still around...

Hey all... just in case you're wondering, I'm still blogging here. Goodness, it's been a long time. Spring has passed us by all too quickly and I can barely find time to get the regular things done around our home with all the extras going on lately. It all comes on at once!

If you follow along with us on Instagram or Facebook, you may have seen some of what has kept us so busy. Here's more of what we've been up to...

Aside from our normal weekly schedule of getting Kai to and from Kindergarten in the afternoons, visiting with both sets of Grandparents at least once a week, squeezing in play dates, and attending church functions 3 times a week, we've found room to cram some special activities in as well.

Spring is such a busy time all of a sudden with a kiddo in school. It seems they pile on events all at once. Last week Malakai's class had a field trip to Public Works. It was an open house day so there were a LOT of other field trips and families as well. I was able to take Malakai while Ben's mom watched Desmond and Aurelia. It was such a treat to help out with his class and have some time to just focus on him. It was also nice to connect with other parents, since Aurelia was born on the 3rd day of school I haven't been in his classroom as much as I had envisioned.

The following day we had a Jog-a-thon fundraiser for the school so I packed up all 3 kiddos and joined the other Kindergarten parents and students in the rain to help count laps as kiddos dashed around the track. It was such a blessing because although it had been rainy and was pretty wet, the rain let up for the hour that our kiddos ran. Desmond wasn't too into it, which really surprised me. I talked him into doing one lap around with Malakai and they walked huddled together the whole way around. Malakai did 19 laps in one hours, which I think is close to 2 1/2 miles.

We've spent a lot of time at our pediatrician's office lately. Unfortunately all 3 kiddos have been suffering ear infections. Aurelia has had 2 in the last 2 months, Malakai had one and Desmond had a double. Keeping track of medicines has been fun. I've been really thankful for my collection of essential oils right about now for general sickness, ear discomfort and seasonal discomforts alike.

Sadly Malakai will need surgery to have ear tubes put in to keep him from having so many ear infections. I had hoped we would get past this season with no more infections, but he had another right after allergies hit. I'm wishing we had done this last year, but we thought for sure he'd mature out of it. After school is out we'll get it all taken care of and pray that ear infections will be a thing of the past for him!

Lately I've been spending a lot of time gardening. We have quite a bit of green in our little veggie garden! I have 5 different lettuces, 2 tomatoes, onions, carrots, red peppers, cilantro, basil and strawberries clustered in big and small containers. We've already enjoyed a few salads out of our garden, the basil is new within the last few days, and sadly the birds got to the few red berries I had, but I'm hoping to beat them to the next round!

The only thing growing faster than our little veggie garden is our sweet daughter. She is doing so many new things! She's doing this hilarious scoot crawl and she is FAST. She is able to get into a lot of things and I've found myself cleaning the floors much more often. She loves to spit her food, even when she likes it. 

We've also been getting outside and taking advantage of the great weather we've been having as much as possible. Playing at the park or in our own front yard has been a lot of fun. Aurelia loves to watch the big kids play so we will often sit on a blanket together while the boys play on the playground. Her new favorite thing is to pick and try to eat the grass now that she can crawl to it. 

She used to hate the feel of grass but today I set her down so I could carry a watermelon in from the car and she was very excited. 

Hopefully I'll get to updating again here sooner than I have been. I have so much more to share and I still have a few informational posts about essential oils in the works too! 

Spring Break recap

Monday. It's dreaded for different reasons at different stages of life. When in school I had to get myself psyched up to go to classes after two blissful days of rest. When I was working I had to get myself back in the groove of completing tasks and attending meetings. Since I've been staying home with the kiddos I have to get myself ready to go solo for the majority of the day and the attitude changes that occur in my children when daddy isn't around after a couple days with him here. I still don't understand that phenomenon. Now that I have one in school I have to actually make myself look human and leave the house!

Spring break was a nice break from loading the kiddos up twice a day for school drop off and bus pick up. I was hoping to use the break to gently ease Aurelia in to a different nap routine that jived with Malakai's drop off and pick up times...but that didn't happen in the slightest. She barely napped at all actually. 

We took some time to play outside a little longer than usual. We took a trip to the library to stock up on new reading material. We watched tv before lunch (our usual rule is no screen time until after school). I even went out on the town on a weeknight with just Aurelia and hosted an essential oils class!

On Friday Ben took a day off and we headed to the coast, which was a bit windy but not too bad for Oregon in the spring. The boys have been asking to go to the beach for weeks. My mom came with us (it was her idea to go in the first place actually!). We had coffee at our favorite place, visited with my grandparents, and spent some time on the beach. 

{4 generations}

{attempting an aloof model pose. ridiculous}

{a little better, but they didn't want to stop playing to pose}

Ben played with the boys, my mom took pictures and I huddled up to shield Aurelia from the wind while she dug her toes in the sand for the first time and we watched the boys dig. It was a whirlwind trip but a much needed little getaway. 

The rest of the weekend we spent getting things done around the house/to the car and getting rest for two of the kiddos with colds. By the time we went to bed last night all of the clean laundry was actually folded and put away. I can't remember the last time that happened!

Now today, back to the routine of getting barely anything done before the day is coming to a close. Keeping up with our schedules and the chaos that comes from trying to have a schedule with 3 small children. But I love it. I'll be a little sad when our next break gets here and Malakai will have finished his first year of school, all the kiddos will be a little closer to their first/next birthdays, and our summer will go by in a blur of celebrations as it always does. 

Motivation to Declutter- 40 Bags in 40 Days

I came across Ann Marie Heasley's blog, White House Black Shutters last summer through Pinterest when she had started her "Summer Simplify" series. She shared inspiration for simplifying spaces around the home. I tackled quite a few areas and shared my success on Instagram along with her and other followers.

Now it's time for spring cleaning and our house (and garage!) could really use some decluttering and simplifying. Anne Marie came along again with 40 Bags in 40 Days and I was sold. Over the 40 days of lent you focus on areas that need to be decluttered and/or purged of the overflow. She even has a printable chart (see linked post above) to help you plan and keep track of your progress. I've got my whole house mapped out on one and am ready to start TOMORROW!

I chose fairly small areas and even broke some up into two days, for during the week. Saturdays are for bigger projects that Ben + I can take on together or one of us can spend time on while the other keeps track of the kiddos.

This is a layout of our teensie not even 900 square foot home to give you an idea of what we're working with here...

photo friday: finally spring

I've been agonizing over blog posts + facebook updates from those of you in warmer climates talking about your lovely weather and calling it "summer" already. In Oregon's Willamette Valley spring is a bunch of rain mixed with some sunshine (which makes vibrant rainbows), but mostly cold.

This week we were finally able to experience the spring that the rest of you have been talking about. Unfortunately yesterday I was feeling quite miserable so we stayed inside, but this morning we went for a walk to the park and played outside for a good hour and a half. It was warm enough for me to take off my sweater on the walk home!

We ate lunch with the back door open, airing out the house, and I felt too productive to take a nap wile Kai snoozed, so I worked on things for my job and calling doctors, nurses + schedulers to figure out Malakai's consultations + surgery stuff for the next couple of weeks. Plus, we're finally getting our flu shots! Well, I am, and Kai is getting his booster. We're so late that our doctor's offices were both out of the vaccines so we're going to Public Health.

Of course I grabbed my camera while we were out this morning and snapped some photos of play time at the park and a few things blooming out my front door.

{looking cool in daddy's shades}

{top left: asking me "please" for help...then he learned to go down by himself!}

{he loves to climb!}

{he kept putting the bark in the holes on the stairs, driving the car, sitting at the table}

{he discovered a stick, it was the most fun he's ever known}

{pink hyacinth lining the walkway to our front door}

{the first tulip}

What has spring been like where you live? 

Happy Weekend!

just down the street

When we first saw our house our realtor made sure to drive us by the park down the street on our way out. It's only 2 blocks from us and is perfect for kids of all ages. It has the typical playground equipment complete with a baby swing and smaller structures for the littlest ones. It also has a full basketball court, a huge grassy hill (that even I wanted to run up and roll back down), a field, and a sandbox with a water pump. So cool, right?

We finally made our first trip about 3 weeks ago when we finally had nice enough weather that lined up with our schedule being a little more relaxed. Right now the most Malakai can do is swing and play in the grass, but he absolutely loves the swing. It makes me heart swell to see him giggle while he's in it.

He laughs so hard that you can't help but laugh with him.

{I may have mentioned this before, but the shirt he's wearing here is one of my faves because Ben + I bought it before we were even trying for a baby. It was too perfect!}

The next day Malakai and I took our first trip to the park just the two of us. It was really sunny and I hadn't purchased sunscreen yet, so we spent almost all of our time spread out on my super huge beach towel in the shade of a tree.

 

I just love that the park backs up to a dead end street (no traffic!) and a beautiful orchard.

Since Malakai couldn't climb the play structures with the big kids, he climbed me and his stroller instead.

It was a lot of fun, but it's always more fun with company. So last week we went with some friends. 

{This is Haley, 13 months. Her mom Jessica and I met on The Bump when we were expecting these two cuties}

Today looks like it'll be another nice one. The perfect excuse to ignore the laundry and head back out to the park with my little man.

PS don't forget to cast your vote for Malakai P today and every day til 5/17!

photo friday: what's growing at my house

I'm so not a green thumb. I've never been able to keep a house plant alive, and whatever grew outside just sort of did it's own thing aside from Ben occasionally pruning. I appreciate plants, I love flowers and am especially fond of flowering trees. I used to have a dark pink dogwood outside of my bedroom window in college and ever since I've wanted one of my own. For now I just envy the one in full bloom across the street.

When we bought our house (5 weeks ago!) one of the first things I noticed was that there seemed to be a lot of plants and a lot of different kinds. I had no idea what would bloom when spring arrived. Now that spring is here, I'm still not sure what is growing out there aside from the obvious pansies and wisteria.

There were also red tulips lining the front path that bloomed with the early spring fake-out, but froze and died fairly quickly.