Christmas 2008.

Christmas Eve we went down to the mission, a beautiful old stone building FULL of candles. We listened to beautiful Christmas carols and had hot cocoa. Kea loved looking at the lights!! The night before we walked through a beautifully lit neighborhood and had fun looking at lights and just being silly.

Christmas morning with Auntie Nina.

GG gave Tom an Xbox 360!! And I gave him a vibrating chair with LCD lights, and a subwoofer for when he plays his games. Kea loves it too! When Tom plays Xbox games Kea loves to sit on his lap with a controller too. She especially loves driving the "CAH!" (Car games). She likes to make the 'vroom' sound as she drives...so cute!

 Lost in a sea of presents!! Santa really had GG working for him this year!! This is Kealani showing us what (Pri-ee) pretty looks like.

After opening presents at our house we headed to Maiya and Papa's house for pie and more presents!! Kea got all sorts of fun things including a new baby doll that giggles and lots of clothes and shoes (much needed since this kid is growing like crazy! :))

We had the BEST time after Christmas as the family headed to a Cabin not too far from home for a few days. Here is our car and the ATV's getting covered with snow. 

The cabin had little heat, so we stayed in the dining room together where the heaters were. We had a lot of fun keeping ourselves busy with cards...ALL day long!! We found a super addicting game. We also got to ride on the ATV's, but we didn't last long because our fingers froze!! That was a favorite part of mine. Tom and I got to go riding together in the morning. The sun was shining and it gleamed off the white snow on the ground. So fun!

I can't even tell you what we are doing here, but we thought we were so hilarious! I am not sure who won either...maybe who ends up on top?? :) If you put a bunch of us in a small space together we get pretty creative at entertaing ourselves.

Kea loves snow. She stomps around trying to say, "crunch crunch crunch". She kept on telling me while looking out the window at the snow, "pay? Pees!" (Play please).

After riding ATV's Tom and I went on a walk and enjoyed the beauty of the snow and the mountains!

We had such a great time enjoying the snow here in AZ. Then we got to drive right back to our sunny warm neighborhood! :) I have to say Arizona is really growing on me!! And I also have to say, I love Tommy!! :)

Happy Holidays: Hau'oli Lanui!!

Merry Christmas! I have anticipated all year the lights, sounds of Christmas music, lots of food, and all our family!! We had the Christmas decor up since the first week of December because I get so excited!  Kea loves the lights too, she points and says, "pri-ee"(pretty). We are so grateful for Jesus Christ in our lives and that we get to celebrate His life. He makes hope, forgiveness, repentance, and life eternal possible. How could we ever repay Him but to live our lives to the best of our ability and give all our mahalo (thanks) daily. And in return we are blessed even more! How wonderful it is that there is a God and that He loves us so much!! Merry Christmas, and a Happy and blessed New Year!!

Started at Twilight, finished by morning!

          Well, I finally gave in to all the fuss about the Twilight books. Though slow at first, it definitely grew on me! I read the first one in 8 hours! I hadn't planned on reading more, but a friend insisted that it gets better. So, I read the second one...in 10 hours. The third and fourth books were short to follow and before I knew it I was all vampired out! I also read Angels and Demons (the in-depth version with pictures and maps, so awesome!) between those books.  So, within a matter of 2 weeks I had finished 5 books. Tom had always said, 'I never see you read for fun'. And I would always reply, 'You don't want to!'...I think he understands now. But the best part of it all, since I read Angels and Demons for Tom (one of his favorites) he is now reading Twilight! He gets quite the teasing from his friends!! He is finishing it right now, and we have a date set tomorrow night to see the movie. Such a fun thing to do together, and I am quite proud of my man!!

Kealani loves reading too!! She is getting pretty good at recognizing certain things in her books and repeating them, counting (to five), animal noises, etc. We love learning!!

NASCAR...Down In The Pits!

          So, most of you know that Tom is one of the biggest Nascar fans (especially if it has anything to do with Dale Jr.). He watches every race and even wears his Dale Jr. pajama pants and shirts. Tom has been into it since college when he worked with his friend, Matt Faulkner to build a late model car for Matt to race.  

           Since then Matt has worked his way up, with incredible speed and talent, to work for the Nascar #59 Truck team as the lead Engineer.  Matt got me, Tom and my  brother Nick into the pits for the recent race in Phoenix. What an incredible experience! I have been to races before; Matt's races, Grand Prix races with my dad in Longbeach..but this was quite the experience being in the pits. Tom was in heaven: cars, thunderous roars, tires, tools, the smell of gasoline and burnt rubber made for the perfect day. He came alive with the roar of the engines... and I plugged my ears. :) 

The boys down by the pit wall just as the race started. Nick and Tom got to listen to everything going on through the team headset. 

Matt was watching the video prompts and going over some race strategy. So cool to see him in action.

Tom helping the guys get the race car back on the truck after the race.

Terry Cook (the driver for the #59) and all of us. 

Matt came to our house and the boys went out for some RC fun after working on the '69 bug. 

Tom and Matt with their bugs.  Matt and Tom getting ready for a race.

Thanks so much Matt! We had a great time!

Gettin' His Game On...

Tom has been spending every week playing softball in a city league.  He has been the team pitcher and has a great batting average. Kealani and I had such a fun time going to the games. Kea proved to be quite the cheerleader yelling "Daddy" the whole time.

My hot man, posing for the pitch.

Definitely past her bed time, Kea got very cuddly on my lap.

Good job babe! We love you so much!!!

Lots and Lots of Treats

Tommy and I started the tradition of eating pumpkin waffles for Halloween dinner, unbelievably delicious (if anyone wants the recipe, let me know!) Then Kealani got dressed up as a little lady bug and we headed out with Maiya and Papa(grandma & grandpa). Kea's too-too even bounced up and down as she walked! :)

Kea held on to her ever increasingly heavy halloween bucket the whole time.  She said, "Peeeese" (please) at every door, and said thank you as we left.  She was content the entire time, just having fun socializing with everyone.

  

Tom dressed up in his waterpolo gear and parka. Thankfully I talked him out of sporting a pair of speedos!!  Kea fell in love with a little puppy at a neighbor's house. They both kept going for the candy.

  

Well, it was a great halloween night! It was so fun to be out in perfect weather under millions of bright stars.  Kealani figured she'd earned her prize...she unwrapped a sucker and started happily licking away. Her first piece of candy(well, a few good licks anyway)!! As soon as she was in bed, she was sleeping! 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!! 

We started the day out at the lake, and Papa (grandpa) came with us!  

We walked two miles and then stopped to play around. Tom brought his RC car, and Kea thought it was the best little pet to chase around.

Then we all got some ice cream cones to celebrate our exercising!! :)  Kea was trying to tell Papa what she wants, actually she would have no idea. The poor kid never gets sweets! (yeah, I am one of those moms).  She had a little, but it was much too cold for her anyway. We get a kick out of watching her face though.

 

Kea and Papa saying HI to Frankenstein.  She went to give Frankenstein a kiss, then turned towards Papa and kissed him instead! Kealani had a blast getting all wet at the fountain. Thanks GG for the cute shirt!! I will post again later with pics from Trick or treating!

Have a Happy Halloween!

Just 'Lei'-in' Around

Well, she must definately have some Hawaiian blood, Kealani loves her leis!  She has a few that she likes to string around her neck and then strut her stuff around the house and definitely in public.  But when we go to Maiya's (Grandma) house she wears them in the dozens. It is so hilarious to see the kid walk around, but you can't even see any kid...there is just a sea of leis!!

Working from home is tough sometimes, but it makes the time in between all that more special. Kea and I fill our day with lots of fun activities and picnics. I love everyday with my little bug, and I am so grateful to be her mommy.

Baby Signing Time!

     The wonderful world of toddlers and sign language!!! Kealani has really caught on to signing, which has made our lives a whole lot easier! We have been trying to teach her, along with the baby signing time DVD's and she has a growing vocabulary. She is now up to 30 words or more! She can sign them all and say them (but it is a lot easier to understand what she is saying when it is accompanied with sign language).  It has been so much fun because she catches on so quickly, everyday she learns something new! It melts my heart when she is tired and looks up at me with beautiful eyes and signs blanket.

Her current vocab includes words like; eat, more, water, milk, cracker (caka), banana(nana),cheese, all done, down, please (peeese), thank you (tee too), sorry (sayee), no, yes, baby, blanket (ben), shoe, socks, hat, hurt (ouwie), bath, potty (pie), change diaper (chay duhduh), wash hands, ball, book, dog-dog, cat, bird, baby, and lots more.

It was really tough cuz the camera would delay, but I got a few pics of her signing.

Hat

 

I told her to sign ouwie, and she did with a sad frown and then came to give my knee a kiss where my hand had been resting.

 

More and Please.

 The sign for eat. She also signed water and then gave me a big grin because she wanted some.

 

Kea couldn't help herself but sign quickly and run and get those objects. So cute! Signing has been so amazing with her.  And I can at least get a small glimpse of what goes through that cute little head!!