Christmas 2010

Christmas Morning. Santa Came! Madison was so excited and couldn't wait to get started.

 Parley couldn't either, well after he ate a piece of bread that is. 

 A very BIG surprise from Santa. There were two very excited kids who sat in the car and played without the car even moving for over an hour.

 Just look at that face. These faces we kept seeing from both kids made it all worth it for Santa. Well... yeah it did.

 Getting ready for the first drive. Oh, boy. Its a good thing it doesn't go to fast... Yet. It is locked on the slow setting or gear I guess you would call it. It is a car.

 They had lots of fun driving it. Parley liked to change from reverse to drive and drive to reverse with out  Madison knowing it. They got to drive it on Christmas since there was no snow, but now they have to just sit in it to play because there is now too much snow to take it for a drive. Oh well.

Halloween 2010

Picking out the perfect pumpkin, but there are soooo many to choose from....

 The masterpieces are revealed!

 The lighting of the jack-o-lanterns.

 Someone is the cutest tiger ever. Roaaaarrrrr!

 Two very excited kids were ready to go trick-or-treating.

 This year we went with some very good friends. We had tons of fun hanging out with them. All the kids got plenty of candy. And moms and dads got to have a good chat.

Maui, Hawaii (Oct. 2010)

Ahhhh, Hawaii. Enough Said.... (Beware you'll have to scroll more than normal to see all of this post. But there were so many pictures I loved I had a hard time choosing out of the more than 200 we took.)

 Jerry and I had soooo much fun in Hawaii. We went to Maui. The first picture is the view from our condo. We drove around most of the coast and stopped and got out at various locations. We would hike or look at the view or buy fruit, or banana bread, or Jerry's favorite... Mango bread.

 Below is us in front of the Iao Needle. Most days you can't see the top because of the clouds. We were lucky to beable to see it.

 We attended the Old Lahaina Luau. The food was great and the show and dancing wonderful.

 One of our snorkeling adventures. We bought a waterproof pouch for our camera so we could take under water photos. I really like the next three, but we have many more underwater photos. Including pictures of sea turtles. Yes we swam with turtles and it wasn't even on a tour. It was just at the beach and coast at our condo.

 This picture is from Jerry's and my favorite beach. It's called Big Beach. The waves that crash here get quite large and washed me up on the beach and dragged me back a couple times, on multiple occasions. Definitely not a beach for children. The sand was great and the wave fun and... we swam while it rained. It was a pleasant warm rain and no lightening or thunder. It was perfect.

 Another photo from our condo balcony. The colors are amazing. We could also see a couple of the other islands (Lanai and Molokai) if you looked out more.

 This was just after we took wedding photos. That is why we got to spend time in Paradise. Thanks so much to Kyla and Brandon.

 Some of the coast along our drive to Hana, the jungle and less populated side of Maui.

 Some of the blow holes around the coast. Too bad the water wasn't spraying at the time, but still cool.

The black sand beach. This sand was crazy coarse, but very beautiful.

Labor Day (I know its a bit late)

For Labor Day we always go up to Preston and swim at Riverdale Resort. It is this little Podunk water park in the middle of fields and dairy farms. We always have so much FUN though. Parley went down the water slide a couple times with Daddy, but didn't know what to think about that. He loved the therapeutic pool where you just lounge in the water from the hot spring close by. On the other hand Maddie loved the slide and wanted to go again and again. She wore everyone out. We also jumped off the diving board in the olympic pool, and had a king sized lunch buffet. Everyone brought food and we all share, so there is more than enough to go around. We seriously could feed an army.

Changing the Oil!

Daddy had lots of help last night changing the oil in our car. He had asked if Maddie wanted to help.
...But little did he know Parley wasn't going to let that fly without him. Luckily Mommy was able to distract Parley long enough for the other two to get the job done.

Crafty!

My friend Stacy found this idea online and so we created them. There is a Halloween wreath and a Christmas Wreath. My Christmas one is not done. For some reason the wreath is bigger than the halloween one. But we bought the same size wood wreath. So I am going to take apart the christmas one and make it smaller. I think it looks better smaller. To make them you just cut out 3 different size circles and layer them. Then you place a brad in the center and use hot glue to stick it to the wreath.

Kindergarten!

Madison started school today. She did a Kindergarten assessment last week and her teacher said she was ready to be reading. So Madison has been reading to anyone who will listen (which is everyone) the book her teacher gave her to work on. Then today she turned it in when she got to school. She was so excited. She wanted to leave and go to school before 8 am this morning. We took pictures and went to school. She saw some of her friends that she already knew. They then all got name tags and sat up front. Then time for the Mommies and Daddies to leave... Sad I know (Only not for her). After school she should me the paper they made, and about a treasure hunt they had. She is so grown up now.