My Boys

So Ka'imi has been stealing the show lately, so I thought I'd post something of my boys. I took some pictures of them today (needing some shots to hang on our walls). Here is a fun one that makes me smile : )

Another short one . . .

. . but it means so much.

My sweet husband is officially ABD.

I am sooooooo proud of him.

filling out

You know how when you take a shirt of a child, it often gets caught a little on their ears? Well today I was giving Ka'imi a bath and her onesie got caught on her cheeks : )

sleeping beauty

I just had to post these pictures of Ka'imi. Yesterday I was editing like crazy, trying to get caught up on my backed up sessions. I was looking at all these babies - cute babies. But then I looked over to the swing right by my computer to see Ka'imi sleeping. She looked so beautiful I had to get up and take some pictures of her. She is filling out nicely : )

The Easter Bunny Got Lost . . .

Another thing to blame on having a new baby . . .
The poor boys missed Easter this year. I've felt so bad as I've seen so many posts on Easter egg hunts, coloring eggs, and spiritual lessons. We did talk about the significance of Easter but did not do anything fun with the boys. We did not do the traditional treasure hunt with a present for them because in a moment of frustration I told the boys they lost this privilege and had to follow through as good parents do. So it passed them by.
On the Monday after Easter the boys had dumped out a bucket of balls while playing. In trying to make cleaning fun, I told them to pretend it was an Easter egg hunt and pick them all up. It was next to pitiful as they were so excited and compared their "baskets full of eggs." I went the next day and bought some leftover eggs and candy (the perk was it was all 50% off). It was only today that we had a chance to let them finally experience the fun.
I'll do better next year. . .

it could happen to anyone . . .

Why have I not been blogging? Not because of a lack of time or things to write about. But because my poor computer was sick. Did I say sick? Actually, it died completely. Thankfully, we had a grace period when we completely backed everything up (If you do not have your computer backed up - go and get an external hard drive and do it now).
The good news is I am up and running, but I am behind editing 7 sessions - so I better take care of my clients before I get this blog caught up. It'll be a great Sunday activity : )
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Show-and-Tell

I kept the boys out of pre-school for a month after I had Ka'imi. Mainly because I was being extra cautious about bringing germs into the house with a brand new baby. This week they finally got to go back. They were so excited. And as part of the return, Kekoa decided to take Ka'imi as his show-and-tell. We dressed her up in this cute outfit and took her to their preschool.
The kids made funny comments like, "Is it a boy or a girl?" and "Is she real?" Kekoa told about how much he loves her and helps me to change her diaper. Then he told about how she makes him laugh. Here is the face Ka'imi gives that makes all of us giggle:

Cute, even with her eyes crossed : ) You can tell she is a lot younger here - the double chin isn't quite there yet. Now days she has better control of her eyes and so she doesn't really make this face anymore. But she still makes us all smile just to see her.

Ka'imi - 1 month

Ka'imi at one month:

• She is a princess for sure. She doesn't like to be jostled in anyway. Like when I walk down the stairs - well, she complains the whole way. My guess is she'll be like her mother and won't do the roller coaster thing.

• She has the best head strength of the 4 as a baby. I can put her down for tummy time and she does a great job. I even let her sleep on her tummy during the day.

• She is a great co-sleeper. One of the things I'd get tired of with my other babies was being a human pacifier. Not with this little girl. When Ka'imi is finished nursing in the middle of the night, she is content to just be by me.

• She loves to be by me - unless she is in a super deep sleep she knows the second I am more than 2 feet away from her and gives her disapproving cry. Makes it hard sometimes.

• (Warning: Excuse the potty talk) She is a very polite pooper. All three of my boys would grunt through the process. Ka'imi just gets really quiet and most of the time you can barely hear her doing her thing.

• She loves to have her hair washed. Not her body though. She screams until she is red, but once I get to her hair she is all calm.

• She is like my other babies and very fussy because of bubbles/gas in her tummy. I feel so bad for her when she looks so uncomfortable. Makes nights a bit of a wrestle as I try to help her get settled enough to sleep. I can't wait for her to out grow it.

• Just like the others, I cannot imagine our family without her. She is a perfect fit and has already stolen everyone's heart.

Tax Day - It makes you want to pull your hair out!

Blame it on just having a child, but today Kyle and I finally did our taxes. We have a guy in SLC so I got the kids ready for an outing. I figure I better dress Ka'imi up in her newborn outfits before she completely out grew them. Here's the darling outfit (it has super annoying buttons though - they are totally not michele-friendly). Before we headed out the door, I remembered I had some laundry in the wash. So, I put Ka'imi down and loaded the dryer. All of a sudden I heard this high-pitched cry. Babies have different cries and I knew right away this one meant pain. So I rushed to her to see what was the matter. I quickly saw that in flinging around her arms she had gotten a hold of the back of her head and was pulling her own hair. To make things worse her grip was so tight I had hard time getting her to let go. I almost had to pull her hair harder to get her fingers pried open. I felt so bad.

The funny thing about this story is if you ever asked my mom to tell you a story about Michele as a baby she would probably tell you about the time when I was found crying because I was pulling my own hair. I guess there are some advantages to being bald as a newborn.

PS. Happy day, we decided today that we are going to use some of the tax return to get my studio finished in the basement :) :)

Easter Weekend

I hate to admit it, but I nearly threw a fit when I found out that Easter weekend was on Conference weekend. I've waited how many years to have an excuse to buy an Easter dress for a little girl? And now that I finally had one we wouldn't be going anywhere to show her off. Yes, I am silly and superficial sometimes. Well, I decided to give her one anyway and we dressed her up and watched conference in our home. I made her this cute outfit from fabric I bought in Hawaii when Kyle and I were only engaged. It was so fun to make and I think she looks gorgeous in it.

Below: My mom bought these shoes before I even knew I was pregnant. Aren't they so cute. The same lady that made them also made her blessing outfit.

Okay. On a more spiritual note - we really enjoyed watching conference. I love partly that we get to just be together as a family with no meetings for Kyle to go to. But I love most of all the spirit that fills our home as we listen to inspired words. I felt like this conference theme was on strengthening the family. The family truly is central to the Plan of Salvation and where we will find our greatest joys. I especially loved Elder Ballard's talk on mother's and daughters. How close that struck home as I held my newborn baby girl.
It was a great weekend.

3 weeks

On a happier note . . .
Here is my Sweet Pea, as I love to call her. I can't believe it has already been three weeks. When I went to take these pictures I noticed she doesn't curl like she use to. Fun to see her grow, but it also makes me a little sad. She really is growing well - weighing in at 9 lbs at her 2 week check-up on Monday. My baby girl is in the 75th percentile when the boys hardly reached average - go figure.
But I love every bit of those 9 lbs. My favorite word to describe her is one first used by a friend of mine. She is exquisite.

I had to add this adorable yawn. Beauty is tiring, my dear . . .

today

So, this morning I decided I would venture to the store to do some shopping. What was I thinking? I think I was a little too over confident in handling 4 kids in public and on my own after only three weeks. Actually, to be fair to myself, I wouldn't have gone if it wasn't for the fact that we didn't have anymore diapers for the older bums (we won't go there right now). So, I loaded up the kids and headed out. I should have turned back the moment parked and said out loud to myself, "What am I doing?" But, bums have to be clean, so I continued on. We didn't even make it into the store without a moment of craziness. If you were a passer-by, you would have heard me say to Kekoa, "Do you want all these people to think mommy is a crazy woman for having all these kids?" It really is impossible when Kekoa decides to be crazy because the other boys just do what he does and then some. We also had a scene in the middle of the road as Sepa refused to get in the cart. Fun.
We made it through the store, but I felt all the stares as people turned their heads to probably guess the ages of my children (I should just have a sign that says, "Five and under"). But we made it through.
The worst part was when we were almost to the van. The boys were finally behaving and holding hands to be safe. I should have had them walk on the inside of the lane, but we were just a few cars down. Then, I saw a fancy new car coming toward us at an uncomfortable speed. So, I had Kekoa squeeze in toward the cart. The bad thing was it upset Sepa and he broke free from their hands. He didn't really almost get hit, but it scared me enough to yell at the boys. And it only added to my long-lived prejudice against idiotic drivers who don't have the common sense to slow down when they see children near. Well . . . now you know why I will not be leaving my house for the next 6 months . . . Not really, it was just a really bad experience . . . and I am going to go eat some icecream . . .