New blog on the street

The new blog title & layout is dedicated to ALLLL the (mento) people who've asked if (I) people in Hawaii still live in grass shacks/huts. I won't get into detail, but there/here you go! I've been inspired, haha.

On a different note...

We three plus the bun in the oven are doing well, besides dying from the increase in humidity. I don't remember suffering this much from heat/sweating when I was little. Maybe it was because I had more energy that I would run to the beach, or play with the hose during the day, or sleep outside on the lawn at night. Even our a.c. feels like it can't compete with the heat. SPEAKING of "Heat"....James has been ADDICTED to the NBA Playoffs, especially watching and pre-recording all of the Miami Heat games. I usually don't care about sports, but some of this Lebron & DWade craziness has rubbed off on me.

Mahie is no longer my baby, but a toddler! Basically a little girl. She has embraced her independence which is limitless. If she wants to do something, she does it. At 13 and a 1/2 months, she communicates very well shaking her head, pushing things away, cupping her hands to say please, and the non-stop NEW dance moves that increase every day.

I found her randomly in the hall after church Sunday, rubbing her back against the wall :)

Since I'm at work every morning/day and some nights and James every evening, my Mom & Mahie have become best friends. We start our mornings together as a family with prayer, breakfast, changing clothes and brushing teeth. After that, Grandma goes straight into "School Time", where she has a specific corner of our family room set up for Mahie to learn....colors, shapes, books, blocks, rolling balls for coordination, and music time where she's beginning to learn primary songs for our ward's primary program in October. (Mahie will only be in Nursery at that time, but the little ones are included to sing with the older kids.) It's cute because she already recognizes "The Wise Man & Foolish Man" and starts to do the hand motions. Today Mahie learned to recognize A, B & C. When you say "A", Mahie will make the sound "ahh", lol, then "B" and she will sound out "buh, buh" and sometimes "brrrr" and "C" she will slightly say "cuhhhh". It  was so cute and she got so excited by our reaction. She can even do "M" and says "Mmmmma-ma". One day she found an old Photo Poly modeling picture of me, and ran to hand it to me saying "Mama", haha. On the flip side, we are STILL trying to teach her to have "nice hands", as in not to scratch/pinch people. We don't know why or how she learned to do it. We all have random scratches on our legs, arms and faces from her, no matter how short we cut her nails.*FYI we have stopped the bottle for 2 whole days, phew!

I've felt slight kicks for a couple weeks now, but recently they've increased to bigger movements. I still can't get over that I'm having a boy. For some reason I felt like I would have girl, after girl, after girl. I wonder how he will be? AND...how I will be? It was so easy and normal to treat Mahie, well like a girl, because I am one! I never had to think twice about dressing, speaking to, holding her, it has been a girl's dominated house for us. Things will change soon. But, my pregnancy with Mahie was crazy, and look, my firstborn turned out pretty crazy too! I love her, but Mahie is a rascal and pretty tough. THIS pregnancy with my boy however, has gone smoothly. (So far). Maybe he will come out as a total opposite of Mahie, aka CALM! Crazy-energetic or not, I'm grateful for my babies. Plus I'm thinking of channeling all of Mahie's adrenaline towards swimming lessons pretty soon at Gunstock and way later w/Gymnastics.

James is alive, I'm alive, and our babies are A-OK!