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