Happy Birthday TWO Austin!!!

Austin turned TWO on Friday! What a big boy! This birthday was "transportation" themed... not on purpose, but everyone knows that's what the kid likes. He had a great time with his recycle truck, train book, school bus, travel mat (yard sale find!), and take-apart jeep.

Loving this...

Not loving this...

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We made a dump truck for a cake. The kids helped with the frosting, so it is not bakery quality. Every time they spread some on with the knife, they'd take a lick. Its good we didn't have company coming over to share this one!

Yes, we lit the candle three times for everyone to have a "blow."
Everyone picking off their favorite parts after the candle was blown out.


Austin hasn't mastered the "two fingers up" thing yet.

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There are many things I love about Austin. He has his dad's happy, easy-going personality so naturally, I adore him! He's a great talker and singer and has the funniest, dramatic facial expressions to go with what he says/sings. He'll repeat whatever we say. Here's a few more things about him:

• favorite saying: "Look! It's a ___________." This is repeated until someone acknowledges what he has found. Most often its an airplane, helicopter, garbage truck, dump truck, ambulance, (you get the picture), but recently he's branched out to things non-transportational.
• Austin has a happy little jump, skippy run. It cracks me up every time.
• He loves to sing: "Itsy, bitsy spider," "I am a child of God," "The Wheels on the bus," "Happy Birthday" and knows the words to many other songs as well. Why have I not videoed any of this?!?
• He likes to "read" books and is pretty quick about memorizing phrases or (if they are short) the whole book. He also likes to "write" letters and calls them out as he writes them. He's definitely been watching someone do their homework. :)
• One thing both he and Lucy got from me is the "non-sleep" gene. Both were done with afternoon naps by age 2. I'd still put Austin down for naps with a stack of books in his crib. If he DID fall asleep in the daytime, he's up "reading" in his bed until at least 10:30pm. He's outlasted George many a nights. :) But he gets bored with the stack of books and has ripped quite a few, which of course, ticks me off. We switched both kids over to toddler beds this weekend and Austin is thrilled as can be because he can get whatever book he wants. I think its helped with the ripping problem too. However, this is what he looks like:

• He is quick to say, "I sorry, mommy." He's also really good about remembering to say "please" and "thank you." I admit, its hard not to give in with his excited "PLEEEEEEEase" and a smile.
• He's still a good hugger and kisser, but not as much into cuddling... it takes too long.
• I LOVE how he shakes when he gets really excited (which is often)!
• He likes to wear hats: witch hats, fireman hats, princess hats, whatever.
• One thing that makes me sad about Austin is that he has lost the "best eater of the family" award. {That now goes to Elise, in case you are wondering. Or Lucy if its a day when I can get her to stop talking.} He's slimmed down and looks like a big boy. He doesn't love eating any more and has turned quite picky. He puts a "stop" hand out and dramatically pushes away from his face saying, "I don't want it." I have to turn the other way and smile when I get the "hand push", but I hope he outgrows the pickyness.
• Just recently, one of his favorite toys has become one of those magnetic drawing things. He is continually asking someone to draw an airplane or helicopter, colors it in, slides the eraser thing and repeat. Over and over and over again.
• Austin has a tender heart. He doesn't like to see anyone/anything fall or get hit. George showed the kids "crazy cat videos" on Youtube and Austin cried every time a cat fell off a couch or something like that. He cried when he saw Snoopy wrestling with a folding chair in "Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving."
• He has a contagious laugh and smile.

We sure LOVE our Austin!

Happy 2nd birthday, son!

Thankful for Adoption

November is National Adoption Month. This month, I've read some wonderful (and emotional) adoption stories and articles, but I've been meaning to put something on here about MY love for adoption and somehow it has taken me until the last day of the month to do it. "Adoption" and "Elise's birth parents" make my journal's "grateful list" every Thanksgiving since those miraculous events of her coming into our family unfolded. Even though its only been 2 1/2 years, more and more I realize how much our family needed Elise in it and how she needed us too. Its always been amazing to us that the bond between us and Elise was felt even as we met her birth parents for the first time. We still keep in touch with them by email and I will be eternally grateful for the important decision they made at such a young age. And that they had the courage to stick with it through hard opposition from family and friends. We have a deep love and respect for her selfless birth parents. And we sure love our sweet, spunky, little Elise April!

more November visitors!

We had a great visit from my bro and his wife last week. They were celebrating their 10 yr anniversary. So we got to tend this handsome little guy for some of the time... although we were always wishing for more! Isn't he darling?!? And he's so happy too. The kids smothered baby Cannon with lots of love so he wouldn't miss his own brother and sisters so badly. I must have heard "baby Cannon" from Austin and "baby Creeb" from Elise a hundred times. We were so sad when they left.

When Greg is around, there is always something on the line with whatever we do. Here are some things the losers had to "pay up" with: foot rubs (men had to rub the ladies... it was wonderful!), Greg dancing the hula and me eating leftover baby food (peas... nasty!)

For part of the time, Greg and Linds had a fancy room at a fancy resort and invited us down a couple times to enjoy all the nice stuff. It was beautiful. Even with all the time we spend at the beach, the kids still LOVE the pool and think it is such a treat. One night we slept over (the kids were bonkers, but they had their own room...until George and I had to go in and calm them down and fell asleep while doing it. I fell asleep in the bed with Austin and in the middle of the night, noticed he was gone. He'd fallen off the bed

and neither of us woke up to it. Oops!) We enjoyed the hot tubs and pools, a hula show, snorkeling at Electric beach, and traded a little "couple time" in the evening. George and I got a pina colada and walked along the beach, listening to the waves crash and talked about romantic things like potty training. It was great!

Elise LOVED the hot tub and Austin did not move from his spot (he's the one with the blue floatie boat thing) for 45 minutes.

Here I am trying to make sure my children don't dive in with the hammerhead sharks or sting-rays.

After our sleepover, we drove up to Dole to get a pineapple whip (LOVE!) then stopped at a shrimp van. The above photo is Geo demonstrating the nastiness of peeling shrimp... yah, they have outdoor sinks. Its a mess... but delicious!

Our next stop was the Polynesian Cultural Center. We had a great time. In the afternoon, we saw the prophet, President Thomas S. Monson and his first counselor, President Henry B. Eyring and his wife and later Elder Cook, one of the apostles. They were in town for the Laie temple dedication on Sunday (which was a wonderful experience). The spirit those men carry with them is quite incredible.

George was the star of a few shows... he volunteered at the Tongan drumming show and did a fabulous job. I think he may have found a new hobby. And he got picked out of the audience for his superior dancing skills at the Tahiti show. I didn't see as much of that one as I was chasing Austin with the wagon. He'd had enough by then. It was our first time to stay for the night show and it was fantastic! By the end of the day, we were all exhausted (except Austin - he was awake and happy the whole ride home), but had the best time. Here's a little collage, with all the good photos coming from Lindsay.

We also spent a day at the beach boogie boarding. We tried Pyramid Rock and had a great time. Here's the boys showing off their beach bodies.
And here are the girls. {I'm not sure why this picture is smaller, but for the record, blogger is killing me on this post. My pictures are disappearing and I can't get them in the place I want them. Whatever.} ANYWAY... I told George to video us when Lindsay and I did something cool. And there is no video. But I assure you, we had many cool moves. :)

Who has whiter legs... me or Cannon? With all my time in the sun, you'd at least think I'd have SOMETHING to show for it. No.

This video is supposed to be at the top....where it is actually relevant to what I am talking about.

When Greg arrived, he said, "I can't see any reason why we don't come here every 6 months." And later changed it to 4 and then to 2. DO IT! We'd be thrilled! See you in January! :)

Half a million reasons to be thankful

Lu came home from school today decked out for Thanksgiving. Here's the song her class learned. Its a catchy little tune with a good message... we've been singing it all week.

Happy Thanksgiving, family and friends!

And here is a bonus video for the grandparents (which means its long :)

Double 3

It was my happy birthday on Tuesday. I am a bit of a "numbers" gal (you can read this as "kind of nerdy") so I thought I should do something cool for the double 3 birthday. But I couldn't think of anything "33" to do. My bro suggested 33 push ups, but I think 3 would have been more reasonable at my fitness level. It did take me until 3:30 in the afternoon to jump in the shower, so maybe that should count for something.

It was a nice day though. George bought me a fruit juicer (isn't that a great gift?!?) and later we went out for pizza and ice cream with Greg, Linds, Cannon and the kids. It's been quite a long time since I've celebrated the day of my birth with my brother, so that was fun. Then George and I went out on a date and played mini-golf. The setting was beautiful amongst the trees, but we always laugh when we drive by the course because the fake waterfall has listerine-colored water running over it. Very realistic.

Anyway, it was a good day and I am thankful for how the Lord has blessed me these 33 years! My only complaint is that my current hairstyle is very similar to the "flying tomato" snowboarder, Shaun White. I definitely need a new look!

P.S. Update on Benji: released from the hospital today and now is healing up in the mission home. Thanks for your sweet words and prayers. He's been very blessed.

a bit of news about Benj

For those of you who know my little brother Benji, I thought I would just write a bit about him. Grantsville folks have heard the news by now, but today the incident was reported by the news folks in UT (I thought this report was the most accurate) and it raised some questions from friends who know my roots. So, here's the story. Right now, he's on a church mission in the Lima Peru area. He's been serving for 8 months. On Sunday afternoon, he was approached by two guys looking for money. As Benji reached in his pocket to get it, he was stabbed in the stomach. Then they ran away and robbed/stabbed another young guy. Benji's companion wrapped his shirt around the wound and witnesses took him directly to the hospital in a 3 wheeled motorcycle thing. Those two quick actions helped a lot. Doctors performed surgery. The knife got some of his liver, but missed the other major organs, so that was a blessing. He's recovering in the hospital and in good hands. Today he was able to walk a bit and expected to be released tomorrow if things continue to go well. They'll keep him at the mission home for a while and a doctor there will monitor his progress and white blood cell count. Naturally, we've all been pretty worried, but he's expected to fully recover. Thanks for your love, concern, and prayers. Benji and my parents are especially grateful.

visit from the parents

My parents have been visiting us for a week. How we hate to say "good-bye" to grandma and grandpa! Although I am very grateful for technology, phone calls and emails and blogs are just not as good as the real thing!

Here's a few highlights of their visit (although my favorite parts are not pictured - the laughing and talking and reading books and snuggling and all those wonderful things grandparents {and parents} do!)

Laie temple open house

Isn't that tree cool?

We saw Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (Quorum of 12 Apostles) and Elder Ross H. Workman (former Quorum of 70 - now Laie HI temple president) from the general leadership of our church. No pictures, but waves and handshakes were good enough for me.

After spending some time at the visitors center, we headed out for a visit to the shrimp shacks. This time we tried a different one, Fumi's, and we thought it was much better than Giovanni's. If it wasn't so far away, we'd go every week. Delicious!!!

When George's fam visited a month ago, I asked George what he had planned. "Oh, I'm going to take them to this beach, then this beach, then this beach, then this one..." and when he asked me the same question, I said, "I'm going to take them to this restaurant, then this restaurant, then this restaurant,..." etc. Ha! For me, its all about the food! And we did eat at some great places! The shrimp shack, Cinnamon's and Haleiwa Joe's were among my favorites!

We made a stop at the Dole Pineapple factory. Lucy's been dying to try the pineapple maze. There were 8 hidden stations. When you found one, you colored an image in on your card. We thought we could just find them but after about 10 minutes of wandering, decided to consult the map. Even with that, it took us almost 2 hours. Two year olds aren't the fastest walkers. Ok, maybe it wasn't all their fault. :) But I must say, if I were in charge of the navigation, we'd still be in there. I got so turned around. Elise loved to hold her "note card" and pencil and color in the design of whatever we found. Sadly she tripped and fell in the mud right after we found the last item. After the maze, we took a little ride on the Pineapple Express and ate Dole pineapple whips. Yum!

Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay

Yes, we did go to the beach a few times. We didn't spend ALL of the time stuffing our faces. This was Lucy's best snorkeling experience to date. Still she rode on her dad's back, but when he saw something cool, she'd stick her face in the water and look. Its progress.

After church

Someone needs a nap

Show and Tell

Lucy brought grandma and grandpa to school for show and tell. No, the twinner shirts were not planned. :) They told the kids about Salt Lake, snowmen, the Salt Flats, and brought some salt water taffy. Lucy had a good time showing them her friends, teacher, and school work.

Hike to a pretty waterfall

Austin and Elise were real troopers. They hiked most of the way - probably a mile round trip. Elise is my independent child and wasn't real keen on holding anyone's hand to help her. She did consent to hold grandpa's sometimes: "I help you, grampa." and loved to jump off all the rocks and branches along the way. The highlight for both kids was throwing rocks in the water at the waterfall. Austin: "whoa. its a big rock" and laughed and shook with joy at each throw.

Picnic at Kailua Beach park

Early Christmas presents from grandpa and grandma

Punchbowl cemetery on Veterans Day

Boogie Boarding at "Pres Obama beach" - don't know the real name :)

Lucy told Grandma, "Boogie boarding is easy. And its fun." Yeah, well, it always helps to get a push from mom or dad to catch a good wave. :)

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Come back soon, grandpa and grandma! We miss you! Luckily, we only have to wait 48 hours from their departure for another fun week of visitors.

I have a bad habit...

... of leaving cupboard doors open.

My college roommates told me they could tell when I was home because the cupboard doors would be open. For some reason, I keep thinking I've improved in this area. When I see scenes like this, it reminds me I'm a bit delusional. Oh wait... do you see two little heads in the corner?

I guess I'm not the only one to blame!

** Did you see "Date Night"? I thought the "leaving drawer doors open" was the funniest part. Oh, the "flying leap of the children into the parent's bed at 5am" had me laughing too. If you haven't seen it, I wouldn't recommend. I thought the rest was LAME.

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A couple random things that had me chuckling:

Last night George was pretending to be asleep on the couch and started snoring. Austin said: "Oh look! Its a sleeping PIG!!! Its a sleeping PIG!!!" (again, shaking with excitement)

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Lucy talked to Aunt Lacey on the phone on Sunday and asked about living in Hawaii. Lucy told her (very matter-of-factly), "Well, my dad likes Texas because they have lower taxes."