A Hawaiian New Year

We spent our New Year enjoying a little aloha this year. Papa and Grammy took us and our 5 boys to their place in Hawaii to enjoy some sun and FUN! There was a little bit of everything in this trip: swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, bodyboarding, water-sliding, sunset-watching, napping, reading, whale-watching, kite-flying, sunbathing, airport-hustling, airplain ride-enduring, and a little bit of relaxing! The pictures say it all.

(Cole catches a ride and finds a way to rest his tired airport legs)

(The "big boys" enjoy a kayak ride with dad in "A" bay)

(a quick family picture (minus Luke who was napping) before taking the 3 oldest to the Kona Village Luau.)

(aboard the catamaran for our whale-watching tour. The camera girl (wonder who that was?) didn't do so hot catching the humpback whales on film, but they were amazing to see up close. Poor Cade and Ty got seasick and were happy when the boat ride ended though.

(windy afternoons at the beach mean kite-flying time!)

(Sunset from Grammy and Papa's lanai)

(The pool totem)

Luke

Cole

Bo

Tyler

Caden

A huge MAHALO grammy and papa for a truly wonderful vacation!

Scenes of the Season

Selecting a Christmas Tree:

Black Friday shopping - nope. Our day-after-Thanksgiving tradition took us once again to our favorite local Lee Farms for the hunt for this year's Christmas tree. Since we'd be leaving right after Christmas we wanted to have it up for as long as possible to enjoy the sight and smell. Of course we also did the tradition picture in front of some random tree (from the looks of the photo, it seems this is the only one in the lot!). But after looking and searching and the boys becoming more interested in the stray cat the started following us, we settled on one - as imperfect as it was, we still loved it.

Gingerbread house night with all the family:

We gathered up at Grammy and Papas to decorate homemade gingerbread and create one-of-a-kind houses. The creativity this year included Papa's house becoming a church, Andrew's dance floor for the elves, and Santa fitting down a chimney. The night is always full of laughter and a fun memory-maker year after year.

(grammy's homemade gingerbread plus tons of festive holiday candy, and...)

(helpful little hands (kindof :), equals...)

(This year's creative masterpieces! One to keep and one to share.)

A Visit to Santa:

We were able to coordinate everyone's family schedule and go see Santa all together this year! It was a rainy, wet afternoon, but thanks to Bridgeport Village's enclosed gazebo, the wait was dry, warm and even fun! The kids shared their Christmas wishes with Santa, ate their north pole candy cane and topped it off with piping hot cocoa from Tutto Benne. Us moms know that this a short-term tradidtion as the kids grow older, but for now, we soak it in and enjoy the magic of children at Christmas-time. (All 12 grandkids (missing one who didn't want his picture taken) waiting for their turn to see Santa.)(Santa came out to greet the kids - he told them stories about the north pole and answered a BUNCH of eager kids' questions.)

Family Humanitarian Project:

With Papa and Grammy's help and endless generosity, we were able to spend an evening together during the holiday season experiencing the true meaning of Christmas. Grammy purchased supplies and we put together heigene kits and school kits. Our kids helped pack the kits into boxes to be shipped to Salt Lake City to the LDS Humanitarian office where they can be sent on to cities or countries of the world in need. (Bo helps mom put toothbrushes in a heigene kit)(Getting 12 grandkids to perform an orderly assembly line was a lost cause, but we managed and had a lot of fun doing it)

Cole-y turns 2!

Cole has a history (a short one, since he is only 2) of feeling under-the-weather on his birthday. But my family all got together and helped him celebrate anyways (along with grammy and cousin Drew who share the birthday week). We managed to get a few smiles out of our big 2 year old.

He loves animals and books - so this dog book was a hit and has been battered and beaten-up already with heavy use.

If you know Cole - you'll know he has a thing for headbands. He got a new one to add the his collection. It was worn for the remainder of the party.

Happy Birthday Cole! We love you.

Thanksgiving

These are just some (ok, a lot) of the many things I am so very thankful for in my life.
My mom hosts one mean Turkey Dinner, with everyone around the same table! I am so lucky to have parents and all my siblings and their families living nearby. We love getting together and I love that my boys get to grow up around so many cousins. It was a great holiday spent together that seemed fitting for a year with so much to be grateful for. For all those family and friends that we didn't spend Thanksgiving with, you were counted as blessings throughout the day. I am amazed at how abunant life can be with so many wonderful people in it.

Fall Family Pictures

Thanks Kate and Jess for the great pictures and fun time - it's not an easy task with our crew!

Boo!

Introducing our extremely random 2009 Halloween costumes! We tried to convince the boys to go as a basketball team (hence Bart in the referee shirt - he still went with it) or Kung Fu Panda's furious five (but I couldn't find furious five character costumes and I was not quite crazy enough to make 5 of them - almost, but not quite). So we have Ichiro and Griffey Jr., a Power Ranger Police Dog, a cute little Pumpkin and a Duck. But everyone was all smiles. We had a great night trick-or-treating in the clear, crisp fall weather, and finished off the night with our traditional home-made donuts and cider (no pictures of the grub this year).

Luke and cousing Bauer getting a taste of their first Halloween. Cuteness!

Preschool Party Time

Bo stressed me out a bit with his costume this year. As most 4 year olds do, he changed his mind every other day about what he wanted to be. We finally settled on a cowboy (or so I thought), which we had an adorable costume of. The morning of his preschool party he refused to wear it...and those who know Bo, know that he is one strong-headed kid. I tried all of my usual tactics to convince this stubborn child of mine, and then decided that a sad cowboy wasn't very cute anyways - so I caved - and we managed to find this Power Ranger police dog costume in the bin that fit - and he was THRILLED! Not that you can tell from his pictures at the preschool party. Remember how I said he was stubborn - that goes for everything, including smiling for pictures. I was just glad that he was happy and very grateful that day for older brothers and hand-me down costumes.