let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

i love doing the primary music, and i am having so much fun with the kids... i love to watch them dance about and sing when we are doing action songs, and yesterday was no exception... it has been so so hot for weeks now (luckily over christmas it was bearable... would have been dreadful if it was like it is now, doug's parents aren't used to the dry heat here - just sucks the life out of you.) there have been days recently when it's still 40ish degrees at 7pm and then in the mid 30s after midnight!!!! gross!

so yesterday during singing time, i decided that we were going to sing once there was a snowman - because it was the only song i could think of that might make me think it was the slightest bit cool... haha. maddie is obsessed with it too and the whole time we were singing it, all i could think of was her singing it and throwing herself around, i had to try very hard to keep from laughing out loud!

being pregnant during summer is totally different to winter, i have less than a month to go and sometimes i feel so hot!!! i took my wedding rings on my last day of work, just in case - they were getting a bit tight and i didn't want to risk anything... as a teenager i had to have a ring cut off my finger, and i am certainly not risking that again. (that's another story, for another time...) i've also had my feel swell a little, (thankfully no cankles!!) which isn't very comfortable either.

other than that - things are great - and who am i to complain when there are so many women in the world who can't even have children.. i know how lucky i am, and i am thankful every day that i've been blessed with another baby and if having one meant i had to suffer through summer that was hotter than it is now, i would still do it - cause i know in the end, it's worth every single little thing that goes into it!

but just for the record, props to my mum - there are four children in my family and three of us were born in december. january and february. summer, summer and summer. my mum is my hero!

so i'll just hang about in my air-conditioning wishing for snow and hoping that one day (pregnant or not) i have a chance to build a snowman!! on the bucket list for sure!!

winner!

i really want to say that i never win anything... but if you refer to one of my earliest posts here, you'd know what a load of crap that is. i have won a few things in my life... but right before christmas i got an email from goldmark about a competition they were running and the prize was "now you see me" on dvd. i am not going to lie. i am obsessed with this movie. i watched it like 3 times in a weekend when i first discovered it. so good. i am a sucker for all that magic/illusion stuff and i just love it. 

so off i went, wrote my 25 words or less of what my favourite item in the goldmark christmas catalog was and why pressed submit - and didn't think anything else of it, until the dvd arrived in the mail this week! go me! i was beyond stoked and may have already watched it. a few times. thankyou goldmark.

if you haven't watched it, go watch it now, i may or may not be watching it as i type this...

maddie is two and a half!

this sassy little girl is two and a half today! i can barely believe it, especially being as i will have two children in just over a month! such a crazy realisation. lucky maddie is so cute... hopefully the next one will be too. aunty niques took this picture of her recently, and i love the attitude in it, it's so well captured, i almost feel as though it should be blown up and put on a wall somewhere. 

i've often had people say to me that children need to be in daycare for at least one day a week so they get the necessary interaction with other children - if i may, i respectfully disagree... our church offers a nursery class (most of you may know this as a creche) for two hours every sunday and it has been so wonderful for little miss maddie. she has plenty of interaction with other kids her own age, playing, singing and dancing... 

she has such a little personality and i love to watch her dancing around the house, "look mummy, i ballerina!" hear her singing her favourite songs, her current favourite is the song from tangled "and at last i see the loight... and it's loike the sky has lifted...." repeat a million times - katy perry's eye of the tiger "oive got the oiye of the toiger, the foighter..." and her newest effort at a primary song, "mummy i love you, mummy i doooo, father in heaven has sent me to yooooou. when i am near you, i love to hear you, singing so softly that yooooou love me too! mummy i love you, i love you, i dooooo!" so super cute! i love also to hear her throwing anything she is currently thinking of into the song to convince me that she needs it. popcorn i love you, popcorn i dooooo. 'punzel i love you, 'punzel i dooooo... and so on. 

how cute is she when she's sleeping? we have a new before bed ritual... 

she suddenly adores telling stories, and rattles off the most hilarious things without even thinking... "once upon a time... there was a biiiiig dragon! carrots, something something, thank you tayla, yourrrrre welcome! queen, in a castle... yadda yadda yadda and so on... thhhhhhe end!" once when she said that there was a big dragon i gasped and said, "a dragon? i'm scared!" to which she rushed to my side, patted my arm and said, "don't worry mummy - i'm scared too!" oh well, at least i have a two year old to comfort me, defend me and rush to my aid! haha. i feel completely safe now. :)

as you have seen from previous posts, she has a love hate relationship with water. but asks at the most random times if we can "go to the pool mummy?" ummmm sure, cause there's one conveniently located nearby. nottt.

she also thankfully adores wearing "pretty dresses!" and loves to smile sweetly for pictures, although annoyingly enough, hates to stay still. she also is suddenly obsessed with hair clips and bowwws and always wants one in her hair. yay! score for mummy! i got what every girl wants, a girly little girl! 

the newest bow in madeline's collection 

we have been telling madeline for months that there is a baby arriving soon, and she has been especially attentive in the last few months to her "baby" a baby doll that she has had for quite some time... she carries it around and cuddles it non stop, which is lovely for us to see. hopefully she will be as attentive when the baby arrives in the next few weeks. fingers crossed! 

there are few things i love more than having this little girl snuggle in my bed. she is so sweet and to be totally honest, i wish i could convince her to more often, but she is becoming far too independent too quickly, sob! 

lovely aunty donna bought this adorable "bummmmblebeee" outfit for maddie and she was delighted beyond compare when i let her wear it for an entire day... now she wants to wear it everyday, every when it's in the wash. so sweet.

she is growing up so fast, faster than i could ever imagine, right before our very eyes and there seems to be nothing i can do to stop it, or even slow it down. i guess i'll have to be content with enjoying this little miss while i can. we have been a few places lately and had random strangers ask how old she is and then compliment us on how well she speaks and how many words she knows, so i guess we must be doing something right. 

she is a little doll and i feel so lucky, every single day, that she is mine! 

i'm outta here...!

today was my last day at work... maybe forever? i have 5 weeks today until babyk2 is due and i really don't know if i will be heading back once it arrives... that's still to be decided. i have no idea what's ahead of me, considering that i am about to go from kind of having one kid... sometimes... to two. one of them being an extremely energetic two and a half year old and then to add to the fun - a flipping newborn!

as you all know dougs amazing younger sister, who i literally could not repay in a million years, has been looking after madeline for the last 18 months while i've been back at work. i have had maddie only for a few hours a day, before work and after work before bed - as well as the weekends. it's never long enough for me as her mama, but check back with me next week, i may be over it by then! 

next week will certainly  be interesting, it's going to be incredibly hot... i'm very pregnant and i'm about to take on a two year old, to start my training for having the two of them. i know i can do it... and i am excited to be a stay at home mum again, but i may need you all to wish me luck. haha.

stay tuned for the further adventures of me, maddie and babyk2. :)

water baby

i got these adorable pictures of madeline from niques via snapchat yesterday. what a doll. we got her a little finding nemo pool as part of her christmas haul (bargain - check out big w - it comes in the little mermaid print too, for only $10!) and she loves it! we had emptied out the water and put it away... only for me to get a message from home saying "maddie wants to know where her pool is?" oh oops. out it came again and it was fun fun fun in the blistering hot sun. it's been high thirties this week, with the forecast for the weekend 44 degrees celcius. yikes. 

what an adorable kid, clearly isn't her mothers child, water and i aren't very good friends, so hopefully she'll learn to swim a lot better than i can. i can stay above water, but other than that i'm pretty useless... 

splish splash splosh

sorry for the overload, i just thought it was far too cute not to share ♥
clearly she's gotten over her phobia from christmas day - or maybe it's just the fact that this one is so shallow. haha.

drive up to clackers

we drove up to clackers today to get the bassinet for baby k2. i was thinking the other day that we pretty much have everything sorted (except i haven't packed the baby bag, better get on to that...) and then suddenly realised that we didn't have a bed for the poor baby! maddie will be staying in her room a little longer (until aunty niques leaves on her mission - more on that in just a moment!!) and so the little man will be bunking with us, in what exactly? oops. off to clackline we go to collect the bassinet from mum and dads. we had a nice visit with the gorgeous family who are renting their house and then attacked the dusty cobwebby shed for the cot. thankfully it was easy to find and easy to remove so we got on the road and headed over to visit aunty jenny and uncle mat, who had a lovely roast waiting for us for lunch! yummm. 

this was definitely the highlight of the day for maddie, thus the appeal of this post. jen bought mat a freaking ride on esky for christmas and it's pretty much the greatest thing i have ever seen in my life. he and maddie rode up and down the deck out the front of their house, her squealing with laughter and calling "more more more!" as well as climbing on it everytime it was left unattended. oh uncle mat. always the apple of maddie's eye. (ps. if your husband has to have one, you can order it here...)

we got this wonderful snapchat from niques on our way up to clackers, saying that her mision papers are finally complete and being processed. so excited for her! we of course will be bummed to have her leave, but we are so excited for what is in store. it's about 4 or so weeks from here to hear where she will be off to, so watch this space, more news on that to come.

maddie will be moving down one room into the big girl bed when she departs and babyk2 will be taking up residence in maddies room... but there's no rush. i am happy to keep her for as long as she needs to stay. there's more than enough room in our cosy little house. 

2014 for the win

i'll do my best!

so here we are, another year ahead of us, 2013 is done and dusted and i am doing my usual thing of sitting here and wondering where on earth the time went. it's absolutely crazy, i mean i honestly swear that it was only my birthday and christmas and all that, last week and here it is, all over again for another year.

i constantly hear (as i am sure you all do too) what are your new years resolutions? what are you going to do this year? what do you want to change? honestly? i want to change me. i want to love more, i want to do more, i want to know that i can be more. and i will. but the biggest thing? i want to speak more valiantly and more courageously of the gospel. it's easy to be shy and not to say too much when people ask you questions, but this year, i am going to speak up, speak loudly and make sure that people know who i am and what i stand for.

the other thing? i am going to do this! for my child(ren). seeing as another will be joining us in about 6 weeks i think it's a great idea. i did a quick calculations and by the end of their 18th year, each child (maddie slightly less obviously if i am only beginning now) will have  $24804. that's nothing to be scoffed at! and it will certainly come in handy for missions, schooling etc. or whatever important things pop up in life (weddings...? heaven forbid maddie gets married at 18 - i think doug will have a heart attack!!) but i was so impressed by it and decided on the spot that it was well worth the effort. so off we go! kendall kids will have a savings account - and a good one at that! :)

what are you doing for 2014? i must confess that my biggest resolution is to actually write 2014 on things and not 2013 - i usually find myself writing that until about april - so we'll see how we go! :)

happy new year peeps! i hope it's a good one for you! x