Briar Estelle

My Beautiful Briar,
I can't believe you are one year old! Wow! Did this year fly by. I can still remember clear as day the moment I laid eyes on you. You were the most gorgeous baby I had ever seen. I felt this extreme amount of love for you, it is indescribable. I think it was because I had to fight for you. I guess the better word is beg... Daddy and I both thought we were done... I was at the temple for My cousin's sealing and all of a sudden I had a very strong feeling there was another baby waiting to join our family. I knew in that moment we HAD to have another baby. Daddy wasn't on board. He had a fear of having a baby girl... (it maybe because of your 6 girl cousins who sing and talk and yell nonstop) It took many talks, many prayers and willingness to do anything to have you. Finally, your Daddy came to a compromise... we had to get out of debt before I could get pregnant. I don't think he was expecting it to happen so fast, but Mommy was so determined she sold her wedding ring to get the money sooner (Daddy was ok with it) and within 3 months of that conversation I got pregnant with you. Before I knew what I was having I was visiting with your Great Grandma Liljestrom and she gave me a beautiful blessing dress and said "I won't be here when you have your baby girl so I wanted to give this to you." From then on I had a feeling I was having a baby girl. At 15 weeks I went to a place that gives early results for the sex of babies. We were all so excited you were a girl!! Daddy was in pure shock. I don't think he was excited about the idea until he saw you for the first time. You have turned his world upside down in the most incredible way! I love to watch you two together. You just adore him and you have him wrapped around your little finger. It has been so fun to watch you grow this last year. We call you our little over achiever because you have managed to do things way before we were expecting you to. You have this beautiful presence about you. People can't help, but to smile when they see you. Briar, you completed our family, you have made our bond stronger and we all feel so blssed to have you. I can never thank my Father in Heaven enough for entrusting me to be your Momma. You are one of my greatest gifts. I will love you forever and ever my sweet baby girl!
Love,
Your Momma

It was the LIZARD MAN!!

About two months ago some of my family came to visit us over the weekend and we made some great memories. Our favorite of all, you ask?? The story of the Lizard Man. One of the nights they were here, The girls...Mom, Ashley and I, went to get some food. The guys.. Dad and Brad, stayed home with all the kids. While we were at Panda Express I get a phone call from Brad and things sound pretty crazy on their end. I can hear Hawk wailing in the background. I had no idea what was going on. Brad informs me that he saw Hawk sprint and jump out of the kitchen with a quickness and then start crying hysterically. He then tells me that Hawk is saying something bit him. I get home and Hawk runs up to me... tears streaming down his face, barely able to talk at this point... telling me he got bit by something and his foot hurts really bad. I get down on the ground and start examining his foot. I have been stung by a scorpion before and so I know how painful that can be and I also know you can't really see a hole or any type of puncture wound. At this point I am beginning to think that must be it. I bring him over to the couch and show him different pictures of what I think may have bit him.. 

                      The first set of pictures..

                                  Scorpions

He informs me that none of those things bit him... Next up...

Earwigs...

Nope!! That wasn't it either. At this point I get up and go look in the kitchen to see if I can maybe find the thing that bit him. I look everywhere. I even grabbed the broom to see if I could sweep in places I couldn't see and possibly fish it out... NOTHING! So my last option was that maybe it was a lizard?? These are the exact pictures I showed him on Google...

He starts yelling, "THAT'S IT!! THAT'S THE THING THAT BIT ME!!!" I have no idea what lizard he is talking about so I tell him to point to the one that he saw bite him.. 

He points... to... This one.....

Uummm... son... that couldn't have possibly bit you because that is a fake lizard . It is in fact a man dressed up in a lizard costume. He insisted that was it, so we all just played along. We named him "The Lizard Man" and all the kids from then on were wayyy too scared to even come close to the kitchen. Later that evening, I swept up the kitchen and found an earwig under the sink.. I am pretty positive that is the thing that bit him.. I guess it would actually be a pinch, but to this day Hawk still talks about the Lizard Man in the kitchen and how scary it was... 

It's like Deja Vu!

My Reefy Boy started Kindergarten yesterday. It seems so crazy to me that he is already old enough to be in elementary school. He was so excited to start school, you could just see it on his face. I was a little nervous because I didn't know how he would do. It is all day kinder and he isn't used to getting up so early and he just has some trouble focusing... he is my son, so that part makes complete sense to me.

When I went to pick him up I asked him how his day was.. He told he had so much fun and his teacher was soo nice. He told me he gets to be line leader (the perks of having the last name Aiono!) And that some kids had to sit in the "thinking" chair, but not him! That some kids got a yellow and 1 kid got a red, BUT he was soo good! I was thinking, "Awesome! He may actually be really good at this school thing!" 

I dropped him off again this morning, told him to be a good boy just like yesterday and watched him run off to play with some friends before school started. As I drove off I was thinking, "I am soo proud of him! He is going to be fine!" I think I even said that last part aloud to my mother in law. When I picked him up today, I asked how his day was and he told me good. I asked him if he ate lunch and he informed me that he wasn't hungry during lunchtime, but got hungry after lunch and when he told his teacher he needed to eat, she told him no and made him sit down. I guess we need to go over lunchtime and the appropriate time to eat at school... So, onto the good part.. I pulled out his folder and found this...

uumm... wait... that can't be right.. my son can't have a yellow on the first day of school.. He just told me yesterday that he was soo good and loved school and only some kids got yellows and one kid got red and it wasn't him so this must be someone else's calendar... NOPE! It was my son's.. He got a yellow. On his first day of school. In Kindergarten... just like he did on his first day of preschool... at least there is some improvement, he didn't get a yellow for punching anyone yesterday. ;) Oh the joys of being a Mom!

Confession.. My kids have too many toys.. It really is a problem!

I have this issue with toys... I HATE THEM!  I hate having them all over my house. I find them in my bedroom, my bedroom closet, the bathrooms,  the bathroom toilet (Thanks Hawk ;)), the fridge and the kitchen. I tell my boys at least 3 times a day to put their toys in their playroom. I am so OCD I literally have a spot for every single toy. So, this is what the playroom should look like...

Books stacked nicely on the shelf, masks hung, costumes underneath the masks, big toys in the big basket and cars, Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Super Heroes, and some other misc. things in the Spiderman organizer. I wish the playroom always looked like this! I would be the happiest Mom in the world... BUT... this is what the playroom usually looks like on a day to day basis...

DON'T BE ALARMED! An earthquake did not come through our home.. this was all done by two very energetic, messy little boys! 

For the past two days I have asked the boys to clean up their playroom. I took away video games, phones, playing outside, playing, eating (no, not really that would be bad!), basically anything fun until it was clean. Instead of getting the beautiful clean playroom I wanted I got a whole lot of complaining... mostly from Reef because as my family likes to say, "Reef is a lazy Samoan!" I got the following, "my feet hurt, I can't walk!", "my tummy hurts too much!", "I think I'm too sick to clean!", "I'm gonna run away to Nama Margie's house!", "You are the meanest Mommy ever!", "I didn't even make this mess!", "This is the worst thing ever!", "Other little boys don't have to clean their playrooms!", "What? You aren't gonna help me?", "I accidentally locked the playroom door.." Seriously the list could go on and on! There were a couple of times that I didn't get any complaining so I thought they were actually cleaning, only to walk in and find them playing in an even big mess than before.

Now my Hawky boy... He gets the job done! It just may not always be the way I want it..

He throws Every. Single. Toy. in the closet! Honestly, its better than nothing at all- I'll take it... That is until my OCD kicks in and I go clean in myself. So, my dilemma is what do I do about this? Do I throw away all their toys so they can't make these insane messes anymore? Do I stop buying toys? Do I make them clean it up every single night before bed? I just don't know. The only thing I know for sure is they are making memories together. There is nothing better than hearing the laughs, the stories, the imagination that comes from that playroom. I honestly think I am willing to deal with the mess because that makes it all worth it.. most of the time ;)

Side note: Reef just walked up to me as I was posting these pictures and asked, "Who took that picture? Why is that picture up there?" I let him know that I was blogging about their messy playroom. In which he responded with an, "Uugghhh!!!!"

I am HIS daughter.

I had a HORRIBLE delivery with Briar. My labor with Reef lasted 6 hours and my labor with Hawk lasted 5... With Briar... it lasted 16 hours. To make matters worse, by the time I was ready to push, my epidural had worn off from my waist up. I felt every tear, contraction, push.. it was awful. I had to be stitched from one end the other, internally and externally. As you could imagine, I had a pretty painful recovery. I was lucky enough to have my sister and mom here when I came home and then the week after that my mother in law came. They were my saving graces for sure! BUT after they left and my husband had to go back to work, I was alone.. You are probably thinking, "Wow.. it couldn't have been that bad.. dramatic much??" BUT for me, it really was. I had to learn to be a mom of three, with not much help (my husband works 10 hours a day, he leaves at noon and doesn't get home until about 10PM), while in pain, no sleep, and no car to get us out of the house (not like I would even attempt to do that on my own) to save us from insanity. I really felt like I was losing it. I would go into my room, lock the door and just cry. I remember one day in particular, I was having a difficult time breast feeding. It was especially painful on one side and I was feeling like I should stop nursing on that side all together. I just had such a problem with quitting. I didn't want to have to supplement. We are blessed with the ability to nurse for a reason, so how could I just give up and give my baby formula? I really started to feel like I was failing as a mother. I just broke down. I had lost it. I pleaded with my Father in Heaven to just help me heal quickly and to give me reassurance that I was a good mom and that I was doing the best I could. It was in that moment that I realized I NEED my Heavenly Father, I NEED my Savior. They are real, they live, and they are always there to help us in times of trial. I immediately felt this sense of peace and a calm washed over me. My sweet Reef came in and gave me a hug and said, "I love you Mommy! You are the best Mommy I ever had, don't be sad!" That is exactly what I needed to hear. My kids think I am the best mommy in the world, they love me, they adore me and think I am the greatest. I truly believe my Father in Heaven used my son as his way of letting me know that I am doing ok, that I am doing the best I can and my kids can see that. I am so incredibly grateful for my Father in Heaven.  I am his daughter, he cares about me, he is aware of my needs, insecurities, and my fears. He is there to strengthen me, uplift me, and comfort me.  I truly would be lost without him. I was scrolling through youtube and I came across this song. It brought tears to my eyes and gave me so much comfort. I felt this overwhelming need to share it with you all. I hope it touches you the way it did me.

What I've learned being a mom to 3.

Our beautiful baby girl, Briar Estelle Aiono, was born on January 24th at 7:56am. She is the cutest, sweetest, cuddly, most beautiful, little thing I've ever seen (I may be alittle biased:))...

Before she was born I had envisioned what life would be like with 3 kids. I thought I would bounce back to my normal self in no time and it would be a piece of cake. I was sooo wrong. I was literally in labor for 16 hours (that is a whole other story that I will share another time) and it definitely took a toll on my body. Briar is 6 weeks old and I am still not my "normal" self. I came home from the hospital and felt as if I had been hit by a train and all I wanted to do was lay down all day long and not move if I didn't have to. Lucky for me, I had my sister Erika and my mom here to help and the following week my MIL came. I realized quickly after everyone left and I had to be a mom again that it was not as easy as I thought it would be. It was so much harder. So here are a few things I've learned in the 6 weeks that Briar has joined our family...

• Blogging is much easier with 2 kids.. ;)

• Life is not perfect, I am not perfect And that is OK!

• I am enough (my kids love me regardleas of my flaws, I don't even think they notice them)

• I rely on our Savior so much more. Thank goodness for prayer.

• My house doesn't/ won't be clean for longer than 5 minutes, and that's ok.

• Dishes in the sink can wait until tomorrow.

• Sleep= more patience the next day, which is something my entire family needs from me.

• I need "ME" time. Time to myself. Time to reflect on the day, on the things I need to change or work on.

• Bedtimes are critical! They are my sanity.. 

• Sometimes its ok to sit my kids in front of the TV all day. It is literally the only way I will get things done. 

• It is perfectly ok to cry. I cry when I feel like it. it is amazing what a good cry session can do for the soul.

• Don't be afraid to ask for help. If you need it, ask!

• Baths are heaven on earth. They are my escape.

• I love my husband even more than I did with 2 kids. He is truly one of the greatest men I have ever met. I am beyond blessed to have him as my husband.

I feel so blessed to be given the opportunity to raise 3 of my Heavenly Father's most beautiful children. I can never fully express my gratitude and love toward him. I thank him every single day for this blessing. 

Potty Training..

It has been my own personal Hell! Anyone who has ever said it was easy potty training their son.. is LYING! or they don't have a son named Hawk. My son is exactly 2 years and 11 months old, which means it has taken me 2 years, 10 months and 27 days to potty train him. I cannot tell you how many times I have tried and failed.. miserably! I tried the "stay home for 3 days and let him run wild naked, asking every 10 minutes if he needed to go", the "cheerio in the toilet and have him aim game", the "I'll give you a treat if you go pee pee in the potty trick" and NOTHING worked. There would be pee and poop in places you never want to have to clean (walls included.. oh you didn't know that poop is the new finger paint?). It really was just awful! I finally decided that I was just going to wait, because he clearly did not understand the concept. I was actually fine changing his diapers and found it easier than always having to run him to the bathroom wherever we were.. Just call me lazy ;).. The problem with all of this?? I am due in 3 weeks, which means 2 kids in diapers, which means $$ and carrying 2 different sized diapers with me at all times, which equals one big headache for me! I decided it was time to give it another shot. I took his diaper off Wednesday morning and told him he had to go pee pee in the potty, that he was a big boy and Mommy was tired of changing his diapers. Let me be honest for a minute, I completely forgot that I didn't have him in a diaper, I never asked him if he needed to go potty or anything.. All of a sudden I hear a flush in the hall bathroom and run to see who it is. It was my HAWKY BOY! He did it! All on his own. I was so proud and so happy! Throughout the day he kept going to the bathroom all on his own. When Jared got home from work he took the boys to the park to ride bikes and I thought for sure he was going to have an accident. Jared kept asking him and he kept saying no and when they got home, he ran to go potty. We decided it was time to reward him for making it the whole day without an accident. We asked him what kind of treat he wanted, his response? "I wanna ride my fuad! (translation= quad)" My son, the redneck! If I am being truthful, It really hasn't been all rainbows and roses.. He has had 2 accidents in 3 days, one of them being a "number 2" accident, which led my husband to gag and just about die.. It was hilarious! The best part about potty training a boy? pee. on. the. toilet. seat. 

It is disgusting and just not right!

I am just extra careful when using their bathroom and have to be a bit more devoted to cleaning the toilet a few times a day. All in all, I am just so glad I will only have one baby in diapers, even if it means pee in places I never knew existed ;) Way to go my Hawky Boy! Mommy is so proud!