Feelin' the Love

I love Valentine's Day. I love flowers, pink, presents, surprises, conversation hearts and cards. I love this mini-holiday.

My newest valentine. This little 11-month-old sweetheart is turning into a chunk! I feel like she was drowning in 6-month clothing a month ago, and suddenly they are now muscle tees.
She is now scooting around the house with ease, but hasn't figured out how to pull herself up from the scoot position, or how to pull herself up to stand.

Wednesday night through Monday morning of this past week, we had Linnaea and Chase staying with us. Zachary thought he died and went to heaven having a playmate around full-time, and when she left, asked when her mommy and daddy could please go away again so he could have his Linnaea stay with him. 16-month-old Chase eats more food than I figured possible for a little guy, but I'm positive it was that way with Zachary and I just don't remember! He was super content the entire time. The looks on people's faces when I cruised around the green belt with all four kids were priceless. It reminds me of my younger years when people constantly asked my mom, "Are they all yours?" Both kids were approximately the same age as my kids, but clearly Kate and Chase were not twins. ??? You could see the confusion all over their faces.
Kate has some of my blood in her for sure. She squealed, clapped, and laughed over and over again down this little hill. She and I will get along great on roller coasters at Disneyland some day.


Linnaea has really toughened up over the years, and she's a great little playmate. Obedient, opinionated, and happy to race around all afternoon with Zac.
Later that week, we had hat day for preschool.
Celebrating Valentines Day with some sugar cookies. Zac's VDay gift is that balloon in the corner, which says, "Happy Anniversary." His inability to read saved me an hour of driving to another store.
Saturday, Brady put in some time at work, and we looked at real estate options for hours. We did pop out of the house for an outing with Zachary's pal Olivia to Mahaulapu, where we saw some crazy kite surfing (I only wish we were that cool), walked along the beach, built a "fire," and played in the sand.

Love this wrestler's cover-up.




Check out the sideways tooth (and the second one coming in to the left):

Shivers, Sunshine and Siblings

The weekend after Zachary's birthday, we headed out with friends to Polihale. Usually, this beach is hot, hot, hot. You never wait to put away the camping gear in the morning unless you plan to burn your feet in the sand. There have been a couple exceptions, and this weekend was one of them. Brr... The campfire was nice and toasty, the stars were beautiful, and lots of friends showed.

Jeff is so patient with his sand castles, and even made a special one for the kids.The best part of any sand castle, at least for kids:
The following weekend made up for the chilly temps at Polihale. We had a perfect family beach day at Poipu. Zachary has really warmed up to the ocean and loves "surfing" on the "waves."

Kristen E said the most rewarding part of parenting is seeing your children interact and love each other. I'm loving the developing relationship between Kate and Zachary. They adore each other. Yeah, I still only leave Kate in a room alone with Zac for 2 minutes or less, and sure, he will freak out when she grabs his eyes, but isn't that just part of being siblings?

Brady went to work trainings in Utah and Vegas for 10 days at the end of January. This is my first solo effort as a single mom of 2, and we survived. I would go as far as saying it was good for me and Zachary to have so much one-on-one time together. It certainly made me appreciate all the weight Brady pulls at home! Zachary and Kate loved talking to him nightly on Skype, and also seeing their grandparents. Brady had a nice time seeing family, meeting Scott's fiance, and visiting with Grandma Richards. He also got in another round of skiing with Jeff, Bryson, and Tanner, and even ventured onto his first double blues.

I'm certainly not counting down the days until this happens again, but I can hack it if I know it will end soon (and if I know I will have unwind time when he returns...gotta get the crazy out of me with some long runs and time in the water!).

I took a bunch of pictures to send to Brady while he was on his trip. They never got emailed, but they make the blog cut.

While Brady was gone, Kate grew up. She cut her first tooth and finally got mobile! From last Saturday to this Saturday, she's become a scooting champ.

She kept taking my hat off and putting on her head upside-down.
So, is it the shoes that make my baby seem so big?
During preschool, she patiently let the girls hold her on the couch for 15 minutes. C'mon, you do want to kiss her little cheeks, huh?
She's also decided that throwing food on the floor is giggle-worthy.
Like I mentioned, Zac and I had a grand time together. We spent a couple days jumping in puddles, visiting the Kauai Zoo (aka Humane Society), and lots of time playing in the sand.
Ever since our trip to Utah, he thinks he needs to wear socks when the weather is not good.
Completely unrelated: We see a lot of bugs around here, and a lot of bugs doing icky things--like eating dead gheckos. Brady found these spiders fighting to the death the other day. Up next: chicken fight? Nah.

Beware! Pirates Ahead!

For Zachary's 4th birthday, he requested balloons, lots of friends, pirates and cupcakes--6 months in advance. He reminded us almost daily. We came through for him, and his long-awaited party finally came.I LOVED the party planning. It's one of those things I didn't expect to like. I loved looking up ideas and games, prepping the activities, and even spending three hours on the treasure box. I even created a word doc with the party typed up like my official lesson plans. So, yes, I'm thrilled that there are so many birthday parties coming my way in my mommy future.

Brady gets credit for the treasure map.

Brady also gets credit for hosting 13...yes, 13 children and a baby at our house for the party. You would think with all the preschool experience, I would know better, but I figured we could hack it between the two of us and avoid leaving people out. Truth be told, it was great. Everything was fine and no one got hurt. But we were wasted at the end of it all! Next time around, the max is 5 plus Zachary. More turns for the kids and less chaos overall.

You try taking pictures with that kind of action. Nope, we don't have any of "Peg Leg Pete" or "Pass the Parrot," but we did get a couple of "The Crook with a Hook." Kids took turns hooking prizes using their Captain Hook hand.



A big hit was "Pop the Cannonball":


Of course the big hurrah was the treasure hunt. The kids used their decorated spyglasses to hunt for backyard clues.
They finally found the treasure box, filled with candy necklaces, gold dabloons, and other party favors.
Lunch was a production, and we ran out of time before parents got there, but hey, live and learn. We'll get it right next year. Zac loves all his new toys, and he pulled in quite a loot.

That night, we took him for pizza and finally let him open the gifts from us. I love the Zac-reactions during presents.
I was so sad when it was all over, almost like the day after Christmas. I'm excited to do it all again next year, but thinking about my little boy as a 5 year old is too much to handle right now. I'm glad it goes one year at a time. Zac has made so many strides this year, and he continues to be such a sincere, tender-hearted child. He is still my go-go-go kiddo, but it's perfect for us. We love you, little matey.