The Whole Dang Family at 11 Months Ok.

Jonah is 11-months old, but this isn't all about him.

(Hint: It's always all about him. He is the tiny king of our family and he knows it and we all follow him around with stupid grins on our faces giving into his demanding chubby little finger pointing us anywhere he whimsically wants to go for a second before nonsensically changing his mind. And we laugh about it together in the same conspiratorial way suggesting that we're really in charge, but we just aren't quite sure. But we don't really care.)

Here's the ceremonious monthly photo portraying the fact that the babe does what he wants right now and at that moment the ceremonious monthly photo was NOT what he wanted.

Family stats:

Thomas works, works, works and is good at it. He is also very good at helping me. I won't make an itemized list, because it might make me look bad. :) He is GOOD. Sometimes I wonder if he has enough fun in his life because he is always busy making sure we are provided for and looked after, but he doesn't complain.

I am busy with the usual. Morning means: feed people, boss them around, make lunches, try and read some scriptures, ah! we can't forget family prayer again, don't forget your lunch!, Asher! Run along the side of the road so you don't get hit!, fine Ambrose- you can walk to your class by yourself- ah thanks for the hug buddy...and all that. I take care of what I can during the day while chasing around a baby, I get the big boys after school and it's a race to the finish line with homework/swim lessons/speech, then there's dinner (ugh- why is dinner such a puzzle for me- I am not new at this...), and then bedtime and I LOVE bedtime but not just because it signals the end of a crazy day- bedtime means:

I read a chapter of Harry Potter aloud. Ambrose particularly is captivated and I am too. We are into it people. Totally into it. It is fun.

Then we do prayers. Then we play 10 questions. Usually it's mom and dad asking scripture questions, family facts, silly questions, science or math facts... whatever.

Last night it was ridiculous and every answer was: "jammie jeans"... a phrase Asher used for a while to mean PJ pants. We thought we were hilarious. I believe one question was, "What goes on a sandwich with peanut butter?" Answer: "Jam-mie jeans!" hahahaha

Sorry you had to be there.

Sometimes the boys ask the questions.

Always we end with hugs.

Sometimes we also end with parents losing patience with little boys finding excuses to stay up later.

So that's us right now. The boys are doing well in school and swim lessons. The little one is bossing everyone around. And everyone is happy October is here!

This month we have the fall break play, Jonah's first birthday, ward trunk-or-treat, and Halloween. Oh yeah, and we are starting construction on our house. Fun times ahead!

Delicious Jonah Facts

Here are some photos from Jonah's first week of life. He is a very sweet baby. As you can see.

He was even thoughtful enough to bring Ambrose and Asher a present. Craft supplies to be exact.

The bald headed brothers took to him right away. They always want to kiss him or hug him or in Asher's case- lay on him and smash him.

For the first week or so Jonah and I were so happy to finally be hanging out that we did nothing but hold each other. It was glorious. He loves to sleep with his soft, fuzzy head tucked right under my chin and even though it nearly chokes me sometimes, I love it. He just scoots and scoots his bum up until that sweet baby head of his is safely under my chin and then he lets out a contented sigh and falls fast asleep. Heaven.

Another fun fact: When Jonah was just four days old we had to evacuate for a tsunami warning. This is becoming a yearly tradition and although there is never a good time to have a tsunami hit your island- the threat always seems to come when I have a little baby with a cold (Asher- three evacuations ago), or when both boys are running a fever and vomiting (two evacuations ago), or when I have a four day old infant who still needs his circumcision and umbilical cord taken care of each diaper change (this time, duh). I remember I was nursing Jonah when Thomas told me we would have to evacuate to the temple parking lot with the rest of the town and I just started crying. Thomas quickly recognized the flow of hormone induced tears and said, "Well the Townhouses are a safe zone so maybe we could go there?" I was on the phone with my good friend Emily Bradshaw within seconds and we were safely nestled in her house (pictured below) an hour later. Snug as three little bugs. I am always so relieved we are spared from serious tsunami damage each time, and worried we won't be so lucky the next. Good thing we are always prepared and have good friends to keep us dry and safe.

A few more scattered Jonah facts: He is getting better and better each night about letting me sleep too. One night I had a 5.5 hour stretch! It was awesome.

I call him stupid things like: Monchichi, JoJo, Mister-Mister and other eye-roll inducing terms of confusing endearment.

I am crazy paranoid that he will get sick and so I keep him indoors all the time. Like, I don't go anywhere and if I do-- I do it quick and leave him with Linda or Thomas or my mom when she was here. I will breathe a little easier when he turns 2 months and has his Pertussis vaccination.

He still has a ton of thick, dark hair and I don't know if he will keep it, but we love it!

He takes bottles easily so we usually give him one of pumped milk from me or formula at bedtime to see if it will hold him off a little because he is the hungriest hippo I've ever met.

He is precious, sweet, sweet, and did I mention precious? I am madly in love. I'm glad that he and I get special, quiet, bonding time together each day when the boys are at school. It feels sacred and whenever Asher or Ambrose have to stay home sick I am happy to take care of them, but always a little sad that I can't hold Jonah all day and rub my lips in his soft hair and sniff him for six uninterrupted hours.

We are crazy about our Jonah!

Sea star headpieces, set-design, pregnancy, bullies, sassy toddlers, terrific Thomas and stuff.

The sea stars arrived in the mail.  Now to figure out the right kind of glue to use.  I have opened the mail one too many times to find some little piece of jewelry I ordered in pieces because regular old hot glue gun was used.  It's not the end of the world because that's an easy fix, but I want to make this perfect if I am going to do it at all.

So there's that.

Oh and I got asked by my pal to design the set for the elementary school fall break play.  I have no idea what I am doing, but it's fun!  I get to go measure the stage tomorrow so I can give rough estimates to the assistant principal who is ordering all the colored butcher paper.  Colored butcher paper you guys.  This is gonna be awesome.  I'm also teaching the kids who signed up to make the set how to create a coconut tree, waves, surf boards, and a volcano.  Someone please hurry over here and teach me how to do it first so I can act all professional!

And, I have six more weeks of pregnancy.  I thought about this neglected blog of mine the other day and how Ambrose and Asher's pregnancies were so thoroughly reported on here.  This poor last baby boy has had two or three posts.  I blame Instagram once again.  It's just easier.  I will get those pictures together and blog them so this baby can see his pregnancy too someday when I am organized and print this blog.

My new Fall semester class seems great so far and I only go in once-a-week to teach, which sort of feels like zero-times-a-week, but with a paycheck so that is nice!

My Ambrose found himself in the middle of some big kids rough housing at school by accident and got shoved down on the ground and hit his head.  He was so scared he ran and locked himself in a bathroom stall and cried while his little buddy ran to tell a teacher.  He is totally OK now, but I was so upset!  He was apologized to by the rough kids and doesn't seem too bothered by it anymore, but those kinds of things make me want to keep him home forever.  I was contemplating just that when I realized that he was alive, totally fine, and had made it through something I would wish to shield him from with perfect resilience.  These are important experiences for us because my reaction plays a big role in how he feels about the situation and so we both learned a lot I think.  Me probably more than him.

Asher is driving us crazy!  School is almost too good for him to the point that he is kind of out of sorts as the weekend wears on.  If we are out at the beach or something he is ok.  At home though, just milling around and watching TV and playing with toys, he becomes impossible.  He and I are always ready for him to get back to his routine of learning activities, and regular naps, and structured schedule come Monday.  This kind of makes me sad, because I want home to be even more enriching for him, but I am pleased that school is where he soars too!  I need to figure out how to make our weekends just as profitable for him so we can all be happy.  This cranky, bored, sleepy Asher come Sunday is not working out for anyone.  My little boy is undeniably progressing in his speech and I couldn't ask for more so I am determined to figure out how to get around his weekend funk.

Thomas is still being his terrific, creative, hard working self and I love him for it because with my mood swings- someone has to be the stable one around here!  He takes care of all of us.  All the time.

I have been too impatient, too out of sorts and cranky, too pregnant in general lately, but everything is progressing as it should.  Six more weeks.  Six more weeks.  We can do it.

Magic.

It's like magic.  You can have a day with a bored five-year-old, cranky three-year-old, over-worked mom and dad and just like that- everyone's in a great mood.










The beach is magic.

we give them something to gawk at

Living in Laie can make you feel like a fish in an aquarium. Tour buses come into our tropical little town a couple times a day to gawk at the natives. Haha. I kid. Actually, they just want to get a view of our gorgeous temple, PCC, and BYU-Hawaii; and since we live a stones throw (if you can throw with great force) from all of these locations we frequently encounter many a bus on our daily jaunts about town.

I actually don't really notice anymore.

It wasn't until yesterday, when I saw a PCC tour bus of several tourists of the Asian and maninland variety rubberneck their way down our street that I realized me and my band of babes were the main attraction.

I even saw a few camera flashes go off.

And it made me come upon a halting, hilarious, incredulous realization: my life is kind of odd to the everyday human. Or is it?

If you consider a barely 26 year old woman, walking down a street lined with towering palm trees, holding a black-eyed scrappy baby on her hip who is absent-mindedly tooting a hot-orange recorder at his high-pitched singing brother, who is sitting in a red wagon full of food for his friends family who just had a new baby a rare sight...

...then yeah, we warrant a few stares and maybe even a camera flash, but what are they gonna need that picture for and what are they gonna see when they finally load their memory card onto their computer two years later (if they're anything like my parents- hehe)?

I bet if they looked back at pictures of themselves as young mothers and fathers they wouldn't see something too different.

We're all just getting through this tiring, hilarious, and exhilarating stage with as much patience and fun as we can... palm trees or not.

nature: my fave

other current faves include:
thomas and his nature photography (see above)
ambrose
asher
birthday weekend extravaganza
ward camp week at the beach
oh yeah, beach
filling my house with tree images (yes, like the one above)
the new bike i'm getting belatedly from my parents and thomas. all i had to do was turn 26.
trying to get organized about teaching my sons (see side bar: mama school)
my friends
essential oils ("balance" and "wild orange" to be exact. makes me feel like a revitalized mother nature. i told you i'm psycho.)
planning our up-coming mainland take over! i mean trip.
a resurgence of mates of state love
a tall glass of cold water with 1/2 a fresh squeezed lemon in the morning
love wherever it is found
sneaking little moments on the computer to keep in touch
the book of mormon
seizing creative moments
lists. obviously.

dear diary,

A couple Thursday thoughts here.

Why does poor Asher have more fevers than anyone I've ever met. Fevers and other yucky stuff since Saturday night. That's right, even on his first birthday. Tragic. We have a urine test being processed right now and hope they can figure it out so we don't have to go back in for the blood one.

Don't get me wrong, I love the extra cuddles this misfortune affords me, but all the day-long lethargy, tears, and all-nighters of keeping nervous, sleepy vigil over my feverish boy are starting to take a toll on the family. And I just want my feisty, happy boy back!

Get better little one.

Ambrose is going stir-crazy too. But! We are going to Disneyland this summer and so I've been piling on the Disney movies via Netflix. How is he supposed to know just how magical Disneyland is if he doesn't know all the characters??? I'm just trying to get my money's worth here.

Have you watched Lady and the Tramp in a while?

Aside from the Siamese cat part making me feel embarrassed for Disney and like apologizing to Asians everywhere, the stylings of the house are AMAZING! I want all the large graphic "arts and crafts movement" (thank you Mel P) wallpaper, tile, and rugs rugs galore. I am well aware that it's just animation. But wow.

I feel the same way about Snow White though. That whole Eastern European vintage cottage in the woods look makes my heart sing. I think I got this from my mom.

I can't really find a good picture example, but you know what I mean right? Quilts, and carved wooden beds, and lots of forest creatures roaming around... and like, this kind of ribbon everywhere:

Anyway, this morning was Bambi and boy is that movie precious. I want the whole soundtrack. Nothing cuter than seeing Asher boy perk up for a few minutes and dance with a silly grin on his face to "drip drip drop little April showers..."

Oh! And society soul mates! Have you started your apron yet? I've gotten as far as realizing that I want to attempt my first made-up-by-myself pattern and improve an existing apron that I have. I love this one:

for it's almost full-body coverage, but want to improve upon it by making sure I can tie it at the waist like I have in the picture AND go to above my chest. When it's tied up now the apron strings go up much higher than my waist, which was cute when I was pregnant, but makes me look awkwardly pregnant now. Not so cute.

So, I searched through my scraps and came up with this:

An old curtain from Ambrose's room in the old house, a tiny scrap of some Japanese fabric I have saved every last shred of that may be just BARELY big enough for the torso part of the apron, some pinstripe denim that I cut out for a baby bag that never was for the waist band, and some olive solid scraps from a backpack I made for the straps around the neck. Oh, and some hippo IKEA fabric scraps from Ambrose's party favors when he turned two for a pocket.

All cut out.

Waiting for me to get the guts to execute my made-up pattern.

I really don't want to mess up so I am just letting them sit there.

Maybe until the night before we all get together at the end of the month.

But hopefully before.

Welp, I think this concludes this long diary post. I don't want to waste all of Asher's nap, but it sure feels good to dwell on something silly for a couple of minutes. I'm gonna go watch those gosh-awful Siamese cats with Ambrose and maybe even eat some more bread from our brand new bread maker!

Shout out to Thomas Robertson for doing some research and buying an affordable, yet awesome one. Did you know this thing can make bread (duh), all kinds of dough, including pasta dough, and jam! Let's hope I don't gain 100lbs. exploring all the options, but I'm excited to get all homemade up in here.

Aloha!

who me?

Yes you Asher! You turn ONE today!? Crazy.

What a fast year with a sweet, handsome, feisty, precious, silly, good good baby.

I feel like we are still getting to know you day by day and you are so patient with us (as your older brother requires a bit more attention)- and we all love you so much!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE ASHER BOY!

Glad I can call you mine forever and ever. You make our whole family so happy!

summer starts now

Today marks the first week of the summer for our family because I don't have to rush off three evenings a week to teach:


My awesome student Nilo sent me these pictures of our last day as a class:



What a beautiful bunch of people! This term was a challenge because everyone except one student was straight out of EIL classes- meaning that this was their first college English class after learning English. They started out the term very insecure and I worried about making sure everyone could understand what I was saying... let alone the readings... let alone writing at the college level.

I think we all learned a lot- me most of all- which makes me so grateful for this semester because I feel better equipped to teach a variety of students now!

I don't know if I will teach again, but it sure has been a fun ride and that is that.

ughh, so far this morning...

Ambrose has woken up by falling out of his bed straight onto the back of his head, cuddled both us of in a mommy/daddy sandwich of soothing consolation, woken up his baby brother with enthusiastic chatter over the Berenstain Bears show, danced around his room to avoid the dreaded morning diaper change, insisted on accompanying me to the bathroom and gabbed my ear off all throughout, begged for breakfast as if I've been starving him these last three years, demanded that he help make oatmeal, poured water all over the stovetop, indignantly eaten raw oats to prove a mysterious point, refused cooked oatmeal after copious amounts of syrup, cinnamon sugar, and green apple were put in, refused plain oatmeal as well, honestly pleaded for plain sugar for breakfast for at least 20 minutes with bouts of screaming and sobbing all throughout--

and then Mama lost it.

And screamed at everyone. Including unsuspecting Daddy who was just trying to wake up and come out to help.

It was ugly.

I blame it on too little sleep and too many demands.

Also, I blame myself.

Now it's Daddy to the rescue! taking both boys out for a drive since the walk I started to prepare for in an effort to distract from the epic disaster that was this morning tragically failed as soon as I erroneously attempted to put sunscreen on the three year olds face.

Daddy's giving me a break, but really I feel awful anyway. I wish he didn't have to.

All kids are different and it's hard being three.

I'm going to use this quiet time to figure out a game plan for being the best mom to Ambrose that I can.

He's clearly a special kid and he clearly has a strong will for a reason and

clearly

he was sent to me for a reason.

I just need to forget what I thought I knew about being a mother and ask the Lord for help in being the mother Ambrose needs.

It feels really good to recognize that.

It's gonna be great even though I'll probably still lose my patience and have to start over from time to time.

He's a strong spirit. I'm excited to see what life has in store for him and eager to help him reach his fullest potential.

Self-pep talk over. I feel better. Ready, set, go!

our slice of paradise

My mom has been asking for these pictures since the first day we brought some boxes up and I never felt like I could post pictures of the new place, because even with all the sewing, sanding, painting, hammering, cleanning, organizing, designing...etc. we have been doing to get the place ready.... there is still so much we want to do!! I don't really think it will ever be "DONE" so here it is for now. I'll post more finished products or hung pictures as they are created and completed. Trust me, we still have more to do, but for all intents and purposes our beautiful, long wished for piece of paradise is ready to show off and WE LOVE LIVING HERE!!!!!

We LOVE it.

It feels like a dream. Or like we are playing house or something.

My poor boys. We hardly get out and do outdoorsy things anymore because I am having WAY TOO MUCH FUN living in my little dream home. It's all so fresh and just so so great.

Did I mention that we love it?

OK. Now it is time for WAY too many pictures. You'll be sorry you asked for them mom. ;)
















And now... I present for your viewing pleasure... way too many photos of my recently organized sewing stuff. I feel very accomplished. HAHA! I do though. I have never had it all OCD fancy like this before and it is AWESOME! Sometimes I go and open it all up and just stare and sigh..... love.


You sure you want me to open that cool clock knob? Once I do, we can never go back to time when you didn't know just how psycho I am.......

AHHHHHH!

PRINTS!

SOLIDS!

AN UNSATISFYINGLY DARK PHOTO OF FELTS, LEATHERS, NETTING, AND UNFINISHED PROJECTS!!!

And here she is:

The sewing cabinet all opened up and lovely. She is still missing cork boards on the inside of the top doors for hanging things on one side, and inspirational whosits and whatsits on the other. Oh, and a cool board with nails to hang my thread on in the back. Right now all my thread is tangled up in a huge bag. That just won't do. But here is what I do have done. Liko, can you spot something awesome that belongs to you in here?










Hey you mongrels. Get outta there.

Yes you. I can still see you. Even with that camo shirt.

Let's move on to the bathroom. Might be my favorite room in the house. I mean, look at it:

Sorry, I'm not very good at this indoor/flash thing. Sure wish Thomas was home to take all of these. Anyway, here's way more than you ever wanted to see of my bathroom:









And now for the little fishes in their life aquatic room. I feel like I want to do a couple more things in here, but here it is so far:

Swim on in friends.




We plan on living here for a while and growing up a little in this house. I like imagining what kind of friendship these two will have over the years. Someday this bed will be bunk beds. Or a trundle. Maybe it'll house three rowdy boys (!?) someday. It's fun when they play nice and I feel like this new space has already made us feel closer as a little family unit.










Ok boys


what else do we need to show them?

the tea cup tray on the little bookshelf?

the new and improved whiteboard... a HUGE upgrade from our old one we had for years that was so small and fell off the fridge sometimes?

Ambrose's second home: aka- the timeout chair? ;)

Asher's just upset that he can't do the dishes by hand. I, on the other hand, am not.














WHEW! If you made it to the end then congrats! I guess I wanted a post that represented the loooong journey it took to actually live in this happy place. Did I sound totally braggy in this post? I really can't help it. I can't. I am so unbelievably excited to live here. We love it! Thanks to my in-laws for helping us live our dreams and letting us design pretty much everything in the house. We love you guys and love being your tenants! We are lucky and I feel so grateful. Big smile on my face. All day. YAHOO!



It's so so good to be home.