Spring

 Where have we been?... March has come and gone and spring is here! I love, love, love springs. I love cherry blossoms and colorful tulips spring forth out of the ground. I love the cool sunny weather and I especially love pastel colors.

We had a busy month in March. Acalias and I flew out to Utah for two weeks. Traveling has become more adventurous now that my little toddler must be entertained. Thankfully we had one layover, Acalias walked and walked and walked so he was too tired to put up a fight to get his wiggles out.

We spent lots of time with family, it's always so much fun to watch how Acalias interacts with his cousins.

My siblings and I had been preparing and planning for mom's surprise 50th birthday. Mom was surprised and we had a wonderful time sharing our favorite memories of her, playing games and feasting on traditional Polynesian food.

Acalias got his first hair cut too!

We enjoyed spending time with family.

I also took a ton of pictures of my family, check out my Website!

Now that It's mid-April I'm finally easing up on my marathon training. Since January I've been running 45-50 miles a week and strength/weight training 3-5 days a week. The time commitment has been like a part-time job but I've really enjoyed it. Several weeks ago I ran 21 miles maintaining an 8:40 pace (flat terrain no hills at all), I was so thrilled! I've learned a few tricks that have kept me from burning out and crashing. I'm excited to see how well I do in my marathon 12 days away!!

Mandy and I after her first 20 miles, we were thrilled, she is preparing for her first marathon!

I took this pic below last week during our 16 miler run, West Virginia has some beautiful scenic sites.

Acalias is growing and learning so much. He loves animals, 

in these pictures he spotted a dog and it made him so happy.

The simplest things me this little boy so happy. This year he had a blast finding Easter eggs. 

Derek has just completed his 2nd round of rotations in Internal Medicine with Cardiology and Nephrology and is currently rotating in Geriatrics. We enjoy seeing him when he is not so busy. Soon we will be making major decisions as to where we will do his residency after graduation May 2013. Our current top pics are: 

1. San Antonio, TX, and Dallas, TX             2. SLC, UT           3. Kansas City, KA

I just pray that we will get into the residency that will be the best fit for our family. 

For Easter we didn't do anything too extravagant. We didn't even have to buy anything, Acalias and I took advantage of the City Egg hunt and friends invited us over for their egg hunts. We're trying to think of creative ways to celebrate the true reason for the season. 

And of course, I had to make myself another dress. 

check out the actual pattern I used.

I look forward to posting the results of how awesome I do in my marathon in several weeks:)

Countdown to Christmas!

The holidays are so much more exciting with children!! Derek and I are so excited to celebrate Christmas this year, we cant wait to see Acalias' reaction to opening presents. In my excitement I set up the Christmas tree too early. It's been a constant battle to keep ornaments on the tree, Acalias thinks that they are balls that he can play fetch with.  The top of the tree is cluttered with ornaments in our attempt to avoid making them accessible for a toddler. Next year I will not put up the tree until the second week of December.

Acalias loves story time at the library. He loves singing the peanut butter song most, he spins his little body in circles once we start singing. He loves the musical instruments that they allow him to play with. I think he might me musically inclined. I don't know where he got that from, definitely not me!

This week was extra special because Santa brought presents and visited with us.

Acalias was excited for the presents so he tried pulling Derek towards Santa while the other children were a bit apprehensive to visit with him. 

Acalias was so serious. We couldn't get him to smile for anything.

Not even when Santa tried to tickle him...this picture is kinda awkward.

I guess I should be happy that he looked at the camera right?

I'll have to dig up some of my old Santa pictures I was just as serious.

La Obra Del Senior

Too many of us forget the real reason for this season. I have wonderful memories as a missionary, Christmas time was among the most memorable because I was so close to the Lord as his servant.

A photo shoot with the Elders in Bridgeport/Clarksburg area...

I love this primary song, I always feel the spirit when I hear it.

I hope that my son will have the same amazing experiences

that I had as a missionary too.

We have two sets of Elders in our area,

a set of bike Elders in Clarksburg and the District Leaders here in Bridgeport.

 I asked the Elders to each bring something to personalize their photos.

Gotta love the flag, this logo is everywhere in this state.

Everyone loves WVU.

Choose The Right!

Elder Mechm has served in the two areas that we have lived in (White Sulpher & Bridgeport),

he is a happy Elder and it is rare to not see him smiling.

Smiling is contagious so it's hard to be upset when he's around.

Before my mission my brother would leave me post-it note in random spots where he knew where I would find them. The notes always said the same thing "Practice smiling, you'll need to have one on your face at all times when you are a missionary". My big brother has always given me advice that linger long after it's given.

Elder Moreang, my Polynesian brother.

He can get Acalias to laugh so hard, maybe he reminds him of uncle Stevey.

We've been spoiling him with some Polynesian food. I was lucky, I had access to plenty of Poly food on my mission...and it helps to know how to cook it.

Elder Mears, is quiet the jokester in case you can't already tell by his poses.

Elder Johnson didn't like taking pictures at all.

Hence, the lack of pictures of him.

My husband was the same way, he has a handful of pictures from his mission and he's not in most of them.

I hope their families enjoy their Christmas gifts,

the Elders wanted to send home a current portrait of themselves.

Now that I'm a mother and return missionary, I would be thrilled to receive a picture of my son as missionary.

I look forward to watching Acalias grow up to become a missionary, for now I'm happy with this stage. He's a fun loving, energetic, super guapo (he struts around whenever I call him Guapo), little boy!

Not to mention, I love, LOVE his great big hugs that he gives so generously.

17 Months

We're loving all the curls on this little boys head. He has little streaks of blond highlights just like his daddy.

He can say: 

"Shoe"-"patos" (zapatos)

"Shhhhhh" with his finger up to his mouth

"Dank u" -thank you

He prefers to grab our hand and lead us around the house to point out things rather than talk.

"oh!" while wildly shaking his head to tell us no

He's got four molars coming in along with his K9's. He'll be 18 months soon, we are so excited to put him in primary so that we can enjoy lessons in church.

He has become picky with food textures. Most days he will happily eat raisins, yogurt, apple sauce, a variety of fruit , cereal and bread. On good days he will eat a few bits of chicken and pork. Don't let his size fool you, he is picky!

He loves this little car, he is so happy when I let him ride it outside. It has been a mild winter, so we've enjoyed playing outside.

He's a climber, my anxiety level has jumped a few notches since he started jumping off of furniture. 

He loves to sing, whenever we sing in church he tries to out-sing everyone around us and he is so loud! We love to hear his little voice. We've replaced story time before bed with singing primary hymns and Christmas songs.

He's still in the 95% for height and weight. 

We love him so much, we are so excited to celebrate Christimas with him this year!

November News

Derek completed his Surgery Rotation!

It  was really tense and really difficult to be positive while being yelled out all day for four weeks.

He starts his E.R Rotation on Monday and he is very excited for it.

I'm constantly playing referee, in this house it's Acalias vs.Skofield.

Guess it's preparation for what life will be like with a second child. Not going to happen for another 3 years!

Acalias believes that Skoey's toys are his, and he refuses to share his own toys. The other day Skofeild suddenly started going ballistic, when I came to check on them Acalias had put Skoeys toys into his toy which made it impossible for Skofeild to get back. Wish I caught it on tape, it was a ridiculous argument between the two.

Skofeild believes that whenever Acalias gets a treat, he merits one as well. He will chase Acalias around the house and nudge him and even eat food right out his hand. Drives me nuts but maybe Skoeys actions will help Acalias become a sharing person in the future. 

I registered for this this marathon on April 28, 2012!!!

Two days after I signed up for it, my treadmill  of 5 years died on me. Great....I felt so disheartened, it's been two weeks. I linked up with the local running group and have been running harder then I ever have (8:30 min/miles) in my life! Maybe it was a blessing in disguise, one of the runners said "I hope you don't take offence to this but I'm glad that your treadmill broke down!". Everyone is super friendly, we meet at 4:50 am weekdays and 6:30am weekends. Crazy I know, I never thought I'd be running in freezing cold weather so early in the morning, but I've enjoyed it very much. I wear this headlamp and this reflective vest and Skofeild wears this! I'm confident that I will reach my goal of running the marathon in less than 5 hours this time around. 

Derek and I have decided that Heavenly Father created  toddlers extra cute because they get it to so much trouble. Just when I think that Acalias couldn't get any cuter he does. He also is into everything, he loves the drawers in the kitchen and bathroom. Just recently he has learned the discomforts of a poopy diaper. He will notify us of this by sticking  his finger in his diaper and shoving his finger along with it's bodily contents in our faces...gross! We love him though here are some recent fun clips of him.

Pucker lips!

It's been a Pumpkin bonanza in this household this month. We purchased a huge pumpkin that we never got around to carving so I steamed it and pureed it. We had 5 bags of it in the freezer so we've tried out these recipes and loved them: creamy pumpkin soup, low fat pumpkin bread with pepitas replaced the pepitas with mini chocolate chips, low fat pumpkin chocolate chip cookies,  pumpkin spiced oatmeal pecan cookies, crockpot turkey white bean pumpkin soup

I made my first dress! I've made skirts & shirts in the past but never anything that I really loved.  I purchased a bunch of patterns on sale and made this dress that I'm so excited about.

Pattern $3.59 +  1 1/2 yards fabric $7.58+ thread $2.99= $14.00 Sweet deal eh! 

No more coveting Kate Middleton, Alison Sweeney (Host for The Biggest Loser reality show), Kelli Williams (Dr. Gilllian Foster-Lie To Me cast member) Michelle Obama, Jackie Kennedy Onassis type dresses, I will create my own style with a vintage flare!

Halloween

This year we decided to be a family of clowns. I purchased the pattern and used some of the old sheets and pillowcases I had horded from the SWAP (an activity where you bring old things that you no longer use to swap with others) we had at our last ward activity. We also stopped by the thrift store to find colorful sheet sets, we lucked out and found an NFL team sheet and striped curtain sets. Overall we spent less than $20 and the majority went to bias tape, rick rack, hooks, zippers and elastic to make the costumes. Grandma Nativa spent a month with us so I convinced her to be a clown too!

I personalized each costume to fit our personalities, or better yet our hobbies and interests. Acalias is as cute as a button so I thought his costume could use some cute buttons. I'm the runner in the family so I placed a patch of a bugs bunny runner on my arm. Derek grew up in Michigan and attended many Lions games as a child, he still love's the team to this day. Grandma has 4 Great-grandchildren who she adores so she got four little hand buttons to represent each one of them.

The Halloween holiday was busy for us this year. It started off with Mother Goose time at the local library on Friday. I loved seeing all the other little kids in their costumes. Acalias enjoyed the snacks they offered, once he finished he found another child with a sucker and snatched it away from him. Goodness, my child is aggressive especially when he wants something. I'm working on correcting that, it's an ongoing process in our household.

Enjoying party snacks with great-grandma.

The sucker thief!

On Halloween day I participated in the Halloween Hustle 5k in Morgantown. We woke up to iced windshields and snow and I was not excited about the freezing cold temperatures. The race registration fee was donated to the Children's Museum and they encouraged us all to wear costumes. When we arrived, no one had on costumes so I decided to try to wear my poncho because it was pouring slushy snow. As more runners showed up in costume, I gave in and put on my clown costume.

The run went well. I enjoyed the challenge of running in costume and enduring the elements. It was  the coldest race I have ever run. I thought about running the Frozen Sasquatch 15 miler in January but running this race helped me visualize what running on an icy trail in freezing conditions would be like. No thank you! I'll pass on winter trail runs.

Before and After the race, I was soaking wet!

My #1 fan is clapping for me.

I ran the 5k in 24 minutes and placed 2nd in my age range. Acalias and I explored the Children's Museum while we waited for the other runners to finish.  I couldn't tear him away from the kitchen area, he loved it.

He also enjoyed the tools.

When we returned home, I threw my costume in the wash and prepared several dishes for the ward party. I was in charge of the doughnut on a string game so I sent Derek to pick up my order of 5 dozen doughnuts. I painted grandma's face and she laughed throughout the entire process. This year was the first time she had ever dressed in costume to celebrate Halloween.

Starting with the cutest clown of the pack, Acalias 16-months-old. 

He wasn't a big fan of the wig.

The family.

OK so we're not the greatest at applying clown make-up. 

All the primary children were so afraid of us! 

side note: I made my pant legs short on purpose because I didn't want them dragging on the ground when I ran my race.

Yup, this is my hair. I sprayed it with a lot of paint spray. 

Thank goodness I didn't have a problem washing it out. 

Grandma Nativa

Trunk-or-treat, ate the candy as he received it. 

Halfway through the party we washed our make up off. 

It was thick and uncomfortable on our faces. 

On the way home.

A walk with Skoey in his costume.

Our failed attempt to take a family picture with the dog...hey at least we tried. 

We've already got next years theme and costumes picked out for next year!

We love Halloween.