the first round...

throwing a temper tantrum. a frequent occurrence in this household! working on that....

at daddy's ship's party. nora was confused when we got to the community center, and not the ACTUAL ship!

more coloring...

so serious!!!

"ogre" juice! there were some creative ideas there! they were so fun...

watching a movie. they loved being right next to each other. and sat through the whole thing. it was so sweet....

wait, this isn't what your halloween party looks like??

a little warm for a long sleeved, black t! but, it was my most festive outfit!! my kids' rear end and feet so fun!

a full-frontal shot!

"mom, do i REALLY have to look RIGHT into the sun?"

my sweet babies!!!

chatting while they waited for "trunk or treating" at school to begin. so cute!!! the girls miss each other. they are in opposite classes now and don't get to see each other often!

all the friends, minus the cutest dinosaur egg you have ever seen!

coloring their pumpkin masks...

who's kid is that? he grabbed a book and just sat quietly! oh the joys of school!! (see the pattern of my love/guilt filled relationship with school?? i really do love it!)

scary pumpkin face...

the best i could get!!!

there you go... that's our halloween festivities so far! more tomorrow...

sunday...

okay, so this was yesterday. both had just gotten in trouble. #1 was comforting #2. i think they figured out how to team up against me! (ironically, the sermon this morning touched on gentleness... with an analogy to parents. i told david last night that i was less than gentle in my yelling. the pastor defined gentleness as "acting without emotional extremes". um, totally described me!!!)

thankfully, last night, nora needed help with something, and i was feeling much more gentle. as i walked back up the stairs to help her, she said, "i am so glad you are my mom". aww.. and jamey only wanted me to put him to bed. good thing they forgive so easily!

total impromptu date night on friday night. david asked to go to benihana's. i told him i would make reservations. he got home and i asked him to make sure he knew where we were going, as there were two pf chang's on the island. i had made reservations at one of them. he looked at me, so puzzled. so, we quickly got new reservations at benihana's. he got a work call as we were leaving. then, i had to look up the number in his phone to pf's to cancel. when i hit "dial" after looking up the number, it called back work. they were a little confused when i asked if they were pf changs. oops!!! rough night for me! guess i needed the night out!

we went to benihana's down in waikiki, at a hotel on the beach. we then took a nice, leisurely walk on the beach and sat on the sand for a bit. with wonderful, hawaiian music playing in the background. it was such wonderful night!

(then came my emotional break on saturday... phew... pregnancy hormones are KILLING me! that, and my mom and best friend on the island are unreachable! no one to talk me down!!!)

my sweet girl.

i love watching this man watch football. he's so passionate about it.

today, we went to church, and then to his ship's halloween party. the kids had a great time, and were QUITE worn out tonight. we also gave my garden some coffee... quite excited to see how that works out!

i read a few articles this weekend on children. and how we shouldn't tell them when their decisions are wrong. especially pertaining to their gender assignments. (i.e., halloween costumes, boys in girl scouts, etc...) and it struck me, with those articles so fresh on my mind, how often i actually tell my kids they are wrong. or making bad choices. don't get me wrong, i REALLY try to emphasize the good choices! (you know, positive reinforcement and all...) but isn't that part of the job of parents. to help our children realize what is wrong.

"no, you can't have the 15th piece of candy today"

"no you can't just ride your bike into the street without looking both ways"

"no you can't hit your mommy cause you are mad"

"no you can't watch MORE tv today"

none of those are crazy requests of my children. and i think will make them better children. (and alive children!) and if we don't teach our kids, who will? hopefully not the kid at preschool calling them "dip wads". or the ones telling my daughter she doesn't belong in the class. (thankfully she had the balls to tell the kid her mommy and daddy had been praying about where she should go and this was it!) or the ones who tried to tell her tuesday was her show-n-tell day, not thursday, leaving her upset all day!

today, we went shopping for "operation Christmas child". it sends shoeboxes we fill to kids all around the world. hawai'i's destination is mongolia. nora and i did it last year, and this year, we decided to do it again (although, walmart on a sunday afternoon after a sugar-filled halloween party with a two year old who didn't nap SHOULD have been reconsidered!!!). david and i decided we would go as a family, and have the kids help. (much more age appropriate for a four year old, NOT a two year old who didn't understand why some box was getting toys and he wasn't!)

anyway, nora and i went through the store (a screaming james was in the car with daddy by aisle #1!!), and she pointed out things she thought would be a good idea. we got some toys. she suggested a myriad of other things. "do they have shoes, mommy?" "do they have....." at one point, she wanted to pick out some magnets. i told her they might not have refrigerators, so maybe we should stick to toys and toothbrushes.

my sweet four year old then wanted to buy a refrigerator. I LOVE HER HEART!!! i could have cried in walmart. and i hated having to tell her we couldn't buy them a fridge. and, i loved that NOT ONCE did she ask for something for herself. she was so proud to carry her shoebox through the store and pick out things for this little girl on the other side of the world.

and sweet, said, boy. he has fallen out of his bed twice while writing this post! so sad... we took his rail off the bed, since it was being torn to shreds and i was finding him with long strings every morning. i figured he was at a higher risk of strangulation than anything else... and in a week, this is the first time he's fallen out of bed! but, it got us extra snuggle time. hopefully he's good for the night now!

everybody's working for the weekend...

some snuggles with mrs. mary. he LOVES her. i wasn't sure she was going to give him back... (side note, her son is the snuggliest thing ever, too!)

my garden is going to get starbucks coffee!!! for free!!!

i love that they give free grounds for gardens. we'll see how my plants like it!

did i ever show you the socks christopher got in the mail? from my sis in law? she knitted them , and they are the tiniest, cutest socks in the world! i can't wait till christopher wears them! they will be so cute... and should fit for awhile... hopefully!

we worked hard for the weekend this afternoon... cleaned the whole downstairs. thankfully i had done the down and dirty stuff earlier this week, so it was a matter of putting toys away the right way. daddy came home and nora told him "jamey and mommy cleaned the house while i watched a show". (at least she was honest) david looked at me and i told him it was actually more help that she watched the show! i kept trying to convince jamey to go watch the show! but my house is so clean!!! and... got pumpkin cookies made... half the batch gluten free for the girl, the other half regular for david's ship's bake sale tomorrow...

an amendment to my last...

david just saw the blog and wants me to point out that he is piking on his push-up due to the fact that the chair is in the way and he can't extend his feet any further... not due to bad form on his part. i made him do some with good form just to prove it. he looks good! take my word for it!!!

my first ever instagram update!!!

mandatory pt at the haile household... david making his kids do a workout. they had a great time. although, nora's form would not pass any "pt" routine!

a bribe to be good at walmart... a ride on pumbaa after!

the splash park is finally open!!!

at the park... she was serving up a soda.

jamey's part of the bribe!!!

sweet, smiling face!

loving it!!!

her yogurt smile!

and the message on my fridge. except we can't figure out who did it!!! (anyone want to claim it?? really, there are only like two people it could be! and it's not the hubs...)

jamey sitting with his sweet friend. he loves playing with c. it's so cute. she was in nora's class at school, but jamey will also beg to play with her!!!

a fun week so far... i feel like i have gotten so much done! first off... i DON'T have gestational diabetes! that always makes me feel good. (given a HUGE genetic predisposition to diabetes and my awful craving for sweets...) and, as of today, baby was head down. which at 28 weeks means NOTHING, but at least we are starting off the right way!!

and, i have my follow-up ultrasound next week... it will at least be fun to see sweet baby c again!

thanksgiving is in FOUR WEEKS??? how is that possible? i am verklempt. maybe it's cause it is still 85 and sunny here. and snowing in all over the rest of the country! or i saw a beautifully colored red tree and thought, "oh, the leaves are changing", only to realize it was the flowers still blooming on the tree!!!!

it really sucks when people are unreachable. i mean, even hubs is reachable most of the time. (occasionally coms will go down and he won't get emails for a few hours, etc) several people i love are out of the country with limited internet and NO PHONE!! how on earth did we survive before this??? (thankfully there are others of you i CAN call... some just back from being almost unreachable!) it's so weird to think about not talking to people for weeks. and weird that we live in a culture where that is so weird!

kids... jamey is so big. i think i say that a lot, but it's really been hitting me recently! he and nora love to play "shark and bethany". meaning, he is the shark and he swims around after nora. making low, grunting sounds. it sounds weird and morbid and wrong. but they have so much fun, and i think it also is nora's way of modeling after her current role model.

they were playing so sweetly today. in the play room. by themselves. i think they were playing school. i kept thinking i was going to put jamey in bed for his nap, but they were just having a good time! it finally got too late. so, our third day without a nap this week... fun times! i hate to think i am forcing him out of his nap!!! (we were at my ob appointment after school... nora really enjoyed hearing the heartbeat....)

speaking of ob... i see the midwives there. i got there, barely got to take my seat and got called back. there was a waiting room full of women who got there before me. i was done with my appointment, and chatting with another midwife, walked into the waiting room, and there were still the same number of women waiting! yet another reason to stay with the midwives! it's like that every time. and i feel like we chat and they ask SEVERAL times if i have more questions.

some new things...

awhile ago, i posted about my trip to savers and the kids' consignment store. i don't think i wrote about it, but i had been wanting a basket to carry my cleaning supplies. but didn't want to spend much. so, for $1.99, i got my basket!! and it was so handy as i cleaned my house this morning. it saved me from trying to carry everything and losing things, or running up and down the stairs. plus, it just looks pretty, so i feel better!

the finally done bassinet! i am so excited about it!!! the bassinet was $30 at the consignment store. the grey bed sheet-now material- was $6.99 at savers. i used about half a yard of the minky fabric, so about $4.00, and then the extra white was leftovers cut up from a sheet i had. so perfect!!!

and my new baby bumpers. did i ever show you these? OBSESSED!!!

nora found this book today. with an erasable marker. she had SO MUCH FUN coloring in this book. then, she couldn't find the cap to the marker. i told her it would lose it's ink. a few minutes later, i noticed jamey's face looked like this. when i asked him what happened, nora told me, "i was checking to see if the ink ran out yet...". awesome!

yesterday, i was commenting on how pretty something was. my sweet 2 year old told me that it was just like me! aww... sweet boy!

a rough life...

playing "train" with daddy last night... (side note, my sis in law knitted the top of the dress, then sewed it to the bottom!!!)

random pic of nora. she was kissing the baby and i made her hold it until i could snap the shot! (thankfully i had the camera RIGHT next to me!)

lunch the other day. fun times here in hawaii! you should come visit. seriously!!

today i finished the bassinet! pics SOON! (i'm too tired to walk upstairs, take a pic, upload it, post it... i have to start dinner now and clean up from the "crafting" my daughter did while i sewed!) and i finished a project for a friend. so excited!

a weekend wrap-up!

playing tball... she's actually pretty good. and, she dressed herself. dress, skirt, socks, shoes...

the love of my life. who hates having his picture taken like this. i love him, even with his "chandler bing" smile!!

the sweet boy. and his sweet face.

LOVE this! they are so cute when they want to be. and when they are not fighting! i sent them both to their rooms today, because i was tired of hearing "he/she did...". i didn't care who started it. i was just done with the tattling!

working on a school project. i was told, "it's going to be the prettiest in the class!"...

first time with scissors. hopefully his sissy and i will pass on our love of "creating"!

and i have a new order! yay!! so, i got out my scraps to see what i had to work with!!

and her contribution. i think i have several of her saying the pledge, but it's just so cute!! so, here it is again!

a good day. one of those days where i (mostly) looked at my kids and thought, "life is good". we went for a walk after a LATE breakfast, and they were great! it's always fun to see the glimpses of ocean we can see, as well as the mountains with their HUGE rain clouds hovering. then a stop at the park. i got caught up with an old friend while my kids played, gloriously together, without much fighting, for awhile. i mean, a LONG while. lunch. walmart. sadly no naps, crafting while i made dinner. playing with neighbors outside. dinner. and bathtime/bedtime with daddy while i blog a bit! these are the days i will miss when they are in school full time!

and yes, i have thought about home schooling. but when i go for seven months on end with no husband in sight, i think i will enjoy the days they are in school!!!

and for today...

my cupcake from yesterday. it was supposed to be a rose. but i got some good tips!

my outfit for david's "aloha crisp" dinner thing the other night. notice my completely unmade bed and super messy room! awesome...

my chocolate covered strawberries. i think the best part of that "class" yesterday was eating our "work". and, learning a new little secret! you'll have to come visit if you want to experience!

my sweet babies... waiting for the doctor to come in. playing with these little "cars" cars that james is OBSESSED with. OBSESSED. it's so sweet. and check out nora's hair. it's got a HUGE flower in it! her pic. so sweet...

new church this morning. we tried the hickam air force base chapel. it was pretty good. i think we'll go there next week. it was nice to see a bunch of familiar faces and to meet more people! it was weird to see this big sign that said "naoc alert". (david thinks it means "national air operations center"- read "air strike") definitely not something you see in every church!!

and... for the BIG NEWS!!! someone dropped their phone in the pool yesterday. unfortunately, HIS line wasn't ready for an upgrade, so he graciously took my cracked and shattered phone and let me get a new toy! i FINALLY have my iPhone! so much fun. the guys at the store laughed when they saw my phone and realized it still worked. after six months of being shattered! sweetness....