Wishing everyone a.....

A Jolly Ball-y Christmas for Lane

Thanks to Nana and Granddad, Lane has a new favorite toy.

Christmas Trimmings

We had Christmas at our house this year, which means it was time to put on the matching sweaters and take a family picture. I found some real Christmas crackers at the British market in town, and Andrew made sure we all wore our party hats and told our jokes. So, "What did the beaver say to the tree?"

Christmas

We have had a great Christmas and we have all been spoiled rotten. I (Andrew) have been in cheese heaven. We had a nice sharp cheddar, apricot stilton, a strong stilton, and the favourite of Wallace and Gromit, some Wensleydale. Samantha also found me some crumpets, pastilles from Rowntrees, and some english turkish delights. IT has been a real treat. Hana and Lane made out like bandits and are currently benefiting from being only grand children on one side of the family. Hana has been running around with her sheepskin boots on thinking she is pretty special. Lane has an infatuation with balls and so she got at least 3 different toys involving balls including the one Nanna and Grandad got her which we will post a video of shortly. Anyway we will post photos over then next day or two.

Christmas Lights

Our neighbours up the street have 10000+ lights and they all move to the music. We asked if we could put together (i.e. put lights to a piece of music I like) so they sent us the software and we arranged this video.

talofa lava butterworths

malo soifua its christmas morning here in brisssie and its pretty cool actually. we have just opened presents from the family. thanks to all those sent gifts. we are preparing to have the missionaries over for breakfast this morning which will be great. our extended family gathering is at uncle brendy's house - lots of swimming and food and doing nothing. we are also visiting a few samoan families that live close by in the arvo. i am looking forward to this so i can eat some samoan food. manaia tele mea ai samoa!!! so this is what our christmas day will be like... tell us about yours too. as you may know i just got back of my mission in the SAMOA APIA MISSION. i will have to post something up about it another time with some pics. sending out our love to all our family all over the world. God bless and MERRY CHRISTMAS.

fa soifua matthew "pata" Butterworth

Happy Birthday Dad

Dad coming around the corner, to meet everyone with party poppers (you can see one going off) and everyone yelling "SURPRISE". He had no idea that we had planned a party for him, even though the cake shop had called during the week and was asking about the cake. Dad said this was the first real birthday party he had ever had.
Rebecca, Jonathan and Shane did the banner,which looked fantastic.

Dip in the pool

Saturday was quite a warm day, so I put Damian into his swimmers, which he is about to grow out of, and dangled his little feet into the pool. Our pool is still freezing, and I don't think he was very impressed because afterwards he kept rubbing his feet together.

Lots of Lights

Andrew spent the rest of our Thanksgiving break precariously perched in our aspen tree wrapping every branch with yellow lights. I did my best with the red lights in the cherry tree, but in the end decided it was easier to saw off half of the branches and let Andrew finish the rest! Still, we managed to hang about 4,500 lights. And would you believe it, we're the slackers of the neighborhood! Three doors up is a musical light show that rivals the best that Disneyland has to offer! Our neighbors, the Pattersons, have over 10,000 lights synchronized to music. It's amazing - we'll try to post a video of it before the season is over.

Lunch with Dad

Even though Andrew can't come home for lunch every day like he used to, we still manage to meet him down at BYU for lunch once in a while. We had a great Thanksgiving, and I would have had lots of fun photos, if I had remembered to put the battery in my camera before we left! We went down to St. George for a couple of days to visit some friends and family. We had Thanksgiving dinner with my uncle and aunt, Erick and Benja. It was perfect; my cousin PJ cooked all the food, we took it over to their restaurant, and then left all of the dishes for their staff to do in the morning! All I had to make was a salad. We had a fantastic time, until Hana threw up all over the table. It wasn't anything to do with the cooking...I think Hana just had a touch of the stomach flu.

Banjo Patterson's Cottage

Today we went to Banjo Patterson's Cottage, which is where Banjo spent some of his life. It is now a very nice restaurant and we had a lovely lunch there. We were celebrating James' mum and dad's 60th birthdays. The restaurant is at Gladesville and backs onto a cove of Sydney Harbour.

Damian chills in a chair in the garden. There were a few gandparents that were quite nervous about this picture.







It was nice for James and I to go to a restaurant, it was the first time we had been out to a restaurant since Damian was born.

This is the cottage from the outside, it is a gorgeous place. It is surrounded by some pretty parkland.

Fall has fallen

After near summer weather yesterday, we woke up to a hard frost this morning. I guess winter is really on its way. Hana has a friend over, whom we call "the other Hannah." They're having a great time right now playing ring-around-the-rosies. The funny thing is, when I say "Hana - be nice!" they both stop and look at me. Lane has backed herself in a corner and is yelling at them. I think she feels left out. Hana and Hannah are having a shopping cart race in the basement. Well, my Hana just wacked the other Hannah with a board....We're good, no blood.

Hana has been exercising with Andrew every morning, and now she comes to get me out of bed so that we can "play that yoga game." She's a dedicated exercise partner and is very dissapointed whenever I take a break. We have a busy day ahead of us; I have a meeting on campus and then we are meeting some friends for dinner. So Hana's has been up and dressed since 8:00 this morning. I was researching for my vlog on RootsTV last night, and we watched some Highland dance videos together. She must think her new skirt looks like one of the kilts, because it's now her "bagpipe dress."

I hate spiders

I really hate spiders. Which is why it was a huge mistake to marry an Australian. Not because he's afraid of spiders too, but because it's not a spider to him unless it is man eating, rears up on its hind legs, and can survive under water for 48 hours. Needless to say, he is less than impressed by the house spiders that always seem to know when you are alone and just about to step into the shower.

And so, in a fit of self-preservation, I called the exterminator. Twice. Okay, more than twice. And more than one exterminator. I want the poison that the government has banned for causing cancer - as long as it causes cancer in the spiders, too. And to prevent any future shower-chilling encounters, I signed a year contract.

Finally at peace, and able to relax on my sofa without fear of arachnid interruption, I settled in to watch some documentary TV. That is when Anderson Cooper took me on a journey to the hunger-ravished nation of Niger, where nearly 3.6 million people are at risk of starvation. As I struggled to watch frail and bloated babies search their mother's faces with fearful eyes, I couldn't help but wonder what those children would think if they knew that some American woman had just spent $300 (I know) so that she wouldn't have to squish bugs.

After some careful research, I've learned that not all charities are equal. In fact, many charities, especially the ones who use telemarketing firms for fundraising, only give about 20-40% of their funds to actual programs. The rest of the money goes towards administrative salaries, fundraising galas, and glitzy ad campaigns. I found Action Against Hunger through both Charity Navigator and the BBB Wise Giving Alliance . Like other good charities, they devote 90% of their funds to actual programs.

So, I hope you don't mind, but I've added ACF's banner add to our blog. I'm not suggesting you start supporting ACF. But if you are considering supporting a charity, or if you are ever solicted for donations, I would strongly suggest doing a little research and making sure you're putting your money to good use. I've found the fastest way to get smarmy charity telemarketers off the phone is to ask them how much of their budget goes to overhead. And yes, the exterminator is still coming next month.

Disneyland Part 2

It's surprising how many rides at Disneyland are scary! After Mister Toad's Wild Ride, Hana was pretty much done with adventure. So, of course, we took her to ride Pirates of the Carribean and the Haunted Mansion. They had decorated the mansion for Halloween after the movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas." On our way out, she moaned, "I don't like that Christmas!" It's seems that we've sucessfully ruined both Disneyland and Christmas for her. Think of all the money we'll save....





I'm not sure it's worth the price of admission to ride the carousel all day, over, and over, and over, but that's what Hana was interested in. Why does she only like rides that spin around and around in circles? She had a super time on the rockets, too.







Of course, the best reason to take little kids to Disneyland is the parades! And Hana wasn't disappointed. They had acrobats on bouncy stilts, rope flyers, all of the princesses, and Mickey Mouse. The parade, combined with a ridiculously huge lollypop, were the highlights of her day.
Sometimes, I think Lane had even more fun than Hana. Between the Tiki Room and the people watching, there was plenty for her to watch. We all had a great time and were really glad we went. We may go back again, as soon as I forget how long the drive is!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween has become such an adult holiday here, I had a hard time finding costumes for Hana and Lane. But I eventually settled on making them matching clowns. I spent the last week frantically following my "Sewing for Dummies" pattern, but I must need the "Sewing for Complete Idiots" version, because I think I unpicked more seams than I stitched! Hana was a little girl clown, complete with a bouncy dress and lacy bloomers. Lane was absolutely facinated by the yellow pompon on her own clownsuit.

My dad had a conference in Salt Lake this week, and stayed over a few days to come visit Melissa, Alisha, and our family. Since our ward wasn't having a Halloween party this year, I made everyone come with us to Cornbelly's Corn Maze on Saturday. I'll be darned if I'm going to spend all week sewing those silly costumes for the girls to wear them for 15 minutes in the dark! We had a nice time pretending to be lost in the corn maze, and went for a great dinner at Goodwood's. I think we all enjoyed having my dad in town. We all bought pumpkins to carve; Melissa made a Frankenstein, Alisha did spooky eyes, Hana did a scary face, and I gave up on carving mine, and just stuck some gourds on it.

Tuesday was Halloween, and Andrew's work invited all the kids down to go trick-or-treating from office to office. Andrew took the girls out trick-or-treating later that night. Our neighborhood must give out the best treats, because we saw several unfamiliar cars unloading kids from the other side of town. In the end, Hana had a great time and would have stayed out all night if she could.

Introducing Damian

This is Andrew and Samantha's newest nephew, Damian Jeffrey Barnwell. Can you tell that we are very proud parents? He has us wrapped around his little finger!!!

Rebecca and Jonathan get to know Damian while visiting Nanna and Grandad. Damian loved the attention.

On windy days Damian likes to wear his beanie. Well I think that his mum likes the beanies more than Damian.

No, I want to ride Dumbo!

We didn't make it past the front gates before Hana proclaimed "I want to ride Dumbo!" Sure, she was distracted for a few mintues by Mickey-shaped waffles and roving Fairy Godmothers at the character breakfast, but no sooner had she stopped dancing with Eeyore than she asked, "Where's my Dumbo?"

Through Main Street, across the bridge at Sleeping Beauty's castle, past the Mad Hatters and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride - "Hey, I want to ride Dumbo!" And so, here were are finally, at Dumbo.

Just Some Thoughts...

I had a great friend pass away this week, some of you may know him, Glenn "Sam" Butchar. I first met Sam when I was on my mission in LA and you couldn't help but love him right away. He was a crusty old guy that had this tough exterior (he thought it was tough especially with his turtle tattoo :)) but he was a big softy that loved his wife and sons. What amazes me is how many people love Sam.

The first thing I was introduced to when I met Sam was his photo wall (you can see it behind Hana in the photos below). People would often send Sam and Joan photos requesting a space on the wall, but let me tell you it was not easy to get a frame hung on that wall. It took me two and half years, a marriage, and living with them for a month to get a photo up there. The great thing about the photos were not the new faces that would make it to the wall but the constants that were there. There are a couple that stand out to me, the obvious one is the first photo I ever saw of Samantha (named after Sam) was up there, the next is a picture of my mother in law sitting on a deck by the lake, these photos (and a couple of others) remind me of the impact that Sam has had on our family. If not for Sam I don't know that I would be married to Samantha today, so I hate to say that will always be in his debt but I guess I will be.

He also had photos of his boys that were permanent, those photos illustrated how important family really was to Sam and in many cases they represented a better time and place but simply through those photos he/we can be transported back to that time and the memories that were associated with it. My dad introduced me to the works of Wordsworth and in particular Daffodils:

I wandered lonely as a Cloud
That floats on high o'er Vales and Hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

4th verse
For oft when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude,
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the Daffodils.

As with the daffodils and our memory the photos are a stimulus to remind of our loved ones and good memories. May we all carry in our hearts a photo wall to remind us of good times, family and friends, at the same time look forward our next encounter with a field of daffodils.

Sunday in "The Valley"

Before heading to Disneyland, we spent the night at Grandma Michiko's. We ate lots of great sushi and tried to figure out how to use the new camera.

We also stopped by to visit Grandma Joan, and Hana did her very best dance to "Pass the Dutchie."

Stay tuned for photos of our big day at the Magic Kingdom...

Benja and Peggy Sue's

We're on our way to the Happiest Place on Earth, otherwise known as Disneyland. On our way through southern Utah, we couldn't help but stop at my Aunt's new restaurant, Benja's Thai and Sushi (delicious!!). Andrew just bought me this camera yesterday, though, and I don't really know how to use it yet. We spent the night in Vegas before making the trek across the desert to LA. By the time we hit Yermo, CA, we were all ready for a break and a little personal space, so we stopped at Peggy Sue's diner for an ice cream. Finally, after 25 hours total travel time, we made it to San Diego. We're on our way today to Michiko's house in Van Nuys, and then it's off to Disneyland in the morning!