It's do or die

I do miss home terribly, but in so many ways I'm glad we are were we are. In so many ways it has been such a blessing for our family. I can't even begin to explain all the wonderful personal and family changes that this has come to us. As a family we are SO much closer together. Kids have learned to rely on each other and found to be best friends. We don't go out hardly ever (do to leaving expense in here) and we don't have TV. But we manage to keep our selves busy, nevertheless. We have great home teachers, who happen to be also my RS President.;) and her husband. Troy calls her Marie Poppins...she is lovely lady, and when she comes over all the children(Troy and I included) just igger to seat around her and listen to her speak.(that English accent is captivating) We have one great friendly neighbor. They have been very kind to us and kids really love their kids. We have surrounded ourselves with "church" everything. It has brought us so much closer to the Lord ( I don't know why we allowed ourselves to get so distracted back home) The Lord has blessed us with an amazing calling opportunities. It is so nice to feel needed.
This day Troy is at the church with YM and YW having 24 hr merothan read of the Book of Mormon.
As you know I teach Youth Sunday School. I love it. It's neat to teach kids here. I think they really get it, they have to rise up every day to what they believe. I just love that! And that is what I also love about our kids being here. Is that they get to "play on the field" sort of speak after we teach them at home and church.
I love how many talks we had to have with all of them, every single day for all the gospel principals here became reality. From modesty, to word of wisdom, to church going, to clean language,obeying sabbath day, recognizing the Spirit, the list goes on.... Leaving here gives us as a parents stronger motive to teach, then we send them out on the "field", then fallow up with them and teach again. The circle never ends and we hope they will learn and get strong. I suppose that that is what we should do no matter what our address is, but being here it's almost like do or die. And we can't let our kids die. The opposition to the truth is right in our faces, right in our kids faces. I am grateful now, more then ever for the gospel in our life. What a safe harbor it is for our family! And I am so proud of my little kids for being such a great examples of faith and purity to those around them. Nothing brings more joy to Troy's and mine heart then hearing character appraising comments from teachers, neighbors and parents. Rylee sais, that she feels like she is being a missionary. And she sure is. ;)

First time on Double Decker

Was looking through some of our pictures and have realized that I did miss an event that needed to be recorded.
A few weeks ago Troy had to drive to London for his job and we were left with out a car at the house all Saturday. I really wanted to do SOMETHING! So kids and I are decided to go the "pound" store for Halloween decorations. The fun part about it was the "how" we were going to get there.
Double Decker here we come!

It was about 30 min drive, but the kids LOVED every minute of it! They all run to the second level and got to seat in the front row. They all had huge smiles across their faces, and they all told me that they feel like they are riding a roller coaster!




At the store we found few things that we got and people at the store asked us if we were from US. "Is our accent really give us away?" I asked. "Yes, and the fact that you bought this much Halloween decorations" said one lady. (Just for the record, I didn't buy "that" much. There wasn't much to choose from to begin with)
Anyway, I thought that was funny. At church, RS has asked me to tell'em about how Halloween is celebrated in US, it just made me miss home that much more.
This Friday we have decided to hold a Halloween party for the kids.We will have a few games, pizza, candy you know the usual stuff. And for my wonderful sisters-in-law and nieces and nieces-in-law I say lets start doing this as a tradition when I come back (you can start doing it with out me, of course)Here are some gals that've done this and loved it: Angela ,Caryn , Breanne
Anyway, I thought it might be so much fun for us girls. What do you say?

Hewiit's Farm

This Saturday we decided it is time to go and find some pumpkins. I actually had to google to find if they sell them here and where. (Halloween is not a big deal here). Lucky for us 20 min away is the pick your own farm. Those actually are popular in here. We saw them a lot in the summer. Well, anyways. I got my kids in there worm clothes and told them to put some rain boots on and off we went to Hewiit's Farm. We had sooo much fun out there and wished we had someone who could of taking pictures of all of us together. But we managed to take some good once of kids and with some creativity of my husband we even snapped a few with all of us in the shot.
Kids had such a blast picking their own fruits off the trees, and running freely through the orchards. I don't understand this, but orchards have always brought feeling of home into my heart. I think I had one of them, long time ago in the different "place"
We have found some divine looking vegetables and fruits and the weather, though wasn't worm or sunny, it didn't rain and we were greatfull!

Ryder is ONE!

Time surely doesn't stop, doesn't it?
On September 30th our little guy turn 1. He was sick that day, actually that whole week ;( So we just held him a lot on that day. Which he loved. And once he felt better we got together with our neighbors and had pizza, cake, ice cream, balloons, and presents.
Ryder has 5 teeth, 2 on the top and 3 on the bottom. He has darling light curls, mostly on the back of his head, that both mom and dad just adore. He is just about to start walking on his own, we think. He likes to hold on everything around the house(walls included) and walk that way.When he is done eating he troughs the rest of the food on the floor and often would finish it after we take him out of his high chair. (silly kid) He still screams! And at this stage we know he is doing it on purpose.(stinker) In the past few days I have found him laughing at....I'm not sure what....he is just cracking himself up, and talking his little baby talk in between loughs. It makes me giggle to hear him do that. He loves his brother and sisters and truly misses them when they go to school. He gets so excited about food. You would think that we don't feed him. He likes to point to things and he signs "give it to me" (I was trying to teach him how to sign "milk" somehow, it got lost in translation and now "milk" means "give it to me", or "come here" or "I want that")
On the sadder note, he has been getting his head banged more then I ever remember other kids doing it. I don't think his head has been bruise free ever.Poor guy.
He likes to cattle and he will give you those wonderful, open mouth baby kisses, if you ask him or if he feels like it. He says mamma, babba, and tink (thanks)He is our sweetheart and we ALL love him to pieces.

New Friends

We have gotten a couple of new friends in our house. The first one is Hopkin, he is old and rusty. Heavy and used. Loud,but could be quite. He likes to be touched and if you know just the right way to touch it,it can let out the most wonderful sound. Troy found him for 10 pounds on ebay, and we were excited to bring him home. Let me present to you Mr.Hopkin, Rylee's new friend

Rylee has been expressing interest in learning piano for quite a while now, so we are very excited for her. You should have seen her jumping up and down and out of her skin ;) when she found out we bought this and she gets to take lessons.
The second one is much smaller and she is on the loan to our home. Her name is Toyah. Her owner didn't know what to do with her and she was happy to let me train her. All the gifts that have been given her, she hasn't discover yet, for she is new. But I believe deep inside she knows she is great! I am trilled to help her to see just how wonderful she is. I KNOW she is going to bring much, much joy to me. Let me introduce you to Miss Toyah, my new friend.

Did you see that piano stool? I believe my friend Toyah will weep up something marvelous to make it look darling. First project is calling my name. I'm soooo excited!

Drew's education

Do you ever wright posts in your mind? I do. Tons of them. But they hardly ever make it to the blog ;( How sad. I have got to do something about it. I am open to suggestions. In the main time...
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We don't have TV, which has been great for us (though, there are days, I wish I had it) It's crazy... you have to license it if you get TV or watch shows on line. We can't access most shows from Home due to US/UK licensing agreement, and so we have found library our new friend(which is fantastic) Every night Drew asks me if he can fall asleep in our bedroom (Ryder is sleeping in his, and he can't turn the lights on) this is what we have been finding almost every night.

i love his choice of book....must learn everything about succer in here
Drew has been learning a lot about Greeks this year and I am happy to report that now he knows all about
"true love"