baby oliver

after being in mandurah saturday evening, we kept driving and got to bunbury late that night... so we could visit with our friends and most importantly, meet baby oliver! it was so wortht he drive, he is small and snuggly and just all kinds of perfect!

his lovely parents cody and dannii even happily let me snap some shots of him, so i was thrilled! there's nothing like a fresh baby ♥

dannii was just made to be a mum and i am so happy to see her with baby ollie. she is an sbsolute natural.

♥♥

we love you already baby oliver!

general conference + the temple

i love general conference so much... i love to hear the words of our church leaders and to learn, because to me general conference above all else is for learning. more about the gospel, more about the scriptures... and more about myself, because i always feel like there's something just for me!

i especially loved the talk from the sunday morning session by elder quentin l. cook  "see yourself in the temple" ... (go and read it, it's amazing!) as i've said numerous times, i made a commitment at the beginning of the year to attend the temple every month this year and i have learned something new every single time. 

take friday night for example, while attending my friends sealing, i listened to the words of the sealer as he spoke of the building of the perth temple, he was saying that our marriages should be built to last an eternity in every way necessary and that many times during the building of the perth temple, builders commented on some of the finishes/processes being unnecessary. the building supervisor simply informed them that our temples are build to last a thousand years. i honestly had never heard that before and i was amazed... but it makes perfect sense though, why so much precision, perfection and love go into their walls. why so many have sacrificed so much to build them and why we as members need to use them and attend as often as we can!

may we keep the temple first and foremost in our lives and always remember, that as long as we can see the temple, we are never lost.

aeronny and natia tie the knot

tonight i had the privilege of being a guest as my friend aeronny and her love natia were sealed for time and all eternity, as husband and wife, in the perth australia temple. aeronny have been friends for more than fifteen years and it made me so happy to see her so blissfully happy.

♥

there is nothing more beautiful than seeing the temple in the background of a wedding photo and i know there is no greater feeling in the world than knowing that the person you love above all else, will be yours for time and all eternity. 

congratulations to the bride and groom, may your joy continue as you embark on your happily ever after 

♥

20 years later

twenty years ago today i waited excitedly outside of the sydney temple with my brother isaac while my oldest brother jared and his wife donna were married for time and all eternity and i gained my first sister. what a wonderful day it was for us all. i honeslty can't believe it was that long ago, i was only 12 years old! but here we are twenty years later hauling out the photos...

here we have mum and i at the reception a few weeks later in wa (they honeymooned in nsw after their temple wedding) it was my first time as a bridesmaid and i was so excited to be a part of it. to this day i don't think donna has any idea just how special she made me feel by asking me to be her bridesmaid. i really felt like i had a sister that day... and have every day since. 

congratulations on such a huge milestone jared & donna. i love you both ♥

jonas's early bday

it was aaron, katja and the kids last day in wa today and it was so sad for us all to see them go. it is the first time our family has all been together in years and it's been so wonderful for all of us. all of us kids plus our partners and kids (other than jared and donnas three oldest) were at mum and dads house for lunch after church today and it felt so good to be home. i love clackline, i always have and i always will!

it was lovely as well, as jonas will be two in just under two weeks, so mum made him a cake and we had candles and of course sang him a few birthday songs to celebrate.

i think it may have been a little overwhelming! hahaha. 

there is nothing like family and i am so sad to see them go, but am grateful for forever families and to know that it's only see you later... not goodbye ♥

family who temple together...

today i had one of the most wonderful experiences of my adult life, getting to attend the temple with my entire family (other than one of my brothers who has been less active since his teenage years) all at once! i can't even adequately express the emotions i felt... but i really felt complete, to know i had been raised by such wonderful people, who remained strong in the gospel and instilled those same values in their children and to be there with my big brothers and their lovely wives who i adore. 

it was such an awesome realisation of eternal families and such peace to know that these are the people i will spend the eternities with. i feel so blessed and so grateful for the sacrifices my parents made, to ensure we would be together forever.

if you have never been to the temple with your entire family, please i encourage you to try and make it happen. this took so much scheduling and heaps of changes, but we made it happen and i am so glad we did! ♥

because you know what they say, "family who temple together, stay together" for eternity!

afterwards we hit up the local hungry jacks like a bunch of rowdy teenagers and had a feast. i am madly in love with this pic of my hilarious parents (you can see here i get my personality from my mother) with aaron and katja. we were so lucky to have dougs parents and dear friends of ours willingly watch our small children so we could all go together. 

oh oops another goodlet family selfie. how i love this crazy family of mine ♥

but most of all i love my doug. after snapping the family selfie, he did a few more of himself. what a crackup he is. 

relief society birthday high tea

after weeks of preparation, begging and borrowing items from ward members, my personal collection and an insane amount from my lovely mother, we finally had our ward relief society birthday activity this evening, a beautiful high tea. oh the effort involved! tablecloths, chair covers, sashes, 52 vintage trios, bunting... and a photobooth. but it was so worth it, because it looked absolutely amazing! 

i had some amazing sisters from the ward give their time to assist in setting up and thankfully they even did little things that mean so much to making it look perfect, like moving all the unused chairs to another room... matching the sashes to ensure they were in a perfect order... and dealing with my never ending ocd to ensure it all looked perfect!

we used a vintage floral sheet that i picked up from an opshop last year for $1 for the photobooth backdrop, which fitted in so perfectly... i was thrilled to finally put it to good use, as i haven't actually even used it on my bed yet haha

each place had a quote about the relief society (printed at the local big w on photo paper) for the sisters to take home, a floral serviette (found at the local $2 store) and a trio for food and drinks

as the sisters arrived, we had them drop their food to the kitchen, so we could mix and match it all - ensuring that each seat had a variety of food available to them without getting up over and over.  we also had a quiz about the history of relief society on each chair (which you can find here!), so that they had something to do until the food came! we were also careful to pass a sign up sheet around the relief society a few weeks in a row prior to the evening to ensure that we didn't end up with all of the same food or too much sweet or savoury.

during the evening, we had the answers to the quiz and awarded a prize to the winner, then we had each sister stand and tell the room their name and one thing about themselves that others might not know. this is one of my favourite things to do... it's amazing the facts about ourselves we can come up with when we are put on the spot. mine was: hi my name is jade and i have been to over 600 funerals. true story. and i know it would definitely be more than that, but that is a safe number to go with. we also awarded a door prize, we had placed a sticker on the bottom of one of the cups and asked the sisters to find it. easy!

and then we had some fun with the photobooth... i've only popped up these two pics, because i don't think it's right to share pics of all the sisters in our ward without their permision, but these peeps with me here count as family, so i know i am safe...

it was such a fun night and a total success... so happy 174th birthday relief society. we love you!