So proud of this guy

Well done babe! You did it!

Cousins

Christmas Tree, Thanksgiving, Couples Retreat, Tennis, Summer!!

I feel like I never have anything to blog about and then I realized I actually took pictures of some stuff we've been up to!

Well let's start with Christmas Tree. Heath's family tradition is to put it up November 1st but my family tradition is after Thanksgiving. So we decided to meet in the middle and do it Nov 12th. Why not enjoy the tree longer???

I had to work on Thanksgiving so I put Heath in charge of the turkey. I told him he would ruin Thanksgiving if he ruins the turkey...
He did a beautiful job! (he was so proud of himself) And you can't have Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie! Only paid $6.99 for the canned pumpkin (crazy, I know)
We made this little purchase just before Thanksgiving...on sale for $25!!
Starting from me going left: Courtney, David, Carol (David's mom), Jordan (friend who's family lives in America), Cody, Ben (American bro-in-law), and Hope
The day after Thanksgiving, we made plans to go to the Sunshine Coast for our annual Couples Retreat! We didn't do anything last year but the year before we went camping at Stradbroke Island. Heath and I planned this year and decided to stay in apartments at Marcoola beach.

View from our room!

Couldn't go a day at the beach without playing beach cricket! (David below)

Courtney playing in the outfield!

Brad

James "bowling" (the pitcher)

And lastly, Heath and Travis (bro-in-law) had their tennis tournament last night and won!! I think Heath is ready for the Brisbane International.

Just thought I'd throw this last picture in....this is a tree in front of our house that just all of a sudden blossomed with bright orange flowers!! (this photo does not do the colors justice) I love living in a tropical climate! I'm definitely ready for summer!

Trinity, Trinity, Trinity...

I have lost my camera so that's why there are not more pictures from our Halloween Party this weekend! But here are the winners for best costumes...

Best female: Melissa! (with her husband Richard as her victim) Look at her freaky eyes!

Best male: James as Hellboy (he's been the Hulk, Avatar, Hellboy...what color will he do next year?)
And best dressed couple... the Pitmans! Paige was Bellatrix Lestrange and Travis was a Death Eater. The best part of their costume was the "Dark Mark" tattoo they had!
And this is Heath and I! Heath couldn't stop saying "Trinity" all night long. It was a fun party but I'm ready for someone else to host next year!

Festivities!

I love this time of year! It really makes me miss home and all the fun things we do to get ready for the fall season. I put my big bowl of candy and other Halloween decorations out the first week of October and Heath was wondering why I was putting it out already, and I kept telling him "It's for the FESTIVITIES!" I love getting in the Halloween spirit!

Heath is enjoying my homemade pumpkins cookies. Australia doesn't have canned pumpkin (unless you go to an American store, then its like $20 for 1 can) so I decided to cook and mash my own pumpkin. The cookies turned out okay, but there's just something about that canned pumpkin that makes the cookies so much better!
Carving pumpkins! Heath didn't not get to carve a pumpkin with me last year, so this was his first time! He really enjoyed it! Next year we will get our own pumpkins to carve.
Ghostface and LORD VOLDEMORT(The Allens pumpkin)!

Can't wait for our Halloween Party this weekend!

Any guesses what Heath and I are going to be this year??? (Hint: we are a couple from a movie)

I have to brag again...

Heath had his Football Awards night and won 3 awards!

1. Best in Finals

2. Runner-Up Best & Fairest (similar to the MVP award. Heath missed 2 games and the guy that won only won by 4 points, so he was so close to winning!)

3. Named on the Team of the Year (in previous post)

Congrats babe! Now onto the next sport... Tennis!

Heath just entered in a tennis competition and I thought I would join the fun and take some tennis lessons. Maybe I'll do a competition next year....

I love this guy...

Congrats to my hubby for making the Team of the Year! I am so proud of you!

Just doing a flip after kicking a goal!

Happy Australian Father's Day

Happy Australian Father's Day to my Aussie dad, Tom! I came across these photos (thanks to Paige) and thought I would share...

True Aussie...loves his cricket!

Proud Father of 8 children! Thanks for all you support us with! We love you!

Forever and always

Yes, I've been "pinteresting"....and I've come across this quote. This was my favorite book to read with my mom growing up. For my 21st birthday, my mom shipped this book over to me for my birthday present. I don't think I've ever cried so much when I opened the package and saw that book!

I think I've become more sensitive to this book now that I am older and it has become more real to me that I have "grown up" and someday (not for a LONG time) will be taking care of my sweet mother, who spend sleepless nights rocking me back and forth and back and forth and back and forth...even up until I was 20 years old when I moved away from home.

Thank you for always being there for me when I need you, Mom, even when you are half way across the world!

And a special welcome to my new baby nephew Gavin, born on August 27th, 6 lbs 5 oz...you are so handsome!!

Take Me to Paris

I love leaving love notes for Heath around the house..

I hope he appreciates them so much that I can do this someday!
I hope he gets the hint!

Dad...

All those times you asked me "Who's gonna make tacos when I'm dead?"

I will! Look at these homemade yummy tacos! The only thing that's missing is your fresh jalapeno mix...

2 Years...

It was our 2 year anniversary and I feel like it was our 50th!

We kept it pretty low key...we both worked the whole day and then I came home to flowers, chocolate, and a mushy love note. We opened presents the night before because I couldn't wait to give Heath his present...Enrique Igelsias tickets! I know, you're thinking "What the..." but he is a closet Enrique fan. He has only been to one concert in his whole life so I thought this would be really fun! I hid the tickets in a golf ball box so he had no idea!

Back to our anniversary day....I came home to all these lovely things and then we went out to Mexican food (which is now a tradition for us on our anniversary). I picked up a little cake after work and we went to these cliffs that overlook Brisbane river and went on a romantic walk and had cake. We made it an early night (we both had to work early the next day) and went home, watched Harry Potter, and had hot Milos. Even though we sound like a couple of old people, it was the perfect anniversary!

The girls are back together!

For the last month, I have had my best friend McKenna staying with me! We have had so much fun and I was so sad to see her leave! Here are a FEW (I am horrible at remembering to bring my camera...see The Allens blog for more) photos of her visit.

One of our many adventures was the Glow Worm Caves. These caves are filled with little tiny worms that glow in the dark. I wish I had a better camera that could capture this but all the pictures turned out black. But here is McKenna getting her hair caught in a tree on our hike there!

Buffet breakfast in the Gold Coast for McKenna's 21st!

Burleigh beach with the girls
Thanks for visiting us girlfriend! Please come back again soon!!

Here it is!

Warning: There is a Part I and Part II to our Thailand Adventure so grab some popcorn to watch it!

Almost there...

I have been meaning to post pictures of Thailand but we decided to do a whole video of photos and videos and we have almost finished editing it! But here is a sneak preview of what we did....

Phi Phi Island (Pronounced Pee-Pee)


Spicy!!

My favorite part of the trip...the elephants!!









PS- Check out Mrs. Allen's blog for LOTS more photos!