now.
It's so crazy to think that Josh will start 3rd grade in January. He pretty much just passed up 2nd grade. 

This picture taken the day of his 10 hour camping excursion and the day before his last day of school.

Friday the 13th

We were told we had to vacate the house  today for at least 4 hours while the exterminators came to get rid of all the big hairy 8 legged deadly creatures in our house. 

Well what do you do when you have to leave the only place you know, with 4 kids, a nursing baby and a potty training toddler? Yikes!!!

I packed a lunch and checked josh out of school early to come with us so that wherever we ended up I didn't have to worry about picking him up from school. It takes a good amount of time to get around to different places here so I wouldn't get too far before having to turn around and come back.

We went to our first park where we had lunch. It was humid overcast and nice. After some time Rachael was bursting for the toilet and Joseph had an accident. I had packed numerous spare clothes and a portable toilet just for this.

We drove on Beach Road for awhile which follows the beach line of the bay. From there we went to Cheltnam to the school uniform shop. Rachael has been so anxious to get her school uniforms and right now they are on sale. A couple hundred dollars later we came out with a dress, skort, shirt, hat, school bag and jacket. Now we just wait until the end of January:) 

We found another park just down the road and spent some time there. The sun came out for a bit and the flies were crazy. The flies are so annoying, they won't leave you just by swatting them away, they keep pestering. They also stick to you! I was passing a lady running the other day who had a ton of flies stuck to the front and back of her. She must be used to them by now I guess.

I didn't help the Joseph pooped his pants either, they loved that... So we left that park after a poop clean up, those pants went straight into the trash...

We drove not too much further to the Parkdale train station where we were meeting Aaron. It took me 20 minutes to unload everyone from the car. Joseph and Rachael went into the stroller because they were asleep, Rebecca into my baby carrier and then Josh helped me get my bag and jackets. The weather had changed and was getting cooler.

We met Aaron as he got off the train and we walked to the local fish and chip shop for dinner. It was then that josh realized he had left his jacket at the last park we were at. Seriously?

We made another stop by that park, then went to Braeside park where we finished off the day with our dinner and some fun. By this time I was wishing I had my jacket, the temps dropped and there was a chilly wind. Crazy weather!

All this happening while I am desprate to pee, yes, and where in the world am I supposed to go dragging 4 kids with me. Uh!! I held it desperately for 4 hours. Oh the life of a mom... 

All in all a crazy wild day but glad to have all the deadly furry 8 legged creatures out of the house. Worth a piece of mind, I won't be freaked out walking around the house anymore.

It was more difficult today as I didn't have anywhere else to go. I have made some friends but everyone is at work and don't have young children. All in good time I guess...

Ready to finish off the day with some yummy chocolate and movie:) I am exhausted.

Decorating the Tree

We had pushed around the idea of making our own ornaments for the tree this year but didn't want to use food that may attract critters. I also don't have any of my usual crafting supplies so I would have to purchase more things just to do that.

When we went out to get lights for the tree (they are called fairy lights here) the kids found these cute sparkly pastel ornaments they wanted to use so we bought those. They were pretty cheap as well.

The kids had full control of decorating the tree this year, I just helped put the lights on. They had a blast doing it and did a great job. Aaron and Josh are dressed in sports attire because afterwards they ran to the chapel for sports night. They had an enjoyable time playing ping pong and basketball.

Oh Christmas Tree

Thursday started off fantastic and ended even better...

I picked Josh up from school headed home quickly to grab our coats and warm clothes. It's windy cold and the boughts of torrential rain pour are crazy but only last a few minutes and then stop.

We drove to the Mordialloc train station to pick Aaron up and then drove about 30 minutes south to Moorooduc where we visited The Christmas Tree Farm. What a beautiful place that was! 

We waited out a downpour and then got out of the car to find our special tree. It was such a neat experience for us all and the smell outside was joyous. The first time it actually felt like Christmas. 

We were lucky to have good weather while we were walking through all the trees. It's still so crazy that on Monday we were in swimming suits on the beach and by Thursday we are in sweats and coats.

The Christmas Trees here are Monterey Pine which come from California and are suited perfectly for the Australian climate. They are absolutely gorgeous with perfect shape, foliage smell and so amazingly full.

Once the kids found their perfect tree two young lads came to chop it down for us and bale it. To have it baled made it so much easier to transport in our car without making a huge mess. 

It was seriously such a fun and neat experience for us all. Picking out a tree was surely not easy as there were hundreds to choose from.  How fun would it be to work on a Christmas tree farm?

Once we got it home and up we ordered in some dinner. Butter chicken curry, vegetable karma, samosas, naan bread and lamb. It was delicious and a nice way to end a cold wintery like, Christmas Day. We are supposed to be back into the warmer weather this weekend.

Another fantastic point of today is that Joseph had an accident free day! Pure awesomeness is what he is!!! So proud of him.

And then nothing quite like my daily chat with the babe. She just melts my heart and I am so grateful she is apart of our family.   

Thought from this fine Thursday morning

Today started out much much better. We had some good laughs with a great couple we have come to love last night and it helped make me much happier.

This morning I woke up at 6:30 to a surprise. Rebecca slept 10.5 hours last night. She goes to bed at 8:00 and usually sleeps 8 hours but last night she went 10 and a half. It was heavenly to get a good stretch of sleep again.

As I got up to feed her and said goodbye to Aaron I got a whiff of a heavenly smell.
Now to back things up a bit, men lather up really well in their cologne sprays here. My mom and I noticed it when she was here, every man we would pass weather it be in the grocery store or passing at the petrol station, they would smell so divine. It's never a bad smell either, they always smell so amazingly good.

For Aaron's birthday I set out to find some divine smells so that I could experience them more often. ;)  I came across these two beauties and love them, they seriously smell so good I wish I could share them with you all. Mmmm Yum! I think they give Aaron more confidence as well after riding on a seriously smelly train and bus every day :) haha

Versace Man Eau Fraiche Cologne and Davidoff Champion Energy

It feels as if we have so much time in the morning before taking Josh to school. With everyone waking up between 6:30 and 7:00 we have 2 hours before going. Such a different experience from before where I was sending Josh to the bus stop at 7:30.
This morning the kids joined me in my workout, it was brilliant! Josh can bust out 25 sit ups and 50 Russian Twists like nothing. Then there is me acting like a wimp and can barely do 10, my body seriously feels like i've lost all strength and I have to remind myself that I just had a baby over 2 months ago.. It takes time I guess.
We dropped Josh off at school and he was happy and energetic, thats how we like to see him. When we got back home I went to take a shower, this is when the horrific experience came.

I have serious arachnophobia, real serious problem here. So moving to Australia where the spiders are much much larger and deadlier doesn't help my problem much. The spiders haven't been too bad but seem to be getting worse as it gets hotter. Yikes. At church on sunday Joseph looked up at the ceiling and shouts 'spider' we all look up (yes probably half the congregation) and it's a baby huntsman. WHAT? Not cool, I'm imagining it falling onto my lap or into my hair, I'm freaking out inside but no one else seems to be bothered. Yuck.
We also get lots of small ones in the house, no big problem and lots of daddy long legs everywhere. Again not a problem when you see what else we are dealing with…
First off the spiders seem so much smarter and faster here, they are seriously so fast and run in different motions, not just forward sideways or back, they can go in circles making it harder to catch them. Craziness.

Let me paint a picture for you:

I get in the shower, it's a colder morning (house was at 10c / 50f) so I was excited for a nice warm shower. Yes, once again, the weather is crazy and can be super hot and then cool back down the next day. I grab the shampoo off the floor and as I turn it over, grab the bottom to squeeze it feels furry. First thing that runs through my head "hmm that fills a little fuzzy, surely there couldn't be mold on the bottom of this yet" As i move the shampoo much to my dismay there is a large hairy spider about 3 inches in diameter, IN MY HAND!!! I scream, shake my hand and scream again. Now Im about to cry (yes I am a baby) I jump out of the shower and watch it freak out on the floor of the shower. Its fast and way too big to go down the drain so I knew I had to kill it.

I literally had to vocally talk my way through it as I got one of Aaron's shoes and chased it around in the shower. Not cool, not cool at all. I am now paranoid and probably will be for the rest of the day thinking i'll come across another animal.  Seriously, the big ones are not considered insects in my mind, they are small animals. I don't know what kind of spider it was, huntsman, water spider etc but I know it was big enough for me.

We have been told stories about these beauties showing up in bedrooms and cars. Yes, a huntsman was just chilling in a car behind the front shade. I would probably crash. At least they are not harmful is what we are told, I still view them as deadly though.

First post while living in Australia

There are lots of things to catch up on since we've lived in Australia but for now I will start with this week…

Aaron has been called as the 2nd counselor in YM's…  It is keeping him busy on Tuesday evenings and they have had a youth fireside and carol singing the past two sundays. While Aaron was out Sunday afternoon I made little pom pom animals with the kids.

 Our neighborhood had a carnival going on that same day put on by a local mortgage company, in the evening they had a large firework display that Aaron and I watched briefly from our front porch.

Monday was the hottest day we've experienced so far,  it got up to 35 C. For all our friends and family in the states thats roughly 95 F. That may not seem too bad but the heat over here is so much different. It can feel cold when it's cloudy but as soon as the sun peers through it burns the skin and feels so hot. No joke, it has a more powerful burning sensation like there is no protection between you and it. It's also humid but not humid like what I remember mexico, again, it feels different. 
Everyone is very cautious about the sun over here and does a really good job about wearing sunscreen and more particularly hats. Hats are required at school and if a child is seen without one in terms 1 and 4 they are sent to the principals office. Kids are always wearing hats at parks, the beach, anywhere i've seen them outside when it's sunny, they have hats on. 

Well Monday evening we decided to take the kids to the beach to cool down, it gets really hot in our house and we do not have air conditioner throughout, most people don't even have air conditioners at all. We are lucky enough to have two split systems in the house which we can put on to cool down certain areas. 

Aaron rode the train from work to Edithvale station (which is just under 10 minutes from our house) and we met him at the beach just across the street from the station.  There were quite a few people on the beach but there was still plenty of space. It had not even been 5 minutes since arriving that the kids were already in the ocean. 

The water is freezing but it didn't seem to bother them at all. This beach has a gradual decline so the kids have a lot of room to play where it's shallow enough for them to jump around.  
I watched with Rebecca while the others went back and forth from the beach into the water over and over again. It was beautiful.

Today (Wednesday 4th December) was a typical day. I get a lot of comments saying that our move looks more like a vacation. Well in all reality, it's only felt like that a handful of times. Things are still tough and we still have a daily routine just like before.
It's a new thing getting used to taking Josh to and from school every morning, can't say I love putting 4 kids in and out of a car every day to take him to school but it beats an hour walk in blistering heat or torrential rain fall. Today it was much much cooler (around 16c/61f) and rained all day long. At times it was raining so hard it looked like a waterfall coming off the house. 

After I prepared lunch I went into another room to feed Rebecca. Not long later Rachael followed me into the other room, I was a little worried as Joseph had gone quiet in the kitchen (this only means one of two things: he is either asleep, or doing something bad). I go into the kitchen and this is what I find. He crashed before he could even get off the chair properly. This potty training business is wearing us both out. I could crash just like that if I got a chance to.

Aaron went to our ward temple night this evening and before I put all the kids to bed they were having fun together, one of the few moments in the day where I can breathe it all in and actually enjoy all the craziness. Right as Aaron was leaving our oven went crazy, (we have had many appliance malfunctions since being here) an alarm went off on it, it shut down and would not come back on but the high pitched siren noise would not stop. We tried unplugging it and turning it off but nothing would work. At the same time Rebecca is crying because of the sound, Josh and Rachael are wrestling in the other room and Joseph pees his pants. I take Rebecca into another room, clean Joseph up and put him into the shower while I try to get Josh and Rachael under control, siren still going in background.
Joseph decides to get out of the shower and slips on the tile floor slamming his head onto the ground, screams of bloody murder come from the bathroom. I am now trying to help him, while Rebecca still screams in the other room and desperately asking Rachael and Josh to help me. I am ready to break down, I am exhausted, so exhausted I can't even find tears or strength to cry no matter how badly I want to. This is just a glimpse into reality here in the Presbury home. Never, never a dull moment yet we always find a way to proceed through it.

So before bedtime I was able to snap some happy pictures of the kids playing together. I enjoy even just a few minutes of hearing them laugh and play together.