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!

Spring Break Fun

I LOVE having my girls home! We had a lot of fun together during Spring Break. We had two whole weeks and it made me excited for summer. Unfortunately, we didn't have many beach days because it has been rainy and windy. One day we tried a picnic on the beach and it was VERY windy. Anyone who knew my Mom (Peggy), might know how fond she was of windy picnics - anytime we have a windy picnic I think of her. Windy picnics on the beach go to a new level. Anytime anyone moved, sand went EVERYWHERE. It made a whole new meaning to SANDwich. I don't think we will be repeating that. (I know - no one has any sympathy for us - at least we were on the beach - so I will leave it at that.)

We pulled out some puzzles that we haven't done in awhile. I was amazed at how long and diligently the girls worked on tough puzzles. They are getting pretty good. Lucky for me they like puzzles - because I really enjoy them too.

We also found some fun hair websites and experimented with different hairdos. I'm not sure how much they loved that - but I liked it a lot.

The BYU library has huge teacher size picture books and we spent an afternoon reading them there. It was the week before finals week so I felt bad - kids are noisy in a college atmosphere, no matter how quiet they are.

Mike had Prince Kuhio Day off. (Anyone want to move to Hawaii so they can get Prince Kuhio day off too? It is a state holiday.) This coincided nicely with Spring Break so we went into Kaneohe for some errands and then stopped at Kualoa Park. This is the first beach the girls went to here, except this time they got to see it in daylight. It was a little too choppy, there wasn't a whole lot of beach and Brynlee was needing a nap, so we stopped long enough to take a few pictures and went to find another beach. In Hawaii, they aren't too hard to come by. :) The first time I visited Hawaii, I was surprised by the mountains. I guess I should have known they were mountainous - isn't that how islands are formed? Anyway -we have some pretty impressive mountains here. We are in the parking lot across the street from these mountains. The ocean is seen in the opposite direction. (see the next picture.) Pretty incredible!

This is called Chinaman's Hat. It is a little island in Kaneohe bay. Sorry the picture is so far away - if you look closely, the girls are holding up the "hat".

I'm not sure what this beach is called, but it was much more calm so we stopped to play there and wrote a message in the sand.

One day we visited the PCC. There were tons of activities for the girls to do and they loved it. Tickets there are good for three days so we even went back again and still didn't get to see everything.

They especially liked the palm tree climber in Samoa.

In Tonga, they made these cute fish out of leaves.

The Canoe Pageant was their favorite. We watched it both days. Mike even got to come during his lunch to watch with us one of the days. It is always fun to see him in the middle of the day.

Makenna and Bailee

Bailee moved to our neighborhood in July and after swimming lessons together, they became pretty much inseparable. One of those - instant friends...just add water. They were in the same kindergarten class and played together at school and at home. Most days she still asks to text or call Bailee or wonders what she is doing. The Sunday before we left, we did this little photo shoot with them. Cheree did a great job on the pictures. It doesn't hurt that they are beautiful girls - that makes them easy to photograph! I love that they even look alike! They love having a matching outfit. We took them shopping and let them decide on the shirts. The other day Kenna had to text Bailee to tell her that she was wearing their shirt. Kenna misses you Bailee!

Whitney's 1st Research Project

This quarter Whitney's class has been studying ocean animals. Each child researched an animal and did a presentation on it. Whitney's animal was the seahorse. We learned all kinds of things about them. Did you know that the "daddy seahorse carries the eggs in his pouch until they are ready to hatch"? It was a lot of work, but we had fun doing it together.

Laie Temple

The temple is currently under reconstruction so it isn't white and is not lit at night. It closed a month before we moved here and will be closed for 18 months. Whitney is especially excited because she will be 8 for the re-dedication and will get to go. It will be neat to be able to be a part of the open house and dedication. We get to see the temple almost every day. It is a great daily reminder that we get to be together forever.

Hawaii weather is kind of funny. This particular day we walked to church and it was sunny and beautiful. About the last 15 minutes of church it started pouring rain. So we waited inside for 10 minutes or so after church was over for it to let up. It was barely sprinkling and we figured we were ok, but not so. By the time we got to the temple, it started really raining again and, of course, we hadn't taken our umbrella to church - it was sunny when we left! Instead of getting drenched and ruining my hair, which I actually had fixed, we decided it was the perfect opportunity to tour the visitors' center. It worked out perfect - by the time we were done, it cleared so we could take pictures and walk home dry. It has rained almost daily here since we arrived. It will be sunny and beautiful then cloud over and pour and then goes right back to sunny, dries out and you never even knew it rained - all in less than an hour. I love the rainstorms here - I just don't love getting caught in them with a baby, in our church clothes with no umbrella. We'll know for next time. I guess it is a lesson on being prepared BEFORE the rain comes.

Whale Watching

We saw whales! (I wish I could say that was my picture, but it isn't - That is about what we saw - just a lot farther away.) Thanks to some great coaching from my mom on the way up to the Heiau (ancient Hawaiian temple) we were able to see some. I wouldn't have known what I was seeing if she hadn't told us. We were up on our perch for about 20 minutes, but only the middle 10 did we see anything. And in that 10 minutes we saw about a dozen different blows. At first you see a little spray and then a black bump come up out of the water. I wish we had had binoculars, but there's always next time. We only saw one big splash I am guessing was a tail or an actual jump. Whale watching season begins in November and goes through May, so we were excited to see them on our first trip.



I didn't take the time to photo-shop out the power lines - this picture is overlooking Sharks Cove. The whales we saw were in between the right two power lines.



When we got there it was misty raining while the sun shined and made a beautiful rainbow. I love that!



Overlooking Waimea Bay - notice how still the water is. In all my 6 weeks of being here I have never seen the ocean this still. It was very strange, but beautiful!





Again - showing the stillness of the water. We live in a beautiful world!

Aborigine Visitors

Some Aborigine performers came to the girls' school to teach the students about their culture and share some songs and dances. Unfortunately, they had already changed by the time I ran home to get my camera, but we took the picture anyway. I am excited for all the great opportunities the girls will be able to have here to learn about so many different cultures.