Maeli

My new little niece, Maeli, was born on Saturday, February 27th!

We waited anxiously in the hallway for the first glimpse of her. Thankfully, Joey didn't make us wait too long before he brought her to the door for a quick peek.


Kambria sat on the bed with her mom to get a closer look at her new sister.


She was so sweet with her baby sis!


Of course, there were many cameras out at all times capturing this baby's first moments and hours!


We all took turns holding Maeli. Am I a proud auntie, or what?!


We are so happy to have Maeli join our family! She's such a sweet little thing!

Earrings!

We had never really settled on a specific age or time when our girls would "allowed" to get their ears pierced. For me, it was 12. I always kind of figured that if my children were old enough to make a decision about baptism, then they were old enough to decide whether or not they wanted their ears pierced at eight. So that was the idea in the back of my mind.

However, as Carolyn approached the age of eight, I could sense that ear piercing was actually a bigger deal to Kylie than it was to Carolyn. So rather than tie it to a certain age, we decided to take them both to the mall and just let them do it.

First, we stopped at Chili's for lunch, where Uncle Danny works.


And since it was a slow time, he was even able to sit with us a bit and entertain the kids.

After an enjoyable lunch, we headed over to the mall and got down to business. Carolyn chose some sparkly round cubic zirconium earrings.

The lady drew the dots on her ears where the earrings would go.

She gave Carolyn a teddy bear to hug while the piercing was taking place.

As soon as it was done, Carolyn was given a mirror to look in. She liked what she saw!

Next was Kylie's turn. She chose some star-shaped CZs. (Obviously, she went through the same process, but it turns out we have a lot more video than still pics of her ear piercing.)
Once the ears were pierced, we all went upstairs for a ride on the carousel.

Kylie chose a reindeer.

Isaiah chose a dragon.

Carolyn chose a kitty.

These pretty girls love having their ears pierced!

Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day this year, we continued a tradition we began last year - a candlelit family fondue dinner! We enjoy fondue but rarely do it EXCEPT on Valentine's Day, so it is fun to have a special reason to do it.

After dinner we drove the kids around so they could deliver their Valentines. They really get into this holiday and love leaving their friends special treats on the porch, then ringing the doorbell and running.

It is so fun to see how much my children enjoy celebrating holidays and other special days.

Isaiah's 3rd Birthday

On Sunday, January 24th, Isaiah turned three years old! That morning was spent at Matthew's homecoming, and in the evening we had a family birthday party for Isaiah.

He received many fun presents.



He loves superheros and is in a Spiderman phase, so I made him a Spiderman cake.




Happy birthday to my little man!

Matthew's Return

The day after we got home from Hawaii, we headed BACK to the airport - to pick up Jeremiah's youngest brother, Matthew, who was returning from his mission!

The kids killed some time going up and down the escalators and elevator while we waited.

We were all so excited!

It was great to see Matthew again!


The family picked him up in a bus.

We all love having Matthew back with us!

Maui - Day 12

Monday was our last day! We packed and checked out of the condo by noon. Then we had the whole day to spend as we wanted, since our flight was not until almost 10 pm.

We went to the Iao Needle. There is a nice little nature walk on paved trails that take you up to see a natural formation that was once a sacred religious site.









After playing around at the needle for a little while, we hit the mall. The kids played in their ocean themed play area for a little while.



At this point, we were all ready to just get on the plane, but we had several hours to kill, so we went to dinner then did random things to fill the time.

Eventually, it was time for us to go to the airport. It was quite the ordeal to get all eight of us plus luggage, car seats, boogie boards, etc. through 1) the agriculture inspection, 2) the check-in, and 3) the baggage drop off (at the Kahului Airport, bags are weighed and tagged at check-in, but then you have to take them further down the terminal to be put on the plane). But we did it!

The flight ended up being really nice! I actually slept, and slept pretty well, for the majority of the flight!

Isaiah slept, too!

Carolyn did not. The movies were too much of a temptation. She watched two shows, then finally fell asleep toward the end of our flight, which was early in the morning.


We are so glad our good friends, Aaron and Lisa, were there with us for yet another trip. (We have also traveled together to Cozumel and Kauai, as well as various places closer to home like Park City, St. George, the Uintas, etc. We love these guys!) Isaiah loved having their son Andrew along! They became such good little buddies! After our trip, I was more convinced than ever that Isaiah needs a little brother (or sister)! :-)

We all arrived safely home, sporting nice sun tans, and promptly collapsed into bed!

Maui - Day 11

Sunday morning we went to church in Kihei.

After returning from church and having some lunch, we decided to hit Big Beach. It was a bit overcast, and even a little drizzly/misty at times, but we had a nice afternoon. Jeremiah and Aaron did some snorkeling, and they were able to hear the whales that were nearby. Jeremiah saw an enormous sea turtle, too. Those of us on the beach were able to enjoy quite a show put on by the whales - lots of tail slapping.





After Big Beach, we had a yummy dinner in the grill area, then went to the pool.




After our last swim in the pool, we headed in for bed.