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.

The last laugh

Okay, so do you remember the whole swing set debacle of 'ought 5? If you don't, read up on it here. And then chase that down with chapter II here.

Okay, everybody up to speed? Well, we moved from the house with the big yard to the house with no yard, so the 11 year old piece of junk couldn't come with us. Sad. In our haste, we just left the POS for the new owners to deal with it, until we got a letter informing us that if we didn't come remove it from the premises we would be charged $240 to remove it.

So we listed it on ebay, stating that they needed to show up, dissasmeble it themselves and cart it away. It took all of 45 seconds of my time to do so.

Please see the listing here, including what we got for the thing.

Looks like we get the last laugh. On top of that we've moved and changed our phone number, so as far as we know PSM doesn't know where we live anymore.

Another round on us everybody!

...uh, testing, is this thing on?

So... We've been busy going and doing a lot lately, and are in fact home in the US of A right now! We've had a lot on our plates, especially since I started working. Did I already mention that I work now?

I have been for the last two-ish months. I'm now the Director of Culinary Relations for Thrive / Shelf Reliance. I've been working with their food, creating recipes and ideas for people to use and incorporate their food storage into their everyday meals.

I was super hesitant since many of you know I'm pretty pretentious about food and mainly use fresh. But I started getting interested in building up my storage about a year or two ago and especially in the months leading up to Thrive approching me.

I must say, I'm UBER-impressed with the product and have come up with some really inventive uses that I hope people will like! Some of the items are definete 'food storage' items that I'll be really glad to have on hand for emergencies... but most are foods I will use on an everyday basis now, I'm not kidding. It's actually been a lot of fun!

So I've been in Utah the last week FILMING what I've been cooking up at the fabulous, practically paved in gold Orson Gygi theater. I did about 20 recipes that will be featured as 3-5-7 minute films that will be placed on Shelf Relicances website on the product pages, and then also made into a DVD at some point possibly.

I also did a photoshoot with Kelsey Nixon, since she is going to be working with them as well but I won't blow her secret on exactly what her role is. We're doing a commercial later in the week and then I'll be on Good Things Utah on Friday, May 1st talking about my job, the products, etc and I'll showcase some of the food I've made. 10:00 am if you're intersted in that...

There is more to my job than filming, I'll talk about that later.

Okay, that's all for now, we have about a bajillion pics and stories on what we've been up to lately but I can't make any promises on when I'll get to that! But here you go, so you at least know we're alive!

Perth Ya'll

Okay, this was so long ago does anyone even care anymore? But I'm still doing my dangdest to get this blog caught up and up to date and I don't want to miss the big stuff.

As you may remember, we took a little jaunt to Perth, WA about 6 or 7 weeks ago. It was awesome, we loved the city and surrounds and found so much to do and see. It honestly was just beautiful and wonderful, and I personally found it to be the perfect mix of city without being so full-on like most bigger cities we usually visit.

We started off with a night in the city and took the next few days in the sleepy beach town of Rockingham. It was so just what we needed during the stress of being knee-deep into the move. It seriously was the best. We explored the beaches, hunted for dolphins, and enjoyed the boardwalk. We really just took a big deep breath and relaxed and rocked it out, as evidenced by our photos:

Gabey doing what he does best

just kickin' up his dogs after a long day of beachin' it

this was so funny, I couldn't just pick one


Kicking it along the beach, Laine spending some time in a tree

Lunching a quaint cafe 'downtown'

Diaper Dude and Dad enjoying the sunshine and some cheeks

Kisses above a gorgeous beach in R'ham

Climbing aboard the 'lollipop express'. Yeah, we made that mistake. As we were lunching we saw this train going up and down the boardwalk. It was painted bright happy colors and as soon as we let the name out, it was game over. Laine was GOING to ride that train. And purely because it had candy in the name I kid you not. The whole rest of our time spent here, every two minutes we heard 'I wanna ride the lolly etspress, I wanna ride the lolly etspress! Is it time yet to ride the lolly etspress??'

After we accomplished Laine's lifes' dream, we rocked over to Fremantle, which was a completely artsy type of sleepy town. It was one of those kinds of towns attracting those kinds of people. So naturally we fitted right in. No really though, it was a super fun stop and we found a lot to do and see mainly in the quaint weekend market we happened into



Speaking of lollies... We took a minute to do some window shopping at the market and then couldn't find Gabe. Finally we looked over and saw this, it was hilarious

Let's not be shy, we all know Australia's history. We had an awesome opportunity to visit Freemantle Prison, one of the original 'buildings' of 'the day' shall we say...



It was really neat to see it and learn more about the actual prisoners and what went on back then

It was impossible to resist this cheesy jailbirds pic

Unfortunately we have no pics of being in acutal Perth city on our Perth trip... but we had a great time there as well. We spent Australia Day there {4th of July Aussie style} watching the fireworks and throwin' another shrimp on the barby. It was really great and I'd totally go back if we get the chance!