Thanksgiving and Disneyland!

We have spent a lot of time with family over the last two weeks. We are so thankful for our families. We went to California the week before Thanksgiving and spent some much needed time in the sun. We are Thankful for the warm weather we had before returning home to complete winter. We went to Disneyland, which was perfect. We're thankful for the happiest place on earth. If you notice Charlie right eye he got stitches for the fifth time, the night before we went to Disneyland. We're thankful that our hotel it footing the bill. We had wonderful Thanksgiving meals with both the Oborn and Lewis families. We are so thankful and blessed to be surrounded by such great families. We love you!

Happy Halloween!

We had such a fun Halloween with our little zombie, dead pirate and fairy princess and wow it seemed to last three days. We have all had enough candy, donuts, and more goodies to last us until hopefully next Halloween or maybe just Christmas. Rich and I relived the "glory days" wearing our old high school uniforms. We'll just say they didn't fit like they used to. It made me laugh when I got my uniform on and Bella said, "Mom you look so pretty." Her preferred outfit is pretty much anything with a skirt over it, so I think she loved that I was sporting the same look even if the skirt was over 6 inches from buttoning. Katie and I are both about 5 month along! Happy Halloween!

Boy, Oh Boy!

Well, today was our official ultrasound. Drumroll...It's a boy! I guess you could say I was a little surprised and it took me a second to retrain my brain to think boy. So far with each kid I have been spoiled and have gotten exactly what I wanted. I wanted a boy so I got a boy two times in a row. I then wanted a girl so of course that's what I got. So, thinking it would be nice to even things out and for little Bella to have a little sister, I again wanted a girl. So much for getting everything exactly the way I plan. We do love boys at our house. They bring a lot of fun energy, easy haircuts, mismatched clothes, tough guy wrestling, and man they love their Mom. What more could I ask for? I guess I'm already lovin' this little guy. Now all we have do is get the kids to stop calling him Molly and switch to maybe, Tommy.

Hawaii!

Rich and I just returned home from our anniverary trip to Oahu. Our tenth anniversary to be exact- Although it really isn't until December. (We decided to go now since December is always crazy and I didn't want to be eight months pregnant on the beach).
Anyway, we had a wonderful time. One of my brother-in-laws said that Hawaii was magical. I have to agree. Mostly because we could sleep in, we could eat meals without being interupted, we could sit at the beach and read without feeling like there was something we needed to be doing-just pure relaxation. No demands. It was so amazing.
A few of our favorites. The Polynesian Culture Center, Pearl Harbor (where my Grandpa Lewis was stationed on the USS Reed when it was bombed), Snorkeling off of a Katamaran near Ko'olina, Rich surfing and boogie boarding-me watching, hiking to Wimea Falls and Diamond Head, of course many beautiful beaches, and no responsibilities for a week. Wow!
We are so happy to be home with our sweet children. We sure missed them, but are already planning our next vacation. Not really. I'm so happy to have been married this ten years to Rich and for these little children who have made our home and lives even more sweet.

Summer, Summer, Summertime!

Our fun and lazy days of summer are coming to an end. I don't know that we are quite ready for long school days, soccer games and practices x2, music lessons to start, and maybe even dance this year we'll see. I can say we have had a great summer. Here are some of our favorites about our summer.

1. A lot of swimming- Swimming lessons, actually learning to swim (good job James and Charlie), and first time going off diving board without floatation devices! Bella is proving to be our bravest little fish.

2. Biking- Rich loves to get out and mountain bike and had quite a few fun rides this summer. James and Charlie are following in Daddy's footsteps and both are out riding a lot. Charlie learned to ride without training wheels a few weeks ago and just took off!

3. Family Reunions- We have had a lot of fun with Family. The kids love to play and sleep over with cousins. We spent three days in Midway with Rich's family-it was great! We went down the Alpine Slide, went swimming, spent time together and just had fun! We also had a couple cousin sleepovers with the Lewis cousins. They all just love being together. It is so nice to have great friends in our cousins.

4. Hiking- Well I think Rich hiking 15 miles to the top of Mount Timpangos with my mom and some of my family topped the hiking charts, but we also had fun hiking to Donut Falls, hiking on trails in Midway, and even down behind Rich's parents house to a great spot his Dad created. The kids enjoy being out on nature taking a stroll.

5. Vacationing- Rich and I spoiled ourselves this Summer-going to Alaska with my family and then we head to Hawaii in a couple weeks to celebrate our ten year anniversary. We'll take the kids to Disneyland this fall so they we'll be okay. We have to keep reminding them that Rich and I rarely go on our own vacation-it really has been years-They all were in some sort of shock while we were in Alaska. We'll see how they do while we are in Hawaii.


6. Summer- All the other fun things: Parades, snowcones, Handcart Days, playing with friends, playing outside in the sprinklers, playing random made up games, Getting ready for a garage sale that my children insist we have, selling lemonade, and doing nothing at all. Oh, and of course we are all excited for baby #4 coming in February!

Alaska!

Rich and I just got back from an Alaskan adventure with many family and friends. We were lucky enough to go with my parents some of my siblings and their spouses, Rich's Dad and bother-in-laws, and some other cousins and friends. We had so much fun. We stayed at Silverking Lodge which is on an island right out of Ketchikan. We mostly fished in small boats on the big ocean, which was kind of unnerving for me. We caught a lot of Salmon, so I guess that's what we'll be eating for Sunday dinners. Luckliy my kids are fans of Salmon. We spent one afternoon hiking into the Naha River, which is really like the Rainforest of Alaska. While on the hike we saw four bears, one ran about 20 feet in front of me across the trail. Yikes! I was ready to turn back, but we finished. We saw orca breaching, doll porpoises playing in our wake, and several bald eagles. A few of us even had the Eagles trying to steal our fish. We had a great time! and wow -it was pretty high adventure, at least for me.

Fish Tales!

We decided to go crazy a couple of weeks ago and get our first pet, a beta Fish. Okay, So it was not that crazy. My kids were thrilled though. They named him Nacho and spent a few minutes each day looking at him. He was not that entertaining.
Sadly, in those few minutes each day we noticed that he was moving less and less. I consulted my Dr. Mom, who had nursed my sisters failing beta back to health. She asked if I had put dechlorinator in the water. No! they had not told us to buy that at the pet store. It was to late for our little nacho. We bought him on a saturday and he died the following Saturday. I really did feel bad for the fish. I think we are really not pet people. I told my kids we could buy another one, afterall we had the food, the bowl, and now the dechlorinator. They said, No.

Kids say the darndest things!

I'm sure I'll get some new material soon, but James really made me laugh a few months back and it makes me smile to think about, so I thought I would share.

I decided to try and help James enter the reflections contest this year at school. The theme was "Beauty is..." So in helping him brainstorm I gave him some ideas: Beauty is the mountains, nature, family, friends, the sunset. He didn't like any of my ideas. So I asked him. "James what do you want to do?" He replied after careful consideration, "Beauty is...Lydia." Well, I found out that Lydia was a pretty little girl in his 1st grade class. A few days later he changed his mind. "Beauty is...Anna Belle." Uh,oh!

James (the culprit), Charlie (the sidekick), and Mom (looking mad, but just actually tired)

I decided it was time to be a better blogger. I guess time keeps me busy and I forget to update our blog and of course I'm slightly slow on computers. This year I'm going to figure it out. I thought I should come up with something fun to blog about so to follow most of the crowd I will blog about the craziness of Motherhood. So here we go.

Entry #1

A few months ago I decided it was time to get out of the house and do something fun with my kids. With all three packed in the middle row of our Pilot we headed out. Of course we had to make a quick stop at McDonalds for their favorite Chocolate Milk and then we headed out to the Discovery Gateway. About half way there My oldest, James threw his empty carton to the front of the car which in hit me in the head. After a quick scolding on how that could knock out Mom and cause an accident the incident was quickly forgotten. We arrive at the museum and got in line to get our passes. When I reached the front of the line the cashier lood at me funny and said, "Did you know you have a straw in your hair" I must have looked puzzled wondering when I had been around a bale of hay, but then she said again kind of laughing, "You really have a straw in your hair." I reached up and sure enough I had a chocolate milk coated straw stuck to the side of my hair. We all had a good laugh thanks to James. I don't think I was making a fashion statement at the Gateway. Hmm.