some beach... somewhere...

enjoying her birthday present!

seeing her big girl bike for the first time...

she was THRILLED! it was so fun to watch!

at the playground at church...

pre-big girl bike! i decided it was time for both to be upgraded!!

well, we went to the beach AGAIN this weekend. i know, rough life. i didn't take my camera (and greatly regretted it), because i figured you all might be sick of seeing us at a beach with sand and an ocean. but this one was also beautiful! it was a lagoon with CALM water, so more like a zero degree entry pool. but with a sandy bottom. (and our friend got stung by a jelly fish there last week...) the kids played. daddy built them a marina for their toy boats (yes, marina, not sand castle). dd and i took a nice walk to visit the other lagoons and check out the resorts. we pulled the chairs up and as the tide came in, the bottoms of the chairs got wet. it was magical! (did you book your plane tickets yet?)

saturday night, the man of my dreams took me on a date. it was our first date in three months. it was so fun! my awesomely wonderfully sweet brother had movie night in with the kids. it was wonderful of him! (he might need a vacation from all the work he's done on his vacation...)

we had two cockroach visitors this weekend. hubs was impressed that i only said, "ahh" in shock, not a bloodcurdling scream like normal. he was impressed with my improvement! and i feel like i have done such a good job of cleaning up after food, etc. (if you know me at all, you know i am SO NOT OCD... but i have been REALLY trying!) so, we'll see...

now off to a wonderful sunday night. we played games with our good friends this afternoon, and had a great brunch this morning. a good sunday! (oh, and a nice church service!!)

she's 4 years old!!

what dd and i worked on today. i LOVE that the staircase is split and it makes the coolest gallery wall. i saw it on a blog once and wanted to copy it!

looking down from upstairs. i LOVE it!!!

her brand new princess dress, handmade by grammie. she was THRILLED. in fact, i have to bargain with her to take it off.

jamey got a new book, too, in the package!

nora's octopus cake. the frosting looks a little funny, but the kids loved it!

a little birthday party with our sweet friend! after swimming in the pool. we had just gotten out of the pool when it started to POUR. things i never thought i would say: "hurry kids and get under cover. we are going to get wet!!" (mind you, we just got out of the pool.....)

the playground while waiting for daddy's ship to pull in!

how much do i love them??

daddy's ship. can you see daddy? can you see daddy?

a birthday dinner at cpk... gluten free pizza!

he goes to TOWN on his ice cream!

i just love it!

a beautiful rainbow, dinner on the water. not sure i can think of a better night (except maybe if daddy was there...)

but he met us at the beach for fireworks!!

watching fireworks at in waikiki... they do them every friday if you want to come! so beautiful to watch them on the beach... with my husband. nora was thrilled that they had fireworks for her birthday!! she couldn't figure out how they knew!!! (it might ruin it when we go next time and it's not her birthday!)

so, we had our first visitor today... a gecko. he was littler than i thought. i would have taken a picture, but i couldn't get reach my camera from the chair i had scrambled up on! (i really think my brother is going to have to transfer to u of h now!!)

also to note... i have all my suitcases unpacked... and just a few more boxes (mostly sewing stuff and picture albums) left. it feels pretty good. a friend is doing a painting for the living room and then it should be about done.

the other day, nora said that she was so glad daddy was out fighting against the pirates, shooting off his cannonballs...

and as we watched the ship pull in, she said, "look at those heros". it was so sweet. and yes, they are.

a photo tour... (maybe you'll come visit??)

random close-up because he wanted his pic taken....

she was not to be outdone!

mountains and clouds!

yes, this is legal. we more commonly see people sitting in lawn chairs in the bed of pick-up trucks. but, if you are in the car, you HAVE to be buckled up!!

on the h3 to kailua/kanehoe

coming out of the tunnel... looking at kanehoe bay

chinaman's hat. sorry, there were two kids sleeping in the car or we would have gotten a better hat... from our drive up to the north shore.

more of kanehoe bay...

driving to bellows air force base

the mountains amaze me!

more mountains...

bellows air force base beach...

the last few days we have hit the pool here in the neighborhood. fun times!! nora is a fish, and james would much prefer dry land. he usually is ready to get in about the time we are ready to go.

what i wore wednesday... and our beach days!

what i wore yesterday... to get my new hawaii driver's license! shirt: gap maternity

pants: motherhood

necklace: j. crew

earrings: free people

camera strap: eclectic whatnot

flip flops (you can't see them...): old navy

sweet baby boy... loves his sand toys!

the kids in the ocean with david and leigh.

yes, we spilled our matsumoto's. and no, we wouldn't let him eat it off the ground. i traded him for mine. that made it better.

LOVING our north shore matsumoto's! if you visit, we will take you there!!

still WAY more fascinated with the sand than the ocean. but, he will get in. and enjoy it! that's the good news..

the davids and my sweet girl!

more digging...

love this shot!!

me and my bro!!

the davids. enjoying the beach!

building castles!

i love this sandy mess!

james has a habit of attacking me and crawling on me. (case in point, he is currently laying across my arms as i try to type this blog post!) when i express that he should get off, he hugs tighter and says, "mommy, i looove you toooooo". aww, okay, stay there!

and, trying to link again to what i wore wednesday on the pleated poppy...

real quick...

we read this story tonight, "my daddy and i" (and yes, it SHOULD be my daddy and ME!!!), and it's all about what these two kids do with their daddy. the last page is of a boy, a girl, and their daddy, holding hands. i said, "look! it's nora and jamey and daddy". nora quickly said, "no, it's david, and you were in the hospital because you were very sick. that's why you aren't there". umm... okay? i asked, "could i have just stayed home while you had a daddy date". i was told, "no, you were very sick. you were at the hospital".

jamey was so sad going to bed tonight. his lower lip stuck out further than normal. he was just sad. it was so precious. the other day for nap time, as he started to cry (normal even when he was in the crib, usually only lasting minutes), i said, "i'll come back". he said, "okay, be right back". i have realized that if i reinforce that i WILL be back to get him, it goes better. there might still be tears, but not as many. sweet boy... his whole world has been turned upside down!

i usually am of the dump my kids in bed quickly at 7pm. i LOVE the quiet time that comes after. i think most moms agree, after being ON all day, it's nice to have the quiet. don't get me wrong, i LOVE my kids. but i LOVE the me time! this week has been a change. i LOVE laying with jamey and putting him in bed. i love reading to the kids. we have been having fun. i have really been enjoying my kids... the zoo, the beach. they are at such fun ages!

as promised...

our outing for the day...

so often, they hold hands and say, "we are best friends". so sweet!

just thought this was a fun sign!

sweet friends...

she, especially, HAD to have a map. she was convinced we wouldn't find our way without it. and, she could figure out which were the meerkats on there! so cute...

sweet boy LOVES his shoulder rides from dd...

and dd LOVES baby easton. goodness, is he cute!

naturally, we found a stage!

a sweet tree outside the zoo!

my new front yard. my sweet brother did an AWESOME job planting for me.

a gnarly tree in our front yard!

more front yard...

my herbs and veggies...

i think my fav decor in the house so far. also, the only place that's really "done"...

the play room.

the kitchen. and the new rug that i LOVE. i had forgotten that i bought it in rhody.

the family room. awaiting stuff on the walls. with the stairs to upstairs!

the family room into the dining room. the window and the slider doors go to the lanai...

nora's room, view 1.

nora's room, view 2. i have to move those boxes!

jamey's room.

bedtime... stories and songs in sissy's bed. i LOVE that they love hymns and love to sing them with me!

then, i went and got my hawaii driver's license. it's so pretty, with this rainbow on it!

it rained more than it has today. it is so hard to believe we have been here a week. the house is really unpacked, except my bedroom. and the pictures need to be put up on the wall. they are piled up on the counter. LOVING our house.