gidgegannup show ❤

today doug and i took madeline to the gidgegannup show. gidgegannup is a small town about half an hour from midland towards toodyay where doug has been working quite regularly of late with his western power crew. so when i heard that the show was on with fun stuff like stalls, showbags and sideshow rides - we decided to give it a go. my bestie jen has been a few times and met us there.

it was stinking hot and there were flies and dust everywhere, which i seemed to find hard to deal with (much to jen's amusement- she says i've been out of the countryside far too long, especially when i had her in hysterics saying that one of the cows mooing sounded like it was in pain. okay i admit it - that was pretty funny...) but it was cute and there was plenty to look at and do. i am positive maddie's favourite part was when aunty jen took her on the spinning teacup ride - she was super cute, waving to us every time the cup they were riding flew past us.

we also got her the cream of the crop - a peppa pig show bag. this kid is o.b.s.e.s.s.e.d with peppa and will die a happy child when she unwraps all her peppa goodies on christmas day - cause that's what this smart mumma is saving them for. winner.

we also dropped into midland gate on the way home and miss madeline was completely star struck when she found a fireman sam in target that wasn't much smaller than her. made for such a cute pic!

family days are the best! x

another one down...

this beautiful girl has just let for the u.s. ... yet another one of my girlfriends has moved away - this year is killing me! :( lisa and i met back when we were 11 years old - we spent the day together because we were the only two "little girls" at the groundbreaking ceremony for the northam chapel.

since that weekend, back in my teenage years, i spent more weekends than i could ever count at her parents house where the two of us would watch movie after movie (which still happens now), eat copious amounts of junk food (when it did nothing...) and stay up all night. she knows all my secrets... but for some reason still likes me. and oh will i miss her!! 

just another reason to visit the u.s. sooner rather than later! i am coming, i swear!

p.s. she made me promise not to put the picture on social media, late night, no makeup and emotions don't make for a great self portrait on an iphone but here we are - it's my last one for a very long time and i am not parting with it. plus really, it's not facebook, instagram or twitter - so i kind of kept my promise. shhhh.

parent updates!

these beautiful people are away having the most amazing time of their lives - and being that it's my dad's birthday today i thought it might be nice to give you an update on what they have been up to. 

they have settled in well to life in the islands as you can see from the picture above and are working hard at church college... dad teaching workshop (ie. being a mechanic and showing other people how to do mechanic like stuff) and my mama is teaching cooking and sewing.

they have been touring the island and exploring to their hearts content and even went on a weekend trip to american samoa on a little plane a few recently. i know they're working hard whilst  having a good time - but isn't that important too?

it's almost been 6 months, which means a third of the way through - which means there's only just over a year until we get to have them home. i am waiting patiently, cause i know that heavenly father needs them where they are - but it doesn't stop me missing them. 

so... without further ado - happy birthday daddy and be safe... we'll see you when we see you!

big girl bed

yesterday daddy took the rail off maddie's cot and made it into a big girl bed! i don't know how impressed she is with the results though... when we tried to put her to bed last night all we heard was i donn wann tit! i donn wann it! for quite some time, as she climbed down again and again, and made her way to her bedroom door and knocked loudly until one of us came to let her out. this happened a few times - then eventually she cried out time and time again from the bed until she eventually went to sleep. the funniest thing was the fact that she got so worked up in the end that she started tumbling over her words and yelling iwannit iwannit iwannit! to the point where doug and i were actually laughing and saying, "well if you want it, then get in! hurry up!" poor love. let's hope tonight is a little better or i am going to be tearing my hair out. 

it looks way too cute though. she's growing up far too fast and this poor mumma is terrified that she is going to be a teenager before i know it!

i am a child of god

i am a child of god,

and he has sent me here.

has given me an earthly home, 

with parents kind and dear

lead me, guide me, walk beside me

help me find the way.

teach me all that i must do -

to live with him someday

(lds hymns 301)

this little girl loves to sing - and every day without fail will sing this song to her daddy and i. it is her absolute favourite and she will make sure you know. she sings it on the phone to her grandparents in qld and my parents in samoa and anyone else who will listen. so last week aunty dominique recorded her singing so my parents so far away, could see this little girl growing up before their very eyes. (you can watch it here!)

this song was always my favourite as a child as well - and when i hear her sing it so cleary, it brings such joy to my heart. i had no idea that someone i work with would confront me about it and try to use it to start something awful - but that's exactly what happened. this person came to me and said that what i was doing wasn't right and that teaching madeline about god and the gospel at such a young age would never allow her to choose for herself. i was shocked, because as far as i am concerned, that's my job! i thought for a moment, before replying very carefully and said, "when i made a decision to bring a child into this world, as far as i am concerned, i made a commitment to teach her the things that she needs to know. i was brought up correctly, by good parents, who taught me the gospel and taught me to love god. if madeline makes a decision to leave the things that are important to me when she is older, then that is a decision i will have to deal with, and i certainly will not love her any less if that's what she chooses to do; if that's the path she chooses to take. but my responsibility as a parent is to ensure that she is taught about the things that are important to me and my family."

i know they didn't agree with me, and certainly don't plan to, but they didn't take it any further and i must admit to breathing a sigh of relief as they walked away. and in all honesty, it simply made me more determined to ensure that she learns everything i can possibly teach her. to love the gospel, to love her heavenly father, to pray and to look forward to sundays with the same eagerness that i do. after all - as i parent, given a child from my father in heaven - that's exactly what i promised to do.

train up a child

"train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." - proverbs 22:6

we just finished watching the october 2013 general conference sunday morning session, and i was blown away by the talk given by bonnie l. oscarson - the young womens general president. she spoke with great passion of her great grandmother and her dedication to keeping the gospel light burning bright within her home and family. (to read the full talk - click here)

"...I would like to share a conversion story from my family history about another of my heroes. Her name is Agnes Hoggan, and she and her husband joined the Church in Scotland in 1861. Suffering great persecution in their homeland, they immigrated to America with their children. Several years later, Agnes became a widow with eight children to support and worked hard to keep them fed and clothed. Her 12-year-old daughter, Isabelle, was lucky enough to find employment as a servant to a wealthy, non-LDS family.

Isabelle lived in their large home and helped look after their younger children. In exchange for her services, a small wage was paid each week to her mother. Isabelle was soon accepted as a member of the family and began to enjoy many of the same privileges, such as taking dance lessons, wearing beautiful clothing, and attending the theater. This arrangement continued for four years, until the family for whom Isabelle worked was transferred to another state. They had grown so fond of Isabelle that they approached her mother, Agnes, and asked for permission to legally adopt her. They promised they would provide her with a good education, see that she married well, and make her an heir to their estate with their own children. They would also continue to make payments to Agnes.

This struggling widow and mother had a hard decision to make, but she did not hesitate for a moment. Listen to the words of her granddaughter, written many years later: “If her love had not compelled [her] to say no, she had an even better reason—she had come all the way from Scotland and had gone through tribulations and trials for the Gospel, and she did not intend, if humanly possible, to let a child of hers lose what she had come so far to gain.” The wealthy family used every possible argument, and Isabelle herself cried and begged to be allowed to go, but Agnes remained firm. As you can imagine, 16-year-old Isabelle felt as if her life was ruined.

Isabelle Hoggan is my great-grandmother, and I am most grateful for the testimony and conviction that burned so brightly in her mother’s heart, which did not allow her to trade her daughter’s membership in the Church for worldly promises. Today, hundreds of her descendants who enjoy the blessings of membership in the Church are the beneficiaries of Agnes’s deep-seated faith and conversion to the gospel..."

i could only imagine the pain suffered by this courageous woman as she stood firm in her convictions and told her daughter the one word so hard to say - no. it was a reminder to me of all the times my own mother said no to me, for one reason or another, always with my best interests at heart, to keep me safe, to keep me close - and most of all to keep the fire of the gospel burning within my heart. i am forever grateful to that beautiful woman who encouraged me to keep walking the straight and narrow path, to walk it, not to just allow me to cross it on the odd occasion. 

it is without a doubt her influence that helped me remain active in the gospel throughout my life, seek a companion who shared my desire to be married in the temple and bring up my own children in the gospel. 

i only hope i can be the kind of mother to madeline that she has been to me and to have the strength to say no when my mother radar goes off... no matter how hard that may be.

mad-e-line!

it's that time again, when i fill your feed with pictures of my gorgeous little girl. she is now 2 years and 3 months old and growing at a rate that frightens this poor mummy! so just to keep you up to date - here goes... we spent an entire week sick at home together and here is the face i got the first time i gave her the medicine from the doctor. i actually heard on many occasions "but mummy i donn wan the med-cin!" she started to love it once we mixed it with juice and served it up in a medicine measurer though and even asked for it for about 4 days after the bottle was empty. thankfully we are all better now - the flu hit this house hard!

maddie was given a beautiful tea set from aunty donna as a belated birthday gift and is obsessed! it's such a cute set - all painted wooden pieces (from your local kmart friends in australia!) which is lovely and sturdy for little people. i caught her and daddy having a tea party together the other night - hilarious!

we also have a new found love for tutu's in this house and maddie has discovered just how much more fun everything is when wearing one. she helped us bake brownies last week to drop to the girls we were visiting teaching and loved every second of it. she loves to help with everything and this of course was no exception. if only wearing a tutu was socially acceptable at my age!!

she's also taken a keen liking to her doctors kit and loves to go about the house making sure everyone is healthy (or in our case the other week recovering! checking our ears, teeth and of course our heartbeats - though according to this monkey, mine may possibly be located in my foot. as long as i have one - that's the important bit. dr maddie is on her way? 

when there is silence in the house with a 2 year old, you know there is something up. in this case - what was up was the sudocreme jar, being rubbed and patted all over little miss's face. it's very hard to tell off a child when you are busy laughing. took quite some time to actually get it all off, but at least her face will be nice and smooth now.

i have this child in training - need to get her prepped for when the baby arrives... so the other day i had her feed me some grapes as practice for when mummy starts to call, "hand me, give me, fetch me..." okay - so they weren't grapes, they were sultanas - but everyone has to start somewhere right?

here she is looking like a big girl in the dress aunty vivi and the girls gave her last year. she is still so teeny tiny that at 2 and a bit she's still slightly swimming in a 12-18 month size dress. yikes. i always laugh when i see cute little girls dressed up that are bigger than maddie but clearly younger than her. it was however a shock to see just how grown up she looked in this picture. sob!

we went to visit aunty jen at skatt when she had her hair done a while ago - and madeline discovered the catwalk. she had the time of her life running up and down it while we sat and entertained the girls with her smiles and toys. everyone should have a resident child at a salon. no - wait a minute - scrap that, that's generally why one goes to the salon, to get away from one's children haha.

there is a newfound obsession for fireman sam also - most mornings when madeline wakes up, the first thing she asks for is sam? sam? i watch sam? as you can see, some mornings youtube can be mummy and daddys saving grace when attempting to get ready... she does love him though - and postman pat also (so funny - i used to watch postman pat as a child too) so this mummy even watched the opening enough times to relearn the words, cause little miss wants the song sang to her time and time again if she isn't allowed to watch the show.

she also loves to sing - and is always singing "i am a child of god" and "twinkle, twinkle little star" to herself. so cute. when she wants you to join in, she will keep singing one bit over and over until you cave. she's also learning the alphabet song slowly, but is quite good already - and she's counting to ten! something tells me we have a smartie-pants on our hands!

mums shoes are no longer safe - with my highest heels being tramped around the house on the teeny feet of a two year old... i keep finding them (in pairs, so she's obviously as fussy as her mama!) absolutely everywhere.

so there we have it, some updates on little miss kendall. we love her more and more everyday and are always so excited when she learns and does something new! :) x

pressies from saaa!

we got a package from samoa today! mum and dad went shopping and got us some little gifts, packaged them up and sent them via friends to australia - which were then posted to us! what fun!

we got a little mini blue lavalava for madeline, that mum had made herself and sewn into a wrap around, so all i had to do was add elastic for the waist, a book about iesu (jesus) that i am sure oli (doug's samoan mother) will love to read to her granddaughter at christmas time when they visit, a paua shell necklace with matching earrings, mother of pearl starfish earrings, a teacup ring and a hand printed scarf from mum's friend marita for me and a purple lavalava for doug. 

it was so lovely to receive such a sweet gift and know that they are thinking of us while we are missing them so much. can't wait to visit next year!