Aloha, Aunt Stef!

Aloha, Aunt Stef! Stefanie came to Hawaii and spent our birthdays (hers is one day after mine) together. It was so much fun to have her here!

Happy Birthday! We made a fun video with help from all the Johanson family-it was a hit!

At the PCC, they show you how to husk a coconut. He sure made it look easy - but in reality - it only LOOKS easy. With the help of Mike's buck knife and some serious muscles we did get it open. As you can see-it took some major consentration.

We learned the coconuts have faces. And what is a face without a hairdo?
If you look closely, you can see its pigtails.

After it's husked, the work is not over.


Apparently we didn't take good enough notes because ours broke into about ten pieces instead of just two. But we laughed really hard the whole time. So we got our dose of endorphins for the day AND a workout - what a deal!

Happy Birthday Week

Mike decided this year they would celebrate not just my birthDAY but my birthday WEEK. So Sunday after dinner he scooped me up and put me on the couch with a book and an umbrella drink, with the girls fanning me. It made us all laugh. Another day he made me a strawberry milkshake. YUM!!!

French Toast with a candle (not my birthday yet)

Still not my birthday - but I got to wear the crown all day. I love morning pictures - they always capture me looking my best!

My cake - in case anyone is wondering all those decorations ARE edible! :) Ha ha!

Magical Moments

We had the privilege of experiencing one of Heavenly Father's many wonders. There are several milkweed plants where monarch butterflies lay their eggs. Naturally, the eggs hatch into caterpillars and we got to witness the transformation 1st hand. You know the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"? Well, these were seriously hungry caterpillars! The book is ficticious on what they eat, but we were amazed how such a little creature could eat so much so fast! Daily it was visibly bigger. It was so fun to watch!

One of my favorite parts was watching the caterpillar go into its chrysalis. The process itself takes only about 3 minutes and right before the girls went to school, we happened to notice it starting and watched the whole thing. Unfortunately, I was too caught up in the wonder of it all and didn't think to get the camera to tape it until it was almost finished. So below is what I did get. It was amazing! And to think that in a week it would be completely different!

They both hatched on my birthday! Happy Birthday! We missed it in the hussle and bustle of getting the girls out the door. But it was still neat to watch them pump their wings to dry them.

The caterpillars were named Sophia and Lucia - (I'm pretty sure the butterflies had different names, I just don't remember what they were.) We took them to the girls' classes so they could share our science experiment. I was amazed how much the kids in Kenna's class already knew. Many of those things I had just learned on the internet that morning. (Thanks Wikipedia! Ha ha Stef!) After school we let them fly away - it was magical!

Kenna was really nervous to let the butterfly climb on her finger, but after much coaxing she did it. She was really glad that she decided to. We got way more pictures of the process with Kenna.

Whitney's, on the other hand, was ready to get out - she didn't even stick around for a good picture.

1st of Many More to Come

Our beautiful plumeria tree started blooming so we can make leis! YAY! They smells so good! This is documenting our very first - picked from our very own trees.

Super Citizens

Every month during the school year there is an assembly to honor kids who have been exceptional in their class during the prior month. It is called the Super Citizen Award. Our girls were both chosen for the same month - lucky for us we got to celebrate both at the same assembly. :) Tradition here is that you give leis for any/all special occasions. Our girls were sure to remind us to bring leis, knowing we aren't really Hawaiian thinkers yet, so they weren't the only ones without.

Fireknife Competition

We decided to get season passes to the PCC so that we could attend this fireknife competition. The girls have loved having them - they would go to the canoe parade every week if I would let them. And the activites have yet to get old for them. We've heard they do some fun things on the lagoon for Christmas and Halloween so we are excited to visit regularly.

The youngest fireknife competitor was 8. Two boys in our ward competed and got 2nd place. It is amazing to me that these boys are my girls' ages. I don't even like them to swing sticks around - let alone ones that are burning!

1st Ponytail

It's a monumental day - Brynlee has enough hair for a ponytail! YAY! (Yes, that is a ponytail sticking up above her bow.)

And she's been flirting with crawling - oh man!

New Classes

It has definately taken some getting used to, but the girls have both started really enjoying their classes. They both have great teachers that have been very patient with the transition and the missed days of school from Whitney's accident. We took these pictures so they could write letters to their old classes in Idaho. They do still miss their teachers and classmates from Idaho.

There were several kids missing this day, but the first grade classes only have 18 kids each. Great for individual learning.

We've loved the diversity in their classrooms. To begin with, it was a challenge for them to remember names - it still is for me - but they have adapted well. In fact, they have added so many words to their vocabularies. I heard them playing ponies the other day - they were at the library. One was checking out a book about Fiji and the other had chosen one from "the shelf that no one picks" called "Cockroaches in Your Home." I laughed so hard! There are so many words that they didn't even know before we moved here (cockroaches, Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, boogie boarding, surfing, etc) that they now talk about in casual play. What a great experience for our family!

Tap, Tap, Tap

This is Mike's bird friend that Makenna named Marco. He has started visiting Mike regularly, watching him and even tapping on the glass. But with a view of the mountains, palm trees, flowers, etc from your office window - you really can't complain! This picture doesn't even really do the view justice.

Springtime

When we were here interviewing I was talking to some moms about things I would miss if we moved here and told them I would really miss the seasons. One of them told me, "We have seasons here. My boys know when the waves are big - it's winter, and when they are small - it's summer." Ha ha!

I was a little afraid that I would miss out on Springtime living here. I do miss the drastic contrast of cold and snowy to warm and blossoms, but I have been happy to see that I won't completely miss out on new growth. These plumeria trees are in our front yard. When we moved here neither even had leaves. The bigger one is now beginning to bloom and the other is just barely starting to get buds for leaves. So here we sing "Popcorn popping on the plumeria tree!"

I love seasons of growth and new life. I guess that is what we've begun here - a new season of growth.



If you look close Whitney and Kenna are in the tree. They LOVE to climb this tree! (Against their father's will.) But can he really expect to have a great climbing tree and not let them climb?! I don't think so. It's part of being a kid, right?!