{this moment}

{this moment} à la SouleMama - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

{this moment}

{this moment} à la SouleMama - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Making Room

As time goes by, we're carefully considering how our home will function for a family of five. Slowly, thoughtfully, we're making changes to this place we spend so much of our time in. Preparing. Paring down. Reconfiguring. Imagining these walls surrounding not four of us, but five. Five. Just that thought makes me smile.

One thing we've been getting ready to do for a while is set up AJ's room for the two boys to share. Since we moved things around a few months ago, there's been a big, empty corner just waiting to be claimed by a bed for their brother. We'd found a bed frame on Craigslist several weeks back, but finally got a new mattress for it this past weekend. After a day or two airing out in the guest bedroom, we were ready to put it where it belonged.

James, of course, had an eager helper, and after some finagling that involved a rather large drill bit, the frame was together.

The sheet on it right now is something of a place holder, a least for the next week or so. We've got plans to search Target for another clearance flannel sheet after finding AJ's set for less than nine dollars (!). We're sure we won't get that good of a deal again, but we'll see what we can manage to find.

And in case anyone was worried about the bed being sturdy enough for our second boy, these two made sure to run some quality control tests just to be on the safe side.

I could not make the flash go off no matter what I tried to do (I'll learn how to use this camera someday, really), but here's their room, a little closer to the finish line.

After we find a new fitted sheet, there are only a few small, but meaningful, projects in store for this room that we hope to make happen before our family grows again. Until then, that bed is like a giant, flashing sign upstairs reminding us that our family is about to grow again. We can't wait to see that bed full someday soon.

{this moment}

{this moment} à la SouleMama - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Getting Outside

The weekend before last, we decided that we all needed a little quality time in the great outdoors. Right after breakfast, we headed over to Diamond Head, which we had hiked with Mimi and Papa when a certain little boy was a lot littler:

This time, the weather was hot and sunny with a strong breeze, perfect for our hike, even if it did make our climb a bit more perilous toward the top. AJ hiked all the way up (with the exception of one very steep and narrow set of stairs) and a good part of the way down. The views were as beautiful as we remembered, but we didn't get to spend nearly enough time admiring God's handiwork, as our stomachs were growling incessantly by the time we got to the top. Hungry bellies = quick hiking.

Nora slept the entire time, waking only for our picnic lunch once we made it back down the crater. Half the fun for AJ, I think, was watching the birds and muskrats walk around our picnic table as we were eating. Fortunately, Mr. Muskrat didn't get quite too close for comfort, though he thought about it when James stepped away from the table for a moment. That long, skinny guy scooted right over the second James took a step away, then retreated to his tree once James started to return. I guess AJ, Nora, and I weren't quite scary enough to deter him; it seemed he might have joined us (or tried to steal our lunch) had James not been there!

We had so much fun that we're looking forward to making this a bi-weekly tradition. Can't beat spending time in the great outdoors!

{this moment}

{this moment} à la SouleMama - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

{this moment}

{this moment} à la SouleMama - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

{this moment}

{this moment} à la SouleMama - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Hut, hut!

Someone has been all about football for quite some time now, so naturally there's a game played in the living room, in the backyard, or at the playground at least once a day.

So you can imagine how excited we were to be able to take him to the Pro Bowl practice on Thursday, and then the game on Sunday.

We got poured on at the practice, but AJ had fun playing in a huge pile of sand and we got a kick out of hearing him yell "Mr. Peppers! Mr. Peppers!" while we waited to ask Chicago Bears defensive end Julius Peppers for his autograph.

The ProBowl was fun, too, even if traffic was crazy and "dinner" cost way too much. At least those things were to be expected, and AJ's interest in the game more than made up for it. He asked questions and tried to follow along with what was happening the whole time, so there was lots of talk of quarterbacks, receivers, running backs, tackling, incomplete passes, interceptions, touchdowns, and field goals; hearing all of those words in a little person's voice makes us smile every time.

{this moment}

{this moment} à la SouleMama - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

{this moment}

{this moment} à la SouleMama - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

{this moment}

{this moment} à la SouleMama - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

December 24th

Our big plans this Christmas Eve were to take the bus to the Honolulu Zoo, and boy did it make for a memorable day. We had gone in April for AJ's second birthday, and I never would have guessed that eight months would make such a difference in how much AJ would enjoy it; I think this was the most obvious example of how much he's grown up that we've had in quite awhile. He was so much more into all of the animals, asked so many questions, and just had the best time. It was a fantastic way to spend the day, and having Mimi and Papa there made it all the more special.

That's how you know it was a good day. Ha!