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!!

instagram

My friend has this great app on her phone called instagram...and then sends me these great pics. Our little Lainey-Lu.

cacao

In Hawaii they pronounce it /cuh-cow'/ which is the plant we get our cocoa or chocolate from. My neighbor grows these in her backyard and brought these fruits over to us. So I was determined to make some chocolate. Once I researched it and realized I didn't have the equipment to make creamy chocolate, I decided I would settle on a coarse cocoa powder that I would add to smoothies for it's antioxidants.  

So here are the fruits. The flesh of the fruit (there's not much there) tasted sort of like mango.

Then we dried the beans for a few days until they turned a light brown. After that we roasted them in our oven until they started popping and smelling like chocolate.

 Once they cooled we removed the outer shell until you had just the nibs left.

And then I ground it up in my coffee bean grinder until we had this powder.

11 months

Our baby is a month away from turning one and I can't believe how fast it's gone. Her new things are that she is up to 7 teeth now, says "yes" and "shhh", can "bark" like a dog and can stand on her own and take a couple of steps. Don't think she'll be walking any time soon but she's making progress. She has been my least independent kid and would prefer to be wherever I am...she loves her mama. Her favorite place is right on my hip so that it makes it impossible to get much done. But it's only a stage right? And before I know it she'll be running around with the others and too big for me to even pick up. We love this little girl and can't wait to see what next month will bring!

run for Evan

My dear friends little boy went to be with Jesus a year ago. I know it has been a year full of grief and anguish for them.  They are very open about how much pain they still feel, how much they miss their little boy and how either of those emotions don't get better with time...it's just figuring out how to live life now without him. At the same time they give God the glory and honor and cling to His promises day after day...His mercies are new every morning. I love this dear family and their friendship and was honored that they asked our church to participate in a 10K run/walk to honor his memory. 

This picture is of me and my walking buddies at the end of the race. I came in 2516th place.

eating guava

This girl seems to take after her brother Jude. Guava, yummy!

 

enjoying the beach

We're trying to get as much beach time as we can these days. So after dinner we headed to "our" beach...the one across from our old house. I always forget how much windier it is at the beach so the girls started turning blue after a while and shivering...and then we knew it was time to go....

and the fact that Lainey was trying to eat up all the sand she could get into her mouth.

If you look at her mouth close enough you can see the sand. Not sure why it tasted so good to her.

fancy shoes

Ansley loves "fancy shoes"...as she likes to call them. She would prefer to wear these all day long. These particular ones have glitter on the toes...not sure if you remember my hatred dislike for glitter. I keep finding glitter ALL over the place. But for this little girl, the more sparkle the better.

And then I had to add a picture of our Lainey-Lou. Lately she actually stops and smiles for the camera.

#1 Friends

I've got to say that the most meaningful and what I will miss the most about living in Hawaii is all of our friends that we have met along the way of our 7 years here. When you live so far from everything you know that is familiar, the people that surround you become like family. Some friends have moved away but they are still so very dear to us. These friends of ours have challenged us, helped us in parenting, held us accountable, cried with us (okay really just me), challenged us to be better spouses, loved our kids just as much as we do, they were generous with what they had, they laughed with us, talked story with us, prayed with us, helped deepen our faith, were there through births, birthdays, anniversaries, sicknesses, graduations and through happy and sad times (sounds like a marriage vow). These friendships are not only deep because of Christ as our bond but also because they have walked life with us out here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I truly love these different people that God has put in our path. He knew we needed community here to sharpen, grow us and point us to our Savior and I am so thankful that he chose to cross our path with theirs.

6 years old - may the force be with you...

Jude turned 6 today. His request this year for a theme was...you guessed it Lego's. But not just any Lego's, Star Wars to be specific. 

We started off our day with our traditional pancakes in the shape of the age they are turning...6.

 Then for lunch we loaded up our bikes and headed to the beach park for some beach cruising and lunch...with our fellow homeschooler neighbor/friend.

 Not the greatest picture of us but it's all we got.

 Then for the cake we decided to do cupcakes with Lego figurines and homemade light sabers.

 Jude posing with some of his gifts...a little Lego Yoda.

 A gift from Ethan was homemade light sabers. The boys (and neighbor kids) put those to use right at once and Jude ended up with a bump on his chin and a bruise under his eye. But to a boy, that's just cool battle wounds.

Here is Jude saying what he got for his birthday....he's our little ham.