easter 2020

easter this year was a little different... i cannot remember once in my entire life not going to church on easter sunday - yet here we are. in fact, i can't remember ever missing more than one or possibly two sundays ever and this all still feels so foreign to me! yet we are doing what we've been asked, following instructions to keep ourselves and everyone else safe!

but in the important way, it was still the same. a celebration of the day that christ broke the bands of death and rose from the tomb. what a wonderful blessing for us all! how grateful i am to know that my saviour lives!

so this easter sunday was a little different! we watched the sunday morning session general conference (as it was last week in the u.s.) broken up a little to help with the kids concentration by breakfast haha, then after it was done we had our annual easter egg hunt!

the kids think it is the best thing ever and still race outside the minute we tell them it is time - they can't wait to get into it!

the best bit was seeing alex loving it this year. he's finally old enough to get what's going on and was reaching for everything and then trying to shove them in his mouth.

yelling at me to give him chocolate instead of taking his photo hahahaha!

plenty of chocolate was found

and the kids were happy!

it was a different day, but a good day. this staying home thing isn't so bad. i am loving moments like this.

happy easter everyone! 

alexander is eighteen months

eighteen months old! whatttt? our baby boy would be off to nursery now - if we even had church right now gah. not that we actually have a nursery leader right now anyway, cause... he's the only one! awkward. my guess is, that even when church goes back, we probably won't call one for one kid. what's the point? it's literally babysitting. he may as well hang out with me in primary, or dom or nannaleah in relief society or doug in his class! easy!

anyway - over the past month, this little nugget has:

-started saying heeeeyyyy da!!!! for hey duggee and doo doo doo’s along with the hey duggee song

-fallen in love with grapes. it's like he can sniff them out and would eat dozens of them if we would let him. he always pulls open the fridge and points at them.

-pulled peoples hands to take them to places when he wants them to come and play

-started climbing up on everything, tables, couches, stools... change table, his dresser! yikes!

-is saying, more! that! grapes! (very clearly) bop it and what i think was you're welcome.

-stopped having milk... a few days after this month started... but after 10 days was still coming in and trying to pull my shirt down with his mouth open.

-cut the two bottom teeth three from the middle

-made a truck noise when pushing his cement mixer around

-loves toast and can't get enough

-waves non stop, like allll the time

and he's still crazy cute. we love you little dude!

star wars binge fest

image thanks to screenrant.com

over the last 11 days we have made our way through all of the star wars movies in order - number order, not release order - sorry all you die hard fans. we even included rogue one which we slotted in after number 6 and ended with solo. 

well. i don't hate them. in fact, i have never hated them, i've just never really had the desire to watch them all. i've watched 1-6 with doug at home after the girl we bought our house from insisted it was important now we had a big screen. i saw attack of the clones at the cinema years ago with friends, doug and i saw the last jedi at the cinema... then we got joseph a kids garmin watch this past christmas which was a star wars one. it comes with a game which you get moves in depending on how many steps you take for the day. he started to recognise the characters, asked doug about them and next thing you know, it's a movie a night for 11 nights. thank goodness for having nothing else to do or i don't know how well we would have handled it.

so. here's my opinion. 

i like the remastered versions of the old ones a lot more. they are nice and clean and easy to watch. i had a look at one of the old ones on the special edition dvds doug has (i married him having no idea h was into these?) and wasn't that impressed. thank you modern editing.

the story line isn't bad. i quite liked it all by the end.

contrary to reviews, i liked the rise of skywalker. i thought it was a pretty good ending!

anddddd

i really, really, liked solo. enough that i would probably watch it again. i thought their casting of the young han solo was great and i loved watching his back story. possibly even my favourite of the series. although, i am well aware it didn't do well. meh.

kids mate. it kept them entertained for a week and a half. wonder what we will move onto next?

quarantine cuts

well, we are still at home, only leaving when we have to... and my hair was ratty, looked absolutely disgusting and kept knotting up

and looked a little like this... so i handed my husband a pair of scissors, gave him a rough idea of how long i wanted it...

and now it looks a little like this!

it was a lotttt of hair off, about 6 inches in fact - but he did a pretty good job and i am so happy because it's now smooth as anything and still long enough to tie up! hooray for quarantine cuts by husband hairdressers haha.

jett's birthday cake

our fave little dude next door turned four today - and seeing as we are all living in isolation - we tried to make his birthday a little bit better by making him a birthday cake!

i have never had a good chocolate cake recipe and hoped to be able to change that, so i did some googling and then decided to try the first one that came up because it looked so good. it's called the best fudgy chocolate cake and you can find it here

ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose or plain flour

1 1/2 cups white granulated sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 large egg

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup (190 ml) boiling water mixed with 2 teaspoons substitue (caro/natures cuppa)

instructions:

preheat oven to 175°C. lightly grease 2 x 8-inch round cake pan with non stick cooking oil spraying.

combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, soda and salt in a large bowl. whisk thoroughly to combine well.

add oil, egg, vanilla and milk to the flour mixture and beat well to combine. pour in the boiling water (with the coffee substitute), and mix until glossy.

pour the cake batter split between 2 x prepared pans. bake for about 40 - 45 minutes, until a tester inserted in the centre of the chocolate cake comes out semi-clean with small amount of cake (not runny batter) on it due to the fudgy texture.

remove from oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes. transfer cake from the pan to a wire rack and cool completely before frosting. 

i'm not a huge fan of ganache, which this recipe suggests but i did have some cream cheese in the fridge so i decided chocolate cream cheese icing was a go... googled again and this one came up.

ingredients

335g full fat cream cheese, softened to room temperature

175g butter, softened to room temperature

3 1/2 cups icing sugar

2/3 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1–2 tablespoons milk or heavy cream

pinch salt

instructions

in a large bowl using a mixer, beat the cream cheese for 1 minute on high speed until completely smooth and creamy. beat in the butter until combined. add the icing sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon milk, and salt and beat on medium-high speed until combined and creamy. add 1 more tablespoon of milk to slightly thin out, if desired. 

i halved this recipe for my cake and it was more than enough to fill between the two cakes, thickly ice the top and cover the sides. hot tip from the website the icing was on, if you want to pipe onto cupcakes, cool in the fridge for half an hour first.

it gave us a pretty good looking cake, so i was very pleased... 

we decorated with sprinkles and some candles and then popped over next door to deliver!

best bit was, half of it came back not longer after for us to share! woo. i can now confirm it was absolutely delicious and i am filing this recipe away for next time!

easter cookie decorating

kids had the best time yesterday decorating easter cookies with the easter decorating kit we bought from my friend jens home baking business - baked on benrua.

the bag came complete with 4 different colours of icing, 2 containers of sprinkles and 12 easter egg cookies and it was perfect to split between the two older nuggets that live here

joseph had the time of his life filling and colouring the cookies to his hearts desire

while madeline was a bit more deliberate and drew pictures and shapes on hers.

i am totally filing this idea away for future reference, it kept them busy for well over an hour

some serious happiness right here!

maddie on her last cookie swirling and twirling away

the best part was, the icing was royal icing, so after leaving the cookies overnight, the icing set rock hard and they could enjoy them without killing their handiwork

so proud of their handiwork

❤

general conference preppin'

(artwork from churchofjesuschrist.org)

last october, president nelson announced during his final address at general conference that the next general conference would be a special bicentennial celebration of the first vision. he invited all members to prepare themselves for it as he said the following:

"The year 2020 will be designated as a bicentennial year. General conference next April will be different from any previous conference. In the next six months, I hope that every member and every family will prepare for a unique conference that will commemorate the very foundations of the restored gospel.

You may wish to begin your preparation by reading afresh Joseph Smith’s account of the First Vision as recorded in the Pearl of Great Price. Our course of study for next year in Come, Follow Me is the Book of Mormon. You may wish to ponder important questions such as, “How would my life be different if my knowledge gained from the Book of Mormon were suddenly taken away?” or “How have the events that followed the First Vision made a difference for me and my loved ones?” Also, with the Book of Mormon videos now becoming available, you may wish to incorporate them in your individual and family study.

Select your own questions. Design your own plan. Immerse yourself in the glorious light of the Restoration. As you do, general conference next April will be not only memorable; it will be unforgettable."

we have tried as a family to incorporate these things into our study over the last few months and particularly over the last few weeks... this past sunday we included a lot of things to prepare us in our home sacrament meeting and church:

we listened to the talk - joseph smith: teacher by example - thomas s monson

then had our closing hymn as -  praise to the man - via video

watched this video telling exactly who joseph smith was - (now you know)

watch this first vision video - ask of god

and read the recount of the first vision in joseph smith history 1:8-20

there are so many other talks available that look amazing, i'm hoping to get through some more before conference starts next weekend! president nelson promised it would be unforgettable and with everything going on in the world right now there is no doubt about that! i can't wait to see what happens.