Thanksgiving in Australia!!!

Hello Family,

Well, it is Saturday evening and our Thanksgiving Day has just ended. It was truly a wonderful and blessed day in Australia! I was worried Thanksgiving would be a bit sad this year, but my friend from America and I decided we wanted to try and celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia, even though they don't celebrate it. So, since we didn't have Thursday off of work because it is not a holiday...we celebrated today, Saturday!

The day started out crazy for me...I was a bit behind because I met with our Bishop last night, more on that bit of information on another blog entry! :) Anyway, my house was a mess, our lawn wasn't mowed and I had done NO COOKING PREPARATION. Thanks to mom, I cooked the yams, broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce, stuffing (they don't have stove top stuffing, it is more like bread crumbs but still tastes the same), and turkey...just kidding. They don't have many turkeys in Australia...I guess they are protected here. Anyway, I made two chickens instead! But, dinner turned out wonderful! Constance and her family brought the mashed potatoes and gravy, relish tray, drinks and homemade pumpkin pie and chocolate pie. Mom, her pumpkin pie tasted just like yours...it was great!

Anyway, we all had a wonderful day. We opened dinner with a prayer, ate and ate and ate...played the game PIT...then we all sat and watched the movie Elf to prepare for Christmas. It really was very special. And, for an added bonus, two of my neighbor girls, Gopi and Reni, joined us for the movie!! :) Our friends just left around 9 p.m. and we finished cleaning up.

I just want to thank Heavenly Father for blessing our family. Instead of this being a hard and difficult holiday, it was a blessing. We grew closer as friends and truly enjoyed our first Thanksgiving in Australia. I will forever miss not celebrating Thanksgiving with mom and dad, but this was the next best thing!

Below are some pictures from today. You know me, I must document with pictures! So, I hope you all enjoy! We love and miss you all VERY MUCH!

Love,
Kristi and the Pace Clan

The Door

Tom and Diane worked hard to install a door for Boyd and Jessica. It creates a little apartment on that side of the house. We like it so much, we may leave it even after the newly weds move out. --Dad

WEDDING!

This is Jessica typing! Well of course I would love to talk about the wedding. So this is what we have planned thus far. My colors are chocolate and rasberry and that is kind of the theme. Boyd is wearing a brown suit.. although he bought it and i think it is kind of green but whatever. THe brides maids are wearing brown a line skirts with rasberry colored tops and the grooms men are wearing chocolate brown slacks with a long sleeve button shirt and a chocolate brown tie. Annie is making my cake! three layers are going to be square and 2 are going to be circular. They are going to be covered with brown fondant with rasberry ribbon around the base. And since its christmas we are going to have a line of christmas trees with a bunch of white lights on them.. and that is what the line is going to stand in front of. We are going to serve a dessert bar with rasberry sauce and chocolate and serve hot chocolate! We are so excited. I have bought my wedding dress.. but it hasnt come in yet. Its hard to explain it but once i get a picture of it (which should be soon) ill make sure to post it. We have the major things planned and what not its just the little things we have to work on. Its to the point where i just cant wait for it to be here!! Boyd is the man of my dreams and he is going to make a wonderful husband. If anyone has any suggestions on the wedding please let me know!! we love ideas.

Jessica soon to be Bowers

I thought these pictures were great (for two very different reasons). The first one of Ellie was her first trip to a BYU football game and her first day wearing pony tails. Both things were a lot of fun to do. As for the picture of Jess, Boyd and Mom I think it is obvious why I like it so much. I should tell you that Jess and Boyd are posing......Mom is not. That is her real reaction to one of the plays in the game. She has always been able to express her emotions with her face. I LOVE IT MOM. I hope it makes it into the wedding slide show. :-) Love everyone. Kim

Weekend

So boyd was down this weekend and we had so much fun! First we went to the SDSU football game where i was announced at halftime in the middle of the field! I felt VIP. Then we went to dinner and had a nice little date. On sunday was the first day of fall so we had our fall outfits on for church (his gold tie my orange dress). I cant wait till he actually lives in the same state as me! In one of the pictures you will notice that we are both wearing dixie State gear.. arent we cute? haha kidding. I love and miss you all!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy birthday tom!!!!! I hope it went wonderful for you even though you had your wisdom teeth pulled.. yikes. I love you very much and i cant wait till i get to visit!! And trust me.. you dont look old.. haha i love you.

Engagement

BOYD AND I ARE ENGAGED!! Today he made me breakfast (the picture is of the set up he did). He made me french toast and had beautiful flowers! Then at the end of breakfast he got down on one knee and proposed!! It was wonderful. The last picture is a picture of the spot he knelt down and asked me! haha... We are so happy and excited!...

Another picture

I had trouble with the first post on putting more pictures but i figured it out with this one.. isnt he cute? he is holding a fish at seaworld in one of these pics!

Boyd!

These are a couple pictures of Boyd and I. He was here all week then I went to Utah for the weekend. We had soooo much fun and things are progressing nicely!! I met his family and i like them and hopefully they like me. He may or may not be comeing down for labor day but i will for sure see him on the weekend of the 7th.. Hope everyone is doing well!

Beach Trip

Ellie has had quite the summer. She has been to Utah, San Diego (many times), Palm Springs, and now she has been to the beach. It was her first trip to the beach and while she hated the water she loved the sand. Here are a few pictures of her enjoying the day. Jim buried her in the sand up to her waist and she loved that. She didn't even mind when her pacifier got dirty...she just kept sucking it. I was hoping she could suck hard enough and turn it into a pearl.

First Day of Dance

Darcy had so much fun Wednesday morning. This is her combo class. They do ballet, jazz and tap. I had to take pictures through a tinted glass window so they didn't turn out so well. She says her favorite thing to do was the hokey pokey, and wearing butterfly wings. Her teacher had each little girl stand on their own orange dot on the floor. She told them not to leave their little dot. Darcy was so concerned about having her feet planted on that dot. She kept glancing down at her feet adjusting back to her dot. The cutest thing was watching the little girls learn first position. Their little bums sticking out and their hands turned out. Soooooo Cute! Annie

WELCOME HOME DAISY!!!

Here are some pictures of our new dog Daisy! Isn't she cute?! We picked her up last Tuesday. The last few days, we have spent time learning to feed her, take her to the bathroom, and all that fun stuff. She is seven weeks old and is so tiny! :) She is a Maltese/Shitzu mix and will stay pretty small. She has a fun personality, but isn't too loud. And, she loves to cuddle!

Love and miss you all,
Kristi

BEAUTIFUL BRISBANE!!

Here are some pictures we took of Brisbane City across the canal. We took these pictures across the street from the Temple. It is a breathtaking view of Brisbane and one of the surrounding bridges and canals. It was around 4 p.m. on Saturday when these were taken. We loved climbing down the stairs to the pier. And, a really nice couple took a picture of the three of us! We hope you enjoy the pictures of Australia...finally some of Australia (just for you Jodi)!
We love you,
Kris and the rest of the Australian Pace Clan

KRISTI'S ADVENTUROUS MONDAY!

Hello,

Steven left early this morning for class at the University. He has lab all day today and a class late this evening. So, he will be gone all day and not home until after 8 p.m.

I took Cory to school this morning and set off to visit my friend Constance, who lives about a 20-minute drive from us. I had directions, written down from Steven. I love my man, yes I do...but, as I was driving I realized he didn't write any street names down or freeways. I had to change freeways twice, etc. So...an hour and a half late, I showed up at my friend's house! I got SO lost, it was scary! I was crying because I had NO IDEA where I was and how to get to Contance's house...or even my home!

I put myself together (as much as I could), got out our Refidex (a map) and looked for the closest street. Long story short...I found my to Constance's house all by myself after getting lost in the city!

Then, after laughing with Constance over this, we decided we should try to drive into the city to go to a "Tea Room" which serves herbal tea and little sandwiches and such...like morning and afternoon tea. And guess what? We did it! We were so excited! I drove and she gave me directions and neither of us had been there...or driven in the city by ourselves!

I must say...I am proud of myself! I did, however, get lost on my way home to pick Cory up and called Steven crying again, but I eventually found my way home! Funny, hmm??!!

Anyway, it was a great adventure and lots of fun to see more of the city. I definitely feel more comfortable driving now...how could I not??!!

I do still love my husband, by the way...I just asked that he give street names instead of turn left at the second light, etc. next time!! :) He was laughing, however, and said it was a "good learning experience for me". :)

Love,
Kristi

BRISBANE TEMPLE

These are some pictures of the Brisbane Temple. We drove to Kangaroo Point, where the Temple is located, yesterday. It is on a very small plot of land, but it overlooks the canal and the city. A beautiful view. I hope you enjoy the pictures. We love you all!
Kris