Vita's Birthday, Easter, and a few randoms

Here's a post I started almost a week ago, but here it is nonetheless. Sorry if it's overkill on pictures but with family so far away we try to document A LOT!

Since my surgery I've been slacking pretty bad but I'm finally up and going. Slowly starting to feel some semblance of normalcy in my life so hopefully I'll do better. Here's a catch up of a few things we've done over the past bit.

Tavita's 3rd Birthday
This boy has been talking about his birthday for MONTHS! His birthday was actually yesterday but we had his party on Friday. He was very broad on what theme he wanted for his birthday. He asked for Thomas, Hulk, Basketball and the color pink. We were able to incorporate it all. Thomas was the main theme with a bit of hulk and baketball. We only had a few friends over (couldn't imagine reigning in a huge crowd of 2 and 3 year olds) but it was a lot of fun. As they showed up we decorated bags with train stickers then they headed off to play with train tracks and watch Thomas while the other kids arrived.

We played Pin the 3 on Henry (thanks to Junior's AMAZING artistic ability)

The "Hulk" Relay Race. They had to jump of the building and pop the baloon, blow over the bad guys, and smash through the brick wall. All they cared about was the brick wall, the could have spent all day building the wall and knocking it back over.

Tavita starting the race
We had to incorporate basketball so we shot some coal into the coal tender

Another great perk of the boxes, excellent hiding spots, can you find Spiderman?

After the fun outside we headed in to sing Happy Birthday.

Like I said, Tavita had quite the request of things to include on the cake, but we got them all. I wrote with pink frosting, Thomas theme, Hulk riding on the caboose, and some gummy bears playing basketball. The kids ate and ate, I'm sure all the parents loved me for sending their kids home with enough sugar in them to make them twitch for days!

The gummy bears in an intense game.

After cake we were off for our Easter Egg hunt!

All the leftover boxes made for great hiding spots!

Then the highlight of the day (for Tavita at least) PRESENTS! This kid had Thomas coming out his ears, he was in HEAVEN!

As Junior was cleaning up, he waged war on the kids with the coal.

The aftermath of the cake at the end of the day, the kids at the party made a pretty good dent then my boys continued picking the rest of the day.


Here are a few stats of our Vita:
Weight: 31 lbs
Height: Just under 3ft
Favorites:
color: Pink and Blue
Food: Noodles, Cheese, Cereal, CANDY, CANDY, and CANDY (no surprise)
Characters: Thomas and Hulk (obviously)
Activities: Digging in the dirt with his trucks, visiting Beebee (our nieghbor)
Movie: Diego
Place to Visit: Going with Grandma to the store (huh?)
Thing: His "blue blankie" WILL NOT go to sleep unless he has it
Toy: His trucks
Things he's good at:
-has a great arm on him
-making faces, he has some killer ones
-cooking, always in there helping me
Tavita is always looking for an adventure and loves to explore. Him and Brayden make quite the duo and have a lot of fun together. He's his own man and is not one to be told what to do. He has a heart of gold and is always out to protect his mommy and little sister (even though it's okay for him to bully her, no one else can!) This little boy's HUGE personality really adds a lot of life to our house!

Easter
We had a very relaxing and enjoyable Easter. The Easter Bunny lovingly hid eggs inside and out ready for the kids to have fun in the morning. However, we woke up to quite a surprise; 3 inches of snow on the ground. You couldn't see the majority of the eggs outside. The boys had a blast searching the house for eggs, after those were found they were pretty hesitant to go out and look. Brayden finally braved it, tromping through the snow searching for eggs. Later that afternoon when the snow melted, they returned to the search. Brayden would pick them up, wipe them off and Tavita would toss it in the bag.
The view out the window when we woke up, all the pics from Tavita's party was just 2 days before. Gotta love Utah weather!

At the top of the stairs ready to go!

Tavita scoring a find

Brayden with one of his prizes

LeiLei with her basket

Tavita found his basket in the pantry, his favorite room in the house!

Brayden searced and searched and finally found his under the sink in the mud bath.

Tavita taking a break from huntin to enjoy some of his bounty

The boys with some of their loot. New pj's and watches from Grandma, light sabers and chocolate bunnies from the Easter Bunny

NOTHING can come between Brayden and his eggs!

Tavita thought it was just plain crazy to go tropping around in the snow looking for eggs

Brayden found quite a few, any hidden 3 inches or lower were a lost cause


Since Easter was also Tavita's actual birthday, we did presents that afternoon. After a weekend of pigging out on candy, cake, and more candy, I couldn't bring myself to make any more sweets. We had rootbeef floats instead (leftover from the party) which Tavita was perfectly content with anyway.
Found this at a thrift store and knew I had to get it for Tavita. He LOVES it. When he first saw it he couldn't even speak. We're planning on painting it and sprucing it up a bit. The color Tavita has chosen: A bright pinkish red. Try as I may, I couldn't get him to choose another color. "Sweet Tomato" had him at hello.

He also got a tee and glove so he can start prepping for the pros.

Randoms
The boys worked a long time to fill up a sticker chart and their reward was a trip to Chuck E Cheese. We ate a ton of pizza and played our hears out!
World's 3 cutest kids on a car ride

Hanging with Chuck

Brayden the Dragon Trainer

Watch out for these two!

Tavita the jailbird

Proof my children love each other. Brayden has discovered the joy of carrying Kalei so he usually brings her along to join in the fun. Snapped this after hearing giggling and found the three of them spinning.

I need my beauty sleep!

We've been getting WAY too much of this lately, think we've had more snow storms the past month then we did in December. So much for Spring!

Starting our garden. New this year: Watermelon, canteloupe, pumpkin, cascabella peppers, broccoli and green beans

The perks of being a Dad

I have some pics to catch up on but thought that I'd share our dinner conversation with you all first. Here's how it went:
We were talking about Tavita's upcoming birthaday. He kept insisting that even after he had a birthday he'd still be two. Brayden asked why Tavita wanted to stay 2 and I said "Cause he wants to stay me little boy forever and ever."
Brayden quickly informed me that he wasn't going to stay little but keep growing bigger and bigger. I told him that was fine but he'd still always be my little boy. He said, "Yeah I know. And when I get really big and you're old I'm gonna take care of you." (carryover from another conversation we previously had.)
M: "That's right ( I turn to Jr) Apparently when we get old he'll take care of us and pour us cereal."
B (with a very concerned look):"But, what happens when I keep getting bigger and older and soon we're ALL old. Who's gonna take care of us then."
M: "Well, then your kids will take care of us."
(Brayden is now very confused)
M: "When you grow up you get to be a daddy. Didn't you know that?"
(Now Brayden is giddy from excitment)
B: "I get to be a daddy! I can't wait!!!"
M: "Why can't you wait to be a dad?"
B:" Cause then I get to marry my girlfriend!!"
(Apparently this girlfriend has yet to be decided, he's just very excited to marry her)
Throughout the rest of dinner, Brayden continued to be elated and would burst out with things like:
"I get to go on vacation whenever I want."
"I'm gonna stay up at night and watch movies."
"I'm gonna hang out at my friends house ALL the time."
I finally asked him, "Brayden, who's going to take care of your kids when your off doing all these fun things."
He looked at me like I couldn't be much dumber, "Uhh, you mom. You're gonna be their grandma!" (must admit I was a little impressed he caught on to that)
But of course! That's exactly how parenthood works. THe parents get to run about and play without a care in the world and the grandmas stay home slaving over the kids. Apparently we need to let Grandma do a little more playing when she's here!

9 months, Boys Day Out, nad the Outcast

SO remember a while back when I said I was going to post daily, now it's been almost 2 weeks since I've posted. Oh well, at the very least I tried. Here are a few highlights of what has been going on.
9-months
Last week our little baby hit her 9 month mark. I want to know when she's finally going to listen to me and slow it up a bit. I can't believe how big she already is. It really struck me the other day when I saw her sleeping in Jr's lap. She's really starting to develop into a little person.
Here are her stats at the docs:
Height:20 1/4 (95%)
Weight:19 1/2 (75%)
Head:46 1/2 (95%)
Here are a few highlights about her:
-Favorite Foods: Bread (she's her mama's girl!), peaches, blueberries (still), and SMOOTHIES (she can put a pretty good dent in a full cup)
-Sleeping Habits: On a good day she'll sleep from 7-7 with a short nap in the morning, 1 1/2 in the afternoon and a 20 min nap in the evening. Other days she'll wake up multiple times a night and won't nap. The fickle little girl!
-Falls: Mommy's been the one responsible for most of her falls, all with me sitting right next to her. She's such a wiggle worm that she's gone before I know it. She's taken a few spills off the bed, one into a trash can at the end of her changing table, and yesterday she topped it off by falling down the stairs. I was sitting right next to her folding laundry and she suddenly took 3 quick scoots back. I screamed as her last scoot landed her on the top step. From there she rolled all the way to the bottom. Luckily when she went on to the step it startled her and she barrel-rolled all the way down and she excaped without a single scratch and hardly a cry. It was heart-stopping though
-She has a HUGE personality. This girly is always smiling, laughing and jabbering away. She waves, says mama and dada (is starting to direct it at us) and when asked how big she is she'll stretch her hands up high and exclaim "Dis"
- She's been crawling for a few awhile now but until last week she'd always keep her right foot tucked under her and push with her left foot. She's now crawling "normal" and pulls herself to standing.
- She's dying to join her brothers. Whenever they're off and running she just stares at them with longing eyes and laughs.
Bottom line is we LOVE this girl and are so grateful to have her in our family.


Boys' Day Out
For a long time now I've been feeling the boys were in need of some "baby-free" time. I feel like I'm constantly saying, "Not now, I'm feeding Kalei" or "Shh...LeiLei is sleeping." We decided to take the boys out and let them be as loud and crazy as they wanted with no baby restrictions. We left Lei with our neighbors and headed to "Trafalga" a little fun center here. I had scored a family pass for way cheap so the boys got to totally cut loose. We rode go-carts, mini-golfed, went on a 4-D roller coaster ride, played in the arcade and had some Dippin Dots. The boys had an absolute blast. Brayden let us know for just about every moment we were there. He was constantly jumping up and down, shouting and squealing. Tavita on the other hand stayed stoned-faced for much of it then would occasionaly throw his hands in the air and shout "yeah!" then go back to being expressionless. That kid is hillarious. He had the time of his life, but rarely showed it. The both keep asking when we're going back.
Tavita and Mommy on the go-cart. He sat there completely calm and quietly saying "whoa, whoa."

Brayden and Daddy racing to a finish!

Daddy showing Brayden some skills. Brayden has decided he LOVES to golf!

They had a little trouble gettin it through the little door but refused to let it go underneath, so they may have cheated a bit!

Tavita eventually decided to ditch the club because it was much easier to drop the ball into wherever it was supposed to go!

Daddy struttin his stuff!

Mommy and her mini-club. Note Tavita in the background with a large club. He decided the bigger the better and we traded.

Watch out for the giant shark!

Tavita in his estatic celebration

Everytime Brayden made it in he'd jump up and down celebrating.

Getting ready for the roller coaster

Car Races

Playing Air Hockey

Tavita had a hard time getting the puck so he'd just through his paddle at it

What would a goal be without some celebration!


The Outcast
On Saturday night we had two sets of friends' kids come over for the night. They're all close in age and loved running around in chaos together. There was a lot of laughter and playing to be heard that night. Sadly, Tavita had a fever and his nose looked like this:

So, the poor kid was quarentined to his room with a stack of movies. He kept begging to come down. The only time he got to was for dinner which was torture for him because while the kids were laughing having a good time together, and eating like this:

He had to sit off on the sideline like this (He's there way in the back):

He wasn't too bitter though:

Daddy comforted him the next day since he missed out on all the fun:

He thanked him by puking all over him.

It may appear he decided to cure his illness by cooking himslef some soup:

But really he decided to cure himself by getting in a good workout!

Good news is he's all but better now, but Kalei now has it. We went all winter with no sickness and poor Vita has now been hit 3 times in the past month. NO MORE PLEASE!!!

Hurry Up and Slow Down!

"Hurry Up!"
Those seem to be two of the most said words that come out of my mouth.
"Hurry up and eat your breakfast."
"Hurry up, Kalei is crying."
"Hurry up, it's time for naps."
"Hurry up, we're late."
"Hurry up, we have things to do."
Hurry, hurry hurry.
As adults, especially as parents of young children, we constantly feel the stress of a to-do list a mile long. I find myself having a difficult time focusing (or enjoying as I should be in most cases) the moment at hand because in my mind I'm going through what else I need to be getting done.
This is the exact opposite of how the minds of young children work. They don't care about what else is on the to-do list. They live for the moment. They could spend an hour going out to the mailbox to get the mail. There's the blooming flower to look at, the trail of ants to observe, the rocks to pick-up and throw, the dirt to dig through to look for worms etc.
Over the past few weeks I've found myself wondering how much of their imagination, their zest for life, their desire to learn am I squashing because I'm so worried about making sure the bathrooms are cleaned, the dishes washed, the shopping done. All things that can wait for another time but the moment that I'm hurrying my children through will never come back.
I've had a lot of those "Stand back and realize how much your children have grown" moments. Little things like:
Brayden getting himself a snack and cleaning it up or making his bed and getting himself dressed every morning.
Tavita having grown tall enought to turn the lights on and off on his own.
Kalei sleeping in Junior's lap and church and realizing she no longer fits in the crook of his arm, rather she sprawls across his lap and her feet hit the bench.
Brayden having his days where he just finds his parents so annoying (see previous post) and constantly wanting to be off playing with friends.
Tavita constantly talking about getting bigger and having big susu's (like Daddy's so he can make them dance) or just the fact that he's talking SOOO much now.
Kalei crawling and pulling herself up to stand.
Or the fact the my two boys are starting to rival teenagers with the way they eat (no joke!)
The list could go on and on as to ho many moments over the past few weeks where I just sat back and thought, "Wow, could they really be that big already."
It's at times like these that the words "Hurry Up." are at the very bottom of my list of what I want my kids to do.
I want them to stay young and innocent. Constantly savoring every moment of life rather than hurrying through it to the next tasks. All too often I find myself saying, "Well, today I've got to get this done but tommorrow I'll spend the whold day jsut playing." I realize that those responsibilities still need to be met and I can't spend all my time playing with my kids. However, I've made a renewed goal to keep my kids my #1 priority. Even if it means leaving the floor in desperate need of a mop so I can play superhero and villans.
Then there are the sweet moments that I'm taken back and I realize that they will always be my babies. Like when Brayden lays next to me and plays with my eyebrows (something he's done since he was just a few months old) or when Tavita asks nightly for his blankie he's had since he was a newborn and wants someone to sleep with him. Or the way Brayden will come up and tell me, "Mommy, did you know I love you to the moon and back." Or Tavita will say, "Mommy your cute."
The bottom line is I feel so blessed to be their mother. The 3 of them can make for some real insanity at times. Sometimes I find myself questioning if I can make it through the day without having a total meltdown or wondering if I'm succeeding at all as a mother. Then one of them will do something that will melt my heart (usually something small and insignifcant) and it makes all the stress and work so worth it. I will always be worrying if I'm doing enough, if I'm teaching them enough, if I'm loving them enough. But those little moments make me realize that while I'm far from being the perfect mom, I'm their mom and that seems to be good enough for them so it should be good enough for me.

Anyway, here are some pics from the past few weeks (for when that time comes that they really are all grown up). Brayden and Tavita got hit with a NASTY virus of some kind, it was the 1st time Brayden's been sick since Tavita was born. So we haven't done very much over the past bit.
One of the days when Tavita was so sick he couldn't think straight Junior found him crying and stuck like this. The poor kid couldn't understand why his pants wouldn't go over his head.

Tavita decided to wash the windows for me. Apparently a shoe and some water are the secret ingredients to sparkling clean windows

Princess Kalei her usual smiley self!

Santa bought these flashlights at the dollar store for a quick stocking stuffer. They have been the most loved and used toy ever! I love the nights when I find the boys like this, or when we find them with blankets pulled over their heads and all you see is the glow of flashlights and the sound of a lot of giggling.

Time for Valentine cookies!!!

Adding the sprinkles

Tavita cared far more about eating then decorating

Brayden enjoying his cookie

A finsihed product!

We now have 11 o'clock church which is the WORST schedule in the world for Tavita who is very set on his nap time (how many 2 year-olds do you know who tell you they're ready to sleep). This Sunday at dinner we were in the middle of a conversation and realized Tavita had been quiet for awhile. We looked down to find this:

After 2 1/2 years we're finally getting some decorations up!

Mouthing off with an Imagination

Before I begin I just need to point out that Brayden is normally a very level headed kid and listens surprisingly well. Rarely will he talk back or throw fits. This said, two weeks ago he was on a real roll. We don't know if it's because he had spent the previous day playing with a friend who tends to be pretty disrespectful to his parents, or if he was overtired, or overstressed and felt the need to vent feelings. Whatever it was he was angry at just about everything and was letting us know it. However, instead of the normal yelling and screaming, Brayden decided to throw a little creativity into his attitude. Here's just a few samplings of what we heard that day:
He was upset at me because I wouldn't let him play the DS and told him do something that didn't involve video games or tv.
his response (while waving his hand over his head): "Why don't you just get a bunch of balloons and float away."
Yeah, I was just randomly laughing out loud for days whenever I thought of that because I'm sure Brayden had a very clear picture in his head of me floating off into the sky with a handful of balloons.

Junior had put Brayden into time out for throwing a fit and hitting at him when he tried to go over and talk to him. Junior continued to go upstairs with Tavita for baths but I was around the corner in the kitchen but I don't think Brayden was aware of anyone else around. This is what I heard.
"I'm so angry at Daddy. I'm just gonna leave and go live with some nice pirates."
Apparently the idea of a carefree, pirate life was just what he was in the market for but he didn't go to much for the mean side of pirating.

I was asking Brayden to do something as he was walking down the stairs. He froze, let out a long grunt and said, "That's it, your over."
I asked him what he meant and he yelled, "Your boring days are over! This always telling me what to do, and not to play PBS kids and games. It's over, you're through! Do you understand me, you're through!"
We didn't even have a response to this one. Junior and I just busted up laughing which made him even more upset.

All three of these lines have now become a joke in our home. Brayden laughs along with us. It's days like this that makes me so grateful that Brayden is normally such an easy going kid. He's usually so quick to obey and always very willing to help me out around the house.