Merry Winter Solstice

As I spend my last day at work before Christmas break, listening to some random guy on the intercom singing Oh Holy Night, I'm thinking about all of the things I need to do. Updating this blog is not one of them so it seemed like a fitting way to procrastinate the rest. Seriously, it's been a while. We haven't done much "blog worthy" stuff, and if we did I haven't taken pictures.

Iwa rode with Grandpa Tony in the Millington Christmas parade. Now that she has her riding helmet and child-saddle, she's been riding quite a bit. After Thanksgiving (like the day after), we went on a trail ride at Village Creek for the weekend. We all did quite a bit of riding and manure shoveling that weekend and it was awesome. I have pictures of the parade, not on this computer, and I took one picture on the weekend of the ride. Fail.

We have been getting ready for Christmas! Once I get home tonight and leave work far behind me, I can focus on REALLY getting ready for Christmas but for now, I'm mega-multitasking and only about half present anywhere I am.

Until then, I'd like to leave you with a picture one of my Kindergartners made. It's a great example of why I love my job so much: kids are awesome and even more so when they have no idea.
(she originally had the largest circle as the head and I told her to turn it around and make the smallest one the head. Instead of taking the carrot off an gluing it on his face, she left the carrot and just drew her own nose)

My parents ARE awesome

I have this weird fascination (nosiness) with other peoples' family albums and this website has just what I crave. My Parents Were Awesome is a great place to park it and waste a bunch of time indulging your voyeuristic side.... or maybe it's just me.

It's crazy to think that these people are someones parents and to think about what kinds of pictures my kids would post in 10 to 20 years. Yikes.

Busted!!

Nani has been taking pictures of our family so we can give out family photos for Christmas this year. The Blog header is one of hers. Getting these kids to cooperate for photos must be much like nailing jello to the wall but the quirky outtakes are my favorite pictures by far.

I was dumping her memory stick onto our computer and looking at the pictures. It's neat because her shutter speed is set so fast so it takes pictures really quickly on the off-chance there was a split second to be captured where everyone had normal faces pointed in a relatively similar direction. As a result, when you flip through the pictures quickly, it plays like a movie.

Here's what I found (check out Kawika):Keepin' it classy.

Here's some other good ones:

Happy Halloween

Okay, okay... so it's been a while since Halloween, but at least the pictures are up before Thanksgiving and they've been on Facebook since Halloween so....

Nani always goes all-out for Halloween and this year she took us with her- only to stay behind. We all dressed up as characters from Alice in Wonderland (with the exception of the inmate and cop in this pic). Nani was going to be the Queen of Hearts but her last minute preparations didn't work out so we were on our own. This is a crumby picture of John but a great one of the Mad Hatter and White Rabbit.

You've gotta love a man who will wear a purple women's sweatsuit and pink cat ears. I do.

A better picture of John and a good example of why he doesn't normally smile in pictures.
Nani- no costume. :(
The kids getting ready to go out trick-or-treating. Iwa, Tessa (Megan's daughter- my college roommate), Kawika, and Leilea
My two big kids. We had to hide Kawika's costume from him after he got it. He wore it EVERYWHERE one day. He loves Woody!
Iwa and Tessa were so cute trick or treating. Who would have thought that our daughters would be such good friends. So cute!
...and this is how the night ended. Iwa passed out, Kawika in a self-induced coma. This is Halloween in it's truest form.

Baby instructions

I got these here. Great blog to check in on, by the way.

Poem

It may sound crazy, but as I'm wading knee-deep in a sea of diapers, crackers, and dirty laundry I really do stop and with a sad heart think of the days when I won't have any of this anymore. I guess I've always been that way. I've always felt like my life is meant for me to live, so I'd better do my best to pay attention every second and make the best of a great situation.

That being said, I'm posting this poem that brought tears to my eyes this morning:

Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
For babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow
So quiet down, cobwebs
Dust, go to sleep
I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep.
-Anon

I also want to carve this in my front door so that all of my guests can keep it in mind as they're also wading through the diapers, crackers, and dirty laundry.

AH-mazing

Jackson Falls, Illinois.

Seriously, this place is amazing. No bathrooms, no electricity, and the only running water is the stream and waterfalls that run through the park. John has been coming here about once a year to climb for quite some time but I've never wanted to encroach on his "man trip", with the image of war paint and loin cloths forefront in my decision.

No one else's wives/girlfriends cared to go and I'm not much of a climber.

This year we planned a trip and invited Buck and Mary Margaret. They were down for it so off we went.

This is the north falls. You can either rappel to get down here or hike several miles around. We hiked it the first day and rappelled the second.

During the hike. This is me rappelling for the first time.
John climbing up the rope harness-free.
Mary Margaret giving it a whirl, Buck helping.
Looking down into the north falls. This is from the top of the cliff from the first picture. You can see the top of the waterfall in the bottom left corner.
The night hike. After rappelling and hiking around here, I have a new fitness goal: now that I can run, I want to climb. I really stink at it now, so I have some work ahead but I'd love to go back next year and tackle some of those rocks.

Teton Trek

This was a few weeks back but I'm just getting around to putting the pics on my computer. We went to the zoo to see a sneak preview of the new exhibit the Teton Trek. It was really cool!

There's an Ol' Faithful geyser type thing in the front of it all that's really fun. The enthusiasm in this photo just overwhelms me.Kawika was very interested in the chickens- the one thing at the farm exhibit we can't see at Grandpa Tony's (yet) .I only wish they were hatched out of eggs- would've saved me a bunch of trouble. This is how Leilea enjoyed most of this zoo trip:The rest of the time she roamed wherever allowed and was her usual vibrant self. She has started making this fishy face. I don't know why, but it's usually when she's just walking around. I'm glad I caught it on camera.

Holidays!!

I realize it's not even Halloween yet, but I count it as a holiday. It's like the introduction to the official "Holidays". Here's what I'm excited about:

Halloween is almost here and the temptation to watch a scary movie is almost too much to resist. I do not do well with scary movies, but once a year I succumb... and regret it.

I always look forward to Thanksgiving, but can't quite put my finger on the reason. It's probably the fact that family comes in town but there's something else about it that's just... comforting. The meal isn't my favorite, but the people are good. Yes, that must be it.

I'm still in charge of Secret Santa for my school. It's a large task, and one I look forward to from the first day of school. I had to be told the other day that it's too early to have everyone draw names.

The Frisky Holiday sweatshop is officially open for business. I love making stuff. I love giving gifts. It's perfect.

(on a side note) In order to open the sweatshop, I had to finish a project I've been kinda (not) working on. A friend of mine had a baby girl and asked for some paintings for her nursery. Here they are finally done and in the nursery:Elsie Tate is 5 months old now, but better late than never, right Laura?

So, needless to say, I'm really looking forward to the holidays this year. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the kids are getting more and more into stuff. Seeing these times through their eyes has sort of rejuvenated my childhood excitement for all things festive.

Sprechen Sie Kawika?

Last week Kawika was sick with a crazy high fever. We took him to the pediatrician and then to the urgent care center. The urgent care center was down the road from Best Buy, and Nani being who she is came by with snacks after she got off work. Not only did she bring snacks, but she brought Kawika the movie Monsters Vs. Aliens. He was thrilled.



We NEVER let the kids watch DVD's in the car unless we're on a road trip... and apparently unless they've had a 105 fever. Sick kids get special treatment. Anyway, we let him watch the movie on the way home from urgent care. (it was just a wicked sinus infection, by the way, he's fine now)



It was late at night and Iwa was at Grandma Ann's. Before I went in to get her, we hid the movie and all traces of it so that she wouldn't want to watch it before she went to bed. I don't mind saying no, but I'll avoid a conflict if I can.



So, with the Monsters paraphenalia well hidden, Iwa gets in the car and greets everyone. Immediately, Kawika starts spouting his regular jibberish excitedly at Iwa. She's listening intently to what John and I can only interpret as, "blah, be dada me la... " Jibberish. There's a pause and Iwa says:



"What's this about a monster movie?"

Party like a rock star

To commemorate Leilea's first birthday we had a "small" gathering of some family. Yeah... small with John's family automatically includes 25-30 people. It was fun and I thought I'd share some pictures of the merriment.

Grandma Lorna strikes again. Another beautiful birthday cake.

My boys.

Leilea's wondering why her tray is empty.

She had no confusion what so ever about what to do with that cake. She picked up the plate and began to try to pour it directly into her mouth.

So, the weeks before the party, I wasn't feeling the party mood and I joked about staging pictures to make it look like we had a party so Leilea wouldn't feel like she was shorted. This picture is to prove that there were people at our house. I realized the other pictures I posted on here didn't include other people. I also love this one because Auntie Kaylani is in the background being ...well... Auntie Kaylani.