Backstep to Valentine's Day

No chocolate until after breakfast, Chase!

My mom always made Valentine's Day such a fun holiday. We always woke up to a decorated table complete with a box of chocolates and other little gifts, and pink pancakes! I have tried to do the same. This year instead of regular pancakes, I made pink crepes filled with strawberries, bananas, and whipped cream! They were pretty good! We took the kids to the mall for some games and shopping (and of course a ride on the mall monorail) and then that night Mike and I had a wonderful friend volunteer to watch the boys for us while we went out! We went to a Japanese restaurant where they cook the food in front of you. It was delicious and so nice to enjoy a meal without wiggly boys! Thanks again, Tara!

Brody

So I am finally getting around to posting about our new dog. We adopted him last June from another family on base. He is a 70 lb sweet, energetic, Golden Retriever. He is 2 years old and was Mike's dream dog. We saw him on Craigslist, went to meet him, and came home with him that afternoon. I watched how gentle he was around the kids and I was sold. Brody LOVES water as you will see in the pictures below, and as I mentioned has A LOT of energy, which is sometimes good and bad! He is very sweet natured, and has never had an accident in the house! I was so happy not to have to train a puppy! His only vices are perhaps the hair (oh the constant shedding of hair) and his occasional thefts of entire batches of cookies or bread from the counter (yeah- I've learned to keep the kitchen gate closed if we go upstairs even for a minute!) We feel very lucky to be his family!

The Happiest Place on Earth Once Again!

The last week in February our family made a last minute decision to fly to Disneyland for a week! We didn't think it was actually going to happen but Dad got leave, tickets were bought and off we went for an entire week of fun and much needed family time! We stayed just a few miles from the parks in a suite- which was actually pretty decent. We spent 3 days at Disney and 1 at Sea World. It was non-stop fun! The only thing missing was our good friends, The Tolmans, but I'm sure they will join us for our next trip:P Here are some of the highlights in pictures.... Enjoy!

Joshua all ready for the first day at Disney (little did we know we were dressed to freeze!) It was in the high 50's and low 60's the whole time we were there and we've got Hawaii in our blood so that was mighty cold!!!!

Chase all ready for fun!

Horse-Drawn Fire Truck

Joshua concentrating on his driving at the boys favorite ride, Autopia. I think we drove these cars 4 different times in our 3 days there!

Chase couldn't even see over the steering wheel so it was a little scary riding with him (and bumpy) but he couldn't have been a happier kid until...

his mean parents made him get out of the car for the next riders ( I literally had to rip his hands from the steering wheel!)

But don't worry he got to ride again, and again, and....again

Awesome net climbing at park at California Adventure

Gotta have the classic castle picture

Watching how cartoons are made!

Joshua jumping for joy at Sea World

The fun finally got to him

Poor Joshua has recently moved to a booster seat and isn't used to not having sides to rest on like in his carseat- he would fall asleep in the craziest positions

Spoiled kid at Disney

Mike's Recent Accomplishments

I'm really late at posting about this, but back in September and October, Mike attended a leadership school for his upcoming promotion to Staff Sergeant! It was a grueling 6 weeks of classes, really. I didn't believe my neighbor when she said her daughter did homework ALL THE TIME. Mike would leave early in the morning and get home right in time for dinner (usually around 6) and then would be up doing homework until 11-12 every single night and even had a lot to do on the weekends! We seriously didn't go to the beach for a couple of months, because of his workload. However, it all paid off in the end! Mike worked so hard he was able to earn 1 of 6 Distinguished Graduate awards out of over 50 students (the pic above is just of his class). He also was nominated for and received "The Commandant Award" for outstanding leadership abilities. I was so proud to attend his graduation and cheer him on for all the outstanding work that he was being recognized for. Not only did he achieve good grades himself, but he also spent many hours outside of class with a fellow classmate who was struggling and together they were able to graduate! Congratulations Mike! We love you!  One more point I have to brag about: Mike recently passed the Military Japanese Proficiency test which means he now is proficient in Chinese and Japanese (amazing) and we get paid more for each language he knows! Go Mike!!!!

 

Pictures to go along with post below...

 Kissing at the campground (Bellows Air Force Station)

A beautiful Hawaiian Sunrise at Bellows (my favorite place:P)

Barnacles? We found at Electric Beach on Christmas Eve (where we went kayaking) Funny story about these is that after I showed them to the kids, we found Chase trying to snack on several of them. I really had to convince him to spit them out after hearing him crunching on the shells- they must have tasted pretty good!

Our little musician's favorite present from Santa

Showing a crab to the kids at Electric Beach

Sweet Joshua

Have you given up on me?

Okay, so I've been the world's worst blogger as of late!  I think Mike has given up on me as he kept asking if I had put any posts up as of late, and he finally did the last one on his own! Thanks Mike for documenting some of our life these last several months! As I sent out in emails about Christmas cards, I feel I do have a good excuse being PREGGERS and all! For those who don't know....Baby # 3 is due July 6th! So that makes me 16 weeks already! Crazy that we'll find out what we're having in just 4 weeks! I am just expecting to see little boy parts unless they tell me otherwise, and I'm okay with that! Let's face it, I would love some more estrogen in this house, I mean even the dog is a boy, however, I have boys, I know how to handle them (mostly) and we have all the clothes/toys already. So, whatever the outcome- we will be happy and know that was the little person that was supposed to join our family! We'll keep y'all updated!

As for catching up... well I've missed quite a few holidays, so I thought I would do a quick synopsis for our own journaling- sorry if it bores the rest of you and also throw in a few pictures of the boys! We have finally bought a new camera and so hopefully we will be taking more quality pictures from now on!

Thanksgiving...
We had several friends over to our house for the feast this year. There was so much yummy food and it was really the first big meal I had been able to put down in weeks- so I was a happy girl! We ate, went to see "Tangled" and then came back and ate some more. It was a lot of fun- and it was so nice to split up the menu so that no one was stuck with cooking the entire meal alone!

Christmas...
The week of Christmas we were able to go camping with a few other friends at Bellows Air Force Station which has got to be one of my favorite places on the island! We were quite worried that we would be rained out but the weather was perfect for us! We roasted our dinner over the fire that night, the kids loved running around with glow sticks (thanks Kecks!) We made S'mores and then stayed up talking until late. Joshua and Chase did great sleeping in the tent. The next morning our kids were up before sunrise (of course) so Mike took Chase to the beach and they watched the sunrise their while Josh and I cuddled some more in the tent! We then had a delicious dutch oven breakfast!!! (Thanks for the recipe- Tolmans!) All in all it was great fun! We would have liked to have stayed longer but we had a fun dinner party that next day that we needed to get home for!

Our Christmas festivities included going downtown the to the city lights festival, fun games with friends, progressive dinner, and kayaking on Christmas Eve!

Christmas day was pretty relaxed the boys had fun opening their presents and Mike was surprised with a Playstation 3 from Chrissy! I also received some wonderful gifts including a professional massage- which was wonderful! Christmas here is pretty weird. As Mike posted, the boys got a pool for Christmas and it was hot enough to use it right away!!!!! I miss white Christmases , but I think I would be longing for this weather again after a few days of cold!

Fun in the Sun

A few days after Christmas, the honeymoon between the boys and their new toys was pretty much over, and they needed something else fun to do.  Luckily, Santa left a family gift just for this occasion.  Here are some pictures of Josh and Chase enjoying the Hawaiian winter weather.