All Together Again

 

 Monty's cousin, Milford was getting married in the Redlands temple and Monty found some cheap tickets to southern California for that weekend.  We decided to jump on it as we had not seen family for a while.  I didn't get a lot of pictures, but it was fun to be able to see everyone.  James and Cindy were down for the wedding as well and we were able to get a photo of all the grand kids together.  A pretty good looking group of kids!!  I was suppose to send this picture to Nana for Mother's Day, but didn't.  Sorry Nana.

Friday was the wedding and in the evening we were able to have a dinner with my brothers and their kids.  It was great to see them.  The kids are getting so big.  Whenever the kids get together they are instant friends.  They played like they had never been separated.  I really enjoyed the evening with my brothers and their wives.  It was a little different as Mom and Dad were not there.  They had left for the MTC the week before, so it was our first trip home without them being there.  We are very proud of them for their choice to serve and the example they are setting however.    

On the way home we missed out flight because we stopped to eat at IN-N-OUT, but didn't take traffic into account.  We ended up having to spend the entire day in the airport with a 6 hour layover in Las Vegas.  And, of course we always have to take the flu bug with us on vacation.  This time it was Trey who decided to bring it along.  He ended up throwing up all day.  The saddest moment was in Las Vegas when he made it to a trash can at the airport but not all the way in.  He accidentally missed and little and it splashed on a woman at the ATM near by!  We felt so bad, but what do you do?  She was pretty grossed out, which I don't blame her.  But, thankfully, it was at an airport and we will probably never see her again!

We got home, went to a hotel and slept!  Then we got to tour Liberty Jail before heading home home.  It was a quick trip, but one I am very glad we took.  

Handsome Kyle

 Kyle Loves Polynesian Art.  He has the dream of having a tattoo.  I am trying to convince him to invent a removable tattoo.  We shall see.  We attended an Asian party at a ward members house to celebrate the Chinese New Year.  They boys did the Haka as part of the celebration and Tyler drew some artwork on Kyle's arm.  He was pretty excited about it.

 He took a few pictures.  I let him enjoy it and then look some Alcohol to it.  I agree they look cool.  I just like them to come off!  Love you Kyle!

Mammy and Grandpop visit and Kyle turns 13!

Mammy and Grandpop decided to serve a mission!  They were called to serve in the Hungary, Budapest Mission and report to the MTC Feb 1st.  We were pretty lucky to have them come visit before they left.  Although they had all kinds of things to do before they left they were sweet enough to come see us.

Tyler is now taller than Grandpop. (Kory loves to photo bomb)

Kyle is now taller than Mammy.

We celebrated Kyle's 13th birthday while Mammy and Grandpop were here.  He turned 13 the week prior, but was sick on his birthday with Hand, Foot and Mouth disease and didn't feel like celebrating.  

 Kyle at 13 is all about football!!  Football is all he talks about.  Well, besides enjoying looking at his muscles and eating food.  He loves cereal.  Chicken Katsu.  Spam.  Anything Polynesian.  He is a big kid with a big heart.  He also says exactly what he is thinking which sometimes gets him into trouble, but we are pretty proud to call him our son.  Overall, he tries really hard to be good.  He dreams of being a NFL player!  One funny thing about Kyle is he can't sit down for an entire meal at the dinner table.  For some reason he won't ask for things to be passed to him.  I am not sure how long he has been doing this, but now that he is so big it is very noticeable.  It makes us laugh as we are working on helping him learn to ask for things to be passed.  If that is his biggest fault I'd say he is pretty lucky!  

It all worked out.  We had a great time celebrating with them!  

Although living in Omaha has it drawbacks, it has some perks.  Living close to Winter Quarters is pretty awesome.  There is a special spirit at Winter Quarters.  We were able to find moms relative Nancy Alexander and enjoy the afternoon together.  

A pretty special experience was to be able to attend a session in the temple with Mom and Dad.  I took the day off work, and Monty school and we spent the morning in the Winter Quarters temple.  The spirit was so sweet and peaceful.  I loved sitting by my mom.  I don't think I have done that since I went through for the first time over 15 yrs ago.  I love my mom and we had a pretty fun laugh in the temple which got us a pretty discussed look from Dad(love you dad.  Sorry!). I laughed so hard I started to cry trying to stop.  Then I started to cry thinking about missing her while she was gone.  Then I realized it was pretty cool because she will be my mom forever so one year is not that big a deal.  So many emotions all in about a 10 minute pre-session cry. In the celestial room Dad forgave us!  We sat on the couch, Monty, me and my parents.  I loved it.  Hugging your parents in the celestial room is pretty awesome.  Now I am at an age when many of my friends have lost parents.  I realized having my parents still around is a blessing and I am thankful for their example to serve a mission.  
Afterward we went and got a Philly cheese making the day just perfect!  I will never forget that day.  It was a wonderful weekend.  And we were thankful for their visit!!

Hand Food and Mouth Disease

 Monday night during Family home evening Makai started complaining that his feet were hot.  He wouldn't leave his shoes on and kept taking them off even though we were at the church playing games.  Then I noticed a bump just above his lip.  When we got home things went from bad to worse.  Makai was crying and I noticed his hands and feet were breaking out into a rash.  He slept only a couple hours that night and I spent the night trying to sooth his itch in every way I could think of.

The following morning, more spots and rash.  I am not one to take my kids to the doctor, but at work someone told me strep was going around and as he said his neck hurt I thought it was worth getting him tested for strep.  NEGATIVE.  The doctor told us her was fine and he could go back to school.  So, I sent him back to school.  The following day Trey work up with spots on his face and hands, then Kory, then Kyle!  I had to figure out what was going on.  Monty finally figured it out.  Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease.

It took the other boys getting it to figure it out.  When Kyle said he wasn't hungry I knew something was up.  Then we read the symptoms to H.F.and M. and loss of appetite was on there.

Anyway, I found the stages interesting.  Makai's toes ended up loosing layers of skin.  I didn't get a picture of the last stage which was him loosing all his fingernails both on his hands and feet.  The worse day was actually the first day when he was itchy.  The rest of the 'disease' he handled pretty easily and the other boys were just tired and not hungry with spots.

Just interesting!

Christmas 2015

For Mutual they had an ugly sweater party.  Tyler won!

Makai at his Christmas class party.  Each kid got to decorate their own gingerbread house.  I had so much fun making his house with him.  At the end, the house looked like a 6 yr old boy made it!  It was awesome.  Priceless moments.  

He was so excited to leave cookies for Santa.  Never know when the magic might die--so we hold out as long as we can!  The older boys loved to see him so excited as well.  

Thanks Chase!

Thanks Grant

Thanks Mia or Emma?!

Thanks Chloe or Christian!

Thanks Carl or Chase or Savvy

Thanks Dustin

Everyone loved their gifts from family.

Thanks Mammy and Grandpop!  Fun to have matching family sweaters.

WE were blessed with a wonderful Christmas!

Makai--6!

I love how he sticks out his tongue while he works and thinks.  

Makai and his birthday!  Makai talks about his birthday about every single day for MONTHS.  He is always asking for something for his birthday.  A few months ago he asked if he could change his name.  I told him he could for his birthday.  Then when he realized it was going to be one of his presents he changed his mind.  Each day he wants something different, so for Makai we let him pick out his own gifts for his birthday.  He loves to go to the store and look down the isle.  This year he bought four lego sets.  Afterward he came home and spent the rest of the night following the directions perfectly to make the set.  He stayed focused for hours.  He reminds me of Tyler when he was younger.
Makai is a pretty fun kid.  He is loving school and doing well.  However, he complains every single day when I wake him up complaining he is still tired.  He HATES to go to bed a night.  I can tell already he is a night owl and not a morning guy.  He likes to get what he wants.  If he gets an answer he doesn't like he will keep asking till he gets what he wants.  He tries to figure out ways to do this by changing the situation.  For example, "Mom can I have a cookie?".  If I say no he will say, "Can I have a cookie if I take out the recycles?"  Or "What if I eat a banana, then can I have a cookie?"  He doesn't do it in a mean way, or every a spoiled way.  He just knows what he wants and is going to try more than one way to get it.  So many times I have to just give him an answer and explain that is my answer!!
Makai loves Nachos.  They are his favorite meal.  He loves to play outside, but does not mess around with cold or humidity though.  If it is snowy he doesn't want to go outside and if it is humid he wants nothing to do with being outside.  We never have to wonder what Makai is thinking because he says everything he is thinking.  He is not afraid to talk to strangers.  Everyone is his friend. While at the park he might see a kid 12 yrs old and want to play or a kid 2 yrs old and want to play.
All around we are so happy to have him in our home.  He still loves to be cuddled, which I love as he is my little buddy. If we let him he would sleep with us every night, but he is too big!!  He usually sleeps with Trey.  Trey is a good sport and lets him    His new job is to take out the recycles and he is pretty good at doing it without being asked.  Of course, he always says, "Mom, look what I am doing."
We love  you Makai!!  Happy 6th birthday!  Thanks for being a wonderful boy. You're awesome.  

Two Bottom Teeth

A couple weeks ago I noticed Makai had a couple loose teeth.  The beginning of the end of our baby!  This week I noticed they were brown.  My kids are NOT tooth wigglers like I was!  So, I grabbed my toothed tweezers and pulled out his two bottom teeth in less than a minute.

Stop growing!! This boy is SO excited for his birthday in a couple weeks!  He has asked about it everyday for months!!