Morgans Baptism Day

I don't really know what I was thinking, having to babies in December, but Morgan turned the big 8 on the 27th. She was soooooo very excited to be baptized that night. It really was a great day!

She had cake and opened her presents, and then we had a small dinner with some family and friend. We headed over to the church so she could get ready to be baptized. We went over all the the reasons why we are baptized and how her sins were going to be washed away and how she had to make good choices and how special it is. Kaden was so happy that he was next in line to be baptized that he said that he "couldn't wait to have his germs washed away too!"

Devin's parent Dennis and Judy came out as well as my sis who was visiting over the holiday. We are so grateful for family and friends:)

Christmas Festivities

We always fry a turkey, anyone who has had a fried turkey knows how delish they are, and once to you go fried...you'll never go back to plain old turkey. We also do jammies the night before Christmas. We read Luke 2, open new jammies, and then read the Night Before Christmas...then off to bed the kiddos go before Santa comes. This is the ONLY night of the year we don't have to BEG the kids to go to bed. They were up in their rooms like lightning.

BLOGGER THE FROGGER

My sis brought gold old Blogger the Frogger out from Missouri. She has a blog and said that he was to be sent around the world to different bloggers to see where he would end up...unfortunately I am not very exciting so he didn't get to do anything super cool. We did attempt to take him ice skating but he stayed in the car. Anyway all you get it Blogger sitting in our kitchen on Christmas Eve.

What's Cooking?

Cream Puffs:

1 stick butter
1 C water
1 C flour
½ t salt
4 eggs


Add cube of butter to boiling water and stir to melt. All salt and flour and stir both in pot. Cook stirring vigorously until it forms a ball. Cool slightly (a minute or two). Add eggs one at a time and beat after each one. Drop onto a greased cookie sheet in a tablespoon size. Cook at 450 degrees for 12 min and then turn oven down to 325 degrees and cook for 20 min more. Watch the puffs because everyone oven cook differently. This makes approx. 25-30 cream puffs.


Filling:
1 small pkg instant vanilla pudding
1 C milk
Whip together then fold in 1 8 oz Cool Whip.


Icing:
1 Stick butter
4 T cocoa
6 T buttermilk


Bring to boil. Add 1 box powdered suger (2 2/3 c more or less) and add 1 t vanilla. Drizzle over top of cream puffs. Chill and serve.

Jenna, My mom, Paigey

Jarrie, Jenna(sis), Paigey

There are several things that my family make as a Christmas tradition. We LOVE divinity!!! So we made 3 batches of divinity and my famous cream puffs for dessert.

13 going on 30

Paige and Paxtyn

On December 18th, PaIGEY turned the big 13. I know every mom probably says this, but it has really flown by. I still remember when Paige first arrived, and how anxious and young I was. We used to call her Baby Babinks and she had the cutest rolley polley legs. I was so clueless...she was small and helpless and beautiful. Although we have our differences, she makes me so happy and I am constantly reminded what a blessing it is to be a parent. Paige is talented, tall, beautiful, friendly, headstrong, opinionated, and great with kids. Someday she will be a great mom, and hopefully more prepared than I was. I love you Paigey Pie!

Kung Fu Fighting

A week before Christmas we went to Morgan's Karate Ceremony. She was soooo excited to advance and was very nervous. It was great to see her do all her moves, she really likes karate. After the demonstration all the students received their new belts. Everyone's name was called except....Morgans:( Tears started flowing and she instantly went into the ugly cry. We all felt so bad and they ended the ceremony. Sensai??? (don't really know how to spell it) felt completely awful. He couldn't believe they forgot her sertificate. After everyone left he had his little helper check in another folder, and sure enough their was her certificate of advancement and they had her new yellow belt on the table. THANK HEAVENS!!! I really didn't think Morgan was ever going to recover. A few days later the sensai felt so bad that he delivered a brand new Gi (uniform) for her to wear staring in Jan. She was estatic.

Liar, liar pants on fire.

Today Kailer had an international food festival, darn those teachers!! Why in the heck do they assign a science fair and a food festival all in the SAME week? Not to mention the freakin week before Christmas break, aren't things busy enough?? Anyway he was suppose to bring in an international dish that represents a family tradition that we have. I needed something very easy...thus I chose good ole NACHOS!! He wrote up a paragraph stating why we eat nachos as a family and the tradition behind it. Apparently that paragraph wasn't good enough because as soon as he stood in front of the class, he decided not to say what he had written but told the WHOLE class that his ancestors are mexican and that is why we eat nachos as a family tradition!
Now I have absolutely no problem having ancestors who are hispanic, but our family is NOT hispanic...not one ounce. Maybe german and swedish, but not hispanic. So basically Kailer lied to his 5th grade class. Boy he made me laugh...All his teacher said was, "Really...."

GUNNER

This is our newist addition to the family-GUNNER!!! Never did I think we would actually get a puppy let alone a fuzzy cute Maltese. But he is adorable and has stolen my heart:) He has grown a lot since we first got him and the kids love him. Kaden on the other hand has put him in the toilet, put chewing gum in his hair, and tried to smash him with a chair. I think Kaden thinks it is funny, but poor Gunner, if he can survive Kaden he can survive anything. Morgan is actually allergic to the do, even though he SUPPOSE to by hypo-allergenic...but we are trying different things so we can all live happily under one roof.

I wanna go back to my little grass shack Part 2

Yes-more to the story, the mysterious celebrity chef returns.  On our way off the Road to Hana we decided to have one more stop at the quaint fruitstand.  To my surprise the chef was adamant that we retake his picture.  He had to be very careful about his apperance floating around in cyberworld, so he had been studying which angle in the mirror captured his best features:)  Thus, is the picture up above.  He was very fun to talk to and was also putting together an art show for Jan. 2010.

This is just one of the pretty views in our hotel.  I have to admit, I don't really love pictures without people in it.

The next day Nancy and I decided to do a little shopping at Laihaina.  This is an awesome little seaside village with lots to do and see.  Isn't this sunset absolutely FAB!!  I can't put into words how gorgeous it really was.  We ate at a shore side hamburger shop called Hamburger in Paradise.  The hamburgers were go, but we loved the coconut shrimp.  In fact nancy went back twice more to get her fix of coconut shrimp. 

We took a little excursion up the Haleakala Volcano to watch the sunrise at freaking 2 in the morning.  It took forever to get up the mountain, but I have to admit the view was breathtaking.  If I had to do it over though I would skip the early morning sunrise and just drive up during the day.  I never have been a morning person, although I am not a night time person either.  The plant up above is called a Silversword Plant.  Remarkably, this plant lives for 100 years and then blooms and dies.  It kinda made me sad.  Live all that time to bloom only once and then die...poor Silversword Plant.  All the way down the Volcano I slept...so exhausting.

After taking a nap by the pool and then a nap in my comfy hotel bed we headed over to a Luau just 5 minutes down the rode from our hotel.  Delish food and drinks and of course flower leis and guys in skirts with shirts off, what more can you ask for??

More pictures of our hotel, they had all sorts of animals, even flamingos...

This was our last day in Hawaii.  The plain didn't take off till around midnight so we relaxed by the beach for half the day.  One year my family went to Hawaii, it was a tradition to go every other Christmas starting my 6th grade year all the way to my snior year of school.  I am a very strong swimmer and I loved to body surf.  I think I had become pretty comfortable with the Hawaiian waves and let me guard down.  I almost drown...the only thing I remember was being pulled under agaian and again, and then blackness.  I remember to guys pulling me out of the ocean, they probably saved my life.  Hawaiiam waves are different, you can't always rely on the pattern because it can change at anytime.  Since this experince I have been TERRIFIED of going into the ocean any deaper than my knees.  I overcame my fear and went and floated with Nancy out in the ocean.  The water was warm and I actually enjoyed riding the waves.

While laying up on the beach a wave came up and soaked our towels and purses.  You never know when they are gonna hit...we headed over to the pool and spa for the rest of the day.