Family pictures

Our good friend Sol came over when the baby was about 3 weeks old and took some family photos. Here are some of our favorites.

Our baby has arrived!

Eden Kahealani Robins was born on September 7, 2013 weighing in at 8 lbs 1 ounce.

The moment she came into this world she stole our hearts with her beauty and sweetness.

She is simply amazing.

Here's a quick rundown of Eden's birth story. I had been having contractions for what seemed like forever, on and off for at least a couple weeks. By the time real labor hit I was racing to get in the birthing tub. Labor was about 4 hours and I pushed for about 15-20 minutes and she was here. Like her brother, she was also born in the caul. I think she tried to show him up by getting here so quickly once labor start.

As always I'm so thankful for my sweet friend Beth for not only helping me through labor but helping me through those tough last few weeks of my pregnancy. She's incredible.

One of my favorite parts about Eden's birth was having Ian in the birthing tub with me. He was such a comfort and a pillar of strength that I literally clung onto when pushing Eden out.

*Disclaimer* if you get grossed out easily you may want to skip the next picture.

After every home birth we always get to look at the placenta and hear cool facts about it and if we want to we can touch it too. Lily and Daniel wanted to right away but Bubba said no a couple times. Then out of nowhere he was suddenly interested. He now knows what the different sides of the placenta are called. And that was his science lesson for the day.

42 weeks...

Yup...you heard me right. 42 weeks and I'm still pregnant.

You can probably tell I'm getting a little tired of answering the question "You're still pregnant?"

Anyway, moving on.

Brandon just finished his first week of school at iLEAD. If I hadn't found this particular school we would still be homeschooling. I'm pretty excited about this school. It's a charter school that he attends M-F like public school but there are a lot of things that make it different. It's a project based learning school and their philosophy for learning is quite a bit like mine. Anyway, we are trying it out for this year. So far so good. This picture is of Brandon and his teacher Ms. Geri.

This is Olu's favorite thing to do right now. He does this for 20 minutes or so and laughs hysterically the whole time.

Birth team meeting and 39 weeks

It sure is getting closer to meeting our new baby girl! This is the belly at 39 weeks and Olu jumping in the photo to say hello to his sissy. We had our birth team meeting last weekend. Everyone that is planning on attending the birth came to the birth team meeting. Which means we got to see Joshy, Jess and my sweet little nephews Issac and Dylan.

Lilybug just loves her Uncle Joshy!

Their serious faces.

Silly faces.

And of course...COWABUNGA!

Cheese sword fight!

For the birth team meeting I made some island food for everyone. Hawaiian teriyaki beef, coconut rice, and lumpia rolls. I don't have any pictures but for dessert we had chocolate sin dessert and palauan banana bread.

I just found these pictures and had to post them. This is Kickboxer and his brother Pat. I think the photos explain for themselves just how close these two are and how they can have a great time together with something as simple as slides.

And here you have the cutest pair of girls that you'll ever see!

Mammoth/36+37 weeks

My birthday has rolled around this year and as usual we took a birthday trip to my beloved home Mammoth. It was nothing short of amazing and uplifting. We decided to get a hotel instead of camping because it wouldn't be very relaxing trying to fall asleep with a rambunctious Daniel in the same tent. He gets distracted during bed time if he has people in the same room as him. We wanted to get a cabin in June Lake but we ended up getting a room at Juniper Springs, which is one of the sister hotels of the one I used to work at but a lot nicer. We LOVED staying there! It had a balcony with a gorgeous mountain view, a humongous bathtub, and a POOL! Woo hoo!

Blissfully happy at 36 weeks

The afternoon that we arrived we drove around to a few of the lakes, walked around, hugged some trees and skipped rocks on the lakes.

We went to Giovanni's for my birthday dinner and Schat's Bakery for dessert. We finished the night off with some swimming at the hotel pool. Perfect day! The next morning we got a late check out so we got in a little more swimming at the pool. After check out we went to the Village and we picked up my apple from Rocky Mountain chocolate factory. On the way, the kids ran into a couple bears and made them crap their pants, well if they were wearing pants.

Brandon has been learning to play chess with Papa so he was super excited to find this giant set at the Village.

When we came into town I cried the happiest tears when I saw this. John Muir is my favorite naturalist and this is one of favorite quotes from him. Absolutely perfect to see this coming into town.

We ended our trip with our much loved June Lake. It was overcast that day so it was a little colder than usual but we still swam as much as we could. 

And here I am at 37 weeks. Full term! Yeah boi!!!

34 weeks

I don't know how it's possible, but we're getting more and more excited for our new baby girl to be here. The kids are totally cute with the anticipation and the questions they ask. Brandon and Kai are at the ages where they know what's going on and they are very interested. I think Brandon asks everyday how many weeks the baby is and when she will be here. And Lily talks to her and rubs my belly constantly. There is already such a strong bond between them. Danny doesn't do it as often but he loves to rub my belly and say "Hi baby." And they all like to take a stuffed animal or doll and stick it under their shirts and pretend they are carrying their babies. Kickboxer and I are already looking around for our fourth kid when we are rounding the kids up. At least we're starting to feel a little bit more prepared for a family of six.

Kai Kai happenings and Mama at 32 weeks

This is Oceanbaby at 32 weeks. 

I've been feeling alright. Kickboxer started training at his new job last week, so he is now gone all during the week and comes home on Fridays for the weekend. This last week was doable but when I think about the next 4 months being like this, I admit it's hard on me. Especially my heart. And especially as I get closer and closer to our baby's due date it feels more real that even after the baby arrives Kickboxer will still have two months of training. He will only be able to be home with us for about a week. Makes us sad just thinking about it.  But we'll take it a week at a time and everything will work out. This is a really good thing for our family and we're very blessed to have this opportunity. 

On to happier events. Lilybuggie went to the dentist for the first time and she did amazing! I was so proud of her! This is a big thing for me because I'm terrified of the dentist and I'm probably the worst patient to deal with. Lily was so excited to go and had so much fun with it. And no sugar buggies(that's cavities in our language)!!! 

Kai started her swim classes this Saturday and we already know she's a mermaid like mama so she loved it! It was really hard to get good pictures because for some lame reason they have the parents wait outside the pool room on the other side of the glass. This is the best one I could get. Bubba will start in a couple weeks. Kai doesn't start hula until September but she super pumped about that coming up too. Oh, I wish summer would never end.

 Blowing out the candles on her actual birthday.

Showing off her muscles and her birthday mermaid dress.

Mimi and Papa celebrating Lily's 4th birthday with us.

Opening gifts.

Papa putting her birthday necklace on. So cute.

Mermaid birthday cake!

Wow, our baby girl is 4 years old. I know we say this all the time but gosh does time go fast. I'm starting a tradition for my little ones. Each time they have a birthday I write a letter to them. I started with Lily's birthday this year. When they get old enough and move out of the house I'll give them all of their letters.We feel so blessed to have Kai Lily as our daughter. I couldn't imagine any other baby girl being more perfect than her. She makes me feel so loved and I couldn't think of a better gift than that.