So long...

I'm leaving the islands and I will no longer be a resident of Hawaii. That's hard to say. The 3 little ones and I (with my mom) are flying out tonight and Jason and Ethan will follow in a couple of weeks. So long Hawaii...for now. I'm sure we'll be back to visit. What a journey it has been. Good-bye dear friends. We will miss you most!

St. Louis here we come...and the adventure continues...stay tuned!

1 year old

I can not believe our little Lainey-Lu is 1 today! It was kind of a busy day so we squeezed in a little party for her during lunch time. I didn't even get a chance to get her last picture by the bear to finish out all 12 months...maybe tomorrow. Things are a bit crazy here with packing, purging and saying our goodbyes. So as things settle down and I can get pictures from my moms camera (she's been taking a bunch of good ones) it might be a bit sparse on here. But here is what I got of Lainey's party.

I set her cupcake down in front of her and she dove right in.

 Then she had to think about it for a little bit.

 Then made her cute snort-face...

 and decided it was good enough to eat the crumbs off her tray.

 Oh Lainey girl we love you so much. What life and joy you have brought to our family.

 Here's big brother Jude helping her open her presents...

 so she could then eat the paper.

Lego 101

Jude has been teaching Ansley the art of Lego making... specifically Star Wars aircraft. Ansley has caught on and I find them these days enjoying Lego's together.

 Jude's Star Wars...robot...fighter...thingy.

 And Ansley's flying...window...racer....thingy.

 Here they are racing them to see whose is faster. Ansley cheated this particular time and won...Jude making sure I knew that for the picture.

tea party

The kid's neighbor friend was over the other day and they were all sitting around having a pretend tea party with their fake plastic food...Jude is such a good sport. Well I thought it would be fun to get out the porcelain Hummel set I got at the thrift store (for a $1) and have a real tea party. Not sure why I didn't move it to the table but it all worked out, even though it was on the floor. We had pineapple tea and chocolate teddy grahams. Can't wait to have more tea parties in the future!

Right when I said Jude smile for the picture, he turned to me and said "mom, I can see the bears belly button." And this is how boys do tea parties.

 Their good friend.

rewind just a bit

We're trying to squeeze in as much beach time as we can these days. My kids never tire of it and Lainey is just getting to the age where she's really starting to enjoy it. We had a playdate with a bunch of friends from church. My friend Ashely took these great pics because as always I didn't bring my camera. Thanks Ashley!

 She pointed out the sand hand print on my chest from Lainey. Too funny!

 Our next beach day was with Ashley and her kids again at these great tide pools....not here though. I had never been to this beach before and when I got there I saw these waves and those sharp jagged rocks. I was a little confused why everyone raved about how kid friendly this place was. Then Ashley called and said she was on the other side of this beach park...thank goodness. Still a beautiful place.

 This lady was painting it.

 Then we made it over to the side with these great smooth rocks for the kiddo's to climb all over and little shallow pools for the kids to jump in. They had so much fun!

 Lainey actually really enjoyed playing and chewing on this rock. This kid will try anything.

I still want to post our pics from Saturday night when my mom and the kiddo's and I went to the beach to watch the rise of the "supermoon" over the ocean. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!