The end of our world as we know it. . .

We were in the little theatre room at the National Museum of Australia, when D decided to go for it. After several months of rolling and scooting around, he has mastered his crawl. As for me I have been doing some minor rearranging-- moving things off lower shelves and trying to cover outlets/cords. Such a fun milestone!

Here he is at home, getting ready to take off!

He rocks forward on his bottom until he is on all fours and then takes off!

Happy Birthday Babe!!!

We had fun celebrating J's birthday! These are signs we made to greet him when he got home from work.For his cake we put together two favorites: a mountain of chocolate chip cookies covered with D&D minis (I won't give away his age but there is one guy for each of his years).

Forget dinner. I was in putting the baby down when he got home and when I came out they were already digging into the cookies. . .

Card from J's mom and dad; we got a good laugh from that one!

And the present he bought for himself (I know I am lame making him buy his own present). I at least wrapped it for him. . .

Finally the kids had set up various D&D battles for him around the house. They were so excited all day waiting for him to come home and play. We sure love the Daddy at our house!!!

a few sights

These first two were taken at Lake Burley Griffin in the middle of Canberra. The kids thought the fountain was the coolest thing! You can't tell from the pictures but it shoots WAY up there. It was a REALLY windy day; seriously I thought we might get blown away!

This is the national monument near Parliament. Speaking of which the Parliament building is very interesting; aside from the uniqueness of the building itself, it was built into the side of a hill (we'll try to get some pictures of it to post). It's kind of cool here; you can't build on top of hills which really protects the natural beauty of the area.

And this is the national seal found on their coinage; In case you can't tell it's a kangaroo and emu.

I can't wait to get more pictures of road signs and do a whole post about that!!!

Where's Roo?

I saw my first kangaroos today! This afternoon we went for a walk to the nature reserve nearby our house. J, AP, and AJ had spotted roos here on a previous outing, but we didn't expect to see any today as we thought it was the wrong time of day. However we almost walked right into a whole mob of them they camoflauge so well. We probably could have gotten closer, but didn't want to chance a mauling. Look closely to see them (you might have to click on the pictures to really see them).

Here we are!

As you can see we made it! The flight went about as well as could be expected; AP and AJ played their nintendos and read (only slept 4 of the 15 hours). D had a harder time; J & I spent most of the flight alternately standing with him at the back of the plane. The last few hours Kung Fu Panda was on (the TVs had been on the brink prior to that); it was a welcome distraction.

After landing and getting a rental car, our first stop was a park so we could get our bearings and give the kids a chance to move around. Next was lunch and then the beach!

Before setting them loose we told AP and AJ only to get their feet wet since we still had a ways to drive. However, after an attempt to stay dry, they were overcome by a big wave. It’s Spring here and still a little cold and breezy so they were freezing by the time we got back to the car. Dry clothing was inaccessible so all we could do was get their wet clothes off and wrap them in their blankets for the remaining 2 hour drive. We were all feeling a bit miserable at that point and couldn’t fully enjoy the beautiful scenery; in fact all of us but J fell asleep (I really was trying to stay awake to keep him company!).

These next two are of the park we stopped at before leaving Sydney. We had fun running around and saw some interesting birds and plants.

So far we are enjoying our visit. Canberra is beautiful and I love that we can be in the middle of the city and still smell the forest.

Of course there are the usual inconveniences of adjusting to a new place; shopping is a little different than in the US and we are still figuring out where things are. I haven't attempted driving yet, though J has gotten the hang of it. The kids and I took a 30 minute walk to the shopping center the other day and in that short of time AJ and I were both toasted. Needless to say I bought sunscreen for the walk back.

J took the kids out last night for a kangaroo sighting. I'll try and get those pictures downloaded soon, but that's all for now!

My first tag

HUBBY TAG...
What is your husband’s name? Mr. Incredible
How long have you been married? 10 years
How long did you date? 3 months; crazy no?
How old is he? nearly 34
Who eats sweets? Mostly me; though he loves them as much, if not more, he is far more disciplined
Who said I love you first? I think he did???
Who is taller? definitely him
Who can sing better? Are you kidding? He does
Who is smarter? He has an amazing mind
Who does the laundry? We both do although he usually starts and I finish
Who pays the bills? Me
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Right now he does
Who mows the lawn? Mostly him
Who cooks dinner? Me
Who drives? Him
Who is the first to admit they are wrong? I would say me, but we can both be pretty stubborn
Who kissed who first? I kissed him!!
Who asked who out first? I think we asked each other out at the same time
Who wears the pants? It depends on the issue
I tag you all. . .anyone who wants to, I'd love to read your answers!

This is Halloween

Admittedly, I am a stick in the mud when it comes to Halloween. After past complaints from my kids about our boring house, this year I made an attempt to decorate inside. I was feeling quite proud of myself until AP informed me the decorations I chose are too “cutesy” and we need to get some spooky stuff like spider webs, bats, tombstones, etc. Maybe next year I’ll get it right .

AP and AJ had fun dressing up. AJ joined the other Hannah Montaniacs while AP chose to recycle costumes from past years to have a one-of-kind-never-before-seen character whose name I still don't know (In fact I don't think he knows either; he just kept telling people, "I am a made-up character"). Gotta love his creative spirit! They were able to show off their costumes at a few different parties the weeks before and of Halloween.

Halloween afternoon we went to the children’s museum for fun and activities. AP was interviewed by channel 5 news but whether he actually made it on we will never know since we were busy doing the trick-or-treat thing.

Besides the usual fun museum stuff, they got to decorate masks, trick-or-treat bags, and pumpkins. There was also a fishing pond, facepainting, and fortune telling.

D was a very cute baby ninja of the dragon clan.

Here they are waiting to go beg for candy. They actually got done pretty quickly. I'm glad they don't care whether their bags are full or not.

Oh yes, I can’t forget mine and J’s costumes. I am always so busy getting the kids squared away that ours are usually last minute throw together kind of costumes. For work J went in a bathrobe with a head full of curlers complete with a pair of fuzzy pink and yellow housesocks. He had painted his face white (you know, a mud mask) but washed it off before going to vote that afternoon. Don’t worry he took off the wig and put on normal clothes before heading to the polls.

As for myself, I found a cool pink wig on sale at Target and dressed as a punker. We both got a lot of compliments on our hair. . . I only wish mine were real; no joking I loved the style and the pink!

October so far

Early in the month AJ's class took a fieldtrip to Cornbelly's. There was a ton to do including the pumpkin patch and corn maze.

racing duckies

riding tire horses

The next week we went to the Zoo with friends. One of the moms is a Zoo aide and was able to get us all in for free. It was a beautiful day and the kids were great, including D (it was his first time there). On the way out the kids got fun animal masks from the souvenir shop.

It's always more fun with friends!

These boys have been friends since AP's second grade year.

And we finally had a cousin sleepover (I had promised AJ months ago). The fun never ends when they get together: running around the yard, watching movies, playing ponies and webkinz, sneaking around the house after everyoneis asleep, painting rocks to sell. . . it’s so fun to see what they come up with. Here they are painting rocks. The did a great job and covered most of them (as well as the floor) with glitter. After they were dry they set up a stand out front and sold them for 10cents each. They sold all of their glitter ones and most of the others too!

These are just some cute ones of the babies

and Miss Avanlee of course!

What a week!

Last week we celebrated AJ's birthday. In the morning she opened family presents. That night we had a Sonic X themed party. Above she is realizing that she got Sonic Adventure 2 Battle for gamecube; can you tell how much she wanted it?

And here she is pulling out her much anticipated doll, who she planned to name Ashley long before she got it. More on that below under "A Doll Story". . .

At the party we played pin the tails on Miles. I drew the poster and AJ colored it. Once it was up AP exclaimed "mom how could you? He is naked." Since when did Tails start wearing clothes? We finally figured out that the reason he looked so wrong was because he was missing his tails. Once they were plastered all over him he didn't look so bare anymore.

We had an obstacle course where they got glow in the dark rings at the end. They liked the course so much they all wanted to go through it several times before we could move on to the next thing.

We also had a treasure hunt where they had to gather glow-in-the dark rings with parts of a secret message attached to each one. Once they had found all the message rings we had to unscramble them to find where the Chaos Emeralds (rings pops) were hidden.
And of course birthday cake. I wasn't going to do Sonics head. . .seemed like too much work, but I finally broke down and did it anyway. The frosting wasn't quite the right color, but after half a tube of food coloring I had to call it good enough.
And now for. . . A Doll Story (did you hear the drum roll? hee hee)

A couple of weeks before AJ's birthday we got an American Girl catalog in the mail. AJ has never been that into dolls, much preferring baby animals or pokemon or sonic. . . Well I handed her the catalog and sure enough she barely gave it a glance. A few days later we got a My Twinn catalog in the mail. I handed that one to Aubrey expecting the same thing. Oh no. She poured over that catalog. It was her bedtime story every night after. She even said she wanted a my twinn instead of a kitten. That is HUGE. And a little part of my heart leapt. I had a similar doll when I was about her age and my mom made us matching outfits. It was so fun. And now my sweet little girl wanted a doll, but not just any doll, a twin, a sister. And then I discovered how much said dolls cost. Well perhaps it was worth it. Except that often these kinds of things are fleeting for AJ. She is VERY interested for about a week and then, no more. So I debated. Maybe I could just get her a Target doll and she wouldn' t notice. Nope. None of the target dolls had quite the right hair/eye combinations. Then I came upon a GOTZ doll in Tuesday Morning. The eyes were dark blue, but they were closer than any other doll I had seen and the hair was right. But the best part was the face shape. She looked like AJ. A My Twinn couldn't have been a closer match! So I got it and hoped it would work. The doll was a hit.

My parents came out Friday night to bring AJ her present and stayed to watch the kids Saturday so J and I could finally celebrate our anniversary. My mom not only brought my doll, but her special dolls that she had from when she was little. She had also made AP a blue jubjub (neopet) to be his yellow jubjub's friend. AP is holding them, but they didn't make it into the picture.

AJ and grandma had a great time playing dolls while J and I were on our date and then on Sunday morning before conference started we had a little breakfast Tea Party with all of them. AP joined with D as his doll, and also brought along some lego friends. Oh the tea set was AJ's birthday present from Grandpa and Grandma last year. This year they gave her clothes for her doll.


And now about mine and J's date. We had such a great time! My parents have always been so good to watch the kids so that we could go and celebrate. Thanks Mom and Dad! Usually we stay at a bed and breakfast and do a session at the temple, but with D's nursing schedule (he will not do the bottle thing) that wasn't going to work this year. So instead we broke the day up into mini dates. In the morning we headed off to a day spa where we had a nice rejuvenating body soak in their big jacuzzi tub with mineral salts and other fun stuff and then had side by side massages. I learned I am one big ball of tension. My masseuse had to keep telling me to relax and it kinda hurt. J quite enjoyed his though. He only had a few little knots. I do have to say I do feel less tight now that it is over. After our spa treatment we came back to check on the kids and then in the afternoon went to a movie. It was nice to spend some time just the two of us. AJ was a little upset that we were leaving them and declared to AP, "Did you know mom and dad still date?" So yeah, we need to start doing it more often so that it is not such a surprise to them. And I would post some pictures of us, but I forgot my camera.