16 Teeth!

Last week Mason cut his 12th tooth. . .so I thought. Later in the week I was looking at that 3rd molar that had cut through and started thinking it looked like he had more than 12 teeth. So I counted and there were 15 - how did I miss 3 teeth??? Hello - no wonder he's been drooling like a mad dog with a runny nose that never stops! AND - he cut a 4th molar today, bringing him up to 16 teeth! That's 5 teeth he's cut in 5 weeks - poor kid - no wonder he wants to chew and eat constantly! And to top of it all I weened him 2 1/2 weeks ago. . .took away his comfort during such a painful time - he's had it rough!

I know I should have a picture of all those teeth, but he's sleeping and this is the only time I've had to make a post, so I'll try to get one in the next few days and add it.

25 Random things you might not know about Julie

I was tagged a few weeks ago, but reading Kamilli's today inspired me to actually do it!

1. I've always wanted to go skydiving and the one time I had the opportunity to do it, I didn't. I've regretted it ever since!

2. I love candles and it makes me happy that my husband loves them too!

3. I HATE glasses - yes, the eyewear. When I was young I had a muscle problem that made my eyes cross when I read so I would see double. In 3rd grade they made me wear these glasses with prisms in them which forced my eyes to stay straight when I read. The side effects were that I was dizzy and nauseous and had horrible headaches. I HATED those glasses and begged for contacts. I finally got contacts in 6th grade and life was a beautiful thing!

4. I don't really like to read. . .due much in part by the problem with my eyes - but also in part because of the book "White Fang" in the 7th grade. I just couldn't get into that book, there was something about it that I really hated. . . because of that book I was getting an "F" in English class at mid-term. I was able to raise it to a "C" by the end of the term, but I was devastated! That was the only time I ever got a "C". That book and my eyes totally ruined reading for me. There's only one series of books I've ever really been able to enjoy. . .

5. Which brings me to my love of the Harry Potter world - when I read (or watch the movies) I actually enter into the magical world and think I am magic. I go about my normal business at work and home doing spells on my husband, children and co-workers. I have delusions that I can apparate. I constantly analyze every character and event trying to figure out what will happen next, only I've read all the books now and know what happens so instead I now think about "what if" something would've happened differently, "how would things have turned out if. . ." When I finish a Harry Potter book it takes me a good week to snap back into reality. I wonder if there will be a mental diagnosis in the DSM V for this?

6. A couple years ago I had a secret crush on Zac Efron. Kind of embarrassing to have a crush on a teenager, but there was something about that hair, those eyes, that smile in HSM that made me watch it over and over again just to see him.

7. As a child I loved movies - movies that I could pop in the VCR and rewind over and over again so I could sing and dance to every song. I still know the entire script, songs and movements to "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "Savannah Smiles", and any Hailey Mills movie: "Parent Trap", "Summer Magic" etc.

8. I love Nick-at-Night! I often stay up way too late because I'm watching reruns (that I've seen a dozen times) of Cosby Show, Tool Time and believe it or not George Lopez.

9. Even though my house feels too small and I don't love the neighborhood, and we don't have a garage. . . I will cry deeply when we move out - I love it so much and I don't know how I could ever live without this kitchen - it's has completely spoiled me!

10. I bite my baby boys finger nails. . .it's so much easier to bite off the edge and pull it off then to clip them. I didn't do this to my older son, but I'm telling you it is way better than accidentally cutting their little fingers with those stupid clippers!

11. There is always at least one room in my house that is a complete and utter disaster! When company comes it is inevitable that things get thrown in that room and the door shut and locked - can't risk the door accidentally getting opened and someone seeing that mess! No matter how many times I try to have every room in the house clean at the same time, it just doesn't work. ARGH!

12. I try so hard to be organized and often wonder why I bother trying!

13. I catch myself saying things to my kids that my mother said to me when I was young. They are the things that I HATED and swore I'd NEVER say to my kids! I finally understand my mom in many ways!

14. When I was a teenager I would get so angry with adults and say "You just don't understand what's it's like to be a teenager. . .When I'm older I'll never forget what it's like to be this age." Now that I'm in my 30's I've forgotten what it's really like to be a teenager. I don't understand them at all! Imagine how much worse it will be when my kids are teenagers!

15. The older I get, the less intelligent I feel. . .

16. After my sinus surgery, two years ago, the most amazing things came out of my nose! There was a booger that I swore could've been put down in the Guiness Book of World Records as "Biggest Booger in the World". If it hadn't shriveled up when it dried out I would've tried to sell it on Ebay!

17. I love to use Exclamation Points when I write!!!!!! It makes me feel like what I'm saying actually sounds important and interesting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

18. The best teacher I ever had in my whole life, by far, was my AP English teacher Jr & Sr year of High School. She was better than all my college professors put together! Mrs. Neer still has a very dear place in my heart. She should win all the awards!

19. When I lead exercise groups with my psych patients at work, I feel like such a hypocrite!

20. The only form of exercise I've ever enjoyed is dancing: tap, ballet, folk, ballroom, clogging, Irish. I danced all growing up - through college, was on dance teams and even have a minor in dance. I haven't danced since college - I miss it terribly.

21. When I'm really excited about something I look for a private place so I can jump up and down like a little kid to celebrate!

22. I like to randomly make strange faces and body poses, to which my husband usually laughs and says "What was that?"

23. I'm not very disciplined. Sometimes I wish I were, but sometimes I'm glad I'm not!

24. I still don't know how to properly use a comma. Maybe my AP English teacher wasn't as good a I think she was, or maybe I just relied on my mom's proofreading too much (and still do. . .I had to consult her for my use of commas in #23)!

25. I thought this would be so hard, but it really wasn't. It was actually somewhat therapeutic!!!!

Driftwood Forts

Aidan and Delvin went out fishing on New Years' Day. We were out on Whidbey Island spending time at my mom's . There's a lot of driftwood at the beach there and Delvin saw this as an opportunity to teach Aidan some sheltering skills. Aidan was so excited to take me back to see the "fort".

GRRRRR!

I haven't had time to blog lately and finally got a quick minute to change things from Christmas back to the everyday. . . well, this has not been a "quick minute" as it was supposed to be. . .The cutest blog on the block website is down so I went to pyzam and when I chose a background and followed the instructions it also deleted my whole right column (links, widgets etc.) GRRRRRRRR! I can't believe I have to redo that now! I was only planning to use the background until cutest block on the block was back up anyway, because I don't really like the pyzam backgrounds and I didn't have time to search for another site. Anyway - after that I went to close out pyzam and saw this one with the bears and since I'd been sitting here saying "GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR" I figured the bears were a better choice right now! Now, when will I find the time to redo my links and widgets???? GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas Stories!

A great Christmas Day was had by the Tapusoa Family!

Aidan asked the big Santa question a few weeks ago. . .I blew it while teaching his primary class at church when Aidan, teasing me, asked "Did the Easter Bunny board the Ark?" and I answered "Magical creatures didn't need to get on the Ark". Hello??? I had to say that?. . .I didn't think to say "The Easter Bunny wasn't born yet." So, on the way home from church Aidan came out with it saying "So, Mom, is this whole Santa thing really real?" Gulp! I'm hoping other kids in the class weren't making the same connection! No parents called me up asking what on earth I was teaching their kid, so that was good, I guess! It turned into a really good conversation and Aidan may not be hearing the sleigh bells ring anymore, but he is excited about helping us make it fun for Mason for the next several years.

As a State employee, I don't get any bonuses at work, but Delvin had a customer that was really appreciative of all the work Delvin did for him this year and gave Delvin a Christmas bonus. . .thankfully this enabled Santa to get Aidan what he really wanted this year! Aidan was truly shocked! "I didn't think I'd get it 'cause it's really expensive!" The look on his face was priceless!

Mason was darling while opening presents. . .he was, of course, more interested in the boxes then unwrapping or playing with the gifts, that is until he opened up the vacuum! He immediately vacuumed the whole house. . .too bad it's not real!
Grandma was with us and she got such a kick out of the Aqua Globes we gave her - it was hilarious. . .My brother's family came over to pick up mom for dinner and we spent some fun time with them before heading out to our Polynesian Feast! We had dinner with the Fifita's! Latu made a huge array of Polynesian foods, Delvin cooked the fish and it really was spectacular! I will add pics when they email to me (I, of course, left the memory stick in the computer! -duh)

It was a perfect Christmas (except for Mason falling down the Fifita's staircase - everyone thought I was being overly cautious with him and those stairs, so the one time I let my guard down. . . he tumbled all the way down - never question a mothers' gut!) Christmas was filled with snow, great gifts, love of family and friends, and a wonderful spirit of the true meaning of Christmas in celebrating the birth of Christ! What a great day! It all went by too fast, I'm in denial that it's over. . .I think I'll leave my Christmas playlist and background up for awhile until I decide to jump back to reality!

SNOW SNOW EVERYWHERE!

The snow is so unusual for us - This is the first year in the past 7+ years we've lived in Washington that the snow has stayed on the ground for more than 1 or 2 days. It's been over a week and it's not just a tiny bit of snow - we have at least 18+ inches of it - it is soooo much fun! I've gotten called off work twice now and numerous places are shut down, school was closed the last three days before the winter break. It's so different, but really quite fun! Delvin decided to be original he would build our snowman on the roof!!!
Saturday, we went to my brother's house to play in the snow with them - the drive was sooooo beautiful! We rarely have temperatures below freezing - it's been well below freezing for over a week.
We had a lot of fun in the snow. . .my brother and Delvin built a ramp of snow up to a tree stump and we had a blast flying off of it. . .Aidan was the first who decided to go down it backward. . .he ended up going down without the sled - it was hilarious!
Aidan got very adventurous on the hills! I was very proud of his adventurous side!!!!!

My snow boys!!

Vacuum Obsession

Mason - is obsessed with the vacuum! He squealed a few weeks ago when we were at the store and he saw a toy vacuum cleaner. . .guess what Santa will be bringing him this year!!!

A Budding Romance!

Here's a story I've been meaning to post. . .Delvin babysat Kristina a few weeks ago. He put her in the Lazy Boy and Mason crawled up on it, sat down next to her and put his arm around her! How cute was that one? Wish I was there to see it! The romance is budding already!

Lack Motivation

I have lacked motivation lately to post anything. . .the creative juices just aren't flowing! My nephew, Orion, is sleeping over tonight (we're assuming school will be canceled again tomorrow!) Here's a funny pic of the boys! Maybe my motivation will come back one of these days!

Merry Christmas from the Tapusoa's (and Grandma), pause the music above before watching this!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

One YEAR Old!!!

Mason is ONE YEAR!!!!

Yesterday was a great day!
I can't believe the little guy is a year old already!
On Friday he got his first hair cut and now he looks like a little boy-
the wispy baby hair is gone (sniff sniff)

He had a good time opening presents. . .wasn't quite sure what was going on, but it was fun to watch his reaction! He got his own cell phone, a bus that drives by itself, keys, shoes & socks, a truck and a rocket ship!

He loves the rocket ship - rides it all around the house -
mostly he sits backward or opens up the seat and tries to climb into it - sooooo funny!

We went over to see Kristina after church and celebrate the twins birthday together!
Kristina gave Mason a bus and he gave her a Barn!

I made Mason a lion cake! Not one of my best cakes, but my hands have been bad lately, so not terrible considering!

Uncle David plopped the whole face of the lion onto Mason's tray! He wasn't quite sure what to make of it. . .he looked at it with a strange face for awhile then finally dug in!

Eventually it ended up all over the floor and his face. . .
I'm not sure he even ate more than two bites,
but he sure had fun playing with it!A great end to a great first year!

Trick-or-Treating

Aidan & Taylor

I just realized I forgot to put the Halloween pics up. . .oops - better late than never?????
We went out with the Reid/Thomas family for the second year in a row. Aidan was a Jawa (Star Wars character) and Mason was a Lion. Watch out Kristina, Sarah was making her move!!!! - It was really cute they were holding hands for a short time.

Boxes

We finally got Mason a forward facing car seat. . .The boys had soooooo much fun playing in the box today while I was making dinner. I just had to take some pics!!!

MFBAPT (Mother's Fighting Back Against Pumpkin Thieves)

I'm starting a new organization:

Mother's Fighting Back Against Pumpkin Thieves!!!!!!!!!
Now accepting new members!

Corn Maze and Trunk-or-Treat!

So we did finally make it to the Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch on Thursday. It was fun! We chose some good pumpkins - Aidan's is HUGE! He had to hunt the patch for the largest one he could find! So funny! My Kookie boys!

Tonight was our ward Halloween party and trunk-or-treat. Aidan wouldn't even put his costume on. . .what's that all about?
Here are the betrothed all dressed up!
The Ladybug and the Lion - too cute!

Pictures of the Day!

We had a lot of fun today just goofing around. . .Aidan had 1/2 day of school and his parent/teacher conference. . .Aidan is still doing fabulous in school -GREAT JOB AIDAN! After that we decided to go to the pumpkin patch and corn maze. . .it was supposed to rain all day, but it hadn't yet, so we decided to give it a go and of course 1/2 way there the rain starts pouring down (not the typical Washington light rain - it was a downpour like none other)! We thought we'd just mull around in the barn for a bit and wait for the rain to die down, but it never did - so we never got to the corn maze or the pumpkin patch. I did get this picture which makes me roar with laughter every time I look at it!
Wouldn't you know as soon as we pulled in our driveway the rain stopped! Oh bother - so instead Mason and I took a much needed nap - ahhhh the Sunday nap I didn't get yesterday felt so good today! So later, Delvin was teaching Aidan to do the laundry and Mason was so upset that they kept going in there without him - poor boy has to be involved in every little thing. yes - that is the stroller in the laundry room. . .one of the unfortunate things about not having a garage!

Impromptu Dinners!

Delvin and I have always loved impromptu dinners! We had them 3-4 nights per week with our neighbors when we lived in California. We often talk about how much we miss them! Today I made a full crock pot of Yummy Soup (Yes - me, I made soup AND it was good!) We called the Magelsens (they are the ones who had a baby the same day we had Mason) and amazingly they weren't going over to Shawn's parents house and hadn't made dinner yet, so an impromptu dinner was born!!!!! Mason was really funny - he gave Kristina several hugs and kisses - he really kept going - she wasn't so sure about all this. It was funny to watch how insistent he was on hugging and kissing her - hope it's not a sign of his future - but then again, they are betrothed!

Bloggers

I've just spent 1 1/2 hours reading through blogs of random people. It's left me feeling very inadequate in my writing skills -oh the wittiness and sarcasm! I don't express myself very well in writing. . . so to compensate I use multiple exclamation points and question marks thinking it will add emphasis and importance to what I say! Anyway, wow - I'm still working out my feelings on all these bloggers. . .one thought is - when do they have to time to sit in front of the computer and do this?? It's not like they just write - they have links to videos and funny pictures and they have many people making comments on their posts, of which they respond to the comments, and then they follow other peoples blogs and I can't help but think they sit in front of the computer for extreme amounts of time. . .I think I spend too much time in front of the computer, but wow - I don't think it's anything compared to these bloggers!!!!! (There goes the exclamation points again) - I guess it's their thing - their outlet - their leisure/recreation and so that's good right???? Thoughts about blogging anyone?

Sweet Words!

Delvin and I were talking today about how sweet it is to hear Mason calling Aidan's name so frequently - he walks (yes, he's walking like crazy for the last week) all around the house calling for Aidan (A duh, A duh). We were discussing how cute this is, but how sweet it would be to hear him call out for us that way. He can say Mommmm and Da, but he doesn't say it very often . . .about 2 hours later Aidan was playing in the den with Aidan and we hear this "Da, Da, Da" over and over - it was loud and so we go in and find him with a soccer ball and he was calling for Delvin to play ball with him. It was sooooo sweet - so of course Delvin had to sit and play ball with him. I can't wait until I hear him call for Mommmmm over and over again - ahh the sweets words of babies!

I deserve a life tile!

In the game of "Life" you get "Life Tiles" for going through different life experiences such as "discover a new planet", "find a new energy source", "build a better mousetrap", "become president" or my personal favorite "invent new ice cream flavor". Well, I can't say I've done any of those things, but I did something yesterday that I feel is deserving of a "Life Tile". Unfortunately I can't share with you the details at this point but it got me thinking that we need to recognize and give kudos to ourselves more often!

I've decided to start giving "Life Tile" awards out! If you or someone you know deserves a life tile for going through one of lifes challenging experiences or who has done something really good to make the world a better place etc. . .email me or make a comment below and I'll send them a "Life Tile" to recognize and give kudos for a job well done!