baby days

a few weeks ago i dug out all of coen 6-12mo baby clothes and shipped them over to baby beckett. yesterday cortney posted these adorable pictures of the little b on her blog, thatsjustcrazypersontalk. could this 4 month old be any cuter? when wes saw the pictures he said, "those pants were my favs, cause it dosen't get any cuter than a baby in camo!" seeing beckett in coen's clothes inspired me to take a trip dowm memory lane...



coen sporting the camos on wes' 1st father's day!

coen's first memorial day (or around that time anyway)



some of my favorite 4 months old pics.

it is so fun to watch beckett grow up and remenise about coen's baby days. watch out matt & cortney, you'll have a fiesty 2 year old before you know it!

a dinner playdate!

last night coen had a dinner playdate with his friends, maddox & lucas! the parents were pretty busy breaking up fights over toys and such, but after awhile the boys settled into playing with eachother...kinda. baby lucas is so cute and loved wes to pieces. they were buddies all night. we ate some yummy ribs, purple sweet potatoes, and grilled hearts of palm....yum! thanks for having us over maddox and lucas, let's do it again soon!







oh, and how could i forget sweet lucy! such a chubby, snuggly "little" beagle. she gave us all our dog fix since we are missing lily desperatly. not for long though, lily arrives on the island this friday with pop and gami! yea!

book gutters

mr coen has quite a love for books. lucky for him he also has a lot of special people that enjoy buying new books for him. our new playroom was in need of some book storage to help contain some of coen's library. i saw this idea on my friend's blog, alexandersjourney. once i started researching it i found out that rain gutter book storage is a big deal. there are hundreds of pictures on google and numerous blogs that give you the step by step. my favorite was here at, raisingolives. we opted out of using the brackets, and just put drywall scews directly into the gutter. for 5 feet of gutter, we used 4 screws. they seem very sturdy. we are very happy with how our new rain gutter bookshelves turned out. it was a very simple project that only cost about $10!

coen ran in the house and got his saw to help daddy "cut" the 10ft gutter in half.

if you have any questions about installing rain gutter bookshelves feel free to leave a comment below. happy reading!

this is how they bowl

wes and coen have bonded over bowling! while i go to yoga on tuesday evenings, the two of them have been hanging out at the kmc bowling alley. the kmc (kileua milatary camp) is located inside the national park. i can't explain exactly what the purpose of the camp is. it has cabins, restaurants...and a bowling alley.

when i got home tonight coen couldn't stop talking to me about his date with daddy. wes says that a group of girls where trying to play with him on the playground and coen looked at them and said, "i just want to hang out with my dad." now, how can we keep him saying that through his teenage years?

it makes me so happy to see them having fun together. really happy.

say ahhhh

on saturday coen had his first check-up at the dentist. it went super well. i am so glad i have a relaxed 2 year old who adapts to any and all situations like a champ. just kidding. it was a total disaster. i held him down long enough for the dentist to get a tooth count, and that was about it. he wants us to come back in 6 months, just to get coen use to the enviroment. they also suggested that he come with us when we get our teeth cleaned so he can watch. on the plus side, his teeth looked great. we have 1 of 4 two year molars...man will i be glad to be done with teething! say ahhh...

over the rainbow

on saturday, just as the world was supposed to be ending, we spotted this gigantic rainbow off our lanai. it was the biggest, brightest, most vibrant rainbow i have ever seen. we stood in awe of it for several minutes, and wondered just who might be enjoying the other side of this magnificent rainbow.

surfing buddies

wes has really been wanting to learn how to surf. it turns out that he has a friend a work that surfs, and when wes talks about this friend he refers to him as his "surfing buddy." i promptly explain to him that he can't call him is surfing buddy until they actually go surfing together. wes takes me pretty seriously, and decided it was time to make the relationship official. tonight he went out with his new (official) surfing buddy for a lesson. it was BEAUTIFUL and the waves were amazing. i hung back with coen and watched from the shore. he actually got 2 waves, and was pretty proud of himself. i didn't have our camera with me, so i snapped a couple pics on my phone.

heading out...

heading in...

ouch! my head hurts...poor buddy took a digger in the parking lot 30 seconds after getting out of the car. his hands were full of treasures (sticks) that he wasn't willing to drop, the result was a face plant in the parking lot. it's pretty bad...up there with his worst head bumps of all times.

nooks & crannies

it's hard to believe that we have been in our new house for almost 2 months. that also means that coen has been 2 for about 2 months, and believe me when i say this, he is acting the part. such a feisty, curious, independent (unless i want to sneak away) little man. i am coming to terms with that fact that decorating this house is going to be a processes. i stare at a huge blank wall in my living room all day long and i have no idea what to do with it. i have even gone so far as to log onto nate berkus' website looking for a "do you need help decorating a large wall in your living room?" link. no such luck. yet. cortney suggested i paint a large palm tree. i think she was kidding. the wall is certainly not the only empty space. i have a wish list that goes well beyond our budget. but mixed into all the open spaces are some little nooks and crannies that i love. when i look at them, they feel like home. some are still a work in progress (like my wall 'o t's) and others are a mix of old and new. the light airy pallet is refreshing and beachy...as you may have expected. so here is a sneak peak at some of my favorite nooks in our new home. they really are better in person, so consider this your invitation.

a hiking we did go

on saturday we woke up to blue sky and sunshine. it dawned on us that we have not hiked once since our move...craziness. since the weather looked good, we decided to go for it. i was a little unsure about how coen would do in the backpack after a 3 months break, so we picked a short 2.5 mile round trip hike to start us out. it was really clear to me after we got him in the pack how much he has grown. he looks so big in there now! thanks to a pack of m&m's he did pretty good. clearly he would rather walk, but it would take us days at his pace. so for now, bribery will have to be our secret weapon.

we did the mauna ulu hike in the hawaii volcanoes national park. it was the perfect distance for coen, and such great views. steaming vents, amazing lava formations, and our own personal volcanic seismologist.

a little super hero action at the top!

who loves volcanoes? we do! we do!

not a super wonderful picture...but the best we could get.

after the hike, we had a picnic lunch and then took a drive down the chain of craters road. coen crashed after 10 minutes (totally expected) and we took a long drive through the park to help him get a good nap. it's so rare that we are out and about during his nap time, nap time is sacred! but we threw out the rules just this once, and really enjoyed the ride. he woke up when we pulled into our driveway and was all charged and ready to rock it for the evening.

follow our flock!

if you are driving yourself crazy consistently checking our blog for updates, worry no more. blogger has added a new feature that allows you to get updates via email when new posts are added to a joyful nest. it's simple, just enter your email address in the box to the right and you will be on your way to automatic updates. amazing, i know.

make new friends, but keep the old

just before our move to the island we made a quick trip up to seattle to snuggle on the very sweet and very new baby beckett. also, a very dear college friend of mine was visiting from las vegas and i wanted her to meet my sweet baby, who is not much of a baby anymore.

i met cortney and lauren the day i moved into my dorm room at the university of nevada. although you probably would not have guessed, i was so nervous! i decided to walk down the hall and meet some new peeps. who would have ever thought i would walk right into the room of very dear, life long friends. we had so many good times together that year. when i look back on all of college i am still the most blessed by that year, living right down the hall from such special people.

i dug up this old picture from a halloween party. i remember it like it was yesterday. all of it, and man was it fun. no joke.

i did not take nearly enough pictures of our visit with lauren. however, you can read more about her visit on my bestie's blog. it was really special to spend a few days with these ladies and share the joy of all the milestones our lives have encountered. i love you coatney and matty-ass.

let's go to the zoo

this last week coen and i met up at the zoo with a some friends we met through our mom's group. coen absolutely loved the animals, but playing with maddox was by far his favorite part! hilo's pana'ewa rainforest zoo & gardens is a beautiful place to let the boys run free. we got get up close with monkeys, parrots, and peacocks.

this is zoe. a very cool bird. yes, birds can be cool.

maddox teaching coen how to use the drinking fountain. which, by the way coen is obsessed with now...it kinda grosses me out.

baby lucas! such a sweet, content, patient baby!

the best zoo friends ever.

there were several peacocks just roaming around the zoo. i'll tell you, when they shake their tale feathers it is quite a sight!

a very sleepy tiger. he had no interest in acknowledging us.

the whole way home coen cried for "my friend maddox!" i guess we will be setting up another play date in the future. good clean fun.

coen's hot date

this morning i was itching to get out of the house. now that we live a good 25+ minutes from town, i have to really talk myself into leaving. i love the idea of living in the country, but it takes some getting used to. for instance, if i want starbucks i can't just toss coen in the stroller and walk a couple blocks, grab an iced latte and then head to the park. see what i am saying? i have to reeeeaaaally want that iced latte. i even when i do, i can pretty much alway talk myself out of it when i think about an hour drive round trip just for coffee! so, i have made my point. when i go to town, i go with purpose and a plan....and maybe grab a coffee while i'm there. today was different. no purpose. no plan. no appointments or classes. just went. and we had a blast. we ended up at the mall and decided to give keiki funland a try. it is basically a party store, with a bunch of inflatables that you can pay to play on. coen wasn't too sure about it at first, but once he discovered the slide...good times were had!

the slide was the only thing he wanted to do. i may have even joined him a time or two...or three. after a small collision with another child coen decided he had had enough of funland, and we headed out for some lunch. what's for lunch? hot dog on a stick of course! this boy loves hot dogs, but wasn't too interested in the "pancake" part, so he gave that part to me. we shared an ice cold lemonade too!

let's not forget, we were at the mall. this date wouldn't be complete without some shopping. i was excited to find these adorable crocs for coen! his first official pair of "real" crocs. he has showed me the crocodile on the side of the shoes about 50 million times.

and i couldn't resist these adorable mary jane crocks for myself. also my first pair of crocs! soooooo comfy, i am loving them.

we ended our date at the vitamin store...new daily multi-vitamins for everyone! (your know, to balance out the hot dog on a stick lunch). i love hanging out with my sweet boy, who by the way thinks he is "turning 40" when you ask him how old he is.