O Christmas tree

Our yearly tradition is to decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving and purposefully miss Black Friday all together. So we woke up, had pumpkin cinnamon rolls for breakfast, turned on the Christmas music, drug out our 2 boxes of Christmas decorations and spent the morning getting ready for the Christmas season. This is my favorite holiday of the year. I love and am grateful all over again for what the holiday represents (Christ and his life, death and resurrection for our salvation in fulfillment of the promises made) and I love that it brings community in the church and many family times together.

The boys were just as excited for this day and Ansley acted as if she had done this many times before. I think since this day she has re-arranged the lower half of the tree at least a dozen times.

And then, of course, you have to make a ship out of the empty Christmas tree box when you're all done.

carving our pumpkin

These pictures, sadly, are not that long ago. We didn't carve our pumpkin in time for Halloween but we did manage to get it carved before Thanksgiving...two days before. The boys were so excited needless to say that they even enjoyed digging into the slimy insides (not a favorite of mine...especially during pregnancy nausea). And then dad helped with the final carving. It only lasted about 2 days before the mold and fruit flies took over but the boys were thrilled and that's what makes it so fun.

Since we were in the fall mind-set I thought I would make caramel popcorn balls to have as a treat while we watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving movie...quite tricky without a candy thermometer but they actually turned out and the kiddo's gobbled them up.

This picture just made me laugh. Meet drowsy, space-y and zombie.

saying goodbye

Our dear friends moved back to the mainland a couple of weeks ago. We spent many a holiday festivities, kids birthday parties, tsunami evacuations and so much more together. So before they headed to the airport we had one more dinner together at our place.

The hard part about living in Hawaii is how transient it is...we're always meeting new friends and saying goodbye to old ones. But I feel blessed to have known so many amazing families since we've been here. I know we've grown as a family both spiritually and relationally because of who God has put in our lives. I hope to see some of these great friends again but I know if we don't that these families are somewhere else showing others Christ in their friendships and service to others. I'm thankful that God gave us the church, which not only brings biblical teaching, calls us to repentance, worship and selfless service to our Lord, but it also provides instant community because of our connection in Christ. I'm thankful for people that take the time to be involved in others lives and that truly get the idea of community/family that God designed it to be.

catching up...again

My how time flies. So once again I'm going to start a while back to catch up. This is my journal/scrapbook of our lives so bear with me.

Jason has been reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to the boys and earlier this month they got to the chapter on the Turkish Delight that the witch gave to Edmond. So I remembered seeing some at our local discount store (Ross) and bought a bag so the boys could try it out. My memory of it was that is was disgusting and tasted like roses. But this version (probably Americanized) were in citrus flavors and all 3 kiddo's quickly ate their share and wanted more. Ethan told me that he could see why Edmond couldn't stop eating it. Then we had a great lesson on sin and temptation. Gotta love how candy can lead to a lesson of the heart.

Jude not sure at first about Turkish Delight.

I realized it's hard to take pictures of kids eating without it looking like they're hating every bite.

Ansley gave me a great smile...and loving her Turkish Delight.

pineapple

Our pineapple is finally growing. It only took about 18 months and I'm not sure if it will get any bigger than that. I am amazed that pineapples don't cost more than they do considering it takes that long to grow one...and each plant only grows one pineapple.

halloween pics

(Still catching up on the blog...yes I realize this holiday was a few weeks ago)

This is a story about a serious bee, Davy Crockett (a.k. Super Jude...his second choice for costume) and an Indian named Chief Ethan. The serious bee wasn't so sure about this crazy holiday that we dress up and walk around with a bucket in our hand...until people started putting sweet stuff in that bucket and then the very serious bee became a very greedy bee and wanted to eat all the sweet stuff that was put in her bucket.

Davy Crockett and Chief Ethan were great friends and remembered how fun this holiday was and gladly put on their costumes and made sure they remembered their buckets because they knew the loot that was coming. They had a blast playing all the fun games.At the end of the day all three were happy and buzzing high on sugar. Fun times!Even the serious bee had a big smile on her face...the end.

birthday party

The boys were invited to their buddy's birthday party at the firestation. It's amazing how attentive little boys can be when a fireman is talking. They had a blast sitting in the backseat of the fire truck, taking a tour of the fireman's living quarters and turning on and spraying a firehose (with some help from a fireman).

crazy eyes

My mom sent these chocolate eye balls to us for Halloween and the boys thought it was hilarious to hold them up to their eyes. Gotta love the humor of boys!

trying to catch up

I am so far behind that I decided I was just going to jump in and start posting pictures and catch everyone up to where we are. Still feeling nauseous and tired but I am past the first trimester and hoping I am nearing the end of nausea...the tired part has gotten a little better.

So I'll start with some pictures of Ansley from about a month ago. These are for the fam because I know that have been dying to see pictures of the kiddo's. Pictures of my crazy boys coming soon.

This girl is not bashful about putting away the food. I think she might be hitting a growth spurt.

Crazy bathtub hair

long time....

I'm back! So much to catch up on. I was going to make this one long post to catch everyone up on what's been going on in our lives...including some pictures, but now that I am trying to think back over the last 2 weeks I feel overwhelmed with where to begin. Things have been a bit busy here and when I actually have time to blog all I really want to do is take a nap or go to bed early...which brings me to the bit of news that I am very excited to share. This I will update everyone on....introducing...our new little bean!! He/she looks like a lima bean doesn't she/he? Well this little one has zapped all my energy lately and my appetite, so because of that I can only manage to get the schooling, cooking, cleaning house, laundry, Bible study, hanging out with husband, reading to the kiddo's, entertaining a 1 year old who loves to be my shadow, resting, and staring at the refrigerator to think of what might possibly sound good to eat without making me nauseous. So blogging has been put on the back burner for now. But hopefully my sleepy, nauseous fog will lift soon and I will get back into this blogging thing again.

A Praying Life by Paul Miller

A quote out of our women's Bible study book that really grabbed my attention. This was written by John of Landsburg, a Catholic monk in the sixteenth century. He wrote this quote, imagining that it was Jesus speaking to us personally:

"I know those moods when you sit there utterly alone, pining, eaten up with unhappiness, in a pure state of grief...This near-despair and self-pity are actually a form of pride. What you think was a state of absolute security from which you've fallen was really trusting too much in your own strength and ability...what really ails you is that things simply haven't happened as you expected and wanted.

In fact I don't want you to rely on your own strength and abilities and plans, but to distrust them and to distrust yourself, and to trust me and no one and nothing else. As long as you rely entirely on yourself, you are bound to come to grief...your own strength will no more help you stand upright then propping yourself on a broken reed...You may hope and trust in me absolutely. My mercy is infinite."

What great hope!

birthday fun

Looking for treasures...rocks, shells, fish, hermit crabs but especially rocks. We have a great collection at home now.

Shark's Cove tide pools

The waves were a bit crazy beyond the tidepool walls, the waves would crash over and rush down like waterfalls.

Jude with his little sis who he adores.

Jason took the day off from work for my birthday and we all headed to the North Shore for some birthday splish-splashing fun. It was a great birthday...skype-ing with my mom and sisters for breakfast, hanging out with my hubby and kiddo's all day, going on a date that night while our friend D babysat for us and some lunches with some of my girlfriends. I feel blessed from God for my family, husband, kiddo's and great friends. What a great birthday!

homemade deodorant

I found this recipe on-line about a year ago and finally made a batch of it about 6 months ago. I'm sure you've heard of all of the bad reports on aluminum in deodorant and pretty much every antiperspirant has it. So after trying a couple of "natural" deodorants which didn't work at all, I went ahead and tried this. It works amazingly well, so I thought I would share it on my blog if anyone was interested. If you are a big sweater than this won't keep you dry all the time (but for me the antiperspirants didn't always either).

Since using this recipe I have realized a couple of things, the store bought deodorants made me stink worse and I don't sweat under my armpits as much anymore. This homemade recipe keeps the stink away and with the coconut oil it keeps those underarms moisturized (great for keeping razor-burn away).

So basically I saved my old deodorant containers and filled it with my homemade version and once the coconut oil solidifies it becomes a solid deodorant. Here in Hawaii coconut oil liquefies at room temperature because it's always over 80 degrees, so I keep mine in the frig to keep it a solid. Yes people have asked why I have deodorant in my frig.

Here's the recipe:

5-6 Tbsp Coconut oil

1/4 cup baking soda

1/4 cup arrowroot powder or cornstarch

This link is where I got my recipe.

This link is explaining how to mix it and use your old deodorant containers.

true picture of life

I found this video on my camera made by one boy named Ethan. It cracked me up because I thought it depicted Ansley really well...whining when she doesn't get what she wants and then the fake cry so everyone will feel sorry for her. It doesn't work for me but her brothers tend to be more compassionate and concerned.

1st day of school

My second grader. My second grader? Where does the time go. It seems like I was just starting preschool with him.And then my preschooler......whose upper lip started disappearing the more pictures I took......until I told him to smile really big and this is what he gave me....guess our first preschool lesson will be on how to smile a real smile for the camera.My boys...trying to smile but at the same time telling me it's too bright.Ethan started off with a little piano practicing. Notice that extra arm? Pesky little brother. Jude's first assignment...which he did all by himself. He was very excited to start preschool and made sure that he told anyone who cared to listen.
And then we had a little lunch out in the "school yard"...even their little sis tagged along. I packed them a lunch in their lunch bags just to make their first day of school fun.

Over all it was a good first day. I'm going to tweek the schedule a bit now that I can see how long each subject will take...and think of a few more "activities" for the under 2 crowd to keep busy with.