Happy Easter

Really? It's been January since I last posted.  So in need of catching up.

Enjoying family time on Easter Sunday

I'm Ready for an Amazing Year

Even little Jacob stayed awake for the New Year.

Happy New Year!

Christmas Day Highlights

Another Christmas has come and gone but I have to say it was a really good one. 

We spent a nice relaxing day with the family opening presents, playing with presents, and watching the sunset.  The boys found out on Christmas day they are getting a dog.  Since it takes months to get all the shots necessary to get the dog to Hawaii, the boys just got to see a picture of her. Richard named her Lady Bug. We can't wait to get her but we will have to be patient because it looking like we will have to wait until August. :(

Things I loved about December 2010

 

Lots of beach time with the kids. Jacob loves the water and can't seem to get enough of it. Waves will cover  him and he gets right up and waits for them to get him again.

Paddle boarding.  Richard's new hobby. He got two so the kids can go out with him.

 







Spending time with Family.  We had 6 of the 7 brothers and their family here on Maui for a few weeks. 


 Christmas Eve activities. One of our favorite games we started last year has become an adult favorite.

Gingerbread Men. We made them at least four times this year. Mmm they are good.

I love how Jacob thinks everything is hair gel. He found some lotion in my bathroom and started rubbing it in his hair. I don't however love cleaning it up. Other things he likes rubbing in his hair---food.

Halloween Activities

For their school Historical Halloween, Dylan was Thomas Edison and Brendan was Captain Kidd. 

Trunk or Treat

I ordered a cowboy costume for Jacob but it got lost in the mail.  I finally faced the fact that it wasn't coming and checked my costume bin for something he could wear.  I found my Pebbles costume from way back in my college days that my mom made she made a matching one for Rich as well but it got lost somewhere along the way.  I thought Jacob as Bam Bam would be perfect, especially in Hawaii.  I quickly threw together a costume and it turned out so cute Richard decided he wanted to join in the Flintstone fun only that meant I had to throw together another costume. I do not sew clothes so it really is a miracle they turned out. 

Jacob did a little Trick or Treating on Halloween day.  His bag was gettting pretty heavy but he was enjoying the experience expcept for the scary people and dogs.

Harvest Festival

Brendan won the pie eating contest at the Montessori Hale O Keiki Harvest Festival.  Jordan won last year but he was at a MMA tournament this year so he couldn't relcaim his title.  Apparently my boys have big mouths and big stomachs.

BYU Game Day

Working on our game spirit by wearing our BYU shirts. BYU didn't win, but we still have fun cheering on our favorite football team.

A labor free day

We had a pretty relaxing Labor Day as we spent the morning at the beach. We are loving our yellow cart that carries all our stuff!

Finished the day playing croquet with some family.

A nice and relaxing day. Just how we like it.

I have the best family and friends

We had such a fun vacation I wish I would have taken more pictures.
Here are some random pictures from our 2 1/2 weeks in Utah.
Highlights
There was fishing, fishing, and more fishing.
Bowling x2
Seeing old neighbors who will always be friends.
Cramming in elevators like a bunch of sardines.

A vacation in Utah wouldn't be a vacation without eating at the BYU creamery!
Adult time at P.F. Chang's we missed you Amiel and Melynda!
Parachute fireworks. It sometimes causes crying but mostly it is just so much fun!
Meeting my new nephew Owen.
Enjoying the Stadium of Fire Fireworks outside the Stadium. It may be the cheap way to go but I really enjoy it.
Jacob started walking down stairs.

Spending time with 4 families all under one roof. Good times. Thanks Rebekah and Danny!

Enjoying the Zoo in the hot sun. We couldn't get enough of the mist machines.

Richard vandalizing property to proclaim love is that so wrong?

Fireworks at the park

Packing all my nieces in a minivan rocking out to I've got a Feeling

Spending time with family-the best!

No pictures of shopping but definitely a highlight

Rollerblades for the family

New Rollerblades for the family. We wore them in rolling around the neighborhood and then headed to the skate park that night.

Throwing eggs

Easter Sunday picture. Ignore Richard's hair sticking up.

We had such a nice Easter. We woke up with a nice breakfast as we listened to our church leaders during conference.

We left Jacob's Easter basket out in the open him to find, but he didn't seem to notice it. Richard threw a book at it so Jacob would look that way, but he just picked up the book and threw it back. The boys finally helped him out and showed him his basket full of goodies. We colored eggs and headed to the grandparents house for an Easter egg hunt and dinner. Since Jacob is in the throwing phase, all he wanted to do when he found an egg was throw it. If he only knew it was yummy candy he was throwing all over the place.

Spring Break

Uncle Ryan came to stay with us during spring break and the boys were so excited to have him around. He was able to spend many days on the beach as well as experience some activities he has never done before. On one day we took him to Iao Valley for a beautiful picnic hike through the green lush mountains.

On Thursday we had our Relief Society Birthday Celebration. Three great dances were performed. We had Poi Ball dancing, a Native American dance, and a Tongan dance. We have some great talent in our ward. I was part of the Poi Ball dance. We practiced for about a month. Although we were still were not perfect, we had a lot of fun learning the dance.

Friday was our busiest day. First, Brendan and Dylan visited our local fire station.

Next we went on a whale watch. We saw some amazing whales but I was only able to photograph a tail. It was windy, can you tell?

Straight from the whale watch we went to a scout eagle ceremony. It was a Tongan who earned his eagle so they went all out. We are still not used to all the Tongan food so some of us just stuck to the salad and pig but as you can see Dylan thoroughly enjoyed his dessert.Saturday we took a hike to twin falls. We found a rope swing for those that dared enough to jump in the cold water. Let's just say I held Jacob. I am not sure why Jordan brought his guitar on a hike but he kept us entertained.

Tsunami Evacuation Plan

We got the warning around 5AM-an 8.8 earthquake in Chile may cause a tsunami to the islands.

Richard was up (yes he has a sleeping problem) so he headed to Safeway to get some milk, diapers, and food for Jacob as well as some gas for his car. He already had to wait 20min. for gas at that early hour. We decided we would probably be ok where we were but figured to be safe we would head to the mountains aka Richard's parents house.

Here is our evacuation plan:

Bring developed pictures up to the top floor
Grab camera
Bring Jacob's supplies including pack n play
Leave

In hindsight, I would have brought our important documents that I left upstairs.

This was part of a long line of cars parked along side the road leading up the mountain right in front of Richard's parents house. The line got longer as it got closer to tsunami time -11AM. The reason this warning was such a big deal was that in the 1960's Chile had a 8.3 earthquake that caused a tsunami. It hit the Big Island and cost the lives of 61 people. Since this earthquake was a little bigger, there was no reason for us not to think the tsunami would come again.

We watched the ocean and the news all morning. A little activity took place in the ocean about 11:30 but no big waves. We didn't have the all clear for awhile though, and since many roads were closed we just hung out. We were glad nothing major happened and if nothing else it was a good reminder to be prepared.

One bright night

New Year's Eve was so pretty with the bright full moon. We were at Grandma and Grandpa James' house looking out at the ocean enjoying the view.

Up high against the mountain, we had to perfect spot to watch fireworks going off from all around the island. There was something so peaceful about watching fireworks from afar, surrounded by loved ones.

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.