GREEN NINJA

Because I am only satisified if I have some chaos going on. Okay a LOT of chaos going on - it's my comfort zone unfortunately, which means stress but without the chaos it just wouldn't feel normal.
So I am starting my own little business. It'll be a design and print business. I have been doing our marketing material at the karate school out of necessity and well because I'm too picky and anal to let anyone else do it but as of late I've been having more and more people approach me to help out with simple things for them. Things like wedding invites or for their businesses. Justus has pushed me for a long time that I should do it as a business but I struggled to see that there was a need. That people would really be interested in having me design for them.
However I'm seeing that there are a lot of small businesses that don't realize how affordable it is to have well designed promotional material!
So with Justus's strong encouragement, I'm gonna do it!
After much deliberation, I've decided on the name:


a bit corny, a lot cheesy but it ninja fits in with our very karate oriented lifestyle and green's my favorite color. So that's it :)
I'll be offering:
- INVITES (wedding, birthday, announcements, reunions, etc.)
- BIZ CARDS
- PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL
- BANNERS
- VINYL (wall art)
- etc...

I'm struggling with what to use as my website. Greenninja.com is gone. So my options are:

*g0-greenninja.com
*greenninjadesigns.com
*greeninja.com
(with only one "n")

any and all opinions would be appreciated! I'm still a bit apprehensive but I'm excited for a chance to focus on design again. I've really missed it from my LP days, much, much more than I would have thought.
These are some of the things I've been working on:

"Bubba's is lying"

The other day Dax, me & the baby were on my bed. I had to run to the garage quick, so I asked him if he would keep his eye on the baby real quick.
I wasn't even gone 1 minute when I heard the baby crying. I came back in and Dax immediately said,

"Bubba's (this is what he calls him), is LYING, I didn't do ANYTHING!"

hmmmmmmm............Koa doesn't actually talk yet, but if he could, what would he be lying about???

Dax was very apprehensive about Koa at first. He's such a rough and tumble kid, that I warned him VERY STRONGLY (ok I threatened him with his life) that he needed to be very careful around the baby. Apparently, I went overboard because he would hardly come near him the first 2 weeks for fear of hurting him. Once I realized this and reassured him that it was ok for him to be near him, he just needed to be careful - it is now the first thing he does every morning,
1 -come in and check on Koa
2 -coo and talk to him,
3 -then go pee,
4 -then head down to take advantage of video game time while Kai and Te are at school
He always talks about how "koa is my very best friend" and "when Koa's is big, I'm going to teach him to play mario". Since the kids went back to school, he's been lonely playing video games downstairs. So he's been begging
"can Bubba's come down and watch me play games. He'll really like it! I'll be so careful! Bubba's will like it!"
I don't know that I'm quite ready for that but I'm pretty darn sure that in the not too distant future they will spend countless hours in front of the TV playing video games together, just like their dad and uncles :)

CHRISTMAS NEWSLETTERS

So I noticed last year that we weren't getting as many christmas cards as we had in the past and then I heard some friends commenting that they weren't sending out cards to people who hadn't been sending them. I shuttered!! Christmas cards and family newsletters are probably one of the things I get MOST EXCITED about!!
It's funny because every year my grandma displays all the Christmas cards she gets on her entertainment center. She probably gets 50 each year and I thought it was a funny old fashioned thing to do but apparently I'm becoming more of an old lady because I LOVE these.
So this year I was bound and determined to get them out! 75% have been sent before christmas and the remaining happen to be to those we hold dearest (they were the first ones I addressed so they ended up on the bottom of the pile)....... these are STILL going out but they are being sent as new years announcements (I ran out of stamps). I'm hoping the saying "better late than never" still applies and keeps me on some lists!!
THANK YOU to all of our dear friends who keep us updated on your lives. I love seeing how your children and families are growing. It tickles me to see you reflected in your children!
Here are some of our cards:









And I thought for posterity sake it would be good to include our newsletter for when we print off our blog:
Dear Friends & Family,
We love to see your pictures and updates each year, however it’s been a long time since we have sent out one of our own. So selfishly we figured you would all start axing us from your lists if we didn’t get one out! We are shocked and amazed that every year we grow older and sadly less mature but our lovely children our are reminder that time moves way too quickly. It’s been a busy year but good busy and we can’t believe we are about to launch into another!
Kai has a high functioning form of autism known as Asperger’s. We have found that this equals to a quirky, focused, intelligent, logical little boy who is often aggravated with how illogical we mere human beings can be. However Kai is always anxious to educate us with intersting facts. The other day he woke me up at 6:30 to share this info “do you know that a single bite from a cobra can kill an elephant! Their venom is that lethal!” This year Justus has utilized his video game obsession to help him with his physical fitness. In order to earn video game time he needs to shoot 50 baskets or do push ups, karate, etc. Slowly our skinny guy is growing cute little muscles. He still has little interest in establishing relationships with his peers but as he gets older, he has learned more patience in dealing with those around him and it’s given more people a chance to see the sweet, kind, smart little boy we love. We love him so much and we are so grateful for the different look at the world that he provides us. We can’t imagine life without him!

Te is our very responsible little boy. He is a hardworker and the kid that we can always count on. He has a very sweet sensitivity to the emotions of those around him. Te is extremely fun loving and tends to be our social butterfly. There isn’t a day that goes by that he doesn’t have a friend checking to see if he can play. While he looks so much like the Lawrence side of the family, personality wise he’s a lot like me in his........ well Justus would describe it as dramatic, I prefer passionate reactions to things both in good ways and bad. We really appreciate his thoughtfulness with us and his siblings. He is very smart and we regularly hear wonderful reports from his teachers. Te is growing into a handsome young man who complains “I wish my eyes were the color of poo - that way ladies would stop saying ‘your eyes are so beautiful!’” Oh my dear son, one day you’ll be thrilled that the ladies think your eyes are so beautiful. That’s exactly how his daddy reeled me in :).

Princess Maya our one and only diva supreme. She was a bit put out to find out that our newest addition was going to be a boy but sweet girl that she is, she has immediately taken on a motherly role. She loves to care for both Dax & Koa. In fact she has many little cousins who anxiously look for Maya at every family event. Now this one looks more like my family but definitely reminds us much more of her father in the personality department. So this often puts us at odds but maybe that is the way of the world for mothers and daughters to butt heads at times. She leans more toward the quiet side but don’t let it fool you, she’s a free little spirit that enjoys her independence while being respectful of others. With her quiet determination and self discipline, she’s becoming quite the little gymnast and despite a bit of a rough go, a good little swimmer. We love our fun loving sweet little “daddy’s girl”.

Daxy, daxy, daxy is our little wild man. He is fiercely independent and definitely all boy. He’s a little bit of a nudist and even with winter hitting in full force - we have issues with keeping his clothes on. He has his own opinions on fashion and we often find him with a polo shirt, basketball shorts and red cowboy boots on (underwear optional). He is very used to being loved and a bit coddled by 2 parents and 3 older siblings so we were a little worried about how he would respond to the baby coming. We had nothing to worry about! He is completely in love with his baby brother and often talks with Koa “bubba’s when you get big like me, I’ll teach you to play Mario”. He often tells us “he is my best friend”. He idolizes his older brother Kai. They both can be quite the little know-it-all’s, which make watching them interact even more enjoyable. Last year he struggled a bit with school. One day I asked him if he got sent to time out that day he answered “I went again and again and again”. Thankfully this year he loves to go to preschool at Learning Dynamics. He is a little spitfire and my little cuddle bug.

Sweet little Koa joined the family on 7.29.09. His coming caught us completely by surprise but we have found he came right when he was supposed to. He has a playful little spirit and is completely spoiled. He loves to be held and he has 3 brothers and a sister who ADORE him. More of the problem is the fact that they have a hard time leaving him alone. He brings out the best in all of us and its amazing that in the short amount of time that he has been with us, we can’t imagine life with out him. There is nothing like a baby to help you quickly prioritize what is important in life (and he definitely doesn’t think that mommy sleeping is one of them).

Justus is still running our karate school in Lindon. He loves it and feels pretty darn lucky to have a job serving people and playing dodgeball regularly. While the current economy has brought its own challenges, we are very grateful for the opportunity to work and run our own business. He has become a bit of a psycho golfer (ok, that’s the way I describe it - he’d probably say.....avid golfer). He still enjoys a good game of basketball and recently traded out my precious mini cooper for a monster truck ------ that did not equal a happy wife but miraculously he escaped a potential golf club to the head :). He really is a great dad and loves to play with the kids. He was nice enough to humor our travel itch and take us on trips to Vegas, St. George, San Diego & Anaheim.

I continue in the never ending mom quest to find balance. While little Koa has added a bit to the madness, he has also inadvertantly made it so I can be home with the kids. So I work after the kids go to bed and have the wonderful time to be mom to the kids during the day. After encouragement from Justus I have just started my own print and design business (www.greeninja.com). And to add to the madness we have decided that I will go back to school to become a nurse. I have had a nagging feeling for the last year and its gotten to the point that I can’t ignore it. Me and my little sister registered at UVU to start classes this January! I’m feeling like an old lady when I think that I left college over 10 years ago and after looking at my transcripts was pretty disappointed to find out what a crumby student I was. I had a wonderful time at BYU Hawaii and my grades show it. They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and crazy as it sounds I can’t help but look forward to the challenge (we’ll see what I have to say in next years newsletter).
We are so grateful to the many wonderful friends and family who have supported and loved us on this crazy adventure. We are very grateful for our “little” family. As much as we try to teach our children to be good and productive individuals, we always end up being the ones who learn the most by being their parents. We are grateful for our home and to live in a country where we have limitless opportunities. We are grateful for having a loving Savior who provides ways for us to achieve ultimate happiness in this life and the next.
One of our most profound blessing this year was the opportunity our family had to be sealed for time & all eternity at the Mount Timpanogus Temple. In the LDS church this is a chance where we as a family commit to live our lives in a way that we will have the opportunity to be together as a family forever. As a child, the thought of being with my brothers forever....not always so appealling. As a parent, I can not imagine wanting anything more! The covenants we made there have changed us! They have helped us to focus on the things that truly matter in this world - FAMILY. Thank you for being a part of our lives. Wishing you a wonderful 2010!
Love,
the Lawrence's

No, I'm ALVIN!!

So for our last hoorah to Christmas break, we took the kids to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. I can't say that Justus and I were even the teeniest bit excited but the kids were using the money that the old aunties had given them for Christmas - how could we say no.
All in all, it wasn't that bad! Or Justus and I are slowly becoming immune to kids cheesy movies.
Our favorite part was afterwards when the boys were talking about which of the chipmunks they would be:
MOM "Kai, which one was your favorite?
Kai?
Kai??? KAI!"
KAI "Oh, hmmm......I like ...... Alvin"
TE "I'm totally Alvin and Kai is Simon"
MOM "Yeah Kai, you are a freakin' genius - just like Simon!"
KAI "ummm yes, I am very smart like Simon"
TE "then Dax must be Theodore because he's chubby and stinky"
DAX "I AM ALVIN!"
MAYA "I'm Brittany"
TE "No I am Alvin!"
DAX "arghhhhhh I AM ALVIN"
TE "O-K - then we are both Alvin......... and Koa can be Theodore because he's so fat and cute"
MAYA "I'm Brittany"
Of course sweet Maya is Brittany and Thank goodness that Koa came along to be Theodore :)

TRICK or TREAT

I love Halloween! I mean I REALLY LOVE Halloween!!
Obviously it has become an economic cash cow but the reason I love it is because I love seeing my kids get excited about who they get to be! I love finding things that get us a little scared! I love finding something beautiful in things that are a bit macabre :)
I told Justus that I think if I were a teenager now, I probably would have been Emo. I'm a fan of color and pattern but there's something about Halloween that draws me into its dismal nature. I think its wonderful to promote creativity and imagination. And I think it's really important for my kids to find beauty in things that may not be considered traditionally "beautiful".
These are some of the things we LOVE about Halloween!This year our highlights were going to Aunt Karie and Uncle Randy's annual Halloween Bash. It was fabulous as always and has become one of the kids favorite family traditions.

like mother, like daughter :)

It's actually a family affair - me, aunt Teena, Ima, mom

Aunt Teena & Sofia

Marsha and cutie patootie Mia

Lola and her millions of grandkids (minus Cooper and Chasey)

Since Koa was a little turtle, the boys decided they wanted to be Mario and Luigi. Dax vascillated back and forth between being baby Luigi & baby mario - ultilmately Baby Mario won :). I was a little late in shopping so we ended up making our own. The boys LOVED that (despite it wasn't exact as Kai was very firm in pointing out). It ended up saving me like $60!! So next year, I think we will be making more of our own :)

Ahhhhhh, the trick to getting Rex to smile in pictures is to tell him to act like he loves that darling little ladybug Mia

Karie always has such awesome food and treats. This is my favorite! Uncle Randy got out of line ....... can you blame her? He tasted good anyways :)

Our very manly little KoaMy favorite - Karie's homemade cheese dip

Dad and our little turtle Koa

Tinkerbell Maya!! (One of three costumes this halloween :) We tried spraying her hair yellow but it ended up looking flourescent green..... oh well, it all worked out :)

And another tradition that has been developing, is trick or treating with our awesome neighbors! Everyone came out with the kiddies and trick or treated around the circle. Then we loaded up into Dallas & Arlynn's truck. And I mean EVERYONE!! The Brothersons, Oldhams, Barkers, her sister Lindsay, the Diaz's and both sets of Lawrence's! There were literally 30 parents and kids, in and around the truck as Dallas drove us around the ward. It was sooooo much fun :)


i




The final tradition, a trip to Lola's for some yummy Sinagang and a chance to check out all the cousins costumes. I love how our family is growing. Conner is getting older and more and more babies keep coming! This year we were joined by Mia and baby Koa :) Wonder who is waiting to join us.......

In matching "I Love my Mummy" shirts - I couldn't resist! I just love cheesy logo'ed shirts! Especially when they are on clearance :)

I adore that sweet little Kallie enjoys my ridiculous halloween decorations - she was walking all around talking and visiting with this creepy skull :)

"I wish my eyes looked like poo"

Dax was asking what color his eyes were. I told him they were green, he said
"no mom you are WRONG, they are brown!"
I tried to talk him into the fact that they were hazel, when Te chimed in,
"I wish my eyes were Brown, like the color of POO!"
I said,
"Te, you have such nice blue eyes, why would you want them to look like poo??"
"Because I hate when ladies always say 'ohhhh you have such BEAUTIFUL eyes'!!"
I just wanted to be sure I have proof that I know one day you are going to LOVE that the ladies like looking into your BEAUTIFUL blue eyes :)
That's how dad got me suckered in..... ;)

Happy HaLLowEen!!!

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the kids doing The Monster Mash

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Gabriel iKoamano

oh yeah, we had a baby recently ;)

Yes, I'd like to officially announce on our sadly neglected blog (primarily due to this sweet little thing) that our family has increased in size, love, and chaos :D

welcoming Baby Koa
born July 29, 2009
8:30pm
6 lbs 10 oz
19 inches

We have always named each of the kids after various family members. I don't know, I guess I just feel that there are different things you give to your children from the moment they are conceived, from before you even get to know them. You give them their genes, their heritage and you give them a name. I just felt that to pick a random name, seems so general. I just want the name to be something we can tell them about later.

GABRIEL

This is from my little (well I guess not so little anymore since he's taller than Justus) cousin Gabe. We've always had a soft spot for Gabe. I was babysitting him since he was a baby - one summer aunt cindy even flew me out to come and watch him in sunnyvale (that was sooooo exciting for me at the time) and then when Justus and I were dating we'd take Gabe, Jasmine and Leah around with us all the time. Once we were married they spent many weeks while they were off track down with us and Baby Kai in St. George. We love Gabe and we loved the name :)

iKOAMANO
Yeah, you got that right - that is a lower case "i" at the beginning of his middle name.....just like an iPod or an iPhone.....yep :)
OK so our poor little baby was nameless right up until 15 minutes before we left a 3 day stay at the hospital. This turned out to be the perfect example of how opposites attract because Justus and I couldn't have been further apart on name choices. From the time we found out I was pregnant we had hotly debated what his name would be. Justus tend to lean more towards video game names (like Halo!!) and movie names (Vin, Neo, etc) where as I preferred just really cool names ;).
So while at the hospital we decided to throw out to the Facebook world what names we were debating. It was a lot of fun to have our friends from all over the country help chime in on a name for our new little guy. It seemed appropriate as everyone in the Facebook world saw pictures of the baby before my parents did who were in the waiting room because Justus was uploading images IN THE OPERATING ROOM!! (it was kind of funny because people thought it was me since he was doing it from my phone :)

These are some of the names we had on the table:

Ace
Jett
Jag (my fave)
Taj
Koa
Rok
Ash
Mano

And then uncle Dallas came to the rescue with the suggestion of Koa. I really liked that and the more I looked at this sweet little kid, it fit. So with the help of our good friend Auntie Sandie we came to a decision.
His middle name is:
i - (like an iPhone ;)
KOA - which is Hawaiian for "warrior"
MANO - which is Hawaiian for "shark"

So our little iPhone, shark warrior finally has a name!

I was hoping for KoaMalu - which is peaceful warrior but to be honest, I was just happy to leave with a name and even happier to leave with this ADORABLE new addition to our family.




welcome to the wacky bunch!!

KAI'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY

I went to Kai's IEP for this school year. What a wonderful team they have! And what an amazing blessing to have so many people involved in helping our little Kai to succeed. He loves going to see each of his teachers and by the comments they make, you can see how much they care and love him.
His teacher Miss Poole is helping him write his first autobiography. It has been a struggle helping him to express his thoughts in writing (well we are working on that with him verbally too:) So reading this was such a treat! Love the insight it provides into our sweet, unique little guy.

KAI's AUTOBIOGRAPHY

(as written by Kai)
My name is Kai.
I was born March 24, 1999 in St. George, UT.
I am the oldest in my family. I have 3 brothers named Te Dax and Koe and I have 1 sister named Maya. My favorite video games are Sonic Unleashed and Super Mario Galaxy. My favorite place to go is Disneyland. My favorite t.v. show is Tom and Jerry. I like it because it is funny. When I grow up I want to work at Wendys. Then I can make lots of money so I can buy special stuff for my kids if they do a perfect job in class. Another job I want is when my sister is having a baby I will help her get the baby out. I used to have 3 pet hermit-crabs but they died. I like walk my neighbors dog Buddy. And finally I like to play the x-box 360 and the wii.

Now I don't know how Maya feels about having her brother help deliver her babies but I definitely would rather the Doctor option over the Wendy's worker option :)
LOVE this little boy!!

Get RID of them

BACK TO SCHOOL 2009

After getting the kids off to school, I asked Dax at lunch "do you miss the kids or are you happy to get rid of them?" His response (with a smirk) "get rid of them!"
Wow!! Where did summer go??? It's amazing how quickly life zooms by :) But it was nice to see how excited they were to get back to school (even when Te's favorite shirt screams "allergic to homework"). They were up and at it with the first beep of the alarm.
I'm not domestic, really in any sense of the word. I don't take huge pleasure from doing the everyday house things :). I think every mother brings something unique and special to their children. Some are great homemakers, patient teachers, or wonderful cooks. I think oftentimes as parents we try and give our kids the things we felt that we "didn't have" or at least I do :). My mom was busy working to help support her family so she generally wasn't able to attend our school activities or serve as a room mom. So I have always tried to be sure to attend their activities and parties at school. But something my mom always took special care with is feeding us. As a kid, I just thought that was annoying. I definitely was her toughest critique. She had to work to get me to eat, if I didn't like it, I just wouldn't eat and I remember sitting at the table for hours refusing to eat the vegetables and food that I was supposed to. Finally my mom would give up and clear off the table.
It really wasn't until I was an adult that I realized how much she showed she loved us through her food. I always thought that Filipino food was amazing until I went to the Philippines. Don't get me wrong, the food was... good, but what I found was amazing was my mom's cooking. I realized how much she had to americanize, well actually "katrina-ize" things for me to eat it!
So this year I tried to be sure to give them some of the things that she gave me. I felt great this morning because I feel like this is the first time that I've really given them the kind of "back to school" experience they needed. We got ready for bed early, talked about what their goals were and then this morning made sure we all got up on time and to a French Toast and Bacon breakfast. Te was so excited and asked "will you do an end of year breakfast too??" Poor kid gets fed by me so infrequently that he's just excited for this to happen one more time in the next 9 months :) It made me feel good and it reminded me how much I love the way my mom loves me.

We decided to switch them to the early 8am time vs the 9:15. Anyone who knows us, knows that we (and when I say we, I mostly mean ME) are not really morning people. So this is a stretch for us but we decided that this was the best way for Justus to see the kids more. We are so grateful for the karate school and to have work at this time but part of that work is that he is gone all afternoon and evening, so he doesn't really get any after school time with the kids. We felt this way, he would have an hour with them before he went to work.
I was so happy to hear Maya say this morning "I'm so excited for school! I'm excited to make new friends! I made so many friends last year :)" This had me thrilled because she forgot that at the beginning of last school year she would came home crying that she didn't have any friends or anyone to play with at lunch. Which of course breaks any mother's heart. I talked with her about the best way to make a friend is to be a friend! I asked her how she felt when someone was friendly and nice or even just smiled at her. She said she liked it and I told her other people did too. I was so shy as a kid, I remember being paranoid about that - friends, being alone. So it made my heart sing to hear her turnaround this year :) Love this little girl.

Little Te has my worry of being embarrassed at school - like not standing in the right line, getting in trouble by the teacher, doing something that makes me stand out. He still struggles with that but we are working at helping him to feel more confident and not to take things so serious or personally. And that if you make a mistake, no big deal :) Just learn from it. I do smile when I see how easily he makes friends. He's so friendly and fun loving! He just takes such pleasure in being with people and having fun!! What a great talent!!
And my dear sweet Kai, he had such a great summer. He's been talking and engaging others in ways that I've never seen him do. His relationship with his brother Dax has been one of the funnest things to watch grow. Dax looks so much like Te but his personality is all Kai. They are the funnest little anal things, what a great joy to watch as a friendship grows between brothers. I hope that Kai can keep that interest he has had in others with those he goes to school with.
Here's to a good school year :)