Gingerbread, Kalopa, and New Years Eve

Tutu did a fantastic job putting our cardboard houses together.  We had a lot of fun decorating them!  The kids loved it, one candy for the house, one candy for the mouth.  They definitely had their fair share of candy.  There is so much sugar in front of you, how can you resist? 

I love those chubby fingers:
 

We also decorated ceramic ornaments.  I think Tristan ended up painting seven.  Turbo painting!

The last Sunday we were there we headed over to Kalopa Park for a picnic dinner with the Wiberg and Marsh family.

 

Betsy gets jealous when I hold other babies:

Aunt Coco at her best:

A little preview of what our family would look like with 3 kids.  I'm a little nervous for that!

We celebrated New Years Eve with some fireworks in the yard.  After Betsy started doing the sparklers, Tristan became brave and joined in.  Betsy girl was addicted.  

Big Island Beach Time

While on the Big Island, we went to the beach, a lot.  All of our beach trips are combined into one post, and they may be out of order.  I think that one of our best beach days was at Mauna Kea; warm, windless and beautiful.  Our friends, Brian and Jenn were in town and let us all come and play tourist with them.  

We made a trip to Hapuna Beach.  

One afternoon we made it down to Waipio.  It was a little colder that day.  The boys surfed while we bundled up on the beach.  

Tristan is such a sweet older brother.  Lately, when we've been at the beach and Betsy wanders off and I don't feel like getting up to chase after her, I tell Tristan to go get her.  He loves having this responsibility of rescuing his sister.  He holds her hand, and carefully walks her back.  And Betsy LOVES being rescued, and fully cooperates.  I usually have a proud mama moment as I watch them walk back to us.  It's so sweet.  A woman from the group next to us came over to Tristan after and told him how sweet he was for taking care of his little sister.  She was impressed too.  

 

Christian and Betsy were feeling sick one day, so instead of driving out to Volcano as originally planned, part of the group spent the afternoon at Waialea Beach.  I remember this day being extra windy, and the waves were huge!  Tristan had so much fun playing in the shore break, but I was really nervous because the current was pretty strong and could suck this tiny being out to sea within seconds.  (I have nightmares about that all the time, it's awful).  I also remember hitting my head really really hard on a very low tree branch.  Ya, that wasn't fun.  But it was beautiful there of course.   

 
Before the sun set that evening, we drove over to Puako to look in the tide pools and watch for turtles and whales.  

New Years Eve we went to Spencer Beach Park and met up with Christian's friend, Ian and baby Imi.  

The curls!

On the last day we went to Mauna Lani and had a beautiful beach day.  This little cove was sheltered from the crazy wind, it was awesome.  I can't get over how much Ever loved the ocean!  Such a water baby!

Christmas Eve and Morning

We spent Christmas on the Big Island this year with Christian's family.  We always look forward to the cold temperatures when we're there.  It dropped to the 50's most mornings, inside the house!  Keeping warm by the fireplace:  

Christmas morning was magical.  Below, the kiddies pose for a quick picture before they go see what Santa brought them in the next room.     

Tristan wanted a dog SO bad this year!  Maybe Santa didn't think he was ready for a real dog, or Santa somehow knew that his parents would be very unhappy if he got a real dog, so he brought him a battery operated dog, that barks and moves.  He's cute.  Tristan named him, "Fraun".  He also got a Batman figurine and some fun stocking stuffers.  Betsy girl received her first Cabbage Patch Kid doll, named Molly, with a stroller so she can push her around.        

Betsy tests out her new stroller:

It was an honor to spend Christmas morning with the Kringel family:

Below is the face of a boy who was secretly disappointed that his dog was not real.  I kind of want to cry looking at this picture.  He talked about getting a real dog for a couple of months before Christmas, and he told Santa he wanted one too.  Tristan's so sweet and pretended to like Fraun when we were around.  Sad that Santa didn't come through for him.   

We jumped into opening presents with the whole family.  Whitney, Jim and Ever flew in the day before and Courtney, bless her heart, after many airplane delays from the east coast, finally arrived at the house at 3:00 am Christmas morning.  So everyone made it in time for the Christmas festivities!  Below, Dad helps Betsy try on her new fancy shoes:      

Checking out our new hats:

Playing Hungry Hippos with Papa:

Cute Cousins.  Betsy and Ever took turns pushing each other in the stroller.  Betsy waited patiently for her turn, but the stroller didn't really move.     

 Aunt Coco and baby Ever played us some Christmas tunes;

Christmas can be exhausting!  Snuggle time with Tutu:

Our little tree

We got a little 4 ft. tree this year.  I had big plans for this tree with lots of homemade garland and a new topper but since we were in the middle of our sick funk, I decided I could care less this year.  :)  There's always next year!  

We are finally feeling better!  The bug sure was going around though.  Almost every one we knew caught it.  It was a feisty little bug.  It lingered a little longer in our home.  No fun!  We can finally start enjoying the holidays now.  

I love her hair.  100% air dried from her bath.

Notice Fred our Elf in the stocking above.  Fred has already sent a letter in the mail to Tristan letting him know that he has been naughty and needs to start listening to his parents.  Fred disappeared for a few days to hang out with Santa to decide if he was going to bring his presents this year.  After a (minor) change in behavior, Fred came back and Tristan was happy and relieved.   

RIP Neil Armstrong

I was going through more videos tonight and came across this little gem of T man.  He was really bummed out when Neil Armstrong died in August.  Out of the blue he told me that he was sad.  I asked him why and he said, "because of Eel Armstrong".  I grabbed the camera and asked him why he was sad again, and this is what I got: