the blue boathouse, kings park and the swan view tunnel

i am truly trying to pack as much into each day as i can while sam is holidaying with us. so today we set off on an adventure that lasted us the entire day. after the kids were safely packed off to school again, we headed for perth city! off to kings park (of course, who doesn't take overseas visitors to kings park?!) but first off, a stop at the blue boat house on crawley bay. you can read about it's history here. it's always had a firm place in my heart, doug and i even had some of our wedding photos taken by it all those years ago. 

it's so pretty, i couldn't resist showing her. i was just hoping the whole time that she didn't think i was a total weirdo,

but judging by the smile on her face in this pic, i'd say she liked it just fine. 

next stop, the top of perth - kings park. baby alex was dying for a feed by then, so we dropped sam off to do the tree top walk while we went and found a shady spot to sit at the pioneer womens memorial.

 i was talking to mum on the phone for a few minutes while he lay on the lawn and oh my word, we were fully being stalked by magpies! poor alex was completely unaware, while those black and white beaky fowls circled him waiting for an in. until i yelled at them, threw a wipes container and clapped my hands a few times. i must have looked like a freaking fool, but i swear they were plotting to have him for lunch. not on my watch mate!

we stopped off for some pics of the perth skyline from the front of the park...

(views for dayssss)

before heading back to ellenbrook for school pick up. damn kids. 

after school was off to the old swan view train tunnel in the john forrest national park. i love the bushy walk out to the tunnel with its gorgeous views (because really, this right here is australia!)

and the tunnel itself is amazing too. (you can read here about why it was closed off.) it's design and old style are super cool and i love going on to look at it.

this little dude wasn't too impressed with the situation, and skulked about a bit, refusing to go in, while sam and maddie had a look around. what a cute angry face he has!

cuddles with mum helped a little, and he was happy to wait until they were done so we could walk back.

what a gorgeous view huh!

highlight of my day though, had to be taking sam to have her very first golden gaytime. only the best australian icecream ever (if you haven't tried one yet, there is something wrong with you and you should immediately) whose name has somehow survived possible banning and stayed strong as an aussie icon. they are delicious!

cheers sam! here's to the best time you'll ever have in australia haha!

caversham wildlife park

after an easy morning, to try and ease the jetlag a bit... after we picked up the kidlets up from school today, we took sam out to caversham wildlife park. i've never been before (even though it's just down the road and madeline has been twice! once with school and once with bryan and niques when they were here, and joseph has been once) and now i am wondering why, because it was amaaaaazing!

joseph loved meeting a crocodile, even though he didn't seem keen on turning his back on it to turn and smile at me for a photo...

we missed the farm show, which maddie assured us didn't matter because she had already seen it (sorry bout it sam! lol) but went straight into the "meet the wombats" area, where the kids hung out with snakes, 

kookaburras which i loooove, (if you're not australian and don't know anything about kookaburras, go and listen to this youtube clip... they are the best!) andddd then found an old friend of mine luke, who was working with the wombats. too funny. 

these clowns wanted to take a picture everywhere we went... but i was cool with it. if nothing else, having a third baby is going to teach me patience.

sam got up close and personal with a koala... and looked pretty excited about it. it's so funny, i love that people get excited about australian animals, cause to be honest i do too. i don't really want to hold monkeys or squirrels (okay i probably do) but koalas and kangaroos excite me way more. look at her! she's so cute. day made!

another photo op. insert eye roll here... but they are so happy that i still don't mind...

sam also got her kicks from the kangaroos. i was a bit meh, kangaroos, mum has kangaroos everywhere at her house about them, but they were the best! they hop right on up to you, let you pat them, eat food out of your hands... and are so damn cute! this all just reminds me yet again, how lucky i am to live where i do.

seriously. this was the best thing ever. hand feeding kangaroos. ♥

what an awesome afternoon. i'll definitely be coming back to caversham in the future. i highly recommend it, for aussies and visitors both! 

sam comes to stay!

dinner with the squad at grilld in hillarys the night after sam arrived

-not pictured: me, with a baby attached to my chest

on monday my friend sam from england arrived here in perth! we "met" via the internet just over two years ago when i purchased a set of prints (a family proclamation, the articles of faith and the living christ) from a random etsy store (lemons that are pink) which turned out to be her! after the prints were customised and sent, we kept emailing - and two years later, she finally decided to come on out to perth and visit me, whilst on a holiday in australia.

for those of you reading along with wide eyes right now, thinking this is a terrible idea, you're probably right. i'm not going to lie about that! sam booked right as i found out alexander would be joining us, he's less than a month old, not sleeping much at night, and sam and i had never actually met in real life. it could have been an absolute disaster. but it seems to be going well. we are having lots of laughs and the kids love her, so that's good so far! haha.

sam says her motivation for coming to perth was (aside from meeting me and my little fam) to cuddle a quokka. i don't know how cuddly they are, but i hear they enjoy a good selfie... so we will find out on monday next week when we go to rottnest for the day. believe it or not, it will the first time i've been there too, even after living in perth for my whole life!

so please imagine her joy when i took her to the margaret river chocolate factory today to show her the giant chocolate quokkas they sell. she was pretty excited about it!

welcome to perth sam! i can't wait to show you all the awesome things we have hidden away in this amazing state! ♥

maddie gets a real doll

i honestly wondered how madeline would go with a baby in the house. it's no secret that she loves to be the centre of attention... but she gets mad when i am feeding him and she can't hold him. she gets mad when he's windy and she can't hold him. she gets mad when someone else is holding him and she can't hold him. bottom line, she is obsessed and carries baby alexander around as often as we'll allow it, even at school. there have been a few shocked mums/ teachers who have thought he was a doll until he's moved, scaring the heck out of them. they always look at me, as if to ask why i would let her carry him. well, for starters i'd like to see anyone get him off of her and secondly, i trust her completely. she holds him so tightly, cause she's madly in love with her baby brother. it's the cutest thing i have ever seen. ♥

sundays with three kids...

sundays are a little harder now, with three kids in tow, including one super cute newborn. maddie is amazing and super helpful. but sometimes baby is unsettled and that makes things a little harder. today i think i spent most of the day in the mothers room... but i was there and that's what matters the most - that i am doing the best i can. 

plus, church outfits make for wonderful photo opportunities! one of the huge reasons i especially love sundays... how cute are these kids? this is the first one i have of all of them in their church clothes and i am well and truly dying at the cuteness. ♥ baby alex was adorable today in little overalls that used to belong to joseph, along with his first bow tie, which happened to be josephs too! i'm well and truly getting good use out of his clothes this time around.

seriously? who couldn't love this little face! 

i think i can safely say we are all a little obsessed with baby alex.

happy sunday! ♥

yellow roses

as we were walking back to the car yesterday after the temple, i paused at the roses and took a snap to share here, because the yellow roses at the temple hold a wonderful memory for me. thirteen and a half years ago, my husband broke one off of the bushes, knelt before me and said, "jade i've loved you from the first time i saw you and i promise i'll love you forever. will you marry me?" 

nine months later, at the same place, the perth australia temple of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints, we promised to do just that - and somehow, we are still loving each other, even though sometimes it's hard. but seeing those roses each time i go to the temple reminds me of those two youngsters, madly in love that knew a future together was ahead of them and totally possible. that's when i know that we will always make it through ♥

temple time

almost three years ago i made a commitment, to attend the temple at least once a month... sometimes it's been easy. sometimes it's been hard. sometimes i have ended up there multiple times in one month, sometimes i'm scraping in on the last day just in time. but i have managed it! today i scraped in for october on the first day of november, but i'm still proud and am totally counting it, because i had a baby not even three weeks ago and somehow still got there. woo!

i am so grateful for a wonderful friend who came with me, went in first while i fed baby and then snuggled baby alex so i could go in and do just one initiatory. it doesn't matter that it was just one, what matters is that i made it there. baby steps... especially with a new baby! i love to be at the temple and was so glad we made it work. here's hoping i can pull off november and december as well.