September 2013-- Hiiiii YA!

Oh ya. I'm knocking these blog posts right out of the water. I'll caught up before you know it.. and then maybe I'll be a regular blogger again... who knows?

One of the treasures that we brought back from summer vacation is a face painting kit. Ana has been honing her skills in hopes of one day being one of the high-paid face painters at the village street fairs... Above: Po the Kung-Fu Panda.

Elsie quit ballet this year and started hula because, "I live in Hawaii, duh!" (I think she just wanted to try something new). On her way to h ula one Saturday morning, I asked her if I could buy her a favorite treat. It took awhile for her to explain to me what that favorite treat was, but I finally figured out that it was Nilla Wafers. Luckily I bought the right thing. She hasn't forgotten the name since. The weirdest thing is that Nilla Wafers are a favorite of my mom's side of the family... now how did that get passed on genetically?!

Some more Elsie photos. We've been practicing her posing...

We live within walking distance of a fantastic, fun and super cheap thrift store. Ana and I have been racing up there on certain mornings when they put new stuff up to buy things we know we can resell on Craigslist. We have been known to fight over certain items.. with each other. She also tries to charge me an exorbitant amount if she has to handle any of my Craigslist transaction (answering the door... making change...). Sheesh Ana-- didn't you read the web address of this blod?! Anyway, baby items sell very well. Plus, Po likes to play with them before they go to the new owners. 

The kids were actually somewhat excited to get back to swim team practice every day. They were ultra excited to do swim meets again. Elsie even did her first swim meet. She did well in her 25m freestyle (well, her dive looked good. she did get last place, but that's because she takes after me in the speed department). For her relay, she may or may not have jumped into the pool right after the second swimmer jumped in even though she was supposed to go fourth.. and she maybe ran headfirst into the third swimmer who was halfway across the pool.. .and she may have not heard the 20 people on the sideline yelling to her to turn back/watch out/ swim to the side. It was great. I love that girl. It was so fun to watch her swim. I love watching all the kids swim in the meets. It's truly fun.

Our great friends the Andersons let us celebrate many birthdays with them this month (Sydney and Sophie have September birthdays and Ethan is in October). Here we are at the first LDS Chapel in the Hawaiian Islands celebrating Sydney's bday. 

And now, for the big announcement!! (You may have suspected it when I was so sick this summer, but the strep/low blood count/ altitude sickness was actually surprisingly totally unrelated)... we are surprised and delighted to announce that we are expecting a baby due February 15th, 2014. Crazy you say?! You're telling us! But no, really, after a few months into it, we are coming to terms with it and getting excited.

But because it was unexpected, we (Jonah and I) didn't want to tell the kids until we found out if it was a boy or a girl. We felt like if it was another girl, we might need tell the kids differently than if it was a boy (like, we might need to preemptively get poor Cam into surviving-sisters-therapy). We are excited to announce that, according to the ultrasound, it is a boy!

We made plans to tell them at Family Home Evening on the the Monday after the ultrasound. 

We started our with homemade blue mac-n-cheese (it's just food coloring, not mold). 

Then Jonah and I wore blue...

(Jonah gave an FHE lesson on using less toilet paper.) 

And then we served them blueberry brownies. 

Welp. None of them caught on. They just said, "thanks for all the blue stuff." Finally we had to drop more hints about how we wanted to tell them something, and about how Cam would no longer be the only blueberry in the family, etc. FINALLY Ana caught on (I think she's had an idea for awhile) and she whispered in the ears of the other kids. But still, they were confused. Elsie listened to Ana whisper and then yelled, "FIREMAN?!?!!!" Cam kept saying, "I'm so confused! I'm so confused!" then he wouldn't stop giggling. Eventually they all caught on. It was extremely funny and we were all cry-laughing by the end. 

Po has by far been the most excited. She talks about her "new baby brother coming after Christmas" all the time every day. We've nicknamed the little guy, "Harry Pop" after Po's mixup with calling lollipops Harry Pops. (They do get hairy if you licked them and then drop them on the furniture). 

If we haven't had the chance to tell you in person, please forgive us. To be honest, it took us 20 weeks to tell our own kids... we're still grasping the fact that just when we thought we were moving into the kids-and-teenagers stage of life, we are being thrust back into the baby jail. It's hard to explain. We (both Jonah and I) haven't felt like this before, but I think its just the shock when we weren't expecting it. Babies and children are a blessing though, and we are grateful for the blessing and will do our best with the little guy to raise him well. We truly are getting excited and we are especially glad to bring Cam a brother. Here's the video we showed to some of our extended family:

Okay. Well. In other news, Ana finished the mermaid tail she promised Elsie back in January and did one for herself too. It was some tough sewing, but she pulled through and did it all by herself!! They wrap around the monofins they already had, so they are functioning swimming tails! So fun!

And I finally came through on a promise to Po and had her friend Betti come over to play a few different times. Po and Betti are about the cutest and dearest two-year-olds I've seen. I was worried about Po because she's got some rough older siblings and she likes to play rough and rowdy, but she and Betti are as sweet and gentle with each other as they can be. Po is so concerned that Betti gets what she needs and that she's having a good time and she's happy. It's heartmelting. 

Here we are on a walk. We stopped to feed the goat naemd Trough some hibiscus flowers.

It took us about an hour to make it four blocks, but they had a fun time.  The next time Betti came over, we did a much shorter walk. Po has since been to Betti's house too. But unfortunately, she had so much fun that when I came to pick her up, she clenched onto the door frame and screamed, "Don't take me! I don't want to go! I want to stay here! Don't take me!!!" It was a little embarrassing. 

 For an early birthday present, Jonah spent the better part of the month stripping and repairing and repainting my car!!  It looks fabulous!!! Po is not going to be able to crawl on the roof anymore... I don't want any scratches up there. 

Here's Po after she snuck herself a fudgesicle. Oops Po--You forgot to lick up the evidence. 

And I found this cool old galvanized tub to use as bath in our shower. It's perfect for Po. Our old rubbermaid bin was getting a little small. 

And lastly... isn't Elsie's art great?!... yep, even when she draws and traces it backwards