WHAT A MESS!

The other day Madi came running to find me yelling and laughing at the same time, "Mom! Come quick you have GOT to see what Rylee did!" Of course with a statement like that I had to go see. Let me sum up!

We have these plastic beads that the kids like to play with - you put them on shapes and then melt them together with an iron. I found a big container of them to replace ours from the States at IKEA. The kids had been playing with them that morning and left the lid off....

Rylee found them and dumped the entire jar out on the floor and kitchen table....We then spent the next 40 minutes picking them all up! Good thing it is school holidays so I had two extra helpers (Rylee wasn't much help as you can imagine)!! They are all now safely back in the container with the lid on plus a few strands of hair and a few tiny morsels of food I am sure.The story doesn't end there - it was a day of trouble with this little one. While picking them all up Rylee climbed onto the table and pushed over my vase with flowers in it. I proceeded to get soaked and have a very heavy vase hit me in the head and shoulder. My neck is still killing me three days later. Luckily the vase is still in one piece and I only lost a few heads off of the flowers.

I think we might be in trouble with this one.

SUNDAY BEST - new clothes!!!

Finally I got pictures of the kids in their Easter clothes. Since Sunday was the broadcast of General Conference, and we didn't go because Rylee was sick, the Easter clothes have been sitting on my dresser for a bit longer waiting to be put on. New Easter clothes in not an Aussie thing, but I have kept the tradition alive anyway. Since I had to search last year for Madi's dress, and had a hard time finding one, this year I started ahead of time. I have actually had these clothes for months and found them all on clearance - which is even better. For the first time they all coordinate as well. So I took the kids out this morning for a photo shoot and had to bribe them with Maccas to get it all done. We got a lot of bad photos but surprisingly some really good ones as well. Not many smiles were to be found, especially from the little squirt, and a few tears were shed. Here are some of my favorites!

It is so hard to get three kids at the same time. I need some more practice that is for sure and my kids are sick of me - so if anyone out there (that lives by me) wants any family photos, kid photos, anything really let me know. I would love to practice on you if you will take my services. I will give you all the photos and you can do whatever you want with them.

EASTER WEEKEND

We had a crazy Easter weekend - it was nice to have Kev home for a few extra days! We even had a fever for the little one which actually helped us to cut out some of our weekend - we will go to the Easter show next weekend.

Friday is a day off here and everything is closed - almost everything I should say - for Good Friday. I still find it very fascinating that an entire country shuts down for the day of the crucifixion of the Savior. Although most people just want another day off and don't really think about what it is for, I still think it is cool. Last year, I am embarrassed to say, I wasn't even sure what Good Friday was all about. First of all it isn't a holiday in the US and second of all I am a bit slow. To me Easter is more about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and not so much about his death.

Last year on Good Friday we thought we would go to IKEA and have a look around - to our surprise it was closed as was everything else in the shopping center except the movie theater so we went to a movie. In keeping with tradition we went to a movie this year as well. Monsters vs Aliens in 3D just came out and the kids really wanted to see it. Cooper apparently watched most of the movie without his glasses off - it was a bit much for him. Rylee even put on her glasses for some of the movie - although you should have seen her face when things came flying at her.

On Saturday we met a friend of Kev's from work and his family at the park for a picnic and a little play. They kids had a super swell time. We walked by the fountains on the way to the park and they were begging to get in the water. On the way back to the car the begging began again, I told them that it was okay but they would have to go home wet. The decision was made within seconds.

After a fun afternoon we hurried home to meet friends at our house for some more play time. The men went to the general priesthood session at the Stake Center and the rest of us stayed at our house to color Easter eggs. We were introducing an American Easter tradition to one of our Aussie friends and our Canadian friends have never done it either. Since it isn't something that is done around here there are no kits in the store to buy and no special crayons, stickers, stencils, etc. That's okay, vinegar, food coloring, and any old crayon will do. It was so much fun. Since the eggs here are all brown already no pastel colors will do only the bold ones - that means lots of food coloring. I think I was supposed to dilute the vinegar with water though - oops!

After priesthood was over some of our friends stayed to play games. We even ended up with some rock stars and a concert!!

Cooper, Adeline, Emma, Jocelyn, and Madisen

Just as we were finishing up is when Rylee woke up with a fever - that is when the weekend slowed down which is okay too. We spent the rest of the long weekend at home enjoying the spirit of Easter. We listened to the remaining sessions of General Conference that we hadn't gotten to and we enjoyed time with each other.

EASTER SUNDAY

I love Easter. It is such a wonderful time of year to contemplate the sacrifice the Savior made for each of us. I miss seeing the grass turn green and the new flowers peeking out of the ground. This always reminds me of new life and the resurrection.

We had very good intentions of going to see General Conference broadcast at the Stake Center today - what a perfect day to hear from the prophets and apostles. However, a little one with a fever ruined that plan. No worries, plan B, we watched the Sunday sessions of General Conference via the Internet in our own living room. I loved hearing all the talks about the Savior and the reminders of how to make my life better. We have one more session to watch for FHE and we are done.

We also had our Easter egg hunt this afternoon with good success. Every time we do an egg hunt I am reminded of the FHE lesson I love which used items from the last few days of Christ's life put into plastic eggs, along with a scripture reference, to tell the story for children. We do this FHE every year and I have done it in Primary many times as well. The last egg is left empty to remind us of the resurrection. When the plastic eggs are all emptied weeks after Easter and returned to me I am reminded of this - I hope my kids are as well.
HAPPY EASTER FROM THE LAND OF OZ FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS!

May we all be reminded of the Savior and his importance in our lives at this time of year and all year long.

I told my whole table...

Happy Easter Everyone!!!!

This morning while we were looking at the kids Easter basekets Cooper said something that really made me laugh so I had to put it up here to remember it.

First, you need a little background for this conversation.

My parents went to visit my brother, who lives in Atlanta Georgia. I asked them to send me a small coke bottle from the Coca-Cola headquarters. Well, when we got the package they also inlcuded some lip smackers. For those of you that don't know what lip smackers are I will explain.

A lip smackers is a flavored (not flavoured) chap stick. We were excited to see that they had sent us a Root Beer flavored one and a Cherry Coke flavored one. They were probably for the kids but Stace and I confiscated them. Stace loves Root Beer and I love Cherry Coke.

While we were opening some of the presents Cooper got there was one that I needed something to help open the packaging. I asked Coop to go in my bathroom and grab my nail clippers out of a box on my shelf. Coop walked out of the bathroom with the clippers laughing to himself and this is the conversation that followed:

• (C) [Laughing to himself]
• (S) What's so funny?
• (C) I told my whole table and they thinks it's funny!
• (S) What did you tell your table?
• (C) I told my table at school that my dad wears lipstick!
• (K) What? Why did you tell them that?
• (C) Because you have lip stick in your bathroom that you use.
• (K) [Immediately knowing what he was talking about.] Coop, that isn't lip stick. It's flavored chapstick.
• (C) Oh, it is? I thought it was lip stick.
• (K) Great! [As Stacy just keeps laughing!]

Just in case you are wondering what it looks like.

GUM BOOTS

What are gum boots some of you might be asking. It took me about a year to figure it out (that may be a slight exaggeration) - I am a bit slow. They are what we would call rain boots or galoshes. Last year my friend Jackie told me to go to K-mart and get some because they were on sale. They truly were! I paid $1.50 for them - that is a steal in Australia!! I got the smallest pair they had in hopes that Rylee would be able to wear them this year. I pulled them out a few weeks ago due to all the rain we were receiving and tried them on. Although they are still a bit big she loves them.

Last week to break up the monotony of life I told Rylee we would go and find some puddles to jump in. She had worn her gum boots that morning to school where we did home reading with Cooper's class. While waiting for the class to be ready for us Rylee spent her time splashing in puddles. So after school I took the kids to the soccer oval where Cooper used to play soccer and we found some good puddles. Rylee was in heaven. Gum boots are so much fun! We have actually never had any at our house before - the other two kids missed out completely and now I feel bad.

Rylee has worn her gum boots proudly almost every day for a week. It doesn't matter to her if it is raining or not. I think part of it is that she can put them on herself - and most of the time they are actually on the correct feet. In fact, last night Kev went to check on her before we went to bed and she had her gum boots on. He was laughing so hard when he came to tell me. There she was in bed on top of the covers with her gum boots proudly on her feet. This morning when we got her out of her room what should be on her feet again - you guessed it her favorite boots! She is a silly little girl!

Now I am on the look out for gum boots for the big kids...

WALK IN THE BUSH

I love that Australians are so good at preserving nature all around them. Because of that we have a bush trail really close to home and love to walk on it as often as possible. Sunday morning we had an opportunity to go out and enjoy nature. Due to the fact that church doesn't start until 1:00 and we had an extra hour due to daylight savings it was the perfect morning to enjoy the peace of the bush. Everything was so green due to all the rain we have received lately and the water was higher than normal - it is our slice of beauty in a bustling city! What a great way to start out a Sunday morning!

I Love April Fools Day...

Isn't April Fools day fun? Besides the fact that Cooper's keeps telling people that they have a spider on their head and then asking, "Did you believe me?" --- Only to be followed by Rylee saying, "Spyyderrr. Funnnnnny" while laughing and Madi trying to make up jokes as well

I actually like seeing what fun things actual companies do with their websites.

• There was some company out there that created a website called Smellr where it claimed that you could smell the products or something like that. It had a lot of perfume pages with a lot of people that I didn't know.
• YouTube was promoting a new way to view your videos and said something along the lines of turning your computer upside down or "Moving to Australia!" By the way they are right. The videos look so much different down here! Oh wait, maybe that's just Australian made TV shows. (Did I write that out loud?)
• Google promoted a new "Auto Pilot" email response program that would automatically respond to your emails. In the question and answer section there one that went something like this, "Q: What if both people have the auto pilot turned on? A: Emails will automatically be sent back and forth allow each persons email to have a great conversation with the other. We must warn you though that after about 3 email responses back and forth the quality of the emails start to deteriorate significantly." That made me laugh!
• My favorite was at Expedia.com where they were offering $3 Billion dollars off an exclusive trip to Mars, making the trip only $99 for the day. You could even choose which type of space ship you wanted to fly in (Classic, Retro, etc.). After attempting to book the trip it came back with a message saying that "due to the popularity of this route the rocket is full and we will not be able to accommodate you" but then they continued to offer you a $25 discount code for being such a good sport!

What a fun day! I am glad that some companies have a sense of humor!!!!