February 2025- Enjoying Baby Kai

 February included lots and lots of snuggles from Kai, who wants to be held always. We were happy to oblige. I was also so happy to have Brent back in town.

The kids had a Wicked party with friends from the neighborhood. Most of them are in a drama class together and have been learnings songs from Wicked, so they had a grand sing along.

Ava's friend's mom offered to take pictures of the group of friends for their 6th grade graduation. They turned out so beautiful!

Ava and one of her closest friends- these two have so much fun together!

They created a group of 6 friends and call themselves the Super Six,. It is soooo good for Ava to have such wonderful friends and be included. 

Ava had a best friend when she was very young in Oregon, but she moved two years before we did. After that, Ava had some friends, but none of them very close. She was lonely a lot, and some kids were so mean to her. To see her be accepted and have sweet friends here makes my mom heart so happy.

These pictures were taken at the beach across the street from their school, and at their elementary school.

These cute 6th graders will be graduating elementary school and moving on to the junior high school, which is on the same campus as the high school. It's in the next town up from us, about 3 miles away.

My cute 6th grader!

Kai at one month old! We got this cute blanket from Sister Yates, a sweet friend from Brent's mission. She has sent each of our kids blankets with their names when they're born. 

On a walk to the beach. It's always windy, so we try to keep Kai covered in the sling wrap.

Audrey and her friend looked so cute before gymnastics one day.

A video of Kai looking like he wants to smile, but he can't quite figure it out.

Brandy borrowed my kids again for a Valentines photo shoot for her business:

Time to cut Kai's fingernails- the worst task ever! I did it while he was nursing/sleeping.

Cutest little outfit- it says future hero.

My tiny little guy. I just want to freeze time.

My cousin Jordan is a flight attendant for Delta and he worked a shift to Honolulu, so he drove up to spend some time with us on the North Shore before flying back that night. He and Brent swam in the ocean and then we went to the Kahuku food trucks.

Coen loves feeding Kai. The other day he told me, "That was my 19th time to give Kai a bottle!" He keeps track. 

Coen and our duplex neighbor play basketball or on the trampoline several times a week. They are such cute friends.

Through lots of trial and error and lots of practicing, we figured out how to get Kai to sleep without being held (at least for the first half of the night.) I bought him a swaddle that keeps his arms up by his face, so he's much more comfortable than being swaddled with his arms down. And we put this aby lounger in our bed so he can be right by me, and I can pat his tummy to comfort him. 

The 6th grade had a fundraiser, called the 6th grade market, and each pair of kids had to sell something. Ava and her friend Bridget made a fishing station where kids could pay a ticket to fish for a prize.

Baby Kai- still so tiny! He's 5 weeks here. 

Learning how to smile. 

Audrey feeding Kai- she was so proud and excited:

Audrey got such a weird rash on her arms and legs. It came out when she was warm/played outside, and went away in the evenings. She had no other symptoms and felt fine. I used google and figured out she had fifths disease! Its a very mild virus that all kids get at one point or another.

My parents had given us money to go see a movie for Christmas - we were finally able to get out and do it! Coen has been obsessed with Dogman for years, so we made Coen's day and went to Dogman as a family. The girls were happy with it and we had a nice outing, minus that Coen got carsick on the way down so threw up in the parking lot before we went in for the movie. 

After the movie we did our regular shopping at Sams Club and Costco. This was my first big outing since Kai had been born. 

Sunday morning dancing

I cut gave Audrey a hair cut and took a lot off, but it is still very long. Before and after:

Cute kids all dressed up for church:

We went on a walk to the temple. I didn't know if I had enough energy and strength to walk all the way, but Brent convinced me to try, and I did it. I walked about a mile this evening and did okay. We took our neighbor friend Emily with us:

The next morning I had my 6 week checkup. My doctor said everything has healed perfectly, and my hemoglobin was nearly back to where it should be, which I'm so grateful for! She couldn't believe I had walked a mile the day before and said that was more than she would expect I'd be able to do at this point given my difficult delivery and blood loss. 

Starting to get some more consistent smiles at 6 weeks now. And if we weren't already completely in love with Kai, we were even more so now.

Coen chose a Cat Kid stuffie with his Amazon money from Danie's Christmas present to him. He was so happy with his purchase!

The kids singing songs from Wicked and Beauty & the Beast waiting for their ride to drama class. My friend took all the kids in her 16 seater van every week!

On a walk to the beach:

Kai slept through his view of the ocean. We were glad for him to stay tucked away like this because any time he's awake in the wind, he breathes it in so much and gets a tummy ache.

All of the different faces he can pull in a matter of seconds!

The theater at the PCC was screening a new documentary called Sharing Aloha. It follows the stories of a few students at the PCC and gives you a better understanding of the background many of these kids come from. The man who did Meet the Mormons created this one, and we all really enjoyed it!

At the end, they had the stars of the show come down for some Q&A. Ava asked a question (with Brent's help) and got a BYUH t-shirt.

Brent's students was one of the students featured. Her story was my favorite! She had just barely had a baby, a couple weeks after me.

BYUH had a fancy award dinner for all faculty and staff in the CAC. I picked up Brent early from his temple shift and we had to take a picture of the beautiful sunset! Then we went over to the delicious dinner and sat by his coworkers. We brought Kai with us, and he was on his best behavior.

Kai was just staring and staring at his daddy.

My cutest snuggler:

I took Audrey and Kai to watch Coen's basketball game. Kai was asleep in the mobe wrap, and luckily the nice people next to me shared their umbrellas to shield the sun, because it was HOT! 

Cute basketball boy:

I put Kai in his bouncer and he really liked it! 

A sweet moment:

Coen and his friend playing basketball in his room:

In the morning, everyone wanted to greet Kai and see his smiles. He is still the star of this family.

We took Kai on a tour of the temple grounds. Look how cute!

The setting sun made his hair look red in these pictures, but it's just starting to thin.

Valentines didn't go how I had planned. Kids were fighting, I didn't have a solid meal plan, and I didn't have my hearts made for the kids in time etc. So we decided to postpone and have our special dinner on Sunday. Each year I make hearts for each person with reasons why I love them. We had lasagna soup and homemade bread.

This night was much better. The kids got the giggles as Brent pretended to read silly things I "wrote" on his heart:

Coen reading to Kai:

We had the most amazing sunset!

Is this not unreal?!

I look at the sunset every night, but this one was gorgeous enough to even draw Brent out to take pictures.

Playing a board game with these three on a day off school. It's still hard for me to pack up the baby and go places, or take him to the beach. So we spend all our time at home.

Going into tumbling class on a rainy day:

It was chilly one morning- 68 degrees. When it's humid and the sun isn't out, it actually feels quite a bit chillier than that. Coen asked me if it would snow if it were raining right now. I said no. He said, "but it's so cold?" I told him it had to be a LOT colder than that to snow.

So many smiles! About 6.5 weeks here.

Audrey had been DYING to invite her preschool friend over to play. She was so excited when the day finally came!

Brent took Ava to an orthodontist consult. It's not so easy to do errands like this here. The orthodontist is 45 minutes away from our house.

We had to keep taking Kai to his pediatrician to do weight checks since he wasn't gaining weight fast enough. He was only about 8 lbs! So we had to start fortifying his formula to help him gain faster. I nurse him, and then we give him a bottle after each feed.

His arms are starting to plump up a bit!

Kai gets lots of attention and love from his siblings.

I just want to freeze time and not forget anything about when Kai is small. So here's his little cry:

I took Kai on a walk to visit Brent on campus:

Sweetest smiles:

These two friends love to play dress ups together:

Audrey randomly told me one day, "Being the youngest is actually the best because you get to die last." 

Brent took Ava to the districts History Day competition. He helped her create a documentary on Dr.Seuss and book banning. They were gone all day (it was at the community college in Kaneohe, 45 minutes from our house). 

Ava was in the top two for her age and category and got to to onto State!

Ava and her amazing teachers/mentors:

My mom told me that the Marriotts were on campus as she was speaking at a conference. Sister Marriott told my mom to tell me to just come say hi, but not listen to her talk because it would be "boring" haha. Brent had the car with Ava at History Day, so I put the baby in the mobe wrap and walked over to campus. I had a nice visit with them!

Kai likes bath time.

Audrey had picture day at preschool. We bought them for once:

My cute little graduate!

I gathered all my maternity clothes and donated them to a group of moms to be on campus. It made me feel better to give the clothes to people who could use them, but this is one of those last baby things, where it's hard to close the era!

Kai started fattening up and changing fast!

Impromptu swim time at the beach after the kids got home from drama class:

The school had a Dr. Seuss celebration, Read Across America, and Ava showed her documentary in one of the stations. 

My parents arrived on February 27, and were so excited to meet Kai. Kai was asleep in Brent's arms. We put him in my mom's arms and Kai opened his eyes and gave her lots of smiles. It was immediate love.

A video of the sweet moment:

Kai also loved Grandpa:

My parents took the kids to McDonalds for dinner. Audrey and Coen ask me to go to McDonalds ALL the time, and I never do. Only Grama & Grandpa do that hehe.

While everyone was at McDonalds, Brent and I went on a date to get hamburgers at Seven Brothers:

More pictures and details about my parent's trip are coming up in March!