The Prom

So... Our beautiful neice Mara went to her senior prom Saturday night. Here she is with her date Chris. We went out to Ontario to "help" her get ready (which really means we just hung out and ate and talked story like we usually do).

Here she is with Cissy and Craig right before we went to drop her off at the limo. So cute!
Love the chucks!
Mara pins Chris's corsage...
The theme of their prom was Masquerade so Mari made the masks using material from her dress that Cissy made! Yes she made it... Mara was channeling an austen-esque look which she did. She looked so beautiful and her dress was amazing. What a proud auntie moment to see this woman that Mara has become. We are proud of you young lady

To cloth? or not to cloth?

So recently (as in this last week) I've been giving more thought to cloth diapering. When Jack was first born, my mother in law Kate, got us a diaper service for 3 months. The diapers were your standard prefolds and covers, the service would come and pick the dirty ones up, launder them and drop clean ones off. Sadly, we gave up quickly (without much effort on my part even *sigh*). We were younger then and both preparing to go back to work outside the home and gave in to Pampers Swaddlers (which I LOVED with Jack)

But since then, a mere four years ago, there have been so many innovations in the world of cloth diapering that makes it easier for your average family to do it. I've decided to give it a try with our little Nohea (No-Hay-Uh). I'm fed up with blow outs (yes, I'm talking good ole breastfed baby poo) and would rather constantly throw diapers in the wash, that are supposed to be that dirty, than continue risking all her cute clothes. We've tried several society trusted brands and have still been pretty dissapointed. They say no two babies are the same and boy do "they" mean it!
So I've purchased three Bumgenius 3.0 pocket diapers...
in blossom, grasshopper and moonbeam (aren't the colors SOO cute?) to try it out and see how it goes. I'm dreaming of what to do with the money that we'll save in the long run not having to buy disposables. Please let this work, for the sake of the environment and for the sake of my pocket book ;)

Looking at our situation now, with Nohea (No-Hay-Uh [ya heard me... it's just that some don't know how it's pronounced]) we've really developed our own parenting style that works for us. We both are able to mostly work from home, we both get to spend a lot of quality time with each of our children and with eachother, we both know that many things (especially when it comes to baby) are beyond our direct control and have learned how to go with the flow, something that was really difficult when we had our first baby. My mom says I'm a lot more relaxed with her than I was with Jack even though she's more high maintenance at times, but hey what girl isn't? LOL... We're pretty attachment style if someone really needed to classify it.
We exclusively breastfeed, semi co-sleep (she's in her crib for the first 4 or 5 hours and then snuggles up next to mom where she enjoys unrestricted night time nursing... thank goodness i finally figured out how to nurse lying down, it really helps with the daytime zombie look that i was sporting before) babywear, she LOVES her sling...
especially with daddy (yes, he's my perfect man and will laugh that this pic is on the internet)

don't believe in letting little babies CIO (cry it out) and see her crying as a form of communication, not manipulation...("Mama, I am hungry!")

seems cloth diapering would naturally fit in . Who'd have thought we'd turn out so tree huggin' and crunchy? I like it. We'll see how it all works out. Here's hoping!

Mortenson, Major and Jack.

For the past few months, we've had this pair of missionaries, Elder Mortenson and Elder Major. They stop by occasionally to see my parents and it seemed, started stopping by even when they weren't home. Now we're all for feeding these boys that are away from home and their mamas, Robert likes to offer them a coke, like it's some big deal (they never accept). Rob asks that they keep their "preaching to a minimum" and will chat these guys up about home and their families. So when Elder Mortenson and Elder Major started dropping by more frequently, we were both a little thrown off... until we realized that they were coming by to visit the coolest kid, Jack. Probably once every week or two (depending on where their previous appointments were) the missionaries would stop by before riding home and visit with us for a half hour or so. Funny how they always seem to show up around dessert time ;) or it could just be that as a mom, I've got this instinct to feed them...

As soon as any Elder walks through the door, Jack runs off to his room to get enough artillery for all of them and himself out of his weapons drawer. (yes, my kid has a weapons drawer and another on for ammo.) There have been times that I've said "NO NERF!" cuz I'm over finding little orange darts EVERYWHERE... At which point, my resourceful son comes out with pirate swords, daggers, Indiana Jones whip and the occasional rocket launcher (seeing as the foam rocket is yellow and not orange so according to Jack "it's not even Nerf mom").


They shoot eachother and play for a while in brother/uncle mode (both elders are the third of four brothers at home) before getting back to Missionary mode. Elder Major (on the right) was just transferred out of my parent's ward last week. Jack is definitely going to miss him. He goes home in November while Elder Mortenson is out for a little more than a year still. Funny how some missionary memories will stick with us always. These are guys that Jack's always going to remember.

Blessing Day

Sunday was a beautiful day at our house. Neither Robert or my self are actively involved in any church but I was raised LDS. We had Jack blessed in my parent's ward when he was two months in the the typical fashion, with three other babies on Fast Sunday during Sacrament meeting. We'd invited all of our (non church) family and after the blessing was over, Robert and I had to leave to get the lasagna's out of the oven so that we'd have food to eat when everyone came over after church... Well, the WHOLE fam got up to leave, eek. What a memory but I really didn't want to go through all of that again. I did some looking around online and found that there should be nothing wrong with blessing a baby at home. In fact, a lot of people did that because it was more personal and not to mention comfortable for people who were unfamiliar with all of the ceremony that happens in the chapel on Sunday. I wasn't sure when we'd do it and Robert was really leaving things up to me since he knows that it was something important to me. I wanted to do it because we'd done it for Jack and I'd been blessed as a baby.

My mom told me that she'd signed up to have the missionaries over for dinner on Easter Sunday, not realizing that it was Easter. Our original plans for the day were to go to the Rennisance Faire since we weren't hosting our annual Brunch and Egg Hunt. Well, our plans changed. The Imbachs were going to come down from Ontario and the Elders would be here for dinner, it seemed like we'd have just the right amount of Priesthood to handle blessing my baby. So we prepared enough food to be worthy of a Holiday dinner, feeding missionaries and celebrating a blessing all in one.

We of course wanted to invite family and friends to share this special day with us. Since there were going to be a few kiddos, I thought we couldn't have them all over on Easter without doing an egg hunt. I had wanted to do one for Jack anyway. It turned out that we had 6 little ones hunting eggs,
6 hungry missionaries, (Elder Majors and Elder Mortenson in the midde, come over to play with Jack on occasion)
3 grandmas, 1 great grandma, 6 aunties, 4 uncles, 1 tutu and a papa, 2 family friends, Robert, myself, and Nohea here Sunday afternoon... it was a house full of love needless to say.
The munchkins hunted for eggs, at the impromptu egg hunt, that we'd dyed that morning and plastic ones that Brina and Maga helped fill the afternoon before. After they all scored and were counting their jellybeans and quarters, we all gathered under the Gazebo in the backyard as Uncle Craig blessed baby Nohea.
She smiled and cooed during the whole thing as Jack had done when Tutu gave him his blessing 4 years ago. She wore the same dress that I wore when I was blessed more than 25 years ago... and that Brina had worn for her own blessing 20 years ago. It was such an amazing experience to share with my baby girl. Her blessing was beautiful and I couldn't have asked for anything better. After a dinner of Ham, Cheesy "Mormon" Potatoes, Mac and Cheese, "Kitchen Sink" salad and fruit and veggie munchies, we visited, played some catchprashe and listened as kiddos giggled and bounced around on the trampoline. I love my family.

shots and shave ice

So Nohea is now two months old! She went for her two month check up and had to get shots on Wednesday :/ She did alright though. Since we were at Kaiser, Jack needed to get a TB test so that he can start preschool. They always have a shot nurse on duty so we didn't even have to make an appointment. After the little miss got settled in and calmed down nursing, we made our way to the other peds office. I stayed in the waiting room while Jack went in with Dad, apparantly I give my poor child anxiety. I try not to but tried to take the approach of letting him know what was happening and why as opposed to getting ambushed at the Dr's office like when I was little. Well, that seems to only get him worked up. He doesn't quite freak but his poor little armpits start sweating and he gets little sweat beads on his nose... Darn mama. Well, Dad gave Jack his sunglasses (for bravery of course) and he was a trooper. He also had to get the second half of his Chicken Pox vaccine and asked to have it in the arm (where he could see it!) instead of the leg. Of course he did just fine :)
All this bravery deserved a treat lunch so we went to Teri Hawaii in Gardena for Saimin Noodles and a tropical shave ice with ice cream in the bottom! They were good kids all in all.

I also did my very first hula show of the season and post baby! Cissy and I gave hula lessons at a birthday party in San Pedro and because I'm still nursing the baby, she came and hung out with Daddy and Uncle Craig... They say she hollared for 45 minutes but by the time they picked us back up, she was sleeping like and angel (in the car seat that she doesn't seem to loathe as much anymore!). In all the hullaballoo, I didn't get a chance to take any pictures of us all dressed up in our mu'u mu'us. Next time :)

Tommy (Robert's dad) is touring with the show Dinosaurs and they're in Bakersfield tonight. Robert and Jack are going to see the show! He's excited to see Grandpa and take a trip with his dad. I wanted to go but am not quite brave enough to face 2 1/2 hours each way with a potentially pissed off baby ;)

We normally host an Easter Brunch at our house but aren't this year as we're still adjusting to the little miss. Instead, we'll be blessing her here at the house Sunday afternoon. I'll be sure to blog and post pictures about that special day!

seven, braves, and boats

Well, the baby is seven weeks old today! She's been great, hates her car seat thus far (we've put far less miles on the Outlook this past month), she gets pretty gassy :/ but adores her baths!

Jack Jack played his opening day T-ball game on March 7th. They had a pancake breakfast and a parade. All the little guys looked SOO cute in their uniforms. He's had two games a week since then and is really enjoying himself. We're enjoying it too, it's our first "team" sport and Rob's having fun helping out as an assistant coach. We're making new friends and so is Jack.
He's getting ready to start pre-school next month. Even though it's mid year, I think he'll really benefit from hanging out with kids his own age. He'll be off for the summer and then start pre-k in the fall. Jack's being a great big brother, he helps give Nohea her pacifier and get's diapers and wipes for Mom and Dad when we're changing her. He's our handwashing monitor and does an AWESOME job at it. He's such a big helper and we're so proud of him.

Robert got quite the family present last week. A 20ft '94 teal maxum ski boat! We're excited to take it out on the water and are really looking forward to the coming summer. What fun!

Baby Love

We are home! Enjoying the new love bug, Nohea Maraea Kapuaililani. She made her debut Wednesday night after a 12 hour labor, which is about half the time that I labored with Jack. We're resting and getting to know eachother for now. She's beautiful and we'll definitely be sending out birth announcements when things settle down a bit. Until then :)

Baby Day!

Well... after trying all we could to get this baby to come on her own, she's made it clear she's quite content being carried around by Mama in the womb.
We're headed to the hospital this morning to be induced at 8am. I'm a little nervous but more excited than anything else. I can't wait to meet her.
Auntie Cissy picked up Jack yesterday afternoon and he went to spend the night in Ontario. When we called to say Good Night last night, I asked if he was going to come to the hospital today to meet his new baby. He said, "Yup, but I don't want to hold her if she's bloody". I assured him that she'd be nice and clean when he got there. He's got his Big Brother shirt all ready to wear to the hospital (so they know who he is, he says).
I was up at 5 this morning, unable to sleep because of the anticipation. It is nice to have had the time to shower and do my hair and put on a little make up ;)
Anywho... gonna go get a Jamba Juice and have ourselves a baby. By the next post, our family will have grown by one!
Much Love <3