Two letters came from Jeremy, on the same day. The mail is so weird. I found out he hasn't been getting my letters, on time. Argh! So frustrating! It's so great to think he comes home this week! It's been such an emotional anchor that I don't know what we would have done if he didn't have this Christmas break in the middle of training. Everything always seems to have a way to work itself out for the best. I keep feeling more and more like nothings ready for this baby to come, and yet we're all hoping it comes soon! When I think about after delivery, post-partum, I keep thinking of it as "the other side." Like delivering is just this portal hole into this completely crazy unknown world that I know I'm not ready for and I don't know even how to start to prepare for. I don't think I was this anxious when Willie was born. I'm starting to just vent, so I think I'll quit for now. :)

04Dec09
Dear Sweets,
Right now I'm on what's called "Fire Guard" duty, which is when me and my battle buddy wake up during the night to make sure everyone is still in their bunks, the weapon are all "green" and on safe (no magazines and no bullets in the chamber), and that everything is clean. Our duty is for one hour, after which we are relieved by another two soldiers. So, we got everything done and I just wanted to say hi and that I miss you. I sure hope everything is going well for you and the kids. How is it at church? I sure miss you guys. I have some pictures of you and the kids in my wall locker so I can look at you guys everyday. Sometimes I feel myself wanting to kiss you all in the photo because I miss you so much. Today we went on our first road march. It wasn't very long, but some soldiers had a tough time because we had all our gear on including our weapons (M-16s). Midway through the march, we did some Team Building Development courses. We were split into squads, which will last throughout BCT. Well, my squad isn't so good. I've got a lot of clowns and bozos on my squad. I'm not too happy bout that. But, there's not much I can do about it. On one of the courses today, I was trying to move one long board to another location, about 5-6 ft off the ground, the weight and momentum of the board caused me to fall and my throat hit the board. It hurt a lot, and it is still sore, but I'm fine. I just have a sore and swollen throat. I was excited to eat an "MRE", which are Meals Ready to Eat. I like these a lot in fact I think it would be neat to have them as food storage. They are so cool. You just open the package, and usually it's something hot. You put whatever needs to be warmed, such as spaghetti and meatballs, into a bag, and just a little water to the bag, and it heats up for you in a matter of 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile, you have lots of yummy sides like peanut butter and jelly, and crackers, bread, etc. They are good! They even come with juice or shakes, and cookies! yum! These are coveted items here at BCT. We definitely don't eat cookies and shakes in the chow hall. I hope we eat lots of MREs during BCT. So far, we've had 4 of them. I've liked them all. Anyways, so what's going on with you guys? I haven't received letter yet..? Did you get all our documents back yet? I sent them about a week ago in a big yellow folder. I hope you got them.
05Dec09 letter continued
I feel things are getting much better here at Ft. Jackson on some levels. Yes, the young immature punks keep making others suffer. I don't mind so much anymore because I know I can take whatever smokings they can dish out. We did our first real APFT yesterday, apparently I did the best in the company. I was tired from other stuff, and the drill sgt. was making me work for it. She said like 12 of my push-ups didn't count, but I know they were regulation, they just don't want to give anyone a 100% on the 1st APFT. So, I only got 62 push ups, 76 sit-ups and 11:50s on the run. We have hardly been running so I was actually pretty happy with the run. Today, we went on our first ruck march. My boots are too short so my big toe goes numb; hopefully I can get them resized. The march went well, but I hate the gear they issue us. It doesn't fit us properly and they just plain don't get the job right. It was funny though today. After we got to our location, we had some classes outdoors to apply infantry skills we've been learning. One of the drill sgt.s whips out a bag of..you know what...FLAMING HOT CHEETOS!!!! ahh!! My taste bus were screaming! I shouted out "Drill Sgt, those are my favor tie chips!" and he just smiles on as other soldiers going "ah man!" It was funny though. I got your 2 letters and the email you sent. Sweetheart, it was so good to hear from you! It always is. Don't worry about what you write. I appreciate anything you have on your mind that you want to tell me Any words from you are like the Heavenly language of love, joy and eternal significance. It helps me to know you joys, sorrows, achievements and disappointments because then I can pray for you more heartfully. I loved the placemats, the pictures and letters. It means so much to me. I hope we talk on the phone tonight. Church is about to start so I'd better go. Until we meet again, hand to hand, eyt to eye and heart to heart.
With Love,
Haps

07Dec09
Dearest Courtney,
Today wasn't the best of days for me. I found out that pone privileges for the whole company, which is over 250 soldiers have been suspended because someone's friend lied and said they were a soldier's parent needed to speak with him. The person was not his father, and our drill sgts found out somehow and they said that the whole company will suffer for that. I'm so frustrated because I'm doing all I can to be the best soldier I can, and yet I still pay for the stupidity and immaturity of others. Ultimately, you and the kids lose out on this one too. So, when i found that out, I was pretty sad. I think they were planning on letting us use the phone soon too. :( Overall thou, I must say that some kids are coming around and are starting to realize that this is not boys/girls camp, but it is the Army, and they are getting paid!
On a more positive note; I've had some great missionary experiences so far. Yesterday, one kid who has been struggling because his family hasn't written him, took a seat on my bunk and just looked at me as if he wanted to talk. I had my scriptures out on my bed and he noticed them. I explained about the book of Mormon and some of our basic beliefs. We talked about his family situations and I testified to him that prayer helps to endure challenges. Well, w had a really good, heartfelt prayer. He talked and listened to me as if I were his older bro. Well, later that night when lights were out and it was time to go to bed, he came back and asked if I would pray with him. Of course, I told him I'd be happy to. So, we knelt at my bunk, amidst foul language and people not accustomed to prayer, and offered prayer. It was a very powerful experience. He felt the spirit and felt more at peace. Tonight he approached me again for prayer. I told him we could make it a daily practice and it seems like he wants to. It's exciting to see the spirit of God work in a young man like this.
I'm so sad that we won't be able to talk soon. Hopefully I can call you before I leave for Christmas. Speaking of Christmas, how did the creche go? I was praying that it would go alright. Did the shelves we made work alright?
Today we actually had ribs for lunch! It was so good, even though it was short lived. I'm only given 3-5 minutes to eat! So I don't get to savor the taste. What else is happening? Tomorrow we practice land navigation and I think we also have the gas chamber. 'll let you know how that goes. Well, I'd better go. Sorry the writing is so bad. It's dark and I'm writing under my flashlight. I love you and miss you! I'm counting the days till I can see you! 8 days! I can't wait! Don't forget, don't write (send) me letters after Dec.11. They will chuck it. I can't wait to be with you and the kids. May the Lord's blessings shower down upon you.
Jeremy

Church for my solider

Well, as long as I'm staying up so late... I might as well put up a new post. I did receive 2 letters from Jeremy, so I'll share those. I haven't had a call from him for a couple weeks now, but last Sunday night I got a call from the bishop's wife in our church's ward that is on base there. She said she was calling, just to let me know that Jeremy made it to church today. I couldn't believe it, how sweet is that?! How many wives/families was she trying to call I wonder?! She didn't have much news on Jeremy personally I don't think but just said, it's hard for them right now, but they'll be okay. I guess that's as good of an explanation as any. The ward on base has about 200 members. They have a lot of soldiers interested in learning about God so they attend the meetings and have quite a few baptisms. She says it's very much a mission-like experience. I also got a letter this week from the church headquarters just relaying their thanks for supporting my husband in his service with the military and the sacrifice it requires. It is impressive that the church keeps track of the welfare of so many citizens around the globe in so many different circumstances. The church is there in disaster relief to give aide. They're there to support those in the military. They've got their ducks in a row to make sure they can reach out to as many people as possible. It is very inspiring. You'd think I could keep track of my few visiting teaching sisters!

24 Nov. 2009

Hey Sweets,
I haven't had much time to do anything since coming to basic. Most of what we are expected to do is not hard, it just requires discipline and self control. Today we ate a Thanksgiving dinner, but we all know we were just going to get smoked and throw it all up. "Smoked" is when they punish us for not follow directions or breaking rules. I almost cried tonight at dinner because I was missing you and the kids so much. There's a guy who bunks next to me who has kids. He's having a rough time right now.

29 Nov. 2009

My dearest Sweetheart,
I am overflowed with joy and peace. I am sitting in an LDS chapel on post, awaiting the start of church. As i entered the chapel, I felt as if I was entering the temple and leaving behind they filth of what I live in daily. It reminds me of why I am here; to serve my country and make it a more peaceful and harmonious place. When you get a chance, and you are at the kitchen table looking out at the beautiful trees, hearing only the whistle of the wind and the precious sounds of our children playing peacefully and happily, think about the sacrifice that soldiers and families give to provide that serenity and joy. Look out that window and pray for me that soon we will rejoice together in that same joy. Until then, we might be separated physically, but I know that thought prayer we can be connected emotionally and spiritually; your joy is my joy, your pain is my pain. Each morning I awake, I think of you in prayer, and each night I lay my head to sleep I think of you. When I'm in formation I think of you my eternal treasure. Please give the kids a big hug and a kiss for me. I miss them so much. I love you to the endless bounds of eternity.
Your husband and friend,
Haps
PS- I kicked butt in the puggle matches!

01 Dec. 2009

Hey Sweets,
How's things over in your neck of the woods? I sure hope things are going alright. Things here at Ft. Jackson are heating up. We've done the puggle matches, the combatives course, and victory tower. Now we pretty much just need to do the gas chamber, which I've heard we are doing sometime this week. The puggles were fun. I kicked my "enemy's" butt 3-1. Combatives were fun, but I was disappointed because we "didn't have time" to have matches so we didn't get to practice what we learned. Victory tower was fun. I got to rappel down the tower and some other cool stuff. Today we bought our plane tickets for Christmas leave! I can't remember the airline (they took our tickets away to make sure we didn't lose them) but I know arrive at Eugene airport at 11:59 (basically midnite). The ticket was $645! Expensive. Apparently the money won't be taken from my check until January. So be mindful of that in your budget. I've enclosed a letter tot eh Jensen's to save on stamps. I don't know when we'll be able to buy more stamps. I love you and miss you increasingly. I pray the Lord's blessings are upon you always. Give the kids hugs and kisses for me!
With love and affection,
Jeremy
PS- Today we got to go to the beach...which is actually a huge sand pit where we get smoked! I thought it was fun, good workout. Most everybody else was about to quit.
PPS- They told us to tell everyone that we can't receive letters after Dec. 11 because no on will be here to open it. If you do, it will get trashed. No mail after Dec. 11.
PPPS- I found out today that you can email me weekly letters through the missionaries at the branch here at Ft. Jackson. The emails can be up to two pages. They cannot have attachments or photos of any kind in the email. Just letters. If you write them before Friday, maybe Saturday, they should get to me on Sunday! So, it's much quicker that snail mail. But snail mail is nice to, especially if it has pictures and other cool stuff. The email address is: xxx (let me know if you want it!)
I LOVE YOU!!
Jeremy
PS- If you have questions you can call the couple missionaries, Elder and Sister Fullmer.

I'm sorry if these letters got too personal or emotional for anybody...oh well.
As for updates on the rest of the family-- nothing to big too report. I'm feeling those 8 month labor pains: loose hips, crazy kicking from baby, pushing on my stomach, stuff like that. I guess I'm getting ready...! :) Did I mention we don't even have a name for this baby yet!!! I'm starting to get a little stressed about it. The older two both have family names and were no brainers. But I haven't thought of any family names, and I haven't any names that I totally feel drawn towards just because I like them. Of course that wouldn't happen, I'm too indecisive for that! ;) Would it be too out there to name her, "Liberty"? We could call her "Libby." I don't know, any advice or suggestions- not that I should take it! :P Then we'd have a Lucy and Libby...hmmm... I don't know, just seemed fitting for the stage of life right now. Maybe I'll just let Jeremy name her altogether as something special he gave to the baby. If that were the case, I could see her name end up being Isabella. Oh gosh, I know Twilight fans... Jeremy's not some die-hard fan though ya know. He hasn't read the books. I'm not totally a fan of Bella from the movies. Haha, anyway, who knows!!

Recipe: Extra Smooth Chocolate Icing (Carnation Evaporated Milk label, 1960's)

Recipe: Extra Smooth Chocolate Icing (Carnation Evaporated Milk label, 1960's)

Army Wife

I'm officially inducted into the army wives club, and have survived two weeks. It has been harder than I thought in some ways. It's not so hard "losing my freedom" to having to be with the kids 24/7. I owe this to my mom as she's been a great support to the kids- they've enjoyed being her sidekicks. The hardest part was just letting him go knowing that he was going to a place not so fun and I couldn't do anything about it. The tears on my pillow were repeatedly over the question, why?! But that's too much to go into now...

The first week for the solider is reception, so it's not that tough as far as boot camp goes. I was surprised Jeremy was able to call me right when they got in and then also the next two nights. They kept him up all night the first night, so he was pretty worn out, and then add the drill ceremony and the soreness- so the first couple calls he was not quite chipper. But then the next couple times I talked to him he seemed better because he was adjusting physically and making friends.
I talked to him Sunday night (before Thanksgiving) right before they were going to "lock up" the cell phones. He had received his gear and gun and they were about to be moved into the training part of boot camp- the "trailer park" is what they call where they stay because the rooms are kind of like trailers and were built over a trash site.
I was surprised on Thanksgiving morning when he called at 6:30am. I almost missed it, luckily he was leaving a long enough message on the answering machine. I picked it up I think just as he was starting to cry- he was so happy to be able to talk to me. We both broke down a couple times during that call. It was kind of hard, and partly I just wasn't sure what to say because I just wanted to cry along with him (and I was). But I thought that would make him worse, when I needed to try and cheer him up-- so he wouldn't have to face any razzing for crying after his call. ;) He really missed being with family though. It's hard not to feel guilty that we're living such a nice life and he's stuck in this harsh environment (it is a feeling of guilt even though I know this was a voluntarily choice.) It's hard to explain I guess. There's just a lot of emotions to explain- it's almost too hard to get it all out- I won't even try.

Anyway, we were excited to get our first letter from him this week! I thought it would be fun to post his letters on the blog mostly for his family to be able to keep tabs on him as I know he doesn't have too much time to write.

19 Nov. 2009 I found a few minutes to write; however it's dark and at 4:30am. Many of us have woken up early for exercise, partly because most of us don't really know what time it is. My back seems to be feeling okay right now, but I know after standing "at ease" for a half hour to an hour, that will change again real quick. So far, boot camp seems to be more about hope, faith and charity than about warfare. The head drill instructor is a staunch baptist and minister and he is not ashamed to proclaim it, which I think is cool. He uses God to motivate soldiers to follow through with their commitments. I didn't expect this out of any of the drill instructors. Most of them are not like that; or at least they don't appear to be like that. They are extremely intimidating. The look as though they live for nothing more but to challenge their soldiers constantly. The tougher they are on us, the better job they are doing. Still, one of the main lines in the "soldier's creed" is, "I will not quit." Some soldiers here talked of quitting, but be assured that I will not. I have made a commitment knowing full well that there will be times of deep uncertainty and disheartening feelings.
Letter continued on 20 Nov 2009.
Today was a very encouraging day. It was challenging, but in many ways, I feel I rose to the challenges. We got our shots today. It wasn't nearly as bad as everyone says it is. They move the line quickly and in 2 minutes, all the shots are done. The last one made everyone bleed, but it wasn't to bad. I got my nerdy glasses today, but they don't seem to be the right prescription. So, hopefully, I can get that worked out and get it checked out. We stood "at ease" for so long today. It makes my back, and arms, and legs really sore. Doubt starts to creep into my mind and that's when I say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father to give me strength to make it through and endure it well. Our drill instructor went over a lot of drill and ceremony stuff tonight. A bit of yelling at those that don't know it yet. I'm glad I worked hard on that stuff before I came. I haven't really been yelled at too badly yet. Tonight at personal time, we had a push-up contest. Before I went the most amount of push-ups was 51. I ended up doing 83, after I had already done a work out, etc. By the time I was done, my whole bay of soldiers was huddled around me, yelling in my face like a drill Sargent. You don't want to know what else they were doing. But they were all impressed. Obviously I won the competition. But it was fun. Well, I love you. I wish I had more time to write and talk to you. I miss you all the time. I can't wait for Christmas break! I will mail the documents necessary for health insurance as soon as I know my mailing address, that way in case it doesn't make it to you, it can be sent back to me. Give the kiddos a big hug and kiss for me.
Love,
Your husband and best friend,
Haps.

If you are wondering what kind of answers we have to the question "why," you might go to Jeremy's blog (click on the link Happy Man from the righthand sidebar) and read what he's written. It doesn't say anything of the inner battles going on inside us, but does share his overall feelings. Anyone who would like to send a letter, I'll include his address. Don't bother sending candy, food, any kind of contraband of course. Just uplifting letters are great!

SPC Van Tress, Jeremy
1st Platoon Outlaws
Alpha Company 3-34 IN
Fort Jackson, SC 29207

GO ARMY!

What are we going to do?!

So, we lose our daddy in 4 days! What are we going to do?! We've been able to all be home together for the last 2 months- as if THAT'S not going to make things worse. I keep telling myself that he's just away on business. If I think about what he's going to be doing, I start to get a little hysterical. I still haven't accepted this whole new route of life, I admit it. I don't know where to start and even worse I've been sitting on this fence of not wanting to start accepting it, still hoping it will go away. These are confessions of the army wife, I guess. Sometimes when I'm in my really level-headed mode I can pull back to the 'even bigger' perspective and I feel that patriotism and pride in knowing someone who is serving the country in such a way. It's incredible when you read the statistics about how ready our country is to protect itself. Only 75% of young men actually meet the standards to qualify for the army. What's happened to the health of our country? Kind of sad. Not readily noticeable because we do tend to do well military-speaking, so noone notices or thinks of the ramifications of the state of our people. Maybe we've all stopped caring- relying too much on vaccines and doctors anyway.
Wow, okay I'm skipping from subject to subject and not even making any real points. So, time to move on. The kids have been my food in life lately. The very things that sustain me. Willie just had his birthday...(I should post those pics)...and it seems like his language just leaped and bounded up. He mimics a lot! And Lucy seems to have increased her level as well. Let's see if I can round up a few of my favorites:
Lucy- likes to say "that's perfect, mom!" "yadayada, then it will be perfect, mom!" Glad she's picking up that perfectionism so soon. When her attitude is in full speed, she'll always pull out the "I'm just trying to help." Climbing up onto the desk to take the big scissors... "I'm just trying to help"... yeah, right, whatever girl.
Willie- says anything and everything someone else says so it always cracks me up how much older he sounds than he actually is. I have to take the blame for the recent acquisitions of some swear words, like: dang it! and crap! Yes, he'll pull those out now on his own. But his full blown attitude comes in a dramatic form, it usually involves a rigid, slightly leaned forward pose, probably a pointing finger, then shouts "yadayada, OKAY!!" I guess it's the way he says OKAY! that you just have to hear it to know he means business.
Ok- so let's see if I can throw some pictures on this random post:




First we have the family's excursion to a local pumpkin patch. This was the kid's first time to a pick a pumpkin (and Jeremy's too I think). The place also had other fun activities, one was a giant 'cornbox' which is kind of like a sandbox, but filled with feed corn. It's so fun.
We had a birthday party for Willie in the barn! I couldn't resist- I had to make it big. I didn't know when I'd get this chance to actually be living near the barn during birthday time again- let alone Willie's birthday, the setting was perfect for a haunted birthday bash! So fun! We probably had about 35 people there. I honestly was expecting more, but it was still way fun. We had a trick-or-treat tree, the trampoline, bouncy horse, hay fort, a pumpkin toss game, and a haunted tic-tac-toe game. We had lots of food. And then finally had a bat pinata to finish the festivities. I love this shot of Jenelle with the cast of the Wizard of Oz in the background. It was fun that every child got to swing at the bat-from the very smallest to the oldest was 11 years old and she actually broke it open. I didn't take enough pictures, but oh well. I was working hard to finish their halloween costumes. As is my tradition, I made them again. Last year was all no-sew costumes (because I didn't have access to a machine) so this year was quite the opposite, quite a bit of sewing involved- which also meant quite a bit of my mom's helping involved! She was awesome and helped til we finally got them done at the last minute. My mother-in-law was also in town to help with party preparations, so that was a life-saver. I even left them all working the morning of to hit up the big sale at Old Navy (spending way too much)... I'm so bad!! Anyway, Willie was Superman. I adore his costume! It's patterned after one made by my grandmother which is very sentimental. It was also my second attempt at doing applique (and I did a much better job than the first, so I'm making improvements). Lucy was going to be a witch, but my sewing job bombed out there. I gave up after it was 95% done, and decided to just make her a costume she'd really want to wear anway...she was Angelina Ballerina. (That's a little white mouse ballerina character from a book series...maybe you know of it?) She had a tail, mouse ears, and whiskers along with her tutu in the final shot, but it's not pictured in the one above. She was pretty cute.
Happy Holidays everyone! In case I don't get around to another post until the baby comes... I'm due on Jan. 6th, though the ultrasound said the baby is gaining weight a little ahead of time and could put me at Dec. 31st. It's a girl, btw. We've been preoccupied with a due date and when she's going to come because Jeremy will only be here for 2 weeks for Christmas and we're hoping he can be at the birth! I'm not sure the option of inducing, though I really don't want to. We'll see how it goes. I have a feeling nothing's going to be ready for when the baby comes... ah, life.

Never stops...

So what's a mom to do? Here I am having baby #3... the next big purchase is a baby carrier. With baby #2, it was a double stroller. Now, I'm feeling the need to have a good baby carrier. For a long time I've heard many mom recommendations about ERGO baby carriers. I totally dig em. I can't say I've tried one, but I like everything about it so far! So, now there's a chance to WIN won...yes, I said win one!! All my friends are laughing and rolling their eyes- well, one or both of those I guess.

Want a chance to win one? Join me, and check out this cool blog: www.Mamanotes.com

To my loyal fans

Haha, you are my "fan" if you are reading this because I haven't posted for so long I don't know why anyone would be checking this blog. BUT, now you're here, and I have a new post.
But that's just about it, life is busy and I've been posting on our mom's group blog www.willamettevalleymommies.blogspot.com, so you could go there for some cute pics of the kids.
We've been fitting in a TON of family time now that we're both home. Sometimes all that time brings out the worst in everyone, but we've had some good times. My friends in Hawaii will remember my obsession with winning free things, and all the free things I got while living there. I'm sure I've posted about it before anyway. ;)
But since moving back to Oregon, there has been a new list of free things that have come my way. I get so proud of these things, so I have to share! :)
I won a free dvd, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and other counting stories, from SavvySource.com It's a little bit above my kid's level, but it's a pretty fun video.
One of our activities for WVM was the Zuke-a-palooza being put on by Shonnard's nursery. We took out neighbor's extra zuccuni and decorated them with paint, googly eyes, pipe cleaner, etc. It was actually quite funny. Well, Willie won the prize for the best decorated zuccuni which was a $10 gift certificate.
The last thing that comes to mind right now, is the $25 gift certificate to Mo's restaurant we won just last Saturday. We went to the Kite Festival in Lincoln City. It was a long but so beautiful, perfect day! We had a great time. I ended up buying two raffle tickets for a drawing. I was doing it more as a donation because this cute old man dressed as a clown was doing balloons for the kids. He called the other day and told us we had won one of the 3 prizes from the raffle. "This is the clown from the festival at the beach..." I thought that was one of the funniest phone call introductions I've heard! So, we're looking forward to some clam chowder next time we're at the coast. We had some great chowder and food from the restaurant near the Kite Festival, it was called Kyllo's I think. It was a great restaurant for lunch if you're in the area.
well, there's some random rambling to catch you up. We're looking forward to a visit from Grandma (Jeremy's mom) in a couple weeks and Willie's big haunted birthday bash!!

Farewell to Maui

I've been so busy getting life going here in Oregon- wow, I haven't been updating in a long time. I had to give one last goodbye post to Maui. I was sad to leave- or maybe really nervous for what was up ahead- definitely both. I have not unpacked my suitcase in about 3 months! Things have been so crazy! Well, although Maui is old news, I'll give a string of pictures and spare all the words which are old news too.









The biggest news I don't think I've shared yet is that we're expecting baby #3. I'm kind of hoping to find out boy/girl this week at our doctor's appointment. So life is full of those little aches and pains of pregnancy- loose hip joints, my seat always seems so tender and sore after sitting long periods. I'm only half way through mind you! Those are just two symptoms that are the worse for me- should count my blessings it's not worse!

Maui Built. part 5: Final Saga

I wish my life was a little more thoughtful and introspective than just a string of pictures. But it's not worth sharing all the drama taking place outside of the pictures right now anyhow. There is one really really really AWESOME piece of good news-- Lucy is half-way potty trained! She wears panties during the whole day, but not at night yet. I think the timing of my determination and patience finally colided with her being ready to do it. It took a little chocolate and a special Sleeping Beauty "potty present" to aid the trick. I'm so proud of her- even if it is only half mastered. I'm sure there'll be accidents, but she's done well so far. With that good news, here's the string of pictures:

Birthday Excursion to Iao Valley: I happened to take Jeremy to work and realized on the way it was my birthday. I should do something special, I thought. I took the kids (and myself) to Iao Valley, a very histroic Maui heritage park. And it did turn out to be a special birthday outing. It was fun just to play there all morning with the kids; beautiful, shaded. Iao Valley is where 4 streams converge together and it serves as an important water source for the whole west side of the island. They've made cool paths exploring the history of this spot to ancient Mauians. A signature area is the Iao Needle (shown in the first picture) that's on a lot of postcards. It was so early in the morning, there were still some morning clouds trapped in the valley, so beautiful.



These kids turn just about everything into a horse, by sticking it between there legs and galloping around. Horses are kinda big with the kids right now. I was impressed to see them find something to ride tandem.
The first birthday surprise I got was when we wandered into this "Interactive Nature Center." I thought just to walk around the gift shop thinking I'd come back with Jeremy and actually go through the nature center. But the cashier nicely gestured to me, "Are you local? Why don't you take the kids in, I won't charge you." Awesome! The center had just opened for the day too, so there was only one other small family of adults inside, we played around a lot.


The second birthday surprise came when I took the kids to buy a smoothie at the little cafe outside. We were just trying to waste time til we were picking Dad up for lunch. But I forgot my wallet, so we just started to walk away. Then these super cool tourists behind me just ordered it for us. I told them it was my birthday and thank you for the present. They laughed and thought the kids were cute and talked for a bit. Aah, got to love gifts from the heart.
Back at home with my birthday candles in some watermelon cookies.
Just a scene of Maui. This was a shot on the way to Lahaina. If you can look in the distance over the ocean you can see two islands- one is Molokini and Molokeawe (I'm not sure those are spelled right.) You can also see other islands from Maui- Lana'i and Molokai'i. It seems so timeless to me to think that I live on this tiny speck of land, where you can see other tiny specks of land, all of which is oblivious from the shores of very distant and much larger continental shores.
Sugar Plantation from the Hwy. There are a lot of sugar cane fields here.
Maui has a great network of youngs moms! If you ever move here, you won't be lonely. There is always something going on with these moms. I've been so impressed! And I'll miss getting to know all these great moms. The first activity I went to was a group trip to the Lavendar Farm. It was cloudy overcast day, but the garden was still very nice. We did a "treasure hunt" and got lavendar cookies for the prize. I'm not sure I liked those kind of cookies, but it was interesting to taste.

Another activity the Maui Mommies group did was an animal education class at a Vet Clinic. Lucy and Willie really enjoyed being with the animals. Course, there was a chicken that scared Willie half to death when the trainer let the kids feed her from their hands.



Guess one last update is July 4th, one of my favorite holidays. We decided we couldn't pass up the Makawao Parade. Makawao has the biggest rodeo in the state that weekend as well bringing in rodeo participants from all over the world. It's pretty big. And we definetly got our fill of horses- kids loved it. It was fun to see them all decorated. You be the judge- you pick the winner and you pick the category. The most patriotic? Best Decorated? Best Lei? Take a vote. Here's the entries:
Star-butted Horse

Flag Brigade
Mystical Bluuties
Rodeo Queen
"My Other Pet's a Minature Pug"
Mini Paints
Born to be Free
Peace Riders
Junior Polo Team
Arrreba RidersSaloon Scandalous
HorsePower...? Just look at that tongue...
After the parade we went to Stopwatch in Makawao, not our top pick (which was closed) but we did get our Maui Cattle Beef steaks. :) Afterwards we stopped for some red, white, and blue shave ice at Aloha Ice in Paia. The shave ice was HUGE, awww, so good. Then we did a little home firework show. Our neighbors out did us all around, but we just wanted to see if Dad could use a lighter (turns out he can't, lol.) Willie wasn't too sure about the fireworks. And here's Jeremy doing a little dance in the flashes of light.






PS- I just finished New Moon too.

Pop Quiz

Who's baby picture is this?
Might as well tell you now... I was thinking people were going to be guessing my little brothers because, to me, it looked SO much like those little "non-twin" boys, but I remembered the only ones who would probably guess that would be my own family, which I'm not sure how often they read this blog... ;)
The question was a bit of a trick because it's not really someone's baby picture because the boy is still a baby...it's Willie. After I had just given him his first full-head hair cut. Yes, first full-head haircut at 21 months. Sigh, it's always so hard to do the first one.
It's an awful haircut, if I'd known that my clippers were so rusted I wouldn't have tried. But I really was in the zone to cut it off, and I had to go with what I had. He wasn't the most cooperative as well. He's so different now!! He looks more babyish, yet more like a bully, more serious and more grown up all at the same time. I'm still getting used to it, and I'm still trying to figure out when I can trim up all the mistakes...

Maui Built. part 4: Arrival

We arrived to Maui little over 2 weeks ago. I'm going to cut to the chase and just tell you now, we're actually looking to leave Maui effective as soon as possible. This means nothing to reflect on Maui itself- we just hit a rock and a hard place and need to move out of this tough situation. The short story is all government workers have taken pay cuts (thanks Governor!) and ours is just putting us way out there. With that said, I'll tell you about the week before the week we found out that we really should leave Maui. (sigh, life is hard sometimes.)

We stayed in a hotel while we looked for a place to stay, but because that can rack up funds we we hurrying as much as possible. We checked out of our hotel on Wednesday morning and we're determined to be in a place by that night. We actually had 4 places that were all possibilities so we were confident. We even spent some time shopping- got a toddler bed for Lucy and an air mattress for because we had no beds for that night. Well around noon we had decided on one of the four, and had verbal agreed to get into this place but the landlord, at work, would have to do the contract that evening. The landlord's daughter and an uncle had showed us the place that morning. Well, we finally got to meet with her around 6pm. The main reason we had picked this place was because it was furnished. When we got to the place and were starting to do paperwork, the landlord kept making all these worried comments about the kid's safety- it was the second floor, they could fall down the stairs, there's a parking lot at the bottom, the kids will break through the windows and fall... (what?!) I slowly got the hint that this lady was trying to think of every possible reason not to have us move in not necessarily because of safety, but because she didn't want kids there. Ok, who didn't tell this lady we had kids?! That could have been so easy for them to screen us out, now we had waited all day and didn't have a place like we thought. The landlord knew our situation, and in a friendly yet sabotage way, suggested we come look at this 3 bedroom they also had for rent in a different little town. Ok (have no where else to go) so we went up to this house. It was hard to be optimistic when the place was caked in a year's worth of dirt, but we kind of thought it might work out. So we started to work out details. She kept trying to raise the rent higher than we had agreed. We stuck to our guns, not wanting to go over budget. They finally gave in and said they wanted to do month-to-month rent. Which really was just a trap for her to be able to raise rent the following month. We were not getting good feelings from being these people's renters. We did give them money (we had already taken it out of the bank for the first place we thought we were going to get). But we were going to do the contract the next day because it was getting late, the kids were hungry, not to mentioned covered in dirt from playing in the place and needed a bath (which needed to be cleaned before anyone stepped in it or they'd be making a mudslide). Well, that night was frustrated to say the least. As far as the place was concerned, I thought it could be fun- older but very big and closer to Jeremy's work. But it just wasn't ready for renters and we would have a hard time getting in ready to be live able, that was hard, and I wasn't feeling good about the whole month-to-month thing not knowing what was going to happen. That night was pretty terrible. The kids seemed to sleep okay. We were sleeping on the floor by morning as the air had all leaked out (it was a garage sale buy). We were still covered in dirt, and Jeremy was convinced because of the smell around the place, there was a dead animal somewhere. The little house was nestled between two other houses (all owned by the same person I think), it was actually connected to one of the houses by a door that was bolted. Here's Jeremy faking a smile because he really despised that place.We knew right away we just had to leave. We talked to the landlord and told our desires. She was actually really cool about it and said she'd give us all the money back and don't worry about that night. That was very generous of her really, she was looking out for us in a way. We quickly called the next place on our list to see if we could get in. And so that's where we are. A little two bedroom house behind the landlords new house in front, it has a yard and place for a garden, private driveway. It has raised ceilings which makes it seem bigger and open, lots of storage space. The kitchen is nice and spacious. We have a washer and dryer, our own covered parking space (thank goodness on both accounts!!! we were especially looking forward to that!)

I don't have any pictures of the house much yet. One thing we found out about this dry and hot place is there are a ton of mosquitoes. Apparently Lucy has the sweetest blood, she is covered in bites! She had 38 last I counted. She scratches them until they bleed and so I put band aids on them or she'll pick off the scab. This is a beginning picture, because right now I think she has like 15 band aids up her arm and legs. She thinks they're totally cool, but she looks a little ridiculous.

Now that we were settled into a place, it was time to go exploring! Our first journey was to Hana on the famous "Road to Hana" to see Jeremy's running buddy from BYUH and his daughter. They've visited us a handful of times, but we were excited to finally visit them. The drive to Hana is about 52 miles of 617 turns and 46 one lane bridges. It's crazy, a little scary, and absolutely beautiful! I think it's one of the pretties scenic drives I've done.


When we got to Hana we searched out our friend who was surfing at this beach that I can't remember the name of for the life of me... but it's known for it's red, black and white sand. It was really cool, nice sand to play in. The break was a little rough to take the kids in very far, but they had tons of fun playing in the sand and chasing dogs around the beach. It was starting to get overcast and rainy before I got out the camera, so I don't have a bunch of pictures.