somewhere in alaska

Happy Birthday Little Grandma!

2010-11-21T20:37:00.000-08:00

Birthday Balloons for Little Grandma!

2010-11-21T20:33:00.000-08:00

Ammon's Baptism... the Small and Simple Things

2010-10-19T09:34:00.000-07:00

For Ammon's baptism back on August 7, I got him a baptism memories book. I've tried several times to get him to write in it, but it wasn't until two nights ago, that all on his own, Ammon pulled out his book and sat down to write about his baptism. If there's one big lesson I need to learn with this child, it's that even though he does need some prompting and prodding, he really likes to do things on his own time schedule! Anyway, after reading his sweet remembrances, I did some of my own pondering. And now, the writing...

About a year ago, we took Ammon to a gathering called "Eight is Great," in which all the children who would be turning eight during the next year were taught about the importance of baptism and some of the things that they could do to prepare themselves. We walked away from the evening with a little booklet of activities that we could do with Ammon to help him prepare. I had all the best intentions... I did pull out the packet several times and we certainly talked a lot about baptism during the past year, but I also did not complete some of the things I'd wished to do before it came time for Ammon to make his decision. Therefore, when it got closer to August and his 8th birthday, I started to feel a little bit of stress. Did I help him really prepare? Does he understand the significance of such an important step? Does he have a strong testimony of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ? What if he decides that he doesn't want to be baptized?

Well, Ammon did decide to be baptized and it was a simple and beautiful experience for him and for me. I let go of all of my grandiose and magical expectations for my first child's baptism, and instead I realized that Ammon is an eight-year-old child and that he has an eight-year-old understanding of the Gospel and a beautiful eight-year-old testimony to go with it (when he wrote in his book what his feelings were after he received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, he described it in perfect eight-year-old terms: "My whole body felt like handwarmers" [I'm thankful for the inspired primary teacher who described the feelings that the Holy Ghost gives us in these terms because Ammon testifies that this is really what he feels]).

I also realized that this is but a beginning for him. He has entered the gate which will lead him back to his Heavenly Father (2 Nephi 31:17). This certainly does not make him perfect, just as I am far from perfect. We both need our Savior and His redeeming Atonement. We both need to plead for forgiveness when we make mistakes. We both need to make this part of our every-single-day lives. I've stopped stressing about whether I sufficiently prepared Ammon for his baptism. Instead, I feel grateful for inspired Church leaders who teach me the small and simple things that I can do with my family to assure that Ammon, and my other children as well, are prepared for life and its many challenges.

Sometimes, when I hear the giggling during a family prayer or the fights during Family Home Evening, or the apparent inattentiveness during scripture study, the natural man in me just wants to throw in the towel and call it hopeless (and I'll admit that I have done just this more than once). However, deeper within me is a strong and fast testimony that if I continue to make these small and simple efforts, my children will gain the firm foundation in Jesus Christ that will carry them through this life's many storms (Helaman 5:12).

Many small and simple things that happened before, during and after the baptism all added up to make it a perfect baptism day. The booming voice of Brother Franz teaching Ammon that his name was being recorded in Heaven twice on that day. The soft but sweet voices of all of Ammon's cousins (on the Zavala end) singing "When I Am Baptized." The inspiration that flowed when I prepared for the talk I gave. The wise words from Aunt Coyo telling Ammon to actually "receive" the Holy Ghost. The beautiful authority to act in God's name, the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood which Jacob holds and with which he was able to baptize and confirm Ammon. The support of all three of my sisters, their families, and especially my parents. The sweet words from a primary president testifying to Ammon that he is literally a child of God.

One more small and simple thing for which I am grateful: I was at Deseret Book about a month after Ammon got baptized and I bought a really cool plaque that now hangs on my my boys' bedroom wall.

I hope that it will serve them as a small and simple reminder of some very important ages and events in their lives. Eight - the age at which they can be baptized and make sacred covenants with Heavenly Father; Twelve - the age at which they can become holders of the sacred power to act in God's name, the Aaronic Priesthood; and Nineteen - the age at which they can become Elders in the Holy Melchezidek Priesthood and full-times missionaries who preach the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It continues to be the small and simple things that will help my children to reach these important milestones. It was a beautiful experience and blessing for me to see Ammon reach the first of these important steps.

I'm thankful to have a husband who was able to worthily baptize
our son with the sacred authority and power of the Priesthood.

My big little son.

I want to share my life with them through all eternity...

Ammon loved having his best buddy cousin, Isaiah, here from Utah.

Isaiah got baptized just one month later.

I'm Number One!!!

2010-10-13T11:58:00.000-07:00

I won't go into details right now except to say that Ammon is testing me and we seem to butt heads a lot. Sometimes it makes me wonder just what he feels for me. My answer came while we were reading scriptures a few nights ago. He wouldn't participate and I was about to get mad because I thought he was just sitting there drawing. Something told me to just let him be. Thank goodness Jacob was on the same page because this is what he was actually working on.

1. mom
2. dad
3. brothers
4. sister
5. food
6. scriptures
7. roller coaster
8. Halloween
9. birthday
10. Star Wars

The Help

2010-10-12T12:25:00.000-07:00

I read a really great book called The Help by Kathryn Stockett... and although I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good read, it's not what I want to write about today. I've had what I'll call a little mothering paradigm shift and I want to write it down 1) so that I'll never forget these sweet moments and 2) because I'm sure that it won't be long before I'll need a reminder. What I want to write about today is the help that I receive each and every day as I go around doing my stuff.

Ziya's new favorite thing is to help me with whatever I'm currently doing. Whether it be cooking something in the kitchen, folding laundry, making my bed or scrubbing a toilet, she wants to be right there (actually, being there is not enough; she wants to be totally involved). She knows how to measure flour in a cup, lock and turn on the mixer, change laundry from one machine to the other, sort socks and pile them according to what room they will go in, and wash and dry dishes among many, many other things. The curious thing is that she'd rather be doing any of these things than playing with her dolls, puzzles, or any of her other stuff.

I love the way she carries her stool into the kitchen so she can reach things.
She does this at least five times each day.

My dilemma is this: she slows me down, way down. I found myself getting annoyed by this a few days ago (I felt like I spent the entire day in the kitchen with her on that particular day) and I was complaining to Jacob about it at the end of the day.

Still thinking about this, the very next morning, I purposefully woke up early so that I could make my bed and bake the breakfast muffins without any help. I did feel a little guilty about my stealthiness, but I thought it was worth it. Sure enough, my bed was made in a record two minutes and I didn't spill a single ounce of flour or make a huge sudsy mess in the kitchen sink. My new annoyance was that I couldn't help but feel guilty as images of my little "Z" popped in my head... her wriggly little body squirming around under the covers that she has jumped under "just one more time" and the cute way she holds the stool to carry it into the kitchen so she can reach things. Not only did I feel guilty the entire time I was working, I also found myself actually missing my help. I decided to add scrambled eggs to the breakfast menu just so she would have something to help me with when she came downstairs. And yes, one egg was splattered on the counter top... but I was o.k. with it.

This happened on Saturday morning. It's only Tuesday, but I've been a lot more patient with my help. I'm thankful for my help. I love my help. And even though there will still be times when I will ask my help to go and play so that I can get my stuff done, I hope to always appreciate and love my help.

P.S. I have thought about writing this post ever since Saturday, but I only had the one picture to post with it. So today I thought I would get a picture of my little help on her stool. By the time I remembered, Kenai had dragged this bucket of wheat from the pantry to the counter so he could wipe the counters for me. Now I have two helpers. I'm especially glad I've written this because now more than ever, I'm sure I'll need the reminders that this is a good thing, a really good thing!

Just two more cute pictures of the partners in fun.

I've Been Busy

2010-09-25T21:38:00.001-07:00

Since my blog posts seem to be so few and far between for the past oh, two years or so, I always feel like I have to start my posts by explaining or justifying my absence. This time, I'm not going to... except to say that I'VE BEEN BUSY. One day, I may, or may not, go back and write in detail about the rest of our summer. This very long post would include the following: Disneyland and Legoland and then another fantastic week in California with my in-laws, including a fabulous visit to Long Beach, our old stomping grounds; then back to Idaho and three straight weeks of refurbishing an old dilapidated play structure, then building an area in our yard and finally installing the beast; caring for my very busy, very imaginative and very comfortable with my family nephew Diego; first time ever summer baseball for Ammon and Abraham; working and fighting hard in an attempt to get a half-way decent lawn; running and biking in a 185 mile race from Spokane to Sandpoint; Ammon's 8th birthday, a very special BAPTISM, and the beginning of his career as a scout; an activity and adventure filled two week visit from my sister Elisa and her very energetic family (kids' triathlon, Silverwood, swimming in lakes, bike rides, sails on Lake Coeur d' Alene and many cousin sleepovers); camping with our ward; a huge end-of-summer yard sale; a quick three-day trip to Utah for my nephew Isaiah's baptism; starting second grade for Ammon, first grade for Abraham and home pre-preschool for Ziya; a new job at a middle school for Jacob; fall soccer for Ammon, Abraham and Ziya; teaching my MiaMaid class about three times per month; trying hard to improve my volleyball game once every week; trying to get back into my book club; and all this while preserving the life of my 17-month-old climbing, walking then running, eating dead flies, cute curly-headed and ever mischievous Kenai! Whew, it makes me tired just typing it all out. So yes, I've been busy. Here's the evidence:

Our Legoland photos are lost in cyberspace but we have lots of fun Disneyland pictures. Great fun with Little Grandpa and Grandma! Ammon and Abraham loved riding the fast rides with Little Grandma, Ziya loved the princesses and Kenai just loved all the activity! What a memorable experience!

We got to spend some fabulous time with our beloved Long Beach friends. Just like everybody else, we're trying to convince them to move to Idaho, too! Jacob also got to see some "kids" that he grew up with!

It was impromptu, but the Munyers pulled it off... a quick reunion at Friendship Park in San Pedro!

Little Grandma and Grandpa really went all out making our trip an amazing memorable one. As you can see, there was never a dull moment... whether it was playing in cardboard boxes, doing snail races or dressing up...great times were had! It was also great fun to see Aunt Sheila - she had never met Ziya or Kenai. Thank you so much Pam and Angel!

As soon as we returned to Idaho, it was straight to work for us!!! This is the beast that we dropped of on our friends' property. Every day, we packed our PB&J, fruit and water and spent the day working at their house. We power washed it to get the old stain off, bleached it, sanded the entire thing, and put about seven coats of stain on it! The kids helped a lot... they also jumped on the trampoline, took naps in the car, watched movies on the trampoline and had fun being kids in the woods! That was only the beginning. Then we had to prepare the ground for it in our own yard, make a retainer for the pea gravel, reassemble the beast and finally shovel 8 yards of pea gravel! BUT OUR KIDS LOVE IT!!! It was all worth it!

This was the boys' first time playing baseball. Abe and Diego played on the same team, which was fun. Our camera was broken by this time, so I don't have good pictures of Ammon... but my sister does!

My Ammon turned 8 and got baptized! What a special day shared with the entire Zavala clan! Once again, the special pictures of Ammon dressed in his white clothing are on my sister's camera... I will definitely share those as soon as I can!

Ammon, Abraham, Isaiah, Asher and Diego all participated in a kids' triathlon. They swam in the lake, biked and ran and had a fantastic time! Ammon had the mishap of losing his bike chain so he wasn't able to finish, but we learned our lesson for next year!

It was really fun to hang out with all of the cousins! We just hope that one day (soon) the Packs can move closer!

My dad bought my mom a nice beach cruiser for their 40th wedding anniversary. So we all celebrated by going on a family ride together... all 20 of us!

Jacob and Brian took the boys to Silverwood, where Aitana and Acasia met them. These are some brave children! They went on some pretty scary rides.

Ammon turned 8 just in time to go to a 3-day Day Camp for scouts. What a great introduction to this amazing organization! He got to shoot a rifle, climb a rock wall, tumble in a barrel, make a marshmallow shooter, go fishing and canoeing, learn to shoot with a bow and arrow and have lots of good ole' boy fun! Jacob got to go with him... they both had a blast, earned a bunch of badges, learned a lot and had terrific father-son time.

We went camping with our Ward at Camp Peine! Brother Rivera took us out on his boat. My kids love the water.

Ammon, Abraham, my mom and I made the 11 1/2 hour trek to Utah on Friday, spent Isaiah's baptism day with him all day Saturday and then drove back home on Sunday! It was exhausting, but worth it! Again, I don't have the good pictures of Isaiah on his baptism day... I was playing the piano and missed the photo opportunities. On our way back home, we stopped and spent a while at Temple Square. The boys have been there before, but they were very young and didn't remember it. It was beautiful to see their excitement about the Salt Lake City Temple and to learn a bit about its history.

First day of school! Ammon is in second grade and Abraham is in first. Their cousin Diego also goes to the same school and is in kindergarten! They feel like such big boys this year because I let them ride the bus sometimes.

This is Ziya's first time playing soccer. She has watched her brothers pretty much her whole life, but she is still taking her time getting used to being on the field. Thank goodness she has her bestie, Payton, right there beside her! In today's game, I ran on the field with her to encourage her along. She scored her first goal! Jacob is co-coaching Ammon and Abraham's teams. They are having tons of fun and definitely get lots of energy out!

And then there's my Kenai! My goal with him every day is to keep him alive. He climbs and dances on high surfaces, runs into the street, eats dead flies, plays with poisonous spiders, unravels toilet paper rolls... all while flashing his cheesy smile the entire time. Here are pictures I captured of him discovering that one of his brothers had opened the bag of Bugles from Wal-Mart. He was so tickled with himself!

CAL-I-FOR-NIGH-AYE!!!

2010-06-28T13:31:00.000-07:00

Exactly two days after Jacob's last day of work, we packed our bags and flew to California (prounounced Cal-i-for-nigh-aye) for a 17-day vacation with Jacob's mom (AKA Little Grandma and her husband Angel (AKA Little Grandpa)! We haven't been in this great state for about five years. It's so good to be back.
The Flight(s)...
We stopped twice, once in Boise and once in Reno, but fortunately, we didn't have to change planes. It was nice to do the trip in three legs, but the boys were unhappy that once they finally got into a movie, it was time to put away their DVD player! It was fun to watch them sitting together from across the aisle. They were so mature as they "ordered" their sprite and peanuts. Kenai just crawled all over our laps and Ziya enjoyed pretending that the little button that reclines her seat was really a "power" button for the entire airplane. My little three-year-old was controlling that huge airplane all by herself!!!

My mother-in-law is amazing. She has been preparing for this trip for a long time and the kids are soooo super-excited to discover all the "preparations" she made for them.
Ammon and Abraham got a spy bag, complete with all sorts of spy gear (old remote controls with their pictures on them), clue games, spy tools and journals for recording their discoveries. This alone kept them busy for our first day here.

Ziya had fun gluing puppet scenes with Little Grandma... so much fun that later, Grandma's lap was as far as she got for her nap!

Kenai had a great time exploring his new surroundings.

The hot tub was a huge hit. We haven't been "swimming" in a long time, so this was quite a treat. Yes, that's a princess floatie that Kenai is in. We want him to be comfortable with his masculinity.

Litttle Grandma created themes for our daily parties. The first night was a birthday party to celebrate everybody's birthdays that she and Angel missed this past year - gifts and all! Jacob's gift was the restored version of these funny little shell guys that he bought while he was a missionary in Jamaica. They've been broken for years and she fixed them for him!

The next night was movie night: popcorn, 3-D glasses and two movies. My kids are having their dream vacation!

For animal day, there were cute hats and glasses for the kids to wear. We went to the park and tried to collect bugs, but the jungle gym provided more immediate entertainment!! The kids also got to go to Grandpa Angel's friends' farm to see and pet lots of little animals. I stayed home with my napping baby, but there were lots of fun stories to hear about when they all got home. Apparently, the little white goat took a real liking to Ziya!

We went to the beach in Ventura for a couple of hours. There's a really fun area right on the sand that has a jungle gym and swing sets. The kids had fun going back and forth from the water to the toys to the sand.

Little Grandpa is so smart! He packed a huge umbrella and pulled some MacGyver tricks to get it propped perfectly for our shade.

Kenai really enjoyed the water.

At first the cold water scared him, but then he didn't want to be picked up anymore!

He also loved the swing. I think we could have spent hours there and he would have been a happy swinger!

Ammon and Abe had fun jumping waves... and running from them, too! The water was quite cold.

Ziya had fun running from waves, too.

She did NOT have fun when one knocked her over!

But that was nothing Little Grandma's hugs and kisses couldn't fix!

Drying off after the cold water.

Of course we had to play the burying game. Kenai was easy to do since he is so small, but he wouldn't keep his toes under the sand!

Abraham was a bit more cooperative!

Here's Genius Grandpa enjoying the big umbrella.

And then taking a nap under it, too!

While Little Grandpa held down the fort, the rest of us walked down to the end of the pier.

We watched as some fishermen caught a small shark (thank goodness we don't surf!) and brought it up!

Once again, the fun and excitement was too much for little Ziya!

I'm obviously getting spoiled on this vacation! I haven't had time to write a long post like this one for quite a while (the kids are being entertained by Little Grandma, even as I type). I'm grateful to both Pam and Angel who are making this all possible for us. I'm loving it and so are my kids!!!

Side note: Jacob actually flew back home for a second interview with a high school in Spokane. They agreed to do a phone interview when we first got here, but since they selected him to be one of the final two candidates, they wanted to do a second interview in person. He flew back Sunday morning and will return tonight. Then on to Legoland, Disneyland and three resorts (all with awesome swimming pools!) crammed in between. Fun times!

We Keep Getting Older! Four Birthdays in Three Months

2010-05-23T19:07:00.000-07:00

ABE TURNS 6

Abe was the one to start off the string of birthday celebrations way back on March 24. He turned 6 years old (already???). It seems we celebrated his birthday for about two weeks. We had a combined birthday dinner with his cousin Dax, who was turning 17, on March 21... and he got some gifts. Then on the 24th, his actual birthday, he had another cake with just our family... and he got some more gifts. Then on April 1st, when the weather finally allowed, we invited some little friends to the park. This time we had ice cream... and more gifts. Needless to say, it was a good birthday for Abe this year!

Abe turns 6, Dax turns 17! That's 23 candles on this cake!

Munyers and Vernons know how to be goofy!

It's tradition... face in the cake!

Star Wars toy and a check... who could ask for more?

Ymmm... more cake!

Fun with friends at the park.

It was a chilly day, but we still had fun!

ZIYA TURNS THREE

In years past, we've thrown organized birthday parties (invitations, friends, decorations, party favors, etc.) for Ammon and Abe, but somehow, this hasn't been the case for little Ziya. This year was her year! She had a full blown princess celebration, complete with crowns, princess dresses, and a very pink princess craft... and she absolutely loved it.

Fun celebrating first with the family

And then celebrating with friends!
Ziya's princess friends: Payton, Natalie & Caroline

Later during the party, Ziya changed her dress so they could all match!

One special treasure for this birthday was that Ziya was able to spend part of it with her great-grandmother Elena and her great-aunt Yuya, who were visiting.

Later that week, the Vernons came to celebrate more with us.
Here's Ziya with cousins Acasia and Aitana.

KENAI TURNS ONE

First birthdays are always fun. My parents and the Vernons came over to help us celebrate Kenai's first year. As young as he is, Kenai totally realized that the gathering was all about him. He loved being the center of attention, and he loved opening the gifts, too!

A couple of first birthday notes about Kenai: he has four teeth (more than any of his siblings at this age!), he has the cutest curly hair, he is a climber and an adventurer and even gates are ineffective unless locked (he figured out how to open them!), he's not quite walking (but it won't be long), and he's very, very attached to mami! He will only go (without crying) to a very selective few: Tita, Tito and Aunt Coyo is finally growing on him!

Nobody can tell him to stop banging now!!

This was the best we could do at trying to get a picture of all four kiddos.

He loves bananas!!! So I made him a banana split banana cake!!! He loved it!

Just checkin' it out!

When Ziya turned one, we wanted her to dig in and get messy with her cake, but she wouldn't.
Kenai, on the other hand, cooperated beautifully. What fun! Ymmmmm!!!

Bere turns 30-something!

I wrapped up the string of birthdays last Thursday. I'm usually not much into celebrating my birthday, but this year turned out to be a special one. Jacob took the day off of work (shhhhh... he called in sick!) and my sister, Colomba, cooked up a feast in my honor!

Twice a week, I play volleyball at church with a bunch of friends. I took the kids with me (along with two extras that I was babysitting), but as soon as Kenai got fussy, I called up Jacob (who was home working on applications) and he came to my rescue. Sounds silly, but this was THE BEST GIFT EVER! I got to play several games in a row WITHOUT having to hop in and out for a fussy baby. I LOVED IT!!! Thank you, Jacob!!!

This is what I look like when I hit the ball
(check out my legs!!!!)

Even better than uninterrupted volleyball, was this feast that Coyo made for me. I was gracious enough to share with the rest of the family. I love having a chef for a sister (thanks Coyo!!!).

Yeah... go ahead and click on the picture to enlarge and try to savor!!! It was soooooo good!

Yup, my mom indulged me with this famous Costco cake... it's the huge one with the chocolate shavings on top! And to go with it, Ben and Jerry's yummy flavors!

Ziya is Three Today!!!

2010-04-21T14:06:00.001-07:00

Ziya is three years old today. She immediately put a princess dress on and got to open one little present. She got some little teddy bear puzzles, but she hasn't played with them because the gift wrapping was embellished with a little princess lip gloss. She hasn't let go of that all day! She's having a little princess party tomorrow, so I'll post more pictures later.

She met her great grandma Elena and great aunt Yuya earlier in the week. They came over for pink pancakes for breakfast. Then she got her hair done and posed for a few pictures.

Ziya with her first present, a puzzle set. See the little lip gloss attached to it? Big hit!

Ziya with her great grandma Elena, my mom's mom who is visiting from San Jose.

Ziya with her great aunt Yuya, my mom's sister.

Ziya with great grandma Elena, great aunt Yuya, grandma and little brother Kenai.

My Fourth Child, Kenai

2010-03-30T11:12:00.000-07:00

Four months

Five months

Six months

Seven months

Eight months

Nine months

10 months

Poor, poor Kenai. His mami hasn't been blogging and showing off his amazingly cute growth and development during the ever-changing first year of his life! Now he's almost 11 months old and is cuter than ever. Two events over the past two days have got me thinking about my beautiful little boy.

ONE: Yesterday, I was working at my sister's cafe and I observed two young moms who entered with their little baby girls - one was about a year old and the other one was about 18 months or so. They all came in with wet hair and with my vivid imagination, I guessed that they'd just come from a mommy-and-me type of swimming class and were now ready to enjoy a girls' lunch out! I especially observed the little one year old, who knew several signs (please, thank you, drink, more) and even heard her say "please" when I went to their table for something.

TWO: The day before, Kenai was too rowdy for Sunday classes, so we were wandering the halls when we ran into another 10 month old, who was very interested in touching Kenai's face and "playing" with him. Each time the little boy tried to approach him, Kenai just turned the other way. He had no interest whatsoever in playing with this other little person. Why should he? I don't think he's ever truly played with another baby his age!

These two experiences have had me thinking a whole lot about my little Kenai. He is my fourth child. We do not do mommy-and-me swim classes like I did with the first two... instead, he sits in the car for with me for two hours at a time while his brothers are at soccer practice. We do not do play dates with other babies like I did with the first ones... instead he gets plopped in his car seat as we drive boys to and from school three times each day. He does get read to, but they are not board books like Goodnight Moon or Guess How Much I Love You ... instead he gets to hear Star Wars, Magic Tree House and Princess books with his older siblings! I have not taught Kenai any sign language... instead he gets put in his high chair (for very long periods of time sometimes as I work on the kitchen!) and has to kind of fend for himself when it comes to eating. Every time somebody passes by, he grunts until somebody gives him some food! He still has not learned (or been taught?) to sleep through the night... instead, he shares a bedroom with Ziya and has to be quickly rescued as soon as he lets out a little cry. He did not go with me to The Children's Place for a new Easter outfit like the older kids did years ago... instead, he wore an outfit that I found last year at a garage sale (although it is very cute and did still have tags on it!).

I started to feel bad about all of this (and so much more where Kenai seems to get jipped); but then I thought that Kenai is not my first or even my second child. He is my fourth and with this, there must be some wonderful attributes that will be his: he will know how to share, he will know how to appreciate what he has, he will know how to be resilient, he will know how to fight for what is important to him, he will know the special love that older siblings have for their younger counterparts, he will have examples (hopefully good ones) to look up to, and even though he is the fourth, he will still feel of his mami's eternal and very special and individual love for him.

I love my little Kenai. I love who he is now and I love who he will become. I'm so thankful for my fourth child!

p.s. Since it's spring break and Jacob is out with the three "olders" right now, as soon as Kenai wakes up from his nap, I will go and cuddle with him and read Runaway Bunny to him!

Crazy Days OR Crazy Boys???

2010-03-30T10:28:00.000-07:00

For part of Dr. Seuss week at the boys' school, they had some dress up days and themes. For crazy hat day, we put velcro on some baseball caps and stuck some little army guys to them. Abe was concerned about wearing this to school because they are not supposed to take weapons to school, and some of the army guys are holding rifles... he didn't get in trouble! For crazy hair day my sister came to the rescue with some gold hair spray. That was easy. They didn't want to take showers at night cause they wanted their hair to stay gold and crazy. My CRAZY BOYS had fun on these two crazy days!.

Involuntary Haircut

2010-03-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

Ziya's hair ends have been looking pretty ratty for a while now, and I keep intending to give her a trim. Her brothers took care of that for me! Their new favorite game is "Barber Shop." Sounds dangerous, I know, but up until today, it never actually entailed any cutting. Today wouldn't have either except that they decided to put a bunch of stuff in her hair: barrettes, rubber bands, ribbons and bows AND A COMB! They wrapped it around her hair so tightly that the only way to get it out was to cut! Fortunately, I didn't actually have to cut too much off. I guess now I really do have to give her a trim just to even things out a bit! Thanks boys (I think??)!

ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

2010-03-07T23:57:00.000-08:00

This is my new motto: ENOUGH ALREADY! I say it to my kids all the time, and now I'm learning to say it to myself. The closet that needs to be cleaned, the exercise routine that needs to be started, the letter that needs to be written, and the very neglected BLOG that desperately needs to be updated (among dozens of other things I'm not getting to!). ENOUGH ALREADY, BERE! JUST DO IT!

You see, I have this horrible vice in my personality that I'm about to confess. If it's not perfect (or close to it), then I don't do it or I give up trying to do it (it's part of my OCD tendencies that I'm constantly battling with). Example: A few weeks ago, I realized that I was not drinking enough water, so I decided to fill up my very own water bottle and set it on the counter every day. With this water bottle, I could measure out how much water I wanted to drink in one day and thus meet my goal. Enter Ziya. She decided that she also needed to drink out of my water bottle. I didn't know how much water she drank so I didn't know how much I was really getting either. So... I stopped trying altogether and went back to drinking my minimal amounts of water! Dumb, I know. Don't worry, I realized how dumb this was and quickly got over it and am pleased to announce that I am now drinking plenty of water. But not before the experience made me think about how I do this with a lot of things in my life:

oh no, I broke down and ate 10 graham crackers and a granola bar for breakfast so I might as well eat junk for the rest of the day! This has gotten even worse: I'm so, so far from my eating and weight loss goals that it's hardly worth the effort to try at all.
I don't have time or energy to read my scriptures for 30 minutes, cross referencing and studying from a manual and writing about what I learn in my journal... so my scripture reading efforts have very sadly been minimal.
I don't have time to jog and lift weights and do pilates all in one day like I used to, so I just won't do any of it!
I don't have a perfect family picture. I don't know how to put a cute background on my blog and digitally scrapbook a bunch of cute stuff to put on it, not to mention the fact that I'm about seven months behind and have missed posting some huge, huge happenings and changes in our lives! So I'll just keep putting it off since I'll never be able to get caught up anyway.

I know, I know. Stupid Satan. He is written all over these lame excuses. You're not good enough. Why even try? I'm sick of it and I'm sick of him. ENOUGH ALREADY!

My ever-wise husband is very patient with this vice of mine. He lovingly and gently reminds me that there is a time and a season for all things. Just the other day, he reminded me of an institute teacher who told us that his wife used to read her scriptures on the toilet when her kids were young because that was all she could manage at the time. I kind of scoffed at the example, but now that I've given it some more thought, I'm going to get up right now and put some scriptures in my bathroom.

I demand a lot of myself. I think that I will always demand a lot of myself -- it's just part of who I am. The part I want to change is that I want to be more patient and forgiving of myself. Even if it can't be perfect, I want to die trying (a bit melodramatic, I know).

So ENOUGH ALREADY. Perfect or not, I'm back!!!
I remember Ms. Novinger, my junior high English teacher, taught me that you can never know what you think until you write it down. Now I know what I think and I know what I need to work on - line upon line and precept upon precept. I'm almost embarrassed to click on the "publish post" button because I've divulged some pretty silly stuff about myself. Oh well. I'm not perfect. I guess none of us are perfect. But ENOUGH of that ALREADY!

CKC = Cute Kid Candids!

2009-08-19T00:17:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, it's necessary to just post a bunch of random pictures. I'll call it Cute Kid Candids!

It's fun when you get to the toy stage. Kenai can entertain himself for quite a while now!

We've had more scraped and bruised elbows and knees in the past month or so than we've had in a long, long time. Here's Ziya in the assumed position... getting ready for the hydrogen peroxide and knowing it's going to hurt!

They weren't invited to play with the bigger boys, so these two made up their own game... emptying book cases!

He really fell in love with his Spiderman 3-D glasses - so much so that he fell asleep with them on!

Aren't they just the cutest?

This really deserves more pictures and a detailed explanation in its own post... but for now, this is what Ammon and Abraham do all day long. They build forts and traps for bobcats in the woods behind the house.

Need I say more?

This is the only kindof moose we see now! After playing at Fort Sherman Park on a very hot day!

Three cousins having a great time at the beach - Diego, Ziya and Asher.

Stylish, huh? I wasn't there that day, but I'll bet Aitana or Acasia had something to do with this!

This scares me. I don't want her to grow up!

Quiet play in the sandbox.

One of the kids' first questions when we told them we were moving back to Idaho was, "Is Truckie still there?" They actually named their jeep "Truckie"!

I love the sandbox because it invites quiet play. What a miracle!

Ammon Turns Seven

2009-08-18T23:49:00.001-07:00

Ammon's seventh birthday finally came (he's been waiting for months and months!!) and we all had a great time celebrating with him. I don't remember what it's called, but this was a magical birthday for him because he turned 7 on the 7th of the month!

In the morning, we took four of his neighborhood friends (Colin, Dylan, Austin and Olivia) along with cousins Diego and Acasia, and all of our own family to the Kroc Center indoor pool. The kids had fun going down the slide, floating around the lazy river and doing different kinds of crazy jumps into the pool. Great times were had. After swimming, we drove to a park and had pizza, cupcakes and melted ice cream cones. Ammon couldn't wipe the grin off of his face the entire time. He absolutely loves to be with his friends, especially when he's the center of attention!

The next day, we had all of the family over for the family celebration (have I already said how much I'm enjoying being so close to our family?). Jacob grilled hamburgers and we had salad and a veggie tray. I made a cake and Coyo decorated it camoflauge/ army style for us. Again, Ammon grinned for several hours straight.

It sounds so cliche, but it really is strange to see my oldest child turn seven already. He is a very special and determined boy who certainly likes to have things his way. If it were up to him, he'd wake up early every morning, grab a very quick but filling bite to eat and head straight outside to be with Abraham, Austin, Colin and Dylan building a fort, hunting for bobcats, riding bikes or playing spies. He is all about action and movement, but he also enjoys quietly sitting down to make Lego creations as well. I mustn't forget that he also loves, loves, loves to watch TV (we've actually had to be very careful about limiting how much he watches).

Happy Birthday Ammon. I LOVE YOU!

Pontoon with the Vernons

2009-08-18T23:34:00.000-07:00

On August 5th, the Vernons rented a pontoon for an afternoon/evening and they invited us to join their family on the water. After figuring out what a pontoon is, we decided it would be loads of fun... so we joined them (thanks Lili and Craig!!). We were once again blessed with beautifully calm weather, so at one point, we stopped and took a swimming break. Ammon had a blast swimming around on his own. Abraham was a bit more apprehensive, but he finally ventured in. And even little Ziya went into the water, with Aitana and Acasia, of course!

We had a tube for pulling the adventurous and brave (and Jacob... who had to accompany the kids!). Actually, the pontoon didn't go very fast, so it was perfect for our young crowd. At the end of the evening, Ammon went on the tube all by himself. He would have done that for hours and hours, but we finally pulled him in and had to go home!

It was a fantastic evening and once again, I felt so grateful for family memories that were created.

Kenai Turns 3 Months Old!!!

2009-08-13T10:50:00.001-07:00

Baby Kenai turned three months old on August 3. It has been a month full of fun little milestones for Kenai. He continues to laugh and coo and smile - sometimes when prompted by somebody and other times just totally spontaneously. He carries on full conversations, both with his coos and with his facial expressions. He has also discovered his hands, which is a lot of fun to watch. He tries to put his entire fist in his mouth and he sucks and sucks. The only bad thing about this is that every time somebody else is holding him and he does this, they always hand him back to me claiming that he must be hungry and ready to nurse! Ai, ai, aieee people... he's just sucking!!!

I think Kenai is definitely the most adventuresome of my babies. In his third month of life, he has been on a boat, a catamaran and a pontoon, thoroughly enjoying all of the action! He might also be the most spoiled of my babies. Because of our living arrangements, I have not had the opportunity to sleep train him. Therefore, he still wakes up one or two times at night (sometimes even three!). As soon as he makes a peep, he gets to come into bed with me and nurse himself back to sleep, afterwards staying in bed. I've never done this before... it has its goods and bads for me, but Kenai sure likes it! Also going along with the spoiled thing, he has tons and tons of attention from grandparents, aunts (and sometimes even the uncles) and cousins, so he is held A WHOLE LOT, and he loves it.

Overall, Kenai is a happy baby and he's had a great third month!

What You Will Miss...

2009-08-10T03:52:00.000-07:00

I'm working really hard to get all caught up once again... so read on friends (or at least browse on!)! DO NOT stop after just one post because you will miss some pretty special stuff in the recent life of the Munyers: swimming in an outdoor pool (a big deal for us!), catamaran sailing, Kenai's baby blessing, a Zavala clan photo shoot, harvesting and then cooking a big family reunion meal, boating on the lake and Acasia's 9th b-day. And check back in the next couple of days... I'm still working on Kenai turning 3 months old, riding on a pontoon with the Vernons, Ammon turning 7 years old and a whole lot of very cute candids. I know I keep saying/writing this, but maybe, just maybe one day I will be able to stay caught up on my own blog so I don't have to do these crazy long read-them-all-at-once posts!

Swimming IN AN OUTDOOR POOL!!!

2009-08-10T03:38:00.000-07:00

Simple pleasures... my kids were so excited to be in an outdoor pool! While we were in Alaska for three years, my kids did not do a whole lot of swimming. We loved the beach (although not for swimming!), the Nikiski pool and H2Oasis in Anchorage, but we just didn't get to go very often. So it was quite a treat when the Parkers, some friends in our new ward, invited us out to swim at their house. The kids were a bit nervous at first, but it did not take long at all before they were wading and jumping around like little fish! My nephew, Diego, was especially funny. He had on a life jacket, arm floaties, a float around his waist and he sat on this huge butterfly float... and he was still a bit wary of the whole situation!

Catamaran on Lake Coeur d' Alene

2009-08-10T03:05:00.000-07:00

We kept a pretty busy schedule while the Packs were visiting. Thanks to Coyo and Carlos, who have a very generous friend, we were able to take a catamaran sail around Lake Coeur d' Alene.

Here are Coyo, Kenai, Diego, Carlos, Aitana and Acasia getting ready to go out on the water.

I was trying to get the beautiful lake and mountains behind the kids, but all I got were the beautiful kids, Kenai and Diego!

The sail was amazing.

She really does think she's a princess. I wonder why?

The ride was very relaxing. Perfect weather, calm water, beautiful mountains, fun family... it was great!

The water was calm enough that we were able to stop for some swimming!

Kenai's Blessing

2009-08-10T02:51:00.000-07:00

It was so wonderful to have my whole family together for Kenai's blessing. He's a special little boy and he had a very special blessing. I loved seeing my dad, who raised four girls, standing in a very special priesthood blessing circle with his four sons-in-law, Craig, Jacob, Brian and Carlos. Jacob pronounced a beautiful blessing on little Kenai, who was also beautiful in his little white outfit.

Jacob and I also had the opportunity to give the sacrament meeting talks. It was a tad bit stressful, but I was thankful for the opportunity to share my feelings and bear my testimony about faith in our Savior Jesus Christ. I'm thankful for the faith that my parents taught me and that I've strengthened over the years and I commit myself to teach my little Kenai (along with all of my children) an even greater faith in Jesus.

Tired and Hungry After Pictures

2009-08-10T02:49:00.001-07:00

We were all tired and hungry after the very long photo shoot... so we went to Red Robin for dinner. Bottomless fries were just what we all needed!

Family Photo Shoot

2009-08-10T02:29:00.000-07:00

Since we were ALL together, my sister talked her photographer friend into doing a photo shoot of the Zavala family at a park by the Spokane River. There were 20 1/2 people total (Elisa is expecting!): my two parents, four Zavala girls with spouses and 10 grandchildren. It was quite the task to get all the kids to cooperate for the pictures, but we did end up with some nice ones. These are just candids that we took with our own cameras. Hopefully it won't be long before I can post some of the real pictures because the quality is a lot nicer!

The patriarch and matriarch of the entire clan with their entire brood. This is the picture that my mom really wanted - she and my dad with all of the grandchildren.
Clockwise: Elisa, Diego, Dax (is it really so bad??) and Aitana, Acasia, Colomba and Elisa.
Pack boys with Munyer boys, Aitana and Asher, Isaiah with Ammon and Abe and Diego (he has his green cast on under those jeans!).
Ammon, baby Kenai, Brian with Asher, Asher and Ammon and Abe.
The girl cousins... and then the boy cousins!
We used to call ourselves "the Zavala Four." Now we all have different last names, but I still like to think of us as "the Zavala Four"!

Work Hard... and then Feast Hard!

2009-08-10T02:06:00.000-07:00

Elisa and her family drove all the way from Utah to be with the rest of us for Kenai's blessing. With the entire Zavala clan together, Colomba (the chef!) and my mom master-minded a fun and yummy activity. They randomly divided us in to teams and assigned us each a piece of a meal (main course, salad, drinks, dessert, side dishes). We all met at a U-Pick place called Carver Farms and our task was to pick produce that we would later use to prepare our assigned part of the meal. It was fun to help and watch as the kids picked berries, lettuce, squash, and DIRT (my little red-headed three-year-old nephew, Asher, had fun filling his bucket with dirt clods)!

After the picking, we had a picnic lunch. It was really fun to spend time with the whole family. The kids had fun getting re-acquainted with their cousins and I had fun spending time with my parents, my three sisters and their spouses.

The next day, we all got busy cooking and then met at my parents' home and brought our courses together for a super-fantastic meal. We had pork tenderloin served over creamed corn with a huckleberry chutney (I helped Coyo make this one!), fresh green salad, corn on the cob, foccacia, squash and a variety of fruity and minty drinks followed by a delicious cake beautifully decorated with several different types of fresh berries. Oh man, did we feast!

I included a picture of Brian holding little Kenai. They had a bonding moment as Brian made faces and baby-talked with Kenai and actually made him laugh really hard! It was a tender part of the day - Brian is really good with little kids and it was fun to watch him play with Kenai.

Boating with "the other Munyers"

2009-08-10T01:29:00.000-07:00

On July 9, Jacob's cousin, Trent, invited us out on his boat for an evening. His wife wasn't feeling well, but he had his daughter's Ava and Zara with him. Carlos, Colomba and Diego also joined us. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed boating around Lake Coeur d' Alene for a while before docking near an outdoor bar/grill called Eddie's. The kids had fun going back and forth underneath the boat where the girls had a supply of barbies to play with!

This is before the boat ride. Carlos turned out to be Ziya's true hero for the evening. He saved her from drowning!

While we ordered and waited for our food at Eddie's, the kids had fun splashing in the water. Somehow, Ziya slipped and fell and her head went under the water. Carlos was the closest. He ran into the water, fully clothed, and saved her! She was quite shook up (as we all were!) and she obviously wasn't too excited about going into the water any more. We're thankful that our little Ziya was truly being watched over!

Ziya and Zara - they're only about five or six months apart. It's weird that they look so alike, especially since this is their first time meeting... but they are cousins! Dinner after water-play is always a good thing!
Colomba and I... Kenai is in the picture, too! He's nursing under the blanket.

Acasia Turns 9!

2009-08-10T01:19:00.000-07:00

On July 7, my niece Acasia turned 9 years old. Her family invited us over to celebrate with her. The scrumptious ice cream cake turned in to presents and then the basement for some hilariously funny karaoke. The hit of the night was a Kermit the Frog meets Frank Sinatra version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" performed by none other than Jacob and Craig, my brother-in-law. They had us all crying - we were laughing so hard. Unfortunately, the video I took is too large to upload to blogger.

Smores with the Vernons

2009-07-20T15:29:00.001-07:00

We didn't get to hang out with Liliana's (my older sister) family for the Fourth of July, so they invited us over the next day to have smores, jump on the trampoline and play soccer in the yard. My kids truly are in heaven. I kept sitting back and just feeling grateful (once again) to be with my family. Many people wondered why we moved away from blessed Alaska at such a difficult economic time. This is why. I love my family. I love hearing the laughs and seeing the sincere joy on my children's faces when they are playing with their cousins and spending time with aunts, uncles and grandparents.

Aitana and Acasia are really in to soccer - so are Ammon and Abraham. They had a lot of fun playing. The second video is of Aitana doing this crazy trick that she taught herself to do after watching it on a YouTube video. It's a unique way of throwing the ball back in to play - this just gets it a lot farther in to the field. Crazy, huh?

4th of July

2009-07-20T15:06:00.001-07:00

This was a very exciting 4th of July for my kids. Now that we actually see darkness (in Alaska, it's a bit pointless to do fireworks on the 4th of July because it never really gets dark enough!), we were able to go to Hayden Lake with Colomba and her family and my mom to watch an amazing fireworks show. We trespassed onto somebody's boat dock and just made ourselves at home on it - front row seats to the show that was done from a platform in the middle of the lake. Ziya was scared at first, but as long as Jacob was holding her, she was o.k., and Kenai simply nursed through the whole show (our solution to anything that might upset him!).

I enjoyed sitting a bit off to the side and reflecting on how grateful I am for my parents. Many years ago, they left Mexico in hopes of giving their soon-to-be four girls (my mom was pregnant when we moved) bounteous opportunities for a blessed life. They left everything that was comfortable for them and took a huge step into the unknown. Now all four of their daughters have a college education, are active in the Church and have healthy, happy families. I'm sure that we would have been o.k. in Mexico, but I am very proud to be an American. The next day in Church, I enjoyed singing my gratitude through some of our patriotic hymns. It was a good 4th of July.

Kenai Turns Two Months Old

2009-07-20T14:22:00.001-07:00

Kenai turned two months old on July 3. He has lived through a lot in just two months! My mom immediately noticed that he seems a lot happier in Idaho - and I agree! The poor baby was born at a very stressful time in his family's lives, and now I'm convinced that he also felt that stress. He did manage though to have fun camping with bears, going to a Girls' All-nighter with me, surviving all the preparations for a huge move and finally hopping on a plane and moving to Rathdrum, Idaho. What a busy little guy!

At one point, I worried that he might actually be blind because he didn't respond or even flinch when I moved around right in front of his face. He did finally start reacting and smiling shortly before we left Kenai. Now he smiles and even does little laughs all the time! He loves to be held by his brothers and sister, but he's still very, very attached to mami.

Grandpa Stephen in Idaho

2009-07-20T14:14:00.000-07:00

Jacob's dad was a sport and flew up to Kenai to help him make the long drive down the Alcan. From what I understand, he was very, very patient about traveling with two cooped-up-in-a-car-for-six-days rambunctious little boys. Here he is enjoying some finally-outside-of-the-car fun with Ammon and Abraham.

Grandpa Stephen got to meet Trent Munyer. He's Jacob's cousin who lives in Coeur d' Alene. We didn't even know that he and his family lived here until after we left for Alaska. His wife made the discovery when she went to put her kids in Playland at Fred Meyer and realized that there were other Munyers in the area. They had fun comparing family stories over breakfast.

Cousin Fun in Rathdrum, Idaho

2009-07-20T13:49:00.000-07:00

The first cousin Ziya and Kenai got to meet was little Diego. He is Carlos and Colomba's 4 year old son. My sister Colomba is a chef and even in his young years, Diego has already learned a lot from her. Here are Diego and Ziya making a breakfast milkshake.

This is my youngest sister, Colomba. She immediately fell in love with Kenai (and he certainly is not complaining that he has aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents that constantly want to hold him!).
So there's not a cousin in this picture, but the pajamas and the purse are wonderful hand-me-down gifts from Ziya's only girl cousins, Aitana and Acasia, who live just about 15 minutes away. Ziya has scored an arsenal of barbie toys, fun little girl clothes, a pink Disney TV, her own big-girl bed and lots of other fun stuff. The three girls hit it off instantly. I think Ziya is relieved to finally have some girls to play with (even though the girls are 12 and 9 - they are absolutely wonderful with Ziya).

The same day that Jacob and the boys finally rolled in from their long 6-day drive, Diego broke his leg. He got a walker, but he only used it for about a day. His cool green cast with a train track drawn on it didn't stop him from playing and playing and playing! Just like Ziya is excited to have some girl cousins, Diego is excited to have some boy cousins to hang out with! They talked Jacob into setting up the tent in the back yard (just what he wanted to do after camping for a whole week straight!) and having a boy slumber party.

Aitana and Acasia came over to spend the day with us. We picked strawberries from my mom's garden and made strawberry freezer jam.

And then of course, there is plain ole' TV watching fun!

The Alcan Drive... to be posted later!

2009-07-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

I actually have some time to blog today, so I thought I would tackle Jacob and the boys' Alcan drive. I have quickly given up. I don't know the pictures' settings and I don't really even know the circumstances in some of the photographs. So I am going to strongly encourage Jacob to do it ASAP. For now, I thought it was cool to compare these two pictures - moving to Alaska in August 2006 and moving from Alaska in June 2009. Not only has the "Welcome to Alaska" sign changed, but our family has changed, too! The boys are a lot bigger and there are two more bambinos waiting for them to arrive in Rathdrum!

Leavin' On a Jet Plane

2009-07-20T13:24:00.001-07:00

June 27, 2009: Ziya was thrilled to have so much attention to herself at the hotel in Anchorage. She loved this little kids' table that she found right under a huge moose head.

The plane ride was not too terrible, thanks to my mom! She kept Ziya busy and I kept nursing and nursing Kenai. We only had one not-so-kid-friendly passenger in front of us, but that was for a short leg from Seattle to Spokane. Everybody else was pretty patient with the occasional crying and whining. Ziya got lots of bribery to get her to comply with federal aviation seatbelt laws. I love the picture of her pulling her own little Dora rolling suitcase with a Dora backpack on her back. She was quite the trooper.

June... Part 5 (Yes, it was a busy month for the Munyers!)

2009-07-13T02:34:00.000-07:00

June 26, 2009: Packing the Trailer Day!!! When we moved to Alaska, we put most of our stuff in storage and then packed up the rest in a 5 x 8 foot trailer. Our goal was to move back with only the same trailer. Fortunately, we got realistic and remembered that since we moved to Alaska, we've added two children and a whole lot of STUFF. So we cheated and mailed 11 boxes of books using the post office's media mail rate. Still, it was definitely a tetris game to make all of our stuff fit. Even then, some of our stuff didn't fit and had to be left behind. Thank goodness for John Maw, who figured out a way to add a piece of plywood to the front of the trailer's frame, load a bunch of bags of clothes on it and basically wrap it up into a burrito covered with a tarp (his expertise also got our lights hooked up... whew!!!). It was definitely "Beverly Hillbillies" style moving, but we did it!! Elders Liu and Hogan were a huge help as were my mom, Leaca, Kaarin (who took Kenai on the longest walk ever!), and the Maws.

Kaarin came over just to pick some stuff up that I'd borrowed, and she ended up staying for several hours to take care of Kenai while I packed and cleaned. What a lifesaver she was that day! Ammon and Abraham weren't really into the whole saying goodbye thing, but Ziya was (she's usually a ham in front of the camera anyway!). We spent a lot of time with Sydney, Jason and Katie, and I'm going to miss them. Kaarin was my visiting teacher and my good friend. She was always so willing to help me out in many, many different situations. I'm going to miss her, too.

Ammon and Abraham really, really, really love to ride their bikes. Earlier in the summer, Abraham made the attempt to take off his training wheels, but he said he'd "try it later." While we were packing and cleaning on the day before starting our move away from Alaska, he rode up to us with one training wheel in hand - it had fallen off. He asked us to put it back on for him, but we talked him into just taking off the other one and trying to ride on two wheels. He was a bit nervous and he made me run alongside him... but only for a few seconds because I couldn't keep up! He just took off and never stopped! It was amazing. I had one of those tender pride kind of moments and I teared up as he rode away from me. Just one more evidence that my little boy is growing up, I guess.

June 27, 2009: The Youngs graciously offered to drive me, my mom, Ziya and Kenai to Anchorage, where we would stay in a hotel before flying out on Saturday. We tried really hard to be ready on time, but we just weren't. The final parts of packing and cleaning are the hardest, I'm convinced. When we finally got into their car, we still had to drive to Mardi's apartment to pick up Ziya and so that I could say goodbye to Ammon and Abraham (they spent the morning with Aunt Mardi, Marissa and Victor). After our goodbyes there, we were finally on the road... and Kenai started crying. Usually, the moment his little body hits his carseat, he screams and screams to no avail. The miracle of miracles though, is that he actually didn't cry for too long. This time, he was easily appeased by a little bounce to his seat (thanks Leaca!) or his pacifier (which he normally doesn't take!). After we arrived in Anchorage, Gordon confessed that he'd prayed really hard that Kenai wouldn't cry! It worked (whewww!).

We said our goodbyes in the hotel room. I realize now that we actually didn't say formal goodbyes to many of our friends, and I think I'm glad about that (I just hope that no feelings are hurt anywhwere) because goodbyes are no fun. It's like in a matter of just a few minutes, my mind flooded with all the good that this sweet family (all members of the family) did for us, and it was a bit overwhelming. I think I'm one that likes to reminisce on things like this during my own private moments.

I am grateful though for the Youngs. And I am grateful for the many precious unphotographed friends that we made in Kenai. We've moved several times since we've been married, but this time there is one major difference. I am SO grateful for blogs and for Facebook. I feel like it's going to be easier to stay connected to our friends... and for that, I am also thankful.

June... Part 4

2009-07-13T00:29:00.000-07:00

June 21, 2009: We spent Father's Day with the Youngs. They let us crash the dinner they prepared for the missionaries. We had delicious grilled halibut with mango salsa and some to-die-for salads that Leaca fixed. Ymmm!!! We missed Raquel (she was at basketball camp in Washington), but we loved spending time with Gordon, Leaca and Rusty. They are one family we will truly miss.

Leaca took these cool pictures of the kids on the trampoline (look carefully, it's just as fun to see Ziya getting bounced as it is to see the boys doing their flips!).
Every Father's Day, I take (or Leaca takes!) pictures of my kids wearing this one shirt of Jacob's. I started doing this when Ammon was about 2 and Abe was just a few months old (got the idea from Oprah!). I made a special "Father's Day picture album" and put these pictures in it. It's fun to see the kids growing into the shirt. I also put other pictures that represent Jacob's role as a father throughout the previous year. This year, I made collages of him with each of our children. These are the pictures that I put in this year's entry.

Jacob is a fabulous father. He knows how to laugh during stressful times (which has been paramount lately!), he loves to play with his children and he always has a new twist on an old game (so it's NEVER boring when he's around!), he knows how to be patient and he knows how to love. It was nice to take a break from all the packing, cleaning and organizing and enjoy some relaxing time in honor of him and so many fathers who have shaped and influenced our lives. I love you, Jacob.

June 21, 2009: It's summer solstice - the longest day of the year. Leaca and Rusty came over sometime after midnight and picked up Jacob so that they could go out and take pictures. It was a cloudy night, so it's hard to appreciate the fact that behind the thick clouds, it really was still light outside! Go figure. At least they had fun driving around. Thanks for the pictures, Leaca (once again!).

June 23, 2009: Grandpa Stephen flew in from Los Angeles for a short Kenai visit and then to drive the Alcan (Alaska Canada Highway) with Jacob and the boys. He stayed with Jacob's sister, Mardi, and enjoyed spending some time with all six of his grandchildren. He was amazed at how light it is late at night and at how late people here stay up! He'll be in a lot more pictures later when we post the pictures of the 6-day long drive to Idaho.

June 25, 2009: Originally, my dad was also supposed to come to Alaska and Jacob booked a fishing trip for himself and the two grandpas as a way to celebrate the grandpa's birthdays (Grandpa Stephen's b-day is June 23 and my dad's b-day is June 24) combined with Father's Day. Well, my dad was unable to come kind of at the last minute (he wasn't feeling his best), so Ammon and Abe were able to take Tito's spot on the boat. They got up at some crazy early hour in the morning, bundled up and headed out for a fishing day with Dave Goggia. They were fishing for king salmon, but once again, the fish weren't biting. They still had a grand time. Ammon got to drive the boat for a while and Abe had a comfy nap hiding inside all of his layers of clothes. The day turned out to be a really nice one and Grandpa Stephen really enjoyed Alaska's grandeur with his son and two grandsons.

June in Review Part 3

2009-07-09T23:26:00.000-07:00

June 12, 2009: We had a yard sale at the Johnson's home. Jacob and I spent many sleepless nights getting ready for the big event. We had to go through ALL our stuff and decide what to get rid of before our move (not an easy task!). My good friend Kaarin was an absolute lifesaver. She worked so hard and helped me tons (especially since Jacob was gone for a youth temple trip on the second day of the sale). We sold most of our stuff and took the rest to the Salvation Army and to the local women's shelter. For two weeks, we lived without a table or chairs. The kids had to eat on TV trays, which was quite an adventure for all of us! During the yard sale, we had to say goodbye to our dear Raquel, who would be gone for basketball camp when we moved.

June 16, 2009: My friend Gina was supposed to go out king fishing with Dave Goggia, a wonderful man in our ward who guides during the summer. She was unable to go because of a fall, but with the boat and date available, I somehow was fortunate enough to be able to get on the boat for some final king fishing on the Kenai River with some good friends - Erin, Kristen, Kaarin and Holly. I was unsure how I would be able to do it with a newborn, but Holly graciously agreed to trade off with me spending time on the shore with baby Kenai. It worked out perfectly. I got on the river from 6 to 9 am while Holly hung out at the lodge and actually took a nice nap on a couch with Kenai. Then I went home with Kenai and Holly got to fish for a while longer. No kings were caught that day, but it was great fishing nevertheless. The weather was nice (no rain and not too cold!) and there were lots of eagles out. We also saw a moose. And as always, the company was fabulous. Thanks Brother Goggia and friends!!

June 20, 2009: We picked up my mom at the airport. Her service to us was one that only a mother can give. She used an entire week of her precious vacation time to fly all the way to Alaska, only to be cooped up in our apartment packing, cleaning, holding Kenai, and trying to encourage and calm a very stressed out daughter (me!).

Looking back, I wonder if it could have been any different. We just didn't seem to have any time to do any fun stuff. She joined us for dinner at the Young's, she took one "exploring" neighborhood walk with Jacob and the kids (she loved seeing all the lupine because it's one of my dad's new favorite flowers), she took early morning walks to the store to buy a treat for breakfast (she says she did it for the exercise, but I think it was her way of getting away from us and gathering the willpower to deal with us for the forthcoming day!), and one day, we finally dropped all the work and walked over to Veronica's for a scrumptious lunch.

Like I said, it was a service that only a mother can give... and she did it all without a single complaint! No Homer Spit, no Kenai Fjords, not even a nice dinner - it was just such a crazy busy time. Whenever I tried to apologize to her for all the work she was doing for us, she reminded me that this was the reason she went to Alaska, to help us with the move. This is how my mom operates - she'll do anything for her daughters. I'm forever grateful for her love, her selfless service and for what I learn from her about being a good mother.

June in Review... Part 2

2009-07-06T23:09:00.000-07:00

June 3, 2009: My little Kenai turned one month old. I did manage to write in my journal for his one month birthday, and all I wrote about is how much he cried and cried all the time (I must have been frustrated and very sleep deprived when I wrote that entry). Little Kenai has some crazy curly hair that doesn't know which way to lay. He has powerfully explosive bowel movements, which always make us giggle. He loves ME (and only ME, it seems like). He loves to nurse - A LOT!!! I didn't put him on a schedule right away like I did with my other kids. Just when I was about to lose it from not sleeping at night (he went to bed at about midnight and then was up at 2a.m., 4 a.m. and again at 6 a.m.), I put him on a three hour schedule. That very same night, he slept for a five hour stretch. I felt like a new woman. He did this for two nights... and that was it! Oh well. I think he just likes his alone time with me... no big sister tugging at this face and no noise from two big brothers who love to wrestle and scream and just be loud. We bond in the middle of the night while everybody else is sleeping! I love my little man, Kenai.

*Note: Jacob's Aunt Cindy made this beautiful quilt for Kenai. She's a talented quilter and I absolutely love every quilt she has made for my children. This one uses fabrics from Kenai's great-great grandmother. The quilt design tells a story about a home with the warmth of a fire burning inside.

June 4, 2009: I made such good friends in Kenai. I'd only been in Kenai for about a week when the Ellis girls (Gina, Tiff and Jen) all picked me up for my very first Girls Night Out experience at the Duck Inn. Although it wasn't a real "regular" type of tradition, I did enjoy many nights out with my friends. It was always fun to have a few hours to myself with a bunch of girlfriends. Conversations were always stimulating, the food was always good, and most importantly, the bonds of friendship were always strengthened. This GNO at Acapulco was my last one. I'm going to miss them all.

June 6, 2009: John and Holly Maw hosted a very fun BBQ at their home. I was a dork and didn't take any pictures to show all the fun. Wiffle ball was a blast (to watch!). I got to sit with some of the other moms and chat and chat, while Jacob and the boys had fun running around for the game. In the meantime, Ziya found her preferred form of entertainment. She and the other girls dressed up as princesses. The only other picture I snapped was of my good friend Leaca holding my little Kenai. She loves to hold him and he obviously loves to be held by her, too!

June 2009 in Review!

2009-06-04T00:44:00.000-07:00

June 2009 has been an absolutely crazy month for the Munyer family. When you add up a new baby in the family, preparing to make a major 3,000 mile move, still managing apartments and trying to get in as much fun summer stuff with friends as possible, and finally making the 3,000 mile move, you get CRAZINESS!!! It was fun craziness, but craziness nevertheless. Here is a review of the month (with the end of May, too!).

May 29, 2009: After our visit to Kenai Landing, we had to pull over so I could nurse Kenai. In the meantime, Ammon, Abraham and Jacob had fun jumping from trees! I love the "spiderwebs" Abraham is shooting out of his hand. They really do think that they are super heroes. It scares me sometimes!

May 29, 2009: A small carnival came to Kenai, and seeing as we live only a few blocks from it and it's in plain sight to our kids every time we drive in or out of our neighborhood, we HAD to go. Our budget limited us to just a few rides, but the kids were in heaven. The huge slide was probably the biggest hit. They did that one a couple of times. Ammon and Abe tried the spinning apples and Ziya got to go fishing for duckies and she won a little stuffed penguin. It was windy and cold, but it was fun to be outside together and enjoy some family time.

May 30, 2009: Kaarin called and invited us to go and see an "air show" with her and her family. Being from southern California where the Blue Angels train, both Jacob and I had visions of jets flying overhead in amazingly close and daring formations... that's not what this airshow was about, but it was fun nevertheless! After hot dogs with the Johnsons at the FedEx building where Shane works, we went to the air show and got to go inside of some really cool coast guard planes, listen to some patriotic music, look at booths about aviation and get some balloons from a really cool clown.

June 3, 2009: We joined the Maw and Quiner families on a campout at Captain Cook State Park just north of Nikiski. These are two very cool families who know how to have fun! How can you not have fun while camping with 13 kids between the ages of one month and 9 years old? (Scrapbooking/collaging credits to go Angeline... I've snatched them from her blog... Thanks, Angeline!)

The dads were good enough to take most of the kids on a hike. They went to the rocks at the water's edge and climbed, skipped rocks into the water and posed for cute pictures.

Angeline, Holly and I outdid ourselves when it came to dinner! We had hamburger foil dinners with tons of delicious vegetables. Ymmmm!

Even one-month-old baby Kenai went camping with us! He had the day of his life. He was held the entire day and hardly cried a bit! I took Ziya and Kenai home to sleep at night so that I wouldn't feel like such a guilty mom!

These are some of our camping candids.

The major highlight of this camping trip came when Abraham, Holly and I went to look for Ammon and some of the other kids that we hadn't seen in a while. Abraham got just a bit ahead of us and shouted, "I saw a bear!" I told him that it wasn't good to lie or to play games with things like this, but he insisted that he really did see a bear. Holly and I heard some very loud rustling in the bushes below us and after shouting for Ammon and not getting an answer from him, I got very nervous. Sure enough, Abe had seen a bear. Actually, he had seen TWO!!! We had the amazing opportunity to watch them play from a safe distance throughout the rest of the day. Later in the evening, we were warned by another camper that they were heading our direction again. Angeline, John and Jacob got really close (way too close for comfort, actually!) and snapped a bunch of pictures. I also got this video of them playing.

Kenai Landing

2009-05-30T08:05:00.000-07:00

My friend Kaarin called us Friday morning and asked if we wanted to go to a flea market at a place called Kenai Landing. We were in need of an outing, so we joined her and her kids. It turned out that there was no flea market, but we made another cool discovery nonetheless!

This place is the site of the old Ward's Cove fish cannery and it's located right at the mouth of the Kenai River. Just two years ago, developers started to refurbish some of the old buildings and apparently, they are trying to convert the area into a waterfront resort type of thing. I guess it's still early in the summer season, so some of the shops aren't up and running yet (and the project is a new one, so it will be a while before everything really gets going there), but we browsed in one very cute little touristy shop and I found a bunch of "Alaska" stuff that I want to buy before we leave. Then we headed outside where the kids found some anchors and buoys to play on. I think we spent at least an hour there with the kids just climbing on the anchors and buoys and then running over to the dock to throw rocks down into the mud. I'm not sure if we'll be here long enough this summer, but I'd love to go back and see the place when it's booming. During the fishing season, I think you can actually go and watch boats bring fish in and then process them.

It was a bit windy, but the sun finally came out (we've had several cloudy rainy days) and the view was gorgeous. The docks overlook the Kenai waterfront, the Kenai river, the Cook Inlet, the Kenai Mountains and the Chigmit Mountains. We saw eagles and seagulls flying. It was a fun outing and we got to experience just a little bit of Kenai's history.

Kenai Candids

2009-05-30T07:36:00.001-07:00

This photo doesn't show it, but he really does enjoy his sink baths!

Ammon loves to relax with Kenai on the couch. (Yes, that's a pink boppy! We want Kenai to be comfortable with femininity! Just kidding. We actually just haven't gotten a more masculine cover for the boppy pillow!)

Any opportunity he gets, Abraham loves to give Kenai hugs and kisses and just cuddle with him.

Ziya's new doll has come in very handy. Here we are taking care of our babies together!

This was the night we brought Kenai home from the hospital. Ammon and Abraham were already sleeping, so Ziya got some alone time with Kenai.

Kenai's new favorite position. Jacob's claim is that he, Kenai, likes the pressure on his little belly.

Just hanging out on the couch (we seem to be doing a lot of that these days!).

Boys' All-Nighter

2009-05-30T07:21:00.001-07:00

On the night before the last day of school, one of Jacob's co-workers had a boys' all-nighter with his sons and a couple of his students. They stayed in the high school classroom all night and played video games, ate junk food and did other fun "boy" stuff. Jacob told us about it... and guess who decided this sounded like great loads of fun?? I suggested that this was something for older boys to do with their dads. My suggestion was vetoed. While Kenai and I had our own all-nighter in the living room (we've been having these since the day he was born!), Jacob, Ammon and Abraham stocked up on chips and candy, three movies and the laptop and had their all-nighter in the boys' bedroom. They only made it until 3:00 a.m., but they had a super time nevertheless. They were also supposed to play checkers and chess, but the movies won out.

The next day was an extremely grumpy day in the Munyer household. Next time, I will stick to my guns when I insist that this type of thing is for older kids.

Bike Riding

2009-05-30T07:12:00.000-07:00

On May 16, Ammon got to go to his friend Jimmy's house for a "late-over" (we wouldn't let him spend the night, but we agreed that he could play until 9PM). Abraham caught wind of some fun stuff that Ammon was going to get to do with his buddies (like have a water fight with brand new water shooters and release 500 ladybugs and then try to find them!)... and this was devastating (to Abe!). Jacob quickly saved the day by suggesting a bike ride. These days, that's all it takes to make our kids happy - a bike ride - especially if it's with dad.

This was Ziya's first time riding on the back of Jacob's bike. She loved it! I held Kenai in a front pack carrier and I walked along. It was a gorgeous day and we all had a great time. Towards the end of our outing, Abraham decided to give riding a try without his training wheels. He tried for a few minutes and then decided that he'll wait "until later in the summer" to try again!

The Real Story Behind Ammon's Strep Throat

2009-05-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

On April 29, Ammon stayed home from school with a slight fever. On the 30th, I noticed that he was covered with bumps... the same bumps that he had when he had strep throat a few months ago. I took him to the doctor and she was surprised at how red and swollen his throat was. The funny thing (well, not for Ammon!) is that his throat didn't even hurt. He had a very slight fever and the bumps and a positive culture... and that was it! Of course, this was enough to keep him out of school for three days... and to change a lot of other things about that weekend.

That's the story on the surface. The real story is that I believe a Higher Hand had a plan for us and the strep throat was a part of that plan. Jacob's original plan was to take the two boys to the Palmer Track & Field Relays for that weekend. Well, since Ammon does not do well with oral medication, we opted to have him take a three-day course of an antibiotic shot (done at the doctor's office, of course!). Because of that, Jacob decided to skip the track meet and stay home so he could help me nurse Ammon back to health (ha, ha!! Ammon was just ecstatic to not have to go to school... he felt totally fine had all of his normal energy - and then some!).

On Friday, May 1, we'd already been inside for two whole days and the kids were going crazy. We packed up a lunch and I took them to the park to burn some energy. They had a fantastic time playing soccer, jumping rope and drawing with sidewalk chalk. While they played, I got out my Windex and cleaned the back window of our Suburban. For weeks, I'd intended to put a vinyl cut-out of a representation of our family on our window, but I just hadn't found the opportunity. Here it was! Perfect!! With Kenai's representation on our car window, I guess he finally felt like we were ready for him to be born (he came on Sunday, May 3!).

In other words, instead of being split up by a couple of hundred miles, we had some really great family time for several days before baby Kenai was born... all because of strep throat!

Field Trip to Bishop's Beach in Homer

2009-05-29T17:52:00.000-07:00

On April 28, Jacob took a personal day off from school and he and Abraham joined Ammon on a big end-of-year field trip to Bishop's Beach in Homer. They left early and were there in time for a low tide so that they could explore the beach for ocean treasures. It was a beautiful day and fun times were had by a father and his two boys.

These are some of the cool things they discovered on the beach... a really ugly dead wolf eel (quite a unique find! one of the dads took it with him to have it preserved by a taxidermist), an octopus, a little hermit crab and a huge sea star.

They went into the classrooms for mini-lessons about the ocean and its many wonders. They got to work on a sea otter puppet craft, touch some stuffed birds, explore some bones, look through microscopes and other learning activities. Abraham was thrilled to be part of the first grade group. After the day was over, he said he was totally ready for kindergarten now!

They also got to go to the Sea Life Center for more learning and playing and posing for pictures. They had a fantastic day!

Ziya Turns Two!!! (on April 21)

2009-05-29T17:27:00.000-07:00

My sweet little Ziya turned two years old on April 21. All I have to say is that it's a really good thing that she's not old enough to be into the sibling comparison thing that her older brothers are so good at. She was super content to have her favorite meal for dinner -- spaghetti, salad with ranch dressing and fresh bread. And then she was even more thrilled when we brought out her quickly made birthday cake with an Easter basket Dora bubble blower plopped on top of it. Hey, it was Dora, and that's all that mattered to Ziya! The icing on the cake (ha, ha) was the ice cream that went with it all. She had a great time. She absolutely loved that we sang to her and that she was the one who got to blow out the candles all by herself this time.

My intention was to have a party with some of her little girlfriends; so we didn't even give her the present we'd purchased for her until a few weeks later when Kenai was born and we decided that her party probably wasn't going to happen. Additionally, she was in desperate need of her own doll to throw around and be rough with (instead of her little baby brother!). Again, she didn't even know that she'd been jipped. What a sweetheart she truly is! Happy Birthday little one!!!

Grandma Tita (my mom) got her this cute little yellow dress... a real ray of sunshine in our lives!!

Little Grandma (Jacob's mom) sent this cute little purple ballerina and a Dora backpack for Ziya. We're thankful for our grandmas who know just how to make their grandkids feel so special!

Sibling Similarities??

2009-05-09T14:11:00.000-07:00

As I was posting the last pictures of Kenai, I remembered that we took similar pictures of Ziya when she came home from the hospital. What do you think - sibling similarities??? I so wish I had digital pictures of Ammon and Abraham, too. We were old school back then and didn't have a digital camera and all of their baby pictures are in storage in Idaho. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun after those boxes get unpacked and I start comparing some more.

We're Home!

2009-05-09T12:36:00.001-07:00

We've actually been home since Wednesday night, but as expected, the party of 6 thing is quite hectic and I haven't made it back to the computer.

Kenai's billirubin level actually got a bit higher after the first day of light treatment, so we had to stay at the hospital for the rest of Wednesday. Wednesday night, it was better and the doctor cleared us to come home. Hallelujah!!! Friday, I took him back in to see the nurses at the hospital. He passed his hearing screening (which he didn't pass the first time!) and he has gained back a good amount of weight. Now we just have to make sure to lay him in the sunlight every once in a while and make sure that he keeps nursing, and peeing and pooping lots -- all of which he is doing with style!

Besides being a bit hectic, all is well. We'll see what I have to say when Jacob goes back to work on Monday. He has been sooooo super helpful.

Blue Light Special

2009-05-05T20:03:00.000-07:00

I had my bags packed, I was dressed in normal clothes and I was totally ready to leave the hospital and take my new baby home this morning so we could start our big party of six thing. Then the pediatrician showed up... and thought that Kenai looked a little too yellow. So he had some blood drawn and sure enough, Kenai's billirubin level is borderline high. So we are staying in the hospital for 24 hours more so that Kenai can get what one nurse called "the blue light special." He is hanging out on a special blue light that will help his little body metabolize the billirubin easier. We are also on a stricter nursing schedule (every 2 hours without fail) and we're weighing diapers to make sure that he is expelling everything that needs to come out. He's being a trooper. I'm kind of bummed because I'm supposed to have him on the light as much as possible; which means that as soon as we're done nursing, I have to put him right back in his little stratjacket - so while I'm hanging out here in this too quiet hospital room, I can't even hold my baby! At the same time though, I'm thankful for an observant doctor who decided to take the safe route. He'll get his billirubin level checked first thing tomorrow morning and hopefully then, we'll really be on our way home!

Ziya Meets Kenai... Again

2009-05-05T19:45:00.000-07:00

This time she was awake... and very, very curious. "Kenai, baby, hat, blanket," she observed. I wrote on my last post that I thought Kenai would have to grow on Ziya. Well, he already has!

I quickly realized that it's going to be tricky to nurse so often with Ziya around. She wanted to be involved in every single part of the whole process. I had been feeling guilty because we intended to have a little birthday party for Ziya** but we never did it. Anyway, we bought her a very real looking doll that was going to be her gift for the party. Its little cheeks actually move in a sucking motion when you put a bottle in its mouth and it also has a scary real sounding cry. Now I realize that it was a really good thing she didn't get the doll yet. I think we'll give it to her when we take Kenai home so she can do her own little thing with her doll while I nurse Kenai. Hopefully that will keep her entertained!

**(I will soon get around to posting pictures of the little family dinner we did manage to have - her 2nd birthday was on April 21)

Welcome to Kenai!

2009-05-03T23:43:00.000-07:00

Last night (actually at 2AM Sunday morning), I was up taking pictures of my own pregnant belly in front of the bathroom mirror. Then Sunday morning at 7:00 a.m., I was on my hands and knees scrubbing my shower. Call it intuition and sick nesting... I don't know. Be what it may, my very quick labor process started this morning at about 7:30 a.m. and Kenai Elias Munyer was born at 11:35 a.m. He weighed 9 lbs. 4 oz. and he's 21 inches long. I'll write the rest of the labor and delivery story later, but for those who want the pictures NOW, here they are!

I had my first totally positive epidural experience. Actually, it wasn't even an epidural - it was a spinal tap and I LOVED IT!!! This birthing experience was soooo smooth and easy compared to the other three.

I was immediately overcome with emotion when he was born. He's absolutely perfect and the miracle of it all just spilled out of my eyes.

Even though I was half-heartedly wishing he would come a week after his due date of May 15 (for the sake of convenience with our schedules right now), I'm really, really thankful he came when he did... especially since he weighed in at 9 lbs. 4 oz.!!! He could have been 10 or 10 1/2 pounds!

Jacob was a wonderful help throughout the entire day. He kept the mood humorous and light and he knew just what to do to help me. Here he is admiring every little detail - and loving it all!

He loved the first bath... but only for a minute.

Ammon had strep throat earlier in the week, so we made him wear a mask... which meant that Abe needed one, too! They were really cute about meeting their new little brother. They were a bit shy at first, but then loosened up, started asking all their questions and just being wonderful big brothers!

It's still unreal to me. I go to bed with a baby inside my stomach... and now he's out laying on top of me!

Abe's first meeting with Kenai. These two are going to have a special bond. I can feel it already.

Abe loves the story we tell of how when Ammon went to the hospital in Long Beach to meet him, his new little brother for the first time, the first thing he did was lick him! Abe decided that was how he wanted to welcome his own little brother into the world, too!

Ammon's questions were very mature. He was most interested in knowing about Kenai's bubble and he was just a tad disappointed that we didn't save it for him to see.

Ziya was knocked out for most of her first visit.

I think they really look alike - absolute angels, both of them!

I remember when Jacob and I used to fly standby on United Airlines while we were engaged and when we first got married. The employees would yell out, "Munyer, party of two!" when a flight came open that we could jump on. Now we're a party of six. It's hard to believe. I am so blessed.

She finally woke up to meet him. She wasn't too horribly curious. I think he's going to have to grow on her!

Just Call us "the Yoda Family"

2009-04-27T23:10:00.000-07:00

Today I really, really, really wanted to take a nap... but Abraham really, really, really, really (one more than me, I guess!) wanted to draw a bunch of Yodas. He won. He was so excited to go and pick Ammon and Jacob up from school so that he could surprise everybody with their very own picture of Yoda. Oh, and I guess I did get a 30 minute nap after he finished drawing, so I suppose we both won!

Abe DID turn 5!

2009-04-24T00:38:00.000-07:00

Way, way back on March 24, my little Abraham turned 5 years old. A few days after that, he turned 6 (that's because we had a party for him on the 28th and he thought it was his real birthday all over again!). Now he keeps asking me why I won't let him go to kindergarten at Kaleidoscope. His reasoning is that he has fulfilled all the necessary requirements -- i.e. he went to the health clinic and had 5 shots (and didn't even cry!) AND he had his 5th birthday. In his eyes, I'm just not letting him go yet. I try to explain the whole scholastic year thing, but he just thinks I want to keep him at home forever. He's a funny kid who is totally enjoying finally being five!

He started his birthday morning with memory loss. He didn't even remember that it was his birthday until Ammon reminded him. Well... then there was no stopping him! It was immediately to the first gifts of the day - all Star Wars, of course! He got an Obi-Wan Kenobi action figure and an outfit to wear for his special day.

That night, we had Mardi, Marissa and Victor over for Abraham's birthday dinner. The menu? Chicken and pancakes! Weird, I know, but this was his request... and he ate all of it!!!
We sang to Abe and he blew out all his candles. Then he and Ammon had fun sticking their faces in the cake. I've failed at trying to explain that we usually only encourage one-year-olds to do this!

On the 28th, we combined with Abe's little friend Sydney and had a joint birthday party. This is the "Barbie meets Star Wars" invitation I made. Abraham had some reservations about his invitation having Barbie on it and about the whole concept of sharing his party with a girl, but we convinced him that it was alright and he ended up having a fantastic time.

I worked hard to make a clone trooper cake to fit the Star Wars theme of his half of the party. I was pretty proud of my own accomplishment (I should know better!), so I was flabbergasted when I showed Abe the cake at the party and he had a hard time figuring out what it was! I also heard one party guest (an adult female, I should add) wondering if it was a tuxedo of some sort. My only redemption was that the adult males knew exactly what it was. Come on, it even had a voice box on it!!! Anyway, I had fun making it!

The party games were a hit. Abe's extremely talented cousin, Marissa, drew a poster of Anakin Skywalker and the boys played "put the light saber on Anakin" while the girls made beaded bracelets. Then they switched and had a great time all the same!

Anybody who knows Abe knows that Star Wars is an obsession for him right now. So he was ecstatic to find so many new and very cool Star Wars gifts. He got lots of other cool gifts, too (for which I am extremely grateful... since they break the monotony I sometimes feel about S.W.!).
We all had a great week helping Abraham to celebrate his birthday. He is constantly reminding me of all the cool things he can do "because I'm five now, you know!" What a magical age this is for him. I'm grateful for the blessing that this little five-year-old is in my life.

I Looked Out the Window...

2009-04-20T09:06:00.001-07:00

I looked out the window, and what did I see? A great big steaming volcano staring back at me!

This is the volcano again, after dropping Ammon off at school.

Celebrating Easter

2009-04-13T23:43:00.001-07:00

We had a crazy busy day on Saturday and by 8:00, I was ready to crash... but the boys kept reminding us that we had to color our eggs. So we did... and it was a lot of fun. Even Ziya really enjoyed it. My favorite is one that Abe decorated. He drew a picture of the two of us holding hands (I'm the one on the left... the one with the big stomach!).

Sunday morning was hectic, as usual, as we tried to get ready for Church (I've learned that sponge rollers really must be done the night before!). These pictures were snapped as we ran out the door.

Ammon was asked to give a talk in Primary. In preparation, he and I read a story about Christ's Resurrection from the Friend magazine and after talking about it, we sat at the computer and I typed as he dictated his talk. Speaking in front of others is not his favorite thing to do, but he did a great job and bore a sweet testimony of the Resurrection. He said that even though Easter is fun because of the Easter Bunny, the eggs and all the candy, the most important thing about Easter is remembering our Savior and the tremendous Sacrifice that He made for us. We were very proud of him. I'm grateful for the extra-special opportunity to remind/ teach my children more about such a special Event as Christ's Resurrection.

It was a beautiful day, so while I made sandwiches after Church, I sent Jacob outside with the kids to try to get some "sunny" pictures. This is what they came back with... Even though the sun was shining brightly, it was still quite chilly, Ammon was dying to get to the bathroom and the wet grass smelled like moose poop.

But Ziya still managed to look beautiful!

And Abe was only pretending to be grumpy when they came back inside.
The Coots family invited us over for Easter dinner with the wife and daughter of another firefighter friend of theirs who had to work. Charlotte and Pete made scrumptious deluxe fish tacos and we contributed Spanish rice, beans and salsa. We should have taken a picture of the table spread. It was as delicious to the eye as it was to the palette!

Their daughter, Katie, did all the prep work for the Easter egg hunt. The kids had a fantastic time and the adult company was excellent. We were grateful for the wonderful invitation.

Love Notes From Ammon

2009-04-13T22:30:00.000-07:00

Ammon likes to be a rough and tough little boy, but he has his cute and sensitive moments, too. Like when he surprised all of us with love notes (and one phone message for papi). He wrote one for Abe, too, but hopefully, it's stashed away with Abe's secret treasures... 'cause I can't find it anywhere!

April already?

2009-04-02T00:40:00.000-07:00

I hate it when it turns to a new month and I realize that I have soooo much that I didn't post about for the last month. Lots happened for us in March. I've attempted to catch up, but it's now 11:40 p.m. and that 6:30 a.m. alarm I've set is in danger of getting slammed against the wall in the morning if I don't get to bed SOON! So yes, my posts are all very late and very out of order. And I still haven't finished Abe's birthday... but happy April anyway! and happy March-in-the-life-of-the-Munyers reading and viewing!

Spring Break Trip to Anchorage

2009-04-01T23:59:00.000-07:00

I took our niece, Marissa, and the three kids to Anchorage to pick Jacob up from the airport. It was a quick trip, but as always, we managed to cram pack it with lots of fun and adventure. We left early in the morning because I wanted to caravan with the Maws, who had to be there for an 11:00 appointment. This left us the whole day to fill with fun and entertainment.

I got a tip that H2Oasis, an indoor waterpark, was having a special admission for kids up to 5 yrs. old. We've been once before and it was loads of fun, but it's also a bit pricy for our budget. Well, for these couple of hours during the day, their admission was only $5.00 and adults were free! Fortunately, I'd packed the kids' swim gear so we took the plunge. Marissa and I rolled up our jeans and sat on the edge with Ziya, who was being very reserved. Ammon and Abraham, on the other hand, dove right in (literally) and played for two hours straight! They did get a few looks from some of the other moms who were in the water with their very young children (yes, Ammon is 6 yrs. old but we didn't conceal this information and the employee let us in anyway!), but I ignored them - my boys were having so much fun! By the time we left, Marissa was also fully immersed in the water (what a great cousin she was!) and had Ziya jumping and splashing and having a super time. My only regret is that we didn't have the camera (Jacob had it with him for his trip).

From there, we tried to join the Maws in going to the Imaginarium, an interactive science type of museum, but two of my three kids fell asleep while we were looking for it! We opted instead to go back to the apartment where we stayed and take a nap. Then it was on to Costco (always an adventure) and back to the apartment for the night. I picked up Jacob late at night and the adventures continued the next day.

Marissa and I got to spend some get-away time at the mall, which was fun, and then we all went to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch and hours of entertainment. This was Ziya's first time where she actually got to play (last time she was there, she was still little in a carseat). Once again, Marissa was a lifesaver in this respect. My big pregnant self was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the trip at this point... so I sat and mustered up energy for WalMart while Marissa entertained Ziya and Jacob played with the boys. Fun times were had! Jacob and the boys spent the majority of their time upstairs playing (or waiting their turn to play) a Star Wars game. Marissa followed Ziya around as she shouted, "Money, money!" and went from game to game (ai, ai, aieee!... what is she learning at such a young age?). She really just loved putting the tokens into the games! I made a quick getaway and did the WalMart shopping across the street... alone! Aaahhh.

Then it was gasing up and heading back to Kenai. We are always amazed at how the Inlet is so different every time we drive the Turnagain. This time, it was all ice chunks. Amazing. Also amazing was the ominous Mount Redoubt reminding us of her then Orange alert (I think it was just two days later that she started her long series of eruptions).

This is what you call a frozen solid Inlet!

Anyway, it was good to at least get off the peninsula during our spring break... and the kids had lots to share with their friends when we returned!

It's Official... We're Moving/ Jacob's Trip to Idaho and Washington

2009-04-01T22:56:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how quickly news travels in a small community like ours. Jacob met one of Ammon's soccer teammate's moms at soccer practice tonight and she said to him, "Oh, you're the special ed teacher from the Kenai Ward that's moving away, right?" Most people already know this, but yes, it's official. We plan on moving back to North Idaho soon after the school year is over.

During spring break, Jacob flew to Washington state to attend a job fair in Spokane. Besides being totally spoiled by my family and eating some fabulous food (he made sure to rub this in every time we talked on the phone!), he also had a great time at the job fair itself. He did get a few job offers, but not from any places where we'd like to live. We expected this because for Spokane's standards (which is where he wants to work), it was way too early for them to have their openings posted. However, he got some really good networking done. He met with several friends, teachers and administrators from the districts where he'd like to work and he feels that he did a good job of getting his name and desires out there. The extreme highlight of the trip is that the entire time he was there, he felt the for-sure confirmation that this is a move we need to make!

When he returned home, he went ahead and wrote his letter of resignation to the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District (their deadline for declaring intent for the following school year, unlike Spokane's, is very, very early!!). While it was a super scary thing to have to do this without first having a job secured in Washington, we both felt (and continue to feel) that it was the right thing to do. We came to Alaska with the intent of staying for about two years. Now, three years later, we feel very strongly that we need to settle down closer to family (grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles and cousins are simply irreplaceable!).

Many people that find out we're moving ask us if the winters are too much or if we simply didn't like it here... NOT the case AT ALL!!! Alaska has been wonderful for our family. Heavenly Father made no mistake in guiding us here and He has blessed us in innumerable ways while we've been here. We constantly talk with our kids about the many, many unique experiences we've had while here and the many ways in which we've all grown individually and as a family. Although it hasn't all been peaches and cream, if I had to do it all over again, I'd definitely do Alaska all over again!

Now for some photos of Jacob with our family (who, by the way, know how to make one feel oh so loved, and welcome and hungry for more!)

Ammon and Abe were especially excited that Jacob got to see good ol' Joe!

This is our little nephew Diego (in the middle) with some new-found cousins Ava and Zara Munyer.

Another trip highlight was finally meeting a new-found cousin, Trent Munyer. We didn't learn that he and his family were in the same area until after we left Idaho. We look forward to getting to know them better. And yes, they are both Munyers!!! (Jacob's great grandfather and Trent's grandfather were first cousins).

My sweet mom and dad.

Cousins Diego, Aitana and Acasia.

My Dax... how you've grown???
Jacob was lucky enough to get to be at Dax's 16th birthday feast at my mom and dad's home.

This is what I most look forward to... the family gatherings!

Budding Artists

2009-04-01T22:45:00.000-07:00

In the past, Ammon and Abe have NOT enjoyed drawing, or even coloring, for that matter. Even their primary teachers came to us and asked if something was wrong with them, "Why don't they like to color? All the other kids like to color." It wasn't until our niece Marissa moved here last summer that Abe finally took an interest in coloring. Ammon decided it was alright too, so he started doing some of his own. With Ammon in kindergarten and now first grade, he's had a lot more opportunities to do actual drawings. It's been fun to see him get more and more creative. Here are the latest projects he brought home.

I've also tried to encourage Abe to do his own drawings instead of always coloring, but he says he's just not good at it. Well, just a few weeks ago, Abraham surprised me when he presented me with "a drawing of our family"... his very first real drawing. Here it is.
Not to say that he's drawing all the time now, but he is doing it more often and he's getting quite good! This is his latest, a "Star Wars spaceship."

Mount Redoubt Update

2009-04-01T21:54:00.000-07:00

Mount Redoubt has continued to erupt regularly (up to 9 times in one day!). Right now she "continues to emit a plume of gas, steam and variable amounts of ash to low elevations" (from AVO). Several of our friends who live north of us in Nikiski had some ash a few days ago, but at least where we are in Kenai, we haven't seen any (wheewww!!). A few times, the volcano has actually been visible from her throne across the inlet, but we either haven't had the camera with us or just haven't had the energy to go out and snap the pictures.

The other day though, we were at our friend's house having a joint birthday party for Abraham (post is in progress), when we realized that it was time for singing and birthday cake... but both dads were gone with the cameras. They were outside taking pictures of a magnificent ash cloud that moved right over us. We quickly called them back inside to get back to the really important stuff, but we did continue to watch the cloud. It was amazing how quickly it grew from a pretty, fluffy, concentrated cloud into a huge mass of spread-out darkness that just overshadowed everything in its path. I'm including the times when we snapped the pictures (according to our camera... which I don't think is right!), just so you can appreciate how quickly it spread.

3:52 p.m.

4:00

4:01

4:03

4:06

She Erupted! Mt. Redoubt, That Is

2009-03-23T15:13:00.000-07:00

I've received a couple of emails from friends and family wondering about this crazy volcano, so I thought I'd type up my observations from today. Yeah... we're pretty close to the volcano. We can see it right from our kitchen window. It's about 50 miles west of us. Here's what has happened (feel free to skim... it's not that exciting!).

Maybe Redoubt is a boy and this post should be titled, "He Erupted!"... I don't know. But yes, last night at about 10:38 p.m., Redoubt did her/his thing. The volcano erupted four or five times spitting out ash clouds that reached about 60,000 feet. Jacob and I were up, but we didn't even know anything had happened until this morning (actually, I probably still wouldn't know except for the fact that Jacob called from school to tell me!). We're all safe and well and even the sulfur that we smelled earlier in the morning is gone now.

To add to our excitement, I was getting ready to take Ammon to school when the power went out. Apparently, the entire Kenai Peninsula lost power for about an hour or hour and a half?? (I wasn't watching the clock). We quickly put our batteries in our radio and found out that a transmission line from Anchorage that provides power for the Peninsula faltered. The last I heard (I haven't been listening for updates on this), Homer Electric officials weren't stating whether it was related to the volcano's eruption. Probably not though, since I just read that there were also brief power outages in different parts of the Peninsula starting yesterday.

Anyway, with the volcano's news and then the power outage, Ammon, Abraham, Ziya and I decided to say a prayer and listen to the Holy Ghost telling us what we should do. Our main question was whether we should still take Ammon to school. I'd already called his school and was NOT pleased to hear that they didn't even have a computer up and going to keep them updated. They also hadn't heard anything from the Central Offices. So I called the Central Offices and they said the schools should have been operating on emergency generators. We opted to turn to prayer! After the prayer, Ammon said that his heart was beating fast so that means he should still go to school (today was the first day back after spring break and he was excited to see his buddies again!). I, on the other hand, felt more comfortable keeping my little family as together as we could be. We all agreed to have a "home school" day.

A home school day was just what we needed, since we didn't pull out Ammon's stuff from school until late last night and we realized that he was actually supposed to do some work over the week-long spring break (oops!). We're all caught up now. We did a bunch of math pages, then some reading and now Ziya is napping and we've just finished "indoor recess" (a Disney math video that we picked up at the library last week!). It has been really fun. Ammon probably would have been totally fine to go to school... but sometimes it's good just to have a stay-at-home day!

Tonight for Family Home Evening, I think that we'll work together to make a couple more preparations for emergencies. We've been buying all the stuff for our 72-hour kits, but they are not yet assembled. Seems like a good time to do that!

p.s. I don't think anybody has published any pictures of last night's eruption (since it was pitch black outside)... but the picture I posted is from Alaska's Volcano Observatory page. The picture was taken on the 15th of this month. It was the day that we were out on a walk admiring the lonely cloud that was hanging around Redoubt!!!

I Feel Like a Dork plus Kicking off Spring Break

2009-03-16T01:10:00.000-07:00

We took a very long family nap today (Sunday) because we knew that we'd all be taking Jacob to the Kenai airport tonight at 10:00 p.m. and we needed the kids to still be awake. Well... as I've written before, long Sunday family naps DO NOT work in our favor. Our kids wake up totally energized, hyper, crazy, etc., and Jacob and I wake up groggy from sleeping too long... all of which happened today. We all bundled up and decided to go outside to let the kids release some of their energy. Besides this, I'd talked to my sister in Utah earlier in the day while she was out on a family walk and I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be nice to go out on a family walk?... Wait, who cares if it's only 20 degrees outside? WE CAN DO IT!!!"

We had fun climbing our very own snow hill (we have a knack for claiming cool things around us as OURS! i.e. the beach is also ours!). We snapped some fun pictures and video. We ended the outing by walking through the RV park to get some Redoubt pictures. "Cool! Look at that cloud behind Redoubt! It makes it look like it's erupting or active or something, but it's not! It's just a cloud!" would be an approximation of the dorky narration I made on the video (which I realize now is even dorkier than I originally thought since there wasn't another single cloud in the sky!). Then I came in and saw on a couple of people's facebook accounts that Redoubt is actually stirring again and back up to ORANGE and WATCH levels. Ai, ai, aieeee!

Anyway, this is how we've kicked off our spring break. Now I'm flying solo with the kids for three days. We did take Jacob to the airport. He's headed to Spokane, WA to a teaching job fair. More news to come... WE HOPE, AND PRAY, AND HOPE, AND THEN PRAY SOME MORE!!!

Movie Night

2009-03-15T20:32:00.000-07:00

A while back, we made a new "Munyer Family Rule" -- no TV Monday thru Friday night. In some ways (not all), it has made life a lot easier. I don't have to fight with the kids to turn off the morning cartoon and hurry and get dressed for school and the day. And after school, I don't have to fight with Ammon about getting to his homework instead of watching a show. I occassionally use my veto power and make an exception to the rule during the day when it is just Abraham, Ziya and me (it's so much easier to clean floors, for example, when both kids are happily sitting on the couch!).

The kids have learned to look forward to Friday nights, when they usually get to watch a movie. This past Friday night, they really got into it. I think I was in the bedroom or somewhere and when I came out to join them in the living room, this is what I found -- their special movie night setup. Ziya didn't actually last for too long in her designated space -- she preferred to wander on top of her brothers, on sleeping papi's lap, or on top of the laptop with me. It was a fun night -- and a good movie, too (we watched Nim's Island).

Jacob Has a New Pilates Partner!

2009-03-15T18:58:00.000-07:00

A few nights ago, I was in my bedroom working on the computer. I knew Jacob was in the living room doing a pilates DVD. What I didn't know is that since I don't join him in this exercise anymore, he found a new partner! I think they both had a great time!

A Very Pregnant Day

2009-03-01T23:50:00.000-08:00

I FELT VERY, VERY PREGNANT TODAY!

Symptom number 1: I play the organ in sacrament meeting at Church every Sunday. After the sacrament hymn, I always leave the organ to go and sit with my family and then quickly return for the closing hymn and postlude. Well, in order to appreciate the dilemma I had today, you must know that an organ bench is not like a piano bench -- you can't just sit on it and adjust its placement by scooting forward or backward like you can a piano bench. You have to actually get off the bench and scoot it where you want it and then sit on it again. I always gauge where I want the bench on the comfort of my hands reaching the keyboards. I make sure to adjust the bench when I first get to Church and that's where the bench stays until somebody else adjusts it for themselves. Well... for the first time, today I had a hard time getting off and back on the bench quickly and discreetly (I try to be quick and discreet so as not to call any attention to myself since most organ players just stay up on the stand for the entire sacrament meeting)! What happened was that the distance between my hands and the keyboards was perfectly comfortable; what I didn't realize until it was too late, was that my quickly growing tummy was hitting up against the organ, thus making it hard to slide in and out. How embarrassing. From now on I'm going to have to scoot the bench farther back and stick my arms and hands out like a mummy in order to play without my tummy hitting the organ! I think Sister Cooper and I will have to start picking from the shorter hymns - at least until after the baby is born!

Symptom number 2: Because I play postlude for a little bit, I'm always late to Sunday School. The only open seats when I got there were right on the front row. The very pretty mauve upholstered chairs are horribly uncomfortable -- they have a weird sitting angle, if you ask me. Several times, I caught myself totally slouching (kind of leaning way back on my chair) with my legs open out in front of me. Each time, I would try to cross my leg or at least tuck my feet back under my chair, but I'd eventually end up in my very un-ladylike pregnant position. I didn't realize how important having a row in front of me is! That chair that's usually in front of me forces me to sit up straighter. With all that free space in front of me today, it was hard not to use it and totally spread myself out. I won't be sitting in the front row anymore... no matter how late I am to class. Needless to say, I moved back to another chair for Relief Society!

Symptom number 3: This one may have been magnified because I was already ticked about how uncomfortable I was during all of Sunday School. However, for the closing prayer, I went to cross my arms across my mid-abdomen, as I usually do. The prayer was not unusually long or anything, but I found that just a few seconds into it, I had to move my arms way up across my chest. I felt ridiculous and I'm sure I looked ridiculous, too. Hopefully everybody had their eyes closed like they're supposed to!

Symptom number 4: Shouldn't I be past the "want to eat everything in sight" stage? Yesterday, I went to the grocery store "for some milk." $60.00 later, amongst other things, I was unloading a London broil, red potatoes, asparagus and a soda pop (we hardly ever drink soda!) into my kitchen. Not too bad, eh? At least it wasn't a bunch of ice cream or sugar. Even though we had plenty of food at home, I used the excuse that basketball season has ended and we needed to have a special celebratory dinner. I made some rolls and hollandaise sauce and when I served the meal, Jacob made a comment something like, "Wow... it's like Thanksgiving!" I guess that's because it wasn't the spaghetti or bean burritos that we usually have. I loaded up my plate and was ready to devour it all, when I realized that the meat was dry, the asparagus was too soft, and the potatoes needed more flavor. We were also out of butter, so even my yummy rolls weren't up to par. How frustrating. I cleared my plate anyway.

Symptom number 5: I could hardly keep my eyes open towards the end of my less-than-satisfactory meal. I pretty much abandoned poor Jacob and the kids and went straight to my bed to crash. I did manage to set an alarm clock (February has taught me that when I sleep for too long on Sundays, the rest of the day ends up pretty messed up!) -- I was going to allow myself to take a one hour nap. Well, three and a half hours later... Umm, what responsible mother does that?

Symptom number 6: I thought I was done complaining, but now my feet are swollen (not to mention my already usually swollen bad ankle which now looks like it's deformed) and I swear that the baby hasn't stopped kicking in about three hours. Shouldn't he be sleeping or something?

I put a countdown baby ticker on our blog. It's definitely time to start counting down!

February in Review

2009-02-28T23:50:00.000-08:00

Jacob has been gone all weekend on an overnight basketball trip... so I can't sleep. Here goes... my memories (and pictures to go with them) of February.

It has been a long month (thank goodness it's only 28 days!) and I won't hide the fact that I'm glad it's over. There have been some struggles, some cold weather and many plain ol' blah kind of days. But when I look back on my camera, we actually did manage to do some fun stuff. So here's to the fun stuff in February (and even the not-so-fun)!

Reading Carnival at SoHi
Feb. 7

Jacob was gone on a basketball trip so I determined not to sit at home and be bored with the kids all day. We decided to round up a bunch of friends and go to the Reading Carnival at Soldotna High School. It's basically a bunch of volunteers from different schools and other organizations that got together in a high school gym to celebrate and promote reading. Our good friends Tate and Owen came with us and Holly and her kids met us there. The kids got to meet and take pictures with Clifford the big red dog (he wasn't so big!) and the Cat in the Hat. They jumped in a funhouse, had their faces painted, won yummy cupcakes in a cakewalk, made dinosaur fossils, played bingo and won lots of books, bought some other books for 25 cents each (yeah!) and had fun running around in the commons area. It was so much fun that we ended up staying for about three hours instead of the planned one hour! We walked away with baggies full of goodies and books and lots of energy spent. All in all, a very successful outing!

Girls' Night Out and Hives

The same night, I got a babysitter and went out to dinner with a couple of girl friends. We went to a restaurant that I'd never been to (what? a good restaurant in Kenai/Soldotna? what a wonderful discovery!). I shared a really good salad and pizza with Holly. We should have stopped there, but being as this was GNO, we decided that dessert was a must. So Cold Stone Creamery it was. I had an extremely chocolatey ice cream (couldn't have packed in more chocolate if they tried) and I loved every bite of it. Funny stories were told, laughs were shared and great times were had. Unfortunately, the fun stopped there!

At about 2:00 that morning, I woke up itching like crazy. I talked myself out of going to the mirror to take a look, but when I got up later that next morning, I was covered with hives. COVERED! I suffered through them for the day, stayed home from Church on Sunday, loaded myself up on Benadryl and slept all day (literally). Then on Monday, the hives were on my lips and this worried me. I did snap a picture of myself, because it was actually quite comical (I looked like a Botox experiment gone way bad!), but my pride is keeping me from posting it! Jacob stayed home from work and took me to the doctor, who kept me "on watch" in his office for several hours. He sent Jacob running to the store two separate times to get some other medication in me immediately. He was concerned that the hives would spread in to my mouth and cause some more serious problems. After Singulair, Zyrtec and Zantac, the hives finally started to go down a bit. I came away with a bunch of medication (even an Epi pen!) but no real diagnosis.

I've had these hives periodically since I was a young teenager but nobody (including an allergist, a rheumatologist and even a biopsy) has been able to figure them out. The last time I had them was when I was pregnant with Ziya (about as far along as I am now). I do have a very slight allergy to oranges and chocolate, but I usually ignore this because I love both and constantly eat both and never have a reaction to either. My only thought is that the weird pregnancy hormones do make me react to these foods. The Cold Stone chocolate dessert may have been what put me over the edge (oops!).

Anyway, this has been one of the main reasons February has been such a yucky month for me. The hives stayed pretty bad for about a week and a half. They've gotten better, but I've just now (at the end of the month) been able to stop taking Benadryl and the other meds daily to keep them at bay. Translation: I feel like I've sleepwalked through the entire month... just barely functioning. No fun at all!

Valentine's Day Celebrating
February 12-14

Rachel hosted a Valentine's Day party for Abe's preschool kids and their siblings. The kids had a great time. They got to make a Valentine card for me (very sweet), they sang some songs and exchanged Valentines. Ziya was excited for the lollipops and Abe was excited for the pictures of Superman on his Valentine's folder.

BEFORE

AFTER
Ammon got to go on a really fun field trip for Valentine's Day. They went to a senior home to sing friendship songs and then they went to the rink for some ice skating. I packed a lunch for Abe, Ziya and me and we went to watch for a while. It was hilarious! There were kids who have skated for one or two years and now play hockey - so they were out doing tricks, going fast and skating circles around everybody else. Then there were other kids who were terrified to step out onto the ice (thank goodness for lots of parent volunteers!). Ammon was right in the middle. He was excited to try it, but he had a hard time (he's only been ice skating once before and that was last year sometime). He got a hold of a glider (kind of like a walker for the ice) and this helped a ton. By the time we left though, he'd abandoned the glider and was doing great on his own. I love the videos because they show how much he learned in just about an hour and a half! Now he's constantly asking if we can go ice skating. I think that with basketball season ending today (the 28th), Jacob might just have some more free time to take him. They'll both love it. Now we just need to get Abe brave enough to try it (it may not have been a good thing for him to see so many of Ammon's classmates come off the ice in tears after falling).

These are the Valentines I got from my kids. They (the kids and the Valentines) are so super sweet. Abraham says his is a Spiderman Valentine because he chose red and blue!

We worked hard on our school Valentines this year. Ammon and Abe each made word searches with the names of all the kids in their classes. We printed them on pretty heart paper and attached these to pink rice krispies treats cut in the shape of hearts. It was time-consuming (we started about a week early on a day when they didn't have school because of parent-teacher conferences) but the end result was worth it! I found the idea for the word searches online and it was perfect (especially for Ammon) because he was concerned about giving girls cards that said "Be Mine" or other corny stuff like that. Funny, huh?

On Friday night, we took the kids to the Winter Carnival at Ammon's school. I volunteered to help, so I got to sit at a table and sell tickets at the entrance. Jacob was a great papi and took all three kids to do all the different activities. They had fun eating lots of sugar, fishing for treats, catching rubber duckies in a pond, bowling, eating more sugar, throwing darts at balloons, throwing cream pies at their soccer coach's face, getting Ammon's hair painted and doing a cake walk. Oh, did I mention how much sugar they had? They each won a dessert in the cake walk (Ammon chose an apple pie, Abe chose some cupcakes with Super Bowl rings on them and Ziya thankfully chose some breakfast muffins). I did get to leave my table and join my family for a while. We had a fun time. It's good to get out and just let our kids be kids.

Jacob and I got to go out to a nice dinner for our Valentine's date. We had some delicious steak, king crab, a baked potato and a really great salad with a dill dressing that took me back to Germany (long story). For dessert we enjoyed juicy strawberries dipped in chocolate with some sparkling cider. It was soooo nice to go out on a real date (it had been waaayyy too long). We talked about basketball, our kids, our future and lots of in-between stuff (not in that order!). After dinner, we went to the church so that I could practice my hymns on the organ for church the next day. Jacob noticed that the chapel was a mess, so he pulled out the vacuum and got to work while I practiced. This may have been my favorite part of our date. We were both doing what we are all asked to do, serve. Even when ours was a small and simple service, it felt so good to end our Valentine's celebrating this way.

Kenai Kardinals Basketball
December '08 - February 28, 2009

This part really deserves its own post... it has, after all, consumed much of our lives for most of the past couple of months! For his third year now, Jacob coached Kenai's freshman or "C" basketball team. A couple of the boys he coached last year, but for the most part, it was a new team. They just finished their season earlier today in Palmer. I think their overall record is 12 and 4, which pleased Jacob. They had two tough losses just last week. In both games they were behind terribly (and embarrassingly) and then made amazing comebacks... only to lose by two or three points. It literally hurt me to watch these games! I was worried that they were heading towards a sour end to their season. However, on this weekend's trip to Colony and Palmer, this bold little "C" team was the only team out of their high school's six teams to come away with victories! I just talked to Jacob a few hours ago and he sounded so happy. He said the boys just had a great time playing ball... and he had a great time coaching them. A happy ending to a happy season after all - whew!

I'll admit that I've done my fair share of complaining about this coaching thing. It's tough to have Jacob gone so much. However, I'm convinced that it's really good for him to end his teaching days with positive interactions with students (versus the not-so-positive interactions he faces all day working with sometimes resistant students). I also have to constantly remind myself that my own children enjoy going to the games, cheering for their papi, eating concession stands junk food and running around on the stage (or playing with mami on the bleachers, in Ziya's case). Jacob and I have also talked about how good it is for our boys to be around high school athletes who practice and play hard at their sport. Now he gets a whole week off (oooooh la la!) before track and field starts where he'll be coaching the high jumpers again. We've yet to decide if this (coaching) is something that we want to keep on doing (certainly not three sports in one year - NEVER AGAIN!)... but for now, GO KARDS!!!

Random Acts of Cuteness
Throughout the Month

The student council at Ammon's school designated a "Dress-up-as-your-favorite-book-character day." Ammon wanted to be Darth Vader or Batman ("but I have books that they are part of!" was his argument). After much ingenious parenting, we talked him into choosing something a little more academic. He and Abraham both absolutely love and fall to pieces laughing over Skippyjon Jones books by Judy Schachner. Alright, alright... so the cat is white and not black and his ears really should be a lot bigger - but can you see that cool tail I made him? He had a really fun time wearing his "costume" to school. He also took the book with him to school and was proud that the teacher chose to read it to the entire class -- highlighting his own costume.

My sweet little Abraham is always fighting to find his niche. We have been giving Ammon a lot of praise because he is really becoming a good little reader (and taking much pride in this, I might add). Well, just the other day, Abraham got out his puzzles and practiced and practiced putting them together over and over again until he got quite fast at them. Now he is constantly reminding us how good he is at doing puzzles. "Do you want to watch me do them again?" is his newest plea. "I'm really good at puzzles!"

Our little Ziya is just a hoot. One night after her bath, I told her it was time to read some books - and then I got busy getting Ammon and Abe out of their showers. When I came back out to the living room, this is what I found. Ziya must've gotten tired of waiting for me, so she started her own "reading." She got out her huge blanket and her doll bassinet and stroller, each with one or two babies in them, and she started reading to them... the new Downeast Outfitters catalog that just came in the mail. Hmmmmm... what is she teaching these wee little babes of hers???

Marissa Turns 14! February 22

Our niece turned 14 on the 22nd. When I met Marissa, she was only 5 years old. I remember that Jacob invited me along (it was just our second date) on an uncle/niece date that he had with her. We took her to the Del Amo Mall and went to the Disney Store where we spent a long time playing with stuffed animals and looking at princess dresses. Then we took her to eat at a Panda Express type of restaurant in the mall and she loved it! Another fun memory I have of her when she was so little is of a drive to Santa Paula - about two hours because of Los Angeles traffic. She sang to us the entire way! I was amazed that she knew so many songs! Now she's in 8th grade and she won't sing for us anymore. But she's an amazingly bright and beautiful young woman. Jacob secretly "spies" on her by talking to her teachers whenever he runs into them at district meetings. They all say the same thing about her: that girl is a real genius with artistic talent that they have not seen in many students that age. Happy 14th Birthday Marissa!

Lights Out = Family Fun at the Beach
February 23

On Monday at about 2:30 in the afternoon, the electricity went out in most of Kenai. I was taking a nap with Ziya and Abe and I wouldn't even have known except that tenants started calling me and ringing the doorbell (darn them!). Jacob, on the other hand, was a the Rec Center getting ready to start his basketball practice. In a gym with no windows, this wasn't possible - so he sent all the boys home and came home himself. After picking Ammon up from school at 3:40, we were at a loss for what to do. We are never all together at home that early in the day. The sun was shining and it was actually a pretty warm day (a whoppin' 30 degrees or so), so we decided to put on our snow gear and head down to the beach to play on the ice glaciers.

It was beautiful down there. There was some recently fallen snow on the ground, so it wasn't as slick and treacherous as the last time I went with the kids. Ammon and Abraham went straight to the water's edge, which had me pretty nervous. The thought of one of them slipping on a patch of ice and falling in to that freezing cold water just about did me in. I quickly informed Jacob that I would take good care of Ziya while he did all the water rescuing! Fortunately, everybody managed to stay dry. We jumped from glacier to glacier, broke off huge icicles that hung from them, made a slide out of a glacier edge for Ziya to go down about 100 times in a row, snapped pictures and just had some good 'ol family fun.

AND THAT WAS FEBRUARY!

I'm Back!

2009-02-28T23:30:00.001-08:00

Illness, laziness, dumbness, busy-ness... whatever "ness" it is, I just haven't been blogging. However, just earlier today, I survived a Stake Relief Society speaking assignment that has been eating all my free brain time. I feel like a free woman now! I no longer have to constantly think "I really should be working on my talk instead of doing this!" So now, I'm working on a mega-long February-in-review post. And just today, I talked to my talented friend Leaca, about my banner. So she designed this new one for me (she's also the way cool photographer of the way cool pictures of my family). Once again, yay for talented and motivating friends!

Ammon Loses Another Tooth!

2009-01-19T23:00:00.000-08:00

Our blog is now officially photo-less. Our camera is bubble wrapped up in a box and sits patiently waiting for somebody to take it to the post office so it can be mailed to the Panasonic Service Center for repair.

So a few nights ago, when Ammon lost another tooth, I felt kind of sad that there would be no photo to document the exciting event (it's his fourth tooth lost, but every single one has been quite a big deal!). We sat at the dinner table and Ammon started wiggling his very loose bottom tooth. It's another one where the adult tooth broke through before the baby tooth had time to fall out. He's like a shark... with multiple layers of teeth! He sat there wiggling it, grossing us all out because it was just sooooo loose. Jacob encouraged him to push it all the way forward, which he did. Then all the way backward... which he did again. Pop! It came out -- just like that.

Just two nights later, Jacob was cleaning out Ammon's pile of papers that came home from school and he found this picture. He must have drawn it a while back when he lost the two front teeth, but it still says it all! I don't feel sad about not having a photo anymore!

Stop... and Listen to the Music, Watch the Rain Fall, Admire the Eagle, Watch the Wind Dance Across Puddles, Enjoy Being With Your Kids...

2009-01-16T22:39:00.000-08:00

I am guilty of deleting many forwarded emails. My alone time on the computer is precious. I'd rather get on to the "real" emails, to my blog, to some project I might be working on or to the apartment work I have to do. I'm not sure exactly why, but I opened a forwarded email today, sent to me by my friend Lisa from Idaho. Thank you, Lisa.

It was very timely for me, as I just had the "opportunity" to spend two full days with all three of my children (Ammon and Abe have strep throat so Ammon stayed home from school and we haven't gone anywhere except the doctor's office). During these two days, I had many thoughts about the frustration I could vent in a sarcastically written post about our many mishaps, arguments, fights, and other not-so-pleasant experiences.

Instead, all I can write is that I should have stopped to enjoy the extra time playing with my children. Should've, would've, could've... right??? I will repent and try to do better tomorrow.

Appropriate confession: At one point during the day today, I was yelling at my kids about how they needed to hurry and pick up their toys. I was fed up with being inside our messy home, looking outside at the dreary gray sky and hearing the rain fall onto the ice-covered street. My kids, on the other hand, were not listening to me. Instead, they were just standing at the window fascinated by the way the wind blew across the huge puddles in the street, forming ripples that awoke their imagination into creating an "invisible speedo man" who was running back and forth on the puddles in front of our window. I made them leave the window and clean up their toys.

This article from the Washington Post is long, but fascinating. I also watched the Youtube video . And finally, here is the abridged version of what it's all about. (Sorry for the blue font... I tried my hardest to change it, but failed.)

A Violinist in the Metro

- Something to Think About......

A man stood in the lobby area of the metro station in Washington D.C. and started to play the violin. It was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle-aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, then hurried up to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and continued to walk without stopping.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but then the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work. The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother pulled him along hurriedly, but the boy stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head back toward the violinist all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, witho ut exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people actually stopped and stayed for a while. Twenty-seven people gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected about $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any other recognition.

Obviously, no one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the finest classical musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, and he played it with a violin worth $3.5 million.

Two days before this performance in the subway, Joshua Bell had sold out at Symphony Hall in Boston where the seat price averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by The Washington Post, as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people. The outlines were: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the finest musicians in the world playing some of the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing every day?

May you take the time in 2009 to experience

the beauty of the sights and sounds that surround you.

Three Boys and a Princess

2009-01-11T23:12:00.001-08:00

My doctor gave me the option of going to Anchorage for what's called a "targeted" ultrasound. I will be almost 35 years old when I deliver the baby, which almost puts me in a higher risk category. I agreed to have the ultrasound (a trip to Anchorage, a cool high-tech ultrasound, a chance to find out the baby's gender, and of course, a confirmation of the baby's state of health... I couldn't resist!).

The appointment started with a meeting with a genetic counselor. She asked me a bunch of questions about my family history (both my and Jacob's sides) and drew a diagram as I gave her the answers. Then she reviewed the results of a quad screen blood test I'd had done about a month earlier. Not only were my results negative (for chromosomal abnormalities in the baby) - they were actually very, very negative.

Next, we (I was joined by my friend Gina) went into the ultrasound room. This part, of course, was way, way, way cool. After having had ultrasounds with three other babies, I now kind of know what I'm looking at on the screen. However, I was still amazed at how much information the doctor was rattling off to her nurse. I just silently sat in amazement that she could see so much from just one image. For example, when she looked at the baby's brain, she listed off a whole bunch of measurements and findings, including the lateral ventricular atria, choroid, cavum septum pellacidum, thalami, ventricles, cerebellum and cisterna magna (yeah... a mouthful, I know!). For the heart, she was able to evaluate the situs, rate, rhythm, chamber size, outflow tract size and orientation, and pulsatility index of the ductus arteriosus. Also included were the axis, pericardium, valves, septae, and aortic and ductal arches (yes... I'm cheating by looking at a list they gave me of what the examination included). In short, IT WAS AMAZING!! The end result: the baby shows no signs of Down syndrome or trisomy 18.

At one very quick point, the doctor asked me if I wanted to know the baby's gender. I hardly had time to answer, "Yes," before she said, "It's a boy," and quickly moved on to check out some other cool stuff. Both Gina and I were amazed at how quickly and how confidently she made this assessment. She did go back later, slowed down and let us newbies see some evidence. THE BABY IS DEFINITELY A BOY! When I told Jacob that it was 100% boy, he had his doubts: "It can't be 100%... there's always room for error." I guess I'll just say that I'm certain enough that I'll be preparing for a boy!

I got home early enough to catch the three kiddos still awake. Ammon and Abraham both guessed that the baby was a boy. We watched the DVD of the ultrasound and closely examined the pictures. It was a very cool experience. Now, we're being more serious about searching for a name (the kids have had some interesting ideas... even Ziya!) and getting ready for May 15.

I'm posting two pictures of the ultrasound and one of the cute little boy outfit Gina helped me find to celebrate (Gina and I both thought the moose theme was very appropriate for our little Alaskan boy). The first picture is a 3D image of the baby's face. It was hard to get a clear shot because he had his face buried in the placenta the whole time (snuggling against it like a pillow!) and he was also constantly nestled against one of his hands (by his mouth on the right side).

We're all very, very excited and happy to know that our baby is healthy and that we will remain a family of boys with a princess in the middle!