Our Little Zoo

This is what Valentine's Day looks like in a house full of boys. No pink, no flowers, just animal hats and some wrestling.

Halloween 2011

Just for now we are gonna forget that this blog has been totally neglected for the last 7 months. We'll just continue on...cause really...there would be way to much to back track. So...Halloween. I think I mentioned it last year at this time...Australians don't celebrate Halloween much but our neighborhood is a little pocket of Halloween cheer and trick-or-treaters abound. Hooray! This year Easton was Spiderman and Owen was Peter Pan (but was consistantly mistaken for Robin Hood). Elliot had a turtle costume but he was in bed before the festivities began...better luck next year.

Here are the boys pre-trick-or-treat. They were ready to go the second that Rob walked in the door from work.

And here we are upon returning home. Easton looking much happier:)

Here are the boys with their loot. You can tell that even in our festive neighborhood it is NOTHING like the U.S. This was all the candy they got after a good amount of time and ground covered. At least they know nothing different...whenever we spend a Halloween in the States their socks are gonna knock right off.

They were quite happy with their little piles and I am happy that they don't have candy to last them through middle school.

Elliot Demming Aird

Elliot was born Wednesday March 30 2011 at 8:20am. We had a quick delivery and welcomed a healthy baby boy. He looks a lot like his brothers, espeically Easton with his blonde hair.

Easton and Owen are loving him (as of now) so that is great. I also have Rob home from work through the weekend so things are going great even though I am already dreading Monday! Here are a few pictures...none too stellar...sorry. We'll get some more up later!

Could I BE a worse blogger?

No. No, I could not. I am horrible at blogging. Sorry. I am going to try and catch up a bit but that requires a few major holidays, the boys' birthdays, lots of visits from family, and a serious family vacation. So here's a little of this and that and here's to hoping I can get a handle on myself enough to update this thing every once in a while!

Easton turned 4 in December! Can't believe it! We celebrated with a visit from Grandma and a party at the beach. I made the same cake I made for him when he turned 3...last year he did not like it because I didn't let him pick out the cars that went on top...it was pretty annoying after spending a lot of time on it just to be totally snubbed by my 3 year old. When he said he wanted another race track cake this year I made sure it was how he wanted it.

Christmas was hot here in Sydney. We did a lot of Christmas-y things around the city and at home.

Amy and Stephen also came out Christmas day so that was a nice treat. Best Christmas present this year? This giant stuffed dog that we got Owie at Ikea. I don't think I have ever seen such joy! It was so fun to see him so excited.

Easton got a bike (for his birthday) which has been lots of fun too. Good thing Beckett got one too.

We had a lot of fun with Amy and Stephen. We went to the beach and just hung out.

We also got Slurpees a few times. There are no 7-11's in Dublin so when we came here and Easton had his first Slurpee he was in love. Since he doesn't remember 7-11 in the States either he thinks they are an Australian thing. Every time someone visits he wants to take them to the amazing 7-11.

Owen turned 2. We had a relaxing day and had cake and ice-cream which Owen promptly vomited up. Awesome birthday. Poor buddy was sick. Let's hope for a more fun 3rd birthday.

We had Rob's brother Jeff and his wife Sara visit in January and then my dad and my aunt just left after a short visit as well. Maybe we can blame part of my non-blog-ness on the fact that Easton broke our camera a while ago. So I have like no record of the last 2 months. Thanks to Lindsay and Stephen for all the pictures.

We had a great vacation to Hamilton Island and the Great Barrier Reef. That will be next post...hopefully it happens before this baby comes. Only a few more weeks!!

Halloween Fun

We had lots of Halloween fun this October. My sister in law, Amy, gave the kids a fun cd with all sorts of Halloween songs on it and I swear we listened to that all day everyday usually at full volume (actually we are still listening to it as I type 2 days after Halloween!). By Halloween even Owen knew the words to those songs. We made monster eye treats:

and haunted houses:

Watching Easton and Beckett decorate their houses was hilarious. They are so different. Beckett was very exact and concentrating...every candy had it's place and purpose. And then Easton just put things on wherever with gobs of frosting. Here is Beckett deep in concentration:

We had a Family Home Evening with the Robert's to carve pumpkins.

And then since we weren't counting on a big Halloween celebration on the day we had a little party on the day before. We played games and had the kids trick or treat around the house. Easton was a robot...if ever a kid of mine wants to be a robot again I will need to make a much more wearable costume. He couldn't do much in that thing...he kept saying 'mom, I need your help, I can't sit down'! And Owie was a little dalmation...or a cow, whichever you prefer.

When we came home from church at 5pm there were hoards of trick-or-treaters walking the streets of our neighborhood! I was totally unprepared with candy until I realized that loose unwrapped gummies were acceptable. I was nearly the totally lame lady that gave out boxes of raisins and string cheese.

Rob and Easton took a lap around the block. Here are the boys on the doorstep. Easton does have undies on:

Pink Eye and Pirates

It has been a long week. We all (except Rob) came down with Pink Eye and have had a dreadful cold as well. My (not so fancy) camera also died so no new pics here. We are all starting to feel better and hoping for a new camera soon. We have had a lovely, loungy, (I know that's not a word) weekend watching the LDS General Conference (we see it a week late here). Here are just a few very random pics of the last couple of weeks. I know I promised a post about Sydney but I just don't have it in me today and wanted to get something up, so sorry...eventually.

We went to 'Talk Like a Pirate Day' at our local library. Easton looked pretty awesome in those old pajama pants and felt eye patch.

It ended up being kind of lame with lots of babies (it was supposed to be for 3-5 year olds) but they got to make a pirate hat which made everyone happy.

Easton and Beckett were the only ones even remotely dressed like pirates (the website said 'come dressed as a pirate', I swear) so that was kind of funny. They had fun. And the library is just a short walk from our house and it is right on the beach, crazy, huh?

Before the pink eye took over we were enjoying the beautiful spring weather and taking lots of walks down to the beach with lots of ice cream stops. My boys love their ice cream. I don't think I have mentioned on the blog before that Easton wears his shirt in this off the shoulder fashion nearly everyday. He likes to pretend he is Tarzan.

I love that the beach (it's just a little bay beach but that counts) is just a 10 minute walk from our front door.

Summer in Review

We had a fantastic summer in the states. The boys and I were in Colorado for a good 2 months and Rob bounced back and forth from London to spend some time with us too. Then we headed to Salt Lake City and then back to Colorado. Here is a little recap...it is hardly comprehensive...just a few highlights.

The Greeley Independence Day Stampede:

If you know me well you know of my love for this great event. It encompasses everything Greeley (my hometown). It is so trashy yet so fun and fantastic. Rob and I got to go see Keith Urban with Amy and Stephen. Stephen had never been to the Stampede before so after he got over the culture shock (don't think Baltimore has anything quite like the Stampede) we took him (and us) for some quality fried food.

First, Coke Balls:

We had never heard of it but they weren't half bad.

Next, funnel cake...a personal fav:

Not pictured was a fried snickers bar and some delicious fresh squeezed lemonade.

My dad and Nancy took us kids to a Rockies game. Here I am with Amy and Stephen:

We spent endless days outside in the little pool. Here are the boys covering their eyes, waiting for my dad to come and pour a bucket of water on them. Awesome.

Easton got to fish with my Uncle Jim. They brought him his own fishing pole and tackle box. He had a lot of fun and still gets the tackle box down everyday to look at all his fishing stuff.

We headed to Utah for some more family fun. All of Rob's siblings and their families were in town so it was a fun reunion.

We spent a lot of time on the lake. Easton got to tube and jet ski and just be in the water a lot.

Owen caught up on some sleep in the boat.

We also had a little reunion with my best friends from college. It was so fun to be with them and their families. We had a picnic up at Silver Lake. Lots of little boys made for a lot of dirt and sticks.

In Salt Lake we got to see lots of friends and family. We got to meet our new nephew Jack and got to see construction on our little business venture (an assisted living center in Alpine) begin. While in Utah we also found out that we are expecting baby number 3! Whoohoo!

We headed back to Colorado for a long weekend for some exciting stuff.

Stephen proposed to Amy! We spent the whole weekend with my whole fam and Stephen's whole fam (who are absolutely fantastic) celebrating. Rob and I both are so excited for their wedding next summer and to have Stephen as a brother in law.

Me, my mom, and Amy check out the bling:

The happy engaged couple:

It was such a fun summer but we were ready to get settled here in Sydney. Next post will be full of Sydney...our house, neighborhood, my loves, and gripes, and all that jazz.