We have met some of our neighbors. Just across from us leaves a family with 2 kids Charly she is 12, and Folle he is almost 5. They have been super nice to our kids inviting them over to play everyday. They have HUGE yard with swimming pool, trampoline, 2 huge dogs and 1 little dog, 1 guinea pig, a huge snake, 2 fish tanks and they own horses. Their yard faces forest and so it is fun for the kids to explore.
I am grateful they have been kind and welcoming to us and the kids.
Today we got invited for BBQ at their house, though I am a little bit worry about its happening....rain. It has been raining like crazy all morning. So we'll see what happens once 5pm comes around. In the main time, I have been wondering what we should bring? Some of the things that I'm a custom to make require food/spices that I can't find....So I think I will go with this salad I hope they like it!
The other day RS President came over and brought lovely flowers for me...that made me happy! I love fresh cut flowers. Troy has made a promise that I can have fresh flowers all the time while we are here! Yaaa, for Troy, he scored some brown points with me on that one.
Today we also driving to the other side of London to pick up Dryer! Did I tell you I love my new Washer. After not doing laundry for 2 weeks, I end up doing 9 loads of it. Our house for 3 days looked like laundry mat. I was becoming very creative in finding places to hang our clothes. Dryer will make things alot more civilized! (though, I told Troy I can do without it, but he found one really chip) I guess, he is trying to make my life easier, bless his heart.
We are meeting with bishop this Sunday....Troy thinks he has callings in mind for us. I think he just wants to chat and get the "feel on us"
Mom, you have asked if Temple is near by. Yes, it is about 20-30 min drive. It is London Temple. When we leaved in the hotel we drove by it quite bit. The grounds are quite beautiful as you can imagine, Brits know how to plan a garden.
We have spoke with Senator's office and awaiting on hearing back from National Visa Department. Once they contact us we will have to do all kids of paper work and then have an appointment where we will have to bring filled forms for both of mine wavers. I'm not sure if the decision is going to be made then at the appointment time or they do it on their own. I guess, we'll find out. Senator's office said, that she will try to get us out of here in 6 months. Let's hope that is the case. Though, I wouldn't mind staying here for 8 months to an year. Though, financialy,it would be wiser for us to be gone in 6 month. Troy will have to pay taxes both in US and UK if we stay here over 6 months. Don't really want to do that.
Anyway, I'm glad to see you all caring on with the Summer usuals. BBQ, swimming, tanning, hiking, swiming again,camping,seeing my kids hair geting really blond by the sun,family gatherings, friends hanging out,fireworks, more swimming,my kids cute little tan bodies,picnics, lunches with Girlfriends, movie nights, book clubs, ice cones,Brooks side french fries, Diet coke from the gas station...., just to name a few. Seeing all of your pictures on face book and blog makes me miss UT. I love you all !

My Rylee decided that she wants her own blog! So here it is, please visit, leave a comment or two, it will make her happy. Duches Rylee

Home Sweet Home

We are OUT of the hotel!!!!!

Hooray for all of us, we have survived!
This week has been exciting and busy. Though, we could of moved in on Sunday, we didn't due to our beds not arriving till Monday night. Troy has got a really great deal on all of our beds. Thank goodness for ebay! And then we drove to IKEA about...hmmm.....4 times! The first time we just went there to see the prices,and then on Saturday, they had up to 75% off sale and we entered into a "mad house" The play area had 45 min waiting list and we had to be there to get the spot, so we just decided to take all of our 4 kids on shopping with us. That was fun! Not!
We were there for 4 hrs and then some, and by the end it was existing! We did some serious damage to our checking account,but got some great and much needed things. I think Troy did all the shopping he could handle,for a very long time.
So, between ebay, Ikea, and and hand me downs we have managed to get just about everything we need to get by and then some.
In the house we have 4 bedrooms, girls got their own rooms and boys are sharing their room. Drew is actually very happy about that. Back home he would always get sad about not having sleeping buddy in his room.
In the house we don't have any, of what they call "white goods" so dishes are done by hand, which I don't mind. And I have been putting my early russian upbringings into practice, by washing our laundry by hand and air dry it! Now, THAT I do mind! Call me spoiled, if you wish, but family of 6, back home required 2 loads of laundry almost every other day. Yesterday, however, Troy has bought a washer on ebay, I am a happy women! Now if weather will just cooperate and let our laundry dry that would be so nice! I don't know how they dry their clothes here in the winter times?
The first day here, Troy has discovered how much he hates baths! (that's right, no showers)First of all, he can't really fit in it! :) Who new, we should of tried to sit in the bath, before we decided to rent this place. And then their is a hot water issue. (they really conserve here like crazy)I am learning that whenever hot water is involved, I have to REALLY plan what I need to have done in a short time slot with a limited amount of it. That's been kid of interesting. So,next time you are running hot water, think of me having a marathon of washing 4 kids,(in the same water) doing dishes and hoping I will have enough water left to do some laundry. And when you are in your hot endless shower think of Troy squishing his little toosh in a very narrow bath tab, sprinkling himself with lukewarm water and wondering what on earth is going on. Awesome, I know!
Ok, now for the good things.

I love my kitchen, it's white and roomy for the UK standards. I love our windows with much light coming through out the house.

I love the view of the lush green hills from the girls rooms. I love all of our new things that we bought.

I love that kids have tree house. See this big hage-tree? it's acctually has build in hiding place.




I love how quite our neighborhood is. This is my favorite view in Biggin Hill

I love a room in the house, called conservatory. It's like an extension of the house in the back that is all windows. That's Troy's favorite room.

I love wood flores throughout the house (some homes we looked at had scary purple/green carpets in it. I love that we are 3 min. walk from kid's school that we went last week and had a tour and meat their teachers. Here is the school play ground for Drew's age kids. Brooklyn will have her own play ground.

The town is small, but it has its basic things that we need. And then they got library/pool near by. So we are happy about that.
Now, for our visiting neighbors!!!! We have foxes, like tons of them! As soon as it gets just a little bit dark, they come out. The kids have been so excited to see them every night! The bad part, is that they attack something every single night! We always get to hear poor bird, animal, who knows what, making their last plea for life. The other night, Troy took the kids in the car and left them there for like 2 hrs. He pout some of our diner left overs near by to bring foxes in, and boy they sure did come. That was quite fun!



As some of you may know, on the day we have moved in, it was also Drew's birthday! I feel bad we couldn't have bigger celebration for him, but we tried. We have managed to buy some presents for him and wrap it up before he could see it. Then we went to the shop and he picked his cake. So we had pizza, and cake with ice cream. Song happy birthday, blew candles, open some gifts. Next day Troy took the kids to see Toy Story 3. I'm greatfull I have a child who is easy going and is happy with as little as he gets. We sure love him and his tender heart. He is a kind, caring boy.


Ryder has stopped screaming!!!!!!!!!!! I guess, now that he has tons of room to explore he is busy doing just that. He poles himself up every chance he gets and I believe walking is just around the corner.

Some cool observations

OK I thought I'd like to record this.

We have been here for over a month now and kids really love some of the way people/kids talk here. For instance, Drew now calls TV Telly and he calls me Mum not Mom. In the morning he goes:" Mum, can I turn on Telly?" YES,Darling (honey)you may. Hey, little Puppet ( that goes for Brooklyn) would you like to watch Telly?" We get kick out of it.

One of the things I REALLY missed about Russia is abundance of flowers being sold everywhere. I grew up ALWAYS having fresh cut flowers in our home. In US it is quit expensive and so that tradition had to go away :((((
Coming here I can see that it is well leaved here!!!! :)))) Flowers are sold just about everywhere and people are actually buying them!!!!! At the groceries store I always see women having flowers in their carts. Oh, how that makes me happy!!!!


OK. Who got frustrated about buying herbs and finding that you have to through it a way just 2 days latter? ME!
Why didn't people in the US thought about growing herbs in re-composable pots and selling it that way?! That's what they do here. I love it! Now, you have a pretty herbs siting on the window by the sink (or where ever you may put it) It looks pretty, it serves it's purpose and your money doesn't go down the drain in 2 days.

One of the earliest observations I made is absence of dirty cars. I still wounder if they can get ticket or something for having dirty car. Their car washes are EVERYWHERE! I mean almost ALL parking lots have car wash and on top of it you have guys walking with trolleys offering hand car wash for £5. As much as it rains in here it's sure impressive that all of their cars are always shinny!

Police. They're around, however, we haven't seen any car being pulled over. Not in the city, town or highways. But they have cameras like EVERYWHERE! Apparently, if you brake a law, they just send you a ticket. Makes me a little bit worry. I mean, we don't plan on breaking any laws, but who doesn't speed? or take a wrong turn? I hope they have some kind of forgiveness points when their cameras take pictures of your car license plate. I have to say, it makes you extra alert. You know how you automatically check your speed limit when you see police in your rare view mirror? Well, that's how you feel every time you see camera. Sure makes police job easy!

Well, this is it for now! Cheers!

what did we do this week

I hear it's been raining in UT...and you would think it should rain in England, but for some strange reason it has been supper hot. I'm sure it is not as hot as UT, but consider that people here don't believe in AC and now we have a very hot experience in England. (The hotel has AC, thank goodness)

About a week ago we have bought ourselves a car, I think I blogged about that. Well, what I forgot to mention is that I actually drove it!!! Yes, me who proclaimed I wouldn't do it. ( Now, I am sure I won't drive in London any time soon) Driving on the opposite side of the road and having wheel on the different side sure has been tricky, but I managed. Our kids had their fingers crossed the whole time I drove, so I wouldn't crash into a car on my left. It is the oddest feeling not know how far your car extends on the left. Crazy!

One of the maids in the hotel told us of the play area in the mall and so we went to check it out while Troy was out visiting school for his job. They call it Mini Mayhem
Kids really loved it. We had ice cream cone after words. Happy day!

We have also discover a near by park. They have a lots of parks in England. The Tillgate park is HUGE. It has a feel of forest that has been well taking care of. It has beautiful lakes and pounds. Paths that lead you through beautifully taking care flowers, shrubs and trees. I know it sounds like I'm talking rubbish, but really it is breath taking. With all the shrubs you really never know where you will end up. It really is amazing what plantations can do to the beauty of the place and to the human spirit. British people really know how to create amazing gardens.
We have gone to this park quite few times now, every time it takes us about 3-4 hrs to make it back to our car. We all love it there.

School. I have contacted Oakland Primary School and to our relief it sounds that ALL of our kids will be able to attend the same school, which is a blessing, we hear. Usually you can only get one and put the others on a waiting list. This school is 3 min. walk from our house, so I am VERY excited about that. We supposed to hear back from their "Head Teacher" (principal) to have kids come and look around the school. She/he is the one who is ultimately will or will not let all of our kids to come. But the gal I spoke with said, we shouldn't have a problem. So September 1st kids will get into their uniforms, which consist of Red, gray, black and white colors, and march into school.

Ryder is going to have a hard time with all the kids being gone. He loves them all so much. Troy took all the kids the other day to the park(Ryder needed a nap) He just crawl to the door and cried like a little puppy dog, looking at me and at the door.

We have discovered that 10 month old and hotel don't get along. I think, its been one of the biggest frustrating points in here. How do you put baby to sleep at 8 when the rest of the kids want to be up?

I can't tell you how many times (almost every night) Troy and I have to take turns to walk in circles around hotel or on it's parking lot with Ryder, because he got woken up 2 hrs later and now all ready to rumble, while other kids are ready to go to sleep. On top of it, Ryder doesn't know how to cry...but he sure knows how to let his whole heart into great scream!!! I'm seriously surprised that we haven't been investigated by child services in here. His scream sounds like we are torturing him. Happy, Sad, Frustrated, Just woke up because he want's his Binky, it is a bloody scream!!!! YES, we had a few complains and knocks on our door! Grrrrr!

On the bright side...I have managed to lose 20 lbs. Yeaaaa for me!!!

Finally got all paper work (of me not being in the US anymore) in to US Embassy, so if all is good, they will be able to fax it to SLC and close my case. We then will be able to start applying for my visa and bonds waivers. Fingers crossed!

This is our last week in the hotel!!!!!!!!!! We still love each other, what a relief!

this week....

This week we wear invited, by the US family, to the BBQ to celebrate 4th of July. Kids love their kids and the couple them self are Rylee's teachers at church. They have been wonderful! People at church in general have been fantastic. RS President has been so great. She has emailed me all kinds of helpful things about the Biggin Hill city and where to find what and what deals are were. It is awesome! I hope to take advantage of it all once we have moved in. We now have only 2 more weeks to go :) Kids are very excited to move into the house, and so are we. Troy and I have been looking on ebay for some furniture, and also on free recycle site. They have few second hand stores here as well. So hopefully we will be able to pull together something decant. I guess, we will buy cod beds from Ikea for the kids the day before we move in. We don't quite have a solution for Troy and I, but I'm sure we will be fine. Camping in the house, yaaaaa!

We have finally bought a car!!! It's a big boat!!! Well, for the UK standards it is very big, but not for the US. It is an older Chrysler Grand Voyager, we like it. Hope it will serve us well while we are here. It has 75k miles on it, so that is a concern, and a few electrical things don't really work (nothing major),but white smoke was coming from the back last night. :( not good! We are going to take it to the mechanic and hope it is nothing serious. The guy that sold it to us, said he will pay for it, if it is something serious. Sense we don't have any credit history here, our only option was to find something we can pay cash for. So we hope it can be all fixed chip.

It is so very expensive here that we have figured if we can pull this up we will be able to learn how leave on A LOT less and pay A LOT more in rent than we paid in our mortgage. Which if we can do and be fine, then we can have a bigger home when we come back to the US. For this is training us financially to pay more for the housing. I mean, our house is not all that! it is only about 1200 sq ft. and our rent is $2300/mo. We can have a very nice home for that much/month in UT. In the hotel, we don't have microwave or fridge and so we are limited on what we can buy, food vise, we go to the store about once every two or tree days and it is $100-$150 every time. Again, nothing major in purchases. No milk or meat or anything perishable. Crazy! I don't know how people afford to leave here?

Found out that school here goes year round with a lot more breaks in the middle of it. So, it will be over on July 30th and will restart again on September 1st. So we are hopping to get all of our kids in the same school (I guess, it is kind of the problem around here) Kids start school here at 4, so Brooklyn is a year behind, I hope she will do well. I'm sure at this level, she should be fine!

We have been Skyping with Hailey a few times now. Troy takes his lap top to the park (we even, once had a picnic) while Hailey get's to see us and the kids playing. It's almost like her being kind of there.

Ryder, turned 9 months and learned how to crawl in the hotel. He LOVES shower and crawls to the bathroom with scrim of excitement, every time he sees the door is open, as fast as his little hands and legs would take him. He also started pulling himself up, but still need a little help at that.

We don't quite know what we are going to do for Drew's bday......we were going to have an early party for him, before we left, but we just run out of time.He is a great kid and I know that what ever we will do he will have a grateful heart about it.

Well, this is it for now,
Sorry, not much pictures, our lap top is full and we need to copy all into a disk and create some room. We will try to do it soon so we can start posting more pictures.
Love you all,
Anya