morning glory

mother nature shows us our insignificance once again. no school today - just hot cocoa and homemade muffins.

kalei doesn't seem too sad.

meal in a pot

one of our goals for this year is to plan our meals in advance and, therefore, have more "real" meals. one of my great surprise discoveries lately is that i actually enjoy cooking. shocking!! however, i need uninterrupted time to fully enjoy it. hmmmm..... i have three little monkeys that make that a bit of a challenge. that's where the crock pot comes in. have you seen this blog? amazing!! the recipe i'm making in this picture is actually from "fix it and forget it lightly," but i plan on using lots of recipes from that blog. i find it so funny that i'm so excited about crock pots!! the stainless one in the picture was my major motivation for getting out on black friday - now i have a big one and a little one so i can make virtually any recipe. grand plans!

fairly accurate?

Your Home Says That You Feel Settled and Calm

You come across as somewhat intellectual. You can be quite insightful at times. Your hygiene is passable, but you may be hiding some dirty secrets. You are a fairly domestic person. You can probably make a decent batch of home cooked cookies. You are not a nurturing person by nature, but you can easily take care of someone you truly love. You feel settled in your life. You have enough time to focus on little details. You are a very self sufficient person. You can get along well without much help. Your friends see you as insightful, encouraging, and progressive.

What Does Your Home Say About You?

end of an era

you have no idea how excited i am to be finished with bottles and these avent sippy cups!! i was dancing in the kitchen as i cleared them out of the cupboard. WOOHOO!! actually, i might keep a bottle or two in case any stray babies wander by, but i'm definitely not keeping the sippy cups! freedom!!

good times

this is koa with his barf bowl. kalei had stomach flu while we were on vacation, and the boys went through it last week. the fun part is that they still have the lingering cough/runny nose from the colds they caught on vacation. apparently we are the house of disease. if you were planning on visiting us in the next week or two, i'd put it off for a little bit... but not forever! come and see us after cold and flu season!

children's museum!

after our adventures in utah, we returned to indianapolis to spend new year's with my parents and my brother and his family. once we got home, i realized the only pictures i took were of the children's museum. (we went on friday... along with half of indianapolis. it was packed - with people and fun.) the kids, once again, had a fabulous time with their cousins and we are so blessed that they got to see each and every one of their cousins over the holidays! koa was pretty lonely last night, but we're looking forward to seeing josh & kim & co. next month! what a great start to 2009!

snow days

we're back!! ... and it was 60 degrees here yesterday. what a change from the past few weeks! as you can see, we had such a great time seeing all of james' side of the family - what an action-packed adventure! (yes, that picture in the middle is our children sleeping in an airport - i said we had an action-packed adventure, didn't i?) here's a quick synopsis of our trip: flight diverted from vegas to phoenix because of snowstorm, slept in the airport, 6:30 a.m. flight to salt lake the next day, met cousins and played, played, played, family pictures and sledding, hurried to southern utah to avoid snowstorm, played, sledded, played with cousins, chopped down christmas tree, acted out nativity story, christmas morning - presents!, snowed in, gingerbread houses, sledded, played, talent show, played, etc. whoo! did i mention that there was a freakish amount of snow? kalei and kawelo loved the snow (although for different reasons - kalei didn't eat it), and koa won't be missing it any time soon. we had such a fabulous time with all the family! can't wait to get together again in 2010!

p.s. that picture with the dancing people outlined in glow sticks is not us - that's james' sister, kam, and her family dancing for the talent show - so creative!!