feeding souls and bodies

We took a trip to the Oquirrh Mountain open house with Grandpa K., the Wihongis and the Indiana Kewishes. This seems like an obvious statement, but it was really beautiful, inside and out.

It was a bright and sunny day. Not to mention, very warm.

My girls.

Two year olds are easily entertained,

especially when they find mom's purse.




This one kind of reminds me of Wood's American Gothic.

Later we took a much anticipated trip to the BYU Creamery. They only had about three flavors though because their "machine is broken" or some such silly excuse. The adults left a bit disappointed and the children, sticky.





I highly recommend both activities, unless you are looking forward to eating BYU's graham finale ice cream.
Cue the sad Charlie Brown music as I lower my head and drag my feet home from the Creamery.

out of the heat and into some water

When you are outnumbered 10 kids to 3 adults, it can be a scary thing. Especially if they are armed with homemade light sabers and funky hats.

That's when you have to get a little creative.
It's also good to implement a little child labor every now and then.




But when they start getting too wet from washing the car, just get the slip 'n' slide out and everyone will be happy.

















this one makes me laugh so hard


It's a win-win for everyone involved.

our time at the original magic kingdom

Most of the days surrounding our family reunion were spent at Disneyland. It was actually five days. FIVE DAYS. Luckily they weren't five consecutive days, because it was seriously exhausting! Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of everyone but the girls had a lot of fun hanging out with cousins that they never get to see. And James, I hope that Sammie isn't scarred forever from her experience on Matterhorn!


The girls dancing before the Pixar parade starts—Gwen's hair is a hot mess,

and Inez was really getting down.

While everyone else went on Indiana Jones, Dave and I took these crazy kids to the Tiki Room and they gave us their own show.

My nephew, Charles, became a Padawan.

Hanging out along the Rivers of America waiting (and waiting and waiting and waiting) for Fantasmic.

The Electrical Parade

We were there for the Laker's parade, except the only "Laker" that was there was Kobe. I guess he won the title by himself?

Some of the cousins

Inez was picked to come out and dance for the Celebration parade. She got SUPER shy, started crying and ran back over to me. I guess she only likes to dance when it's not part of the parade.

This was taken right before the stage fright.

Here she was pulling some serious attitude.

We saw lots of characters. I love how Gwen's body language reveal if she is nervous, shy, excited, or just doesn't really care about certain princesses.

excited

excited

excited

nervous

very nervous

excited but shy

excited

bored

indifferent

doesn't care

really doesn't care
After a meltdown by Inez on Tom Sawyer's Island and Gwen in desperate need of a nap, we found a quiet place in the Park. The Fairy Godmother was there, so she came up to us and talked with Inez very quietly. It was perfect.

Gwen and Tori dressed in their Minnie dresses and visited Minnie Mouse. It was really cute, Minnie made a big deal about the girls and their dresses and the girls were in heaven.





Until next time Disneyland.

Kewish 2009

Our family reunion kicked off at the Newport Beach Temple friday morning.

There was a family "talent show" where the Lesue family sang the Cougar Fight Song,

and Gwen had absolutely no stage fright, singing the ABCs.
I think she was hoping for an encore.

There was also a little revival of "The Boy from New York City" that James, Jon, and I used to perform for family and neighbor kids about 20 years ago. This time I had a little help on lead vocals, a wandering helper and the best/funniest backup singers any lip syncher could ask for!

Some cousins met for the first time,

and others had fun "helping" animals—domesticated as well as wild. I'm pretty sure there is a lizard somewhere in Oceanside that is scarred for life. Luckily Uncle Jon freed it from it's "habitat" that the kids had created for it.

Day 2 consisted of a day at Buccaneer Beach. It was cloudy and a bit on the chilly side, but fun nonetheless.



Gwen had one minor wipeout and was done with the water.

but extremely content to play for hours in the sand with the other two-year-olds.

Inez on the otherhand, had a few wipeouts throughout the day. But each time she eventually got over them and went back to play in the water. She was fearless!


Before and after she realized one hand was sandy and the other was clean


I cannot tell you how much sand was all over this girl. That roll in the front of her bathing suit is pure sand. OUCH!

Dad and his A&W

Uncle Joe always builds his giant sea turtle every time he goes to the beach

This 6'6" cop did a little bit of surfing.


Baby Jon felt the ocean for the first time. It seemed to soothe him—the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!

Poor Joey had a gnarly wipeout, we all laughed and his mom got it all on video.

We had fun hanging out with everyone!

















Sunday the reunion wrapped up with the baby blessing of little Izzie. We were so glad to be a part of that special occasion! Thanks for sharing that with us, James & Nat!

We look forward to the next one in 2011!

back home, finally.

After two weeks of vacation, it's really nice to be home again.



Now I have about a year's worth of laundry to tackle. Not to mention a new tire to get for the car since I had a blow-out on the highway last night, pushing our arrival time to 2am. Let me tell you, driving 50 mph when you are only 80 miles from home is pure torture. Luckily I was in a caravan with my sister and sister-in-law (we were all without our men for the journey back home). It was probably one of the most scary experiences of my life. But I feel blessed that no one was injured. I know that we were being watched over through it all, and for that I'm grateful.

kooky shots

Inez tolerates my picture taking like this:


or like this:

this one's my fave

Lukily, I manage to get some good "normal" shots anyway.

And lucky for me, she doesn't know that I secretly love those kooky shots.

higher calling

As I was changing Gwen the other day she excitedly said, " a tewefome, Mom!" So I looked at her ceiling to see what she was talking about. Low and behold, a telephone made out of pure sunlight.

She is a funny girl.

*And I have to give Dave credit for coming up with the title to this post. Surely I'm not the only one who wishes he would sacrifice a little bit of his time for our little ole blog here. His humorous and witty blog posts are sorely missed (hint: those are links of posts by Dave). Well, at least I know my Mom would agree with me. Right, Mom?

breaking a commandment

After using my sister's camera lens today, I'm having a hard time not coveting it.

red is my favorite color

and I am loving our new chair.

milestones

She is now a "toothless ninny" as quoted by Grandpa K.

She kept saying how she was so excited for the tooth fairy to come.
When we asked her what she thought the tooth fairy would bring her she excitedly replied, "A QUARTER!"
(We were pleased to find that was the going rate for teeth these days.)
However, when she found the quarter this morning, she was less than enthusiastic. And when Dave asked her what the tooth fairy brought her she said, "just a penny or something."

14 and counting

We are getting so excited for the Kewish Family Reunion!

Nez's last day of preschool

Our girl is SO ready to grow up these days. She is sad that Tecia won't be her teacher anymore, but is extremely excited for kindergarten.

With a few of her classmates

It was pretty hard for her to stand still for so long. Most of the time she was jumping up & down...

or doing lunges.

Gwen was entertaining as well, singing along to the songs loudly, and usually after they had already ended.

Therefore, Dave's phone was a welcome distraction.

Best preschool teacher ever!

Nez's cousin Gigi was in another preschool class but part of the same program.

One thing Inez told me she was looking forward to were the refreshments.

She was in such a good mood that she willingly shared with her sister. A rarity, indeed.

Gigi enjoyed her cupcake.

Gwen. I'm so sad this picture is so blown out, but I just love that look on her face!

After the program we gladly let the kids run off some energy at the playground.



Dale, Gigi's brother, was quite fickle around the camera. I had to chase him down to get this shot.

And this one—his Power Ranger and eye.

Gwen never seems to run out of energy. She was actually running a few laps here.

We are so proud of our big girl!

two buddies

This picture just makes me laugh.

Inez & Tui, April 2009

already?!

Inez has a loose tooth (and a dirty face and crusty boogers).
Can this really be happening so soon?
She's only 5 years, 5 months and 5 days old (tomorrow).
She keeps calling it her "broken tooth" and doesn't touch or wiggle it at all.
At this rate, the tooth fairy won't have to come for a few months.

Why does she insist on growing up?

being pregnant = no fun for me.

I found this draft today. It was dated March 26th and I wrote it before anyone besides Dave and my Mom knew I that was pregnant. I think it's funny, and luckily for me it's not all true anymore.

i hate feeling sick. i need to puke. and there is some funky smell in our fridge that only i can smell. i have cleaned it out about three times already but i cannot find anything. not even my Mom (who has always had the super-smeller ability) can smell anything out of the ordinary. and i dread opening it because it hits me like a ton of bricks when the door opens and then lingers in the kitchen for awhile after the door has been closed.

also, i cannot look at any pictures of food on people's blogs. it totally grosses me out. i can't smell any fast food either. i got a whiff of something the other day and i about tossed my cookies in the parking lot.

i also drive with a plastic bag handy in case i have to throw up while i'm driving and i can't pull over fast enough. i'm really hoping that i won't have to use that this pregnancy like i had to with my first two, but i'm not holding my breath.