Monday, December 28, 2009

3 hours of fun

One snowy Monday, a few weeks before Christmas we went sledding with some friends at 4:30pm. At 5:30, as a family we got to go and pick our first real Christmas tree in the freezing, freezing cold weather. It was really fun to pick out a tree with the children. It was dark and snowing and carols were blasting and it was a very memorable activity to do. At 6:00 we met the Pope's for pizza for Hyrum's birthday and had a "We can't believe it moment", eating with their family in the states! We never would have expected to be living so close to friends from Perth while we were over here. While it was a struggle to fit everything in that we wanted that night, it was a great time.



Picking out a tree (yes it was very cold despite Hyrum's lack of warm clothing.









Sunday, December 27, 2009

Dave's 35th

For Dave's birthday we booked out one of the room's in the Tanner building (the building for the Marriott Business school at BYU) for an 80's themed 35th birthday party. It wasn't dress up, but some people got confused and we saw a few funky outfitt's.


Now that timtams are offically on sale in the states, we got a big timtam slam thing happening. Everyone loves timtams here and most of the people there hadn't slammed before.



Dave made sure there was a big screen available for the football fans. Unfortunately for most there, Texas beat Nebraska in the last few seconds.


Dave uploaded some great 80's and early 90's hits. Felt like we were all at a stake dance again. It was great to get together with friends and dance.

Oh.....and more football.

Lot's of talking...

Ryan, Candy, Dave and Oliver.

And more dancing. It was lot's of fun, a little orgnanising and once the international BYU MBA Christmas party, Hyrum and Beth's birthdays are done with.....we can get on with our white Christmas.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Snow cones

The children don't usually get soft drink (or soda pop) so for them, this is the best thing ever. After a big snowfall recently, they were able to collect snow and then make their very own snow cone by adding some Fanta to it. To my surprise, the snow cones at the shop are better!



Rainbow bright.



Just a little 'chilly'. I wonder why......maybe because he just had snow cones outside where it was well below freezing!


Family in town

The 2 and a half weeks that mum and dad Liddicoat were in town were very busy and wonderful. We really appreciated them coming. These photos are not in order. As you can tell....photo above is of the last night they were in town. Hyrum was getting his cub scout awards and it was great to have grandparents there to cheer him on. He also conducted the meeting and for the most part, did a great job. (As good as an excited 8 year old can be :)

The Macaroni Grill. Peaceful was one word to describe it. (No children!) Another was delicious.

Hyrum's birhthday present. The 'ultimate' boy's gift!!

Mum found a shirt that says....


All Bethany's fantasies came at once when she could go with gran and grandad to the shop 'Build a Bear' and pick out her own bear for her birthday. The first thing I heard from dad when I saw them after this special shopping experience was that Beth took one hour choosing her bear! I can just imagine how much fun dad had in there!!!! Of course it is called 'Ariel' but it also goes by another name....frosty. Frosty can sing and has a matching dress and ear muffs.

The night before mum and dad left we went to Chuckarama to eat (not the best name for a restaurant). It lives up to its name but the children think it is wonderful. Think sizzlers but up a notch. The night before was when the adults got to go to macaroni grill and it was really the 2 extreme meal experiences.


Grandparent therapy. Not sure who loved it more....me or Isaac?


Of course it wouldn't be the whole Provo experience if we didn't climb the Y. Whilst the Gharrings were here for Thanksgiving we had some beautiful weather, however despite the sun being out, it was still very cold.



After working up an appetite, we went to Hobble Creek park and had a cold picnic. The bonus about it being cold was we didn't need an esky. (Or a cooler for those Americans!)




I am a sucker for natural photos and I think this photo says alot. It was wonderful having greandparents around for awhile. They helped out so much I was wondering how I did it when family isn't around. We are so grateful that they could come and visit and really appreciated all they did for us :) Thanks mum and dad!


We are grateful for thanksgiving dinners!!!!

We were forced to enjoy 4 extremely delicious thanksgiving dinners over a period of 2 weeks. Firstly, above, our newlywed friends, Chris and Julie were using us as guinea pigs to practice the whole meal for their family. There were no complaints by us!!! In each meal we got to enjoy the traditional turkey and mashed potatoe, stuffing, vegetables, and other dishes. Then dessert always had different pies. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

We were also lucky to have family in town from California and Perth. We went to Mimis' Cafe and enjoyed a very BIG meal. Yummmmmy. The other great part was that the younger children ate at a separate table. (Yes, I am a bad mother!)



The Woodruff's dropped by a yummy turkey treat and I love seeing how the americans really do it.

I could have enjoyed turkey meal #5 at Beth's kindy but for some reason, at 10:30 in the morning, it just didn't seem to appeal to me!! Beth had fun stuffing her face though.

Wymount gang.

Wendy thought it would be very fun to get 6 adults and 14 children together for a very yummy pot luck thanksgiving dinner which I must admit, was sensational. Wendy's homemade rolls were possibly the best! It was a rather rowdy evening in a basement with nothing for the kids to do but to make a lot of noise and run around like chickens with their heads chopped off. As they did this, the adults had to yell at each other to be heard.

Oh.....and they played board games for all of 5 minutes until the little kids wanted to play!!!

Meal # 4 was at the Baer home. I forgot to take photos but as we were going out it decided to snow for the first time. Alex loveeeeeeeeees snow. She was sooo excited!