Steve's Birthday

Your birthday comes around each year. You get a little older, a few gifts and a few 'Happy Birthdays!" from your friends and family.  Unless you have Facebook and then you get inundated with Happy Birthdays and it just makes your day awesome. But I digress.

Steve got kinda ripped off this year for his birthday.  We were in the midst of asthma causing mold issues and were being told to leave the house.  I didn't even want to bake a cake or dinner in the house after mold spray was sprayed in and around the kitchen sink and counter.  So poor Steve had to forgo his Black Forest cake and we went out for dinner instead.  He wasn't too heartbroken. We went and had Chinese food and it was YUMMY.  Duck, suckling pig, and all kinds of other yummy foods were served.

DUCK! Really, it is.

Ethan loved the food.

Bok Choy, Mushrooms and Snails.  Yummy!

Steve likes his food!

And making faces.

We had him open his gifts. He was happy for his Terry Pratchett books. Even though his wife was a moron and put the books in the same bag as a water bottle that was NOT water tight... a few pages got wet in a few books but luckily it wasn't too bad.  He also got a few things for the house and he bought himself a pizza paddle and stone.   He also got a rice cooker later and every time we use it, Gavin is happy to remind him that he got it for his birthday.   I promised him I would make him his Black Forest cake when we get settled... that hasn't happened yet...

Heidi was thrilled to be able to take the gifts to Daddy.

Posing for pictures.

Now Heidi is REALLY helping.

Its not the sharpest pizza cutter but its kinda cute.

Anyway, now its time to do a little bragging about my husband.  You see, I got the best one out there.  He cares for his wife and children like you would never believe. He cooks, he cleans, he helps with laundry or whatever else I need help with. He ran the house while he let me live my dream of owning a bookstore.  He puts us all before himself.

When we go out on house hunting missions or to the park or zoo or whatever else we might be doing, he makes sure that we have lunches made - which include fruit and a drink before we go.  I am in charge of shoes, coats, socks and other items.  Guess who usually forgets their part of the deal...

I haven't thanked him nearly enough for what he has done for all of us.  We love you Steve and I hope that even though it was a mess, you had a fabulous birthday!

My Little Boy Turned Three!!

I'm a little behind on birthdays but I think I might have a little bit of an excuse with the whole moving twice since Ethan's birthday thing.  So here it goes.

Ethan got to start a little early for his birthday. We went to IKEA the week before and he found a bulldog that he loved "I want to hug its head!," he yelled from across the store.  He also informed me that he wanted a blue book as we went to a bookstore.  Which was nice that I found a "My Little Blue Book" at Borders!

Anyway, the day before Ethan's birthday we went to the zoo.  He wanted to go on a train and he wanted to go to the zoo. So we did.  He LOVED it.  He talked nonstop on the train and loved to see the animals. His favorites were the monkeys.  He was sad this last week when we went to the Healesville Sanctuary and there were no monkeys...

The morning of his birthday we started a new ward for our new house.  Ethan ran right into nursery and was playing with the kitchen when I introduced him. I was told I could go in and out of the room if I needed to but I just let him do his thing. And he was alright with that.  I also let them know it was his birthday.  I can't believe he goes to primary in January!! Sad.

After church we went home and started the frosting for the 'blue rocketship cake' he wanted and the pizza that Steve was so excited to make.  He first made meatballs and then sliced them up and put them on the pizza. Scrumptious!

We had friends over to celebrate.  We had a lot of fun talking while the kids burned out their energy running through the house.  That is one thing I liked about the house. There was LOTS of space.   The food was good.  Ethan enjoyed his gifts and he was thrilled to blow out the candles - even though Daddy had to help.

Ethan is very proud to tell people that he is three.  He's growing bigger every day and if you peek in on him you can hear him singing anything from "Bad" by Michael Jackson to "We're going up the hill, we're going up the hill, we're going up the hill".  He can sing every word to Thomas the Tank Engine, Bob the Builder and "Roarie the Racing Car" which is an Australian show.  He also knows the Donkey Kong version of 'Dynamite' and even gets into the teasing with the song "Jakob and Rebekah Sitting in a tree...." which is a riot to hear him try to spell.

My favorite thing that Ethan says that melts my heart is this:

Me:  Who's your best friend?
Ethan:  You're my best friend!

And it isn't even scripted.  I have been his best friend for a few weeks now and I'll take it while I can get it!  If anyone else asks, he gets mad and yells NO!  Right now, its safe to say that I have myself a little three year old who loves his mommy. Anyway, here are the pictures from Ethan at the zoo and then from his birthday.   I love my Ethan!

I asked Ethan to smile. This is the closest I got...

Ethan REALLY wanted a blue rocketship cake. This is what he got.  I have some work to do but I sure had fun making it! Not sure what happened to the photo...

Time to blow out the candles!

Jakob's Birthday

I tried to think of some catchy title but my brain is still in bed for the day.

Jakob turned 10 this week. Double digits!!  He likes to remind me that he has less than 10 years before he goes on his mission. Thanks for that. :)  But I am so proud of the fact that it is in his plans!!  He's getting so tall too.   He's already to my shoulders! I knew he would be tall. I just wasn't ready for it so soon.

He played in a soccer tournament last week and his team won four games and tied for the fifth!!  He even got to score a goal and he was happy about that. When Steve asked how he felt about scoring the goal, he shrugged his shoulders and said "I don't know." Modest at some moments and cocky at others.

So onto his birthday.  Sadly, it was also the last day at his school before moving to a new one. But there was a special program there where the grandparents and 'special friends' could come. Since we have neither quite yet, he had Steve and I come. :)  All of us had lunch on the 'lawn'(astro turf) and then the kids showed us around the school. We collected their things and headed off.  I had done my birthday shopping with Ethan and Heidi while I waited for the event to start.  I had way too much fun at the Borders bookstore but came out with an impressive lack of books.  I could have been much worse.

As soon as we got home, I started the cheesecake.  Steve had gone back to work for a while for a training so I had time to bake. He got done early and came home so we could start dinner.  Jakob asked every 2.7 minutes if it was time to open gifts yet.

FINALLY it was time.  He was thrilled with his gifts which I was happy about.  His Australian football book was his favorite and he had it read on the way to the zoo on Saturday!  Here are some photos from present opening time:

Then, on Saturday, we decided to go on a day trip for everyone's birthday (we have three within a week). Jakob wanted to go to the end of one of the train lines. Below is on the way to Lilydale.

And then Ethan wanted to go to the zoo. We were going to go to Healesville Sanctuary but we would have had to wait for 2 hours for a bus... so around we turned and went back to the Melbourne Zoo. I'm glad we got a membership because we'll have to go back to finish it!

I asked Jakob if he liked his birthday and he told me yes. I guess it was a success!!!  Today he starts his new school so we will have more news to share later. 

Birthday Time

Ashley and I share a birthday which is lots of fun. Right now Ashley loves it. Hopefully she'll continue to be happy about that. :)  We were in an apartment in a new city for our birthday so we kept things simple. Okay, so we went to the beach the day after as part of our birthday but that's kinda keeping it simple, right?

We also started the kids in school the day before her birthday so she got to stand up during the assembly for everyone to tell her Happy Birthday. She thought that was pretty cool.  She wanted a strawberry cake but cake mixes are harder to come by and more expensive here than in the US so she had chocolate cake with sprinkles. LOTS of sprinkles.  The boys helped!

Ashley got this koala holding a boomerang from her daddy. So cute!

 Jakob had to lay claim on one of the gifts.  Of course he picked the biggest one that ended up being a tea set.  He said, "I KNEW I wanted to give that one to her!"

 

 Time for the candles! I had to use the gas stove to light the candles. Probably not smart but I was careful. Then I got to walk very slowly over to the table with them. I deleted the picture Steve got of me chewing Gavin out for blowing out the candles...

 Heidi really liked the cake!!

And now its beach time!  The weather was awesome! It was the last time we got to go to the beach before it started getting too cold. Darn Autumn.  This was at Bonbeach and its our favorite of the four we have visited. 

On to MY cake.  I love this cheesecake recipe.  Best one EVER.

One nice thing about sharing a birthday is that there's enough cake to go around that you can keep yours to yourself as much as you want.  Everyone wanted Ashley's chocolate cake and I was perfectly okay with that!!

My, How Life Changes Fast!

Anyone that's followed us on facebook or emails will know that we have had a few changes in our life lately.  The bookstore closed, Steve got a job in Australia, and our little one turned 1.  With us moving to Australia, we wanted to make sure we visited all of our family because we wouldn't be back for at least a year and half (We're hoping to visit for Christmas of 2012).

Having had the bookstore, we became accustomed to having a crazy life. We had four kids playing sports, one in scouts, three in school and I was put in as 1st counselor in the Primary.  When asked how we survived it, we just say "we just did".   We even look back at life then and wonder how in the world we did it!!

When it was time to get ready to move, we took the things we learned from the insanity of the store and used to pack an entire house.  My sister was a huge help and kept me sane when I was about to lose it!  Because hey, I may have survived the year before but that didn't mean it was easy. Plus she was there through all of that too. :)  During all of the moving we had to figure out WHEN we were leaving but also how to visit everyone before we left. Steve's parents kept telling us that we didn't need to worry about going down there but I was determined we would make it because we love to visit them and because they're family.

The first visit was to my family.  We stayed a little longer so that I could go to the dentist to get a bridge fixed. THAT was fun.   Here are some pictures from then:

 It was a wonderful weekend.  I was sad to see it end.   My children had a very difficult time leaving and that made it even harder for me!!  A week later I had to go back to get my bridge put in again and it was hard driving past the turn off for Oakley and not get to go.  I did get to have frozen yogurt at a yummy place in Burley with my sister and her kids. It was awesome! And yummy - even if I only got to taste it with half a mouth... dumb numbing shots...

On the 28th of February I got a brand new nephew. I was so happy I got to be around when he was born. I was afraid I'd miss him!  And the next morning was Heidi's birthday.  She didn't get much of a birthday because of packing. But in the evening we stopped for a bit and let her have some of the amazing chocolate cake we'd gotten the night before for a birthday party.  Here are photos:

What a happy baby!!  She LOVED her cake.  And we were all so tired that we forgot to give her the gift we got her until two days later.   It was a little princess doll. I still need a picture of her cuddling up with her doll.

After all the packing on Friday and Saturday it was time for a nice break for Sunday.  But alas, we kept right on going.  We headed on down to St George and spent a wonderful day with Steve's family.   We stopped first at the Red Rocks to get pictures.  Then we headed over to Steve's sister's house to eat a yummy dinner.  After visiting there for a couple of hours we gave hugs and went to Steve's parents' house.  It was a fun time and we got pictures.  Some are blurry. :(

 

 

 We were sad we didn't get more time and it was hard to leave.  I don't like seeing Steve tear up but I knew what he was going through.  Its hard to say goodbye for long periods of time!! I can't wait until we come back to visit. 3 years and 11 months will go by fast and soooo slow at the same time. I'm determined to get as much out of this adventure as I can. But will sure be happy to go home when its all over!! Wow, just realized it really is 3 years and 11 months from today that our visa will be up...


 For any of you that follow this blog but don't know about our travel blog, it is www.weistadventures.blogspot.com.  That one has pictures and stories about our move to Australia and what we've experienced.

I love and miss all of you!!  I will continue this blog for family type stuff like birthdays and holidays.  This gives me a hobby and something to do since I have so much time on my hands now! For now....