14 year old birthday boy

I asked Jordan what he wanted for his birthday dessert and he said "surprise me", so I took the opportunity to make a key lime pie I have been wanting to make one for a long time now. 
Jordan said it was the worst pie he's ever tasted.

Translation-

It's the best pie he's ever tasted. Yay! He know how to make me feel good!

We have made huge improvements taking pictures of Jordan. He may not be looking at the camera but at least he doesn't have his hand in front of his face. This photo shoot ended up with a lot of tickling for the birthday boy.

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.

Church skirts

The boys wore "church skirts" for Friday and Sunday activities during their cultural week.  I asked them for a picture before they took off to Pulehu chapel Sunday morning. (The boys like to wear the skirts because they get to wear slippers and shorts underneath, but for some reason some of them forgot to wear them.) The youth had Sunday services at the Pulehu chapel, the first lds chapel on the Hawaiian Islands, along with the 9 other wards in our stake.

It's a Samoan Thing

Instead of doing a youth conference this year, the youth in our ward had a cultural fair. Each ward got a different culture. We got Samoan. We started practicing way back in January. I have nothing to do with youth but was asked to perform because some of the youth leaders did not want to dance. It was so much work, I feel like one performance was not enough. I'm sure Jordan feels otherwise. He did great though and I am glad we got to do this together. My sis in law Suzy recorded most of the dance so everyone could enjoy. Thanks suz!

Finishing what I started

It only took me a year but I finally finished the quilts I started last year. I wanted to completely quilt them myself by stippling (machine quilting by moving my quilt in a random pattern) them so I put it off until I got brave enough, and time enough, to learn to do it. After practicing for a little bit on a 12x12 scrap, I just decided to go for it. By the end of the first quilt I was getting the hang of it. I don't have it perfected but it think it is well enough to pass.

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