This wonderful season started off great! The day before we left to join Jared's aunts, and uncles, Reagan was able to make a Ginger Bread Train!! She did a GREAT job! We built it (already made, we just had to make the icing and glue the pieces together), and then Reagan decorated it all by herself. I dumped out candy and then let her at it! I just sat next to her with the icing to squeeze onto the candy. These are the pictures from the adventure. ChristmasEve!!! We drove down to Hill Top about an hour south of Sydney(just FYI we are living about an hour NORTH of Sydney) That is where Jared's Aunt June, and Uncle Dennis (who were in Utah for Christmas last year) live! On ChristmasEve we had Jared's Aunts, and Uncles: June, Dennis, John, and Jim and his cousin Janet(and her husband Lyndsey) and their 3 kids Vanessa, Jaylee, and Alisha. It was a FULL house, but fun! On Christmas Eve R is allowed to open 1 present(a tradition from my childhood). It is always from her Grandma and its always new P.J. So these picture show the front room, and how excited R is about her new jammies!
A tradition from Jared's childhood is a "Santa Sack". You leave out your Santa sack, and Santa fills it with candy, and little toys, and leaves it at the end of the kids beds. Then whenever the kids wake up, they are allowed to go through their Santa Sack by themselves. We have never dones this tradtion until this year. This is R figuring out her Santa sack!
Presents!!! We have been VERY blessed this season with WONDERFUL gifts. Back home R (in Blue Haven)had some mysterious friends leave some presents at our front door. Then she got so many FUN presents! Her main gift was a kids digital camera/camcorder. She got the tutu, dress ups, and a princess camp chair! Jared's main gift was a book(I know sounds dumb, but he loves it!) My main gift was a gift card for Colorado(similar to Eddie Bauer), and The Proposal(YEAH). It was a BIG mess with all the family. After presents we had Christmas Lunch. Uncle Dennis is a GREAT cook. Jared's cousins Janet/Lindsay and their 3 kids had to leave after presents. But Jared's other cousin Donna and her husband Sandy and their 2 kids came over for lunch! It was nice to meet more of Jared's family! We had lots of yummy food, and great time talking!
We had a GREAT Christmas. Funny thing is that its been cold and rainy here! Ok by cold I mean 70 degrees and raining. It feels COLD compared to what it has been! Good thing we didn't have Christmas on the beach! Anyways, it was a great day, and glad that Jared's has family here to spend it with! Just a fun note. At his aunt's and uncle's house there are wild parrots, and cockatoos that fly around(which is normal) but these one loves their house, because he feeds them seeds. Anyways, this is some of the pictures of the birds. It was REALLY cool! That one picture of R you can see one of the parrots behind her on the chair! ALL wild!
So we went to the Sydney temple to see the Christmas lights. It had been raining on and off all day. It was sprinkling while we were looking at the lights, but it looks like snow in the pictures! It made me laugh because of the memories at Temple Square all bundled up from the snow! Our family in front of the temple!
R and Uncle Jim skipping around the lights!
R LOVES her "iim"
The next day we had our ward Christmas party! Yes, it was at the beach!! We had never been to this beach before, but loved it!This is R holding her best friends little sister Gabby! Doesn't she look cute as an elf!
This was the park we had dinner at! Yes the blue under the pavillion is the ocean! What a cool ward Christmas party!
Jared was asked to be Santa, but they didn't have a suit! So they gave Jared the bag of candy AKA Lollies and she told all the kids "Get him, he has the candy" So all the kids took off chasing Jared! It was SO funny!
Then all the kids lined up from youngest to oldest and got their lollies from Jared!
It really is FINALLY starting to feel a little like Christmas! It has been fun trying to go as frugal as possible! Can't wait to post more pictures!
We went with Uncle Jim to Sydney to meet Jared's Aunt Caroline, and her grand-daughter Cherish. They were all going to see Mama Mia. So we caught a ride down to Sydney! Even though it is hot here, there are some festive things up! After we left the 3 of them to go see the show in Darling Harbour. We crossed the main bridge across Darling Harbour and there was SOMETHING going on! So me not being to shy, asked. American Express was sponsoring this event called "Realise the Potential". They had many different things set up to get people to try something new! Painting was the main thing. Anyone could participate for FREE!!! So R and I decided to try our hand at painting. For every canvas that was painted American Express was donating money to a charity(can't remember which). They also took a digital photo of each canvas painted,and AM EX would put together a website to display the art!
In the theme of "trying something new" they had a ton of different drums set up for anyone to jump in and try playing the songs! It was so cool! R loved the FREE face painting. She got a blue butterfly!
After we finished our artwork we recieved free vouchers for any free drink at a stand! So this is Jared and I showing off our free drinks!
We had 5 hours to ourselves, but spent over an hour on the bridge. We decided to go up to Center Point Tower. We were going to try to get there with my family, but ran out of time. It was pretty cool to see Sydney like that!
R had no problems being up so either!
Sydney Harbour bridge, from the tower!
There is a store here similar to Macy's called David Jones. At their Syndey store they had these moving displays in their front windows. Each window had a classic Christmas song playing and the display corrisponded to the music (its hard to see, but this is "I Saw Three Ships")
At the same store inside they had a "Santa's Cave" which were full of these moving displays. The line to see Santa went through the cave.
After the show was done Jim, Jared, me, and R went to "The Gap" which is the ocean's inlet to the harbour.
It was SO beautiful!
We got dinner from a famous fish and chips shop. Ate on the beach, and watch the sunset over the harbour. What a great way to finish off our trip to Sydney!
These are R's new best friends. They are the cutest girls in our ward!
Matilda & Charlize!
This was at Charlize's birthday party!
Stinky feet haning out of the little tent
(after they made their cup cakes)
Inside the tiny tent!
NEW EXPERIENCES
Our Ward was having a "boot sale" (aka garage sale) at the church to help raise money for the youth to attend EFY. Matilda "Tilly" and R loved the jumping castle!
So did the dad's. This is Jared and Tilly's dad Tim "making sure that it was safe"!
More safety checks by Jared
R came out of the boot sale with a new bike.
She doesn't know how to ride yet, but is excited to try!
NEW LOVE (who knew!)
Yes, that is MY child out in the ocean BY HERSELF!!
We found the BEST beach, that R LOVES!!
There is hope for us here!
More amazing shots of the miracle!!
A little different expression then the
first time at the beach!
R's first surfing experience!
Ok, not really surfing but R loved being pulled
around on the boogie board!
MY NEW FRIENDS
This is 6 of the 8 Turners. From left to right:
Conrad, Brandon, Peni, Aaron, Tamara, and Purcell
not here are the oldest 2 kids Stacy and Kaynen
Most of you know I had to go to New Zealand(actually any country) to receive my new visa for Australia. Our dear family friend Tiffany Hjorth Ryland served her mission in Auckland New Zealand. She hooked my up with this AMAZING family to stay with, while my visa was being processed. This saved me hundreds of dollars (that we don't have). They took me in like they had known me forever! It was a great non-tourist experience of New Zealand!
So just because my family left, and we have no money doesn't mean that we still don't have fun.We decided to go out to a place that Jared had taken my family while I stayed home with R sleeping. Its called Nora Head. Its has a cool light house(which the sun would not allow a good pic), and rocks that get covered with the tide. So it was great for crab hunting.
This is Jared teaching R how to look for crabs with a stick!
Jared and R
She gets the hang of it! Except EVERY little hole with water she would have to stop and use her stick to look for crabs
If you look closely ITS A CRAB!!!
So this was taken last night. We rented Transformers 2, and had put Dora the Explore on the computer for R. I came in to check on her and this is what I found! Funny little girl!
Also, one of the other times I came and checked on her. While we are living with Jared's uncle her clothes are just kept in a bin. Well, she had pulled clothes out of her bin and was "folding" them. The big stack in front of her is the fruit of her labors!
I don't know if it really is that boring here for her, that she is folding clothes for fun! I think we need to get out more..........for R's sake!!!!
We were ALL really stressed about the long flight to Aussie. It ended up being no problem. All but the last 20 minutes, the flight was no big deal. This was taken on the way to LA. She didn't have to sit in her car seat on the LONG flight, thank goodness!!! Its hard living I know, but this is a picture of our new home! If you look close you can see all 3 of our footprints above the words! Cute R looking out to the harbour(yes it is spelled correctly!). R's first time at the Opera House! She loved running all over this place!! Ok, this next picture has to be my ALL time FAVORITE picture EVER taken of R! This was her first experience with the ocean. We went to the VERY famous Bondi Beach, and she FREAKED out!!! This picture really explains how she felt!! SO funny!! She DOES NOT like WAVES!!! How will we ever survive in Australia??? Oh yeah, she hated walking on the sand too! Really R??(p.s. i know I am a great mom, instead of comforting my child I pull out my camera!!!) More happy times. We were able to go to a zoo, and hand feed the Kangaroos! R LOVED them! Some of them didn't really want to eat the food we bought for them, but R was determined that they wanted and WOULD eat it! Very cute. This looks likes she is feeding it, but NO she is shoving it into its face! Funny! Most did eat out of her had, but still funny! They had Kangaroos, and Wallabies to feed. This was just a baby Wallaby that R really liked!R's first experience with a Koala! Cute! So by this picture we had been to one other beach, which wasn't as bad as Bondi, but still had its issues! This picture was taken today, and look there IS hope!! She still had a hard time walking in the water with the waves, but we could go out to the bigger waves holding her and she was just fine! THERE IS HOPE for my AUSTRALIAN child! She enjoyed the sand kit we got her the most! Reality starts tomorrow, because my mom and brother leave! No more touristy things! Back to the same old, same old. Laundry, dishes, ect. But the good news is, that I am feeling VERY comfortable driving on the wrong side of the road, and it is only spring here! More beach trips to come! I'd love to hear from you all! REALLY keep up your blogs, because that really is the only way I get to stay in touch! I will try to keep you all updated on our Great Aussie Adventure!
Christmas Eve!!! We drove down to Hill Top about an hour south of Sydney(just FYI we are living about an hour NORTH of Sydney) That is where Jared's Aunt June, and Uncle Dennis (who were in Utah for Christmas last year) live! On Christmas Eve we had Jared's Aunts, and Uncles: June, Dennis, John, and Jim and his cousin Janet(and her husband Lyndsey) and their 3 kids Vanessa, Jaylee, and Alisha. It was a FULL house, but fun! On Christmas Eve R is allowed to open 1 present(a tradition from my childhood). It is always from her Grandma and its always new P.J. So these picture show the front room, and how excited R is about her new jammies!
A tradition from Jared's childhood is a "Santa Sack". You leave out your Santa sack, and Santa fills it with candy, and little toys, and leaves it at the end of the kids beds. Then whenever the kids wake up, they are allowed to go through their Santa Sack by themselves. We have never dones this tradtion until this year. This is R figuring out her Santa sack!
Presents!!! We have been VERY blessed this season with WONDERFUL gifts. Back home R (in Blue Haven)had some mysterious friends leave some presents at our front door. Then she got so many FUN presents! Her main gift was a kids digital camera/camcorder. She got the tutu, dress ups, and a princess camp chair! Jared's main gift was a book(I know sounds dumb, but he loves it!) My main gift was a gift card for Colorado(similar to Eddie Bauer), and The Proposal(YEAH). It was a BIG mess with all the family.
After presents we had Christmas Lunch. Uncle Dennis is a GREAT cook. Jared's cousins Janet/Lindsay and their 3 kids had to leave after presents. But Jared's other cousin Donna and her husband Sandy and their 2 kids came over for lunch! It was nice to meet more of Jared's family! We had lots of yummy food, and great time talking!
We had a GREAT Christmas. Funny thing is that its been cold and rainy here! Ok by cold I mean 70 degrees and raining. It feels COLD compared to what it has been! Good thing we didn't have Christmas on the beach! Anyways, it was a great day, and glad that Jared's has family here to spend it with! Just a fun note. At his aunt's and uncle's house there are wild parrots, and cockatoos that fly around(which is normal) but these one loves their house, because he feeds them seeds. Anyways, this is some of the pictures of the birds. It was REALLY cool! That one picture of R you can see one of the parrots behind her on the chair! ALL wild!
Our family in front of the temple!
This is R holding her best friends little sister Gabby! Doesn't she look cute as an elf!
After we left the 3 of them to go see the show in Darling Harbour. We crossed the main bridge across Darling Harbour and there was SOMETHING going on! So me not being to shy, asked. American Express was sponsoring this event called "Realise the Potential". They had many different things set up to get people to try something new! Painting was the main thing. Anyone could participate for FREE!!! So R and I decided to try our hand at painting.
For every canvas that was painted American Express was donating money to a charity(can't remember which). They also took a digital photo of each canvas painted,and AM EX would put together a website to display the art!
R loved the FREE face painting. She got a blue butterfly!
There is a store here similar to Macy's called David Jones. At their Syndey store they had these moving displays in their front windows. Each window had a classic Christmas song playing and the display corrisponded to the music (its hard to see, but this is "I Saw Three Ships")
These are R's new best friends. They are the cutest girls in our ward! 
