We're Having a Baby!!

So, I hadn't posted yet but we are having a baby in April! We are very excited to welcome this fourth addition to our spirited munchkins! We are so thankful with how blessed we have been in our lives and especially for how well this pregnancy is going. I keep having to ask myself if I am even pregnant. The kids are very excited too! So, actual expected date is April 22, but due to my babies coming casually late we may have a May baby. Hope everyone is good! We love you all!

Lately

Well Everyone,

The last several weeks have truly been crazy busy. I have been taking 6 credits of schooling in six weeks and lets just say it was a bit too much. I loved all my classes and had so much fun, but a lot of things didn't get done in the process. I feel like I missed out on so much. I missed getting the kids ready in the mornings, picking them up from school and even missed my responsibility of the fruit and veggie groups some days while in class. Through of all this I have to say I have the most amazing husband. He took on more than he ever has in our family and I feel truly blessed he was there to help love and support me and get through these last six weeks.

This experience has done a lot for our family. It has helped us to appreciate it other more and realize a lot about what needs to be done in our family for things to work the way they should. So, let me give you the findings and updates.

Ryan is currently coaching still at Kahuku High School and LOVES it. They have had two meets now and are getting progressively faster each week. This position takes a lot of extra time and effort, but I can tell it is worth it because it makes Ryan happy. With this he is also getting the opportunity to train for a marathon in the process and is almost as fast as he was in high school now. Honolulu Marathon look out! He usually runs home from work on the slow days which is about 7 extra miles to help with his own personal workouts. Ryan still tries to get in surfing whenever possible to "help" with extra training. Ryan as I said has been an amazing husband and father! He has been getting the kids ready everyday and helping them with homework. He also has helped me sort and distribute to all 23 people in the fruit and veggie group too! On Wednesdays after practise he enjoys taking Alissa to soccer and helping the coach with the team. He is actively getting to participate in church now, due to the job change and is helping everywhere he is needed. Last but not least, Ryan is starting his Master's Degree Program on the 24th of this month. His degree will be in Secondary Education with the goal of landing a permanent job at the High School. This is so exciting and we are very proud of him for all he does!

Alissa is growing up so fast. She loves to play soccer and has had two games so far. It is kind of sad that cross country and soccer are the same times every week, so Daddy can't make it. But, that doesn't stop Alissa, she has scored goals at each game. Alissa started dance too and had so much fun this past week! She loves her class and has a wonderful teacher! Her favorite part of dancing is the music and dancing on the tips of her toes. Alissa has made wonderful friends here and loves to have play dates with them. She is finally getting adjusted to first grade after the moved from the lowest to highest reading level. She was so bored in school and is finally where she should have been the whole time. This past week she was able to attend a field trip with her "Mema" to Honolulu to see a play at the Children's Theatre. She loves the theatre and was soo excited to take her grandma with her. Alissa is truly such an honest sincere sweetheart and I am so thankful for all she teaches me.

Kenzie is still Kenzie. He is so silly and happy! He is in preschool right now but still does not like it. I am actually probably going to take him out and join in a Mommy Preschool a friend of mine has started because I feel he should still be home more. The preschool he is currently in is 20 hours a week and that is just way too much time. Kenzie is an inventor, he loves to take any type of block of track and build things of incredible height and design. He is really good at it. Kenzie also loves to draw. If it ever gets to quiet I know Kenzie is somewhere coloring or building. He is such a good example to his younger brother and always trying to help Taft, even if Taft thinks he doesn't need help. Kenzie sure is growing up and what a joy he is!

Taft is also known as Chubbs here. He is the smallest tike running around our neighborhood and has all the 6-9 year old girls taking care of him. He truly has an amazing vocabulary and people can not believe what comes our of his mouth. He is even repeating songs he has only heard once or twice. With this intelligence also comes the idea that he can and will do everything by himself. Taft is still such a snuggler. He loves to cuddle and if he wants picked up he just says,"Hug, Hug." I love that he associated this time with snuggles. He loves to pray too and sing church songs. I believe his favorite things right now is just learning about life and all he can. He always wants to know more new words and sounds. Taft is so fun to have around and make us smile.

As for me, I am just trekking right along. I learn so much every year and continue to love getting older because of this. I am so blessed right now and feel the Lord guiding me in so many different ways. I feel so thankful for inspiration and a Heavenly Father that truly guides us if we listen. I am still adjusting to being Primary Chorister, especially with the Primary Program coming up in a few weeks. I am so proud to say that I finished my term of school and got good grades too! As with school though, I also will be putting a hold once again on my schooling. It is too expensive to go part time and I had a grant for full time and it is just too much on my family. Ryan and I have decided it is best for me to stay home and focus on transitioning our family to a home schooled family. I know this will be hard at times but I know that the Lord will guide and direct us through this. I am so excited to focus on being the best mom I can and establishing the routines and curriculum I need to teach me children the character development they need and the knowledge to achieve all they can in life. Ryan and I feel there is nothing more important in life than the gospel of Jesus Christ and becoming good charactered people. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be a mom and a wife and hope to be able to support my family in all they need in their lives!

Well, that is the majority of our updates! Here are a few pictures from recent times. I can not find my battery charger to my camera still, so if you want pictures, please pray I find my charger! Hope you are all doing well and that you are being blessed in your lives!



These first few pictures are the 3 boys who all had their birthday the week I watched all the kids together. We made cupcakes for them and sang! Lincoln turned 3, Taft turned 2 and Wyatt turned 1.

This is from the first day of school. The kids were so excited!

This is our favorite park we go to in Kaaawa which isn't too far. It has the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other. It is very beautiful!

Here is the story of our lives! We love having children around and I have started a cooking group at my house once a week to teach the neighborhood kids new recipes. I love doing the Babysitting co-op too. They come once every three weeks. It is so much fun to be with so many kids. I have to admit, we finally had to set up boundaries though for the kids in the neighborhood because they were at our house all the time.

Finals Weeks

In the midst of finals weeks I thought I would share a picture. My camera is dead again and with all the new changes of rearranging the house right now I do not know where the charger is. Hope everyone is great!

I Don't Know Where to Start..........

I need two hours at least. Hopefully Sunday.

Life is good. We are all happy!

Ryan got a new job as the Head Cross Country Coach and Distance coach for Kahuku High School. He will now be substitute teaching full time and unfortunately will have to quit Turtle Bay to make this all work. He is truly living a dream though. He is also starting a 5 race running series this weekend to get him ready for the Honolulu Marathon in December.

Staci is loving school and very busy with life. I am working out about 1-1.5 hours 5 days a week and feel amazing. The problem is it makes me hungry sometimes. Anyways, I love being a mom and being involved in the kids schools and activities. I am the Soccer Mom for Alissa's team! I am realizing I really need to study more and did not do so hot on my first biology test. This was also a first, a bad test grade. Oh well, my family is a lot more important to me anyways. I have been fighting a cold recently and can not wait for it to go away so I can stop being so tired. I feel so lucky to be in Hawaii and so blessed to have a wonderful husband and children.

Alissa is a social butterfly. She loves to read books and is a math whiz! She also is enjoying play dates with friends and growing up. Sometimes I really wonder how a five year old can be so spirited! I love her for it though! She is so spunky and exciting! Alissa just started soccer practise and will be taking dance classes in September. I miss having a piano to try to teach her on, because she really misses piano. Alissa also loves to sing, she will walk around the house singing songs. She is kind of going through a Barbie phase also. The best part is that Alissa is already dreaming of her birthday party. She is definitely always up for a party!

Kenzie started preschool and is doing great. I have to admit he is a little off the wall most of the time but is learning to sit still. He has so much energy and is a very happy kid. I was surprised to hear his teacher tell me yesterday that he is very strong willed. I turned to her and said, "Then you would probably be surprised to know that he is my most mellow child." She was shocked and decided I must have my hands full. I definitely have my hands full but they are full of wonderful children who truly know who they are and don't question it. They keep life full and busy with great joy. Anyways, Kenzie is still very inventive and creative. He loves to just sit and build things whenever he can. He loves to be a knight and fight or to learn crazy facts about weird reptiles and animals. Kenzie is also very helpful. He loves to help Taft with getting ready and help0 others.

Taft is now 2 and it is about time. This kid has such a great vocabulary that I have been asked if he was 2 now for several months. He is now potty trained and does such a good job of telling us when he has to go potty. He is very independent and loves to get dressed himself also. He really is growing up and so fun to be with. His favorite phrase right now is, "See, I told you so." He loves being the baby and giving everyone lots of hugs and kisses.

Well, I figured I would give an update on the newest member of our immediately family since I was updating anyways.

Mema is just finishing out things in Utah and will be here a week from today. We are so excited to have her in our family and can not wait for her to be here and see all the fun she has been missing. I have to say the thing the kids miss most is her imagination. They always ask to play all of the fun games she makes up with them and then reply that it is not the same without her. We truly miss having her around and can not wait to see her soon!

Wii Have Been Found!!

On any given afternoon this is what our house looks like. We used to have about nine kids over at a time and now we are up to at least fourteen. All of these kids live in the three houses next to us. They recently discovered our Wii and have been coming over everyday to play. In fact, I came home yesterday to them waiting on our porch. A few of them even have called me mom before. I love it because some of the other neighborhood kids feel welcome now too. I am teaching them that we do not swear or say mean things in this house and that we are always kind to each other. It has been such a great experience to have them all around. Today in fact we spent 2 1/2 hours learning to make pizza and they each got to make their own. All 14 of them. I love that they feel comfortable around us and that we can offer them a bit of a loving safe haven from some of the things they experience in their life. I feel so thankful to Heavenly Father for guiding us to this house!

Sabbath Day

Today was wonderful! Ryan was able to come with us to all of church. Usually he is only able to attend Sacrament Meeting. He was so happy!! At church they sang to Taft in opening exercises of Primary because his birthday is on Friday! He was so excited and dancing in the front of the Primary Room. He got a pencil, picture of Jesus with the Articles of Faith, a fruit roll and a handshake from a member of the Bishopric. I can not believe my baby is turning to this week! After we went out to our house common area and the kids played on the beach while I sat and watched the waves. It was so relaxing. As for tomorrow, school starts for Kenzie and Alissa

so we came home and got their supplies and clothes laid out because I will be at class in the morning while Ryan gets them ready for school. Since he is at work tonight we will be doing Father's Blessings in the morning. I am so thankful for my life and how blessed I am. Although I have crazy moments, my life is soo good!

Babysitting Group

I am surprised that these are all the pictures I had. I am going to try and start posting more pictures because this was like 3 or 4 weeks ago. We started a group here of three families ranging from 3-4 kids each and rotate each week watching all 10 kids so that the other two couples can go out. It is great 1 week watching all three kids and two weeks going out without paying for a babysitter. I have had so much fun with all these kids! They are all so sweet and fun to be with. I have only watched them all once so far but this week is my week again and I can not wait for them to come! The best part was when we played in pudding!

I LOVE SCHOOL!

I am so sorry I have not posted more yet but I just had to tell you all how much I love school! I love every part about it. The learning, the students, the teachers, and especially getting to go to a school centered around Christ where prayer is given before every class. I am sooo blessed I have a great husband and fantastic kids and am nourishing my self with learning and health and exercise and I feel fantastic! I am taking three classes right now. Biology, Jogging and New Testament. The classes are each six weeks long and it is the best! Today I got to jog my first jog which was a mile and a half and it felt great. It did take me 19 min and 45 sec, but for me that is an awesome time! I am eating raw again and am the lowest weight I have been in over two years! I am felling so much more energy and love being busy busy! I am still in charge of the fruit and veggie co-op too and that is so much fun for me. I have a walking buddy every morning and it is the best way to start the day! Life is truly so amazing here in Hawaii and I can truly say I have never been this happy in my life! I am so thankful to a wonderful family and husband who made it possible for us to be here!

A Night in Waikiki

A few weeks ago Ryan's old missionary companion, Chad was in town on business and we had the pleasure of taking him on our weekly date with us. This particular week we went to Waikiki at night. I happen to love Waikiki at night. It is not at all like Vegas with all the filth and focus of sex. It is so fun to walk up and down the street and see all the different people trying to make money by showing their talents. There are several musical acts, magicians, artists and many more. Here are few of the favorites from the night! (Besides hanging out with Chad which was the best part!)

These pictures were created by spray paint, forks, ripped paper and cups.

That is about is and this man belows talent.

The man below, juggled while doing the whole rubix cube in under five minutes!
This mans entire outfit was made of paper!

And this man was singing in Japanese!

What a fun night!

Fun Videos

When Ryan is at work at night we have some of our best performances. Alissa loves this song and dance that she learned at Downtown Thursday Nights in St. George, Utah.

She even taught it to the boys over the last few months!

Alissa has made some friends in our neighborhood that are a bit older than her, but they all love to dance and made up this dance.

Kenzie likes to sing the same song every time he films a video. He is super silly!

Just thought I would share some of our silly normal day to day things we do!

Question of the Week!

So, I am not exactly computer literate yet. I keep putting my SD card into the computer so I can download all of the fun and exciting pictures of our lives but I can not get it to work. Is it possible to be out of room on my computer? If you know the answer to this question or have any ideas. PLEASE POST HERE.

Calm

On a personal note. I wanted to sit down and write about my feelings. I look at my life and how amazingly blessed I have been and I realize how calm I feel. Even with the craziness of life and small children I just feel calm. School is starting soon for Alissa, Kenzie and Me. I often feel like this is going to be a whole new busy journey for us, but I still feel calm. I feel like the Lord will just guide us and that everything will be all right. I also feel calm because I live in the best place in the world and I have wonderful friends and my children have wonderful friends and my husband is extremely happy. I just think wow, this is truly amazing! And even though, we have moments of hecticness(if that even is a word) I still feel calm. I am so thankful for my Heavenly Father, and everyone else he put into our lives to get us to this point in our journey. I am also thankful to be able to brush things off that used to bother, and to be growing up every year. I am so blessed and I am so grateful!

Ward Camp

Believe it or not after all the fun of Ward Camp these are the only two pictures I came away with. It was well worth it though. We had the most amazing experience at Ward camp. It was five days of pure fun excitement. Ryan had to work through most of it which was sad. The kids and I were entertained every night with games, movies, luaus and all types of activities. Kenzie and his friend Housling spent most nights with flashlights looking for bugs and Alissa and all her girlfriends did hair and swung from tree swings. Ryan got to help out with making the lau lau which is a very traditional Hawaii dish made with pork wrapped in the lau lau leaf. I hope I am correct about this. It was really neat. Ward Camp was seriously amazing experience and I hope they will adopt again next year so we can go again. We will truly miss the Laie 8th Ward and only wish we could have stayed in that ward. We are so thankful though to be meeting new people now and enjoying the strength of our new ward family.

Random Pics

This is what we look like when we eat homemade grape juice Popsicles! This is Alissa's friend Makana. We truly miss having her as a neighbor.

I have to say Kenzie is the most clever little bug. He comes up with the best buildings and tower and toys and concoctions of everyone. The other day Ryan came upstairs and said, "Stac, where's the camera?" He came back with this adorable picture. Since Taft can pedal yet he left Taft on his bike in the back and hooked Taft's bike to the front, so he could pedal for him. What a sweet brother he is! He also loves to help Taft get dressed, brush his teeth and put his shoes on. I love these boys!

This is the apron we made for Ryan for Father's Day. I know I am so behind on pictures. Father's Day was lots of fun and we are so blessed to have such a fun cool Daddy in our family!

Garfield the Butterfly

This is the final result of our caterpillar. If you click on the grass you can see him in the grass. We had so much fun with our Monarch butterfly!

Crazy Busy!

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update until I can find time to post the last few weeks. For those of you who dont't know, we moved. We moved to the next town over call Hauula because we basically had a crazy landlord. The craziest part though, is that we moved with only four days to pack, clean and be out. I am so thankful for wonderful people to help us. The best part is that we also had ward camp for four days and Ryan working all the time all at the same time. Luckily, we got it all done and now just have to find furniture so we can put away our huge mess. We were living in a furnished place and this one is unfurnished so we are just waiting to find the time to go buy furniture. I have been checking on craigslist but no luck yet. Yes, I will admit it makes me crazy living in this mess.

Summer break is going by way too fast. I really don't want Alissa to go back to school but with me starting school that is life for now.

I start school in just a few weeks and I am a bit nervous but hope it goes well.

Ryan is working all the time and we still feel blessed that we have a great job.

The fourth of July was fun. The kids and I went to Turtle Bay to watch all the big fireworks and to play on the bounce houses. We saw lots of our friends there too! Afterwards we met Ryan's sister Aubrey and her husband and our friends The Becar's at our house for more fireworks. Ryan got home at 3:30 in the morning after working a 13 hour shift.

Today we went to our new ward and felt so welcome. Alissa and Kenzie are actually doing really well at the new place and adjusting well to the ward. Taft just keeps growing up. Everywhere I go people ask how old he is because he talks to well. I am always trying to find ways I can stop time and keep them from growing up. I guess I am starting to realize I will not get to keep them with me forever.

We truly love living in Hawaii and feel so blessed for all we have. I can not wait to get organized again and to just relax in our new house on the ocean! Hope you are all great and had a Happy 4th of July. I hope to post pictures soon.

I Love Summer Vacation!!

So, we have started a new chapter in our life. It is called Summer Vacation! It is a bit different having all the kids home now but I have to say that I absolutely love it. The first week we were transitioning and now we have gotten into a routine which is so fun.
The kids are loving their chore charts and I especially love starting and ending our day with scriptures and prayer! Twice a day is twice as nice!
We have Mommy School every morning from a bout 8-10. I have been using The Letter of the Week Curriculum my friend told me about here and then for Alissa I am using The Karl G. Maeser Academy curriculum which I printed from their website. It is my dream to use that curriculum to teach my children so for now I will just supplement with it since I don't have $500 a year for it. I love hearing Alissa recite poems about God and Christ and also hearing her learning the scientific method and how we use it to find out things about the world God created for us. I am enjoying them learning from me too. After lesson time and singing we have crafts and activity and then usually end with a snack. The kids even like to say they are going to recess once we are finished. My favorite is that they call me Teacher and I am not allowed to use any of my nicknames for them, they want to be called simply Alissa and Kenzie like a teacher would call them.
After this we usually go on outings, this week we went to the zoo and shopping in town! Or we will go to the beach or have friends come over or go play at friends houses.
I am truly loving Summer Vacation and don't think I ever want it to end!

Happy Father's Day!!

These were taken when we lived in Texas by my friend Melissa. Alissa is 3, Kenzie is 2 and Taft was a week old.

That is Alissa at a few months old.

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful, fun, crazy Dad! I am so thankful for Ryan and all he does for our family. He has been a father for over five years and does an amazing job! I am so glad to have chosen him to raise children with. We love you Ryan! You are the best Daddy!

Siblings

I absolutely love all the tender moments where I look at my children and see the love they pour out to one another. They can be so loving and sweet to each other and I cherish these times. I was in the kitchen yesterday doing dishes when I came into the family room to find these two cuties snuggling. Taft loves his big sister and all her sweetness! I am so thankful that my children have the opportunity to grow up with siblings who will help them to learn and grow in all aspects of life. What a truly wonderful blessing!

Good Byes

I took this picture at the airport when we dropped off my mom. It was so sad to say good bye. She left on Sunday after Ryan and I had spoke in church. I was thankful though that we coincidentally got asked to speak this same Sunday she was there. I was so glad she could be there. For those of you who don't know my mom, you are truly missing out. I truly believe my mom is an angel. She is the most loving, helpful and kind person I have ever met and I am so thankful for her example. She is an amazing grandma and the kids love her joy and imagination. I feel so thankful to be the lucky one to have her as my mom. We already miss her presence so much in our family and can not wait for her to rejoin us in a few months. Hawaii is truly missing something special without her and Kaui here. See you soon Mema!