A much needed lesson

For Family Home Evening we learned how to tie ties. It is a lesson that is long overdue for one of them, but I needed it just as much. As a mother of 4 sons, it is one of those "things you need to know" just as reflexes like a ninja are helpful when they decide it time to play catch with anything hard they just found on the floor. To make the triangle at the top of the tie is harder than I thought but I'm sure with practice it will all become too easy.

For the treat-We went to McDonald's and ordered 4 strawberry and 1 hot fudge for Rich sundae's. Love that dollar menu!

Quiet house

The first day was school started today and I couldn't believe how quiet my house was.

Dylan was pretty nervous about his first day as a 1st grader in a new building with new teachers. He came home tired but ready to do it all again. My 1st Grader

My 8th Grader

My 6th Grader

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.

Winter Festival

School performances can be entertaining (at least for the parents).

Dylan sang most of the songs his class was singing but for some reason he didn't care to do the actions. Brendan was a Frenchman for his part in the program.
He later had to dance with a girl.

Jordan played the ukulele in his cardboard costume he worked all night creating.

Jordan has found a new passion in the guitar and ukulele.

First Day of School

All three of my boys started on different days but they are all in school now. Dylan is in Preschool and has been so excited to get back to school. Brendan is in 4th grade now and moved to a new building with Jordan. Jordan is in 7th, starting Middle School, and loves his new guy teacher. This is the first year for this middle school and they have some great things planned. There are only 10 kids in his school and together they have picked out furniture for the school and are making lockers for them and future middle school students.

Conference BINGO

I always feel uplifted listening to conference and this conference was especially good because President Monson got sustained as our new prophet. I am able to enjoy watching conference more now that my kids have found a way to enjoy it as well. I have to say thanks to Tonia Nelson for giving Jordan our first conference packet when he was 8 yrs old and in her primary class. Ever since then we have played BINGO during conference and it is something my kids look forward to playing. We usually like to use gummy bears but we had a bunch of jelly beans left from Easter so we used those. When they get a BINGO, they get to eat their treats that made the BINGO but then have to clear the board and start all over again. Dylan is still a little young to play but he enjoyed putting jelly beans in each square to fill up his board. I think next year I'll have the boys create their own boards. I have used a great website to create BINGO boards for all different occasions and I love how you can switch up the squares without having to create a whole new board. http://www.dltk-cards.com/bingo/bingo1.asp

Happy Easter

On Friday night we had David and Suzy's family over to color easter eggs and make colored white chocolate eggs. The kids make some cool eggs. It didn't quite matter that they had spoons to dip with when they could use their hands.



Sunday morning, Dylan was the first one to find his easter basket. Then Jordan and Brendan woke up but had a hard time finding their baskets. Brendan eventually found his and Jordan's. Dylan was so excited that Brendan found Jordan's he had to run downstairs and tell him where to find it. I tried to tell him not to tell Jordan where to find his but he just had to do it.



Can you spot they egg they are looking at?

Finding eggs at our house isn't very hard because most of it is just open space but we always hide some camouflage money eggs that for some reason are more difficult to find. Richard had to head Dylan in the right direction to find this camouflage egg that he was so excited to find.
Posing for pictures at our house is always fun.

Presidents Day

Richard's brother Jared and his wife Stacie are visiting from Utah. They spent a night at the Marriott and all the nieces and nephews (ok and the parents too) got to enjoy the benefits of their pool privileges.

Happy New Year

In just a year my boys have gotten bigger, older, wiser (hopefully), and in my opinion more handsome. I hope this year to cherish more moments with them and continue to remind them of how special they each are to me and our family.

To celebrate the start of this new year we went to, the best location ever, Grandma and Grandpa James home. Right before the clock struck midnight the whole island lit up with fireworks. We were so high up we could see fireworks going off from all over the island. It was so amazing to see so many fireworks going off all at the same time. Some close some far away and lasting longer than any show we've seen. The Fourth of July does not even come close to New Years in the number of fireworks that people let off.

Christmas 2007

For Christmas Eve we spent a nice evening, that included a Christmas program, at Grandma and Grandpa James' house. Dylan slept through dinner and woke up just before the program started. He and Brendan were supposed to sing Jingle Bells together for the program but with Dylan still sleepy Brendan sang with his cousin Ethan. Jordan read a Christmas poem and after Dylan fully awoke, he played drums while everyone sang Jingle Bells.

After getting home late that night, all the boys went right to bed. However, Brendan could not get to sleep. He wondered where Santa was and made sure I left cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. He was so excited for Santa to come and therefore, Santa had to wait a long time before coming to our house. Brendan was the first one in our room that morning, around 6:30 AM. He was so excited he could barely stand still and he had the biggest smile on his face. He wanted to know if he and Jordan could set up the Wii they got for Christmas. I let them have at it and stayed in my bed until Dylan woke up. Dylan saw presents everywhere, since the boys had already scattered their Santa gifts all over the room, and didn't know what was his. Once he found his Leapster though, he didn't move until I showed him the rest of his presents. Dylan and I went to check on the other boys downstairs and this is what we saw. Wii everywhere. They were still trying to set it up but were off to a good start. Jordan was also very excited to get the Wii and finally was able to get it all hooked up. They played it until we left to go see family again but only after Richard and I had our chance to play Wii Sports Tennis.

UNCLE

My brother Ryan came for a quick visit after finding a really good deal to Hawaii. The boys loved having him around. Dylan, instead of saying Uncle Ryan, would just say Uncle. It sounded so sweet and definitely the Hawaiian way.

Halloween Day

We had a fun Halloween Day dressing up and walking around the neighborhood.

Dylan liked to call himself a doctor and show people the Dr. James printed on his shirt, but he did not like wearing the face mask I got for him from my Dentist. He wore it for the pictures and then never wore it again. Oh well.

This is Jordan's costume he wore on Halloween night. He just put together a few things he found in our Halloween costume bin. He was a cool vampire, basketball player (with size 19 shoes courtesy of Reuben) with skeleton gloves. He wore the sunglasses all night while trick-or-treating. The things you will do for a cool costume.

Brendan is our knight in shining armor. Because I already had to get costumes for Historical Halloween I did not want to buy new costumes for Halloween night. Jordan was a knight a few years ago so I already had this costume and was glad Brendan chose to wear it.

After trick-or-treating around our circle Jordan and Brendan ran into some friends from school. Dylan had plenty of candy so I walked him home and Jordan and Brendan continued to another circle with their friends. Richard stayed home while we were trick-or-treating and we had so many trick-or-treaters at our house that Richard, after giving away all the candy that I had bought, had to give away all the candy the boys had gotten from trunk-or-treating at the church. When Dyan and I had gotten home there was almost nothing left of our candy so we dipped into Dylan's stash as we had more trick-or-treaters. Dylan loved giving the candy out and decided to just sit there on the stairs waiting to give out more candy (one of the nice things about living in Hawaii, it is warm enough to sit outside). As he sat there he would yell out Happy Halloween to people walking by.

Sugar Cane Train

This was our first trip on the Sugar Cane Train. It runs from Lahaina to the Ka'anapali Resort. When we stopped in Ka'anapali they had to derail the front part of the train so it could circle around to the other end of train for the trip back to Lahaina. It is a steam engine train and, as it was passing us to get to the opposite end of the train, it sprayed us with steam to try to get us wet. It was a good thing the winds were going the opposite direction.

All the kids are on Fall Break right now so it was fun to have all the cousins together. (Brendan, Ethan, Kathryn, Elizabeth, Ryan, Jordan, Ella, and Dylan)

Recent family photo

This is what happens when Richard takes pictures.

My boys

I love this picture because it shows how much our boys love being with their dad. We try to have movie night at our house about once a week and this was one day of our Star Wars marathon. I don't get into Star Wars as much as they do but it's fun to watch them love it together.