Hawaiian Paradise: Day 1

We just got home from 8 days in Hawaii.  It was incredible.  Braden's parents decided to take all 4 kids and their spouses to Hawaii.  All we had to pay for was food and experiences.  Unbelievable!  My mom came out here to watch Keara, Taryn, and Avery while Mazie spent the week in Phoenix with my cousin.  Everyone had a great time!  Thank you to Mom and Dad M, Mom and Dad H, and Kami & co. for making this possible!

I want to document our trip, so I'll try to post each day.  Unfortunately, the first day is the most boring, as far as pictures are concerned.  But at least it gets us started!

It was fun flying together as a group (minus one sister and brother-in-law).  When we arrived, we knew we were in paradise.  However, the first thing that greeted us was a restaurant in the airport whose logo sure looked more like "Hicken Company" than "Chicken Company".  We just had to take a picture.

Every day we were there, I wrote the girls an email, so they'd know what we were doing while we were away.  I'm just going to use those emails as my post:

Hi girls!

I wanted to tell you all about our day!  We've sure had a great one.  First, we woke up SUPER early so we could go to the airport.  Grandma, Grandpa, Laurie, and Ben picked us up and we met up with Robb and Amanda, then went to the airport.  It was a big airplane.  We got drinks, some snacks, and even an egg burrito and a muffin.  We could see lots of clouds out the windows, and when we got closer to Hawaii, we could see the ocean, waves, boats, and the islands.  It was cool!

After we landed in Hawaii, we went grocery shopping.  Did you know they have a Sam's Club and a Walmart here?  It was just like home!  They even had samples.  Then we came to the house we're staying at.  It is BEAUTIFUL! 

We can see the ocean right out our windows!  And we could just walk to the beach. 

We went to the water at a place called Shark's Cove (but there were no sharks there).  It was right down the street from our house.  We went snorkeling, which is where you put on a mask (like big goggles) and a breathing tube so you can swim under water, see what's under the water, AND breath at the same time.  We saw tons of fish and coral and sea urchins and a sea snail.  Daddy saw an eel!  Robb and Ben saw a Nemo fish (a clown fish) and we also saw a Hawaii Angel Fish which is like Gill in Finding Nemo.  It was beautiful down there and really fun!   It rained a lot while we were in the water and then there was a beautiful rainbow!

We played out there in the ocean for a long time and then came back to the house, took a shower, and had dinner.  Then, we went to a moonlight walk in a beautiful botanical garden called Waimea Valley.  We walked in the pitch black dark of the night because the moon was behind the clouds.  It was raining a lot and we got totally soaked.  We got to see a lot of flowers that bloom at night time instead of during the day.  We walked along the path until we came to a beautiful waterfall!  The moon came out from behind the clouds and lit up the whole waterfall!  It was so wonderful. 

Uncle Ben rented a convertible car, which is a car that has no roof.  That was really fun to drive in, though we got really wet when it was raining.  Now we need to go to bed because it is SO late!

We love you so much and hope you're having a great day!  We'll write you more about our day tomorrow!!

Have a wonderful time with grandma!

Mommy and Daddy

(mom...I lost my cell phone on the plane. Too bad!!)

Quick Picture Update

Ugh.  Life is too busy.  I love being busy, but not like this.  And the kicker is...most of it is self-inflicted busy.  We're desperately trying to get ready for our trip to Hawaii and my mom's visit.  And there's so much to do. It doesn't help when our basement gets water in it from last night's storm and now I have an extra load of laundry to do to get all those wet towels and that soaked sleeping bag clean.  Oh well.  

I didn't want to leave without getting something up on this ol' blog besides boring posts.  So here's a look at these crazy kiddos.

Avery's hair is getting very long.  Normally, it is curled way cute, but this is what happens when you brush out those curls.  It was even bigger and higher in person.

I cannot believe I haven't gotten an after picture yet.  But can you see that lower right central that is leaning forward?  That's Keara's first loose tooth.  And now, it's her first lost tooth!  She hoped and hoped and hoped that it would come out at school so she would get a little necklace from the office that had a tooth charm that she could put her lost tooth in.  When her tooth was dangerously loose on Friday, she knew it would come out over the weekend if it didn't come out during school.  So she prayed her little heart out and wiggled that thing.  A couple minutes before the end of the day bell rang, she just yanked it out.  She was so excited!  And she felt her prayers had been answered.  We were excited for her too.  The tooth fairy brought her a quarter, some gardening gloves, and a little square box of 50 kleenex because she often needs a tissue at night.  Well, she didn't know what the tissue box was...she thought it was a present with jewelry in it, so she tore it open!  Imagine her disappointment to find "just tissues in it, mom!"  It was so funny (but don't tell her you know...she's a bit embarrased!)

Mazie's latest trick--sitting!  She loves to sit and play and look around.  She doesn't love it when she falls over, but that is happening less and less.  So, we've mastered sitting and rolling...up next...crawling!  I can't believe how quickly time is flying with this little girl.

Last Saturday, after we spent the morning cleaning (and I still had more to do), I let the girls watch part of a movie together.  I loved how Mazie was just as enthralled by it all as the other girls were.  I couldn't help taking a picture!

Taryn loves Mazie and wants to be a big helper like Keara.  So she kind of forced our hand in teaching her and letting her stand and walk while holding Mazie.  She still scares me half the time, but Mazie is a good sport.  Taryn is always thrilled to see her and always wants to play with her.  However, Mazie is starting to be too big for Taryn to carry around.  Truly, this little girl's got rolls!  We love them!

Ideas?

I was recently given a new responsibility in our ward at church which entails organizing community service events on the Stake level.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, basically that means we're trying to organize a service project that will include 500+ people plus the community.

We have a meeting in a week and I'm supposed to come with loads of ideas.  So I thought I'd ask:

What service projects have your Stakes or Wards done that you enjoyed?  Or even if you didn't enjoy it, what was it?  Do you have any great ideas floating around in your head that you wish a Stake would do?  Will you share?

I'd love your ideas!  thanks!!

Let Me Sum Up: Mazie's Blessing

In our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, baptism occurs at age 8, instead of in infancy.  Instead, babies are given a name by those who hold the Melchizedek Priesthood who are close to the family (usually dad, grandpas, uncles, friends).  The Sunday after Mazie was born (so November 13th), Braden blessed Mazie during our church meetings.  Also included in giving the blessing were my dad, my brother Shaun, Braden's friend Grant, my SIL's BIL David, our friend Ryan, and our Bishop Petersen.

It was a beautiful blessing.  Among the highlights were the blessing to have:

*the strength of her ancestors
*the determination to get done what needs to be done
*courage to make right choices, even when they are not popular
*the ability to adapt
*patience, that frustrations will not easily come as she learns to listen to the Spirit
*an understanding of her Heavenly and earthly heritage
*support from this knowledge during hard times
*opportunities to share the gospel with others

Typically, babies are dressed all in white for their blessings, like an infant being baptized would be.  I've always used the dress my sisters and I were blessed in for my babies, but this time, I decided to make one for Mazie.  I loved how it turned out, but wouldn't you know it, we didn't get any good pictures on her blessing day.

So a few weeks ago, I put it on her and took pictures.  I loved how they turned out and was glad that she was a bit bigger to fit the dress better.  (I didn't exactly intend for a 5 day old to be wearing it.)

"Colors Colors" By Taryn

It was water-color painting time.  Oh, the adventures.  This was Taryn's creation:

But the true story lies in what happens next.

When she was finsihed, she rushed over to Avery and excitedly started telling her the story, that went with the picture...as follows:

"Colors, Colors"

by me.

deep breath...and story-telling voice now

"Colors, colors, colors, colors,

Colors, Colors, Everywhere.

Colors at the zoo.

Colors in your .....

underwear".

Thank you, Taryn, for monitoring and censoring you story!

It earns the family-rating for sure!

Life Plans

The other night, as I lay with Taryn before bed, I asked her a series of questions.  Here was our conversation:

M: What do you want to be when you grow up?

T: A person who sells animals.

M:  Oh, like someone who owns a pet store?

T: Yeah.

M:  What else would you like to be?

T: Nothing.

M: Would you like to be a mom?

T: Oh, yes. 

M: How many kids do you want?

T: Six.

M: How many girls?  How many boys?

T: Six girls, two boys.

M: Hmm...that makes 8 kids. What do you want to name them?

T: I won't choose that until later.  But the boys will be named Lucky, Martha, and Samantha.

M: Interesting.  Do you want to go to college?

T: Yes.

M: Where?

T: I don't know.

M: Do you want to go to BYU where mommy and daddy went?

T: Oh, yes!

M: Do you want to serve a mission?

T: No.  Actually, yes.  I want to teach people about Jesus and the gospel.

M: That's wonderful, honey.  Where would you like to serve your mission?

T: In Hopkins (where we used to live).  Because I like so many people there.  Like Maya and her family, and it's beautiful.

Very insightful 3 minutes of our night.  We'll see what her life ends up looking like!

My Dad's the Greatest Dad

It's true that my dad is the greatest dad, but today we're talking about my girls' dad.  Their dad is the greatest dad and made this past week and a half AWESOME for them! 

The day before my birthday, we had a snow day.  The girls and I had a blast playing in the snow.  On my birthday, Braden came home early and took the girls outside and played for 2 1/2 hours.  It started with pulling them on sleds around the yard...

 ...and ended up with making the greatest snowfort ever!

After I took those pictures, he added a slide, which made for a ton of fun the next day when we had 14 kids in our home!  I loved seeing my friends!  And a few days later, he made a recliner and foot rest.  Fun!

 We had Spring Break this past week (early, I know) and it was his goal to do as many fun things as a family as we could.  We went out to dinner, went swimming, went to the Bounce Depot, and on Friday night, he created an in-home movie theater for the girls, complete with movie bucks so they could buy from the concessions stand...

 ...that he set up and made this awesome costume for.  The girls loved it!  We had borrowed a projector from our friends which he set up in the basement, blacked out the windows, and put Christmas lights down the stairs to make it feel more real.  While we watched "Lady and the Tramp" he made s'mores for everyone because after the movie...

 ...it was an indoor campout!  He set up the tent for Keara and Taryn and hung out with them until they fell asleep.  It was a dream come true for Keara.  And they loved having the tent up for 2 days so they could play in it!

But the best part of the week, for me, came today, when I saw the best part of Braden.  This morning, I had to get to church early to practice a musical number I was participating in.  I left a little after 8:20 with Mazie, leaving Braden to bring the three older girls by 9.  When church started and progressed all the way to the speakers and he still wasn't there, I was a little worried that maybe someone got sick and they were going to have to stay home.  Pretty soon it was time for my musical number and they still weren't there.  After we were done, I went into the hall to call him.  I noticed I had missed his call at 9:30 but I called 4 times and never reached him.  At that point, I thought maybe someone had split their head open and he had to take them to the ER.  So I sat down for the rest of the meeting, and as we stood up to leave for class, they walked in!  Their cheeks were red, their hands were cold, but they were smiling, and they had a tale to tell!

After loading the girls in the car (and doing their hair in beautiful braids...impressive), he noticed that we had a completely flat tire.  He tried to get the spare off the bottom of the car, but it was rusted on, so no good.  After a half hour of trying to figure it out, he finally decided they would just walk to church.  Thankfully it was only 18 blocks, but hey, it was 18 blocks!  With three little girls!  Keara and Taryn rode their bikes and he and Avery walked.  But Avery couldn't keep up, so he had to carry her.  Keara's training wheels kept shifting, so she finally gave up riding, which meant he had to push her bike along. 

I was SO impressed and SO grateful that he didn't just throw in the towel and say "Oh well, guess we're not going to church today."  Instead, all 4 of them had to sacrifice to get to church.  He set a great example to me and to the girls of the importance of attending our meetings, and doing whatever we need to to be where we need to be.  I am so grateful for that. 

Over dinner, he decided that next time, he'll take my bike and the bike trailer and get there in less than 45 minutes...

Family Portraits

It has been SO long since we've taken real family portraits.  Okay, let me qualify that statement.  We've never before taken portraits in a studio as a family.  We've only ever had wonderful friends take our pictures in beautiful, outdoor settings.  Our last pictures as a family were taken at our family reunion last summer.  Good pics, but not our favorites.  Plus, I was pregnant with Mazie so it was instantly outdated.  I've been waiting until Mazie was old enough to smile on demand so today, we finally got our pictures taken.  I love them!  Here are some of my favorites:

Let Me Sum Up: What We've Been Up To

January and February seem to have been very busy. Yet I don't remember much of what happened. Here's what happened in picture:

Sister bonding (I don't take pictures of the non-sister bonding...like what is going on as I type)

 

Avery insisted on wearing this little infant beanie for a few days. I think she looked like a very strange looking gnome. But she loved it.

It's basketball season!  Braden is playing on a local Baptist league.  Do you think we should tell them he's a Mormon?  We get to watch his games on Saturdays.  This past weekend, we got to see my nephew's games as his team participated in a tournament in our city.  It was so fun!  And his team ended up winning the championship of their division!  Way to go!

More sisterly bonding.  I love that Keara and Taryn are old enough to play games together and that they can instigate it.

My oldest nephew, Joseph, is leaving on a mission tomorrow for our church.  He's going to Long Beach, CA speaking Cambodian.  Cool!  We got to have one last hoorah at their home before he left (and before my brother's family moved out of their beautiful home).  It was great!

And there's just something about jumping pictures that makes taking pictures so much more fun.

The girls couldn't get enough of it!

For Valentine's day, we had a little party with some kids and their moms.  We played Pin the Heart on Cupid, sang a Valentine's song, made a little craft, and decorated cookies.  Had I been able to have dairy and chocolate, we would have done a lot more in the way of food.  But this is the best we got this year.

 

I wanted to take V-Day pictures of the girls, but both they and the camera weren't cooperating.

 At least Avery looks cute and the pink hue is sort of fitting...