busy week!

I am going to take advantage of having a (mostly) quiet house this early friday morning and share some pictures of our week with you...

Our local Home Depot store has these very cool trolleys (shopping carts in americanese) and Jamin is so obsessed with them that he wants to go to the 'hardware shop' most afternoons. We obliged him last Friday and had a very fun drive around the aisles. Kael was pretty impressed too!



I finally got around to planting a small herb garden this week with some 'help' from the boys.
Kael ate the dirt, as all 8 month olds do, and Jamin ran around the place, as all almost 3 year olds do... It was fun!



We then moved on to afternoon tea and one of the other delights of summer... watermelon!!
It was Kael's first try and I must say, he was most impressed. He has been enjoying it for dessert for the rest of the week.
Jamin has long been a watermelon fan so we had a fun afternoon tea!





We also went to a local pet shop one morning on our way to a picnic in the park. Pet shops are great! and this one had an amazing array of animals so we were all pretty excited. I am proud to say that I was only a little bit tempted to take one home, especially the rabbits. I have always wanted a rabbit! but past experience has shown that I am better with 'try before you buy' pets. By the time I try them out for a few months the excitement has worn off and Danny ends up being the primary carer. My other significant lesson about pets has been its best not to have any when you have young children... Who could be bothered to care for another member of the family who can't do anything for themselves... not me!



Jamin is pretty into The Wiggles so he calls anything that is busy or he can throw up into the air a "Wiggly Party". So... these fish were having a Wiggly Party and he was pretty excited about that.



After the pet shop visit we went next door to an all american bagel shop and sampled some tasty bagels. I think the flavors were 'Cinnamon with pecan and cinnamon cream cheese ' and 'Blueberry and cream cheese'. We took them to another park down the road and had a picnic. A very fun morning! I even brought some home for Danny to sample even though I really just want to eat them all up!

his new place...

I should be taking this rare quiet time in the house to knuckle down on my last remaining assignment for my masters in counselling....

but... i couldn't resist sharing a new stage of my growing baby boys life...

He is now standing himself up and moving around the house much to his delight and his brothers chagrin.
And he has adopted the fireplace mantle as his new play spot. He moves across there chasing runaway toys, working on his balancing skills and just generally hanging out like the 'little boy' (Jamin's naming for a baby that has learned to walk :)) that he is.



We have had a busy week planting gardens, visiting petshops, having picnics in the park.
Will share the photos with you but alas... right now need to get back to the assignment.. :)

our new car!

So this isnt a great photo of the car but I also wanted to get our new kids chariot in, as well as our swing that Danny hung in the garage for Kael to hang out in when Jamin is riding his new bike. One of our friends said that it will take us about 2 years to figure out all of the buttons on the LR3 Discovery. The first one i accidently pressed looking to close the sunroof actually lifted the car a few inches which was scary looking at the amount of clearance we have in the garage!



This one is Kael having his first bike ride with Danny. Of course being Danny's son, he loved it! Won't be long till he is skooting along himself... We got a cool video of Danny managing to negotiate the driveway and the garage whilst holding Kael. He is a talented man!



This is the other park that is within walking distance of our house... although its downside is that its at the top of our VERY steep hill. I had to make Jamin get out of the pram and walk the first time we visited the park. Jamin has named it "Superman Park". I think this is because we discovered it whilst driving somewhere else and I got REALLY excited about it and said "It's a SUPER park!". The fish thing is kind of a tunnel that has scales molded in that you climb over. Very cool!



And this last one doesn't need too much explaining. It is my littlest man looking very cute! He is currently getting his top 3 front teeth and is a just a little bit miserable, not that he looks it here! He loves his new swing and watching his brother. He'll be 8 months in a week or so and is just the delight of our little family. It is so wonderful watching his little personality emerge. A very happy, cheeky little thing he is.

its summer in america!

summer holidays started here this week and you sure can tell!
The sun has shown its face finally and there are kids everywhere.

We just took a late afternoon walk/ride down to our local park and ended up playing for a while and watching some baseball.
I must say that I could definately get used to this...

Below is a shot of the local pool that is right next to the park. Jamin is VERY excited to go as it only opened for the summer on Monday. They have just put in a splash area (You can see the yellow bucket in the picture) and a slide. Its going to be great!



Of course then i got home and it was 5.40pm and I hadnt started dinner but hey... we'll get it on the table eventually. hopefully without kids having a meltdown from hunger!

Jamin is doing great on his new bike and rode all the way there AND back with a little bit of balancing.
Not a great video but you get the idea...



What a STAR!

We also picked up our new car today and its FANCY!
Gotta love the price drop in vehicles when you live in the U.S.
The only problem now will be coming home to the aussie prices... :(

Jamin's New Bike!

Last June when we were on a working holiday in Chile, South America I saw a little kid in the park riding one of these bikes.
I thought they looked like one of the coolest things to skoot around on and wanted to bring one home to australia for Jamin to learn to ride on.

Fast forward a year to our big move to america and we see this cool bike again belonging to our landlords daughter, Hattie.
Jamin has had a few play dates with her and had a go on her skoot bike last week. Todd and Katie were raving about it so I managed to talk Danny into going to REC (outdoor shop) to have a look.

The idea is that the child is able to learn balance and coordination while they use their feet to keep steady. They can skoot around the place using their feet to balance and control the speed.

We bought one and here is the first practice session Jamin has had. Kael is very interested as well and frantically tries to crawl onto the bike everytime Jamin puts it down.



He has actually improved a lot through the afternoon and really loves his new bike! I might post another video once he has the hang of riding it.

where r we?

Thought I would post some pictures of what our house and neighbourhood is like.



Our first morning in Utah and it was snowing!



The view out our front window.



This is our local park. Like the mountains in the background?

We have two parks in walking distance as well as a pretty good shopping complex with every we could need.
Me and Danny are still hoping to get by with one car so that should make things a bit easier if I am dying to get out of the house and he has the car...

The mountains are huge and just beautiful to look at anytime I remember to. I can't wait to do some exploring.
We have been told that there is some pretty great rock climbing about 10 minutes away so if we can figure out what to do with the kids we might be able to get away. It also seems pretty common to ride around the place and things look pretty flat so we are looking into buying a chariot (kids trailer) you tow along behind the bike. At least that might slow Danny down so I have a hope of keeping up with him... :)

I am missing all of my 'mummy' friends a lot. The days are very long when there are no play dates to look forward to!
But Danny is working out of our basement so I do have some adult conversations during the day. We are definately enjoying his 10 second commute to work :)

settlin in...

This has been the most 'normal' week in the last month or so and I have loved it.

A 'normal' week for me mostly involves hanging out with the kids - feeding them healthy food (not crappy on the run food), having time to do crafts and colouring in, sitting on the floor playing games and teaching them new skills. As well as getting back into doing structured play - room time, mat time, table time. Jamin is a busy boy so I find I need to teach him the skills of sitting still and playing with a set toy for a period of time. It also helps my sanity!!

So this week Jamin is starting to learn how to dress himself in the mornings and make his bed. He is doing exceptionally well at both and is very proud of himself. We did some pictures to put on the wall as part of our daily routine. I find it works to make things visual for both him and me.

We are also working on doing some bright pictures and crafts to decorate the house. A new word Jammie has learnt this week "decorate". Its very cute to hear him try and say it! The pictures above are of Jamins room and Kaels room (not such a good one). I will try and take some more of the actual house in a later post.

I dont know if its the kids or the house or that i have grown up finally in the last few years but I am not homesick at the moment. Weird I know! I am loving being in a new city and getting to go out to new places and learn new things. I know that its only america, so culturally things arent that different but still I have suprised myself.

The kids are keeping me busy and we are living the same daily life in a lot of ways so maybe that is helping. I can't wait till our families come over and visit and they can be part of our adventure as well. I cringe at the thought of going home... mainly because of the hellish 26hour journey it took to get here and then the 5 days after that going through jetlag with kids. I DO NOT recommend it to anyone! It is a freakin nightmare and I consider myself having done it three times now (Chile & here) to have some experience.

Saying that... might go and catch up on some of my missing sleep :)