HI.

Just thought to let you know we are home. We missed the excitment of the Tsunami. I just got home from picking up Nate, Cassie and the girls.

Love you allo,

Dad

This is a picture of the volcano. That is steam coming out, but ther is a lot of sulfer dioxide coming out also. In fact part of the road was closed because the levels were too high to be safe.

This is going into a lava tube from a long ago eruption. Most of tit was about 8 feet high and a good 8-10 feet across. I can't image the amount of lava it took to fill it.

This picture was taken about 5 miles from the house we are renting. However, to get to it we had to drive for about 3 hours. Needless to say, lava came down and buried the road, At that point, the lava was about 5 feet thick. It is really amazing to see all the lava.

After we left the park, we went to a black sand beach. It was really different. Not only is the sand much coarser, but it was REALLY hot on bare feet. While I was putting my sandles on, Mom spotted this green sea turtle sunning down the beach.

After a while, it went back into the ocean. and we took a ride to a bakery where they are supposed to make the best Hawaiian bread. We got a loaf to try. We then went back to the beach to see if there were any more turtles. the next picture is the results of that.

This one was eating and needless to say, it was real close. There was another spot where there were 3 turtles. Allso there were several in the water besides those close to us. Also there were several whales going by. We saw lots of spouts and a few flipper slaps.

Love you guys.

February Fun

Hello all!

We have been staying busy with the usual activities. A lot of playdates, swimming and toddler groups. It's a tough life. Xavier is doing well. Still working on potty training. It seems like we take one step forward and two steps back. I suppose as long as he potty trained by the time he starts preschool in the fall, he'll be just fine. He does start swim classes next month, which he is really happy about.

Toby is doing great too. He's starting to push himself up more and scoot around the floor a bit. It's mostly rolling and flopping at this point, but he's determined to go somewhere. Usually wherever Xavier is is where he wants to be. It's hard to believe he'll be six months in a couple weeks. Time is going by so quickly.

Scott and I are also doing well. Scott is staying busy at work and just trying to get things in order for when the new boss comes in. The current manager is retiring at the end of March, so they want to make it an easy transition for everyone. I have been doing the usual mommy stuff, and thinking about going back to work on an on-call/fill-in basis again. I just haven't been able to make the call yet, because I just like spending time with the little guys so much. I know when I let them know I'm able to fill-in again, they will be calling all the time! Which is nice, but I hate saying no after I tell them I can. I just want to fill in here and there. Maybe a day on the weekend and a morning show once a month. It's nice to be able to stay in the loop, keep up with the constant changes, so when I do go back to work (hopefully not until the boys are in school) I will be able to jump right in.

That pretty much covers life here. We hope you all are doing well and enjoying the winter! Well, maybe spring where you are ;)

Here is the sunset on friday night. Lots of waves, warm water and great company. As you can tell, we did make it to Kawai.

This is a picture of some of the wildlife we saw. There were wild chickens everywhere! The roosters were quite beautiful, except when they were on the road.

This is Hawaii's version of the Grand Canyon. It is called Waimea, and is quite spactacular. It was an interesting drive up into the "mountains" (actually hills). Ask Mom about it. She did not see any reason for the road to have so many turns.

I can't remember the name of this lighthouse, but it was really neat. Obviously, being a short lighthouse, it was up on a point high over the pacific. The view was fantastic. One of the highlights of this stop was seeing a whale breach in the ocean out in front of the lighthouse. We also saw many whales spouting.

This is the view from the first beach we walked on. There was noone in the water due to the strong currents, but the beach was fun to walk on.

We are now on the Big Island. The house is fantastic. The view from the "meditation" room is very good. We can see the glow of the lava as it flows down the slope of the volcano. It is definately at the end of the road, so to speak. After finding it, we went back into town to get some things to eat. Found some interesting places, and people in Pohoa (ask Mom), got a flat tire on the rental, and then this morning, I went back to Hilo to get a different rental. I got back in time for us to go to church. It was really neat to find that we went to the same ward as Pat Lofgreen goes to.

We will weite more and send more pictures.

Love you all!

So Asher had his 9 month checkup yesterday, and he is doing great, he weighed in at just over 16 lbs. Still very small for his age, but he is finally actually on the charts. I am amazed that the kid is not huge, he will eat anything we are willing to give him and if Ayana leaves her snacks in his reach for even a few seconds he is doing everything he can to get them He gets more and more active every day and is turning out to be a real crack-up. He is a total Momma's boy, he wants very little to do with anyone other than me. Even when Trever is holding or playing with him he spends most of his time watching me to make sure I don't get too far away. He is still doing his Army crawl, but occasionally lifts up on his knees when he is really mad at me for walking away from him.

Ayana is doing great, she is finally starting to really get the talking thing. Still not many real sentences and still a few of her own invented words, but there seems to be at least one new word in her vocabulary every day. She is definitely a kid who likes to do things at her own pace and I guess talking just wasn't appealing before. Lately she loves to have stories read to her, luckily, I also love to read stories so sometimes we will sit and read books for an hour or more at a time. She loves the library, and almost any book is a hit, but she especially loves those with bears and "Boots" (the monkey from Dora the Explorer) She had her first real primary activity day on Saturday, and won her first black eye in a game of tag with the big kids. She took it pretty well all things considered.

Trever is doing well in school as usual. We decided to have him quit his job because to tiny amount of money was not worth the amount of time he missed with the family and the time I missed sleeping, etc. It has worked out well because now most days I am able to get about 5 hours of sleep, and still see him for at least a while during my waking hours. He is very good to me and cooks dinner almost every evening while I am asleep so I don't have to wake up early. That's about it for us. Love you!

Another week has come and gone and in this case I am really glad it is gone. I had to open this past week (be there at 5:30) which wouldn't be too bad except I also have runs at the end of the school day so I still had to work until 4:30. Fortunately there was no school on Thursday and Friday so I could get out early. On Friday we had 5 of our main staff on vacation or out sick so we were really scrambling. We survived and it's over so life goes on. We are very anxious for Wednesday Night so we can leave for our vacation. Dad has tomorrow off so he only has to work two days this week. Things here are about the same as always. We haven't had any more snow and the temperatures have been right around freezing so it hasn't been bad. Of course, the wind is blowing but even that isn't too bad.
I think I have asked most of you but I will try one more time. Did anyone send Grandma some knit socks for Christmas? She got some but things got mixed up and she isn't sure where they came from. She keeps asking me about them and I don't have a clue.
I hope you all have a fantastic week and we will keep you updated on our Hawaii trip. Dad is bringing his computer so we will be in touch.
Love You All.
Mom

Winter Wonderland

Our fourth snow day of the school year. Funny that when the forecasters are hyping up a storm for a week in advance, nothing comes but everything shuts down in anticipation. When there is no warning, we wake up to find six inches of snow on the ground. The kids finally had a chance to play in the snow and build a snowman.

Catch Up

I know we have been slackers...but here are a few pictures from the last couple weeks.

Andrew just had his Pinewood Derby for cub scouts. He had fun designing and making his car with Nathan. He didn't get first place, but he did an awesome job and created a pretty cool car.

The kids (I mean...children) love when Nathan makes them fun brekfasts.

Bowling is one of our new family favorites. We have all enjoyed bowling, but I have to say, it's way more fun and enjoyable now that they are a little older.

Elijah's birthday...and other news

I have been meaning to post about Elijah's birthday for a couple of weeks. We can hardly believer he is 5 years old already. He was so excited for his birthday and disappointed when he did not get to go to kindergarten the very next day. Elijah is such a sweet boy... we love his smile and laugh and soft spoken nature. He has a very tender heart and always wants to make the people around him happy. We had a fun family night on his birthday, then he had a party at a place called "The Wild" ( similar to Bouncing Bears) with a few friends. He wanted a Super Mario Brothers cake and although it did not turn out as cool as the cakes Dad always made, it wasn't too bad!

In other news....Caleb made it through his first real cold this week. He started developing a cough on Monday and I brought him to the doctor right away

, but o

ther than a few long nights with his cough, it never turned in to much and he is over it for the most part. He is growing quickly. He can almost sit on his own now, though he still needs help to balance. He still charms us all with his constant smiles and laughs.

Courtney and Aubrey are in the middle of girl scout cookie sales. We just broke off from our troop, and became a sister troop, so now I am one of the leaders of a very small troop along with the other two moms. Along with doing door to door sales for the last couple of weeks and the rest of this month, we will do booths outside of stores throughout the month of March. I will be glad when it is over and the girls are able to plan something fun to do with the money they made.

Mark has had a busy couple of weeks. He was called in for jury duty and actually was in the box for three days and it looked like he was going to be on the jury. It was a homicide case expected to last 4 weeks. So, we were making all the necessary adjustments to our lives and his classroom. However on the third day, the judge declared a mistrial and he was dismissed.

I have just been busy keeping everyone going to their various activities. I took the kids down to the LA Zoo this week and got to meet up with Addie, one of my favorite mission comps. She lives in Arizona, but her inlaws live near LA, so we had a fun day visiting with her and her two little girls. She is a photographer and took a few informal shots of Caleb, so we'll see how they turned out. I am also excited ( sort of) that I will be getting braces on tomorrow. I should say I am excited for the end result in 12-15 months, not so much for what it will take to get there.

I think that's about it for news from bakersfield...love you all!

Well we finally got some snow this weekend. Things were looking pretty dirty as we haven't had any new snow until now. Prince loves the snow. He acts like he is a little bulldozer. He buries his head in the snow and then runs as fast as he can. He is really growing and is actually pretty good most of the time. Dad and I both have a lot of scratches from his sharp teeth and nails.
Dad is doing a Bishop's Youth Discussion upstairs right now so I am hiding out downstairs.
I have to open the center this next week so the days will start very early. I think I mentioned that Janice fell and broke her ankle and will not be back until April. The person that is going to be opening is on vacation next week so that leaves me. It wouldn't be bad if I could get off early but since I have to pick up kids at Finger Lake I am pretty much stuck there until after 4. It is only for a week and then we leave on vacation on the 18th. I am more than ready for that. I hope you are all doing well. I am looking forward to seeing some new posts from those of you who haven't written lately.
Love You All.
Mom

I think this must be the slow time of year, everyone seems to not have much going on, us included. Asher had a couple of firsts this week, I let him try to feed himself with a bowl and spoon for the first time. Of course he made a mess, but really only on him and his seat, not all over the kitchen like I expected, and he managed to eat quit a bit of it. That kid is serious about his food, he gets the cutest little concentration face when he is trying to get that spoon to his mouth. He also started Army crawling last night. Usually he just rolls wherever he needs to go, but last night he finally took to the scooting along on his belly. I am sure he will be up on his knees and off like a little speed demon in no time. Ayana has taken to becoming a little chef. She has an apron that she loves to wear, and is always pushing a chair up to the counter and pointing at things she wants to make. Of course she still needs lots of help, but it is fun to see her learn how to do things. I did my taxes yesterday and found out we will be getting quite a sizeable refund. I am very excited as that means we will be able to pay off our car, some medical bills form Trever's eye surgery and even most of the student loans we took out when Asher was born. We are hoping that once the car is paid off we can look in to trading it in for a van, or something else larger. We love our car, and it does fit both the kids, but it is really on the small side for what we want. We'll see what happens in the future with that. Other than that every day is pretty much the same, Trever goes to school, I go to work at night and we all have a delightful time with our two wonderful children!