Hawaii Day Two

Day two consisted of more touring the island and then in the evening we went to a Graduation party for Billy Boy, one of Zach's cousins. The party was huge and there were so many people to meet. Tons of Auntie's,Uncles and cousins that Zach has not seen in years. It was really fun to meet all of Zach's family. The party had Tahitian dancers, a fire dancer, and an Elvis impersonator who was actually one of Zach's cousins. We spent the night enjoying family and watching all the amazing entertainment.

Hawaii Day One

This past weekend I finally got a chance to go to Hawaii and see where my hubby grew up. Zach's Dad flew us out so we could attend a family reunion for his family. Hawaii is as beautiful as I ever imagined. Day one we spent driving around Oahu seeing all the sights. The weather was sunny, then rainy, then overcast but it was all so pretty. I was just in awe of how gorgeous it all was. Natalie was a good little baby and also enjoyed all the things to look at!

Maile-Alexis-Rebecca

Over the past 8 months since Natalie has been born, these three girls have somewhat been neglected on my blog. Every other post is about the new thing Natalie is doing and I realized I don't want to forget what is going on with my big girls so here is a little end of the year (school year) recap. Maile- My big girl. Even though she is only 14 months older than her twin sisters she is much more mature at this point in time. She knows that helping Mommy is a much better idea than going against me and she is my eyes when I am not around. I can count on her to let me know when something is going down. Maile is doing well in school, she is finally getting a little more independent, she has even started walking into the school yard on her own...huge step for her! This year has been really good for her, she has lots of friends who like her even if she hasn't said a word to them all year. She is my super shy girl for sure. Maile loves getting kisses and can eat ice cream by the bucket, preferably chocolate. Maile still sleeps with her doggy and is happy that we moved her bed in with her sisters. Maile is such a sweet girl and I am so proud of her all the time!Alexis- I will always consider Alexis my most passionate child. When she feels an emotion it is never half way. If she is happy she is sweet, kind, helpful, funny and smart. If she is mad, she is knock down drag out mad. She will yell, scream, hit things, sass and be very defiant. No matter what though, we love our Lexi. I can no longer outsmart this girl, nothing gets past my Lexi. She is so ready for school next year we can both hardly wait, I am pretty sure if we get some time away from each other we will enjoy each other's company much more :) Right now Lexi loves to sing and dance, is always hungry and loves to be pretty. She will smile at herself in the mirror and always wants to see her photo after I take it. Love me some Lexi.Rebecca- My talker. She is talking all the time, half the time she is repeating herself because she never listens to my answer or can't hear the answer...that is something we need to look into for sure. Rebecca is my silly girl, my flighty girl, my picky eater, my itty bitty skinny girl and my sleeper girl. Rebecca loves to accessorize and then use extra hand movements to shake all the bling around. She loves to sing, has no censer yet (was practically yelling about the little person we saw at the store the other day), will kick her feet like a baby if she is upset, will be so cute if she is in a good mood and is a pretty good kid for always being sick. She too is ready for school too, she is a pleaser and loves all the teachers and parents at the school already. Becca Boo you are a cutie!

Fun Friday

Yesterday we went to the park to help celebrate a friends birthday and Natalie finally got to hang out with her little buddies. It was so cute seeing all of these little babies together and rather difficult to get them to all look up at once...just want to pinch all that cute baby chub!!Later that afternoon we got to go to Maile's school for the CrAzY CiRcUs. It was pretty fun, we saw all our friends and got to play lots of games. I love watching my kids during these kind of events, they get so excited and their different personalities really come out. Overall we had a busy and very fun day!

Tubes

Natalie got tubes put in her ear yesterday to help alleviate her chronic ear infections. The procedure was pretty short she was in and out in just a few minutes. My Aunt Susan is an RN at the Surgery Center and was able to be our nurse for the morning and that was awesome. Nothing like a little VIP treatment :) Not to mention I got to hang out with her and chat, that's always fun too. Over all Natalie is back to her normal self already, which is a good sign that everything went well. Hopefully now she will get some relief!

8 Months

At 8 months old little Miss Natalie is still a busy little baby. She crawls, climbs, stands and gets into everything. She has been sampaling new food, she loves crunchy stuff and loves when we sneak her some sweet stuff.
Natalie is still not sleeping through the night and still thinks our bed belongs to her but I am hoping that now that she got her tubes in she will be more comfortable.
Natalie is also becoming more social, she like other people besides Mommy and I guess I can share her :) Love that baby girl sooo much!

Zachary's 12th Birthday

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing women in my life who have helped me become the mother I am today. I love each and everyone of you and appreciate all that I have learned by your example!

Easter 2011

Easter this year was really good. Had a wonderful time spending it with my family. Only one thing missing, Church. Really felt a need to get back to church after this weekend. I want my kids to know about our Savior and that Easter is about more than bunnies, eggs and candy. Its been too long. Hope everyone had a great day!

Eggs

Staycation 2011

This past week during spring break my mom decided she would treat the kids to a little staycation. She booked a room at the Red Rock Hotel for two nights and took the kids for a ton of fun. It was so much fun that I couldn't even stay away for long, even though my Mom had also intended it to be a break from the kids for me. The first night was check in, and the room was fabulous! Awesome view, huge comfy beds and not to mention a jacuzzi sized tub! After scouting out the room Mom ran off to school and I took the kids bowling. That was fun but the girls got lazy because they wouldn't let them use the ramp. After bowling it was dinner and hanging out in the room with Grandma and of course the girls had to test out the tub. Lots of fun, best part I got to leave with Natalie and go home!!Day two was super windy so the pool was not that much fun but Grandma and Auntie Sam took all the kids to see the movie Rio , then later after I left with Natalie they all went out to dinner at the buffet. Day three was pool day, the weather was finally nice enough to stay out there longer than a few minutes. We just lounged away while the kiddies got to play in the water. Everyone got to work on their tans and it was a lot of fun visiting with my mom and sisters. The kids are so lucky to have such a giving Grandma, she always thinks of fun things to do with them. I know they will always remember this awesome spring break!!

7 Months

Natalie turned 7 months this Wednesday and we celebrated at the Dr.'s office with a double ear infection. Poor baby girl just can't catch a break. It has been four in a row and now we are headed to an ENT and most likely she will need to have tubes put in her ears. I am not happy about another baby needing to go under anesthsia but if it will prevent her from having more infections or hearing loss it is worth it. Besides the ear issues Natalie is a pretty happy busy 7 month old. She started crawling a few weeks ago and has been exploring her space ever since. Just today she decided that she could stand up next to the stairs. Natalie is still waking up at night and even though she now has her own room, she still ends up with mommy most every night. It is hard to make a sick baby cry it out in her own room and I am a sucker for that baby girl! Other fun things are her finding her voice and yelling all the time, finally getting excited for daddy because she loves how he plays with her and how she loves seeing her siblings. Not so fun things is she has turned into a pincher, that girl gets me behind my arm every time I nurse her! Her fingers are like little tweezers and it hurts!

Super Baby

I am so mad at myself for not running down stairs and grabbing my real camera. Now I all I have are blurry pictures but they are still cute. Natalie's big sisters thought it would be funny to put the cape on her and it was pretty cute. She didn't even care she just wore the thing and went about her busy business.

Surprise Date

Zach asked me to get a babysitter for Monday night and told me he had a surprise date planned. I am not one for surprises, I need details so I know how long we need a sitter, so I know what to wear, ect ect....but after bugging him for a bit and getting no answer I decided to just go with it and let him surprise me even though I was a tiny bit worried we would be spending the evening watching a fight of some sort or some annoying action movie. Turns out Zach got some tickets to see Girls Night Out, a big country shindig that honors the women in country music. It was AmAzInG!! Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood, REBA, The Judds, Vince Gill, Jennifer Nettles, Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton, Sarah Evans..I was in country music heaven AND I got to spend some much needed alone time with the hubbster, something we never get to do. It almost felt like we were dating again. I had a great night and it was the perfect start to another busy week.

LUCKY

I am pretty sure that I am the lucky one here. May not always seem like it but at the end of the day when it is quiet in the house I feel extremely lucky. We had a great St. Patty's Day this year just spending time with friends we are oh so lucky to have!

Six Months Old

We did some fancy pics for Natalie at 6 months but this is just her hanging out everyday. Things I love about her right now are how she touches my face while nursing, she laughs so hard at Maile (only Maile), how she thinks our bed belongs to her, how she is already trying to escape the crib and most of all the slobbery kisses she gives all day long.

Park

We love the park. If everyone is feeling good and the weather is nice, we want to be there for sure.

Quality Time

I spend lots of time with my family, but not all of it is good quality time. What I mean by this is that all 7 of us were together, no kids were fighting, Daddy and Mommy were happy and we just had a good time. With so many attitudes and feelings to contend with on any given day I can assure you this time is hard to come by. It was a great day, we had a really fun lunch, and then came home and worked together to accomplish a task. It was a great day!

Thing 1 and 2

I can say that these two beautiful girls, whom I love so dearly are teaching me a lot about myself. I have never in my entire life been pushed so close to the edge than I have been lately while dealing with them. I can appreciate and am very happy that both of my little twins have such strong wills, but it is not making it easy to parent them. I am hoping that this testing mom stage passes soon and we will find ourselves in calmer waters, but until then I am going to continue to persevere and cherish the moments that are good and continue to better myself in the bad. I took this picture in 2009 and I have always loved it.

Happy 1/2 birthday!

At six months old Natalie is busy as ever. She is now sitting up on her own, she is crawling backwards and rocking on her knees trying so hard to get forward motion. She reaches for Mommy now when she wants me and she is attached to my hip. She is also a great eater, her favorites are Pears, Squash and Bananas and she really doesn't care for apples and peas. Natalie's personality is really shining, she is such a happy baby, that is unless she is getting frustrated at her toys, they sure make her mad especially if they are too big to get in her mouth. I will say it again just how blessed we are to have this little sweetie in our life. Oh and I want to give a shout out to Grandma Liza for taking these beautiful pictures!