One day to go

The house is clean, the shelves are stocked, cooking has been done, the yard is manicured, fresh sheets and towels are ready, and we have some very excited people waiting. I have never had a problem with sleep before but I haven't been able to sleep the last 2 nights from about 2:30 onwards - I dont know if its anxiety, excitement or something else, but its making me really tired, so I hope that changes tonight. Tomorrows the day and I cant believe after all the talk, wishing and planning that its so close.

This is all the cousins on my side missing 4 kids. Imagine us at amusement parks restaurants, everywhere we go will be a spectacle!

Rise and Shout the cougars are out!

Saturday was the BYU - SDSU football game. We had been excited for so long, Chad got 50 tickets and we got a group together (we should have got 150 because so many people wanted to go) sitting in the San Diego section because BYU didnt have that many together. I read in the paper today that the stadium was two thirds BYU fans thats gotta feel pretty good when you are the visiting team. Its always fun when your team wins and that BYU did easily 48-27. The kids had a ball together cheering, running around, taunting the other teams cheerleaders and mascot and eating nachos. Even though growing up in Australia we would make fun of American football with all the pads and the time in between plays, I really do enjoy watching the game now that I fully understand it. BYU football is pretty big in our house so I know about alot of the players which helps me enjoy watching it alot too!

Trent watching the players warm up

Notice no one in the stands, we had to get there over an hour early so we could watch the team warm up, and that was the only time it rained.

We had white and blue paint to use on the kids faces but by the end of the night the boys got brave and crazy (it was freezing cold) and showed their true BYU spirit! Hey they were doing everything they could to get on the big screen and therefore be on television!

It's Raining its pouring!

Of all the days for it to pour with rain it had to be today! Today was supposed to be Abby and the 1st graders field trip to Legoland, and I was a chaperone. They have all been so excited, she has been asking me questions about it for weeks and so excited because I had gone with the older kids, so she thinks I know everything that we will be doing. We made arrangements for the other kids, packed treats and lunches last night, even had early nights because we had to be at school at 7:45am. Early this morning I woke up to it pouring with rain, I was so sure that it would die down or even stop but it has not even let up. The teachers were really kind and pretty much left it up to us parents who were there whether we should still go or cancel. We all said cancel - I dont want my child on a bus, on the freeway, with no seatbelt, in the 1st big rain of the season therefore slick roads and walking around in the rain all day! Well needless to say there were alot of tears and upset kids but they were promised it would be rescheduled. So what is one to do on a day now that the day is free and with no children - some of the mothers went to breakfast at the pancake house - mmm mmm good!

The countdown is so on!

So it is only 10 days now until my family from Australia arrive. I know it sounds exciting but let me share the details and just exciting it will be. It has always been one of my Dads dreams for our family to have a White Christmas, you see it is summer time in Australia for Christmas so it is a huge novelty, after singing all the carols that involve snow and seeing all the movies. This year he finally made it come true, next week my 5 siblings, their spouses and 15 kids and my parents will board a plane and travel way too many miles and hours to come visit me. This will be the first time for many of them to come to the U.S. and as you can imagine it has been a huge undertaking. My Dad went back to work for 7 months pretty much to pay for the majority of it and it has been a full time job coordinating the itinerary which is planned to the last detail. We will stay in Temecula the first weekend, using my wonderful neighbors house(she will go to a hotel) and my house - 32 people is alot of bodies to house. Then is the crazy week of 3 days at Disneyland, Universal studios, San Diego zoo, Sea World, baptisms in the temple and a session for the adults. Are you worn out yet thats only in 1 week! Then we head up to Utah (pray for snow) for skiing, sledding, snowmobiling, Temple square, BYU and the usual sights and Christmas. Its going to be crazy, exciting, fun, tiring, loud and most of all so incredibly memorable - I cant wait!

Oh What A Night!

Back in the summer a group of us got tickets for the So You Think You Can Dance tour in San Diego, at the time we were pretty excited, cut to a few months later and the excitement had waned a little. To prepare for our night we got together and watched the finale and some memorable dances and episodes, it definitely pumped us up again. Monday night was the night, we left early to go shopping at Ikea and then had Cheesecake Factory for dinner (so good, so loud, so many laughs). Each step of our day/night kept getting better and better and better. We went to the concert and it was so great there was every dance that we wanted and more they were so awesome, it really makes you think you could do it just like them! So we never thought it would get any better but then we got to meet them all and take pictures with them due to some searching and info gathering. It was so worth the wait they were super friendly and fun and willing to take silly pictures with us. I so think I can dance, look at me and Sabra (the winner) with our dance moves, and Neil and I had this move down from one of his dances. Oh my GOOD TIMES, I cant believe we laughed so much, great night that just got better as it went on - Thanks Guys!






We took so many good pictures, this has been so hard to choose, I may get excited and post some more! Do you really think Sabra was having a hard time with that pose - like I was, she was so nice to play around with us.

The Derby

Thursday night was Trent's last Pinewood Derby. I didn't get to go because it was also Hayley's championship game in ward basketball which they won in a really exciting game 28-27. This year Trent (well all of us) were bound and determined to do well in the race because in the previous years he hasn't done so well. We started working on the cars a few weeks earlier, mainly because Chad was going to be traveling and we couldn't wait till the last minute. This year there was a Dads/siblings competition as well, which really turned into a Luke's car. We thought out of the 2 cars Trent would get the faster one, and Luke of course wanted his to look just like Trent - BYU cars! We even called the winner from last year and got all of his secrets and he even helped us attach the wheels, however the weighting job was up to me because Chad was gone. Come race night Trents car came a very respectful 5th place overall, but I guess Luke got the faster car because his came first every time in the family competition. As you can imagine he thought it was the greatest thing and loved every second of it - so I am told!


This weekend we decided to get a new trampoline to replace the one that was blown away and destroyed in the winds. We got this industrial strength (so it seems), square trampoline from Sams Club and spent all afternoon putting it together. When we were almost done our neighbor informed us that next Wednesday the Santa Ana winds are supposed to return (sigh), so I guess we will see how this one stands up. Seeing Chad and I can barely move it I think we will be o.k., but I guess we never thought that the other one could blow over the fence either - I'll keep you posted.

Relief

Yay, today we had our primary program, it went very well but now its over! I am the primary chorister in our ward, so I have been teaching these songs all year and we have sung them over and over, I am so sick of them, and now we are done so we don't have to sing them any more, well for a few months at least. At the practice on Thursday the word that comes to mind was disaster, we have a very big primary and the kids were so not into practicing or singing, but it all came together and the kids did so well, actually it was really very good. So relief that its over - now to the Christmas songs!

Yay, soccer is over! I love watching the kids play, but after a few months of no Saturdays and constant practices it will be nice to have a break. Well Trent just started another bball league and flag football - yeah both at the same time - what were we thinking? Chad is helping our bishop coach the boys in football, so that takes pressure off me for driving and stuff - nice!

The kids have no school tomorrow and I'm trying to keep them from destroying my house because I have enrichment here Tuesday night, so I'm thinking of taking them to a movie. Mr Beans Holiday is at the cheap theaters anyone seen it? - is it any good?

Change of plans

I was so ready for my day today. I was actually going to workout this morning with a friend at 6:30, everything was ready, I was actually excited and I even went to bed early to make it easier on me getting up. While Luke was at preschool for 2 1/2 hours I was going to hit Target (always enjoyable) and make a bunch of returns all over town. I was actually looking forward to my day. Well of course Luke started throwing up in the middle of the night, just to let me know that when you have kids you are never in control and to throw a kink into my excitement. As you can imagine my plans have now changed. Today will be spent cleaning carpets, doing all sorts of laundry, cleaning my mattress, cleaning walls and toilets and laying on the couch with my sweet boy and watching Ratatouille that we luckily bought yesterday. Besides the cleaning I will enjoy laying around with my Luke, almost as good as a trip to Target!

Time Out

This weekend Hayley and I went on a little trip. Friday we met up with my sister in law and her daughter who is Hayleys age and headed up to Long Beach. We did some shopping, went to Olive Garden and then watched a movie in our hotel room. Saturday morning we went to Time Out for women and girls, it was one of those church sponsored seminars geared toward young girls and their mums. There were 4 speakers including Ardeth G Kapp, and some EFY speakers and some popular church singers - Hillary Weeks, Abe Mills and Jenny Frogley. It was so great, they had the perfect messages and Hayley loved it. We laughed, felt the spirit and totally felt uplifted after a full day of singing and talks. I loved hearing Sister Kapp, I so remember when she came to Perth when I was in YW and my ward got to sing for her, we came back from girls camp especially and it really was a big deal. She also talked about the worldwide celebration where we released the balloons - do you remember that? I hadn't thought of that in years and years. Good time!

Saturday night I went with some friends (Chad was in Hong Kong) to one of those bounce house places. They had rented it out just for a bunch of adults. Oh my goodness it was so fun, I dont think I have laughed that hard in a while. We did races and obstacle courses, karaoke, and basically acted like kids! We were all so sore the next day and I have burns all over my elbows from going down the slides to show for the good time - so worth it!

Continued

o.k. so I still don't have this blog thing down so here are some more pictures I couldn't get on the last one.




And now to take down the decorations and think about Thanksgiving! Hope your night was a blast!

Treats, no tricks

Every Halloween we have a competition in our pumpkin carving boys vs girls, somehow it is always a tie, can you imagine that!

This Halloween was a little different, it was the first time we didn't trick or treat with Hayley and Trent, and I had a little bit of a hard time with it, I guess they are growing up. The Beutlers had a big dinner and then all the kids went trick or treating together with friends, they had a ball. We had Brad and Chelsea and Chads parents come over for dinner and then we all went out together. Bryce and Sue stayed at home to pass out the candy which made it so nice for us!

Abby was so happy with her costume this year, you may know that she has a sick little obsession with ketchup, fueled only by her siblings embarrassment and annoyment (is that even a word). She got so much attention and loved every second of it.
Luke and Jack were twin spidermans and thought they were cool after each house they did spidey roles down the grass, after awhile they got tired because their candy bags were so full.
Trent decided on his costume 10 mins before pictures were taken, he has changed his mind maybe 10 times in the last few weeks, so he was stuck with a magician, and has learnt his lesson for next year to be more prepared.
Hayley and her friend were pink ladies and got plenty of use out of their costumes this year with all sorts of places to go dressed up, and I will be able to use the jacket for future years parties - yay!

I have been tagged!

So I guess when you are tagged you are supposed to write 6 things about yourself, so here goes
1. I am in the process of becoming a dual citizen of both Australia and the US. My children also will become dual (right now they are US citizens), although it is so much more complicated for me than for them and more expensive.
2. My friend Sue and I are going to apply for the Amazing Race - how could they not want us we are 2 Mormon stay at home housewives with 9 kids between the 2 of us. Well we really like to dream and plan together, we would kick butt you know!
3. When I grow up I want to be a dolphin trainer, oh wait I already am grown up, well I love dolphins and will swim with them again soon!
4. The last book I read is A Thousand Splendid Suns, I really enjoyed it and love being in a book club so I have an excuse for sitting around and reading.
5. I go crazy when the bottom floor of my house is a mess - upstairs not a problem, but downstairs has to always be presentable.
6. I cant believe Sabrina got kicked off of Dancing with the stars - its a conspiracy, even though she wasn't my favorite she was definitely the best dancer, Marie Osmond or Jane Seymour should have been voted off.

So thats it, I guess now I have to tag 6 people - therefore I tag Hayley, Madi, Riley, Cordin and Chelsea! Have fun!

Clean Up Time!

With no sports games to attend because they were all cancelled, we decided to tackle our yard and the clean up. Everything is covered in a layer of ash and dirt which needed a big rainfall to wash it all away. Can you believe it Saturday afternoon it actually rained a little - how perfect! We retrieved our trampoline from the neighbors yard which was all bent and broken, so we had to dismantle and trash it. In the afternoon was our ward carnival which was moved inside the building and was alot of fun. Chad sure enjoyed it, he was one of the judges in the pie contest and Abby won one of the costume prizes for most creative costume - a bottle of ketchup is her costume and boy is she ecstatic!

Following the carnival we went up to Chad's parents house, they live on 5 acres and have an avocado grove. With all the winds this week a ton of the avocados blew off the trees and would starting going bad very soon. We came to the rescue! With the dogs and the tractor we picked avocados for a few hours. Most were still very small, but it was so sad because there were so many that had fallen. I heard that in Fallbrook and the De Luz area (where they live) it produces 80% of the states avocados and 30% of those were burned in the fires. Watch out the prices of avocados are going up. Anyway we collected hundreds and hundreds of avocados, and hopefully they will still taste good because they are still not quite ready.

We have been to church, now we are working on Trents cereal box book report which is so not fun. I'm so excited for dinner I am making Byrons spicy pumpkin soup that I only make once a year at this time - oh it is so good!






Guacamole anyone?

Good News

On Wednesday the winds died down which was great for fighting the fires, but it was horrible for the smoke, which now was not blowing away. Outside was thick with smoke, that when you inhaled literally hurt and it was raining ash (that is not fun to clean up). So because of the unhealthy air everything has been cancelled - school through the weekend, preschool, our school carnival, soccer, bball, dance, scouts - you name it cancelled (oh and the BYU game , but it was rescheduled to Dec 1). So what did we do, we got out of this unhealthy air and went to Disneyland for the day where the air was so much better but probably still unhealthy. We had a fun day switching between the 2 parks, Soarin is my fave ride - I love it I could ride it all day long. I cant wait for my family to come in Dec and come to Disneyland, the whole time we were thinking about how much they will love this ride and that ride.

More good news is that Todd and Britt are back in their house, it was saved, but I guess parts of the neighborhood look like a war zone. Besides the smoke things are looking so much better with the fires - now cleanup time.

Other good news is that Hairspray is now at the cheap movie theaters, so today I will take the kids again. We now have all the words memorized, so I feel sorry for the people sitting around us!





In front of the older kids fave ride- screamin and Luke loved tow Mater and Lightning McQueen.

FIRES!

Not a very fun time around here lately. The news and outside is absolutely crazy, we are on edge and very unsettled. It is so hard to not stay planted in front of the TV or computer watching for updates. Chads parents have been evacuated but they now know their house is ok. Chads brother and his wife have been evacuated since early Mon morning and still have no news. Below is a picture from our house yesterday of a fire behind us, there are also fires to the west that we see. Thankfully the winds have died down today. They have been unbelievable the last few days, as well as low low humidity and hot temperatures - the perfect ingredients for a fire storm - well we got it. In fact it was so windy the other day my friend came to help me stake up some trees that had blown over when we noticed the fence was blown over, I went to look at it and realized that our trampoline had blown over the fence into our neighbors yard.

I have a good husband, it got a little scary the other night when we could see flames coming into Temecula, so he straight away got on a flight and came home. It made me feel so much better to have him home. I am sharing him with my neighbor whose husband is a firefighter and gone for who knows how long, she is also pregnant with twins.

Our prayers go out to all affected by these fires. The firefighters are so brave, we got our own little taste of being in a fire Sun night when I was meeting my sis in law half way from Palm Desert to pick up Hayley (she had been staying with them for the weekend) About 100ft from the turnoff to get there we were all of a sudden surrounded by flames on either side of us it was completely black and eerie. I was so close to Hayley and just wanted to continue on to get to her. The kids started crying and telling me to turn around so we back tracked and went the very long way.

More bad news is the BYU/SDSU game that we bought 50 tickets for this weekend is canceled. All games in the San Diego area are completely canceled for all sorts of reasons. So our big BYU game and party is now not going to happen, I feel a little silly for being upset about it though with everything that is going on.

So kind of a downer of a post - sorry, not much good stuff to report.

Because I'm the Mom

For every mother to see!

Hair cutting time

When Chad and I first got engaged, he bought me some hair cutting clippers. He told me that he never wanted to pay for another haircut and he didn't care how his hair looked until I learned to use them. So for 14 years I have cut his hair, I admit at the beginning there were many hat days but I thought I had gotten pretty good. I also cut my boys hair and pride myself on saving the money. One day a few months back, Chad desperately needed a haircut and things were crazy busy at home and he might have even been mad at me and he went to the barbershop and got his hair cut by someone else(its true!). When he got home you would think that I would have felt betrayed but I was so happy - he looked so handsome, so much better than I had ever made him look. Then I got sad because I had been holding him back all these years from being the hottest he could be. Anyway I am over it now. Luke has never liked getting his hair cut, so one day Chad took him to the barber store - he loved it. Needless to say, now all the boys go together on a little date every month or so to get groomed and I am so happy. One less thing I am not needed for and I love it. Yesterday they all got done and they look so clean cut and handsome, no hair all over my floor to clean up! Worth every penny.

Its the small things in life

I was at the grocery store today - Albertsons in fact and because I didnt have any kids with me I decided to go up and down every aisle, they have just redone the store and I am still learning my way through the place and where things are located. When what did I come across but the new English section which just happened to have one of my very favorite Australian chocolate bars - Yipee! I started piling them into my cart and then realized, I do not need to stock up because every time I come to the store I can buy one - oh my that just made my day. It is called a Violet Crumble - honeycomb covered in chocolate - quite enjoyable! Now there are a few more things from home that I would love to get at my local grocery store, but one thing at a time right. Today I am grateful for the small things in life, like chocolate.

Its a beautiful day in the neighborhood

I love living in our cul de sac. For any of you that visit our street regularly you would know that it is always full of kids playing. Tuesdays is my only day where I am not running kids to different activities, Abby has soccer but she is in a carpool that I dont drive on this day. So today after homework we played outside and enjoyed the crisp fall air. Hayley decided to teach Luke how to rollerblade, as you can imagine he spent more time on his bottom than his feet but he was smiling the whole time - ok I guess there was some tears and some blood, but he smiled the majority of the time. I feel so lucky to be able to raise my kids on a street with so many great neighbors and in a neighborhood that feels so safe. The amount of hours that I have spent out front watching kids and chatting with friends is really quite astounding!

Happy Birthday to you - cha cha cha

Hope you have a wonderful day. Its only fitting that I leave you a post seeing you are the one to start me doing all of this crazy blogging stuff. Oh and by the way cute jacket, just your size!

Especially for my mum

Ever since we did our backyard I have been wanting a patio cover. The sun shines right through our back windows all afternoon and I have to close the blinds everyday. It has been at the top of my list but chad has always wanted to do other projects over my patio cover. Well in the middle of August we were asked by some friends of ours if we could have their wedding and reception in our backyard on September 8th. Of course we would love too, even though our grass was suffering - whos wasnt it was like 100 degrees everday that month, and that was stressing us out to get it looking really good. Well we were getting ready to do a builtin at the time when I mentioned to Chad - heh what do you think of doing a patio cover now, seeing we will have 200 people in our backyard and we (me) have always really wanted one! Well I won (Yay), and in 3 weeks we got quotes and had one built, literally being finished the day before they started setting up for the wedding. My mum asked for pictures of it so these are for you! By the way the wedding was beautiful and luckily so was the weather, if it had been a week earlier it would have been 107. I love this patio cover - half is completely covered and half is lattice, we spend so much time under it now, reading, eating and hanging out, I knew I would be right, I knew we needed one!

Saturday is a special day

Arent Saturdays the day where you get ready for Sunday, well not so much around our house, we usually get ready for Sunday somewhere around late Saturday night. So with 2 kids in soccer and 2 kids playing bball, our days can be a challenge with Chad and I having to split up with the kids. Well throw Chad being out of town and it gets a little crazy. So Hayleys game was at 10.00, then Lukes at 10.30, followed by Trents game at a different location from Hayley at 11.00 and then Abbys at 1.00. When I woke up and it was raining I thought our soccer games may be cancelled, but no such luck, we evn lucked out and didnt even get wet. I am lucky to have wonderful friends who were able to help me out with my children and their games - thankyou! And the results - Hayley, Abby and Lukes team won and Trents team didnt.

our new additions

My family are a bunch of pet lovers. They are constantly begging for a dog or a cat. We really havent had too much luck in the pet department. I refuse to get a dog yet, because my kids are not responsible enough to clean up the poop, that was demonstrated when we had cats. We have had 3 cats get eaten by coyotes since we have lived in Temecula and one that was accidently run over by yours truly (now even though I didnt adore it, that was a devastating experience especially when I did it in front of Luke who absolutely adored it). My favorite pet was our desert tortoise that was about 25 years old and we had for 3 years. At the beginning of this summer he dug a hole under our fence and was gone, we still are crossing our fingers that he will return.
Anyways a few months ago we thought it would be fun to get a bird, not too much clean up with birds right. We got a parakeet and the kids have really enjoyed it. Well thats all Chad needed, this weekend we got 2 more and a bigger cage. Now I know that parakeets sound pretty boring, but we have them pretty well trained where you can pet them, have them on your lap, shoulder whatever and really be able to play with them. So far so good with the birds - I'll keep you posted

Apple Schmear

So I had this great idea to go to Julien this weekend and pick apples, you know really get into the spirit of Fall. So I told the kids how much fun it wuld be picking apples (even though we have apple trees in our back yard) and getting pie, then we made the 1 hour trek. When we got there, the place is jam packed, no parking anywhere and a complete traffic jam. It seemed like many other people had the same great idea as me. It was also apple days and the apple picking places were closed because of the amount of people - so fun!!!! Chad said it was just like Disneyland, however that is not a good thing, he hates Disneyland because of the crowds. So we pretty much turned around and came home, with a few short pit stops along the way. (We had to stop at the chocolate factory we passed and we had to have some apple pie). So when we returned home a little disappointed we decided to play a game - apple schmear! If you have watched cheaper by the dozen as many times as we have you will know how to play. We got the rotten apples off our apple trees and played baseball with them. It was pretty fun, the apple pieces and juice went everywhere, incuding your face when you made a good hit. We had alot of fun and it made up for the disappointment of our Julien trip.

what am I doing

Ok seriously I dont know what possessed me, I am addicted to reading many peoples blogs, I love to see what is happening in other peoples lives. I have always thought this would be a great thing to do for my family in Australia, but couldnt bring myself to actually be a blogger. Then the other day my Gran from Australia told me how sad it makes her that she doesnt get to hear about the day to day things in my kids life - that was it ! So Ive sucked it up and entered the world of blogging. Here goes!