ANOTHER Family picture

This is our older picture from April 08- to the right.

this is the new picture below.

My kids honestly have different clothes.

I mean- closets and drawers full of clothes! So one might wonder why we only take family pictures in these shirts?

I had the boys in white shirts, yet they decided to enjoy some hot cocoa and toast before church and my oldest son was the only one able to drink/eat that without dripping... so 2 min before church we are running around looking for new shirts. oh.. uh.. I mean... we looked in their closet and neatly hung, already ironed where church shirts a-plenty for them to pick from... but uh these were the only ones clean... I mean- these are their favorite shirts.

Tonight the kids - begged to have a sleep-over.

I don't know why I agreed.
I always say to myself, "NO MORE!" because my kids are always the FIRST to fall asleep.
And I don't feel like I can fall asleep until EVERYONE is asleep... and my bedtime is normally 9:30. (8:30 if I can swing it. I love to sleep.)

So staying up half the night- does not make a happy mommy in the morning.

But when they are all looking at me with those puppy-dog eyes.. and the bunch of kids has been rejected by other houses...

isn't there room in my inn?

couldn't I stay up late.... one night of their vacation?
( is my guilt trip working??? will any of my neighbors host the next sleep over?? Martha?? Crash??)

I crumbled. Then I made some really yummy popcorn. I wanted to post a picture to show you.. but by the time I thought of it- this is all that was left.

You melt 1 stick of butter in a sauce pan

add 1/2 cup of brown sugar

3/4 of a bag of marshmallows... stir until smooth.

Meanwhile- pop 3 bags of popcorn.

Pour popcorn in the large sauce pan- put a lid on it and shake it up. Try to get all the popcorn coated. It takes like Carmel corn or something to that nature.

very yummy- not that I had any of this batch.

It's not really that bad- I shewed them outside to get some energy out- playing night games.

Hopefully they will come in ready to watch a movie and go to sleep.

Thanks for those who are helping me with my domain name switcher-oo ... tomorrow I am going to get serious about it. (Our Internet is working!)

Christmas Highlight

We are connecting with our inner rock band.
Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

I'm having trouble up-loading pictures tonight- hopefully more pictures to follow.

Christmas Eve- what actually happened.

Well- I had high hopes. High dreams and aspirations of some quality family bonding last night.

Maybe it was all the cookies they ate.
Maybe it was sleeping under the tree for a month.
Maybe it was just innocent excitement and anticipation
Maybe I was too homesick
Regardless of the reason- we had a rocky Christmas Eve.

First we thought we would take a nice walk around the neighborhood and see some Christmas lights.
This is our house- my husband and sons did a fine job. I love how our house resembles a gingerbread house.


Then we drove around and tried to appreciate lights in the community. Not too many lights out in the community. Many of the homes have had flood damage- so I can understand "putting up Christmas lights" might have been low on the priority list for many of the families in our community.

We came back to the house after "striking out". (Son #2 kept saying in the car- well that road was a strike out. Well here's another strike out. etc... not really adding to the Christmas cheer.)

Then we came back to the house to open one present. (Christmas tradition #89) I actually combined two traditions. Tradition #5 Getting a new ornament and opening one present. I normally give their ornaments on the night we decorate the tree. But I didn't have one that night so they opened their new ornaments last night.

THEN- since our family is "performance" challenged- I had made this shadow box and had cut out some silhouettes so while we sang along to Christmas songs kids could take turns holding up the images.

In theory it was a beautiful idea. I couldn't get the Christmas carols to play off the computer- so we tried to sing by ourselves.

(not good- really really REALLY sad.)

Then after a few out-of-tune carols the wise men

started sword fighting with baby Jesus behind the shadow screen.

(Admittedly that was kinda funny- and to be expected.) But over all I was disappointed. (and probably more homesick.) But just the kids seemed sooo wild and unable to focus two seconds on the message my husband and I were trying to present. They were just goofing off and wrestling.

So- without raising our voices or saying much, we sent the kids to bed. Kissed them goodnight and we all turned in around 8:00 pm.

After about 20 minutes- I can hear crying from the other room. Both my older boys came in and apologized for misbehaving. My oldest said, "That wasn't the way I wanted Christmas Eve to be."

I agreed. "But we don't always get what we want do we?"

Then they really started sobbing. They wanted to know on a scale from 1-10 how disappointed we were. I said about a 6.

That is when I realized... they thought (feared) Santa might not come.

We thanked them for their apology and sent them back to bed.

The ONE REDEEMING lesson learned last night. At 9:30 my husband suggested we have a "Re-do". Let's try again.

I am soooo glad he did. Because that is not what Christmas is about! Kids crying in their beds and disappointed parents in theirs. So we went into the boys rooms and proposed our plan to try again. They were eager and willing.

Never such angels did you see! All sitting quietly as we read a book about Jesus' Birthday and then my husband read from Luke 2.

Each child picked a carol for us to sing. It was very sweet.

I'm so glad we didn't let our night stay a disappointment.

In fact: I related it to Christ... that THAT is the greatest gift he has given us. The opportunity to re-do things. To repent when we make mistakes.

I don't know if my kids will remember last night but I know I will. When we tucked them in the second time and finally tucked ourselves in ... I felt like we had spent some quality time together.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas

Merry Christmas EVE!

What a fun day. I love Christmas Eve! Tonight is the last night of "magic"... ya know? I mean tomorrow gifts have been given and all the anticipation is over.

I don't want to rub it in- but it's a beautiful day here and it kills me that my kids are inside. So I made a list of things we need done in our house and sent the boys on a Service Scavenger Hunt. (They divided themselves into teams and headed out the door. ) I told them to knock on doors and go do some service! (secretly hoping they would do a few chores around our house too.) After an hour and a half- they came back for the prize.

Service Scavenger Hunt

Please have people sign by the service act for points to count
5 points: (2-5 min worth of work)
Read a book to a small child (3 or 5 year old)
Sort a fold a bunch of socks
Pull weeds
Re-stack books on a bookshelf nicely
Vacuum a floor
Sweep
_____________________________________
____________________________________
_____________________________________

10 points: (10-15 min worth of work)
Mop a floor
Wash a car
Walk a dog
Fold a basket of laundry
Wash dishes
_____________________________________-
______________________________________
_____________________________________
______________________________________
15 points: (15-20 min worth of work)
Mow a lawn
Clean and pick up a room
Wash windows for someone
Clean a bathroom
_______________________________________
______________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________

A plate of chocolate chip cookies. I'm making cookies for tonight anyway.

It was fun- seeing them run around the neighborhood and then see the signatures on their point sheets. Merry Christmas neighbors!

My Birthday Boy

We had a great day today- wish all our family from the mainland could have spent it with us. It's just not the same..... but we did our best. :0P

Tradition in our family- is the Birthday Boy (or if it is me... girl.) gets to pick what we have for dinner. So we went to our new favorite restaurant in Haleiwa... called...

Haleiwa Eats. (It's a Thai Food restaurant.) It's a small little place but seriously the most yummy food I've ever had! (Better than Roys! Harold and Renon! We have to go there when you come!)

So I'm on assignment for my mother-in-law to get some pictures. But my kids... weren't playing along. Here son #2 completely ignoring me.


Son #4 had fallen asleep in the car- on the way to the restaurant..so he wasn't being very photogenic.

Son #1 doing his best to ignore me

then FINALLY son#3 was willing to do something note worthy...



I was glad someone was willing to play. After a yummy lunch we headed off to the ice rink.
That is something my husband has done on his birthday- ever since he can remember. In the "good ol days", they would rent out the rink... around midnight... and the family would play hockey. Those were some wild games. I think the last time we did that... we only had our oldest two. One uncle had to get stitches that night in the chin and one nephew went to the hospital for a slight concussion. You know... it's just a friendly game... no serious hitting or anything.

Son #4 really enjoyed himself. I am so glad they have these "walkers". They saved my back and my husband's.

I was able to sneak off and skate with the boys for a while, and Brian and I took turns with son #4

Here he is- teaching our youngest the joys of ice skating. (Son #2 off to the right.)

So that is the sneak peek into my husbands birthday day. He's pretty quiet and private - and I've probably shared too much as it is....

Happy Birthday honey- I love you! ( I know he reads my blog from time to time - he says he doesn't... but I know he does!)

Just For Grandma

the older boys are in a water fight- pictured in the previous post. Son #2 was MIA.. hiding... I'll take more and post... PROMISE!

Nothing shows Christmas Cheer like....

A neighborhood water fight!

Last night the kids wanted to play, "Night Games". So they were out and about playing one form of chase game to the next. After about 20 minutes they came banging on my door- we keep the screen door locked because son #4 will escape. They started singing Christmas songs. I heard them knock on other doors and heard their carols being yelled and sung at the top of their voices. But it was really sweet- in a Herdman kind of way. (The Herdmans, from the story: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever!)

Kindergarten is Cool!

Kindergarten is too cool! Parents were invited to come and decorate graham cracker houses today with their child. It was so much fun. I don't get to do much- with just this little guy. I usually am chasing after son #4 or homework projects with son#1. (Major HISTORY Day paper due tomorrow. Last week was our Science Project.)

Any way- it was really nice. To visit his class and just talk to him while he decorated and we both munched on candy.



Anjeny and Beth were over... so I was able to sneak away without son#4. We were finishing up our fabric houses. ( We are done! 8 houses in three sewing sessions! Great job ladies- I would have NEVER had attempted this without you!) It really was fun.

I feel guilty about sewing/crafting and playing while my 3 year old spent most the day playing with other 3 years old under-toe. Mommy promise: Tomorrow we are going to do something FUN and OUTSIDE!

Christmas Tradition #54

Every year we get a new game. We usually wait and open it Christmas Eve... but this year we didn't.

Why? why would we break tradition?

This years game was given to us by my husbands boss. (What a nice, thoughtful, fun gift!) So when my husband brought it home, confessed he had peeked, told the boys it was Monopoly- NHL version. They begged and pleaded that we could play it for FHE AND on Christmas Eve.

We caved. It was a lot of fun. There are stickers of NHL teams and you get to place them on the board. So it was funny to hear which teams got which spaces on the board.

For example our "Board Walk" is San Jose Sharks. My husbands favorite team.

I'll confess- I didn't play. I was playing with son#4 so the older boys could play and learn the game in peace.

But they had alot of fun.

I can tell this will become a new family favorite.

Some pictures of the boys setting it up.

Just a year ago!

I was looking at pictures of last Christmas, just to see what we were doing a year ago. Making sure I wasn't missing or forgetting any holiday traditions and I stumbled upon these pictures at Pearl Harbor.

It was a crime! We had lived here 3 years and had never gone to Pearl Harbor. So one morning- we just thought, "today is the day". We hurried and got dressed.

I know you are thinking, "Yeah right! Your kids are dressed in matching outfits!" It's true- we didn't even shower that morning - probably more information than you wanted to know... but I did make sure the kids had matching outfits. If we are in public, it's just visually easier to keep a head count and keep track of them if they are all wearing the same thing. (But you'll notice son#3- I couldn't find his blue shirt.)

Anyway- I digress.. .
Our trip to Pearl Harbor was so AWESOME!

Some Pearl Harbor Veterans were there visiting and talked to the kids about what it was like, where they were, they were just 18 at the time!
They called it "The war fought by teenagers".









While you wait for your turn to take the boat out to the memorial, there is a museum and we got the headsets. It's worth it. There is so much information to process and it's like having a guided tour.












Then here are some pictures out at the memorial.

I'm so grateful for all those serving in our military. I'm humbled by their sacrifice. My father was in the Navy. I grew up- so proud of him- but at the same time missing him.

Thank you.

Thank you to those who continue to keep our country safe.

Wishing you all a safe return home.

SWIRL

Rain Rain.. go away..

It's crazy... one day your livin the dream.. chatting with your friends.. enjoying the balmy weather of tropical living and the next day you are knee deep in WATER! I "borrowed" this picture from my friend CRASH she actually walked/waded around the community and has some great pictures.

I spent the day at my house- I didn't want to take our son #4 out and have him swept away. I spent most the day.. preparing.. getting some extra sleeping room available in case anyone in our ward or neighborhood needed a dry place to sleep. (Our town house complex stayed above the flood zone.) BYU-H also opens it's gym as a shelter to house people too.

CRAZY!

On a much happier note.. my BFF TAMN- is have a seriously awsome give-away!

Previous Pictures

Sometimes my husband and I like to go to the beach and watch the setting sun. Can you believe- not all of our kids like going!?!? It's a crime they don't appreciate the beach, warm weather, and beauty of where we live. I know all of YOU do. ( especially those of you who have snow!)

So this trip.. it was just the three of us. At our favorite beach: Pounders. Many pictures of our family have been taken by this big rock.

Son #4 still has baby babble. He "talks" but it's a lot of jabber and a few understandable words. He was being so funny... every time there was a big wave.. " oooo WA-DER"

Isn't he adorable!?