I'm back!

Hello blog followers! 

My Mum and I had a conversation today in which she expressed some disappointment at my lack of blogging! Yes - It has been over a year since my last post! Twins sure do take up a lot of my time! However - this conversation got me thinking. I love my blog. I enjoy writing posts on here. I like sharing news and photos with my family and friends back home. So.... drum roll please.... I am back! As of today I will begin increasing my efforts to blog more often! 

Now - as you can imagine... a lot has happened in the past year that I have been blog shy... Way too much to even consider back dating every single thing we did... so I will just have to catch you in a broader way! Here is a very quick run down of the past year in our household! 

Last November my family made the trek to Utah to visit us! Yay family! We met in Vegas, partied for the weekend and then headed back up to good old Utah. It was so much fun having them all here and they loved meeting the babies. We went tubing, shot some guns, visited some tourist sights, had a sleigh ride and ate WAY too much! It was epic and I loved having them here! Can't wait for them to come visit again!  

In December I broke a bone in my back... that sucked... there wasn't really much of a need for me to write about this - but I decided to include it so when I read back over this years from now I will remember when it happened and just how much it sucked... cause it did! Did I mention it sucked? Boo! We celebrated Christmas with my family who were still in town and it was so nice to enjoy the occasion with people we love from Australia! Plus - Mum cooked a turkey! Way to go Mum!

In January I had somewhat of a midlife crisis and coloured my hair. Dark brown. Yep - you heard me. From blonde to brown in a matter of hours. It freaked my babies out a little, Hayden said it looked weird and Emma congratulated me on being smart enough to change the colour instead of getting bangs (A huge mistake I made the previous year). I loved it... it lasted about six months. Paul has always been a 'blonde' loving man... so he was anxious for me to go back to my blonde locks as soon as possible. 

In February Paul's work took it's employees and spouses away for a weekend at the Zermatt Resort in Midway. We obviously had to take the twins who weren't even one yet... but we managed to find a sitter for the older kids for the first night. We ate good fun, enjoyed great company and then the next day went snowmobiling! Rose's sisters were kind enough to come up to the resort to watch the babies so we could go have some grown up, fun time! This was AWESOME! It was freezing way up in the mountain... but worth every single shiver. Snow mobiling is SO fun! I can't wait to go again! The second night we had the kids join us. We swam in the pool, played some games and watched a movie. The next day we took a trip to Soldier Hollow to tube! It was so funny so see the kids racing down the hills and the babies sleeping in their tubes! What a fun filled weekend! 

In March Hayden turned 8 and was baptised! We were lucky enough to have Nanna and Grandad fly out for the special day. We celebrated with birthday gifts, dinner, cake and a trip to Hawaii! Yep - Hawaii! Hayden has always wanted to go - so we figured what better time than his special birthday and while we had family in town! Hawaii was beautiful. The weather was great, the island was beautiful and there were so many things to do. We snorkelled with turtles, visited Pearl Harbour, Toured the Polynesian Cultural Centre, shopped, visited many beaches and spent a day at the Dole Plantation. Hawaii is amazing and we can't wait to go again!

In April we had to head up to Canada to renew our Visas. It was a quick road trip but still a lot of fun. We drove up through Seattle, stayed in Vancouver and made the most of our short time there! We visited the Buttchart Gardens on Vancouver Island - one of our favorite places to visit. It is stunningly beautiful! We even managed to catch our first MLB game while in Seattle! So much fun! The funniest part was when Baylee dropped her dummy (pacifier for our American friends) into the beer of the bloke sitting next to us! oops! haha - his face was priceless! Our trip was a success and the Visa was approved. Looks like you are stuck with us for at least two more years Utah! ; )

In May our beautiful twins turned one! Wow! What a crazy year it has been too! The year seemed to fly by. Our cute little babies were suddenly walking and morphing into toddlers! We adore these little monkeys! They are hard work but so worth it! They had their one year old photo shoot and we tried to get a picture of them with their cake. Baylee was in heaven.... Kendall - not so much. As soon as she got a tiny bit of frosting on her hand she cried her eyes out. Baylee was more than happy to take Kendall's share and was quickly covered in bright orange frosting! A testament to just how different our girls are! 

June quickly rolled around and with it - more visitors from home! One of my very best friends Margs and her gorgeous fiance Pete came into town! Whilst it was a flying visit (they were travelling around America so only had limited time) we definitely made the most of it. We visited park city, drove the Alpine loop, shopped at Scheels (for Pete), ran (or walked if you are Margs and I) some trails, caught a movie, shopped and ate, ate, ate! We adore these two and were so happy they were able to come visit us in SLC! Emma also turned 11 this month. She is growing into quite the young lady! Emma got an Ipad mini this year and loves it! We love you Emma! 

July saw the first full month of the summer holidays. We had season tickets to cowabunga bay so spent a few mornings there. The kids would go off onto the water slides while the twins and I would dance and splash around in the baby pool! July also saw us make another trip up to Canada. This time to visit with some old friends from back home. Leonard and Paul grew up together and are more like brothers than friends. We decided to drive up and stay with them in Kitamaat - way up at the top of Canada. On the way through we dropped in to see Keith and Mandy! We spent a few days with them catching up and having a laugh. We love these guys and were excited to see them again! We met up with the Kaberry clan at a lake house a few hours drive from their house. We stayed for a couple nights and went canoeing and had camp fires. If you get a chance - ask Paul to tell you the 'Bee' story! 

Upon leaving the lake house we drove up to Alaska. We spent a night there and it was beautiful! Salmon glacier is amazing and the scenery is like something out of a movie! We then headed back to the Kaberry house and enjoyed a week with them. We fished a lot - which was so much fun! I never thought I would enjoy fishing but I did! I managed to snag a few myself too! Emma also caught a big fish herself - and then cried when we wouldn't let her throw it back! On the way home from Kitamaat we stopped in to see the ever fun Wynder's. This family sure knows how to have a good time and we enjoyed every moment with them - especially the Cardston Carriage Museum... that is a remarkable tourist destination if we ever saw one! ; ) There is no activity you could do that wouldn't be full of laughs with these guys. Great friends and great company! July was a busy month - but also super fun!

August saw the start of a new school year. This was a biggy as Emma was entering her first year of junior high! I shed a tear as I watched my baby girl walk into her giant new school. Emma of course was as cool as a cucumber and loved every minute of it. Emma being at a new school meant Hayden was going to be at Oak Hollow all on his own. This also gave me anxiety - but like Emma, Hayden wasn't phased. He has a fabulous teacher and a great class. I also started teaching music at his school and have the pleasure of teaching him! He loves it and so do I! 

September was a relatively quiet month for us. We celebrated the birth of my main squeeze Paul and went to see the musical Tarzan! It was awesome - but then again - every single musical that Hale Centre Theatre puts on is! We also decided to have someone come in and transform our back yard! I am going to do a separate blog post on this as I feel it really deserves so good 'before and after' shots! Stay tuned! 

October saw the arrival of my little sister Jenny and one of my best friends Sarah. They hoped on a plane and flew out to little old Utah just to see us! It was so nice having them here and we had a ton of fun! Paul organised a girls trip to LA for us and it was incredible. Action packed and tiring - but so much fun. We hit up Magic Mountain, Hollywood, did a sight seeing tour and even made wax sculptures of the girls hands at Madam Tussauds! Fun, fun, fun! Back in Utah we did all of your usual touristy stuff as well as shooting guns, visiting a scare house and carving pumpkins! Thanks for coming to see us girls! So much fun! 

So there you have it! A quick recap of the year that was... I know this was a super long blog post and I'd be surprised if anyone is actually still reading at this point! I promise not to leave it so long next time! Until then followers.... x x x