Oh... thank you for these... :)
I love my girls

Kai officially starting crawling yesterday! it is so so cute!!
He's transitioning from his crawling to sitting like a pro... and finally went from scooting (the army crawl on the ground) to using his little knees... i think it was the grass i set him on yesterday, I totally knew how to do it earlier, just was getting around fine with his army crawling... He's standing up on everything still... especially my legs... he grabs on with whatever he can ... even his teeth, and pulls himself up... its so funny! he's finally able to kinda get himself down... he looks back down at the ground and carefully lets go and falls back... the kids doesn't realize he can bend his knees... yet.
Oh I love him! We went to Chris's work Christmas party tonight, and he was an angel, despite his persistant earache ... and the girls were crazy wild fun...
Can't wait to the weekend together :)

yay!

Oh baby boy...

He pulled himself up standing today in the crib...  crazy!!   then he fell back when I kinda screamed and he bonked his head...

Earlier today he was chillin in the swing that he is far to large for... then he tipped out of it and whacked the bridge of his nose right in between his eyes..   it's really swollen and red.

He also today went from a crawling position to a sitting one for a little bit...  I swear he is getting big too fast!

He is kinda a little sissy cry baby... always cries when he wakes up from his naps... so then we always get him out and kinda want to love on him and settle him down, but he literally pushes away from us and just wants to go play..   its frustrating!  I miss having cuddly babies.. but it's also awesome cause he's mellow in a way, but a really busy busy boy in another way... always wants to play :)  maybe when he gets older he'll be busy enough to ware Jayden out... we've yet to accomplish that!

Went to the beach today...

Ahhhh!   (sigh)

and I needed it

and bless Kai's heart, he played in the stroller, then fell asleep and I got to play with the girls and take pictures of them.

I love these two pics.. I can see myself, the ocean and the sky in their eyes...  awesome!

6 Months Old

I can't believe my baby is 6 months old.  It seems like he was just a little immobile squirt a few days ago....  darn, time has been sneaking by me....

(first bites of sand :)

My little baby is 6 months old-  as of yesterday

So we made a mad dash at about 5pm to get some pictures in the pretty light on the beach....

  so it was pretty much Kai's first time on the beach, in the sand, mobile and loving it

It was so cute!  He was far to captivated with the sand to look at me and let me get a good picture...  but it was fun and I'll have to do it again soon with Chris's help!

He cut his two bottom teeth in the last week.  He's a monster about it.. he just chews on hard plastic toys until they are through.

He went to the Dr last wednesday and there was still fluid in his ear, then I took him again monday and he had another earache...  this time I asked for Omnicef, a different kind of antibiotic, it seems to be working...   anyway that's not too exciting.. just sad that he's had an earache for about 3 straight months, so we will be seeing the ENT as soon as they can get us in.

I didn't expect this this early, but both Chris and I have had times these last week where we thought we LOST KAI!!  He is so adventurous and seems to have no limits...  He's discovered every part of our little apartment...  he's crawled down our grass hill in front of the apartments, almost to the street...  and he's so funny...  I'm going to call him super scooter... he's crazy!  I tried to move him in his bed last night when he was sleeping and he started his super scooting!  He rocks SO fast and for SO long... its so funny!  I can't even explain it, I need to video him so you can see it... its funny. :)

He's still got this mellow personality, like yesterday he went to one of my lectures and he didn't make a peep- you just sat there, happy playing with his toys...  :)  he's so cute...   he still has these squishy soft puppy-dog cheeks that droop... but then he sees you look at him and he smiles so big, he's got this kinda shy, lovable...  pleasantly surprised smile - i love it:)

We went to the temple Sunday evening...  it was beautiful

Jayden was so funny...  one of the first things she said as we walked into the visitor center was, "Mom, is Jesus going to hug me?"

It was so sweet...  I told her that he wanted to, but he couldn't cause that was just a statue...  little did I know she was not referring to the Christus at all...  she literally thought He was there...   "Where is Jesus Christ?!"  she demanded several times...  these sweet little questions were followed with non-stop climbing, running, full body spasm jolting... and everything else you can think of, as she searched for him.  I told her that she needed to pray about it real hard if she wants to see Jesus.  - add, be good.  (of course... if I can manipulate some behavior out of this, believe me I will)

Jayden asks a lot where Jesus lives.  Especially since she talks about him dying by the bad guys and I tell her, "He Lives"...  so I've tried to explain where...  In heaven with our Heavenly Father...   or I think we've told her that the Temple is his House...  hmmm...  these sweet little, and seemingly simple, gospel topics are often deep, and hard for me to explain to my almost 4 year old.    "Where is Heaven?"  "Where is Jesus?"  "What is heaven?"...   and on and on...  I need some real pointers...  maybe I should grab a Nursery manual and start from the very beginning....  :)

And on Saturday...

Pounders

The beach Saturday was beautiful and rainy and rough...

She looks kinda sad, but she was just having fun with her stick :)

I love my new photo-editing site....  love it!

My cute baby boy....

He's just scooting away, way to fast, and he's starting to sit up pretty good too!

My hair that I have lamented about for a while now... finally got some color in it and I like it a lot more... but its still really really short!!  

This is how I found Chris and Kai the other night after coming home after studying and testing...  they were super passed out and it looked like the fell asleep in the middle of a wrestling match.... and they did... almost literally..  poor Chris, Kai is pretty horrible for him while I'm gone...  :(

thanks honey

Sorry I've been such a downer lately...  all the madness just feels like its been catching up with me and finally i've come crashing down...  I haven't felt depressed hardly at all since we moved here... I finally felt normal... but then this little hurricane happened and i've been all annoying and self-absorbed and self-loathing...  and whining...  gal, why don't you guys just tell me to shut up already....

well...  I'm hopeful that things will be better :)   they'll still be hard, but good too :)  isn't that what life is all about ?

I'm sure it is

Some of our Halloween...

Keira was a princess and Jayden was a pirate :)

Kai was also a pirate for an hour... he even had a mustache and goatee for about 15 minutes :) but it rubbed off 

WOW-- okay people, I will get to talking about my kids and halloween and stuff... but for now, I'm going to talk about...  me

I know- 

not a shocker

So since the semester started one and a half months ago... I have maybe gotten out to exercise twice...  otherwise my days consist of  studying all night, sleeping in as late as possible... going to class, praying for God-sent family nap time... sometimes more class... and then waiting for Chris to get home...  

Meanwhile....

I have developed quite the appetite.

It actually makes tons of sense...  lack of sleep leads to rising cortisol, increased depression, loss of energy...and all of these things lead you to eat more... which creates another nasty cycle of more and more eating for the same amount of satisfaction.

So...  I've gained at LEAST 5LBS...

very depressing....

Anyway, my jogging class started monday...    

one word....

AWESOME!

and three more words...

KICK MY BUTT!

anyway, I had a glorious sunrise struggle ---->  about 1.5 miles running around laie.  

Man can I feel those 5+ extra lbs.

And at the last stretch, I wanted to walk so bad, but I kept thinking about the biggest loser that I watched last night (and every Tuesday night) and thought -  "Don't quit, Don't quit!  If those big people can do it, you definitely can...  mind over body"

so... I made it for that last stretch  

yay for me....

but now begins (AGAIN) the fight for weightloss...  and more than that... just to be healthier again... I need to eat better, eat less, sleep more, exercise more, and take better care of me and then I will better be able to take care of my FAMILY and my STUDIES....

And then let me just say,

I HAVE THE BEST HUSBAND IN THE WORLD!  I'M SO SORRY THAT I SNAGGED HIM UP AND EVERY GIRL CAN'T HAVE THE AWESOME MAN THAT I HAVE... BUT HE IS SO SUPPORTIVE AND LOVING AND PATIENT...  he has helped me so much by taking over so so many of the household stuff and let me go study.  He has done laundry and dishes and takes out the trash and takes care of the kids hours at a time to let me go study at school and take tests and what not...

He's also been running every night and is looking so awesome and it is really motivating to me to see him do it after everything else he does all day.

Love you Chris

k....

so to come... picks of the kiddos for halloween and what we did and what not... :)

Kai still has an ear ache :(  poor guy...

I skipped one class and took Kai to the DR for two hours instead

hopefully this new antibiotic will do the trick, if not, then we will get him some antibiotic shots to hopefully clear it up!

Warning!!  I'm going to vent

k- this semester is seriously kicking my butt.  I am running on no sleep and caffeine every day, and i'm not really making it on that

The last couple of days I've been falling asleep while I'm driving, or sitting in class...  so worst case is I kill us all, and least is that I get embarrassed in front of some college kids....  and I still have not been able to get a nap in - though that's all I want- I want to nap!  so bad.  I want to put my kids down for a nap and lay down with them...  oh that would be heaven.

Last night all the kids were down early- that's cause we had a crazy day stuck in honolulu and waikiki - exhausting really - and so they were blissfully all asleep at 8 or 9..  even Kai... so by the time I was dying, dragging myself across the floor to my bed after midnight... or course that's when Kai decided to get up nearly every hour - meanwhile I have organic chemistry and genetics probability problems taunting me in my "sleep"  ...   then the kids got up before 7...  ooooo, I know that's not a big deal to some, your kids  up at like 6 or something ridiculous...  but oh...  an extra hour of sleep would have been heaven this morning...

So I honestly don't know how to do it today.... I had like 4 assignments to do, and I only got 1 mostly done... then I have a ward activity to do tonight...   so...   I'm needing a miracle today

AND

I have another organic chemistry test i have to take today until monday...  I guess I will be in the library on halloween  fine by me

(see Kai's head is bigger than hers!  I was trying to get a picture of her putting her face up right next to his, but she just wanted to hold him and push on his head, and he was not so happy :(

Love these kids...

Today (or this was yesterday) we tried some good ole fashion kid fun... outside

and it was fun

and I think one of my legs got to get some sun  :)

Jayden as Evil Knievil

Keira's new bike... very exciting stuff

Hop scotch?  sorry- don't know why I filmed these sideways... i should know better than that

And today we got the little guy moving around.... its so funny... wait for his grand finale!

He's so cute!  k- he is just a barfer!  big time!

And he's so cute being as spastic trying to move around, but doesn't have any control... babies are so awesome

And then he's almost there for sitting up by himself.... don't worry, yes, I catch his sweet, squishy little face in my hand...  don't worry, no babies got injured in the making of this clip

And I LOVE LOVE LOVE his little talking to me times!  he's my little love right now :)

Kai is FIVE months old now.  He's a big ole baby :)

He's scooting around everywhere, and starting to protest stuff, and laugh at other stuff, and he's hard to nurse, and he's fun to love and hold and squish.  :)  he's gotten big and mobile WAY TO FAST!

Jayden is practicing for the primary program... she's funny...  they can't get her to say general conference or Thomas S. Monson.  She says it good at home, but all funny and mumbly at church

Keira - i don't know what to say about her... i was trying to say something about each of them... but she's just my same little girl...  I think Kai's face is bigger than hers already..  she's got this tiny little face

Chris- my husband is looking GOOD!  he's been running every night and eating really good and he's lost over 20 lbs in only a few weeks... its amazing!  I need to start working out again...  or else pretty soon he'll weigh less than me and i hate that!

anyway... we have another big week coming up...  another test for Ochem that I have to do well on... and we gave a Ward halloween party that we just threw together for the ward... hope it all gels nicely and I don' t have to stress out too much!  and hopefully we'll all be healthy and happy all week!  

Wish us luck-

and wish Chris luck.. he got some bogus tickets a while back and now is going to court tomorrow for it...  It would be lovely if he doesn't have to pay them... they seriously were BOGUS!!