back to school... back to school...

these gorgeous, amazing, fabulous, attractive children are my nieces and nephews 

and as an afterthought - they happened to go back to school this week

jared (above) is at high school for the first time - and miss emma is off to kindy.

they are so cute and i just couldn't resist swiping these pics from my sister in laws facebook and posting them here for the world to see.

proudest aunty ever...

family dinner!

every once in a very rare while, our family manages to pull together the entire family for family dinner. it happened this week. 15 of 16 family members all together on one night for dinner at my brothers new (awesome!) house in glen forrest. (side note! what a freaking cool house - built on the edge of bush in glen forrest with awesome views, cool set up and all round fabulousness including a wicked above ground pool that ends up being the right level any way because of the slope in the property.) in my opinion that's a pretty good effort, zac & ren from mandurah, jared flew in from kal for the weekend (just donna and the kids have moved for now while he keeps working in kalgoorlie), mum and dad drove in from clackers, doug and i from nollamara and aaron decided to make an appearance all the way from england! what better excuse for a get together? aaron had to fly to hong kong for work and decided to try for stand by tickets to perth and thankfully he was in luck! only bummer was that katja wasn't able to come too, but i know she was certainly with us in spirit...

this does not happen often... me with all of my siblings. my boys! love them so much!

family gatherings just aren't right without a full blown attack on dad from the boys... i think secretly he loves every minute of it.

me and aaron... can't wait until the day he gets a clue and moves back to perth and brings his gorgeous wife with him. if only...

maddie had a great time with uncle aaron after avoiding him like the plaque for the first few days he was here. luckily she warmed up to him enough to have a few pics before he disappeared on us again.

mum and dad have put their mission papers in a few weeks ago and expect to be leaving to be serving a senior couple mission any time soon in the next few weeks/ months... so really, this was the last time we'll all be together for quite some time. it was a great night and i only wish it could happen more often. i love my wacky loud crazy family and wouldn't change them for the world!

landis family loving

i freaking love this kid so much! i got to take pics of mason and his genetically blessed parents rob and bianca (who i love just as much!) on the monday public holiday for australia day. it was so much fun. i love his adorable little smiles and giggles and how much he loves his mom! if i could have this much fun every time, i'd be happy to take photos every day for the rest of my life. 

mason the little golfer and his gorgeous parents. i love how this photo totally looks like he is taking a selfie. haha.

his little cheeks were definitely made for kissing

see how happy he is to be with his mom & dad?

and here? the hot mom b and her gorgeous boy. thanks so much guys. love you all

young love

here's a little sneak peek of what we got up to today... we took mason and his adorable parents to the stirling civic gardens for a photo shoot. this was definitely my favourite of the day, maddie & mason at the tree we sat at... doug carved their initials into the tree and then we propped them there for pics. so adorable... if only it happens one day, we'd have the best inlaws ever. i guess arranged marriage isn't always a bad thing. haha! let's see if we can plant the seeds at a young age... 

australia day in freo...

on saturday (australia day this year yay!) doug maddie and i went to visit my friend hayley in fremantle for the day. first stop was to her little flat, to park and then hit the town... omgosh i am in love! the most adorable little place, filled with bright colours, eclectic little knick knacks, an old kitchenette complete with peeling paint and ripped off doors... and just a whole pile of general awesomeness. i wanted to move in right then and there!! sorry hayley but it's true. i talked about it the entire way home and then tried to convince doug that we needed to rent one and move in, baby and all! after picking up 20 odd things at hayleys place she insisted i needed to check out the store most of them were from and off we went. the shop called 'corner store' was amazing... and thankfully they even have an online store here for me to drool over... again omgosh i am in love. i don't know how i didn't manage to find it earlier... it was like all my favourite things in one store, and had i this weeks lottery winnings, i would have quite likely bought every single thing that they had in stock. mads had fun looking with hayley and somehow managed to convince that she needed a photo in this gorgeous little teepee. what a doll!

i am so in love with these curtains, totally want to buy them, although i assume that they probably aren't for sale, perhaps i'll just have to make my own! i am sure that mum has more than enough of the old fabric required to make them. love love love! i could have spent all day there, but after buying these gorgeous lights for maddie's room and a pink plastic rose compact we hit the road again, off to the markets and then the freo gsi where i did my best to make hayley fall in love with my greatest love in life, opshopping! she promptly scored a $200ish dress for $15 - good girl and i blissfully browsed my way through the arcade of 3 separate gsi stores in the one arcade. what a lovely day.

maddie's new babushka lights from corner store. love them.

on our way back to hayleys we stopped into the markers again and i spied these delightful wonders, macaroons from maison saint-honore, i honestly thought i had died and gone to heaven. yum yum yum.

we got mango, raspberry, pitaschio, salted caramel and coconut and they were amazing. if only i were a millionaire... sigh. we had the best day and i had so much fun. can't wait for the next one, thanks hayles! x

ma & me

she's at it again... the bestie has been making and creating and putting out some awesome as creations. i am sure you all remember the amazing unicorn that jen made maddie for her birthday but now she has made her own little business online ma&mehandmade! i am so excited to see all the gorgeous things pop up one by one on her website and know it's going to be a great success. ♥

i just bought this for a friend from school who is due to have a baby boy in just two weeks. can't wait to meet the little munchkin! i am in love with this little collar. hopefully he'll love him as much as i do.

if you have some time check out her site and get shopping... 

here's just a few sneak peeks of what's on offer!

18 months old

this little girl is 18 months old! 

she loves to giggle and run waddle and hide and play and cuddle and talk. my goodness does she love to talk. quite clearly takes after her mother in that area. haha! 

i just had a week off work, so obviously spent every day with her and she spent the week just sassing me. it was hilarious... at one stage i walked past her and clearly she was annoyed that i hadn't stopped and devoted my full attention to her, so next minute i was having a chubby little finger waved at me and a mouthful of gibberish thrown at me. she talks and talks and talks but doesn't say anything - but she is so bossy and it's hilarious! i love to watch her short attention span go from place to place around the house and watch her loving every minute of every day. 

if only i could be with her all the time... can't wait until the day i can!