I know I'm slacking!!!

I know I'm slacking with recent blog posts!! This isn't even a full post. I just wanted to route you to my youtube link on this site to check out two new videos of Kailee. I'm even too busy to just upload them on this blog. I can't keep up with myspace, facebook, snapfish and run a family. The laundry monster has barfed on my bed...at least the clothes have been washed, but the pile is too intimidating to attempt tonight. I'm going to bed! :)

Happy 6th Anniversary to Us!

Leevi and I are celebrating our 6th anniversary today! He was going to surprise me with our plans for the evening, but I made him tell me what we were doing so I could plan accordingly for the girls. We're going to see the Nutcracker and then to dinner!

Of the 6th years we've been married we've only had to spend one anniversary apart (our 2nd...he was in Afghanistan). As a tradition, we says our wedding vows again to each other. We didn't write them, but I still love them...

"I want to live with you and love you,
just as you are.

I chose to share my life with you
in plenty and in want,
in joy and in sorrow,
in sickness and in health.

I want to love you for yourself
in the hope that you'll become
all that God intended you to be.

With God's help,
I promise to honor this pledge
as long as life endures."

Leevi leaving for work...

Here's a video clip of Hailey saying bye to Leevi as he heads to work. On the days he rides the motorcycle, Hailey hears him start it up and always comes running! It's a very similar greeting when he comes home from work, but it's too chaotic to film because Leila is barking and both Hailey and the dog are trying to run down the stairs to see Leevi. Hailey is screaming at Leila because she wants to go first and I'm just trying to make sure Leila doesn't knock her down the stairs...just wait until Kailee can join in the fun.

Girls Night Christmas Party

I've mentioned before about our extremely large network of friends out here in Hawaii, but few can understand just how close of an Ohana we are. Most in the group are teachers or related to or associated with one somehow. That's how I met this fabulous bunch. I remember on my first day at Kapolei Middle the SPED teacher on my team, my dear friend Kristine Bonsack, talked about a group of 30 or more friends who get together for tailgating, beach BBQs, camping, etc. This was true, but the thing that makes this group so different is the fact that we live on an island without family close by so these people really become your family. Over the years, our wild nights of pub crawls and such have turned to milder house parties or kid's birthday parties (11 babies with two more on the way!) The girls started to get together for The Bachelor episodes which changed to dinners and watching Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy on Sundays. Grey's made the move to Thursdays, but we still kept our dinner and Desperate "Girls Nights". One person would host and cook dinner for everyone and we'd rotate houses each week. As our Ohana has grown and children and grad school take preference, we've cut back to Girl Nights every couple of weeks. Each year we have our Annual Christmas Party and go all out with Secret Santa gifts and a Pollyanna gift exchange. Below are some pictures to document the special night.

The Girls (and a few of the babies)...

Kailee and Mason...

Hailey and Kailee...

Hailey helping pass out the Pollyanna gifts...
10 empty bottles of wine and the night was oh so young...

Mason and Kailee changed into their comfy pjs...

Hailey upstairs watching The Little Mermaid...

Hanging out...

The Girls Night Dogs... :)

Santa (past and present)

2008 Hailey (33months) Kailee (almost 3 months) This year Hailey talked for weeks before we went to see Santa about how she was going to sit on his lap with Kailee. I emphasized how Santa was a nice man and she didn't have to be shy. I really thought she would chicken out when we got there, but she didn't. She is still very shy and will hide behind us around some of our guy friends, but Santa is magical I suppose! Kailee of course is still too young to care. Maybe she won't ever be scared of him since she'll have her big sister guiding the way! :)

We also took her to ride the "Pearl Ridge Express Train" at the mall. She did this a few weeks back with her buddy Gavin, but wanted to take Leevi back and show him.
2007 Hailey (22 months) and her cousin, Will (almost 4 months). She was fine waiting in line to see Santa, but a different story once it became our turn! I had gone with Leevi's sister last Dec. when we were briefly in Washington. Our initial plan was to go again with Leevi once we got back to Hawaii, but after this trial we decided against torturing her again! :) 2006 Hailey (10 months) Her first visit with Santa. Poor thing...she'd look up at him and be fine and then look at us and scream for help and then look up at him again. The actual professional pic turned out cute with her little lip stuck out! :) Leila's first Christmas (2004)...yes, I know I'm cheesy, but she was my first baby!

Gymboree Bargain!

The only reason I'm posting this picture of Kailee is because of the comment Hailey made about her hat. I found this adorable Gymboree outfit at a consignment shop that was going out of business. The already discounted outfit was 50% off, so I got it for practically pennies! It's a 0-3 months and my chunky monkey can't fit into too many of that size anymore, but I couldn't pass it up because it was so cute and so cheap. Anyway, I put it on Kailee yesterday and came downstairs and Hailey asked me if she was wearing underwear on her head!! :)

Hailey can write her name!

Hailey wrote her name for the first time yesterday! I was really surprised because she shows little interest in coloring and doesn't really attempt to try to stay in the lines on a picture. I knew she could make an H...she makes those all the time and says, "H for Hailey!" Usually when we write her name I guide her hand with mine but yesterday she did it on her own. Not from memory, but I would make the letter on the top of the page and she would copy it. The H, A, I, and L are pretty easy. We had to switch to an uppercase E because the lowercase is still to hard.

Her first attempt...she ran out of room

The second draft...those spider looking things are Grandpa and Grandma

The Curl

Hailey will sometimes wake up in the morning with this lone curl right in the middle of her forehead...I couldn't resist taking a picture of it!

Kid Swap

Earlier this week Tiffany brought her three kids over to play outside with Hailey. Mason and Kailee were angels in the stroller, but angels doesn't exactly describe the behavior of Colin and Hailey. There were tears every two minutes it seemed over who is going to ride the bike or push the stroller. Hailey would have a meltdown and then Colin would follow suite next. Hailey would look at me with her arms out and say, "What is wrong with Colin?" or "He isn't listening to Tiffany" As if she were the model child! Ha!! This is usually a regular occurance when we try to have playdates. We assume Hailey and Colin fight like brother and sister because they see each other practically everyday. Hailey does her fair share of instigating, but since Colin is stronger Hailey opts for the drama queen howl and plays an Oscar winning victim role!

Tiffany and I decided to try a Kid Swap for a day and Hailey went to her house to play with Rylee and Colin came to my house to have all the toys and attention to himself! It was perfect!!!!! I think I had it easier than Tiff because Colin is so good at playing with something for a significant amount of time...we played with My Little Pony, Little People, Playdoh, markers, cars and on and on. When Rylee went down for her nap, Hailey said that she wanted to come home, but she and Tiffany painted and did some crafts. Both kids seemed to have a blast and enjoyed the change of scenery. We'll definitely do it again, but not often enough where it isn't a "treat" anymore. Leevi and Tiffany's husband, Jim, deploy together to Afghanistan in January, so she and I will have to have lots of tricks up our sleeves to survive the year with the five kids!

Here are some pictures of Colin playing at our house...

Our Christmas Stumps!

Five years ago when Leevi and I were taking down our Christmas decorations, Leevi cut a stump off the bottom of our first tree and asked if I wanted to keep it. Not knowing exactly what I was going to do with it, we just packed it away with our Christmas boxes until the next year. When Christmas came around a year later, I thought it'd be cute to decorate it and put it on display. Since then we've added Hailey's first tree stump in 2006 and now this year we have one for Kailee. We've already cut hers because we needed our tree to be a little smaller! :) We are slowly getting the rest of our decorations out. We got our tree the day after Thanksgiving and got it up and with lights, but not decorated. Things got put out around the house and we did the outside lights on Saturday. Maybe we'll get to the tree tonight after Leevi gets home from work.

Hailey's Stump, Leevi's and My Stump, Kailee's Stump

Who is Who? Part II

Here are the girls at around 2 months...who is who?

Our So Called Guard Dog...

Leila can seem very intimidating by her bark and appearance, but she's the biggest wimp you'll ever meet! She's scared of just about everything...including fireworks. She'll climb up on your lap if she hears them. For some reason people were setting off fireworks for Thanksgiving (who knows??!!) and Leila just climbed right up on me when the girls and I were cuddling. Leila is quite the cuddler anyway, but especially when she's scared and did I mention that she weighs 70 lbs!!?? Not exactly your lap dog! Leevi says that I made her that way because I treated her like a baby when she was little! :) Unless you have a dog of your own you can't quite understand the attachment...I know I never did until we got our "Bubbalou" or "BubbaYou" as Hailey says! Thankfully for New Years this year will are having a little gathering at our house and will be here with her. Typically in the past, we've had to shut all the windows and turn up the t.v. for her! :)

Gobble, Gobble...

We have a busy Thanksgiving Day planned with three separate house hops...a T-day brunch with some close friends, the main Thanksgiving dinner with our large Hawaiian Ohana, and then dessert at Tiffanys. Two of the houses are within walking distances, so maybe that will help with some of the guilt as I go for that second helping of dessert! :)

Hailey Fishing

On her own, Hailey made a fishing pole out of a broom, dog leash, and dog collar and went fishing off of our back deck. I thought it'd be cute to capture the imagination of a 2 year old so I grabbed my camera. I was watching my friend's son for the day, so little Gavin makes an appearance in the video...

Hailey's Vocabulary

I think Hailey can speak pretty well for a 2 1/2 yr old, but I know I can understand her obviously much better than other people since I'm around her all day. Even I still need to use context clues sometimes to figure out what she is trying to tell me! She's quite the jabberjaw, but she pronounces a few things with the wrong first letter. It's not that she can't pronounce the beginning sound because she'll say it in other words. For example she says "Nore" for "More" but I know she can say the "m" sound because she says milk and momma. Anyway, her are some of the funny ones....


We have a kid's basketball hoop out back. Hailey says, "Basketball Poop"


She knows that Santa lives at the North Pole. Hailey says, "North Hole" I'll say, it's Pole..."paa" "paa" . Hailey will repeat, "north Hole, paa, paa" Or I will say, "More, ma, ma" and she'll say, "Nore, ma, ma" :)


I guess she'll get it eventually! :) One more word that she gets wrong is Animal...she says Amimal. She'll scream for me out back when she finds a slug or worm...."Mom!!! Come see the aMimal!!!"

Missing Fall

Many of my friends have been b****ing (I mean blogging) about the weather back home and it makes me really miss it out here in Hawaii. We do have "seasons" in terms of muggy, hot or rainy, "cold" weather. It's been getting really cold at night (60's) and I LOVE it! We have AC, but try to keep our windows open year round because of the crazy electric bill. We can usually make it through the summer months and the winter months are a breeze. Leevi was laughing at me the other night because I closed up the back windows when we were watching t.v. because I was cold. Your body does adjust and I'm sure my skin is a little thinner since we've lived in this warm climate for so long.

Our weather report for today excites me though...we had rain all night (I love sleeping with the sound of rain). It's still raining this morning...we didn't have much planned for today. Leevi was thinking about golfing or taking Hailey to the beach, but we'll have to figure out something else. Usually when it rains in Hawaii it doesn't last all day or typically you can drive to a different side of the island and find sunshine. Not today though, I'm pretty sure everyone is getting soaked. I feel sorry for the tourists who spent so much money to get here and it's crappy outside.

We can get our taste of winter on the Big Island. At the top of the volcano in the mountain it gets so cold at night the military lodge/cabins have fireplaces. We can get sunburnt during the day and then come home at night to the smell of fireplaces...I REALLY miss that!

It's tough to get in the holiday spirit wearing flip flops and shorts...we'll just do lots of decorating. We are going to pull out the Christmas stuff next weekend and hopefully get our tree up. Since Leevi is deploying to Afghanastan in January we will really have to go overboard on the festivities this holiday season!

Our poor dog...

Our poor dog, Leila, puts up with so much from Hailey. She has an amazing tolerance level and I'm sure it stems from Hailey feeding her! Hailey's latest torture method is to put an old collar and leash on Leila and "walk" her around the house. Leila just looks at me like, "I hope you give me an extra treat for this!" She's such a great big sister!

From the Mouths of Babes

Hailey casually walked up to me and said, "I have a little bum. You have a big bum." I laughed to myself and thought, ok that's true, but asked her if she could pick a different body part, so she replied, "I have little feet. You have big feet." Again, not something I like to be pointed out. One more try....she says, "I have little boobs. You have big boobs" That game ended quickly and I changed the conversation! :)

Kailee is 2 months old!

Here's a video of Kailee smiling and sneezing...she's got these crazy cartoon-like sneezes. She reminds me of Donald Duck. We can't believe she's 2 months old already! I thought Hailey was a pretty easy baby, but I think Kailee has her beat. I feel like she still sleeps so much during the day and I always worry when nighttime comes wondering if she'll be awake all night, but (knock on wood) she's been wonderful through the night. I'm usually only up twice and she eats and burps and I'm back in bed in less than 10 minutes.

Happy Veteran's Day!

To my husband, father, all of our military friends and relatives, and to the families that make the sacrifice...THANK YOU! Happy Veteran's Day!

Kailee sporting her USA outfit (thanks Amber and Madison!)

Hailey wearing her favorite pajamas...a t-shirt from Leevi's work...they are called the Watchdogs, so Hailey calls it her Doggie jammies. She wasn't sleeping in this picture, just not willing to cooperate! :)

Daddy and his baby girls

Leevi's one lucky man...

His "first" baby girl...(Baby Leila almost blends into the blanket!)

Hailey's first day home from the hospital...

Kailee's first day home from the hospital...

So snuggly...

Family Date Night

Leevi and I took Hailey (and Kailee) to the premier of Madagascar 2 last night. She loved it! She likes the original one and had seen previews for the 2nd one, so she was really excited. We'd taken her to a grown-up movie when she was a baby, but this was the first one that she would remember. She did great sitting through the movie and when we were getting back in the car afterward she asked us if we were going to take her back tomorrow. It's so fun at this age where we can finally start doing more family things that Hailey will appreciate and yet Kailee is still so young it's easy to bring her along for the ride without having to provide any entertainment/distractions. Here's a video of us waiting on Leevi to get home from work...

Oh so innocent...hopefully!!!

The girls and I were at the Stampfer's house the other day and Hailey was playing with Colin's doctor kit. (You know where this is leading, right?!!) Tiffany and I overheared Colin say, "Hailey, check my belly. Hailey, check my wee-wee" We both looked at each other and said, "What did he just say?!" Of course we didn't make a big deal about it, but Tiffany advised Colin on appropriate body parts to "check" and those to avoid!!!

I suppose since we are on the subject, I could tell you about a similar story from Hailey a few months ago. I was babysitting a friend's son who was a few months shy of a year old. Hailey was helping me change his diaper and says, "Colin has one of those" (pointing you know where) and then to add to it she says, "Colin has a big one"

Can't Do Without...

I missed placed my cell phone the other day and it got me thinking about everyday things I can't do without! I'll start with my cell...

We don't have a house phone, so my cell is my line to the adult world when I don't feel like conversing with a two year old! It's also great for the quick text message to Leevi to ask him to bring milk home!Caffeine!

Although I don't feel too exhausted in the mornings, I do like a good cup of coffee! I have to time it around Kailee's feedings but I can usually squeeze in a cup of coffee and a small coke in the afternoon...I tell myself that one of these baby cokes can't be that bad! :) My Blue Water Cup...

To compensate for the caffeine intake and soda I do drink a ton of water. We have a few of these big tumblers that I use at home. It's never far from reach. Hailey's Staple Breakfast...

Hailey loves these little pancakes...I love them because they are cheap, fast, and not messy (she is naive to the fact that pancakes taste great with syrup!) She usually has them for breakfast and they are easy to take in the car if we have something to do early in the morning.The Computer...

Or more specifically the Internet. We don't get the newspaper, so I do a lot of reading online not to mention emailing, blogging, and posting pictures for family and friends. Burp Cloths...

We kept the burp cloths I used for Hailey, but I received quite a few more as gifts for Kailee. I thought I had too many, but Kailee is a barfer. And I'm not just talking a little spit up here and there! I keep one close by during feedings and we have them layed out on the changing table, crib, bouncer, and swing! Wipes...

Who said wipes were just for cleaning butts? They are great for wiping tables at restaurants, cleaning little hands or even a quick feet cleaning if bath time is far away. I will probably keep them around long after I've changed my last diaper. I love the Costco Kirkland brand...cheap, large, and soft!The Bouncer...

My life saver when it comes to keeping Kailee content. She loves the vibration and naps in this during the day. She not a big fan of the swing, but I'm keeping it around for awhile and keep trying her in it. Someone needs to invent a swing that vibrates or a bouncer that can bounce itself! Blankies and Wawas (Pacifiers)...

Hailey and Kailee both use pacifiers. Hailey started calling it a Wawa when she was about 18 months and it just stuck. I'm not sure when we'll attempt the battle to get rid of the Wawa. Hailey's good about only using it in bed or in the car and it's such a quick comfort. She can keep her blankies as long as she wants! Hailey's Barrattes...

Until Hailey's curly hair finally gets long I'll have to use barrattes to keep the poof down! I should have taken a picture of all the products I use to do her hair...waterbottle to wet it, wide bristle brush, moosse or curl enhancer, and a baby brush to brush the front over. I'll probably have to do the same for Kailee.My Swivel Sweeper...

It's battery powered and great for our hardwood floors. Easy for a daily quick cleaning.Last but not least...The DVR...

I'm not sure how anyone with children can survive without it! We don't watch too much t.v., but we've got our shows programmed to record so we can watch it after Hailey goes to bed AND the best part is being able to fast forward through commericals. Even if I am able to watch the show live, I'll usually find something else to do just so I can save time. The rewind feature is also great especially if I am trying to watch something when one of the girls are awake!