1st Birthday

Friday was Keller's birthday and he is officially 1 year old! We celebrated by having cupcakes and ice cream. The ice cream was more because Carter stayed dry all day and I told him we would have an ice cream party to celebrate.

We did FaceTime with my sister Teresa she lives in Washington and recently bought an iPad. They had cupcakes to celebrate with us it was fun!

When I think of my Kel I smile. He brings me great joy and is a very sweet baby and very easy going. He is definitely in exploration mode where he tries to be apart of everything and find new things to play with: cords, table tops, drawers and everything in between. What a fun age!

He crawls everywhere and pulls himself up too. He has started to walk along things and will let go for a few seconds to see how long he can stand. The other day he pushed a little chair across the floor of the kitchen while walking so we are probably a month or so away from walking. I could not wait for him to crawl because he is a big mama's boy. I would leave the room and he would scream as soon as I turned the corner and he would be fine once I came back. Crawling has allowed him the ability to follow me and it sure makes both of our lives easier!

I have started calling him my little kama'aina which means child of the land. He looks very Hawaiian to me in his skin color, his eyes and his hair. He would fit right in over there it is fun to see such a different look than his siblings.

I love my little guy. He brings such peace to our home and so much happiness. I am amazed by how much love I can feel towards these sweet spirits that have blessed our home. What a fun year it has been to see him grow and develop. I can't wait for the years to come and to see what a special little guy you are and are going to be. I love you Keller Palike!

Here he is after his first cupcake. His big cake will be in a few weeks with his combined party with his sister.

Potay

Yesterday I embarked once again pn potty training Carter. I tried back in January and got frustrated and after a few days I gave up. As I was on pinterest I saw a post about potty training in a day and decided I could do this. I would link it if I knew how to link using the iPad app for Blogger...

I started yesterday. I gave him lots of koolaid and goldfish crackers to get him to drink more. We set the timer for every fifteen minutes and he lived in underwear. He wore plastic pants for nap and night no more diapers! We had 4 accidents yesterday but we stuck to it and he has been very cooperative.

Part of the training is to use a doll to show examples of accidents. You take the doll to the scene of the accident and you run with the doll back and forth from that point to the bathroom repeating "No pee pee on the floor, pee pee on the potty." You do that 10 times and hopefully the child will start to understand that we don't just go that you run to the bathroom instead. It is a lot of work but Carter is responding so I guess I will continue to look like a crazy woman until it sinks in.

I had a great helper yesterday with Leilani. She helped with Keller when I needed her I was tempted to take her out of school for the rest of the week to help me!

Today went fairly well and then Leilani came home and it went so much better. We had half the accidents and no accidents during nap time yay! So I expect tomorrow to be crazy and have accidents like crazy but we shall forge ahead!

I had to take a picture of his cute okole in his new underwear. The other picture is Super Hero Cartay Potay and he is going to conquer this!

Crazy hair day

It sure has been awhile since I have posted anything! We got an iPad and I was skeptical how blogging will work on it so here goes!

Today was crazy hair day at school the kidlets were very excited to see what creation their hair would make.

Brady doesn't have very long hair so his was a little difficult. He hated the rubber bands in his hairouch he says. I told him welcome to being a girl!

Leilani's was really easy and you can't tell in the pictures but they stuck straight out and looked really cute but still crazy!

Baby Rocco

Happy Birthday my sweet boy! I am always amazed by how fast times flies when a birthday comes around. Here we are 3 years later and he is quickly becoming this little boy!

My baby Rocco, yikes! It was the best pregnancy not knowing what gender he was. I wish that everyone else around me would chill and let me have my fun in being surprised!

I look at my darling little boy and smile. He has always had this way of making everything be okay around him. I will never forget the year that he blessed our lives was a year of turmoil and uncertainty. He came into our lives at the perfect time. I don't know how I would have survived the year without him, or any year since.

I would hold him and all was right in the world, as long as he was around. He still has this amazing gift, maybe it is his big blue eyes, or those long lashes or the quick to smile demeanor.... there are too many things to list about my sweet boy.

Carter, you truly are a joy. There is happiness surrounding you and I pray that you may always have that. You make me smile, everyday and I look forward to the future and what life will bring you. I love you my darling little boy!

Happy #7!

Today is Brady's birthday. We celebrated last week with a Magic School Bus party, which was so much fun! At first I was so nervous about the cake and then I made it and I was so happy with how it turned out. It is my favorite cake that I have ever done and didn't want to cut it, way too cute to eat!

His party included science experiments: tornado tubes (thanks sis for all of your connectors, you are the best auntie!), Mentos in 2 liters of pop and hurricane tag, perfect for outside and thankfully it was a beautiful day!

When I sit down and think about my oldest I cannot even fathom the fact that he is 7! Wow, time sure has flown by! He is such a joy to have in my life.

I love watching him play with his siblings and how much he really does love to be with them and "create" games with them.

He is very thoughtful to those around him. If there is a kid who isn't playing with anyone, he will go to them and invite them to play with him.

He is a great example of the gospel to me, he knows it is true and does what is right.

Of all of my children, he is the most sensitive to what is going on around him, especially when it comes to me. If I am having a hard day he is the first to come up and give me a hug and tell me everything will be okay.

My sweet Brady bug, I love you and all of the things that you teach me on a daily basis. What an amazing young boy you are. You are so much fun to be around. I know that next year when you are of age, that you will be ready to be baptized. I am blessed to be your mother and to have the opportunity to have you in my life, you are a keeper! I love you 10 olives!

More then meets the eye

Finally, my Halloween post! We some fun things to celebrate this year, the Thursday before there was no school so I had a Halloween party and I didn't even take any pictures of it! It was a lot of fun. My favorite part was the cooking for this, it was a lot of fun and I got all of my ideas from here:

OurBestBites

We had mummy dogs, monster apple teeth, witches wands, pumpkin shaped sandwiches and candy corn shaped sugar cookies (those were my favorite no frosting needed or cookie cutters!). We did a simple Halloween craft and then just let the kids play in the backyard, it was a perfect day.

Friday before Halloween there was no school due to Nevada Day so we went into town and did Keller's Hawaiian baby pictures to add to my wall. While we were there we met up with dad, dressed the kidlets in their costumes and went to Springs Preserve. It was fun, everything was decorated with witches, ghouls, ghosts, monsters... black lights and "spider webs" everywhere. There were stations for trick-or-treating. It started at dark so it made for a very late night!

We didn't get around to carving until Saturday night and we had fun with that and surprisingly Bryce did too! He hates carving but now that he found this tool to add onto his drill to get the guts out of the pumpkin he was almost excited!

We had Super Mario bros. this year, a pretty witch (as she called herself) and a cute little Dalmatian puppy.

Bryce's creation, our compromise for Brady he wanted Optimus, uh, no!

Mine on the left, Leilani's on the right

Ready to go!

He hated the hat but he loved the collar

It's a Grand Ole' Flag

Every morning at Brady's school they have flag ceremony. This includes all of the grades, even Leilani gets to attend.
Well, the first graders were asked to lead flag ceremony. Brady came home and was so excited to tell me he held the flag and then on another day he lead the school in their 30 seconds of silence.
It brings a smile upon my face to look at this picture and see how serious he takes holding the flag.

Maybe being a cub scout leader when he was so little had a lasting effect on him? He did know the Cub scout motto when he was 2! We are a little over a year away and he will be a Wolf, it is crazy!
What a good kid I have!