Another MONSTER Blog

Okay here's a blog that I started yesterday and am quickly realizing this is going to take me a ridiculous amount of time to type up. I got the beginning and ending done and was working on the middle when I decided I quit. Either I get this up and going or I actually pay attention to my children and get my house in order. The later wins. Instead, I'll just post a batch of pics each day until I'm caught up. Unfortunately this one is really wordy with few pics. The others will be the reverse, I promise!
All right folks; sit back, relax and enjoy because this might take awhile. This post is filled with big news, LOTS of pictures and most likely a whole lot of nonsense from the past two months.
There are two big reasons why I've been AWOL from the blogging scene.

#1. In thanks to my two precious rascals for losing the cord that connects our camera to the computer so I couldn't download pictures. I tore the house apart looking for it then two days ago (after missing for more than a month) the cord was just sitting next to the keyboard like it never went missing. Apparently one of them discovered where they had hidden it and decided to return it to the proper place.

#2. I've been waiting for almost two weeks for Junior to scan/post the tell-tale picture but since he's been really busy with work, I'll just make the announcement without it. As very many of you already know, we've decided our house isn't chatoic enough so we're adding baby #3 on May 24th. We found out the beginning of September but we always like to wait until I go to the Doc's and make sure everything is checking out okay before making the big announcement. But then I got so stinkin sick I didn't even get around to choosing a doctor setting an appointment until recently. Man how I wish I had gone sooner. I went there told them how sick I'd been (losing my lunch 4-7 times a day, constantly tired, horrible headaches etc). They had me start taking a Unisom and 100mg of Vit B6 every night and oh what a difference! I have a lot more energy, rarely get headaches and have only thrown-up like 5 time in almost 3 weeks now. Anyway, until we get the ultrasound pic posted here a few highlights of the pregnancy:
-The gasp I hear from Junior when he saw the pregnancy test I left sitting on the toilet while I took a shower
-Brayden's instant insistence that not only was I have a girl, but her name is Robi (pronounced Row-b. He heard I had a baby in my tummy, and responded as if he already knew and it was no big news at all, "Oh yeah, my sister Robi is in there" and that name has stuck ever since. Don't you worry, boy or girl I will not brand them with that name though I'm afraid he/she already has a nickname that will probably stick for quite awhile.
-Tavita's sheer excitement every time I got sick. Once he realized I was making a run for the bathroom he would run right along with me cheering. If he made it before I did he'd kindly lift the toilet seat for me then stand there wowing, ohhing, and awwing throughout the whole ordeal. If I ever tried to shut him out he'd sit there sobbing like the worst thing in the world had happened to him.
- Me freaking out everytime I realize I'm going to have 3 under the age of 3 (Brayden does turn 4 three months later). Sometimes I just sit back, usually when I feel I've lost control of the two I already have and think, what the heck was I thinking?
All in all, we are very excited for our next addition. We have a girl name already picked out (Junior came up with it when I was barely pregnant with Tavita) but are at a total loss for the boy name. Oh well, we still have 6 months left to figure it out.

Okay, now that the big news is out, here is an update of our lives over the past 2 months. I'll try to use few words and mostly pics so that viewing will take as little time as possible.

Set #1: Brayden Starts Preschool
I joined forces with 5 other moms to do a joy school. When I was first approached about it I thought to myself,"Why not, it'll be fun for Brayden to have the interaction." thinking very little educational good would come of it. Man was I wrong, these ladies are on top of it. We have a curriculum for the whole year planned out, we take turns hosting/teaching each week which means we each only have to teach every 6 weeks. Brayden is always walking around pointing out letters and numbers, singing songs etc. We've deemed it "Funbox Preschool" because there are two HUGE containers that go from house to house. It's 6 crazy little boys (Brayden is the youngest, only 1 other 3 year old) 5 of the 6 who are polynesian so you can imagine the chaos that is created at times but in all it's been great.
Here's his 1st day of school and a field trip to the farm.




To finish of with, here a few funny/memorable moments we didn't snap a picture of:
-General Conference Junior decided it would be good to let the boys ride their bikes upstairs while we watched conference. Brayden was flying around making all kinds of noises and then we hear, "Watch out, here I come". He comes full speed at the stairs and launches of. Obviously he went flying and during one of his escapades outside he had filled the back of his tricycle with dirt and we had an instant dirt pile in our living room. I was laughing to hard to be of any assistance and Brayden just laid on the ground crying. Tavita was delighted to have a dirt pile to play in. It took a little lesson on gravity to explain to Brayden why he can't ride his bike down the stairs.
-Brayden is so excited for Christmas we've had the good majority of our decorations out since the day after Halloween, and yes we are the only house in the neighborhood whose yard is already all light up (See Kaitlin, don't feel so bad about putting your lights up so early).
-Tavita kept climbing the later while we put up Christmas lights, no matter how many times we pulled him down, he climbed right back up. Being the ever attentive parents we are, he made it to the roof line once or twice before we caught him. Apparently he loves to climb but has a fear of heights because as he would climb he'd scrunch his face, close his eyes and turn his head completely to the side as he climbed.
-Brayden has taken me by the hand of a few different occasions and led me into another room saying, "I'm taking you to the temple and we're gonna get married."
-Tavita bringing a diaper and wipes to Junior when he passed gas (sorry if it embarrasses you that I'm sharing that with all hon!)
-Brayden has become obsessed with locking doors and last week he locked Tavita down in our basement. For those of you that don't know the lay out of our house, our basement is a fully equipped apartment that you can rent out, since our upstairs kitchen is not up and going yet, we're still using the kitchen downstairs, and the living room is our office, which is where we keep all of our keys. We NEVER close the door that divides the apartment from the rest of the house. I had taken the boys down to get ready for lunch then ran upstairs to grab something out of our freezer in the garage. Brayden trails close behind and I hear Tavita screaming. I asked Brayden why Tavita was so upset and responds laughing, "because I locked him downstairs" Sure enough the door was locked as was the entry door from outside to the apartment and all the windows down there." I tried picking the lock with bobbi pins and credit cards but with no luck. Our neighbor has a key to our house and brought it over in hopes that we could get in with that, wrong key. I went through a panic stage when I heard him cough and then silence. I kept calling his name and baning on the door as these images of him choking on the other side flashed through my head. I was ready to call 911 when I hear a loud crash and him crying and moving around. No choking, just staying silent while he got into trouble. In the end, Junior and his friend Bradshaw came over tried to pick the lock and shimmy everything imaginable in, but the door has a tight fit. So in the end, after about 1 hr of the ordeal) Bradshaw wound up chipping away about 3 inches of the trim (the skinny strip of wood the door closes against) and popping the door open that way. Tavita was so excited to be free his mouth dropped open and he started jumping up and down. Brayden learned his lessons because he was the one that got to clean up the mess (t.p completely unrolled, hand towel, and pants dipped in the toilet, towels pulled to the ground, trash knocked over, dinner rolls scattered all over the place (each with a bite out of them) etc.)

well now that I've taken a better part of your day, I'm going to bring this to an end with a hope to be better about posting more regularly.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

So, I sat down at the computer for a few minutes while I ate my lunch (about all the computer time I get in a day). I was just about to get up and start dinner when Brayden came downstairs from his nap. I asked him if he wanted to help me make dinner, normally a task he loves. He looks at me still in a daze and croaks out, "I need to finish waking up first." He proceeded to push me back down in the chair, climbed into me lap and fell fast asleep. So here I sit with a to-do list so long I don't even dare to write it down unable to do anything but tinker around on the computer. I guess I should be grateful for the little break.
With Brayden curled up in my lap peacfully sleeping, I started thinking about a little lesson he taught me at the beginning of the month. As you all saw from my last post Labor Day here was cold, rainy, and miserable. Not my definition of a way to celebrate the end of summer. Up in the mountains it was snowing. Brayden and I were driving in the car and I mumbling about how I couldn't believe it was already snowing and how much I hate snow. Brayden innocently injects, "But Mom, Heavenly Father gave us snow and it's beautiful." Instantly humbled, I stopped my complaining and said, "You're right sweetie, it is beautiful isn't it." He responds, "Yeah Mommy it is, I can't wait until Heavenly Father makes it snow down here." It was a great reminder for me to find the good in all things rather than complain.

Several Updates in One

So I have about 5 different posts that I've started over the past 1 1/2 months but haven't posted because I kept waiting to download pictures. Rather than doing several post I thought I'd condense everthing into one post. So here's a little of everything starting from most recent:

-On Saturday we finally did haircuts. All three of the boys were in desperate need. It was a battle and a half getting Brayden to agree to his haircut. He just kept saying, "No, not my curls, I like my curls." At long last we got him to agree to things and he was quite relived to see he still had curls when we were finished. We cut off about an inch but you can hardly tell his hair was so long. Tavita looks so much older (and chubbier) with his new haircut. I started the cutting but Junior had to finsih it because I couldn't get him to sit still. So aside from a little bald spot on the side of is head (opps!) Junior did a great job of doctoring up my mistakes. While we were cutting Tavita's hair Brayden kept saying, "Cut his hair curly Mommy, I want him to have curls." Sorry buddy, we tried but it just didn't happen!

-We entered our hideous kitchen into a Utah's Ugliest Room Competition and are currently one of the finalist. Keep your fingers crossed that this eyesore:

Will soon look like this:

-On Sept 4th my dear hubby turned the big 29 and being the neglectful wife I am I didn't even post anything. Luckily my mom is better than I am and acknowledged it on our family site. I am so grateful for such a great husband! We didn't do anything to big and exciting. Had a nice dinner at home then a major jam session to some MJ, one of his birthday presents (everyone needs him in their collection).


-Dear Uncle Ryan went back to Hawaii at the beggining of the month. The boys were a little lost for a few days after. They kept running into his room hoping he'd be there to wrestle with.



-Yeah, that's right, we had snow on Labor Day, I thought it was an ominous sign of things to come, luckily we've had relatively nice weather since that day.

-On Aug 28th Junior and I used some tickets I won from work to go see Boys II Men! That's right their still alive and kicking! Only three of them are touring now because their bass singer has become disabled from MS but they were still very entertaining. Turned out a couple of our neighbors also had connections so we all went together and had an abolute blast. I couldn't believe how many people turned out for the concert. We got there pretty early and still had to battle for a spot of grass to sit on. They've just released a Motown CD where they do copies of all the classic motown songs, which they performed with some priceless moves. It was great!




-Our good friends/neighbors have started an addition onto their house across from us. The boys absolutely love sitting at the window watching them work. Especially when they were in the digging stage and had all the tractors and backhoes. This phase was about a month ago and Tavita couldn't get enough of it. One day we got back from shopping and Tavita needed a diaper change and Brayden had fallen asleep on the way home. So I figured I'd at least get the diaper off Tavita, put Brayden in bed, grab a diaper and finish up with Tavita. I got Tavita out, cleaned him up and was going to let him run in the nude for a minute. However, due to the draw of the construction he started darting across the street. I brought him back into the garage and started closing the garage door, Tavita kept bending down farther and farther as the door closed so he could watch the construction. I left the door open a crack while I took Brayden upstairs. I came up and Tavita was sprawled out half asleep on the floor while he continued to enjoy the construction across the street.


Well, that about sums up all the blogs I had started over the past while. Hopefully (haha) I'll be better at posting more regularly so I don't have to do any more jumbo blogs.

Our First Set of Stiches (actually staples)

Last Sunday the boys were playing in their jumping castle (Brayden's birthday present). The scene looked much like this and all was peaceful.

Soon, their Uncle Ryan decided to spice things up a little and the scene got a little more precarious.

The boys were having the time of their lives and begged for more and more. and got braver and braver.

It didn't take long before the scene changed dramatically and we were here.

With Brayden's head looking like this.

Now it looks like this.

You would think that getting launched out of the castle, slamming into the hinge of a door and splitting your head open would deter Brayden but oh no. With his head covered in blood and tears running down his face, Brayden was trying to climb off my lap saying, "I want to do that again." When we got back from the doctors, what were the first words out of his mouth? "Mommy, throw me around in the castle." He wasn't at all trumatized by the experience. He thought it was great that instead of going to bed he got to eat a sucker and watch Cars. The don't even use shots to numb you any more. They pour this liquid on and let it sit for 15 min, and walaah no pain. Like any head wound there was a lot of blood and poor Ryan felt horible but all in all, it really wasn't that bad of an injury (only 2 staples, it was a weird cut and they couldn't hold it together with stiches) and Brayden was up and running the next day as if nothing happened.

Happy Birthday Brayden

Here's to the cutest boy in the ward (as voted up at girls camp!)




So, I posted early today about yesterday being our anniversary. Well, on the night of our 1st anniversary I went into labor with the one and only Brayden Kasamu Shum. After a lot of puking and 13 hours of labor, Brayden entered the world 3 years ago today. He has brought us so much joy and laughter in these 3 years, he was truly meant to be the oldest brother in our family. Sometime that boy has wisdom beyond his years and a memory that never ceases to shock us. When we were camping this summer he had taken a little hike down to a river with Junior and the next day was wanting Janessa and I to take him. Niether of us had a clue where to go and he simply said, "Come on follow me" and down the road he went. He led us right to the river no problem. He is our little daredevil in some ways (i.e. water, heights, exploring) but all so conservative in other ways (loud noises, messes etc. He his determined and once he knows what he wants, he follows it. Brayden is destined to become a star one day, he loves movies, pretending, acting and most of all being DRAMATIC. The other day he was crying and through sobs he said, "Mommy, hold me up to the mirror so I can watch myself cry." He is a kind and caring older brother that is always looking out for Tavita. On Tuesday I put them down to sleep and I heard Tavita cry for like 10 seconds and then stop. Later that night I went in to check on them and both boys were in Tavita's crib, intertwined and fast asleep. The next morning I asked Brayden why he slept in Tavita's crib and he looked at me and said, "Mommy, Tavita was sad so I played with him and read him stories. What more could one ask for in a big brother!

4 years and lovin it!

Junior and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary yesterday, and as with most other days, I didn't have time to get on here and give kudos to my wonderful hubby. I know everyone says this but I couldn't have a better husband. He is the perfect match for me, we compliment each other so well. He's always there as a constant symbol of patience and humility. I'm constantly told how lucky I am to have a husband that is so involved with the kids and it's true. I'm always telling him he makes a better mom than I do! It's hard to believe it's already been 4 years but at the same time when I look at all that's happened in these past 4 years (2 kids, a move, a house, 2 trips overseas etc) it's hard to believe it's only been 4 years. I am eternally grateful for the day Junior came into my life and look forward to many more years with him!

Birthday Halabaloo and other adventures

Well, we've had a fun couple of weeks, and as always I've neglected to keep up on posting, I'll try to keep this post as short as I can. I had my birthday on the 24th, and a perk to living in Utah it means that Junior gets the day off of work and there's all sorts of activities going on throughout the weekend. To top it off, my friend Brittany was there for the weekend as well. On the 24th we went to a Pioneer Day Celebration in the park with all sorts of fun activities for the kids. The highlight of that day was the obstacle course. Junior had Tavita and I had Brayden. Brayden tore it up jumping over the fence and through the tires then came time to crawl through the covered wagons, a seemingly easy feat for an almost 3 year-old, however a wrench was thrown into the picture, or should I say a snake. In between the two "wagons" was a big old stuffed snake that couldn't look more fake. Anyway, Brayden was bookin along then suddenly froze in his tracks. He looked at the snake with these huge eyes and dove into the wagon. He sat in there forever with a look of absolute fear and refused to come out for the longest time. I was laughing to hard to do much about the situation. I finally got him out and he quickly made it to the turn around point of the course but on his way back it came time to pass the snake and he once again sought refuge in the wagon and would come out until well after little Tavita and burned through the course. It was an absoulte classic moment, unfortuantely all of us were laughing too hard to capture his face. We also had Brayden's birthday party this past Thursday even though his actual birthday isn't until this Thursday. We invited a few of his friends to join us at the pool (it has slides and all sorts of fun things that spray water)all of which we forgot to take pictures of. Anyway, after the swimmig was done "Captain Brayden" led the other pirates on a treasure hunt through the adjoining park where they found swords, eye patches, hats, tatoos and other pirate loot. After the hunt we had pizza, cake and ice cream, opened presents and had some fierce pirates involved in some killer sword fights. On Friday Junior being the brave man he is took BOTH boys to Father n Sons. They had the time of their lives playing horseshoes and other games, throwing rocks in the creek, exploring and getting DIRTY! I don't know if I've previously mentioned but my brother Ryan is living with us now and has been experiencing the joys of having two energetic little boys in the house. His stuff was constantly being torn into so I told him just to start locking his door, it opens easily with a butter knife. Well the idea worked great for about a week or so but apparently Brayden was quietly observing. Last week Ryan was in changing and Brayden was pounding on the door saying "Uncle Ryan, let me in". Since Ryan was ignoring him Brayden decided to take matters into his own hands, I heard this clinking noise and I come around the corner and there's Brayden, knife in hand, picking the lock. So alas, Ryan once again has no privacy. Luckily he's very patient and the boys love having Uncle around. He has nicknamed Tavita "Stich" claiming he was created soley to destroy. I can't help but to agree with the MANY antics he's constantly pulling. The other day we were all sitting down having dinner and Tavita had escaped upstairs to play. I asked Ryan to go check on him real quick. As he was walking up the stairs he found Tavita standing at the top of the stairs a thing of mayonaise held high above his head (our neighbors had borrowed it and it was sitting on the ledge by the stairs). Ryan tried to stop him but it was too late. Tavita chucked the container down the stairs and it EXPLODED. I wish I got an initial picture but my mind didn't recover from the shock till a few minutes later. The initial scene was this: Tavita at the top of the stairs covered in mayonaise with a look of "uhoh what did I do, I'm definetly in trouble for this one" Ryan part way up the stairs, also covered in mayonaise, completely speachless, and mayonaise splattered everywhere around them. I'm talking all over the stairs, walls, cieling, up over the ledge, all over the carpet the next floor up and to the couch. Luckily we had some kind friends over that helped us with the initial clean up and I spent over 3 hours the next day scrubbing carpet and walls. I kid you not, this boy is into trouble a good 50% of the day, if not more. Often after one of his little antics he takes of running with this mischevious little giggle. Man, I'm in trouble with this one, but he is once cute little monster. Anyway, enough of the novel, I'll let the pics tell the rest.