baby willows funeral

today was so heartbreaking. my beautiful friends baby who was born with trisomy 18, was laid to rest at the pinnaroo valley memorial park. from birth, the family knew their time with baby was limited and precious and i have never seen a baby more loved. she was so beautiful with her wise eyes and little giggle when she was held. how blessed they were to be her parents.

i truly admire mel and aitu for their strength and courage they showed today, surrounded by family and friends. their little girl was loved by so many. i absolutely couldn't hold back the tears as her little coffin was carried across to the grave by her sisters and cousins. what an incredible gesture.

i was asked to take photos for the family and i have so many beautiful shots of the girls. how much heartbreak they are feeling i can only imagine, but they were so brave the entire day.

melinda spoke of the blessing of having an eternal family during the church service and i know that it is our greatest blessing as members of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. to know that our children will be ours in the eternities to love and hold for all time.

willow you beautiful angel. you've gained your wings, but i know that even though you are separated now, you will be reunited one day and you will be loved by your earthly family for all eternity.

manaias baby blessing

today one of my favourite families everrrrr had their newest baby girl blessed. i was blessed to be able to take the photos yet again and loved every minute of it. 

seriously the coolest people you will ever meet, so laid back, this is the easiest friendship ever and i love it.

daddy aitu with baby girl number 4!

and gorgeous mel. i just love this picture of her and manaia

but my absolute favourite bit of the day was watching this gorgeous little girl gang!

i love how much these girls dote on their baby sister. it is the most precious thing. 

happy blessing day baby girl! ❤

baby zoe is one

miss zoe is one... and our second party for the day (too popular! haha) was her little birthday bash! 

what a cutie!

her mummy bianca had gone all out and prepared a woodland fiesta with all kinds of all natural (organic, gf, df and vegan) treats. what a machine!

happy birthday miss zoe sage ♥

jens baby shower take 2

take 2! it wasn't that long ago that we were doing this for baby number one... and here she is heavily pregnant with baby number two and looking a-maz-ing!

jen is having a girl this time around and the lovely girls from the mothers group (that mat attends haha) insisted on organising her a little pink shindig at the macqueens this afternoon

complete with this adorable cake...

girly decorations

and games, which mum and i couldn't be beaten at. i must admit, i feel like if i've been to a baby shower people must never want to invite me back... i always seem to win the games and today was no exception! oops.

oh my word. i am so excited to meet the little girl she has on board... i am sure she is going to be as adorable as her mama! ♥

baby zoe's blessing

my gorgeous friends bianca's little girl zoe had her blessing today and oh is she a little doll. just look at those cheeks! ♥ 

she was looking so sweet in her dress and headband, that i couldn't help but take a million photos of her...

she is such a peaceful baby and slept through most of the day, what a perfect baby, i just love her!

and here they are... the happy landis family of four ♥

tradition

the day i was born, dad bought me a teeny silver bracelet with my name on the plate. years later i was re-gifted the bracelet with a new chain to make it long enough for me to wear (from the bracelet dad gave mum for her 16th!!) - and now... i still wear it all those almost 28 years later.

so... baby maddie was also gifted one from her grandparents and this week we had it engraved. so so cute... and maddie keeps laying with her arms up - as if she wants to show off her bling. a kid after my own heart!

tasty

when madeline was just a few days old, doug caught me jokingly licking the side of her face and said to me, "what on earth are you doing?" to which i replied, "just checking to see if she tastes as good as she looks."

and with cheeks like these... who wouldn't want to eat her? :)

not so long ago...

not so long ago... miss madeline was in there! yep. just over five weeks ago! it's so hard to believe that she even fitted. luckily... we managed to fit in a pregnant shoot in - just hours before i was admitted to hospital to be induced. in this case - there was definately not going to be any do-overs!! penny (the photo whiz!!) doug and i went over to lisa's house to "borrow" her navy blue wall and got some fabulous results!

my favourite! i am constantly amazed at pen's awesome skillage!

i love this guy - best dad there ever was, he's doing such an amazing job with my little girl! x

too cute!

some more snapshots of miss madeline

just because she's so freaking cute - couldn't help myself!

cousins

miss madeline already has five cousins! five! all from one of my brothers.

grace, emma kate, jared david, laura and ben. they all got a cuddle yesterday and absolutely doted on her. it makes me so happy to see how much they love her already... even though the poor kids had to wait almost 2 and a half hours for her to wake up!! but as everyone knows... you don't wake a sleeping baby! i know they'll be wonderful cousins! x

madeline's blessing day

yesterday our teeny little girl was given a name and a blessing - by her daddy and her two grandfathers. it was a very special day, and she was certainly dressed the part with the help of her nanna, who custom made a dress to fit her (you can't really buy what we wanted in 00000's) complete with her name hand-stitched into the bottom layer of the front hem... so, so adorable - she just looks like a little doll!!

aunty pip also helped out, custom making teeny crocheted shoes and a matching headband for miss madeline.

it was a very special blessing, with even doug getting a little emotional... i can understand why though, that tiny girl already has him wrapped around her tiny fingers. she's precious, and i'm so glad she's ours.

extremely proud parents with madeline

maddie with her parents and both sets of grandparents

ac/dc exhibition

maddie's first trip to somewhere other than the supermarket was to the ac/dc memorabilia exhibition at the wa museum in perth city. proud granddad steve was stoked that maddie was going to listen to some real music and hang with the legend bon scott. you can see us posing with one of the posters below...

(yes - she is in the picture... hanging out in the sling)

there was so much to see - steve said he could have spent the whole day there - and to be honest, i probably could have too... proving what a bogan i am and watching hours of the concerts they had streamed onto the big screen at one end of the hall... it was pretty fabulous
steve is - and i am pretty sure always has been ac/dc obsessed, last time he came to perth we took him to visit bon's memorial and the statue at the freo fishing boat harbour, so naturally he had an awesome time... here he is posing with the cannon from one of the tours (i am sure he could tell you which one - i sure as hell couldn't)

this is my favourite... my father-in-law showing his dark side

was so much fun - and miss maddie was so well behaved - snoozed away in the sling the whole time while we looked around

so much love

there has been a huge outpouring of love to the kendalls and miss madeline in the last week and a bit... so many beautiful gifts and so much love in our direction...

just felt an urge to showcase some of it - so here are the two amazing arrangements that sandra and mark turned up with when they visited last week

from the crew at cottage gardens for madeline and me
also from cottage gardens - but from the chippers staff for us
such a wonderful time - i really feel so spoiled. :)

what's in a name?

so... where did her name come from?

my favourite book as a kid - madeline -

about the little french girl that lived in the orphanage...

"in an old house in paris, that was covered in vines

lived 12 little girls in two straight lines

in two straight lines they broke their bread,

brushed their teeth and went to bed

they smiled at the good and frowned at the bad

and sometimes they were very sad

they left the house at half past nine

in rain - or shine

the smallest one

was madeline

so i guess it makes it even better that she is teeny tiny - too small to even fit a 0000!

and the beth... mine and doug's friend - the one that introduced us - all those years ago - miss beth fuggle, totally in our opinion deserving of a mention... cause without her - none of this would have been possible.

miss kendall

our baby is here!!!!!

miss madeline beth kendall arrived on monday 11.07.2011 (a nice mix of daddy and mummy's favourite numbers) at 1041am at osborne park hospital assisted by the most wonderful midwife in the world... kirsten

i was induced sunday night - due to a condition called cholestasis in pregnancy that the drs had been umming and ahhing over for weeks - basically means that my liver wasn't functioning properly - and wasn't causing any problems to me or her but research has shown that the closer you get to your due date the more chance you have of the baby not being born alive - hence the being induced.

i had mini niggling contractions all night that got worse near morning (no sleep for me and not a great deal for doug...) but at 8am my waters broke unassisted and it was on ... and at 1041 after being rushed into the birth suite with just minutes to spare (os park had 10 babies born in 10 hours!!) she arrived...

miss madeline beth kendall 11.07.2011 2945g (6lb5oz)

thank goodness she wasn't bigger... but she is beautiful and i am so grateful that she's mine - doug was amazing and as much as it hurt he was there for me every second of the way saying all the right things and helping me make it through.

my world just got a little bit bigger, and the tiniest thing in it - has the other thing that means the most to me - wrapped right around that teeny tiny finger of hers. he's going to be the best dad there ever was!

just minutes old... having her first hold with daddy...

baby shower

little gift bags for everyone filled with jelly babies!

saturday i had my baby shower with my girlfriends! was a fabulous afternoon... lisa gave up her house for the afternoon and prepared some fabulous treats... as did pippa (that looked and tasted amazing) and my beautiful mum. we played games as well - as you do... and baby k got some beautiful gifts. i just can't get over how generous everyone has been - and she's not even here yet!! i love you girls - thanks so much!!

baby clothes on a line to decorate the room - and later as a gift to bub
cupcakes by pip - and a little bird gift for baby k - her little friend-to-be miss brontë has one too!
amazing macarons by pippa - kiwi and raspberry flavours!

so many wonderful gifts! love you all lots! xx