Signs of Christmas

We had fun with stashes from Santa

Richard getting excited about his new Kindle.

Here I am. This time behind the camcorder.

Jake-wearing the same thing he wore the night before because he was already asleep when we got home on Christmas Eve and I didn't want to wake him.

The mess afterwards.

Spreading Christmas Cheer

Christmas Eve-a time to spend with the family sharing talents and having fun.

Brendan played a Christmas song he had been working on.
Dylan sang Jingle Bells, for the second year in a row. He wasn't very happy about singing it again but he didn't know all the words to anything else so Jingle Bells it was.
Jordan didn't want to play his guitar for the program but ended up messing around with it later on.
Richard read the Night Before Christmas to the kids.
The kids unwrapped the presents they received from their secret santa.
We played a new game this year. If you roll doubles you get to try to unwrap the present the only trick is you have to wear oven mitts and a santa hat. The guys got pretty competitive and some wrestling took place. In the end Rich opening the present-a battle of the sexes card game.

Happy Holidays

Year Highlights

Jordan

Played volleyball and soccer with his Middle School

He plays guitar

Finally passed up his Mom and Dad in height

Involved in Scouts

Likes to take apart things


Brendan

Still in Taekwondo - working on his red belt

Plays baseball

Likes reading and just finished the Harry Potter series

Enjoys being part of the Cub Scouts

Growing fast

Dylan

Not afraid of talking to anyone

Very independent

Played baseball for the first time this year

Just starting losing his teeth. Three gone and counting.

Loves the work he is doing in Afternoon Club (Kindergarten), especially reading and math

Jacob

Has accomplished so much in almost a year. (I can't belive he turns 1 next month)

Recently started walking

Like any little one, he loves to get into everything he is not supposed to

He has such a fun personality and is all around a happy boy!

When he is done with something he chucks it

Does cute new things all the time. His new thing is to tilt his head sideways to look at you.

Rich

Still enjoys Scuba Diving and Golf

He got a conure this summer named Ginger. Everyone loves when he brings her around. The only downside is she squawks a lot.

Rachael

I took two photography classes this year and have loved the new knowledge and skills I've learned.

I keep busy with my calling in church, but I love getting to know the amazing women we have in our ward.

Started quilting again and started learning how to machine quilt.

Christmas activities 2009

I was so excited to have our Relief Society party have such a good turn out. It was a really nice night but I didn't get any pictures until the end when we played the unwrap the present game. Tina was so good at unwrapping it, using her teeth and all. She got an apron I made.

Jake's first experience sitting on Santa's lap. Santa gave him a book which ended up, where else, in his mouth.

Other activities:

Watching a fire dancer at our church Christmas party

Making crafts and Gingerbread Men at a school party

Decorating Christmas tree

Being sneaky

Here's my sneaky boy going down the stairs. He just learned how to do it and all I can say is Yay! No more mad dashes to the stairs because someone forgot to put the gate up. Look at that face, he knows he is doing something exciting he usually never gets to do, trying to be sneaky and loving every minute of it.

How to cook a turkey

In school Dylan has been making pumpkin pie from scratch by following a recipe. To go along with that same theme, everyone told their teacher their recipe for "how to cook a turkey". This is Dylan's.

Dylan's turkey recipe

Take 2 cups of sugar and put 3 cups of water in it. Then add 1 cup of syrup and 8 more cups of sugar and 5 cups of special juice and hot chocolate so it's a hot turkey. Stir it all up then add deer juice and stir again. Add flower seeds and cook for 80 minutes.

Anyone want to come to our house for turkey dinner?

p.s I guess Richard's deer he shot about a month ago is still on Dylan's mind. He also keeps asking his teacher to come over for dinner so she can have deer meat.


Happy Thanksgiving!

A tooth for the tooth fairy

Last week Dylan hit another big milestone...he lost his first tooth. It had been loose for awhile but right before school one day I asked him if he wanted Dad to pull it out and he said "sure". Richard first tried pulling it out with dental floss but that didn't work so he had to go for the tweezers. It was funny, a couple of minutes after his tooth was pulled out he said "That hurt." That night he put his tooth underneath his pillow and in return got 2 dollars in quarters in a cool little bag that somehow had two guitar picks in it (I think the tooth fairy saw a cool bag and didn't realize that there was anything else in it). Dylan kept asking for a guitar so he could use his new guitar picks. Then Dylan asked Jordan if he could play his guitar because he had some guitar picks. Jordan started to get mad because he thought Dylan got in his stuff but after I explained the tooth fairy had given them to Dylan, he understood and was very cool about it. I think my kids need to return their current tooth fairy and get a new one. At least Dylan didn't have to wait a week to get his money. Our tooth fairy can be very forgetful.

Striped Wonderland Quilt

Finished this quilt a few months ago but just now got around to posting it. I did grid quilting- you can see it when you enlarge the back of the quilt. Brendan was so nice to hold it up for me. I still have more quilts waiting to be quilting but they will have to wait until after Christmas.

Jacob is Poopy. Jordan "man it smells horrible."

Rachael totally just Richarded me. "Oh, honey, I promised I'd take Brendan to game stop. Can you watch the baby? When Rachael left, Jordan got Jacob and pointed out, passive aggresively, "Dude, can you change Jacob's diaper. It smells like nuklear underpants!" (I added the nuklear, just because it is totally relevant, but jordan pronounces it nukular. Thanks GW."

I hope you appreciate what I've done for you Reub. Now, I must plug my nose, put on my snorkel and mask, and my 100 tank, and change Jake. Cute, smeeelllllyyy Jake.

I need some Hydrogen Peroxile to sniff.

haha......um ha. blech.

Scary....

Halloween week was so crazy we didn't even have time to carve pumpkins. Richard was a little sick so as I took the kids to a few houses, Richard carved some out. We had trick-or-treaters until 9PM when we finally had to shut down. We had given out all the candy we bought, all the boys candy from trunk-or-treat the night before (they don't know that yet), and then tapped into their stash from that night. This year I put together a Halloween mix that I played as we handed out candy from the porch. The night ended with some dancing to Thriller.

Jordan put together a pretty sweet costume. This was the first year he was able to dress up at school. I feel pretty good about how Dylan's Jedi costume turned out. I found an easy tutorial online that helped a lot. Jacob is just the cutest pirate ever. My mom made this costume when Brendan was a baby. I am glad I still had it for Jacob to wear. I feel really bad but this is really the only picture I got of Brendan the Ninja. He had a couple of friends over to go trick-or-treating with and I guess I couldn't keep up. For Historically Halloween at school he was Apollo (the god of music). He did a good job memorizing his whole talk.

Advice to Reuben From Rich

Since Reuben shared his thoughts on dealing with pregnant wives, I thought I'd post about poopy diapers. Yes, Reub, poopy diapers.

If you are a girl, stop reading now.

OK, there is always a way to get out of changing a poopy diaper, you just have to be a good deciever.

1st. Make sure your wife thinks you are perfectly willing to change poopy diapers. The best time to establish this is when they are newborn. Newborn poop doesn't smell much. Change a lot of diapers at this time. The older babies get, the smellier they get. That goes for kids and adults as well.

2nd. Take advantage of Dora when possible. Dora loves changing baby diapers for some reason. All you have to do is make sure she is in the room and can hear you, and then say to the baby, "did you go poopy?" Dora will grab the baby while giggling and cooing the whole time, and you're off the hook. And you've given your mother a little bit of joy.

3rd. Honey do list. Make sure you have a honey do list that annoys your wife. Yeah, she'll nag, but it's worth it. PS - Don't ever clear this list, that's just bad gameplanning. When you smell the poopy diaper, and you see the baby looking up at you with a "I went poopy, aren't I adorable" grin on his or her face, get up and tell your wife, I'm going to do a few chores, can you watch the baby. Your wife is tickled that you are knocking a few things off the list, and she will notice poopy smell and change the diaper while thinking, gee, I love my husband, look at him oiling that hinge, that's hot. Once she has changed the diaper, cease working on the list and continue football watching.

These are just a few tips, but they have worked for me for over 13 years. Let me know how it goes.

Harvest Festival

We spent a very hot day at the Montessori Harvest Festival. Richard was selling tickets and I was helping the boys sell some popcorn for Boy scouts/Cub scouts but we found some time to play around. Jordan and Brendan both entered a pie eating contest. They actually were neck and neck but Jordan ending up winning and earned some free tickets. The fire department came and cooled everyone off by sprinkling water down from their ladder. The boys got soaked. I tried to join them but I was holding Jake and he hated it. After pony rides, face painting, marshmallow gun fights and all of the above...we were pretty worn out. It didn't take long for Dylan to crash after we were home.

Jacob 7-9 months

At Jacob's nine month visit he was 18lbs 9oz and 30inches long

He has gone through a sticking out his tongue and spitting phase
Loves when you help him walk
Pulls himself up and walks along furniture
Army crawls but just started crawling on knees
Sits up
Got an ear infection (8months)
Got four teeth
Loves to go everywhere he is not supposed to
Squeals in delight

Flour Tower

I really don't know who started it. It all happened so fast. Flour going everywhere. Jacob starts crying, everyone else starts laughing. Then Dylan got some in the eye-he starting crying, the rest of us still laughing.

I have yet to hear the ending of our lesson that included this "flour tower" but I know it had to do with families so I think it served it's purpose by bringing our family closer together through flour.

The missionaries came over for dinner and as Sister Stevenson was preparing the "flour tower", Sister Larsen talked to use about the family proclamation (a statement from our church about the importance and roles of a family). The flour tower is actually a game where a penny is placed on top of a tower of flour. Each one of us took turns cutting out a section of flour trying not to make the penny fall. The person who makes the penny fall has to get the penny off the plate with his/her nose. Jordan was the unlucky one who made the penny fall so he started to get it with his nose but decided to blow the flour out of the way so he could find the penny. Then Richard pushed his face in the flour and that was it-full on flour fight. The flour fight continued even after the family portrait was taken. We had to take Jacob to bed because he would look at our faces and start crying (we must have looked pretty scary). We tried to leave the missionaries out of it, but they eventually got themselves involved and they were covered. They had an appointment right after so they did their best to clean themselves off and help us clean up before they had to go. I am still finding flour in places, but it was a fun night we will not forget. Brendan enjoyed it so much he pulled out his journal, he has never written in since he was eight, and started writing down what happened. Good times.

Fall Break

I think this was our busiest fall break ever! We had something fun to do everyday if we wanted. We did some normal activities for break like go to the movies and beach but the funniest things we did were the things we don't normally do.

It took us 3 yrs. but we finally found a pumpkin patch on Maui. It was a cute little farm with horses, chickens, and a goat. It really got me in the fall spirit. I can't wait to go again next year.

After visiting the farm we went across the street to go sledding on cardboard. It was so much fun the kids can't wait to do that again.

The next day, with friends and family, we got to go on a free train ride through the tropical plantation and then went on a hike in Iao Valley. The hike was beautiful and we stopped by a stream to have a picnic. No one was planning on getting wet but it was so hot most people jumped in. Jordan was so good to help carry Jacob around. Good times!

Week in Review

How old am I???

I am so old my candles make a fire you could roast hot dogs on. Out in one breath though, that's got to count for something right?
I had a great birthday! I went out to lunch with all the women in-laws. Stacie made me a yummy cake for after lunch. Richard bought me lots of flowers and took me out to eat at Ferraro's. We had a beautiful view of the ocean and watched the sun set. Came home so stuffed I couldn't eat the cake Rich bought me or my other cake my friend dropped off that night.

Oct. 1 was the Maui Fair Parade. Brendan walked with the cub scouts. It isn't the greatest parade on earth but it's the biggest event on Maui so I've got to embrace it. Conference weekend. Time to listen to our church leaders, and hymns, fill us with inspiration and guidance. Brendan was singing one the hymns while Jacob just listens and watched without moving. A rare thing for Jake.

The comb-over is gone!

We finally gave Jacob a real haircut. Richard did such a good job especially for dealing with such a wiggly baby. His hair looks a lot lighter now. So much for my newborn baby-he is growing up too fast!

Retro Zig Zag

My first quilt from start to finish! Let me just say that it took a lot longer than I thought to do the zig zag quilting that you see on the last picture. It was so rewarding seeing it all come together though and I love how it turned out. I even love how the back is all pieced together.

Officially a teenager now!

My oldest boy is now a teenager. I don't feel old but I must be getting older.

I am so proud of him. He is learning to overcome challenges as he continues to learn and grow more inside and out everyday. I'm so glad he still likes to play games with his mom and is willing to help out when I need him to.


Some of his favorites:
Likes to skateboard, play the guitar, keep a messy room, take apart anything, play sports, play with his air soft guns, earn money, and spend money.


For his birthday Jordan got to go golfing with his Grandpa and his Dad using his new golf clubs. Then we went to Cheeseburger in Paradise for dinner and home for some birthday pumpkin pie.

Do I have any takers?

Anyone want to buy some of Dylan's school work for $30.00?




What is a five year old boy to sell when his big brother is holding a garage sale? Basically anything he can find.
I thought this pricing was a little high until I found another paper for $7000.7000. You read right-he was selling his baseball trophy for 7000 dollars and 7000 cents.

Gotta love this boy!

A favorite way to relax

I love watching the sun setting, listening to the waves crash, and enjoying the cooler night breeze. It's a beautiful way to end the day. As crazy as life gets, watching the sunset clears my mind as I seriously enjoy the beauty around. Sometimes I forget to just stop and look around at the things I'm surrounded with on a daily basis. I hope to take more time to do that.

Piggy-back ride

Jacob and his Grandpa James

Photo 101

I can't even tell you how rewarding it has been for me to learn a new skill. I have really loved taking my photography class and have now learned to take pictures using manual. Yay! Hopefully I can keep up with practicing because I am so slow right now (it takes a while for me to change my settings), but the end result is worth it. My family is sooo done with me taking pictures of them but they were all great subjects.


I had to share this picture of Dylan because he was so done with me taking pictures of him. This is him yelling and crying for me to stop posing him for pictures. He really was good with me doing it for quite a long time. I owe him some money though.

I am sad for the class to end. I feel like I have so much more to learn so I will patiently wait for the portrait class to start toward the end of the year.

Here are just a few shot from the last couple of days.

How can the Summer break be already gone?

The summer went too fast and we didn't even take a vacation to break it up. We had more sleepovers with family than I can count and Jordan practically lived at his Grandpa's house trying to earn money that would very soon burn a hole in his pocket. Scout camps, swimming lessons, sleepovers, and a never clean house - a small glimpse of what our summer looked like.

It was sad to lose the constant companionship of my boys to school but I look forward to having a few hours of a somewhat clean house.

Dylan is entering Kindergarten this year and he has loved the first few days of school. He can not say enough about the work he is doing and how much he loves it. Brendan wasn't so excited to go back to school but I think seeing his friends everyday has helped. Jordan found some of Richard's old shirts to wear for his first day of school. For a boy that has never wanted anything but t-shirts to wear, wearing a button down shirt is a pretty big change.