Santa Clause

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!!!!!! Love, Chelsey Jeremy Kylee and Ethan Hansen

Halloween

 Yikes! Home made costumes in one hour. We realized at the last minute we were meant to be something scary, so we made ourselves "dead". I was a Diva, and Jer was a hippy.

 The Kiddos had a trunk or treat on the weekend. It was pretty fun! We did a Disney theme but I didn't take any pictures of it because it was pathetic really. And that's why we're standing in front of the trunk! HEHE And if you're wondering what Jeremy is, please let me know when you figure it out.

 Cowboy theme

 Super hero theme

 Superman and spiderman...AKA Jude and Blake

 Kylee (or should I say Minnie) getting her treats. One of our friends has a parrot and dressed up as a pirate . Kylee was convinced he was a REAL pirate and told me so on the way home. She got a pretend watch from the pirate's treasure chest and that's all she needed to make her happy for the night! It was great.

 We went to the circus yesterday and it was really great!!!!

 Inside the tent...we weren't aloud to take pictures during the show- but take my word it was pretty entertaining.

 Cute family pic in front of the tent

 Ethan was pooped by the end...what a cute little chunker!

 Kylee has been doing tap, ballet and jazz this year. She received a trophy even! We're getting her ready for the concert coming up in December. It's the real deal too, costumes, hair nets, makeup, dress and stage rehearsals....yikes, she's only 3!!!!

 CHOP CHOP! Yes, I cut my hair- OFF! I'm liking the new do and it's just in time for the hot weather. The best part was that it was free because I was in a commercial as an extra and got a voucher for a free cut! YEAH!

 It's kind of like a "mom cut" but I AM a mom so I guess it fits.

 Thanks Aunty Laura and Uncle Scott for the great outfit. It's always fun when something you got for your baby finally fits them. We love it!!!

Jeremy is getting a diploma (like a minor) in Chinese and his Chinese class met in Brisbane at a real deal chinese restaurant for a get together. Kylee wanted to wear her "chi pow" which is that chinese dress she has on. She even said "nee how" to his teacher which means hello. Kylee can speak quite a bit of Chinese but no one will ever believe me because she won't do it in front of others. She's a tricky girl.

 Thanks Aunty Lisa and Uncle David for Ethan's new outfit!!! We love it and it's perfect for summer play time!!!! What a cute little monkey he is! Seriously, I could not love a little boy more than I love this little guy!!! Look at his chubby knees!

 At the trunk or treat, kylee picked up a googly eyed caramel apple. She is making a scared face in case you can't tell ;) She ate the candy, I ate the apple.

We had a really scary Halloween dinner before Jeremy and I went off to the adult dress up party. I made mummy fingers and pointy sword vegetables with blood salsa and chips and spider web sauce. We just kept making scary sounds during dinner and Kylee thought it was great. Ethan just sucked on a carrot and thought that was great too! (not sure what happened to the alignment here...hmmm)

ooooo! Where did daddy disappear to? jk, Kylee's new obsession is taking RANDOM photos of stuff. I thought this was a winner.

OVER LOAD OF PICTURES!

 (the small hand that's feeding the elephant is kylee's!)

 The Crocodile Hunters family, live at the "crocoseum" at Australia Zoo.

 She's obviously the cutest tiger you'll ever see :)

 Baking birthday cake together...Kylee loves to cook/bake with me.

 We bake what's not eaten in the process!

 Party time!

 Kylee requested a "banana cake" which I have no idea how to make, and considering since the floods last year, bananas are $10 a kilo (equivalent to $5/ lb) I bought one for her and sliced it onto her piece. She was just as happy!

 we frequent the Australia zoo lately. It's 10 min up the road and we got an unlimited pass for the rest of the year. Kylee loves to feed the kangaroos.

 For Kylee's birthday we had a teddy bear picnic, it was POURING rain so we had to have it inside our patio (forgot to mention, we've moved) and it worked out great!

 Food, friends, music, games, candy, chips, presents, and FUN, everything a little girl's party should be!

 Kylee is crying because someone started opening her present. She was DEVASTATED!

 Look at all those presents!!! When she was done opening them, she asked me "mummy, what else"

 Happy 3 year old! Jeremy did the cake.

 Not sure the video works, but the memory ran out half way through the song, darn. Kylee lost it AGAIN because someone blew out her candle. We had to light it and sing again, but alas, didn't get it on camera still. oh well!!!

 Look! I got daring and made cake pops! They were a hit and I would recommend them at any party because there were no plates of cake every where that kids left behind- just empty sticks and happy smiles!

 Cookie decor! Followed by a dance off and what's the time mister wolf. It was REALLY fun!

Aww, don't you just want to grab his cute little cheeks!!! He's the BEST baby I could have ever asked for. Hardly cries, sleeps through the night, 4 2 hr naps a day and smiles and laughs the rest of the time. Except for his eczema, he's perfect!


Lately, Kylee's been saying new words. Often you'll hear, "suddenly" "otherwise" "instead of" in her sentences and she's reached the stage where she asks what everything means. A doosey yesterday was Kylee: "what's does world mean?"
Me: "uh....."
and
Kylee: " I know, I have a great idea! Instead of having a nap, I could watch a show on the tv!"
Or
Kylee: "we better hurry, otherwise we might miss the____"

She is definately a sweetheart and I adore every minute of her. Can't believe she's 3!!!!!

Well that'll do for now, hopefully it's not so long in between my next blog, but lets face it, it probably will be because I seriously take forever to blog and I just can't bring myself to do it!!!!!!!!!!!!

US

 This is my beloved Nanna. This is the smile that you will see on her face if you say hello to her. Ethan is a big fan of that smile (and nan)

 We FINALLY made it to the temple in brisbane. it's a full day for us and have to take the kids. Mum came with us to babysit. Yay!!

 July 2 was Mum's birthday. We (being the only family in town) took her out to the botanical gardens near our house. My Mum loves plants and flowers. If you're ever walking/driving anywhere with her, she's looking at the flowers and plants. She'll say "oh, look at that beautiful boganvilia, or something of the like....if we're walking, she'll touch everything like a little girl. She just loves plants. So we thought a picnic in the gardens would suite. We had a really nice time. My mum is one of the people I admire the most. She is incredibly unselfish and even on her birthday did more to help me than I did for her...I just can't catch up with her. She spends most of her day running around doing things for people in the ward, giving them rides, helping them with some odd job etc. What a great person my mother is. I just love her....ANYWAY...back to the blog.

 A friend (who's also American) invited us to her fourth of July celebration. It was great fun...we had hamburgers, sausages (like hot dogs but actual recognizable meat) chips and dip, a stripy cake, jello (except it didn't set in time-my fault) apples and caramel dip...and I think that's it...and of course we had sparklers. Even in the middle of winter here, it was probably as warm as a night in July in the US. It was great fun. The conversations were mostly about how so and so got their residency and such and such about visas....hehe. it was great!

 Since Jeremy's off school for 4 weeks, we took a trip to the Gold Coast and used up our yearly pass to Sea World and Movie world. Mum came with us and we stayed in a hotel overnight. We didn't take too many pics for some reason. The hotel was nice but some ambasadors from Virginia Tech were there and I'm sad to say were not a very nice representation of the university OR the US. I was very embarrassed for them...but hopefully we made a good impression on the people we came in contact with.

 Kylee and Mum eating a warm bowl of soup together. Kyle is never far from nanny when eating soup. Believe it or not, it's pretty cold inside our house...so warm soup is never too far.

 Some out of place pics at the botanical gardens- i just love my kylee girl

 Kylee has a new dress on that nanny made her for winter. We have 1:00 church and had time to spare so we decided to make some cupcakes for her friends in nursery. She is usually right there cooking with me lately and her chef skills are really improving! She loves to try things on her own too. It takes a bit of patience on my part to let her do it, it's usually a lot messier and lot slower than if I were to just do it myself, but I'm raising a child here, not running a race and having a "who's house is the cleanest competition" so who cares? The broom isn't far. The funny thing is, the clock in the kitchen had actually stopped at 11:30 so I thought we had time, but it was really 12:15 and we ended up being late for church. Not so good for the Relief Society president to rock up at church 15 min. late!!! HEHE.
Oh well, I'm not called because I'm punctual- that's for sure!!!!!!!

In the winter, we have about an hour of sun on our backyard. It's perfect for a little picnic in the sun. Kylee's all dressed up as a princess aand decided to have "lots a rella" (mozzarella) cheese in a bowl for lunch. She practically lives on this stuff and even had it for breakfast today.
My new goal is to take pictures of the stuff we do here in Australia and put it on my blog so that all of you can see how BEAUTIFUL life is here so that you'll come to visit us. I'll end with a quote from Kylee to sum it all up.

"It's so nice eating fish and chips in the sun by the seaside"


Any takers???