Five Years

Five years ago today I did this:


Four years ago, a free Safeway cake:


Three years ago, a fire truck cake:


Two years ago, cupcakes at a Lightning McQueen birthday party:


Last year, a Batman cake (and jammies!):


This year, a sea-themed cake (because there was no way I was making Gil Gripper, the underwater diving Rescue Hero!):


According to Luke, it was the best cake EVER. And he loved the Rescue Heroes he got, even if Gil Gripper wasn't one of them.


The towel is there because they had been soaking in vinegar-water all day, trying to get the nasty cigarette smoke smell out of them. That e-bay seller will be getting a sub-par review from me for not telling me they were from a smoking household!! Thanks to a few of you for the tips on using vinegar. The smell of the toys now is a faint smoke/vinegar mix, which I'm hoping will wear off soon (Luke either didn't notice or he didn't care).


I thought it was fun to see how his interests changed and were reflected in his cake choices each year.

Christmas Preview

For all you Bosschers coming out to visit in 45 days or so (who's counting?) here is a little preview:

We had breakfast in our jammies yesterday -- and subsequently discovered that Erin no longer fits into the one-piece footies since she is much taller than she was last year. Guess we'll have to find some new jammies so they can match on Christmas morning again. I'll have to go shopping - bummer.

We then went upstairs and did a little rearranging. We put the workbench in Erin's room and the table back in Luke's room. He said he wanted to do his homework there. Fine with me - will give him something to do during rest time, which he balks against so much these days.

Here's some insight on Erin: see how she forgoes the chair? She also got rid of the book 2 minutes later and colored on the table. The attention span of a gnat, that one. At least she wasn't ranting at me, which is her latest preoccupation. I'd rather not talk about that.

Kukui

I've put off writing this post mostly because I don't know what to say. However, some of you were wondering what happened with Kukui so I thought I would write a little and share some pictures.

To put it bluntly, Kukui had a bathroom problem. In the past year he had begun peeing around the house and we had to throw out several things that he ruined, some not so cheap. When we returned from Michigan in June he had soaked our living room couch several times as well as a few other places/things in the house. We decided to have him put to sleep, a difficult decision and one that many people would disagree with. I won't go into all the reasons why we decided this, but know that it was not easy.

Anyway, here are some pictures. We got Kukui in July of 2001 when he was about 6 months old. We didn't have a digital camera yet then so I don't have any pictures on the computer of when he was really little. This first one is when we were redoing the upstairs bedroom before Luke was born. Meisje was about a month old.

Meisje's first snow.

April 2005

July 2005

July 2006 - Luke's new rocking chair

Apparently Kukui liked the new rocking chair too!


I took this picture in about November 2006. We were working on re-doing our bedroom and I went looking for Luke. I found that he had climbed into his crib with a bunch of books and was using Kukui as a pillow.

A little morbid, but this is where Kukui is now. After the vet put him to sleep, Alec took him home in the box that he came home in originally. He and Luke dug a hole in the backyard and we buried him there behind the bench. Luke did surprisingly well and understood (for the most part) what had happened and why. He still says he missed Kukui every now and then, but I think he has adjusted OK. I think Alec has had a harder time; Kukui was really his friend (maybe even his first kid!). He doesn't talk much about it, but I know he misses him.

The in-law suite is coming along

Otherwise known as "the shed." It's pretty big.

Here's Luke last Wednesday. He's really enjoying these afternoons "helping" Daddy. He takes the junk drawer hammer and tape measure out with him.

This is a little video (soundless) of him playing on the frame. His balance is getting pretty good! Can't say the same for Erin, but at least she knows how to brush herself off.



This is how far Alec got on Wednesday.

I asked him to take a few pictures of me & the kids in the hammock. I never get to be in any. No surprise - posed pictures with them never turn out. I call this one "my retarded kids."

Seriously. That was about as good as they got. At least in the next one I looked OK. Erin looks like that because her latest thing is to fill her mouth with a drink, hold it in her cheeks chipmunk-style, and then let it dribble out if I don't first tell her not to spit.

Our blueberries getting bluer.

Here's the progress by Friday:

When I came out after getting Erin up from her nap I found Alec resting in the hammock and Luke pounding his little heart out with some scraps of wood and bent nails. He'd pound a nail about 2 times and then pull it out, whack whack, pull, whack whack, pull. Over and over. Great fun!

And here's today's progress. All the walls up.

Erin loves trucks. Wonder who she learned that from?

Oh, yeah. Him.

A New (Out)Look

So you can see I've changed the blog. I've been blogging for 4 years now and thought it was time for a face lift. "Wai Hale" is just the literal translation of "water house" into Hawaiian (I think). The picture is of Bathtub Beach, Kipu Kai, Kauai - backyard of the family ranch.

I haven't been blogging much lately because things around here have been pretty awful. However, in retrospective, I think that writing about it may have helped a little. I'm not too good at stepping back from a situation and thinking about it objectively. I tend to get bogged down and depressed about it, instead of thinking up a creative solution.

After a particularly bad night last night (2nd peanut butter sandwich supper in a week because Erin falls apart after her nap and I haven't been pro-active enough with meal planning) Alec and I ate something I pulled out of the freezer and talked a bit about what's happening. Then I did my Bible study for the week on 1 John 4. First I read in my commentary:

Once again, John reminds his readers of the old commandment to love one another (3:11) . John recognizes a perfect example in his Master, who had washed the dirty, dusty feet of His disciples and then given Himself into the hands of His opponents to be humiliated and crucified (3:16). One reason for the tremendous impact that Christ's teachings have had on the world is that He never failed to practice what He preached. His glorious example of love motivates us to love one another.

Then I read:

We're not always responsible for our emotions, which can be affected by everything from what we heard on the evening news to what we had for dinner. But we are responsible for our attitudes, which are determined by deliberate choices of our will. Right attitudes result in right actions. If, by an act of our will, we choose to think and act as God commands, He will eventually bring our emotions into conformity and enable us to obediently love not just "with words or tongue but with actions and in truth" (1 John 3:18).

Then I read in 1 John:

⁷Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

I began to feel very convicted of my own deep selfishness. I have a really bad attitude about many of the things that are happening in our family right now. If I could see another's perspective and love regardless of how I feel about the situation, things might be a little more sane around here.

Also, I have decided to plan more (meals, activities, etc.) and set a fairly strict schedule and see how that improves my very cranky daughter. She is so clingy right now - and at the most inopportune times - and it drives my crazy. Some of it is related to hunger, which throws me because Luke used to be that way about sleep. If he was tired, nothing mattered, only that he took a nap. Erin gets irrational when she is hungry so I think I need to wake her from her nap earlier and give her a snack before supper. I think this may be better for all of us too, since my doctor told me I should stay on a diabetic diet (to be proactive in prevention) and regular snacks are part of that.

Well, it's about time to wake the kids and get ready for CBS. I'll be doing some more thinking here later, but here are a few recent pictures for the folks.

Playing with Auntie Em (very old picture)

Coloring Easter eggs at church

Playing cowboy with friends - poor Bessie

Using goggles in the tub - the new fun thing to do

Listening to "Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle" in Luke's bed - lasted about 5 minutes before they were out giggling and playing

Taking the neighbor kids to "Rita's" in the Model A - last weekend was gorgeous

Erin wearing Mommy's gardening hat

Surprise! Here's more!

We had a nice visit with Alec's mom, dad, sister-in-law and niece last week. Here is Aunt Kelly reading to Erin, Luke and Lexi.


Tutu bought matching dresses for Lexi and Erin. It was pretty cold but they both had sweaters that went with them and I put on a long sleeve T-shirt under Erin's. Unfortunately, Luke developed croup over Saturday night so I stayed home from church with him (which is why he isn't wearing church clothes).

Erin crawled right up into Tutu's lap with a story.

The cousins. It finally warmed up nicely the day before they left. Luke and Lexi played outside all afternoon and had a great time together.

It was chilly so I made a cake for them to decorate for something to do. Luke had an idea to make a "face" cake so they used candy to make a face.

It wasn't very pretty, but it sure had a lot of hair!

Here's Erin being silly while she ate her cake.



Erin found the sticker drawer. "Teekah, Mama!"

When Erin wakes up from her nap, she is frequently very crabby and clingy, which makes it hard for me to get supper ready. Last night I suggested that she go get her baby and feed her supper while I made ours.


She got a drink, too.
Then Erin wanted some, too. She was putzed with me that I wouldn't let her give the baby a real drink.

More fun with sleeping bags. I figured what the heck, it's still cold out and soon it will be so warm they won't want to.


Luke having fun with a new flashlight. Maybe you can't tell, but the lights were out in the room, on his insistence.

Erin had to have one too, but didn't quite know how to turn on a mag light.