wedding diy

my friend leigh is getting married in just a few short weeks... so we have been diy-ing here in the lounge - to make the centrepieces and petal cones for the wedding.

24 milk bottles wrapped in paper from a vintage copy of "what katy did" all i did was open the pages and snip out the cotton from the centres then peel each piece out. each is cut in three widthways and held in place with 2 pieces of double sided tape. then wrapped in a piece of 3mm white ribbon to hold it all in place. easy!

and 68 petal cones. each a single piece of story book paper, fold in two widthways and make a crease at the base, then fold in like an icecream cone. then add a piece of tape to hold.

ahhhhh wedding diy. there's not much i love more. ♥

mailelani products

when shopping at the supermarket in samoa, i kept an eye for any lotions or the likes that might be nice to take home as gifts for friends... imagine my delight when i found the mailelani range, really reasonably priced and all kinds of amazing. i grabbed a few to give as gifts, but also bought myself the body scrub... which smells like heaven. i seriously cannot tell you enough how good it smells. i got the coconut one and everytime i'm in the shower i'm scrubbing away like a crazy person cause it's so good. 

downside? i bought them in samoa... not much hope for a restock there - until i discovered that they have a website and one of the stockists is in australia!!! i am so excited and am definitely buying more, soon. go have a look here - you will not be disappointed. natural, samoan made beauty products. so, so good.

loving the gospel is easy in samoa

it is so incredibly easy to love the lord and be faithful in samoa. every where you go there is church after church, in fact most villages have 3 or 4 to cover all the different religions. and everyone is respectful of religion. if you are driving through the villages during the nominated prayer time during the evening, there are people standing by the road waving their arms to remind you to be respectful and slow your vehicle during the lord's time. nothing is open on a sunday and in many public places a bikini or the likes is not appropriate, due to it's obvious immodesty.

as we drove through each village i was shocked to see a latter-day saint church in most of them. until mum reminded me what a huge population of members there are here. in fact there are one hundred and nineteen chapels across the two islands. the church has their own college, a temple, 137 congregations between those chapels, a mission and 17 family history centres. in fact 1 in 4 people in samoa are members of the church, compared to the measly 1 in 172 in australia.

the samoans are a humble, god-fearing people, who have great respect and love for the missionaries of the church. what joy it brought me to see my parents loved so very much during our trip. their positions in the school have been such a wonderful experience for them and i am so glad we got to see the world they have loved these past 18 months (well, almost, there's certainly not long until they return home) 

what a blessing it would be to attend a church run school. i was the only mormon in my high school and i wouldn't say suffered, but i was often made fun of - asked stupid questions, perhaps suffered does work here... i suffered from the ignorance of others about our church. what a wonderful experience i then imagine it to be, to be able to loudly and joyfully speak of your beliefs amongst all your friends, peers and even teachers... who all are members of the same faith. what a wonderful place the church run schools are!

our trip showed me more than ever, how strong the gospel of jesus christ is in the world and i am so glad to have had the chance to experience that. 

afl grand final

today was like all doug's birthdays and christmases came at once... all his dreams came true... you get the picture. he got to go to the afl grand final. the superbowl of australia. the ultimate game. the one all the boys want to go to.

we got a phone call when we were in samoa, from my eldest brother jared, who managed to get hold of us on mum and dads mobile phone... to tell doug that he had just won a ticket to the grand final, which included flights, transfers and accomodation - and he wanted to give it to him as a gift. no questions asked. he wasn't interested (if you've ever met my brother you will understand... he is really not into sports at all) and knew doug would be, so he had the prize reissued to him. one ticket. the ticket of a lifetime. what an amazing, generous gift. he spent the rest of our trip muttering, "i can't believe it", on the odd occasion. 

so just three days after we got home, off he went again... flying virgin to melbourne. this is how jared actually won the tickets in fact. he has been flying to and from kalgoorlie each and every week since the rest of the family moved back down to perth - so much so, that it put him into the top virgin australia frequent flyers for the year, who they gifted the package, from wherever they happened to be in australia. score.

apparently it was amazing, pre-show and half time entertainment was great, the atmosphere electric. the team he was barracking for even won! he sent me a heap of pictures including this one at the final siren, when the hawks had won! (i watched a little throughout the afternoon and even i, who knows nothing about football, could see that the swans didn't even stand a chance)

not bad for free accommodation hey? doug was thrilled with the room... and the hotel even had a gym and pool which he gleefully made use of. 

my husband claims to not be able to take a photo? after seeing this i beg to differ... showing off that he was flying away yet again, while i got to hang with the kids all weekend... haha

and just for your information... even though virgin weren't handing out business class seats to their competition winners, they did at least give them all a business class meal (jealoussss) which looks pretty darn good in my opinion.

no matter what he does, i am fairly certain he will never be able to pay jared back for this amazing gift and opportunity, one that we probably never could have managed (tickets are hard to get) or afforded (tickets are expensive and flights over the grand final weekend cost a lot). we are so grateful and still in shock.

thank you a million times over! we love you!

he's seven months!

an update on our monkey a few days late (due to his monthday being the day we got back to brisbane) but he is becoming a little boy and isn't so much a baby anymore. sniff.

while were in samoa baby j cut his first two teeth. one the day we arrived, which would explain why he was so inconveniently unsettled the whole way on the plane and just wanted to be held the whole time. the second was a few days later... but now he has these two adorable little stumps in his bottom gum. i love baby teeth. (side note, i am not at all fond of falling out teeth, not because i think it is gross, or hate blood or can't deal with it, nothing like that, i simply despise the gappy i've-just-pilled-my-teeth-out look. i know it's meant to be cute and endearing, i'm just not into it.)

baby joseph also had his blessing day in samoa -- what a special occasion it was for our family. you can read more about that if you please, by clicking here. he waved for the first time, at a shop assistant, not one of us, but seeing as it was my favourite shop over there i was totally okay with it. haha. he met his nanna and grandad for the first time when we arrived in samoa and enjoyed every minute of cuddles with them. 

he is testing out his voice and babbles away, while rolling around the floor whenever you leave him to play with things around him. all in all he's super cute... those bright blue eyes were a killer in samoa, everyone loved him and wanted a cuddle... but most of the time he wanted his mama. i was fine with that, he is sweet and cuddly and nothing in this world makes me happier than being his mama.

theron is the man!

we've just gotten home from a great night, being part of our friend theron's melchizedek priesthood ordination. he waited for us to return from holidays so that doug could be a part of such a special experience.

in our church, worthy young men receive the melchizedek priesthood (which you can read more about here) at age 18, and most generally submit their mission pages shortly after - which i am guessing will be in store shortly for theron! can hardly wait to see where he will be off to...

as you can see, there are an awful lot of people who care for theron and play an important part in his life. his dad passed away just 3 months before madeline was born and although we all still miss him terribly, his family have coped amazingly and grown from strength to strength in his absence.

theron was just 10 when we got to know the pinker family well... and we have watched him grow into a amazing, faithful, young man that we know paul would be so proud to call his son. we spend a lot of time with them and feel as though they are the kind friends that one can call their family. we are so proud of theron for taking such a big step and look forward to watching him continue to grow.

why you shouldn't travel with children

there a million reasons why you shouldn't travel with children. we got home today after 18 days away and i am very ready to tell you a few of them.

1. so much luggage. 3 suitcases, 2 car seats, a pram, a cot, and a carry on each. i am sure you can imagine that there was even more on the way home... 

2. they can't sit still. 6 hour flights? somebody shoot me

3. they can't be quiet. i told madeline i had changed my name and wasn't going to be mummy anymore, so then i had to hear why? why? why? instead

4. everywhere you go, you have to take a bag. a big one. nappies, wipes, toys, water, change of clothes... to start with

5. they don't want to sleep. ever. if they fall asleep for a minute, they might miss something important.

6. they never want to eat anything you put in front of them. "i don't like that."

7. they won't go to anyone but you. "i don't want you. i don't like you. i want my mummmm!" luckily nanna has 4 children and 7 other grandchildren and wasn't offended

8. you can't do all the fun stuff. no mountain climbing, no volcanic crater exploring, so sliding rocks... but let's play in the playground... yay.

9. they can't keep their clothes clean. insert washing every day of our holiday here.

10. they get sick. joseph cut a tooth the first day we were gone, vomited all except for maybe one day, both kids got heat rash and madeline had a fever.

but...

1. they are the cutest

2. the sweetest

3. the cuddliest

4. the best

5. i can't deal with being away from them for more than an hour

6. their smiles make me smile

7. their laughs make me overjoyed

8. when they are asleep in my arms i forget every single thing about them that ever annoyed me

9. i love their little clothes and shoes and feet and toes and hands and faces and everything

10. it would not have been even the littlest bit of fun without them. i wouldn't have even considered leaving them behind. i love my babies and i can't live without them.

but anyone that's ever traveled with children will read this, laugh and say - yep. that's exactly why. why you shouldn't travel with children.