Meet Our Family

(As a family, togetherness, celebrating a wedding, Las Vegas)

When I started blogging back in 2004, I didn't realize that I was capturing our family history and our journey of life. This process was/is a creative outlet for me, which has become a journal, a baby book, a family heirloom, and a virtual scrapbook rolled all into one. Through this blog I've been able to keep track of the birth of our sons, their milestones and our lifes experiences over the last ten year.   I hope is that this blog will give you a clearer insights into our family and our family values.  

Allow me to introduce you to my beautiful (or, I better say “handsome”) family.

Melissa (me)

I'm a passionate person in general. I find myself planning for whats next, vacations, birthday parties, family trips, and well the list could go on and on. I have been around the block when it come to business. I own my own business, and through this process I found myself highly involved with personal development. I realise how human behaviour has impacted my business. I was hired on by a life coaching school in Australia to mentor their business students. I quickly brought  my new learnings home to my family. I place a high value on education for everyone in my family. I place an even higher value on personal and spiritual growth in our family. I Strongly believe that everything we need to be successful in life is inside us. And believe that I have the power to create change. So my children are empowered to take 100% responsibility for their own life through choice. Choice of what emotions they choose to feel, what meaning they place in an event and they can choose to change the emotion or meaning of that any time.  

Chris.    

This is my masculine, music loving, sport loving, tech- head husband. He’s my best friend, my soul mate, and the best father any child could ask for. He’s been my rock during some pretty tough times in the 15 years that we've been together, and I can’t imagine my life without him.

He’s a Direct of Engineering and well respected in his industry. I couldn't ask for a better role model for our children, I lucked out with this one. Chris has a huge heart, ..........

Ryleigh.

I feel honoured to be his mother.Our first born…the precious gift who made us parents. He’s free-spirited, kind, loving boy. He is BOY through and through. He's loved by all, is comfortable in who he is and is always eager to learn about the world around him. He’s a lover of everything we do as a family.  More than anything, he adores his little brother.  I can't say enough about him, he is just so incredible. 

Layden. 

He’s free-spirited, funny, and rambunctious with a curious personality. He is also BOY through and through. He likes to play the million questions game and he is Mr. Contradictory but is incredibly brave at times when skiing down a double black diamond trails and isn't afraid to sleep alone. He’s a lover of all animals and pretty partial to Dinosaurs, Sharks and video games. He’s has a sense a humor like you wouldn't believe and I’m certain he’ll light up the room in any situation.  

I feel like I wake up every morning and am so lucky to feel this blessed. Chris and I are blessed that we are able to care for our niece and nephew. It has been a challenge but challenge worth having. Athena is 8 years old in 2nd grade and Isaiah is 11 years old  in 5th grade. And with that said, here is some more about our family.

Who are we really?

What are the things we do that makes us the family that we are...

Some of our Top Values are. Family, Experiencing New and Exciting Places, Building Confidence in our children, Giving our children opportunities to grow and learn. 

Lorne. Australia. Discovering the Great Ocean Road

Life is short, too short. And for that we don't plan on allowing any opportunity to pass us by. May 2011 my husband and I moved our family to Australia for his work. And what adventure that was. 

The Nobbies, Australia. 

St. Kilda's Beach

Ryleigh, We loved the amazing trees in Australia

Living in Australia we got the chance to really connect with nature. Our eyes were open to see our world differently as we explored new landscapes.

The Yarra River.

We explored Australia every chance we got. But we found connecting ourselves in the community and learning their culture gave us true insight into the beauty of this amazing country. Ryleigh took up tennis, Aikido, and body surfing.

The greatest gift I received personally from moving to Australia was to see their educational system. My standards were raised and I began to search for educational system in the US that would see my children whole and that would focus on what was natural for them. Something that would focus on more than just the standard educational piece of education but on the human piece of their development.

2nd grade school sleep over- Toorak Primary School

Strawberry Patch. Being in nature and collecting our own food

Layden. See my children as whole and complete.

Connecting with Nature every chance with get

Layden's love for animals

Friends for Toorak Primary School : Valuing Friendship

As a parent I find it to be my responsibility to help in the development of my children's friends. We absolutely loved meeting new friends and getting to know they. We made friendships that will last us a lifetime.

Being resourceful, 

Connecting with nature and being outdoors is year round in our family. As long as we are together. Most the sport the boys do are sport we all do as a family. From Skiing to wake boarding. Our family is always finding ways to connect to each other.

Skiing

Ziplining

Down hill mountain biking

The boys love their bikes, So whether it's at the stake park or on the mountain we alwasy find something fun to do with our bikes.

Rocking

Celebrating is an important part of life... we courage our children to celebrate the big and the small, or themselves and for others.

WakeBoarding

Fishing

Days and days of searching for lizards

Courage. To jump off the top of the house, or swim deep in a cave, or to stand up for what they believe in.

Love life

It's great to go to the store and buy what you want, but it's something so much more rewarding when you making what you want to put passion, hard work, and see your vision come to life. 

Dragon

Caring our life. Our pets are loved and cared for. 

Pumpkin

Making a Lego Shelve of Lego characters

Catching a Leprechaun. Family projects... connecting with each other,

We are hopeful that you were able to catch a glimpse inside our journey as a family so far. We are wanting a school for our boys, that is fun, challenging and safe. We are very involved in their education and are more than willing to participate in that community. Thank you for taking the time to learn a little about us, we look forward to learning more about you.