Gage as an almost 4 year old.

Gage has been saying hilarious things lately.

• Beavers 

"Mom I have a beaver in my armpit."
Me: Oh?

"And Grandma stuck a pokey thing in it to take my beaver out.  She was trying to take my                     beaver out of my bones and it hurt."
Pretty sure he was referring to when he had a fever while staying with Grandma Colette. She had mentioned that he screamed like crazy when she tried to take his temperature under his arm. :) Well no wonder he screamed, he thought a beaver was being pulled out of his bones from under his arm! I would probably scream too.

• Freckles

 Yesterday I took him grocery shopping and we picked out some yogurt covered pretzels for a lunch treat.  He was so excited because "Freckles are so yummy!"  And each day at lunch he says: "I ate my sammich and carrot.  Now you need to give me a freckle Mamma." I never correct him.

• Mexican Bingo 

When Naomi leaves for school after lunch, I make it a point to play with Gage for 5 minutes very first thing. I let him pick. Usually he picks wrestling, but the last two days he insisted on "Mexican Bingo!  He corrects my Spanish of all the items I read.  And when a card is drawn that is on his card, he does a little dance in a circle while singing: "Oh ya, Oh ya! boooyah!."  He asks me to play all afternoon. So I set a timer and he has to let me work for 30 minutes in between Mexican Bingo games.

• De-baby-fying is hard.

Gage is a pretty big baby, but we are trying to help him overcome that by following through more when we ask him to help out around the house. Its pretty funny to watch him wail and cry and act like a single sock weighs 100lbs and "It's too heaby for me."  He is dead serious.

• Baths.

So never has a child loved water so much I do believe EVER.  He is always always wanting to take a bath. Then he plays in the tub for about an hour each time. Sometimes more.  Every once in awhile he'll  get away with taking 3 baths in a day. Today, one of his siblings wet the bed and Gage woke up to discover someone was bathing without him! ( betrayed)   But we were trying to get family scriptures and breakfast started, so we told him he couldn't take a bath. Next thing we know, he was back in our room, claiming he  "Peeded da bed." Yep he had.  He had gone back to bed, pretended to be asleep and peed, just so he could take a bath! He's crazy!

•  He asks me often: "When do I get my own phone?"

• HUMANS

Finally, Gage takes a lot about "humans."  If you ask him about a movie he'll say: "Aaand there was a lot of humans in this one." Or if you ask him what he is playing: "I'm playing humans and horsey's."

• TUMBLY

When Gage is hungry which is often. He comes and dramatically lays by me and then proclaims: "Oh my tummy is rumbly."

Faith of a child

Tonight after singing lots of primary songs to put Naomi to sleep, I thought she was asleep but then she cracked her eyes open and asked me a question that has never cross my mind ever: "Mom does Jesus like to sing?"

Not sure how to put it to words exactly why this was a special moment. It surprised me. Maybe because the absolute pure faith of a child. She is not even questioning the reality of Jesus Christ, he is simply alive and real. No question. Or maybe it was because it's her wanting to know him better.

Well anyway, I told her I think he does. Or at least I am sure he loves music. Which she stated: "Yes he loves it best when the children sing."

Easter 2014

 I took our traditional white rocking chair pictures before church and you know me, I can't choose. So here's a bunch. I love them all for each different expression.

 So without realizing, it this the the 3rd year I've purchased almost the exact same ties for the boys.

Maybe next year I'll step out of my box a bit. 

Cache got his first real non-clip on tie.

Pre-Easter happenings.

 Cache colored this egg for me! Here are the 3 sides with his message...

 Blueberry dyed egg.. pretty cool.

We had a really sweet Easter this year. Its beginning to be my favorite holiday.  Maybe its' coming off a dark cold winter and arriving at spring and Easter. Maybe it's as I get older and experience a bit more the sting of death and the hope that Easter symbolizes. I don't know but it's just got a sweetness  that no other holiday has for me. On Easter morning, when I wake up to the sun, I feel so happy and I want to whisper because it feels like such a special morning. haha! Anyway...

 The day before we went to our neighborhood Easter egg hunt. We had our friends (The Hunts) little girls with us that morning. So we marched five little kids down to the park for the hunt. It was awesome. Gage was in the 0-3 year old group so he was a giant among literally babies. He got tons and tons of candy since all the little babies didn't even know what was going on. Hilarious. I love having a park right in the middle of our neighborhood. Everyone we go to school with and church or live next to was there. Just a fun gathering place. I call it our "neighborhood living room." 

Sunday we had early church so we had an even earlier Easter egg hunt Sunday morning. The bunny hid all the candy in the basement. We ate boiled eggs and chocolate bunnies for breakfast. After church we ate all the chocolate in the house and napped. Then we headed over to the Whilkensen's,  our neighbors for Easter dinner. Melissa and Brett Peirce and kids also. (Another friend of ours who are house sitting for parents that are in Japan on a mission.)   Combined we had 11 kids at dinner and they played the entire time and didn't even fuss. Easter miracle. Us adults sat and talked for over 4 hours at the table. Love evenings that turn out like that! Beautiful day and evening. Love me some Easter

San Fran

Our trip to San Francisco was so lovely. Devin had a continuing education seminar there, so he was in class during the day and joined us at night.

A little trip synopsis:

Wednesday night :

• Left home at 6:15pm. 
• Arrived in Reno around midnight. 
• Transferred 3 little sleeping Ortons into one double bed!

Thursday:

• Ate a Continental breakfast at our cheap  economy motel. It offered toast. That's its. OH and milk from the jug that you shared with all the other truckers staying there.  Uuuh. No matter we are too excited to get on the road!
• Pretty drive through the mountains.
• Arrive in Sanfrancisco at lunch-ish time. Headed straight to Pier 39.  
• Lunch at Fog Harbor Fish House. We meant to go find a little chowder house. This was much fancier, and even saw a couple get engaged... but we were too hungry to leave. It had an amazing view of Alcatraz as we ate.  Super good Clam chowder and sourdough bowls!  
• Shopped all the little shops and repeated a million times. "Ner touch pas!" (don't touch that!)
• Road the 2 story carousel 
• Bought salt water taffy. Gotta do it! 
• Walked the pier and watched the boats and the wild sea lions and seals that are just there hanging out!
• Checked in to our hotel and swam. Happy to find out we could lay in our bed and watch the bay out our window as well as airplanes landing and taking off across the bay! A little boys dream.

Above: "Best clam chowder in San Francisco." Devin kept commenting. (It said that on the menu.) 

Below: Please please be good  this meal.  Pleease. You wouldn't believe the things they come up with in restaurant these 3. 

View of Alcatraz:

Cache trying to look pimp on a carousel...

Devin on his trusty sea lion!!

Those brown blobs are sea lions.

Look at that man's dreads behind Gage! Totally sweet.

 Warning to Cache's future wife: Feed Cache on time. You'll regret it.

We fed Cache 20 minutes too late. We lost him.

Right after lunch. Cache came back to us. :) 

Alcatraz

I obviously took a ton of pictures that day, being overwhelmed with the prettiness... 

Friday:

• Devin attends conference. The kids and I take it reaaal easy getting ready and watching cartoons.
• Lunch at my cousin Cherisse's home in Menlo Park. My kids first time meeting Lucy and they have a BAJILLION questions, about how Lucy does this and does that . And "How come she is so lucky and gets to sleep in the kitchen on pink princess bed?" 
• Watch Frozen and play princesses with Lucy. Gage made quick friends with my other cousin Alisa's little girl Kaelyn. I got caught up on Melanie's(my other cousin who was also there) new boyfriend. :)
• Picked up Devin and headed to the Golden Gate bridge! So amazing at night to see the city.
• Ghiradelli Square for dinner and dessert. Chocolate factory...  oh man. 

Kaelyn and G. racing cars down Lucy's wheel chair ramp.

Lucy would give directions and Naomi would dress the princesses. 

I wish they could hang out more. 

View of the city from the bridge!

Dallin and Cache are related.

Alisa said that this was a picture we had to take. Gage was feelin the love too!

Everytime we tried to take a couples pic... Gage thought he needed to be part of it. 

My hair at the beginning compared to the end of each day. Frizz city.

Saturday

• Morning walk on the path that surrounds the bay in front of our hotel. 
• Load the kids up by myself and head to Half Moon bay to check out the tide pools! I was IN HEAVEN on that drive and planned my next trip to San Fran. Gorgeous.
• The kids found hermit crabs and saw more sea lions just there hanging out on rocks. I LOVE my children on a beach. They are completely enchanted and I am totally happy.
• Toured Standford campus. Standford= amazing. 
• Picked up Devin and went on another beautiful drive to the Ritz Carlton beach
• Ate pizza on the Golfcourse overlooking the sea cliffs and the beach at sunset... amazing San Fran pizza. (Thanks to Chad and Cherisse) and butterscotch rootbeer.
• played at the beach till the last drop of daylight.
• Walked over to the Ritz and ate their gourmet s'mores on their fire pits overlooking the ocean.
• The most picturesque night!

What these pictures don't tell: Naomi cried very hard when she realized  that she was wearing pants that were. "Not even pink or purple and look like boys."
 She kinda totally lost it and pushed Gage down who hit his head on a tree. I held him till he stopped crying, then put him down. He promptly walked over to the now calm Naomi and punched her right in the nose. Picked both criers up and headed to the beach with Gage yelling: "I HATE da BEEEEACH!"
Over and over, Naomi wailing, and Cache just groaning  "Can't we just go back to the hotel?"
We had to cross a small river in flip flops with all our bags and babies. Stubbed my toe on a rock and almost dropped my camera in the river.  Set Gage and Naomi down and as soon as they saw the ocean they flipped a switch and were completely happy! It was almost like magic. AAh we made it.
 Oh wait for it Amie...
They all stripped their shoes and socks off, and declared they needed to go to the bathroom.
All 3 of them.
NOW.
Which is up by the car. Ya know, just across the river and up the rocky hill.  And the two babies are crying again because they are gonna have an accident, and Cache bolts off because he doesn't think he needs a mama anymore. Never mind the busy parking lot and weirdos hanging around the men's bathroom. So I join in the yelling  "Get back here mister! NOW!"
It was pretty much an awesome time.  But really the time we had after that was peaceful and fun, and worth all that chaos.

True to form, he fell down on the rocks a LOT.

SEA LIONS in the distance. Camera didn't catch it well.

 

Putting snails on each others feet and laughing. :)

Standford University.

Dallin told me every historical fact of Standford. At first I thought he must have learned this in school. Then I noticed him non-chalantly reading the plaques when he thought no one was watching and then regurgitating it to me! Still impressive that he memorized the stories that fast. Hilarious boy.

He fell down and scraped his knee of course.  I-phones and snacks make it better.

A really cute moment that happened as we were touring the grounds and these two girls discovered that they had the same middle name.  Naomi found this beautiful white flower and skipped over and gave  it to Jocey. 

Jocey: Thank you Naomi! My middle name actually means white flower!

Naomi: (Looking a little disappointed) "OH, my middle name is just Titaua." 

Jocey finally got Naomi to understand that they had the same name, they hugged. 

Our two little beautiful Titaua's with Titauas on their heads! ha. Grandma would be so proud.

Then... some passer by-ers that didn't speak a word of English except "Chee for Pichuu"  needed a "pichu" with our girls? haha! 

Standford's driveway.

The Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay.

Lucy's cute hand.

Lucy wanted to touch the sand. :)

These next 3 pictures I didn't take. But they are not an exaggeration at all of the beauty of that place.
Truly breath taking. Devin and I made a mental note to spend one of our future anniversaries here. :) 

Sunday: Breakfast at our hotel and one last walk on the bay.

Drove 10 hours home. Got food poisoning at Subway......so glad to be home. Been doing laundry ever since.

My highlight was definitely our last night on the beach. It was just so beautiful and the warm sea breeze blowing.  Watching Chad dance with Lucy in his arms on the beach. Visiting with Cherisse while our kids perfectly paired off, and played with Devin in the waves. Cherisse is an amazing girl, and even more amazing mother. One of my hero's and I just love every minute I get to be around her.

I wrote down a few funny quotes from my kids who were possibly even more excited than me to be there:

"What language do they speak here in California?" -Naomi

"I can't believe we are in California. This is like the MOST famous place in the world." -Cache.

Several times I would hear them say: "I can' believe we are in California." 

Yay for family vacations and memories made.