Just chillin'

Before I became pregnant with Malachi, me and the girls were never home. It seemed like ever day was an adventure spent at the park or the library or a friends house or on walks or bike rides. We always seemed to have lots of things outside the four walls of our home to keep us entertained. Not so true anymore. It seems like we are almost always home now and I miss the adventures of our old days. I don't know what it is that compels us or maybe forces us to stay home now. I think it is a combination of things. At first it was a nursing baby. I always have a hard time nursing in the early stages of the newborn life. I like to stay close to home so that I can keep things under control. My baby is still nursing, but it is a lot easier to get out now. I think another thing that keeps us home is the lack of friends. We still have all our same friends but it seems that their lives have become much more busy. They have more kids in school than I do. A few stay at home moms became working moms, and our varying schedules have kept us from play dates. Plus a whole bunch of us had babies at the same time and I think just now our lives are starting to become more routine and normal.

So, here we are, just chilin at home. My girls have really become great playmates and very good friends. It renews a certain jealousy in me that has always existed. I always wanted a sister and I am envious of the sweet relationship they have. When I tell them how lucky they are to have each other and that I always wished for a sister, Cambria always tells me, "I'll be your sister, Mom."
My girls love Little People, the Littlest Pet Shop, Polly Pockets, Barbies, horses ans other animal toys.
Malachi, in true boy form, seems to love every type of ball. Kai hopes he'll be a future baller.
I thought this picture was cute and since we went private I don't have any reservations in posting it. Kai was the Middle School Boy's basket ball coach and he brought all the uniforms home to wash them. The girls thought they would try on the shorts. Kai was recently hired to be the new High School Boy's JV coach. He is very excited and so am I. It is the same amount of money for half of the games. I think he will still have to travel, but he won't have to wait for four teams to be done before he can leave anymore. When he was the middle school coach, he had to wait for the two boy teams to finish and then the two girl teams to finish because they only had a budget for one bus. He'll be able to coach his JV team and then take off for home. I love that.

I am getting excited to go to California because I am so home sick! I will be there for two weeks. Kai will drive us down fly back to Vegas, then fly back to Cali in two weeks and then we will all drive back. I am looking forward to meeting up with all our California friends. I'll have to call or email you all to schedule some fun time!

I am also getting way excited for the 4Th of July! It is my favorite holiday. I just bought this jell-o mold to make and American flag shape. It looked so cute in the store. I have seen a few cute 4Th of July recipes in the Better Homes and Gardens Mag. Do you have any good ones?????? Does anyone know how to make home made ROOT BEER??? Let me know (QUICK) pretty please!!!!!

Not really Invisible

"It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I am thinking, "Can't you see I'm on the phone?" Obviously not; no one can see if I am on the phone, or cooking or sweeping the floor or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I am invisible. The invisible Mom.



Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more; can you fix this? Can you tie that? Can you open this? Can you get that?



I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude- but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going, going, gone.



One night a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in.I was sitting there, looking around at the others all looking put together so well. It was hard not to compare or feel sorry for myself as I looked down at my out-of-style dress; It was the only thing I could find that was clean. My unwashed hair was pulled back in a clip and I was afraid that I could actually smell peanut butter in it. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, "I brought this for you."

It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: "To Charlotte, with admiration for what you are building when no one sees."

In the days ahead I would read, no, devour the book. And I would discover what would become for me a life-changing truth, after which I could pattern my work. No one can say who built the great cathedrals-we have no record- of their names. These builders gave their whole lives to a project they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. the passion of their building was fueled by their faith that God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built. He saw a workman carving a tiny bird into the side of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, " Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it." And the Workman relied, "Because God sees it."

I closed the book feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me," I see you Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make everyday, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become."

At times my invisibility seems like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centring's. It is the antidote for my strong, stubborn pride. I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job they will never see finished. To work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went on so far as to say that no great cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it. I don't want my kids to tell the friends that they bring home from college for Thanksgiving, "My mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes home-made pies, and then she hand bastes the turkey for three hours, and then she presses the linens for the table." That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want them to want to come home. . . and then, if there is anything more to say to his friends, I'd be happy with a, "you're going to love it there."

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals.We cannot be seen if we are doing it right . And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women."

Author unknown

The first official Day of Summer

Strange, its seems summer has been upon us for quite sometime. But today really is the first official day of summer. I have been reading so many blogs lately and I marvel at the creativity of the authors to transform seemingly mundane daily routines into moments of humor, triumph and sweetness. It makes me realize how talented all you bloggers are. Some of you could be writers!

This is my little pup. He is 9 months old. It makes me kind of sad to reach this milestone because it feels like the last trimester of babyhood. I love babies. Love their innocence and love and smiles and the fact that they can't yell at you or disobey. I love all their firsts and the miracle of life that is displayed in their every breath. We really wanted more babies and the thought that this sweet boy just might be my last makes me savor every morsel of him that much more.

He is starting to walk while holding onto furniture and stand unassisted. It really is so cute and his sisters get a kick out of him, and visa versa.
When I saw this event the first ting that popped in my head was this:
Q: What did the Mexican say to the house after it fell on him?
A: Get off me holmes!
I think that I used to think it was funny. I am am half Hispanic so you don't half to think I am being racist or anything!:) Bubba was trying to use the house to help him stand and obviously it didn't work.


The city next to us just got this new little water feature at their park. I wish every park had these. It is so much fun. It will definitely help us enjoy these hot days!

Bubba in the buff.
Friday night we went to a little friend's b-day party. It was really fun and wouldn't you know that we forgot out camera! It was a puppy party for a three year old. The kids got there faces painted and then got to don some homemade doggy ears, painted their own little puppy statue, and then beat down a puppy pinata in the house (because it was too hot out side!) It was so creative. The little paper bags that they collected their candy in were labeled "doggy bags." SO cute. Cambria wants to do a horse theme for her next birthday and incorporate the same ideas.

Despite the look, Kiera wasn't mad. For some reason this is the look that went with the puppy role.

In other news, our kids have been rockin' out to Camp Rock this weekend. We have heard several versions of, " this is real, this is me, this is exactly where I'm suppossed to be . . ." around our house lately. Kiera was singing at the top of her lungs, " this is me, this is me, this is me, this is me . . ." I love hearing them unabashedly sing their hearts out. I hope they always do that.

Lastly, there have been a few issues to arise. Every time Kiera sees me hug or kiss Kai she immediately runs to me and says, " Mom, don't love Daddy, love me!"

So today, Cambria said, " Mom, I don't want you to marry Daddy."

me: "If I didn't marry Daddy then I wouldn't have you or Kiera or Bubba."

Cambria: "What do you mean?"

Me: I had to marry Daddy to get you.

Cambria: "Oh . . . I don't know who I will marry (rather forlorn).

Me: You probably don't know him yet. I bet you'll meet him in college. That is where I met Daddy.

Cambria: (feeling much better) Oh, Okay.

We've been to two wedding in the last two weeks. Happily ever after seems to be weighing heavily on her mind.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (big sigh), and she isn't even a teenager yet.

They're magically delicious!

I am having a love affair with Lucky Charms. I can't stop eating them. I guess its better than a bowl of ice cream.

We just got back from a weekend in Yosemite. Well not just. I guess I am still recovering. We were there for Kai's brother, Ben's wedding. We got back after midnight on Sunday night.

I am in the process of blogging about our trip. Downloading the pictures was taking so long that I thought I better write something so that you know I am still around.


I don't know how this happened but my Yosemite blog is after this oner instead of before it. So, look below for our Yosemite trip!

Yoooooosemite!

What a trip! I don't know how many of you have ever been able to enjoy the beauty of Yosemite. I feel like our trip could have been entitled, "How To See Yosemite Without Ever Leaving Your Car."

The reason for our fast, but scenic trip was a wedding. Kai's brother Ben, number five in the line up of ten brothers, married a sweet girl named Amanda Baeza. They had first decided to marry in Italy and then later changed the location to Yosemite.

We left Mesquite for the Vegas airport Friday afternoon. An hour after our plane took flight, we landed in Fresno, California. From there we drove our rental car for 45 minutes to and hour to a little, and I mean little town called Oakhurst. It was quaint and really played up the bear motif. Every where we looked we saw a bear carved out an old tree stump. The first hotel we stayed in was a Best Western and it was really cute. It really prepared you for the Yosemite atmosphere. Our cabin looking rooms were pushed back into a small forest-like-area.

This picture, as were many others, was taken of our hotel as we passed it in the car. Our rooms were behind it, to the left, in the trees.

This is late at night in our hotel bathroom. Kiera was not sleepy and really wanted me to be a "walrus" with her. She chose the little coffee stick stirrers that she wanted me to have, and then of course she wanted a picture. I think out of the hundreds of pictures I took of Yosemite, this is one of 4 that I am in.

This is a 2,000 year old sequoia tree, or as Kiera would say, "kakoiya". Its pretty huge.
This is one of the many carved bear statues marking the entrance to the hotels diner. Kiera was really getting into being a bear. She had to get on all fours and growl.

This is inside the diner. When you have a large family like we do its hard on the waitresses. I think they were very overwhelmed. They had a hard time getting our orders right. I don't have a picture of the whole group, but 9 of the 10 brothers are in attendance, plus wives/girlfriends, plus 5 children, 2 grandparents, one aunt and one cousin and one family friend.
Ian and Victoria's Kids, Malia and Trey, and my kids, of course.
This is right outside the little Yosemite church that Ben and Amanda got married in. There was a wedding going on when we got there and we had about 40 minutes to kill before we got ready, so we decided to go on an adventure. Which really means we climbed on a lot of rocks in the Forest. Here are a few pictures of the kids actually holding still.

This is the little church. It was like being in a sauna. It was so hot we were literally dripping sweat. On my bathroom trip with Kiera I was kind of surprised to discover that the bathroom was air conditioned. I wonder why the rest of the church wasn't.
Cambria has been a flower girl one other time. She loved it. This time however she was feeling a little pressure because someone told her that she was in charge of getting all the little girls together and leading them down the aisle. Well, this proved to be too much pressure for her. She told me, " Mom, what if I can't get them to stand in the right place. I just don't think I can do it." I of course gave her words of encouragement and told her that a big person would help her and all the really had to do was walk up to the front and then stand by me. If you can see the look on her face in this picture, you can tell that it didn't really make her feel much more confident.

The Happy couple, Ben and Amanda. If we were sweating up a storm I can't imagine how Ben felt since he was wearing a suit.


The first picture is taken of Bridal Veil falls from my car. We actually did get out of the car for about 20 minutes to hike to the viewpoint. It really was quite pretty.

From the top left, Cousin Robby, Mike, baby Kiana (mike's 18 month old) Ke'ala (holding Kiana), Sonny (cupping his ear) Ian flexing, Malia below Ian, Little Trey, bottom row, Candy (Keala's wife, Cathy, Joy (Joey's wife), Me and Cambria. Kiera and Malachi were sleeping in the car. Kai stayed behind, but He and Kiera ran up to see the waterfall before we left. Cambria on another adventure. She would climb around those rocks all day if I let her.

This was a scenic view of Half dome. Unfortunately Malia's head is right in the way of the view.
Can you tell how big the base of that tree is?!! It is massive. I was very impressed but apparently there is a tour that takes you farther into the Forest to see even bigger trees. To think of a tree that has been around for 2000 years is kind of magical. They have been around for so much history. If they could talk, imagine the stories they could tell.

This of course is Kai, the kids and his Mom and Dad. The kids were tired of smiling so I told them I would get them a big old ice cream if they would smile really big for a few more pictures. Kiera really wanted an ice cream.

Even though the majority of the trip was spent in the car we really did have a fun time. Monday morning both Cambria and Kiera kept saying, "I miss Yosemite." It really did seem like a place we would like to go back to. There was white water rafting and hiking and bike tours and lakes. Maybe in a few years we'll go again, but we make sure to be outside a little more and in the car a lot less.

She's a Cullen!

It's been a while since Kiera has taken some time off for a feeding. Can you see those dark purple bruises under her eyes.
Okay, so my three year old daughter is not really a Cullen vampire, this is actually how she came home from the city pool. Whenever she and Cambria open their eyes underwater in chlorine pools they get this really strange reaction. We try goggle but they still get a little water in them. So we usually end up flushing their eyes out with water for a few minutes as they scream.

So, about my favorite vampire family, the Cullens, I am so excited and yet sad for the 4th novel, Breaking Dawn, to come out. Excited for obvious reasons and sad because it will end the series. I wish it could just go on forever. The day I bid farewell to Bella and Edward will be a sad one indeed. They kept me company all throughout my long, semi-bed rest pregnancy. I also don't know how I exactly feel about the Twilight movie that will come out in December. My cousin said that she is prepared to be disappointed and I have to admit that I feel much the same way. Only time will tell.

I did enjoy Stephenie Meyer's new book, The Host. It took me a little while to get into but it sure takes you on a long, epoch journey and I like that. It will be added to my list of favorites. I think I'll read it again.

This is my son, in a pink car. That is also Kiera's hand. She couldn't wait to jump in the picture with him. He's too young to care about color right now, but later will tell him that it takes a real man to feel secure in a pink car. Poor guy has no choice. He can blame it all on birth order when he gets older. But for now, he thinks it is the coolest way to travel.

What Not To Wear, kind of

Oh, how I wish Stacy and Clinton would knock on my door and give me $5000 dollars and a trip to New York to buy some new clothes. I could really use a whole new wardrobe.

That is really not what the bulk of this post will be about,but I just saw the show and wished for a shopping spree that didn't involve Walmart.


Besides noticing all the dirty fingerprints that are streaked across this TV, do you see what vegetable is sitting in front of it? A potato. That's right a potato. While my little ones were napping I prepared to pop my favorite workout video in and noticed a rouge spud. Why on earth is Idaho's best sitting in front of the TV. Does this ever happen in your household?

We have captured some funny little moments with our new camera. We splurged and bought a canon rebel. I am so excited about it. The picture above captures how my little Cambria fell asleep after a long days swim. . There were too problems this night. 1) It was not dark enough outside for her to go to sleep and 2.) her eyes were burning from the chlorine. So, lucky for her I won some fuzzy blind fold and matching hand cuffs from a bridal shower. She was able to use the blind fold to block out the light. The solution for the chlorine was to get a damp wash cloth and tuck it under the blind fold. SO funny. I couldn't believe she actually fell asleep this way. The blind fold apparently wasn't made to get wet however, because when she woke up, she had black dye smeared across several places on her face.
Today, we were running late for bed time so I told Kiera to take her chocolate milk and go hop in my bed and I would be in shortly. When I went to see her, I realized that Cambria had already beat me there and was singing lullabies as Kiera obediently closed her eyes. It was so cute. Kiera just looks like a lump in the bed, though.

Below, I was just having fun with my new camera and thought I would post a few of the new pictures I took. My Sister-in-law Candy was helping me figure out some of the features. I think I need to enroll in some kind of class just to teach me hoe to operate this camera.

Kiera told me I have "cracky eyes." I have recently, regretfully learned that "cracky" means wrinkly.

On a happier not, my little boy says, "mamama." I am so excited. My two girls both said "dada" first.
Speaking of Walmart shopping sprees, (I know, Its really sad) I got 5 new dresses for Cambria for $5 dollars each. I think I will save one for Kiera when she gets older. But I am trying to build up a school wardrobe for Cambria.
I was trying the "blur the background" technique in this shot.
This one too. Kiera and Cambria were catching bugs and then putting them into the "otter pop" wrapper and calling them fish. They love to take pictures of bugs.
What a sad picture to end on. A bug.

On a completely different note, we have been having really weird weather. WE are usually well into the 100+ degree weather here ad for some reason we are not. We have even had a few strange storms blow through, including a hail storm last week. I am not sad about the lower than average temperature, but with all the natural disasters happening lately, it leaves Me with an ominous feeling. Like I should be preparing for something. I think I need to update my food storage and stock up on water.

Peace, out.

Slip and slide your way to a better body!

Okay, that may not be entirely true, but yesterday we busted out the slip and slide for memorial day fun and today my body is aching in places that haven't ached in a long time! You know that spot underneath your arms that flaps when you erase a chalk board (please tell me you know what I am talking about:()? Well, that part is super sore, so are my abs and my thighs! I am always trying to find exercises that work that part and low and behold, all this time I just needed a lip and slide.

Sorry, no pictures:)

Ah, Man!

Our Camera finally broke for good. Those foggy pictures should have alerted me that the end was near!

Anybody have a recommendation for a new camera?

Pictures for previous post

I usually do my pictures first so that I can match my comments. I didn't do that so well on the last post so here are the pictures that should have accompanied the last post. These are a little out of order too. I must be rusty.

This is also what my little boy has been up too. Looks like trouble doesn't it?
We had so much fun with the Mauldin family and wish we got to see them more often.
This is the cute little picture that is out of order. I find myself not taking as many pictures as my third baby as I did my first. Poor guy. He deserves picture too.:)
The Mualdin Kids are all about our same age they even have a baby girl a few months older than bubba.
So there you have it. Now read the next post and imagine these pictures in the right spot. Mahalo!
And by the way, thank you so much for all the well wishes and thoughts that you shared with us about baby Malu. We are very fortunate to have friends and family like you!