Day 19

Day 18

Day 17

Day 16

Day 14

Day 13

Day 12

Day 11

Day 10

Day 9

Day 8

Day 7

Opossum

For the past several months we have had an unwanted visitor in our back yard. He has been living under a shed and he comes out at night and wanders around, poops in my garden boxes and just over all makes us nervous having him there. We saw him out in the yard one night and blocked the entrance to the space under the shed... well he made a new one. So I called animal control and I was put on a waiting list for a trap. They called last week so Tyler and I went down and picked it up. It took 3 1/2 days to trap him but here he is. Now we have to go clean up all his poop...... a ton of it... more then you can imagine, and hope that we don't have any new pests take his place.

Day 6

Day 5

Day 4

Favorite pieces of Holiday decor. I love Nativities and these are just a few that I have... along with a painting that I did from a greeting card a few years ago.

Day 3

Today we were supposed to take a picture of something that represents the idea of "joy" to me. I thought about all my kids. So here are pictures of all of them around the same age.

Day 2

Today I was to photograph something warm.... hot chocolate.... of coarse. Then we took off to Disneyland.

December Scrapbook

I took an online class by Jessica Sprague a few weeks ago. It was called "Holidays in Hand". It was supposed to help me do a scrapbook/journal about the Christmas season and what it means to me. I didn't do much of the journal stuff but it did get me motivated to record our activities for this month. I had a few days all ready to go before the 1st but now I am already running behind by one day. My problem is that I am trying to do too much with a digital book and a paper book too. I might need to hold off on the paper form and just do the digital because is goes a bit faster. Okay so here is what I have done so far. Today I was supposed to take a picture of a "welcome to December" shot of the family. That didn't happen. I couldn't get everyone all together so I do this with mom. Get a close up of the journal entry and you will see why.

Tyler Gets His Eagle

What at journey! He did it... with a lot of prodding! So proud and so glad to be done. The evening turn out so nice. Congratulations Tyler!

Tyler: "Yeah, Kyle and I, we got married" (a beautiful cake donated by Lora Adcock)

Good turn out.

Tyler receiving his Eagle.

Kyle and Tyler reciting Scout oath.

Tanner and Strawberries

A few days ago I found Tanner outside picking strawberries that I didn't even know we had. He was having a great time entertaining himself and eating whatever he could find.

Priceless!

Last days with the Grandkids in California

Back in July we got the bad news that Mindy, Ryan, and the kids were going to have to move back up to Utah. When I first found out I kept hoping it wasn't true but it was. Over the past few weeks we have stayed busy having fun, spending as much time together as possible before the big move...which happened today. So here are some of the pictures of the adventures we have had together.
Apple picking at Oak Glen.

Very pretty morning at Oak Glen.

Hay ride.

Relaxing with our sippies.

Disneyland.

Finding a nest in the back yard.

Visiting with Jessie and Woody.

Checking out the pumpkins.

I'm sure going to miss them. Already planning trips to Utah.

Acai Bowl

This is something that I have been thinking about having since we were here last year. We had it just once and Craig and I shared a bowl. I have been dreaming about having it again and not sharing this time. I wanted the whole thing to myself. And was it ever good and worth every bite. Yum... so good. I've got to learn how to make them myself.

Trouble in Paradise

For Craig's birthday this year our kids got together and gave him a gift certificate from "Spa Finder". That was back in May and he had not used it yet. Well Ashley got on the internet and found a spa in Honolulu so we made an appointment for him for today. While he was in getting a massage, Ashley and I went shopping at the Ross that was there close by. It was quite an interesting experience in the middle of downtown Honolulu.... not the paradise you picture in your mind when you have never been there. And not the same thing I remembered from all the Elvis movies I used to love when I was a kid. The first thing we saw was an interesting homeless man who I believe had never cut his toenails his whole life. Ashley turned to me and said "mom, look at that guy's toenails". I looked and couldn't believe it. "Mom, take a picture". So I did. I acted like I was taking a picture of Ashley and snapped a photo of an unbelieveable sight. The picture is awesome but I don't know if anyone really would like to see it. Let me know and I will add it later. When we were getting in our car I heard a man tell another guy to go away because he had to pee. He went into a little corner of a building and relieved himself right there. When he was done he came out and was talking to a young couple who looked like they were college students. They all looked around and this guy pulled up his sleeve and knelt down behind a cement planter and the young guy who I thought looked like a nice kid proceeded to shot him up with drugs... the girl stood in front of them to hide what was going on but they didn't care about us who were right there watching the whole thing. We just wanted to get out of there. Glad to be back in Laie and away from all that madness.

Malasadas

Last year when we were here Ashley kept watching for the Malasada truck and it never came. We did go to Ted's bakery but they said it wasn't quit the same. I guess the truck travels around and it comes here to the north shore about once a month (I think) and then it goes to other places. I can't remember what town it was in but we had to stop. So the pictures speak for themselves. Yummy!