A mini-photo shoot of Janie

When Janie was 7 months old, my friend Monica snapped a few photos of her.  Here are a few!  Love this smiley girl.

Janie: 8 & 9 months

Third child means you don’t get quite the blog updates as your older brothers.  Sorry lady.

We sure do love this happy little thing.  She’s getting so big – we’re loving watching her personality develop.  Here’s what she’s up to:

- While we were in Hawaii, she started crawling.  She took a few “crawls” right before we left but was absolutely everywhere when we got back.

- I thought having her mobile would be hard but it’s easier!  She’s much happier being able to explore.

- She is a water baby.  She LOVES any type of water activity.

- No teeth.

- Her hair is really getting longer and thicker. 

- She gives the best hugs.  She wraps her arms tight, all the way around your neck and just squeezes and smiles.

- She can also give big, slobbery kisses.

- Sleep?  Not too bad.  She goes down easily for 2 naps a day and sleeps through the night a few times a week.

- She loves to eat.  We’ve discovered she needs a 4th meal before bed.  She sometimes eats baby food and then an hour later will down an entire Café Rio kids quesadilla. 

- She’s in the 90%+ for everything.  Her head is actually off the charts.  I’m supposed to get an ultrasound done on it to make sure the vessels are okay.

- She is so lucky to have 2 big brothers.  They adore her and are so helpful.  Having a baby with big kids around is much easier!

- When she wakes up, there are times when she will stay happy playing in there for quite a while. She loves her elephant and her fox.

- There’s something about knowing that she is our last child.  We’re just enjoying it all. 

 

 

4th of July at the cabin 2014

We took a red-eye home from Hawaii and arrived home on Thursday.  Talk about being out of whack.  But I just couldn’t miss a 4th of July at the cabin.  Wes happily stayed in Vegas with Janie and the boys and I picked up Aunt Sam & Katelyn and drove to the cabin on July 4th. {festivities there are always on a Saturday}. 

I’m glad we did.  Saturday was a fun day.  The boys played with their cousins & decorated the cabin car for the parade.  Then my mom started what may be a yearly tradition and had 40+ people over for a BBQ before the parade.  The Earl clan, Weidauer clan & Will Stewart clan came over to our cabin for dinner.  It was pretty fun!  The kids ate and then left to go exploring.  One thing to remember is when my mom made all of us stand on the back deck and recite the pledge of allegiance.  I sure do love my mother.

And then the looked-forward to parade.  Kids love it.  And my parents are troopers.

So glad to live in America.  And so glad to have the cabin for my kids to grow up with such wonderful memories.

This was a favorite moment of mine.  Abbers celebrating the 4th of July with her Canada sweatshirt and Union Jack boots.

Maui 2014

Oh, Maui.  I miss you already.

Wes and I usually go to Hawaii alone, but with Janie still being so little we decided to take the boys this year.  It was a great opportunity to have some fun with them without a baby around and made it much easier on my parents to just have one kiddo to take care of.

We had a great week relaxing, swimming, water-sliding, boogie-boarding, Ululani Shaved-Ice Eating, snorkeling, hot-tubbing, driving in our Jeep, eating, drinks by the pool, digging in the sand, jumping through the waves, enjoying miraculous views, hiking & enjoying the company of family and friends.

One of the best parts of our trip was that Aunt Sam was there for part of it!  She had already planned a trip with her friend Trina so she stayed an extra 4 days to spend time with us in Maui.  Sam & I have fond memories of trips to Hawaii growing up so it was fun to be there again!  We had lots of beach time, pool time & food time with Aunt Sam.  And she introduced us to the BEST.SHAVED.ICE.EVER at Ululani’s.  Wes and I were invited to a dinner with Wes boss/friend & two board members and their wives.  It ended up being a night where Sam was there so she took the boys while we went to a nice dinner.

We drove to the other side of the island with Aunt Sam to go to Lahaina.  She had already been shopping there so she basically just told me what I needed to get!  It was perfect.

I also turned 33 in Maui.  Doesn’t get much better than a Maui birthday.  My request was a little rubber rafting trip on the ocean to start our day.  Birthday luck was with us – we had the entire boat to ourselves with Captain Joe!  He started our journey up the island coast looking at really neat lava rock formations.  I always love being out on the ocean.  The waves were pretty big {up to 6 feet} so we had a pretty good ride.  I sat on the edge and held on to a rope!

Captain Joe took us to a cove where, if you’re lucky, you can see dolphins.  Birthday luck struck again.  There were lots of dolphins and they even put on a little show for us!

We got to jump in the ocean and snorkel a few times. The boys weren’t too sure about this part.  They jumped in and tried it but didn’t love having fish so close to them and they never quite mastered the mask.  But they had fun swimming around or watching.  The second snorkeling stop had the prettiest water.  It was this bright cobalt blue – I’d never seen anything like it!

I loved, loved, loved our boat trip!

The boys had such a blast at the hotel.  The Fairmont Kai Lani is a beautiful hotel with a great pool right on the beach.  Once the boys got a feel for where everything was they kind of just went where they wanted to go, made new friends at the pool, etc.  I’m always amazed at the fact that the beach never gets old.

When we first got married, Wes did not appreciate lounging poolside.  He definitely appreciates it now!  At least for an hour or two with a drink in hand.  One of my favorite things about this hotel is that they come around with cold eucalyptus or lemon towels to cool you off, cold pineapple slices, etc.  It’s the ultimate service!

We adopted the Johnson family tradition of these absolutely delicious macadamia nut cinnamon rolls after church.

One day we did walk along the coastline to one of my favorite hotel pools of all time – The Grand Wailea.  We ate lunch there.  Our server thought we said chocolate banana shakes instead of coconut banana shakes.  He let us keep the chocolate ones and they were delicious!  He started a new Hawaii favorite for me.  The boys and I snuck on the little water slides {they are strict with their wristbands} and then we walked back to the Fairmont.  This is our view as we walked.

Near the end I was feeling the urge for an adventure.  That’s one thing that’s a little more challenging when you bring kids – most activities don’t allow 4 year olds.  But I dragged Wes to the car and we drove to the other side of the island to Paia . . . and then to mile marker 2 on the Road to Hana where we stopped at the Twin Falls hike & did a little exploring.  The bamboo forest was really neat and Nate absolutely loved hiking down to the streams and waterfalls.  Near the end he stepped down and his leg basically sank in mud and he lost his shoe!  Luckily he dug it out.

Poor Ryan was so tired from playing so hard. Wes took the boys up to the room a couple of times to take a little rest but Ryan really was a trooper.  For a kid who never falls asleep, we had record occasions of random sleeping going on.

We had a fabulous vacation – can’t wait until 2015.  On our way out of town, we stopped by Ululani’s in Kihei for one final shaved ice. 

We took the red-eye home so we could have an extra day in Maui.  I ended up being the exhausted one.  The boys slept but not me!  This trip is made possible from Wes’ great company.  He has pretty great bosses that take a few of us to Maui and it’s such a nice perk.