Sports Carnival!

We were lucky enough to move and start the boys in school right before the sports carnival. This is a big deal in the shire of Parkes! The top two boys and girls qualify to compete in Sydney against the other top kids from all the other shires in New South Wales. Cody was number three in all his races and events, he was so disappointed! If you noticed from other post there are a lot of things that makes us feel like we are living in the movie Harry Potter around here. Everything is called the ministry of something, and even at school they are split into houses. Now, I didn't ask how they got assigned the houses they were put in. Is it like the movie where they put a hat on the boys head? Anyways, the boys were put in the Bushman house when they moved in. And during the sports carnival they compete within their houses. The boys were able to wear their sports uniform this day and they even went so far as to let them wear shorts instead of the normal pants that they usually wear, because it's easier to race in shorts than pants!

 The boys painted their faces, but as you'll see farther down, the kids went all out to decorate themselves in their house colors!

 Cody got third place in the high jump. He blamed me for not going father because I gave him his bubble round butt that wouldn't let him get over the bar unlike the other boys who had flat butts! I told him not to worry, cause who really cares if you can jump the highest! It's better to have a cute round butt than a flat one any day!

 This was Luke running the 800 meter race. He came right about in the middle of the bunch of boys!

 Cody running the 800 meter, as you can see he barely beat the boy next to him! He came in fourth in this race.

 When your not racing or competing, you sit with your house and say chants and cheers for the kids competing. Cody really got into doing this and soon became the leader of the chants! I was surprised at how much the kids really got into cheering for their houses! They competed from 9:00 in the morning till 2:00 in the afternoon, and even after 6 hours of cheering for their friends they were just as loud or even louder in the afternoon! My kids learned great sportsmanship from these kids!

 Cody is wearing the gray hat in this picture. He was racing the 100 meter and he came in second!

 This is Luke in the 100 meter, he is in the back of the race here but.......

 He came in fourth at the end! Great job cute guy!

 Cody throwing the shot put. He just learned how to do this about five minutes before competing. He took third or fourth in this event!

 Cody was great at the high jump! His record was 340 and again came in third! The first place boy jumped 420. He didn't even have a chance though, the kids legs were longer than his whole body!

 I couldn't resist taking a picture of Cody with his new friends. The boy sitting next to Cody's name is Dobby. I told you we feel like we are living in the Harry Potter movie here!

The last race of the day was the relay. They took the top four runners of the day and they completed against each house.  Cody's ran the last leg of the race and their house took second! I was so proud of my boys that day! They have only been at this school for a week and still they were excited about competing and doing their best. They were definitely noticed by all the kids and teachers!

The Boys start school!

This is supposed to be our summer break, if we were still in Utah, but in Australia, it's only half way through their school year.
Here in Parkes there are a lot of different schools for you to choose where you want your kids to go. The public school is the first and one of the schools we walked through and took a look at. There is also the Baptist, Presbyterian and Catholic schools to choose from. We didn't have any interest in the Baptist or Presbyterians schools so the Catholic and public were the two we invested our time in.  We ended up choosing the private Catholic school only cause it's class sizes were so much smaller then the public school.  Coming from Utah where the class sizes were 44 for Cody's class and 32 for Luke's class, we really wanted to get the boys in the smallest classes we could. At Holy Family Catholic school there are only 200 kids in the entire school, leaving class sizes under 20! We really hope this makes a big difference in the kind of education our boys get over the next three years!

Every school including the public school wears a uniform. Every schools uniform is different, mostly by the colors they choose. At Holy Family they wear green, blue and yellow! As I stated in my earlier post, everything is a lot more expensive here then in Utah! To get the boys uniforms I spent $600! They have a different uniform they wear on Thursday cause that is their sports day (you will see those in another post).  I only bought two trousers (pants) and two shirts for each boys, a jumper (sweater), ties, socks and their sports pants, shirt and jacket and it came to $600! I still haven't even bought the girls their uniforms yet!

After filling out a long application (this is common out here for everything) to the ministry of transportation the boys were able to take the bus to school! This is their morning routine, walking to the bus stop at the end of our street.

 This is the end of our driveway, where they turn to walk to the end of the street to meet the bus.

 There is this cute bus shed where the boys can sit and wait for the bus to pick them us in the morning and where it drops them off in the afternoon. Now there is no excuse, even when it rains why they can't take the bus to school!
Do you like the fields of sheep all around us? It keeps the boys entertained while they wait for the bus!

 Here is the bus that picks them up for school everyday! Cody complains cause there is a boy on the bus that plays his trumpet while they drive to school and home everyday!

Ok, so I know I took a lot of pictures! I actually only posted a few of them too! But, it's just so dang cute how could I resist!

Staying Busy!

Staying busy in a new country is a little on the tricky side! Thankfully we only had to stay in the hotel in Parkes for three day. But, those first three days were ruff to say the least! We were all messed up with jet lag to start off with. The first night in Australia, all four kids were up at 2:00 am, wide awake and trying to find something to entertain themselves with! Then, by early morning they were all so tired they ended up sleeping most of the day away! This went on for the next few nights with every night  getting up a little later then the last! It took a good week to get us to where we could actually stay awake at night passed 7:00 pm and sleep all through the night!

Only a few days after moving into the house it was Savannah's 15th birthday. It was on Sunday so we got up early to go to church. Church in our branch starts at 9:30, but it's also an hour away! Driving to church that early is nice because the kids usually sleep the whole way there. We get to church with some interesting bed hair to say the least. We also learned after the first week to pack pillows and blankets for the drive and also snacks! You know how starving you are after church, well imagine having to drive an hour home!! Feeling sorry for us yet? After dinner I made Savannah some chocolate cupcakes and we had a wild party! Well, the last part was a lie, but it sounds better then how boring it really was! Poor Savannah!



 The next few days before the boys started school we decided to explore our 20 acres to stay busy! in the moring and evening is when we spot all the kangaroos and we just happened to find them this evening by the horses!

 Because everything in this country is so expensive, no one uses their dryers very often! I know what your all saying right now! I've had a pretty hard time getting used to this new way of drying our clothes! Oh I miss the soft wonderful smelling clothes of Utah! I hope your LOVING my washer and dryer mother!

 After a few days in our home with no Internet and little TV, I decided the kids needed something to get excited about. We saw an advertisement at the grocery store for free kittens and since there is a mice outbreak right now in Australia, I thought it would be a good idea to get some cats around the ranch!

 No, that's not the same kitty in each picture, we got two of them! It's winter right now and the mice are terrible! I know by the time is warms up the mice will only get worse. Thankfully, they don't get in the house too often (we have had one). They build the houses out here of brick from top to bottom to keep them out and it works pretty well! But we do catch about 7-10 a day in the traps outside, everday! Melinda, don't be so quick to move out here, I don't think you could take it!
Speaking of the TV, my kids have had to find different shows to watch since the ones they like are not on out here.  It's funny actually down right hilarious to see what they are enjoying! First McGiver, Touched by an Angel, The Brady Bunch and the Love Boat to name a few! When we do get the occasional Simpson's or Friends, if they are a good one, not too unappropriated, we savor them like you can't believe!

 We couldn't have rented a house from a better family! The owner whose name is Rob takes really good care of us! He even left his two horses here on the ranch for us to ride when ever we want! Billabong is the big one in the green. He is a old racing horse who actually won Rob $50,000 in his racing days! Lily is the pony. She is a little cranky and nips at you sometimes, but is starting to get to know the kids better everyday and will be a great horse for Luke to ride!

 I had to get a picture of Clay in his work uniform for everyone to see. Everyone at the mine wears the same uniform! Yes, it reflects in the light for protection when the miners are underground! Clay had only gone underground twice since working here so it's not his usual routine, but still has to wear the uniform!

Luke has been the one kid to really enjoy ranch living the most! He explores the ranch every afternoon, finding different animals to watch, he cleans the pool, plays with the kitty's, feeds the horses and even burns the trash with Clay! Does this barrel look familiar to the Collins girls reading this?? Yes, it's a trash burning barrel! We have no trash services out her on the ranch so it's either burn your trash or take it to the dump yourselves! Now if it was up to me, I would take it to the dump, but since this is something Clay grew up doing on his families farm he actually enjoys doing it here! I can honestly say he was so excited when he saw this trash burning barrel out back! Luke who loves playing with fire anyways spends hours with Clay on the weekend burning the trash and having the time of his life!

The start of our new life!

Hello friends and family, let me just start off by saying I miss you all more than words can say! But, I'm thankful for this unique chance  to live in Australia for a few years and give my kids some memories they will hopefully treasure and remember fondly for the rest of their lives!

I wanted to start by showing you all some pictures of where we live.  It's a ranch home, only a few minutes from town, but far enough away to feel like we are all by ourselves! We are not far from the golf club (golf course to you all), and on the other side of the rail road tracks (there is no wrong side of the tracks out here). 

Parkes is the name of the town or shire we live in, it's a very small shire, only 12,000 people!

Almost every morning we wake up to the entire town covered in fog.

This is what we see when we look out our front door! Our home is on top of a small hill and we have a good view of the rolling hills and the town below.

 Here is a picture of the house from the bottom of our driveway. Yes, it's a gravel driveway! When we first saw pictures of this home on the Internet, Clay was over the moon excited about the gravel driveway, 20 acres, and the horses! It's the way he grew up in No. California during his childhood! He wants the kids to have the same experiences as he did!
Now, the only difference between this place and the way he grew up is the wildlife that is all around us!

The birds and kangaroos are amazing to watch! We have seen birds outside that we only saw in America in pet stores and zoos and watched kangaroo hopping around the fields and even boxing each other!
Cody Luke and I even got pretty close to them, but when they took off Cody started chasing them!
I wanted to start off with the scenery and animal pictures, I'll fill you in next on what we have been up too!

Happy Birthday Cody

 Happy Birthday to my cute Cody!

 Cody had his favorite breakfast (orange rolls) served to him in bed this morning!

 Then his brother Luke sent him on a treasure hunt to find his first present

 After a few hot and cold clues Cody was able to find it!



Luke gave him a Eagle's cup! Cody is a HUGE Eagles fan!

Happy 12th birthday Cody!

I'm back!

It's been a while since I was blogging, but with all the changes going on right now, I figured now was as good as time as ever to start up again. The biggest change to happen in our family is that was are in the process of moving from Utah to Australia! Clay received a promotion at work in January, which will require us to move internationally. Currently he is the controller at Kennecot Copper which is located in Salt Lake City, Utah. His new position is CFO for NorthParkes Mine in Parkes, New South Wales Australia. Exciting right? Well, now that we are only a few weeks away from moving all I'm feeling is stress and anxiety! There is excitement in there too, but under a lot of layers of the others! As of Thursday, we received our visa's from Australia so now things are really moving fast! The movers will be here on the 23rd and 24th of May to pack us up. But, we wont be moving into the hotel until the 27th. We debated about this for a few days, and ended up deciding we would be more comfortable in a empty home, close to our kids friends instead of in a hotel with five kids! We already will be in the hotel for a week as it is, we didn't want to make it two weeks!

So for now, we are very busy with packing up the stuff we don't plan on taking with us and storing it in our storage unit. I've been taking the kids to the doctors, dentist, eye doctors trying to get everything up to date with immunization shots, teeth cleaning, vision test (for contacts). Savannah has to be stocked up on all her diabetic supplies cause I don't know how long it will take us to find a new doctor for her in Australia. On top of cancelling all our TV, telephone, utilities, mail, schools and a hundred other things that run our family and house. Every day we are getting closer to being ready for the movers to come, but there is always something we forget and I'm stressing I will remember a hundred other things once we are on the plane flying out of America! Currently my home looks like this.....

Some of my kitchen

More of the kitchen

My living room!

As you can see from the pictures, it's a total disaster. We have no place to keep this stuff until the movers come, except for in these rooms. All the boxes in the picture above is furniture from Ikea. We decided instead of taking our nice furniture we would just buy some from Ikea. It's easier to transport there and if it gets beat up over the next three years we'll just leave it there. I just feel for Clay, he will be spending a lot of time in our new home putting all this stuff together!
We are renting our home to a family in a ward while we are gone. We really couldn't of found more perfect people to live and take care of our house for us! But getting it ready for renters is taking a lot of work. Clay has been busy patching up holes our children put in their bedrooms walls, touching up the paint, making sure everything is in perfect condition. Our home might be messy but it's in better condition now that we are moving out of it then it has the 4 years we have lived in it!

I hate January!

I have no pictures to post this time, so I apologize in advance for that. I have been so busy that I haven't even thought to bring my camera with me when we have gone out to do stuff this month. I know, what a terrible mother I am. Now my kids won't have anything to remember this month by.
We have been extremely busy since Christmas and New Years and that is the reason why I haven't blogged in such a long time. I was called into the Young Women's Presidency right before Christmas, actually the day our ward was split. I was thrown in with out any kind of training and didn't have a clue as to what I was supposed to due. Up until now, my life has been Primary. I have done just about every calling there is in the Primary organization and have never served with the Young Women. And they didn't give me very long to figure it out. The very next Sunday I was teaching the Mia Maid class and organizing the Tuesday Activity. I had submitted 3-4 names for a couple of advisor to help me out, but with our ward just getting organized, everyone was submitting the same names, so it took over a month for me to get my first advisor in. So prior to that I was teaching every week and planning/running the weekly activities as well. I can't tell you how much I appreciate my advisor now!!
Now that I have one advisor helping me out, things have started to slow down, until last night when the president called me and asked me to plan New Beginnings for next month which includes planning the entire program. I have learned well in the past that the best way to run something is to delegate out most of the responsibility, so that is what I will be doing the rest of this week.
I am planning on teaching the girls a Jenny Philips songs and will have them sing it during the program. They are going to either hate it or love it! Hopefully love it!
Speaking of Jenny Philips, she just announced a trip to New York in July that the choir will be able to go on with her. We will be going to Joseph Smith's birth place Memorial/visitors center, Joseph's family farm in Fayette, the Hill Cumorah, and even be able to do a temple session in the Palmya, New York temple. The only sad part is she can't take the entire choir so she will get all the names of the people who want to go and then hold a lottery drawing to see who will be the ones that get to go. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hope my name is one of the names that get drawn!
The kids have been keeping busy this month with Basketball and snowboarding. We signed Brittany, Cody and Savannah up to go snowboarding 4 times in January and February. And the best part is we don't have to drive them up to the resort. They load up on a bus at the rec. center every other Saturday at 7:30 am and we pick them back up at the rec. center at 5:30 in the evening. They get a half day lesson in the morning and then spend the rest of the day with their friends on the slops. Next time they go up I'll have Brittany take her camera so that I can document that they actually did this!
Besides that it has been business as usual around here. We have had the kids sick off and on for over a week now. We went up on Sunday to Kym and Martin's house for Lily's first birthday party. I can't believe she is already a year old. She is so cute and oh, those eye lashes!
Some new news is that we think Coco (the dog) got a little Yorkie pregnant that lives up the street from us. So if anyone is looking for a Morkie puppy give me a call, I can probably get you one!
Oh, I completely forgot the biggest news of all.....I got Lasik a few weeks ago and now never have to deal with contacts or glasses again! I'm so completely thrilled with the results and regret not doing it sooner!
Clay went in for Shoulder surgery the day after I got Lasik. He got repaired an injury he sustained while coaching 4th grade football! It took 4 anchors to repair his shoulder but he is doing remarkably well for just having major surgery only 2 weeks ago.
Well that is about all I can remember for now. I promise to have picture for my next post and will try to not let another month go by until I post again!