January Random-ness

Catching up on some January stuff.   Random photos.  The blog has felt no love over the past few months.  I am hoping we can change that. 

Its a bit like the closet scene from E.T, only its our mountain of laundry.

Sometimes we have a few laundry issues in this house.   Well, lets be honest.  We could use a laundry intervention.  It gets to epic proportions and we have "folding nights" where laundry is piled all over our family room floor.   I know this sounds crazy.   It is crazy.   We both hate folding laundry.   But the positive side of this?   The girls have the best time playing in it, being covered up by it and the squeals of delight are enough for us to continue this madness.   Sometimes being a bit crazy gets the biggest giggles from your kids.

My hubby is a saint.  He has spent weekend after weekend taking the girls to various outings and giving mom some much needed time away from the gremlins.    Children's Museum, Aquariums, Parks (weather cooperating), you name it...he will take them. Two thumbs up for my fantastic husband who allows mom to find her sanity for a few hours each weekend.
 

  

Monorail Ride

We have a few bird feeders in the yard.   One is a suet feeder, which the birds love.   And the squirrels go crazy over.   They devour a square of it within days.   I have seen all sorts of acrobatics performed in the name of food.  But one day I walked in and saw this.....hanging there, like its no big deal....munching away.     And how can you chase away a squirrel eating some yummy seeds on a snowy day?    

Snow!

We ended up with about 4 inches of snow over the past few days, enough to get everybody excited and make a few funny looking snowmen, poor guys got knocked over after the photo.

Our neighbor Oliva brought out the fixing for snow cones, a huge hit.

 Igloo in our neighbors yard

Maddy's picture of the inside of the igloo, LOL

X-mas picture movie

Just how many pictures does it take for a x-mas picture?  For us this year it was 60 :)

Christmas 2012

Christmas Eve at Meme & Pepe's and what do you know? Those little magic elves dropped by to leave a gift for the girls on the back door. Smart elves, they are. The girls were so excited to see the presents and their new Christmas PJs.  

 Pepe reading the note from Santa's Elves.  Time to hurry to bed, for Santa is on his way!

 Meme reading one last Christmas Eve story

Santa was a generous man this year!

 The before picture....

 They are up!  Let the chaos begin

 Rudoph Chapstick!  Does it get any better than this?

 Dad got a donut maker from the girls.  Who is more excited?  The girls,of course.

 Makena checking out the castle Santa brought.

A Rapunzel Doll from Meme and Pepe!

 Family Picture.  Poor Wyatt, he looks so thrilled.

Maddy's Holiday Show

Maddy's preschool put on a Christmas Show for friends and family.  It was one of the cutest things I'd seen, with many songs, dancing and a the Story of Christmas.   Madelyn even said her lines, which was pretty impressive.  

All the kids singing Rudolph

Maddy saying her lines.

 Picture with Aunt Nancy and Meme

She love having her picture taken.

 Snacks and Treats after the show.   Little Sis loved this part the most.

Holiday Fun

I will admit its March 7th and I'm doing some very overdue blog posts.  I keep this blog more as a scrapbook for the girls, but lately I've been a bit slow about keeping it updates.  

The Holidays were quite fun this year.  Its nice to have the girls just a bit older,which makes things a bit easier in some ways.   We took both girls to the Garden D' Lights in Bellevue.   Its perfect since its close by and a short tour.  Just enough for the girls to love and not get those little hands too chilly.

Madelyn protesting pictures.  Family pics continue to be a big challenge.

Maddy and I made a favorite recipe of mine, Cream Cheese Fold Over cookies.    I remember making these a few times with my mom and and loved them as a kid.   My mom didn't really love baking, so getting her in the kitchen to do cookies was special.   I loved these cookies as their really like pie crust dough with cream cheese and then jam in the middle.   Yummy.    As you can see Maddy loved baking with me and the mess tells of our success.

The end result was delicious.   These cookies always taste better if you let them cool and refrigerate them overnight.   They didn't look as perfect as I hoped, but end tasted pretty delicious. 

And it wouldn't be the Holidays if we didn't decorate some sugar cookies with our friends.  Molly and Tate were in on our fun. 

I had an appointment with Makena and had to drop Maddy off at a local childcare one day.  What luck when we walked in and found out it was Gingerbread House day!    This is her masterpiece.  What a fantastic idea and even better than it was done somewhere else instead of home!!  :)

Tree

Its that time of year.  I guess I am not quite ready for it and dragging my heals.   I still feel like I'm catching up from vacation and Thanksgiving.   Not ready to drag out the Christmas decor and go crazy.   However,  Madelyn is and was asking when we were going to get a tree.

Sunday we went out to get the tree.  I confess, there is a part of me which is ready for a plastic fake tree, stored in the attic each year, brought out and set up with lights already on it.  Doesn't that sound perfect and so easy?   The other part of me feels the need to participate in the annual trek to the U-Cut Tree Farm and keep up the tradition.   

The tradition usually includes kids going nuts,  a grumbly Dad who likes it and then the reality sets in and doesn't like it,  an indecisive mom who keeps looking for the perfect tree,  and four sets of very dirty boots which mucks up the car.   Included is usually one or two tantrums, maybe a fight between parents, and four hungry people by the end.    Tell me why we do this again?

This year, it seem to go much better.   We had some of the elements listed above, but less arguing, tantrums and otherwise grumpiness.    The indecisiveness continued with me and finally I gave in for just about any tree in the name of getting the heck out of there.  I was freezing, which is an excellent motivator. 

We got the tree home and it was a wee bit too big.  After lofting a good foot off the top, it fits.   Its a bit odd shaped, with a gaping hole on one side.   I guess we don't have the perfect tree this year.  This year we have an off-kilter holey tree, which is much loved by my girls.    I'm pretty sure that is all that counts. 

Decorating it was another story.   We lost several ornaments due to 2 sets of hands which just couldn't contain their excitement.   By the 5th or 6th, I didn't even feel sad....just reached for the vacuum.   One less ornament to put away in a month.



I'm still in debate on putting up some garland or something else on it.   I have visions of a certain crazy 2 year old grabbing the garland like a dog leash and pulling with all her might, resulting in Christmas Tree disaster.  

Big Girl

No more gates.  No more cribs.  And hopefully soon no more diapers.    Makena is a becoming a Big Girl.   A couple months ago we took the last of the gates down in our house.   How freeing it is to not have baby gates all around your house.  Suddenly your home seems so open and spacious. 

A couple months ago we took a trip up to a friends cabin.  Makena had a heckuva a time getting her to sleep as she was so unsure of sleeping in a bed.  After trying for over 2+ hours to get her to sleep, we gave up.  In one crazy parent moment, we packed up and came home.  As soon as we got in the car and drove 2 minutes down the road, Makena was asleep.   We made the decision the next day to move Makena out of her crib and into a Big Girl bed.   We really wanted to transition her before our big trip to Hawaii.  Better to deal with screaming and fussing at home, than the first night after a long plane ride.   

And Makena loves her new Big Girl room.  She is all about it and being just like Big Sister.   The first night we had a bit of whining and nerves and a few wake ups.  After that, no problems and no more crib.   Whewww.   I am happy to say we have two girls who are pretty dang good sleepers. Ms. Makena crawls in her bed for nap time and bed time happily and doesn't try to come out of her room.  Its amazing.  I'm thankful for this as other aspects of their personalities aren't so easy.  Ha!  
It is a bit sad to say goodbye to the baby stage, but the light at the end of this tunnel is bright.  Having two wonderful girls who are getting older and becoming more independent is just a wee bit easier.

Now onto potty training.  Maybe she'll potty train herself.  Or maybe I can let Madelyn try to potty train her....while I'm away on a girls weekend and Dad's in charge.    Hmmm...I'm thinking this could be a good idea.

Big Island - Part 2

What a fantastic trip we had to the Big Island.     The warm Hawaiian breezes,  yummy eats, ocean to play in, wonderful resort which made it so easy with two little kids.   It was really wonderful!   We had our difficult parenting moments almost every day, as the behavior from the girls got worse as the week went on.  I am not sure what that was all about.   Still even on some hellish moments of girls fighting, rolling around on the ground at a local Hawaiian Farmers Market......still we are in HAWAII!!!    Granted, I am sure we left some really fine impressions with the locals who always seem to be staring at us as my girls were screaming, and throwing tantrums in public.    But hey, whose kids are perfect all the time?  Not mine.  And now the people of the Big Island are all too familiar with them. 

Sunset at A' Bay.   Maddy sticking her feet in very nervously.

Dad and Makena playing at the Kids Pool.

The girls loved playing in the pools each day.  We got both of them in the ocean a few times with smiles.  Maddy was a bit more nervous about the ocean, but definitely wanted to try it.  Makena went without hesitation.    Initially they had issues with sand on their feet in and in their shoes, but by the end of the trip they got over it.

More pool fun.

Playing Hide and Seek at a playground we found

Lots of gorgeous flowers, which I enjoyed so much.  
But had no time to photograph any more than this lovely Hibiscus.

All decorated for Christmas already

Two cute girls giving big hugs in their new Hawaiian dresses

Hula Show.  Maddy loved this and was so mesmerized by it.

 We took in a couple Hula Shows at a nearby shopping village.   I was surprised at how much Madelyn liked it.   The first time she saw the Hula Dancers she was immediately mesmerized.  She couldn't get close enough and just loved it.  We ended up staying for the whole show.  It ran late, so Michael took Makena back since she was melting down for bedtime.   Madelyn and I walked back to the condo after the show.   She loved every minute of it.  The walk back to the condo wasn't too long, but very dark.  At one point some car headlights lit up the sidewalk only to reveal way too many cockroaches all over the path.   Most definitely something I didn't need to see.  I decided the dark was just fine.

Looking back at the resort area in A' Bay, from a boat tour we took.
One of four volcanoes on the Big Island, in the background.

Dolphins!!  

 The last day we took a short glass-bottom boat ride from our beach.   It was free for the girls, and so convenient for us.   I didn't expect to see much but a few fish.    We got very lucky and came upon a large pod of dolphins playing nearby.  They were all around the boat, jumping and playing.   How lucky is that?   A couple even swam underneath the boat and up front hear the bow.  It was amazing!

More Dolphins...not sharks.

Michael took off one morning and went diving for a 1/2 day.   Lucky guy with a very nice wife, eh?   He had a great time with much to see.  We both would take turns and snorkel out front in A'Bay, home to many turtles.    So wonderful to be snorkeling along and come upon a big Turtle underneath you! 

Playing in the kid pool with a new friend, making a volcano!

Mama Love

 It was a great trip for traveling with two girls ages 2 and 4 years old.   The flight back was much easier.  Many kids on board and much more understanding crowd.  No grumpy old men around me.  The girls did really well on the flight back and Makena even took a nap.  It was wonderful, but not too anxious to get on a plane with the girls anytime soon.  However, next trip I believe will be to see a certain mouse.... in California.   I'm sure that hint is not hard to figure out.