this beautiful life: Random

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Thursday, April 26, 2018

Not even one

Side By Side April 26, 2018 Baby #3 , Elijah 0 Comments

You know how people post pictures of their kids together with a caption like "the one decent picture we could get of them" or "the only one where they are all looking."

Well sometimes...

there isn't even one.

And yet it's still adorable.

Puppy day story time at the library.

Oh and here is some extra cuteness for you too...

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Cultural Me

Side By Side February 13, 2018 Journal Moments , parenthood 0 Comments

A new favorite show:

Somebody Feed Phil. It's a documentary about the best food Phil, who is the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond, can find in different countries. So far I've watched Bangkok, Vietnam, and Israel. It's kind of a random show. But suddenly it's my comfort show for nights when I'm on my own here or just up late by myself.

I have a movie about Malala rented from the library that I've been meaning to watch, and not with the kids. But when night comes I get nervous to watch something about sadness and violence and oppression.

So one of the things I've been thinking about a lot lately is culture. And the thought that keeps coming to me, exclamation points and all, is

I wish every culture was my culture!

I feel very very blessed to have so many cultures a part of my life.

I'm grateful to have knowledge of and deep appreciation for both my white side and my brown side- Pioneers and Polynesians.

Growing up in a place nicknamed "Little Manila" and being aware of the several other cultures around me all the time (there was ONE blonde haired girl in my grade...and she was part hispanic). Spending much of my teenage and young adult years hearing Spanish everyday with Rocio living with us speaking Spanish to her kids and working at PFM for several years where every co-worker spoke Spanish (and tried to teach it to me so that I could impress Andrew when he came home from his mission in Paraguay).

Watching and loving shows like The Nanny with Fran Fine and her Jewish family,

or Living Single with Queen Latifah and her loud and proud knowledge of her African Amercian culture and who she is,

or the Big Family Cooking Showdown with the Indian family's amazing passion for food and family,

or Northern Exposure with the Native American spirituality and connection with nature.

And movies like Cocoa, Moana, Princess and the Frog. My favorite movie of all time Roman Holiday and the culture that surrounds the romantic plot. I just love it all.

I guess this is why I'm such good friends with Phil right now.

I love so many cultures. I wish I could take all the wonderful things from each one and have it all be a part of who I am. And I guess maybe I can. In our families we create our own culture don't we? I hope to raise my kids with an appreciation for all the wholesome, good, beautiful, exciting, and different things and different people all around the world.

I'm so glad God gave us culture.

I love realizing that I'm passionate about something I didn't know I was.

Friday, January 26, 2018

On the Bright Side

Side By Side January 26, 2018 california , Journal Moments 0 Comments

Yesterday was a bit of an overwhelming day over here, beginning with an 8:30 dentist appointment for Audrey to get three little cavities filled. It actually went very well. From there though it was just one of those OFF days between me and my girls. A meltdowns and power struggles everywhere we went the rest of the day and everything we did at home! By bedtime I was more than ready to not see or hear them for 12 hours. I vented to Mariah and Natalie via Marco Polo, trying to make sense of why we had such a crappy day together (even though we did some very nice things, like visiting our new friend Trudy White, who is an older lady in our ward. She had the most beautiful grandma house with toys for the girls and she and I sat and talked about two of my favorite things- painting and family history. She is definitely a kindred spirit). Anyways, in talking to Mariah and Natalie about it all Mariah suggested blogging to help me feel better about it. And I felt like, "Well, DUH! Why didn't I think of that?"

This is the exact reason I started blogging again in the first place to help myself see the many many great and wonderful things about life, particularly my crazy little life with these kids. So thank you Mariah for this reminder. And now here are some of the things I am very happy about right now in my simple (it) stay at home mom life:

Homemade yogurt with raspberry syrup. Pretty proud of myself.

Attempting a portrait of Audrey (it's not going great yet so I won't post any pictures until I like it better)

piggy tail braids in their hair- the braids don't hang down by their shoulders, they get sucked up into the rest of their hair because curls gotta curl, even when braided. Today Hannah stuck a little flower from Hawaii at the top of one of the braids and it has stayed without bobby pins or anything. It looks quite adorable. And now I will probably work that into a hairstyle for her next time. I love things like that, when they accidentally show me a new thing!

Exercising every morning. A fun PopSugar cardio video and Ekhart morning yoga video they like to do with me. The other day they ran and put swimsuits on to do it because that was the closest thing they could think of to the outfits the girls in the video had on. My wonderful little Eli Leilua sits in the Bumbo as I do it thinking I'm entertaining him! It's great because then I can use his nap for other things to get done.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. I love this movie and I tend to watch with the New Year the last few years. Inspiring and motivating.

Food goals are going pretty well.

Bright white blankets of snow out our window. It's very bright in the winter here.

Andrew playing his guitar he got for Christmas on weekends and evenings. I love the sound of him learning and practicing while I'm painting or doing stuff around the house. It reminds me of my dad doing the same thing when I was growing up.

COCO. WE LOVED COCO. I wish I could own it right now. I can't tell you how much I loved that movie, especially the end.

Also JUMANJI. Went to see that with Julia and my cousin Krista and it was laugh out loud funny.

Today we'll be going to the library which is always a lovely thing for us. I have two books/books on Cd I'm looking for there today. And of course we'll probably come home with 20 beautiful new children books as well. I get pretty insane with all the stuff I try to haul home from the library, while carrying Eli and holding girls hands. I seriously just CANNOT help myself.

Sand. Sand, sand, sand. My parents gave the girls some kinetic sand for Christmas with little toys in it to bury and play with. It has been so much fun. They're at the table with it right now and I love walking by and just grabbing handful of that softee stuff. (Audrey just told me she finally uncovered the "dinosaur of truth" in her sand. Other things that appear are "the horse of life" and things like that. Is she not super cute?).

And speaking of sand...

Some of my favorite pictures of all time:

Junie B. Jones and Peter Pan books on CD. A very fun part of our life right now.

Marco Polo! It has kind of changed my life, no exaggerating. I have been able to keep in touch so much easier with people I had lost touch with over the years, high school and college friends. And long conversations with cousins and sisters that are very difficult to have otherwise. I love it.

Just Being Audrey book by Margret Cardillo. It was Audrey's gift from Santa but she's been nice enough to share it with me. Children books are one of my favorite things and Audrey Hepburn is one of my favorite people. So the combination? Too exciting for me to express. I'm sure I'm so weird how happy it makes me. She's one of those rare heroes in the world who becomes MORE of a hero the MORE I learn about her. She is truly my friend.

My pandora station! Good music can make such a HUGE difference in a day, don't you think?? I have now tailored one pandora station of mine to be exactly what I usually am in the mood to listen to. And I've learned something about myself- I like jazzy kind of music. Who knew? I love acoustic music- like JUST a guitar or ukulele and little else kind of songs. Those are my favorites. But I also have some jazz because of Zee Avi- who kind of does both. And also on that station are a lot of french songs! Like the kind of music you hear in Ratatouille. I like walking around pretending like we're in a little attic apartment in Paris, atmosphere and all. I rocked Eli to sleep for his nap this morning to the lullaby tune of J'tai Deux Paris. It was quite magical.

Family reunion coming this summer! Excited to help with decorations for it. I already have some ideas....

Dreaming with Andrew about our future. We're thinking some changes may happen for us in the next few years. So we're doing a lot of dreaming and scheming and preparing right now. I love having him to dream with.

See, once I got started I couldn't stop!

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

HAIR

Side By Side September 13, 2017 dreams , goals 0 Comments

I did something a little crazy.

Before:

After:

Ahhhhhhhhh!!!

I have such a love hate relationship with cutting my hair. It's so fun but so scary sometimes. The anticipation was probably the funnest part of it all. I'm still getting used to it, but I think I'll love it soon. Just need to not worry about other people's reactions. I'm expecting to get a mixture of forced politeness and genuine compliments. But I'm not going to care. I'm glad I did it. I've always wanted to try this and while watching my favorite movie (Roman Holiday) with my girls the other day I just decided it was time. I love running my fingers through it, it feels so good! And I'm very very VERY proud to now have short curly(ish) hair just like my two beautiful daughters. I think Audrey feels encouraged about her hair from me doing this. I sure hope so...there are a lot of different ways to be beautiful!

My good friend Hannah said I look CLASSIC. That's been my favorite reaction so far!

Inspiration

(in more ways than one!):

My friend Audrey Hepburn