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.

Ward Christmas Party

We were quite tired after having to get up at 4 AM for our 7 AM flight back to Hawaii from California, but we needed to go to our wards Christmas Party. Plus I had volunteered to bake a turkey so we had to go. After arriving, I found out that Jordan was supposed to be a wise man for the program that evening. I told Jordan and assumed that they would have stuff for him to wear since this was the first I heard of it. Well, the program started and Jordan was the only one not wearing any kind of costume at all. If I hadn't been told he was being a wise man that night there is no way I would have known. I don't think he cared though.
Brendan is still nervous about seeing Santa but was willing to stand next to him for a picture. When Santa asked Dylan what he wanted to Christmas Dylan said "candy." He probably said that since Santa was sitting there holding a bag of candy to give him, but if that is all he is expecting for Christmas he is going to have a great one.

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.

Historical Halloween

Jordan and Brendan each chose a historical figure to be for Montessori's annual Historical Halloween.



Meet King James I

and King Tut

Carving Pumpkins

Our yearly activity of carving pumpkins has had to change a little bit since living in Hawaii. We have to keep the pumpkins inside until we are ready to carve them because outside is too hot. We still ended up with one rotten one, as Jordan found out while he was digging seeds out. After we mourned over the loss of a very expensive pumpkin, we quickly threw it out and lit a candle to cover up the awful stench. By the time we were done we had one huge mess for me to clean up but we all had a lot of fun.

Richard and Dylan shared a pumpkin. Richard carved one side and Dylan made a scary Witch with Mr. Potato Head pieces on the other side. Jordan carved the middle one and Brendan's is the one on the right.

Halloween Parties

On Friday night we had a Halloween Dance and on Saturday night we had Trunk or Treat. The dance was great and Dylan ran around for literally hours (that's his kind of dancing). Jordan and Brendan ran around too but they were playing tag, football, or anything else that kept them busy. David and Suzie's family came with us and I had a lot of fun dancing with Elizabeth.

Jordan changed his costume for the Trunk or Treat but the rest of us stayed the same. He decided he wanted to be a basketball vampire instead of a pirate since he was a pirate last year. Everyone thought I looked like Raggedy Ann but then they were confused when they saw all my stitches. Let me clear up the confusion-I am Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Clearly not enough people have seen that movie. It was a fun costume though but many people did not recognize me. I kept saying hi to people and they would start to ask who I was or look at me really funny.

Well, we still have one more day of dress up and enough candy to start up our own candy store.