Christmas 2012

I won't write too much about Christmas, other than to say Jordan and his friend Brendan who has also been staying with us for the past few weeks, were booked to fly from Orlando to Salt Lake City at 3.20pm on Christmas day. They missed their flight, so we had 2 return trips to the airport that afternoon and eventually got them on a flight at 6am the following day. Christmas didn't go exactly as planned but as Dad reminded me, that is kind of expected in our family! If only I could micro manage everyone's schedules it would all be fine.

'Twas the night before Christmas and the calm before the chaos

I had fun making reindeer chocolate pops...although I'm not sure the effort for  reaction ratio was  quite right. I liked them!

Jordan and Brendan before they missed their flight

Jordan and I before I knew I had to go all the way home and back again!

Earlier that morning, we had enjoyed a hearty Christmas breakfast and opened presents and stockings...There were lots of boys!!

7 x new pyjamas!!

Thanks to sweet Kate for the treats!

There's one in every family!

See! What's with the faces??

We had to eat cafe style as we don't have a big enough table

We forgot to take pictures of the rest of the day...oops! Most of mine was spent driving!!

We're back!

I just noticed that my last post was about our holiday to America 2 years ago and now we are here living in Florida!

I am not even going to try to catch up or back track... You wouldn't believe me if I tried! Our lives have tacken so many twists and turns over the last few years that it makes me dizzy to think back. So here we are on 1st Jan 2013 and guess what my New Year's resolution is? I am going to keep a better record of what is going on in our lives and hopefully be better at keeping up with what is happening in the lives of family and friends.

It's been a very busy period in our lives as we have been adjusting to real life here and trying to get the boys schooling organised. It kind of feels like we have assumed new identities as we really have had to start from scratch getting drivers licences (complete with an actual driving test!!), opening bank accounts and establishing everything from the beginning again. I know it will settle down the more we become familiar with being here but I really underestimated the challenges of an international move.

I can't believe Mum and Dad did it several times...and with more kids!!

Tom, Josh's friend from Australia left to fly home today after spending 5 weeks with us and we still have our accountant (who has become a close friend) and his wife and son with us for another week. Then we have one more Aussie visitor arriving on 14th Jan for 2 weeks before we fly to Utah to visit family and meet some other friends from our neighborhood in Australia who are going to Utah to ski. I think from the time we arrived on 2oth Nov. we have only had 3 nights without visitors! It's been great to see friends over here, but I'm also looking forward to having our own family time too.

Josh & Tom on his last night with us.

We hosted a BBQ at our house last night to celebrate the New Year for the visitors staying with us and also another family (who is business partners with our accountant) who are staying in a local hotel. Andrew was in his element being able to set of fire crackers. I think the neighbors know who we are now!

Just a few minutes ago Andrew came into the office and told me that 2 fire trucks and a Sheriff's car were at the next door neighbour's house. Of course I thought that they had come looking for us and had the wrong place until we saw the old man who lives there being wheeled out on a stretcher. I hope he is ok and I hope we didn't do anything to cause the problem. I hate fireworks! Actually, I like them when they are not lit in my back yard by my people.

Happy New Year to you all!

Our trip to America!

Despite the crazy lead up to leaving for America and the fact that we only booked our tickets 4 days before flying out, we managed to have a wonderful trip. I don't have a Christmas post because Christmas is a blur of booking hotels, cars and very little sleep! We left Sydney on Dec. 28th which was Bailey's birthday. He was pretty happy that he would get to celebrate his birthday twice as we would have Dec 28th again once we arrived in America.
 We flew into Los Angeles and planned to spend a few days there before driving accross to Las Vegas for Andrew's work part of the trip. We went to check out Hollywood on the first day and then went shopping and bowling on day 2.

It was interesting trying to fit 6 bags, a pair of skis and carry on luggage in the van with 6 people!

On the third day we went to Disneyland. I can't believe it has taken us about 10 trips to America to finally make it to Disneyland. Unfortunately it was so super busy because it was holiday time around the world, so the lines were super long, but we still managed to have fun!!

Bailey with a 'goofy' expression!

 Mitchell at Space Mountain



The Castle after dark



The Christmas tree lights at Disneyland



Sydney turns 1!

Sydney turned 1 in September. It has been a year of adventure with Sydney...Never a dull moment. We love her to bits (well I do), and she has been a wonderful addition to our family. Here are some shots of the highs and lows of her first year.

This is the photo of her I found on the adoption site which made me want to have her as our puppy. So chubby and cute! At rugby with the family

She loves peanut butter in her Kong!

And any kind of toy to tug

Feeling sorry for herself when she was recovering from surgery. She is a bit of a Diva..always hogging Darwins space on his bed! We came home to this one night...I guess she was bored, but this was the fourth bed she has chewed through. I bought her a metal framed one after this, with a mat, but she went through two mats in a month so now she gets a blanket on the bottom of the crate. It is the only thing she won't chew. This is a photo of her after her adventures this week. She sometimes forgets she is a girl and gets muddy with the boys!

Happy to report though that she is improving and life is getting easier with her. She loves us and we love her!

Jordan's 18th Birthday

On 28th Sep we celebrated Jordan's 18th birthday. I can't believe it has been 18 years since he was born into our family. I was reminiscing with him that his first word was 'ball'...anything round was a ball when he was little, so it is fitting that he is still obsessed with sport and balls.

We asked Jordan what we could do to celebrate his birthday for him and he said he just wanted to go to dinner with the family. He joked that none of his friends would be interested in the travel out to our house! Anyway, we had a nice night and now have to practice letting go...so hard to do after hanging onto them tightly for 18 years. We love you Jordy and are excited for what lies ahead for you!
At the restaurant...

Back home to open presents...

Another Grand Final!

It has been a busy few weeks for Jordan. His team made it to the Grand Final in Sydney against Sydney University at the end of September and his team (West Harbour Pirates) won. It was a great match and a convincing win 35-12. To make it even more exciting, Mitchell and Bailey were asked to be the ball boys for the game. They were excited to get their free "Pirates" uniforms. Below are some pictures of the game. Sorry the quality is so bad. Jordan is no. 7!

The ball boys...

Jordan making a tackle...

Jordan pushing at the back.

Jordan passing the ball...

Mitchell running the ball on the field and Jordan in the distance!
After the final whistle...

Another season over!