The Monkey at her Finest...

I don't "let" Kailee climb on these things, but I thought I'd document what I have to watch her for on a daily basis! I still think she's too young to "learn her lesson" (not sure that if I let her fall and potentially get hurt that she'd remember it and not do it again) I think when she swings (and yes, she does SWING!) on the bathroom sink that it would be worse of an injury (busting lip on sink or cracking head on tile floor) then if she fell over the back of the couch! Ughh!! :) I have tried to let her fall of the back (and catch her) to see if it would scare her, but she just laughs and wants to do it again! p.s. These series of pictures were taking right in a row. She went from being shooed out of the bathroom and to climbing on the couch!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! We are headed to the Stampfers today for Thanksgiving dinner! Good times!

Hailey with her handprint turkey...
And thanks to my sneaky Secret Santa who left this adorable pineapple turkey on my front porch yesterday!

The Dentist

I was finally able to get Hailey to the dentist for the first time. I don't know why it took me forever, but I couldn't remember to get her onto our dental insurance. After I finally did it, it took awhile for the insurance to kick in and then it took awhile for me to get an appointment. Anyway, both Hailey and I went to the dentist just down the hill last week and had a clean bill of health! No cavities! I didn't expect them for her, but I was worried about myself! :)

The picture above is the ONLY picture I was able to take of her (and that was in the lobby AFTER the appt while I was paying...and the bill was only $1.86 for the both of us! Gotta love the military (sometimes!) and the fact that we didn't need any major dental work!) Back to the picture, yep that was all I was able to document of her 1st trip to the dentist. Our appts were supposed to be back to back, so I could be there to hold her hand and tell her to be brave, but the hygienist came to get her shortly after I started my cleaning and she asked Hailey if she'd like to go with her and Hailey did! Such a big girl! I thought I'd be done before she was, but after awhile they came back with a full report on how wonderful she was. :) She told me that they did xrays, brushed her teeth and flossed them. Later that night when I was prying for information she told me that the dentist said that she had beautiful teeth and that when she asked her if she let her mommy brush her teeth she told them, "I can do it myself" Ha! :) So there you have it, you know as much about the dental visit as I do. Maybe when she goes again in May, I be able to get a picture of her in the act! :)

Tidbits from Hailey Part XI

It's been awhile so I have quite a few tidbits from Hailey girl...
*She was watching Tinkerbell on t.v. and told me that Tink's friend was "Peter Pants" :)


*When our carved pumpkins got moldy and rotten I told her I was going to have to throw them away. She told me to"wait until I go to bed so I won't have to watch and be sad"


*According to Hailey a mosquito is a "bugsquito"


*If you go out on a boat you are "boating" so when we go to soccer practice on Pearl Harbor we see the big Navy ships and Hailey said she wants to go "shipping"


*She confuses handsome with "handsment" ????


*We were on a Wizard of Oz kick around halloween and when it came to the part of the movie in Munchkin land they say something about making a bust of Dorothy for killing the witch with her house and Hailey was perplexed wondering why they would make Dorothy a "bus"


*I was mildly decorating for fall (halloween/thanksgiving) and Hailey didn't like where I had hung a scarecrow and I told her it's for fall and she replied "We don't have Fall in Hawaii"


*She told me that she wished that her dog could talk like Clifford.


*I caught her laying across Kailee on the floor and ask her what in the world she was doing and she replied, "Making an X"

*Again, while "torturing" her sister, I caught her shimmying Kailee through her legs and I enquired as to what was going on and she replied, "It's like they do on the dancing shows!"


And my favorite...
*When Hailey helps me with the babies or helps me find something, I always say to her, "What would I do without you, baby girl?!" Yesterday we were driving in the car and Hailey needed her sunglasses and I told her that they were right next to her in her cupholder and she replied, "What would I do without you, Mama?!" :) melt my heart!




Trying to make her smile for our Christmas card pictures...this is me throwing ornaments at her!
3 yr old graffiti...I found this on my desk! Thankfully it came off and wasn't etched in! At first I thought she had traced her hand, but it has an extra finger....she told me it was a crown. And she left her signature tag...an "H"

The Parkers

Amy, Alex, Josh and Janie made it out to Hawaii for vacation while they are on Alex's block leave before his upcoming deployment. Amy and I went to college together (and played soccer) and Alex and Leevi went to college together (and did ROTC). It wasn't far into our freshman years that we realized that each other new one anothers significant other and Amy and I took many a road trip together from Longwood to Old Dominion to visit the guys. And here we are 13 years later!!!!!

We had a great visit. The Parkers were able to get out and about the island during the day while I worked and then we had plenty of time to visit in the evenings. Hailey and Josh had a typical 3/4yr old love-hate relationship, but actually I was quite impressed with how well they got along. Kailee was a bear the whole time Amy was here. She was cutting two molars and a little tooth on the bottom (she is a monster when her teeth come in!) So between that and the fact that she thought that EVERYTIME I left the room it was to go somewhere and have Amy babysit, she was far from her typical cute self! But overall it was a great visit and we wished they could have stayed longer. Maybe one day our families will be stationed together!

I like this one because Josh is like, "Um, Hailey, could you just stand still for one second so we can get this over with and go play?!"

And again, this sums up photo attempts with multiple children! :)

At the hotel after a walk back along Waikiki beach

Ohana Photo Shoot

We attempted a photo shoot today of all 13 babes at KoOlina. Last year we opted for individual submissions of photos of the kids in a santa hat...

BUT this year we thought it'd be fun to capture the true essense of life with youngsters! The "final" pic that made the cut isn't posted (although it's not much better than what you see here!) :) I loved this one because this was so true "the drop and run"

Even the ones with the moms in it didn't turn out so hot! :)

Socializing in between sessions! :)Is she a "beach babe" or a "beached whale"? :)I liked these of the girls, but got a much cuter one of each at home that will be on our Christmas card.

I hadn't planned on taking pictures with the girls, but why pass up the opportunity...I like this one, but you can see Hailey's underwear and Kailee has snot! I guess that's nothing a little Photoshop can't fix! And Brooke summing up the feeling of most of the kids (AND adults!) But it was a gorgeous day and most people at least got their family pictures for their own cards and an afternoon at the beach in paradise!

Catch up!

Ughhh....we've been so busy and I have quite a few things to post, so I'll try to spit out a blog purge to post everyday this week....check back!

Until then.....a pic of the monkey at her lastest feat....she can now climb into her high chair or onto the dining room table/island bar chairs. I've tucked them into the table (and away from the island) to hopefully deter her.

It will only be a matter of time before she attempts the crib....although Hailey never did. Kailee really likes her crib, so maybe she won't even try. :)

Let the Countdown Begin!

We are getting so close now!!!! I had stopped counting the days when we were somewhere around the 30 mark because it was just dragging. This is by far is the worst part of the whole year. (Can you believe it's already been a year??!!!) Well, almost...we are SO fortunate that Leevi was able to leave right after Christmas last year and will be home before Christmas this year! It's exhausting to look back at everything that has gone on this year while he was away...the big things are obvious: birthdays, vacations, baby milestones, but it's the everyday things of errands, working full time, walking the dog, caring for the girls, trying to have some sort of a social life (even if it is just walking the hill with the ladies) that is the part that's really mentally, emotionally, physically waring. I'm beat. I can't wait for help. I can't wait to not be alone at night after the girls go to bed. I can't wait to have my husband back on American soil. I can't wait for him to be safe. I can't wait for his next duty to be to protect his girls here at home. I can't wait for our girls to have their Daddy tuck them in bed. I can't wait. I started tearing up at Walmart last week when I was buying 'Welcome Home' decorations. I was only able to stop myself because I started laughing at the fact that I was by myself in Walmart about to cry. :)

I know everytime I write about how strong our Hawaiian Ohana is I always feel the need to explain what a tight knit family we are because nobody has any extended family out here, so we've made our own. But I know for a fact we couldn't have survived this deployment without them. Everybody has played a part from babysitting to today Mike fixing the heating element on my dryer (I almost made it through the year without a major thing breaking). I'm sure Leevi also took comfort in knowing how looked after we were and that he knew that I could always pick up the phone if I needed something. The book Hailey picked for bed tonight was about the Aloha Spirit, so I'll end this post with a quote from the book.
"But the greatest Aloha
You'll ever find
Is around your house
The Ohana Kind.

With family and friends
You're never alone
Surrounded with love
In an Aloha home."

Kailee Girl!

I hadn't done a post recently about Kailee in general so I thought I'd document her milestones on here since I've been so bad with her baby book! :) She is still the best baby in the world ! So flexible and happy although I've needed quite a few babysitters recently and she hasn't been too happy about that. You'd think she'd be sick of me, but oh no, she gets very clingy when friends are over to visit for fear that they are a sitter! Her words are starting to flow with almost a new one every couple of days...mama, dada, baby, ball, bubble, nana (banana), hello, hi, bye bye, wawa (pacifier), wawa (water) ma (milk) and sort of Leila, Hailey, shoe, book. And she pretty clearly said "Jackson" the other day, but hasn't repeated it. She definitely understands more than she can speak...."bring this to ____" "go get the ____" "lets take a bath/lets go eat/lets go outside" My absolute favorite is when she tries to sing the Dora song, "Do do do do do Dora! Do do do do do Dora!" When ever she see a Dora book or cup or doll she'll say, "dodododododo" :) She's obsessed with brushing her teeth and will go stand on the bathroom stool and point to the toothbrushes (she needs one for each hand!) She will go to the pantry and pull out a snack and bring it to me to open or go to the fridge and ask for milk. She's a big girl and off bottles completely. I just went cold turkey on her after she finally stopped spitting milk out if she drank it from a sippy cup. And again, she really didn't care about not having the bottle (or even her bedtime bottle) She just goes with the flow! She's a great sleeper through the night and will even go to bed at 6:30pm if she only naps about 2 hours during the day. Typically she's 7pm to 7am if she gets a longer nap or two naps. Her favorite book is a lift the flap board book (that was also a favorite of Hailey's) where a baby plays peekaboo, is happy, sad, eats, wants her mama, and sleeps. Kailee will act out the peakaboo, mama and nigh-night and she looks up every time at me when I read about the baby reaching for her mommy (tear) :)

We are so blessed to have such fun and loving daughters and I guarantee Kailee is so perfect because of her wonderful big sister! :)

The Social Monkey

Good Grief!!! I'm not really worried about her climbing up here and burning herself because obviously if I'm cooking I won't leave the stove area, but I'm more concerned about the oven door pulling open! It has a lock, but that's only when it's self cleaning!

My favorite monkey act of hers is opening the bathroom door. It is physically impossible that she should be able to open it. Even on her tippy toes she isn't tall enough yet somehow with her strong will and determination she gets it open. It's the craziest thing. The first time she did it Hailey was in the bathroom and I didn't believe her that she didn't help Kailee from the inside, but I was proven wrong shortly after that when I witnessed it with my own eyes. Still trying to get the magic trick on video.... :)

Kailee playing soccer...

Sorry for the poor quality...it was from my cell phone (and I also couldn't edit it with Movie Maker)

Just some snippets of everyday things...

Random Photos

We have been really busy lately (which is helping the time fly until Leevi gets home...less than a month!!) I haven't had time to update the blog on specific events, so I'll just do a hodge podge post of everything recent....

Who needs toys when you can make a train out of a beer box?

Such the imagination...her form of baseball: flower hat, a flute, bathroom stool, soft ball and she even used the bead runner as her trophy! And she made Gavin play along! Maybe Leila was the ump

The girls at Trish and Justin's wedding

Bonsack, Tiff, me

"I love being a little sister"

"I love being a big sister"

Playing "nigh-night"

"Um, I didn't do anything. Did you do anything?!"

Worn out from her big sister role! She fell asleep at 4:50pm and didn't wake up until 6:30am!

And my FAVORITE! She knows all about how tough it is to be a big sister! The best thing about this photo is that this is exactly how I found her. Nobody was around her. I had no idea how long she has been sitting like this!!!!!!!!!!!! SUCH a great dog!!!!!!!!

Soccer

Soccer is smooth sailing and Hailey seems to enjoy it. They finally got to use balls on the 3rd week! She has 6 more practices and is excited that Leevi will be home to take her to the last one!

The Group Pic...Hailey is in the second row from the front and 4th kid from the right and Colin is smack in the middleHailey's biggest fan!

Finally broke out the balls two weeks ago And even got the goals out this week!