Christmas morning pics

Our yearly tradition of the kids under the tree in their Christmas pajamas. S loved being a candy cane, C's had trucks carrying Christmas trees, and H's said "I love presents."

Christmas pics, finally!

OK, so I don't know where the days go! How is it mid January already?! It almost seems silly to post some Christmas pics now, but I know that family would like to see them even if it is a few weeks after the fact. Just before Christmas H and C were in a Christmas play at the Chapel. H was an angel and C was a shepherd. They both loved it! We tried to get some pics of the kids dressed up. H enjoyed "modeling," C tolerated it, and S refused to sit still. Our Christmas was pretty relaxed this year. Family had left already and it was just the 5 of us Christmas morning. It took the kids about 5 minutes to tear through all of their presents and stockings (although S took longer and played with each thing for a few minutes before moving on to the next present). We had dinner at our friends J, M and R's house and played Risk until way too late in the night (although everything is late when your kids normally go to bed at 7:30!). We really had a good day!
Telling Santa what they want for Christmas. Too bad we didn't do this more than 4 days before Christmas! At least we have ideas for birthdays now.

C is on the far right. D dedicated the little baby who played Jesus at last week's service.

S being silly while I tried to take her picture.

Family in town

About a week after C's birthday, my sister, her husband and my parents came into town. We did so many things around the island I'm probably lucky I didn't go into preterm labor! But by far, the most favorite things of the two oldest were their Christmas presents from Aunt H and Uncle P. Aunt H took H on a dolphin encounter at Sea Life Park! She loved it! But she wouldn't kiss the dolphin; she just tickled him instead.

C's present was one on one time with Uncle P on a helicopter ride! He thought that was absolutely the coolest thing he's ever done in his whole life! I thought he might be nervous or frightened by the loud noise, but no. He smiled from the time he got in the car to go until about 2 hrs after they got home! They even got to ride in the front with the pilot, but C says he wasn't allowed to touch any buttons! Probably a good thing! We'll have pics of his ride soon.

Let's see, we also took the Admiral's Tour of Pearl Harbor, visited the Pacific Aviation Museum, USS Missouri, drove around the island and stopped at the North Shore (we even saw a sea turtle and a sea lion relaxing on the beach!), visited the Dole Pineapple Plantation, and of course opened Christmas presents. I'd dare say the trip to the North Shore proved to be the most fun for the kids. It rained most of the week they were all here which was just pretty much a bummer (the beaches weren't the prettiest). The kids all ran around the beach at the North Shore, dug in the sand, D opened a coconut (but it was rotten!) and climbed trees, chased tiny sand crabs, and I stood around with the camera!

My parents on the Pearl Harbor tour. One of the kids took this pic.

D and S found something in the grass. She is such a tomboy!

It looks like I might have 4 kids plus two on the way :)

I love this pic of S. She was running nonstop. I just happened to catch the shot as she looked back over her shoulder!

All in all it was a busy but fun week with family!

C turns 4!

December's over already?! We had such a busy month, and it went by way too fast. I have so many things that I want to post, so there will be a few new posts. The beginning of the month was C's 4th birthday. We just had a few friends over and rented a bouncy house. I'll tell you, that was probably one of his best (and cheapest bdays)! I never knew those things were so cheap to rent.

C decided on a Superman theme. The cake Daddy

and I made was a big hit!

He loved the red frosting. Oddly enough, he chose

a cupcake rather than cut up the cake.

He got some great toys, including a new light up John Deere tractor and some new cars.

Even S got in of the fun of frosting, but she chose blue (obviously!).

C's party was actually about a week before his birthday. So on his actual birthday, we gave him a present from us and his presents from Grandma and Papa. He loved putt-putt golf this summer so we got him his own Par 3 course! He also got an ambulance and Wall-E leapster game.

We're movie stars!

Ok, so not exactly, but we are in the new United through Reading video. It's a fantastic reading program for the military. We were filmed in October last year and the new video has just been released. D was actually filmed via a video conference call from the Middle East. It's about a 5 min video and we're in it a few times. So cool!
Click on the link and then on "Military video" or "watch our video"
http://www.unitedthroughreading.org/military/

20 weeks!

Last night we went to the Naval Station Christmas Party. Another chance to get dressed up, so I had D take a picture of me when we got home. (It's funny how my tummy that is preventing me from sitting closer to the computer looks so much bigger than it does in this pic!) We've made it to the 20 week mark. Typically this is the halfway point, but since we are aiming for 36 to 37 weeks, we are past halfway. In fact, that's less than 4 months. If I think too much about it, I can reach the "Oh my goodness, we have so much to do!" point. Our plan is to enjoy Christmastime with our family and friends, and come January 1st to get to work. Now if we could decide on names!

H's hula

So our big girl decided to embrace the culture here in Hawaii and learn to hula. The Air Force and Navy Chapels have a praise hula class where the girls learn a dance to praise music. H did a great job and learned the dance even without the amount of practice she was supposed to do! We're trying to upload a video, hopefully that will work soon.