Friday, December 30, 2011

We didn't quite get the picture I was hoping for but at least they are cute anyway! Brinlyn did have shoes but she refuses to wear most, so they stay in my purse.
I wonder what Brinlyn was yelling? I can't remember. Elli was cooperating so there you have it.
Elli is so sweet with Brinlyn. She helps me so much and this picture is just an example. She is so nurturing. I sure love these little princesses!

Christmas Day

Why does this blogger thing mess up the order of my pictures?!?! Annoying! This picture was taken just after church. The girls slept in until 8:15 so we didn't get to do our presents until after 9:00am church. They did surprisingly well during church despite having to wait on gifts. They did get to open their stockings and a few presents so I guess that was enough to tie them over.
The girls were pretty excited that Santa had come to our house. Elli was especially happy to see that he ate the food she had left out.
Gotta' love the penguin tattoo on Elli's arm. :) Here is a close up attempt. AH!
These are some marshmallow launchers my friend brought for the husbands to have a competition. It was definitely funny.
The parachute had little snowflake cut outs in it that the kids were trying to get off. They were singing, "Snowflakes falling from the Coconut Tree", to the tune of "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree".
All the families that we got together with on Christmas Eve do the jammie thing for their kids. You can tell which kids are siblings by their jammies.

More Christmas Eve

Here are some of the nativity characters. Brinlyn was a sheep and Elli was a wisewoman.

All the kids making the gingerbread houses. I was in charge of this activity. Knowing that the humidity here gets to just about everything I decided to hot glue gun the actual houses. It worked out pretty good. By the end of the night though the graham crackers were already soft.
The kids putting on a performance for the parents of "Jingle Bells".

Christmas Festivities...Christmas Eve

This Christmas season was so much fun with the ages of our girls. My friend, Kristi, had the cute idea to open one Christmas book each day as a count down to Christmas. I tried it this year and the girls LOVED it. I can't wait to do it again next year. For Christmas Eve this year we went to our good friends the Erin and Jimmy's house for an evening of fun. We started out with a delicious meal with all the good stuff you could imagine. Something new to us but ever so tasty was brisket--a fun Texas tradition. Erin had her house decorated so cute. On the tables she had bells for everyone, which the kids loved, and little die cuts of stockings and gingerbread men. The kids colored on those and enjoyed just being with all the other kiddos. Embarrassing moment for us...Elli and her potty mouth incident. So, probably because her own mother thinks bathroom jokes are funny, I think Elli has learned some bad habits. We are always telling her that she can't say certain words unless she is in the bathroom. Anyway, we were all enjoying our food and the kids were at the kids table just cracking up. I was happy to hear such a great sound. I listened for a moment to try and figure out what they were laughing at and this is what I heard from Elli, "I drew a bum-bum on my gingerbread man". Oh, great! Sure enough she had put two circles on the back of her gingerbread man and was entertaining all the kids with that. Just lovely! Anyway, out night consisted of dinner, followed by gingerbread houses for the kids, and a fun program which included the nativity, activities and songs. It was a great night! Brinlyn was way into the gingerbread house thing and took it pretty seriously. It was surprising.
Elli taking a break from her decorating to eat some candy and say, "cheese".
One of my family traditions is to take a picture in front of the tree on Christmas Eve. So, here you have it...our best effort. :)
I'm sure anyone with kids can agree that getting the perfect picture is for sure impossible! Oh well, we will keep trying.

Holiday Fun!

Elli was way into Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer this year. I made her these little antlers and red nose to add to the fun. She loved it!
The girls putting on a show for Nate and I. They loved to sing "Jingle Bells". It would crack me up because Elli would say, "one horse broken sleigh, hey!", instead of "one horse open sleigh". Kids are so funny.
We had the lovely stomach flu at our house so Elli had to miss preschool. My friend Erin was kind enough to save the craft they did and let Elli do it at home. The girls had a blast making their bead snowflake ornaments.
Elli satisfied with her efforts!
Our cute little Santa Claus. I love this little suit and so did Brinlyn.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Thanksgiving Imu

So, there is a few more steps to the process of cooking your turkey in an imu but the finished result is awesome! We opened up the foil and all the meat was off the bones. We didn't even need to cut a single piece. It was amazing how moist it was and how easy it was to prepare. Yum!
This is the second step of the imu process. They put banana leaves down on the hot rocks and then place all the meat on top. It sure smells lovely down there.
This is the first step of the imu process which I know nothing about. I guess they get the rocks real hot at this point.
This is Brinlyn dressed up in a "build a bear" skirt. Ya, my children are tiny but man, I didn't think I would be able to actually velcro a build a bear skirt on my two year old! She does have a little hang over though...
I forgot to add this awesome picture of my mom with the girls. They all squeezed onto the plasma car for some serious fun. I love how happy everyone is!
This picture just cracks me up but probably makes no sense to anyone else. Brinlyn is our free spirited child who knows pretty well what she wants and lets you know. She loves ballet and dressing up. This is one of Elli's ballet leotards that is too big for Brinlyn but she wears it anyway. So, it was nap time and she had the leotard on and didn't want to take it off, which was fine by me. She decided to stuff her blanket down the front of it and actually fell asleep with it still there. She cracks us up every day with the things she does. Oh, and yes, she still has a pacifier and I don't think I will EVER get rid of it. She just might go to Kindergarten with it!

A day at the Polynesian Cultural Center

My parents flew out for a week to visit us in November just before Thanksgiving. It was one of the best weeks we have had on the island. We played hard, ate delicious food, played some more and just enjoyed being together. Elli just LOVES playing with grandma and was crushed when it was time for them to go home. She is still asking me to pretend to be grandma. I can't quite measure up to that but I do my best. :) Thanks Mom and Dad for such a fun week. You spoiled us as you always do and created some memories we will remember forever! We can't wait to see you again soon. We love you!
Grandma and Grandpa spoiled the girls with all the extra things you can do at the PCC. They bought some fish food for them to feed the fish which they loved. While we watched the canoe pageant they were lucky to get their very own ice cream! Wow, that was a treat!
My dad was one of the lucky guys to do the New Zealand chant. It was pretty hilarious!
Elli loves to play this stick game--I think we play it every time we go to the PCC.
Nate had to work the day we went to the PCC which was a bummer, so here is our little clan.

A morning at the beach

Grandma and Brinlyn--the beach is one of Brinlyn's most favorite places to be!

Here my dad is hanging low under the shade but enjoying his time watching all the crazy people.

Riding Stick Horses

Just down the street from our house there is this beautiful, lush, green historical site that is fun to just walk around in. It use to be some kind of temple and people lived there. We love to walk around and look at the many different plants and trees. You can find breadfruit, coconut, banana, taro, papaya, mango and I'm sure others we have no idea what they are.