Today marks my 7 year blogging anniversary!

I remember hearing about "blogs" many years ago and thinking to myself, "what sort of weird person would want to have their own website!", but after discovering other crafty blogs and mothers who blogged and being inspired and encouraged by what they wrote and shared, I decided to become "one of those weird people" too.

Blogging has definitely changed over these past 7 years (I for one am blogging a lot less thanks to not longer being a mum at home with young kids) but is still something that I have loved doing! This space is like a diary of my family's adventures, my attempts at learning to craft, share recipes and a place to share about my faith.  As I look back over the earlier years, I am reminded of those days with young children - they were long days, but they flew by so fast!  It's a great reminder to be present in each moment!

Weren't they so little and cute and squishy...

Here's to 7 years of blogging - and who knows how many more!

I love slices (as you can see on my recipe list!) and gave this one a go the other day - it's delicious, easy to make and super crunchy without being too hard! Best of all, the recipe is a Kiwi one from a regular rural New Zealand lady (Lorraine Mills). Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Chocolate Crunch Ingredients

170g butter

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup weetbix, crushed

1 cup flour

½ cup sugar

1TBSP cocoa

1 TSP baking powder

1 cup coconut

peppermint icing

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Melt butter and vanilla essence.  Mix together Weet-bix, flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and coconut.  Pour melted butter and vanilla over dry ingredients and mix well.

Press into a Swiss roll tin.  Bake for 30 minutes. Ice while hot with peppermint icing and cut into squares.

For more awesome Kiwi recipes check out "A Good Baking Day" 500 recipes from the kitchens of Rural Women of New Zealand.

For more delicious recipes visit here.

It's been just over a week since we've moved house!  There are still lots of boxes to unpack (thankfully we have an attic to put them in until we get around to it) and the whole house needs a makeover, but we are loving it!

We left behind our home of 8 years that we had renovated... it was a bit sad saying goodbye, especially to our massive section...

But we haven't looked back since moving into our new home - we love it.  It's a giant bungalow we are going to renovate and hopefully stay in for a very long time (think 5 bedrooms, 2 toilets and 3 lounges plus an attic).

We outgrew our last home, and thankful this new one has plenty of space and character (we love old character homes!).   We've already started drawing up kitchen designs and tearing off old wallpaper, and once some re-piling has been done we can get cracking with our plans.

One of my main concerns as a mum had been helping the kids settle in, which they have all done really well.  They have all exclaimed happily how much they love their new home and also the local area.  Boo the dog and Barney the cat are loving it as well.

I'm looking forward to renovating this place (it has some awesome stories that go with it and was the original homestead of the street) and will share before and after pictures as we go.

Until then, here are a few shots of some of my favourite places...

We've just moved into our new home! It's been a very busy week moving, topped off with one of our girls being unwell, but today is a very special day... 

19 years ago I married this guy...

Happy Anniversary babe! Wouldn't want to be doing this life with anyone else but you! ❤

P. S. Next year we are going to properly celebrate!

Photos by the amazing Renee at Pedrotti Photography.