gourmet dogs & smiles

I know, saying "gourmet" and "hot dogs" in the same sentence just sounds like an oxymoron...but recently, we discovered a little place called, Hank's Haute Dogs. For those local readers, it's on Coral Avenue near Ward, and their "dogs" are seriously GOOD EATS! We've already eaten there 3 times & although Mitch has tried a different dog each time, I can't seem to get past the Chicken Haute Dog with fresh mango relish (see pic below). It is sooo good...I try to come up with an excuse to go to town just so I can eat there, it's THAT good!

For those not on Hawaii--sorry you're missin' out! When you come to visit, I'll take 'ya!

And one morning, we got lucky with a couple shots of our newly smiling baby girl. With no flash, most of the shots were pretty blurry...but we managed to salvage a couple.

finally! we've moved!

It was inevitable...we we were getting the "boot" (just kidding, Airi) so we had to find a new place to lay our heads. WIth the deadline looming over our heads, and few prospects in the area we wanted, I was beginning to fear we'd be forced to move into my sister Airi's guest bedroom!! However, what luck (or Divine blessing--which ever way you'd prefer to look at it), our WONDERFUL friends had a rental unit that just so happened to open up. The timing of it all was absolutely beyond perfect! And since we have so little posessions, it took all of 2 days to transfer all of our "stuff" from our old place into our brand new 3 bedroom townhome!

I must admit-going from a 500+ sq. ft. "cottage" to a 1200 sq. ft. townhome is quite a change! As much as I am enjoying the "wiggle room", I'm beginning to dread the undaunting task of its upkeep! Plus, it's a 2-story townhome so needless to say...I'm getting quite the work-out! (a positive, I suppose!)

We are truly counting our blessings. Thanks Mari and Lad for being EVER SO gracious to entrust your rental property to our little family! :) We are SO grateful!! And feel so blessed that everything worked out the way it did! We'll try our darndest to be good tennants! :)

And, as tempted as I was to post a couple of pictures of our new abode...it's really not much to look at right now. We still have random piles of "stuff" here and there, some scattered around, others in boxes, and some even in big contractor bags! Plus the walls are bare, and we have yet to properly furnish the large space so, it's really not blog-worthy.

Therefore, rather than shock you with a few boring pictures of our awesome, yet bland looking home, I thought I'd simply post a couple pictures I took of the girls recently. I lke the one with Anna picking her nose...but I love the one where she's staring at Jolee even more.

ezra's 6th!

Ezzy turned 6 years old this past week! For his birthday, Atau & Kiyomi threw him a fun picnic party outside! The kids had fun cardboard sledding down the hill, whacking the pinata (that took forever to bust open that Atau cheated and tore it open half way through!), and of course simply kicking back and talking story with family. A GREAT party, if you ask me!

Happy Birthday Ezra!

Oh,and is this not the cutest little puppy EVER? "Haru" is Atau and Kiyomi's newest family member. He's part chihuahua and Akita-ken (and surprisingly, NOT yappy at all! He hardly ever barks!). Supposedly, he won't be getting too much bigger than this--I'm not one for dogs, but he is just about the cutest little thing I've ever seen!
Apparently, however, Kashus isn't a fan of dogs...and was quite scared of little Haru-even though all Haru wanted to do was get inside that pizza box!!

a conversation with anna

I have been inconsistently potty training Anna for the past 4 or 5 months. Of course, it's so sporadic that it probably can't even be considered potty training...oh well. Chalk it up to the fact that I nearly lost my mind while potty training Kela, I have been in no real rush to get Anna on the toilet. However, since Jolee goes through 10+ diapers a day...having 2 kids in diapers is starting to be a pain in the wallet! Therefore, I've decided to make more of an effort to eliminate the second box of diapers from our Sam's Club tab. Also, to give in to the disapproving glares of my sister, Elika, when I tell Anna to just go in her diaper because I'm too lazy to wait for Anna to "do her business" in the bathroom...even though in my own defense, do you realize how stressful it is potty training a toddler with a newborn?!?

Anyhoo, this is my conversation with Anna tonight while she was on the toilet. I apologize in advance if you're offended...but if you are squeamish in the "potty" department feel free to not watch.

Otherwise, sit back, turn off the music at the bottom of this page and enjoy the very random conversation I had with Anna regarding--of all things--animals, while she "did her business." And yes, she did go #2. Hooray! :)

jo-jo's 1 month old!

Can you believe how fast time flies by? I know I just posted pictures of a 4 week old Jolee...but really, July must have been a short month! :)

So, yesterday was August 19th and therefore, JoJo's 1 month birthday. Mitch and I kept saying how fast this first month flew by! And yet, it feels like little Jolee has been with us for so much longer!

Here's some pics I took of her on her 1 month birthday.

And, technically, the pictures below were taken on the 20th...but close enough, right?

She's changing so much already! She's even cracked a couple smiles here and there...but I never seem to have my camera ready when she does. Besides, at 1 month-it's probably only "gas" but as a parent, we think it's darn cute anyway. :) In another couple weeks or so, we may get some genuine grins and giggles, so stay tuned!

*I realize I'm overloading with posts and pictures now. It's because the next few days will most likely be too busy for me to post anything...I promise I won't be away too long, though!

Some BIG changes are about to take place for the Seavey family!! :)

See you soon!

an expensive trip to the zoo

Today, after dropping Kela off at preschool, we took Anna to the zoo. Again. She loves the zoo & asks to go practically every single day. Since we have annual passes, it's a cheap way to spend the afternoon...although with the high price of gas these days, that may not necessarily be the case-regardless, it was something to do.

We parked & I pulled out 35 cents to put into the parking meter-cheap for an hour & a half of parking. We loaded up and headed inside. About 45 minutes in, just about when we were thinking of heading home, I realized that I had forgotten to put the money into the meter!! Knowing the meter maids are constantly circling the zoo parking lot with nothing better to do than to ticket expired meters, I knew we'd have a ticket on our window...and sure enough, there it was! Arrrgh! The "cheap" afternoon activity turned out to be the most expensive trip to the zoo we've ever had! Grrr~

random tidbits

• For Kela's birthday last month, Mitch's mother gave Kela a HUGE pad of stickers. I'm talking 300+ dime-sized stickers! (picture me rolling my eyes) I don't know what it is about stickers that kids love so much...but for my girls, I see them everywhere. If not on random pieces of paper that Kela calls "letters" (which she insists on giving to everybody!), it's on the desks, doors, their toys and...as you can see below in the pictures, even on themselves (and at times, us).

• A couple of weeks ago, Mitch decided to "get back into shape" and headed out to the gym. I say, it's about time since we've continued to pay his membership fees for the many months he's been inactive!! Anyhoo, since he takes Kela to preschool in the mornings, he's decided to use those mornings to hit the gym. It's been great because not only do I get a quiet break from the girls, but Mitch gets to exercise and Anna gets to enjoy the kid's play area at the gym! A win-win for ALL of us! Hooray!

But...the first day Mitch went to the gym, he over-exerted himself and blacked out. Literally! After working the StairMaster, he picked up Anna & started feeling dizzy. He could hear everything around him, including Anna playing next to him...but couldn't see anything for a solid couple of minutes! Talk about scary! It seems Mitch was quite out of shape...he probably wouldn't appreciate me telling this to the world. ;)

• Finally...I read this the other day on the web, and don't know if it's true or not-Mitch hates it when I read the gossip columns on the internet, but how else does he expect me to stay "in the know?" Hee hee. Well, maybe you've heard or read this as well, but supposedly Jennifer Lopez isn't too impressed with Michael Phelps. The attention he's getting for winning 8 Gold Medals in one Olympics seems to be irking her because everyone is too preoccupied to take notice of her triathalon training! ...Seriously?!? If this is true...I have no comment.