australia is burning

australia is on fire and it is terrifying. since june 2019 there have been fires burning in our country without a break. there are dozens of huge bushfires burning in the eastern states and millions of hectares of bushland and farmland have been burned. homes have been destroyed, people have died and millions of animals have died and lost their homes. these numbers are just unbelievable and are growing by the day as there just seems to be no way to stop them. they are so big and spread out that even with all the efforts they keep burning.

then, last week the smoke made it to new zealand 2000kms away, turning their skies yellow and the rest of the world finally started to realise the size of what we are dealing with! it is just unfathomable that it is so huge, but they are still going. 

an australian comedian celeste barber made a fundraising page via facebook on january 3rd hoping to raise $30000 towards relief efforts , but by earlier this evening it was almost at $30 million dollars, from donors worldwide. people everywhere are trying to help.

we have been praying that there will be an end to this and will continue to do, as they continue to burn, as this is so scary - there just seems to be no end in sight!

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(update - total burned was 18.6 million hectares, 2779 homes destroyed and 34 lives lost - with an estimated 500 million animals killed and the smoke ended up reaching south america! andddd the fundraiser wrapped with $51.3 million dollars!)

stephen kendall 1954-2020

stephen douglas kendall 

1954 - 2020

with great sadness, we announce the passing of stephen douglas kendall on the 3rd january 2020 after a long fight with an aggressive form of cancer.

steve was a hardworking, dedicated man, who loved his family and classic rock. he will be remembered for his terrible jokes and for fighting until the very end.

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today was a wonderful reminder about how you should never, ever postpone a prompting. after being removed from all forms of medication on new years eve, (even the antibiotics which the drs said would keep him well, but never make him better) steve began to have trouble breathing yesterday and started to experience a lot of pain. in the palliative room, it is asked that a family member remain with the patient at all times and dougs sister had stayed by steves side.

as the day went on he slept for longer and longer periods time and began to space out... and overnight started to gasp for air as he slept. in the early hours of the morning, he started to suffer a lot with pain from his condition and cried out a few times. doug and his mum had arrived at her hospital for her to be hooked up to her chemotherapy treatment only to receive a call from dominique saying that the nurses had asked for them to make their way to stephen and to hurry as it wouldn't be long before he was gone. she was quickly unhooked so they could race over.

what a wonderful blessing it was that they just so "happened" (i do not think there is any such thing as a coincidence) to be nearby and were able to make it to the hospital to say goodbye. stephen was able to be surrounded by his wife and his children as he took his final breaths and i feel certain that would have been such a comfort to him.

i was so blessed to have had the most wonderful father in law who i know loved me so much. one of the final things he ever said to me was "don't you ever feel like you are not an important part of this family. you belong as much as the rest of us and i am so glad to have you as my daughter. i love you." i had been trying to give him a little privacy at the time so he was laughing as he told me off, but his words still meant so much to me. i was the lucky one.

rest in peace my favourite father-in-law. i was so lucky to be loved by you.

new years eve in the hospital

doug's dad has been sick for a really time. he's had a form of cancer called mutiple myeloma, which affects his bone marrow. he was initially diagnosed back in 2012 and after treatments was cleared for a few years until he relapsed in august of 2016. the doctors have been trying their hardest to help, including trying multiple drugs that could have made a difference, but just last week they gave him the news that there was nothing else they could do to help him. he's always been such a private person, that i felt it wasn't appropriate to be sharing his sickness here and have just carried it with me, but seeing as this could well be the end, i want it to be here in my journal, for my children and our family to read one day.

we had been asked to a party at a friends house for new years eve, but when we got the news that stephen would be transferred to the palliative room at the hospital on new years eve, i had a really strong impression that that was where we needed to be. we rounded the kids up, packed snacks and picked up pizza on the way to have with our sparkling grape juice. we even packed some games and some party poppers to make sure the party would be rocking. haha.

steve was so happy to see us. he smiled, laughed and joked with the kids... and even insisted that i take this shot of him with his "alcohol" at the best party he'd ever been to. he was a crack up. after some photos with the kids and all of us he was pretty tired and drifted off, so we snuck out a little before midnight.

so blessed to be able to make beautiful memories with this great man. ❤

elf on the shelf 2019

those damn elves came back this year and poor doug and i had to think of another 24 things to make them do for the month of december.

day one - they brought a christmas movie for the kids to watch

day two - riding in on the reindeer grandma bought the kids

day three - they decorated the christmas tree with the kids underwear

day four - they had a game of jenga on our kitchen table

day five - one elf locked the other in a jar

day six - they did some acrobatics hanging from our light

day seven - they joined mary and joseph in our large nativity set

day eight - they pooped in glasses in the kitchen. please note they were pooping chocolate chips

day nine - they had a trip to the pools in the kids mini kitchen. featuring one of alex's toys as a flaotie and mini shop water bottles from coles

day ten - they helped place the ornaments on the kids christmas advent calendar. we had to leave a little note to madeline after a visting child had touched one of them not realising that that's a no-no. we quickly googled how to fix that and sprinkled him with cinnamon and sang a christmas carol. done. haha

day eleven - the elves made themselves little wooden swords the same as the ones our kids had made at the road to bethlehem the night before. 

day twelve - the elves took the fisher price nativity members for a spin in alexanders london bus

day thirteen - they toilet papered the christmas tree

day fourteen - they did a workout with some marshmallow dumbbells

day fifteen - one elf cut the other in half with the kids mini chainsaw 

(this was truly one of my favourites!)

day sixteen - the elves took all the fisher price animals from the nativity and noahs ark for a ride

day seventeen - the elves went for a row in alexanders boat shelf

day eighteen - the elves wrapped the kids tv with christmas paper

day nineteen - the elves painted dads big toenails. thank you internet. this one was solid gold.

day twenty - the shoe shoe train made its way down our kitchen bench

day twenty-one - our kitchen bench was lava

day twenty-two - our elves read some mini books

day twenty-three - the elves brought a bag for the kids to fill with some of their things to give to those who don't have as much as us

day twenty-four - the elves said goodbye and left the kids a christmas scripture to read the next day for christmas! 

guess we will see them again next year. 

last temple day for 2019

with only two days left of this year - let's talk goals here. we are pretty overwhelmed right now with the very real possibility of losing doug's dad in the coming weeks - so what do i want to focus on right now? an eternal family. and what's the best way i can do that? keep my focus on the temple, keeping the covenants i made there and making sure i am worthy to be part of an eternal family.

yesterday i made it to the temple one last time for the year completing my goal of attending monthly for the fourth year in a row. it felt good to achieve it and it feels good to be there each month and to know i am in the right place. 

so what's my goal for next year? same thing. make it there another 12 times. something simple and doable, to keep me going in the right direction.

christmas for the kendalls

christmas was a little different for us this year with dougs dad in hospital. we know that it's unlikely he will come home - and we are preparing ourselves for the worst - but trying to be positive and make things normal for him. oli stayed overnight in the hospital with him so he would be with family, which left doug's sister to come and be with us and the kids.

and we had a great morning! we got up and unwrapped presents with these excited kids... who always know how to make christmas magical. i guess it's just part of being a child!

alex was completely smitten with his singing baby shark toy and cuddly bluey. he was loving all of it. crawling around, getting into everything and nosey-ing into everyones gifts.

maddie and joseph are so much fun. no matter how small or daggy a present is, they just love everything. it's hilarious. doug bought them a pair of wind up poos with racing helmets on called "skid racers"to race up and down the hallway. joseph insisted we needed to take them to the hospital to show steve, as they are forever making poo jokes to each other and he wanted to show him. of course they started poo races on the floor of his hospital room hahha.

maddie loved showing alex all his gifts as they were open and read his bluey books to him the minute they were out of the paper.

joseph was thrilled with his super mario gifts and a new retro sega console!

as well as this super special gift from poppy and grandma which he claims he had wanted for 39 years!! we were dying laughing when he was yelling that as he opened it. "finally!" hahaha

my highlight was some new sunnies - and dougs was bluetooth bose headphones.

it was a happy family morning, even if it was missing a coupe of our favourites :(

❤

we went into the hospital around lunchtime and took some of our cooked breakfast to share with steve and oli. he was thrilled to see us all and enjoyed his cuddles from the kids and a few presents we bought him - including the angus young pop! vinyl we'd managed to find.

these days with him are so precious and i am so glad we have been able to take the time to keep visiting and taking the kids in, even though joseph is "sick of the hospital!" too bad mate. we all are, especially your poppy.

dinner at jared and donnas - with my fave nieces and nephews 

and some more cuddles with this little elf. 

it was a good day! 

christmas eve + tim tam cabins

as per tradition, we spent christmas eve at the pinkers house, enjoying dinner and some after dinner crafts... the last few years we have decorated gingerbread houses together - but this year after i saw the most amazing idea on the internet...

we made tim tam cabins!!!! 

it was an absolute hoot. so many laughs and such weird decorations. but we got them done in the end and would 100% recommend them over making a gingerbread house - these are way easier and much more fun.

dinner was very untraditional - tacos - but was perfect for lots of hungry people. 

then after this trifle i made for dessert by nannaleahs request, on to the presents!

i love that alex is old enough to enjoy christmas this year and is into the wrapping quick smart, smiling away, dying to see what is inside.

our monopoly loving kid got these amazing pjs from nannaleah and he loooooves them. i bet they won't be allowed to go in the wash ever. super cute!

i love that these three love each other - makes my life a whole lot easier.

now off home to wrap our presents...

merry christmas to all and to all a good night!