Goodbye Perth

Our wonderful friends Jade and Doug threw use a surprise going away party the Saturday before we left.  They tricked us into believing we were going to a live Aussie comedy show.  We showed up at their house that evening ready to go to the show, were greeted at the door by jade, then walked into their dark house (we were slightly suspicious at this time), and were surprised by all of our closest friends hiding in the dining room.  They had a dessert bar full of all my favorite American and Australian desserts.  Jade knows I have a major sweet tooth. ;)  Our friend Jacob gave a heartfelt toast to start the evening off, and the rest of the night was spent chatting and stuffing ourselves full of sweets.  It was such a wonderful night, spent with some of the most amazing people I have ever met in my life.  There were a lot of tears that night as we said our goodbyes.  Although it's great to be home and surrounded by family, I still can't help but feel homesick for Perth and wishing our friends weren't so far away.  Dang Australia why must you be so far away!  

The crew

Love the Robinsons

Anouck and I

Sunday before we left we had one last final hoorah with the Williams' and Kendalls.  Dannii, Jade, and I have been the three musketeers since we moved to Perth.  I have moved back to the US, and Dannii is now moving to Karatha this week, so the trio has been separated.  I know that no matter where we are in the world we will always remain close though.  Love these girls.  

Dannii, Lisa, Jade

Ella is going to miss her best bud Maddie 

Charity

~Charity~

This is part of a talk I gave a few weeks ago in church: 

At the time when we were asked to move I was extremely anxious and worried... moving to a different country without knowing a single soul was definitely going outside of my comfort zone. Our first day of church in the Dianella ward was on Valentiens day if I remember correctly. We had to take a bus from the CBD (central business district), because at the time we didn’t have a car. We were greeted warmly by so many friendly faces that day, and were given a ride home from a couple in the ward. That couple went above and beyond to make us feel welcome. Later that week they took us for a tour around Perth, and even made us a map of all the great places to go in Perth. We instantly felt welcome and loved. The relocation agency that was assisting us wasn’t very helpful, and it was actually bishop who helped us find a place to live. In addition to bishop other church members dedicated their time to help us clean the house we were moving into, and donated items such as a tv, a fridge, and a dining table. Brandon and I were overwhelmed with the amount of love, and above all Charity shown to us. These people who we didn’teven know were offering their possessions, and time to help us. From there other members in the ward continued to shower us in love and charity…. Whether it be looking after me and inviting me over for dinner while Brandon was away traveling for work, dropping off a meals or gifts when I had a bad day, or just providing random acts of kindness to show I was cared for... I always felt loved and cared for. We built a home away from home, and even though we were thousands of miles away from our own families, we had a family here in Perth to take care of us. There never was a time where I felt alone. I knew that if there was anything I ever needed our friends here in Perth would be there for us at the drop of a hat.
You have no idea how much those small acts of charity have meant to Brandon and I, and how much it has impacted our lives. I don’t think I have words enough to say just how grateful I am and how I will never forget the love that was shown to us here. These are things that I will remember for the rest of my life.
Because of these experiences I have a true testimony of charity and serving others. I personally have felt how charity can bless a person’s life, and because of my experiences here I strive even more to serve others.

Thank you to all my Aussie friends for your love, support, and service over the past 2 1/2 years. We love you, and will miss you dearly!

8 Days

We leave Perth in 8 days.  8 DAYS!!! How did that happen so fast?!?! It honestly feels like we just barely got here.  I cannot believe how fast the past 2 1/2 (almost three) years have gone!   

On Thursday they are moving all of our stuff, and we will be living in a hotel in the city for 3 nights until we fly out.  We will be making our trip home into a vacation to help break up the flights for Ella, and who wouldn't want to have a vacation in tropical paradise? We will be staying in Sydney for 2 days, Fiji for 4 days and Hawaii for 4 days.  I can't wait!!!  We will be home in Salt Lake for Christmas, then I'll be staying at my parents house until February.  Brandon has to come back to Perth through January to finish things up at his job.  Then we are off to the beautiful city of Elko Nevada.  hmmmm not quite as nice as Perth.  Okay not even close, but we are going to make the most out of our 2-3 years there.  Two great things about living in Elko Nevada is 1. we are only a 3 hour drive from SLC, and 2. Brandon's sister Heather and her husband are there, so we will be close to family!     

Cottesloe beach 

I have so many mixed emotions about leaving. I am SO excited to be close to family, but on the other hand extremely sad to be leaving Perth and all of our amazing friends here.  It's very bittersweet I suppose.  I wish that Perth wasn't so far away, because then at least i'd find comfort in knowing that we would be back to visit soon... but with Ella here, and our family just starting to grow who knows when that could be, 5, 10, 15 years down the road?  I hope not.  We love Perth!  For our thanksgiving party I made a list of 20 things that I'm thankful for in Australia (which I forgot to share at the party, but here they are anyway)... some of them are a joke.

1. Amazing friends
2. Meat pies & sausage rolls
3. Tim tams, lamingtons, pavlova & violet crumble
4. Holidays every month
5. Toilets that have half flush and full flush 
6. Switches on the outlets so that we don’t electrocute ourselves (haha this is a joke because our friend Anouck thought she was going to get electrocuted in the US because we don't have switches on the outlets)
7. The footy referee because he is awesome!
8. Beautiful beaches & amazing scuba diving/snorkeling 
9. Clothes lines... I've actually grown to love them.  When it's hot outside the clothes dry in 10 min.  
10. Perfect weather all year round
11. Veggiemite (on toast with cheese)
12. Han’s café (a tradition with the Williams' and Kendall's) 
13. Sexy accents & Aussie slang (I wish Ella would grow up to have an Aussie accent)
14. Gaytimes (it's a type of ice cream, but the name is also awesome)
15. Ginger beer & lemon lime and bitters
16. Kings Park
17. Sausage sizzles & fish n' chips
18. Koalas, Kangaroos and Quokkas 
19. Killer mag pies (ok not really thankful for these.... more so thankful that mag pies in the US won't try to attack me)
20. San Churros (oh my goodness the best churros and hot chocolate you've ever had in your life)

Happy Thanksgiving

On Sunday Brandon and I had our very first Thanksgiving dinner.  Since we are leaving in a couple weeks we wanted to throw a last "thank you" party... and what better way then to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Since Thanksgiving isn't celebrated in Australia, it was fun to share one of our holiday traditions.  We had 12 of our closest friends over to celebrate (there were a couple that couldn't make it unfortunately).  

This was our first time cooking a thanksgiving dinner.  I was a little intimidated by the turkey so I had Brandon be in charge of cooking it.  He used a Jamie Oliver recipe that he found online... it was a citrus recipe, and turned out so yummy.  I have to admit it was probably the tastiest turkey I've ever had.  Well done Brandon!  

Since Brandon was in charge of the turkey I took over the rest of the menu.  I made 4 pumpkin pies, sweet potato bake (turned out so yummy), and 2 trays of stuffing.  Other people pitched in and brought mashed potatoes, veggies, ice cream, rolls and drinks.  There was SO much food.  Just the way it should be on thanksgiving!  If you don't leave feeling uncomfortably stuffed then you haven't experienced thanksgiving to the fullest. 

It was a wonderful night.  We are so grateful to have such wonderful friends to celebrate thanksgiving with.  We love our Aussie family! 

pumpkin pie

Brandon the turkey man

Brandons masterpiece

Ella enjoying some thanksgiving goodness 

Mel and Jacob

Digging in

My wonderful hubby

Maddie stuffing her face

Our Aussie family (minus a few)

We have so much to be thankful for.  :)  Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

Ella 6 months

Little miss Ella is 6 months old!!!

Ella 3 months- 6 months 

Check out those long legs! 

A few fun facts about Ella at 6 months:

• Weighs 17 lbs (75th percentile) and is in the 97th percentile for height.  Holy moly we have a little giant on our hands.  
• Has the cutest, chubbiest, long legs in the world.  Which I love to kiss.
• Still sleeping through the night.  yay! 
• When she wakes up in the morning or from a nap she will play quietly in her crib until I come and get her (unless I leave her too long then she might let out a few cries)  
• As soon as she sees me come into the room she gets so excited, and gives me the biggest smile.   It's the perfect way to wake up in the morning.
• Has learned to put her binky in her mouth by herself. This is something we've been working on for the past few weeks. Initially she wouldn't sleep without it, and every time she spit it out she would cry for someone to come put it back in.  Now we just leave a couple extra binkies in her crib, so if she wakes up in the middle of the night she can easily find one and put it in her mouth.  Works like a charm! 
• Is rollin' 24/7... and trying her best to crawl.  She does the stink bug... puts her butt up in the air and kicks her legs. haha...  Hasn't quite figured out how to travel though.  She is one determined little girl!
• Loves peek-a-boo!
• Loves sleeping on her side
• Still eating solids 2-3 times (small amounts) and breastfeeding every 4 hours during the day
• Doesn't like bananas or apple sauce.  Loves pears, apricots, pumpkin, and sweet potato 
•  Will let anyone and everyone hold her.  She is a very social baby, and is happy to have any attention
• Smiles whenever I put my phone in front of her (yep.  I have her well trained)

Going away breakfast

On Saturday I met up with some of my friends from uni for breakfast. I hadn't seen a few of them since my baby shower back in March, so it was a long over due catch up. They also got to meet Ella for the first time. Ella was passed around the table multiple times so that everyone got their quota of cuddles.  I discovered a new trick of Ella's.  Anytime you take out your phone, or a camera Ella will smile!  haha.  I think she is use to her mommy taking a million pictures of her.  Such a little ham!
I had a great time. I'm really going to miss these girls... we've been through a lot together over the past couple of years!

2 weeks until we leave!!!!

Addielle, Ashleigh, Neeta, Georgina, Lauren, Chandra 

Ella loved Neeta.  Best buds :) 

Beach day with the babies

Took the babies to Hillary's beach this afternoon. Ella and Luke had a little play date. It was so nice to get out in the sunshine. Such a lovely day!

nap on the beach