Shining Lights

this year has been difficult.

trials have come,

and come and come.

things i never thought i would ever have to do.

things i never thought i would say to people.

i have felt at times so alone like there was no one to turn to,

but through this year i have had some amazing experiences.

i have had the realisation of what a friend truly means.

there have been people that have come into my life or

that were already there that have really been willing help me

- and they probably haven't even known it.

they have pulled me out of deep holes

that i felt like i was beginning to drown in and lose all control.

my trials are still there in my life at present

but these certain people make the burden and trial bearable,

whether it be a kind gesture or dropping around dinner unexpectedly or 

a kind word said or babysitting or just someone to vent to or some advice.

they have made my load lighter.

they have made me feel like 

"yes, i can go on a little bit further."

i will be forever grateful for these individuals

and they will always hold a special place in my heart.

and they have taught me what the true meaning of charity is.

they have been my shining lights 

through what has seemed like one of the darkest patches in my life.

and to them i want to say thank you.

this is just a little pic to help me remember.

Primary Presentation 2017

lucky their primary presentation went wayyyyy better

than it did taking these photos of them before it.

zayden even got to perform in it this year,

singing the wise man and the foolish man.

i'm super grateful that their two grandmothers got to come and watch them.

            

Q & A's

braxton has been asking me some doozy's during breakfast time.

one day i just sat down with my breakfast and he asks

"mum, how do babies get out of your tummy."

i almost, almost, wanted to grab my breakfast and walk back to the kitchen.

but i looked at him and asked do you really want to know.

so we had a lovely wholesome conversation about how babies get out.

i'm just SO glad that he didn't ask how they get in there.

jevan will be leading that conversation once it arises.

and then the next day i get

"mum how come santa never dies."

to which his older brother answered

(before i could)

"brax, it's because he lives in the north poll, dahhhhhh."

i love the innocence of makai's mind.

braxton looked at me because makai's answer did not please his mind.

i told him that santa was magical that's why he never dies.

he had a good think and the answer must have done the job.

we have makai on the other hand who believes anything we tell him.

he is a very easy kid to please.

makai was due for a visit from the tooth fairy a couple of nights ago,

he told me

(at the dinner table - all good conversations seem to be at that table)

that his friend told him that the tooth fairy was really your parents.

makai asked and i said well what do you think,

he told to me so innocently 

"it couldn't be you because you are asleep when the tooth fairy comes."

i love that they are different from each other.

it's what makes them so special.

but on a side note,

pretty sure braxton will work out the "real" santa before makai does.

North Rocks Dam

on saturday we took the boys out to explore somewhere local.

i follow happy explorers on instagram and they discover the coolest places,

that are close by.

so i have to thank them for this local find.

it's the north rocks dam.

i NEVER knew this place ever existed.

but after a short little walk through the bidjigal reserve we came across it.

their is a viewing platform at the top and then you can walk all the way down.

it is HUGE !

i felt like an ant in comparison.

the boys had a blast running up and down the walls,

they were sliding down them having competitions with their dad.

i loved the graffiti that is found all around the walls.

i'm a massive lover of graffiti art so for me this was a photographers heaven.

we did lots of coo-ee's to hear our echo's.

Shadow Twin

today zayden was running down to meet me at the car

his voice was so excited

"Mum, their are two Zayden's!!!!"

i looked down and he was waving to his shadow.

i could not stop laughing.

he thought it was the best thing ever that there were two of him.

we were on the trampoline and he said

"Mum, their is the other zayden again."

i don't think he quite realises yet that the other zayden will be with him forever.

Principal's Badge

ever since he started kindy bracky has been eager to get his first principals badge.

he has worked so hard to try and get a caddies credit every day.

you need 5 caddies credits to get a merit award,

3 merit awards to get an excellence award

and 3 excellence awards to get a principals distinction (badge).

last friday bracky finally received his first badge.

he was already up out of his seat before they called his name

he was THAT excited.

his smile was was so big.

i love being able to be apart of these little achievements.

it makes all the screaming worth it

for those 5 little seconds.

in our family once you receive a badge as a reward 

you get to leave school early and have a lunch/dessert date with mum.

so braxton chose to have sushi (he's now obsessed with it)

and yogurtland.

he wears his yellow badge with pride.

he even took it today for his news,

his news topic was "take a toy that slides."

he wouldn't listen to me when i told him that his badge isn't a toy.

his reply "but it slides."

congratulations bracky boy.

Halloween 2017

gone are the halloweens where the boys want to participate in family costumes.

this year they each wanted to do their own thing,

so i let the older two haha.

zayden picked up a shark mask at cotton on kids

so i decided to match him and be a scuba diver.

i can't completely give in to no family costumes just yet,

i've still got a couple more years of pull with zayzay.

so this year we had a rugby player, a spy, a shark and a scuba diver.

we spent halloween doing trunk or treat with our ward.

it was so much fun.

beside the fact our trunk was a massive FLOP.

and i'm not just saying that it really was a HUGE fail.

HUGE !

it all went down hill when the car that i had planned to do it on broke down the day before.

and it was like a rolling ball.

so in the end we put two sides on our car with two big bowls of treats.

my mum got left with the car jevan and i were so ashamed of our decorations we left it.

besides that,

this was our favourite halloween yet !

Mr & Mrs

a couple weeks back i got to help with some more wedding photo's.

this one was my fist ever temple wedding.

i was pretty stoked.

the only words that come to mind is

WOW,

that summarises the whole day/night.

Braxton's 6th Birthday

you know those days that just run perfectly.

everything goes to plan,

your kids are well behaved,

you hair and make-up are for once looking decent.

we had that kinda day on saturday.

and to top off this perfect day we celebrated bracky-boys 6th birthday.

this boy deserved a perfect day after this year.

he has had to deal with some pretty big emotional situations.

jevan and i still talk about how perfect it was for him.

the only downside was he did wake up at 5:45 eager to open presents.

his kind mother told/screamed/grizzled to get back to bed because he wasn't opening them until 7.

(i think it was a little glimpse into christmas morning for us)

he woke me up at 7 we all got up.

he opened his presents and got everything he asked for.

mechanical, a ben 10 watch and a beyblade.

plus mum and dad splurged (thanks for cudo) and got his flights for ifly.

he had been asking to do it since the beginning of the year where he saw an advertisement on the back of a bus coming home from school.

we ate bacon and egg rolls and headed off for his adventure.

he was so excited and also looked like he was going to vomit and pee his pants all at the same time.

we asked him if he wanted to go all the way to the top of the tunnel,

he kept changing his mind

(fear and his wildness kept getting the better of him)

but his wildness won in the end and he flew to the top of the tunnel.

his instructor was awesome and gave him an extra flight and 2 top of the tunnel flights for free 

because it was his birthday.

he felt like the most specialist 6 year old that day.

we got maccas for lunch and then headed to the movies were we watched thor.

they ate themselves silly with popcorn, malteasers and slushies.

form there we went to his school's fair.

there grandmother gave them $10 each to spend.

bracky in his true sensitive-momma'sboy-minime-totalygetsme-self

wanted to buy me a present (without me knowing) and wanted to use his money on it.

he bought me the cutest little sign that says

"always my mother, forever my friend."

this is something i will never throw out.

i feel so lucky to have a boy that thought about not just himself on the one day of the year it is all about him but thought about doing something nice for me.

they spent their money on dodgem cars, baked goods and some other little toys.

we came home had kfc for dinner,

sung him happy birthday and topped it off with his choice of dessert,

root beer floats.

braxton is my mini-me.

he just gets me and i get him.

he knows how to push my buttons but he also knows how to make me laugh so hard.

we share the same sense of humour,

we share the same way of coping in emotional situations,

i'm so glad in this family of boys i've got someone who just gets me.

braxton is tiny but his heart is enormous.

i wish he could see how i see him because then he would know how amazing he really is.

i'm so glad he had the "best birthday ever" because he is one kid that deserves it.

Clovelly Beach

last monday our car kindly carked it.

i had to get it towed which means we had to share the camry.

because of this confusion and me having to drop jevan off from all this kerfuffle,

the boys got the day off school.

it was forecast to be 32 degrees so what better way to spend it then at the beach.

or plan was to go to sculpture but he sea but parking was INSANE.

so our plans quickly changed and we ended up at clovelly beach.

it was probably a better way to spend the day

(i later found out.)

because this is a popular snorkelling spot while the boys were swimming,

they were spotting fish everywhere.

makai was trying to catch them

-hilarious !

we even found a couple of crabs.

after a big swim in the beach and at the pool we decided to give the sculptures one last try.

we got a spot and checked out the sculptures just at tamarama beach.

can i just say that next year i will only take braxton.

makai and zayden were not interested in the slightest.

they just wanted to either go in for another swim or go home.

zayden being the more annoying complainer out of the two.

but braxton was amazed at all the creations or "inventions" as he likes to call it.

we had to come home and youtube how to bend metal

because he was so intrigued how they were able to make things using metal.

so so SO glad we didn't just come for the sculptures and spent the majority of the day at the beach.