Baby boy is 3

My sister sent me this pic and it makes my heart squint a little bit to see my little bebe, he's growing up so fast. He just had a birthday and turned 3.

Many of you know I won't be able to have any more children, so I guess these pic are all I have to remember how sweet and beautiful my kids were as babies. Gabe used to take his blankie and fuzz it on his nose for comfort with his binkie when we was going to sleep. It was the cutest thing ever. Just wanted to put this pic up here because it reminds me so much of him at this stage and everything he was about and I never want to forget it.

7.5 years, 10th move

We're moving... again. Yes, you heard that right. And yes, you're memory does serve you correctly, we only moved to this house in February.

But when opportunity knocks...

Ben just had his last day at 4Life yesterday and we will be heading down to our new home in Melbourne, Australia to house hunt in a few days this upcoming week.

Life has been filled with excitement, hesitation, nervousness, jubilation, and stress -good and bad. But we are excited at this new opportunity for him to be working at his new job as General Manager of Australasia for Melaleuca, and I'm so proud of Ben!

We will most likely wait out the school year, which ends in December, but we'll know more after this week. Sorry we have been out of touch with most of you on it, in fact, there may be some members of the family who are reading this for the first time not knowing! It has been hard to spread the word and this was all really, really unexpected.

I am feeling good about it, but it was really strange to consider at first. I've loved my life in Sydney, and was excited at the thought of where life was taking us. This wasn't in my plans at all, but once we decided to go for it, we decided to really go for it and wrap our arms around Melbourne and our new life there.

Things have been busy, I've quit my other blog but will still post on it occasionally just for myself and family -as was intended in the first place. We're just focusing on our family and the tasks ahead and getting ourselves organized and ready.

The good news for many of you is that there is now more time than ever for that visit you've been promising us you'd make...

She Dresses Herself Now

Just found several half finished posts, most written in June or July... decided to get it in gear and post them, content may be a little bit old, just a warning

So Laine is obsessed with Michael Jackson dying. I think the kids at school are talking non-stop about it. Today she confused one of our favorite foods with what sounds like it could be a condition you'd die from today when she said, 'Mom, did you hear Michael Jackson died? He had a 'heartichoke''

In other news, Ben just got home from New Zealand today, and per usual he brought {cheap} gifts for the kids. Laine's gift was a pair of pants, that, as described by Ben, the woman Shopkeeper of the store {hard-up for a sale} talked him in to buying. Of course selling him heavily on how much she would like them. At the start of their conversation about buying a gift for his kids, he related that his daughter was 5, but somehow he has arrived home with pants are size THIRTEEN, and he didn't notice that might be weird at any point...

Further, they're not pants, to put this nicely, I think they are Bermuda shorts or capris for a horizontally challenged {read: obese} child. They seem like the right length for a 5 year old, yet her waist could fit into the thighs portion of the pants. And I guess he didn't notice the low crotch or elastic waistband. They made for a good laugh, and I still pull them out when in need of a good laugh, -oh, and they're good for a laugh. I smell this year's White Elephant gift! I've said too much...

Ok, that was all old news, in more recent things seen and heard:

Yesterday our neighbor Josh came over and told us how much he loves Laine and basically that he is going to put her in his pocket and take her home to America when he moves home next month. He said he was outside and heard a sweet little voice coming from no where, only to realize it was Laine who was sitting on our mailbox {it is made from stones, this would make more sense if you could see it}. He asked what she was doing and she said, non-chalantly,

"Oh, I'm just talking to the moon."

Josh said, "Is it talking back?"

Laine, "No, I'm trying to get it to, I'm trying to talk to it, but it's hiding behind that cloud"

-She's also been talking to the road. I'll hear her in the car saying, "Road, Oh Ro-oad! I'm trying to talk to you"

I guess she's been pretty hard up for friends these days, such a pity. The poor wretch!

Also, today when we were driving into the city, she got a little confused as to where we live I think. She shouted,

"There it is, the Eiffel Bridge!"

And I started laughing and she realized her mistake, or so I thought, and said,

"Oh, nevermind, the Eiffel Bridge is in French"

And I laughed again and she said,

"Oh, I mean, it's in China"

Hmmm... gotta work on that geography as well as local and International landmarks.

Gabey is a real talking boy these days. If you haven't seen him in recent months he is a whole new guy, complete with new sexy summer buzzcut, pictures to come.

In Gabey news, I've been running into my share of unexplained, though surely Gabey related, messes in the house recently. However, I couldn't explain the empty conditioner and soap bottles, chased down with little piles of conditioner or soap around the bathroom, resembling what I lovingly call, "Cream Wrinse Terds". Usually in the tub, they remained a mystery until tonite when Gabey grabbed Laine's conditioner and said,

"Oh, great, there's the spider cream, I needed the spider cream"

And I was like, what, what the heck are you talking about? I was not very happy about the sound of this.

And he said, "But the spiders are berry hungry"

And then I realized all of those little piles were to feed the spiders and ants in the bathroom. Duh, what else would they be. He's been squeezing it out and then going back several times a day to check if there are any insects eating it. Naturally. Those little brains! I guess I can at least relish the thought that those messes I've been cleaning up had the best of intentions, right? I'm so glad he's concerned about the wellbeing of our insects. I just hope he doesn't leave anything out for cockroaches!

Cute Kid

This kid is cute, and he knows how to work a crowd. We're going on a trip at the end of the month and needed to take some pictures for Gabe's visa so this is about how his photo shoot went. Never want to forget this time, what a great stage. Though I've been saying that for the last 3 years with him...

Encore

Here's another -Laine reciting "The Kindergarten Concert"

Poetry In Motion -Laine recites Sick by Shel Silverstein

The house was rented ages ago, sorry for not updating sooner! The new family has moved in and we are excited to have them and hope they enjoy the neighborhood, area, and the new friends they will make -friends we miss so much!

Anyway, here's a little video of Laine reciting a poem. We get such a kick out of her drama and theatrics! She's wearing her Sport uniform for school -it's like it's Christmas everyday at Ironbark Ridge Prime-ry School...

The blog once again becomes my advertising platform: House for Rent

It's that time again, oh the joys of international living.

The beautiful house is once again for rent, so if you let it go the first time, a year and a half ago, don't let it slip away again!

This lovely family home is located in Herriman and features

5 Bedrooms {4+ Home Office with French Doors}

3 bathrooms

3 car garage

3200 square feet

Bonus Tiled Storage Room with attached cold storage

Fully Finished Basement

Fully landscaped, full sprinklers

Walk-in closet and jetted tub with chandelier in Master Suite

Stainless Steel Appliances, Granite Counter tops

Vaulted Ceilings, Designer 3 tone paint

Basketball and Tennis courts across the street

$1750 per month

We do have a local phone number you can reach us on if interested. Thanks!

Here they are

I'm still getting a lot of people confused about how they can find the videos for Shelf Reliance, so I'm posting this one here and obviously others can link to it. Otherwise you can do a search for Shelf Reliance on youtube, or they are on the product pages {hard to find because not every product has one yet} or you can go to SR's youtube page, www.youtube.com/shelfreliance.

This one is an informational video, and I'll be doing one of these for every product we have to explain more about it. I LOVE doing these because I'm getting the chance to answer all of the questions that I myself had as a customer before becoming an employee.

So here they are so there shall be no more confusion!

Thanks for all of your support with my new job and my new role. I still have so much to learn and sometimes I get frustrated that I don't have it all figured out right now. I'm mostly speaking of being more engaging on camera. At the time you film it feels like you're being a major cheese wiener. Then you watch and realize you could still need to give MORE! But I am learning so much from this job it is unreal. And I'm so grateful to be able to be making a living doing something I enjoy so much!

Home Trip

Uhm, hi, I just barely found the photos from our trip home in April / May, along with some other oldies and goodies. Here's a sampling of what happened this spring/fall?:

The kids after the forever long plane ride, driving up to Gaengy and Pop Pops {about a 3 hour long drive after 14 hours on a plane}. They wouldn't be so tuckered if they would SLEEP ON THE PLANE! This time was an improvement over last time's 45 minutes of sleep for Gabey. He upgraded to 2 out of 14 hours. Kill me now.


Incredibly fuzzy photo of basically nothing on account of the blurrieness. We met Nick and Nicole's family at Uncle John's Pizza Factory or whatever. The kids riding the rides and enjoying being with their cousins.


Some choice photos that Laine obviously took. The string of them was priceless. Who doesn't want a shot of Gram's bedroom carpet, an extreme close-up of Kristine's eyeball, Gabey running away naked, or an out of focus shot of Dad on his cell phone while folding his clothes -half the shot being taken up by a finger?


Moving on to the Disneyworld portion of our trip... Gabey and Laine rocking up to one of the parks. We went to the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Blizzard Beach Waterpark, and Typhoon Lagoon Waterpark. The humidity had already broken through the 4 layers of hairspray I plastered Laine's hair with. Girl likes to look good! Oh well, happens to the best of us sista.


Laine was so cute with the characters. I didn't realize what a big deal to kids of this age! At that age I was still really more into biting or otherwise destroying the toys stage, so I was really in the dark on the love affair kids have with the characters. However, early on in this trip Laine schooled me, and under her wise tutualiage I came to realize how important it is to them.


She got a card on one of the rides for participating and for the rest of the day she recanted how she was going to give it to Mickey when she saw him. She was so excited, it was really sweet. When she finally did see him she had forgotten it and was so sad! Kids sometimes pick the funniest things to place such importance, but it really is so vitally important them, and it is sad to see the disappointment!


We waited in several of the lines for a variety of different characters. I would have preferred to be riding rides, but sometimes, as mothers we learn it isn't all about us -repeat after me: this trip is about the kids, not Nat. I will wait in forever long lines to see grown-ups in hot furry fake costumes in 95 degree heat and 100% humidity and like it, LIKE IT I say!

Awe, so sweet. It was so worth it. The hours of waiting, the heat, beading up, the whining, the bunions that were formed while standing in line. Yup... seeing this picture it was ALLLLL worth it.

Gabey, aka Mother Boy, was not so into the characters. We have a few precious shots that are akin to most of the shots we have of him with Santa. Not happening. This was the nicest we have, and only cause Momma was in the middle, a proverbial barrier between him and evil Tigger.

PS that was awfully rude of Tigger to ruin the picture by doing bunny ears to me. Maybe he really is evil Tigger...

One of the many nights Dad was in meetings and Mom was left entertaining the kids. I took them down to Downtown Disney for dinner like at 8:30 on a Friday night. It was P.A.C.K.E.D. We didn't get a seat for dinner until after 10:00 at night. Crazy. We still went to the Ghiradelli Soda fountain after -Zowie, a must try. I highly recommend. Once again, if I talked dirty about food, this post would be inappropriate right about now. I'll refrain. But it was goooood.


Daddy finally joining the party. We headed out with our friends the Ogden's to the Prehistoric restaurant that had some clever, dinosaurish name. It was themed to the M.A.X and was actually quite incredible, as you can see. Gabey showing what he thought of the realistic sounds and robotics


Gabey getting impatient for food, we had waited an hour and a half for the table

The kid is too cute and silly, it is always impossible to just pick one shot of him

Better view of the restaurant, and since there are so few shots of Dad with us, here's a double take on this one too

The kids taking what just may be their last chance for a ride on dogs made of legos

Ben parked the car and took with him the hotel key. It was late and there was not a moment to spare in getting the kids to bed, so it was time to skin the rabbit so jammie time could happen asap once Ben returned with the key. What are naked kids to do but run up and down the halls of the hotel?

late.est

Just arrived fresh off the airplane. A massively huge thanks to Ben for not only making it through the week without me, but having things so well put together that I honestly had to wonder what they keep me hanging around for!

Seriously Forks, the place was immaculate -it could have passed a white glove test, and besides Gabey being sick and losing his voice and now sounding like Donald Duck, the kids were no worse for the wear. A huge relief since this whole working thing is new and unexplored territory for us.

If you don't read my HOTGP blog then you are unawares that I was home last week on business, filming again for Shelf Reliance in the Test Kitchen. It was a hecka long {and at the same time short} week. My Mom flew out to be with me which was so great -I can't wait to make it big or start a business and HIRE her! She was such a worker and also a huge source of strength to me whilst I was so far away from my little family! Here she is filling in for one of the camera men who had to take 5.



The shoot went really well and I can't wait to get the latest installment of videos up since they are sure to be much better than the previous ones where I had no clue what I was doing!

It was also great to get together with friends, I swear in this tiny short trip I saw more people than I usually see over 3 weeks of being home. Still, there were many of you that I missed and I really want to make it happen next time! It was really fun to have Chris, Ben's Mom, and my SIL Caysie and nieces Rylee and Avery come up one afternoon too.


Today I am home with the kids and it is school holidays for the next two weeks. Man, the kids around here must be bored out of their gourds! I just had a knock at the door and as I got closer a little voiced said, 'It's the police! Open up!' Hilarious since the kid was all of like 7 years old.

It ended up being this group of nieghbor boys wielding plastic guns. Laine and I humoured them by running from pilar to pilar and bush to bush while they tried to shoot us.

I ran up and searched and searched for a toy gun for Laine to join the 'fun' -but could only find a lightsaber... Meanwhile they are ringing the bell like crazy, so I got on the intercom and talked in a scary voice telling them we wouldn't be coming out -even for 'the FBI'.


Laine ran out weilding her 'lightsaber' and was saying things in her tiny mouse voice like, 'hello boys, I'm going to get you...' all the while they are making fun of her saber and saying things like, "I just shot your face off!' Oh man, are these the kinds of experiences you miss out when you don't have brothers? They were cracking me up! They are so into it and serious!

Later this week we are heading up to Brizzie {Brisbane} since Ben has a work thing and we thought it best to tag along on acount of the holidays. It is North of here so it should be warmer yeah, sign me up!

Okay, there is another ring of the bell, I guess I better go shoot some faces off...er...

Hot Sydney Nights

This weekend I surprised Ben for his birthday by kidnapping him and taking him to the city for an overnight getaway. I arranged for our friends the Finch's to take the kids straightaway after Laine's birthday party {details forthecoming} so we could head out to see the sights. Thanks Finch's! -Though I know I'll get mine soon enough...

We stayed at the Shangri-La in The Rocks in Sydney. It is such a fun little area with this great weekend market and lot's of quaintly shabby old architecture juxtaposed with the leaping modern sky scrapers in the near distance. And of course it was just above the Opera House and Circular Quay.

View from our room on the 19th Floor

Heading out for dinner at The Italian Village right on the water. The meal and view {yeah, this WAS our view, we are right outside the restaurant which is an open-air restaurant} were both delicious

Harbour Bridge in the distance, of which we finally did the walking trek across the next day

Cute little bits and bobs in the city - the Argyle Stairway

On our way to dinner, taking advantage of one of the rare times we remember our camera, hence this being the 67th picture of me with this smile, pose, and outfit -just a {slightly} different background

'Allo Govnah, cheerio.

Argyle Stairs, different view, new outfit, different time of day

Heading up to the bridge

We also went to Paddy's market in Chinatown. It was so good to finally get a feel for the city and how it is laid out, since up until now I still didn't really have my bearings.

We missed the kids but were glad they weren't there to drive us crazy. Like Ben said at breakfast, when you're with them you wish you were alone, and when you're alone you wish they were there. They had fun playing with their friends and we were so glad to hear that they had behaved themselves!

Happy Birthday next week Ben {the 3rd if you are wondering}. And don't forget come next Friday, that WAS your present!

Shelf Relicance / THRIVE giveaway!

FYI -my other blog is giveing away a THRIVE giftbasket of samples! Click the button on the sidebar to click over.

Heart,
Natalie

where to start, where to start

Laine singing in the assembly today, precious! She did great, and she was adorable when she said her lines, of which I didn't get a picture. She had to speak Spanish in front of the whole school, don't ask me what she said, all I caught was 'Me llamo Laine'

Gabey enjoying the birthday festivities

Happy 5th birthday Laine!

The girls getting their sass on

Laine and her teacher, Mrs. Adams

Birthday treats for school

Once you've fallen off the proverbial blogging bandwagon, it is pretty much a beyotch to catch up. I find myself alongside this train running and running as fast as I can {okay, not really, my gait is more of a lazy Sunday stride if I'm being honest} ...but I see the train in the distance, moving on without me and I feel powerless to ever catch up. I'm too lazy to even put the above pictures into proper order much less drag them down to the bottom of the post where they belong.

Oh well.

So much has happened. Did I even fully finish my Christmas posting? I can't even remember. And I keep on almost posting, except Ben says he's got a post he's working on that I keep hoping will magically appear. Since that hasn't happened...I guess he'll keep us all guessing on that one.

So I've still got our trip to New Zealand in March, our trip home to CA, UT, and FL in April and May and then all of the other bits and bobs in betwixt, like two assemblies Laine has been in -so cute! She sang her little heart out and made her mama proud. And her birthday was two days ago too. We have a 5 year old in the house ya'll, and she already seems older and wiser. Today she told Gabe she was 'so proud of him'. She cracks me up with her maturity, and her sweetness never ceases to melt the 'ol heart just a little.

Last week she leaned over to Ben and asked 'Dad, what's the Jesus password?' -we surmise meaning she wanted to go up and offer the sacrament prayer. Hilarious.

She is so sweet and is really trying to be a good big sister and a good example. She is talented and tries hard at everything she does. She is making me so proud and happy with the way she practices her piano without being asked and loves her dance class. She has her moments too, but she has always had a real zest for learning and has been an easy kid to love. She really is just a big ball of sweetness, and we just love her so much.

So there you have it, life is good, the kids are growing up and we are just soaking it all in. As for us, I'm loving work and Ben is stressed and working lot's but finding enjoyment as well. I honestly have just been feeling this overwhelming feeling of gratitude and happiness lately. It's like, I look around, and I have nothing but hope and optimism for the future and the present couldn't be better. It's not perfect, and far from it, but when I take a look at the glass before me, I realize it is not just half-filled, it's pretty much filled to the brim. Even through my trials and frustrations, of which I am so grateful.