elf on the shelf 2021

december is over, so it's time for the 

kendall elf on the shelf 2021 round up.

these dudes appeared on december 1st, with a note wondering why the house was such a mess. haha. renos were in full swing and no matter how badly we wanted to, we weren't able to put the christmas tree or decorations up, as the theatre room was still in pieces!

they were perched in the shaving cabinets of our newly finished ensuite.

december 2nd found one wrapping the other in our half done laundry.

december 3rd was a recreation of "seesaw" from bluey, complete with all our bluey figures toppling one of the elves in the vintage scale set i inherited from my grandfathers house.

december 4th was a little note on the clock:

it's almost time to put up the christmas tree. 

december 5th - a game of elf twister

december 6th was hilarious. the day before charlee from next door was saying how fun it would be if their elf had a party with our elves one night. strangely enough, they got together, having a mini bonfire in a plant pot in our backyard, followed by a game of cards in the laundry cupboard

with some pretty good hands

petey from next door got the dud hand though

(and they even left their cards behind)

before taking a selfie with each of the kids and then getting into bed for a long sleep because they'd been up all night!

december 7th, they drew on a photo of doug and i in the hallway

december 8th was an absolute scorcher and the elves left a note saying they'd stay cool...

and stayed in the fridge all day

december 9th they had some fruit juice straight from the fruit!

december 10th they built a gingerbread house!

december 11th the elves spent the day in detention after being in trouble at elf school

december 12th the elves put out some fake eggs with magic dust for the kids to sprinkle

which they did...

and the next morning - december 13th, the eggs had magically turned into kinder surprise eggs!

clearly that dust worked!

plus the elves had wrapped themselves neatly in the packaging i had spent hours wrapping the kids class gifts in the night before.

december 14th they were having a game of connect 4

december 15th they were sitting in the almost finished theatre watching my favourite movie - love actually

one on each speaker

i definitely approved of this mischief

december 16th they brought back a snowman from the north pole - but unfortunately he melted before the kids saw him.

december 17th found them caught in a booby trap haha.

december 18th they were arrested and held in an avengers style prison, guarded by iron man himself

december 19th i must admit was my favourite - the elf observatory, where they were having a special viewing of uranus hahahaha

such a classic!

honestly i laughed so hard at this. 

december 20th: flying in the kids underpants

hanging from the curtain rod in our bedroom

december 21st  - they made a condiment portrait of the big man himself

december 22nd - they made a tray of brown-e's for the kids

december 23rd they were caught on camera - taking selfies on top of the cupboard

and december 24th they left a lovely goodbye note for the kids:

dear madeline, joseph and alexander

today's our last day, we must say goodbye. tonight we must go, to the north pole we'll fly.

santa will come with gifts and good cheer and we will be back, the same time next year.

next time we see you, you'll be a bit taller and we suppose that means we will look smaller.

remember this year while we are apart, please be extra kind and friendly and always follow your heart.

listen to your parents and your teachers too. they know what they are saying, all to protect you!

so be good children and take care of yourselves, remember the fun you had with your elves.

but above all else, remember what's true, that god sent us jesus, a gift never to leave you!

merry christmas! love, jingle and jangle.

i guess these painful little critters will be back next year, but until then, we can have some peace!

 

renovations - complete

i actually cannot believe it... our home reno's are done and dusted. on christmas eve, we did our handover and everything looks amaaaazing! we are so happy and love all of it. 

so, long story short, our bathroom was not waterproofed and was leaking through the wall to the theatre and over time had done a lotttt of damage. we plan to sell this house in a few years when we find another house we are happy with, so the only logical solution was to renovate all the areas with issues so when the time comes, we are ready. room one was our bathroom/ the theatre room repairs. due to all the moisture, there was an insane amount of mould, both areas had to be gutted back to brick, before they replastered the theatre - resulting in it needing new carpet, new skirting and a paint job. fun times. it looks amazing in there now though! even better than it did before.

our bathroom also had to be gutted, so it could be redone and waterproofed prior to the new install. we kept the same shape and setout, but customised all the cabinetry to fir the room perfectly and to add a pile of storage. i love it and we are seriously happy with the end results. most impressive was doug knowing i would have loooved to have had fish scale tiles, but also knowing how fiddly and painful they are, and finding a tile which had that pattern embossed into it. i love them - and using them as a feature wall - even better. i love that there is a niche in the shower too, ready for my shower bottles to look all fancy... and the biggest surprise is that i love the shaving cabinets. i ummed and ahhed about them for so long, only to finally go with them and i am obsessed. all neatly stacked already and it's the best storage! i'll absolutely do them again in any house i have in the future.

i mean honestly, check out this eye sore. the only things i didn't like about the house when we bought it were the bathrooms and laundry, so i was thrilled to see them go. the colours are just ghastly. but it was fixable. the only thing that really made me angry, was finding out that the previous owners were aware of the water damage and chose not to disclose it, in fact the real estate agent didn't even suggest that we have a building inspection... which i feel certain would have uncovered all (if not the majority) of the issues we've had to repair. lesson learned for next time.

i am obsessed with my new laundry. it is 100% my favourite room in the house now. it's so sleek and elegant. i love the beautiful white lines, the clean white subway tiles, the gooseneck tap, and the washing machine that just completes it so nicely. i went looking for a washer with something else in mind and went with this one because it just looks so classy. i love this room so much! there is even a powerpoint in the cabinet for my dyson to hang and charge and little open shelves by the window where i can keep my laundry powder and a succulent on the top shelf. obsessed. they absolutely nailed this room.

as you can see, it was not great to start with. no shelves at all, the only storage under the sink and those blerg as heck colours again.

sleek toilet, with the gorgeous black feature wall again... and a flush back toilet (which we also have in our ensuite too). the new toilet was the most exciting part of this room to me, as the toilet that was previously there was stufffffed. there was a crack in the pipe below the concrete line and tree roots kept growing into the pipe, causing a blockage and leaving us with a toilet that wouldn't flush. our plumber friend told us that roots will grow for hundreds of metres seeking good fertiliser which toilet waste obviously is! after having to clear the pipe 4 times in the last few years, we are thrilled to have a second toilet back in our lives!

another very blergh room to begin with, with a drain clearer stashed behind for emergencies baha.

last but not least, the kids bathroom. featuring the deepest bath i've ever seen, another nice black tiled feature wall, drawers and shaving cabinet storage yet again. as a bonus, the door now opens fully instead of bashing into the shower door! winner

this room constantly smelt wet and had no room to even turn around. it is obviously not any bigger than before, but the clear, high glass, the final setup and the door opening fully has given an illusion of a much larger space. i cannot get over the difference!

we are so, so happy with our renovations and highly recommend ruan and his team at lasting impressions home renovations. we had a great experience with all the tradespeople and were so impressed with their high standard of work. 100% happy with the final product. so glad we made the decision to go ahead with them. 

christmas 2021

this christmas was so different from the past three for our family. today we spent at home, just the five of us, with no one else. last christmas (2020) we knew we didn't have long with doug's mum and worried non stop about her and keeping her comfortable. the one before (2019) we had just days left with doug's dad and couldn't concentrate on much, other than when we would get to the hospital and spend time with him - and the year before that (2018) we had not long found out about doug's mums cancer and doug's dad had taken a turn for the worse. he was so unwell we were really frightened we were going to lose him.

it really lead us to wanting a christmas that involved no one other than us. so that's what we did. for the first time in years at christmas, we didn't have to stress about anything. didn't have to worry about anyone. it was just doug and i and the kids at home with no interruptions or distractions. we didn't go anywhere, we didn't do anything... we spent all our time focused on the kids and their excitement and it was the most perfect christmas yet.

instead of dozens of presents (which was grandma's tradition) we bought the kids a few things each that we knew that they really wanted and were rewarded with huge smiles and a lot of excitement. 

we scored this lego mario switch case for joseph when we bought him the lego luigi set and you could not wipe the smile off his face!

this random minecraft basketball i picked up months ago and stashed away was a huge hit. look at that smile!

alex loved everything. he was so excited to see presents for him. 

but his favourite part was ripping the paper off.

maddie loved her presents from the pinkers - they are all in isolation as theron and emily came from queensland and as intertstate restrictions came into effect again, they had to lockdown with them. uncle taui came to the rescue though, christmas shopping on their behalf and delivering the goods. she loves harry potter things (even though she hasn't read the books or even seen that many of the movies) and was so happy with this shirt

and this super cool "wreck this journal" which i had seen online just last week and had actually saved so i could hunt down a copy for her. it's a journal that you deliberately destroy and all of the pages have different suggestions of how to do so. i love it!

but her favourite gift was her skateboard. she has been asking for one for months and a month or so before christmas, i got online, hunted for a good one and ordered it with plenty of time to arrive. she was soooo happy and kept squealing about it all day. nailed it!

alex got some minion lego from his pinkers and he was thrilled!

i love how happy joseph was today. he so often is serious or subdued, but today we had the best of him with so many laughs and jokes.

before madeline went to bed, she said to me that her favourite part of christmas was getting up in the morning, coming out the lounge and seeing everything set up beautifully at the table ready for our family breakfast. i was so so tired last night (as a mum, part of christmas is being up to all hours the night before, everyone knows that lol) but still made the effort... and was rewarded with a cuddle and maddie reminding me how much she loves it making it so worth it.

these two loved their breakfast and were just so happy!

alex was happy to pose with me for some selfies, smiling away

and this dude was so thrilled to have his mario brothers set complete. 

look. at. that. face.

and my favourite bit of the day? having just us. not having to be anywhere. not having to rush. just relaxing at home.

alex even relaxed enough to fall asleep in the cool aircon, laying on my pillow. it was so cute!

seriously so glad i bought that skateboard haha.

we began the day with tradition, we had left out the scriptures ready for us to read the christmas story when we woke. we alwasy read luke 2 and have family prayer before we do anything else. the kids are allowed to open anything in their stockings, but mum and dad have to sleep until 7am... then we open our presents one by one (so everyone can watch each other and see what we all got) before having christmas brunch.

the kids left out treats for santa and the reindeer as always...

 

and doug and i went to bed once everything was set up just right. it really was the perfect christmas. 

just us. a family.