2018 in review via best nine

i love these best nine collages you can make at the end of the year via instagram... i made mine this morning and am absolutely loving the pics it's come up with.

1. our first look at baby alex cooking away

2. our birth announcement on social media

3. cuddles in the hospital during our almost week long stay

4. 28 weeks pregnant

5. baby alex's first smile

6. finally being released to the ward in hospital

7. joseph and madeline meeting their baby brother

8. our pregnancy announcement on social media

9. madeline taking out the ballet class trophy at her dance concert

it's been a great year! ♥

panipopo (coconut buns!)

ready for the oven! 

i do not live for samoan food... but i also don't dislike it. there are a few things however, that make me super happy and one of them is panipopo! i love them. a soft, sweet bun, in a delicious coconut cream sauce. i have always wanted to learn to make them - and when we went to melbourne at the beginning of the month, my husbands lovely cousin mali taught me how (this may or may not have been because my mother-in-law said don't bother coming back if you don't learn how. hahaha!) using an old family recipe... which unfortunately didn't help my white girl cooking skills as it's mostly done by feel, not measuring  - and i had no idea what i was doing! 

i have her recipe and i know it will work with trial and error, but i confess, i did some googling to see if i could find something with exact measurements that looked similar... and happy days! i did here at ilovecoconutcream.com! apologies (and thanks!) for me posting your recipe here, it's simply so i can find it easily in the future and know the little changes i made for us.

coconut buns

buns

1 sachet active dry yeast (i measured out 7g from a packet on a scale)

1 cup warm water

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg, beaten

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 - 3 1/2 cups plain flour

coconut cream sauce

1 can (400ml coconut cream)

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup water

Place the yeast,  and warm water in a large bowl and leave for around 10 minutes for the yeast to start activating. Add oil, egg and sugar to the yeast mixture and then slowly add most of the flour reserving around 1/4-1/2 cup. Mix to form a soft dough, adding the reserved flour if the dough is too wet or sticky.  You want a fairly dry dough but still ‘soft’ enough to knead. Knead the dough on a floured board for around 10 minutes until its smooth and elastic.  Take care to not add too much flour to the dough at this stage otherwise it can make the buns have more of scone texture rather than a bread one. Place dough in a greased bowl, cover and leave in warm place to rise until doubled in volume (approx. 1 hour). Knock down dough (punch fist into the centre) and then knead for another couple of minutes. Pull pieces of dough to roll into 12 sausages then wrap around your fingers to make a "rose" kind of shape, then press the end onto the rest of the dough to lock it into place. Place in a greased baking dish evenly spaced. Leave in a warm place to double in size (approximately 45 minutes).

Mix coconut cream, sugar and water until sugar is dissolved. Brush tops of coconut buns with some this mixture. (i didn't actually do this!) Then once the buns have doubled in size, pour 3/4 of the coconut sauce over the buns. Place in preheated oven 190 degrees celcius and bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle bun comes out clean. Leave buns in the baking dish to cool for 20 minutes. If you love to have extra creamy buns then pour more sauce on in the final 5 minutes of baking.

thank you guys for your amazing recipe!! i am super grateful to find one with measurements (although saying that, i have a friend who gets super annoyed because she wants my cauliflower cheese recipe but there isn't one, because i learned it from my mum and it's the same sort of thing) and loved trying it out.

 they worked out great (even my mother in law said so, and considering she's samoan, that's saying something!!) - although i must admit, there wasn't nearly enough sauce for my liking. i don't know if i a) cooked them for a little too long (i did leave them in there for longer than suggested, but that was because i had my oven on at a lower temperature because i was cooking something else - our dinner - at the same time...) b) should have reserved some sauce and poured it over near the end as the recipe says c) it was because i didn't brush them prior to them rising for the second time? although i really don't see how that would affect how creamy they were or c) need to make double the sauce next time.

who knows?! i guess it's just trial and error and we will see how we go next time! ♥

boxing day 2018

oh how i love my sister in law for having family christmas at her house. they have a great house on the edge of the bush, with huge rooms and a pool (which was empty this year but i'll get to that...) we always have a great time and she's an excellent host.

so late morning boxing day, we packed up the kids, food and gifts and made our way to her house. mum instantly swooped in and grabbed alex and then the gift exchanging began.

mum had wrapped my gifts in this gorgeous paper, they looked so nice i barely wanted to unwrap them!

joseph with one of the favourites of the day - a new scooter from nanna and grandad

alex about to get into his name puzzle with a little help from daddy 

new lego from aunty donna - she absolutely nailed the gifts this year...

as you can see! madeline had been bugging me for a pomsie for months and i was like uhhh no. so i tipped off donna and now she is her absolute hero. good on her. i wasn't buying one. lol.

laura and i ♥

mum and i ♥ 

she is the best. isaac keeps telling dad that every time he sees me i look more and more like her. let's be honest, there are much worse things i could think of.

lunch was a bunch of food brought by everyone, slapped on the table to help yourself. perfect. just as relaxed as yesterday... i am liking these stress free christmas celebrations! makes it much easier to think about what it's really about.

okay. so. the pool. of course the kids were dying to have a swim, but the liner had been damaged and is going to be repaired next week. so no swimming this year. thankfully the kids saw the funny side of it and agreed to all get in and pull a face while i got a shot of them enjoying their boxing day "swim" bahahaha. i love it. their faces are solid gold. such good sports.

another christmas done and dusted... time to go home and rest. ♥

kendall christmas 2018

christmas with kids is the best thing ever, especially when you have a delicious new baby to cuddle. after showers and cuddles and watching the nativity video... we put some treats out for santa and the reindeer, then packed the older two off to bed.

they love their baby brother so much, it makes my heart sing.

baby alex stayed awake for a little while with us while we finished things off, and chilled under the christmas treat, before he nodded off too.

getting some zzzz's in before a hard day

finally we had everything ready to go for the morning (once doug finished putting together the bike his parents bought for joseph) and we went off to bed too.

the morning bought so much excitement from the kids, and much to my surprise, out of everything they opened, their favourite items were these cheap mario and luigi caps i got as a last minute idea from ebay. winning! they had them on all morning and were leaping all about the place pretending they were in the game. so funny and actually super adorable.

baby alex showed absolutely zero interest in christmas as expected, but looked around while we opened our gifts and had a cuddle with daddy and i. both madeline and joseph were a lot older (madeline 5 mo and joseph 10mo) at their first christmas so having a small baby that is sleepy and not doing much is new.

maddie with her christmas stocking. we all have handmade ones from nanna, even alex, yes, she delivered just in time!

doug with the playstation mini special edition that i pre-ordered for him months ago. i am so proud, i managed to keep it completely a secret, never mentioned it whatsoever and he had no idea it was coming.

dougs parents and their next door neighbours keryn and lyndon arrived for brunch and then keryn stayed for dinner as well once lyndon went to work, we had the most lovely relaxed afternoon. perfect for this mum of a small bub.

my gorgeous inlaws having a laugh. we are so lucky to have them living so close. we love seeing them with their grandkids and having them around all the time. 

what a beautiful christmas! it really is the most wonderful time of the year ♥

our parsons peeps

“some people come into our lives and quickly go. some stay for a while, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same.” - flavia weedn

***************************

earlier this year, a family appeared in our lives that have become very dear to us. the parsons waltzed in from radelaide like a storm in the middle of summer, appealed perfectly to our whacked out sense of humour and it's been a never ending party ever since.

we love them, our kids love each other - and i remember fondly our first dinner with all of us, that went on until almost 10pm, on a school night, cause we just talked and laughed and talked and laughed and talked and laughed some more. it was the best first family night ever.

but duty calls, as hamish is in the raaf and in less than 2 weeks, they'll be leaving us and taking off across the country for his next posting. time started to run out - and we realised we had never taken a photo with all of us together - or all of our kids together, seeing as we've added another one to the mix.

so today after church we got to work, once of us, a selfie, cause let's be honest, kids can't talk photos to save themselves...clearly i missed the memo, we were all meant to have sunnies on apparently. haha.

and some photos of these nutters. i am so glad that some of them are amazing (not this last one obviously!) so that once they are off on their adventures we can look at them and remember all the fun times we had. i must say though, i am so so grateful for the internet and modern technology. what a blessing it is to not have to miss people so badly, when facebook, media messaging and video calling are so readily available! 

oh you parsons peeps. we are missing you already!

christmas is coming

i like to be super organised when it comes to christmas, so i finished my shopping a few weeks back - but even then i only had a few things left to get... i try to buy things all year around and keep a record of what there is, so it's easy when december rolls around.

however, my mother-in-law needed to do some shopping and these two were raring to go, so off we went to the shops yesterday (not pictured, baby alexander snoozing in his pram) to get. it. done. they looked so cute in their christmas get ups, so of course i had to snap a pic... and seriously, how happy do they look? i swear every kid the world around wears that grin for most of the month of december. plus, we managed to get madeline some new (awesome!) shoes on serious sale from foot locker (apparently their boxing day sale has started already? so weird....) so she was doubly happy!

then today, i got dragged off to the shops again by my husband (insert eye roll here) and there they were (new shoes and all) being all cute again... and posing on the santa chair. sorry, but not really sorry for all the cute photos of my kids. i just love them a lot. ♥

hope you're all done with your christmas shopping too! 

christmas goodie trays

it's become tradition, since doug started at western power in 2012 that i've followed in my mothers footsteps and spoiled the boys that he works with (and other friends and family) with goodie trays. somehow every year i've made it happen, when maddie was a toddler, when i was pregnant with joseph and now with a teeny newborn... after getting it done this time, i feel invincible! (until my baby walks up and wants a feed in the middle of the night haha)

so... without further ado, may i present this years efforts:

sante biscuits (recipe here)

brownies (recipe here)

chocolate caramel slice (recipe here)

chocolate rocky road (recipe here)*

popcorn and seed brittle (recipe here)

white chocolate rocky road (recipe here)

caramel fudge (recipe here)

chocolate truffles (recipe here)

apricot and white chocolate slice *new this year!* (recipe here)

apricot and white chocolate slice

250g packet scotch finger biscuits (crushed in a food processor)

1 cup chopped dried apricots

1 cup desiccated coconut

395g can condensed milk

100g chopped butter

50g melted white chocolate

method: 

Lightly grease and line an 18 x 28cm slice pan with baking paper. 

In a large bowl, combine biscuit crumbs, apricots and coconut. 

Combine condensed milk and butter in a medium saucepan. 

Stir over low heat for 4-5 minutes, until smooth. 

Pour over dry ingredients and mix well. 

Press mixture firmly into prepared pan. 

Chill until firm. 

Drizzle top with chocolate. 

Chill until set.

(note - at the suggestion of my lovely cousin who sent me this recipe, add half a packet of white choc chips to the mix. delish!! this will definitely be a regular from here on in)

merry christmas everyone! be on the lookout for your trays (if you think you're cool or special enough! haha) and enjoy!

***********************

*this time i used a packet of coles brand honeycomb whirls instead of twix's and threw in some chopped jelly lollies

matchy match

disclaimer: if you don't want to see pictures of my kids, you probably should stop following my blog (real question is: does anyone actually follow it?) cause i can't even deal with how cute they are. joseph was as proud as punch when i produced matching pjs for him and baby alex (both sourced on separate occasions from local opshops) and insisted that i take a photo of them together. "i want to hold him mum!" and now of course he wants to wear the same pyjamas every single night... let's see how that goes for him. haha.

aren't they the cutest?!

side note, baby alex's eyes are still bright blue! hoping that lasts... ♥

ward christmas party

what a cracker of a ward christmas party we had this year! the bishopric went all out on the fun - and organised a giant inflatable waterslide (which we found out was even big enough for adults when our mate hamish decided to give it a go - so good!), a petting zoo and a food truck that served breakfast burgers, sausages in buns and snow cones. we were set!

it took a while to get joseph on there (he can be so shy and hesitant about things) but once he had a go, you couldn't stop him and the kids were having the time of their lives.

it was a super hot day, so they were glad to be getting wet and slurping down ice afterwards.

baby alex spent most of the morning cuddling with ashley, but was thrilled to have a feed under a nice damp towel when it was super hot. i always feel sorry for babies, they don't seem to heat and cool the same way adults do, but he made it through okay.

emily and i were in fits of laughter when we saw the petting zoo had goats, we have had a long standing joke about goats between our families, so we decided that getting some pics with the goats was an absolute must and we loved every minute of it. seriously, look at our faces - and that was when we had finally calmed down enough to take the photo!

awwww baby goats!

and one more for luck. awww. ♥

we even managed to get doug there - and he even looks like he's having a good time too haha.

when the heat got too much for anyone, the cultural hall had been set up kind of like a cafe, with gift wrapped tables (i wish i had have gotten a picture of that, they covered them with wrapping paper for a tablecloth and put a bow in the middle, with some christmas trees set up too, including a gingerbread tree, which you could of course eat the ornaments off. yummmm. i love gingerbread - and this stuff was delicious!

we had such a fun morning, i love that so many people in our ward make so much effort to make sure that people want to come to activites, because they look cool, they have great food and they are super fun. how lucky are we? 

merry christmas ellenbrook ward!

school's out!

school's out for summer! i cannot believe another year is over and done. i picked up my kindy boy and year one girl for the last time today and braced myself for the next 6 weeks of holidays ahead. i'm so proud of madeline, after winning the citizenship award in her class last week, she's also brought home an honour roll certificate this week... this girl is on fire!

we have been so so blessed with our childrens teachers this year, madeline had the absolutely amazing miss hannah, who loved her so much. she was kind, gentle and genuine and clearly adored her, always having extra chats with her, emailing funny (and not so funny!) stories to me and taking a genuine interest in her and the rest of the class.  we found out just earlier this week that she isn't returning to ellen stirling next year and we are so sad about it. teachers like that are few and far between and we just love her so much!

joseph has been looked after by mrs. black, who was also incredible, coaxing our shy little boy out of his shell and teaching him to love school and learning. she's so lovely... i'll miss seeing her each morning too... here's hoping she has alex one day too, fingers crossed!

can you tell they are a little excited about holidays? (okay, i must confess this is somewhat of a lie... madeline was devastated about leaving miss hannah behind and whined all the way to the car about how it "wasn't fair" and can't i go and have a sleepover at miss hannah's in the holidays? haha. we do hope to see her again though as she doesn't live all that far away and did ask us to email to keep in touch. ♥

so where to after school? the water park of course... i am fairly certain this will be our home for the next 6 weeks. the kids love it here, there is plenty of shade for baby and i - and it's going to be a long, hot summer!

class christmas gifts

as much as so many mums think giving little class gifts is totally extra and not necessary, but i looove the idea! something cute to hand to your friends instead of the standard christmas card with the candy cane... this year, i decided to prove that they can be as cost effective and busted them out cheap as.

madeline:

-personalised card (made with the canva app) printed for 10c at big w

-pencils that say cute things such as "stay grateful, stay happy" etc $2 on sale for a 5 pack from decjuba at dfo (40c each)

- mini chocolate santas in a mesh bag from the reject shop (approx 13c each)

total cost 63c each, plus a giant glue gun burn on my thumb. ouch!

*************************

joseph:

-personalised card (same as madeline's - made with the canva app) printed for 10c at big w

-glittery bouncy balls from kmart $2 for a pack of 6 (approx 33c each)

- christmas gummy lollies from kmart $3 for a pack of 30 (10c each)

-plastic bags from the reject shop $1 for a bag of 30 (3c each)

total cost 56c each, plus my sanity!

but... i was super happy with them and the fact they didn't kill my bank account - and the kids seemed to be too... hooray! ♥