Hawaii 2011

Yes we went to Hawaii!! And it was wonderful, what else would you expect? We had the opportunity to visit our family in Maui. My sister in law, and her husband and 2 boys, live upcountry in Maui and we haven’t seen them in a very long time! Since before little boy number 2 in fact! Griffin is their newest he is about 7 weeks old now and growing like a weed! He is SO long! Well he’s just a big little baby :) Yes he has red hair too ( yes he is Native American) He is so precious! I was very curious to see how Maia interacted with Lincoln who is now 3 and then on the opposite end little Griffster. She did great! She tried to do whatever Link did, and he was really good about sharing his toys with her and helping her as she tried to be big like him! And Griff she didn’t care much at first until Jesse and I began to hold him, then she started paying more attention to him. She tried to take his soother when she thought we weren’t looking and would sit in his calming vibrations chair when he wasn’t in it. But she warmed up to him and by the end we could hold him without her trying to climb on top of him and she even kissed him on the head a few times.

LOVED the pool!!

On our first day there we walked around the hotel area to get the feel for where we were and such. We walked passed the pool and Maia ran right up to the edge! We caught her in time so she did no jump in but we let her dip her feet in the water (it was still to early to swim). After that anytime we she was outside she ran for the pool so after breakfast that day we suited up and lathered up the SPF and went for a swim! And just as we suspected she adored every single moment! She even made some friends with some other kids that were playing catch, she was watching them so intently they shared their water football with her. She may not be able to throw very far but she sure tried!

And what kid doesn’t like being thrown up and drop down into the water with daddy!? Cuz mine wanted to do it all day!! The beach was a little more intimidating to her but we got it down eventually.

This was her first reaction to the softer sand! She would not have anything to do with it.

but she didn’t mind walking closer to the water, as long as she had mommy’s hand! With all the different and new surfaces she walked on like cement to grass and grass to sand she was holding our hand a lot to make sure she was safe. It’s a great feeling to know you mean that much to someone, she wouldn’t do it without me. But that was only at first cuz once she got the hang of it much harder to stop her!

Here was her first encounter with Baby Griffin looked at him…then looked at me…looked back at him…then went back to playing blocks and trains with Linky.

           

But she also got a kick out of their screen door. She played with it for at least 30 minutes totally content by herself. Such a big Girl!

 

So we had lots of fun with family we also got to go to the beach, of course it IS Hawaii!!

Our footprints all in a row baby, mommy, daddy

Daddy and Maia swimmin in the ocean

  family at the beach

 

We got some nice sun and played in the water and even built a sand castle. It lasted only a little while but was fun.

 

  The beach sure is tiring!

It was pretty rough adjusting to the time change for her, good thing for melatonin! We all used it a couple times there and then once when we got home. Helped a lot! 4 hours time difference is a big deal when you’re little! Okay its kinda rough when you’re not little too :)

We were out there to visit family so it was so so so great to get to spend time with them! The weather was beautiful most of the time too we had like 2 days of rain which did mean our whale watching trip was cancelled due to bad water. Which is ok the ocean is scary enough don’t want to be on it when a storm is coming! We were able to see some whales from the beach and off the side of the road to Lahaina. I didn’t get super great photos though we were pretty far away :) But one day I’ll get a great whale photo you can count on it!

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We spent some time up at the Lavender fields some beautiful scenery and lavender everything in the gift shop! We tried lavender scones and both lavender lemonade and herbal tea. I almost got a lavender and dark chocolate bar but I was all lavendered out by then. There were these cool black flowers there too, I’ve never ever seen black flowers outside of the craft isle so that was really exciting to me!

Also our friends the Wongs happened to be in Maui the same time! It was great to catch up with them again!

Their daughter Cassidy is adorable :) She and Lincoln were like best friends! And she got along with Maia too! They are expecting a little boy this summer, we’re so excited for them!!

Well it was a great trip filled with family friends and great weather! Can’t wait to plan our next visit to the Islands, mostly because it will probably be when we’re all graduated from Palmer!

Road Trip

This was the weekend we were gonna be super busy! We planned our trip out to Dave’s wedding like this:

• Drive down through Kentucky and visit Nyree
• stay and play for a day celebrate Ny’s birthday
• Leave friday for DC Maia staying with the girls
• Saturday wedding + reception then turn around and 12hr drive back to KY!

We overall were preparing for about 40 hours in the car, but we were prepared with our books on CD and an emergency kit in the trunk. So we began our journey Wednesday after Jesse’s exam. We got on the road around 11am so we made it in time for dinner to Nyree’s. We haven’t seen them in over 2 years, before Jesse and I were engaged in fact. And it was our first time meeting Sayaka, she is only 6 months older than Maia they are about the same height have the same wispy brown curls and the same squishy cheeks!

  Uncle Jesse and his girls!

from left to right : Chie 10, Naomi 4, Maia 13 months, Saya 19 months, Senae 7

On thursday we had the whole day to hang out with the girlies because it was a snow day! There was a whole Inch and a half of snow on the ground! Gotta love Kentucky winter weather (we sure did!!). We played Just Dance on the Wii, Uncle Jesse is the dance master. I did alright its quite a workout all that dancing; it was super fun though! Then we had story time, which nearly lasted the entire weekend, Jesse as many of you know is a big fan of the Wheel of Time. It’s a great series I am nearly finished with it, it is currently 14 books long 1 more to go! We recommend to all our friends to read it! Anyway Jesse gradually told the girls the story of the first two books, Eye of the World and The Great Hunt. At every loll in action the girls would badger Jesse about hearing more of the story, they will probably end up reading it soon themselves. Jesse was even able to get some flashcard making in (he had an exam monday morning). That night we went to a Hibachi Grill/Sushi Bar/ Buffet for dinner it was fantastic! When we got home we got all the girls in bed and got our stuff together to prepare for our trip to DC starting the next day.

 

Come Friday morning the two big girls left for school (they only had a half day, but 2 snow days before that!) and when we got up to get ready it was just the two babies and Naomi to play with. We couldn’t help notice that something was different, the energy in the air felt almost colder as we got ready to go. I was telling Nyree about Maia’s routines and writing down both our cell numbers and emergency numbers just in case. During this time Maia was unbelievably clingy to both of us. Neither of us could leave her sight without a total melt down, which is really odd for her. We had things all ready to go and decided we should have a prayer before we left, especially because the forecast predicted some more snow on the east coast atop the frozen tundra they’d already received that week. As we knelt in prayer with Nyree I began to cry, and it wasn’t the usual warmth of the spirit that I felt, I felt unbelievably sad; as the prayer ended I could see the others felt something similar. So we began to chat about it; Nyree mentioned to us that’d she’d had a dream of calling my mom and talking to her about how she could get a flight to Nashville to come pick up Maia, because in her dream something had happened to us. That on top of the feelings we’d just felt and Maia acting so out of character we decided to think about this trip a little more thoroughly. Jesse and I excused ourselves to our room to discuss it, Maia cried the entire time, we looked up a weather map and called Dave about what the weather was actually looking like. A line from my Patriarchal Blessing came to my mind about how my very life may be protected as I follow the promptings of the spirit, as I shared this with my husband we decided in faith that we should not make the drive out to DC.Once we decided to stay put and have some more family time the whole spirit of the home returned to a warm happy one. We are so grateful for the blessing of personal revelation. You can read more about our belief in revelation here.  That Friday also happened to be Nyree’s birthday so we planned to help celebrate it. When her mom called to sing happy birthday she also inquired about whether we had left to DC, she shared the experience we’d all had and her dream and that we’d decided to stay. Mom Fox was beyond relieved, she had also had a bad feeling about our making the trip, along with several others in our family. I am so very very grateful that the Lord watches over me so carefully; That just in case I didn’t catch on to the promptings he’d sent to me, members of my family had also received them in order to keep us safe. I am truly blessed to be a member of the Fox family, not only do I have a Marvelous, Amazing, Wonderful husband but I have more parents and siblings that care for me and my family. I love them all!!!!

So Nyree’s birthday! We had a fun surprise to the girls when they got home from school and realized we had stayed! So we had them help us make their moms birthday special. They still had some lessons and homework to work on, so we helped get that rolling and Jesse was able to study too. Naomi did not want to do her reading so she was asked to run around the couch until she could smile and do her reading. What started out as punishment soon became a game even the babies wanted to play!

  began with Naomi, then Chie then the rest of the girls!

We made dinner and a birthday cake! Those girls were great in the kitchen! Dennis was on call that evening but we promised to babysit the next evening so they could go on a date. For birthday dinner we made Cheddar Stuffed Chicken with mashed potatoes, corn and a salad, then dark chocolate cake with chocolate icing and vanilla ice cream for dessert!

We had a great time and after dinner we did some skpe-ing with Auntie Julie and Grandma Fox

Hopefully we helped in making it a great birthday for her!! (those are princess stickers on the girls foreheads from valentines from Naomi)

We had a saturday to play with the girls that we weren’t planning on so we had some fun and some story time that morning and then decided to do something touristy and Jesse Maia and I went down to Nashville to visit the Parthenon.

  It was such a nice break from the cold! we didn’t even need our coats! There were people running outside in shorts etc Gorgeous day!

Next time we are in town we hope to visit the temple, and my friend Rachel from Massage school! Then we went back home to watch the girls so their mom and dad could go on a date!

Although we are still bummed we couldn’t make it to Dave/Uncle Teeny’s wedding we are glad we were able to spend time with family. We know Teeny understands about our not being able to make it too, his wedding WAS scheduled in the middle of winter on the east coast. Sunday we were able to make the drive back to Davenport safely. Now that we know the drive and that its only about 7 and a half hours we will probably be seeing more of those fun Fujii’s!

Attempted Patricide

Tonight as I was doing the dishes Maia came to investigate, as usual, I didn’t think much of it and kept scrubbing the pots and pans from dinner. Then she wonders off and I think  “great! now I can get these done and we can do FHE!” Moments later I hear Jesse yell  “What the..?!?!.?! where did you get this?!” So i run over to see him holding a yellow ceramic bread knife that I guess was within her grasp from the dishwasher! She took it over to Jesse and hit him with the handle then the blade fell onto him!! Thank the Lord no one was hurt!!

You see it reminds me of a story from when I was little, my dad calls my mom at work (at the hospital) and says “you’ll never guess what Karly just did, she ruined the formica!”

mom: “How did a 9 month old ruin formica?”

dad: “ She was sitting on the counter with the butcher knife just stabbing it”

mom: “….why does my baby have a knife alone sitting on the counter in the kitchen?!”

dad: “I knew you’d be mad.”

 

Although no persons or formica were injured in the episode this evening sure does get your hear pumping! And the mother of the year award goes to… >_<

  this kid thinks she is so big already :)

 

In other events at the Fox household; Jesse’s best friend from college Dave (teeny) came into town for a few nights last weekend. He is on his way to Washington DC to get married, and stopped through to visit. We hadn’t seen him since we moved to Iowa so it was great to get to see him before the big day. Dave has been thinking of going to Palmer so on friday when he was here he went to check out the school with Jesse. Then they played video games a bunch during the afternoon, Maia wanted to join them so bad (hence photo above). Then we went to the Ruffs and hung out a little bit then off to Texas Roadhouse! We love that place! Although for being the slowest eater at the table already its totally lame that I almost always have to send my steak back to get recooked, haha. Oh well at least they fix it when its not satisfactory. We watched Inception after we put the Maia to bed, LOVE that movie. Then we had to say goodbye to Uncle Teeny

well Goodbye for a little while Jesse and I will see him at his wedding this Saturday; not that he’ll have lots of time to hang but we’ll see him non the less.

So that’s this week in the Fox home! Fun times and scary times! That girl sure keeps us busy, and we both love her dearly!

My Baby is 1!

I can hardly believe my tiny baby is one year old now! The year flew by! For her birthday we were at my parents house and had a party with my moms side of the family. It was great to get everyone together! I made her an owl cake! It was so cute! This owl cake was white cake and it fell apart coming out of the pan so I added some raspberry pie filling to hold it together! Then when I frosted it the next day I used dark chocolate icing to hold it even better and then for a pretty covering I used cool whip, then twizzlers for the wings and fruit by the foot cut outs for the beak and outter edges of the eyes; the eye pupils were junior mints

She liked looking at the cake but she certainly did NOT want to eat it!! We put a big slice on her high chair tray and she just poked at it and then wanted the whipped cream off her fingers. So we gave her a few bites and she spit out each one with “eww that’s nasty” face. So we gave her a cookie which she enjoyed more. But I think the cake tasted delicious too! Then we went about visiting and did presents too! She got a train with blocks and some cute outfits and a new baby! Those along with her Christmas presents she is one spoiled baby! One day she’ll have a sibling to share all that love and attention but not just yet.

My big girl is getting bigger everyday! In this photo she is modeling an outfit she got from Grandma Fox, she is totally ready for Maui! (We are too!!)

Christmas 2010

 I am just feeling so incredibly thankful this Christmas time! I have such a wonderful family! It's a very big family indeed and I love everybody in it!! I have had the opportunity to do a special service project this season too; For my dear friend Amber. She and her husband (and family) have had a rough year and I wanted to remind them how many people love them and want to support them through this trial they are bearing. So I have had help from her mom in collecting fabric from many of their friends and family and we put all the fabric together and her sisters came over and helped quilt it together. Now we have a beautiful Quilt of Love to help remind them we all want to be there for them in their time of need. So when they are feeling lonely they can cuddle up in their blanket and its like getting a big hug from all of us. I was also able to visit her daughter in the cemetery. It was a very emotional experience for both Jesse and I; as we talked about Ambers' Molly and also the loss of our niece Marie (a few years ago, before I was even a Fox actually). We are so so grateful for out baby Maia and I thank the Lord each day for the opportunity I have to be a mother. Sometimes I just think this is what I was born to do, be this little girls mom. Maybe that's why I keep hurting my wrists and can't massage 'cuz of the pain! Because I just need to be her mom right now :) Anyway the blanket is a surprise which makes it even  more fun for me to work on! Secrets are sort of a difficult thing for me but I must say I have done pretty well keeping it :) But I know it will mean a lot to them. I wrote a little poem to go with it too:

This quilt is big enough for two

Because it was made just for you

From some you love and some you know

That all have a lot of love to show

When you're all wrapped up its a big warm hug

As long as Moose (their puppy) doesn't use it for a rug

We know sometimes your far away

That's why we made this to send your way

To let you know how much we care

And we'll always be there for you,

We Swear!

I have so many amazing friends that I am grateful for! I have my little community of people I love and care about and I love all the technologies available to me so I can keep in touch with them all!

So Christmas! We had a wonderful time with my family But lets start from the begging! Everyone got sick! We all had our chance with the throw up yuck! It didn't last very long so at least we had that! And everyone was finished with it by Christmas eve! So after I got the quilt done it was time for some family time! We went all over looking for this supposed awesome new iceless ice skating rink sounds interesting at least right? Well here is said "rink"

It's tiny!! And we watched people try to skate on it and they were just walking in ice skates on it.. So pretty much not worth it!

then this photo made me laugh because they had signs rather than like guard rails to enclose the "rink"

So then we went to Southglenn Mall or whatever the outdoor shopping is called now and they have a tiny rink that is real ice so that's where we skated! My mom met us there and brought this SUPER adorable Santa suit for Maia, and since it was Chilly we put it on her!

Santa Baby!

Then later that evening Jesse, Mandy, My Dad and I went to an Avalanche Hockey game! It was really fun! The Av's lost but we still had a good time! We got a great deal too! It was family night so we got 4 tickets and 4 MEALS for $99!! It was crazy!

We enjoyed it, it was my Dad and Mandy's first NHL game, now they know a little more about Hockey than they did before!

The next day was Christmas Eve and our tradition is to have scones and a program over at my Grandma Browns home. And that's exactly what we did! We helped make and devour some scrumptious home made scones and meatballs. Then we sang some Christmas songs and exchanged a few gifts, then we played Catch phrase for a while. Then went home to put the baby to bed! We opened up some cute Christmas jammies before bed though! Maia got some cute owls, Jesse a ' Everything's bigger in Texas' t-shirt and Cougar Blue jammie pants (can I say that Jesse has Jammies? or do they need to be called Pajamas for a man?) And I had a purple shirt to match Maia's owls and teal pants to kinda match Jesse. Then my Mom game me some BYU pink jammies too!
Christmas Morning!

Santa was good to us this year!

This is an Owl I made for Maia, it matched her Jammies and a pair of shoes she got, in this photo she was dancing with it!

In this photo you can also see the projector and digital photo frame my parents got us!!! We had a great time opening gifts and giving them as well! I made microwavable bean/rice heat bags for all the girls! Jesse did help with them as well! Hopefully everyone got them! Then we had a nice lazy Christmas day! For dinner we had probably the best Turkey of my life! It was so buttery and moist, simply delicious! Either because it was the best turkey or because food was finally tasting good again! 

The next day we had a Brown party after Church at my parents house! It was great to get to see everyone! I haven't seen them all for a long time! We had some homemade burgers, fries and onion rings and played The Game of Things. It was splendid! Later this week we are having another Brown party hopefully Steven and his girlfriend Ali will be able to make it too! For Maia's birthday we are having Lofgrens over! So excited! Of course their will be snow cuz I planned it and people will have to travel so Grandma, Grandpa and Sonja wont be able to come but all other Colorado Lofgrens will hopefully still make it! I will post about after Christmas after her birthday!

Maia and I used sponge curlers and had super cute hair for church!

Dec 26th 2010

My lovely Family minus Mitchell who is serving our Country in Afghanistan

Confessions of a Landlord

As some of  you know Jesse and I own a condo in Springville Utah and we currently have renters there. Over the 2 years they have lived there things have gone pretty smoothly; except for a few strange complaints. Things that are in the contract for them to maintain but still things come up and they make me laugh so I thought I would share them:

First call we ever had from them they'd been there 3 months we were just moving out to Iowa, it went something like this:
them : "Yes the lights in are front room have burned out"
us: "...and?"
them: "We need someone to come and change them."
us: "...That is not something we maintain, you have to provide your own light bulbs."
them: " But they are so high up we can't reach them"
us: "Go borrow a ladder"

Not word for word what was said but you get it. Everywhere I've ever lived, Jesse as well, you have to provide your own light bulbs, maybe they haven't?
Then things were pretty good. They paid their rent in advanced a few months and on time so there were no issues that came up until the next summer.

them: " So summer is starting and our Air Conditioner isn't cold enough"
us: "...Ok..well did you change the filter, like the contract says you need to do annually?"
them: "..yeah but its not working, you need to have somebody come out here and look at it"
us: "ok sure"

Legitimate complaint, a little entitled that its not cold enough for them, but I get it. So we talked to our friend who happens to work on AC and Heating units that happens to live in the next building what might cause something like that to happen. He tells us usually its the filter but every once in a while there is a fuse problem that can be fixed pretty easily. So we hire him to go and take a look at it. An $80 consult later guess what the problem was? The Filter. He said it was filthy and hadn't been changed in at least a year (when we changed it when they moved in!).

Then we talked to them about whether they wanted to renew their lease for another year. Because really we have a renter we live in another state why try to hunt for a new one when we can't be there in person? So lease renewed all the same rules apply and this is the call we get next:
(basically)
them: "Our fridge is too cold, the food in the back of the fridge keeps freezing"
us: "...turn the cold down"
them: "we did it is on the lowest setting, Its just too cold all of a sudden in the back"
us: "have you needed to defrost the freezer? Has there been anything leaking?"
them: "No the freezer works fine, the fridge is just too cold"
us: "...ok....well we'll research what may be wrong and see if we need a technician to check it out."

We did have someone check it out and guess what NOTHING was wrong with the fridge. Surprise. So at this point we are like ok we will just take these unnecessary calls out of the deposit no worries.
Then we begin to feel the pain of our renters not paying the full mortgage. We have been paying the difference for a while now and it is just getting to be too much to pay our rent here and half of theirs there. So we look into selling it, and we have lost value in the property due to economy like many others, so we decided on a short sale. (A short sale is basically we can't afford to make our payments anymore, we are using student loans to pay a mortgage at a place we don't live, and we will either foreclose or if we can find someone to buy for less than we owe we bring the offer to the bank. The bank looks to see if we have need to make this sale, and we do, then decides whether they would prefer to lose their full investment in us or take the deal of the other buyer.) Being nice landlords we let our tenants know that this is the direction we are going; and offer to let them make an offer if they want to buy the condo. As per our contract we do not need to do this we can give them 30 days notice to leave when we need them out, but we're nice. We made an agreement to lower their rent a few hundred dollars a month, cuz we're nice. Their response went a little like this:

them: "We aren't interested in purchasing the property, but since we are helping you sell your condo we would like our full deposit back. We take good care of the place and keep it very clean. We would like the deposit back in full and to have it go towards next the 2 months rent"
us: (WTF? aren't you the same tenants that can't change the ac filter? and have to cold a fridge and want me to change your light bulbs?) "No"
them: "We keep it very clean, and we are doing you a favor helping you sell your condo so we should get our deposit back."
us: "Your deposit is not like rent. If something is to get damaged while you are there or anything needs to be replaced the SECURITY deposit will be used to cover that loss. It is our Security to know that you will take care of our place. We can wave the 20% that we guaranteed we'd keep and if the place looks good when we're ready to sell you can have it all back then"
them: "but we keep things very nice and nothing needs to be replaced or fixed"

Eventually we decided we would give the deposit to a third party, our Realtor doing the short sale, and he can decide whether they deserve their money back after the move out.

Now they say the dishwasher doesn't clean the dishes well enough. We told them to buy some jet dry. What are we gonna do replace is because of the hard water spots left on your dishes? Thought nothing needed to be replaced or fixed? hahaha not the sharpest crayons in the box.
Craziness craziness. We wont be investing in real estate in the future :)

Shopping Poop

Today I took Maia out to shop for her Birthday presents (it’s nice that she is still little enough to forget what I buy her until the big day!) at Toys ‘R’ Us. We picked up a new soothie cord, anyone that has seen hers lately may know that it smells awful, and she started the straining. I thought to myself ‘oh great we just get here so you poop? Oh well I’ll give you a few minutes and then go change you.’ Right? WELL little did I know this kid had a monumental BM headed my way! I took her out of the cart to see if she would walk with this popper walking toy and I noticed some moisture had leaked through to her pants. SO ‘ok it can’t be that bad we’ll go change you and continue our shopping and give the kid a bath later all good.’


We get into the Mothers room there and I take her pants off and completely cover her leg in the poop!! Her onsie is beyond saving so I manage to get that off without getting pooh in her hair (thankfully!) and all I have in my diaper bag for change of clothes is a bib and an extra pair of socks!! Thank goodness she wore layers today! She happened to be wearing a skirt over her jeans, that DID get dirtied but it wasn’t awful, so I cleaned her up best I could and put on the skirt and her sweater and fresh clean socks. I bundled up the dirtiest clothes and set them in their respective corner of the cart and headed towards the clearance section. I noticed some people pointing at my baby and me and commenting how “it’s 20 degrees outside why is that poor little girl in a skirt?” I didn’t respond out loud but inside I was just laughing at my predicament. So I found some pretty cute clearance clothes, doesn’t happen much at that store, and went back to put them on. 


On my way back to the change room I made sure I told an employee what I was doing so they didn’t think I was stealing clothes. It’s just cold, I gotta clothe my baby! SO I took the tags off and kept them out of reach of Maia so that I could pay for them afterwards. Also asked for a separate small bag to put the dirty clothes in so I didn’t get pooh on everything else! The rest of the shopping trip was pretty much a breeze after that!


Here is a photo of the pants she was wearing, they are inside-out here.
yes I took a picture of poopy pants


When I got them home to rinse off etc there was still MORE pooh in them! I hadn’t gotten it as cleaned out as I thought!! HAHAHA!!! Oh what a day :) 


I laughed about it so much I just had to share; it may be kind of a ‘dirty’ story but I know you all probably got a kick out of it too!