somewhere, over the...hot dog?

Several weeks ago, on our drive to Kela's preschool, Kela explains to me where her preschool is. She says, "My preschool is the one with the blue hot dog, the red hot dog, and the yellow hot dog!" I'm driving now, so I'm basically half-listening as my daughter repeats the same explanation, this time with hand motions mimicking the shape of a hot dog. The third time she says this, I'm thinking in my mind, "must be some type of craft activity she did? Or was it lunch? Nah, they wouldn't feed her hot dogs for lunch...or, at the very least NOT a blue hot dog!"

Then, as I pulled up to the school... I realized what she meant.

* Ahem, do you see the um... blue, red & yellow "hot dogs"

hee hee...the mind of a little child!

Then, a few days ago, I took the girls to the park since Mitch has been working a lot lately and I didn't want to just hang out indoors on such a nice day! It's such a waste! Plus, I've pretty much had my fill of watching "Little Einsteins." You know you've seen a show one too many times, when you can repeat the dialogue verbatim...

Anyway, while there, Anna seemed interested in just hanging around the stairs...more specifically, the pole attached to the handrail on the stairs. I thought nothing of it until I realized she was twirling around it like a ... um, you know..."pole dancer." She did this nearly the entire time we were there-and stopped only to swing on the swings and slide down the slide maybe twice. Then returned right back to the stairs and twirled around again. She got pretty good, actually. Not that this is a skill I need encourage her to enhance...

**oh, and don't mind the terrible quality of the picture. I forgot my camera & took these with my camera phone...which is by most standards, sub-par.

hil-ar-i-ous!

Ok, my friend Mari had this link on her blog...and I was literally in tears laughing my lil' butt off. It's a blog of funny signs and such from foreign countries with some unconventional English wording. Having lived in Japan...I can say that these things actually exist. Quite often. And it's funny. Seriously, it's hilarious. Check it out.

www.engrish.com

(another) day at the zoo

Ok, we really need to find some more activities! Just kidding...for some reason, kids sure do love seeing animals! Anna could go to the zoo everyday, and not complain. She loves the zoo! Today, we went with her cousins Hugo and Aya (and baby Kash, Luke & Jolee, too of course.)

Um...totally random observation, but have you ever seen adults without kids walking around the zoo solo? We see them quite often! And I always wonder...they sure must love animals to come to the zoo all by themselves! Hmm-definitely something I wouldn't find myself doing, that's for sure!

Anyway, in case you're wondering why I always have Jolee in the carrier...this is why:Jolee can't stand her carseat. Absolutely detests it. She rarely falls asleep in it, and even when she does, it usually doesn't last long because she wakes right back up. She used to enjoy it much more-but beginning about a month ago, she no longer has any tolerance for it. It's probably because she knows no one is holding her. Even if the car is moving, or I put her in the stroller...it's a no-go. She always wants to be carried. I should take a picture of Kela and Anna in the car when Jolee is crying. They usually both have their hands covering their ears to muffle the sound of Jolee's wailing. I suppose it's not only the carseat...she simply always wants to be carried.

Who ever said baby #3 is usually the easiest?! Liars, I tell you! LIARS! I feel like I've been duped! Seriously, all things point to "no more kids!"

Just kidding...(sort of).

And after we came home from the zoo, I found Jolee like this. I think Kela gave her the ducky blanket to keep her from crying. Funny thing is, it actually worked! Even if it was only for about 10 minutes...which in Jolee time, is fast approaching a record!

i give up!

It's my own fault, really...mostly, it's because I'm lazy & it takes so much effort to prepare a bottle for Jolee. On our trip to Seattle, I didn't take a bottle with me. In the back of my mind, I knew it would happen. Jolee no longer has any interest in drinking from the bottle. What's weird is the day after we came home, she drank the bottle ok. Then probably because of my inconsistency and laziness-a few days later when I tried-it was a no-go. This afternoon, I tried (unsuccessfully) to feed the bottle to her for probably 2 hours. All the while, she's screaming and fighting it, mind you! Our poor neighbors probably thought I was torturing the child! Anyway, I GIVE UP!

In between my "force-feeding" bouts, Jolee seemed so happy...I took a few pictures of her smiling. How could she look so dang cute one minute and the moment I put the bottle to her mouth she wails as though I'm poking her with some medieval torture device or something?! (wailing face not pictured)

Anyway, I'm done fighting it. It's not like this is anything new...both Kela and Anna also never took to the bottle. I was just hoping this time around, I'd get a bit more of a break than 2-3 hours in between feedings. *sigh* oh well...freedom is overrated.

anna's balloon kick

Like I said in my previous post, we went to the mall and the girls got balloons. What is it about balloons that kids love so much? I have no idea...but I, personally, have yet to meet a child not mesmerized by the air-filled, latex ball of pure annoyance.

Anyway, here's a short clip of Anna. They started trying to throw up the balloon and kick it like a ball. Anna actually has one mean kick in her...I forsee future Saturdays filled with hot sun, rediculous post-game luau's and screaming soccer moms & dads ahead.

This video was the second take. The first time she did this was actually much funnier...she threw up the balloon so high, she "air-kicked" 3 times before the balloon even came down close to her. Then, seeing us with the camera, Kela has to jump in her her own silly rendition-such a ham she is!

2 months old!

Our little JoJo turned 2 months old this past Friday, the 19th. Wow, how fast time flies! Although...at times, I wish she'd hurry up and start sitting up by herself and crawling to relieve my tired arms from carrying her. (Bad mommy moment).

Anyway, we had her 2 month check up at the dr.'s office and here's her stats ('cause I know you want to know!) She's 11 lbs. 14 oz. and 22 3/4 inches tall. Supposedly ranking around the 84% & 79% respectively. However, at 37.5 cm, her head is only in the 15%. Do kids here in Hawaii have large heads? Or is my baby strangely lop-sided?...Can you tell? I think she just has the case of the "Seavey small-headedness syndrome" Oh well, what can you do, right?

And, I couldn't get a great pic of Jolee this month...she's going through a growth spurt or something (obviously, did you see her weight?) 'cause all she does is sleep.

Although today was Saturday, we braved the mall to get a few errands run. Today, there was some special event going on where companies held different themed booths for the keiki (kids). They had the "mad scientist" presentation, balloons, gymnastics, hula, etc. We visited the balloons (don't all kids like balloons?) and a booth making Kids I.D cards. On the back is their thumb prints and of course, their pic on the front. A good thing to have, I must say.

some extra pics

Many of these are repeats from the digi pages I scrapped below, but there are a few others I've thrown in. If you got the time and wanna take a look...be my guest!

just the highlights, please!

Last week, we went to Seattle for a very short little trip to visit my family out there. We were there for just under a week...although one would think we were there for much longer because I took waaaaay too many pictures while there.

So, since most of the pictures and events are probably only interesting to me...I'll try to be as concise as possible in my writing so as not to not bore you loyal readers out there to death.

There are, however tons of pics to show, so bear with me!

Here we are at the airport and on the plane. We had a short layover in Maui before flying out to Seattle, so Kela and Anna killed time by making funny faces and "sliding" down the tall bench sitting area by the gate windows. Anna insisted on carrying her back pack around which housed the only toys we allowed them to bring on the trip. I though she looked just too darn cute with it on. And, for the record, the girls did WONDERFULLY on all the flights. They behaved, never cried, and rarely fussed. They napped (lucky us got an entire row both there and back!), watched their videos, ate their food ('cause Hawaiian still feeds their passengers!), and were all around very pleasant. Even Jolee slept the entire way there and back-her very first time on a plane! Horray for more travel possibilities in the future!! :)

This was Ojichan (my dad, "Grandpa")'s first time meeting Jolee. She took to him quite nicely!

And of course, Obachan (my mom, "Obachan") with the girls. Everyone loves Obachan!

The best thing about Seattle is that my brother Makoto has 3 little girls. Kela and Anna LOVE to spend time with their cousins and miss them so much already! My sister, Elika and her family also happened to be there, too! Good fun for Kela and Anna...so many cousins to play with, even in Seattle!

Probably one of the main reasons why we flew out to Seattle is that my parents are getting ready to sell their house. It's an empty nest now...so we spend quite a bit of time painting and prepping the house for the market. Any takers??

Oh, and see the sploch of paint on JoJo's head? Um, that's supposedly after Mitch washed up...

My favorite meal there was our Sushi Party. Courtesy of our very own personal itamae, my brother, Makoto. Salmon, Natto, Kappa, California & Spicy Tuna Roll. Thanks Makoto! It was just soooo good!Then, after dinner, we picked some plums off my Dad's plum tree in the back yard. The kids each got their own basket & collected the plums that Ojichan picked. Yum Yum!

While we were there, Jolee got pretty good at smiling on cue. Of course, it could have been the taste of the popsicle I gave her...

She sure is getting so big!

So great that I got to see my good friend (and fellow blogger!) Rachel and her two cute little girls. We ate lunch at Anthony's down by the marina in Edmonds. Oh, the food was so good! And by the way, the weather in Seattle was PERFECT the entire time we were there! As you can probably tell by these pictures. Yummy lunch and great company! Thanks, Rach!
What's so great about Anthony's is they have little sand boxes for kids to play in, right next to the outside dining area! So, before and after lunch, Kela and Anna got to play with the sand toys with little Lucy while Rach and I chatted & "caugh up." How great is that?! Genious!


And one person that I never leave Seattle without visiting is my good friend Carrie. We've been friends FOR-EVER! She is my oldest and probably closest friend from childhood. What's so great is that her daugher, Amy, is super close in age to Kela...although you wouldn't know it by how TALL she is! Sheesh, Kela looks like a midgit next to her! Oh well.

And, they recently got some chickens!! The girls had tons of fun feeding the hens and chasing them around the yard. Hopefully, they aren't permanently damaged from the trauma of being chased around by 4 little girls!!

I miss you, Carrie!

This is at Silverlake Park on the outskirts of Mill Creek ( I think...). Beautiful lakeside park with the biggest playground ever! Better than anything we have here in Hawaii! We seriously need to do something about the parks here in Hawaii!!! Anyone want to start a petition?

Anyway, so, so, many more good times and memories with the family and friends... The week flew by so quickly! And even though Mitch wasn't there for the entire week (he had to fly home for work, then flew back out to help me on the plane ride home. The benefits of free travel!!), I got to do almost everything I had planned to do. I even made my rounds to the all-important stops of Target, Nordstrom Rack and even IKEA. I did miss seeing a couple of friends...but there's always Christmas time!

our newest addition!

No, it's not a baby-although I love it almost as much!

For those who don't know, we have been sleeping on a futon since before we got married. Um, let me rephrase that. I used to sleep on a futon (as did Mitch) before we got married, and afterwards decided to use my futon bed as our bed. (whew, don't want to cause any confusion there! :) ) Anyway, as time passed, there seemed to be other expenses more important than a bed so we've managed to survive 5 1/2 years of marriage sleeping on futons. Don't you feel sorry for me? hee hee...I do!!

Anyway, after patiently waiting for so many years...we finally decided that with our new home & spacious master bedroom, it was time. Behold! Our new bed! (~cue angelic praises singing hallelujah~) It's not much to look at since we haven't bought a comforter yet (it's too dang hot for one now, anyway!) and it sort of blends in with the stark white walls & lack of decor...but Ohh, is it comfortable! And yes, it's only the mattress-no box springs-because we plan on hoisting it up on a platform bed one day...but it is seriously the most beautiful sleep we've had in, probably FOREVER! And, as any Mom would say...it's what's on the inside that counts! It's an Eastern King size, Vera Wang by Serta Super Plush Pillow-Top mattress with Latex foam. All natural-resists dust mites and mold, and simply beautiful. I just may stop staying up so late because I look forward to sleeping on it! :)

Just kidding...wouldn't go that far!

And the first thing Kela said upon seeing it?

"Look! We can ALL fit on it!"

Um...I don't think so!

And just for fun, while Jolee was sleeping on the couch, I contrived this little shot.

I still think it looks cute...

i got tagged

ABC's "getting to know you" TAG. ABC's of you. Each player then tags 3 people and posts their names, then go to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

A- Attached or single: Attached!

B- Best Friend: Mitch

C-Cake or Pie: Cake. Even better if it's an Ice Cream cake! :)

D-Day: Thursday (it's my TV day)

E- Essential Item: Chapstick. It's an addiction, really...

F- Favorite Color: Green

G-Gummi Bears or Worms: Bears, covered in chocolate! Mmmm!

H-Home town: 'Aiea

I- Indulgences: Lately, it's Chocolate covered "Moon Pies" -cookie & marshmallow sandwich covered in chocolate~!

J- January or July?: July (Kela & Jolee's bdays!)

K-Kids: 3 Girls that I love 99.99% of the time!

L-Life is incomplete without: Family

M- Marriage Date: December 27, 2002

N- Number of Siblings: 4 - two brothers & two sisters.

O- Oranges or Apples: Used to be oranges, but now, Apples (Fuji's)

P- Phobias or Fears: Heights, drowning, & anything bad involving my kids.

Q- Quote: "If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all!" Me, to my girls who have learned the art of "tattle-taling"

R- Reason To Smile: My upcoming trip to Seattle!! Yay!

S- Season: Winter...but only in Hawaii. Everywhere else, it's gotta be Summer!.

T- Tag Three: Oooo, I hate this part.

Gini ('cause I haven't heard from you in FOREVER!!), Mari and Naomi (since I don't think you guys have ever been tagged!)

U- Unknown fact about me: While I'm the 1st counselor in the Primary Presidency and have 3 kids (and possibly may have more), I'm not - and never really was - a "kid-person" I didn't like to babysit when I was younger...and still really don't. Except my own kids, that is. Does that make me a bad person, or a bad Mom? I don't know. But, I do love kids! Just not taking care of other people's...Ahh, I sound like a terrible person, don't I?

V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: Ummm..the opposite of a Vegetarian. Sorry. I like meat. :)

W- Worst Habit: Staying up way too late! (ditto, Mindy!)

X-Rays or Ultrasounds: Um, neither, really...but if I had to choose, Ultrasounds.

Y-Your favorite food: Without any hesitation, Sushi.

Z: Zodiac Sign: Pices

it's all about the food, right?

This is my conversation with Mitch after picking Kela up from preschool on Friday afternoon:

Me: Oh, that's right! Tonight is Kela's Open House from 5 to 7!

Mitch: Is there going to be food?

Me: I doubt it. Just a meet n' greet with the teachers and staff. So we can see what Kela's been doing and how things are going! You know, to check the place out!

Mitch: Ah, no need, eh?

Me: ...(blank stare)..Wh..What? Of course we need to go! It's an OPEN HOUSE! Do you not care about your child's education?

Mitch: Sorry! I didn't think it was mandatory!

Me: ...(continued blank stare)...Way to be "hands-on" with Kela's education!

Mitch: (in a very quiet, muffled voice) Okay, so it's mandatory. We'll go then...

Me: ::Sigh::

Well, we went. We got to check out her preschool teachers, see some of the activities and artwork she's been doing, and see some of her friends she always talks about. They even had a little bit of food--fruit and youghurt, which Anna went to town on! It was nice! But, mostly, Anna had fun. She got to play with the toys and on the playground there. Even do some educational activities like counting and sorting buttons by color, etc. She didn't want to leave! I'm glad we went...and I sure hope Mitch was, too! Even though there wasn't any food (except for the fruit)!

the pros & cons of community living

Before moving into this lovely townhome (which I love, don't get me wrong!), we lived on a quiet, private street. Most of our neighbors were older folks who lived there for years, and their families had lived there for years. There were no street lights and although there were some dogs, they mostly kept quiet. Basically, the only noise that woke us up was the noise that came out of our children's' mouths! (Oh, and the roosters at 5 am, but that's typical of nearly all of Hawaii...)

Now that we live in a fairly large community of townhomes, we're definitely adjusting to the change. Although we are closer to the conveniences of stores and preschool and such...oh the noise! That's getting a bit more challenging. Granted, our neighbors may be thinking the same thing of us moving next door with a couple of noisy toddlers and a little baby that tends to let everyone know she's unhappy when I have to put her down to cook and/or bathe the girls! But seriously-we have a neighbor who rides a Harley & leaves at 6 am. There's a HUGE full size diesel truck that rumbles in at around 10 pm. Oh, and one of our neighbors owns an excruciatingly yappy dog. Not to mention that since our bedroom faces the parking lot...we can practically join in on our neighbors' conversations as they loiter in the parking lot.

*sigh* I know, to everything there's a trade-off. It's simply become routine for us to wake up at 6am and not even bother putting baby to sleep until after 10pm.

lost & found!

Yea! Crisis (and an unnecessary expense) averted, I found my phone! Well...technically, I never really lost my phone. It was inadvertently taken. My sister had borrowed my phone & mistakenly put it in her bag. Thank goodness I decided to call her and ask before heading to the mall to buy a new phone...which are ridiculously expensive, don't you think?!

Anyhoo-I'm not as careless as I thought I was! Yay! ...Except for the fact that it did take me an entire day and a half before realizing that it was gone...

incommunicado

This afternoon, I realized that I don't have a phone. I haven't had a phone since yesterday afternoon--sometime during the course of our Labor Day picnic at Ala Moana...I misplaced my phone. Tells you how often I use my phone, huh?

Well, in my defense, my mind was fried (along with my back and shoulders!) from the long day at the beach yesterday. I was convinced that Mitch took it with him to work today, but when he came home without it...I felt kinda guilty for accusing him.

My to do list tomorrow: buy a new phone.

ohhh, what an invention!

For the first time in 4 years...I discovered the purpose and benefit of this thing called a baby swing. Have you heard of it?

Just kidding. But seriously, this is the first time I've had enough space to house one of these and I must say...well, I think the picture speaks for itself. Ingenious!!

And, with this newfound freedom, what did I do?

I managed to eliminate 2 HUGE piles of junk off of our dining room floor and organize it into our shelves! I know, it still looks cluttered, but this is as good as it's gonna get for me! Plus, it's finally off my floor!

Happy camper am I!

happy labor day!

Today was our ward's annual Labor Day picnic at Ala Moana beach park. We were blessed with BEAUTIFUL weather, as has been the case for all the previous Labor Day picnics!! Thankfully, and by some miracle, Mitch got the day off so we were able to relax and enjoy the day carefree! As Mitch had to go down super early to help set up, it was basically up to me to get all 3 kiddies fed, dressed & packed up in time to beat the traffic to town (we left our house at 8 am--early for me!)

We headed out to the beach shortly after arriving, ate lunch, and then hit the beach again right before heading home. We were seriously there ALL DAY LONG! From 8:30am-4pm. The sun was shining and the cool breeze made it the perfect beach day! It felt so good out there that I mistakingly slathered sunblock on my face...and nowhere else. My neck, back, & shoulders are suffering for it tremendously!

Anyway, like I said, the weather was perfect and what made everything even more perfect? Baby Jolee slept nearly the entire time!! We have lovely women in our ward who volunteered to keep an eye on her, but she woke up only twice to eat...and went right back down. She did, however, wake up on the road home & proceeded to cry the entire way. Grrr...timing, I tell 'ya!

Now, I was thinking of arranging the photos and displaying them in cute digi scrap pages like I've been doing, but decided against it because #1-I took WAAAAY too many pictures, and #2-I'm too dang tired! It was a long day.