Big News!

God surprised us with one more, 

Help us welcome Baby 4!

Jackson and Max wanted another, 

But Thomas doesn't even know he's gonna be a big brother!

This photo was taken August 27th.  We were 8 weeks 3 days at that time and now we are at 13 weeks 5 days.  We are very happy to welcome baby 4.  We had not thought it would be so soon, but we trust the Lord with His plan for our family and we can't wait to meet baby.  Mom is hoping we can keep it a surprise this time.  Last chance at a surprise for us, unless God has some kind of crazy miracle planned!

First day of school!

August 4, 2014

I had been hemming and hawing about when I would be starting school with the boys.  The public schools here in Hawaii start really early, so when the kids went back to school all our summertime friends were no longer around during the day time.  So...  school for us too, although our days are still much shorter than the average public school day.

Jackson is 6 years old and will be 7 in October.  He is still of a mind that he wants to be a fire fighter who also owns a restaurant when he grows up.  He will work at the restaurant when he is not fire fighting.  I have no idea what he will plan on serving at said restaurant, as he is still a fairly picky eater.  He is floating somewhere amongst the grades, lol, as I think many homeschoolers do. 

Max turned 5 in May and he is officially in kindergarten.  In the short time we have been schooling I can see such big jumps from where he was last year, which is making our days so fun.  He is still a dreamer and easily distracted, but he gives us more laughs than we know what to do with.  

Last soccer game

Our last soccer game was August 29th.  The boys had a blast playing on this team.  Daddy helped quite a bit with coaching through the season.  

Unfortunately I did not think to check if my camera battery was charged and I did not get very many pictures before it died.  We had a little pizza party at the end of the game with trophies and cupcakes.  No pictures from that though:(

Hands in!!

Max, waiting for his turn for some playing time

I think they might be getting ready for a goal kick here.

First really good garden carrots

At the beginning of September I told the boys we needed to get out there and work in our little garden.  We had carrots that we had been leaving and leaving, making sure they got big enough.  The greens on carrot tops get crazy big, even when the carrots are very small.  Max really wanted to pluck them, so we did, and here is what we got.  They ended up being pretty tasty too.

Jackson the Tiger Cub Scout

Jackson has been participating in Cub Scouts for about a month now.  The day we bought the uniform was very exciting and of course, he put the whole thing on.  Handsome guy if I do say so myself.  

So far we have had a few den meetings and a couple pack meetings.  We have participated in a car wash to help fund the money to purchase a new Pinewood Derby car racing track.  And now we are on popcorn sales.  Meh.  Jackson does not even really seem to know what that is all about, lol, even though we have explained it to him.  We have been having a rather difficult time with the online sale site and tracking orders that come in under him.  Hopefully the popcorn we ordered for him tastes good!!  

We also went on a field trip to The Hawaiian Plantation Village last weekend, which was fun.  Hot, but fun.  We learned all about what an old Hawaiian sugarcane plantation looked and functioned like.  Jackson earned one of his badges for making the trip.

In a few weekends they have their first campout at a campsite on the North Shore of the island.  It is a family campout, but we are not sure yet if Thomas and I will join the boys.  

Thomas at 8 months

This guys is a really happy baby, especially when he is with Mom.  8 months has flown by already and he has brought us much joy.  Here is Thomas in a nutshell:

• He is sitting up on his own
• He crawls and goes from crawling to sitting and back again frequently
• The crawling was a half crawl, belly flop for most of the month of August, but on August 28th he really took off
• He still does not love the bottle, although we have had a little success with very watered down juice
• He still takes the soothie pacifier, mostly just to sleep
• He has two middle teeth on the bottom
• He can really laugh
• He has learned the art of the fake cough and pretty much crawls around doing it all day.
• he is eating all kinds of food, mostly table food.  He started turning his nose up at baby foods not too long ago and it is just easier to feed him from my plate.  He loves yogurt, cottage cheese, bananas, and bread. 
• he can still wear some six month clothes, but he is also in some nine months
• he is taking baths in the regular old tub.  He is slippery and slidy, but he seems to have a ton of fun in there. 
• He can finally pick up puffs in his own hands and get them into his mouth. Score!
• He loves his big brothers and they love him.  They have only had smiles for each other so far.
• Max can get a little over the top with him sometimes, so I have to watch those two, especially when Max is in a goofy mood.

Look at this big boy sitting up!

Who put his cape on backwards? 

Wearing Daddy's hat

Blue fluffy bums!!

Brother love

Cheese!

Working on crawling...

About to crawl off the couch!

More brother love

Recognize this outfit Auntie Cara???

Jackson's new piano!!

We have had the new piano for a while now, but I kept forgetting to take pictures of both the piano and Jackson playing.  But here he finally is!!  

He is quite the little pianist.  He seems to really enjoy it, as long as he is being challenged and either way, he is quite talented.  I hope he continues to want to play for a long time to come.