May Day

Every year the girls' school does a HUGE May Day production. Each grade learns a few dances from a different country and they learn about traditions and customs in that country. Then everyone goes to the PCC on May Day for the performance. The venue seats 2,700 and about 5 min after the doors opened it was packed. Before it started there was no longer even standing room. One of my favorite parts was knowing it was such a community event. I don't know how many students there are at least 100+/grade and almost all the costumes were made by parents or teachers. The dances were also taught by parents or someone in the community all volunteering their time. That is always neat to see. It was a fun thing for Kenna and Whitney to be able to do. They both did great! We were so proud of them.

The first graders learned about Native Americans

Kindergarteners stole the show (apparently they always do) with Italy. She was front and center. Her partner's mom posted their dance on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxq8zbKDLP0. I know I'm the mom, but it was pretty great!

Mmmm . . . Homemade Bread

Because of the price of groceries here, I decided I needed a Bosch before we moved. I found one on Craiglist a few weeks before we moved here and it is getting well used! My friend, Tiffany, did an enrichment teaching us how to make her wheat bread and we love it! It is super tasty and we LOVE fresh hot bread!!! I'm sure we eat more than we would of the store-bought, but it is better for us, right?! YUMMY!

Finger Update

At our last doctor's appointment (end of March/Beginning of April) Dr. Shin gave Whitney the green light for any kind of activity. No more bandages and no more keeping it out of sand and water at the beach. YAY! I figured I needed to get some pictures of how it was healing. Her index fingernail is split in the middle, but don't worry - we can still paint both parts of it. The middle fingernail looks normal at the nail bed, but then wraps around the end of her finger - also very paintable. Again, we feel so blessed that it was only the tips of her fingers. And I am glad to put away my nurse hat for awhile - hopefully a long while!

Kenna felt left out that I wasn't taking pictures of her hands too.

Painted Toes in the Sand

I painted Brynlee's toenails for the first time awhile ago and had this fabulous idea to paint all three girls' toes matching and take pictures of them in the sand. Theoretically, this is a good idea but logistically, not so much. Sand gets everywhere and hides the cute polish - which was the whole point of the picture in the first place. Brynlee didn't love the sand on her feet and wouldn't hold them still. It was a nice idea, but didn't turn out how I had envisioned it. I guess it took Thomas Edison a few tries to get it right too.

Snorkeling

We took the girls snorkeling at Sharks' Cove for their first time. Unfortunately, this was the only picture we took. My apologies for the graphic nature of this photo - but her face cracks me up! Mike and I, in a joint effort, were trying to get her changed without smearing stuff everywhere and Whitney decided we needed a picture. To me, her face says, "All you can think about right now is a picture?! Don't you see what I'm sitting in?!"


The girls loved snorkeling. Mike was on Brynlee duty on the beach. I didn't even put a mask on because I was helping the girls. They had their lifejackets on and I led them around the rocks so they could just worry about breathing underwater. They're naturals! We look forward to lots more fun snorkeling adventures.

Kenna's 1st tooth

We called Kenna "Sharky" for awhile because instead of coming in under her baby teeth, her two bottom teeth came behind so she had two rows of teeth. They came at least half-way in before we finally got them out. She wasn't as faithful of a tooth wiggler as Whitney so I had to wiggle on them every night. Dentist Mommy tried to tie a string and pop it out before it was ready, and it traumatized her so she didn't like me to even touch it after that. Mike says teeth pulling is my department. He's not up for that - but faithfully photographs me doing the dirty work. It finally got so loose that she turned it backwards and she still wouldn't pull it out. Once I convinced her it would stop bugging her if she just twisted it back around, she popped it right out and was very excited. (Forgetting how much pursuasion it took to get her there.) And shouted from the rooftops that she had pulled her own tooth. Crazy girl!

Yes, that is a jacket she is wearing, but not out of necessity. The girls have missed their winter clothes and at random like to wear pants and jackets - just because even though it makes them sweaty. I, on the other hand, haven't worn pants since we moved here and only wear socks with my running shoes. It's a beautiful thing!

Naked Baby!

Brynlee LOVES her baths! And she looks so cute all snuggled up in her towel!

Nice shot of her buddah belly - she's a chub! Locals joke that she fits right in with the Samoan babies here.

Our Friend, Jack

Can anyone classify this friend? We aren't exactly sure what he is - but the girls enjoyed having him be our pet for the day. That is the best kind - for a day. We found him out on our covered porch. He wasn't around for more than 5 minutes before the girls named him Jack. Kenna had a friend over and she wasn't afraid at all. She chased him all around the porch until she caught him. Unfortunately, he wasn't too excited about being caught and bit onto her hand and wouldn't let go. (Maybe that is why she hasn't come back to play.)


She didn't panic or anything, but calmly told me that it hurt a little. If it had been Whitney or Kenna, they wouldn't have picked it up in the first place, but they certainly would not have been calm about it being attached to their hand! I tried to pry it off with my nail, but no luck. Luckily I thought to get a stick and successfully detached it from her hand. I figured they would be done playing with him after his viciousness, but no. He didn't bite again after that and all three of them had him crawling up their arms and everything. They loved it. I think he must have enjoyed it too, because he didn't try to get out of the porch area. That evening they set him free. See - no mess or clean-up, no feeding, lots of entertainment and pictures, everyone is happy. That is my kind of pet!

Kenna's brave friend. (Jack is under the chair)

Happy Easter!

Our family was asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting for Easter Sunday. What a great time to really study our Savior and His atonement. The Bishop even wanted our girls to speak - I am pretty sure my first Sacrament talk was after I turned twelve. Honestly, I was preparing myself to give their talks for them. They wrote their talks themselves, with only a little help from us. After practicing all week they were ready, but I still wasn't sure if they would really give them in front of everyone. I was so proud of them - they both did fabulous! I love the gospel and the roadmap it gives me to teach my children about our Heavenly Father's plan.

Brynlee didn't have much to say - I tried working with her, but she just wouldn't. Actually, she has lots to say - always when it is real quiet at church. Maybe next time.

Makenna's Talk
On Monday night for Family Home Evening we had our Easter lesson. My mom hid Easter eggs that had symbols of Easter inside. One by one we opened each egg and talked about what was inside. One egg had a nail for the nail prints in Jesus’ hands. Another egg had a red cloth like the one the soldiers put around Jesus to make fun of him. Another egg had cotton for the clouds that took Jesus up to heaven. On my last egg there was nothing inside and I wondered if mom had forgotten it. She asked me why I thought it would be empty. Then I remembered it was for the empty tomb. Jesus wasn’t there. I’m grateful for Easter that we can remember what Jesus did for us. I know that Jesus died and was resurrected and that I can be with my family forever.

Whitney's Talk
When I think of Jesus and his atonement, I think of a book we have called You are Priceless. It is about a little girl names Sarah who really wanted a bike. When she asked her dad is she could get one he told her to start saving her money. She saved everything and even did extra job to get more money. After saving for awhile, she came to her dad and asked if she could get a bike now. He said they could go look. So they went and she spotted the perfect bike. She was so excited until she saw how much it cost. She only had 61 cents. She told her daddy that she would never have enough money to buy the bike. She was very upset. Then her dad wiped away her tears and said, “Give me what you have, and a hug and a kiss and I will do the rest.” She was so happy and even gave extra kisses and hugs just to be sure. This story is like the atonement. We want to live with Heavenly Father again even more than Sarah wanted the bike. But no matter how hard we try we’ll still make mistakes and like Sarah we won’t be able to do enough. So Jesus says, “You give me all you’ve got, and a hug and a kiss. I’ll do the rest.” I’m grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ and that he was willing to pay the price so I can live with Him again. I know that the church is true.

Aloha Background

We needed a new background because Brynlee's scrap page didn't show up on the old one - so we thought we would try some Aloha spirit - What do you think?!

Brynlee's Half Birthday

18lbs 8oz - 26 1/2 inches long! Hopefully this is the only time in her life that she doubles her weight in 6 months. She is such an angel! She continues to be a happy girl and wonderful baby. I am a spoiled mom! The word schedule isn't in her vocabulary so everyday is a surprise. Sometimes she naps for 20 minutes, other times it is two hours. And, naturally, she always decides to take her long naps when we have somewhere to go. But she is fabulous at night 11-ish hours, so it's a trade-off that I'm ok with.

2 days old

6 months old - Her blanket is getting so small!

About 5 hours before she officially turned 6 months, we tried rice cereal for the first time. She was a natural. The past 2-3 weeks she has become very fascinated with our food. We started letting her drink water from our cup and she loves it. We end up wearing most of it, but you've got to start somewhere, right? We tried to video her first attempt at food, but it didn't turn out very good and it wouldn't load on here for some reason, so I guess it wasn't meant to be.

She really wanted to "help" me put the spoon in her mouth so she had as much cereal on her hand as she did that actually made it into her mouth.

She's all smiles - give me some meat and potatoes! I've gotta put these two teeth to good use!