Summer 2016: slow + simple

Oh this life, I love it and I want it to slow down just a teeny bit more so I have time to just bask in each moment before we are on to the next one. I really do feel fulfilled though, even in the ups and downs, the rushing from one thing to the next. I have learned a lot recently just by reflecting on what God is doing in our lives and discerning what He wants me to do with what He has given me. I've been looking at screens less, reading the Bible and just being with my people more. Doing my best to slow down and simplify life. On "paper" it doesn't look very slow or simple but it can be just by way of shifting our mindset, letting the Lord lead the way and really just saying "no" more often.  

The last two months have been very busy but it was followed by Ben going on vacation a couple weeks ago and it was 9 days of intentional laziness. We just enjoyed each others' company and only allowed a handful of social interactions outside of our household to keep it slow and simple. It was the perfect way to wrap up a very full summer. We are also intentionally kept the rest of this month as quiet as possible as well as we head into a new school year. Malakai just started 2nd grade and Desmond is now in full day Kindergarten. 

Desmond doesn't turn 5 until the beginning of October, just missing the September 1st deadline by 5 weeks. We decided to go through the process of petitioning for him to start school "early" and see how it went. We didn't put any pressure on him or even tell him about it. When it came time for the mandatory IQ test in early July we just said that we told the school how smart he is and they wanted him to show them what he knew. He had a blast doing the activities and answering the questions. I really enjoyed listening to his answers from the back of the room. He had to score in the 90th percentile to qualify for early admission. We didn't get results until a month later. While we waited to hear back we continued to be prayerful over the situation, that if he got in it would be what should happen and if he didn't that we were meant to keep him home for another year of Pre-K.  We were excited for him when he was accepted for early entrance but also a little sad to not have him at home with me all day. I will miss the easy hours of play with Desmond while Aurelia napped, and watching him run across the street to help our neighbor with yard work. I know he has been craving a structure that has been increasingly difficult to provide with baby sister in tow. Des is so ready for school, he has shown it with his eagerness to go and his excitement about it when he comes home.


Aurelia and I have 6 hours to ourselves 5 days a week. I keep saying I won't know what to do with myself. I mean it because it will be a lot of free time opened up during her naps, but also because I have so many things I'd like to accomplish I'm not sure where I should start! Most of all I am just excited for some quality one on one time with my girl. The boys however, I will have to be more intentional about quality time with now. We plan to really slow down weekends when October hits. September is full of family birthdays, or what I like to affectionately call #SeptemberBirthdayFrenzy -Between Ben nearly half of the immediate family birthdays fall in September. When you start counting our extended family that number just gets bigger, which makes for quite the busy time! 

The next 6 weeks are also going to be quite full now that both boys are in fall soccer. We have back to back practices twice a week and I don't even know the game schedule yet but there will be 14 games over that time. I was unloading our minivan at our first double practice earlier this week, filling up the wagon with chairs, waterbottles, toys and a picnic dinner while the boys changed into their cleats and I thought to myself...I have reached official soccer mom status. It cracks me up because it's not really my thing, but it's theirs...so it gets to be mine now too. I love watching these kids discover what they like and what they're good at. 

So I bid a fond farewell to the long days and late nights of summer and hello to the bustle of fall!

Seaside mini-vacation

Over the summer some of our best friends, Michael + Megan, invited us to go on vacation with them to Seaside. They were gifted a week stay at the World Mark Resorts the previous Christmas. We didn't have enough vacation time to go during the week in October so we joined them during the weekend at the tail end of their trip.

We were excited about having the minivan in time for the trip, but the check-engine light came on the Thursday before. I took it for a quick free diagnostic and it was having a cylinder misfire. We knew we didn't have time to get it looked at before leaving, but Ben's parents generously loaned us their Tahoe for the weekend, so we were still able to go!

On Friday when Ben came home from work we loaded up and got on the road as soon as possible. We made a stop about halfway through at Bridgeport Village to eat a picnic style dinner I had packed and let the boys move their legs. They have a great play structure in the center courtyard. We climbed back in the car and headed to Seaside. It seemed like it took forever, it was nearly 8pm when we arrived. 

Once we got there we moved some things around to accommodate our needs in the extra room to get settled. We let the boys stay up late to wind down from their excitement and visited with Michael + Megan. Things got complicated when we went to put the boys to bed because I had packed only half of the baby monitor. Thankfully my techno-guru husband figured out that we could do a FaceTime audio-only call between our phones and mute one so we could hear them but they couldn't hear us. It worked great!

We stayed up late talking and poor Ben had to go in several times to soothe Des back to sleep, but once we went to bed he stayed asleep for a good long while. The next morning the boys came running out to the living room, where we were sleeping on a murphy-bed, wanting to play. We were SO tired. 

After a leisurely morning and a great breakfast made by Michael, we decided to head out to the beach. It was a short walk from our room to the beach access since the entire resort is right on the Seaside Promenade.

{the view from our room and a view of the resort from the beach}

{lots o' selfies}

In addition to half the baby monitor, I also forgot sand toys. So we brought some dishes and big spoons with us instead. They worked well-enough and the boys (all 4 of them) had a blast playing in the sand. It was warm and only slightly breezy, a beautiful day on the Oregon coast. 

We ate a really late lunch after cleaning off all the sand before heading out again. Michael + Megan had planned to take the boys on the carousel by all the shops down the street. Malakai only wanted to ride on the bench so he had to wait a couple rounds, but Desmond went on right away. He looked nervous when it started moving but got more comfortable and seemed to have a lot of fun.

Afterward we walked by the shops and Michael bought a bunch of deep fried desserts that we all tried. The consensus was that they were disgusting. Desmond fell asleep on Ben's shoulder on the walk home, so we let him snooze while we relaxed and thought about dinner.

The boys ate dinner and went to bed a few hours later. We ate a really late dinner and stayed up talking into the night. 

Sunday we woke up to clouds and fog that wouldn't burn off. We relaxed most of the morning. The boys colored, played video games and read. Michael made paper airplanes for Malakai and he was instantly hooked.

{checking out the foggy beach}

We took the boys to the small play area and game room at the resort and then decided to go for a walk on the promenade.

{caught instagramming}

{Michael, Desmond, Megan, Ben, Malakai, + I}

Malakai got sick of walking pretty quickly but we enticed him to go further by pointing out the swing set on the beach. Megan got this adorable picture of us that I just LOVE.

On our walk back Malakai + I found a caterpillar. After Kai tried holding it, Michael set it free.

{the boys LOVED air-hockey, Megan + I keeping each other warm, Kai with his new friend}

We relaxed some more back in our room until dinner. Megan and Michael made some amazing meals  (including Puerto Rican style plantains!) and introduced us to some yummy snacks over the weekend. Megan also read stories to both boys a few times which they loved. She even brought a childhood favorite of her own to share with Malakai called Mr. Pudgins.

After dinner we packed up our circus and headed home, but not before Megan loaded us up with a ton of food to take home with us and the most amazing brownies of all time!

{sunset from our room, back on the road}

We loved every minute of it and count ourselves blessed to have such awesome friends that would invite us to come share in their vacation with them.

Celebrating Fall

We've done a lot of things over the last couple months to celebrate the season.

In September we went out to Johnson Brothers Greenhouses nearby for a harvest event. They had cider and cookies and a free flower potting station for kids. 

When we arrived we realized we didn't have Desmond's shoes. We both assumed that they were in the car because he typically takes them off as we are going somewhere we've given up on putting them on until we arrive to our destination. So we just doubled up on the socks and carried him half the time, he didn't seem to even notice.

The boys loved digging in the dirt, picking out flowers and planting them. They especially loved watering them with the piggie watering can. The gal that helped them through it was great with kids. We browsed a bit and headed on our way to warm up. The boys were very proud to display their creations out front.

We get a LOT of leaves at our house, from the very beginning of fall and into the winter. The orange and yellow leaves are thanks to our giant maple tree out front. It dumped two times what you see covering our yard and driveway in the pics below. The boys really enjoyed playing in them, and thankfully Ben was able to get the majority off the yard before the rain made them soggy.

We have a lot of leaves in our backyard too from several small trees. Kai loves to help rake them up with Ben. There is another gigantic tree just waiting until we get all these leaves up to make it's contribution. 

There have been a handful of sunny afternoons, warm enough to head to the park. I love watching these two play together, such little buds. 

More recently we made a visit to one of the farms down the street from us to pick up pumpkins. Unfortunately the whole experience of riding the wagon out to the pumpkin patch and picking a pumpkin is too expensive for us. Thankfully our kids don't yet know what they are missing. They are totally thrilled walking up to the pumpkins on display at the store front and we are just as pleased to use free pumpkin vouchers we received from our mortgage advisor's office.

After getting pumpkins we stopped at a park on the way home and enjoyed a few more moments of sun. Then the boys colored them (we don't carve yet!) and set them out front for display. 

Last Wednesday we stopped at the other farm down the street for their last day before closing until spring. They have a play ground and goats, so the boys thoroughly enjoyed playing there. Thankfully it was nice and sunny, and not too cold.

For Halloween we didn't really have much planned for costumes, I couldn't get the boys to commit to anything so I didn't make or buy costumes. At the last minute I convinced Desmond to wear Kai's old Batman PJ's with the cape for his costume, and Malakai wore this awesome spider shirt that Grandma Debbie had made him. It was NOT a costume though, he was NOT spider man. Just Kai, in a spider shirt. He was very serious about that.

Ben and I didn't do costumes, but he did wear a Batman T-shirt to match Des, which rendered him the nickname, "Batdad" at the Harvest party that night. Our church puts together a HUGE harvest festival for the community out at Camp Harlow (which is a ministry that they run). There were tons of games to earn candy in several different buildings, plus a petting zoo with a lemur, bunnies, a wallaby, tortoise and snakes. Des feels the same as mama when it came to the snakes.

We are planning as long as we can to take our kids to the Harvest party and avoid the door-to-door trick or treating trend.

I'm so thankful we made the extra effort to get out and enjoy the fall weather before it turned into the rainy cold mess that it is here in the winter, which is surely just around the corner!

Harvest Party 2012

Last year Des was only a few weeks old on Halloween and Malakai was sick, then they both got sick. Poor littles. So we stayed in. Thankfully this year they were well over their first colds of the season and ready to play!

That morning I tried Desmond's robot costume on him for the 2nd time. This was Kai's costume when he was 15 months old.

      Malakai enjoyed pushing the "buttons" and Desmond surprisingly tolerated it for quite some time.

On Halloween night we prefer to go to a local Harvest Party (we took Kai 2 years ago) and play the games to earn some candy. Then we don't feel like we have to check the candy afterwards, and we end up seeing a lot of people that we don't see often enough.

It was a miracle that Kai was wearing a costume. His Grandma Debbie made a "Jake and the Pirates" costume, just for play, but he refused to wear it that night- no surprise.

{trying it out a few days before Halloween}

When I brought out the fireman's hat he got at a safety event a while back he was suddenly interested in wearing a costume! I think it helped that the rest of us were dressed up at that point. I grabbed a rain coat and his fireman boots and we had a last minute costume! I showed him pictures on instagram all the way there of other kids dressed up and he got even more excited about the concept.

Mima and Aunt Nans met us at Camp Harlow, where the party was happening. We ran into friends and family while navigating our way through the activities. My cousin Angela got this cute picture of Desmond in his robot costume with her daughter Delia in her monkey outfit (upper left of collage); they don't look too sure of each other, but are so precious!

It was a bit overwhelming in the gym where they had games for older kids so we moved through that area quickly. After playing some games and visiting a bit, we headed over to the petting zoo. Both boys were really excited about the animals. Des loved watching the little pig and Kai was really interested in a bird and a hedgehog. He kept asking to hold them.

On our way to the parking lot Kai spotted a train ride about to take off  so we all piled in for a bumpy ride around the camp and then we headed home. It was such a fun little evening for our boys and we enjoyed ourselves as well!

fall festivities

This past weekend was one event after another for me and I'm still recovering. Friday night we scooped up the kiddos and went to a friend's birthday party, which happened to be just down the street. Then we woke up earlier than usual for a Saturday morning and headed out to pick up some cupcakes we had ordered from The Sassy Cupcake for their latest fundraiser.

Our next stop was the pumpkin patch, but it was raining and had been for quite some time. Unfortunately we had told Malakai about going to get a pumpkin so we didn't have much of a choice. As true Oregonians we headed out in the rain. Sadly, the horse ride out to the patch wasn't free this year, but Kai was fine checking out all the pumpkins lined up at the storefront. He and Des picked out their pumpkins and we sloshed around in the muck before piling back into the car, all cold and soggy.

Once we got home we changed out of our muddy clothes and the boys went to work coloring their pumpkins. I even gave Kai the choice of carving his if he wanted, but he preferred to draw a few faces with crayons and then try carrying it around. Desmond even colored on his a bit, but then become more interested in trying to sit on it.

Next I headed out to meet my friend Carina and her sister-in-law, Michelle, for Carina's 1st bridal fitting. She lives in Portland but had found her wedding dress down her a few months ago. It was lovely to see her in it again. Then the three of us headed out to lunch at an old favorite, Sweet Basil Thai. 

{my lovely friend, Carina and some amazing pumpkin curry}

We made a stop at the mall to look for bridal party accessories and chat about what we'll each wear and what style she's going for. I also grabbed a last minute detail for my Halloween costume. 

I got home late that afternoon and spent some time snuggling my boys before getting ready to head out again. Ben and I were going to a costume party, on our way out the door we realized it was the first time we've ever dressed up together. 

{We went as Where's Waldo + Carmen Sandiego. The lovely bird is my friend Liz, and the hostess of the most fabulous parties}

We had such a good time hanging out with adults late into the night without our children. We haven't stayed out that late since before we had Malakai! It surely made me feel young again...until the next morning that is. 

Sunday was work/church and then I had a movie date during the boys' nap time with my mom and sister to finally see The Help. I went straight there to my in-laws where Ben had brought Des and Kai for us to have dinner. 

Then this morning was flu shots, groceries, errands and gymastics. Can you see how I'm a bit exhausted? Still, we had so much fun!

Halloween at home

Sunday night we finally got around to bringing in our 3 teeny pumpkins from my garden. We decided to forgo the time and mess that carving would take since we'd end up doing all the work anyway. Instead we got out some crayons and let Kai color on his pumpkin. Daddy made one as well and I drew on one for Desmond. Malakai loved it and there was no mess to clean up!

Last year we got Kai all dressed up and took him to a Harvest Party with some friends. It was a lot of fun and we planned on doing the same thing this year, but Malakai ended up being sick. He'd been chewing on his fingers and drooling a bit so we thought he was just working on his molars. We thought the congestion and snoring were part of teething until he developed a cough yesterday morning. So we decided to avoid spreading his cold and stay in. What a bummer.

However, Malakai refuses to wear anything but his jammies these days. Getting him to wear jeans and a T-shirt ends in a wrestling match and lots of tears. So we knew getting him to wear a costume would be next to impossible. We were going to just let him wear his jammies to the Harvest party. I'm so glad we didn't spend any money on a costume since we stayed in. Ben + I decided to join him and wear our jammies too...

I was starting to envy all my friends' photos on facebook of cute little puppies, monsters, and ladybugs so I had to at least dress Desmond up. I put him in Kai's first Halloween outfit...

Not only did Kai not want to get dressed, he wouldn't even wear his shirt yesterday, at least he was wearing pants, albeit jammies, but pants just the same. Oh toddlers.

Desmond was back + forth between tolerating my photo session and getting a little cranky about the oversized fluff I had him wearing.

Despite Kai being sick we had a nice quiet evening at home, just the 4 of us. Sadly, the evening ended with Desmond having his first crying fit ever. He's been pretty easy to console (food, swaddle, clean diaper, snuggle,  or sleep) but last night he kept screaming. We assumed he had a tummy ache and did what we could to console him. He'd fall asleep for a short period and then wake up super mad again. He was also having a hard time eating. Around 5am we woke to his joining Malakai in a chorus of snores. His first cold. I woke with a sore throat and wonder if that what had been bugging him the night before. Ironically Malakai was also 3 weeks old when he had his first cold...and it was August!

Kai magically slept (and snored) right through all of baby brother's crying and woke up in a good mood. So here we are, 3 out of the 4 of us sick. I'm thankful Ben is feeling well since he doesn't have any sick leave at work. I'm praying hard that he stays healthy and that the little boys and myself get over this quick!

photo friday: me + my boys.

When Desmond was just 8 days old we decided to take advantage of Ben being home during the days and take the boys to the pumpkin patch when it would be less busy than on the weekends.







We saw goats, Kai jumped in puddles, we went for a walk around the farm, checked out the picked pumpkins and ate some lunch. We had a blast and we didn't even go to the actual pumpkin patch part of the farm (at $3 a person to take the hay ride it just wasn't worth it this year).

Throughout the past 3 weeks (whoah) we've had lots of visitors and I haven't had to make dinner once. If someone wasn't bringing a meal we had plenty of leftovers from a previous ones. We barely even worry about lunch. Desmond met a lot of friends + family and has gained 2lbs since birth.



The boys have had many firsts, especially Desmond of course. He was not a fan of his first tub bath so daddy made sure to go as fast as possible.



This week Malakai, Desmond, + I have been figuring out our days together since Ben went back to work. Since I came down with Mastitis last weekend my mom came on Monday and spontaneously offered to come again for a bit yesterday. She and my brother took Kai to the park and wore him out just before lunch and nap. It was such a nice break and was so good for Kai to get outside and play. I'm doing tons better with the help of antibiotics and feeding Desmond as often as possible. Once my fever broke I felt like a human again. This week has been a challenge and I'm very ready for the weekend.

We've also been making sure that Kai gets plenty of daddy time in the evenings since he got so used to spending his days with Ben during his leave. I love watching them play together.



Those are just a few photos from our past few weeks. They aren't really in any good order, which would drive me nuts if I had the time to worry about it...