Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!

Merry, Merry Christmas to all of you and A Happy New Year. We had such a fun time this Christmas season. It is magical with young kids, who believe in Santa. Each of our kids were old enough to leave the ornaments alone and to not unwrap early presents under the tree. That will be out last year of that for a few years. We felt blessed to be surrounded by friends and family who we love, We missed Rich's family though who got pretty sick just in time for Christmas. They are all doing better now. Even though I'm a little late I thought I'd post a few pictures from Christmas vacation and of the progress Meg, Katie and I are making in our pregnancies. We are all due here in the next 5-8 weeks. Yikes, we'll have a lot of babies all at once, but so much fun! With that may the new year bring you blessings and love!

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.