Our first month post baby

Brynley is officially one month old today.

It has been a long month so here is a little recap.

My mom and sister came out to help the first couple weeks. I probably would have gone insane without them. It took three of us just to take care of the kids and the household. One would be taking care of the baby and one would be taking care of the older two while one did the cooking or cleaning. The baby was pretty demanding the first two weeks and as soon a they left she became a little easier to handle so I'm surviving three so far but I'm not brave enough to go out in public with all three by myself yet.

Hailey has also become a big help. She likes to come home and take care of the baby so I can get something done, she even can put her to sleep. I've come a long way from when Hailey was a baby and I would hardly let my own mom take care of her to letting a six year old take care of the baby. She is very aware of others and what needs to be done, I find her cleaning up rooms without being asked and keeping Aubrey busy when she knows I am busy with the baby.

Aubrey is also content with hanging out at home and doesn't show any jealousy or animosity to her schedule.

Charlie's brother came home from his 2 year mission.

I had a birthday. We kept it low key this year since I have a baby attached to me but Charlie has been cooking a lot of meals as a present for my birthday and I've really enjoyed that. He has also been doing the grocery shopping and staying up with the baby and being an overall big help in the mom department.

We planted a garden

I don't have a picture for this but I also had a two day stay in the hospital as a result of an over reaction to a cold that Brynley had. That was not a fun experience and I learned a lot of how I would have done things differently. Thanks to Charlie and good friends the kids were taken care of while I spent two days in a small hospital room.

So that is our month in a nutshell, it has been a big adjustment for us and I have been a recluse but I think I am going to start coming out and adjusting to normal life again. I look forward to when Brynley can express happy emotions and sleeping through the night would be nice too but I know that is months from now.

Brynley Autumn Pahulu's Debut

Here she is!!! Brynley Autumn Pahulu, her middle name is for being born on the first day of fall. She was born 5 days late after 4 hours of labor and one push on Sept. 22, 2010 at 6:45 a.m. She weighs 9 lbs. 3 oz. and is 20 inches long. (Now before anyone gets jealous of the 4 hours just remember I have had a 15 hour and 8 hour labor and I feel the whole thing the whole time because I do it natural, but I have to say 4 hours is the way to go) I can't tell what color her hair is, some say blond some say red and some say brown so we will have to keep you posted on that; all we know for sure is it is light colored. She slept the whole first day and hardly ate and then the second day all she did was eat. I went home a little early so I didn't have to stay more than one night in the hospital and I love being home with my family. We are just going to enjoy this first week together as a family relaxing and letting dad do all the household duties. We are so grateful for our healthy precious Brynley.

These girls look like they are going to have a lot of fun times!

Still waiting...

This is me on my due date 2 days ago. I feel like I am the only woman in the world who stays pregnant so long after her due date but this time I am mentally prepared for it so it's no biggy. All I know is this will be the week when she comes.

Here are the girls enjoying their new play room. I love how they can play with each other so well... they can also fight well but we won't dwell on that. I am officially 2 weeks from my due date today. It is crazy to say that. Both Hailey and Aubrey were 6 days late so I am planning for 3 more weeks. It is funny how many strangers ask when you are due in that last month like they are expecting you to pop any second. It doesn't seem real to me that we are about to have a baby and this last month is going by way too fast. I guess I better get the baby clothes down and the car seat washed and pick a name and whatever else it is that I'm suppose to be doing. The girls are excited to have a sister. Yesterday Aubrey took a book and asked if she could read to the baby, then she held the book up to my tummy and turned the pages. She also likes to hug and kiss my tummy and tells me the baby is getting big. She seems to know a baby is in there but I always wonder if she really "gets it". This will probably be my last post until the little newcomer arrives. Ready or not here she comes!

9 year Anniversary

2 weeks ago we celebrated our 9 year anniversary. I forgot to take pictures of our weekend so here is our engagement picture...since it was still the days of film I couldn't find a wedding picture scanned on the computer since we just replaced our printer and the scanning program that went along with it.

Charlie's mom and dad watched the kids for a full 24 hours. After much debate about whether to spend money and go up to Orlando we decided to be cheap and spend time in our new house alone and it was pure bliss. We went to a movie and dinner and then enjoyed the silence of our beautiful new home. Our anniversary was on a Tuesday so Charlie's mom babysat for us again so we could go to dinner on our actual anniversary. We wandered over to the outdoor mall to choose a restaurant and decided to try Melting Pot after much debate since we didn't know if the price was worth it. We actually loved it, we had a little booth that faced the window and you couldn't see anyone else in the restaurant and then the whole experience took 3 hours (our waiter was a little slow) but we didn't mind because it was time alone and we had fun dipping all the food in fondue. A lot has changed over the past 9 years including our love because we love each other more now than we did 9 years ago, we are blessed!

Mini Orlando Vacation

We took a little mini vacation up to Orlando before school started. We wanted to do something fun before school started since we didn't get to travel this summer. We stayed 3 days and 2 nights up in Orlando. The first day we went to Disney and visited 3 of the parks in sweltering hot weather. I expected the evenings to cool down like they do where we live but they did not, I didn't factor in our proximity to the beach helping with that but we survived and enjoyed ourselves.

Here is Hailey showing Aubrey around Disney since she has been so many times


The second day we hung around the hotel and enjoyed swimming all day. Then we headed to Sea World to see their special summer night shows.

Here's Aubrey going down the pool slide

Here's Hailey going down the slide

The third day we checked out and headed down to Ikea because we had never been. It was an interesting store and I felt forever lost in it. We then headed to my favorite restaurant and then back home to rest. It was nice to get away for a little while.

The move in update

We have been in our new house for a month and a half now. These pictures are from the day we were moving in. We have furniture and some decorations up and are settled in now. We still need to decorate the bedrooms but we save those projects for the weekends. We have really loved being here and the girls have felt right at home.

We had lots of help from mine and Charlie's family to help get us moved out and moved in. It was an exhausting week and I couldn't have done it without them. My parents flew out to help and the girls had fun seeing their grandparents.


Once we got settled in the summer became more enjoyable and it went by way too fast. Aubrey is 2 1/2 and swims all over the pool like a fish. She loves to dive in and get rocks at the bottom of the pool. She also potty trained herself a couple weeks ago. I thought we were going to have the same challenge we had with Hailey being fearful of going number 2 in the toilet but she conquered those fears and is doing great. Hailey was a good big sister and played well with Aubrey during all the long summer days and moving around. The last 2 weeks of summer break they started fighting more and I knew that although I wasn't ready for school to start it was probably time. She had her first week of 1st grade and seemed to like it, she says it's a lot of work. Aubrey is really good with me at home and likes to help me out and is fine with whatever I choose to do. We have one more month before our baby girl is due and then life changes again.