merry christmas!

Christmas 2010 has come and gone.

And WOW, I can't believe it's almost 2011!

Where DID all the time go?!

The Holidays seemed pretty quiet and laid-back for the Seavey's this year...here's a peek at what we did to celebrate.

The "Hawaiian" Christmas Tree made by Anna

Kela's ever-so-helpful note to Santa.




Christmas morning...before the unwrapping began





Apparently, Jolee thought THIS was the Best. Gift. Ever.


(It's a tin of M&M's if you couldn't tell...)




Oh, and THIS was a very close second.


Have you ever seen or used these Dot-Art Markers?


They're basically like Bingo markers for kids.


We got some several years ago and the kids LOVE them!


They lasted quite a while, too (we're talking years, now!)...so this was to replace the ones we just recently threw away.





But, unlike the old ones, THESE are washable.
Definitely a bonus.




And then, it was time to bust out the Play-Doh.


It all started out quite tame and civilized...






But quickly turned to chaos.
The mess at the end of their play session was insane!



I don't know WHAT Santa was thinking when he got the girls this set...


Oh, and I'm beginning to think that ants like Play-Doh.
At least that's the conclusion I came to upon returning home to a colony of ants under our dining room table. Even AFTER we swept up the mess.
Mopping the kitchen floors at 11PM was NOT how I envisioned myself spending Christmas evening.... but that's what I found myself doing nonetheless.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~




And then...after Daddy had to fly out due to work...we headed out to
Aunty Airi's house for some Family festivities.



Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the food or the festivities.



I know...so lame.




But, I DID get a picture of Jolee the ballerina doing her best Nutcracker impersonation in the living room!
ha ha ha....

And, not to mention me my sisters.

In all our "pregnant" glory.

In case you think I look ready to "POP" let me assure you, I AM!

At 37 1/2 weeks, I feel like baby could come at any time!

And...not so secretly, hoping he will sooner rather than later!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

And then, speaking of HUGE...upon coming home, found this MONSTROSITY fluttering around in our kitchen.

With a wingspan of over 5 inches...let me assure you, it gave me quite a scare!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Here's hoping your Christmas was just as lovely and happy...and filled with lots of good stuff.

AND...may 2011 bring you even more!

eating rudolph

This past week at Anna and Jolee's preschool class, they got to eat Rudolph!

Well, after frosting him first, of course.

Their teacher, Mrs. Neill, made these cute reindeer shaped cookies.

And then the kids got to take turns mixing chocolate into the frosting (thus making it brown...though a very light brown)...
And then spreading the gooeyness all over their cookies.
With their fingers.

Jolee didn't care too much for the cookie, though.
No...she was quite content with just the frosting.

And...can't forget the red nose!

Ta~da~!

And, even though Mrs. Neill tends to make her cookies with less sugar than is required (sort of tastes more like a biscuit than a sugar cookie),

Anna thought it was pretty yummy...

Where's Jolee's cookie, you ask?

Mitch and I ate most of it.

And this was taken on Sunday after church.

It should have been a picture of all three of our girls wearing matching dresses...but the older two decided to change before I got the chance.

So only Jolee this year.
And...don't judge our tree.

It's our very first *real* tree. (true story!)

And, we decided to let the girls do the decorating...which tends to get redecorated about 10 times a day.

sunday cookies

One of the perks of Mitch flying to the mainland is that he gets to go shopping! And by shopping...of course, I mean to Trader Joe's.

Oh, how I wish we had one here...

So today, on a quiet Sunday afternoon, we decided to bust this out.

How great is this?

An all-in-one cookie kit!

And just so you know...Mitch made the dough.

He's the baker in the family. But...I rolled.

While the girls cut out the shapes.

And then Mitch transferred them onto the cookie sheet.
What team effort, huh?


Okay, so we let the girls roll the dough, too.
But just a little bit.

(Picture me trying to ignore the mess that's accumulating on the floor...)

And then after cooling, it was time to decorate.

Did I mention this awesome kit came with not only the dough mix, but the cookie cutters as well as the icing and sprinkles?

Oh, how I LOVE Trader Joe's.

And Jolee woke up from her nap just in time for the decorating.
Yes...we let her decorate. With the sprinkles.

(Here's where I tried really hard to ignore the mess on the floor...and failed miserably.)

Ta~Da~!

The finished cookies!!

And since eating cookies is SO much more fun with cousins, we shared them with the boys.

Wish we could have shared them with you, too!

They were super yummy!

a very blue (and aeronautical) shower

This past week, our Primary board had a meeting scheduled.

As a counselor in the primary program, I was feeling a tad guilty for not helping out with the planning as much as usual...only to find out that I wasn't even invited to the board meeting!

No...they had the board meeting without me, so when I arrived, I discovered this:

A baby shower for our #4!

Since this is far from our first child, I was completely caught off-guard and totally surprised by the gesture!

I so love our Primary presidency!

They are the best!
And I felt so much love~!

And LOOK!

Not only was everything BLUE...it was totally Aeronautical themed!

Ha!
How cute is this cake, by the way?!

Cara, your cake was so much fun...and delicious to boot!

Mitch ate most of it when I brought it home!

Anna, however, ate the frosting, and said, "I don't want the bread part."

He He He...go figure!

Some airplane mobiles...



And "baggage claim"...

Seriously...how cute was all this?!


AND...

They even managed to invite my (equally pregnant) sisters along, too!
Yes...just like 4 years ago, all three of us are expecting at the same time!!
Though...I'm the hugest of them all, I might add...


*sigh*

And though I loathe to post such an unflattering picture of myself...I suppose this may very well be the LAST pic of my preggo tummy before I deliver so I'll go ahead and swallow my pride for your snickering pleasure.

Yes, that's me in all my 35-week glory.

With dear Kori and her grandma, Lagrimas Lee.

christmas partaaaay

It's a bit early, I know...but our ward Christmas party always seems to land on the first weekend of December.

This year...I was quite lazy and took VERY few pictures.

Sorry in advance.

Kela and Jolee with their cousin, Riho.

This was shortly after I forced Jolee to get close to Santa.

NOT on his lap, now...just close to.

(picture to follow...)

Anna and her dessert.

She ate her dinner, I promise.

But like I said...I didn't think to take pictures of hardly anything...including the dinner.

Or the Christmas play that Kela sang in.

I know.

Epic FAIL as a parent, right?
*sigh......

BUT...I did manage to get a picture of Jolee screaming bloody murder while I held her next to Santa!!
Little did I realize that she was so intent on running away, that her goodie bag was totally covering her face!
Though you can probably tell from her body language what her face most likely looked like.
She was NOT a happy camper.
I'm a terrible Mommy for laughing, huh?

Unlike my nephew Luke who looked happy as can be on Santa's lap!

I seriously gotta get on my brother to figure out his secret...

But here's Jolee happy again minutes after escaping Santa's "lair"


And blowing bubbles with her sister, Anna.

Look.

I didn't even manage a family picture of the night!

I promise, I'll try and do better next year.

post thanksgiving=beach day

So, it's the day after Thanksgiving.

There's NO school. No work for Mitch.

What to do, what to do...?

Please ignore my fancy slipper tan and fading pedicure...and focus on the beautiful waves instead.

We decided to drive up to Hau'ula to hang out with my sister and her family. While the men stayed at the house to do some work on my sister's unfinished downstairs...the rest of us headed out to the beach for some R&R. We didn't last long...it was pretty windy.

And the waves were pretty big (it's pretty close to the North Shore, after all).

Plus, we spotted a blue bubble on the beach. (that's a jellyfish if you didn't know...) So yea, we didn't stay too long.

But, it was a super sunny day and felt nice to enjoy some outdoor time soaking up some vitamin D.

Whoa, look at that wind!

Anna...trying to make a sand castle.


Jolee. Enjoying the fruits of someone else's labor.

This pit was already there when we arrived...and she basically stayed in here the whole time.

Doing what, I have no idea...

My supercute nephew, Justus.
Poor kid doesn't get out to the beach much.
Has yet to learn that sand in the eyes = very owie!

Here's a pic of Kela and Anna with their cousin Aya.

And their friend, Lucy's Gingerbread Man.



Sorta like a Flat Stanley...



I promise, it's heading your way, Rach!

the (sorta) thanksgiving post

I say "sorta" because if you look at the following pictures...you'll realize that I took hardly ANY pictures at all! So, really, this almost doesn't deserve a post! But, since it IS Thanksgiving...and since the true meaning behind the holiday isn't about fancy pictures or even of the food, I thought I'd at least post SOME pictures of our evening and briefly describe our fun day.

And it was!

A fun day, I mean.

So...where to begin? Well, since Mitch happened to be flying, I was pretty much "flying solo" this year. We had our kalua turkey cooking overnight in our Boy Scouts' IMU pit this year-as we did last year-and it definitely saved me a TON of time in the kitchen Thursday morning. Though to be honest, I still managed to spend the entire morning in the kitchen anyway...

BUT, with Mitch gone, it was one less thing for me to have to stress over.

So, for our family gathering, I brought (aside from our kalua turkey) fresh baked rolls, stuffing, and a pumpkin cheesecake with Oreo cookie crust.

Ta~da~!

My pumpkin cheesecake cupcakes with Oreo crust on bottom.

It may not look all that spectacular...but I thought it was yummy.

And despite my GD...YES, I happily brought home some leftovers.

So...I didn't take any pictures of the actual food.

I mean, everyone knows what turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing looks like, right?

But this was our dessert spread.

I do believe we had more dessert than food.

Here's Kela with her cousins Rumi and Aya enjoying their Thanksgiving dinner. As well as each other's company!


And Anna.
Eating her salad like a good girl.
Jolee took a late nap that day and slept all through dinner.
And then woke up just in time for the traditional Karaoke singing session at my sister Airi's. (no pictures there because, well...who wants to look at pictures of us singing?!)

Anyway, even with Mitch gone, we managed to have a fun, fun day!
I was exhausted by the time we got home...which was right about the time that Mitch also finished work, so after putting the kids to bed I got to enjoy a second helping of Thanksgiving dinner with just Mitch and I.
And yes, I was thankful for that as well.


Okay, and this picture has NOTHING to do with our Thanksgiving day...but since Jolee slept through most of last night's festivities, I thought I'd throw in a picture of her from Friday morning.
She enjoys coloring. And cutting.
So long as she refrains from cutting any digits, or her clothing...I'm usually okay with her doing this.
I hope that doesn't make me a bad parent.

Wait, don't answer that...

I hope you all had just as enjoyable and happy a Thanksgiving holiday as we did! I could go on and on and list all the things I am thankful for...but I'll just keep it short and sweet and say that I feel truly blessed to have a wonderful family - immediate and extended - that keep me busy, but blissfully happy. I am thankful for my health, for the roof over my head, for a steady income that makes all the material things we have possible...and for our Heavenly Father who makes EVERYTHING ELSE possible (...and Eternal!).

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Now...are you ready for CHRISTMAS?!