March 27 - James' birthday, Rainbow Bay, Dreamworld

James turned 5 today!!! I can't believe it!! Where does the time go? And it has already been a week since we left home. Hard to believe the trip is half over already! Time is flying by! It was a beautiful sunrise this morning! Pictures don't do it justice!

All James wanted to do for his birthday was have McDonald's, swim and go to Dreamworld. We decided that all day at Dreamworld would be too much, and we still had so many places we wanted to see, so we drove down to Rainbow Bay in the morning. We all loved it here. The water is much calmer, but there's still spots where there are a ton of surfers. I didn't stress so much with the kids in the water here, which was a relief. There's one spot where there must be a sand bar of sorts. The waves come in from both sides. It's the coolest thing!! The older boys pulled Rosie and her friend, Qwyncee, around on boogie boards and they loved it!!

Even though James was begging for Macca's, we knew that we would go there for dinner after Dreamworld so we convinced him that Hungry Jacks would be good instead for lunch. They all loved Hungry Jacks (it's our Burger King, but much better!). $6 for a burger, fries, drink, nuggets AND ice cream come! Not too shabby! Then it was off for a swim in the pool while we waited for Dave and the girls to finish school. Next up, Dreamworld for James on his birthday!!

We got there to Dreamworld before everyone else, so we made the best of it. The kids humored me with pics! Sadly Dave, Ash and the girls didn't make it, but met up with us for the birthday dinner.

We had McDonald's for dinner (at the gas station), as per James' request (I opted for Nando's as I couldn't stomach another Macca day!). Then Dave and Ashley bought everyone a Krispy Kreme donut (thanks you guys!!) and we made a "cake" out of the donuts and sang Happy Birthday in the middle of the gas station food court. Doesn't get much better than that. I'm pretty sure he had an awesome day, we all did!

When we walked out of the station the lorikeets were SO loud you could barely hear each other talk. It was crazy! Then as we drove home we noticed these big black "birds" flying in the air. Not birds, BATS!!! So glad that was the only time we saw them!!!

15!

This kid turned 15 on the 27th of September! We celebrated at grandma and grandpa's house on Sunday with his favorite meal of teriyaki chicken and fettucini alfredo and a delicious chocolate ganache cake. The cousins were more than happy to get in a on group picture, well, except for Millie haha. 

He started his birthday morning with early morning seminary and school, and I had a family photo shoot first thing. I finished just in time to pick Austin up for lunch for his birthday! We hit Dairy Queen as per his request and he humored me with a quick photo. After school was football practice and Jimmy surprised us all by coming home from out of town work 3 days early! We had a nice low-key evening and Austin was spoiled with fast food gift cards, drawing pens, a ukulele and so much more. Thank you all! 

Austin a great kid and multi-talented too. He can pick up any sport and it just comes naturally. He is artistic and his drawings amaze me. He has taught himself how to play the guitar and the ukulele and has been helping his brothers and sisters learn to play the ukulele too! He is kind and helpful and the comments I hear from other parents and his church teachers are just wonderful. It's so nice to hear that others think he's a good kid too :)  Austin recently had a spirometry test to check out how his breathing is doing and they had to weigh and measure him. They measured him at 6' 3.5"!  I'm pretty sure the lady didn't want to mess with the hair so it's not super accurate haha, but he is super tall and still growing like a weed!! Football is going great for him. He's been able to get in on a few plays during games here and there. Sadly, priority for playing goes to the seniors, but he is getting in a bit which is nice. I'm so grateful to have this young man in our home and feel blessed to have him as my son and oldest. He's a great example to me and to his siblings. Love ya bud!

Will is 8!

Will turned 8 on July 11, 2016. I still can't believe it. Man I feel like I'm saying that a whole lot lately. Time is FLYING by!! Facebook sends out "on this day" flash backs and I saw one the other day when Will turned 3. He looked like such a baby. Then another one popped up of just after he was born. Will was so tiny!! Hard to believe how little he was (just 5.5 pounds) and now he's growing like a weed. PLUS, it feels like just yesterday!

We finally had a bit of time and so I took Will over to the temple to take photos for his 8th birthday. Let's just say he's not as willing as the girls are when it comes to photos. Apparently it hurts to smile! oh boy! 

Will is such a fun kid. He loves sports and he especially loves his sport shorts. That's all he wants to wear. He puts different shirts with his shorts to see if I don't notice that he's wearing the exact same thing as the day before. He loves to be active unless it's walking to and from school haha. He loves Minecraft and other video games. He LOVES hot dogs, chicken nuggets (which thankfully has expanded from just McDonald's nuggets), cereal and rice with peanut butter. We are working on adding other foods to that list, and I'm happy to say that he likes burgers now. Will ate his first Big Mac the other day and said he liked the lettuce on it. WHAT? For real? I'm so happy! It's a long, slow process but it's coming. He loves Harry Potter and we are hoping to get back into reading them this summer. 

Tuesday July 12th we went to the Cochrane chapel where Will was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I'm so happy and proud of him for his decision to be baptized. It was wonderful to have our family and friends there to support him. Dave and Ashley even face-timed in from Australia! Thanks you guys! Austin gave a great talk on baptism and Alivia on the gift of the Holy Ghost. They both did a nice job. The Spirit was felt strongly there and I'm proud of the great young man Will is becoming. We finished the night off with sundaes and a million toppings. I think the gummy worms were a hit haha.

James is 4!

James is 4! Where on earth did the time go?? Thankfully he misses the cut off for school and I have one more year with my baby!! This year his birthday fell on Easter Sunday and we went over to my parents' house for dinner and an Easter egg hunt with the cousins. No party for this kid this year, but the Easter egg hunt and his choice of birthday cake hopefully made up for it a little. What did he want for a cake... Costco cake with big fat balloons, just like Austin had for his party. I should've gone with the white cake, the chocolate was not the best choice but James was happy. Of all the suggestions I gave him all James wanted was a cake just like "Ozzy boy" haha. I still can't believe the kids were in shorts and t-shirts in MARCH. That RARELY happens here. I'll take the nice weather any day though.

James' favorite song is "Geronimo" by Sheppard and is quick to tell you it's his favorite whenever it comes on. He loves Eggo waffles, bacon, and pretty much anything other than the stuff he's allergic to. He will randomly shout "shut up and dance with me" to the point where we've had to stop listening to that song haha. He loves baseball and any of the sports that the boys do. He's been a great walking buddy, and by that I mean he curls up in the stroller, wrapped in a blanket and barely makes a peep until we get home. On the nicer days that we've walked he tries to convince me to let him ride Will's scooter - not gonna happen with an hour long walk! Sorry buddy. James has figured out how to turn the data or wifi on my phone/iPad and download games and then when I tell him that he knows he's not allowed to do that he says "sorry mum, I'll just keep my favorites". We have a large clock on our kitchen wall and when you ask James what time it is he says "Friday??". Friday is his favorite day because that's when the Playstation is allowed to come out.

This kid is full of energy and spunk and yet can be so sweet. He will squish my face and give me kisses saying "oooooh smoochy kith-eths" (still working on the s sound). He loves to cuddle at night before bed and will snuggle up right next to me to the point that I'm almost falling off the bed. But I love it. I know one day he'll stop and I'll miss it.

Grannie Annie turns 90

This year was Jimmy's grandma's (AKA Grannie Annie) 90th birthday. She decided to throw herself a little party (little being 100 people!) and Heather and her kids came out from Ontario for it!

It was a nice night. Jimmy and I put together a slideshow of pictures of Anne, and Isabelle gave details of the pictures as they were displayed. It was fun to go through bits of her life.

There was a really lovely turkey dinner and then Ella, Alivia and Kaylee sang the song "Grandpa, Tell Me 'bout the Good Old Days" but changed it to grandma. They did a great job (especially since Liv and Ella learned it about 30 minutes before they sang it!). We found out after that Grannie Annie couldn't hear them at all! Then Anne came up and gave a cute thank you to everyone who came and we all sang Happy Birthday. It was a fun night to celebrate Grannie Annie.