Parker turned 1!

My sweet baby boy turned 1 on Friday, March 25. So here is to my Parker.

Oh my! Little Handsome, you are 1! You are a complete mess. You love to climb on anything and everything. So happy almost all the time. But you don't let us forget to feed you! And what is that baby food crap? You want absolutely nothing to do with it. You are a big boy with 8 teeth...so you need some real food! Or so you think. ;) Some of your favorites are bananas, nutra-grain bars, mandarin oranges and anything mommy is eating.

You LOVE your brothers. You like to play cars with them, cuddle with them and just about anything else with them. They adore you. Blake tells me all the time that you are getting too big and he just wants our Parker to stay little.

You are such a little stinker. You have said momma 3 times...thats it. You refuse to say it. When asked...you just wrinkle that little nose and smile. That is mommy's favorite face though, so it makes up for it. :) You really aren't much of a talker. You have your own Parker language that suits you just fine. You clap, wave bye-bye, stack 2 blocks (no more because you HAVE to knock them down), walk, run, climb up and down.

Some of your favorite things include cars, climbing, playing in the sand, and most of all...Gordon. You have to have Gordon. If you are sleepy or feeling under the weather, cuddling with Gordon makes everything better. You are also very much a momma's boy! You follow me around the house. Wherever I am, you are with me or close by playing. You love to help cook by emptying the cabinets.

All in all you are simply amazing. You make me smile over and over everyday. You are now 1 but even when you are 50...you will still be momma's baby. :) I love you Handsome.

Exciting week!

Everyone knows it is coming. The blog about the Tsunami. :) I will start off by saying that I am not one that worries about weather or natural disasters. There is nothing you can do to control it, so just get ready and go with it. It was just as we were putting the boys to bed that we heard we were under a watch. Shortly after, it was changed to a warning. The sirens starting going off and they started evacuating the coast. They evacuated a 1/2 mile inward depending on where you are on the island. We are about 3 miles in so we stayed put. It was so odd to be preparing for something with no real warning. Storms don't start first or even wind. You are just waiting for this huge wave to wash everything away and then go back to being calm after the surges are over. With it being at night and not very many points through the ocean to monitor size, they had no idea how big the waves would be. I stayed up most of the night watching progress on the news. It fascinated me. I didn't know very much about tsunamis before so it was an exciting learning experience. Ben and that boys snoozed away! We were very lucky that it didn't amount to much. Oahu didn't suffer any damage at all. Just a lot of panicked residents and tourists and A LOT of tired people. My heart goes out to Japan.

Next big change...Parker. Oh my goodness, this child amazes and scares me. He won't be a year until later this month. the child already pulls himself up onto the couch and then continues to climb onto the back of it. Then to get down he falls back to the sitting part of the couch and then dives head first to the floor and flipping. CRAZY child! He will be the one that we find on top of the frig. Everyday he is doing something new and showing more personality. He loves to make you smile and laugh. He has also starting eating solid foods. Loves bananas, green beans and carrots. He still gets formula at night and first thing when he wakes up. Throughout the day we have started to introduce milk. Only 2 more weeks and my baby will be one!

I am starting to feel more at home here. Starting making some friends and found a couple activity groups. I have joined "Active Moms" and "Military Moms". Both groups just meet up for various activities for the kids with an occasional moms only activity. We have something planned Tuesday and the following Wednesday. I am so excited to start getting out and making friends. I took the boys to the beach Thursday with a friend and her little girl. We had a great time. She was the one who thought it was a good idea to torture me with spin class yesterday too. Ugh! This afternoon we are going to the beach with her and a group of her friends. The boys are so excited to hang out with her son.

Speaking of spin class, I am officially announcing my plan to get into shape! They say that the more people who know of your goals...the more likely you are to stick to it. So my goal is to shed 10-15 lbs and tone up. I am not a hardcore dieter but I am going to cut back on dessert, portions and soda, and drink more water. I will be exercising  a lot more. Spin yesterday and a run this morning. Off to a good start!

Less than 2 weeks and Linda and Kenzie will be here! And my kitty, Monster, too! :) Can't wait!

Day with Sarah and Parker's 1st haircut!

Thursday night we had some pretty crazy storms. There is only one road into Ewa Beach. Along the way in a tree feel onto the power lines. This started a ripple effect and snapped 1-15 poles. The whole town was out of power for almost 24 hours. Luckily we had a wonderful reason to be gone all day. Ben's cousin Sarah is on the island visiting a friend of hers. She is on the Kanoheo side, which happens to be one of my favorite areas. So pretty. We went over there and took her out for lunch and then hung out at the beach. I rained for the first 10 minutes we were there. This worked out in our favor though because everyone else left. We had the beach almost to our selves. :) Then we noticed down the beach there was a group with a bunch of lighting props. There was a guy directing people around the area so that no one would walked by the group. Nosey me finally went to talk to him to find out what was going on. They were filming Hawaii Five-0. I may have to start watching the show now. :)

It was great finally getting to meet Sarah. They live in Washington State, so Ben hadn't seen her since they were little. I met her Dad when Ben and I were dating but never had the chance to meet the rest of the family. Hopefully we get a chance to go to Washington soon.

My sweet baby Parker got his 1st haircut yesterday . :( This makes mommy really sad. My little man is growing up too fast. Just a few more weeks and I will never have a baby again. :'( He did so good! Never shed a tear and sat fairly still. Funny that after the baby crazy curls are gone, you wonder what took you so long to cut them! He looks so cute!

Some of the same...

No big adventures lately :( Ben has been working a lot. On his days off it has been nice to just relax. We have started Mommy and Daddy days. Every month, Blake and Hunter will get an afternoon out with just Daddy and another afternoon our with just Mommy. I felt this was important especially for Hunter. In fact, the idea came to me when I was talking to Hunter after he had gotten into trouble. It dawned on me that the only time I spend just talking to him is for school or when he is being scolded. He needs some more positive face time with mom. :) Saturday I let Hunter decide what to do. We ended up going to the park. We played soccer, football, raced up the slides and just had a grand time. He actually decided he was hot, tired and hungry before I did! He then picked our eating place...Taco Bell. Yum! After we had lunch we tried out the Orange Groove. It is a frozen yogurt place that I know highly recommend. It was a great afternoon. He is such an amazing little ball of personality. My entertainer.

Home schooling is going great. We have a routine going now. Parker is starting to get the hang of it as well. He was pretty whiny at first when he wasn't getting the attention that he thought he needed.

I discovered a book that I want to recommend to all my teacher and parent friends. It is called "Have You Filled a Bucket Today?" I was really worried about how little my boys seemed to pay attention to others and their feelings. I started searching for ideas and ways to make them more aware that there are other people in this world, not just them. And, that their actions can impact how a person feels. This book uses the idea of bucket filling to explain just that. When you do or say something nice to someone, you fill their bucket. When you are mean, you dip into their bucket and empty it. The more full our buckets are, the happier we are. The boys really liked the book. Everyday we are talking about ways that we helped fill others' buckets and how we may have dipped some too. I have been able to point out a few times that others at the store helped fill my bucket. A nice man took my cart back for me at Costco, so that I didn't have to walk away from my children in the van. Very sweet. It is only $9.98 on Amazon. Buy it!!! :)

We have entered Parker's birth month. Makes me soooooo sad. I don't want my baby to turn one. I know, I know...it has to happen. I am using this perfect moment to research and read up on photography. I have found a lighting and backdrop kit that I am going to order next week. I have some awesome ideas for Parker's 1st birthday pictures. And if they don't turn out...we will just have to take him somewhere.

Parker has been so funny lately. He personality AND temper have really sprouted. He LOVES to climb and will not stay off the couch. scares me!!! Just when I think this house is baby proofed, he learns a new trick. He just pushes he train, or anything else over to the couch and climbs right on. He also loves to just take off in a full run and bounce off the couch. He will laugh and laugh at himself. Momma is finally in his vocabulary...he just chooses to not say it often.

The social part of me is starting to go crazy. Without working it has been harder for me to meet new friends. I really miss all my friends and girls' nights. BUT, we have our first library and park play date later today. It is with one of the boys that takes Karate with Blake and Hunter.  Hopefully it goes well and we can start meeting up more often.

I have rambled a lot today so I will close for now. Last exciting news though...first visitors are due in 21 days!!! Linda, aka Maw maw, and Kenzie are coming on the 24th. The boys and I are so excited!

Here are a few recent pics:

Just Another Week in Paradise :)

This past weekend we took a trip to the North Shore and then drove down the East coast. We stopped and ate at a little cafe called "Grass Skirt Grill". It was really good. It was so neat to just drive right next to the ocean for miles. :) There were so many gorgeous views. Here are some pictures that were taken a long the way.

We were going to swim on the North Shore but as soon as we got out to do so it started raining. So, we drove down the East coast and stopped in Kaneohe at a beautiful beach.

Home schooling gets better every week. It has been really frustrating because I feel like Blake has lost a lot of info. Things that I know he knew months ago and now he is clueless. So we will be playing catch up for a bit. I have a plan though and hopefully we figure it all out. He is starting to work better for me. His writing is improving a lot. Math is my biggest struggle right now. He is just being lazy with it.

We went to the library today and the boys loved it. It is huge and they couldn't believe all the books. The entire 1st floor is for children and young adults! I think the children's section is bigger than the entire Huntsville library..lol.

We are trying to let the boys have more freedom. Ben hates when I am the over protective mother. This neighborhood is so great for them. So many kids out playing. They are now allowed to ride down to the dead end and to the stop sign the other way. They are still in sight but they love it! Parker is just eager to be able to go with them! poor guy!

He has fun anyway :)

Catch up!

Shame on me...I actually forgot about the blog for the last week or so. :/ I'll try to pick up where I left off. As most know, Ben and I went to the Pro Bowl. We had such an awesome time. Ben is still the man of my dreams and getting to spend some kid free time with him is so refreshing. Neither of us had ever been to a NFL game before, so it was a new experience. I really like that it was the Pro Bowl because the neatest part was seeing fans of all of the teams interact. Everyone was teasing each other and it was a lot of fun had by all. We were pretty disappointed by the performance the AFC gave us, but we got to see Manning so it made up for it. Here are some pictures.

I posted a lot more on facebook. This last one is looking at the USS Missouri and USS Arizona memorial. The boys stayed with friends who are still stuck in the hotel we stayed in on Ford Island. So we just parked there and walked over. It rained on us when we were headed to the game but then was beautiful throughout the game and on the way back. I LOVE Ford Island. It is so beautiful and has so much history.

The boys and I have finally gotten into our grove with home schooling. Every week we add a little here and there. I am starting to feel more confident. We went to our first home schoolers' park day yesterday. It was nice to talk with some of the other parents. That alone made me feel better about the job I am doing. Blake and Hunter were very happy to finally get some play time with other kids. At the first of all of this Blake kept asking when he would get to start real school. He missed his friends and wasn't so sure about staying at home with me all the time. Now he actually says he likes it and wants to continue. I have been really impressed with Hunter. I tried working with him when we were in Arkansas and it was not a pretty picture. I think now he sees Blake working and wants to as well. He is really starting to show improvement. He has even learned some sight words and is starting to try to read. :) He was so resistant to this before.

Blake and Hunter started Karate Monday! :) Hunter was very intimidated at first. As soon as he put on his uniform, he thought he was the coolest thing EVER! That made him feel big enough to do it. Blake jumped right in. They go back this evening, so we will see how it goes. One great thing about this place is they have a little kids class on the weekend if Hunter doesn't do well with the bigger kids. We are hoping they can stay in the same class though. I will post pictures as soon as I can take some.

Ben bought a surf board! He found a really cheap one on Craigslists so he grabbed it. It is shorter so that the boys and I can get out there too. He will keep looking for a longer one for him. I think I will try it out for the first time this weekend. :) We are planning to head up to the North Shore Saturday. Check out Sunset Beach. :)

I LOVE it here. The weather is always nice. Even when it rains it is still warm. We almost always have the windows open and the air off. There is sooooo much to do here. We love to be outside and busy. I will be really sad to leave it. Can't wait until the end of March when we start having visitors though!!!!

Making amazing memories :)

Last week we took a hike up to the Makapu'u light house. Such an incredible trip. The views were spectacular. But the most amazing thing was to spend this time as a family. I have always been a social bee. I have valued my friends and considered them family my entire life. They are what have gotten me through the toughest time. Since we have moved here I have had the biggest awakening. As much as I love my friends, ( and I do love you all so much ) I have realized that more than anything...I need my family. My four men. For the first time in my life I feel like I could be truly happy with nothing more than just the 5 of us. While hiking up that hill, I looked up at Ben (with Parker on his back), Blake and Hunter. My entire world was right in front of me. I have always felt like my success was what made me, my career and what I had to show. My badges of honor, I guess you could say. But in the last month, I have learned that my biggest and brightest badges of honor are those amazing little men. I am finally okay with being a stay at home mom. The most important job there is. Here are some pictures of our hike.

There is so much more to say but it is late. I am going to try to upload the Pro Bowl pictures so I can tell you all about it. :) So hopefully I will be talking to you all very soon.