party!

this is my favorite picture from chet's special day.

in the end, chet's party was really great.

but it was a little sketchy in the hours leading up to it!

holden woke up with one goal in mind: wreck the day.
not really. but he was miserable.

which was exhausting.

we joked that he was mad because chet was getting a birthday party for the fourth consecutive year.. and he is yet to get any parties.
oops.
and, if that was the case, i definitely think that he is justified in feeling ripped off - it was just such a terrible time to express it.

the elevator to our third floor apartment was broken too.
it breaks a lot. always at the worst possible times. [ie. after a big costco shop.]

so that was also really exhausting. in a different way.

we had a ridiculous amount of party stuff we had to haul down [and back up] three flights of stairs. with kids.

the worst part was that matt had brought home an 8000 pound table from work that had to make the trek up and down. poor matt.

the things we do for a birthday party!

so the morning certainly wasn't as smooth as we had planned.

and, by the time we got to the park to set up for the party, chet didn't want a party anymore.

he said he wanted to go home.

which was exactly what i wanted to hear.

luckily, matt was strong and refrained from joining the rest of the family in our weeping-fest.

we were able to get the party set up in time for our guest, our friends didn't ditch out on us, and everything after that went pretty smooth.

we had a really fun time!
it wasn't as picture perfect as the ideas i had pinned on pinterest, but it never is!
and chet didn't care about that. he thought his party was the bomb.

the invites:

the hats:

i found aviator hats on a party website, but i was way too cheap to pay $7/hat.
so i found a tutorial that showed me how to sew an aviator hat, bought $7 worth of felt, and made them by myself.
they were one of my favorite parts of the party, so i am happy they worked out.

the airplane [before we painted it]:

my little helpers carefully watching the cupcakes bake:

the plan was that each kid would make a wooden plane and a paper plane to use in our 'longest flight' and 'most accurate' competitions.
but the kids had more fun just playing with the planes, rather then competing with them. and i was totally fine with that.

each kid got a wooden glider:

and made a paper plane with this stuff:

some party pics:

holden passed out about 2 seconds after we left the park.
he was covered in cake and frosting.
we estimate he ate somewhere between 2 and 6 cupcakes.

holden's words.

if only i hadn't cut moroni out, this would have been the perfect temple picture..

i have lost count of how many words holden knows.

he learns a new one every day, i swear.

it's fun to hear his vocabulary growing.

here are some of the words he knows, that i can think of on the spot..

hi. hello. bye. mommy. daddy. chet. me.

grandma. grandpa. baby.

dog. duck. fish. goat.

book. ball. bucket. bubble. splash.

truck. plane. boat. bike. 

cracker. banana. cheese. grape. water. treat. pop.

bowl. fork. yum. all gone. more.

mine. ow. uh oh. no. please.

broke. stuck. help. yucky. hot. cold.

kiss. walk. fast. up. down.

and much more..

he is always chatting.

between chet and him, i feel like our house is never quiet.

holden really likes music.

whenever music turns on, he starts bobbing his head.

and when we are driving with music on he likes to 'sing' loudly from the back seat.

he also likes to pretend to lead the music in sacrament meeting, and he thoroughly enjoys singing songs before bedtime. [it is the only part of our bedtime routine where he pays much attention!]

holden is a happy kid.

he laughs a lot.

and, if you smile at him, he always smiles back.

he thinks chet is hilarious.

other things about holden include:

he copies everything chet does.

he brings me my shoes whenever we are getting ready to leave the house. so i have little say in what shoes i wear.

he loves walking tank.

when we pull him out of bed, he tosses his binky back in his crib. he is well trained!

he likes slides and thinks swings are ok.

whenever we are having snacks he always grabs a bowl [or 6] to put his snacks in. he loves bowls.

he also loves to eat.

his favorite blanket is the one he used in the NICU.

he hits people in the face a lot. it's annoying.

he has finally learned to love nursery.

it took several months, but he did it!

he likes to climb, swim, run - anything active.

he is busy, for sure!

sitting still is a hard thing for holden to do.

but he isn't the little terror that we were worried he might grow up in to.

his curiosity just gets him into predicaments some times.

but he is a good boy. a sweet boy.

he loves to give kisses, he enjoys a good back scratch, and is so nice to cuddle with after a nap.

we survived!

we survived our first major earthquake on monday.

go us!

the word 'survived' might be a little bit dramatic.

as far as i know, the several millions of other people affected by it also survived.

so it wasn't exactly a huge feat.
but it sure was creepy.

i gotta say, i did not like that earthquake business one bit.

i hope to never experience a really destructive one.
we just had some bottles fall off the shelves in our shower.

although, a more destructive one probably would have gotten matt out of work.
and that would have been fun.
he just had to temporarily evacuate his job site.. and then get right back to work.
crazy californians - acting as if the earth wasn't just shaking beneath us.

i thought the boys had slept through the earthquake but, when chet got out of bed a couple hours later, he spoke of the quake as if it had inconvenienced him:
"mom, our house was shaking.. and i was trying to sleep."

haha sorry about that, buddy.

the earthquake was a 4.4 on the richter scale. whatever that means.
we also felt 2 smaller aftershocks at our house later that morning.

something interesting about the earthquake was that it was on chet's birthday.

he turned FOUR that day.

and, at 6:20am california time (7:20am calgary time) - the exact time chet entered the world 4 years ago - the earthquake struck.

coincidence?

i think not.

i think that means we have a pretty special kid on our hands.

or... a really naughty one.

time will tell.

chet had an awesome day.

he opened presents, walked to target to spend some birthday money, went on a movie date with his dad, and had some cake at cheesecake factory.

he was a happy kid.

and by the time we got home, he was pooped.

i'd say it was a success.

happy birthday chetty!

we love you to bits.

i'm not quite ready to post all the birthday pictures. so these will have to do for now.

i made the boys some new ties for church this week, so it seemed like a good excuse to take some post-church photos.

hawaii: part 3 of 3.

our trip to hawaii seems like forever ago, and i still haven't posted all the pictures. oops.

matt had to head back home ahead of the boys and i for work [lame].

he got to stay for 7 days. the littles ones and i got to stay for 10.

these pictures are of matt's last days and the rest of our trip without him.

on the flight home, chet drew some really nice portraits of matt and i on the ipad.

they make me so happy.

although i do love chet's abstract artwork, i am really excited for him to be drawing actual things.

i am excited to see how his cute brain tries to figure out to put down on paper what he imagines in his head.

some people are really sucky.

the night before we left for hawaii we had a bunch of stuff stolen from our parking spot.

we had parked our car in the parking garage at 8:00pm the night before our flight.

at 5:30am the next morning i stopped at our car on the way home from my run and noticed that matt's bike was gone.

someone had cut through our locks and taken his fancy, new bike.

i was so upset. i rushed up to our apartment to tell matt.

we checked the parking garage for any evidence, but obviously found nothing.

so we called the police and reported our stolen bike.

unfortunately, calling the LAPD to report a stolen bike seems kinda useless - as if they don't have 8 gazillion more pressing crimes to attend to.

when we were all dressed and ready to go, we headed down to the car to drive to the airport.

and that is when we noticed that, not only was matt's bike gone, but our car had been broken into as well.

we figured out all the things that were missing and figured that our tally was at about $1000.

(bike, basketball shoes, and a bunch of other stuff - including the button that opens the gate to our complex. awesome.)

it was so frustrating.

and it was such a creepy feeling to think that someone had been through your things.

last night (3 weeks after that incident) we went to the mall to replace the very shoes that were stolen from our car.

as matt was trying shoes on, he took his phone out of his pocket and put it on the bench next to him.

i was chasing the boys around the store when matt stood up to look at his shoes in a mirror.

he turned his back from his phone for all of 10 seconds, and someone stole his phone!

oh. my. gosh.

the only reason we were even in that store in the first place was because we were robbed. and now it happens again?

matt noticed immediately that it was gone. so we told the store manager and she went to review the surveillance footage.

and, sure enough, someone had grabbed his phone. and that someone was still in the store!

the next 15 minutes were super weird.

this phone thief stayed in the store - flaunting a rather large wad of cash, and making a pile of shoes he was going to purchase.

some of the shoes were for his kids - who were in the store with him!

ugh. what a slimey guy.

long story short, security was called and one of the workers at the store confronted the guy.

the thief told the worker that his daughter was the one who had swiped the phone (even though the surveillance footage clearly showed him doing it!) and he willingly handed the phone back.

matt and i were so angry! my heart was racing.

how can someone be so dishonest?

how can you not be embarrassed when you get caught redhanded doing something so wrong?

we both had a long list of things we wanted to say to the loser, but we hoped to be more tasteful then him, so we held our tongues.

(plus, let's just say he wasn't a guy i wanted my husband to have to duke it out with!)

we just made our purchase and left the store.

and i may have thrown in a couple dirty looks along the way..

i don't get it!

i do. not. understand how someone can feel no guilt for stealing other people's property.

it's not yours!

but these people who keep stealing our stuff apparently don't feel the same way.
and that means they are really sucky people.

on a less depressing note, chet's birthday is coming up right away.

he will be 4 on the 17th!

madness, i tell you.

his party is tomorrow. it is going to be a plane party.
we have spent all week getting ready for it.
we have made aviator hats, paper airplane decorations, and a big cardboard box plane.
today is cupcake making day.
actually, it is cupcake AND cake making day.. as per the birthday boys request.
the boys are currently sitting in front of the oven, watching the cupcakes bake.
i think chet will be really disappointed when he realizes the cupcakes won't have any frosting on them when thy come out of the oven.
because frosting is all he cares about.
i should really just make a big bowl of frosting..

it has been a lot fun to get it all ready with the boys.
chet is feeling pretty darn special.. which is the whole point!

hawaii: part 2 of 3.

one of the things i was excited to try while in hawaii was paddle boarding.

sure, i would love to be some super hot surfer girl.. but that's not *ever* going to happen!

so i will settle for being a low-skilled paddle boarding girl instead.

we rented a paddle board from some shop by the beach and spent the day cruising around a quaint little bay in makaha.

i loooved it.

one of the first times matt and i went out, we floated past a sea turtle.

we were no more then 8 feet from him, and he was about 2 feet long. amazing!

he was a cute little fellow. but frustratingly evasive.

after that first unexpected encounter, he never let us near him again.

i spent all afternoon chasing him. but he was too clever.

matt came out with his snorkel gear and i tried to guide him to the turtle, based on my view from above, but that turtle would not have it.

every time matt would get close, the turtle would dive under the water and pop his head up somewhere else.

matt said there was one time he was watching from the beach and he saw the turtle pop his head up out of the water right behind my board.

as if he knew i was looking for him, but couldn't see him there.

and as if he thought he was being hilarious.

well played, mr. sea turtle. well played.

we took our boys out on the board for a ride. they thought it was pretty neat.

chet spent the rest of the trip asking when he could ride a paddle board again.

unfortunately, he never did.

but he did ride a lot of boogie boards.

by the end of the trip he had learned to enjoy laying on the board and letting the waves pull him in and out.

the afternoon that we had the paddle board, my parents took our boys back to condo for naps and left matt and i at the beach.

me + my handsome husband + a hot, sunny beach in hawaii = perfection.

my parents actually did that a few times throughout the trip.

matt and i were spoiled.

beaches are so fun with kids, but they are also really fun without kids:)

on the friday, my parents wanted to go to temple, so matt and i found something fun for our family to explore up on that side of the island.

we had my parents drop us off at waimea falls.

we did the 30 minute walk up to the top, where we got to swim in a pool at the bottom of the falls.

it felt nice to swim in fresh water, but the water was pretty chilly.

our boys were not super thrilled about getting in it. holden especially.

he was also super angry that we made him wear a life jacket.

but we made him do it. and it made for a good memory!

fun fact: the land around waimea falls has been used for filming lots of movies over the years.

most recently, it was used to film part of the hunger games.

the area is super lush and full of all sorts of plants i have never seen before.

after waimea falls, we ran across the highway to waimea bay.

we didn't swim there because the waves were insane!

 we just sat on the beach and watched all the crazy people getting destroyed in them.

it was actually very entertaining.

my parents met us at the bay with some lunch they had picked up from ted's bakery.

and from there we headed to the dole plantation.

we took the train ride around the plantation and learned all about the history of the pineapple.

and then we got some dole whip for the ride home.

holden slept through our entire trip to the plantation.

[matt and chet are right by the falls in this picture]