A little here, A little there

I think every time I create a new blog post I begin with..."Wow its been ages since I have posted"...or something along those lines. The past few days Ive been a bit sick so I figured there is no better time to catch up on a blog update than when I am lying in bed with a hot milo.
As of lately I had celebrated my 22nd birthday :) Unfortunately, I dont have many photos to share as I was a bit silly and decided to take photos with my phone that has no credit left to send to my email. *BUMMER. Although, I will say it was a beautiful relaxed day :) just the way I like it. I didnt expect much as I told Nathan since we spent a fortune paying for mine n Kataras flight tickets to America that can be my present for my birthday and Christmas. But, as he does he decided to go and buy me a camera case that I had been dying to purchase and a cute photo of us from our wedding that is now so elegantly placed on our living room wall :) We took a trip to "Mt.Wellington" which is a bit of a special place for Nath and I as we spent our honeymoon there, and on our way up we talked about how weird it is that just over a year ago we were driving up just him and I now we have an extra member of the family with us. :)

It is so amazingly beautiful up there it seriously is like standing on a piece of heaven. Driving up you just see all of Hobart at its finest. Sometimes I still cant believe I am living in such a beautiful place. Also, that night we went home so I could catch up on sleep as I as feeling sick. Then we went out on a movie n dinner date later that night n dad suprised me with our "Wedding Cake" (not the actual one but same flavor n all) as my "Birthday Cake." I had a great day and am grateful for all those who sent birthday wishes :)
Another event that happened was we finally got family photos woohoo! I love photos , and I love my family so the two together = amazingness lol.

I know I know I am a bit biased but, goodness me I love them and WILL say that they are the best two people in my life and the most good looking hubby n bubby :) Today Katara decided shed start gagging on a banana and I think I about died at the thought that she "could of choked to death" and every time Nathan drives anywhere no matter how far or how long I always think of how I couldnt cope if anything happened to him, these two are my world and if anything happened to them I dont know how I would carry on, Love them :) 

In October Katara and I are flying over to the good U.S.A homeland for a visit, for nearly 3 months! Now, I think almost every day I nag Nathan about how I shouldnt of done it for so long, but he talked me into it. Unfortunately, Nathan cant join us as he is a busy Uni student with finals and work placements all through those 3 months :( He annoys me sometimes ha I think everyday I tell him how I am going to miss him so much when were gone n he just says ... "yeah me to but it will be good for you" with NO emotion. Typical men, lol oh well I will thank him after I am sure and probably will not want to come back haha jk couldnt leave him here alone he wouldnt last lol :P I think I am more worried about the flight, and leaving my husband behind, more than being excited to actually go to America! But, overall I think, I hope, when I arrive all my doubts n fears will come to a halt n ill enjoy the time with family and friends :) Anyhow, I feel like babbling a lot more but, nathan and I are having a martial arts movie night ( I know, were the coolest) so til later :) 

Sincerely,

C!

As of lately.

So. Its been a bit since Ive updated, but whats new. I suck at this blogging game but, that`s o.k anyway, it was Nathans birthday a couple of weeks ago and we celebrated with lots of cake and ice cream, games, and lots of hugs and kisses :)

 

I decided to bake Nath a 4 layer Chocolate Brownie cake! With Tim Tams on the side covered with cream. I was a little disappointed when I made it the night before and the cakes looked ridiculously ugly, but at the end of the day it came out pretty dang good! :) Must say I was quite proud of my work!! I also made Nathan a blanket for his birthday, I remember one time he was telling me he liked the colors of the broncos NFL team..(even though I am not a bronco fan) I decided to make him a blanket with those colors!! 

Another happening has been Lil Miss Katara she has officially become a thumb sucker. 

 

Shes such a little Cutie, love her to pieces she is learning so fast and starting to get a bit of a character to her :) 

I cant believe how quickly she has grown, and how much she has changed. I cant believe how quickly the month of January is going by and has seriously come to the realization that I want to make sure I embrace every moment with my favorite lil bubs! :) Time goes quickly and its something you can truly never get back! So make the most of it and don`t waste time letting the small things get under your skin. Be happy :) Enjoy :) Love :) Laugh :) Embrace!!

 

One year in a nutshell.

Wow. It has been a very long time since I have had the chance to update my blog and since my last update I sure have had a lot happen in my life and couldn’t even begin to fill the pages with every detail that’s led me here to where I am at today. Since my last update I have found myself a married woman, now part of the Mckinley clan! :) 

 I was lucky enough to meet my sweet husband Nathan here in Australia at institute and first impression, “what a weirdo”!! He just returned home from his mission and was only in Perth visiting some mates for 2 weeks and obviously had lost the ability to socialise with girls lol! And I was in the middle of planning to go home, cause I was so adamant on serving a mission and getting back into school for a bit. It is crazy in fact how keen I was to get back home at that point of time, then happened to meet Nathan! My first few times hanging out with him I was so drawn and attached to the spirit he carried and the way he spoke of the way he wanted to go about his life. He was sincere. He was faithful and strong, he knew what he wanted and would live life the way he knew he should, and I knew that was the kind of man I wanted to marry. Surprisingly, I strongly fell in love with this weird return missionary who I had no physical attraction to, who I thought was such a goof ball, and so annoying at times too! BUT there was no denying he would be the one who would take me into the temple the one I would sacrifice my previously life for, my family, my friends, my familiar surroundings for a whole new life in Australia. So January 5^th 2012 we were sealed into the Perth, Australia Temple for time and all eternity!! :) And he just so happens to be the most handsome man in my eyes now :) lol 

 

So how is married life they say!?? Well its not all sunshine and roses like people make it out to be but, it really is great and a blessing! Nathan has been such a fun husband and so caring and is always considerate and concerned about how I am feeling, especially being so far from home. Through my toughest days he really is my rock and my strength, and other days we can find ourselves wanting to wring each others necks ha then realise we love each other too much to do that baha! 

 Very lucky to be married to this handsome man, :) 

 

So for our honeymoon we spent one week in Tasmania than, really wanted to participate as counsellors for EFY so decided to spend one week doing that. Then about 1 ½ weeks later I found myself PREGNANT!...I can say though I was horrible with taking those stupid contraception pills. I remember I was so paranoid about the way they were making me feel, so I read a bunch of stuff on google about how they can be bad for you and found myself not wanting to take them...so then it resulted in a honeymoon baby..whoops. But, I can honestly say I would never take it back because we ended up with this beautiful girl in our lives! 

 Isnt she lovely :) 
It was amazing...the birth was nothing like I had imagined it to be. In fact, in some sick way it was easier than I expected it to be! Wanna hear a funny story? .... I was in labor for about 18ish hours or so, for part of that I went shopping, went to get pizza, then checked myself into the hospital :) when contractions began to kick in it felt like someone was squeezing my insides apart! I decided to get into the bathtub for some hydro relief and ahh..was a beauty. I still felt a bit of pain and my contractions began to be around 2-3 minutes apart so i thought I would ask for some gas to suck on before it got worse! So they gave me this long tube to suck on and I did that for about 9 hours...and by the time I was sucking 1 hour later my contractions began to be 1 minute apart....and WOW thats when I realized the gas was doing nothing to help so I told the midwife to get me some darn pain killers I dont care what it is just put it in me! LoL, but the midwives dont like to do epidurals, only as a last resort so they got me some "Pethadine" which is like heroine..and I was as high as a kite!! When they put it in me the nurse came over to check on the gas and said...
"OH...the gas was not even turned on" ....
"wow" ...I thought. That whole time I was sucking on nothing but air but by that point I was  too high and tired to even care. So the whole time for all of my labor except the last 2 hours I was all natural with this girl!! Pretty proud of myself I would say. I remember because I was so high on the Pethadine, I felt like I was dreaming and falling asleep between my contractions. At one point I could hear a lady next door screaming while in labor...that was very comforting let me tell ya. Next thing ya know I was pushing!! And at 5:12p.m, October 30th, my sweet little 7 pound 11, 22 inch girl Katara Taina Mckinley was placed on my chest. At that moment, I completely forgot all the pain, forgot I was on drugs and as high as a kite, forgot they were still working on getting the placenta out and focused on my little girl, who happened to still be sleeping as she came out haha. 

Our newest addition :)

She was sleeping, didnt even cry or scream and it got me real worried. To this day she is still a little gem and doesnt cry much!

Dad cutting the cord.

Katara with dad after we got her measured and ready :) 

 It really has been an amazing year and I have definately grown and strengthened as a wife, and as a mother and am excited for the journey that lies ahead with my little family. We are now just working on our future plans as nathan has applied for a paramedics university course and I am just working on that photography of mine and living life as a mother :) Katara is now six weeks old & wow time flies! 

L.O.V.E this face, she does it after every feed haha

lol the bread company was doing a photo competition so I used my lil katara as the model :)

 That would be my year in a nut shell, and even though im missing heaps of stuff that has gone on, thats ok because the most important events are here :) 

Oh the random adventures!!

Ok..so I havent updated happenings at all the last month or so so ill just chuck on heaps of the random happenings the past month!! :)

So this last weekend their was supposed to be a big bonfire happening, BUT considering the rain and all a group of us decided to go to john forrest national park and go through what some would call the "ghost train tunnel" lol. I remember first moving here someone tried to convince me a ghost train goes by at night if you walk through!! Its a bit of a dodgey little tunnel but, fun as! We walked through with our glowsticks and had our own little gathering :)

What do you do when you have glowsticks?

Have a light saber photoshoot..duhh :)

Charlies angels i reckon :) lol

Love these girls!!

So..one night a big group decided..lets go on a scavenger hunt around perth!! It was real fun, there was about 12 things on the list where we had to get photos with! One of them was..taking a photo on a kangaroo.. and for those of you who think aussies ride kangaroos around...they do.

JK

Take a photo eating a cheeseburger..

Take a photo with a homeless man...

Take a photo in front of the handstand guy statue? lol

Take a photo playing dead at the train station..

First one to kings park with all their photos and tasks complete..WIN!! :) And of course..our lovely team dominated.

Nath and I went on a little trip to fremantle prison!! Lets just say they treated their prisoners like dirt..shame.

Eerie little place but, was sweet as to get a tour around!!

In this room an aboriginal did drawings in the wall of his room

Me, Kaeja, and jordan in the city getting yummy hans cafe!!

Dance party!!!!

The theme of the dance was mad hatter party..so we decided to look like presents:) lol

Me and candy girl!!

We went to sci-tech which was a cool little place where they have all this fun scientific entertainment ish!!

We were quite infatuated with the "fat" mirrors lol

Sci-tech playing on their toys :)

Heaps goes on here down under...with too little time to document!! So overall lets just say ive been on quite an adventure here in oz and it just keeps going :)

Bali!!

Finally, I got the motive to get my blog updated!! :) So a couple weeks ago I got to go on a working holiday with the family I work with for 9 days toooo...BALII!!! :) I got to talk to my bros while I was  there and when I told them where I was they said...wheres that? ...well people..its in indonesia!!! ..then he said..wheres indonesia?? .. hahaha! Classic. Anyhow the trip was amazing I got to experience seeing some of the most beautiful people!!

I was a millionare for a few days :)

Only in bali!! 1 australian dollar = 10,000 rupes!!

Bali, doesnt believe in road rules. You literally drive in whatever lane you want too..n even squeeze your vehicle onto the sidewalk if you wanted. This was the norm in bali..to have a whole family riding on one scooter...there were even babies being carried on them!

This was our villa we stayed at!! It was beautiful!!

Villa...rumah cabe :)

Me and miss maia playing around with the statues!

Sitting outside the villa watching kites! The balinese people love flying kites you will see tons of them up in the sky each day!

This was a beautiful restraunt we ate at!! For a really fancy meal in bali it was only about 5 australian dollars!!

This was at alot of the restraunts for people to clean their hands :)

They have some really cool instruments. You will find people playing these everywhere you go!

We went to bali zoo..and it was more depressing than anything! They dont treat the animals well in any way..but I guess the experience has to be documented ha!

The monkey temple!!! You walk around and tons of monkeys are there just walking around. Some of the balinese people worship here.

They arent very nice...They stole an ice cream out of ngakinas hand and have tendancies from what I hear to snatch things from people lol..and bite.

Prob my favorite picture..this little monkey was SOO cute!

Yeah no worries just hanging out with the monkeys :)

This is what their markets are like! These are literally EVERYWHERE!! I went shopping for my first time here and learned how to barter!! They tell you 100,000 rupes you tell them 50,000.. lets just say I hate bartering especially when they follow you around!! But, these people have  to work for their money so the dedication shown was amazing!

These are outside everyones houses and in everyones shops. They place them there as an offering for the things their given!!

We went and spent a couple nights at a safari park where we had the chance to ride elephants..hold snakes ..orangutangs..all sorts of stuff.

This is an elephant that some of the people worship..not exactly sure how or why but, it was a beautiful statue!!

You would see this quite a bit walking around bali!!

We got a long quite well!! :)

Feeding zebras on our night safari!!

Suprisingly enough they have a starbucks in Bali!! Also, they had a cold stone creamery :) which I took liberty of testing out.

We went to dinner on this famous beach..I forgot what it was called but, heaps of famous surfers go there!! It was gorgeous!!

Tane and katut playing at the beach. The balinese people LOVE children!!

To sum it all up my trip was amazing. The food, the prices, the people, the scenery!! LOVED it..definitely a trip that needs to be reenacted!! :) Id go into more detail about what I did there but, I cant be bothered and like they say..pictures speak 1,000 words!!

All I know is ive been living the life I thought id only see in movies :)