what's the cure??.....

how does a girl who is suffering from periodic insomnia, sluggish tiredness, jiggle body, and just plain old laziness make her life less sluggish, less jiggly, less lazy, and more restful???

 

she gets back to the gym!

 

since my little fertility mishap back in may, june, and july, i have not been able to exercise. i was told to avoid any bouncing or jarring activities to prevent ovarian rupture. so, being the good little patient that i am, and terrified of ovarian rupture (it just sounds painful), i stopped exercising. of course, i fully understand that the doctor did not tell me to STOP exercising all together, but i didn't want to take any chances (i need my ovaries to be functional, or as functional as mine can be!).

 

well, it has been over a month since i have been cleared to get back into the exercise groove and i have done very little! why is it so easy to get out of the habit and so hard to get back into the habit!

 

i will be lazy no more! i am heading back to the gym this week! next week nani will be in school and so i will be able to get back onto a more consistent schedule. so, wish me luck and give me the much needed encouragement as i cure myself of my self destructive tendencies and get up off of my ever increasing largeness of an okole (for those of you not fortunate to be educated in the hawaiian language, that's hawaiian for "butt", a bad word growing up.). plus, i need to use my 40+, paid for, kids club passes before we leave in less than 4 weeks! can't let those go to waste!

 

so, here i go...flab and jiggle be gone!

they miss us too!

check out this cute post by my sister...

i miss....

**the pitter patter of little feet on hardwood floors

**the high squeals of joy from a 22 month old

**the sound of sisters making each other laugh

**the constant happy chatter and singing of a baby in her crib when she is supposed to be going to sleep

**the first glimpse of a groggy faced baby in the morning just as she's waking up

**the three bright smiles i get every morning

**cuddles

**watching the girls wrestle with their daddy

**the outstretched arms of the baby as she looks up at me and says, "hug, hug"

**the sound of little girls chasing each other in the house

**the sweet prayers of our two girls at meals and family prayer

**having our girls remind us to read the scriptures before bed

**watching the girls roller skating for their second time

**the excitement that sprinklers cause

**goodnight kisses

**bear hugs

**hearing nani say, "goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite, see you in the morning, i love you!"

**rocking with the baby before she goes to bed and having her point out all of the features on my face.

**having the baby sing along with me as i rock with her

**naptime

**the baby's breathing heard through the monitor

**nani and lala talking and laughing, and making way too much noise in their rooms after they have been tucked in, when they are supposed to be going to sleep

**the sound of girls playing happily together

**the girls watching out for each other

**the sounds of sharing

**listening to lala talk in her very unique accent AND watching her expressive face while she talks

**little helpful hands

**watching all three girls run to the window screaming with excitement "daddy!" when they hear mitch drive up in the truck after work

**seeing these happy faces everyday (only 2 years older! this is the day after kawena was born and it is the only picture we have of all three girls on mitch's work computer)

we miss you so much girls! be good and have fun with your auntie malia and we will see you soon!

oh what do you do in the summertime?

here is a photo log of some of the activities our girls have enjoyed this summer (that i haven't yet blogged about):

 

 

we love the dimit's backyard with their baby pool and play structure, and now a new trampoline! we've spent many days over there enjoying the sunshine!

 

don't the girls look so cute in their matching swimsuits! i love it!

 

i've always loved pictures of goggle faces! they just make me smile!

 

the girls had their first bowling experience this year while tutu was visiting. they loved it!

 

lala was having a blast until her last bowl when she stepped over the line and ended up flat on her back with the ball on top of her. she didn't like it so much after that! why does that always seem to happen on the last one?!

 

kawena was much too busy chatting on the cell phone with her peeps to be bothered with bowling!

 

and, of course, the sprinklers! somebody's got to water the lawn, right?!

look at her go! she's flyin'!

 

i just love this face! (this picture is so cool to me because if you look close enough in the reflection of lala's eyes, you can actually see me taking the picture!

so amazing the detail that my camera picks up! love it!)

 

 

look at the pure joy on their faces! i love when i capture such great expression in their faces! it's priceless!

 

group hug!

 

 

i don't know why the grumpy face, but i love it!

 

we've had a fun filled summer and i am so happy i was able to capture some of it on film! what activities have your kids enjoyed that you've been able to captured on your camera?

still friends after all of these years!

when we first moved into this ward 8 years ago, the first 3 families that we made friends with were the oberg's, the gold's, and the neilson's. we had no children back then, but were pregnant with nani. the first sunday in relief society the relief society president came up to me and said, "oh you need to meet allison, tonya, and becca!" so, she introduced us and we set a day to get together. from that moment on they became dear friends of ours.

 

however, after several years they each moved out of the ward. allison and tonya just moved within our stake, but becca moved quite a bit further. first to mississippi, then colorado, and now they are in texas. every year since moving they have come back for a visit because becca's parents live here.

 

we always look forward to that visit because, you see, one of nani's first best friends was becca's daughter emi. they spent practically everyday together because becca and i were workout obsessed and we swapped kids at least 2 or 3 times for each of us each week so we could go to the gym. meaning 3 different times for her and 3 different times for me. not only that, every friday night we had a date night swap that involved them, as well! so, our kids saw A LOT of each other during those years! for awhile there i think emi and nani had this "love, hate" relationship going on, but they always wanted to see each other!

 

well, a few weeks ago was this years annual visit. we were able to get caught up with becca and to see her very cute kids. but the highlight of the visit for nani was when emi spent the night!

 

the girls got to stay up late watching curious george while eating popcorn after mommie and daddy went to bed! then, in the morning they were treated to a breakfast of eggs, waffles, smokies, and fruit smoothies. after breakfast, they treated me to sit back and relax while watching a puppet show!

 

now this wasn't just any old puppet show, it was a special puppet show using little stuffed animals, finger puppet's, and bathtub washcloths! doesn't get much better than that! complete with giggles and heads popping up, undecipherable words, and very, should i say, "creative" storylines!

 

 

and, of course, at the end of the puppet show the puppeteers came up for a proud bow!

 

it was such a fun night and day for the girls! we wish it could have lasted longer! before emi left she asked us, "are you guys moving?" i told her we were and she said, "well, i guess i won't see you ever again!" she said it so matter-of-factly that it was quite humorous! i told her that we were actually moving closer and that we would only be 1 state away from them. she liked the sound of that, even though it really doesn't mean that we will see her any more often!

 

no matter where we move, i know that nani will always remember her good friend emi! thanks for spending the night with us, emi!

back on

anybody want to buy a house in the lovely beaverton area? it has beautiful valley views and a gorgeous greenbelt behind, offering privacy and the feeling of a retreat! we have loved this house and will be sad to leave the beautiful trees behind.

 

about a week ago, we were sitting in our breakfast nook,

looking out at the forest of trees beyond our backyard on a quiet saturday morning, and i turned to mitch and said, "i'm going to miss this!"

 

he followed my gaze and asked, "the greenspace?"

 

i replied, all nostalgic, "no... *sigh* the trees!"

we both just laughed because we are trading these gorgeous trees (that is a picture from our back deck) for lots and lots of sand! don't get me wrong i have come to see much beauty in the albuquerque landscape, but there aren't gobs and gobs of trees like we have here!

 

so, if you know anyone who loves trees and the feel of living in a house in the mountains, send them our way because we are officially back on the market! we got the sign

stuck in our front yard yesterday with plenty of flyers for the taking! so, be a pal and find us a buyer! okay?! hey, we'll even pay you a finders fee!!

 

if you want to see the listing go here.

Summer Fun Photo Contest

 

5 minutes for mom is having a summer fun photo contest. go check it out! in searching my photo's i had a hard time deciding which of my photos really SHOWED summer fun. i came across this one of lala jumping into the pool and knew it was the epitome of summer fun for her! look at the pure joy on that little girls face! you know she is just lovin' every minute of it! in looking at this picture i realize that i need to enjoy summer more, like the way that my girls enjoy summer!!

when in rome...

eat like the romans do! when i say this, i am referring to the romans of ancient times. you know way back when they would recline while they ate.

 

well, apparently our youngest daughter has taken to eating like the romans did. all reclined, like, in her chair with her arms behind her head while her servant, namely me, feeds her.

 

 

up until the other day, she has been very insistent on feeding herself. but saturday morning, in the middle of her bowl of hot cereal she stopped feeding herself and assumed this position:

 

mitch and i thought it was the funniest thing. every time she wanted a bite she would open up her mouth like a little baby bird and look in my direction until i filled her mouth with a delicious scoop of oatmeal:

 

man, that's the life, ain it? life's rough when your almost 22 months old!

it's REALLY happening....

after living in oregon for 8 years we are going to say goodbye to the state that we said we would live in for only 5 years! it only took us three years longer to really make it happen! we have loved living in this beautiful, green state, but it is time for us to move on!

 

as many of you close to us know, we have been talking about an impending move for the last, i don't know, has it been 2 years now? you've listened to us as we planned to move to chandler, arizona which was a happy middle ground to be closer to family (mine in orange county, california, mitch's in albuqurque, new mexico).

 

then, we decided we didn't want to be in arizona so mitch took the gmat and we applied to byu to get a second masters for mitch. when he got accepted, we thought about what it would mean for our family. reality finally set in, thank goodness, and we decided we didn't want to be starving students with 3 kids and no income for the next 2 years. so, those plans went out the window!

 

our ultimate goal was to get closer to family (and away from the rain), which seemed like an impossibility! for one, my family is in orange county, california where you need to make more than a small fortune to own a very small home (although that is changing slowly). mitch's parent's live in albuquerque, new mexico, a city that, from the beginning of our marriage, i said i would never live in!  so, you see the problem!

 

as our plans continued to change, the only thing that stayed the same was that we knew we needed to leave oregon! with each passing year, the rain got to us more and more! don't get me wrong, it is gorgeous and green and there are trees everywhere, but we are sun lovin' people. as the rain slowly, drop by drizzly drop, creped into our brains we continued to just crave to be closer to family.

 

for sometime now, mitch has been wanting to make a career change! he has been working as a chemical engineer for intel for the last 8+ years and is fabulous at what he does, but he wants to be his own boss. he doesn't want to work for someone else. we've known that this was not the end all and knew we would be making changes in the near future. he had started looking for a career change within intel to get him closer to his end goal. with patience, the perfect opportunity opened up here in oregon, but like i said before, we wanted to move closer to family! then, he found out that the same position was opening up in albuquerque, as well.

 

well, back in february, for some reason, i began to think about albuquerque quite a bit. it wasn't the horrible city that i had vowed never to live in, instead it became beautiful and i realized and accepted without difficulty that that was where we were supposed to be. so, i casually mentioned to mitch that he should apply for the position in albuquerque. when mitch told his parents that he had applied for a job in albuquerque his mom's reaction was, "but i thought mahina said she'd never live here!" mitch's reply, "i know! i was surprised too!"

 

he applied and we waited. being that it was a construction managing position and he was a chemical engineer, we were unsure if he would even get the position. but after a long wait and many prayers, mitch got the job!

 

so, this time it REALLY is going to happen! we REALLY are going to move, and we REALLY are going to move to the city i said i would never live in, but it feels so right and we know that this is where we are supposed to be for the time being. we are very excited for the move (and for the average 300 days of sunshine per year). of course, it will be very sad and hard to say goodbye to all of our wonderful friends, especially after having 8 years to cultivate such great friendships! but, hey, we've got blogging to keep us close, right!?

 

so, now we are back to the business of putting the house on the market, selling the house, packing up the house, and leaving. thank goodness mitch doesn't start until the end of september. so, we have some time, but i am not naive and i know that the time will fly by and we will be gone before we know it!