A Few New Tricks!

A couple of weeks ago when I walked into our church building there was a African-American family right in front of me. I wasted no time and went and introduced myself. I was sad to find out that they are just passing through waiting on paperwork so they can cross the boarder and head to their new job in Alaska. The next week after church was over I was walking down the hall and we ran into each other again and she said to me, "You know I can come and show you how to braid their hair I am really good at it." I jumped at the chance to have someone come and braid the girls hair so we had them over for dinner last night and after dinner she went to work.


I think she didn't realize how incredibility thick and curly Destina's hair was, it took her a little longer than she thought it would. The end result turned out really cute and when Destina went to look in the mirror she said, "Mom I have Haiti hair again." They happen to have a little 14 month old girl that was so darn cute, she was entertained all night long by all my kids.

It turned out to be a late night for the girls but when it was finally Avrie's turn she sat still and did not move until the end when she was doing the very back part she started to cry a little, but it was approaching midnight.


The girls love their new braids and I learned a few tricks too. I met someone new and had a great time visiting with them and getting to know them better. It was so nice of her to stay so late, too bad they are leaving.

I Just Had My First....

Job interview in 22 years! I was nervous, but mustered up the confidence to apply for a job that I thought was a great fit for me. I have not actually gone out in the work force and had to apply for a job or go through the interview process since before my oldest was born. I had to put together a resume, that was pretty interesting since I really have not worked, other than for a friend, for a long time. I realized that I have done a lot of volunteering over the years and that would have to do.
As I walked into the designated place I wasn't quite sure who I was looking for and sat down to wait pretty soon someone came in and smiled at me but moved on and started talking on the phone. A few minutes later she came back and and asked me my name, when I was the person she was looking for the first thing she said was, "I was looking for someone much older." Already I knew I was off to a great start. When the second person that was interviewing me came in a couple of minutes later she said the same thing. I guess putting down on paper that I have been a stay at home mom for 20 years and that I have 7 children and have a long list of volunteer work would give the image that I should have come in looking old and worn down.
I hit it off with both women and pretty soon they were telling me all the steps I needed to take before I could actually start working, the biggest mistake I kept making was telling them that I was so excited to do this job, about 10 times, I finally had to stop myself and come up with something else to say.
The best part about this job is it is very flexible, working around my free hours, because being a stay at home mom is still my first priority. But when Avrie starts Kindergarten which is all day full time here I can increase my hours. Now if I pass the background check I can start the training.

Easter....Good Thing My Kids Have Low Expectations!

It really was unfortunate that Easter had to fall less than 2 weeks after we got back from a vacation that broke the bank because it was a pretty lame showing from the Easter Bunny this year. The little girls had baskets filled with a few more things than the other kids found (they didn't even get a basket) but not much.
15 years ago on the night before Easter Scott and I were wandering the almost empty stores trying to pick up a few more items for the 2.5 children that we had because at the time their pile of Easter loot was not big enough. We stumbled across the huge bin of bouncy balls and thought um... why not, they're big and it will just add to the huge overflowing piles they were getting. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that 2 cheap bouncy balls would be the hit of Easter, not the plies of candy, they came in second, not the new outfits or the cute Easter toys it was the bouncy balls that my girls loved. So every year we have had to get bouncy balls, I have been buying them at Easter for 15 years! I thought this year surly the 20 year old would be ok without getting a bouncy ball. They are a waste of money, they don't stay inflated for very long, and there is always someone mad when it is their ball that deflates first. They think it is some kind of conspiracy against them personally, that we purposely chose the ball we knew would deflate the fastest and gave it to that child. Anyway, when I broke the news to said 20 year old that I really didn't have the money to buy the balls this year she took matters into her own hands and she grabbed the nearest sibling and off they went on their mission to get bouncy balls. Because buying 7 bouncy balls is a 2 person job! They even went so far as to stencil each child's initial on the ball so there would not be any confusion on Easter morning.

They were a hit again this year, because as I said before there really wasn't much competition this year! They started out bouncing the balls off of each others head, and pretty soon mayhem was taking place in my living room. Another Easter tradition that dates back to my childhood is making golden rod eggs over toast for breakfast, a great way to use up all the colored eggs. After a yummy breakfast it was time to head up to the school for our new tradition of an Easter Egg Hunt in the playground because our yard is not big enough to make it hard for the older kids.

Scott likes to hide the eggs and challenge the kids to find them all of course once they get their allotted amount they are done, or they can help someone else, and the easy ones are off limits to the big kids! Scott even hid some of the eggs on the way up to the school and most of the kids were in too big of a hurry to get up there and didn't notice them until the way home. Ryan went back up to the school later this evening and found two more eggs, he didn't tell anyone else he thought that was pretty smart and scored a little more candy!

By this morning it was the 3rd Easter Egg Hunt the little girls had been on so they were pro's at this and found their eggs in a hurry!
Then it was time for church and learning about the real meaning of Easter, while on a sugar high.

Yesterday afternoon Destina's soccer team had a Easter Egg hunt at the park by our house it was really fun the girls had a great time hanging out eating pizza and hunting for eggs.

We colored eggs at home between Easter Egg Hunts and the girls loved making the eggs diferent colors and were sad when we only did a dozen.


In the morning they had a fun Easter Egg hunt at Avrie's friends house, there were a ton of kids, yummy snacks and fun games for the kids.

Destina is always helping Avrie they are quite the team, I am so glad they have each other.

The Easter Egg Hunting Crew waiting for the Easter Bunny to finish the job!

So even though Easter morning was a little sparse the kids had a fun weekend and stayed busy with Easter Stuff. Thanks to all the people who made our Easter so much fun!

McKenzie's Graduation Announcement

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Happy Birthday Avrie!

Avrie is 4! I cannot believe how fast time goes it seems like just last week she turned 3 and she is already talking about being 5! She really has been so much fun I love her personality and I am so glad I get to be her mom.
It has been a little crazy since we came back from vacation but I managed to put together a birthday party for Avrie and 10 of her best friends.


We played "prize walk" it was just like doing a cake walk but instead the person whose number was chosen picked a prize, all the kids loved that game and they waited patiently until it was their turn to win! We played musical chairs and hot potato and finally freeze tag.

Then it was time for cupcakes and then presents. Gotta love the presents that make really obnoxious noises like this "CD player" that plays Disney songs! She got some really cute presents and loved all of them and played with them all evening long.


She really loved getting a pink and purple bike and by the end of the night was riding it all by herself with the training wheels still on of course. That night we had a nice dinner with Grandpa and Grandma and Scott's brother's family to celebrate Avrie's birthday and McKenzie's graduation. I think it is time for me to stop the celebrations and get back to the gym!

Home

We made it home it was so nice having a direct flight from Hawaii to Bellingham and only having a 10 minute drive home instead of 2 hours.
On Monday we went to the Polynesian Culture Center right by BYU Hawaii I have never been there before and was not sure if it was going to be worth the expense but I am so glad we went it was the perfect day. When we got there the package we wanted was sold out for the day but the nice guy at the counter said there was another "special deal" going on and we all got in for cheaper than the other package plus we were able to get a discount because Scott is a veteran and Kenzie also got a discount because she was a BYU-H student, so it was well worth it. The day was perfect it was not to hot and not too crowded. We were able to see almost everything and the dinner and evening show was really good.

While we were at Tonga Village Scott was called out of the crowd to come up and learn how to play the drums along with 2 other guys. He had a really good time acting like an idiot and playing to the crowd he had several people come up to him after and told him what a great job he did he was very entertaining and he had us in tears of laughter.

Somehow he was a natural!

Getting Tattoos in the Tahiti Village was fun. Avrie was sad when hers was gone the next morning.
In the Samoa Village show they had a guy climb the coconut tree and it happened to be a guy that McKenzie knew from school so we went back after the show and Scott wanted to try climbing the tree he did a pretty good job it looked hard.

After talking to the guy for a while the conversation came back to cheer somehow and he wanted to practice some partner stunting and Katie was happy to help, even though it has been about a year since she has done any partner stunting they did a pretty good job and it was really fun, Katie said that was the best part of her trip!


Later that night as we were waiting for the show we found him again out among the crowd and he wanted to do some more stunting so they were stunting in front of everyone it was pretty funny one Japanese man stood there and watched and then said after, "That was very cool, good job." in his best English! So if you are in Hawaii don't miss the PCC!

We stayed at the Turtle Bay while we were there, it is the closest hotel/resort to the school and I am so glad we stayed there it was really nice even though we had the cheapest rooms we still had ocean view and all the amenities of the resort. We were debating about staying at a cheaper hotel in Honolulu and driving up but I am glad we stayed here, we loved the small towns of the North Shore eating breakfast that morning at the Hukilau Cafe and all of the other hole in the wall places that Kenzie took us to, and avoiding the crowds of the big city.

Our last stop was Waikiki for some cheap shopping and to spend the day in Honolulu. We hit the International Market and all the shops around there. Then we headed to the beach to watch the sunset before we headed to the airport.

We found a grove of "Lost" trees right by the beach.
It was a beautiful day the weather was perfect not too hot, but sunny and warm.



We didn't get out in the sand because we did not have anywhere to clean up before we left for the airport and no one wanted to go home sitting on an airplane with sand where it does not belong.
For McKenzie the trip was bittersweet she loved her time here, the friends she made, and the fun times she had. Hopefully, the memories will be with her forever. She was a little sad to be coming home but she left a piece of her heart in Hawaii forever.

From the Beach

Here is Avrie, "Making me a sand castle." She loves the sand and has played for hours in it and at the pool. We have worn her right out, she woke up in the same position this morning as she went to sleep in last night she did not move for 8 hours of hard sleeping.

Cutest little cheeks ever!
McKenzie's first jump off the cliffs on Saturday
Proof that Scott jumped he had to do it twice on Saturday since I was not watching him the first time he jumped.
Yesterday we went to church on campus to one of the student wards it was pretty cool then we hung out at Turtle Bay exploring the beach and swimming. For dinner we decided to drive 45 minutes to Kaneohe to find something other than over priced resort food or McDonald's it was a beautiful drive and we found the roving doughnut truck as a bonus.
Last night Avrie started saying that she wanted to go home to see Destina so as wonderful as her life is here she still misses her sister!

Graduation Day!

Our day started bright and early McKenzie had to be on campus by 7:30 am. We waited around until 8:30 when they let us go in and get seated. Graduation started at 9:00am.

Elder Russell M. Nelson, was the honored speaker, he also happened to do my grandmother's open heart surgery in 1978. He gave a very inspiring talk on how it is the little things that add up to a successful life it is not waiting around for the one big thing, and no matter what you are doing take time to do the little things and establish good habits and stay on course. He spoke about how all of these students from 70 different countries will go back to their communities and make a difference by the small things they do daily. Made me want to be a better person and work harder making my little world a better place.

The tradition is to give the graduate a lei, we found this out last last night and the flower shop was just closing when we got there but we did it. Her friends also made her lei's as well.

We stopped by the temple for a quick photo shoot, it was a little overcast so the temple did nto stand out as much as it does it really is striking.



Then it was off to Haleiwa for lunch at one of McKenzie's favorite spots and for shaved ice at Matsumoto's then we headed to Wiamea Bay for another jump off of the cliff, Scott jumped too there was quite the crowd there today. Avrie made herself into a sand castle and had sand everywhere!

She is crazy! But she had a pretty great day!