matching pjs

oh dear. i have become that mum. that mum that bought her kids matching pjs - and i'm not even sad about it cause they love them so much. they've worn them multiple days in a row and keep playing games in them and it's adorable.

see? pretty much the cutest thing ever. let's hope they fit for a while!

 

maddie and the "man date"

kids are so funny. i love to write down the things they say so i can laugh about them later... and this one that happened a few weeks ago was a pearler.

maddie finds an empty fanta bottle in the car

maddie: who had this?

me: i did

maddie: when?

me: today. daddy and i had lunch together (dougs rdo)

maddie: like a date?

me: well kind of, but not really. poppy was with us too.

maddie: cause you know you can still go on dates after you get married... you know, like when daddy and hayden go on their man dates? 

solid gold. i laughed for ages. yes maddie. like daddy and hayden and their man dates.

found this selfie on my phone yesterday. love it so much. we really do have adorable kids. ♥

monopoly

with a big thanks (or should i say no thanks) to aunty emily and uncle theron, my kids suddenly have an obsession with monopoly. cue the eye rolls here... as most of you should know by now, i grew up in a house as the only girl with three older brothers, who loved to play endless games of monopoly, and cheat, which always ended with someone throwing the board. so i am an old hat at this.

today however, i have been thoroughly amused by participating in this game. normally the kids drag out the box and play it forever, buying and selling without any exchange of money (i mean seriously, what the heck?!) picking up cards, and somehow always rolling exactly the number they need (i have witnessed first hand the old "rolling" of the dice, but really placing them on the board to get the number you need)... this time they've made it a real game. mummy and daddy are supervising and playing, everyone has money and we are playing the correct rules including: all tax goes into the middle of the board for the lucky person who lands on free parking!

joseph is schooling us all, he trusted me to handle his finances and already has a stack of houses on his properties, but he's made some equally bad financial decisions, such as trading park lane to daddy, who just "happens" to own mayfair, for some basketball trading cards, which are obviously unrelated to the game. what a cheater! let's see how this ends. i'm just hoping it doesn't end with the board somewhere across the room.

my little pony: the movie

we checked out my little pony: the movie this afternoon with some friends. the movie was okay, the kids were not... i was about ready to resign as a mum. joseph is not doing so well being restricted in his sling (which has been upgraded to something he can't move about in and it's driving him crazy) and hence he's driving me crazy! he waltzed about the cinema here and there and decided at one point he didn't even want to watch the movie... while madeline wouldn't stay in one seat - and let's just say i didn't see a lot of the movie. it seemed nice, lots of bright colours, cute songs and... well, i guess we will be watching it on dvd on day so i can see what actually happened. 

oh being a mum is hard. i am hoping one day it pays off and as they grow up i'll feel like my hard work paid off. but, here's a picture of the girls looking all sweet and innocent (while joseph flat out refused to be in it...) to make it look like we had a good time. 

jungle park!

we live in one of the suburbs in the ellenbrook area, where housing is plentiful and backyards are small. i was so hesitant to buy our house, because of the teeny backyard... but my husband dutifully pointed out that we had a huge garden, the park directly across the road from us. it's true. backyards are mostly small, but there is a park on almost every block. they are everywhere!

there are of course, some bigger ones with fancy as play equipment... and a few weeks back one of those opened just by dougs parents house. we finally got to go there today with the pinker crew and even though it was freeeeezing outside with an arctic wind and the sun made an appearance for approximately 8.73 seconds the entire time we were there, the kids had a great time. they climbed the jungle tower to the big slide (i must admit my heart was in my mouth watching my little joseph doing it) and once they got to the top (it's very high!) madeline without being asked, quickly sat behind joseph and held onto him as they went down. i was so proud of her, she's such a good big sister!

life in ellenbrook is good. the days and flying by and we are loving every one ♥

margaret river chocolate factory

it's madeline's sixth birthday tomorrow and it was doug's day off today, so i asked madeline what she'd like to do and received a very enthusiastic response of "go to the chocolate factory!!" apparently their bus had passed it each day during their two weeks of school swimming lessons at the end of the term and she was busting to go and check it out.

i think she may have been a teeny bit disappointed that it wasn't bustling and bright and cheerful like the chocolate factory in willy wonka and the chocolate factory but she was happy to watch them put the chocolate into moulds, make the chocolate balls coated in sprinkles and watch the machines stirring it about. both of my kidlets were especially happy to taste the free samples on offer... and happily picked an ice cream each (rocky road for joseph and bubblegum for madeline)

it was a fun little family outing for us... and i have a feeling we will be getting dragged back in the future. but for chocolate? i don't mind a bit!

easy fhe ideas

family home evening is an evening that we as members of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints set aside to spend as a family. it's a time when we can instruct during a gospel centred lesson, sing a song, have family scripture study, have family prayer and enjoy a game and treat. in theory. let's be honest, it's hard. and it's especially hard to keep the attention of a 3 year old and an almost 6 year old. so i have been desperately trying to think of easy lessons to keep their attention!

our evening normally goes like this:

opening prayer

opening song

(simple primary song, favourites include i am a child of god, jesus wants me for a sunbeam, give said the little stream, follow the prophet, i love to see the temple...)

good news bad news

(we stole this idea from our friends family. you go through the room, from youngest to oldest and say one good thing that happened during the week and one bad thing. it's pretty hilarious!)

lesson

scripture

(from our kids illustrated version of the standard works)

closing song

family prayer

but i have finally been able to think up some good ideas for easy kid friendly lessons, all based on my gospel library pictures. i have them in a plastic box, but you can order them in a spiral bound flip book online here. a very good investment!

simple lesson 1:

the first vision.

i showed madeline and joseph various pictures of joseph smith and asked who is this? i then showed the picture of him reading the bible and read them james 1:5 and told them about he wondered which church he should join and how he asked his heavenly father after reading that passage. next picture the first vision, where i read the first vision and told them about how he saw heavenly father and jesus christ. it was a great little lesson and i actually managed to keep their attention the whole time. win!

simple lesson 2: 

prophets speak to our heavenly father

this one was even easier! i found pictures of prophets throughout time. eg. adam, noah, samuel, nephi, moroni, joseph smith... and ended with thomas s monson. i asked the kids who each one was, and i was well impressed with madeline who knew all except for one or two and joseph who knew a lot of them too! i asked the kids what all of them have in common and we decided it was that they were all prophets. i then told them that each of them speak to heavenly father and that is how we can hear his voice and know what he wants us to do. i also mentioned general conference and that's why we need to listen carefully while the speakers speak! simple, easy, effective. 

simple lesson 3:

the brother of jared needed to light his boats

we told the story of the brother of jared (found in ether 3) and how he needed to light his boats to sail across the sea. we have a fountain in our backyard full of round river stones, so i had my husband go and find some stones of similar sizes and bring them in. i told the children about how sometimes we will take our problems to our heavenly father and he won't necessarily give us the answer... he'll ask us to work it out for ourselves and come back to him, so we need to always think for ourselves! i took the stones to the door of the loungeroom and had my husband reach around the door to touch them so they would glow and then threw some glow sticks in with them! he then stepped out from behind the door so they could see him, the same as the brother of jared had the faith to see the lord. bonus points for family participation haha.

these are just three easy ideas i've come up with the last few weeks... there has to be hundreds! but fhe with kids will never be easy, just hang in there! ♥

emergency dental

being a parent is hard at the best of times... but sometimes you get an itty bitty taste of what it is like for those who live with ill children and constant hospital visits... mine was yesterday. in february (while madeline and i were in america and joseph was staying with my parents) joseph had a fall and landed on his mouth. he received a trauma to his two front teeth and mum and dad took him to the local hospital, who in turn sent him to princess margaret hospital in perth. it was pretty serious and they had originally had thought they would have to remove them then, but everything was looking good. at two follow up appointments all was still well, but the dentist showed me what to look for, as there was still a risk of infection.

thursday afternoon, joseph got a carrot from the fridge and bit it on the side, instead of with his front teeth. alarm bells rang, i checked his gums... and found an abscess above one of his front teeth, with a second fast developing. a quick call to the dentist confirmed what we already feared, they would have to come out via emergency dental surgery - and off to the hospital emergency department we went. the drs checked him out, the hospital dentist was called - and we were asked to come back the following morning with a referral to present to dental at 8am, to ensure the teeth were removed asap. on top of this, he would have to be fasting, with no idea of when it could be done!

the next morning arrives, his infection had already doubled in size (overnight!!!!) and off we raced to pmh. because he was not in a life threatening situation, we had to wait until all scheduled appointments had been seen, so it was past 1pm before we even saw the dentist. they said it was not as serious as it was made out to be, but that they certainly needed to be removed... and normally he would have been added to a waiting list (with a current wait time of a month!) but as he was already there, had already been fasting for 18 hours and was quite distressed, they would tack him onto the end of the scheduled surgeries for the day and we would just have to wait. in all honesty, i would have happily waited until midnight, without a complaint, as i was just so happy they were going to do it that day and not make him wait. i actually can't even imagine how bad the infection would have been in a month if it had spread that much overnight!

we were moved up to the ward, where we sat with all the other children awaiting surgery and waited and waited and waited as each of them went through... eventually as it hit after hours, they closed down all the theatres except for one, and the children started to go through one by one, instead of a few at a once. finally there were two of us... then just joseph, the final (because he was added!) surgery for the day. he was beyond done by then, even though he had truly been amazing, it was 7pm, we'd been fasting for more than 24 hours (with just 3 cups of apple juice for him that entire time!)... and the surgeon arrived. 7:15, we went into surgery and i held my brave little boy as they put him to sleep and then wheeled him in. 10 minutes later, the dr came out to tell me it was all done (such a simple procedure that the paperwork takes longer than actually pulling the teeth!) all had gone well, his teeth were out, the infection flushed and he was in recovery. 

another 15 minutes later i was called through, he was awake and sitting groggily on the lap of one of the nurses, but quickly held his arms up for me. he was given a icy pole, which he eagerly ate, plus some more juice... and then we were wheeled back to the ward. after a few more checks, blood pressure, walking unassisted and having the port in his hand removed, it was finally time for us to go home (around 8:30pm). 

he was asleep before we even made it home and the next morning woke up like nothing had ever happened! came barreling into our room singing away and got his toys out and proceeded to play with them and then ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast. it never, ever ceases to amaze me how quickly children bounce back!

i feel so beyond lucky living in this amazing country... where we walked into a hospital, were seen and attended to that day, and walked out without a bill. we are blessed beyond measure and i know that we have someone watching over us! ♥

northam branch

sunday found the kids and i gracing northam branch with our presence for the first time in a long time, while daddy was hard at work. i loved watching them sit with their nanna, smiling as grandad blessed the sacrament and taking it all in. i love church with family and i loved being back at my home branch... even more with my kids. they may be small, but they are big in spirit and after all these years, it still feels like home ♥

this sunday

does this mean i was on the right path today? i had one of those awfully difficult days when having kids all seems a little bit too hard. we went off to church as usual and joseph started to yell when they passed the sacrament and did not stop. eventually i took him out as it got louder and louder, but as he wouldn't calm down, i missed the rest of the meeting. and sunday school because he went ballistic when he realised i had left him in nursery and all but the last 20 minutes of relief society when doug took over. sigh. the bit i did get was amazing though, i can't wait to have some time to myself and read through the lesson (it was chapter 3 of the teachings of the president: howard w. hunter manual, adversity- part of god's plan for our eternal progress) i am so glad for sundays. even when it seems hard... it's the best place to be, because everything i hear, seems to be what i need to hear.

and look at these kids! seriously. who could be angry for more than 20 minutes anyway... they are even prettier when they are asleep hahahaha.

someone asked me last week why i take a photo of my children every sunday... it started because dougs parents and my brothers all lived so far away, then mum and dad went on their mission, then dominique went on hers and kept asking me to send photos of the kids and it just kept going... it's so fun to look back on the pics of them all dressed up though. one thing is for sure, we will never be lacking photos of these kids, not with how snap happy their mother is!

happy sunday my friends! xx

joseph is 23 months

cheeeeeeeeeeeese! i am 23 months now mum mum mum! only one more month until i'm 2! i still cannot get over how fast these past 2 years have gone, yet here i am, planning a little birthday party for this cutie! 

this month our joseph decided he had a hat obsession and spent most mornings collecting up his favourites from daddy's wardrobe, lining them up on the bed and then modelling them for me one by one. 

he got a 4 wheeler motorbike from his grandparents (dougs parents) for christmas and he loves the noise making buttons and scooting through the house at top speed.

joseph learnt (and quickly mastered) how to open doors and has made quite the game out of wandering into the kitchen everytime he is hungry and opening the pantry door (and still, as he has the last few months, the fridge door) to see what's on offer.

he cut three of his 2 year old molars and kept waking up on cue every night at 10pm to remind me something was wrong, silly mummy couldn't work out what it was until i did some investigating one night... ouchie!

andddddd, he made one attempt at climbing out of his cot and fell down smack on his bum... i think it was enough to put him off as he hasn't given it another try...

he and maddie love to play together (most of the time...) and i love to hear them laugh. i am so so lucky to be their mum. ♥

a day in the life of...

sometimes being a mum is really hard work! they may be cute (and ohhhh are they cute) but sometimes i feel like i am losing my mind... i spent the day with mum out in bassendean and am now debating if i should ever leave the house with them ever again. it's funny thinking it about it now that i'm home of course, but it was a long morning. after walking joseph back into a shop for the fourth time and watching him plot his next escape, i seriously considered investing in a baby straitjacket.

but as a mum we do it again... and again... with a smile on our faces. i love them so and would never change anything, but sometimes i need a little time off.., thank goodness for grandparents!

and for sweet, adorable, funny children ♥

welcome to ellenbrook ward!

we had out first day at our new ward today... everyone was so lovely and very welcoming and we discovered some old friends as well as making some new ones. we are so happy to be there and now we are going to love it here. joseph did not have a good day... he obviously didn't sleep very well, grumped around all morning, threw things everywhere and even lost some things out of doug's wallet that we still haven't located. then he screamed for the entire sacrament meeting... only to fall asleep in the pram the minute it was over and sleep for the rest of church. little dag. lucky he is so completely adorable or i would be furious with him!

madeline went straight into primary happy as a lark and loved it straight away. she told me on the way home, mummy i love my new primary and told me about her new friends (both of whom happened to be daughters of girls i know, so that was nice...) there was also a nice man who hasn't been a member all that long, who meets the children at the door of the primary room and hands out lollies. no wonder she likes it here!

we even got invited to someones house for dinner... and had a lovely time. as you can see the kids were happy as can be at bed time, so i took the chance to get a few pics with joseph (i am always taking them and never seem to actually be in them) and as soon as madeline saw, she wanted to get in on the action... fine by me! any excuse for a cuddle with my big girl! i known one day soon she is going to be too big for cuddles with mum so i take every chance i can.

here's to sundays, my favourite day of the week! ♥

park life

i love the park across the road. we have been there at least once a day since we moved in and the kids are loving every single minute. it's so nice. out the front door, run across the road... and run to the park. the other day, while they ran and played and laughed and sang (well, madeline sang) i lay under a tree and just, for the first time in ages, just did nothing. other than watch them play, i did nothing.

after all the stress of moving, packing, unpacking, the endless phonecalls sorting things out, changing addresses for everything you can think of... it was nice to have some down time. our new house is lovely - and the park life is a beautiful added bonus.

the kids are loving it  and so am i.

sunday love

there is totally sunshine in my soul today

and every sunday in fact. 

sunday is family day and i adore spending it with doug and these two babes. we always (as i am sure you've noticed by now) take a snap of them sunday afternoon straight after church, to share on social media, seeing as one set of their beautiful grandparents live in the eastern states of australia and my brother and his family live in london. 

todays photo though, just blew me away... their sweet faces, and the way they look at each other, is just amazing. so much love. they are already the best of friends and follow each other around the house and play together... i just hope it continues!

now excuse me while i go and have this photo enlarged and framed. love it! 

when daddy's away...

we had some bad news last week... doug's best friend is married to a twin, and her twin sister passed away after a long and difficult battle with cancer. she and doug had been quite close and when he was asked to come to the funeral, we knew it was a good idea. so off he went. i got to have my first real experience of solo parenting, with two kids on my own for 6 days... without even the option of running to my parents house for time out - as they are overseas as well!

amazingly enough, it was pretty smooth sailing... madeline was pretty great - and joseph was okay for most of the week, with the exception of when his gums were hurting... he has another tooth pushing through his gum, that is so big that i want to cry just looking at it. it was even bleeding at one stage :(

he did look around a lot as if to ask where daddy had gotten too - and then proceeded to drag his hats around... and even try a couple on. he is too adorable!

even church wasn't too bad - as madeline attached herself to uncle richard the minute we arrived, then perched in his lap and refused to leave it. sorry rich! but thank you, made my life easier!

we even made a visit to ikea and madeline had her first experience in the creche (aka smaland side note... how funny and fitting is that name?!) and amazingly loved it! she is normally clingy and a little funny when it comes to going to people she doesn't know well, but she had a great time.

so there you have it. i made it out alive, almost a few on my own with 2 kids... doug will be home in a few hours and... i win!

:) x ♥

joseph's room

i have been meaning to post joseph's finished room for quite some time, but seem to have failed miserably in doing so.

i had such a good time making this space for our little man and i am so glad i went with bright yellow and green with grey and white... it looks amazing and i am thrilled. i love to be in here with him. ♥ 

so here we are; better late than never...

canvas: officeworks

weathered blocks: chris lentz-reid

yellow frames: thingz home and gifts

mini fale, handheld drum and carved turtle: flea markets samoa

yellow house lantern: kmart

giraffe led night light: target

(drawers from ikea)

cot & change table: has baby

rug & cushion: anna joy french

metal storage baskets: kmart 

nappy stacker: ma & me

grey/yellow dachshund bedding set: target au

teddy bear: funky kids

deer head: the reject shop

mobile: made by my talented mum whilst in samoa

tupac and biggie cushions: passive juice motel

knitted blanket: target

deer cushion: ma & me

patchwork quilt: also made by my mum whilst in samoa, she was on a roll!

green storage cubes: target

monkey over door hangers: kmart

bookshelf: homeart

toy tub: kmart

dream frame: spotlight

vintage train: vinnies stores

elephant: ma & me