New Year's at Kealohi: Part I

This year we spent New Year's day at Kealohi in Kaneohe. It's really nice there.

It's David's Grandma Ronie's family property.


I love these pictures of Raya with her Tutu Ronie! So cute!

Happy New Year! 2011!!

I forgot our camera at home and then I forgot that I could take pictures with my iPod until the very end when we were pretty much done.
Thus I have pictures of David with his Magic Whip(?)

Everyone else is to the far right watching him and lighting morning glories and groundflowers.






I tried to get a picture of the floating lanterns but that didn't really work too well...






Aaron didn't take a nap today so he didn't make it to midnight. He fell asleep like at 11:45pm.
Aaron's first picture of 2011.






Raya fell asleep before midnight but when Mailani tried to put her down, she woke up. She went outside and enjoyed the fireworks and craziness!
The first picture of Raya in 2011!






Here's David and I, our first picture of 2011.






David's face. sigh. He says this is going to be his new thing in 2011.
His "smile" in pictures is going to look like this all year.






Happy New Year everybody!! Looking forward to the new year and what surprises it will bring!

Pass The Pigs

Aaron got the first snouter in the game, Pass the Pigs, and he won the two games he played in with David, me and my mother in law.

David got the first Leaning Jowler in the game!



Pass The Pigs is a pretty fun game!
I also love that even Aaron could play!As long as there is someone (David) to add the scores, all ages can participate!)

THAT'S where he gets it from!!

Guess where Aaron gets his funny poses from?!

Granted the second pose of David's was posed but he does make funny faces! Aaron definitely got it from him!

Bucket Hat

She is so silly!

Sibling love!

She was having fun sitting on Aaron. then she fell over!

Merry Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas!!

I really thought this would be the year that we'd mail out Christmas cards but life got in the way and we're going to do an electronic version. again. ;D

If you've been following our blog, then you'd know it hasn't really been updated on a regular basis. That being said, here's a quick annual update on each of us.

Aaron

He's our funny boy. He loves taking pictures and making weird poses. He poses himself and it's just hilarious seeing what he comes up with. He loves to learn. He likes to watch PBS Kids and can sing most of the theme songs and recite lines from the shows. He loves Super Why and his new favorite, Cat in the Hat. He is still into Cars. He's a smart cookie too. He knows most of the sounds of the letters of the alphabet and likes to "do homework" (which is basically him writing in a notebook or any piece of paper). He is very articulate and amazes us with his complete sentences and insights. He is potty trained but still has issues with waking up and realizing he has to pee. All in all, he's still awesome and keeps us on our toes.

Raya

She amazes us everyday with how smart she is. She's very observant and likes to do what everyone else is doing. She likes to eat Aaron's food and sneaks her hand into his bowl while he's not looking. She likes to "write", hold the pen/pencil in her hand, grabs any piece of paper and writes. and then sticks the pen in her mouth. She likes to wear her sandals around the house. She's sneaky and when she has something she's not supposed to and we catch her in the act, she'll try to run away before we take it away from her. She'll look at you and sidestep or run! It's so funny. She likes to play with Aaron's cars and even makes the car noise. She also likes to hug and kiss her stuffed animals. She likes to climb on the couch, chairs, stools and just sit. Sometimes, she'll lean on something and put her head back and just chill there for a second. She is curious and likes to put everything in her mouth. She can hold her own too. Aaron will sit on her, hug her, carry her and she takes it all in stride. Unless of course, she doesn't like it, then she'll make a fuss. Raya "talks" a lot more than Aaron did at his age. She doesn't sign a whole lot but still manages to tell us what she wants...most of the time.

David and Carol

David is staying at home watching the kids. He plays basketball 3x/week. He was our ward Activities Chair but since that calling got dissolved, he is now serving as the Sunday School Secretary. He put on a really awesome Trunk or Treat and Christmas party. Everyone had fun and loved the activities. Carol is teaching special education social studies and just passed the SPED Praxis. Now hopefully I can start being a teacher on probationary status working towards tenure instead of just being a temporary teacher. I'm training to run in the Great Aloha Run in February. I really want to get back into running. Thankfully, David rides the bike with Aaron and Raya in the bike trailer so I can focus. 

We have had an awesome year and can't wait for what the new year brings!

Hope you're all doing well and hope you have an awesome holiday!

Vapur - the anti water bottle

My friend Kelly had one of these at church the other day. It's a collapsible water bottle.
They're called Vapur and you can read/see all about it here.

I love this! I love the idea of having a water bottle that folds so I can always have a water bottle with me.
They have it in all different colors. It's so awesome! I want to throw away all my other water bottles to just to get these for my family!
So...does anyone want my water bottles? ;)

Chairs and Raya

Raya, lately, has been really into climbing onto chairs and stools to sit on them.

Or she sits on them and then stands up on the chair. And dances. Or just smiles at you like she's just done climbing Mt. Everest.

And then she gets stuck.

She gets on the chair, sits, and then realizes she can't get herself down. So she whines and cries until we help her down.

She's so silly!

Raya "sharing" her fries with David