Friday, November 4, 2011

Trunk or Treat

Here are some pics of the Trunk-or-Treat activity we had at the church. Cora was a princess, Elijah wore a Superman costume Heidi made for Marcus and that all of her boys have worn, and Ryan at the last minute discovered a crayon costume in Cora's closet (size:3T-4T) that he decided to wear.
With cute Nikki, Betsy's girl.
Cora's good friend Kalani was Santa - so cute!
Heidi and Troy

Ko'olina and Mom leaving

One afternoon when Ryan got off early we decided to take our moms to Ko'olina, to play in the lagoons at the resort. The water was beautiful - blue, clear and calm. Ryan and my mom got to snorkel a little bit too.
Cora was insisting she wasn't cold when she got out of the water, silly girl.
Playing in the sand
Just hanging out at home with Debbie Gramma.
This is just before we took Mom to the airport, overlooking the temple. The sun was a little bright for me and Mom but Elijah was smiling so cute!

We were so sad to see Mom go home! Cora just cried and cried at the airport when she realized she was leaving, saying " I want to stay with Grandma!" The two weeks she was here just flew by. It was fun to have our first visitor in our new house though. Cora loved sharing a room with Grandma. We love you Mom, thanks for coming all the way to Hawaii to visit us! We're looking forward to another visit soon, hopefully with Dad and Grandma Wei too!

This is just a random pic of Cora the next day, playing with all her dolls and animals.

Mom's visit and Cora's birthday

This picture was actually taken the day before Mom arrived - just the kids hanging out in the bike trailer getting ready to go for a ride with Daddy and Grandma Madelyn on the bike path.
We were so excited to have my mom come visit for two weeks! We decided to go the the PCC on Cora's birthday.Cora put on her own show during the canoe pageant.

Mom bought her a little lei that's supposed to be worn on her head but she preferred it around her neck. We were all surprised she chose the blue one, since she usually has no eyes for any other color but pink.We ate at the newly renovated Gateway Buffet and the waitresses brought Cora some cupcakes with a candle and sang "Happy Birthday"We opened presents when we got home. Cora was so excited and wound up from our long day and being with all her cousins and grandmas. She loved her new bike!On Sunday we had a dinner with the family to celebrate. We had kalua pig in the crock pot, with pink dyed rice, watermelon, and salad. I made a 4 layer cake, from a mix, with homemade butter cream frosting. I was attempting to re-create the Rose Cake from I am Baker. It didn't quite turn out the same (I ran out of frosting, even though I made a ton) but it was fun anyways and Cora was excited. I made some garlands to decorate the house - see them on the ceiling? I just punched out pink, purple, white and gray circles from paint chips and sewed them together.The cake was... pink! Cora is such a joy to us. These past three years have passed so quickly. Cora went from being a sweet and mellow little baby to a spunky, loving little girl. She has such a strong personality. She is very stubborn and particular, but also is very polite (always says please and thank you) and loving. She loves all her family and friends. She is a great big sister - a little bossy but she just adores Elijah and we love the cute way she talks to him. She is so smart - she is learning new things all the time. She pays attention to everything that goes on around her - sometimes more than we would like. ;) She loves books, her dolls, playing ring around the rosie and "hide and sick", going to auntie's and grandma's houses, and still loves her blankie and sucking her thumb. We are so blessed to have her.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Home Sweet Home

Here are some photos of our new place. We are still changing things around and decorating, but this is what it looks like now. (Although there are usually more toys on the floor and laundry and stuff on the couch and fabric scattered around my sewing corner.)
Cora recently has been obsessed with who is a girl and who is a boy. She tells me at least 10 times a day that she's a girl like me and Elijah's a boy like Daddy. Somehow along the way she got it into her head that she could only wear "girl diapers" which meant the diapers that had Minnie Mouse on them, instead of the diapers with Mickey. (boy diapers). Half of the package of diapers were Mickey diapers, however, so Ryan and I would try to sneak a Mickey diaper on her when she wasn't paying attention but she soon got savvy to that and then the couple times that we couldn't find a girl diaper she threw a huge tantrum, crying and shaking and yelling for her girl diaper and trying to take off her Mickey diaper. Yesterday we finally got down to only a couple of Minnie diapers left and I was trying to think of a way to use all the Mickey diapers we had. A black Sharpie came to the rescue, and cross-dressing Mickey was born, complete with false eyelashes. I nervously stacked the diapers in the basket and waited for her next change. She found the diapers, and they passed the test. She did ask about the shoes, but she brought the diaper to us and asked us to put on her girl diaper. Hooray! We can use the rest of the box of diapers!This is Elijah's face I caught when Cora was playing peek-a-boo with him one day.
Pics from Ryan's mountain biking.
One Friday when Ryan got off early we decided to head to Dole Plantation and brave the Pineapple Maze. We didn't find all of the markers but we had fun. The maze was huge and just barely wide enough to fit our double wide - at the end the kids were all covered in leaves and debris from squeezing in between bushes.
I've finally gotten back to sewing a bit - here is a crib sheet I made for Elijah. (We've lowered his crib mattress since this picture.)
And here is the sheet I made for Cora.This was our party for John's 20th birthday on September 11th. We also did a cake for Jason whose birthday was the week before - he turned 8 and got baptized!
Great views from another mountain biking trip Ryan took.
The Kahuku windmills.
Shrimp farms
Goat Island
The kids playing on the kitchen floor - Cora was helping me make cookies, wearing my old little apron.
And by helping I mean eating chocolate chips.
Here is Ryan being SuperDaddy: preparing a talk for Sacrament meeting and entertaining both kids at the same time.