How Things Get Done...

I'm so glad that Cruz likes to be in his sling. It actually knocks him right out. The cool thing is that I can do things like the laundry or clean up a little bit, or do computer editing while I'm wearing him. The bonus is that I get to hear all his little grunts and coos, which are pretty dern cute.

We had our 6 week postpartum check up yesterday and little man isn't so little. He is 12lbs, 2 oz. A gain of over 3 pounds in 6 weeks. That's a lot for such a little person! He's healthy as can be and super sweet.

a dream in color

Hang Time

Remember how I said I was working on something??? Well here's a little taster.

I keep thinking I should post them to my professional site, but then I might get people asking for these. And let me tell you... getting these was HARD. Cruz was a crankypotomus and I was literally standing on a step ladder nursing him for him to go back to sleep. Me and Michele were clicking away on our cameras for the (literally) 15 seconds that Cruz would close his eyes. But you'd never know all that until I just told you. He is such a beautiful little boy. Gosh I'm in love.

which one???

Yesterday we drove out to Manor to meet up with my uber talented friend Michele. We had some plans for testing something out on Cruz - you'll see that soon.

But while Cruz was being a cranky pants I nursed him and Michele took my CF card and put it into her camera and took these. When I pulled the images of Cruz to edit them, my breath was taken away... I love these images. I want to frame one, but which one? I can't choose! HELP!

Monday ramblings

So on Friday night (well actually it was around 4am Saturday morning) Peter called to let me know he was being sent home from work. My heart skipped a few beats as I thought of what that meant... did he lose his job? Did something happen?

Indeed it had. A drunk guest had threatened his life. For a stupid reason. And instead of Peter getting the heck out of there, or thinking about what he was doing, he got upset and punched a wall. He was sent home, told not to come to work for 2 days, and to see HR on Monday.

For me this meant preparing for the loss of the job. But my head kept telling me that in that situation, he had reason to be upset and afraid. The guest had kept trying to provoke him into a fight and he hadn't fought back. Surely he can't be penalized! But still the stress over the weekend accumulated and we talked about our future and what we would do if he was let go.

Fortunately the hotel apologized that he had to deal with that situation and he didn't lose his job. It is certainly a lesson learned - when people try to get a rise out of him he needs to take a moment to remember that he has a family to support and not let "Moke Peter" out ever again. I am thankful that we could have such an open dialogue over the weekend. I know the future will be bright.

On another note, I did snap a couple pictures over the weekend. Cruz is growing rampantly. He is my little Tubby. And today he smiled at me and it was fabulous. He also had his first bath in the big tub with Ryenne and Kai. He loved it. He had plenty of room to kick around.

Peter with our three monkeys

Sleepy Cruz

And last week (or maybe it was the week before?) Cowboy Bob visited Ry's school. Here are the pictures from her on the pony!

By the way, she has been asking Pops and Gams to buy her a pet donkey for about a month now. :)

And finally for tonight...

Kai's school gave me homework! My assignment was to write a love note to Kai and it will be read to him at school. I sat down a few minutes ago and decided to hand write it to my baby boy.

What a weekend!!!!

This has been a particularly stressful weekend.

My mastitis came back full force. I hadn't blogged about my last bout with it a couple weeks ago, but it came back Friday night and it's a mean, mean thing. I hate it. It is so incredibly sore and just not fun in general.

Other things happened this weekend too that just aren't fun and I'll go into it further tomorrow when more things become clear.

Kai's 18 month well check

I can't believe my first baby boy is already a year and a half old! He is getting so big and talking so much more!

He is such a tiny little guy though. He is 21lbs, 14oz and in the 10% for weight. He's 30.75" tall and also in the 10% for height. But he has a good size brain! 19.5" head size and in the 90%!! Definitely a top heavy little guy!

Bluebonnets!

So Bluebonnets are all the rage here in Texas. They magically pop up during the spring. But last year since there was a drought they were pretty sparse. So this year they are popping up like crazy and they're so pretty!

Our bluebonnet adventure was pretty comical. Me and my three plus Katie and her two were going crazy trying to corral all these little kids into a small area. Luckily we weren't anywhere near the street!

So here are my monkeys.... Ryenne was giving me the strangest smiles. I'm thinking it's cause she's 3???? I'm totally baffled by them. But oh well - I did get a few "keeper" images of her!

A little vintage action...

Kai thought the flowers were fabulous!!

And I just couldn't leave without attemting a shot of Cruz in the flowers. But by this time, Ry and Kai had already been bitten by fire ants and Cruz spit up all over himself moments before I got him out of the car. So this is what I got! Still pretty dang cute if I do say so myself!

A beautiful Easter!

It could not have been a more gorgeous day outside! It was a little humid, but not overly hot and a light breeze picked up. It was the perfect day to be outside and even more perfect that the Easter Bunny visited Gams and Pops' house and hid the chocolate outside - you can tell Spring is totally happenin!

Kai is ready for his hunt.

Gams takes Ry to her section and she starts hunting!

Ry catches the hang of it and Kai loves Gam's plants, but he finds his candy too with the help of Daddy

It's Cruz's one month birthday! And Uncle Koa has Ry help him find his candy. Me and Peter found our baskets, and Koa goofs off with his buddy Josh.

Pono lounges in the pasture while Meesie goes in for the kids' strawberries. Pops is hanging out, and me and Mom catch a picture.

It was a gorgeous day. I put the camera away and we headed inside and ate deep fried scallops (one of my favorite things in the entire world!), shrimp, and princess green beans. Chocolate mousse pie was for dessert. it was delicious!! We all had a great time.

little camera pictures from last week

I was so, so bad last week. I didn't take many pictures at all. And I wish that I had gone picture crazy while the Maui grandparents were here! But I did take a few! So here they are!

Papa and Cruz catching a nap

This was the best of the group shots!

And then Kai wanted to be a goofball on the couch

Coming tomorrow (hopefully) - pictures of our Easter today!!

Big Brother

It's very obvious that there is already a very special bond between Kai and Cruz. I honestly didn't know what to expect when we brought Cruz home. Part of me was expecting Kai to be upset and jealous. But it's been everything but.

Kai likes to be near Cruz whenever he can. When Cruz is in his chair relaxing, Kai is right next to him rocking him back and forth, or leaning up next to him and giving him hugs and kisses. Kai likes to hold Cruz's hand when he's nursing, or hold his feet and kiss them. And the cutest thing... Kai kisses Cruz non-stop. He'll bend over the baby, kiss his cheek, his head, his shoulder... anything he can. Smile and look at me and say "Awww!"I couldn't have asked for a better reaction. I think these two boys will be very close to each other. It's already evident that they are. It's special already!

~~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~"~

On another note, I have more pictures from Grandma and Papa's visit to get up on the blog. They'll be coming up soon! And I am so excited that we got a swingset! It's not set up yet, but it's going to transform our backyard into a kid wonderland. Monkey bars, a fort, a slide, swings, a glider, and a sandbox. This summer and fall we'll be living outside. I've got the spf 70 ready!

Yesterday we went to the Buda Easter Egg hunt with Graham and Katie and their boys. Thank goodness I met them there because I would not have been able to handle my monkey's by myself. Ryenne was in a miserable mood. I took away all her eggs that she got because she was having a problem with being thankful for what she has. Tough lessons that this little girl needs to learn. She is so stubborn! I am having to force myself to be more stubborn than her and it's totally not in my nature to do that!

Today we're heading over to Gams and Pops house after Peter wakes up. A hunt, running in the field, good food, and love are waiting for us over there. Can't wait.

Happy Easter to all!

LOVE!

I was pretty healthy throughout each of my pregnancies and didn't gain too much, but my body pre-pregnancy in all cases has always been on the big side. For those that don't know, I have a condition called PCOS and it's a hormonal imbalance. In high school, I gained about 60 pounds in a matter of 3 months. I've never been able to get it off since.

Over the years I've done a lot of research on what affects my hormones and learned a lot about what does bad things to my body; processed foods, plastics, artificial sweeteners, sugar, white flour, ect. I've led a pretty darn good diet most of my adult life, but tend to overeat and also indulge in my beloved carbs and sweets.

After Cruz was born, I decided to work harder on my diet and my overeating habit. And of course, three little ones keeps me on my toes physically as well. In fact, my friend Katie and I decided we'd try to get healthier together. And it's nice to both be at a very similar starting point (sorry all my rail thin friends... it would be hard to compete with you!).

So... I just finished week two of my "plan". The first week I lost 2 pounds and this week I lost 4 POUNDS. I am so happy!!!! I never want to see the scale show those certain numbers ever again!

Love this...

I still have some images to get from the little camera, but I stumbled on this image that I hadn't yet taken off the big camera's flash card. I love it. Pretty special I think.

And here's another cute one. The littles were playing in the backyard and they just looked so dang cute. Kai was holding a broom. Ryenne is wearing mittens in 80 degree weather. Gotta love the creativity!!

always hard to say goodbye

Two weeks came and went REALLY fast. This morning was the hard part - saying goodbye to Grandma and Papa and sending them back home to Maui.

We really enjoyed having them here, visiting, laughing, eating, trading babies from one to another, playing tourist (a little bit), and just spending time with each other.

This was the first time that they really got to spend with Kai and got to know who he is and what a sweetheart he is. And Cruz got to spend lots of snuggle time too. Ryenne got to show off what a big girl she's becoming and all that she's learning.

What a blessing that they were able to come and spend time with us. We miss you guys already!

venturing out - the Salt Lick

We wanted to take Marissa & Eugene out for some authentic Texas BBQ. So we headed out to the Salt Lick in Driftwood.

Everything tasted wonderful, but it was tough being out. Ryenne was in a stinky mood the entire time. Kai ate quickly and then wanted to get out and run and there were just too many cars and people to let him run around. So he quickly got into a bad mood. Cruz slept while I ate but then woke and needed to nurse so out to the car I went.

I think it will be a while before we go out as a family out to eat again. It was rough - no lie!

Cruz's first time to the Salt Lick!

Ok so this is our first family picture as a family of 5. You can tell Ry and Kai are totally "over it" and poor Peter spent the entire meal giving directions to Koa so he barely got to eat. On the plus side, those are all non-maternity clothes I'm wearing. I fit right back into my regular jeans - yay!

And Grandma and Papa had to be in a picture too of course.

Grandma love...

Cruz and Kai are enjoying having their Grandma around!!

More cuteness coming at you...

The other images from the set of Cruz's two week photo shoot!

Notice the little back fat and those milk bubbles **LOVE**

And that full milk tummy. Ahhhhh.... love it.

busy, busy...

It's been a busy, busy few days. Peter's parents arrived here in Austin just as my mom left for Reno. Perfect timing. I have been exhausted!!

We've had two days of adjusting to the time difference for Papa and Grandma - and the kids are loving being spoiled rotten. I need to get the camera out more... I just snagged this little moment with the kids and Papa.

I spent a moment yesterday morning to document Cruz at two weeks old. Really the first moment I've felt sane enough to pick up the camera and give it a go. Here's his official announcement.

I have a few more to post that I haven't finished editing yet. I also saw the proofs from Cruz's birth photography done by the amazing Michele and I was totally blown away. Email me if you'd like to see them.

I am totally giddy cause next week Michele and I are going to try our hand at some really cool baby images - hopefully we can pull it off - actually I'm sure that together we can.

Tomorrow is Papa's 60th birthday and we're going to have friends over to celebrate. It will definitely be a time for the camera!!!

Sunshiny Day

I have been itchin to try Cruz's photo shoot again, but I just can't do it myself and the light isn't as good in the afternoon. This is the ONE shot I got trying by myself yesterday. Little boy is holding up his head already! So I'll try again on Tuesday when Peter can help me.

I feel like Spring has begun already and days of daily outside play has begun. We had the weeds and dog poo taken out of the backyard so we can start using it again. Dogs will be going into a dog run. Ryenne and Kai were so happy to go outside and have free reign over the yard!

I'm still a shoe fiend. This is Kai's most awesomest pair of shoes, which will soon be too small. See how he's on his tippy toes? He does this when he's happy.



But before I knew it, he had taken everything off and was a nakey little guy having a blast.



Ryenne enjoyed "cleaning rocks" in the water tub. This was her favorite one.



And Cruz has gotten lots of visitors to give him love. Auntie Nikki, Kaeli, and Makena came by to visit and Cruz got lots and lots of kisses!



And Pops came too. He's helping me to get the office loft complete. And Cruz got to snuggle with Pops too. I need to get some pictures of Gams with Cruz cause she's been snuggling on him too!

What makes a name?

I've had lots of people ask about Cruz's name - his whole name - why it's so long? Do the names mean anything? How the heck do you say that Hawaiian name? ... So I figured I'd write out why exactly each name was chosen and what they mean.

But first, a quick update on Cruz. He had a checkup this morning and he is 9lbs, 1oz - super healthy. They were so happy to see he is above his birth weight after only one week!

I am totally blessed to have a husband that hasn't argued with me at all over names for our kids. In fact, we have been on agreement on all of them straight from the get-go. Our criteria for each child is that they don't have a "mainstream" first name, they have middle names that honor family members, and they have a Hawaiian name somewhere within.

Ryenne's name is long - Ryenne Alicia Grace Waiwaipuhia - and she honors beautiful women in our family - Grandmama Alicia and Great Grandma Grace. Waiwaipuhia is the mist that comes off of a waterfall - Wai being fresh water. And we knew that each Hawaiian name thereafter would be a nod to the water.

Kai Eric is short and sweet. Kai is the Sea - salt water. It's so fitting because he was born in the water and is such a water boy. Eric is Peter's baby brother who is no longer with us.

And then Cruz Nico Ka'ehukai Florencio ... definitely a long one. Here's the breakdown:

Cruz: I just downright LOVED this name when I heard it. It's strong. Cruz means "cross" and a cross is a symbol that can be taken in many different ways - of course religious, but also I think a symbol of strength and faith (whatever faith that might be) and focus.

Nico: After my brother Nicolas. Nico and I grew up 2 years apart. The same age difference between all the kids. Nico and I had so many wonderful adventures together growing up - in many, many ways we were each other's best friend. So many memories of our childhood together that make me smile and wish and hope that Ry, Kai, and Cruz will have just as many adventures as Me and Nico had together. I just wish Nico lived closer!

Ka'ehukai: our nod to the water.... Ka'ehukai is the mist that gets sheared off the wave as it breaks in the ocean. It's truly beautiful. Sometimes a rainbow will appear in that mist. Cruz was born in the water.

Florencio: We knew we wanted to honor someone in Peter's family with Cruz, and it became obvious to us who to choose when Pupu passed away. Pupu was a strong man and Peter has so many memories of him. So Florencio it was!

It's a beautiful day today. Cruz is sleeping in his carseat and Ry and Kai are wrestling in the living room. The sun is shining and blossoms are blooming. I think we'll go on a walk later.