{faith} Down by the seaside

Today I took my little girl down to the seaside, for the very first time.

It had been a long day at home and we were both getting a bit bored, so I packed up the car with a blanket and hat and off we drove.  I am so glad we live close to the sea!

Miss Placid was just awestruck by the ocean. As we were walking down the sand dune to the beach, she could hear the waves and she was intrigued. Her little eyes were darting around madly, trying to figure out what it was that was making such a noise!

After I set up our blanket I sat her up, facing the ocean. She sat so still, for what seemed an eternity - taking it all in. I popped her little hat on, took of her socks and walked her over to the shoreline. As I bent down to stand her up in the sand, she was a little unsure, uneasy. She wanted to know what this new sensation and feeling was - what was this rough stuff under her feet, and why did her toes suddenly feel so cold! She would be looking out to the sea and the waves, then would quickly glance back at me and lean into me for reassurance. When she realised I was by her side and that she was safe, she eased up a little more and began to enjoy it.

After we got home, and i reflected on our little adventure, it made me realise just how much Miss Placid's first experience with the ocean was what it is like when we are uncertain of things in life. We are uneasy, we approach them sometimes with eagerness and sometimes with fear. But one thing i know for sure is that I have my God and saviour there by my side - just as i was beside Miss Placid - to hold my hand, to comfort me and to reassure me that every little thing will be ok.  If I fall down, he will help get me back up again. If it gets to much, he will carry me when it seems I can no longer go on.

God, you're my refuge. I trust in you and I'm safe! That's right - he rescues you from hidden traps, shields you from deadly hazards. His huge outstretched arms protect you - under them you're perfectly safe; his arms fend off all harm.  Fear nothing - not wild wolves in the night, not flying arrows in the day. Not disease that prowls through the darkness, not disaster that erupts at high noon.  Even though others succumb all around, drop like flies right and left; no harm will even graze you. You'll stand untouched, watch it all from a distance...Yes, because God's your refuge, the High God your very own home, Evil cant get close to you, harm cant get through the door. He ordered his angels to guard wherever you go. If you stumble, they'll catch you; their job is to keep you from falling. You'll walk unharmed among lions and snakes, and kick young lions and serpents from the path.

Psalm 91:1-13 (Message)

Much love

Daughter of the King
x

Weekend in review!

Sooo far behind on my blogging - where are the days going! My oh my.....

I have got to get better at whipping out my camera to take shots of things! I think getting a nice new camera will do the trick there ;) Hoping to get a Canon this year! Cant wait! Anyhow...back on track - here was our weekend in pics!

Saturday saw Miss Placid and I just chilling out at home. We managed to get out to do some groceries (and escape our hot house!) for a few hours then we waited for Daddy to come home so we could walk 2 doors up to have dinner with some good friends!

I wish i had taken photos of all the delicious food we had! There was marinated lamb ribs, marinated chicken, steak, lamb on skewers, potato bake and salads! Yum! And for dessert there was mini raspberry pavlovas, coconut cake, macadamia and caramel tart and banana cake! DELISH!

Miss Placid and Ryder were very well behaved and slept in the theatre room - Ryder had his portacot, and we just wheeled Miss Placid's bassinet across the road! Would have been funny watching us carry her...asleep...in her bassinet back home across the road!

Matt had to work again on Sunday, and it was going to be a scorcher here in Perth - 41 degrees! So, we packed up the car and Miss Placid and I set off to spend the day (and night) at mum and dads house. Dad was in Rottnest for the day so it was just mum, my sisters, Miss Placid and I. We chilled out (literally in their Devine Aircon!) and went for a swim in the pool in the afternoon! The water was FREEZING - so i wasnt sure if Miss Placid would like it. She had been in a pool once before, but it was a heated pool. She actually seemed quite content in there with me (even after i dunked her face...accidentally...in the water!)

We had a mega pooplosion (wish i had caught it on camera) - which Miss Placid thought was hilarious! 

It....went....everywhere!! 

Had to bath her in the laundry sink just to clean her up! Crazy child... The rest of the evening consisted of us all enjoying dinner (yummy butter chicken mum whipped up in her thermomix....fancy!) and watching a movie together (just married - LOVE it!!) :)

Monday morning Miss Placid and I set off further North to catch up with a good friend, Leah, and her girls Coco and Savannah before heading back on the hour and a half trip home!

The weeks are just zooming past - this weekends 'weekend in review' will be here before i know it!

Hope you all had lovely weekends too and stayed cool! :)

Much love

Daughter of the King
x

Weekend in review!

As usual...our weekend was jam packed - there just never seems to be enough time in the day!

Delilah and I started off with a road trip up to mum and dads house to stay with Aunty Maddy (i say road trip as its about an hours drive for us!)

Firstly, we called into Subiaco to pick up my wedding band, which had been fixed for the 5th time after losing its diamonds! Grr...

We then called into the shops to get a Jolly Jumper for Delilah and whilst there, we caught up with an old friend, Rebecca.

We finally made it to mums about 4pm and chilled out with Aunty Maddy...watched a movie and ate the most delicious Flapjacks...mmmm...YUM!

Sunday, Delilah and I went to our first Perth Upmarket at UWA! It was a VERY hot day out, but we enjoyed looking around at all the pretties people had made! I wanted to take some photos of all the goodies they had for sale but i didnt want to get into trouble for doing so! They had some beautiful baby things...i just couldnt part with the $$ for some of them! We ended up buying a bag of 5 biscuits from CookieDough biscuits (Fremantle company)- they were DELICIOUS! mmm....sooo good! I forgot to take a pic of them before they were all devoured! Whoops!

So...here is some photos from our big weekend out! Enjoy!

We started with a bit of this...

Playtime at home on Saturday morning...

Followed by a bit of this...

Watching Baby Einstein on the iPad during tummy time

We then did a bit of this...

Nappy changing!!!

And a bit of this...

Playing with Aunty Maddy

There was then some of this...

Cuddles with mum (and mum having some YUM coffee...mmm helps with the tiredness!)

Followed by some of this....

Keeping Delilah occupied!

There was a bit of this....

Tryiing out her new toy....she didnt get what it was all about!

Then it ended with a bit of this...

Delilah and I checking out the Perth Upmarkets

Much love

Weekend in review!

Hello Monday! You are back again! The weeks are just seeming to fly by here - we are almost in March already...where has the year gone?!

We had a fairly busy weekend in the O household! Saturday morning saw my 2 sisters come up for a little picnic down at one of our local parks. It was a very eventful picnic, with Miss D not wanting to participate in any way shape or form! She just cried the whole time, so we took turns cuddling her while we each ate our lunch!

My sisters provided lunch and even cleaned out my fridge for me...sweetest girls ever!

and P.s. arent they the most beautiful sisters in the world too? I think so! 

We then went to a babyshower of some dear friends of ours! They are expecting their wee pink bundle to arrive in the next 6 weeks or so! She looks AMAZING for 34 weeks pregnant!! Cant wait to give her cuddles!

Sunday morning Mr O went off to church while I stayed home with Miss D (we didnt get a wink of sleep the night before), then we headed off up to the South Perth Foreshore to celebrate one of Mr O's friends 30th birthdays! The weather was just divine and Miss D was a little more behaved this time... :)

AND...for the first time in awhile...she SLEPT overnight! 8pm till 3am, fed at 4:30 then back down till 8am! Woo-hoo! :)

Feeling mighty refreshed today! Praise God..He has been answering my prayers!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend too - what did you get up to?!

Much love

Daughter of the King
x

A productive weekend...

I don't actually know where the time went this weekend...it seemed to be over before I knew it! But..that's quite alright with me...we got alot done in our little house! :)

On Friday evening, I went with a friend from work to visit one of the secretaries in hospital who had just given birth to a baby girl! I was hanging out for a cuddle, but I dont like to ask...I just wait to see if the mother offers! This time, I got a hold! I felt so blessed...and as it turns out, this was the first newborn baby I have ever held! Was such a special experience...something I will never forget!

Saturday saw hubby off to work for the day, so I set out to clean the house! I got most of it done, just didnt get a chance to mop the floors!!! I did, however, get distracted on Gumtree and had a look around and to my surprise found a GORGEOUS tree...for FREE...and still available! :) I spoke to hubby and he was happy to go and get it with me, if it is something i really wanted! BOY OH BOY was it! :) I have been looking for a big tree for the back garden for quite some time, but never found one cheap enough...let alone FREE!

It was advertised as a 4 metre Chinese Elm Tree..little did we know, it was more like 6 metres! Unfortunately, we dont have a car with a towball, so we had to borrow a car from our good friends...in exchange for some mangoe beer and my expert advice on gumtree ;) We then had to hire a trailer and then we were on our way! We set off at about 6:30pm to pick this up...a 40 minute drive away!

When we arrived, we were kind of overtaken by the sheer size of this thing! Luckily, it had already been pulled out of the ground! That's one of the hard parts out the way! The next, was getting the massive thing into a 8x5 caged trailer! The owner of the tree and his son were LOVELY! They helped hubby the whole time, whilst I stood watching, helpless! The whole process took about an hour...and my goodness it was lengthy hour. I was getting some awesome glares from hubby saying "you owe me big time!!!". They tried every possible means to get the mega tree into the trailer! The final success was using a ratchet system, hacking off a HECK of alot of the branches [*tear*] and using alot of manly muscle! [I do wish i had photos of this whole process, but it was a very 'testing' time in our relationship and had i used a camera during this process, i would most likely have been walking home by myself, treeless!!!!] hehe

 The trailer full of branches chopped off :(

We then had to manoeuvre this monstrous tree in the trailer, down the backstreets all the way home [trying to avoid getting pulled over by cops at the same time]! We both shot up some quick prayers that the tree wouldnt (a) fall off the trailer, as there would be no way to get it back on with just the both of us, and (b) that it wouldnt attract unwanted attention from cops wanting to charge us for an oversized load!!!

When we made it home, we then had to figure out how to get the tree off the trailer, onto our lawn so we could return the trailer and car! This is another story in itself, involving car alarms being set off, roads being blocked and little nissan pulsars attempting to pull the tree up our hill! We did it though....just me and my man, returned the trailer and the car and made it to bed about midnight....utterly exhausted! We didnt even want to think about how we were going to get the tree out the back to plant it...for now, sleep was all we cared about! [It was also a freezing night so my lips ended up CHAPPED as and i was frozen to a crisp, still wearing my shorts and tank top from earlier in the day...]

Sunday saw us move the tree to the backgarden and plant it! We enlisted help from 2 of our WONDERFUL neighbours to get it to the back! Hubby dug the mega hole all by himself, whilst i did grocery shopping and then we both put the tree in together! I HEART IT VERY MUCH and look forward to decorating my pretty little tree with lights and lanterns soon....stay tuned! :)

I managed to bake my first ever banana bread this afternoon too...courtesy of Retromummy's recipe! It turned out divine!! My sister and her partner dropped in to say hello and we helped them find a stand for their new fish tank....on gumtree of course! :)

I baked a yummy chicken, asparagus pasta bake off a taste.com recipe which was delicious!! And then, i created this Bus Roll...after being inspired by many a blog out there!

This took no time at all to make...i HEART it and the little key there I found today too!

PHEW! I am ready for next weekend already...just to recover!
 
How did you all spend your weekends?

Much love