Desmond's 1st haircut

I'm still behind on some things but I couldn't wait to skip over those for a moment and post some shots of Desmond's first haircut which just happened yesterday.

Here is our boy before his much needed haircut. I think he's precious, but admit that it was about time to get the hair out of his eyes.

 I must say, I do NOT recommend cutting a 10 month old's hair yourself. It was so difficult and in my opinion a bit of a disaster with all his wiggling around. He got pretty fussy and I had to call it quits...

I feel like he's nearly sporting a "Dumb and Dumber" style here...yikes. It was the best I could do with all the moving he insisted on doing. My heart stopped a couple time when he swung his face or a hand toward the scissors. 

Today after nap I let him play with some bath toys and did my best to correct some of the funky spots. It looks better and he is looking much too old!

Malakai is 3- how we spent his birthday... Part 2

Malakai's birthday fell on a Monday this year. We decided to still go ahead with our plans to take him to The Original Pancake House for his birthday stack. We did this for the first time last year and hope to make a tradition for all of our kids. The photo of him blowing out the candle last year when he turned 2 is still my desktop picture, it's one of my all time favorite photos in existence. 

{7.16.11}

Look how much my baby big boy has grown!

{7.16.12}

Malakai enjoyed looking over the menu and blowing out his candle just as much this year. It was fun to have Des experience the place for the first time. It was such an enjoyable little outing. 

Afterwards we dropped Daddy off at work and went to the mall to play. I knew Kai would really enjoy playing on the big slide in the courtyard. However, it was still so early that it was closed for cleaning. We wandered around the mall a bit and Malakai explored the little mechanical rides. He wanted to try a rollercoaster one but freaked out a bit when I actually put the money in. So we just watched a gal finish vacuuming the play area until we could go in. It was odd, but the boys had the place to themselves for a good 20 minutes. 

We ran a few errands, had lunch at Target and headed home for naps. When Kai woke up I surprised him with his turtle sandbox full of sand for the first time. We had previously used it for a ball pit and for the last year or so it's been put away...

He was thrilled to have his own sand to play in, and I'm thrilled to be able to avoid the park sandbox for the most part!

When Daddy got home from work we took the boys to Red Robin. It's pretty much the only kid/baby friendly restaurant nearby and they send a free kid's meal coupon for birthdays. Malakai picked everything he wanted off the menu himself, and after the fun he had with his straw at breakfast he requested a milk with a straw. Thankfully, they delivered!

He had the sweetest grin on his face when the servers sang happy birthday and he scarfed down his Sundae like we were going to take it away any moment. (he shared, of course). 

It was such a sweet day for all of us. 3 has been the magic number for Malakai and we are really enjoying watching him grown. 

Malakai is 3- a photo explosion...Part 1

On July 16th our 1st born turned three. I have no idea how that much time has passed since my sweet baby boy was born...but there you have it.

The Saturday before, we threw a construction themed party at my parents' place. There was swimming,  sand, toys, and treats. I had tirelessly prepared all the decor by hand the week before, but ordered a cake at Costco with just writing on it and just as the party started I decorated it with toys. I think it turned out rather well- the cake, and the party!

{crushed cocoa puffs make for great "dirt"}

{lots of construction gear}

{he was a pro at opening his gifts, a big change from last year!}

He played in sand, refused to swim, sprayed everyone with his new sprinkler toy, and finally decided to wear his hat after the party was over and it was time for bed. It was such a fun party, surrounded by friends and family. Big thanks to my parents for hosting, and everyone else for blessing us with gifts and love!

Part 2 of this post will be how we spent his actual birthday.

DIY decor

While I wait on some laundry (yahoo!) I'm working on some prints today. I can't wait to hang these in Kai's room...

Ben + I sang this song over and over to Malakai when he was a baby. After all those sleepless nights, it's still a favorite in our house.

it's still July around here...

...on the blog that is.

I still very much want to post about Kai's birthday, which was a MONTH ago, but haven't had the time. I know, same old song. I'd also like to update about Desmond who is now 10 months old and doing a million new things. He's trying to be a toddler or something, which I am very much not ready for!

I hope to be back soon to catch up, and maybe eventually I'll find a consistent chunk of time to start writing here more often again.

Until then,

July: "Touch-A-Truck"

Yes, I'm still catching up on July events...this one was on July 11th. We found out the night before at a small group barbecue that there was an event called "Touch-A-Truck"that would be free to the community. Trucks from all over the city are cleaned up and available for kids to sit in, "drive" and touch.  I'd heard of it once before but we missed it so I was excited to round the boys up and go. It was right in time to get Kai about his upcoming construction themed birthday party. Unfortunately it was our first hot summer day and it took place on an asphalt parking lot, it was so uncomfortable and we didn't stay long.

While we were there Malakai saw an ambulance and fire truck, then sat in a tractor...

We tried to get him in the bucket with Des, but he wasn't interested. It's actually a miracle I got a photo of him sitting in the tire with how quickly he hopped out.

Once we showed him a couple big trucks that he could honk the horn on, he got pretty excited. He did great waiting in line despite the heat and was really in awe over being able to get up close to the big rigs.

I think his favorite was the garbage truck, since it's something he sees every day but never gets to interact with. For all you local families, I THINK they do this again in the fall, but I can't be sure. I like to keep up with local events like this through a fun website called Go Mom, Go! 

celebrating 5 years of wedded bliss

On July 7th Ben + I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. It's a small milestone, especially compared to the decades we plan to spend together. We decided to go away for the day/night, making it our first overnighter away from the boys for fun. Our 1st nights away from Kai were spent in the hospital when Desmond made his arrival. This was our very 1st night away from Desmond.

We hadn't done anything to celebrate except a quick dinner here in town since our 1st anniversary. Back in 2008 we spent a weekend at the coast, so we decided to do that again this year. We wanted to check out the River House Inn in Florence because it's right at the end of Old Town, so we could walk everywhere except the beach.

On Saturday morning we got ourselves and our boys ready to go to Mima's house, where we'd drop them off and our car so she could come back to our place for naps and the rest of our time away. Ben stopped for gas in the other car and met me there. I got Kai + Des all settled, chatted with my mom and joked with my dad about forgetting to leave them my car keys (and then I forgot to leave them my car keys...and they had to go to our house to get the other set, sorry guys!).

When we left Ben told me he had called the hotel to see if they do any free upgrades, as some do when they have openings. They don't...but he upgraded our room to the river view one anyway. It was such a lovely surprise!

When we got into town the first thing we did was run out onto the beach. Then we hurried to meet our dear friends, Michael and Megan, for a long overdue lunch in Old Town. We spent some time catching up and resolving to not let so much time go by before we see them again. We couldn't NOT see them while we were there, they live a block away from where we were staying!

Afterwards we checked into our room and I went straight to the balcony to take in our view.

$40 well spent. The other rooms had a view of the parking lot and the walk way. No thanks. 

We had a few hours before our dinner reservations at the Waterfront Depot (where we ate 4 years earlier), so we decided to go for a walk. 

{so blessed that this handsome man is mine}

We still had plenty of time to kill so we watched some HGtv (a channel we love but do not have) and enjoyed the quiet, uninterrupted time to ourselves. 

Once we were ready for dinner, I wanted to take a photo but didn't have the tripod. We tried a number of ways to prop the camera up and ultimately dared to put it on the balcony ledge. I love this photo so much, it's my profile picture on facebook right now, but that version is cropped. Here is the full version, 

This one makes me laugh because you can clearly tell the camera is balanced atop something, and our room is a disaster after on a few hours. We laughed about how "freeing" it was to leave our stuff lying around and not have to worry about one of our kids getting into it. We're wild ones, I tell ya, living on the edge!

We had a fantastic dinner and went for another walk afterwards. Ben suggested we walk along the river, after about 30 feet I got stuck in the mucky sand and we had to climb our way out. It wasn't pleasant at the time, but we were laughing hysterically anyway. 

The next day we slept in (SLEPT IN!!!), and took our time getting up for breakfast. We grabbed coffee and wandered Old Town again. Along the way we picked up prizes for our boys, and my parents as a thank you for enduring a sleepless night. We found some goodies at the dollar store that I was obnoxiously excited about, went to the beach again, had sushi for lunch, and grabbed ice cream at BJ's for the ride home. 

It was so much fun to spend time just the two of us and re-energize ourselves by taking some time away from the kids. Now that we've done it once, I'm looking forward to the next opportunity to do it again although it may be a while. Our boys were so excited to see us and it was such a joy to bring them a little something from our trip. Malakai still calls the magnifying glass that Ben picked out his "surprise". 

Happy Anniversary my love, each and every day as your wife is pure joy. Parenting with you is a dream come true. I love our life together and count myself blessed every moment.