Love Notes and Smiles

Hannah has been gone for about two weeks now. Moses wanted to write her an email after he saw me write an email to Sam, Joseph's brother who lived with us for a bit. Moses worked very hard on it and I just thought it was so cute, I had to share it.

"i lov yowe or awt i am i lov plaeng on uor tablut  i lov yo somec and i lov yo more then yo somec and i mes yo somec i jest  im sad kuz it dezent sno her in sene vel ye or gunivyzit yo i no uor awt uor          aut uor   i mes yo somec i lov yo im somec il git a for yo somec lov moses and akiko"

Translation (emoticons are in the square brackets):

I love you. [sad face] We are at [home]. I am [sad face]. I love playing on your tablet [hugging happy faces]. I love you so much and I love you more than you so much [sad face]. And I miss you so much [sad face]. I just I'm sad cuz it doesn't snow here in Sunnyvale [sad face]. We are gonna visit you. I know you're at your at your [house]. I miss you so much [sad face]. I love you [hug]. I'm so much I'll get a [present] for you. [hug] So much. Love, Moses and Akiko

Pretty good writing for a four year old, right? Wouldn't you like to get an email from the sweetest kid on the planet?

In other news, Simon has begun smiling and cooing and does so more and more every day for the last couple weeks.

He was so happy this afternoon, so I ran and got the camera. He wasn't sure what to make of that contraption at first, but I got him to smile again and got some cute pictures.

He had his two month check up last week. His length stayed on the same growth curve, but his weight jumped from 22nd%ile at two weeks to a whopping 86th%ile! He's weighing in at 14 lbs. More than twice his birth weight and more than most kids his age!! Chunky! His head also grew a bunch, going from 40th%ile to 96th%ile. In other words, from very average to huge.

The doctor is quite impressed that he's gaining that much weight solely on breastmilk. Because it is breastmilk, she's not worried about the massive weight gain at all. Whew!

This kid is in some kind of rush to grow up or something. But he sure is cute and we're all enjoying him very much. I can't wait for the rest of the family to meet him in a couple weeks.

Something to Brighten Your Day

We were goofing off yesterday. This was the end product. It's brings me to tears almost every time.

The part that kills me is when we ask her to smile.

I love family time! I love my family!

Asher is Two!!

Yesterday was Asher's 2nd birthday!!

I wanted to do a quick birthday post for him, but yesterday was jam-packed and I couldn't find the time.

The day started late. All four kids climbed into bed with Joseph and me so we could snuggle and sing to Asher. He didn't like the singing. After I got out of bed, I made cookies for our hike. Then the house got cleaned up a bit.

Soon afterwards, I took one eight year old, three seven year olds, two six year olds, one three year old, one two year old, and one two month old on a hike. It was my turn to host summer camp and that was our activity. Thank heavens my friend Angela came along on the hike with me. Two of the kids were hers, three were mine. Our four year olds were at someone else's house for camp.

Once I dropped off the kids and got home, I baked cupcakes and prepped pizza dough for dinner. Once the dough was ready, we made pizza, ate said pizza, sang to Asher, ate cupcakes, opened presents, attempted to Skype with my sister, watched a movie, and let the kids have a sleepover in the living room because it was Hannah's last night with us.

See? Jam-packed. No time to blog.

But I guess this means you get to enjoy the meager amount of pictures I managed to snap of our intimate festivities. No huge party or anything. I just don't have the time right now. But I did try to make the busy day as special as I could for Asher. This weekend, we'll take him on the train ride, like we did last year. Thanks to everyone who sent presents!

Sprinkling his cheese.

Akiko and Moses really loved making their own pizzas.

One for me. One for you.

Of course, he just eats the frosting off the top.

Most of the birthday presents came in fancy wrapped packages from Utah.

Thanks for the Mega Blocks, Kristen!!

When I was baking the cupcakes, I left them on a rack on the stove to cool. About five minutes later, Joseph caught Asher walking down the hall, putting the last bite of a cupcake in his mouth. "What have you got there?" Joseph asked. Asher responded in his two year old babble. Joseph realized it was the last of a cupcake and wondered aloud if I had given him permission. One of the older kids (my guess is Akiko) responded, "It's okay if he has one. It is his birthday!"

I had not given him permission. The little stinker put a stool in front of the stove and snagged one. I suppose one of the older kids (probably Akiko) unwrapped it for him. But it is okay, because it was his birthday. I'll let it slide. I do wish they'd asked my permission, though.

I sure love Asher. He's a bundle of fun; so goofy and silly all the time. He's so sweet with Simon. He loves to snuggle and read his Thomas book. He loves to watch me cook in the kitchen and sometimes I let him stir. It's really fun to watch him play Fruit Ninja on Kinect.

I'm so glad he's part of our family.

Happy Birthday Asher "Crasher"!!

Festivities of the Fourth

We spent most of the 4th of July relaxing and hanging out at home. Well at least the rest of the family did. I was busy preparing our picnic.

Last year, I biked to Shoreline Park with Akiko and Moses in the bike trailer. We had a picnic next to the lake and watched the fireworks show once it got dark. We sort of did that again.

A giant gaggle of geese on the lake.

The plan was that Joseph and Hannah would bike to the park, pulling the older kids along in the trailer and the bike seat while I braved traffic and drove with Simon in the van with all the food (and the kids' bikes). Well, weren't able find one of our allen wrenches and couldn't get the bike seat switched and then realized one of the wheels on our trailer is bad. All the kids ended up in the van with me. Asher was really, really upset about that. I better get the trailer wheel fixed and take him on a spin sometime soon.

Hannah was very extremely reluctant to bike all the way to the park. She doesn't ride bikes much and my behemoth was very intimidating to her. We convinced her that she would, in fact, live and promised her that she would have fun. She did very well and did end up enjoying her ride to the park.

Once we all got to the park and met up with each other, we sat and enjoyed our picnic and played till it got dark for the fireworks.

Yum!!

Simon was so serene and happy for the whole outing.

Asher hardly stayed in one place for long.

I'm not really the kind of person that gets very festive for holidays. I usually only do Halloween and Christmas, if anything. But I saw this really cute idea for layered cupcakes in one of the food blogs I follow and knew the kids would get a kick out of them. I was really craving cupcakes, so it was a win-win.

They turned out super cute.

Everyone enjoyed them.

Akiko admired her sprinkle job while she bit into her cupcake.

Yeah, Moses just stuffed a half of a cupcake in that mouth.

Once it got darker, we busted out the cheap glow sticks I got at the craft store and played with them. I'm so glad we had them and used them to decorate Asher. He was impossible to spot when he ran away after it got dark.

My husband is quite a handsome angel.

This neat picture was an accident and Akiko and I unsuccessfully tried to duplicate the effect.

These glow sticks were a brilliant idea.

Even I got to goof off!

My little angel.

Wowza!

A couple little girls that were sitting nearby started hovering close to us while we played with the glow sticks. We had plenty, so we gave them a few. They were thrilled. I'm so glad we could share with them.

Asher finally settled down on the blanket when the fireworks started. He was so excited by them. This is the first time he's ever seen them. Last year, he was sick and stayed home with Joseph. He would not have remembered anyway. He was so cute. He giggled and clapped and yelled, "Yay!" and "Wow!" for about half the show.

It was magical seeing the wondrous look on his face. I love moments like that.

Sleeping Among Giants

Joseph and I both grew up doing a lot of camping, so it's something that we both really enjoy. Unfortunately, since we've been married, we haven't gone on a whole lot of camping trips, so our kids haven't had a whole lot of experience out in the wilderness. Hannah hasn't had much experience camping either.

Last week, I got around to getting the rest of the gear we needed for camping, packed up the car, the kids, and the gear, and drove up to the Redwood National and State Parks. Joseph, just being back at work from his paternity leave, didn't feel good about taking time off work and stayed behind.

We haven't been camping since right before we moved to California, nearly three years ago, so this was Asher's and Simon's first time camping ever. For Akiko and Moses, this was only their second time. Sad, I know. But now that we've finally got all the essential gear, we'll go camping much more often.

The Redwood Parks are absolutely gorgeous. There's nothing like a forest of giant trees to make you feel quite insignificant. They are magnificent. It was green and beautiful all around us.

I'm going to share our pictures now. Just keep in mind that the kids apparently asked for my permission to play with the camera while I was distracted and I gave it to them. Very sneaky of them.

And now pictures of us:

Asher poses for the camera.

Many of our neighbors told me I was brave bringing such a tiny guy out camping. If they only knew I was sans husband...

My babies and me, roughing it.

Akiko examines and protects a millipede.

I like this series of Asher pictures because they show his personality pretty well. I am not responsible for taking them.

The stink-eye.

The Law of Asher: An Asher in motion will stay in motion, unless an equal and opposite force acts upon him.

Distracto-ray!

I really like this picture, mostly because my kids are sitting in their birth order and, with the exception of sleepy Simon, they're all looking at the camera.

The fire pit fascinated the kids.

We had tons of exhausting fun. I'm so glad Hannah was there to help me with Simon and corral Asher. We caught Asher walking alone down the road a couple times. Little stinker.

On the way home, I decided to take Hannah across the Golden Gate Bridge one more time, just for fun (and it also happened to be the most direct route home). Just a couple miles north, in Sausalito, it was gorgeous and sunny, but once we got stuck in traffic near the tunnel, it got overcast, cold, and extremely foggy. The temperature dropped almost 20°. It was incredible. You could hardly see the bridge.

Barely on the bridge.

It stayed foggy until just south of Millbrae. When we got back to Sunnyvale, it was gorgeous, sunny, and warm again. Oh, Bay area weather!