February 2014 Recap

*In an effort to remember our first year in Australia I will recap each month. January has already been done so I will begin with February 2014*

February was a great month filled with a lot of new adventures.

We visited the Melbourne Aquarium in the city.

It was fun to see advertisements downtown for the Super Bowl and still amazes me how expensive parking is.

The picture where the kids are standing on glass above a massive Croc still creeps me out.

The aquarium sits right next to the Yarra River with a lovely view.

Beaches were a frequent occurrence in February as it's one of the hotter months. This beach was Mordialloc Beach right near where Aaron catches the train into the city every day. There is nice shaded park near the beach, a beautiful pier and shops within walking distance.

Rachael had just started school for the first time the beginning of February. She was struggling and cried a bit at first. One day in particular I went to the market after school drop off and Joseph wanted to buy some flowers for Rachael to make her happy. He specifically picked these ones out. It was the sweetest thing that day as he presented them to her after school. She was happy!

Looking back at these pictures is such a bitter sweet feeling, Rebecca was so small.

I loved seeing Josh interact with her, they have a special connection.

One day just before Valentines Day we picked Aaron up from the train station after work and he presented Rach with some beautiful gerber daisies. I think she was feeling extra loved and knew we all supported her starting school.

The picture just below on the right is Joseph watching the washing machine while sitting on the toilet. We began potty training the beginning of 2014, I am so glad that is over and can't believe it has already been a year. He was sitting on his little toilet waiting for his monkey to finish washing. He sat there through the entire cycle.

School pictures and Joseph trying passionfruit for the first time. He really enjoyed it.
Sandra invited us over for dinner one evening, she really does spoil us. It was fun sitting outside together chatting and eating some of the best food.

We played a lot of games. Rachael is our Uno champion and Josh won his first game of Settlers (with some help;). 

I delighted in simple pleasures such as .60 cent watermelon and lunch at the shopping center while Rebecca and Seppe napped in the stroller. That doesn't happen anymore.

Pearls and Lillies from Aaron. I felt extra loved that day.

These two became very close friends and Josh was excited to have her at the same school as him. He does a good job of taking care of her. 

We were invited to an Aussie Engagement Party and a Kiwi (Kiwis are what we call the New Zealanders) birthday celebration. The Kiwi's cook their food in the ground, it's spectacular. Both were new and fun experiences.

Josh and Rach rode their bikes to school a couple times while I ran pushing Becca and Seppe in the stroller. It is much easier riding to school since Rachael is on two wheels and I have my own bike and trailer.

Super Bowl Sunday  (Monday for us), Aaron took work off and we watched the game at home. For lunch (at half time) we walked down to the end of our street to dine at The Nest Cafe over looking the lake. After lunch we resumed the game and Joseph went missing, we found him asleep under Rachael's bed.

We had a great time taking a day trip down to Queenscliff and celebrating Valentines Day in the city.
I also had a fun little photo shoot with Rebecca at 5 months old.

How we see our friends

Isn't it a funny thing how we see others, especially our friends!!
We find ourselves wanting to be like our friends, look like they look, have what they have...

We see it starting at a young age. Rachael has a good diverse ethnic friend circle at school.
Chinese, Indian, Australian... It's been very enjoyable watching her interact and learn more about each other.

At school the children use an app for learning math, as they created their accounts they have to create an avatar of themselves.  Rachael created an indian avatar to represent herself because she loves her new friend Rimjhim.

It made me chuckle but really does bring light to how our children think. I thought it was adorable.

The New Year

We entered the new year with a bang. 

The evening began with some new friends, the Blyths and Proutings, and an Argentinean barbecue. The kids had fun running and playing all evening. We all barely made it to see the new year in with sparklers and fireworks. 

Sleeping in until 9am was a treat for everyone.

The kids decided to create their own spa and salon and treated Aaron and I to some nice foot rubs, head massages, back massages and Rachael did my hair. All while we watched some programs on sharks.

That afternoon we had the Bonnars over for a nice barbecue and games. We played boys vs girls at Cranium. The girls won !!

Myuna Farm

Monday - 20 January 2014

After an insane week of 110 degree weather while Aaron was in the USA for his sisters wedding, we were full of adrenaline and excited that he was coming home the next day. So we gathered all our energy and decided to adventure out to Myuna Farm. 

Sandra joined us and made the kids lunch. Seppi and Rachael had been asking about visiting a farm for weeks, it was now time.

We started the excitement off with pony rides.

After the ponies, the bunnies were the next biggest hit. They could have stayed in the pen with the bunnies for hours.

The gorgeous baby goats were my favorite and the $2 per ride on tractor was Seppi's favorite.

We were given a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread to feed the animals. As cute as cows may seem, they are incredible scary to me. Massive animals with huge tongues. One cow reached over the fence and licked another kids ear. 

After eating our lunch the kids finished off playing on the park. There is this spinning contraption (similar to the tea cups at Disneyland) that Rachael and Josh love playing on. Rachael took it a little too far and ended up throwing up her lunch. It was then we decided it was time to leave.

It was after this trip to the farm that I realized one of Rachael's biggest allergies. She is proving to be more and more similar to Aaron with her asthma and allergies. She had a horrific asthma attack right before bed, I made the mistake of letting it get too far. I should have had her take a shower with some aromatherapy oils after getting home but I didn't. I am convinced that her attack was caused by the hay or straw.  It was scary but we pushed through it and got her better. I was so grateful I had asked Aaron how to use the transformer converter before he left. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to use our nebulizer. 

Josh's Baptism

I still can't believe I have an eight year old. Where has the time gone?

I had always had an idea of how I thought the day would go for our first child's baptism. Never in a million years would I have imagined us doing that in Australia.

I am usually very organized with events like this, but this time it came so fast. I wasn't ready and nor did I know the things I needed to prepare for outside of Utah. Because there are so many children baptisms every month in Utah, things are done a little different. The program and everything is arranged for you. All I would need to worry about it getting fit for a white suit, sending out invites to family and friends and then preparing the food for afterwards.

The sunday before Josh's baptism we drove to the Melbourne temple to take some pictures and I put together a little invite that we sent out to a few of our new friends and ward members. 
Literally a couple days before his baptism I was in a panic.  I wasn't ready, we didn't have white clothing for Josh, we needed to plan and prepare the program, create programs for the day, ask someone to play the piano, give prayers, prepare food and fill the font for us. Whhaaatttt? 

I went to Costco and bought finger foods, muffins, fruit, cups, plates...

Josh had asked his grandparents back home to speak at his baptism a week or two earlier. They were given assignments and recorded their talks that we played on the day.

I was really missing my mom and the help she would have given me. I have been blessed to have angels put into my life here in Australia that helped make the day special.
Sandra took the lead on so many things, she made calls and arrangements, purchased items I forgot to and even found some white underwear for Josh. Yes, it's literally impossible to find white undies for boys here, she found some women's that could pass as boys briefs. 
She corresponded with two other people and they found white pants and an extra white shirt for Josh to wear. Noellene went out and bought a pair of boys white cricket pants. Lesa loaned me a white shirt. I was feeling overwhelmed with help and extremely emotional. 

The night before Josh's baptism Aaron realized he didn't have white pants. He had forgotten that he didn't bring his over from America and had been borrowing them from the temple. Early Saturday morning he was frantically tracking someone down, Marcelo kindly let Aaron borrow his and brought them around early that morning. 

Sandra continued to remind me through all this that I need not worry. That I needed to focus on what was special about this day and not all the 'fluff'. It really did help me focus my attention and worries. We sometimes let ourselves get so caught up on all the 'fluff', the non important things.  It was a good reminder that I needed. 

The day began a little stressful but it turned out so wonderful. Better then I had ever expected. 
I was overwhelmed with joy for our son Joshua and his choice to be baptized. I was emotional hearing our parents speak to Josh and overcome with love by all the ward members that showed up to support us. 

 I had put the food I bought into the kitchen and planned to get it out after the baptism. By the end of the baptism Lisa W. had arranged and incredible spread of food in the Primary room. As I walked in I nearly burst into tears. There was SO much food, people brought plates and plates of food. Someone grilled up sausages and Lisa baked up some ham and cheese croissants. I was speechless, didn't know what to say or do. My heart was filled with incredible joy and love for all of these wonderful people. It truly was the perfect day!

I am so grateful for the women pictured below. They helped to make this day perfect for our family and particularly Josh. I will always remember and love these women dearly.

*Funny side note:  We had forgotten to take the second white shirt for Josh to wear after coming out of the font but no one realized until after the baptism. 
While we all went back into the Primary room where we watched mormon messages and wrote special notes for Josh, Aaron was coming up with a solution.  Aaron ended up wearing his wet white shirt under his suit and dressed Josh in his spare shirt. No one even noticed but I had to take a picture once we got home.  I was wondering what took them so long to come back into the room.

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.