Botanical Gardens

On December 30th we went to the Botanical Gardens. We had a nice walk around and saw some cool plants.

Sleepy Heads, part 2

I have finally made a decision. Liam and Jonas have shared a room ever since Jonas has been sleeping through the night. I hesitated separating them because they are such sweet brothers (sometimes) and this is what I would find most night when I went in their room to check on them:


Sweet, right? It would be except that for the hour following up to this moment there would be fighting, doors slamming, sneaking out of the room, screaming and crying. But every night when I went into their room after they fell asleep I would see the above and forget everything that had just happened. Finally after one too many trips into their room to turn off the lights and put them back in their own beds with a warning that they better stop fighting/screaming/playing loudly, they were separated. They have been in their own rooms now for a few nights and can you guess what has happened? They go to sleep! I don't know what I was waiting for. I am sure at some point they will be roommates again but until then I am going to enjoy my quiet evenings after bedtime.

The Evolution of my Purse

When I was in high school I wouldn't be caught dead with a purse. I could usually just get away with keeping my debit card/cash in my back pocket (I didn't get my license until I was 19). When I started driving I had the smallest purse I could find and was so happy to find one of these wallet-purses at Eddie Bauer.


I got away with this for years. I knew people who loved purses so much that they had a bunch of different ones and would even move their stuff around from purse to purse. Ugh! I just couldn't imagine liking purses so much that you would have MORE THAN ONE!

For Christmas last year my sister-in-law/parents-in-law got me this really cute reversible grayish corduroy purse with pink and gray plaid on the other side. I think this is the point where I fell in love with purses. It was so nice to be able to fit my keys, sunglasses, chap stick, receipts, cards, money, camera...anything I wanted into my purse without worrying about it still closing.


A few months later when we met up for a family reunion in Pennsylvania they found another purse that they thought I should have. It has lots of different colored stripes on it. I LOVE IT!


This year for Christmas Nate picked out (meaning I emailed him the link to the one I wanted) this lovely purse for me. I can't tell you how much I love this thing. It is HUGE (big enough that I could fit a binder in it...if I had one). The circles are this nice, soft fabric. I could just pet it all day long. I think I am officially addicted to purses!


If my high school self could see me now she would be shaking her head in disgust.

Happy Anniversary to US!

Its hard to believe we've been married for 7 years until I think about everything we've done in those 7 years! We have had 2 kids, moved 13 times, lived in 5 different states, graduated from 2 universities (working on the third), vacationed in Scotland, Virginia and Pennsylvania, bought a house and sold a house. There is never a dull moment in this family. I am so grateful for Nate and how hard he works for our family. I would happily follow him around the world...oh wait, done that too! I love you Nate!!

I wish I had pictures from our first 3 years of marriage but that was before everyone had digital cameras (and we left all of our real pictures back in the states). You'll just have to imagine how great we looked back then! This is where all of the real fun started anyways...

Liam joins the family, July 24, 2004 (SLC, UT)

Family picture, December 2004 (Dublin, CA)

Family Picture, November 2005 (Springfield, MO)

Jonas arrives August 26, 2006 (Springfield, MO)

Trip to Nauvoo and Carthage Jail, July 2007

Our lovely house, January 2008 (Cortland, IL)

Trip to Virginia, January 2008

Family Reunion, May 2008, Pennsylvania

Beach, November 2008, (Australia)

Did Santa Come?

There were times we really wondered if he would come but we woke up on Christmas morning to find that he finished all of the cookies and milk and most of the carrots. Here are a few pictures of the kids enjoying their morning.

New Pajamas

Chocolate for breakfast

Jonas the Builder

An Australian Christmas

I am used to big Christmas dinners with a lot of family around. I like it this way. This year it was pretty obvious that it was going to be a quiet Christmas since it was just the four of us. So when we were invited to Christmas dinner by a family from church we decided to accept (when we might normally politely decline so we wouldn't intrude on someone's family celebrations).

It was definitely a Christmas of firsts. Obviously our first Christmas in Australia and our first summer Christmas, but the whole day was a completely new experience for me. It was fun to be able to take on someone else's traditions for the day and get to experience what I think was a pretty authentic Australian Christmas.

We started off the meal (sitting together at the table, there were only 9 of us total) with a "Christmas Cracker".


A person holds each ends, pulls and it cracks when it opens. Inside you will find a little toy, a joke and a paper hat (looks a little like a king's crown). We all wore our hats while eating dinner (definitely a first). Dinner was roast duck (a first for me), turkey, carrots, potatoes, green beans, snow peas and peas. Then for dessert we had plum pudding with custard (both firsts for me).



As much as I missed being surrounded by family eating ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls and heaps of side dishes and desserts it was fun to do something different and I am happy that we are able to try new things and make the best of this Australian experience. I'm hoping one of these years we will spend Christmas on the beach eating BBQ!! I hear that is a popular tradition as well!

Thinking about my family's traditional holiday meals made me wonder what your holiday meals are usually like. What do you usually have for Christmas dinner?

Christmas Lights

Some of our friends from church took us out driving to look at Christmas lights. It was so funny because there would be whole streets where everyone had some kind of lights display, which really isn't that abnormal. The thing that I thought was different is that the owners would be out in front of their houses with snacks to share, chairs to sit in and sometimes even singing carols. When I mentioned to Nate how different this was from the US he reminded me that it is summer here. Nobody wants to hang out in front of their house singing Christmas Carols in the middle of winter.

There was one house that was by far the coolest house I have ever seen. This picture really doesn't do it justice but its the only one we have. You could walk up onto their porch and in each window they had some kind of display. One was all angels, one all Santas, another a scene of a woman sitting next to her fireplace complete with mini stockings, etc. The amount of lights on the house was amazing. Especially when you consider that each strand is around $20. We were wondering if they had round the clock security to make sure their decorations were safe!


This is a picture of us standing outside of the house. Where else can you wear your Hawaiian shirt on Christmas?!