tooth tales

koa has lost his first tooth! it fell out a week ago in church - he was very excited. the tooth fairy did visit him, although she hid the cash so well that koa couldn't find it until james helped him (read: james hid the dollar as he was "finding" it - that was close!).

and kawelo went to the dentist for the first time! he did so great and was happy to "open wide like a crocodile" whenever they asked. he was excited that he got to keep the glasses - score!

happy easter!

John 11:25-26: "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

Believest thou this?"

happy easter from our gang to yours!

(i made the boys new bow-ties for easter - which i noticed at church will also work for fourth of july - bonus!)

9!!

well, kalei had another birthday.

i keep telling her to stop growing up. yesterday, i told the kids they just needed to stay their current ages for a while and not to get any bigger! i'm sorry to say they laughed at me. i can't believe our girl is almost to double digits!!

WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?!!!!

anyhoo, just wanted to share a little of her birthday, so you can feel like you were there (feel free to sing along):

kalei's cake was SUPER yummy. she special-requested a lemon cake (i used a lemon cake mix, added 4 eggs, 3/4 cup water, 3/4 cup oil, 1 cup sour cream, and a lemon pudding packet - mix all together and pour into greased and floured cake pans - bake as directed on the cake mix box - the cake turned out so deliciously moist!), but she doesn't really like traditional icing, so i mixed a small tub of cool whip, a packet of lemon jell-o, and two 6 oz. cups of lemon yogurt to use as icing. it was sooooo good!!! the birthday girl was very pleased with it.

kalei had one present on her wish list: an american girl doll that looked like her. we went online and she picked out the doll she liked, and we even ordered glasses so the doll would indeed look like her mini-me.

here is kalei's "surprised" face.

hmmmmm.... looks more excited than surprised, yes?

we love you, honey girl!

thank you for being part of our family - we hope your day was as special as you are!

weekend craftiness

i signed up to participate in a quilt-along a few months ago. i think i was supposed to have this quilt top finished at the end of february. better late than never, right? (story of my life!)

on a lighter note..

TA DA!!!!

our kitchen-cabinet-painting-adventure is complete!

we went from this (taken when i realized - "hey! we don't have any good 'before' pictures of our cabinets and james is already taking the doors off!"):

to THIS:

(the cabinets have actually been finished for a little while, but i had to wait and take pictures when the counters were semi-cleared off. i'm trying to be very deliberate with what is placed back into the cabinets and where and blah, blah... (notice these photos don't include the table behind me - still filled with items who don't have a home, yet.)

there you have it!

our photo-based essay on "what we did over spring break.... and a couple weeks after."

what a difference, eh?

p.s. yes, we got a new fridge! (and i made adorable new magnets for it and am trying to contain them to the side of the fridge - i love the front with nothing on it.)

p.p.s. i love how the fire extinguisher now matches the cabinets perfectly! safety + style = love it!

p.p.p.s we painted the insides, too, and added new hardware cause i'm a little ocd and that's how we roll.

breaking the cycle

since the beginning of the year, i've felt conflicted:

i want to "lose weight."

i want to "get healthy."

basically, this is code for wanting to be skinny.

but, i know that my body doesn't do "skinny."

i run 2 miles most mornings, and walk a little afterwards.

i feel like my body is healthy, but not skinny.

why aren't i happy with healthy?

at the beginning of the year, there was a conflict of messages in the stream of blogs that i read - one would say, "it's a new year and i'm finally going to lose this extra weight!" while another would proclaim, "let's just all accept ourselves and stop talking about weight completely!" i didn't feel drawn to either camp. i don't want to let go of all weight goals, but i don't want to be held hostage by those same goals. i am so sick of weighing how i feel about myself based on my weight! i am sick of my running negative internal dialogue when i have a "bad" day on the scales! if someone talked to kalei the way i sometimes talk to myself, i would be all over them in a heartbeat - in less than a heartbeat. why in the world would i want to raise her to talk to herself that way?!

this morning, i read this.

i will not worship this weight idol any more. the weaning process will be long and hard at times, but i look at my daughter and think that i owe it to her (and myself) to break this cycle.

she's worth it, and so am i.

deal alert!

hello! i promise we have updates and pictures to post (and we'll get to it soon - the kitchen photos are very exciting!), but i wanted to share this awesome deal!! for everyone who wants to purchase 'tangled,' disney has a coupon for $5 off the dvd/blu-ray/3d/digital copy version, and target has this version for $25, so you can get all those copies for just $20!!! WOW!!!

you can find the coupon here. (you have to sign up for movie rewards, but as far as i can tell, you're not roped into anything dubious.) also, once you buy the movie, you can go back to disney movie rewards and get a free 'tangled' charm bracelet! (shipping extra, of course.)

just wanted to share! hope your week is fabulous!!

UPDATE: the shipping & handling for the charm bracelet is $2.85! yay! (and will be here in 6 - 8 weeks - boo.)