HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADDALIE!

Addalie is two years old today and I can't believe the time has gone so quickly. It seems like just yesterday that we were waiting her arrival. She is so funny and such a quick learner. She loves to pretend she is a puppy or try to act scary and "get us". She loves hide and seek and to play that she is "going to Costco". Lately her favorite game is to play library. She stands all her library books up on the stairs and asks everyone if they want to "go to the li-berry" Then after we play along she says "okay, bye, c-ya!" and waves. She really is "too cute."
Lately she really enjoys drawing and writing (sometimes on the walls), I will usually help her write her name on her paper and she gets all excited and says "ADDALIE!" Because she has done this so many times, she is starting to try and write her own name. She'll draw some circles on her page, hold it up to me and say "look Mom, A-D-D!" It would be so awesome that she knew the first three letters of her name except for the fact that they ARE A-D-D. Hmmmmmm. I better hurry and teach her the rest.
We have been teaching her how to make a two with her fingers but its really hard for her to hold down the right fingers so it ends up looking different every time but its always two fingers.
She has been teaching herself to use the bathroom and will tell me she has to "go bathroom." It reminds me of a time when Susie was changing Landon's diaper and he said he didn't want a diaper, he wanted big boy pants, and she looked at him and said "LAY DOWN!!!" Sometimes its the MOM thats not ready for the potty training! I'm guilty of that this time around. I never thought I would be but its true.
We like to call Addie our little firecracker because even though she is small, she is full of surprises, laughs and energy. I also call her a velociraptor because sometimes she spreads her legs a little, hunches over a little, holds her hands up in claw like fashion and starts going after someone. She's a small little dinosaur that is scarier than it looks.
We love her so much and we are so glad she is part of our family. Her older sisters adore her and naturally she gets all the attention which she loves and expects.
Happy Birthday Addalie!!!! WE LOVE YOU!

To hike or mud wrestle..... THAT is the question

New Years Day we decided to go on a hike with the Rasmussen's. We decided the description of Maunawili Falls sounded nice and do-able, (with 6 kids under the age of 10 you have to consider these things). The review of it said that it was a nice, leisurely hike about 1 1/2 miles. Perfect.
Several minutes into the hike we realized it was a little muddier than we planned on but still didn't seem too bad and so far it was a nice and easy trail. After hiking for about a mile we ran into some hikers on their way down. Katie asked them how the rest of the hike was. They went into a huge thing about how horrible and muddy it was and how there were really tough spots where the trail was steep and they had to cross the river about six times and ...... blah, blah, blah........ The guy said, "I'm an "experienced hiker" and even I thought it was horrible." After watching him cross the river I came to the conclusion that "experienced hiker" was a loose term.
We all voted to keep going and see for ourselves how bad it really was. About a half mile later we came to a sign that told us we had 1 1/2 miles to go to the falls, (wasn't that how long it was to begin with?). We were already muddy up to our calves and the girls were having a blast so we decided to keep going. In my opinion, once you start something you have to finish it. The mud got deeper and gooier and we DID have to cross the stream several more times before we reached the top, but I hardly noticed any of that. I was watching Addie. She was holding my hand and walking all on her own and was strutting and singing and if I'd slip a little in the mud she'd ask, "otay, Mom?" I kept waiting for her to ask me to pick her up but she didn't. She kept going and going and going. At one point Justin was holding her hand, and as they reached the top of a hill she said, "I DID IT!!!" It was so cute. She was such a great example that day of attitude and how our lives are affected by the attitudes we choose. I kept thinking of the couple we met that was saying how terrible the hike was and then looking at Addie and watching this little two year old conquer what they barely could. We made it up and down- a total of about 5-6 miles, and she walked all but maybe 1/4 of a mile of it, and that was because we were trying to go faster and not because she asked to be held.
By the time we were done I told Katie if we mud wrestled we still wouldn't look any dirtier. We were covered in mud. Haley and Rachel took their shoes off and walked the last part of it because they were sinking in so much. Our pants were wet because of crossing the river so much and we were tired but all in all we had a great time. Haley said it was one of the funnest days of her life. I'm glad we didn't listen to the negative perspective of someone else and instead chose to make a positive experience of our own.
HAO'OLI MAKAHIKI HOU- HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Holidays

Christmas seemed to be a really busy season this year. We were thinking that we would have a quiet month with less parties to attend and no family to visit. Man, were we wrong! Between the work and ward parties there were achievement activities for the girls, wrapping and shipping gifts (I had no idea what a process that can be), home school, ward callings (I got a new one as a counselor in the primary), trying to do some service to remember the real reason for the season, and getting out a Christmas card for the first time in our lives, (I hope you enjoyed yours Mindy). There just didn't seem to be enough time for it all. In the end it all turned out nicely though- as it always seems to, and we had a fantastic Christmas.
Justin decided to go all out and gave me a video camera AND and ipod touch- both of which I LOVE!!! I tried to find a wii for him but everyone on the island was out of stock, and believe me..... I checked EVERYWHERE!!! I ended up getting him Guitar Hero- the complete band, because I knew we could find a wii just a few days after Christmas. We got one the Saturday after and we have had a blast rockin' out, punchin' each other, and tryin' out our best backhands.


For New Years Eve we went to the beach and had a bonfire, roasted marshmallows and made s'mores with our friends, the Rasmussen's. We knew that it was illegal to have fires on the beach in most places but we didn't know it was everywhere until an officer showed up and told us we couldn't be there. He was really good about it though and said that once we were done we needed to make sure to soak the fire and scatter the remains. It probably helped that we were all haoli's and "didn't know better". The beach was so beautiful, the sunset perfect, and we even had a sea turtle and a seal checking things out nearby. We finished just as it started getting dark so we packed up and went back to our house for fireworks and more of the wii. The Estes family joined us and we played until midnight when we were more than amazed and overwhelmed by the amount of fireworks going off in the area.

Okay, let me tell you about Hawaii and New Years. I went to Costco right before New Years and almost everyone had one of those huge boxes full of fireworks in their cart. You know, those ones that cost $200 plus? I was thinking, "man, they sure are serious about their fireworks here". For several days before New Years Eve there were fireworks going off now and again. The morning of, there were fireworks going off and I think they pretty much went all day long. Our neighbors were doing fireworks from the time we got home around seven, until past midnight. Now we're not talking screaming bees and ground flowers, even though there are those too, but we're talking more of the big illegal kind that are Stadium of Fire worthy. The air was so thick with smoke that you couldn't see more than twenty feet up in the air, it was a huge fog covering our house and from what I hear, the whole island.
The missionaries came over and told us about a guy they talked to who was a police officer. He would confiscate illegal fireworks and bring them home for his kids to light. That right there describes Hawaii perfectly. Needless to say if you want a good New Year's celebration, Oahu is the place to come.