Sunday, June 28, 2009

the little girl who loved to sing

 

there once was a girl who loved to pick flowers…

kawena thoughtful

she loved to wander the meadows and find lovely flowers. it made her very happy…

kawenahappy

but as much as she loved picking flowers, there was one thing that she loved even more. that one thing was singing. she loved to sing more than anything else.

 

one day this little girls mom wanted to take some pictures of her in the beautiful meadows of the colorado mountains (aka outside of  grandma great’s cabin). she was very happy to be outside in the meadow full of flowers. her mom thought she could get some beautiful shots of the little girl as she picked flowers. the one thing, however, that the mom didn’t take into consideration was her love for singing. for as she was snapping her photos, the little girl began to sing…

and each time the mom asked her to stop singing for just a moment so she could get some “normal” pictures of the sweet little girl, she would get sad…

kawenanotsingsad

 

so, the mom decided to let her sing…

because that was when the little girl was most happy….

kawena1

and when the little girl was happy….the mom was happy!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

camping in villanueva

last weekend we took our beloved cougar out of hibernation and took him to villanueva for a fun camping adventure! it was our first time camping with mahealani and she was a camping rock star! she made camping with four little ones seem like a breeze! she napped a total of 6 hours the first day, broken up in two naps and then slept through the night the second night!

 

this was our first time camping in new mexico and this campsite was great. it was a short hour and a half drive and there was a little river meandering through the campground! so, before we left we grabbed some inner tubes and life jackets from the store. boy are we glad we did! while mahea was napping we floated down the river as a family:

 

familyfloat

 

familyfloat2

we called it the lazy river because it was so slow and relaxing. apparently, kawena took it literally and fell asleep while floating down it! i tell you, now that that girl doesn’t take naps she can fall asleep just about anywhere!

nanisepia

when did she grow up and start looking so old??

 

as part of the camping trip we celebrated the girl’s counsin, logan’s, 1/2 birthday, a very interesting tradition in their family (i guess you can do that for your child when she’s an only child!)! this is their cousin, a very sober child, with frosting on her mouth:

loganfrostingsepia

she is 2 months younger than kale’a and was celebrating her 5 and 1/2 year birthday!

 

the cupcakes were a big hit with all of the 27 kids there, and a big mess!

kale'acupcake

 

i just love little buns in swimsuits!

kawenabuns

 

 

kawenatube

it was a fun family trip and we are excited for more camping this summer!

 

now we are off to the colorado cabin for the weekend. no internet, no cell reception, just fun relaxation with the family….have a great father’s day, i know we will!

 

i won’t be back online till next week….

 

we need to leave in 30 minutes so i better pack up the car so we can head out……

Monday, June 15, 2009

week 23: sepia toned

 

we had a great weekend camping, of which i will post pictures soon.

 

until then, i captured this gem on our trip and am entering it in the i {heart} faces challenge for this week:

 

kawenacupcakesepia

 

i’ve always thought that kids eating cupcakes make for great photo opportunities. i believe this is because there are few kids who can eat a cupcake without getting frosting on their face.

 

i especially like this one of kawena because you can see that she is anticipating her next bite of frosting deliciousness! i love that i can capture these precious moments and freeze them in time forever!

go check out the other fun entries:

 

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

he can see clearly now….

 

mitch got lasik last friday! woohoo!

no more glasses

no more contacts

no more blurry clock in the middle of the night

no more fogging glasses while doing yard work

no more contact solution

no more feeling for his glasses in the middle of the night when one of the girls needs him

no more contact cases

no more glasses jammed into his face when wrestling with the girls

just 20/15 vision

and lovin’ every minute of it!!

 

 

**i watched the whole procedure…pretty creepy and gross, but apparently (according to mitch) it was worse for him to watch than to actually have it done! all i could think about the whole time was the movie minority report and the creepy doctor who swapped out tom cruises’ eyes!

Friday, June 05, 2009

4 months (over a week late again)

bumbosmile

well, it's that time when i give an update on our growing baby! we took her to her 4 month check-up at the beginning of the week and she is smack dab in the middle of the growth charts:

height: 24.5 inches (50%)

weight: 14 pounds (50%)

head circumference.: 16.5 (60%)

 

mahealani continues to be very laid back and easy going! now she is laughing and smiling a lot! she has much to laugh AT with 3 older and very silly sisters! they love to make funny noises and weird sounds to get a laugh out of their youngest sister.

 

one of mahea's new favorite noises to make is blowing bubbles and going, "pbththth" . it is very cute and slobbery! i think it is soothing to her, as well. she is very slow to get upset. but she will usually give us some warning that she is going to get upset if we don't give her what she wants. she will start fussing a little and then start making that bubble blowing noise. then she will wait, fuss some more, then blow bubbles. she will sometimes do this several times. then, if we don't satisfy her need she will really let us know that she is upset. i think it is funny how she will make that noise to soothe herself before she really let's loose!

 

she also has discovered her fingers/fist and loves to suck on them with an occasional gag!

 

about a month ago she rolled from her tummy to her back. at first i thought it was just some fluke thing. so, i turned her back onto her tummy and immediately she rolled over again. i was surprised because our other girls didn't do that until later. mitch didn't believe me for the longest time, until she did it for him, too!

 

now that she's got the rolling thing down she's moved onto tummy crunches (because a girl can never start to early on getting those washboard abs!!)

crunch

she does several ab workouts a day in search of the perfect tummy!!

 

this month she started waking up 2 to 3 times a night, which was killing me! i needed to break her of that so i let her cry a few times in the middle of the night, but that wasn't working! she just cried and got mad and i'd end up feeding her anyway. so, i just resigned myself to getting up 3 times a night. then, miraculously, last week she went to once a night, just like that! and i'm loving it, except that i am having a bout with insomnia! grrrr!

 

last sunday at church one of the sisters in relief society handed mahealani a small, soft toy and she grabbed it and started playing with it.  i was shocked and decided that i guess it was time to get the baby toys out for her.

 

it's interesting with this fourth child because everything seems to be going by so much faster than with the other three! like the toy thing. i didn't think she was old enough to play with toys because she still seems so little and young to me, but obviously she is ready. with nani, our first, we had introduced solids by now and it seemed to take forever for her to be old enough for solids, but with mahea i still think she is way too young and probably won't give her solids for at least 6 more weeks. did anyone else experience this weird "baby-growing-much-faster-than-her-older-siblings" thing?? i'm curious!

 

we introduced her to her excersaucer last week and a new bumbo (see how happy she is in the first picture in the bumbo). she is loving her new view and perspective, as well as the fun toys!

 

and, lastly, here is a little after bath babble (you'll notice that she never stops moving, that is just how this kid is! she's always either kicking or swinging her arms or both which doesn't surprise me for how active she was in-utero!):