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Charlotte:

Isaac was jealous that I took a video of Charlotte and he wanted me to record something he learned:

Nicole has officially started potty training.  We’ve had some early attempts to train her whenever she has shown some interest in the potty or underwear, but each time it quickly became clear that she was not really ready to start using the potty everyday.  Sadly, all of my children are late potty trainers.  So far each one has been a struggle.  I don’t really know who would want all the details (maybe some family members or friends who are into potty training right now), but if you do, then click below.

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Today was Isaac and Charlotte’s first day of school.  It was Charlotte’s first day ever and she was super excited.  She got up as soon as she saw the first glimmer of sunlight through her window.  She made her bed and got dressed before anyone else was even out of bed.  Over breakfast Isaac explained, “There are two kinds of teachers:  nice teachers and mean teachers.”Isaac and Charlotte picked their own clothes out the night before.  Ironically, Isaac choose the same shirt that he wore for the first day of Kindergarten.  Charlotte choose her clothes based on what she thought the kids in her class would like.  She picked this shirt because she thought the boys would like the blue on it and the girls would like the pink.  It also has hearts and apples and other fun things.Isaac loved his new shoes.  They are air-cooled, which means they have a little pocket of air that blows over his feet each time he takes a step.They both had a great first day and loved school.  They both said that they had really nice teachers.  Here they are at the end of the day:Charlotte looks really tired here:The following video is of Isaac and Charlotte telling about their first day of school.  It’s a little long and Nicole and Ila are noisy in the background at times, so I expect most of our blog readers to skip the video—but grandparents might want to watch it, so here it is (also they are eating the remainders from their lunches):

After being the only in-law for more than 11 years, Zach’s youngest sister is getting married.  Most of my family will not be able to attend the official ceremony in California on 9/10/11, but luckily we got a chance to see Bethani and Dan at an open house in Winlock, WA over the weekend.  Here are some pictures:

We went to Lake Meridian Park on Monday and had a lot of fun with our friends, the Pettibones and the Daytons.  The park was great with new and interesting play structures.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures where you can really see all the neat things to play and climb on.Nicole and Ila’s favorite thing to play on was the merry-go-round which had netting all around it.

They also had a waterfront with ducks and a swimming area.  We didn’t bring swimsuits, but the kids decided to get wet anyway:

My sister Sarah and her family came up from Portland for a visit.  They spent a week in Seattle and split their time between my family and her college roommate’s family.  While they were here they celebrated both their anniversary and Sarah’s birthday.  Here are some pictures from our visit:Sadly, I didn’t have my camera out as much as I typically do, but I’m glad I got at least some pictures of everyone.

We’re not entirely sure how George is related to us.  Here is what we know about him:

He bought the plot where Stanislawa Paukstiene, Julia Brindza (our great-grandmother), and Julia’s daughter Amelia are buried. Stanislawa died in 1927, just a couple years after Korst (our great-grandfather) died, so we assumed they are of the same generation, and since they share a last name, we assumed they are brothers. It’s possible that they are cousins, we just made the easiest assumption.

I found a Petition for Naturalization for George Pauksztis which was signed by our great-grandfather (Korst) and which contains a wealth of information including the name of his wife (Stanislawa).  It also names the ship he came into this country on and several other facts about him and his family.

I only have a trial membership to ancestry, so I don’t know if these links will stay visible, but here are links to the documents that I am posting below ( page 1 and page 2)

Click the more link to see my screenshots of the document.

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Charlotte wanted me to put curlers in her hair today:

Her curls reminded her of her Fancy Nancy book, which she then wanted to read.  Also, If I’m going to be the mother of 3 girls, I need to get better at curling their hair—I was always more of a curling iron hairstylist.

I found something interesting this week as I was stumbling around trying to find some information on our family tree.  I was looking on a page that had a Marriage Index from Pittsburgh Area Newspapers and I found the following listing for my paternal great grandparents:

PAUKSZTYS      Korst          BRINDZ            Julia          Pitts  Allegheny         License        1903-01-07     Pitts Press

It is particularly interesting because I had always known my great-grandfather’s name to be  Constant (Konstantas) Bird (Paukstis).  I was told that at some point he Americanized his name.

My sister found his gravestone and said that his name was spelled “Constantine Pauksztz” and that he was buried in the poor part of the cemetery (I thought they had carelessly misspelled his name—it would still be misspelled according to my research, but less misspelled).

I have had very little success finding any information by searching Paukstis or Bird, so I decided to try the new spelling and I was able to find the census records which had previously eluded me:

This record shows a Stanley Pauksztys as the head of the household which I thought was odd.  It also lists my grandfather and his siblings as children so I am sure this is his record. 

As I continued to research, I found some interesting records that at least partially solved the mystery about why he was listed as Stanley on the Census Record.  The following are listings of Naturalization records in Western Pennsylvania where a Korst Stanley Pauksztys was a witness (there is a fee to look at each record, so I didn’t pursue that farther):

The listing shows the name of who was being Naturalized and I wonder who these people were—are they friends or relatives?

My best find so far was a petition for Naturalization which included a letter written from his boss.  In this paperwork you can clearly see his name written and signed as Korst Stanley Pauksztys multiple times.  There may be a slight discrepancy between our records and the birthdate listed on the form (same day, but it looks like a different year).  Also, of interest is his place of landing and date of landing which may lead to finding more information on him and hopefully a listing of his parents.(the next two pictures are the top and bottom of the same page)

And I found this in a similar search, it must be the sign in for the above petition because it lists the date of his petition (oddly the text on my search listed him as from Italy, but Russia is clearly written on the actual document).

Hopefully this opens some doors for research.  It looks like the name he preferred to use for legal documents in the US and possibly the name he went by (per letter from his boss) was Korst Stanley Pauksztys.

We opted for something simple and close to get back on our Saturday adventure routine.  Luckily Renton has a great Park nearby with just about everything you’d want in a park.  We went to Coulon Beach Park.

They have several sets of nice playground equipment which includes slides and swings and everything you’d expect at a park.It also has a duck pond:And it has a beach with a swimming area which is separated from the duck area:

In primary today Isaac drew this picture of our family:  Lately I have been trying to improve the friendship between Ila and Nicole.  It’s been a slow battle.  Nicole likes to growl/yell Ila’s name and when she does, Ila instantly starts to cry.  Several times a day Nicole will yell “Ila” and then Ila will stop what she’s doing and cry.  Given that scenario, can you tell what is happening in our family picture?  Nicole is the one on the end with a word bubble that says “Ila!” (I was impressed with Isaac’s use of the !) and Ila is in my arms crying “wa wa,” presumably in response.

The family is also surrounded by temples.

Just a few more that I never got around to sharing.This is an angry Nicole trying to climb up and get some cookies from the top of the fridge:Grandpa showing Nicole some Quail:I celebrated my 33rd birthday in Utah (I can’t imagine ever being sensitive about my age, but I remember right after I turned 30, someone asked me how old I was and then apologized for asking when I told her I was 30).Ila tried to sing along, but her little happy birthday was so cute and funny that it made everyone laugh.And here is my awesome new birthday gift.  I’ve wanted a KitchenAid mixer for a long time.  Zach collected some donations from family members and was able to get me the 6 Quart Professional 600 series mixer.

We’re not the type to keep a pregnancy a secret so I thought I’d post our first look at baby #5. My doctor’s office has it’s own ultrasound machine so it’s common practice to see the baby on your first appointment.  This was a special treat since I only got one ultrasound for 3 of my children (I had 3 ultrasounds with Isaac).

I love ultrasounds, it makes the baby seem more real.  I actually got to see my little one wiggling around and hear his/her heartbeat.  By now, I can even identify most of what I’m seeing—at least when they show me the profile.  The baby’s head is on the right side of the picture with a little arm sticking up at the end of his/her nose.  You can also see a little foot sticking up on the opposite side.

The technician measured from rump to head a few times and looked at my ovaries (Did you know that they can tell which one I ovulated from last just by looking?  I didn’t until today, I also don’t know why they would want to know). On the day of my appointment (7/26/2011), I was 10 weeks and 1 day pregnant.  The baby measured exactly 10 weeks so he/she is right on track in terms of size/development.

Life is funny.  Two years ago Krista and I lived in Provo and Orem, Utah.  Last year we lived in Kentucky and Tennessee.  This year we live in Texas and Washington.  Unfortunately, we’ve been moving farther and farther apart and distance makes it hard to see each other.  In fact, we didn’t know when we’d see each other again—until she mentioned that she was going to Utah in the middle of July.  We didn’t get any pictures of us together, but we did take pictures of our kids together.Isaac has a few things to learn about baby holding.  We were trying to tell him to put his arms around Michael, but he didn’t understand what we meant.

Here are some pics of our youngest kids together.  Ila is 19 months old, Michael is 5 months old.Ila liked giving him kisses.She even planted one right on his lips!

I spent most of this trip feeling the effects of morning sickness.  I suffered from nausea, headaches, and dizzy spells and it seemed like I was taking every opportunity to lay down and close my eyes.  It meant that I probably didn’t take as many pictures as I would have and I wasn’t a very fun houseguest.  I also thought I’d get a chance to sit down and write more, but it seemed like I could only use my computer in short bursts of a few moments at a time before I’d start to feel dizzy and sick.

Here are some pictures that I did take:

Nicole enjoying some one-on-one time with Grandma (who for some reason she referred to as Great-Grandma)Ila dancing to Zach playing the guitarIsaac building with constructs.Charlotte with catnip that she harvested with Laresa.Zach trying out his grandfather’s accordion and explaining how to play it.Learning about Laresa’s music box:

I started packing for our trip to Utah today.  Nicole decided to pack herself.  She even buckled herself into her suitcase.

Also, I took Isaac in for a haircut this week. 

Ward Breakfast, then snaps with the kiddosAfter dinner, we let the kids play with sparklers in the back yard.We lit off a few things in the front before the sun went down.  The little girls were a bit nervous about them.After scriptures and prayer, I put Ila to bed before taking Isaac and Charlotte to a friend’s house for more fireworks.  Zach stayed home and put Nicole to bed.

The kids lined up against the wall to watch the small stuff (tank wars, bumblebees, ect)

Then they lit up massive amounts of sparklers.  The kids actually were done playing with sparklers before the stash was out.As you can see, the fireworks were more than ample.  I overheard someone say that they estimated the sticker price on all those explosives to be over $2,000. 

We watched from an elevated porch which looked down over the foundation for a house in the back yard.The show lasted until about 11:00.  They started off the show lighting mortars which launch high in the sky and explode in multiple colors.  They lit 4 at once with blow torches.  For the bulk of the show they set off cakes of aerial fireworks in sets of two at once.  Needless to say it was an impressive show that filled the sky with lights.  At one point, near the beginning, they had a misfire that exploded aerial fireworks all over the ground.  Shortly after that, we saw a big blaze burning up over a fence not far from the property.  Some of the guys pulled a hose over to the end of the property and started spraying water over the fence while another person ran around the block to see if it really was an accidental fire.  It turns out it was a bonfire.

I know, maybe I have a problem.  Charlotte looks really nervous/scared in this one.  She becomes very silent and still when she’s afraid:Here she is more relaxed.  They put a soft blanket on her and gave her sunglasses to shield her eyes from the bright lights.  When we left she told me that it didn’t hurt at all.The bear in the waiting room was as big as Nicole:No cavities!  Balloons for everyone! (also, Isaac was very excited to see the big ramp that led up to the door when we arrived).