Shave Ice

Somehow the last time we visited Hawaii, we never made it to the world famous shave ice joint. So we made sure to make it a top priority this time. I'm still not sure if I see what all the hype is about, but at least we can now say that we have been to the renowned Matsumoto Shave Ice. 

Nash vs. Blake

As I sorted through hundreds of pictures from our trip, this one stood out to me because it captures the personalities of our boys perfectly right now.

Nash: carefree, oblivious, independent, vivacious.

Blake: cautious, protective, observant, thoughtful.

This is them to a T.

Babymoon

We thought we better take one last babymoon as a family of four before our lives get a little crazier in seven weeks (or less).

We wanted to make it out to Hawaii once more while Troy's parents are still living there, so it seemed like the perfect location for our babymoon. You can never really go wrong with Hawaii.

Even though it rained a good chunk of the time we were there, we didn't let it stop us from going to the beach daily. As long as we had our umbrellas in tow, we could run for cover when the storms blew in.

The thing about tropical storms is they blow out just as quickly as they blow in, so we had plenty of opportunities to soak up quality beach time. And sometimes our view turned to this:

Yeah, it pretty much rocked.

And since I don't have anything more exciting to post about other than my expanding belly, there will be much more to come.

Weekend Desert Layover

We found some killer deals on Allegiant Air to Hawaii. But there were only flights on certain days of the week, so in order to make it work, we had to spend the weekend in Arizona while enroute. It was a really rough couple of days, let me tell you.

Not only do a set of grandparents live there that welcomed us with open arms, but it was a perfect 78 degrees and sunny all weekend long.

We were so happy just to be outside again and have the luxury of going to a park without mittens, hats and boots.

Nash insisted on wearing his sunglasses upside down.

We made our way to a nearby resort pool since my parents don't heat their pool in the "winter."

Yes, I went down the water slide seven months pregnant. They wouldn't let Blake ride with me, so I tried to convince him that it was safe and fun.

He was so close to attempting the adventure alone, but in the end, his fears trumped his desire to slide.

He didn't seem to mind giving up too much because he could live in the pool all day.

We ended the weekend with one more evening park run before journeying on to the next leg of our trip.

Winter in Instas

This winter, we made messes in the kitchen, frequented the children's museum, celebrated hat day at school, and rode on a ferris wheel and buffed Nash up on his birthday.

Troy gave me a bouquet of new utensils for Valentine's Day and I enjoyed my two little loves. But we decided we had enough of being cooped up and cold, so we headed to the desert for sunnier skies. 

Valentine-ing

When I was growing up, my mom always made homemade Valentines with us.

I've wanted to continue the tradition because a) I like how meaningful it is b) it creates lasting memories (I still remember the year confetti was placed in each individual card, and the first time my mom let me use her embossing gun) and c) I obviously enjoy projects like this. Maybe since I have all boys they won't want to make Valentines with me forever, but I'm soaking up their enthusiasm while they're still young and willing to help.

We settled on monster pencils this year. I can't take credit for the idea (thanks Pinterest for guiding me here), but we had to add our own tags and washi tape of course.

Blake diligently signed each one.

We also carried out our tradition of making jello hearts. The jello boxes sat in our pantry for over a week taunting the boys. So, they were pretty elated when Valentine's Day finally arrived for the sole purpose of cutting out those hearts.

Happy Valentine's Day!