Halloween Fun

The past little while has been all about Halloween. The boys are so excited for it. Tavita walks around singing his own song of, "Hal, Hal, Hallow, Halloween." Brayden sings endless songs he's learned in preschool and talks non-stop about "spooky things".
On Saturday my parents were visiting so we headed out to the pumpkin patch we went to last year. It's not a big fancy one, an older gentleman runs it and you get to cut the pumpkin yourself. We managed to get there just as a 15-min storm blew in and it was FREEZING. Needless to say it was a very brief visit but got our pumpkins regardless.
Lei Lei selected her pumpkin, err gourd, and decided to accessorize with it!

Brayden cutting his pumpkin of choice

The biggest kid of them all with his pumpkin. He searched everywhere and was so excited to find the "perfect one"

Tavita hacking away to obtain his prize

Monday we decided to get into the Halloween spirit and do some activities. While Junior was at work I helped the boys make handprint spiders. You fold a piece of paper in half trace their four fingers and a bit of the hand on the fold. Cut it out, unfold and you have a spider! The boys loved coloring them and putting them around the house so we had a "spooky house." Brayden even cut a few out on his own.

Then we started in on the dessert, "Ghost in the Graveyard." Use pudding, whip cream, and crushed oreos to make the bottom layer. Sprinkle with more crushed oreos to make the dirt and refrigerate. Decorated some cookies to look like headstones. The boys then put the headstones throughout the "dirt", and added some candy corn and pumpkins. Then we dolloped some whip cream, added eyes and we had our ghost. The boys were so excited to eat it. Only problem is they did so much snacking on candy and cookies while we made it that they couldn't eat more than a bite or two once we served it up. I didn't think I could put my boys on a sugar-overload but I succeeded!

To top the night off we did pumpkin carving. The boys lasted long enough to scrape a few seeds out and do a few cuts on their pumpkins then the rest was left to Junior. I did help on the final one though.
Daddy helping Brayden carve his pumpkin-scarecrow

Mommy helping Tavita with the "Boo" ghost

The finished products


The boys proud of their art. Yes, Tavita is wearing nothing but a jacket. He seems to be going through a bit of a clothing strike at the moment.


We got "spooked" while we were carrying out our festivities. The doorbell rang and we found a paper ghost and some goodies with the instructions to do the same to two other people. Today, the boys and I made some cupcakes with sprinkles and ,you guessed it, canycorn and pumpkins. Yet another sugar-overload, gotta love Halloween time! Tonight Junior took the boys to deliver them and they loved "spooking" their friends.
Today, Wednesday, some friends of ours invited us for a trainride a family in their neighborhood puts on. I have never seen anything like it. The front house is an average house, nothing eye catching. However, you look a little closer and you see there are minature train tracks laid out. We're talking permanent tracks. You walk around the corner and it's a slew of huge gorgeous homes. Apparently the parents (who live in the front house) owned a ton of land behind the house and owned a very successful contracting bussiness. As their kids married, they gave them some of the land and built them a house. The entire familiy lives there and share a pool, tennis court, volleyball court, soccerfield etc. The train tracks work their way around all the houses with little split off so it can go right up to each house. Every year for Halloween the do a haunted train ride and then Polar Express at Christmas. They go ALL out and open it to the public for free.
The boys loved it, Tavita kept asking to go back to the "pumpkin train", but were rather spooked by it at the same time. It's obvious they attract quite a crowd at times because you go through a series of tunnels and tents converted into little spook alleys with areas roped off as if you were waiting in line for a ride at Disneyland. Fortunately we got there before the crowds but the boys managed to get spooked enough. Brayde scares really easily, you can give him just about anything and his imagination will run with it.
We went through the first little tunnel where they had body bags and coffins. Brayden kind of held his breath and walked through choosing not to look at anything. There was a ghostly looking guy standing real still in a coffin and as people walked by he'd try and scare them. Since we had little kids he simply waved. Brayden picked up the pace a bit but Tavita just stopped and waved back. The guy busted up laughing.
We went into the next tent where it was just an open room with the whole zig-zag stand in line thing, except no one was inthere. They had a giant face projected on the wall and a booming voice (kind of like Wizard of Oz). The boys walked in the tent and just froze. I was videoing and tried asking Brayden what was going on. He was too scared to even acknowledge someone was talking to him. Junior told him we were going to have to walk through (note it was still daylight so the face was pretty faded, of all the things I didn't think it would scare the boys). Brayden started walking very hesitantly and when he got to the first turn in the zig-zag, right next to the face) he bolted. We're talking sprinting faster then I knew a 4-year old could run. He ran up and down each zig-zag, pushed his way through the people standing at the exit and kept going. The poor kid was running for his life. Junior had to go after him and bring him back.
Tavita finally got his scare when we were getting to board the train. They had a light show with the intro to "Nightmare Before Christmas" and a flashing jack-o-lantern telling the story. Again, I didn't think it would scare the kids. A lot of the other kids weren't paying attention. All the sudden I hear a wail of "Mommy" Tavita jumped out of his chair and ran to me. I tried telling him it was okay. He pointed to the jack-o-lantern and said, "no, that's not okay." Brayden was so proud he wasn't scared. Funny how somethings that terrify some kids my boys don't blink at but then they are petrified of other things.
In the end the train ride was just spooky enough to make them squeal but not terrify them. It was a lot of fun and I thought it was great the family put on such a fun thing for the community.
The guy who tried to scare Tavita and got a wave in return, out walking about.


The train going past the front house (It's far but we were getting back in the car and thought we'd grab a quick shot between all the cars going by)

I'm glad Halloween provides for so many fun activities while we hide in our houses from the weather outside (it snowed today).

1st foods and my 3 girls???

So I've been lazy and even though Kalei is nearing 5 months I just started her on solids last Wednesday. Neither of my boys would have anything to do with rice cereal, it would come out of their mouths as fast as I put it in. For that reason, we always use poi as a first food for our kids. It's great because it has more sustance to it than rice cereal but it's more basic with no known allergies. So in following suit tasteless, glue-like poi was Kalei's first food. Just like her brothers she LOVED it! I couldn't believe how much she ate, I almost couldn't give it to her fast enough. We're going to have another poi baby on our hands (aka, she's gonna be huge they call the stuff natural steroids) We've added in banana (doesn't care for it too much I think it's too sweet) and apple. She's so cute to watch eat because she always wants her own spoon to "eat" with. She does an excellent job of painting her face before she gets it in her mouth but hey, at least she's attempting to feed herself!

She got sick of waiting for her food.

So you all know this adorable, beautiful girl.


But have you met my other two daughters???

May I present to you Brandy and Talitha!

The other night I was going through a box of girl clothes my aunt had given me. I pulled out a dress and got this impulse to stick it out Tavita. I decided to complete the ensemble with a headband. We could not stop laughing and Tavita was thoroughly enjoying it!
Tavita struttin his stuff


Brayden desperately wanted to join in the fun. He was non-stop laughing and enjoyed being goofy. Should I be concerned my boys enjoy cross-dressing so much?


Kalei's new favorits spot

Tavita and his "sticky poptick"

We were getting ready to go out for the night and the boys knew that meant a fun night with Grandma. Tavita had been eyeing the carmel corn I made all day long and as soon as we said it was movie time he squealed and ran. When he returned he had the bowl and was beaming.
The boy's pet snake

Man, Tavita was heartbroken when we had them let it go a few days later. We explained to him we had to let it go to get food and find his family. He'll randomly say, "snake went bye-bye. Find his dad". It was sooo sad to watch.

memorable moments

I have nothing too big to blog about today and have decided on these days I need to take them time to record the "little things" my kids do. I know it's these fleeting moments that I will look back on and treasure in the future. There are two that stick out in my mind right now.
1. We have recentely transition Kalei from the bassinet to the crib. We held her out as long as we could but she was hitting end to end so Janessa now has the joys of sharing a room with an infant. The transition hasn't been horrible but hasn't been easy either. I think Kalei had become accoustomed to being surrounded on all sides and the crib just feels way to open for her comfort. One night I laid her down and she was fussing a bit but figured she'd fall asleep. I went to take a shower and when I got out I realized she had been screaming the whole time. However, by this point she was starting to wind down so I didn't want to go in and wake her. Sure enough she fell asleep a short time after that. I went in to check on her and found all sorts of things in the crib with her: and extra blanket, her binky, and a nightlight. Apparently Tavita, being the ever concerned brother that he is, was quite bothered listening to his sister suffer. He had brought her all the things he requires for comfort as he's going to sleep. He has a particular blanket he needs every night and though Kalei already had one he found her purple one he has deemed as her "blankie" and given it to her. Though she has a binky she has nothing to do with however, this is Tavita's number one comfort item and obviously thought it'd help her. The nightlight was just thrown in with her, not plugged in obviously, but I guess he thought it's mere presence would help.
It was one of the sweetest things I've ever seen. I never realized how much he truly cared for his sister until that night.

2. Last night for FHE we did some drills on what to do in case of a fire or earthquake. We established the mailbox as the place to meet in case of a fire. We had everyone go to different parts of the house, I acted like a smoke detector, and everyone was supposed to run out the neares exit and meet in our spot. When I made the noise Brayden came tearing down the stairs then crawled to the door (he was factoring in the fact there was going to be smoke). It was quite comical to watch. Once we got to the mailbox we asked what the next step was to which he replied, "Call 911". I had him practice dialing on my phone (didn't push send) then pretend to talk to the firemen. This is how the one sided converssation went:
"Hi fireman, there's a fire in my house, hurry get your truck and come put it out."
I whispered, "you need to give them your address"
He replied, "um, um, sorry fireman I don't know my address but I have a number for you, it's "999399" (an attempt to give my phone number)
We were laughing so hard at his response.
Obviously our next step is to memorize our address and phone numbers as well as register our phones.

Lastly, I love watching these two together. She truly is Daddy's little princess. She adores him and he can get her rolling with laughter. It's so cute!

Pumpkin Patch and Fire Station

So, I've been horrible this past week of keeping to my goal of being a more regualar blogger. It's been insane this past week with getting the primary program ready, preparing the yard for winter, and a whole lot of playing. Anyway, we went on two fun adventures last week.
Monday: Trip to the pumpkin patch with Brayden's preschool
This trip left me with some mixed emotions. It was a lot of fun to see Brayden with his friends and start to put some faces to all the names I'm always hearing. Yet it was a bit of a slap in the face to get there and have Brayden want nothing to do with me. As soon as we showed up he ran of to his friend Makai and was talking to his teacher the whole time. As we went on our little tour I asked Brayden if he wanted to take a picture his response was, "nah, I'm hanging out with Makai," and continued about his business. What?!?! When did I loose my little boy that thought I was the greatest, coolest person in the world? AS we went through the corn maze and I struggled to get our monster stroller through the deep ruts of mud I could hardly hear him off in the distance. Whenever he saw something he thought was cool it was always, "Ms. Katie, come look," not even a glance in my direction. Toward the end he decided he had played with his friends enough and could talked to me again. If he didn't come tearing out of preschool everyday and practically knock me over with his monster hugs I might have a serious complex.
Here are a few pics I was able to get.
Tavita loved the rabbit house but never lasted more than a minute without running out yelling, "stinky poo poo, yuck!"

Brayden and Eliza.

Brayden often tells me on the way home from preschool that when they are in the dance room Eliza always dances with him. "She always holds my hand, it's like she's my girlfriend or something."

Peek-a-boo


Swinging with Makai and Ms. Katie

Most shots I took had to be from a distance like this

Fire Station
One of the local fire station put on an awsome "Fire and Public Safety" day. To say the boys were in heaven was a gross understatment. They had all sorts of activities and demonstrations not to mention free cotton candy and popcorn. When I said we were going Brayden exclaimed, "You mean a real one like the one Curious George goes to?" I told him it was and he danced the whole way there. His only dissapointment of the trip was to find out that not all fire stations have a pole to slide down, and this was one such station. I guess if he chooses to pursue a career in firefighting he's going to have to preview any station before agreeing to work there. Tavita was just in awe the whole time and kept pointing to all the firemen saying, "Fireguy, fireguy." I think one of their favorite highlights was getting in a popcorn fight with a few of the firemen. I was talking to a lady about Emergency Community Response, something that was totally boring to the boys and which happened to be by the popcorn station. Brayden tapped me and said, "That fireman just threw popcorn at us." I mindlessly replied, "then throw it back." (Hey I can't be held responsible for things that come out of my mouth when I'm juggling 3 kids and having a conversation.) Before I knew it both boys were squealing and ducking. I look up to see the firemen doing the same thing on the other side of the table, in fact their squeals might have been higher.
Here's some pics of some of the demos the boys got to do.

The two hottest firemen out there!

I wish I could've captured the difficulty they were having just standing up. The boots went to their thighs so they were falling all over the place. I could hardly stop laughing to take the picture

ONe of the boys absolute favorite treats!


Brayden battling the blaze!


He couldn't quite get it all so Tavita stepped in to help!


The fire demonstration before the flames got big


Then the flames went huge and all the kids took off to escape the intense heat and flames

I had to convince the boys to move closer so I could get a picture

Firemen doing what they do best.


Using the giant ladder hose, the boys thought it was pretty cool to see that spraying over their heads.


Jaws of life demo


Umm...Mom, I'm pretty sure I heard you say something, somewhere about not cutting cars up. Are they allowed to be doing that?


Checking out the ambulance


Learning CPR

Tonight Brayden tried to feel Junior's heart and was concerend he couldn't feel anything. He was quite relieved when he checked his pulse and got something. I was shocked he actually remembered what to do.

Hanging with the fire dog.

Thanks to all the firefighters that provided such a memorable day for my boys!

If you can't beat em, join em!

So as you saw in a previous post my boys have taken to sliding down the stairs. First it was a laundry basket, the other night it was more of flinging themselves down the stairs to see who could bounce around the most. I decided my constantly warning them of broken bones and bloody noses was falling on deaf ears. Rather then continue with another lecture, I busted out the sleeping bags and showed them the proper way to slide down the stairs in order to gain maximum speed. The slick exterior of a sleeping bag provides the ideal sliding surface. They had an absolute blast and it was hillarious watching them. Their little bodies are so light that they start sliding but then are bounced into a sitting position and at times would catipult off the stairs. Needless to say the sleeping bags stay up on the top shelf and there's an understanding that they can only slide down when there's a grown-up helping them. Ever since, they haven't made any other attempts to slide down with any other objects; they just ask for the sleeping bags.
Quick side note, as much as I enjoyed this activity in my younger more spry days, my body took quite the beating trying to demonstrate how it's done. Why did I ever find getting bounced up and down on stairs fun?



After a long day of sliding, Tavita likes to lay back and bust open a cold one.

yes, that is straight lime juice, the kid loves the stuff. I have to keep it up out of his reach in order to save his enamel.

First Foods and Kind words

Kalei had her first taste of solid food today. What was it????

Thank-you Tavita for being such a kind and sharing brother.
Story:
I was trying to get us ready to head out to playgroup. Anytime we go anywhere it's quite an ordeal as I try to find everyone's jackets, socks, and shoes, make sure we have water, diapers, change of clothes etc. Needless to say I'm a little distracted while trying to get out the door. Kalei was playing on her blanket, the boys were playing together as Tavita was walking around with a box of cereal in hand. The boy rarely is without a box of cereal, he could eat it all day. I got the boys ready to head out the door and turned my attention to Kalei.
M: "Alright Lei lei, your turn."
B: "Mommy, she was eating Frosted Flakes."
M: "WHAT?!?!"
B: "Tavita gave them to her, she ate them for awhile but decided she didn't want them and spit them out."
Okay, how could this happen with me no more than 10 feet away. I went over to her and sure enough there were three soggy frosted flakes on her and her blanket. Miracle she didn't choke. So much for holding off on the sweets until she learned to like veggies and what not. Now anything I give her she's gonna spit out and demand some Tony the Tiger.

So Brayden made up for his heartbreaking comment of me looking terrible.
We were dancing in the kitchen last night and he looked up at me and said, "Mommy, you are so beautiful, I'm gonna marry you."
Move over Kalei, you have some competition!

At last!!!

So we FINALLY just got family pics done! Our friend Sanae did them and did an AWESOME job despite some pretty uncooperative kids (they had to pick that day of all days to be stinkers about naps). We had them done at an apple orchard nearby and it was such a pretty location. The boys loved munching on apples in between shots. We saw at least 8 deer. It made the boys day. Unforunately I had the idea of doing pics barefoot and there were stickers EVERYWHERE. The boys never wear shoes and have pretty tough feet but they were dying. With the promise of ice cream and Sanae's mad skills we got some good ones in! Here's a little preview that she did.

The joys of being 2 and a few randoms

So Tavita has been maximizing on the whole two-year old thing. This ranges from the old saying of "terrible twos" (lots of mishcheif and fits), to learning new things (dressing himself, talking more, exploring), to just doing some darn stinkin cute things (he's very excited about his new shoes, was out riding his wiggle rider and scrapping his shoes. I told him he had to lift his feet up while he rode. He proceeded to stick his feet up as far in the air as he could get them to the point of just about falling off and yelled "help, push"). It's like a constant roller coaster of emotions whenever there's a two year old in the house. One day he completely emptied our toilet paper roll, then took off outside with his stick to go hunting (instant frustration to laughter). A little later he got a hold of my gum and was begging for some. I told him no and put it up. A few minutes later I couldn't find him anywhere. I looked all over, finally I opened the door to Janessa's room and saw a big lump in her covers trying hard to lay still (again, do I strangle or laugh? Decision: grab the camera, take some pictures, laugh, then scold). We were BBQing for the missionaries and some friends that night and he kept insisiting on helping me, back on my good sideyet frustrating because he kept licking his finger and sticking it back in the food "I lick, I lick". Just as everyone was supposed to get there I run upstairs to find an empty spray bottle that had been full just minutes earlier. I go on a hunt to find where the contents of the bottle wound up. I found all sorts of stuff piled in Kalie's bassinet and the floor wet between the bassinet and desk. He had put out a candle by dumping the water on it but then proceeded to tear apart a little wood box I had with some pictures in it (3 pics were wet, one of which was a picture of Junior and his brother when they were young and one of our wedding), and fill our cup that had pens, change and a few other odds and ends. Now I'm ready to strangle him. I'm cleaning that up, ran downstairs to get some things to finish the clean up and find Tavita covered in ashes (I had just cleaned the BBQ and had a bucket of ashes sitting next to it) and there were ashes on Kalei and all over the floor. He's sitting there spreading the ashes all over the floor apparently drawing, looks up at me so proud and exclaims, "Look". This kid is knocking on deaths door but I can't be too mad because he really thought he was making a piece of art, no idea what he was doing was wrong. Luckily at that moment, he was "saved by the bell" as our friends showed up. We got everything cleaned up, the pics dried, luckily the only one that was a loss wasn't that important anyway. When I went to check on him before I went to bed and watched him sleep I decided despite all the frustration and work a two-year old is, they are too darn fun and cute not to want around.
Dressing yourself can be so frustrating! Yet he insists on "no help"

Success! They may be on backward but he did it!

The little sneaker!

He so proudly showed me his gum and thought he was home free! Once the camera went down and the lecture started he wasn't so happy. I probably confused him going from laughing to lecturing but I couldn't help it.

Tavita has started a habit of constantly climbing in and out of his crib after we put him down for the night. He always comes with this innocent smile and says "Mommy" in a pathetic tone in hopes of being able to stay up. Little did we know the amount of exploring he does when he get out of bed before he comes down to us. Last night when we went to check on them, we found Jr's phone in with him. Too bad for him he couldn't figure out how to get it out of it's case.

Brotherly Love
Some of my absolute favorite moments in life is watching Brayden and Tavita play together. They are at that fun stage where they're often in their own little world, oblivious to anyone else around them, all they care about is the current adventure they are on. Bryaden has developed an amazing ability to understand Tavita when most of us are struggling to make out much or what he says. Although it's insanity at times, I'm glad these two are close enough in age they can be such good buddies (They'll only be a year apart in school).
Who needs two wiggles. Their new favorite thing is to ride tandem!

We had the fire truck come visit our circle two days in a row. They were checking fire hydrants and the boys were in HEAVEN!

The escapee
As most of you know Kalei has learned the art of rolling over. However, I have been a little slow to always remember to barriacade her when I lay her on the bed. I laid her down for just a second to go grab something from the other room. I came back in and found her wedged between the bed and cedar chest in the upright position. She wsa beaming from ear to ear looking around. You could tell she thougth she was such a big girl. I'm just grateful she got wedged that way instead of coming in and finding two little feet kicking in the air.