Be Mine

Happy Valentine's Day!

By the way, it is a pet peeve of mine when people say "valentimes". Why do they do that, anyway?

We had a great day today.

First of all, Peyton got up at 5:30 am. I can't think of a better way for her to say "I love you Mommy" than getting up 2 hours earlier than normal just to spend time with me. [ok, really I can think of a million better ways....]

After Harmony, my mom came over to deliver special Valentine's treats to me, Lindy and the kids. She had these really cute matching aprons especially made for all of us! Aren't they adorable? She even ordered personalized Valentine cards for us! The aprons were delivered with cooking utensils and all! She even gave each of us an apple....to counteract the mounds of valentine candy the kids were inhaling! THANKS MOM! I love you!

(Carly, we want a picture of Alyson Joy in her apron when it comes in the mail!!!)

Then tonight Tucker and I managed to get away for a couple hours to have a nice dinner together at Spike and Rail, a nearby restaurant. Tucker ordered the salmon and I got the halibut......which, by the way, was a very romantic choice with MOUNDS of fresh garlic on top. Oh yeah, who wants to kiss me now?



Tucker got me some earrings and a necklace - I always love to get jewelry. THANKS TUCKER! I love you!! xoxoxoxo

Thoughts of a [scabbed] 4 Year Old

Lexi is doing much better, though her myriad of scabs provoke plenty of questions from onlookers!

Speaking of my sweet Lexi, she has had some funny comments lately that remind me of the pure innocence of these precious little children....

"Mom, when I turn 6 will I lose my 'L'? Because Jacob said when I turn 6, my 'L' will turn into a 'J' like him"

"Mom, someday will I go to the store all by myself?"

(Singing loudly) "Mom, do you think Jesus can hear me?"

Lexi: "Mom, when will my birthday be this year?"

Mom: "What do you mean honey? Your birthday will always be November 24th"

Lexi: "No Mom, the twenty-fourth is when I turned FOUR, so when will it be when I turn 5?"

Cell Confusion

I need a new cell phone.

I've sorta had bad luck with cells, so I've been using family hand-me-downs for quite a while now.

Which I don't mind. Except my pink hand-me-down RAZR from Kristy is now dying. The keys freeze up and I can't enter in a phone number, nor can I text anymore. I think the 1,000th drop finally killed it.

I'm eligible for a free or discounted upgrade, but there are like 100 phones to choose from! It overwhelms me.

Too many thoughts. "I like flip phones" "I like any color other than black so I can find it in my black-hole of a purse" "Maybe I should get a Blackberry and be more organized - but its not a flip" "I don't care about the MP3 playing stuff, I like my iPod" "It needs to be durable!"

I need help. Can you tell me about a cell phone you either LIKE or DISLIKE and why.....

A (un)Typical Sunday Night

We get to live in the same town as my Mom and Dad, along with my two teenage siblings who live at home, and my Sister Lindy and her family. (Carly and Alyson are far away in Utah). Anyway, sometimes we see eachother a lot, and other times we get busy and it'll be a couple weeks between. Same with Sunday night dinners. There have been phases with my Dad bbq-ing at my parents' house, there have been phases of having dinner at my house, and there have been phases where we all do our own thing.

So tonight was a "bbq at the parents' house" night. The girls LOVE it when we get to go to Grandma and Grandpa's. Between Lindy's two and my three little ones, we create quite the ruckuss when we come over. Here's a sneak peak into our evening....along with a dramatic ending:

Dad's really got the barbequing down! Yummy!

Its hard not to bite this one!

Lindy and little weeble-wobble Paxton

Tucker playing with the kids. This was a nice, calm game of "throwing the pillow AT the kids"!

And a little game of Bingo

Kristy was quite focused and worked out while we all pigged out to dinner!

Grandma gave Peyton a great variety of food! Here's some chicken & veggie soup.....

....her OWN bowl of mashed potatoes!

.....and even her own chocolate ice cream cone!


Ryan and Tucker chatted a bit


and then the nice calm evening came to a screeching hault. Or I should say "screaming" hault! We were in the living room chatting and suddenly Jordyn came screaming and crying in the house "Lexi's getting hurt! Lexi's getting hurt!". My heart dropped and I immediately knew what had happened.



They were playing in the garage and found the key to the treadmill and turned it on. Lexi was caught between the treadmill and the garage door....and couldn't get out. We all ran out there, Tucker grabbed her and brought her in. And she screamed bloody murder for about 40 minutes while we tried EVERYthing we could think of to calm her burns. She had a big one on her leg, and then 10 smaller burns all over her body (elbows, fingers, legs, ankles, wrists...). It was so sad!!!! She was hysterical. We sprayed antiseptic spray, and held cold towels on her. I gave her tylenol and we tried to get her in a cold bath. After about 30-40 minutes, she had realized that the spray did take the edge off the burn (and the Tylenol kicked in) and let us spray a ton more. Then our wonderful friend "doctor Dane" came over with some stronger topical solution and ointment. How could we be so lucky to have a house call from Dane every time we're in crisis mode like this????


Poor, poor Lexi. She was so tired and so worn out from being so upset. Lyric and Jordyn were quite distraught...really everyone was. Its so sad to see your child in pain and not really be able to take it away. We all learned a good lesson, especially me. We got her all wrapped up and feeling a little better.

Whew! What a night! And THAT is a peek into a typical family get together....with a little twist at the end!

Dinner Talk

Tonight we had Chinese Chicken Salad for dinner. I bought the salad kit at Costco....all you add is lettuce. It was a quick dinner, and really yummy! One kit is $10 and will feed our family for two nights. Not bad.

So, as we were eating dinner, Jordyn was telling us about how Freddy, Nathan and Sebastian were chasing her and Zoe at recess today. She said the boys got in trouble (I guess the age-old game of chasing girls is outlawed these days?) and they told the teacher they were chasing the girls because they wanted to be their friends. The teacher told them that is not the right way to become someone's friend. Ugh, I keep having flashes of all the boy issues we'll have over the next 18 years.

Next, I started telling Tucker my most recent frustration. Or at least I tried. Usually we have to interrupt our own conversation every 4-5 words to say to the girls "no, its not your turn. I'm talking to Daddy right now". Anyway, I was telling him how TIRED I am of hearing "I'm gonna be Gabriella, you're Troy, okay? " and then " NOOOOO IIIIIIIII want to be Gabriella....you were Gabriella last time!" I actually feel like I'm close to hating High School Musical because 90% of our conversations, arguments or requests revolve around this show, the music or the characters. And its been this way for about a year!

So then I asked Tucker if maybe it would be the same thing if we had boys, but instead they'd fight over "I want to be Darth Vader!". He said maybe, but that he and his brothers always had a different favorite. So he was always Luke and Spencer was always Han Solo and it always worked out. But I'm sure that didn't mean there wasn't any fighting and I'm sure if Momma Judy were here she would agree.

And finally, I'm including a sneak peek into the new phase of Peyton. Well, not really new, but the intensified phase.

How often?

I won't admit how often I clean out my fridge. I don't mean just throwing out old stuff, because I AM obsessed with that (I can't stand expired stuff). I mean taking out shelves and scrubbing it.

I'll give you a hint. I've had the fridge for 3 1/2 years. And I think I've scrubbed it out [top to bottom] a total of: less than 1 time. Embarassing? Yes. Gross? Yes.

But is it clean NOW? YES!!

I got home from Costco and could not stand it another second. Now, its not only clean......but it's stocked full.

I love it when my fridge is stocked full. It almost makes me want to tell everyone they can't eat it so it can stay that way. But that would be really wierd. No seriously, I love to have an abundance of food so I can feed my family, and also family or friends that happen to stop by. And what a blessing it is!

How often do YOU clean out your fridge?

La la la la la la la la la

I'm not big on commercials. I guess maybe most people aren't? Normally I can tune them out. But I just happened to be married to someone who loves them and often laughs out loud at them. So I get a little out of touch with the general population's feelings on commercials.

Also, we have a DVR, which means we fast fwd >>>> most miscellaneous programming.

But, occasionally there will be an exception and a commercial will catch my attention. Like lately, the new MacBook ad. You know that REALLY skinny Mac laptop that they pull out of the envelope? Every time it comes on, I find myself really liking the song playing in the commercial. So I googled it (don't you love how google is a verb?).

I guess I'm not alone! Apparently lots of people have asked the same thing. It's a song called "New Soul" by Israeli artist Yael Naim. Check it out on my sidebar. I love it.

Day #6 - Departure

All too soon it was time to pack up our ridiculous amount of stuff and head back home. We were sad to leave, but the kids seemed ready to get home. Lexi kept saying how sad our puppy Belle must be without us and how excited she was to get home to see her! Belle must have felt the same way because last night after we got home, Belle slept with Lexi all night, which is unusual.

Anyway, we said aloha and mahalo to the beautiful Ko Olina Resort and begun our 14 hour venture home.

This is how we all felt at the airport....just a little worn out, but a lot satisfied.

The plane ride home had a few rough [screaming] spots for the babies, but overall went well.
And, fun for us, the grapevine (mountain range we pass over to get home from LAX) had lots of wind and snow, so we had to drive 15 miles an hour. It was a bit scary. And when we finally arrived home at 1:45 am, we breathed a sigh of relief to be safe....and t0 have had such a wonderful trip.

Our trip was exactly what we wanted it to be and we can't wait till we can go again. But I will reiterate that it is A LOT of work to do something like this with kids (or at least with three kids 5 and under). It takes a lot of energy, a lot of preparation for anything (like having a plastic bag on the airplane to wrap a poopy diaper in), and a lot of patience (of which I had none by the end). I kept saying "you have to really want it" to do a lot of traveling with little ones. And we DID really want it. And the kids really did love it.

I wish I was good at reviewing trips like my cousin-in-law Aracely. She is the best. You can check her out at daytrippingmom.blogspot.com. But I will say that there are benefits to staying at a time share resort. But if you're not ready to be an owner, you can rent someone else's week at redweek.com. There are some great deals on 7 days in thousands of locations around the world....this can be particularly great for last minute deals.

Thanks for joining us on our fun trip! I wish I wasn't so tired because I've got lots of blogs to catch up on!

Day #5

So today we wanted to do some shopping at the Aloha Stadium swap meet. I am so NOT a souveneir person, but Hawaii is one exception. Its so fun to get cute dresses, bags, t-shirts and necklaces at such a great price - and the swap meet is THE place to go.

But the thing is, all that the kids wanted to do was swim. Poor kids, had to endure more car time and shopping before they could swim. They did great and got to pick out some fun trinkets.

Tonight marks the start of our travel back home. We've started packing up ALL of our stuff - whew. We'll check out in the morning and begin the LONG day. Until next time, beautiful Hawaii!

*******************

This is the kitchen in the time share. We couldn't have survived without this! This time share has 3 bathrooms and three bedrooms. The bedroom Tucker and I stayed in was a large master bedroom with a pull-out couch, so neither family was disturbed in the night by eachother's screaming children!

A faint pic of our living room, and there are bedrooms on either side of the living room. There are lots of benefits to time shares. This one is a Marriott and has every amenity you can imagine! Its located on a beautiful lagoon and they monitor it closely so people from the general public can't use the facilities.

Driving around the island can take a while! On the North Shore it's a one lane road and you constantly have to stop for surfers. And in Honolulu it's traffic! Poor kids spent more time than they would have liked in this rental van.

The swap meet is held on Wed, Sat and Sunday beginning at 6:00 am. There are hundreds of vendors with thousands of fun aloha items. The prices are unbeatable and its fun to do some bartering down on the prices.

This is just one of the many stands with aloha attire. So much to choose from!

I love these! The girls have been wanting rolling suitcases for a long time. There were tons to choose from at the swap meet, and they loved these with pink aloha print. They were $11 each, and they fit a lot!

This is one of the 3 hot tubs at the resort. The kids were obsessed! There are also 3 pools, one of which has sand (imported from Australia) in the shallow-end just like the beach. They were salt water pools. We also walked just a few more paces down to the lagoon where we could swim in the ocean. Tucker and Dane snorkeled there the other day.

So sad to leave this beautiful place! I already can't wait until we come again. I think this will be the main vacation spot for our family. It isn't cheap, but it is do-able. Our tickets were $300 each and we were lucky to stay in the time share for only $350 for the week. Tucker shares my love for Hawaii and we both really look forward to coming back as soon as the opportunity arises! By the way, I found this cute swim long tankini at the swap meet for $20. I love the pattern!

What a blessing that we were able to make this trip happen. And what a blessing to have such great friends to make memories with. We were talking tonight about how rare it is to find a family you want to take a trip with, stay in the same time share and spend sun-up till sun-down with and STILL have fun and laugh. The kids have all had a blast together.

We're especially glad to take this trip since Dane & Beth are leaving us next month to move back to Utah. I can hardly talk about it, it makes me so sad. Taking trips like this will have to be our yearly meeting spot! Thanks guys, for making a great trip even better!

Day #4

Its been fun to read your comments. It's sort of like a bunch of friends are on this trip with us!

When we first left on the trip, I was thinking that six days is sorta long and that I'd probably feel ready to just be at home by then. I confess, I was wrong. Tomorrow is day 5, and I could honestly stay another week! It's been a mixture of exhausting and fulfilling at the same time.

Today was another North Shore day. Which is where my heart is. I absolutely love the North Shore. If you come to Oahu and only stay in Honolulu or Waikiki, then you haven't truly experienced Hawaii. I love the whole mood of the North Shore. I love driving on Kamm Highway along the ocean, seeing the surfers, smelling the breeze, stopping at Ted's Bakery and the pineapple stands, and seeing all the locals in their slow-paced element.

Before we left this morning, Tucker and Dane went out for some more snorkeling. They loved it and Tucker was thrilled that he saw some turtles! He wasn't so thrilled that he saw jellyfish though.

*****************

Once we were out the door, our first stop of the day was the LDS Temple in Laie. It was perfect weather.

This temple has a great visitor's center. There is this beautiful statue of Christ there. The kids were fascinated by it. Jacob asked if he could give Him a hug!

This visitor's center was recently re-done. My favorite part was this little beach scene! Each hut had a television in it and a computer touch screen where you can choose a topic of video you want to watch. It looked so real and cute, the kids could hardly contain themselves from going in and playing!

This table had a Book of Mormon for each language into which it has been translated!

There was also an area where you could watch each of the Apostles and President Hinckley testify of our Savior.

Next stop was BYU-Hawaii! We ate at the Seasider (snack bar on campus) and walked around a bit. It always brings back great memories to be there. There is something about the smell in the air in the halls there that particularly brings back my days as a custodian on campus (a mix of trash cans and humid ocean air)!

Beth and I coincidentally both attended BYU-Hawaii at separate times in our college days (how was that already 10 years ago? not possible!). So its extra fun to be here together! Its wierd to see all the "kids" on campus and realize we don't look like them anymore. Somehow we've morphed into official "moms"!

We stopped by the "linoleum house" where I lived. No one was home, so I didn't get to go inside. Go here to see me in this same spot 10 years ago!

Next we wanted to go to the beach again, so we went down to Hukilau. It was REALLY windy. So windy that the sand was pelting our legs (and eyes). Lexi hid under a blanket the whole time. But the kids (and adults!) still had fun playing in the sand. Tucker caught a few great body-surfing waves, too!

This was how I kept Peyton happy and free of sand in her eyes!


Tucker is a human fish. For the first time since I've known him, he got a little hesitant to go back in the water....because he saw ANOTHER jellyfish here. (but he still went back in)

"that was a perfect wave!"


There may be nothing in the world that looks or smells more beautiful than the Plumeria flower!!!

Tomorrow is the swap meet, more swimming and relaxing! Aloha!