I Swear He's Growing Up

I swear Aspen is growing up right before my eyes. I don't know what it is, but all the sudden he is asking us what kind of jobs we can find for him to do to earn money. Here's our latest idea - pulling weeds! He gets a penny a weed (a little more for the really big ones) and has been very motivated to get outside and work!

This is Lucy, Brett's lizard. See the little rodent Brett is dangling in front of her? Aspen found a nest of them at Grammi's house on Wednesday.

I told Aspen that the only way he could bring them home was if he took them down to Brett's house to feed to Lucy (and kept the lid very tightly shut!).

Aspen's New Do

So we finally took the plunge and went and got Aspen's hair cut today. It was so hard for me to let them cut his hair! Aspen's idea was to have it like his friend Isaac (see last post). My idea was to bring up the length, but keep it kinda messy and surfer like.

The lady started cutting his hair according to my idea, but as she was cutting, I could tell that Aspen was unhappy. He didn't say a word, he was very shy, but I could just tell it wasn't what he was wanting. Sooooo, with great difficulty, I had her change and go for a style that Aspen pointed out in a book.

I don't have any great pictures yet, but here's the end product. Aspen walked out happy, saying, "Now nobody will call me a girl anymore!" I guess I can't argue with that.

I hardly recognize him! It's going to take us a while to get used to the new hair. Both Mark and I loved his long blond hair and it killed us to let him cut it. But, it's just hair and it's his head, right?

Aspen

It's been a long time since I've posted what's been going on with Aspen. This is more for me later on down the road, but he is growing and changing so much! As always, he is alternately incredibly loving, sweet and affectionate and challenging, aggravating and dramatic. A lot like his daddy! People tell me to watch out having two girls with all the drama they will bring, but they don't know Aspen and Mark. They are far more dramatic than either Journey or I am! Everything is a 'nightmare' and life crisis. :) We'll see what this little girl will bring, but I am definitely used to drama!

Aspen holding Lilly for the first time. Isn't he sweet? He was so gentle with her.

He really enjoyed holding her and wanted to be able to walk around holding her like I was. Hmmm, I think he needs a little more practice before he graduates to that. Reminds me of myself with Adrian. I always wanted to hold and walk around with him when he was a baby.

Isaac is Aspen's favorite friend to have over. He asks to hang out with him every other day! This week Isaac came over and the boys spent literally hours outside in the front yard catching tadpoles. I was able to paint most of Journey's new room when he was over! Such fun boy time. I knew there was a reason we hadn't gotten around to cleaning out our pond this year :)

Yes, they are having fun.

Another thing Aspen has been totally into the last couple weeks is putting his legos together following the directions. Our normal morning routine is that Aspen will wake up around 6:30-7am. Neither Mark or I like to get up that early so he goes downstairs and plays his DS or computer games until we get up to turn on cartoons around 7-7:30am (whenever Journey wakes up). One morning, instead of playing his DS, he picked up the directions to one of his lego toys and started putting them together. He enjoyed it so much that he continued as he finished each project. I love how proud he is of himself as he finishes each page, and have been very impressed at how well he is able to problem solve, spend the time searching through the thousands of legos to find the right piece and just spend focused time on one thing :) This is a new thing for him!

And a couple stories.....

Aspen learned a valuable life lesson today. A couple of weeks back as we were walking out of the fruit market I noticed that Aspen's hands were all sticky. I asked him what was all over his hands and with as much innocence as he could muster, he responded, "I don't know, maybe I will lick it and see!" As I was telling him not to, not knowing what he could have gotten into, he licked his fingers and said "mmm! Honey." "How did you get honey on your hands?", I asked. Um...I think I may have stepped on one of the honey sticks in the store and the honey squirted on my hands..." he said a little hesitantly.

It sounded a little weird, but since I didn't see it, I just said Okay and we walked to the car. As Aspen was buckling himself in, he said, "Mom.....what would you say if I had bitten the honey stick and got it on my hands.....?" Well, I guess I would say that was stealing and that is wrong because we didn't pay for the honey" I responded. He was pretty silent and I asked him if that was how it happened. He came clean and I told him that I was going to have to talk to his dad and we would decide on the punishment. It was a long ride home for him and he rushed to his room when we got home when he realized Mark was already there.

We decided that he was going to have to pay for the honey stick out of his own money and apologize to them at the store the next time we went there. We discussed how stealing hurts people and it hurts God because that is sin.

It's been weeks since that incident and I think Aspen thought I'd forgotten about it. Truth is, the times I've been there since, he wasn't with me and I wasn't really looking forward to taking him in to apologize knowing the high time drama it was going to be. I kind of had to emotionally gear up for it myself!

So today was the day and I warned Aspen before we left that he would need to get his money together and apologize. It was as dramatic as I expected. Lots of tears, begging me to let him stay at home, etc. We practiced what he would say in his apology and I promised that I would stand next to him, although I would not talk for him. I felt bad for him on the ride there because the anticipation was just killing him. It was almost more than he could take. I sympathized with him and told him to ask God to give him courage to be able to say it with out crying.

It wasn't easy for him. We had to stand in line for about 5 minutes while we waited to speak to the cashier, but I was very proud of him (and almost started crying) as he apologized and paid for what he stole. He was able to do it all by himself, and as he finished, it was like a weight was lifted off his shoulders. He felt so good to have it over with! He also commented that he would never steal again. It was just too hard to pay and apologize.

My greatest hope for him as he grows up is not that he doesn't make mistakes, but that he learns and grows from the ones he makes.


And one more - Aspen is ready to cut his hair (sniff, sniff, I love his long blond hair!). He asked us after church on Sunday when we were going to get his hair cut. Surprised, we asked him what made him think of that. Apparently some of his friends told him that his hair looked like girl's hair. Yes, the ultimate insult! And he has noticed when he has been mistaken for a girl lately. (It happens occasionally, but he never seemed to notice up until now) So we are at that age where it matters what other kids think. Pics to come of his new hair cut when he gets it!

Lilly is Here!

Lilly Grace West

6/4/09

6lbs. 7oz. 18.5 inches

Peyton meeting his sister for the first time. He was sweet and gave her kisses.

Grammy with Lilly. She looks quite a bit different than Peyton did at birth.

She slept the entire time we were there to visit. So far she is a good eater and seems pretty mellow.

Proud daddy.

Just a little dark fuzz for hair. So tiny! Journey was interested for the first few minutes, and was very gentle with her.

Charity is doing great and already recovering well. She had a fast labor and should be released later today, less than 24 hours after birth.

Thank You God

I've had so many blog post ideas running around in my head lately, but no time to write them down. I want to do an update on Aspen, Journey and the pregnancy, not to mention, all the other things we have been doing lately.

But today, I just want to keep it simple. I have realized that what I love most about going to church is how I am reminded of how deeply, deeply thankful I am to God for his love and grace on my family and marriage. Honestly, as I worship, all I can think about is how thankful I am, and am brought to tears each week. Five years ago we were at a cross-road point in our marriage and things could have easily gone so much differently.

I am so thankful for God's faithfulness. At that point, I could never have imagined how happy I could be again. It has been a lot of work, but God has truly done a deep healing in our lives and marriage. God has given us our kids and so much joy in just parenting and watching them grow. Yes, they can be frustrating and there are bad, stressful days, but over all, what we keep coming back to is the joy they bring and how much fun we have spending time together as a family.

So, from the bottom of my heart, Thank you God.

Adrian & Rachel's Beautiful Wedding

Our whole family

Rachel wore the same dress her mom and grandmther wore at their weddings. Beautiful.




Journey, not the flower girl, but just as cute!

Justin, Charity and Peyton

This may be their last family picture before Lilly comes...

Tyler, Mark, Troy and Brett - looking good guys!

Troy & Kirstyn

Me: 28 weeks Charity: 39 weeks

Can you believe Charity is ready to give birth any day? She barely looks pregnant in this picture!

Happy 10 Years To Us!

Okay, so I'm a month and a half early on that. Our real 10 year anniversary is June 19th, but we celebrated our anniversary a little early since I won't be able to travel in June. We spent a week in Oahu, Hawaii just the two of us and had a blast. It came at the perfect time before I'm super huge, and it was a very needed brake for us to just relax and enjoy some free time together. Especially since it will be at least another 18 months before we can get away again :)

We stayed in the heart of downtown Waikiki at the Sheraton Princess. It was nice and right across the street from the beach. We walked pretty much everywhere since we didn't rent a car. A totally different kind of vacation for us, but it was fun. And when we didn't walk, we rode the super crowded city bus system. It was an adventure!

One of our most memorable lunches was when we took the bus to Chinatown and walked through their supermarkets to try the craziest things we could find. I don't think there was one thing we tried that we didn't like. We tried everything from fish balls wrapped in tofu to fried rice donuts to 'to die' for tuna sushi (yes, I know, bad me!). And lots of other stuff I wouldn't even know how to describe.

24 weeks pregnant! I got so many stares on the beach with my big belly...

This was so much fun. I'm not sure what they call it, but it was basically a big surf board that you paddled around. I couldn't believe I could actually balance :)

Riding the paddle surf board. Next time Mark will take it in the surf, but he didn't have enough time to do so since he had to share it with me, ha ha.

Relaxing on the beautiful, white sand beach. But, being the whities that we are, we didn't spend too much time laying on the beach. We spent more time laying around our hotel pool. Two reasons - poolside Mai Ties for Mark, shade and comfy lounge chairs :)

We rented this dune buggy for a day and took it all over the island. It was so much fun to drive and see the rest of the island.


First stop, Hanuma Bay. Our plan was to do some snorkeling, but we ended up just relaxing on the beach. From there we drove around the perimeter of the island, stopping to get coconut shrimp from a roadside shrimp cart (popular on the North side of the island). They were amazing. We drove to North Shore with the big waves and explored the tiny town's shops. After hours in the sun and driving in the bumpy dune buggy, I was totally exhausted.

Hanuma Bay - a beautiful, sheltered bay, but let me tell you, we weren't the only ones who went there that day. There were hoards of people! (On a side note: see my burned belly?)

On a dinner sunset cruise.

On our last day we toured Pearl Harbor and a submarine that served in WWII. The pic was taken inside the sub. Mark found all that much more interesting than I did, but the site where the USS Arizona is still underwater was pretty fascinating. It is still leaking oil and they think it will for the next 100 years!