The Ides of March

March has seemed to just creep along, probably because we are extra excited and extra impatient to move into the house….and because we are excited for the next season to get under way!  (mostly the first) Here's a sneak peak at the kitchen….love it!

 So March brought more fun with the kids - starting with the Super Hero Social with the older boys.  This year we teamed up with some buddies to make it extra wild and crazy, and boy were they.  They even broke out some sweet dance moves that had me on the floor laughing!  But a night out wouldn't be complete without Jack getting some sort of head injury….who knew tag was such an aggressive hands on game!

 Sam - Jack - Miles - Luke - Jordan all decked out.  We dressed up as runners, so my outfit was just a step up from pjs, so I was comfy that night.

 Next - Max has discovered a love for games, marble tracks, and rain boots!  I love this sweet little dude.  The best yet, he displays OCD tendencies playing Candy Land - the playing pieces can only land on coordinating colored spaces. Try to move a red to a purple, and you will receive a quick reprimand!

Fashion faux pau #1: Max's Hair - the worst hair ever!!  Literally sticks STRAIGHT up at all angles on all sides, it is a nightmare!  #2: Sweet outfit: Shawn's sweat band and rubber boots enhance any work out routine!

 I did get an awesome weekend of fun with some great friends!  We went to Time Out for Women in Spokane and had 36 crazy hours of laughing, shopping, laughing, and eating!  Such a fun time!

 Sometimes I forget how fun shopping can be when I am not chasing kids through the aisles or taking someone to the bathroom every 5 minutes!  It was a great weekend.

 Jack finally lost both front teeth which makes for a pretty funny grin, but the days before the last one came out were horrible.  SNAGGLE TOOTH City!  It was just dangling there, begging to come!

 Kind of random, but I had to add a picture of these shoes.  To most they look horrible worn, and ready for one way trip to the trash can, but to me they show the love that all three of my boys sweet, fat, adorable toddler feet had for them.  Yes, Sam - Jack - and finally Max wore these cute little babies and explored the world for the first time with these shoes.  I thought about having them enshrined, but thought a picture would do!

Highs and Lows

High: My Maxi-Boy is the sweetest thing a mother could ask for - he loves me….literally LOVES, and LOVES, and LOVES me (and my hair). Lately he's discovered the selfie camera on my phone and will take a zillion pictures of his sweet face in about two minutes, and then say "Dats Funny!" He makes my day most of the time, and provides such a cute personality that I don't ever think I could get enough until……

 Low: Bedtime rolls around!  After discovering that he could climb out of his crib his bedtime is getting later and later (10:00-11:00) until about three days he'll crash - passed out cold at like 5:00 and sleep for the rest of the night!  AHHH!  I can't handle this crazy nighttime routine or the way it hits him like this. He still wonders into our room most nights around 4:45 in the morning and has to tangle his fingers in my hair to go back to sleep!  Not my favorite part of the morning;(

 High:  100 miles baby!!!  Sam ran his 100 mile lap last Thursday, earning his hooded sweatshirt for mileage club.  I have loved watching him push so hard each time he runs.  He usually runs about 3 miles per session, and racked up his miles quickly.  It was one of those moments as a parent when you get to see your child push so hard to achieve something, and your emotions bubble to the surface and you feel such a burst of love and pride!

Sam was not alone in his running - it always helps to have a buddy to push you along - and his friend Cooper also ran his 100 mile lap that day too!  What fun friends.

 High: Bowling as a family - fun, easy, indoors, everyone can participate… Low: trying to ignore the nasty bathroom I had to take the kids in to use and trying to lure the kids away from the vending machines and soda!

 High: Jack lost his first TOP tooth - and it's like Halloween in February!  He is such a cute kid, and he was determined to get that puppy out last night….and with a little (ok probably a lot) of help from older brother Sam, it magically came out!  He was pretty darn excited!

As is life, amongst so many highs, there is a low - and it happened yesterday.  I was picking up Olyvia and Max from a friends house, and Lyv didn't want to go and began to run down the sidewalk away from me.  I had Max, so I thought I better buckle him in his seat and then chase her down so he doesn't follow me.  I could still see Lyv as I started my chase, and as I got closer she decided to run across the road right in front of a parked car.  What she didn't see was a car coming toward her.  You can see where the horror of this story is going…. I began shouting as loud as I could for her to stop - literally begging her to stay on the sidewalk, telling her that a car was coming, and she refused to listen.  Gratefully, the car was a police officer who happened to have her window rolled down and was driving fairly slow through the neighborhood.  She heard my cry to stop and stopped just as Lyv ran out in front of her.  It was the most gut wrenching moment of my mothering - I felt completely helpless as I watched what I thought would be a horrible accident unfold.  The officer didn't say anything, she really didn't have to.  She looked at me with a look of remorse and disbelief that Lyv was okay.  She did tell Olyvia to always listen and stop, when her mom tells her to stop!

As I layed in bed replaying the event in my mind, I knew that we had been blessed.  If it had been any other vehicle, without their window rolled down, even driving 20-25 miles and hour, Lyv would have been dead or seriously injured.  I knew that she was protected, and I am forever grateful to my loving, kind Heavenly Father for keeping her safe!  I just hope that she understood the gravity of the situation and how serious it could have been.  And I hope she learns the value in listening - now and as she gets older, especially from those who love her most and want to keep her safe!

Mustache You a Question...

Where have my kids been? My poor blog has been suffering from a whirlwind of crazy this past year.  I hate when I scroll down and all I see are a rushed post of the most recent holidays.  I want to remember day to day as well as the big moments….so in an effort to make this happen I am committing to doing at least a monthly Kid Update to report on the happenings big and small of our blossoming children!

Sam: Sam's life seems to rule ours - he is so busy lately, piano, scouts, basketball, patrol, and school take a lot of time from all of us!  But he loves being involved so much it is rewarding to have him be this active.  Basketball seemed to be going in the right direction this half after winning their first game, but this was followed by two more losses.  It is one of those difficult balances as a parent to be patient with allowing your child to learn and grow by themselves, and not trying to over advise and make playing a nightmare for your kids.  The biggest plus (and minus at times) for Sam is his aggressiveness! That is one of those things you can't really teach, however, Sam hasn't learned to harness it yet either.  He was involved in a jump ball situation and ended up taking the other kid down into a headlock!  Yikes!  I'm looking around like "Who's kid is that?"…but I love that he has a fire, we just need to get him to channel it into healthier avenues, so Football will be on the calendar in the fall!  Then he can tackle until the sun goes down:)

The boys dressed up for Seahawks day the Friday before the Superbowl!  Even wore their beast mode socks:)

Jack: Sweet Jack had his first confrontation at school and it ended with him punching his classmate in the nose!  Yes, punching in the nose - what I have taught my boys?  After talking with his teacher who explained that Jack had just gotten fed up after he had even tried to ask the teacher for help.  The teacher's advice was to ignore him…Jack attempted this one more time, but when the other kid threatened to punch him in the glasses Jack took matters into his own hands!  Both of the kids were fine, and Jack has learned to remove himself from the situation rather than use his fists to solve problems, but you should have seen his grin when he told me!  BOYS are strange creatures and only they can truly appreciate the "victory" in taking care of business.  Jack also started to piano lessons, with me as his teacher!  NO I am not a good piano teacher, but he really wanted to get started and I wasn't willing to dish out the dough for both boys right now…so baby stepping it for the next few years.

(100 Day of School Shirt - 100 squiggly eyes)

(Jack received an award for Optimism this last month - probably for being such a good sport about the goose egg he received after running into a soccer post during mileage club…Jack was chatting it up with Sam and bam!!! Literally BAM! Poor guy.)























Olyvia:  Oh goodness could I get a more girly girl?  I submit I can not! She is a makeup wearing, hair doing, fingernail painting, dancing, dress up and tiaras kind of girl.  I love it but she is also emotionally sensitive in a way that the boys never were.  She loves preschool and is so social, she would have a friend over every minute of every day.  She will love kindergarten next year, but I am so so sad to have her go.  She is such a big helper to me throughout the day, and I love coloring with her, doing puzzles, cooking, and dancing - it will be a sad day to see her "grow up".  She has discovered her ability to choose, which is a sad day as a mother of only 1 girl - she picks out her clothes, which usually match (1 point for Lyv) but she only wants to wear the same 3 outfits all week long!!!  Drives me crazy since she has so many cute clothes.  It is a battle I have learned to just let her win.

(Lyv and one of her many buddies, Mila)
(Lyv and Max showing off Lyv's new bedroom color! Wowza!)

Max:  He is such a fun unique personality in our house.  Everyone adores him - and he adores them back.  When anyone comes home for school, work, or running errands Max is the first to greet you with a hug!  But…he also stands his ground.  He is kind of the boss around these parts and as the youngest is spoiled to no end.  This usually means we watch Mickey Mouse all day, he lives on a diet of granola bars and apple cider, and he ends up sleeping in our bed at some point during the night. He is such a great player - he reminds me a lot of Sam; constantly building train tracks, lining up cars, constructing a marble track or playing with books and toy animals.  Sometimes he will just disappear into his room and play by himself for 30 minutes before I realize he's gone! Kind of bad parenting on my part, but I do appreciate his love for toys.  His hair is a mystery to me at this point - it is similar to Jack's but literally sticks straight up everywhere!  There is no amount of gel that can tame that beast so he looks like a poor homeless child most of the time, a head wound harry homeless child.  He still has a pretty regular scar on his face somewhere from falling or bumping into the something!  Poor guy, but he loves nursery at church (thank heavens) and our babysitters, so he makes for a pretty easy going guy.  The biggest change for Max has been moving out of the crib to a toddler bed.  This was NOT (I repeat, NOT) my choice.  Max is the only child of ours to figure out how to crawl out of the crib.  One night he did it and to prove his mastery did it another 15 times, to our pure horror!  So now he's in a bed, which means he doesn't go to bed until 9:30 or later when his body finally gives out to exhaustion…such a sad sad day:(

 This:

 Has been the ultimate distraction lately…picking out light fixtures, sinks, faucets, hardware…I'm about ready to go nuts!)

Kauai - The Garden Isle

Hawaii!!  Can it beat?  I submit it cannot!  We even got a special treat as we arrived in Honolulu to connect to Kauai, our own Hawaiian dancer (in the background, pink leg warmers, asleep because she had danced herself out) Seriously it was so funny, some people just have more courage then others, and shake what their momma gives them with or without music, or a dance floor!

 We were excited for the chance to visit Kauai this year with Shawn's parents.  I have heard how amazing this island is, but I wasn't prepared for how incredibly beautiful it really is. It is my favorite island (I only have been to Maui, but still…gorgeous!)  We stayed at the Point in Poipou.

 The first day we hit Brenekee Beach, and tried our hands at paddle boarding.  Shawn and I found out we have pretty weak cores, as both of us struggled to stay standing for very long, and we are both terrified that Jaws was lurking out there in the deep blue.  I fell off my board after paddling pretty far from shore and about had a panic attack!  You've never seen a person move so quickly…. I could just hear the Jaws music in my mind as I tried to pull myself back on the board.

 That morning we also scarfed up our first Puka Dog - pretty yummy and this is coming from someone who doesn't like hotdogs-. The Mango relish hit the spot!

 One of the best parts of the trip is the amazing food - fresh fish, etc…and of course - Hulu Pie!  They had three varieties this time out and Shawn wasn't about to share his favorites.

 The Boogie Boarding Bros: These two would stay out for what seemed like hours getting pounded by the waves trying to catch the next best one.  I did my best to tag along but I was no match for the waves.  At one point I was rolling (inside the wave) having my body slammed on the sand below and I thought - I have babies at home what I am doing?  Maybe next time!

 This is a better representation of what I did - read, listen to music, relax with the sand between my toes!

 We got a kick out of this sign - which we termed the Poltergeist at Point of Poipou! Kind of creepy if you think about it.

 THE highlight was the open air Helicopter tour we did of the island.  Unfortunately unless you have a strap on your camera you aren't allowed to take pictures on board because of the potential for it to fly out the window, so this is as good as we got!  The island is truly breathtaking!  We got to see the waterfall in Jurassic Park, Grand Canyon of Hawaii, the Napali Coast, and several other areas filmed in popular movies.

 We finished that amazing day with my FAVORITE, FAVORITE beach = Hanalei!  Oh my, could a beach be anymore breathtaking.  Huge sandy surf, blue water, surrounded by green mountains and trees.  It was also the best boogie boarding beach we found too.

 Our next adventure took us kayaking up the Waimea River and hiking to a the Secret Falls waterfall.  This so fun mostly because of the fun company we had, Julie and Kelly are always game to go on an adventure!

 Shawn's nice photo bomb!

 I didn't take my chance to bath in a waterfall because it just wasn't quite hot enough to dare the cold water…maybe next time!

 We completed our journey with a zip line tour.  This is such a fun activity and this time was super special because 1) I got to do one of the lines hanging upside down. 2) I got to ride tandem with Julie!  You know you love your mother in law if you can be connected for a 1/2 mile of zip lining!  It was such a funny moment, especially try to get unclipped.  I couldn't stop laughing!

Aloha for now Kauai - you treated us good!