Happy Thanksgiving

We may not have access to internet tomorrow, so I'll just post a day early.
Kyle, the boys and I have been in Hawaii for the past 5 days. We came here to take part in celebrating Kyle's grandmother's 90th birthday. Since a ticket is a ticket, we decided to come a little early and have a little family vacation before all the extended family festivities. We have had such an enjoyable time already. We visited the beach, the Laie temple, the Polynesian Cultural Center, swap meet twice, the Honolulu zoo, Waiola Shaved Ice, and a lot of fun little things in between. Tomorrow we fly to the Big Island, where grandma lives. We'll celebrate Thanksgiving and then grandma's party Saturday. We are happy to be a part of it all.
Our family has so much to be grateful for. I'll post that next.
For now, Aloha : )

Learning to read

Today after pre-school, Kekoa came home and told me he wanted to learn to read. After years of repeating the ABC's, learning what sounds each letter makes (thanks to some help from Leap Frog DVD's), and countless book read out loud to him, he was ready to do it himself. I had to hunt through our little library of books to find something simple that woudn't frustrate him. Here's what we found. We sat down and I helped him as he sounded out the words. It was so cute to see him giggle, almost giddy-like as he realized what the word was after sounding it out. He did a great job. What a fun milestone for both of us : )

I'm Trying to be Like . . .

This past Sunday was our ward primary program. We've been anticipating it for a while with nightly song practices for our family devotionals right before bedtime. It was so sweet to see Kekoa up on the stand singing as he looked at us. He did a great job with his one-line-part. Kyle, who was conducting the meeting, reminded us all of the power of the simple things of the gospel. There was a strong spirit as the little ones sang and spoke about gospel principles. I loved it so much. And it didn't hurt that Kyle was able to sit by me during the program. Happy Sunday.
And here is a picture of Ikaika in his darling suit coat. How handsome is he?! He'll be heading to primary come January : )

The Power of the Styrofoam

I have a wonderful sister (Kasandra) who is an amazing mother. She is always doing fun, developmental things with her boys. I always feel less than I could be when I think of all the exposure her kids get to brain food. Well, here is one of those fun things I never thought of doing that she introduced us to.
I was outside this morning pulling the empty trash can back to it's spot, when I noticed the box that once held our dinning room table had blown into the yard. In cleaning it up I saw some Styrofoam boards. I remembered the activity Kasandra had told me about so I took it inside. I rounded up some toy hammers and nails and let the boys go to town banging and creating. They seriously spent a good hour or more entertained. It was fun to watch them and great to be able to finish cleaning my kitchen. Here are some cute pictures to remember the fun.

missed

I was looking through the pictures on my computer and found these from the pumpkin patch field trip we went on for the boys preschool. A late post is better than never posting I guess : )

The preschool of 11 kids and their parents were invited to go on the field trip. It was fun for me to tag along, though Sepa was such a slow poke (and too heavy to carry the entire time), so we were way in the back most of the time. The boys loved that they got to choose a pumpkin to take home with them. I love the Fall festivities!

Trick more than the Treat

I had been knocking on wood for weeks now that we would not get sick. Well, our time was up and sadly it came for Halloween week/weekend. I think I was more bummed than the boys to have missed all the parties. The preschool party, ward party, Kyle's work party were all left wanting of the charm of my Three Musketeers.
That's right, for months now it has been my dream that the boys be the Three Musketeers for Halloween. I spent much of my spare time working on their costumes. It turned out to be more work than I thought, but I did get them done . . . right before they got sick. Well, after some mommy-pondering I realized it was my dream and not theirs, so I asked them to brave a few pictures and then they could be whatever they wanted to go trick-or-treating. Kekoa choose Spiderman (surprise, surprise) and Ikaika wanted to be Batman. Sepa would have been more than content with his musketeer outfit, but it looked at little sad all alone, so I stuck him in a warm frog suit. We knocked on about 8 doors and called it a night.
Though still sick, I tried to make it a fun night for the boys. Kyle brought home pizza and we made bat pumpkins and played a couple pumpkin games. I had monster cupcakes to decorate with them, but we all ran out of energy, so we saved it for Family Night instead.
Here are the pics to remember Halloween '09.

Her

Tonight, while my sister Celeste was visiting she announced she was going to sing a song on her guitar. I had no idea where it was coming from until she began her introduction. She said she had heard the song some time ago, but always knew she wanted to sing it for one of her sisters who was having a baby girl. Being that it took 9 pregnancies between my two sister's and I, Celeste had plenty of time to practice I am sure. Well, today she got her chance. It was such a precious sound to hear her play and sing. Celeste has a beautiful voice and the words of the song were so tender - for the first time since the ultrasound, I let the fact that I am finally having a girl into my heart and I just cried.
Kekoa asked, " Mom, why are you crying?"
"Because I am happy," I said.
"Then why are you crying?"
Kyle explained that sometimes you are so happy that you just have to cry.

Here are the lyrics of the song. When we finally come up with a name, I am going to ask Celeste to sing it with her name. I even want to record her and use it as the music on my photography website.

Capri by Colbie Caillat

She’s got a baby inside
And holds her belly tight
All through the night
Just so she knows
She’s sleeping so
Safely to keep
Her growing
And oh when she'll open her eyes
There'll be no surprise
That she'll grow to be
So beautifully
Just like her mother
That’s carrying
Oh Capri
She’s beauty
Baby inside she’s loving
Oh Capri
She’s beauty
There is and angel growin’ peacefully
Oh Capri
Sweet baby
And things will be hard at times
But I've learned to try
Just listening
Patiently, oh Capri
Sweet baby
Oh Capri
She’s beauty
Baby inside she’s loving
Oh Capri
Your beauty
Just like your mother
That’s carrying...Oh Capri

I know I would have been happy either way - I am just happy to be having another baby - but having a girl is such an honor for me (an explanation to that will have to be another post). I hope I can be a good example of a mother for her.

Celebrate Good Times

We celebrated Kekoa's birthday today. Poor kid couldn't understand the difference between his actual birthday and the day we'd celebrate it with a party. On Thursday he kept asking, "Mom, why aren't you decorating?" So, today he was super excited to see everything going on to get ready for the party. We made homemade pizza for lunch, played games and just enjoyed watching the boys play with as they all were transformed into Spiderman for the day.
I had fun finally taking my camera out of the bag and get some pictures. Here are a few to remember the day. Happy day. We enjoyed celebrating the 5 wonderful years Kekoa as been in our family : ) One of the best parts of the day was having my mom up from AZ as well as my sister, Jessica with her two darling boys. Having family around is always such a blessing and joy.

Offically 5

Five years ago today I became a mother for the first time. I am amazed that so much time has passed and yet, of course, can hardly imagine my life with out my boys near me every minute of the day. . . .
okay, I wanted to write more for this post, but right now I am just pleased I uploaded pictures.