sorry no pictures

Here is just a run down of our past week. I have no pictures to show for any of it so I'll try to make it as interesting as I can:

Jason took a trip to the mainland (Charlotte, NC) to defend his thesis at Reformed Theological Seminary. He passed with flying colors and is an official graduate with a Masters of Religion degree. We are so excited for him to finally be finished...I mean...to have gained all this wonderful knowledge!

While he was away, the kiddo's and I had much planned...

-movie nights-with popcorn and smoothies
-bike rides-for the boys that is, Ansley and I strolled behind them
-going to the park...for PE that is, I played soccer and basketball with Ethan and later realized that probably wasn't the smartest thing-being 6 months pregnant and all, not sure what came over me
-friend get-togethers-we hosted a ladies cooking event, my friend Kathy taught us how to make a variety of mochi, gave us a lesson in pidgin/Hawaiian history and we laughed and talked A LOT.
-school lessons-we managed to stay on task with our school work
-hosted a baby shower for a friend-sweet baby boy Eli joined us and once again we enjoyed eating, drinking tea and laughing and talking A LOT.
-got some sewing done-got motivated to sew again, and had a couple orders for my Aloha bears
-did some baking-cookies, bread, scones, Yum!
-had lunch at a friends house
-had our small group over for pot-luck/fellowship night

Jason came back Sunday night...but very sick. So we quickly hugged him, gave him some NyQuil and he went straight to bed. He is now on antibiotics for a sinus infection and very glad to be home in sunny/warm Hawaii.

Hopefully I will remember to bring my camera out and get some pictures posted soon.

catechism question #6

Jason overheard the boys playing outside yesterday with their neighbor friends. This was the conversation that he heard:

Friend #1: Let's play Ninjas.

Everybody else: Okay.

Friend #1: Jude you are god of fire, Elijah you are god of water and Ethan you are god of ice.

Ethan: I can't. There is only one true God.

Friend #1: I'm not talking about that God. Never mind, you can be the Warrior of ice.

My prayer for my kids is that memorizing truths of Scripture through the Children's Catechism will one day give them boldness to know and speak the truth....even when those around them think it's not that big of a deal. It sure does challenge me in my lack of boldness.

decorating post #2

These before and after pictures aren't as great as I thought they would be because I didn't take as many "before" pictures like I thought I did and I was too lazy to clean up the house before I took the "after" pictures. But here they are. Our landlords allowed us to paint the inside of our house, which we have never been able to do since we've lived here...we had to live with stark white walls. They were actually so excited that we offered, they agreed to pay for all the supplies and paint. Little did we know why. When you paint raw wood you need at least 2-3 coats of primer and then another 2 coats of regular paint before it looks good. And with single walled homes here in Hawaii there are lots of corners, grooves and trim that it takes FOREVER to paint a single room. So needless to say we still have quite a few touch-ups and all our motivation to paint has come to a halt. We have the boys room left but it looks like that will have to be put off for a while...being pregnant and all. So here we go:

BEFORE (except the primer on the wall in the back):

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

front entry way...before was raw wood with scrapes and writing on it, nail holes everywhere, and then AFTER:

beach day

We were so thankful to finally get a nice sunny, warm day that we all ventured out as a family to the beach to soak in the rays. We've had so much rain lately that I was beginning to forget what the sun looked like. Jason took each of the boys out to the nearby (Flat island and the Mokes) islands for some kayaking and exploring. My boys love any water activity out there but kayaking with their dad is by far one of their favorites.

decorating

A friend of mine asked me the other day what my decorating style was or what colors I liked to decorate with and I had to think a while about it. I then realized that my decorating style is what is free (either I found or was given to us), what is on clearance, what colors our rental is or what is the cheapest price. And then I just make it work. I never thought about having something in mind and then going and finding it and buying it.

I have some pictures from a few months ago that are before and after pictures...you know how much I love those. So I will dedicate the next couple of posts to some decorating pics. These chairs were some freebies I found on Craigslist and transformed into something that worked with what we had. We needed some extra seating so these worked perfectly.

BEFORE:

AFTER (changed the fabric on the seats):
Then painted the engraved star shape to add a little more color.

baby bump

I'm nearing my 6th month and I thought it was about time to document our growing baby girl. I am enjoying the little kicks I feel and can't believe she already weighs about 1 lb and is about 8 inches in length.

quick re-cap

I think I will rename this blog Catching up with the Wood Family because I always seem to be behind. But here we are...Christmas and New Years Eve.Ethan couldn't stop talking about his stocking. Glad it was such a big hit.
Jude very excited to open some Legos.Ansley putting on every gift she received...she is one girl who loves her accessories.

We call this the fondue before the storm. People go nuts-o over fireworks here...or I call them bombs. We had things falling off our walls, so much smoke outside that we couldn't see the neighbors house across the street yet through it all our kids slept through it. Anyway back to our fondue, it's our tradition every year...cheese fondue, oil for the meat fondue and most important chocolate fondue. Yum-o!