Happy Thanksgiving!

Ok so I am a little late getting these Thanksgiving pictures up but for the past two days there has not been very many moments in the day where I did not have a Turkey leg in one hand and a slice of apple pie in the other. In fact, I am typing right now with one finger as I shove an oatmeal cranberry cookie into my mouth.

This is the second year that we have hosted Thanksgiving day dinner and did all the cooking from scratch. It always makes me feel like such a grown up! This year we got even better at perfecting the meal and did much better at timing everything to be ready at the same time. This is also the day I put my perfectionist tendencies aside and let the kids dive in and get dirty in the kitchen, and boy do they get dirty!

After our bellies were full we brought out all the boxes of decorations and gave our house a Christmas makeover. We have been in Hawaii for five years and I still feel so weird putting up a tree when it is 85 degrees outside. I have to blast the air conditioner and brew hot chocolate to help set the mood!

I think I might be getting used to it though because I am really in the Christmas spirit this year!

Friday, I braved the crowds of Black Friday shoppers and got most of my Christmas shopping finished. It was a long day, but I felt very accomplished when I got home and massaged my sore little piggies. Now I have the tedious job of wrapping!

Happy Halloween!

It feels like I just blinked once and summer was over and we are rounding the corner on Halloween!  Where does the time go?  My kids are all getting very excited about all the Halloween activities and most of all the obnoxious amounts of CANDY!  With four kids trick or treating we end up with enough candy to build a small island by the end of the night.  Londyn has mastered the fine art of being so cute that she can stick her hand out for seconds at every house and they never turn her down.  We are going to be in trouble with the one.  She is only two and already knows all she can achieve by battering her beautiful blue eyes.

Last weekend I took on quite the adventure and hauled all my kids to the Polynesian Cultural Center for a full day....in the RAIN.  We are not talking about a little sprinkle of rain.  We are talking about cats and dogs falling from the sky and splashing up in our face RAIN.  The kids had a blast, and I being the great mom that I am, I endured!  The whole purpose of the trip was to go on the new haunted boat ride they are hosting at night.  So after sludging though 6 hours  in the rain it was finally time to get in the hour long line up for the boat.  SO here we are with 4 kids, 1 hour long line up, still raining, but maybe even a little bit harder by this point......It just gets better and better!  So we finally make it onto the boat which at this point has a foot of water floating in the bottom.  The kids are  bumping the people in front of them with their umbrellas and they are in return glaring me down.  I better be getting mother of the year for this!  So the boat ride starts and I have to say it was scarier then I thought it would be.  Not so much for me but I had two screaming children with their heads berried in my chest begging me to turn around.  Did I mention that this was about two minutes into a 25 minute ride.  I should also mention that the two ladies in front of me that had been whacked by my children's umbrella several times were just loving me even more then ever now.  There were monsters jumping out and grabbing us from the water, a guy chasing us with a chain saw, ghosts walking on water.  My two youngest kids were crying hysterically!  Just when I think I finally got them calmed down and let them know that it was all just pretend two zombies come out of the grave yard grab one of the patrons (who was obviously planted) off the boat kicking a screaming, drug her into the woods and began to pretend to chop her with the axe.  Yes this is the point where MY KIDS COMPLETELY LOST IT!  So here we are on a scary boat, in the dark, in the  pouring down rain, soak and wet with our feet floating in a foot of water, two kids trying to crawl back into my womb where they can be nice and safe, two old women glaring at me, my other two girls wanting more, and me clicking my heels together chanting "please take me home!  Please take me home!"  The ride finally came to and end and I carried the kids to the car, each weighing an extra ten pounds in wet clothes.  We got to the car, rang out our clothes, (literally) and  went through the McDonald's drive through for the second time in one day.  Maybe I do not deserve mother of the year after all.  Moral of the story:  Next time you look out your window and it is raining cats and dogs,  turn around, pull those covers back, and get back in bed!

Happy Halloween!

All vacations have to come to an end:(

I knew my vacation would go fast, but boy did it fly by!  It is just a blur of fun, wine, and shopping  bags!  I have had such a great time in Georgia and Vanessa and her family really know how to make a girl feel special.  They bring Southern hospitality to a whole new level.  Her mom gives the sweetest most genuine hugs, and her dad makes the best BBQ this side of the Mississippi!  He calls it a labor of love as he stays up all night making it just right.  All this great cooking is going to have me doing a labor of my own....on the treadmil.  Vanessa and I have had way to many late night girl chats.  Each night we swore we would go to bed early but then are lips would start yaking and next thing you know we were heading to bed when the roosters were about to crow.  That did not stop us from getting up bright and early to hit the stores.  Oh no sir-eee!  We shopped like rock stars!  We shopped so much that I had to buy an extra suit case, and I shipped a 70 pound box at the post office today.  Carried that darn thing in there myself I did.  Here that Georgia accent coming out there?  I have been perfecting that while I am here as well.  One thing that I have enjoyed the most while I was here are her two sweet kids who have grown up so much in the last year.  I had Tyler wrapped around my finger after I smoked him in a pizza eating contest.  OK yes the contest was my idea, in an attempt to eat disgusting amounts of pizza without feeling guilty, but what ever works right?  Ava was a little harder to warm up  but luckily she is a women after my own heart and you can win her over with gifts and bubble gum!  You can be assured that I did not leave the great state of Georgia without getting these little cuties in front of my lens.  Check out how much fun we had:

Thanks Vanessa for a great trip!  I love you and miss you already:( 

I need more hours in a day

My to-do list is getting awful long these days.  I have many pictures to blog about but there are just not enough hours in a day.  We are once again amongst moving boxes, and have started hauling all our belonging to our new house.  I would love to just fast forward about a week and be all done and settled in. 

 I am also leaving on a trip to Georgia in two weeks.  It will be a much welcome holiday.  Ben and the kids will be holding down the fort while I soak up every moment with one of my best friends.  She used to live in Hawaii but when her husband was sent on a 15 month deployment she decided to move close to her family and I think she took a piece of my heart with her.  I am very excited to see her and her kids again.  I am also counting down the days to be reunited with my long lost love.  AKA Target!  

I had the pleasure of shooting a great traditional Hawaiian wedding yesterday.  I will be posting pictures as soon as I can find the time to edit them.  I am excited to get to them and relive all the happy moments of the day.  One of my favorites was the releasing of 16 white doves!  It was beautiful!

Well I have more boxes to get to but I just wanted to touch base and let you know that I have not forgotten about all you and you are definitely very close to the top of my to do list!