Our new home

This was the before pictures...so glad it doesn't look like this anymore.

Not that everything has its place yet but we're getting there. I can't wait til we are settled completely but even though we're not it feels like it's been our home for a while. We are so grateful for how God has provided this great little house that meets every last one of our needs.

 And part of the slow process of unpacking and getting things in their place is due to these cute, needy, sweet, emotional, fun girls.

 We even started painting. I only have a before but as you can see...not so pretty.

 We sort of live in the country but also in a neighborhood. The boys have loved the woods and nature and I have loved the seclusion of being out here but also having people right next door. The boys even brought home one of their finds (the turtle) while they were out exploring a little creek. They wanted so badly to keep it but I had to explain that it is wild and needed to stay outside.

 Since things were a bit crazy I didn't get their first day of school pics but a couple of days later remembered while we were pulling weeds...I mean having P.E. and snapped their pictures.

 And then the girls also had their first day of school for their brothers picture. Another thing I forgot to mention is that Ansley got her first haircut this summer. Not because I decided to finally cut her hair but because Ansley and her cousin found the scissors this summer and well...Ansley had fun cutting off long strands of her hair and this is how short I had to cut it to match the lengths all around.

And our first gardening in our new house. I'm loving the gardens and outdoor space here. Can't wait for the spring.

finally back!

Where to begin...we got to St. Louis, looked for housing for about 3 months while living with my parents, had 4 different contracts on houses, found one we saw in the very beginning and then came back to it, bought it, moved in, Jason started up his school year, we started homeschooling while trying to unpack. While unpacking I finally found the cord to my camera, downloaded my pictures (all 181) of them, got overwhelmed with where to begin, couldn't find the time to actually blog anything.

Now it's Friday night. I have a little bit of time to sit and think, so here we go...I think I will start with summer photos and eventually catch up to more recent things...

 Slip-n-sliding is always a fun summer activity...especially with cousins.

 Grant's Farm where they give innocent children little bottles of milk and tell them to go into the pen with cute little "baby" goats that appear to be starving. I have never seen so many crying and screaming children in all my life. These goats know where they get the milk and they will hoof and jump on legs to get it. Poor Jude was pinned up against a fence when I found him and he was in tears. So as you can see when I said "Jude pet the goat so I can get your picture", he was a little nervous.

 Part of the $5 summer pass was a "free" slushy. So the rest of our pictures of the kids from then on have bright red and blue lips. So lovely.

 My dad put the boys to work this summer by helping him dig out a trench for a new retaining wall. You would think they would have complained but the boys were having a blast. This was a highlight for Jude this summer.

 Look at my amazing tomato plants! This is when they were small. I'm not trying to brag it's just I tried to grow tomatoes in Hawaii and they never did much. So glad to be back in normal vegetable and plant growing soil and weather.

 We went blackberry picking and picked the sweetest most delicious blackberries I have ever tasted. This was before the 100 degree weather days that seemed to never end this summer. Thank goodness for AC.

 Our friends from Hawaii came to visit their parents and we got to hang out with them for a day. The boys were glad to see their buddy again. Tubing was a new experience for the boys and they still haven't stopped talking about it.

 Of course they were trying to knock each other off...such boys.

And my baby learned to walk this summer. I forgot about that until I looked back through my pics. Now it seems like she's walked for forever.

 Stay tuned...

long break

So many times I have thought to update the ol' blog or download some pictures....something. But here we are about 2 months later and I can't find my cord for my camera, so much has happened I don't know where to begin and things are a bit crazy so I haven't had much down time to even collect my thoughts to actually put something into a post.

All that to say I will try to give a quick run down. Hopefully my cord will reappear so I can put some pics on later.

We are staying with my parents right now as we continue to house hunt. We've had a few obstacles thrown our way for housing but we know God has something for us and his timing is perfect. We are still waiting for our things to get here via truck from LA. They are estimating/guessing it will finally get here this week.

We have done tons of St. Louis fun: swimming pool/water park fun, zoo, Grant's Farm, blackberry picking, lunch with friends, tubing on Lake St. Louis with friends, bowling, bike rides, ferry boat riding, Missouri Botanical Gardens, more swimming, playing in the sprinkler on those +100 degree days, playing with cousins, library summer reading program, and probably some things I'm forgetting...it definitely has not been dull.

It will be nice to get settled, find a church home and get connected....but at the same time it has been pretty fun living with family, sharing responsibilities, having built in playmates with cousins and always having someone around.

As the dust settles more, hopefully I'll get back to this bloggy thing. I want to keep our adventure journal going...

So long...

I'm leaving the islands and I will no longer be a resident of Hawaii. That's hard to say. The 3 little ones and I (with my mom) are flying out tonight and Jason and Ethan will follow in a couple of weeks. So long Hawaii...for now. I'm sure we'll be back to visit. What a journey it has been. Good-bye dear friends. We will miss you most!

St. Louis here we come...and the adventure continues...stay tuned!

1 year old

I can not believe our little Lainey-Lu is 1 today! It was kind of a busy day so we squeezed in a little party for her during lunch time. I didn't even get a chance to get her last picture by the bear to finish out all 12 months...maybe tomorrow. Things are a bit crazy here with packing, purging and saying our goodbyes. So as things settle down and I can get pictures from my moms camera (she's been taking a bunch of good ones) it might be a bit sparse on here. But here is what I got of Lainey's party.

I set her cupcake down in front of her and she dove right in.

 Then she had to think about it for a little bit.

 Then made her cute snort-face...

 and decided it was good enough to eat the crumbs off her tray.

 Oh Lainey girl we love you so much. What life and joy you have brought to our family.

 Here's big brother Jude helping her open her presents...

 so she could then eat the paper.

Lego 101

Jude has been teaching Ansley the art of Lego making... specifically Star Wars aircraft. Ansley has caught on and I find them these days enjoying Lego's together.

 Jude's Star Wars...robot...fighter...thingy.

 And Ansley's flying...window...racer....thingy.

 Here they are racing them to see whose is faster. Ansley cheated this particular time and won...Jude making sure I knew that for the picture.

tea party

The kid's neighbor friend was over the other day and they were all sitting around having a pretend tea party with their fake plastic food...Jude is such a good sport. Well I thought it would be fun to get out the porcelain Hummel set I got at the thrift store (for a $1) and have a real tea party. Not sure why I didn't move it to the table but it all worked out, even though it was on the floor. We had pineapple tea and chocolate teddy grahams. Can't wait to have more tea parties in the future!

Right when I said Jude smile for the picture, he turned to me and said "mom, I can see the bears belly button." And this is how boys do tea parties.

 Their good friend.

rewind just a bit

We're trying to squeeze in as much beach time as we can these days. My kids never tire of it and Lainey is just getting to the age where she's really starting to enjoy it. We had a playdate with a bunch of friends from church. My friend Ashely took these great pics because as always I didn't bring my camera. Thanks Ashley!

 She pointed out the sand hand print on my chest from Lainey. Too funny!

 Our next beach day was with Ashley and her kids again at these great tide pools....not here though. I had never been to this beach before and when I got there I saw these waves and those sharp jagged rocks. I was a little confused why everyone raved about how kid friendly this place was. Then Ashley called and said she was on the other side of this beach park...thank goodness. Still a beautiful place.

 This lady was painting it.

 Then we made it over to the side with these great smooth rocks for the kiddo's to climb all over and little shallow pools for the kids to jump in. They had so much fun!

 Lainey actually really enjoyed playing and chewing on this rock. This kid will try anything.

I still want to post our pics from Saturday night when my mom and the kiddo's and I went to the beach to watch the rise of the "supermoon" over the ocean. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!

instagram

My friend has this great app on her phone called instagram...and then sends me these great pics. Our little Lainey-Lu.

cacao

In Hawaii they pronounce it /cuh-cow'/ which is the plant we get our cocoa or chocolate from. My neighbor grows these in her backyard and brought these fruits over to us. So I was determined to make some chocolate. Once I researched it and realized I didn't have the equipment to make creamy chocolate, I decided I would settle on a coarse cocoa powder that I would add to smoothies for it's antioxidants.  

So here are the fruits. The flesh of the fruit (there's not much there) tasted sort of like mango.

Then we dried the beans for a few days until they turned a light brown. After that we roasted them in our oven until they started popping and smelling like chocolate.

 Once they cooled we removed the outer shell until you had just the nibs left.

And then I ground it up in my coffee bean grinder until we had this powder.