Rated E for Everyone

We love our Wii! We have had it for a year now and just received a new game for Christmas called "Just Dance". The kids adore it (and so do the adults). Here was our house after Christmas dinner spent with friends. Anna has just gotten wacked by another kid but she gets into it again after a few seconds. We have so much fun with this thing as a family...we highly recommend it (and I am not even one for video games!).



Can you guess what we will be doing tonight to ring in the New Year?! Yes, besides enjoying progressive hors d'oeuvres with our neighborhood, we have Wii planned for the evening. Happy New Year Everyone!!

Merry Christmas!!

The 3 all decked out in their Christmas outfits. Aren't they the cutest! I know..it looks weird being outside in front of a beautiful garden, doesn't it?

Boy it sure is hard getting a good family shot (or even one of the 3 kids) once you have kids. We had to bribe them with candy canes but then we couldn't keep Jesse from eating it. This was the best shot we could get.

We were all busy doing other things and turned around to find Jesse like this. He found the hat, put it one, and was going after the candy canes on the tree as usual. It was too cute to pass up the photographic moment. We have had to move all the candy canes to the top of the tree to stop him from running off with them. Then I caught him stacking presents and trying to climb on top of them! He knows what he wants and doesn't stop. You have to admire that.

Enjoying chocolate fondue, our Christmas Eve tradition after church. The kids are now all tucked in their beds hopefully with sugar plums dancing in their dreams. Anna was very concerned about whether or not Santa was going to come into her room (she did not want him too!), but was still able to fall asleep. We have had a wonderful time preparing for Christmas day, seeing how the kids are more excited about celebrating Jesus's birthday and can't wait for his birthday party (yes we have cake and sing to Jesus!). but more than anything, we are thankful Joel made it home to share in this special time with us. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope you find Jesus in the morning and always.

Home Sweet Home

There are no words to describe the emotions we are all feeling right now. We will let the pictures speak for themselves.

San Francisco

So these pictures are a little late in coming, but these are from our day in San Francisco. It was a wild adventure that the kids and I went on during our 4 day journey back from West Virginia to Hawaii. We were stuck in California for 2 days while waiting for a military hop back so what else to do!?! This journey required 3 bus transfers and a ferry ride (oops, I mean pirate ship ride according to Asher).

I love this picture for some reason. We look haggard, it was a crazy day, but it was memorable. The kids are eating chocolate fudge here while watching a pack of sea lions with the Golden Gate bridge in view. We sat there for an hour enjoying ourselves.

Asher with Alcatraz in the background. This brought up many questions about prison. and nowthey pretend they are taking each other to jail (Wonderful).

Oh how we loved riding the trolley!!

Seriously we could have ridden this carousel all day.

Too bad it was so much money to ride. We only managed 2 rides.

OK, so I know this picture isn't that great but that IS Golden Gate Bridge in the background and Jesse conked out. Our camera (may it rest in peace and so glad it was still under warranty!) was run over by a car in West Virginia (LONG story), so all these pictures were taken by a disposal camera. Remember how this used to be the way we all did it? I think these pictures are AWFUL! But they are memories I will cherish forever. An adventure I never imagined I would have done on my own with the 3 buggers but SOOO glad we did it.

DADDY COMES HOME ON SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our ballerina

Anna had her 1st ballet recital this weekend. She has been talking about it for weeks. This was her moment in the spotlight. However, our camera is having some issues so I borrowed a friend's camera...the pictures didn't turn out so well. She did awesome and was all smiles.

Anna is the one on the left in the front.

Anna is the blur in the front of the line.

Asher picked out pink flowers for her (her favorite). She lit up when he gave them to her. It was really special to see the exchange.

Eddie would go

I know I have many faithful followers of my blog out there who are wondering where I disappeared to. I am sorry for the lack of update. Right now we are just in the process of waiting, waiting, waiting. We had a WONDERFUL time on the mainland and quite an adventure traveling back. It is great to be home but it is agony. It seems like the end is the hardest because we are all so anxious for Joel to come home. As of now, he is "supposed" to leave where he is on December 18th. So we can expect him home who knows when! The whole traveling process is a mystery, so we are on our knees praying for him to make it home for Christmas. We have spent the past week frantically getting Christmas decorations up, attending Christmas parties, mailing packages, and getting everything ready for his return. As our lives our routine to the business of Christmas, Hawaii itself is experiencing something extraordinary.

This is a professional surfer riding the waves during the Eddie Aikau Memorial surfing competition. Eddie is a a Hawaiian hero and pioneer of big wave surfing. A legend who was lost at sea attempting to save his crew in 1978 stranded on a capsized canoe during a 30-day journey to follow the ancient route of Polynesian migration between the Hawaiian and Tahitian island chains. He was last seen paddling his surfboard out to search for help.

The Eddie surfing competition is only surfed when the waves reach a ridable (!) consistent 40 feet. It has not been held since 2004 and the waves were bigger than anything in years (50 to 60 feet).