Matthews Family

Welcome to the World Carter

2017-07-20T03:51:00.001-07:00

Intoducing Carter Gideon Maramatanga Matthews

Oh my gosh what a crazy week it has been! I have finally gotten a few minutes to sit down and reflect on the all that has happened and put down Carter's birth story.

To put this all in perspective we need to get a few things straight about this pregnancy. Firstly it was a surprise. So while we were planning another baby we were still a little thrown when those 2 little lines showed up on the test. I had no symptoms, I just happened to see a test in the bathroom and took it just for the fun of it. (I had bought a pack of 100 on ebay when we were trying for Ammon).
The initial scan didn't look promising and I was told to be prepared to miscarry in the next few days. However nothing happened. 2nd scan changed up my dates, 3rd scan changed them again. 4th scan told us we were having a girl.

This pregnancy went nothing like my other three. I had terrible morning sickness and didn't leave the house for over a month. Aarahi did everything while I hibernated on the couch under a blanket in the middle of summer. I didn't put on any weight until around 26 weeks. Also for the last few weeks I was really struggling to actually function. I had to get Aarahi to help me to the bathroom in the middle of the night and wake him up to turn me over. When it came to delivery, I went into labour 4 weeks early.

So onto the day it all went down. On Sunday morning I was feeling off and called the hospital and they told me to come in to see what was going on. My doctor showed up to check me, he said I was probably not in labour but he soon changed his mind when he checked and found I was 4cm. I wasn't in proper labour but would likely be back later that night.

Aarahi and I left the hospital and decided to pretend it wasn't Sunday and went to the shopping centre for lunch and to pick up a few last minute things. I was actually really lovely to have that time together without the kids.

We picked up the kids from my cousins house and then contractions started to become for consistent. I wasn't convinced as I had been having contractions for the last 3 days that always stopped. However these were still going at 8pm so I rang the hospital and they said come when I was ready. They then rang back 20mins later saying my doctor wanted me to come straight away given the history of my previous two labours going from zero to baby in a very short period of time. Yey for hypnobirthing.

Aarahi nipped off to the petrol station to get some bread and milk for the kids breakfast, and I waited my for cousins to arrive and finish packing my bag. Now at this point I thought "I should pack some boys clothes just incase" I had always had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that this baby was a boy. Anyway I didn't pack anything boyish and felt sorry for the baby that was going to have boy blankets because I hadn't found the girls ones yet.

Once we arrived at the hospital, the doors were locked and we had to wait about 10mins for the people to open them...okay maybe an exaggeration but when you are in labour things seem much worse. They examined me and I was at 5cm. So not bad considering I still wasn't in too much discomfort.

I got in the shower and Aarahi went to have a sleep since I was fine doing in on my own for now. I knew I would need him more awake at the end. A few hours later my doctor came by to visit and I was 7cm and still not in much pain or discomfort. But I was enjoying some happy gas, I love that stuff, it's my favourite part of giving birth.

I knew I wanted an epidural this time and that if I asked for it when I felt I needed it I wouldn't get it in time, so I asked for in now. But since I was doing "so well" that had me hold off a bit longer. I should have pushed harder to get it. I knew in my head I had missed my opportunity. My reasoning for wanting it is that I lose all control in the last 5 minutes and have never been "present" enough to enjoy or appreciate those first few moments of baby being born. I really really wanted that this time.

A hour or so later my waters broke and I asked for my epidural again and they went and organised it for me. It would take 20mins for the anaesthetist to arrive. I knew I didn't have 20mins. I knew this baby was coming and it was going to come fast. I was in denial though. I was in denial when the head was out and I was still saying it wasn't too late.

The anaesthetist did arrive and I remember telling him he was my best friend (high on happy gas) and that if he wanted to chop my legs off that was fine with me. Aarahi went out of the room while I was getting the epidural but was quickly called for because as I suspected as soon as I sat up the baby came out in 2 pushes just like I had told them it would.

They put him up on my chest and I checked to see if he was a girl....nope a boy, and he was the blondest baby I have ever seen.

They quickly took him though as he was as flat as a pancake when he came out. He only had an apgar of 1. It was all very crazy and he was rushed off to special care for breathing treatments. Aarahi went with him.

After they finished stitching me all up and I had a shower I went down to see him and he was just fine. Although he didn't look anything like one of our kids. He was pretty bruised up too.

Carter and I spent a blissful 5 days in hospital while Aarahi did an amazing job of holding down the fort at home.

My favourite time of night is hanging out with these two once Auron and Lili have gone to bed.

Unimpressed by his clothing

Auron is very catious about baby holding, Lili on the other hand has it down to a tee.

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Market Days and Toilet Training

2017-06-25T03:19:00.001-07:00

This week is still a bit of a blur. I was sick one day and spent the whole day in bed. The thing about being a mother however is you never really get to have a sick day or a day off. I still had to get up and make sure kids weren't destroying the kitchen in the process of cooking themselves dinner and I still had nappies to change and bed time routines to follow through on. Lucky for everyone it was only a one day thing and things went back to normal the next day.

Lili my sensitive little child had a hard time this week during school work. We have been learning about Ancient Egypt and mummies. I think I have scared the poor kid for life. We also learnt about paper making and she ended up in tears because of the trees being cut down. It was altogether a pretty traumatic. Lili is very excited about having a new baby. She is quite concerned that the new baby might "beat her up" like Ammon. I think a new baby will be good for Lili. She is a such a good little mother and loves to try mother Ammon however he is not all that in to being bossed around by his sister. A defenceless newborn will be perfect for her to smother with love.

On Saturday we went for a drive to a market out in the bush. It was really really cool. The kids loved it and we loved it too. We were smart and brought our lunch with us to eat in the car before hand otherwise we could have easily spent waaaaaay too much. We did buy several incredibly good sweet treats. Lili purchase a cute felted bag for church. We have a Little Critter book called "Being Thankful" where Little Critter gets a Thankful Rock to help him remember to be grateful. Lili and Auron saw some pretty little rocks which they purchased from a very eccentric old man selling healing crystals. These are their thankful rocks.

Ammon has been toilet training this week. We have been a bit hit and miss with it as we haven't been as persistent as we probably should have been. At one stage though he threw my phone in the toilet. Auron saved it as quick as he could but it's still a little water damaged but you can only see it if you hold it in a certain light. I swear it is the most indestructible phone. It would even give the old brick Nokia's a run for their money. It's sat at the bottom of the pool for a few hours, visited the mop bucket, and several trips to the toilet.

Definitely Back to Reality

2017-06-18T16:13:00.002-07:00

We have had a couple of months to settle back into normal life. We are still not fully unpacked. I still have the majority of my clothes in my suitcase, probably because they just don't fit me any longer! Our candy stash has significantly diminished too.

The kids started back at gymnastics, we bought a new car, our old car got the seal of death a few days later so we now need to buy a second car (bleeding money this year!) We still need to do the landscaping and organise the fencing for our house. I'm just waiting for our neighbours to organise the fences actually because I don't want to do it! I just want someone to put the bill in my mailbox.

We have tried to get organised for the new baby but it's just not happening very well. I had a doctors appointment this week and it looks like I will be induced at 38 weeks as I am growing some kind of sumo wrestler or something. Baby is measuring a month ahead and already close to newborn size. So while I do usually have big babies (over 4kg/9 pounds) the prospect of going full term and having a 5kg+ baby is not ideal. So that really cuts down my time to get organised!

This past Monday was Queen's Birthday weekend here so Aarahi and I packed up the kids and headed into the mountains for a BBQ and walk around Hanging Rock. There was a kangaroo hanging out next to our picnic table who was so friendly that he was happy for all the kids to pet him. He tolerated all the attention from people for a good hour before he bounced off into the bush again.

We have had a school break this past week. Auron just finished his reading curriculum and ready to move up a level. We took only 6 weeks to complete a years work, however a lot of it was review. But the last 3 weeks were pretty intense for both of us and we needed a well deserved break. We will start the next level in a few weeks, until then we be working really hard on our writing skills with some fun lessons I have planned as well as continuing with our normal maths, history, art etc

We planned to do go on dates with each of our kids before the baby comes but our planned time has been cut short so we attempted to do it at the same time. We all went to the same restaurant, at the same time. We asked to be seated at different tables. They seated us at different tables right next to each other???? Anyway we made it work well enough. Aarahi and Lili had a special date and Auron, Ammon and I had a date (well Ammon was more occupied with his food, but we had gone out earlier in the week). Then the kids went off to play and Aarahi and I got to have a date for a good 40 mins. So we were pretty much winning at life. We all walked out well fed and happy.

Marcelle picked up Lili and Auron to go to church in our old ward today. They miss it terribly, especially Lili. That meant we only had Ammon until dinner time. It was so quiet, we enjoyed it for a while but both decided to was a little boring. We wondered what on earth we did when we only had one child?? We were happy to have the big kids back home.

The very friendly kangaroo...or wallaby I don't know how you tell the difference

San Diego and Heading Home

2017-06-08T02:15:00.000-07:00

San Diego and Going Home

Now it's my turn to get sick. I knew when I woke up in the morning that I wasn't feeling too great but hoped it would subside. We made the 3 ½ hour trip to San Diego and I slept most of the way. I was really excited to visit the Mormon Battalion Museum but by the time we got there I was barely able to walk so Aarahi took the kids and I stayed in the car and tried to sleep. The kids loved it, and got to mine for gold. I REALLY wish I wasn't sick because there was so much we wanted to do, however we headed straight for the hotel where I promptly vomited as soon as we walked in the door. It was a rough night.

The next morning I was feeling better and feeling very grateful since we were flying home later that night. We spent the morning shopping at another huge book store and spending the rest of our cash on American candy.

Auron had seen a really neat place he wanted to visit where they made cookie and ice cream sandwiches. Everyone loved them and we all thanked Auron for telling us about such an awesome place. Auron always finds really awesome places for us to visit. He see's them on YouTube then writes them down for us to look at.

Late afternoon we got back in the car and headed towards LA. We stopped off at the Los Angeles Temple to kill some time. It looks like the NZ temple only wider. There was a couple there doing engagement photos....it looked a little more than G rated lol we tooted at them as we drove past.

Our last meal in America was revolting. So revolting that we couldn’t even eat it.

When we dropped off the rental car they were so efficient it was so quick that I wasn't prepared to say goodbye to our car. It's so lame how attached you can get to something in such a short amount of time. But they just took it away before I could even come to terms with what was happening! Our holiday was finally over.

We had some bag reorganising to do at the airport as one of our bags was close to 40kg over the limit. The flight home was long and uncomfortable. The kids did well but it still wasn't fun. Ammon accidentally wiped the itunes library on the ipad just before take off and he could no longer watch his beloved PJ Masks. We were so happy to finally get back to our pig sty of a house. For the next few days we recovered from jet lag. Often waking up at 3-4am. The next week had us trying to unpack which we still haven't fully completed. Time to face reality again!

So what is next?

It was an incredible adventure and I am so grateful that I got to do it with my favourite people. It was not cheap, it was a lot of planning and stress especially buying and building a house at the same time. It is not easy taking 3 kids on a big overseas holiday especially while pregnant but oh my goodness it was worth it a million times over! I am so thankful and blessed that we are able to amazing things like this and to take our kids along on our adventures. We know most people wont get to experience many of these things in their life time and we don't take these experiences for granted.

So where to now? Right now we are getting ready to welcome our new baby in a couple of weeks. (should start getting a bit more organised!) We are trying to decide on where to go next year, we are tossing up between Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa or somewhere more local. We are planning to be home in New Zealand for Christmas next year or around then anyway. After that we have big plans for Queensland, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Bali in 2019.

Now that we have our own house and have finished baby making we are ready to take on something new so who knows where that will take us in the next 5 years. There is a whole wide world we want to explore and we are ready and waiting to take it on....as well as doing all the normal things like paying the mortgage and cooking dinner etc

Brownie, cookie dough icecream, dipped in M &M's

Choc chip cookie, monster icecream, dipped in M & M's

ARIZONA - Grand Canyon

2017-05-20T02:30:00.004-07:00

We drove from Moab to Page Arizona. By the time we got there it was close to 10pm and we still hadn't eaten dinner. Aarahi went out in search of something and came back with some interesting looking Mexican as that was all he could find open nearby. The hotel did however have a delicious breakfast the next morning.

We took a quick hike in the morning to see Horseshoe Bend which was on Aarahi's bucket list. It was quite impressive. Lili walked the trail in bare feet for some reason I can't quite remember. Then it was onwards to the Grand Canyon.

We had contemplated skipping the Grand Canyon because we were tired and just felt like getting to our next hotel for a rest but we are glad we soldiered on.

The Grand Canyon was one of those places that you just stand in awe of the reality that place like this exist. It truly was GRAND. We didn't wander too far from the visitors centre and spent most of our time sitting on some rocks with the kids completing things for their last Junior Ranger badge. Ammon loved climbing the rocks and everyone was in love with the adorable little squirrels that were running around all over the place. They were very friendly and came close enough to touch if you were game enough.

The kids got the chance to touch and play with a bit of snow that was still covering part of the park. That was a win for them. Lili and Auron are quite keen to learn to snowboard so we have that planned for next winter.

We saw some huge moose on the way back to the car too. It was exciting to see all the different animals. I suppose it would be like people coming to Australia and seeing Kangaroo's, when we see them almost daily around us.

We carried on our road trip to Sedona. I think this is where all the crazy healthy people go! We went to get smoothies one morning and they cost $15!!!!!! for a single cup! The whole place screamed new age healthfood etc even Mc Donalds was green??? However it was a beautiful place. We didn't do as much as we planed here as we were tired but we did swim in the pool a bit and ate good food.

Next up we visited with the Sister Missionary who taught my Mum the gospel almost 30 years ago.It was such a blessing to see her after all these year and I am so thankful for her influence. I have no photos which is unfortunate. We stayed with her family and the kids had a blast riding ponies and just being kids. They also had their first smores, that was another thing to tick of their lists. I am thankful that we sat down before we left and wrote out wish lists of things to do and eat. It was such a thrill for us as parents to see them check things of their little lists.

Auron has a penpal who lives in Arizona who he was lucky enough to meet up with. It was so cute to see them together and playing. They bought the kids little easter baskets which were a huge hit. They are still playing with them everyday now! The kids got a good 2 hours of playing in before we had to say goodbye.

We headed off to our last Arizona night in Yuma before finally making our way back to California towards San Diego!

Horseshoe Bend

Lili and Auron with Auron's Penpal.

Oh Chick Fil A how we loved you!

SNOW

MOAB

2017-05-18T02:44:00.001-07:00

It was another early start for us as we farewelled my parents and sibling and went our separate ways. We had a 4 hour drive ahead of us. We stopped halfway at a dinosaur museum which was interesting enough to hold both our attention and the kids. They had a lovely little dinosaur play area too which let the kids burn off some energy.
Our next stop was Canyonlands National Park. We were in awe at every turn. It's amazing that places like this actually exist. I hope we never lose those memories because the photos can never do it justice. We did a small hike and the kids completes their Junior Ranger booklets to earn another badge. The hike was a little terrifying once we got to the end, not a place for a mother of 3 little ones!
We checked into our hotel and took a short...30sec ride down the road to dinner. I had the BEST Italian food I have ever had and the kids we happy with the authentic wood fired pizzas.
The next morning we had subway for breakfast and used paypass to pay for something for the VERY FIRST TIME. I did it without even thinking and the girl at the counter was like "whaaaaat how did you do that?!"
Next up was Arches National Park. We stopped at the visitors centre to fill up our water bottles and the kids water bladders in their backpack then slowly drove to the start of our hike. I was apprehensive about this hike to say the least. It was called Delicate Arch and it has been on my bucket list for years but most of the reviews said it was too difficult for kids and to only take older kids etc. It was a 5km round trip with a significant uphill component. So here we were with 3 kids aged 2, 4 and 6 and I was 24 weeks pregnant. Also we are NOT an athletic family haha sounds like a recipe for disaster. However WE DID IT! and by did it I mean Lili and Auron walk the entire way with out complaining carrying their ow bags and I didn't die. Aarahi and I were so incredibly proud of them, they were AMAZING. People kept commenting as we passed them on the trail at how well they were doing and giving them lots of encouragement. And the view at the end? AMAZING! It took us around 2 1/2 hours to walk there and about 1 hour back. The way there was pretty much all up hill.
We stopped and a few other neat spots on the way back to the visitors centre where the kids received another Junior Ranger badge.
We rewarded ourselves with some yummy homemade icecream at a diner (eating at a diner was also on my list of things to do)
Now we leave Utah behind and make our way to Arizona.

Huge 500000000m drop right behind us.

Can you see us?! We needed proof that we actually made it

Almost half way up

We learnt about Cairns on our hikes. They are little towers made with rocks that help you know which way to go. Lili loved to make her own.

Balanced Rock

Ammon was happy to be finally free somewhere where I didn't think he might fall to certain death

Finally MADE it. Lili is slightly terrified.

Hard work but so proud of ourselves!

SALT LAKE CITY

2017-05-17T19:31:00.002-07:00

We arrived in Salt Lake around 2pm and went straight to Temple Square to pick up our tickets to General Conference. It was an ordeal let me tell you. We wont go into it any further than that. The rain didn't help matters.
We had a special dinner reservation for Auron's birthday up at the Roof Restaurant which is at the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and looks out right over the Salt Lake Temple. It was a buffet dinner (Auron's favourite kind of restaurant) however it was a pretty fancy buffet. Lili was quite taken with the lobster mac n cheese. That will not likely ever make the menu at home! AUron got a bit spoilt with the waitress setting up his place with sparkles and a special ice-cream cake and candles. They had beautiful live piano music playing, it was a really amazing experience. Although it is quite expensive we would highly recommend you go if you ever get the chance. It was just magical, even with 3 little kids.
When we finally got back to the AirBnB we were staying at Auron FINALLY got to have his big present he had been waiting months and months for, MINECRAFT. He spent the next few hours playing while Lili and Ammon caught up on youtube after not having internet for the past couple of weeks. Aarahi and I enjoyed the hot tub on a freezing cold night.
Being able to go to General Conference was such a blessing and we are so thankful that we have been able to attend twice now and hope to go again one day. We have no photos of actually being there since our phones were flat and we couldn't take big cameras.
The rest of our time in Salt Lake was spent catching up with family and friends.
Next we are off to Moab which was hands down our favourite place we visited. We wish we could have stayed there so much longer but we will be back without a doubt.

Last time we visited Bethany and I were still pregnant with Lili and Samantha now they are almost FIVE

ST GEORGE, ZION, MANTI

2017-05-08T23:24:00.003-07:00

Today we woke up early and got ready to leave. Just as we we walking out the door Auron threw up everywhere. After 30 minutes of cleaning him up and trying not to leave vomit covered towels in the room (although it's Las Vegas, I am sure they have had worse left behind) we we on our way again. We made it to the elevator before Auron vomited again, this time he aimed with uncanny precision into rubbish bin with the tiniest hole ever.

The drive to St George took about 3ish hours I think. Auron continued to vomit but by the time we got to the St George temple around lunch time he was coming right. The cause of his sickness I am guess was drinking lots of the gross water at the park the day before. We had all been drinking bottled water but Auron had been refilling his bottle at the refill station. I tasted that water it was foul.

The temple was just a beautiful as I had imagined. It was so nice to just walk around the grounds and enjoy the peace and tranquility.

The hotel we stayed at had the most uncomfortable beds I have ever slept in. I am not sure if it was the beds or the HORRIBLE noisy, crinkling sheets which drove me insane.

Zion National Park was on the agenda for the following day. This place was so beautiful. Red rock canyons are not something we we have anywhere we have ever visited. The kids earned their first Jnr Ranger badge. They had a workbook to complete which involved doing a set of activities and attending a presentation. The presentation of the badge was all very official which was right up Auron's ally. I wish they had more things like that here for the kids to do.

We left the park at around 3pm to head to Manti. The drive was LONG. It had been a beautifully warm day in the park but on our drive to Manti we we surrounded by snowy roads and snow covered mountains. The kids were amazed, but we enjoyed the snow from the warmth of the car. We arrived into Manti around 9pm to the glorious sight of the Manti temple up on the hill.

We stayed in the "forrest" in Manti. Auron was freaked out. Obviously this kid has grown up in the city. The next day he woke up at as big SIX year old. Happy Birthday Auron. While Mum and the others went to the temple we went and got the most incredible milkshakes. I had banana and it had actual banana in it not just flavouring. I'm still day dreaming about it now. We met up with everyone to take photos at the temple before driving through to Salt Lake.

Auron was still not up to photo taking yet

Photos can not do this place justice!

Manti Temple

LAS VEGAS

2017-05-07T23:35:00.001-07:00

LAS VEGAS

We left LA around 9am for the 4 hour drive or so to Las Vegas. It was pretty boring and uneventful aside from devouring our cheesecakes, they were pretty amazing. We arrived at the hotel which was looking right down Fremont Street. Within 20mins of us entering the room Lili had blocked the toilet. Aarahi tried to fix it, it was gross. Finally we called someone to come and he had it fixed in less that 10seconds. We also had ANOTHER talk with our children in regards to their excess toilet paper usage.

We made last minute plans to catch up with some of Aarahi's family for dinner. Unfortunately we couldn't catch them all but hopefully next time. We heard good things about the pizza at our hotel so bought a few of them to take. They were not the greatest pizzas I have ever had but there was a delicious salad made from Uncle Brian's garden. That man is amazing, he is 90 something and still gardening even though he has to drag himself and crawl along the ground. That is some serious dedication!

The next day we needed a break, and the kids needed to just relax and play. We were told about a neat container park with playground that we thought we would visit. Luckily for us it was just a 5 min walk from our hotel. We walked down Fremont street....definitely an experience and not one I particularly enjoyed. We ended up spending almost 6 hours at the park. SIX HOURS! In that time though my parents came to hang out for a bit and Aarahi caught up with one of his mission companions and his wife and adorable new baby. I had to go back to the hotel to pick up the treats we had bought from Australia for Aarahi's mission friend. But it was lucky I did because I ended up coughing and peeing my pants a little and needing to change. Pregnancy has lots of fun stuff attached to it. I guess when you are on to number 4 your pelvic floor is pretty much destroyed.

On my way back to the hotel I just happened to see my brothers and step-dad going down the zip line. They said it was pretty awesome.

We went to Whole Food's for dinner. The kids were in love with the salad bar, well the fruit salad bar. They made themselves big bowls of salad for dinner and then a cup of fruit salad and yoghurt for our road trip in the morning.

Stay tuned for our next post when it is Auron's turn to be sick and vomit in the hotel hallway, the hotel elevator, and almost non-stop between Las Vegas and St George!

Auron's creation. Some other kids came and wanted to play in it. We had to take a photo before it was destroyed

AMERICAN GIRL DOLL, LA FARMERS MARKET, MADAME TUSSAUDS

2017-05-07T03:08:00.000-07:00

AMERICAN GIRL DOLL, FARMERS MARKET, MADAM TUSSAUDS

We were up early again today. Not that our kids understand the concept of sleeping in anyway. We enjoyed our normal breakfast cereal to start the day. It is amazing the difference in your kids when you don't start the day with sugar laden cereal.

Lili, Claire, Mum and I had a cafe booking at American Girl Doll in Downtown LA. Lili had been looking forward to this for months. This is where she decided to wanted to spend the bulk of her money on a very special (and ridiculously expensive) doll. She walked all through the shop for a good 40mins before settling on a doll she name Jillian and a hair brush.

Not long after Lili's purchase Mum and Claire showed up and we headed to the cafe for our lunch date. They had dolls for you to borrow if you didn't have your own. The dolls had their own special chairs and were treated like real people. Creepy or cute? I am still not sure. The meal was yummy and we enjoyed the cute little touches they had.

After the lunch we split up and met back up with all the boys who did not want to come to American Girl Doll. Aarahi and I looked around the LA Farmers market. There was SO much yummy food I wish I had unlimited money and an endless stomach to try it all. Aarahi and Auron had a few yummy tastings while we were having lunch.

We caught the open air tourist bus to take us to Hollywood Boulevard. This was a horrible place to visit. We disliked it immensely. It was scary. They were having big Trump protests, it was crazy. We quickly found Madam Tussauds to escape the insanity.

Lili slept all the way through this too. Auron and Aarahi thought this was the coolest place to visit. Auron loved Jimmy Fallon. I don't think he has even watched a show but his favourite youtuber was on his show and well now Auron thinks he is a Jimmy Fallon expert. The Marvel exhibition was incredible especially the 3D movie which had special effects like spraying water and seats that electrocuted you. YES ELECTRIC SHOCK CHAIRS. It really hurt.

Ammon spent some of his money in the gift store buying a cool Spiderman bobble head.

We quickly hopped back on the bus and headed back to the Farmers market where we had parked our car. We wanted to eat at the Cheesecake factory for dinner but the wait was 40mins so we headed a few shops down to Barnes and Noble. A HUGE bookstore. We were all in love. We just don't have anything like it here in Melbourne. Ammon bought a pack of PJ Mask toys which you can't buy here. We would have stayed much longer but our table for dinner was ready. Dinner was yummy. We got 3 cheesecakes to go and ate them the next day. We got home around 10pm.

Tomorrow we say good by to LA and head to Las Vegas for a few days.

Breakfast at our Airbnb

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

2017-05-02T01:11:00.001-07:00

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

We are starting to really feel the effect of American food now. Everyone is craving veges and fruit and our digestives systems are probably not coping the best. Also feeling pretty gross all around. We went to Walmart the night before but still everything even the fruit had preservatives, sugar and extra “good stuff” added.

Today was also Ammon's day to be sick. We all get sick on this trip, slowly one by one. We were about 10mins down the road on the way to Universal studios when Ammon vomited all through the car and all over his clothes. Being the organised mother that I am, I had no spare clothes for him. I did however have Auron's togs and a towel in the boot for the water park they had at Universal Studios. So we cleaned him up put Auron's togs on him, rubbed his tummy with some essential oils, shake some more oil around the car to drown out the smell and we are off again. He vomited a couple more times but Auron managed to catch it with a bag. I knew he wasn't proper sick just tired, terrible food and likely drinking the tap water. He was fine in the end and was back to himself by the time we arrived.

When we arrived we stopped at the candy store which was on Lili's list of things to do. She wanted to go to this specific one to buy a Gummy Pizza. Which she found. We also bought Ammon a new teeshirt since the vomiting incident ruined his and he was just wearing a too big jersey. He looked pretty unkept...

First things first we headed to Harry Potter! Auron got to go to Olivanders and get his wand. He felt very important and special. The wand he got was able to do actual magic in certain places which he got a real kick out of. Daddy took the kids on some of the big rides. Being pregnant put a bit of a dampener on the whole theme park experience for me. But I still went on a few of the mild rides. While they were riding Ammon and I got Butterbeers which we all decided were really gross. They were unbearably sweet. But we have learnt Americans really love sugar. So maybe if you are from there you would like it much more. I'm glad we only bought 2 to share.

We visited Minion land which was Ammon's highlight. It was also our favourite ride. We got to ride it a few times. Auron and Aarahi rode Jurassic Park and a few others. We also LOVED the studio tour. It was amazing. The special effects they show you were super cool. Auron was excited to see where and how they made the Spiderman movies. Lili and Ammon just loved being apart of the special effects which they were convinced were all for real. I wish we had time to go again but unfortunately the park was closing. On our way out we got a donut from Lard Lads donuts (From the Simpsons?) also on the kids food wish list. I didn't eat any but the kids said it was good.

Once we left the park Aarahi had the fun task of driving through downtown LA at night. We found a Whole Foods supermarket which was a Godsend on this trip. We stocked up on normal cereal, fruits, veges, and milk that just had milk in it. They also had a wonderful salad bar which we frequented many times over the following few weeks.

So that ends our day at Universal Studios. Tomorrow we visit American Girl Doll, LA Farmers Market and Madam Tussauds

Not too many photos today, we were too busy having fun and making memories

DISNEYLAND

2017-05-01T02:32:00.004-07:00

DISNEYLAND

Today was probably the WORST day to go to Disneyland. It was so incredibly busy. Aarahi and I concluded that we would have rather spent the $500 we paid for our tickets on something else. The kids enjoyed themselves but probably not as much as they were expecting. The lines were LONG. We waited over and hour for the Dumbo ride. The kids rarely complained, because they are pretty awesome like that.

Lili was really excited to do her Bibbity Bobbity Boutique. It's where you go to a special castle and get transformed into a princess. We made her dress at home because I am cheap and didn't want to pay $50 for and “official” that she wouldn't like to wear because it was scratchy. So we made her a Belle tutu dress for less than $10 and we were away winning. We arrived with her looking like she had been dragged through the bush on the way. We had to be off the ship super early so no time for fixing her crazy hair.

Soon enough her fairy godmother arrived for her transformation. It was pretty magical. I wont lie, I had “sweaty eyes” watching her. There really is something so special watching your child experience something so special. Daddy was pretty smitten with his beautiful princess when he saw her too.

We had met my parents and siblings at Disneyland too. They arrived in LA the day before. We were all excited to see each other. Lili and Auron haven't been back to New Zealand in almost 2 years so it's been awhile since they have seen anyone other than my mum.

We purchased Ammon and the new baby Mickey Ears hats. Lili and Auron already have some from our last visit. The hats have their names embroidered on the back. We had thought we had decided on new baby's name weeks ago but Aarahi decided he might like to change the name the night before we bought the all important Mickey Ears hat. There's no going back once you have a hat with your name embroidered on it.... Anyway we stayed up til 2am going over name after name after name before finally deciding on the name we had in the beginning. And to think we could have been sleeping all that time!

We left Disneyland at 9pm and went looking for our first fix of Chick Fil A. Oh and it was WONDERFUL! The kids had written themselves lists of food they wanted to try and this was on top of the list. They picked good (thanks youtube)

Also just notice Auron isn't in any Disney photos. Don't worry he was there. We didn't take too many photos.

See that crazy mane!

CRUISE - Catalina Island & Ensenada Mexico

2017-04-30T02:18:00.000-07:00

CRUISE

We collected our rental car and headed to the cruise terminal. Thankfully it was a Sunday afternoon and traffic wasn't too bad. Aarahi was pretty nervous about driving but he has done really well. Once he stopped turning on the window wipers instead of the indicators! Once we got on board the ship we ate then SLEPT!!!!!!!!!!! We were exhausted. The flight was 16 hours long then add in all the waiting in lines at airports etc and it was easily 24 hours from the time we left the house to the time we made it on the ship.

That first day was spent sleeping then making our way down to dinner. The food was just as wonderful as we remembered it. There were plenty of Mormons on our cruise. A lot of them seemed to be on big extended family holidays. On formal night about 12 boys dressed in white shirts walked passed our table and you could have half expected them to be carrying sacrament trays.

Day 2 was a sea day. The kids went to kids club, which they were very very excited about. Despite the fact that we homeschool and our kids are rarely away from us they have no problem going to day care or other places by themselves. Aarahi and I looked around the ship and then went and had another nap. Jet lag was really setting in.

After lunch Aarahi took the big kids to swim and ride on the waterslides. Lili was elated to be tall enough to go on the big slides. Last year she was 5cm too short and it absolutely devastated her. Ammon stayed in the room to nap. One thing we have learnt travelling with kids is that it makes everyone much happier if we stick to our routine as much as possible.

Day 3 was our first port day. We arrived at Catalina island around 7am. Today was also the day that jetlag hit Lili HARD. The poor kid was like a walking zombie. She sure was a trooper though and we love her for her willingness to soldier on through when all she probably wanted to do was sleep.

Catalina Island is a small island village with lots our boutique shops and eateries. We spent ridiculous amounts of money at the candy store. I think that may have been our first purchase of the holiday. We tried chocolate frozen bananas which no one liked, while we waited for our excursion on a glass bottom boat. It was pretty neat to be able to see all the coral and fish under the water. Ammon loved it the most. Lili slept the whole way through and actually didn't wake up properly until the next day. It was 2pm...

By the time we got back on the ship it was dinner time. We took Lili hoping she would wake up once we got there. However the lure of pizza wasn't even enough to wake this sleeping beauty and she slept through dinner.

Day 4 was Ensenada Mexico. It was kind of raining but that didn't dampen our spirits. Lili had a new found energy. I guess sleeping for 17 hours will do that to you. We walked up and down the market streets a few times. Auron saw a mexican jersey he really liked and used his own money to buy it. The kids have saved up their birthday, christmas and easter money for a whole year so they were pretty rich. Lili bought a dress with a matching one for the new baby.We purchased a few other bits and pieces before looking for lunch. We settled on what seemed like a the most questionable place on the street. However it was full of people and the tacos were only $1. We gorged ourselves on tacos, salsa guacamole and chips. There was a cop that came in a did a sweep of the place obviously looking for drugs. But he was nice and stopped to help Aarahi put Ammon in the carrier as we were leaving.

Day 5. Our last day. We had tears again as we were leaving. We really enjoy cruises, even though we were heading off to Disneyland we still wish we could have stayed longer. We have already got our next cruise planned for next year. Once the new baby is here. Unfortunately we are land bound until she is at least 6 months. We disembarked the ship, and looked for our car. We lost our car because we couldn't remember where we parked, or even what it looked like. Then we waited in line to get out of the parking building for an HOUR! While discussing why America has such an inefficent way to pay for parking. You had to pay an actual person, then stop and sign for your card. No paypass here, and hardly any pay machines at the buildings. REALLY REALLY annoying.

Now off to DISNEYLAND!

New House, New Baby, BIG holiday.

2017-04-28T03:42:00.000-07:00

I will just preface this by saying to those who receive this by email, you may get a few over the next week while I try to get everything blogged. Sorry.

Holiday 2017 – Cruise

The week leading up to our much anticipated holiday was unblievably busy and stress inducing. I don't think I have ever been so highly strung in my life. Lets just say it's a miracle we all made it out the other side half sane.

Our final house payment cleared on the Monday which allowed us to collect our keys to our brand new, not a mark on the wall house on Tuesday morning. Ammon intitated it into the family by wiping his pizza fingers along those pristine walls. It was only a matter of time, it is truly a family house now, and no longer show home condition.

On wedneday morning we had an ultrasound for the new baby and got to find out what we were having. A GIRL. Lili is pretty excited. Everything looks good which is a always a relief. This pregnancy has been completely different to any other pregnancy and has had me worried more times that I can even count. After the ultrasound we started to move house. It was a long and very hot day. I had a hospital appointment at 6pm for the new baby, I had only 20mins to make a 45min drive to the hospital in rush hour traffic. I should mention the petrol light started flashing on the freeway. I have a phobia of filling up the petrol and was praying the I could get there and back without having to do it but no such luck. I actually made the appointment on time through some miracle. The hospital is so lovely, I feel so blessed that we are position this time to be able to afford to go private, especially being our last baby. I got home around 9pm and Aarahi was still not finished. He arrived with the missionaries and last truck load at around 9:30pm.

On Thursday we were heading back to return the truck when our car broke down and had to be towed to the mechanic. It is about time it had a trip on a tow truck, we have really been testing fate on that one. I waited with the car and kids while Aarahi returned the truck and picked up the only hire car they had available. A massive SUV. We spent the day cleaning the old house best we could. The thing with the old house is that even when it is clean is still doesn't look clean. I don't know if we will get all our bond back but at this stage I really don't care. Teuila and her Boyfriend were visiting Melbourne so I picked them up from the train to have dinner with us. During that process I decided I really don't want a giant SUV which is what we had been planning on buying in the near future. Aarahi thinks I just need more time to adjust. He was quite smitten with it.

Friday we had carpet cleaners coming to do the carpets at the old house. Unfortuately when Aarahi arrived to let them in they had already been and gone...without cleaning the carpets. So I had to try organise someone else to come VERY last minute to do them. I found someone but the also charged double the price. I have been pretty much throwing money away at this point so this didn't even surprise me. Aarahi dropped off the rental car and picked up our poor car from the mechanics $500 later.

On Saturday we did our last minute holiday shopping before returning home to try do some sorting out. Did you notice that we hadn't unpacked at all yet?? I still have no idea where anything is and the house looks like it has probably been robbed. There is stuff EVERYWHERE. We finally finished packing for holiday at midnight, and gave up on trying to get the house in any kind of order.

The flight was pretty uneventful. Aarahi gave it a 8/10 for flights taken with kids. Everyone slept several hours each. Our kids have flown since they were tiny babies so thankfully they are used to it and it's no big deal to them anymore.

Lili and her favourite temple we visited. St George

Lili is FOUR

2016-10-29T19:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we celebrated Lili's forth birthday. When I asked her to think about what she might like as a gift she told me not to worry about it because she had everything she needed. Bless her heart. However we did get her a few little things. We don't do lots of gifts anyway, instead we spend money on doing something fun and creating memories together instead.

Lili wanted to go to the hot springs again for her birthday but we had just been a couple of months ago and it was going to be quite warm so we chose to go to the Enchanted Garden and Maze. It was a 90 min drive out of the city. The kids really enjoyed themselves but I think we would have all enjoyed it more if we had all had a proper sleep the night before. Everyone was super tired. The kids loved going down the tube slides the best.

After we had been at the park we drove down to the beach. Lili and Ammon were asleep so I stayed in the car with them while Aarahi and Auron went down for the first swim of Summer. It was a beautiful 25 degrees. In a few month or so that kind of weather will be cause for putting a jacket on but for now its hot enough for swimming! Lili and Ammon woke up after an hour or so and joined in the swimming. The water was beautiful and crystal clear but freeeezing. Kids don't care about cold water though.

We ended the day with fish and chips and a walk along the pier. A lady then rang Aarahi to tell him they had picked up one of our bags we had left in the carpark. It had EVERYTHING in it. My phone, ipad, wallet, camera and passport. My phone only had like 3% battery left on it so they luckily were able to get Aarahi's number and call. What a blessing that was. There are still good people out there! We got home just before 9pm a full 13 hours after we left.

Primary Presentation and Trunk or Treat 2016

2016-10-26T02:39:00.003-07:00

Last Sunday the kids had their primary presentation at church. If you aren't sure what that is, it is where the kids all get a chance to say a little part up the front and sing some songs. Lili and Auron both did well saying their parts but someone stood on Lili's foot during the first song and that was her finished. She went and sat down in the front row with Marcelle. Auron got to sing "I love to see the temple" in a little group...when I say sing I mean mouth the majority of the words haha. It's the experience that counts though. It is terrifying enough for an adult to get up and speak or sing in front of a few 100 people. Personally I am glad it is all over. It is so so so much work. One day I would love to be able to just sit and watch. I think that in my whole life the only time I was able to just sit and watch was when I was in youth. Aside from that I have either been in Primary myself or served in Primary.

Yesterday we went to an Art Muesum where the kids had an art class, then they were able to create their own piece of art work. The lady who runs the class is amazing with the kids. First she has them sit down in the reception area and talks about what kind of art we will look at today then takes them upstairs and sits them down in front of several different art works. She explains about the art and asks them questions and lets the kids ask questions. It is really neat to hear some of the questions and answers the kids give. Then we head over to the art studio to create something similar to the artists we have looked at. Aarahi really likes this part. Yesterday they had to create something that would help people or the earth and he made an "understand-inator" He pretended he was helping Ammon but really.....

Today was Trunk or Treat night at church. Lili and Auron have been looking forward to this for a couple of weeks now. Thankfully they already had costumes they wanted to wear. Aarahi and I made Ammon a Dobby costume this morning. He wasn't so keen on the idea but he was easily convinced once he saw everyone else dressed up. It was such a lovely night, with so many families and youth putting in a lot of effort to make it special for the kids. Ammon was definitely flavour of the night. The kids scored big on lollies and junk, which Daddy will be so pleased about. They have eaten a fair amount of it already, so much so that I am considering if they really need dinner.

We drove out to our new house today and they are making good progress, it was nice to see work actually being done on it. This summer is forecast to be super cold which is such a blessing for us as we only have one air con unit in the house we are in now.

Auron has been coming out with some interesting vocabulary lately. Last night he told me that the pizza we were eating was "the most delectable pizza he has ever had" It has been fun having him come to us and ask us what certain words mean and then to have him using them. He has such an amazing imagination I can't wait until he can write fluently, I am sure he will write some amazing stories.

Primary Presentation 2015 and 2016

The Good the Bad and the Ugly

2016-10-16T01:05:00.001-07:00

So it's been 4 months or so since I have written anything. I have continued to put it off over and over again because truth be told sometimes life is pretty miserable and I didn't want to have all the rubbish that has gone on recorded in our family year book this year. Today after church however one of our friends asked me why I hadn't blogged for so long and I said "nothing much to write about". His response, though he probably thought nothing of it, left me thinking all afternoon. He said its a journal, a history. He was right so along with the good I should also share the bad.

This past year, the last 8 months in particular it feels like our little family has been barely treading water. Every time we manage to take a breath we have something else thrown at us. We have been screwed over by family more times than I can even count this year. Over and over and over again. By people you would have willing run to the end of the world for. Things like this have made me question my own self worth and found me battling depression for several months. It has sent me back to a place I haven't seen in over 10 years and a place I don't ever want to be.

I have missed my Nana more than anyone could understand. There is not a day that goes by that I don't yearn to talk to her and hear her voice. I have struggled with it more this year that I did when she first passed away. I think it was because I knew to her, I was her special little girl and that I was irreplaceable and I was a part of her everything. Grand-Graeme has moved into a rest home a month or so ago and when I rang him on moving day it was closing the door on a book. I hung up the phone knowing that I had rung Nana's number for the last time. I cried for a good hour after.

So while I have struggled to be able to be strong enough to hold everyone else up I myself have come crumbling down. My family has suffered from my neglect of them. I am so blessed to have such a patient and loving husband who is forever forgiving and kind.

Hopefully we are coming out of the fog that we are in and we will have some time to breathe soon. While this doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the past few months it does feel better to get it out.

BUT it's not been all bad. The concrete for our house is being poured this week. We have 90% of our accommodation booked and paid, for our month long adventure next year along with our flights and we are currently well under holiday budget! Our car is going to live to see another day...or year after a really good trip to the car doctor. It seems after 5 years they may have actually fixed the problem. Our relationship with our Heavenly Father has been strengthen and if there was ever a silver lining to a cloud then that has been it. Time and time again I have been shown how aware of me he is.

My favourite 4. In all the grubby, horiness

Bit's and Bobs

2016-07-19T21:37:00.001-07:00

So after 2 months or so of not having a washing machine we finally bought a new one. I am glad I waited. I got the $1000 one for only $600. How is that for a good deal! I knew if I waited long enough I would get the deal I wanted. On the first few days I think I probably washed every towel blanket and item of clothing in the house. Then I realised I would now have to fold the mountain of clean washing it produced on my couch and the novelty wore off quickly. I do love the smell and feel of freshly washed towels though.

Auron has rediscovered Toy Story on Netflix. He was just about to watch the third one, the conversation went like this:

Me: Auron turn that off I don't want to watch that.
Auron: Why? (looking confused)
Me: I can't handle that much emotion these days, it makes me cry too much.
Auron: (shaking his head) Are you serious? You need to sort out your issues!
Me: Whatever, you still can't watch it.

It is true though, kids movies these days leave me tortured for months after. I have a big list of movies the kids can only watch with Daddy. I had to read the plot summery for Finding Dory before I decided if we could watch it. I probably need to take Auron's advice and sort out my issues.

Yesterday we went to the Cinderella Opera. It was a bit of a let down. I had high hopes. However afterwards we were walking back to the train and Lili was holding my phone. All of the sudden she yells out "Mummy look Pikachu!" She had spotted a picture of Pikachu on a newspaper. She almost got bowled over by a crowd of people thinking she had found one in the Pokemon Go game. It was pretty comical to see.

Last night Lili put her half eaten pizza on a plate and filled a cup of water and asked me to write a note for Daddy "To Daddy, This is for you if you are hungry or have a sore brain. Love Lili-Mei" It was so sweet. She is so lucky to have the best Daddy in the world.

Catching Up

2016-07-04T01:31:00.000-07:00

Ugh I got behind again. I don't even know what I last posted about so forgive me if I repeat myself. Things have been busy busy busy here. Truth be told a lot of rubbish going on that has put me off posting because sometimes it is just hard to find the positive amongst so much trash.

We have good house news the titles for the land were sent into the titles office last week and will be issued within 10 days, so sometime this week. Following that we have 10 days to settle (pay the balance of the deposit) then they will start building. Our builders are all ready to go so hopefully it wont take too long for them to get on to it. If we are in by Christmas i will be happy. Really just before those 45 degree days come back! It is like 2 degrees outside now...it's hard to imagine it being so hot only a few months ago. It's actually a good time to build weather wise as the summer months people wont work in the heat, the cold is much easier to deal with.

The kids all had dentist appointments. No holes. The dentist praised me for obviously providing them with a good oral hygiene routine and well balance diet. I accepted the compliment and told Aarahi once we left. We both had a good laugh about it. We are pretty sure it is just good genetics.

Aarahi has been enjoying afternoon shift. He starts at 230pm and finishes around 11-12. I put him in charge of family scriptures which he has been enjoying. He is far more creative than I am. They kids really love all his cool games and creations. He does miss our Friday night movies and pizza though.

Last Friday we celebrated the end of term with our cousins. We went out for burgers and milkshakes. The milkshakes were to die for. (you would hope so at $9 each) We got banana, cookies and cream and toasted marshmallows. Aarahi missed out so we went back on Saturday and got 3 new flavours, lime, lamington and peanut butter brownie. The peanut butter one I thought was horrible but then again I think the only place peanut butter belongs is on toast. The other thought it was the best one of the lot. We still have about 20 flavours left to go....

We have started going on a few bush walks with the kids. Firstly because it is winter and they spend less time out side and they need that fresh air to stop us all going crazy. Secondly my ulterior motive is to train them up for our holiday next year. We have a lot of walking to do and I don't want whining kids complaining that they have sore legs. I figure if I prepare them now it will make for a much more pleasant holiday. Ill tell you how well my theory holds up later. On Saturday we did a 90 min walk not far from our house. We saw lots of kangaroos, the kids weren't that impressed they see them all the time.

We signed up for private health insurance last week. We now incredibly well protected from any kind of disaster! Health insurance, home and contents insurance, income protection insurance, mortgage insurance, life insurance, car insurance and I am sure pet insurance will come into play in the next few years too. The reason we actually got the health insurance is so we can have our next baby privately. There's a 12 month waiting period. So you have to have it at least 3 months before getting pregnant. Otherwise we would have waited until Aarahi turned 31 and had to pay the extra tax for not having it. Not planning another baby just yet, but I like to be prepared!

I am looking forward to our tax return this month. The first 6 months of the year is always expensive for us....paying all the aforementioned insurances! as well as car rego.... almost $1000, and we usually go on holiday in march too.

Well that's us!

Blessings and Snapchat

2016-05-29T21:43:00.003-07:00

We've taken two weeks break from school work. Both Auron and I needed it as we were starting to get a bit burnt out. We were back at it this morning in full force and Auron didn't miss a beat. He is reading better than before and is well on his way to ticking off his first 50 sight words. When he has marked them all off we are going to go to the museum as a treat.

We got our final approval for our mortgage the other week. Yet again it showed me that Heavenly Father knows what he is doing. We were able to secure a better deal which saves us $40 a week in payments making our mortgage only $30 more than rent on this run down 2 bedroom place in a questionable neighbourhood. It also means we can easily pay more each week with out putting ourselves out. We also only have a couple of $1000 left to pay at settlement for the deposit. I had completely miscalculated so this was a very very happy surprise! Had our land titled last year when it was supposed to we would have paid more and we things would have been tight as we spent a significant amount on airfares and funeral expenses last year when Nana passed away.

To celebrate our mortgage success I booked our cruise to Mexico. I think we (I) have caught the cruising bug. But a cruise seemed like a perfect way to ease ourselves into our USA adventure next year. This kids will be very excited as they ask every day if we can go back on the boat.

Aarahi is switching shifts from morning to afternoon. The opportunity came up as not many people want to work in the afternoon which is understandable if you have kids in school. So he said sure I will change but I want a promotion. If you don't ask you don't get?? So he will do some training for a few weeks then be boss man number 2. It will be a bit of adjustment for our family but it will mean more time together for our family which is the most important factor.

Blessings have abounded in the past few weeks and for that I am forever grateful.Our Heavenly Father always provides, often in ways we wouldn't have thought were possible. I have no doubt these blessings are results of many heartfelt, pleading prayers we have offered up to our Father in Heaven.

Auron love the group called Gentri. They group of 3 guys who sing some pretty nice songs and wear suits and bow ties when they perform. So for the past few days he has been dressing in a suit and bow tie even when we went out to IKEA. He was adorable. Hopefully they are performing somewhere close to us next year when were are in the States.

Auron and I went out to do some shopping and while I was in the changing room he was looking at my pretty messed up stomach and asked "Mummy, what happened to your tummy? it's got funny lines on it" I told him that, that's what happened when he was in my tummy and made me fat. His reply "oh, well I'm sorry about that"

Ammon and his cousins were playing around with snapchat last night at family dinner. It was all fun and games until Ammon saw himself with the dog face or whatever it is. He is traumatised. Poor kid. I am glad we captured it though. It will be one for the memory box. He wont even touch my phone anymore.

There and back in less than 48 hours

2016-05-24T20:42:00.001-07:00

Last week that wretched cancer struck again and took with it one great man. Foua was my seminary teach for 4 years back when I was a teenager. Every morning we would file into Mele and Foua's home or the Primary rooms at the chapel. I probably couldn't tell you too much of the specifics of what I actually learnt in those 4 years but I barely missed a day and passed off all 100 scripture masteries front and back word perfect every time. There was something about that classroom that was different. Mele and Foua poured so much love and dedication into us that you could not help but think you were just a little bit special. Despite what was going on at home or school you knew without a doubt that they loved you and loved you fiercely. There were times when Mele would let loose when she thought we were being disrespectful or just needed a talking to. Foua would come a long behind her and be the calm in the storm. He was good like that. Mele taught Monday-Thursday and Foua did Friday scripture mastery. Those were the best days. It was also a treat when Mele was sick.... I know everyone who had the privileged of being taught by them will be forever effected by the love that was shown them.

So with that said when I learnt of Foua's passing last week I ummed and ahhed about whether to go. I had always planned on going but was kind of hoping it would be after tax time as last minute tickets aren't the cheapest of things to buy. Nevertheless my sweet husband could see that I really wanted to go and that it was upsetting me not to be there. I guess Heavenly Father knew too because on Firday afternoon our final mortgage approval went through which freed up our bank accounts. Aarahi told me to go and not worry about the kids he would figure it out. So at 9pm Saturday night I booked tickets and left for the airport 30mins later! First stop Auckland. I had a 5 hour layover here, arriving at 5am. Shane, Teri, Teuila and Khyber came and had breakfast with me for a few hours before I left again. At 10am I left for Wellington arriving at 11am. Mei is studying at Vic Uni and came and had lunch and hung out for 3 hours. Mei is my first baby and I find it hard to accept that she is at Uni. I left Wellington on the bus at 330 and finally arrived into Palmy at 6pm. After a quick hello to everyone at home I headed out to pick Anita up....I went to the wrong house, super embarrassing. Anyway we made it over to the Brown's where Foua was laying. It was somewhat surreal and sent me right back to 7 years ago when Alby died. It was both comforting and upsetting at the same time. We found Mele and gave her a hug. She gives nice squishy hugs.

I made it to bed at midnight and got up at 7am to the rest of my siblings had arrived from Auckland and were now spread out on the lounge room floor. I made a quick dash to Grand-graemes and tried to fix his heat-pump but no luck. On the way home I saw a teddy bear laying out in the gutter in the pouring rain. I watch too much Doc McStuffins so I couldn't just leave it there. Turned around and picked it up, took it home washed it and chucked it in the dryer. Lili loves it.

The funeral was lovely. It was like one big reunion. There were people I haven't seen since I was a child. YOu could see the huge influence this great man had had on so many. Seminary students travelled from near and far to be there. People who have probably never been back to church in many many years sat there and sung Families can be Together Forever with more meaning than ever before.

I made it back to Wellington in time for my 4pm flight to Sydney and then on to Melbourne eventually making it home at 11pm Monday night, not even 48 hours after I left. It was one crazy weekend that I am so glad I embarked on for many reasons. I am so thankful that I was blessed enough to be loved by this wonderful man.

Visiting the Mail Centre

2016-05-15T16:30:00.001-07:00

Oh dear getting behind again... I wont bother trying to cover the week I missed, my memory isn't good enough for that.

I think the highlight of the week was going to visit the Australia Post Mail Centre. Aarahi took the day off work to spend with us too which was lovely. The kids really enjoyed learning all about mail and what the postman/lady does. I have so much more respect for our dear posties now! Who knew it was such and involved job?! The best part of the tour was when the kids got to sit on the motorbike and beep the horn.

Once the tour was finished we ran a few errands then picked up some lunch. We were going to go to a park or something but we just ended up sitting in the car. It was the perfect sunny sleeping temperature. Aarahi and I both fell asleep. I mentioned to Aarahi how when I was younger Teri used to take us out to get something for lunch (burger fuel of rich days, bakery on poor days) and then we would go sit in the car somewhere to eat. I always wondered why we spent like an hour just sitting there...I totally get it now. Probably my favourite part of the weekend. Oh and that when I bought my kebab they had put hot chips in it??? weird but surprisingly good.

Following the best nap of my life we drove down the road a bit further to gymnastics then home for pizza and movie night like every Friday. Aarahi made me delicious chicken cranberry and brie pizza.

On Thursday after homeschool group I dropped Lili and Auron off with Sarah's partner Tarms and Sarah, Sotarah and I went to have milkshakes and fondue at Max Brenner. Then we did our groceries together, because we are cool like that. Later that night I took Ethan out to have icecream, talk and watch the planes come in. I think we must have come at the wrong time because we barely saw any planes.

Auron and Lili got their first pet yesterday! A pair of Australian Hopping Mice. We have had a "pet" mouse in our house for a couple of weeks that Auron has grown rather attached to. We thought it was probably a better idea to get a proper disease free kind for him to keep. So he used his birthday money from Nana to purchase his mouse and set up his cage. the best thing about these mice are that they are "stinkiness free" Auron has called his Chewy (Chewbacca). Lili is still deciding.

Our mortgage went in for reassessment this week. I continue to be amazed at the knowledge Heavenly Father is watching over us. Our broker was able to secure a much better deal for us and which will allow us to pay of the mortgage in its entirety in a MUCH smaller period of time. We are just waiting for 100% approval which should come through later this week and settlement is on track for the last week of June. We went out on Friday and they are almost finished and some of the temporary fencing is coming down so hopefully we can share some good progress photos soon.

When Heavenly Father Knows What you Need

2016-05-01T03:26:00.002-07:00

This week has been long, and mentally and emotionally draining. We are hoping for a much better week this week.

MONDAY: I think Mondays must be really really boring around here because I never remember what we have done.

TUESDAY: We went to home school group. Today a lady came in from RACV (transport people) and did a presentation and work shop with the kids about road safety. Auron absolutely loved it and Lili also enjoyed it but was feeling a bit sooky so stayed by me for the majority of it. Ammon was super tired but refused to go to sleep so I just fed him and fed him to keep him happy. He ate all the watermelon (a whole quarter). The kids also brought a toy from home to share for show and tell.
After home school group Ammon and Lili promptly fell asleep in the car so Auron and I went for a drive out into the country a bit then drove out to see our land. We were lucky enough to actually see them working on our block. It is looking really good out there now. We drove in from the freeway this time and Auron was excited that there was a Hungry Jacks only 2 mins from our house. He was like "Hey hey, when did that get there!?"
After driving around for 90 mins we went to Sarah's house and walked to pick Izayah up from school. Then I took all the kids to the pet shop to buy Auron a cage and stuff for his mouse he is getting. Long story short, we have a mouse in the house that he thinks is his pet and leaves for out for. I told him that's probably not a good idea and how about we buy one from the pet shop instead.
I needed a bit of sanity time so we went to McDonald's for an ice cream and play.

WEDNESDAY: School work and other everyday stuff.

THURSDAY: More of the same

FRIDAY: Today we went into the city to participate in a Aboriginal Bush Tucker Walk. It was pouring with rain that was probably the first sign that I should have stayed home. None the less we go and it starts out great. We all take part in a traditional smoking ceremony and then walk around the botanic gardens and looked/smelt/tasted all sorts of different plants and learned about what they were traditionally used for. We went back to sit down and had some lemon myrtle tea...and that's where it went sour. The guide was the biggest jerk I have ever met. He obviously had a huge hang up about European people. Granted the white man wasn't kind to his people (huge understatement) but he was very very accusatory to us as individuals and spent about 30 mins telling us what we feel and what we believe. It was so horrible one of the other families we went with left in tears. We also just walked away.
Auron ended up so saturated and wet it was like he had jumped in a lake. Not entirely my fault but I should have kept a better eye on him. We missed our train so had to take the tram. The majority of trams in the city are not pram friendly ( I really really should have just given up by now) The tram go stuck in traffic and missed the connecting bus and as a result missed gymnastics. So we just gave up, got off the tram and walked to a train station. Auron sloshing in his shoes beside me, and Lili sobbing about missing her gymnastics class she had been waiting for all week.
We got off at our station and there was Aarahi waiting for us. I have never been more happy to see him. To make up for such a miserable day we went and bought some treats, went home for hot showers, pulled all the mattresses and blankets into the lounge and watched movies until we fell asleep.

SATURDAY: Aarahi and Lili went on a special Daddy Daughter date. A few weeks ago Lili was throwing the biggest tantrum we have ever seen and pushed Daddy's patience a little too far and he rose his voice at her. This is something that has never happened, Aarahi is the epitome of cool and collected and it scared the heck out of Lili and completely broke the trust between them. No matter how many times Aarahi tried to say sorry to her or fix it nothing was working and it was breaking his heart. So for the last 3 weeks or so he has been finding times to do things with just the two of them. He helps her at gymnastics, puts her to bed and yesterday they went out for the day to do what ever she wanted to do. She was very specific, Movies, Subway and Chocolate Milkshake at a Cafe. One 3 second outburst has taken weeks and weeks of continuous prayer and effort to heal. It really makes you think. While they were at the movies the rest of us had pizza at the park with cousins. I went back with Sotarah to drop the boys off back to Sarah and we spent the next 2 hours on the bed talking about life. It is so great to have them around. I think we would probably be lost without each other at the moment.

SUNDAY: Church was quite nice today. I only had 3 kids in my class and they were all well behaved. Aarahi told me that my temple recommend was expired. (he says that's why I have been having such a hard few months, there's probably some truth in that) So I sorted that out and good to go for another 2 years. I didn't have my old one so they had to print out my record. On it has is has they name of your parents and the date you were sealed. Growing up it was all I wanted. To belong to someone forever. Those who know our family personally know it was a long LONG road to get to where we could be sealed together. We still have Teina missing, he has to wait until he is 18. But to see the name of a mother and father and the date we were sealed just gave me so much peace today. It was what I needed at the right time. Heavenly Father always knows.
We had family dinner at our house tonight because Sarah was still sick. It was make your own Pizza. The big people stood around the bench eating wedges waiting for the pizza to cook and talked about things that have been going on in an open and honest way and were able to let out some of the emotions that we have been holding in. We had family time and later that night Aarahi gave Sotarah a blessing as she faces some hard times ahead. I am so thankful for family and knowing that we aren't in it alone, and for a loving Heavenly Father who always knows what and who we need.

It's been a good end to a horrible week.

ANZAC Remebrance

2016-04-23T16:35:00.001-07:00

Summer is still hanging around, just when you think it might be cooling down we get hit with another 30 degree day. 30 isn't bad but it's nearly May!
MONDAY: I have no recollection of anything that happened on this day. It must have been pretty mundane.

TUESDAY: Home school group. We met up at a park and had a professional photographer come to take "class photos" Hopefully we get them this week, I am really excited to see how they turned out. We didn't stay long as Ammon was tired and a little sick. We went to Subway for lunch because we had no food in the house that was quick to make, and I was feeling lazy. We also visited the supermarket to stock up on some fruit,bread and milk. This was followed by a quick trip to the library where Lili and Auron enjoyed the story time that happened to be running. Lili insisted on getting a chapter book written in Thai...because she can read Thai apparently. We are learning about volcanoes this coming week so we found plenty of books to use. We quickly rushed over to pick Daddy up from work. He was late so we just sat in the car for 30mins complaining about how hot it was and how we should have stopped to get a slurpee on the way.

WEDNESDAY: Lili now joins Ammon in being a little sicko. She lost her voice and went around all day saying "my sounds are gone! listen everyone my sounds are gone!"She thought it was hilarious and was quite upset when her voice went back to normal. After Aarahi got home I escaped to go over to Sarah's house and put a load of washing on and then we escaped to do groceries kid free. It's the little things that matter like this. For the past month I have been budgeting our grocery budget like crazy. It has been between $65-$85 each week with no extra supermarket runs during the week. This week I splurged a little and it was $130 but our fridge and freezer and still bursting at capacity and I am shoving fruit and veges at the kids every moment I get before they go rotten.

THURSDAY: Three sickos now. My life consists of snot and spluttering coughing kids. It is so gross.

FRIDAY: We get up at 330am to take Aarahi to work. We come home and go back to sleep. The kids woke up before me and Auron gives everyone Icy Poles for breakfast. Ammon is sitting in his bed covered in a orange sticky mess. It's only 7am. I am not even sure if Auron went back to sleep. We went to watch Bronte play netball, her team lost by 3 points. It is now 1:45pm and we still haven't had lunch in our rush to get out the door so we stop and Mc Donalds on our way to get Aarahi from work. After quickly picking Daddy up we rush over to gymnastics. Aarahi got to be Lili's helper today and I sneakily watched Auron. So cute. We took our kids home then I rushed back to pick my friend Zainab up and take her and her kids home too. On my way back from dropping her off I stopped in and picked up Izayah to come for an impromptu sleepover.

SATURDAY: Since Monday is ANZAC day Aarahi and I thought it was important that we try to explain to the kids why we have a special day. We took the train into the city to visit the Shrine of Remembrance. Now we have lived in Melbourne for 5 1/2 years and knew this place existed but actually had now idea what it really was. My impression was that it was just a big building/monument to represent all the wars that Australia has fought in. I was SO wrong. It turns out it is an amazing building with a huge underground museum type thing. The kids were in love. It looks like a big castle underground made of stone. We met up with a tour guide and he took us all on a special tour and explained some of the really neat things they have and had some funny stories for the kids. We participated and ceremony of remembrance, I was quite surprised that the kids understood the importance of being quiet. The final part of the tour was going to lay poppies. There is a special area where the wall are a big world map made up of little holes in Morse code that read "we will remember them"or "lest we forget"....one of those. It was really really fantastic.

The Eternal Flame...kids love fire

Bronte takes this being the big cousin thing seriously, we are so lucky to have her especially these kiddos

The Shrine of Remembrance

Bronte Auron and Izayah

I love this monument.

This is Melbourne. The white and net thing to the left is the Art's centre. That's where we go see all our performances, Thre street down the middle is St Kilda Road. The yellow building with the green roof is Flinders Street Station its the city centre station. When we say we are going to the city...this is where we are. I also have no idea who what person on the building is.

Our family with our tour guide Alan. The tour lasted about an hour and the kids were engaged the whole time.

This Weeks Round Up

2016-04-16T21:06:00.001-07:00

Finally the end of the week! We have been out and about almost every day this week.

MONDAY: This was a fairly boring day. We did school work in the morning. Auron did his reading test and scored 17/20 and got to move up a level. He then did a Maths quiz for counting backwards and got 90%. We ended our school work with some writing practice and art. Sotarah came over for lunch and brought chocolate milk which is always a hit around here. When Daddy came home from work they all went outside to play soccer for a good 2 hours while I cleaned the house, including scrubbing all the floors. Mums always get the fun jobs.

TUESDAY: We went into the city with our home school group to watch a performance of the 52 Story Treehouse. The kids really enjoyed it, especially Auron. Ammon sat through it pretty well for the most part. There were a group of 10 year old girls seated in front of us who thought he was cute and kept him entertained making faces at him. All three kids fell asleep on the train, so that was lots of fun trying to wake them up to get off. The carpark was so full at the station that we had to park a good 10 min walk away....lots of fun with half asleep kids.

WEDNESDAY: A quiet day at home. The kids made science experiments. These consisted of mixing up all sorts of ingredients and then putting the container in the freezer to see what would happen. This days ingredients included toothpaste, fabric softener, washing powder, and soap (can you tell which room they found all their ingredients?) They do this on a daily basis almost.

THURSDAY: Back into the city again. This time we went to the Botanic Gardens to an event the had on. The kids were able to make little boats to float down a stream there and then we made cubby houses (Auron calls them Tubby houses, it reminded me of Teletubbies and then reminded me of Zion when she was little and watched Teletubbies). After we finished the activities we walked slowly back to the train stopping to see the Shrine of Remembrance and talk about Anzac Day. I'm not sure how it came up but we got to talking about the Priesthood and how Daddy has "special powers" I don't know how else you describe it to a 5 and 3 year old. But they well super impressed that Daddy could have the same powers as Jesus. I loved that little talk.

FRIDAY: Today the kids started gymnastics classes. Auron has been asking for a few months now if he could go to somewhere like school where parents drop you off then pick you up later. I love that he wants that kind of independence so we have been thinking of something he could do that would satisfy he desire. Gymnastics it was. Auron went over to the big kids room with another class and I stayed with Lili and Aarahi looked after Ammon and watched us. Auron was so excited when he came back. Later that night I dropped all the kids with Sarah and Aarahi and I went out to dinner with some friends. We got home at 1am. I am not a young person any more, I am still recovering.

SATURDAY: We went and did laundry at the laundry mat because our washing machine broke last week and I can't touch any money in our savings to buy a new one and I don't have a spare $800 laying around in our everyday account. So it is the laundry mat until this stupid mortgage is out of the way. Hopefully the next couple of weeks.

SUNDAY: I serve in Primary, it is hard work.