this is for my sis

malia is still in fiji without an internet connection of their own which means that we have not been able to talk on skype, yet, since she left at the beginning of the month. however, thanks to facebook, we have chatted a few times while she was either at a friends using their internet or at an internet cafe. i am trying to be patient!

 

she’s been wanting to see a picture of me and my twin belly. i have been waiting for mitch to take a picture of me, but whenever he is home i forget to ask him. so, i took it upon myself to do a self-portrait, mirror shot before i get too far along. i am hoping to take photos every week or at least every two weeks because i am just fascinated to see how quickly and hugely i grow! this whole twin thing has me a little weirded out, but excited at the same time.

 

here i am sunday afternoon right before my nap (a luxury i enjoy EVERY sunday after church). i am 17 weeks + 4 days in this photo:

it’s funny because i was telling my sister how huge i am, yet when i look at myself in this photo i am not nearly as huge as i feel! however, those of you who have experienced any of my previous pregnancies knows that i can go until after my 20 week ultrasound without showing. with this pregnancy i was obviously showing by, at the very latest 14 weeks. it’s like i am 6-7 weeks ahead growth wise! like i said before, it’s kind of a weird thing! so, by those standards, i am huge, but by twins standards i don’t think i’m all that big??

 

i googled twin pregnancy bellies and i got scared for my poor belly! these ladies were mostly 36-39 weeks and they were ginormous! i hurt just looking at them! i showed the girls and they were like, “whoa!” and “ohhh!” it was pretty funny!

 

i went to my first ob appointment today and the doctor (another weird thing because we’ve always had midwives!) was listening to the heartbeats. baby a was head down and baby b was laying across the top of my belly kicking baby a, and i thought, “is this a sign of things to come??” i sure hope not! haha!

 

so, there you go malia! not quite as big as i was telling you.  i am not yet as big as i was at your wedding (6 months with kawena) like i said i was, but just give me a few weeks and i’m sure i will be!

melting

so, i know i have been pretty lame this week since i started posting again. in my defense, i am seriously melting over here in the high desert! as i type my arms are sticking to the table! gross, i know!

 

our swamp cooler is worthless in this humid heat! yesterday it was 84 degrees INSIDE our house with the swamp cooler on high! that means, with my two personal furnaces burning inside me, that i am HOT!! HOT and MISERABLE! the only thing i feel like doing is laying on my bed with my fan blowing full blast at me and napping…. so, that’s what i am going to do!

 

i just checked the weather forecast and we are supposed to cool down by thursday to around 87. so, until then i will be laying around trying to move as little as possible so i don’t over heat! BLAH!!!

 

wishin’ we were here right about now!

   

seeing double

so , i went to the doctor today and can you believe, i was there for 3 hours? with the drive there and back i was gone for almost 4 hours! that’s crazy! i don’t think i’ve ever had a doctors appointment that was that long! thankfully, i had gotten a babysitter instead of dropping the kids off at a friends house because i would have felt bad for the poor soul who had to watch my kiddos for 4 hours and NOT get paid for it! at least i knew the babysitter was getting paid good money and i could be gone as long as i wanted, or needed to be!

 

during my appointment they did a lot of question asking, poking and prodding, checking and scanning and this is what they found:

 

 

i know it’s hard to make anything out on this picture. if it weren’t for the typed explanation you probably wouldn’t have any idea what you were looking at (they were not cooperating when we wanted to get a joint picture). but this one from 6 weeks ago is a bit more obvious and less mistakable:

 

 

now the big question:                what are we having?

 

i’m not saying we will tell, that is still undecided, but if you want to play along it would be fun for us to see what the general consensus is!

 

happy guessing!

i miss her

my little sister is amazing! i love her to bits and pieces! and i don’t know what i will do without her in the states! how will i survive without talking to her on the phone? i can’t just pick up my cell phone and speed dial #5 anymore when i need to talk to her and hear her ever familiar voice!

 

you see, as i mentioned in my last post, she moved to fiji last week! FIJI! as in the middle of the ocean, as in she doesn’t have a cell phone, as in i’m not going to see her in forever (at least that is what it will feel like!)!

 

i know, right! what a great adventure, FOR THEM! what a great opportunity, FOR THEM! how fun to live in fiji, FOR THEM! right??! but what about ME??! i know, selfish, right?? but, hey, she’s my only sister!

 

no, really, i am super excited for her and stuart,  but not so much for me! i’m going to miss her! who am i kidding, i ALREADY miss her!

i loved seeing her while we were in california! it was a short and quick 6 days, but i’m glad that i had that many days with her before they left!

 

i opened this post stating that malia is amazing, do you know why she is amazing?  back in april we flew her out so that mitch and i could go to washington d.c. on a second 10th anniversary trip. and my little sister, who has no kids of her own, became a “single mom” to our 4 girls for 9 days!! now that is what i call BRAVE! not many people would have said yes to that, but she did! she cooked for them, she chauffeured them around to their various activities, she tucked them in bed, she changed diapers, and she bathed them! it was no easy task!! but she survived it! she is amazing!

 

of course, many of you know that she is a talented photographer and while she was here she even took some great candid shots of our girls:

               

               

these were taken at the park.  i just love the last one of mahea in the swing, love the lighting!

 

 

                

               

while we were gone she let them run and play in the sprinklers out back. as you can see they enjoyed having their auntie around! mitch and i sure appreciated her being there too while we were so far away!

 

i know malia and stuart are going to have the time of their life over in fiji, i just wish it didn’t have to be so stinkin’ far away!

 

 

malia, your big sis misses you! i guess i’ll just have to figure out how to adjust to not being able to call you any ole’ time! have so much fun!

 

givin’ it a go, again

so, i know it has been a very, very long time since my last post, but i’ve been thinking a lot lately about this little ole’ blog. it has been sorely neglected since we had our fourth child and i think i am ready to give it a go again. i am not promising anything yet, but i am hoping to start posting more frequently, which won’t be very hard, since i haven’t posted in forever!

 

i have missed the connection i feel with you, my readers, every time you leave a comment. i have also missed all of the memories that i have not been recording. i so enjoy going back and reading my older posts and remembering things that i would have forgotten otherwise. our children are so young and still saying and doing the most entertaining, and sometimes frustrating things, that i like to look back on them. so, if for no other reason than to document them, i will resume writing our story……

 

since it has been such a long time i don’t think i will go back and update, but i will just start from right now, or at least in the past month.

 

we are coming off of a crazy few weeks of summer full of vacationing, visiting with old friends, and a horrible lack of sleep. however, yesterday, a day in pj’s and naps for everyone has helped immensely! i am hoping things will start to return to some sense of normalcy once again, now that we are home in our own surroundings and beds!

 

my dad, amazing as it may seem to those who know him, just celebrated his 70th birthday! this guy here…

 

is 70! you’d never guess it!

 

so, my mom and sister-in-law planned a wonderful birthday bash last month in california. all of the kids were there, something that hasn’t happened for a long time and won’t happen again for a long time since malia and her husband up and moved to fiji last week!! it was such a great time to be together for one last time for who knows how long!

 

for his birthday malia, kawika, mom and i arranged a photo shoot of tutu man’s ohana:

 

 

here are the siblings, kawika, gavan, me, and malia.

i wish that we all lived closer! we had such a great time hanging out, talking story, eating, and playing games.  we never have enough time together!

 

our girls loved playing with their cousins, and, again, seeing them together made me long to live closer. nani and her cousin kele are a year apart and they are like two peas in a pod! they haven’t seen each other for 3 years and as soon as they got together it was like no time had passed!

 

here are the grandkids: kale’a, nani, kele, katrina. in front, mahealani (she was much happier without her dress on, i promise, i didn’t just dress her in a onsie!) and kawena:

we were able to stay in califonia for 2 1/2 weeks! it was great, but i think we stayed about 1/2 a week too long because the girls and i were getting pretty grumpy and ornery! mitch was only able to stay 5 days and then he flew off to work while i stayed with the girls. i was exhausted, to say the least!

 

ohana is the best! it is so important to cherish those relationships we have with our family.  nani reminded everyone while we were there something that stitch said (or was it lilo??), “ohana means family. family means nobody gets left behind!”

 

i love my ohana so much and it was wonderful to all be together last month! wish it could happen more often, but i will take what i can get!

 

love this shot!! can you tell who’s who??