Thomas Robert Pahulu, "4th baby"

Before Tommy was born and we didn't know what his name would be, Lauryn would bring home things she made him at school addressed "To: 4th baby". I don't know why, but I thought this was so cute and funny. It seems like each of our  children has joined the world pretty much in the fashion that they live in the world. Lauryn- slow, steady, a lot of pushing but little pain; Annie- fast and furious, completely on her terms; and Keleni- easy, peaceful, happy, with just a touch of fury. Thomas seems to follow this same pattern. My labor went pretty seamless, but then he had to stay in the NICU for a week because he couldn't keep his oxygen levels up. (Don't worry, he is completely healthy now). For the most part, he is a really easy baby. He sleeps pretty well and is pretty happy, but then every once in a while he gets a little difficult. Really he just likes to be held, so it doesn't seem fair to blame him. Unfortunately, I don't usually have two free arms to hold him, or even one free arm for that matter! I am pretty happy to let other things slide and snuggle this boy as much as I can, though! He is about as sweet as they come and we are all 100% smitten with him. Just see for yourself.

Summer fun

Here are some pix from our summer so far.

Soccer for Lauryn:

Sunday walk ( or ride :) ):

Father's Day (Lauryn had just eaten a ring pop):

Picnic at the park and trip to the Aviary with friends:

Birthday celebrations for Aunt Kalo and me:

Backyard play time:

Resting whenever we get the chance!

Halloween

Are you completely shocked that I'm actually posting on here? I guess that's what happens when you are up at 3 am holding a teething baby and you are tired of playing Temple Run. Instead of catching upon the last 5 months right now, how about some Halloween pix?

Family vacation

In the beginning of May, we took a little family vacation to Phoenix. We had decided we wanted to do one, but we had the hardest time deciding where we wanted to go. Every time we ran into what I called the "vacation escalation" cycle. It went something like this: Let's just go somewhere close, maybe St. George. But if we're taking vacation time, we should make it worthwhile, so let's go a bit farther, how about Phoenix. Well, if we are going to drive for 11 hours, let's just drive 12 hours and go to San Diego. But, if we're driving all the way to San Diego, we better go to Sea World, and the zoo, and maybe Legoland, or even Disneyland. But if we're going to spend that much on a vacation, we should use it to go see our family in Florida. But we can't afford to go to Florida right now. Let's just do something close then, what about St. George? And so we literally decided where we were going about 36 hours before we got in the car. Phoenix finally won out mostly because of the hotel. We stayed at this resort and ended up having so much fun. Even the drive was pretty fun. I know I brag on him a lot, but I just have to mention that during the 22+ total hours we were in the car, Keleni cried for maybe 1 hour total. During our trip we swam a ton, went to the children's museum, went shopping, and went to a train park. It was the first real family vacation where we haven't been visiting relatives and we really had a wonderful time.

Catch up- March

Annie turned three in March. She had been telling me for weeks that she wanted a minnie mouse cake and then two days before her birthday switched it to a swiper the Fox cake. Not Dora, just Swiper. Three is a great age for birthdays, and she was super super excited about every present she got. Annie is such a special girl. Everyday she makes Paul and I laugh with something she has said or done. My brother Travis put it this way, Annie has a song playing in her head that only she can hear and it makes her happy. I love being her mom and getting to share in this song sometimes. The pictures below are not in any kind of order. Some are from Annie's birthday and others are just cute pictures from March