Hawaii Week TWO

This week was our most busy. My niece and nephew came to visit for a week each. So we all played tourist and tried to get the most done in the short time they were there. These pictures are not in any order.

Kelly and I on a sunset Catamaran ride. The ride came with free drinks...which included Hawaii Sun Juice (best stuff ever) I drank 3 and half cans during the 1 hour ride. I wanted to get my money's worth.

We had great seats for fireworks on the 4th, Our balcony! Actually, the Marriott hotel set off fireworks every Friday night. The kids loved seeing them and we loved not having to go anywhere to see them.

This is Hanauma Bay. It is famous for being a great spot for snorkeling, especially beginners. IT. WAS. AMAZING!!!

Garett was able to take both boys out for a little snorkeling.

This was the 4th of July parade. Um, it was super lame. The boys only got one piece of Candy. This is my nephew and boys with a Star Wars version of Captain America.

This was the best part of the parade. Dancing dragons. I guess that if you give them money you are supposed to get good luck. I don't know how much I believe it but the boys had fun feeding them.

Little Miss Liberty

Waiting for the parade to get interesting. We just kept waiting and waiting.

We went to the "Punchbowl". National Cemetery of the Pacific. Basically everybody who died fighting in the Pacific is buried here. They also have a memorial of those who were lost in battle and never found. I am very grateful for those who have given there life for freedom!

The Polynesian Cultural Center was a favorite spot. Here we are with our cousin (tour guide) she is from Texas. She was so great. She would take Mallory so that we could participate in different things. She got the kids an exclusive boat ride. And overall she was just fun. Anybody who is planning on going to Hawaii. Go to the PPC. So great!!

In the village of Tahiti learning to dance. Spencer was a professional. And during the large demo my nephew got called on stage to dance for everybody. He can truly shake it.

In the village of Hawaii learning to Hula. You can't see it in this picture but Mallory climbed on stage and started to Hula. Needless to say she totally stole the show. Even now when you ask her to hula she will shake her little bum.

This is the village of Fiji. This is a stick game that is really a training of some sort. Anyways, that is my niece and she ended up winning the whole game. She has reflexes like a ninja.

Even Mallory played the stick game.

They also taught us how to use Poi Balls. Why would they give these to children???Just to brag I was the best on the Poi balls. I could spin them like no other.

Garett and Kelly playing "Bula". I hope you all enjoy this picture because at the time I was taking it Spencer was throwing a stick at my head. He was really good at this game.

They told us to give our "Lea" to somebody you love, since a lea is a symbol of a hug. While Garett and I where exchanging leas. They boys exchanged the too, without being prompted. Yeah, they love each other!!

Yeah, he loves me!

Shark's Cove, this is another famous snorekling place but forthe more advanced. The tidal pools were fun to search.

Again with the Masumoto's. It was so good!

Garett and my nephew Holden rented this so they could chase the turtles. However, they boys took a little ride too.

She loved the beach and had no fear of the waves. She played she swam, she rested then did it all over again. She loved the boogie board and sitting on sand castles.

Sometime during the trip, Spencer and Preston learned to swim. With that they became more confident in the ocean and on the waves.

Holden was the only one to take surf lessons. It is a lot of work. Garett and I really wanted to take lessons, but there was never a good time to do it. Bummer

The Honolulu Zoo had a great petting area.

Spencer is going to do a lot of crazy stuff in his life. He climbed on anything and everything while we were there. This is the side of a hotel.

We are still looking for a name for this band?

We went to the USS Arizona memorial. It is a huge memorial/museum with different ships and things to see. It was not hard to get a clear picture of how thing happened. The whole time I just had this feeling of great sadness. Again, thank you to those who gave their life.

Riding the boat over to the USS Arizona.

I hate to end with that last picture. We had a great time with my niece and nephew. However, I am grateful that I still have a few more years until my kids are teens. Thank you Holden and Kelly for coming and especially for babysitting!

Hawaii Week One

I know that these pictures are long overdue but here they are. We had some much fun that I couldn't even do it justice with words. I loved all the time I had with my kids. We would totally do this again!!

World's Largest Hawaii shirt!

Cute Girl at the Temple. The Temple is the most beautiful temple EVER!

Eating shrimp at the shrimp farm. It wasn't all that great to tell you the truth.

The sun setting, shrimp farms in the background and the most adorable couple.

Shark's Cove tidal pools

Everybody told us this was the best shaved ice place and they were all correct. It was so good we went 4 different times.

This amazing view is what we saw every night from our hotel

Manoa Falls, it was such a great hike(3 mile round trip). It was a little muddy but that made it more exciting

When I found out I was having a baby girl....

This is NOT what I expected!

Nothing is safe

The boys built a rocket from random stuff in our garage. They said that it can only be used in case of an emergency. I asked them what type of emergency and Presto said, "like if we have to go to the store to get milk and Popsicles". Awesome

A turtle came to visit our house. Literally found it by our front door. We have named him Gladimir. So we now have 1 mean, old Dog (yesterday was her birthday!!!), 3 indestructible Hermit crabs and 1 turtle. Mallory wants and Elephant for Christmas!

Little Malli touched the Lawn Mower right after I got done mowing and was putting it away. A quick trip to the ED and she now has to have her little hand wrapped with ointment until we see the Hand specialist next week. She should be perfectly fine but just to be sure. She is playing and climbing like she doesn't have 2nd degree burns.

She normally only gets a bottle at night but because I feel like such a bad mom she got to have it ALL day LONG!

4 Years Old

Spencer is finally 4 years old. We celebrated with a WATER BALLOON EXTRAVAGANZA! We had a whopping 14 kids. And the good news is that the whole thing was outside and my house didn't get messy at all!! Thank you perfect weather.The backyard set-up was awesome. Slip and Slide with sprinkler then a pool right in the middle with a sprinkler that somewhat hit it then the slide of our playground with a pool at the bottom with a sprinkler on it. Then when the kids thought they couldn't have a better time we brought out the water balloons and pinata!! It was a blast and so easy!Just look at how cute he is, well don't look to close because he is so bruised up. The kid seriously looks like he was in some sort of accident but they are all self inflicted.

He got soooo many cool gifts. I can't believe how many presents he got.

Ok so the plan was to make a cake with 3-d water balloon. My first mistake was that I listened to Garett and then it was down hill from there. Basically I had to give up the plan and just make it a bunch of dots. It is still really cute and Spencer loved it but not what I was planning.

Spencer is a great kid. Not at all what I thought he would be like. He is shy and doesn't make friends super easy (meaning he is content to play by himself so he won't go out of his way to talk to somebody) but would give you the shirt off his back if you need it( and if he wasn't tired or hungry). He loves to snack rather then eat meals, not just eat snack foods but just eat small amounts all the time. He still has the worlds smallest bladder. He is just 2 inches shorter then his brother and we thought he was going to take over in weight but he just stopped gain and is super skinny now. He loves to climb and is NOT afraid of heights! He loves to cuddle especially when it is time to go to bed. He LOVES to pray which is a new thing and the opposite of what is was just a few months ago. He can not sit still for anything. Something has to be in motion. He is a bit rough with his sister but you can tell that they really are just love taps! We love him so much and are so glad he is a part of our family.

PATHETIC

As in that is what I am, Pathetic! We had a really great April but of course I didn't get around to blogging these things when they happened so now I will review with pictures. Enjoy!

These are from most recent to earlier in the month.

Some may think that I put this picture on because Mallory is so cute and she is but I also wanted to show off my grass. I am really working hard and hope to have a close to perfect lawn by the end of summer.
We went to South Carolina for the weekend. Garett went to a ultrasound conference and we went to play. As you can tell from this picture you can tell that we played hard.
While in SC we went to the zoo. It was a great zoo, lots of animals and things to do. Here, Preston is feeding the birds nectar. We also helped give some of the birds a bath at the hand washing station. This was by far the best part of the zoo.

I often forget when Mallory has this Pacifier in. EVERYBODY stops and stares and giggles. She is pretty cute.More fun things at the zoo
Mallory loved the zoo. She would point and clap and sign at every animal. She loved the elephants and the goats the best.

Also in SC we went to a children's museum. This bulldozer actually worked and they boys were able to "move blocks" and steer it around. Pretty cool.

Easter Sunday......While I was finishing getting ready I asked Garett if he would get some pictures of the kids in their outfits. This is the best one he got. He gave up after this so we don't really have great pictures. We all looked great in our PINK!

We went camping Easter weekend with a few of our friends. It would have been a perfect trip if it hadn't rained all day Friday. We still had fun with the limited amount of sun.

Preston with best buddy Caleb!
Ever since his brief rotation in Derm, Daddy always makes sure we wear our sun hat.
We did a big Easter Egg hunt while camping. Here is Mallory getting her eggs.
All the kids together. Just if you were wondering, Mallory is wearing one of the boys sweatshirts.
We also dyed Easter Eggs. I loved that all of the mess was not in my kitchen.
This is the boys right after they found their baskets
Mallory got a baby doll in her basket. We named her Ester-something biblical.
The boys!
Again, the order of these pictures is backwards. The boys had an Easter Egg hunt at their school. I mostly posted this picture because the girl is Riley, Preston's "best girl"
Showing off his basket that he made.
Here is Spencer class before they were let go to find eggs. I just want to say how proud I was of Spencer. He found tons of eggs but when he found out that some of his classmates where not finding as many. He stopped looking for himself and just looked for others. And when that wasn't good enough he took eggs out of his basket and gave them to other. All without any prompting. He really is a good, sweet boy!

We went to Az

For Spring break we went to Arizona to visit family and friends. I know it has now been two weeks since we've returned but pictures are better late then never.

Grandpa Moore made sure that there were plenty of puppies to play with and for most of the time that is what they did.

Mallory was not so sure about the puppies at first but soon learned to love them.

We played with Cousins. Braden lives there and we love playing with him and his brothers. Also my brother and his family came down from Utah. We hadn't seen them in a year and it was such a great time. Of course I don't have any pictures with us and them but we really do miss them living close.

We took a little side trip up to Showlow to visit with Grandma and pa Jackson. We all loved the hammock that they have in there backyard. I even go to take a 2 hour nap in it. While we were there we introduced them to roasting peeps!!! Everybody should try it.

My niece from Minnesota was there for her spring break. For the record it was her who made the Fit go down to 38 (inside joke!)

Aunt Heather came up from Tucson for a day. We had fun playing with her. She was a huge help with taking care of Mallory while I herded the boys.

I love my Mommy!

I also got to run in a 5k with the best college room mate EVER!!!!Isn't she just a totally babe. Oh and my niece ran the race too, it was her first race and she was a little worried about looking like a dork (she was with me so it was a legit fear). She did awesome!! I can't wait to hear about her next race and her next and next and next, etc.

Arizona we love you and all who live there.