And This is Why

Life is so sweet. Having 2 kids 14 months apart...well, yes, we buy a lot of diapers, and it has it's hard moments for sure. The first three months were especially hard. But my mom who has experienced it firsthand (me and my older sis) PROMISED me that it would be WORTH IT! I didn't expect it to be paying off quite so soon, but of course I am not complaining. Annaliese has always been a bit more on the serious side and doesn't laugh easily. Enter Kalia. She gets Annaliese laughing without hardly trying. (There is a little bullying starting to happen though, and you can see it all here: (pardon the tub nudity. That's why the blog's private.)

My life just got a whole lot easier. Kalia isn't as needy anymore because she's busy entertaining Annaliese!! YESSSSS!!! And Annaliese adores Kalia. It is so neat to see the sibling relationship developing. I didn't realize how strong that bond could be. It's beautiful.

On another note, Kalia has these random days where she refuses to nap. She's not even two til August. Isn't she too young for this? Somedays she'll fall right asleep (usually if I put her down by 11 a.m.) but other days she will seriously stay awake playing in her crib for HOURS. (One day it was FIVE HOURS and she never fell asleep. I had to change her diaper twice and take her in food and water because I was worried about leaving her there that long). Samuel told me to just appreciate my free time. But really, we're all happier if she's had a nap. When did your kids give up naps, and is there anything I can do (aside from putting her back on the bottle!) to keep her napping a little longer?

FOR SALE

If anyone is interested, I bought a huge lot of the following and have extra to sell:

1. Tickets to WICKED in Tempe, Arizona on July 11th at 7:30 p.m. I have 8 close seats ($90) and 6 far seats ($40) and will sell to friends before distant relatives. :) I realize that there are only a handful of you in Arizona anyway.

2. Foam Soap Dispensers: I have about 14 of these, they make your soap/shampoo/dishsoap/babywash last FOREVER. You add a couple of tablespoons of soap, then fill the rest up with water and you get a great foam. I just started using mine and I love them! These are $1.00 each, plus shipping if you need it shipped (shouldn't be much, they are plastic and not too heavy.)

Leave a comment or email me if you'd like any of these.

Hawaii

Samuel catches a wave at Sandy Beach

We had such a great time. The weather was beautiful! Samuel and his buddy did a ton of business meetings and they were successful, so there will probably be a lot more trips out there. Yay! By the way, I got my first spray tan (liked it) and bikini wax (didn't hurt as bad as I thought) before I left. That was an adventure. Just a note for the future- Don't do them both in the same day.

A Waikiki Sunset

Makapuu

It was so nice to have time for just US!! It felt like we were just married. And I mean it literally...It was the weirdest twilight zone/Deja Vou thing that I've ever experienced. We went to all our favorite beaches, restaurants, stores, and our old ward. It was like we'd never left (and never had kids) and it was trippin me out.

Just more pictures of us doing the same old thing...standing there smiling...

We were so happy to meet all our friends for dinner. They just made us want to move back. This was our favorite Thai restaurant of all time, just one of those tiny little hidden gems on a side street.

At one random moment we were at the Makapuu lookout and some local guy just pulls out his parachute, catches a breeze, and jumps off the cliff! It was so cool to see. I thought he was going to land in the water (and drown with those heavy clothes and parachute) but he skillfully manuvered to a rock. It looked so fun...I'd love to try it.

Anyway, I don't know what was the best part: Not having to be a mom for 5 days, sleeping 10 hours at night, or soaking up the sun and swimming in that perfect water. It was as wonderful as it sounds and now I have feel like my energy and my patience has been renewed.

I was wondering what kind of reaction the girls would have when we picked them up in St. George. Annaliese (who looked a whole month older somehow) gave us a huge smile and lots of kicking action (whew! She didn't forget us!) and Kalia just froze for a minute before she ran over to us and jumped on us. Then all that night she kept running up to me saying, "I miss you!" and then she'd give me a hug and run off- I think she did it about 6 times. Maybe she really knows what that means...I don't know. It sure made me feel good though. Kalia learned how to roll her tongue, (well, more like vibrate her tongue, you know, like you roll the RR in Spanish) and has been making me laugh all day with her new skill. She also has a way better tan than I do. No fair.
:)

My camera completely quit working on the second to last day. I just ordered 3 different ones to try out. You'll have to help me choose which one takes the best pictures and video.

Finally, a Vacation

Tonight Samuel and I will catch the red-eye flight....it's our first CHILDLESS VACATION since we've been married. And yes, we are excited! It's part-business, which is actually a blessing because we don't have to pay for a hotel or Samuel's flight...just my flight. And we're headed back to our "home away from home"--OAHU!

My mom (and family) is watching the kids in St. George. I already miss them! I hope they are good, healthy, sleep through the night, etc. etc. etc. They'll never know we're gone, right? (!!)

Most of you know, but for those who don't, Samuel and I met in Honolulu (and our first date was on Memorial day, so it's fitting that we'll be there that weekend). He was working in Honolulu and I went there to do a 3-month internship at the Shriners Hospital for Children. By the end of the 3 months we were engaged, 5 months later married, and then we ended up living there for 3 years (and Kalia was born there, which is why she has a Hawaiian name). We have been missing it so much, and all our friends there, and we can't WAIT to see them all again!

Above picture was taken on a Black Sand beach on Maui, off the Road to Hana

Change (in this case) is definitely good.

I love books. I always tell Samuel that if he wants me to change something, that he shouldn't try to talk to me about it himself. I learn and apply things a million times better if I read it in a book (preferably a book with good reviews on amazon.com.) ;)

I've also always admired my friends who are health conscious. I love that Crystal makes her own cream of chicken soup, and Emma buys meat without any hormones, and Kat avoids hydrogenated oils and bleached flour. But I have always been too lazy to do the same.

I SERIOUSLY don't know what's come over me, but something major has changed inside me. I feel like a different person (and Samuel says sometimes he doesn't even know who this person is that he's married to...regarding my new attitude towards health and wellness.)

Maybe it's because of the great library system out here in Vegas, (you just request a book online and they ship it on over to your closest library, and then they e-mail you to tell you to come and pick it up.) But thanks to this system, I've been able to get my hands on lots of great books, and my let's just say I'VE SEEN THE LIGHT! The first set of books that really got me to change, were the books by David inczenko....called Eat This, Not That. Maybe it's the pictures, or all the little details about the foods that are in them, but that info just sunk in. Then I read parts of Suzanne Somers book, Breakthrough
She had interviews from lots of doctors, and I was surprised at how much I learned, especially about MSG (monosodium glutamate), as well as the water quality of my tap water and showers.

Anyway, after reading a few of these good books, it's like someone hit me over the head with a brick. All of a sudden I am dead-set on changing my ways. I am tired of being lazy and I don't want my health, or my family's health, to suffer because of it. I'm not going to go on and on about this, but I want you all to know that these are my new health and wellness commitments:

1. No Aspertame (Samuel has been drilling this into me for years, but now I'm with him.)
2. No MSG (this one was a tricky bugger, because I learned that even things that claim to have "NO MSG" actually have other (worse) forms of it, example: Autolyzed Yeast Extract.) I guess I am going to have to use more whole, natural foods and cook from scratch, because MSG in all its forms is in almost everything that is processed. And it goes beyond causing obesity, it is actually toxic for our brains. Yech.
3. Filtered Water in showers and drinking water (Did you know that the cholorine in tap water can increase cancer risk? I didn't know that til today.) Found a pretty good deal here.
4. No trans fats. They're just not necessary and they are so bad for you.
5. Lower sugar diet This one happened because we found that Samuel had EXTREMELY high triglycerides (3 different tests confirmed it.) They are linked to heart disease. So, with a little bit of proper eating (and I've had to be careful about what I buy at the store for him to eat) his triglycerides came back to normal. Still though...it was a wake up call. We thought we were too young to have to worry about that kind of stuff, but we were wrong.
6. Lower carb diet (mainly the unhealthy carbs, like from white flour.)
7. Hormone-free meat As much as possible. This one is going to be difficult because it's more expensive.
8. No more skipping breakfast, and include protein in your breakfast as much as possible, that actually boosts your metabolism for the rest of the day.

Now, we're not going to do all this overnight, I think it will be a gradual process. I know it's going to be hard, as major changes always are, so that's part of the reason I'm putting this out there. Accountability to people always helps. So these our my new goals and I'll let you know how we're feeling with this new...uh...lifestyle. And check out those books if you get a chance. Especially the Eat This Not That Books. I learned so many helpful little things from that book that I'd never even heard of before (ex: Cherries, Grapes, and Bananas all help you sleep better and are a good snack before bed.)

Who knows. Maybe I'll be able to give up cows milk and start recycling too. We'll see.

Why?

Today I am just wondering WHY men like to sit on the toilet for so long. I am not pointing fingers at anyone in particular, since I know quite a few men/boys of all ages who do this. I just can't believe how many men I know that will go to the bathroom, sit there, and read or play games on their phone for like, 45 minutes.

WHY DO THEY DO THIS?

If you HAVE 45 minutes to read or play games on a phone, why not go sit on a comfortable couch or better yet, sprawl out on your soft memory-foam bed? That hard plastic seat cannot be comfortable. I know from experience...IT'S NOT!

HOW LONG IS IT TAKING THEM TO ACTUALLY GO? And how much time is just spent...sitting there...killing time?

And they give us such a hard time for going to the bathroom in groups...or spending a whole 20 minutes in the bathroom to get ready. (Okay. Up to an hour sometimes when possible.)

But we're actually doing something productive.

I don't think there's a real answer to this particular "WHY" question that I have. Maybe I don't really want to know. I just think that it's so BAFFLING that males do this.

6 Months...Half a year...

I told you she had a nice mullet going on! It might be time for a little snippity snip.

Happy Half-birthday to my little Anna-leecee. Latest developments:

This month she started holding her own bottle and sitting up. She's started giggling a lot too. And she no longer needs to be swaddled when sleeping. Still as cuddly as ever, and her Daddy calls her Teddy Bear. It's the most fitting nickname...of all time. 'She still seems so YOUNG to me, and I love it. Because, as we mothers love to say, "Where did the time go?"

Weight: 17 lbs (75th percentile) and my arms are starting to get a little muscle back, packing her around all the time, just like this:

Look at the baby. I'm too tired to crop out the parts I'd rather you didn't stare at.

My girls have been sick today. Kalia has been sick all week. I took her to the doctor to give myself peace of mind that it's not swine flu. Long story shortened: It's not. Just the stomach flu. It breaks my heart when she asks so sweetly for food, and I have to tell her no- and she doesn't understand why. I tried to give her rice and applesauce, but they came back up every time. yech. Today Annaliese started. I washed sheets and babies (not together) so many times today, I lost count. Both girls drank Gatorade (G2) all day and loved it. I can't believe I fed my baby Gatorade all day. Oh well. She kept it down. That's all for now folks. I must go sleep.

He's Home!

Elder Eric Esplin returns after an honorable two-year mission to San Diego, California, Spanish-speaking. I tried to write him every week that he was gone, and so we are closer than ever. I have spent the last 5 days with him here in St. George.

My mom's reaction is pretty priceless. Kinda makes me cry. She went through a lot while my brother was gone...namely breast cancer, chemo, radiation, and surgery for a torn rotator cuff. But now she's good as new. And very happy to see her firstborn son.

Funny story- the day before he was coming home, my mom was near the park (it's basically our whole backyard) and a neighbor asked when Eric was coming home. My mom said something about her "firstborn son" coming home the next day. Then a little girl on the swings piped up and said, "I want to see the firstborn son!" Cute.

Life is good. :)