So Fast

It seems like yesterday, James was just learning to walk

and today he is riding away from me.



Thankfully, there is another.

Still Here

I have meant to blog long before now to write about our new house, the amazing playground that is right behind out house (its like an extension of the backyard), and the neighborhood that is crawling with kids. Unfortunately, I have been busy trying to keep up with a maintaining a large house, buying furniture for a much bigger house, tracking down my kids at the playground or some one's house that I have had very little time to string words together into coherent thoughts. So here's a picture of my Happy Boy. I can't believe he is 9 months already.

Photo Shoot

James loves to take pictures. Whenever I bring out my camera, he always request to have his turn behind the lens. After uploading the photos to the computer I can always tell which pictures were taken by James.

There are random pictures of nothing:

Pictures that artistically arrange the subjects in the frame:

The biggest hint that James took the photo is that I am actually in a picture.

Yesterday, James wanted to experiment with using the tripod. He spent about 15 minutes setting up the tripod, then he took several test photos,

Next, he wanted to shoot several photos with a subject and since I was the only other person awake....

Then we decided to use the timer.

After making some adjustments with the tripod, we got some good pictures of me and my little man.

James decided to try out several different poses and facial expressions

It was good hour's worth of entertainment for the both of us.

Finding Balance

Before I married and had children, I was able to maintain balance in my life. When things started to become unbalanced I, and I alone, needed to make adjustments to return to a more balanced life. Now when things start to get unbalanced, I and four other people (with their own wants/needs) are part of that adjustment process to return to balance, which means my life feels unbalanced all the time. It is a constant juggling act to find balance among interacting with the children (collectively and individually), spending time with my husband (or just talk with him on the phone as is the case currently), and finding time for myself in addition to all the other pulls on my time: cleaning house, cooking food, running errands, preparing to move, maintaining relationships with friends and family and getting adequate sleep. I postpone cleaning the house during the day to play with the kids, and clean house at night when I should be spending time with Brigham or end up sacrificing that all important “me” time.

Recently, I discovered that doing the opposite of what I think will return balance is actually the most effective way to rebalance. Let me illustrate: most morning I awake with upper and lower back aches from a combination of nursing a big baby, lifting heavy children and a mattress in desperate need of replacing. Because of this, I spend several minutes each morning trying to ease the aches. I performed upper back stretches and lower back stretches, I tried back strengthening exercises, and different sleep positions, all to no avail; the aches remained and I felt stiff and uncomfortable moving. One morning I stretched my chest; my upper back ache disappeared. Last night I practiced a yoga exercise sequence that focused on opening the hips. This morning I awoke with my lower back feeling supple and ache free. My back was not out balance. It was showing the strain of compensating for the other parts of the body that were off-kilter. Today I cleaned both bathrooms with Anna chattering away at me and happily wiping down any surface I told her to with her rag. James scrubbed the trash can lid, and then told me he needed to wash the refrigator door. The balance: I can clean with the kids. Tomorrow, I’ll see how well 3 year old and 2 year old can cook.

A New Craving

I crave this all day long, I think about it and how good it will taste, I cannot wait to put the kids to bed (so I don't have to share), I cut my phone conversation with Brigham short just so I can make the creamy chocolate peanut butter banana shake that I just cannot get enough off. I first had this shake at a friends house over a year ago but since she made it with ice cream (something I do not stock in my freezer and when I do buy it, I don't get vanilla), I never tried making it myself. Brigham also liked this shake and over Christmas he started experimenting to make it without ice cream, he used milk and ice. It tasted good but not as creamy as my friend's version.

When I organized my pantry about a week ago I realized I still had two cartoon of coconut milk left from when I went dairy-free because of Seth. I decided I might as well use them up instead of move them with us to California. I also had some frozen coconut milk ice cubes in the freezer (I freeze leftover coconut milk when a recipe does not call for a whole can). I replaced the milk and ice with coconut milk and frozen coconut milk cubes and after I adjusted the other ingredients to compensate for the strong coconut flavor, I had a shake that was just as creamy as the ice cream version and so good. It definitely is not healthy, but certainly satisfying and gives me something to look forward to after a long day alone with the kids.

Chocolate coconut banana peanut butter shake
(the shake taste best with frozen bananas)

• 6 frozen coconut milk ice cubes
• enough coconut milk to cover ice cubes (I use the SO Delicious Coconut milk sold in cartons near the soy milk, the vanilla flavor has a less strong coconut flavor but I also like the orginal for when I want more coconut flavor)
• 1 frozen banana
• 1-2 tbsp of peanut butter (or more to taste)
• 1-2 tbsp of chocolate milk mix (or more to taste)
• blend in blender until smooth adding more coconut milk if needed, taste and add more peanut butter or chocolate if needed, enjoy.

A walk down memory lane

This past week I spent several hours in memories, searching through thousands of our photos from the last five years to select the ones I wanted to put on digital frame I bought Brigham for Christmas. It was so much fun to go back through pictures I have not looked at in years, and be reminded that, yes, I really have beautiful children.

Right before my eyes, I watch James evolve from this smiling charmer:

Into this mischievous smiler:


Anna went from cute

To gorgeous

And Seth went from adorable



To more adorable

Then there are the photos that I love. I look at them every day and smile at the memory of that day. I have many friends that are photograpers and I love to look at the photos they post on their blogs but I love the pictures of their own children the most. The pictures they take of other people, their cilents, are good but they lack something that is present in the pictures of their children. In an hour photo session, it is so hard to capture a person's personality, their special smiles and expressions especially if the photograper does not know that person very well. But with their own children, my photographer friends capture those smiles, those expressions that bring those personalities vividly to life. I may not know their children's special smiles or expressions, but I can sense something special in those photos. That is what I see in these photos that I love. They are not necessarialy the best photos I have taken but they capture my children's personalities.

The trio of Anna that hangs on my wall (and when she is really trying patience I stare at to remind myself that I love her and should act that way)

My silly, happy, mischievous James.

(disclaimer: I did not dress James in the above photo)

The pumpkin pictures I just love because James and I had so much fun that day out in the garden.

Then there are the photos that make me long to go back in time and hug the child they were that day.

And I am always taking new photos to fall in love with

And this one...this one still melts my heart.

And probably always will.

Anchors Away, my boys....

We're in the Navy now.

Brigham commission in October to be an attorney in the Navy. He went to officer training in November and goes to JAG training in January and then we move to Lemoore, CA (the middle of nowhere, three hours away from many places).

Brigham in his dress blues and James in the classic enlisted uniform.