Kaila's First Potty!!

So today we bought Kaila a potty trainer toilet. We thought we'd might as well start potty training her slowly, with the new baby coming. As soon as we got home, we opened it and set it up. She thought it was another toy, so we put it in the bathroom and told her that it's not a toy and that it's for going potty. We let her try it out, so she knows what we're talking about. Kaui sat on the big toilet, kind of demonstrating what Kaila's supposed to do. Kaila sat on her potty and we kept encouraging her to go "shi-shi" and "pee-pee." The next thing we know, Kaila did in fact go shi-shi!! We got excited! Kaui then showed her the rest of the steps, like wiping and washing hands. We showed her the pee in her potty and praised her for it, then showed her where it was supposed to go: in the toilet finished with a flush.

Sitting on the potty. Happy she went shi-shi!

We'd never thought we'd be so happy to see a few drops of urine

It's a start. We're taking it slow, still doing some research on the best ways to get toddler's potty trained. But at least she did it!

Hawai'i Videos

Besides the numerous still pictures we took while in Hawai'i, we did take a few videos. So as promised, below are the videos from certain events of our time in Hawai'i.













Trenton's May Day Performance


Rowena's May Day Performance

Cleaning Up the Yard, then Time to Play!!!

While we were gone, we didn't mow our lawn. So that's four-plus weeks of no maintenance on our yard. Fortunately, we share our front yard with our duplex-neighbor, and they cut the front. But it was still long, in Cisco's standards. The back was a jungle of a yard, with the grass at least 2 feet high, some parts pushing 3 feet (sorry, forgot to take a picture). So it's safe to say that we had A LOT of work to do to clean it up.

Cisco had to mow the yard twice, on two separate days. The first day, he cut it on the highest setting, and it still got jammed at times, and took about 2 hours to do. He cut it again, this time on a shorter setting, three days later. When combining the two mowing sessions, with weed-wacking, raking and bagging (we don't have a catcher, but we're gonna get one now), we spent a over 6 hours in the yard. When we normally mow, we have 2-3 bags of grass. This time: FOURTEEN bags of grass! At least we were able to work on our tan.

Kaila helped raking. She also helped bag the grass too. She was all up in it!!

When we finished, Kaila and Sadie were able to finally roam free in the yard! Amy and Travis lent us a Little Tikes play set for Kaila. Morgan is still too young to use it, so they're allowing us to let Kaila play. We remembered how much fun Kaila had playing in the bigger play set when we were in Hawai'i. With this one, she would climb, go down the slide, run around, and repeat. We found her underneath the set as well, lying with Sadie (there's a hole where you can crawl underneath).

"Mommy, can I go down the slide too, like Sister?"

Now, all Kaila wants to do is play outside. When we tell her it's time to come in, she cries and cries and cries. That same day at dinner, she was so exhausted from helping raking, bagging, and playing, this is what we got:

Baby #2 On It's Way!!

For those of you that don't know, back in April, we found out that we are expecting baby #2!! Once the shock settled, we are now very excited to have another baby. Kaila is going to be an "Ate" or big sister! We had our first ultrasound last Thursday, when we got back from our trip.

The picture above, the baby's body is facing you, with its head turning a bit to it's right. At this point, Kaui is almost 13 weeks along, making a due date of December 23rd. The baby is 6.5 centimeters big. The doctor said that so far, everything looks good: the heart is beating, he can see the spine, and he sees two arms and two legs. The baby was very active during the ultrasound; Dr. Kruskol had to take the picture real quick to get a good one.

As we get further along the pregnancy and get more news, we'll be sure to post it on this blog, to keep you all updated.

Our Week with Mike and Erin

Mike and Erin are two of our best friends in the whole world. We will be their co-Matron of Honor/co-Best Man at their wedding in July. There was no doubt that we would be visiting them during our short time here in Idaho. We had so much fun with them, and we know that Kaila had a blast with her Aunty and Uncle.

Acting tough.....key word is "acting."

Kaila LOVED her Uncle Mike. Always saying, "Uncle, Uncle, Uncle"

Us at Graduation

Our last supper. It's tradition that our last meal together be at LocoGrinz.

Westside Clip-Show

The last portrait

Last kisses for Kaila

The goodbye this time wasn't as sad as previous ones. We will see them again in over a month back in Moscow for their wedding. Then, they're planning on coming to DeKalb in September for the Idaho-NIU game. But in the meantime, we will miss them terribly.

Megan's Graduation Weekend

After our short trip to Boise, we drove back up to Moscow for Megan's high school graduation. Mike and Erin came back up with us. Will and Andrea were supposed to, but they had to help Will's parents move. A lot of festivities, a lot of good food, and most importantly, great time spent with our "family" here in Moscow.

Below are a bunch of pictures from the weekend. Events include Andrew Joyce's graduation party, graduation itself, then Megan's graduation party.

Kaila loved playing in Andrew's old log cabin playhouse

Grandpa even joined her inside. She liked that!

"Papa, I'm going to go get groceries for us."

Kaila with her Nanny Jana

With the two graduates, Tata and Andrew

Us with the graduates (Mom caught us off guard; we were in mid-chew mode).

Enjoying the time in beautiful weather with our "family."

Cisco laying in the hammock, with help from Mike.

Kaila finding a way to entertain us.

Kaila LOVED playing with her Uncle Mike during the weekend. Here, they were playing catch with a wiffle ball.

Graduation night. Megan walking down the steps to the floor.After the ceremony, with her Tata

Cisco and Megan. MHS graduates 10-years apart.

The family

Megan's graduation party. Kaila going for a ride in Aunty Erin's purse, with help from Uncle Mike.

Lilly McNanny was SO happy to see Kaila......

............we mean SOOOOO happy.

Eating strawberries with Sharon

Going for a fun ride with Grandpa Gordon

With Cheri

Playing with the other kids: Barrett, Grant, and Lilly. And getting bites of cake from Lisha.

Us with Chris, Heather, and Olivia Walker. Cisco and Chris grew up together. Kaui and Kaila, with Heather and OliviaThe boys with their little girlsCisco and Chris

Megan giving Kaila a thank you kiss, after Kaila helped her open up her gifts

It was a very fun weekend. We are so proud of Megan and all her accomplishments. Just hard to believe that she's all graduated from high school and will be a college girl in a few months. Man how time flies!

Our Short Trip down to Boise

We spent a day recuperating from our trips to Hawai'i and Seattle. This was especially the case for Kaui, who had come down with a nasty sinus infection. After our day of rest, we borrowed Megan's car and made a road trip down to visit our dearest friends in Boise, Idaho. We left Kaila with Grandma and Grandpa, whom we are super thankful for doing that.

We went down to visit and stay with our bestest friends: Mike and Erin. Erin is a high school Math teacher in Caldwell and Mike is the receiving coordinator for a lotion-producing business. Kaui had never been to Boise before so that added more excitement to the trip.

Also, our other dearest friends, Will and Andrea Schumaker, just got back into Boise from Jamaica, where they served for the Peace Corps. Will and Andrea are Kaila's godparents, so we were really excited to see them.

Kaui and Erin starting the morning off right at Starbucks in Downtown Boise.

The fountains in downtown Boise

After dinner with our friends. Here with the soon-to-be Mr. and Mrs. Lokteff

Kaila's godparents, Andrea and Will Schumaker.Girlz............Boyz (notice the Idaho gear in the heart of Donkey-ville)

Even though it was short, we had a good time. When Cisco was able to look past all the blue and orange (enough you would've thought Dr. Seuss exploded) and all the small-minded Donkey fans, he enjoyed Boise. He'd only been there for "business" (baseball tournaments), so he'd never really had a chance to experience Boise. And again, Kaui had never been down there, and she enjoyed it too. Quite a few Vandals down there, which was a nice surprise. Our only complaint was that Kaila didn't have a chance to see her Aunty Andrea and Uncle Will. But she'll see them soon enough in July for Mike and Erin's wedding.