Amateur Gardener

Late post: I've had this typed up for a while now but have just been forgetting to publish.

This is the story of my first time starting a garden.
When we bought our house last year, it was too late to start a garden but watching my mother-in-laws garden as well as the box planter at the head start school that we helped plant was so exciting that I knew I HAD to start my own garden.

So during the year, I made a list of the seeds that I wanted to buy and did some researching on how to start a garden. I've always been attracted to home gardens but I also know that they're a lot of work so I've been somewhat discouraged.

So now we have a yard, we designated a part of it to grow a garden...

And grow it did!

It was indeed a lot of work with the relentless weeds but I actually enjoyed it.

The best part is, of course, THE HARVEST! Yummy organic fruits and vegetables freshly picked and straight on to the kitchen.

You can't get any fresher than that...

I learned a lot of 'what to do and what not to do' things along the way which I will be applying for the garden next year.

But for an amateur gardener...

I'm pretty proud of my new found talent!!!

 Who knew these thumbs of mine would be green...

#22 Big winner

If you don't already know, there are millions of things being given away online everyday. Usually from (mommy) blogs who review a product then have another one to giveaway. 

Well who doesn't like free stuf? Usually there's a bit of running around online to do and of coarse some reading, but for the most part, it's not that difficult. 

So I have entered A LOT of these giveaways. From cloth diapers to strollers, movies, and all sorts of toys. But I have only ever won the small ones. Which I am not complaining about, but I really want a legit big win. So I created a new email to designate all the giveaway emails and away I went... 

Then one day, I get the magical email.

Sooo awesome! That takes care of Hyrum's birthday present! And my goal number 22...

#14 Leisure Reading

I got off on a pretty good start on my 30 things before 30 and I actually finished the Divergent series before September ended! Booyahh!!!

I definitely liked the first book better than the movie (which is usually the case), but the third book got a little slow and dare I say it, boring. Too much genetic engineering mumbo jumbo which is not what I expected the book to head towards.

 Regardless, it was still a good read and the action picked up again towards the end. 

So the point of this is for me to get into leisure reading so I can keep my brain from getting rusty (even just a little). 

So the follow through is to keep reading!

I already have a couple of other books in line but I'm open to suggestions. Don't go all crazy though. I want nice easy exciting reads like Harry Potter and Divergent. 

I'm not quite ready to tackle Lord of the Rings just yet...

30 things before 30

Alas it is my birthday month! And it is a particularly momentous year for me it is last year of my 20s. 

So to celebrate, I made a list (we all love list!) of things that I would like to do before my 30th birthday. 

Some of them are kinda lame but it's things that I've always wanted/needed to do but hasn't been in the priority list. 

In exchange, I hope to develop and share my talents, beautify my home, build memories, strengthen relationships, and have a great send off to my 20s with a fabulous memorable year.

So here are my 30 things before 30: 

1. Take a family name to the temple.
   Never done this so it will encourage me to do my family history.
   
2. Have a conversation in Spanish.
   I took 4 years of Spanish in college. Surely I can get it back...
   
3. Do 30 random acts of kindness.
   I think this will be fun to do as a family.
   
4. Paint on a big canvas.
   Ive always wanted to do a big canvas but never had the time. This will be a big project but I will be excited to cross it off.
   
5. Run Goose Creek Run-Off.
   Its a 10K run in Oakley that I say I will run in every year! But never have...
   
6. Go offline for a week.
   Much needed. But will be hard...
   
7. Read the Book of Mormon cover to cover.
   Always.
   
8. Learn an ukulele song.
   I was sleeping when God was giving out musical talent so maybe I can learn just one song.
   
9. Make a jean quilt.
   Ive been collecting jeans for a couple years for this purpose.
   
10. Finish the quiet book.
    I started to make a quiet book for Hyrum when I was 6 months pregnant with him...Maybe this will be the year to get it done...
    
11. Go sugar-free for a month.
    This is probably going to be the most challenging one since im a candyholic but at least I will try.
    
12. Go on a hike.
    Idaho is full of beautiful hikes, we just havent gone on one.
    
13. Volunteer to do service 30 times.
    This will be fun to do as a family too.
    
14. Read the Divergent series.
    I've never been a 'leisure' reader and I want to change that so I will start with the popular books first.
    
15. Dance again.
    This will just make my heart full.
    
16. Go on a girls trip.
    Fun road trip with girlfriends.
    
17. Organize my thousand photos on photobooks.
    Because I literally have thousands.
    
18. Write a letter to my kids to open when they're 30.
    This will just something fun.
    
19. Do 5 full pull-ups.
    So I can have guns that are locked and loaded. lol
    
20. Do a head stand for 10 seconds.
    For some reason I cant do head stands...
    
21. Raise $300 for charity.
    Through photography or selling crocheted stuff or lemonade stands...
    
22. Win a legit giveaway.
    Because I enter so many that Im bound to win a cool big one...hopefully.
    
23. Grow another baby.
    We should be about ready to add another crazy human into our crazy house.
    
24. Make a new friend.
    One can never have too many friends.
    
25. Find 30 geocaches.
    Coz they are awesome!
    
26. Donate 30 crochet hats to NICU.
    Coz they always need hats to keep their precious little heads warm.
    
27. Develop and apply a homeschooling schedule.
    So my kids dont fall behind while I tackle all of my goals. hehe
    
28. Go to a major sporting event.
    Why not...
    
29. Give blood.
    Ive only done it once, like 5 years ago, coz i always get denied.
    
30. PAAARRTTYYY!!!
    If all goes to plan, my parents should be here from NZ on my birthday so we shall celebrate like its 1985!!!
    

Shouldn't be too hard right? If all goes to plan, I'm hoping to have all these done and written about by the end of September next year. Wish me luck!!!

Employed

3 1/2 years ago, I quit my job at BYUH Campus News Center to be a full-time mom.

The first few months of being "just a mom" was a very trying time for me. I felt so lost and soooo worthless but couldn't do anything about it because it is what I/we needed to do at that time.

Until I came to a realization and wrote THIS blog post. And since then, Ive never looked back. I refuse to look back. I always say that if I'm going to do this whole mom thing, then I am going to do it right.

 

Becoming a full-time mom was one of the best decisions that I've made. Not only was I able to be with my children, I was also able to develop skills that I never thought I would've, like cooking, gardening and making pretty things out of yarn.

 

My motherhood journey had quite a rough start, and to be honest, I still have my "am I doing this right" days. But, blessings keeps on coming to us ever since we made the decision for me to be at home with the kids.

Now a new journey begins. Three weeks ago I accepted a job offer to work for KMVT Television as a Master Control Operator. It has always been a dream of mine to work for a TV station so this job was very attractive. So far, it has been fun learning the ropes of running Master Control and to be honest, it feels good to be using my brain again.
BUT...

I get very apprehensive that I leave my kids in someone else's care...

Granted it has really only been four hours max on some days. At least until Mav goes back to school.

I had a hard time transitioning to being a stay-at-home mom but I think transitioning to a working mom is a bit harder. Didn't think I would be the type of person that would feel this way but I really do LOVE being home with my kids. They teach me so much and help me appreciate the little things in life. Time flies fast and pretty soon I'm going to be sending Hyrum to college and teaching Halia how to drive! So I want to make the most of the years that they still want me around.

But since Mav will be back in school full time, I have to bring home the bacon so we can continue to pay our mortgage and buy food.

There are sacrifices in all situations.
But there are also blessings.

We just have to learn to determine which is which,
and make the most out of them.

Halia's Photo Book

Finally finished Halia's photo book...SHEESHHH!!! A little A LOT behind!!!

 

Click here to view this photo book larger

 

Fantastic Four

Mr. Hyrum Ichiro is now FOUR!

One more year and he will be in school.

I get all sorts of anxiety thinking bout this.

To start of he is now 42" tall and 42.2lbs. 

His doctor is predicting that he will be way over 6ft when he's all done growing. 

This little firecracker is wild and wonderful! 

He is forever in motion and still posses an incredible amount of energy. 

On a typical hour he can be a flying cannonball, a karate chopping ninja, a hip shaking dancer, a very loud singer, a manic bulldozer and a crayzee somersaulting superhero that just had 3 cans of Red Bull. He will jump off of anything that he can jump off of, he will climb anything that is climbable, he karate chops air, paper, water, sticks, bubbles, Legos, grass, bread, the dog, his sister...just to name a few. So my days can be quite exhausting trying to entertain his adventurous little soul!

He is enthusiastic about EVERYTHING! He welcomes the world with a vigorous GOOD MORNING and that same energy carries on throughout the day. 

I could definitely use some of his energy, especially in the morning. 

But he also has a soft side. 

He LOVES giving lots and lots and lots of big squishy (choking) hugs and kisses to all of the people that he loves. So if you are lucky enough to receive one of his death grip hugs then you are loved. The tighter they are the more he loves you...

He is my true Hawaii-born child and absolutely LOVES the water. In the Philippines he learned to swim underwater for short periods and I couldn't be any prouder. We have been putting off giving him swim lessons but this summer we really need to get on to it. Maybe we have a future Olympian in our hands...

He is a great company. He would definitely talk your ear off with his never-ending stories about all of his wonderful observations in this world. Or he will ask you thousands of questions that will make you feel cornered in a big empty room. He is genuinely interested in how things work and why things do what they do. Some make for some pretty interesting conversations. Although, it may take a while for him to finish a story since he has a lisp and a stutter when he gets too excited about what he is talking about. 

He is always so eager to learn. He can write his name quite well and is starting to get the idea of coloring pictures. His favorite thing to draw are trees for some reason. 

His tree artwork

He is finally in Sunbeams at church and I have loved getting all of his Sunbeams artwork and hearing all about what they learned that day. 

Happy 4th Birthday little bud! 

Stay as you are coz we love every crazy thing about you.

And here is his annual birthday interview

And Then SHE Turned TWO

Miss Heeya is now TWO YEARS OLD!!!  

What a whirlwind adventure it has been to have her in our already crazy household. 

For some fun facts: 

She is 33 1/2" tall and 26 lbs. 

Average on the weight but on the short side. But hey she has my genes so her height isn't expected to be very high on the scale. 

We celebrated her birthday this year 4 days early because Hyrum and her were given an amazing Jollibee party thanks to my wonderful Tita Lynne, Tito Burt and cousins Ein, Arjae and Kuya AJ. We had a great time! 

Jollibee (a famous fast-food character, kinda like Ronald McDonald BUT way cooler!) knows how to throw a party!

Then we just had a simple cake with Mavericks family on her actual birthday because we were all still super tired from the travel. 

So now let me tell you about my Halia Chiya at 2 years old.  

This little lady has quite the personality. My little miss drama queen! 

We butt heads ALL THE TIME because she is always so demanding on what she wants, especially if it's something that she can't have. She knows how to pull at your heart strings and make herself look like the saddest little girl in the world. Mav and I are surprisingly immune to all her dirty tricks but she gets everyone else.  Especially the grandparents. 

Mav and I have had many talks about the way we parent her because most disciplining tricks that we did with Hyrum does not work with her. She is more stubborn, more hard headed and more prone to tantrums. Which has led us to more visits to the 'Time-out Corner'. We are baffled at her commitment to really test our patience everyday. She has rocked our world! And it took us a while to be able to get through to her with compromises or threats or bribes. Heck we still don't quite know how to get through to her. And I doubt we'll ever will. 

On a more positive note, Halia has a lot of good characteristics that we absolutely adore. She is a smart cookie! 

She knows her ABCs, 1-10 and some colors. She is a good problem solver and loves to laugh and make others laugh too. She is not as eager to sit down learning as Hyrum but she is very inquisitive and detail oriented. I have to work hard to get her to sit with me to practice her numbers or colors or whatever but if I say we are doing some coloring or painting, she is excited! I think that she has possibly inherited some of the creative genes. She likes to do little nit picky fine-motor skills stuff like putting cards back in the box or threading beads. She LOVES books! She always asks to get read to and sometimes books are the only thing that can calm her down. And she will be your best-friend if you take the time to read her a book.

She is a GREAT talker! 

I always get compliments on how well she can talk coz even other people can understand her (sometimes). She has full sentences and we have conversations that actually makes sense. While in the Philippines, she even picked up a few Tagalog words. But what's funny is that she would talk to my relatives in a specific babble that, we can only guess, is what Tagalog sounds like to her. But she would really look up to them and make this 'malabadaba' sound and expect an answer. It was funny!

Another thing that I love about Halia is that she is singing ALL DAY LONG! 

It can be from a commercial, or the last song that she heard, or sometimes, she makes it up herself. One night in the Philippines while in bed she was singing, "Daddy is in Idahhoooo! Daddy is in Idahhoooo! Mommy is sheeping (sleeping) wight heerrreee! Hyra (Hyrum) sheeping wight here chhuuu!" Over and over until she fell asleep. I was trying so hard not to LOL!

And oh my heck she is potty trained!!! We started when she was 18 months old and it took about a month for me to really call it good. She would still have accidents once in a while but for the most part she was fully trained. I had the goal of having her potty trained by the time we take our trip to the Philippines (which was 3months after we started) and she had it down by that time. Not a single accident despite the long plane travels, inside the car during crazy traffic, gross toilets and most not having a toilet seat. It was definitely easier that potty training Hy and most definitely much faster. We are very proud!

She LOVES her 3 Bs. Babies , Barbies and bags. 

Who would've thought that I could spawn someone so girly? 

She got her first baby doll from Lolo and Lola on her first birthday and her collection has grown ever since. She carries them around with a blanket, talks/sings to them, make them sit beside her to watch TV, sleeps with them, push them around in their little stroller with one of her sippy cup, she even puts them on time-out when they are naughty. She loves her babies BUT when a real one comes along she gets all giddy and shy. And when I'm holding one, she would slyly sit beside me and steals little touches and points out his/her little features. I'm going to be in a lot of trouble trying to keep her away when the next sibling comes along. 

I don't know how the Barbie started but she loves them and it's what she asked Santa for. I'm not a very big fan coz of all their little shoes and little accessories and little clothes that will always be off and will just add to my already crazy messy house. Plus, I don't want to see little naked bodies all over my floor. But going down the (dreaded) Barbie aisle, I found that a lot of them have built in clothes and shoes already! Genius! So I made sure Santa knew what kind of Barbie this mommy approved of. 

She likes to walk around with bags and sticks all sorts of things in it. Cups, dolls, puzzles, pencils, or her favorite rock collection. When we have misplaced something like a cellphone or remote control or a spatula, we look in her many bags and would usually find it. Another funny story while in the Philippines, my mum bought her a souvenir shoulder bag. She loved it and was showing it off to everyone. When we got in the car, my cousin admired it and she proudly said that she has something in it... An unpaid crocodile toy from the same store that the bag came from. A shoplifter at such a young age! Needless to say, my uncle ran back to the store and returned it apologetically. 

That pink bag is her accomplice for her first shoplift attempt.

So there you have it. My crazy Heeya in a nutshell! We love her to bits and she definitely belong to our crazy family.  

Happy Birthday Bebe! 
No need to completely embody the terrible two cliche now, okay...