Maddie's temple talk

Last week Maddie went to the temple for the first time - this Sunday they had her give her first sacrament talk! Time, please slow down! My little girl is growing up way too fast. She did an amazing job and I am so proud of her! 

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Good morning brothers and sisters.

This morning I have been asked to speak about my first experience at the temple. This year I will be turning 12, which means I now have the opportunity to serve in the temple by doing baptisms and confirmations for people who have passed on. On Friday night, along with the other youth in our ward, I attended the temple for the first time.

Although at first I was nervous and a little unsure, I felt so peaceful when I entered the temple. It was so quiet! It’s nice to be in a place where you can sit and think with no other noise. It was such a wonderful experience to be there with people I love, reassuring me as we did our session together.

Many people are not given the opportunity to enter the waters of baptism as they live on this earth. We are given the chance to provide them a way to be baptised as we do work on their behalf.

Each temple has the words, holiness to the lord, the house of the lord, written above the entry and I know that the temple is a place of peace, the place we can be closest to our Heavenly Father on this earth.

President Spencer W. Kimball once said, “It would be a fine thing if parents would have in every bedroom in their house a picture of the temple so their children from the time they are infants could look at the picture every day until it becomes a part of their lives. When they reach the age that they need to make the very important decision concerning going to the temple, it will have already been made.

I am so blessed to know that I belong to an eternal family. My parents were married in the Perth temple and both sets of my grandparents were sealed in the New Zealand temple long before I was born. I love knowing that when our time on earth is done, we will all be together again. It’s especially comforting to know this as my dads parents have both passed away. I know it will be amazing spending forever with my family.

In primary we learned the song, I love to see the temple.
I love to see the temple
I'm going there someday
To feel the holy spirit
To listen and to pray
For the temple is a house of God
A place of love and beauty
I'll prepare myself while I am young
This is my sacred duty

I love to see the temple
I'll go inside someday
I'll covenant with my Father
I'll promise to obey
For the temple is a holy place
Where we are sealed together
As a child of God, I've learned this truth
A family is forever

The world today is a really hard place to grow up. There are so many things placed in our way that can drag us down. But as we attend the temple and remember the promises we make within, we will be more able to bear every challenge and to overcome each problem. I am so grateful for a temple close by and to know of the blessings that come from being part of a forever family.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Rice Krispy Treats/ LCMs/ Rainbow lunchbox bars

Our kids are obsessed with LCMs, but they seem so expensive when I buy a pack and they all get eaten within a day or two. I have American friends who used to make them all the time (huge thing there - aka Rice Krispy Treats) and I have made them a few times over the years, but I decided with school starting up again soon, now was the time to find a decent recipe. Taste.com.au delivered...

Rainbow lunchbox bars

75g butter

250g marshmallows

6 cups rice bubbles

1/2 cup mini m&ms

1 tbsp sprinkles

1. Grease and line the base of a 20x30cm pan, allowing paper to hang over the sides

2. Combine butter and marshmallows in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir as they melt for 5 or so minutes until there are no lumps and the mixture is smooth.

3. Pour the rice bubbles, chunky sprinkles and m&m's into the marshmallow mixture and stir until all well combined. Pour into prepared pan and use the back of a metal spoon to press down, smoothing and compacting the surface. Set in fridge for a few hours, then slice into bars for serving.

They are absolutely delicious and some nice and bright fun. I have a feeling they'll be on repeat this year!

Orange and Poppyseed Cake

 

It's Ross's birthday! 

Which means it's time to make a cake other than chocolate - and it better be good cause he's a chef and may potentially judge me. haha.

This years offering was a great find on taste.com.au

ORANGE AND POPPYSEED CAKE

50g butter

1 tbsp finely grated orange rind

• 1 cup caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 2 tbsp poppyseeds
• 1/3 cup reduced-fat milk
• 
  
• Method:
• Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease and line tins
• Place butter, orange rind, sugar, eggs, flour, poppyseeds and milk in a bowl and stir to combine.
• Spoon into tins and bake for 35-40 mins. 
• Dust with icing sugar and serve - OR
• 
  
• Icing:
• 55g cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 cup icing sugar
• Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth, then add vanilla and icing sugar.

Amazing with the icing, we loved it! But seriously had no idea there would be no orange juice in it! Just rind?! Okay... but it was still more than orangey enough. Weird!

 Definitely a tradition I'll keep up, I am sure there are plenty of non chocolate cakes I can make it through in the years to come. 

Happy Birthday Ross!

Primary Graduates 2022

These awesome kids are off to youth in a few short weeks! Because Christmas Day is a Sunday this year and we don't have classes, we celebrated them today with a little send off. Each of them had to give a little talk about what they loved in Primary and what they are looking forward to in the youth program. There was some very random answers which made it even more amusing.

I will 100% miss having my mini in Primary, she was so good at crowd control and telling people to shut up haha, but was also amazing at knowing all the answers, encouraging the smaller kids to speak up and most of all, singing. She knew the words and would sing loudly! What are we going to do without her? My baby girl is off! 

Mia's Birthday

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Happy Birthday to our beautiful friend Mia! I love any excuse to make a cake, so this one was a vanilla cake with buttercream icing and some little decorations. Mia is always smiling and happy so I thought sunshine yellow was a perfect fit.

With rainbows and flowers 

We went for a swim at The Vines Resort pool first then enjoyed cake afterwards. A great afternoon!

❤

Dance Concert Professional Shots

One of the most wonderful parts of the dance concert is having the chance to relive it all over again when the photographs become available for purchase - and then one last time when the video is sent out. I love looking through the shots and although they are very expensive, I always get a few... and may have gone a little crazy this year.

I loved this lyrical troupe dance so much. It was so graceful and emotional.

I 100% cried when Maddie was lifted up, almost as if she was flying above the others. I'm such a sook.

So, so beautiful!

Their senior ballet class this year performed a routine where the younger girls were waiters. They had giggled so much about the costumes and eventually suggested to their teacher that she get them moustaches. It was too cute for words. Our first year without a tutu or flowy skirt, but I thought this dance was amazing with such a good story.

Little waiter Madeline.

Dancing with your best friends is always the best part.

Jazz troupe was just the most powerful epic dance and I am so sad that it will only ever be done once and never make it to competitions. They just absolutely owned the stage and I loved every second of it.

Our girl, constantly front and center.

She's just an absolute doll.

I just love this photo of her and Madison, it is everything you need to know about them, when it comes to dance, they will not be separated or beaten, at anything. haha.

Madeline took on a second jazz class this year with some of the older girls and loved it. Sub-senior Jazz. This dance was awesome. So glad she decided to do it.

She is amazing! I could seriously watch her all the time.

I showed a few of these shots to Jakes mum afterwards and we had a laugh together, apparently he had been bragging the day after the concert to anyone that would listen about how awesome his girlfriend was is and how she had won a trophy at the concert and so on. Yep. We know. She's pretty amazing! So proud to be her mum. ❤

Alexander is 4!

FOUR YEARS OLD! 

How I've actually managed to keep this one alive is a mystery to me. He is fun, full of giggles and the cuddliest. I must admit that him being 3cms from me at all times is not always my favourite thing, but we roll with it.

He loved opening his presents yesterday

 including this gorgeous personalised Alex blanket

and of course more Bluey clothes. Just for something different. Haha.

I love his whacky sense of humour and hearing his little laugh.

But most of all his little smile 😍

There are always plenty of Alex selfies on my camera roll, including this one which was definitely worth preserving.

He's our little nutter and we wouldn't change him for anything.

So, so loved by his big sister - and he would follow her anywhere she wanted to go.

The cutest little man. Our Alexander James. ❤

Happy birthday to my littlest love!