Hide the scissors

I can't bring mysef to take a picture for the blog or even to take Cambria's hair out of its small ponytail to even look at her hack job. Cambria has quiet time while Kiera and I take a nap. Kai happened to be home this particular day. When I woke up he said, "I have some really bad news . . ." His face was so grave, I thought, "oh, crap, did someone die?!" He then proceeded to tell me, that he had thought Cambria wanted scissors to cut up some paper. Wrong. She had really wanted scissors to cut the hair that was falling into her eyes and obstructing her view of her coloring book. She left most of the left side alone, but really choped the right side and back. She then tried to hide the evidence of the fallen ringlets in her jewlery box. I don't know at which point Kai found out what she was really doing, but Cambria tried to convince him that they should hide the curls that didn't fit into her jewlery box deep in the trash can. Kai told her that she couldn't hide her hair and that they needed to tell me. "Oh, Daddy, noooooo, please don't tell mommy." Like I wouldn't know when I saw that the hair by her right ear was a bout an inch long. My friend Jodi did a great job at fixing her hair cut and making the best of it, but now that her hair is soooo short and less weighed down by the length, the Afro is really making a good show of itself. So it will stay in a ponytail and clips for now. Scissors should be used with supervision.

K-I-E-R-A

My little two year old (29 mos) can spell her name! We were teaching Cambria how to spell Kiera's name and didn't realize that Kiera was paying attention. Her teacher in nursery told me after church that she had asked Kiera how to spell her name, not really expecting an answer, and low and behold, K-i-e-r-a! The next Sunday we took two extra boys to church with us and she said to them, "Hi boys, I'm K-i-e-r-a!" Our pediatrician has always told us that Kiera is a very smart little girl. We know Dr. Mehta loves her but this story is funny: yesterday Dr. Mehta told us that her parents were visiting from India and had been spending time with their granddaughter (who is also very smart). They kept telling Dr. Mehta stories about her and Dr. Mehta would tell them stories not about her own son, but about Kiera and Cambria. Isn't that funny. We built a ver strong relationship with our Dr. because we saw her about every two weeks. Cambria always had strep (hense the tonsilectomy) and Kiera always had an ear infection (hence the tubes in her ears). The office even joked about putting us on their Christmas list.

Oh, yeah, so Kiera may have an IQ of 160, but, this evening she was asking me if she could drink the pool water that had overflowed to the ground. I said no because it was dirty water and tried to hand her her sippy cup. She then said, in a rather, firm voice I might add, "but this water is for cows!" So I told her she was not a cow, but a Kiera, and before I had time to finish that sentence she said, "mooooooooooooo!" So you know that puts things in perspective.

Boy Stuff

I have some very creative friends that I just wanted to highlight. These are two gifts were the most original I'd seen. A cute little diaper cake with wash cloths and baby bath essentials, and a cute little wreath that says "it's a boy." Sometimes I still don't think that the news has really set in that it's a boy, not a girl coming. For some reason I am so so nervous. I know it doesn't make sense, but its still true. I have three and a half weeks left for the reality of the situation to fully grab hold of my brain. Don't get me wrong, I am excited, but for the last four years dresses, pastel colors and princess movies have ruled our house. This wreath is hanging in Kiera's old room that used to be a purple fairy princess room, so blue is a good start. Kiera now shares a room with her big sister Cambria (and still gets a little confused when I tell her to go to HER room-she often pauses between the two doors and you can tell she's trying to make a decision.) I am, however, very happy not to have to do another girls hair before church in the morning. I don't think we'd make it to church if I had three little afros to tame before a certain deadline.

I appreciate those of you who have wished me well on the last bit of my pregnancy. I will be more than happy to deliver this baby. I can't wait to see what he'll look like and what we will finally name him. Now Cambria is trying to convince us that Tarzan would be a really great name. Oh, I have a question - has anyone of you ever banked cord blood or researched it? I am thinking seriously about it and would like to hear from anyone who has had any experience or some kind of knowledge on the subject. Thanks!

Making Summer Last

Okay, so I know I haven't blogged for awhile. These last few weeks of pregnancy have me very tired. Kai started work again today, and all the students will go back to school on Monday and it makes me realize that this summer went much faster than I ever thought it would. I usually want summer to last much longer, but I knew that the close of this summer would bring me closer to the birth of our son. So these are just a few tribute pictures to our last days of summer. Up above is My youngest brother Ryan and of Course Kai showing off their muscles. Its nice for Kai to have some testosterone in the house every once in awhile.
This is the way my girls prefer their pancakes. They love to help mix the batter and then add red food coloring. Sometimes we make them blue though because Kai has a hard time eating pink pancakes.

We had another visit from the Miexia and Netty Ah Loy as they passed back through on their way home to Wyoming. The girls were very excited because Kai only likes to get the slide out on special occasions. They all had such a good time.
Kiera making a splash and Cambria, loving her ride!

So, even though it is still 108 degrees or more today, our summer is coming to a close. I hope all of you had great vacations and made many memories. Next summer we hope to do a lot of traveling to see more of everyone!

Birthdays, Bowling and Chinese Food

Okay, so, this first picture doesn't have anything to do with the title, but it did happen while we were eating Grammy and Papa's birthday cake. I still laugh when I think about Cambria's little voice saying, "look, I'm a walrus." Where do kids come up with these things!

My parents came to stay with us for two days before completing their trip to Utah to take Ryan to EFY. We were able to celebrate my Dad's birthday just one day late and my Mom's birthday a week and a half early. Although, they will be here again on their way back home to California so my mom has to wait until then to get her gift.

These are the best cakes ever! If you have never had an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen, I suggest you do so immediately!

While they were here we got to go bowling at the Virgin River Casino. The girls had been once before and really wanted to take Grammy and Papa. Even with bowling bumpers Ryan still lost to everyone, including Cambria and Kiera. Good thing he plays water polo, because there is no future for him as a bowler.

This is how Kai spent most of his night, but he still beat Ryan:) Isn't he cute:)

My parents new favorite place to eat in Mesquite is a little hole in the wall called Canton Chinese Cuisine. We had been telling the girls that we were going to eat Chinese food, so as SO as we sat down Kiera yelled quite loudly, "I want China!" Ryan and Kai couldn't eat enough of these little Chinese donuts. I am not exaggerating when I say they had about 10 each.

We posed for a picture outside the restarant and instead of saying "cheese" Kiera kept saying "china, china, china, china, china." It was really funny. We sure had a great time with my family and can't wait until our next get-to-gether.

Shark Reef

I am so sad I didn't get more pictures! my pregnancy fatigue is interfereing with my normally excessive desire to document everything in photos. Shark Reef is a tiny aquarium at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas. Teachers get to go free during the summer so we took advatage of the opportunity. Cambria's favorite part (which has no photo documentation:() was the sting ray touch pool. She stayed for about a half an hour touch every sting ray that passed by. When we came home and went swimming in out own pool she alternated between pretending to be a sting ray and imitating the guide who sat at the head of the sting ray pool saying, "please only toch the sting ray's with one finger and a closed fist. Do not touch their eyes, nose or tail, thank you very much." She also might be the only one to ever have said "ohhhh, that sting ray is soooooooooooo cute!" Kiera was a little freaked out by the sting rays, but she really liked the white alligator. Oh, she also really liked the elavator.:)

Kiera with baby Tarzan waiting to go on the elevator.