4 years old Makena

Happy 4th Birthday to our "sugar plum"- thats what omi calls you. You are just a dream. I can't even tell you how easy going you are..and you are sick right now, your eyes all crusted over, nose running, and you still have a smile on your face, and say "I'm ok." I love spending my days with you. Weve been down with omi a lot since she is sick. You enjoy being there, and Omi and Papa spoil you. You have been a sport going back in forth in the car to longview every week. You had a fun birthday with Hunter at a karate place. You have a batgirl shirt that you wear and love, and you wore that to the party. You wanted a chimpumks cake, but there were no chipmunks anywhere. You love simon, and you sing all the songs they sing. and you sound like a chipmunk right now with your voice. You like to play with Giselle, and you think of her all the time. At the doctors office you insisted on getting her a sticker too. And for christmas you wanted to get grandpa a bike because you knew he had his stolen from the garage, so you brought it up out of the blue. You are very thoughtful, and compassionate. We took giselle skiing last week, and you wanted nothing to do with the cold, or putting on your coat, or sledding, nothing! Of course we all love the mountain, but you were content sitting in the lobby all day. you did fall asleep on me, and I enjoyed that as much as skiing, but I'm hoping you will enjoy skiing too. giselle, you are doing so good at skiing this year. I took you down the first run, and you fell, and I thought you would cry, but you would laugh and get right up and keep going, and going pretty fast at that. I am so proud of you! you had quite a year of firsts, learning a little golf, paddleboarding and the skiing. You started kindergarten with mrs. crockett and you are doing great. I didn't think you would ever get used to getting up early as your our night owl, but you have managed to get up...albeit, its still a struggle. you are doing great in school, and the only thing is disrupts class, and you like to tattle on whos doing things wrong, but I am not worried. I am worried about the boys though.. you already said you want to play with jake but he only plays with you if you do what he wants..and your fine with it. of course, I try to teach you that real friends do what both of you like. and you like to play with kyle a lot too, and his birthday party is coming up this weekend. I think having hunter as a boy cousin you are really comfortable playing with the boys. you are learning to read already, and you have a great class of kids. you are so good with makena, and make up lots of creative games and fun to play with her. you are passionate about things, and sometimes overwhelmingly so, but I think its an amazing quality, but sometimes were tired, and you are quite insistent on doing, being, having, whatever it is at the moment that you want or need it. I think this quality will take you far in following your dreams and making them happen. I wish you both to have a beautiful life, and to have that you must create a peace within yourself. I think creating a simple life and being content and grateful for what you have are the beginning. Creating quality relationships with good friends and family that have good hearts, to create health with healthy lifestyle and food, and create mental wellness with exercising your mind, and body, and faith and peace with yoga, nature, and grounding yourself in the beautiful world right in front of you and paying attention to the miracles in everything. to realize that beauty is found inside you and others, and realizing material things do not create a beautiful life. follow your passions, follow your heart, follow your goals. serve others, and find ways to make a difference in the world, even if its with one person, it makes a difference.

Happy 3rd birthday Makena

Makena Kathleen. You little sweetheart you. You turned three and continue to be the most darling thing. I surprised you with decorations and cupcakes and a few gifts and you said "thank you for my party" a few times and it was just cute to hear you say that so young. We ride bikes on your birthday and you are so I g pretty good , Giselle was helping you when you would get stuck- I would go to help you and she would say no I've got it. I stopped breastfeeding you a few days before and that was a hard transition, because you spent every day waking up, napping and using it for comfort. I will miss it too, loved having you lay on me for long moments of time, just relaxing. You just came over and asked for milky- it's been like 5 days. But we've moved you on to a dippy and you like your chocolate milk. You have movie and popcorn nights a lot and you guys love it. Giselle likes to spend time tickling over and over and she is so gassy she ends up tooting all night/ and we laugh and laugh. You are both in live w everything frozen right now. We just got back from 3 weeks in maui and had a fun time w Omi and papa and hunter and Ali and auntie Maria and Jason. We went and saw the sunrise on too of the mountain, many sunsets, lots of pool and sand time. We made candles at Trendwest and you had a hula lesson where it was about an hour long- cannot believe you both payed attn and looked so adorable with your hula dance. Most precious thing I have seen. Giselle you still fight sleep like no other, you don't want to miss a thing, to the point of making yourself miserable but you will fight it and fight. So I guess you live every moment and have a passion for life. You have tons of energy, you are brave and try anything, and you are so silly and want to laugh all the time. You are very intense and intelligent. You think freely and constantly tell us what you are Thinkjng. Today was about how a car could drive to Hawaii because it's an island. Could not I mean. Yu are learning something new everyday and love to be active. Now you can go to the. It tom of the pool and pick up rings and you can ride your bike up and down hills and for a while. Makena you like to so everything g does, and you just want to be a part of it. You recently started going to awana w g becaus your three now. You went one day and learned "god loves us and sent his son" and say it all the time. You went to a little ballet class, and you want to do more. You like to play w hunter and even dressed up as a superwoman because of hunter. Somewhat of a Tom girl but very girly too.

silly

giselle you asked me if I could bring the toilet to you so you could keep watching your show.. makena when you come up in the morning to wake me up, you always say surprise. or you will open my eye. about 3 months ago you would do all the things you saw on frozen, and prevend you were anna and try and wake me up..wake up elsa wake up and lift my eye and then put your head on my and ask me if I want to build a snowman, just like on the movie. giselle, you were going to be a tooth fairy for halloween then you decided on elsa. your first tooth fell out last month and you were soooo excited! it was loose and you were so excited about what the tooth fairy would leave you. you also want to know what the tooth fairy does with all the teeth. not quite sure. you also remember a lot of the history facts I tell you and are curious..like what are the wright brothers first names...orville and wilbur, then you remember. you can do a lot of math and subtraction and are learning to read. you can spell out a few words. and you write a lot on your own. always asking me how to spell whole notes to people. and makena you follow right along and ask me how to spell my name..and then you scribble. you both sing a lot of the songs you learn at school, and I asked you what it meant and you told makena were not telling mom right makena, and she said yeah...so this language thing might backfire on me. makena you were "america" for halloween, a super girl, with a cape. giselle says you like to play with the boys at recess, and you said you like to play with hunter. you both play so well together now, and it's so fun to watch you love on each other, and play mommy with each other..lots of make-believe, and then you will yell at each other, you did the meanest thing ever! I am never going to play with you again!! then you love each other again. giselle, you go to awana and last week you brought makena home a dog that you won. that was very loving of you. makena still calls you izelle and when you are sleeping in the morning she will lean over and kiss you. daddy said last week makena was half asleep, saw you, gave you a kiss and went back to sleep. so sweet my girls.

fall again

hi girls, we are cozy in bed reading cinderella, makena you are breastfeeding, and watching paw patrol with lucy on the bed too. dad is in spokane. he went to atlanta last week and then in two weeks he goes to vegas for work. I may go too, but it'll be the first time we leave you both, which makes me nervous, but I feel like you are both getting old enough that you could survive and enjoy it..hopefully. we celebrated gg's 90th birthday this last weekend in portland w/all your cousins. makena you spent a little time looking at pictures with gg and asking her who everyone was. and you also slept on her a little bit, and she said you were really heavy. giselle, you would give a hug but for the most part you were off running with your cousins. we had to stop you to listen to gg cause you have a way of blocking out everything and continuing doing whatever you are doing. you really liked playing with brady and even wrote him a note that said you liked his room the best..it had lights on the bed and a piano, but you were too embarrassed to tell him what the note said..you wrote a lot of letters and giselle and brady on it. when you were in the car w/piper, she asked you to be quiet and makena said you be nice to her she's my sister! it was pretty cute! we stayed w grammy and grampy and you liked to play with rusty. yesterday makena wrote w pen on the couch, and turned the breakers and I had no clue what to do. you also peed on the floor. giselle you created an art wall and surprised me with it, and you also created a picnic in your room..you just get an idea and go with it. you also created mail for all your friends and put it in envelopes, but you closed them before you remembered who they were for so you needed all new envelopes.

Happy 5th Birthday Giselle!

So you've been asking for about 6 months now how many days until your birthday. You are so excited and you want to have it in the backyard. You want your neighbors, parker, jeffrey, lucy and your cousins there. you asked for a butterfly party. I can't believe how fast time has gone..my little baby is almost 5! I saw a quote, she is quick and curious and playful and strong. and you are inquisitive..you want to know everything! you are so in to time right now, and want to know days, and hours and minutes and you need to know the answer..how long are you gone mommy..well how many minutes? is that long? how many hours? how many days til jeffrey gets here? so, you have a calendar, and we go through the months which you know and you are starting to understand minutes and time..but you are so intense about it. and you are so curious about what mommy and daddy talk about, and if we try to give you a shortened version..you ask questions very sternly until you get the right answers..no, who are you talking about, no, how old are they, and what happened? and you do get so upset if we don't tell you right away. and even if we don't know the answer (like how long something will take, we tell you 2 hrs or an answer because you want to know...). you are just so smart, and you remember everything. I ream

hi girls

oh, I love spending every day with you both. this is such a special time and I know it. Giselle, you pick flowers for me all the time, and I think that is so thoughtful of you. and you wanted to have a yogurt stand (w honey and berries on cones), so you could give the money to daddy. and makena you are so sweet and happy and silly all the time. I took you both to get your toes done and you both sat there so good and were so polite to the guy who asked if you wanted candy. you said thank you. and giselle you get so shy, you said no, and sat there shyly til he gave you the candy, then you were too shy to say thank you. but you loved it, cause you smile big and your eyes shrink up. makena, you are very easy going and so relaxed about everything, and giselle, you are very intense with emotions, and so full of questions, and so smart. but very happy or very mad or sad. it's a lot, but I love it. I want you to express your emotions and whatever you are feeling. but you need a lot of attention and needs. it's constant on with you, and I almost feel like I am not challenging you enough because I can't keep up with your questions, and wants. love you both so much. we planted a vegetable garden, and you giselle you like to go down the slide in to the pool. and makena you are playing on the big swing now and going to the bathroom pretty regularly without us asking you. we haven't even tried potty training you, and you want to do it on your own. you love lucy too. makena you love daniel tiger and hate care bears and giselle you love watching care bears..so the morning cartoons are always challenging. you both will eat because you want to grow bigger and giselle if you see makena eating my breakfast, you will eat it just so she won't outgrow you. makena you love hunter so much. and giselle you like to carry baby ali around and give her kisses. you have been playing t ball and daddy is your coach. it's pretty funny watching you turn around out there and not pay any attention to the ball. but you hit really good and you run fast, and hunter and chance are on your team, and neither of them pay any attn. mostly chance stays with his mom and hunter likes to roll around and put his mitt on his face. it's funny. makena you like to be a part of it too, and have been practicing hitting. we went to lake chelan, tennesseee, palm springs, disneyland, celebrated omi and papas 42nd wedding anniversary, went to anacortes for annals 40th 80s party, and this weekend heading to whidbey island, then off to road trip to banff canada. it's been a crazy few months but very fun. even though I am exhausted. we were going to leave you and go to banff, but I don't think you guys are ready, even though daddy says I am the one who isn't ready. so, we'll enjoy a nice road trip together. ok. love you so much!!!

Goofball makena- you take off your shoes wherever you are- even in the airport, it doesn't Matter you want to run barefoot And you like to take your diaper off too which isn't good. You are singing all the songs to frozen and you were singing that Giselle is the best sister ever and you'll be best friends forever , that is in between you both telling me that the other is not sharing. Giselle you are so ambitious and willing to try anything . You want to skateboard and ski Anh you get so upset if you don't get to do whT you want. You are playing t ball w daddy as yor coach. You do really good at hitting the ball even without a tee. The last game you were sitting down in the field - it's a long game and you wanted a donut like makena