Peonies...

My neighbour and I have two beautiful peony bushes growing in our gardens. Hers always blooms before mine, and I have to admit the shade of pink, with the deep green foliage is absolutely glorious (hers is pictured below). My dusty pink is also beautiful and I love the delicate fine petals that grow from the centre of each flower.

Each year I marvel as each of these plants appear out of the soil. I love it when they start of bud, and I await the arrival of the blossoms. I truly love peonies, I really should invest in a few more in the garden. It's one of the only beautiful flowering plants I currently have, so funny because the men in my life love the structural, hardy plants, all evergreens, truly functional, and their choices take over most of the space in our garden. My peony, an absolute marvel in my opinion is just pure beauty, and at this time of year just outstrips them all!

Sunny Weston-super-Mare

We had fun this afternoon on the beach. Nathaniel loved it - the space, the freedom, the feel of the sand in between his fingers and his toes. I couldn't believe what a little beach baby he was. Jarom and Tayler also loved being in the warm outdoors and they especially loved spending some time with their cousin Lottie. We didn't build any sand castles, just took a couple of balls and a blanket to sit on, I also packed wet wipes, sun tan lotion, hats & glasses.

The wipes came in particularly useful when Jarom decided to go for a paddle in the quickly retreating sea (we experience high tides that swiftly retreat leaving mud behind). Jarom quickly learnt this for himself as he quickly became stuck in the mud and found the only way to extract himself was to leave his brand new Timberland sandals behind in the mud! He did manage to retrieve them eventually and returned to us looking a very much like a hobbit with over sized brown feet. Ah well, nothing a good wash wouldn't put right!

I found a copy of an old poster advertising holidays in Weston-super-Mare online this evening. We used to have a copy of this exact one in our old bathroom - very vintage. The town was so busy today because of the good weather, it was so nice to see. I hope there are good times ahead for our little seaside town, and that it may return to it's former glory, as in the days this poster was advertising. There is certainly plenty of development going on down at the seafront with the building of the new pier and the sea defence works. We also have a new children's water park under construction which my boys are particularly excited about. I will definitely have to get out with may camera and take my own pictures, I better hurry up so that I can take some before and after shots, some of the development is nearing completion, and most of it will be ready for the summer holidays. With all the good weather we've been having it seems as though summer is already here.

What have I been up to lately?

Despite the boys being on holiday and dad being quite poorly I have managed to find the time for several hard hours spent at the computer editing my first set of professional portraits. I am so pleased with the end result. Have a look on my photography blog for more information if you're interested. It really is a labour of love, and something I find so much joy doing. It stretches me both creatively and mentally, I feel incredibly blessed to be living my dream of becoming a professional photographer.

So now I need to spend a little more time with my boys and weather permitting we're off to the beach tomorrow for cricket on the sand, it will be Nathaniel's first time at the beach, it should be fun - no pictures I'm afraid, just can't risk getting sand in the lens.

Gifted...

On Wednesday evening I got together with some of my favourite sisters at a ward Relief Society activity. I taught a short mini class on scrapbooking and we were very much inspired by sister Sheena Hastings who taught us all about small vegetable gardens. Sheena is incredibly talented, not only does she grow the most amazing vegatables in her garden, but she is a talented cook. As part of the evenings refreshments she provided this chocolate cake.

Yes, underneath all those tiny sugar craft details is a chocolate cake. How amazing! I have tried cake baking and decorating, as you may have seen, but nothing like this. This is completely beyond my abilities - it's a gift!

Just look at those potatoes - dusty as though they have just been pulled from the ground! So at the end of the evening I could not believe it when sister Sheena gave me her cake to take home and share with my boys. What a gift! I couldn't wait to show it to my boys in the morning. They were just as amazed as I was when I showed them at breakfast. Jarom was particularly impressed, and we agreed to all have a slice with milk instead of cereal. So a big thank you goes to a very talented and sweet sister for such a gift of love, the Beale family is now very much inspired to start growing veggies in the garden.

Today I am missing this...

My boys are away on father and son's camp this weekend. An annual event for the wards of Weston-super-Mare, and something my husband in particular loves. I find it hard to let the boys go for the weekend, and although they make a terrible mess packing to go, and I'm glad to say goodbye as they drive off of the drive, I usually want them back within a few minutes. So today I am morning for the messy rooms, the noise and the endless piles of lego bricks left on the floor. I do hope my boys are dry and warm and having fun. I guess these are the experiences of boy hood I want my sons to have. It's just a small sacrifice on my part for a greater good.

At least I have Nathaniel at home, and believe me at the moment he makes enough noise and mess to compensate for the loss of Jarom, Tayler and Jason combined. Plus no early morning study for me today as Nathaniel had me up at 5:30 simply to fix his breakfast! Roll on nap time! Oh, the joys of motherhood!

An apostle at our stake conference

We enjoyed attending our Stake Conference over the weekend as a family. We had the privilege of having an apostle attend. The boys were so excited to have a real life apostle come to visit them. They were amazingly well behaved during conference and sat so still, it was almost scary - who had taken away my fidgety boys and replaced them with these super good boys? The give away was Tayler who asked loudly every 10-15 minutes, "Mum, I am sooo hungry, when is all this going to be finished, and I can go home?" - ah, that's my boy. Honestly, the boys were wonderful. It was so good to hear them both say in their personal prayers that evening before getting into bed say - "thank you for sending an apostle to us today", my heart also echoes those words.

We enjoyed listening to our dear friends the Kearon's for the last time before they leave for their call to the 1st quorum of the 70, we will miss them greatly. Our ward will simply not be the same without them. We enjoyed the stories and the testimonies, I particularly enjoyed Sister Cook who sang us her testimony, the sweetness of the moment was beautiful, and Elder Cook who shared with great humility his pioneer heritage. We were greatly moved.

How blessed we are to have such wonderful examples in our church leaders, men and women of God. To have the Priesthood restored and revelation through our Prophet. It makes my heart sing! The latest copy of the Ensign came through the post yesterday - ooh, conference Ensign, another reason to sing! I can't wait to get reading, it will probably be my study guide for my early morning scripture study for the next few weeks.

Inspiration...

Over the last few days I have really felt inspired watching the churches latest Mormon Messages video. It features Stephanie Nielson, survivor of a near-fatal plane crash, as she shares her story of a beautiful life centred on faith in the Saviour. The talk by Jeffrey R. Holland entitled 'Lessons from Liberty Jail' is at the end of the segment and has been the subject of my personal study this week. I have loved being inspired by this incredible mother, and by the words of Elder Holland. I have really needed their words and example to lift me. I have also started to follow Stephanie's blog, it is here if you would like to see it too.

Wizard of Oz cupcakes

This evening we have a relief society activity. We've all been given assignment, and mine was to make cupcakes - in the style of the Wizard of Oz. I've tried decorating cupcakes before and I didn't do too well. I still find it hard to ice a cupcake, and realised that I just need practice, by the time I had iced my 48th cake I thought I was getting pretty good!

Because I had fun designing the decorations and making the cupcakes I thought I'd post how I did it here. I have to admit straight away that I didn't make the cakes - I know, terrible, but I just didn't have time with Nathaniel clinging to my legs at the moment, it took me all morning as it was!
I did make the frosting, and it's yum, but hardly healthy, but what cupcake is? I used 1 cup trex, 4 cups icing sugar, 2tbsp water and then if I wanted vanilla icing I would have added 1 tsp of vanilla essence, but I wanted strawberry, so I added 1 tsp strawberry flavour. I simply added the ingredients (sieving the icing sugar) and mixed till completely combined.

Next into the piping bag. I worked out a genius way of keeping the bag fairly clean whilst added frosting by placing the bag & nozzle into a tall glass before spooning in the mixture.

Just testing, boy is that icing yummy!

Then I just piped away, just little twisty circles, building up to a peak.

I added a tiny sprinkle of edible rainbow dust to the top. Very Dorothy!

They look good enough to eat don't they!

I made some little white chocolate shoes by melting white chocolate into a mould. I did want to make red shoes but didn't trial this until earlier this week. Apparently I needed to buy a special food colour that didn't have water in it - chocolate doesn't like water and turns a really strange consistency. So my red food colouring didn't work, but hey, white is good!

Placed the shoes on the top of the cupcakes and voila! I'm looking forward to showing them off this evening, and looking forward to actually eating them even more!

Our not so close, but close, Beale family...

A few weeks ago we traveled up to Gloucester to visit with our other Beale family. We had a really super day visiting with them, and I took a few pictures, which I have finally edited and posted. I seem to be getting a little behind lately, I'm all caught up now though. We love Dean & Claire and it was so great to spend some time with them in their home. Our boys really enjoyed hanging out with their cousins also.

Grateful... photography props

My grateful picture for this week - little hats and a new throw. Aren't the hats just adorable? I can't wait to use them in photo shoots. I have my first newborn shoot provisionally booked within the next two weeks. I can't wait - just so excited.

I bought the hats from an Etsy seller from America. I wish I could knit or crochet, I would love to make some myself. I'll have to ask a talented friend if she is able to copy the design and make some more for me. I can just tell, they are going to look so cute that everyone will want one to keep after we've finished photographing with them. The throw is from good old TKMaxx, and has a lovely cable knit that I just love and a lovely honey colour, it'll look great on newborn photographs.