Happy New Year

Well, it's still 2008 here...but all our friends and family are in 2009! 2008 brought us this tough guy- pulling to stand at 7 months. Slow down buddy!

Christmas

WOW! Santa sure indulged our kids this year! They got some great presents and have played with them all. Santa went a little retro this year and brought Erector sets, tinker toys, play doh and some other kid classics. He also brought the girls' top items...a tinker bell play set for Bella and a video game (Leapster) for Alaina. Jake got some great toys too, though he much prefers to play with the paper and boxes! Jake has progressed to sitting from a crawl AND is now pulling himself up on things. We have caught him standing in his crib several times and yesterday he used the girls table to pull himself up to stand. Ahh- definitely can't leave him alone now.
Christmas was a good time for us all since Steve's parents were visiting. The girls have been pushing us out the door to "go on a date" and Jack and Olga are enjoying the kids (I think) It was definitely a treat to have family with us for the holidays- both Thanksgiving with my parents and Christmas with Steve's.

Winter Concert

Bella's class sang "Here Comes Santa Claus" in the school concert. Many people came up to me (and her) to say that she just stole the show. She can really project her voice and although she said that she was "excited, nervous & embarrased" we think she did great.

Alaina had her last day of preschool this Thursday and is happy to be staying home with me. She is looking forward to going to Jr. Kindergarten to learn...but doesn't like daycare. I can't say that I blame her.

Anyway, enjoy the show...Bella is in the center of the front row in the dark red dress...

Kids say the darndest things...

Classic kids quotes: Bella: "Mom, why did Santa have black eyebrows this year? Last year, they were white." Alaina: "If Santa sees you all the time, why didn't he know my name?" Uhh, good questions kids...
Okay so it's been a while since my last post...Thanksgiving was great since we had some friends from Alaska and my parents here to celebrate with us. Otherwise, it would have been a smorgasboard of food and, well, us. So, it was nice to be able to share the holiday with others. Since my last post we have done a lot and nothing at all. We headed to the North Shore one weekend with one of Bella's friends from Alaska, Amanda. The waves were supposed to be in the 30' range but turned out to be more like 20 footers. Still crazy in my opinion but it was cool nonetheless...in the driving rain. Yes, we were the fools that went out in the crazy rain to see - water. And some lunatics out in the water. Steve and my parents were able to get some garlic shrimp at Ted's bakery. We tried to do a family portrait but there were some personality conflicts with the choice of outfits so that took a little longer than anticipated. Finally, we were able to get to the beach on a non windy day and get some pics. Unfortunately, Jake wasn't his usual happy, smiling self. Later that same day we went to Makapu'u lighthouse and finally got a great family portrait, but I had already submitted my Christmas card order...darn! Before my parents left we went to see a little play at the mall called "the gift of aloha" which was cute, but not as cute as how estatic my kids were over the "snow". There was a bubble machine of sorts that was making snow at the end of the play and the kids were thrilled that it was "snowing in Hawaii!" We were very sad to see my parents depart...but in more classic kid fashion....
Bella (in an excited voice to my father) "One more night Pop-Pop" Alaina "UGH when you leave we only get two weeks to ourself before more grandmas and Pop-Pops" Life has returned to normal chaos since they have left, although with the holidays upon us it has been a little crazier. We also decided to take Alaina out of preschool. I was running around way too much for too little benefit to her. Her most positive thing to say about school was "But, I love the play-doh."
And not to be outdone Jake had his first quote today "Hi, dad" and waved. Steve was so excited it was cute. I sure do love them all. They keep me laughing that's for sure. Well, I shall retire for tonight but I will try to be a little better about posting.

Hula Dancing

Bella had her Hula Performance this week and it was great to see that she did not inherit my two left feet! She did a fantastic job remembering all of the moves to two different dances. We were able to tape it, but it is too large of a file to upload.
Jake went to the doctor this week for his 6 month check up and he weighed in at 19 lbs 1 ounce and was 27.5 inches. So he didn't grow much or he was measured wrong last time. Either way, he is doing well developmentally and has occasionally gotten his belly off the ground to crawl. He much prefers the army crawl...it's quicker at this point.
Alaina is in LOVE with gymnastics and wakes up every day asking if it is a gymnastics day. I am glad that she has found something that she enjoys so much.

The kids have enjoyed having their grandparents in town. We are hoping to go to see Santa sometime before they leave and maybe go to a Luau.

The Next American Idol

Wow, two weeks passed by in a blur! It has been great having my parents around. The kids are enjoying them and Steve and I have actually gone out to eat by ourselves twice! What a luxury. Steve was in CA for a week but is home again. My parents and I have done some sightseeing around the island and I was able to check out a couple of things that I had not seen before. I guess the surf was incredible at the North Shore today and we missed it...15-20' faces. Maybe we'll check it out tomorrow if it's still high. Those surfers are insane.
The kids are doing well. Bella and I hiked up to the pill boxes. She loved the danger and excitement of it all. It is a narrow trail and is fairly steep. Jake learned to play the Kazoo and the girls think it is hysterical. The girls are having fun with gymnastics and hula. Bella has her Hula Performance next week and Alaina will be doing one in mid-December. Jake is also starting to crawl forward. He was rolling around before to get where he needed to go and then he started inching forward. Now, he's making his way around the room...slowly and on his belly still. Heaven help me when he gets going!

Pumpkin Patch and Halloween

Well, we ran around today to both of the girls parades. Alaina was able to walk around with her class and they all dressed as scarecrows. More importantly, she was able to see Shelby- her friend from the Mon-Wed-Fri class. Then we headed over to Bella's and the girls wore their costumes. Bella bought her own costume, Silvermist from the new TinkerBell movie (which we haven't seen yet) and Alaina and Steve made her Iron Giant costume...that's her in the silver box! If you haven't seen the Iron Giant movie it is a very cute movie about a little boy in the 50's that finds the "iron giant" and tries to hide him from the town and US government.

We also went to the Pumpkin Patch last week. Jake slept most of the time, but I was able to get two pictures of him eating the vines and leaves. The girls each picked the perfect pumpkin, as you can tell!

Grandparents!

Okay, where have I been? Well, last week was pretty hectic with the pumpkin patch, dance classes and swim lessons, but normal nonetheless. The kids enjoyed the pumpkin patch and Bella found the "perfect" baby pumpkin. Alaina wanted one as a Jack o Lantern. Jake just wanted to put anything he could get in his hands into his mouth. Then on Saturday, Grandma & Pop-pop Lomascolo came to town! AND THEY BROUGHT SEATTLE'S WEATHER! The first two days they were here were rainy and it has been overcast since then. Anyway, we did get out to the swap meet today and Monday we drove over to Hawaii Kai. That turned out to be a bust since the weather was still ugly. On the bright side, it's warmer than where they live in Florida.

Alaina's Hula song

So she learned the words to her hula song and Bella has a lot of Hawaiian songs memorized from all of her hula practice. I'll get a recording of her singing with the hula moves. Enjoy!

Watch out Williams sisters!

Venus and Serena have nothing on Bella and Alaina. And check out that push up from Jake. Superstars!!

In Memory of Slowly Slimy Slug...

This picture is for Montana Baker in Alaska who once had a pet slug named Slowly. You can read about the tragedy that befell Slowly on the Baker's blog (July). Rush, this guy heard about his cousin and can't wait to meet you! The girls found this guy near the house and just couldn't wait to show us. Sure beats the beetle/roach they wanted to keep for a pet yesterday! Anyway, it was a rainy weekend and we didn't go out much. The girls did a lot of art work and Jake practiced all of his various movements. He sure doesn't stay in one place anymore.

Fall Break

Okay so where have we been this week? Well, Bella had her Fall Break this week and even though we didn't do anything spectacular it was nice to hang out together. Steve has found out that his billet has been removed from the shopping list and that we will be staying in Hawaii until the original transfer date, Summer 2010. Jake is now rolling over both ways (back to tummy, tummy to back) and is "crawling" backwards and spinning all over the place to get where he wants to go. He will be five months old tomorrow...why is he moving around so much??? He also slept through the night one night this week (7:45 to 4 and then fell back asleep after eating until 6) unfortunately I was so worried that I kept checking on him to make sure he was still alive! He likes to sleep on his belly and I still worry about SIDS. What else...I keep telling Steve that I am going to ban the news from being watched in our house. I am SICK of the media rant and rave. I was done with the election before I even knew who the Democratic candidate was! It is despicable that "news" is so slanted left (primarily) or right. I just want facts...no polls, no fake statistics, no spin-just facts. But, I don't think the media even knows the facts.

Matter of Semantics

For today's soap box...

I was reading the Honolulu Star Bulletin today and an article caught my eye, "Bride and groom not neutral on gender-neutral terms" To break it down, a California couple (male/female) refused to sign a state marriage license because the state replaced the terms bride and groom with Party A and Party B. Now, they are filing a lawsuit. The groom states "our personal objective is to be honored and recognized by the state of California as bride and groom" and "these gender neutral terms violate the rights of the majority." Though they are married in the eyes of God (church ceremony) they are not married in the eyes of the state and therefore the bride cannot change her name or receive her husband's medical benefits. The president of the Sacramento Stonewall Democrats calls this lawsuit "frivolous." REALLY? Why wasn't it frivolous when the law was changed to make the certificate gender neutral? Last time I checked a marriage union was between a man and a woman. If same sex couples want to receive the same benefits as married couples then they need to petition to change tax codes and medical benefits to include terms like "life partner" or whatever the PC term is today or petition the state to change it from a "marriage license" to a ball & chain license or whatever suits the fancy. Our country has gotten so focused on the "marriage" aspect of it all, but really what it comes down to is money and rights. I have no problem with same sex unions and each partner getting tax/medical benefits, etc and all of the other legal junk, but a marriage is between man and woman, period, end of soapbox.

Groundhog Day

So, it was mid 80s, sunny, the water was warm, there was a light breeze, etc, etc Nothing much to report. Yup, that's how the week has gone. Some pics from an evening at the beach...gotta get ready to pick Bella up from Hula and take Alaina to her Hula lesson.

Still Going Strong

I thought we were done with the birthday, but I was reminded about cupcakes for the class...silly me. Jake and I celebrated with Bella at her class today and stayed for a little while to help out. It was nice to see Bella in action. While doing one of their assignments I began to think that she is the resident artist. "Bella, can you draw me a shark?" "Bella, can you draw me a frog?" "Bella what color would you use?" It makes me wonder if these kids are telling their parents that they actually drew the pictures.

Continued...Birthday, Done!

Our first camping expedition as a family turned out to be okay...complete with hot dogs, toasted marshmallows and a mongoose nosing around the tents. (and the centipedes that we saw slithering under the tents, ugh) Surprisingly, we lasted the whole night, but headed home early since I hadn't packed any breakfast foods. The girls loved it except for the bathrooms. Jake didn't sleep too well but he was a trooper, as always. Today, I hiked up to the pillbox with our neighbor, Lori. It was just gorgeous...and pretty challenging. Steve is off on a bike ride, Jake is sleeping and the girls are watching a movie. I think I am going to lay down on my comfy bed and take a rest.

Birthday, To Be Continued...

Poor Bella! She woke up today with a splitting headache which progressed to an upset stomach, complete with naps and throwing up. What a horrible way to spend your birthday. We are going to attempt the camping trip tomorrow night. One of our "traditions" is that on a birthday, nobody goes to work or school and we all do what the birthday person wants to do. (within reason...no Disney World this year) Well, since Bella was bed ridden from noon on, we have decided to postpone the birthday celebration until tomorrow. But, she did open her presents since that wouldn't be fair to make her wait.