Happy Birthday, Happy Easter, Happy Happy Happy!

A lot to go through from the past bit so let’s jump right in!

Of the biggest news is the release from our record setting heat wave. I think we hit 2 weeks straight of 35’C (95’F) or hotter weather. Our lawn somehow looks like it survived which is a massive relief given that we’d have to pay for a new one here in a month or so if it was brown. It was a trip for sure … nothing like dripping sweat while driving your car or paying $$$$$ for air conditioning. But, it was something to remember Australia for. One of the beauties of living in Adelaide is that you get the desert feel (no humidity :) and yet you live by the ocean as well. No sooner did the heat wave leave, than we received our first rain storm in I don’t know how long. One of my favorite smells is that wiff you get in the desert right after it starts to rain. We got that same sensation here in Adelaide and it was awesome!

The other BIG news is that Collin has turned 4!!! He was so happy to finally have a cake and all the presents (thanks G&Gs, aunts and uncles … everyone!) We received a lot of packages from home and had a huge package opening activity. It made for a lot of little happy kids. Collin’s party was all about balloons and streamers. He wanted broccoli cheese soup for his dinner – strange kid, I know. And he had fun with his rocket party hats/plates/cups … so we had to continue with a rocket cake. He was a pretty happy camper.

Collin has been having a few problems with making it to the toilet on time. A couple of times he has realized he’s had to go only to make it to the bathroom and next to the toilet … and then loses it. The other day Kelli was so frustrated with him and asked why he didn’t listen to his body better, to which Collin responded, “I did listen to my body and it said, ‘go quickly!’” Speaking of potty talk, he also loves potty humor. He filled out his NCAA tournament bracket. On one side of his bracket he finds the team, “Pittsburgh” to which he starts laughing hysterically at the ‘PITTS’ part of the name (from arm’pits’). So he decides to take ‘PITTS’ all the way to the finals. On the other side of the bracket he finds the team “Butler” to which he once again starts to roll because of “BUTTler”. So you can guess who met in the finals – both teams of which didn’t make it out of the first two rounds of the tourney. He is also quite competitive. He keeps asking how many points he has in the competition we have going on with the tournament, and somehow we have to mask the fact he is at the bottom of the ladder with the least points … otherwise we might have a sad little boy on our hands. He’s also our little Mr. Nick Jr. He loves to play on the internet all the games on the Nick Jr site and has become quite the expert. On additional happy notes, he graduated from the platypus group in his swimming class and now turns into a starfish! We’re oh so proud parents!

Hunter is a goof. The kid is a water magnet. What’s the word for someone who likes water like a pyromaniac likes fire … cause that’s Hunter through and through. Just give the kid a bucket and he’ll sit outside all day pouring water on himself. That and he’s still getting into mischief. Yesterday he was quiet for a bit (first bad sign) and then he comes traipsing in with this white foam all over his clothes. We go into the computer room and there is Collin oblivious to the world and then there is Hunter who managed to find a can of shaving cream. He thought it would be a good idea to expel the contents all over the carpet. The positive side is that the room smelled pretty good after I was done cleaning it up. On the bright side, he has started going to kindy – a sort of preschool for 3 hours once a week. He cried for 15 minutes or so, but finally made it on his own. We also had success with keeping him in nursery. Last week he made it on his own, and the following week he wouldn’t leave sacrament with Savannah because he knew she was going to take him to nursery! He went like a trooper and ended up staying the whole time. I think we’ve turned a corner!

Savannah is doing really well in school. She’s an excellent speller and is very good at reading. She’s also mastered the freestyle stroke in swimming and can now go about 15 meters all on her own! She’s also got a wicked backstroke … which is probably her best. Watch out Nathan – you might have a competitor.

I had a cool experience recently. I was doing a Saturday morning run down the river park path. As I was ‘cruising’ along, I looked up and two bikers had stopped and were photographing something with their cell phones. As I got closer I realized there was a Koala just walking along the path as if he owned the place. As I got closer and passed on the other side of the path he walked to the edge of his side of the path which dropped precipitously down to the river. Then he stopped, gathered himself, and took a flying leap to a tree which was probably 3 feet away. It was like a koala-spiderman. Then it turned and just looked at us while hugging the tree as if to pose and let everyone take more pictures. It was quite entertaining. They are so weird walking along the ground – kind of uncoordinated and gremlin-like. But then sitting in trees they are cute and cuddly. One of nature’s strangest furballs.

Easter was pretty good. We colored our ‘army’ eggs – but used more food coloring this year than we did last so they actually turned a shade of color. The kids had to wait until Saturday afternoon to do the easter bunny thing since I was on a young men’s camp Friday through Saturday. Savannah was pretty upset earlier in the week when she found out that the easter bunny wouldn’t be coming Saturday morning. So, she wrote him a letter and had me ‘post’ it to him to see if he’d be willing to come in the afternoon instead. Thankfully he obliged. I was most in trouble though for getting home at 3:30 instead of 3! Go figure :)

In other news, for those that haven’t received the news yet … yes, we are expecting our fourth child in October. We’re guessing sometime around Halloween, but you never know. Could end up a turkey baby! Either way Savannah will finally have some company at that end of the calendar :) Kelli is pretty sick but luckily hasn’t had to puke. Just tired and can’t go in the kitchen … that and she keeps craving things she can’t have … like Applebee’s, Sonic banana shakes, etc. I did make her a spinach/artichoke dip to at least quail some of the cravings.

Kelli was also released recently from her calling in the Relief Society presidency and I am being released as the young men’s president this Sunday. I managed to sneak in a last camp with the boys over last weekend. e took them about 3 hours northeast to a hilly area near the outback. The sand was so fine it was like leaving your footprints on the moon – expect that it was an orange and red sand instead of gray of course. Our second counselor is really into doonbuggies and offroading --- the boys had a kick in the pants until we ruptured the fuel tank in the doonbuggie by going over too many sharp rocks in the creek bed. Did you know that you can fix a gaping hole in a fuel tank with some soap shavings and spit? Learned something new. I’ll post some pictures when I get them from the boys … it was quite entertaining. I’ll miss the boys, we’ve had a good run together and I hope they’ve increased their testimonies as a result of our time over the past nearly 2 years.

We also got to participate in Elder Bednar’s recent trip to Australia. We saw him in person on Wednesday here in Adelaide although we only made it through the first hour since our kids were on one (it didn’t start until 7:30 so they were pretty ornery and tired after the first half hour.) Then we participated in the satellite broadcast from Sydney. Stacy Hutchinson did a good run down of the highlights so visit their blog to the right if you are interested. It was neat to listen to an Apostle – I think I was most impressed by his humility and blunt recognition that without the guidance and promptings of the Spirit he wouldn’t be able to have accomplished what he has nor be in the position he is now.

Anyway, that’s about it for the past week. Hope you all are doing well and we look forward to seeing most of you very, very soon!

Oh Hunter, our Hunter!

So we've officially hit the TERRIBLE TWO's!!!! Actually, Hunter's a pretty good kid full of hilarious antics, we just have to go for the sympathy votes at any opportunity :) He has found his way into temper tantrums though which isn't a whole lot of fun.

We celebrated his birthday at home with the family. I had the day off because it was the grand ol' Adelaide Cup -- a public holiday for a horse race that no one really cares about, but hey, whose keeping track of why we have a day off, right?! We baked him a nice, round basketball cake and despite the frosting separating because it's so stinkin' hot (we are currently on a hot streak of 12 days at 35'C or greater ... usually around 40'C, 104'F - the most for in the history of Australia, what a dubious honor to be here for that one, eh mate!) He 'agreeably' took a nap in the afternoon and Savannah and Collin helped me blow up balloons, tape streamers and get the party ready. When he woke up he was bright eyed and opened mouth with all the colors and excitement. We had G&G Whetstone on webcam so we sang happy birthday to him ... a couple times for the full effect and to let him blow out the candles a couple of times. He then opened his gift of a 'Thomas the Tank Engine' suitcase which will come in handy shortly, and some toy planes and garden tools. They then went outside and threw lots of water balloons at each other -- since it's probably the only time he'll ever have a birthday when the temperature is above 100'. He also received a Crows (local footy team) pullover and koala lounge chair from his kindy teacher (although he hasn't been yet because he had a contagious lip sore -- how convenient for him!) He did make it all the way through nursery today though -- on his own! YIPPEEE. Great Grandma/Grandpa Jones sent him a cute little ship card and some American money --

Hunter has also had some hilarious quotes recently. As always his vocabulary is growing day after day. He loves to look at pictures on the internet of cousins, relatives, friends, etc. When he finds something that really interests him he lets out a, "WHOA!! Gosh!"

The other day we were looking at a picture of his cousin Rose in Houston, TX. She was eating a pine cone, or attempting to anyway. Hunter's reaction was, "Gwose (translation - gross) eating, 'pider (translation - spider)!"

He and Collin/Savannah are always making each other laugh. The other day he was throwing some water on himself and then punching himself -- which the kids thought was hilarious.

We were also on our way to a fireside this evening for Elder Bednar (who has been visiting Australia over the past 10 days.) On the way to the chapel he asked if we were going to the fireside, "Going ... fiweside?" But after a while I think he confused himself and starting asking, "Going ... fiweworks?" Yeh, kid, something like that.

And this last one is gut-busting. There is this cute little 13-month old girl in our ward. She is a little fire cracker and runs all over the place. Well, this evening at the fireside I had the kids in a separate room from the chapel because they'd just had enough of sitting in one place for the day. In comes little Zoe (the 13-month firecracker). Hunter goes out of his way to go over and show off some of his art work that he'd been working on. All the kids then go off playing on the other side of the room. I look over at the same time that Leslie (his grandma) does and we see Hunter grab Zoe by the shoulders and lay a big smack right on her lips! I couldn't believe my eyes -- but he wasn't done there. He would follow her around giving her hugs and being right next to her. At one point Zoe had had enough and turned around and hit him on the head a couple of times. I think it surprised Hunter because he came running over to Leslie and I saying she'd hit him on the head. I then made the mistake of telling him to go giver her a hug -- which he definitely took to heart and didn't bat an eye. Zoe had for sure had enough by now and just kept pushing him away and wouldn't let him near her? So I think Hunter thinks of himself as quite the lady's man already, ho hum!

Anyway, we've had a lot of fun focusing on the little monster this week. Now it's Collin's turn for his big number 4 tomorrow! Happy, happy birthdays! Oh, and if you missed our hint at a new little happenings in our family, you might want to go back and read our last month's entry. Cheers, mateys!

The Heat is ON ... again!

Well, I wrote a post describing the heat wave we're experiencing at the moment, but never published it. Let's just say that the first week of fall has been hotter than summer! We're currently sitting at 104F/40C. It's not pretty! Forget the hopes of the grass going green--it's crunchy and brown.

A few things from this past week--Savannah had swimming at school. It was fun to see her progress. Last March, she was in the beginning group, the ones who are afraid to get their heads in the water. By the end of that week, she loved it and we signed her up for swim lessons. After one year, she is in the top group. She wasn't the strongest swimmer in the group, but held her own considering some of those in the group were also in the top group last year. She did great, learned some new things, and had fun. Collin, Hunter and I enjoyed watching her, even though the pool was like a sauna for us!!

Collin is getting ready for his birthday (and Hunter's). He is making plans and changing them everyday. I am told several times a week that I need to make a ninja turtle cake which changes to a Lazy Town cake which changes to a sports cake which changes to a volcano cake. I think I'll ignore him and do my own thing. He is SO EXCITED to be four! His friend, Jack, at kindy just had his birthday and Collin can't wait until he gets his turn to sit in the front of the kindy and have all his friends sing at him. Luckily, he won't have to wait long--this Friday is the day! He continues to be passionate about sports and extremely competitive (must get that from Kelli :). The kids and Jessy have set up the laundry basket on top of a bar stool in the dining room (you know, the empty room...), and they frequently play basketball. You should hear him when he makes a basket - it's as if he's won the NBA championship each and every time! When the missionaries came over, Collin asked them if they could play for a minute, so they did. Collin chose his team first--picking the tallest missionary and Hunter, and leaving Jessy, Savannah, and the other elder as the opposition. Collin and Elder Black lost and you would have thought it was the end of the world with all his wailing and screaming! It was unreal! The missionary claims to have felt bad all night. Collin is looking forward to being able to play soccer when we get back to Utah, but I hope we don't have to deal with this reaction every time he loses! Another funny happenings with Collin -- the kid loves pancakes and pretty much every morning he asks me if I'll make pancakes. I usually have to say I don't have time to make them because I have to go to work. Well, the other day I made them over the weekend and had some prepared for Monday morning in a little baggy in the fridge. So true to form, Collin gets up Monday morning and asks if I can make pancakes and I open the fridge to get them out but I can't see them. I'm looking around and just can't find them. Collin comes up beside me and points right at them (they were in plain sight!) and then can't resist adding on, "Daddy, you don't have good eyes!" Thanks, kid.

Hunter's birthday is Tuesday, but he has already hit the Terrible Twos!! The past couple of days he has started these incredible screaming fits for no apparent reason. He can scream with the best of them. I'm hoping he gets over it quickly (ha ha). A 15 hour plane ride will not be fun if the Screamin' Demon chooses to show up! Right now Hunter is also going through his second bout with impetigo. It showed up yesterday afternoon, of course on a Saturday with a long weekend ahead of it (we have a public holiday for the horse race here). So, it looks like he'll be missing his first scheduled day of kindy (bummer for me). He's also continuing his interesting uses of the English language. The other day we were on a walk in the park and Collin came running past Hunter and I. As he ran past Collin yelled, "See ya losers!" (once again that competitive spirit coming out.) Well, Hunter began processing that in his little brain and 30 seconds later he yelled, "S'ya losers!" We were also listening to the 'tiki bird' song from Disney in the car the other day and Hunter decided he would rename it the 'ta-waka-waka' (or something like that) song. He also has begun referring to us as Jes and Kel. He's also carrying around the babies that we gave Collin and Savannah when Hunter was born. He's always saying, 'hush hush', feeding them bottles, and sleeping with them. Just getting ready for October I guess :) And a last note -- he's officially acquired the Aussie accent along with the other two. He likes to refer to himself, not as 'Hunter' but 'Hunta' ... and it's not a glass of 'water' it's 'watah'. What a kid!

Jessy is back to training for his half-ironman following the head/chest colds we came down with about 3 weeks ago. He goes on some mighty long bike rides and runs. I think he's spent a little more time in the pool with this heat. He's looking forward to being able to interview "for real" here in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully that relieves some stress.

I am still coughing up a storm from the colds we had. It drives me nuts to be coughing every time I talk or turn my neck. Not much else is going on here. I'm worried about huntsmans coming in the house with all the hot weather--I see one just about every week at church and it creeps me out! We're getting more and more excited to be going back home--we know that once the birthdays start (we have 4 in the next 6 weeks or so), things are going to get busy and we'll be going home before we know it. There are lots of loose ends to tie up, but we're slowly working on what we can and May will come, ready or not! Thanks, Grandma for the fancy dinnerware!