Oh! And May Day from the Thomas camera!

We don't have a lot of pictures of Asher dancing because he is tiny and was blocked by others. :) Oh yeah, and he hardly moved the whole time.







The sweetest face to ever accompany a tall-tall-tall mohawk:

The most bashful, precious cowboy in the wild wild west:

May Day 2013

Remember our first May Day last year? Here it is. Man May Day is so cute.

This year the boys were so excited. Ambrose practiced his "Korean" dance for weeks leading up to the big day... it's that Gangam style song. With MC Hammer mixed in of course. The kids loved it! I am so impressed with all the talented parents who put hours of their time into these programs. It is all volunteer service and that is amazing! The kids feel so cool and special and have a blast. I vow to actually help out next year.

Asher's preschool group did a cute dance in their own cultural costumes so we dressed that haole as a cowboy. Ambrose's grade represented Korea and it was crazy adorable.

I love this community so so much!

Oh my gosh I forgot Ambrose had that giant mohawk. Who is his mother???????

And sometimes we go on "hikes"...

Pretty picturesque, but you should know that even the least strenuous nature walk is met with a fair amount of whining at the end when it comes to these guys. Pretty sure I pushed Asher in the baby stroller the whole way back or something like that. I prefer to remember the good times anyway. Taking the good with the bad is just the reality of life with these guys: fun, silly, beautiful, awesome, and a lot of whining.

Jonah's first food.

I don't remember when Jonah had his first food, but I think it was at 5 or 6 months. He stuck his tongue out a lot. He ate some. He put up with it, but he wasn't in love. He loves to nurse and I love to bond with him while he nurses so feeding him real food at this point in life is more of a fun activity. A curiosity. Not a necessity. Here's some pictures of Jonah's first encounter with food.




Look at that wild, long hair. Who's that polygamist witch feeding my baby! heh heh

Remember Easter?

I just ran across these pictures and wanted to have them here. Oh good old Easter candy and ham. Gotta have that ham once-a-year so you can have leftover ham sandwiches and then never need another slice of ham until next Easter.
Grandma Linda made the cutest bunny rolls:

Asher's ready to eat!

YUM

The night before we went to a Catholic baptism for our friend Corey in Makakilo. Demitri was shocked and Becky was happy and Thomas just fed Jonah a bottle.

It was actually very cool to sit through a Catholic Easter mass. I felt the spirit of it and enjoyed what we learned.

Our buddy Chandra does a yearly egg dying party and I love her for it. The boys do too!


I was co-room mom with my pal Ashley in the kindergarten class our kids are in. I went in right before Easter and read a story I loved as a kid and did a tasty little Easter snack activity with them. Here's an example of what we put together only this one is Asher's that I did with him after-school so he wouldn't feel left out.


It was fun and I love hanging out with all of Ambrose's spunky, cute friends!


Ok, there's Easter 2013 for you... better late than never I guess.

Summer Bucket List!

Source: jossandmain.com via Amy: Mod Podge Rocks on Pinterest

I have read three separate things this week demanding the necessity of a Summer bucket list and so why-the-heck-not?! Let's do this:

1. Waterpark Wednesdays! We may not make it every Wednesday with our homies, but I'd like to try.

2. Ward Camp! I may not love being in charge of stuff for ward camp, but I do love being there and I am so happy it's back on this Summer! A week out at the beach with non-stop fun and friends.

3. Read at least three non-work related books. This really seems like a sadly low goal for an English teacher, but I sure haven't had (or made) time for reading in the last year like I used to. I am taking a book with me wherever I go and I hope to crush this goal soon.

4. Sew something. Anything. I just miss sewing in my life.

5. Have an amazing stay-cation with my family! On the itinerary for the end of June: Temple Valley, new Monsters Inc movie, Aquarium, Magic Island & Ala Moana beach park day with the pop-up shade and a cooler, Pearl Harbor, waterpark, Makapu'u lighthouse hike, Bubbies mochi ice cream and boat watching, and Bishop Museum. Whew. It's gonna be good and you are invited!

6. Watch the Joseph Smith movie at the temple visitors center as a family.

7. Swim lessons at Gunstock Ranch!

8. Smores bonfire for my birthday. That and a beach day and a family photo shoot with Marina is all I want that day.

9. Friday Beach Days! Every friday at a different beach each month with my ward and whoever else wants to join.

10. Go on a date with my husband. At least once, but maybe more- HA! Can you tell we have a baby? I'd just like to get out with him and go anywhere. To the temple would be awesome too!

Jonah at 7 months.

Jonah turned 7 months last week!

I guess that means he's really a member of the family now. We've tried him out for quite some time and we will most definitely keep him.

You know how annoying it is when people say they have the perfect baby? It's usually the baby you see fussing all the time anyway. Well I can say without any bias or attachment that if you are looking for the perfect baby: the search is over! :)

Actually we had dinner with friends last night and he had missed his last nap of the day and fussed because of it- but we are all so smitten with this very easy-going, squishy boy and so our entire family and group of friends are blind to these fussy times. He's just so sweet and pinchable and seriously goes with the flow-- but yes, he does best when we make sure he gets those naps.

7 months stats:
-Sleeps in the boys room so that room is officially packed with boys.
-Goes to bed at 7pm on the dot, fusses at 3am to be fed and quietly goes back to sleep when put back in his crib after, sometimes wakes up another time, but when he's not teething he usually sleeps until almost 8am.
-Is teething! Man those top teeth are insistent. He, being perfect (heh heh), takes it well and slobbers his way through it while biting anything he can get his mitts on.
-Screamed when Asher took a toy from him for the first time yesterday. That's never happened before so it was funny.
-Doesn't love rice cereal, tolerates bananas, and really enjoyed sweet potatoes.
-Still takes a bottle, but loves nursing with Mama the most.
-Does push-ups and can shift around in circles using his feet.
-Is smiley and popular wherever he goes.

Mama Stats:
7 more pounds to go! I got comfortable and have been stuck here for a bit. Time to get back to regular exercise!

My English Department Bio

I had to write a short bio for the English department webpage today and thought it'd be fun to have a record of it here: 

My name is Stephanie Robertson. I grew up in Bakersfield, California and moved to Hawaii in 2004 as a transfer student. I fell in love with the subject of English in my general education classes and graduated as an English major in December 2005. After working as a program coordinator for a mental health agency I was happy to get back to my love of literature and composition as a Special Instructor at BYU-Hawaii. I have been teaching since 2009 and love helping my students find joy in reading, confidence in writing, and creative "ah-ha moments" in expressing critical thought.

I have a smart, talented husband who is a social worker/therapist and three wild, lovable little boys. They are my absolute favorite people in the world... Jane Austen, John Steinbeck, Sylvia Plath, Ray Bradbury, and Harper Lee are close seconds.

Never a dull moment!

I haven't posted regular, everyday pictures on here in a long time. I was looking through photos on our computer today to find something for church when I noticed a few adventures that happened all within a few weeks of each other. It made me smile at how thrilling it makes our lives seem when sometimes I worry that we spend too much time getting "stuff" done. Truth is- there is always something wildly entertaining going on and always something fun to do when it comes to these boys. I may not always be patient or soft-spoken as we struggle to get homework and housework done in between the exciting adventures, but we get the "to-dos" done quickly and then we skateboard, or make something, or explore our way right on to the fun!