My Favorite Little Man Is 4!

Dane loves pancakes, and he has a different request for me every time we eat em'! On his birthday he wanted a cake pancake and this is what he got! He is such a fun kid!
He was so excited for his birthday! He woke up at like 5 a.m to go potty and he saw the decorations in the family room and he came and said, "Mom, my birthday came, my birthday came!" I don't even know if he went back to sleep!

He's jumping up and down yelling at this race car set! He loves to race EVERYTHING! So this is a perfect Dane toy!

We get to sing happy birthday and light candles at least 5 times at our house! Paige loves to help/bug Dane!

Happy Birthday my sweet, fun, feisty Dane! Your mom loves you lots and lots!

A Bunch of Random Stuff!

All of these are backwards, since obviously I forgot how to blog since it's been a while...anyway, just some fun things that have been goin on here in Hawaii! At our ward party this past saturday night! Dane couldn't believe that a pig actually got cooked and there is another pic of them cooking, but my wild little man who loves to touch weird things thought he's like to hold the pig head--yea YUCK! Ugh--it just looked weird and greasy! Anyone hungry??? Dane thought it was awesome!

Sitting on the "real" Santa's lap! When he came in, Dane grabbed my leg and said, "mom, I'm so happy that's the real Santa!" Paige isn't a fan yet! She liked him from a distance!

Here's our YUMMY Christmas dinner! They cooked these right outside our apt. so the kids stood and watched for at least 2 hours! I was impressed I have to say!

Now we go back to Thanksgiving...I have a funny story about our turkeys. I guess everyone thought we wouldn't get thanksgiving dinner, because I had a girl call from the local health center and ask if we wanted to be on a list for thanksgiving baskets...I said sure because I'm not gonna turn down free food! Well, a few days before thanksgiving a few little ladies showed up carrying this HUGE bucket of all sorts of food. I asked who did all this and who I should thank--well, one of the ladies said, "you can thank us by coming to our church!" They left and I opened the little card they brought and it was from the Seventh day adventist church! They brought us a book of theirs too! um...did they forget they were coming to BYU campus!?! Anyway, I giggled, AND we had LOTS to eat for thanksgiving! We did eat with a bunch of fun families that live in TVA--it was a great thanksgiving!

Nick carving his first turkey--he was a proud man! It was the closest thing he's been to skinning anything for a while, so he got kinda into it!

Dane and Paige got to the shaving cream in the bathtub and I still don't know if they each painted themself or painted the other one! These two are really funny in the bathtub! Their motor boats get REALLY loud!

I think stuff like this is funny--who cares if the entire can of shaving cream is gone because they've put a giant pile on every toy and shampoo bottle in the tub!

Paige and our neighbor Rachel! These two either love eachother or fight over everything! Rachel is funny, because she shows up at my door almost every morning and says "treat"

The kids were drawing the ocean and the beach! Sidewalk chalk might be the greatest invention yet! Some days I'll give all the kids around here a piece of chalk and they will color every sidewalk, water drain thing, bike rack, brick flower bed, doors, and walls they can possibly see! Our building is really colorful! Thank goodness it rains a lot lately!

We were making a wal-mart trip and going through the pineapple fields was beautiful, and then this showed up! Hawaii definately takes the cake on beautiful nature! WOW!

My life has changed dramatically the past 3 weeks--my homesickness is no more! I have no time to be homesick! I just got called to be primary president of 60 wild primary kids! I am so overwhelmed and trying to figure it all out! And it's funny, frustrating, but funny, but on the mainland the old president would meet with you and help you figure stuff out, but not here...it's like this, "oh, you'll figure it out, just ask if you have questions!" Oh is that what I do--um..I have tons of questions! Anyway--I grew a fabulous cold sore my first week! That's how good it's going! But hey--I'll figure it out right! I am excited, but really stressed! The kids are awesome and they love to come to primary so that's a great thing! It's all good--it's Hawaii!

This one's for you Nick!

Here's another funny! Nick loves and I mean LOVES to watch Dog! Well, a couple weeks ago Nick was doing a survey thing for one of his classes at the Haunted Lagoon at the PCC and guess who comes????? Yup--Dog and his family! Nick was trying to be cool cause he wanted to talk to them and he did, but he said they were kinda rude...go figure! Anyway, he was really excited and so this blog entry it dedicated to my husband's DOG crush!

GO GET EM' DOG!

Just Some Funny Thoughts!

These are some Dane and Paige isms that I don't want to forget......

(About a month ago) Dane: "mom, why are you sad?"
Me: "mommy's kinda homesick buddy"
Dane: "Do you miss our red house and casa manana?"
Me: "yea, I miss lots of things about Pima."
Dane: "don't worry, we'll go back to pima soon"
Me: "when are we gonna go back?"
Dane: "well mom, I think we'll go back when all the water is out of the ocean!"
(it didn't help with the homesick, but it did make me laugh)

*on sunday morning after I painted Paige's finger and toe nails for church, Nick was putting her in the bath and she fell apart, bawling and screaming...Nick told me I could take care of it!
Me: "sissy, why are you so sad?"
Paige: "get out, wanna get out"
Me: "you gotta take a bath, why don't you want to take a bath?"

Paige: (lifting her hands out of the water) "my singer nails, my singer nails" with tears rolling down her face.

Then I realized she didn't want her nail polish to wash off...we fixed that one!

Dane likes to go to the grocery store with me and when we do, we usually have a conversation that goes like this...

Dane: "mom, what are we buying here?"

Me: " food for supper buddy" (as I pick up something)

Dane: " do I like to eat that mom?"

Me: "yeah, you love to eat this"

Dane: " Oh, does Poppa Danny love to eat it too?"

Me: " yep, poppa Danny loves it too!"

Dane: "oh, OK, let's get it then!"

And some other STUFF I don't want to forget.....some of these are funny hawaii things that I've realized, so this list will probably grow over the next couple of years!

*In Hawaii, play doh never dries out. I'll find a glob under Dane's bed and it's been there who knows how long and it's as squishy as ever!

*In Hawaii, when you are getting ready to turn left and someone coming the other direction is turning right, they flash their lights at you to turn before they do...I think you'd have to drive here to understand--it's odd!

*Something I realized the other day about living in TVA is that my 3 year old has a few older friends and now when they play spy games, they like to shut the door and write secret notes and it kinda bugs me that they "have to have the door shut for it to work right mom!"

*You could wash your car 6 days a week here, and you would still have a layer of salt water on your windshield the next morning when you get in.

*When you get ready for the day, you might look okay, but give it about 4 hours and your makeup will be gone, your hair will be matted to your head cause it rained for exactly 45 seconds and then the sky is blue, and you wear anything that doesn't cling or stick or even a little snug, because it's miserable and then you end up with a yeast infection...(I know it's totally gross, and it fortunately hasn't happened to me yet, but I've heard some funny stories from my neighbors)!

That's all for now, I'll have some more soon! I really am starting to be thankful that we are here--it's taken a little while, but I'm a happy girl and I'm not being negative, these things are just funny to me. I'm not in Pima anymore, that's for sure!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I was excited for a Hawaii Halloween, not knowing what traditions they do here, but then I remembered that Hawaii is part of the US and they do pretty much the same things here as anywhere else...just so you know! Allison was here for the holiday and she was fun to have! Our ward had a little trunk or treat and dinner in pumpkins (I've never heard of this before, but it was cool) Our trunk or treat only lasted an hour including dinner and games and I asked everyone why they did it so fast, they all told me that you want to trick or treat through the faculty housing and on the couple of streets over. They were right--the kids made out like bandits--the good stuff! Too bad Nick had snagged half of Paige's before we got home!

Paige already had a pumpkin costume, but when Allison was here we found these little wings and the cutest fairy tutu thing and Allison wanted her to be a fairy really bad--so here is my little Halloween fairy!
This was at the end of the night, Dane wanted to try a 'war head', he spit it out real quick!

The kids diggin in on the candy!

My Fairy! Once we found the wings and tutu, I told Allison now we need a leotard suit and hair stuff, but living in a little town with one grocery store, and the closest anything else is an hour away--we were limited and we ran out of time! But she was darling and wouldn't take off her costume at the end of the night!

Ninja Dane--everybody kept talking about his pecs and he never said anything until the end of the night and then said he didn't like em' cause nobody noticed his cool sword!

Dane and our little neighbor DK--he is Dane's favorite friend and they are mischievious together almost every day. He's leaving back to Pompei (an island off of micronesia) in December, so that will be sad!

This was our trunk or treat--I talked Nick into letting me paint his face! He was supposed to have a black cloke and wig, but he drew the line at the painted face...which I'm happy with! It was funny, cause our goofy neighbor told Nick when he saw him, "Ahh... Nick, you washed your face man!" It was a great night!

Dane bobbing for apples--he was confused with apples making smoke! He got pretty into it after a few seconds!

He's a apple bobbing CHAMP!

Monster man and his sweet girl!

YIPEE! ALLISON COMES TO VISIT

Last week my super awesome sister came to see us! We had lots of fun! We didn't do anything spectacular--she just wanted to do the things that we do everyday...so we did the beach a few days and went into town one day and did walmart and costco, another day we strolled around Laie and went to lunch at the Hukilau Cafe! I wish I had pictures, but a few days before halloween, just Allison and I went to the PCC's Haunted Lagoon and it was by far one of the freakiest things I've ever been too! The whole thing was on the lagoon so we were on canoes and crazy stuff would jump out on top of us and then these crazy scary monsters would come out of the water and walk by us looking at us and junk--holy smokes it was scary! Poor Allison sat in front of me instead on the side and her shirt was really stretched out because my head was in it most of the time! It was a fun week--I'm so happy she came...there is definately something special about a sister!

Picking her up at the airport--for some dumb reason, she and I both were emotional--what the heck?

Dane has become really interested in coconuts and he loves to find them at the beach and spend the next 2 hours trying to break it open--it's not that easy! This kid LOVES the beach--loves to dig tunnels, build sand chairs, chase crabs, build walls to keep the water out, sit at the edge of the water and sqeal, and throw the sticks that wash up back into the water! His blonde little hair is getting blonder and blonder!

Allison and Paige eating snacks--Allison is gonna love this picture?!? When Paige goes to the beach, she likes to play for a few minutes, then sit on the mat under the umbrella and eat snacks! Then if she gets wet, it's pretty much over cause she's cold and just wants to be held! She is trying to decide if she likes the water or not--mostly right now it's only if Nick is holding her!

Lunch at the Hukilau cafe! The kids like to sit on the bench and look at the surfer pictures above them--this is one of our favorite places to eat--and it's one of the cheapest!

Allison was wonderful to have visit--I thought I took more pictures! But of course she and I looked like hags all week, cause for some reason in Hawaii, makeup doesn't stay on your face, and hair doesn't stay the way you do it in the morning, and all your clothes just stick to you and you just want to rip em' off--so needless to say, it's not a glamour island! We had a blast though--my kids love her, my husband loves her and I'm glad she loves us too! Thanks Sister!

Food Fest 2009

At Byu a couple times a year they have FOOD FEST--sounds yum huh? Well, it is! All the clubs on campus make their native food and have a big carnival thing and sell it to anyone who wants to come! They did a benefit concert for Samoa and the Philipines and it was just a fun night (except Paige was really sick). Some of our favorite food were from Figi, Singapore and Dane liked these little chicken on a stick things from one of the asian clubs--I forgot! I didn't get any pictures of actual food fest, cause I was holding sad Paige and still trying to have fun, but since it was close to Halloween, they had all the kids dress up and have a little costume parade around the circle...it was cute!

Dane was my ninja man and Paige was a red-eyed little pumpkin!

A bunch of the kids before the parade started!

Nick was in the parade too... as Daddy! Paige thought it was cool that he was wearing her hat!