California Trip

The kids and I took a trip to California in May.  It was nice to get off of the island for a little bit and to see family and some friends.  We enjoyed lots of swimming in the pool with cousins, Papa and Nama, Memorial Day BBQ, 2 back to back baby showers at my mom's house, a visit down south with Tatum, Whitney and little ones, and dinner with Clawson cousins in San Diego.  And of course we made a trip to Disneyland, the most crowded place on earth, but still one of my favorite places ever.  

These two were inseparable until Joaquin got pink eye and had high fevers for a few days straight.  Poor guy!  We felt so bad and were sad that they couldn't play anymore.  

More cousin time!  Everyone was thrilled to be reunited again.

Bronson grilling some hotdogs and burgers.  Best BBQ ever!

Playing dress up in the play room.

Kelly's baby shower.  Cute little belly!!

The next night was Chelcie's baby shower.  It was SO fun to see her pregnant.  She was adorable, as expected!

I think this was the first time we took a picture with all of us girls together, with the little girls too.  

On our way down to San Diego, we stopped in Mission Viejo to visit with Tatum and Whitney (Christian's sista).  It's always fun getting these two roly polies together, Tess and Bets.  We were excited to see baby Ever as well.  She's grown so much!  

Betsy's going to hate that picture when she gets older.  But I'm a little obsessed with it.  

Meeting up with the Clawson cousins in SD.  They were super cute together.

The last day we were there we went to Disneyland!

Tristan was very serious when he met some of the characters.  It was a big deal.

Poor Bets was running a little fever while we were there.  Love the teething stage.

I forced Chelcie to turn side ways so I could get her cute baby bump.  Love this girl and can't wait for baby Leo to come in August.

Post tree house adventure with Papa.  

It was a hot hot day, with a ton of people.  We did get to wait in a few short lines like It's a Small World and Pirates, but everything else was pretty long.  It was still a super fun day.  

Looking forward to coming back to CA in August!

Hiding in the Box

Another big project added to my list is organizing our home videos.  I have big dreams of having files on the computer with our videos edited down, labeled, then sorted by month/year.  I will skip the burning to the dvd step and leave them on the computer because eventually we will have the ability to just plug our comp into our tv and watch them.  This is going to take me a really long time because we have a ton of videos, and who has time to do this kind of thing?  One video at a time.  

Here's a cute one I came across of the little nuggets.  It's a few months old.   

Tristan's Swim Graduation

We signed Tristan up for swim class again at Leahi this spring and we were so glad that we did.  I don't think I really knew that he had it in him but he is a little fishy in that water.  It is like second nature to him.  He may have secret gills hidden somewhere on his body because he can stay under the water for a very long time!  Yesterday was his graduation and I've been debating signing him up again for summer but I think we decided we would just take a break and let him practice what he's learned this summer.  His instructor, Auntie Leena, said he is ready for the advanced beginner class, which I think they learn more swimming techniques.  We are excited to get this boy out in the ocean/pool more this summer!

 "Who wants to go first?", "ME!"

 His whole swim class.  They were all so cute!  They all started in January and since then have become good friends.

 This is what happened when we called his name for the picture.  Winking is his new thing.

 More jumps!

 I think he took the ceremony part very seriously.  He really thought that he "won".  

 The whole ride home, "Mom, I won, I won!"

Tristan with his instructor, Auntie Leena.  She was awesome!

What a difference two years makes!  Remember this?

Congratulations, champion!  You make us proud!

Betsy turned ONE!

Our sweet Betsy girl turned one last Friday.  I'm still confused how her first year happened so fast, and I'm starting to have all these guilty feelings about missing it.  Where did this past year go?  Betsy bear is so special to us and has grown into this perfect little girl.  I think she's going to be a funny one.  She's silly and loves to make us laugh.  She's mellow and just kicks back and watches her wild brother climb the walls and do flips.  When she hears a beat, any kind of beat, she dances.  Sprinklers ticking, she's dancing.  The microwave oven ticking, she's dancing.  Dad drops another beat, she's dancing.  Man, that girl can move!  Betsy is famous for her rowing.  It's kind of a move she does when she's really excited about something, but can't seem to move fast enough to get to it, so she rows back and forth.  I need to post a video of her doing it, it's awesome.  

Betsy is no where close to walking.  Maybe a couple more months?  She scooches on her tush to get where she needs to go.  She's a good little gummer.  I feel comfortable giving her a lot of the same foods Tristan is eating.  4 teeth total, 2 on top, 2 on bottom.  She's still my wonderful napper.  Twice a day, 2-3 hours each.  And she is more than happy to go down for them.  I lay her down awake and she sticks that thumb in her mouth and puts herself to sleep.  Thank you Bets!  

For her birthday this year we decided to have something small at our house; dinner and cupcakes with a few families.  I actually LOVED not having to carry everything over to a park.  It was so nice having everything on hand at the house!  Birthday morning, the kids woke up to balloons, and danced, as usual.  Then we hurried and opened presents before dad left for work that morning.

 Tristan was waaay too excited about it being Betsy's birthday.  He was freaking out a little and was frantically rounding up all the presents for "Betsy" to open.  Below, "Betsy" opens up a present from her cousin, Addi.  Thank you Addi for the cute Shabby Baby dress!

 A little bummed out that brother's taking over?

The birthday party.  

Above: Nancy and the Ward family.

Below: Some of the Larsens, and the Thomson family.

On the menu: Crock pot mac and cheese, with sauteed ham and onions.  Garlic bread.  Green salad with fun toppings; pears, feta...., fruit salad.  Strawberry kabobs with angel cake and chocolate drizzle.  Pink Lemonade.  And homemade cupcakes with homemade buttercream frosting.  

Betsy's first taste of sugar!  She loved it but got over it after a few minutes.  She tried to blow out the candle on her own, and spit a little.  It was super cute.    

All the little ones!  It kept sprinkling outside so they had to keep coming in to take cover.  Poor guys.  They were having fun with balloons and glow sticks.  

Presents and post bath for Betsy girl.

 We seriously love all of our friends out here.  They are our family away from family.  We've been friends for a very long time (4-5 years) and have watched all of our little ones grow.  Due to the size of our little place, we were limited to only a few families, but there is a nice group of us that are really close.  Thank you for loving our little Betsy and celebrating her 1st birthday with us!

After the party, taken via instagram.  Clock on the wall is wrong. We need to fix that!  It was probably more like 10:00 pm when this picture was taken.  Betsy was still awake and going strong and I think it was from her sugar high.  House was all cleaned up and I was pooped!

Happy Birthday Betsy girl!

Easter weekend part II

Here are pictures from some of the Easter fun we had on the Big Island.  Friday morning we got together with another young family and dyed Easter eggs.  Tristan had such a good time and really hit if off with the boys.  Thanks Tutu for coordinating everything!

Striking another pose for the camera again.

 Easter Morning.  Christian came down with the flu the night before so he sadly missed out on Easter day.  The little ones LOVED their Easter baskets.  

 I love sleepy eyes.

 A giddy girl.

 More sleepy eyes.

 The aftermath of a chocolate ice cream cone!

 Pumped for the Easter egg hunt.

Christian forced himself out of bed for a few minutes while the kids looked for their eggs.  Poor guy had a high fever all day.  We had a yummy dinner of lamb, roast, roasted vegetables, asparagus, deviled eggs, and I'm going blank on what else we had, but I have fond memories of the meal.  It was delish!  Special thanks to Papa H. and Tutu for making our Easter special!