another year older!

so... last week (the 14th people... send me some birthday wishes next year...!) i had my birthday. and it was a wonderful day. i had to work - sigh... but the crew i work with made it extra special for me by covering my desk in chocolates and burning candles, and then singing happy birthday to me in chorus as i arrived in the building. such sweethearts.

i also made this packet cake (yes i admit, i cheated - i was running extremely short on time... i'm a busy working mummy!) to scoff at morning tea with them all, only to have the icing look like crap. so out came the leftover sugar butterflies from ella's gender reveal party and i fixed it! it looked good after that and didn't taste too bad either. thank goodness. not my finest effort...

when i finally got home from work after going to beverley's retirement party as well, doug and miss maddie were waiting for me with gifts and cake. two of my favourite things. 

doug got me this amazing kirstin ask necklace from my favourite store, wild lily empire. i am so in love with it and can't wait to wear it. i am so lucky to have a husband with such good taste! he and maddie also got me some earrings from there too. so spoiled! :) what a lucky girl i am to have such gorgeous people in my life! 

we love the reese's to pieces...

 

sunday afternoon was our last goodbye to lisa, brandon & ella before they departed for the u.s. via sydney, fiji & hawaii (sofreakingjealousrightnow!) so they came by to say goodbye and for one last time for it to just be all of us together. we already miss them so much it's ridiculous so i thought i'd share a few last snapshots of the gang together.

 

the six of us, with the two little ones that have joined us since we all became friends.

cody&danii, lisabrandon&ella, jadedoug&madeline

 

me with miss ella & miss maddie, who chatted nad chatted until lisa & brandon took ella away

 

thank goodness i know it's not goodbye... only until we meet again

we love you guys

♥

reese's surprise party!

 

people always leave :(

 

and that's the saddest thing about the world being so accessible these days. our three wonderful years with the reese's have just come to a grinding halt, as they finally left perth yesterday to start their newest adventure in nevada, where barrick gold have re-assigned brandon, to his new job.

 

so the occasion called for one last hurrah - in the form of a surprise party at our place on saturday night. and surprised they were! had absolutely no idea it was coming - as we had invited them to join us at a dave hughes concert at burswood as a diversion. haha. our friends all parked down the road, and we ate and ate and went to bed only to find ourselves in a near on sugar coma the following morning.

 

 

i can't believe even now that they are gone... we have had such good times together and i know that we will miss them so very much. i am pretty sure that we'll have to make a u.s. run before too long, as along with all the other friends we have there, we now have the best reason (and people!) to go and visit!!

 

 

 

one final shot of the gang together!

 

 

anda few decoration shots... lanterns down the side of the house (a bit of a waste to be honest - no one really went down there, but they looked so pretty that i couldn't resist... all you need is a tealight candle, a paper bag and sand - 2 cups of sand in a brown paper lunchbag - pop a tealight on the sand and light it up! totally safe, the sand holds the candle in place, so there is no chance of it slipping and catching on fire.)

 

and... our new chandelier! a barrell hoop (i don't know what they are actually called, but the things that hold barrels together! haha) and two strands of fairy lights. wrap them around - find a super long extension cord and plug them in - super easy and very effective. thank you to dad for drilling the holes in the hoop and attaching the chains. you're a love...

 

more on the reese's to come, we still have sunday gang photos - but just know, they will be very missed! and leese, seeing as you are one of about 10 people only that actually read my blog... i hope you are enjoying all the nice things i am saying about you! miss you already! xxx

number cups

 

jared has had a joke with his children for years, calling them by numbers instead of theur names and a few years ago sent an email to the whole family (all 16 of us now...) telling us what our numbers are for future reference - ie the number in which order we joined the family. meaning dad was 1, mum 2, jared 3, donna 7, laura 8, all the way to maddie - 16

 

so i could not resist buying his family a set of mugs for christmas numbered from 1-7, i though it was hysterical and snapped them up the minute i saw them (about 6 months ago!). we had a mini christmas while we were in kalgoorlie, so that we could see the kids open their presents - it was such a lovely time.

 



 

as you can see, they were just as amused by them, and i managed to get a few gorgeous shots of their gorgeous family clowning around.

 

love them! ♥

kalgoorlie crawl

 

i've never been in love with kalgoorlie... but i have to admit we had a blast when we were there last weekend. on the first saturday of the month they have the st barbara's day parade (she's the patron saint of mining and you can read up on her here... she's actually pretty interesting) and it happened to be while we were there.

 

 

huge pieces of mining equipment, bigger than you can even fathom and other local floats make their way down the street (quite frequently cracking the pavement even though their streets are twice as wide as a normal street - no lies, they were built that way so that the camel trains could turn around all those years ago - you need to see this one day - it's incredible!) while everyone watches, cheers and waits for the people in the parade to throw lollies to them. 

 

 

 

this was the final piece of mining equipment to make it's way down hannan street - it was so huge - i can't even explain it - and this photo certainly doesn't do it justice, but the tyres themselves were about twice my height!!

 

 

maddie had the best time, watching and munching on the lollies, from her daddy's arms after being carried on to the main street on his shoulders. watching them together makes me so so happy. i can hardly describe how full my heart is when i see them.

 

mum and dad got to spend the whole weekend from thursday night through to monday with madeline, which is the longest they've ever had with her... i know they enjoyed every minute of it and i am sure she did too. i only wish we lived closer!

 

after the parade we had fish and chips in a local park with the fam, and as you call know, no day with the goodlets is complete without a picture of laura and i like this! ahh, i am sure we will regret these one day!

 

we discovered this koala in the park! what a freaking cutie!

 

doug and laura also decided to break out their best modelling poses for me, i could barely hold the camera still i was laughing so hard! love them both!

 

 

we also after all these years took the night tour around kalgoorlie - and it was so freaking interesting! i found out all this crazy stuff that i hadn't even imagined, including the fact that this beautiful building has been finished with real gold! the local community raised the money required to have the top done a few years back. it looks incredible!

 

it made me a little sad to be honest, as it will probably be the last time we trek out there, donna and the kids are moving to perth as of january (laura has already spent the last year here boarding with pam while she started high school) while jared continues to work dido (drive in drive out) for a few more years. kalgoorlie has served them well and i know they've loved every minute...

 

 

so long kal! it's been gold!

 

leaving gift

 

 

our dear friends lisa and brandon leave to go back to the united states in less than a week and we are gutted. after having them here for so long, it's like they've always been here and we wanted to get them something realy, really special as a gift when they left...

 

so we looked... and looked... and looked and looked. and could not find anything that we were happy with. sigh. it seemed as though we were going to have to send them off without something. until... on the weekend, i found this amazing vintage map book in a store on our way to kalgoorlie, which just happened to have a huge two page spread with a western australian map over it! so freaking cool!

 

we then had the fun of finding someone to frame it before the movers arrived to take all their things (starting thursday...) but we made it! object framers in balcatta agreed to have it done - and called me just three hours later - to tell me it was ready to collect! holy moly! i was stoked and it looked amazing! thankfully they loved it as much as i did - and it's now on it's way to the u.s.

ben is 8

 

over the weekend, my adorable nephew ben turned 8! doug, maddie and i made the trip to kalgoorlie, along with my parents to be there for his baptism. it was such a fun family weekend and i was so stoked to spend some time with them all and be there for such a special occasion.

 

ben is such an absolute joy to know, he has been blessed with a caring and giving personality and a wicked sense of fun - i mean c'mon - check out those facials!! hahaha. i am so glad he is a part of our family.

 

in our church, we are not baptised as infants (although we do receive a name and a blessing at a very young age, from a father or another important man in the child's life, involving inspired words.) but have the opportunity to chose at age 8 to be baptised and officially join the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. it's so wonderful to watch the children make that choice and to see them so excited on their special baptism day. ben was no exception, raring to go from the minute we arrived on friday afternoon.

 

i managed to get some beautiful pictures of my nieces and nephews (jared david, grace, emma kate, laura & benjamin l to r) and couldn't resist sharing! i am a very proud aunty and i love them all so very much.

 



 

jared (my old brother) donna and the kids

 

♥♥♥

ben and his dad before his baptism