John's Uniform

Since moving to Melbourne, John is now required to wear business formal to work. This gives him many opportunities to wear all of the ties that he has received at Christmas, Father's Day, Birthday, Anniversary, Valentine's Day, Pioneer Day and Arbor Day. Since we went through and weeded out some of his lesser worn ties (and believe me there was a reason - teal paisley and a grey, yellow and purple tie, I mean really?) we have now determined his type of tie...you mock, but every man has a type of tie that he likes...in John's case his type fell in three categories: diagonal stripes going left, diagonal stripes going right and small patterns.

Here are three of my favorites:

A Favorite Thing

One of my favorite things is when Jared comes out of the bath or shower. He is clean and always wants to be snuggled. He even asks for it now. He also says cheese whenever we pull out the camera, which results in this face!

More Uniform Pictures

All of the uniform items you have seen are complusory (a word they use often). The only non-compulsory item that I have found is a winter scarf and of course the zoot suit and basketball singlet. We still haven't figured what those are yet!

The kids in their suncaps. You have to wear these or you are not allowed outside during recess.

Smocks (for Art)

Swim Caps

Brooklyn's Bather

And finally, Colin's bather (he was rather reluctant to model it)

Wesley College

Colin and Brooklyn are already off to college. Apparently you can start college at age 5 in Australia. Here they are in their sport uniforms which are worn on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays: polos, capris (shorts), and socks. The sport uniform also includes a suncap, fleece (sweat) pants and shirt. They can also wear trainers (athletic shoes). The capris are really very short and roomy.

The kids in their summer uniforms. These include: short sleeved grandpa shirt(it is really called that), grey shorts, grey socks, school shoes, summer dress, cream socks, and of course their backpacks. I'm not too sure what a zoot suit or a basketball singlet looks like, but we can buy them if we want! There are also winter uniforms, so look for a post when it becomes winter here and summer up north.

Bella and Jared felt left out and so they decided to pose for a picture in their school clothes. Can you tell who felt cold this morning? Obviously not the kids.

Only in Australia

Do you like choices? One button for half a flush and another button for a full flush! You can decide which you need, isn't this awesome?

Brighton on the Park

This is our serviced apartment. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. We live on the second floor, so we keep reminding the kids to be quiet and to stop jumping on the floor. I think that we will be saying that a lot this coming year. I never thought that we would live in an apartment again and to live there with four children is absolutely mind boggling.
The Master Bedroom

The View of the park from our bedroom

Kitchen/Laundry Room/Dining Room

View from our balcony

Family Room

One of two bedrooms, the other one is slightly smaller

Brighton Beach

We headed to the beach yesterday and chose one close to home. It was a gorgeous day. Jared had fallen asleep on our way, but didn't sleep long...only long enough for me to snap a picture. The kids enjoyed splashing in the water, being buried in sand, collecting hundreds of shells and digging holes. John and I tried to convince them that if they dug long enough they would eventually make it all the way to Texas, but we didn't have any takers. In summary, only Colin was brave enough to completely submerge himself in the frigid water, the children only brought home two shells (much to their displeasure), and it is definitely warm enough to wear a swimsuit in early spring (late October).

Healesville Sanctuary

We headed to Healesville Sanctuary for our first weekend to get a look at all of the native animals in Australia. It was a great day, very dry and warm as well. We saw many animals, including lots of birds. The kids are in one of the bird areas, they are fascinated by the birds on the ground, while John is fascinated by the ones in the trees.

How many animals can you name?

Only in Australia

On our first walk around our park, we spotted this sign. It's Awesome!

Down Under

We now live in a land down under.
When people drive we think they blunder.
Did you hear, did you hear it's summer?
Too bad it's cold up in the North, bummer.

We moved to Australia on October 12. John transferred here with his job for a year. It was a bit of a whirlwind from the time we found out we would be transferring to the time we arrived...two and a half weeks. After nearly 24 hours traveling we arrived in beautiful Melbourne (pronounced Mel-bun) on October 14. We crossed the International Dateline and completely lost the 13th. We are currently in a serviced apartment while we look for a place to call home for the next year. We are hoping to live close to the city and that means that we will be in a high rise building.

Here is a picture of us checking in at the airport! We had four silver suitcases, two red suitcases, one green duffel bag, one red duffel bag, one box, one pack-n-play, two car seats, two carryons, one stroller, five backpacks, one green bag, and four kids. We managed to arrive with all four kids, but only five suitcases and one car seat. The following afternoon we had all of our bags, but only 1 1/2 car seat, we never did get that other half.

Us: 3 girls

Isabella is 4 years old and quite shy. She loves to sing, dance and play with her dolls. She is blessed with curly hair and a sassy personality. She is constantly aware of others and their feelings and is often the first to tell someone that they look nice or that they are handsome or pretty.

Brooklyn is 6 years old and quite sweet. She loves to learn, draw and is constantly practicing her writing. She is a great soccer player and amazed us with her speed and agility as she scored goal after goal this season. She is very kind and loves her brothers and sister.

Jenny is quite busy. She stays that way with church, helping at the children's schools, playing with the children, running Colin to football, Brooklyn to soccer, Bella to school, and chasing Jared. When she is not doing all of that you can find her reading, talking on the phone, surfing the web or exercising. (This picture was chosen based on the girls cuteness, not mine!)

Us: 3 boys

Jared is 22 months old and is one busy child. He loves to eat, loves his pacifiers, loves to play with his brother (Dolen) and sisters (Booklyn and Bella), loves to talk, loves to eat, loves his blanket and loves his daddy. Did I mention that he loves to eat?

Colin is 8 years old and one busy boy. He is a great kid and loves all things sports. He is often found with his dad on Saturdays playing, watching and talking football. He played on the Titans this season and left his team undefeated. He is an amazing helper and a terrific brother.

John is one busy man. He travels a lot for work and has achieved the ultimate status for a flyer...this means that he has flown over 100 segments this year. He works hard so that when he comes home he can play hard. He has rediscovered a passion for waterskiing thanks to a colleague at work.