Getting the perfect Christmas Card picture.....

By now, most of you have seen our Christmas Card picture for this year. The idea came from my Mom, who had seen a picture of a sand Christmas tree on a card and relayed the idea to me. Perfect, right? Not if the wind is blowing like a cyclone and your 4 year old, who was woken up from her nap to take the picture, is not cooperating in the least. The one year old wants to just sit and play in the sand, in her brand new white dress... Our tree builder (Eric) had arrived about 30 minutes before I did with the girls so he could have the tree ready for the photo shoot, but the waves kept creeping in on his creation and sending it our to sea! And, just as we started to get some decent pictures, the batteries started dying !!! Oh, well......Here are some of the outtakes......hope you can laugh with us!

Visting Santa

Well, we thought we were going to have a great picture with Santa........After standing in line for 45 minutes with Macie yelling "santaaaaaah" every time we saw him, we really thought we wouldn't have to deal with the whole anxiety issue. Emerson was very excited to see Santa and even had drawn him a picture. She looks scared in the picture, but I think she was just scared of Macie...I mean, the child was WAILING! But being the torturous parents that we are, we insisted on having the picture taken, and spending money on it! Everyone has to have at least one of these great pics in their inventory, right? Enjoy!

Christmas Decorating

Here are a few pictures of our house in it's decorated state.....I really had a lot of fun decorating it, and really started to like the house more and more after it was all done.....What will we do next year? Hmmmmmm.....

This is the entryway and staircase

This is the dining room

This is the buffet in the dining room

This is the "kitchen tree" that isn't really in the kitchen!

Christmas Carols in Hawaii

On Sunday before Christmas, we went Christmas Caroling with the church. We are at the Japanese pastor's house here, singing to her and her mom. Emerson is in the middle of it all, being a ham, dancing, with her two favorite aunties, June and Joanne. Everyone was surprised that we, the newest , "haoliest" family in the group knew the words to 'Mele Kalikimaka"......thanks mom! (&Bing)
Oh, "haolie", pronounce "how-lie" is a Hawaiian term for "white people". Sometimes derogatory, sometimes not!

Emerson's first choir concert

Emerson participated in the Music Makers choir at our church this fall semester. She was one of the youngest kids there, but I think she really enjoyed it. The kids sang in choir on Veteran's day and then had a performance for Christmas. They did a little play called the "Not so Silent Night." I don't really know how much she actually sang during the performance, but she sure did look cute standing up there on stage! I have some video clips of the musical, but they were too large to upload to the blog.....sorry! Maybe next time!

It's beginning to LOOK a lot like Christmas!

b/c it SURE doesn't feel like it! Here are some pics from us starting to get the house all spiffed up for Christmas. And, just like we were surprised with the pumpkins, there are pretty good Christmas trees to be had here in Hawaii. At K-Mart, even! (yes, I think we are the only part of the country who still has K-Mart!) Here we are bringing the tree into the house.......note the giant tropical plants on either side of the entrance....kind of hard for you to think it's Christmas too, huh?

Emerson hanging the first ornament on the tree. We wanted Macie to get in on the action, too, but she went to bed early that night. And, after thinking about it, it was probably better that we didn't let the one year old help!
This is Macie's contribution before she went to bed that night.....playing with the lights. Don't worry, they're not plugged in!

Emerson's tree in her room. She decorated it mostly all by herself. Just a little coaching here and there from Daddy! Oh, and the bandages on her feet are just for play...she saw Eric with his ankle wrapped after he ran, and of course, she had to be just like him!



Macie enjoying her Christmas tree in her room. She actually did help put some balls on it, and she took them off, and put them on, and took them off.....

Emerson and I got a "snow day" off from school and work after some bad storms came through one night and did a lot of damage to the area. So, we made Candy cane cookies. They were very very yummy!
And yet again, I forgot to edit the pic and rotate it (oops). Keep checking back for more pics from the Christmas Season!!!

Thanksgiving 2007

This was our first year to celebrate Thanksgiving in Hawaii, and we were lucky enough to have our friends Matt and Teresa invite us over. As you can see, several of us were able to "gather together' and have a delicious Thanksgiving feast.
Emerson and Jackson playing in the clothes hamper (yes, I know I should have rotated the picture when I transferred it to the computer....I forgot!)

Emerson & Macie looking very festive in their pumpkin shirts. (They were probably burning up...it actually was a little too warm for pants and long sleeves, but it was Thanksgiving for pete's sake!)

Emerson's Thanksgiving at School

Emerson's school had a Thanksgiving Potluck lunch and fall fair the day before Thanksgiving. Luckily, Eric was off that day, and got to enjoy going with her. She got to do all the fun things 4 year olds love to do.....get a tattoo, face painting, and she even tried some new foods....lumpia, haupia (coconut pudding), and pumpkin bread! Our contribution to the potluck was Sweet Potato Casserole.....no good Southerner can eat a Thanksgiving meal without that! And, it was such a hit, there was very little leftover, and what was there, the teacher took home! Getting a tattoo!

Emerson's face painting.

Emerson's class enjoying their meal out on the lanai at school.

Birthday Supper for Emerson & Macie

We felt pretty bad not having "real" parties for Emerson & Macie, so we had a dinner in their honor on the Saturday between their birthdays. We don't know many people with kids, and the ones we do know, couldn't come, so we pretty much had a dinner for adults and they brought presents over for our kids! Anyway, we had a "Mexican Fiesta" of sorts, since Emerson requested cheese chips and tacos for her birthday food. I had originally planned on grilling, but it's a good thing we didn't, because while I was grilling the flank stead for fajitas, the grill ran out of propane! So, on to plan "B"......I'll try to finish the meat in the broiler.....yeah, right! I almost burnt the house down. Even though the fajitas were a little on the rare side, there was enough food that every one had a good time and even got to eat seconds.

The girls enjoyed eating their cupcakes!

and opening presents!

Words for Halloween pictures

I don't know why, but when I posted the previous pictures (from Halloween night), the website wouldn't let me write my blog entry. So, after many attempts to correct it, I gave up and just posted the pictures. As you can see from the preview to Halloween, Emerson dressed as Ariel, and Macie was an Octopus. We went to a church for their harvest festival, or "Hallelujah Night", as they called it. It was nice, but a bit crowded because it was pouring down rain outside, the first big, constant rain we had since we moved here! Everybody said it ALWAYS rains on Halloween....how weird! Anyway, we were all able to participate in the festivities this year. No one was giving birth or anything like that! And, because it was about 85 degrees at 8 pm, Macie was ready to shed her octopus skin and go trick-or-treating in her diaper by the end of the night!

Our first Hawaiian Halloween

Halloween Preview

Here are pics from the fashion show we had before Mom and dad left. They (Mom mostly) wanted to see the girls in their halloween costumes. In case you can't tell, Emerson is Ariel and Macie is an octopus. A very cute, but very hot octopus! You can see just how hot when I post the pics from actual Halloween night.....pretty funny!

Macie's First Birthday!

We celebrated Macie's first birthday a little early, so Mimi & PopPop could enjoy the festivities. Macie's real birthday is on Halloween, and that was just a crazy night, so it's a good thing we took care of birthday fun before the real day!

Emerson's 4th Birthday

One of the things we got to do while Mimi & PopPop were here was celebrate Birthdays. Emerson's was on Tuesday, the 23rd. We started out the day with Emerson's favorite breakfast...."smarshmallow" puffs and sausage balls. At lunch we had tacos & cheese chips, followed by birthday cake and presents. After we woke up from our naps, we went downtown ate at the Cheesecake Factory, where Emerson got birthday ice cream and a song from the waiters and waitresses. Then for the grand Finale, we went and enjoyed the broadway production of The Lion King. It was wonderful, and Emerson really enjoyed it. She stayed awake for the whole thing (it lasted 3 hours). We didn't get home until after midnight, but had a great day. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EMERSON!!! WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!1

Mimi & PopPop come to Hawaii!

We had a GREAT time this last week with Mimi & PopPop here (that's Whitney's parents, in case some of ya'll don't know). They came for Emerson & Macie's birthdays, and to see what life is like for us here in Hawaii. I have to apologize.....I forgot to upload the pictures in reverse order, so, as usual, they are backwards.....if you want to see the week in review in order, then scroll to the bottom and work your way up!

This is from Friday, the last day Mom and Dad were here. We went to the Ko'Olina resort and enjoyed their lagoons....very nice for the girls to enjoy the water without having to worry about getting wiped out from the waves!
This picture is Macie enjoying some delicious pineapple ice cream from the Dole Plantation. YUM!



















More fun in the sun!



Visiting the Dole plantation.......






















We went to a luau one of the first nights Mom and Dad were here. We got to go on canoe rides and Emerson & Mimi got matching "tattoos!"
Emerson greeted Mimi & PopPop in the traditional Hawaiian way....with leis. She was such a big girl running up to meet them as soon as they got off the airplane and giving them their leis. The next day, Sunday, we went for a drive to the Leeward (East) side of the island and visited the blowhole and Bellows beach. It was a long drive, but a fun day at the beach for everyone! Sorry for any confusion with the pics being out of order....I'm still learning about this whole blog thing, and editing is something I don't really have a whole lot of time to worry with. The most important thing is that we had a really great time and enjoyed having our first visitors to Hawaii. Who's Next???????