Whew, We Did It!

We made it through Christmas!  It was seriously a whirlwind with so many get togethers and family functions but we had a blast.  It had been at least 10 years since my siblings and I have all been together on Christmas day and now we all have kids.  The more is definitely the merrier!  With all the craziness though we didn't get a ton of pics.  We were just enjoying the moments with each other instead.

Esme's elf outfit that she wore on the last day of school.

Earlier this season at a craft fair.

It was an elf year for Esme.

Chan tired out at the end of the night on Christmas.

Ta-da!  Esme loves her new shirt.  

Chan finally gets to be in the driver's seat!

Hangin with cousin Hunter.

A family visit to the latest lava flow in Pahoa.  

Hangin with couisn Mahina.

Chan's newest words after this past week.

And this is the funniest one of all.  Esme recently got a hand-me-down doll house from her cousin Malia.  And even since we got it Chan has been trying to sit inside of it.  He doesn't understand why he can't fit inside.  So instead he keeps trying to pull out the furniture and sit on that instead.  

Countdown To Christmas

Esme and Chan are enjoying putting ornaments on our advent calendar and counting down to Christmas.  The tree is filling up with presents underneath but we're not even sure if they know that Christmas is when we open them.  And honestly, in the past we've taken almost a week to open all our presents and play with them all anyways.  Someone asked Esme what she wanted from Santa the other day and she looked at me questioningly and said "a present?"  Chan has surprisingly not attacked the tree like we thought he would either.  He's left the tree, the lights, the presents and the ornaments alone which has been nice.

Chan's new favorite song is Baby Beluga which used to be Esme's favorite song too.  They love to sing it before bed since we have a book to go along with it.  Chan's also enjoying the Llama Llama books right now.  He likes all the rhyming.  Thankfully he's finally enjoying story time more than in the past.  He used to have a hard time sitting still in our laps and would instead just run around the room while we read to him.  He also likes Little Red Hen, Bi Bim Bop, Noodles For Baby, Is Your Mama A Llama, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and many more.

Esme had her first school performance last week for the holidays.  We weren't sure if she'd be shy on stage or what but she ended up doing just fine.  She sang her heart out for 4 Christmas songs.  The best part was that most of her cousins were sitting on the floor in front of the stage so she could see them the whole time.  She didn't seem to care about the audience in front of her cause she could just look at her cousins instead.

The shirt says it all - "check: I really tried"

Fancy braid crown thanks to Aunty B's

Esme at home before her school performance

Esme wore her ballet clothes to the Nutcracker

She also loves wearing her gymnastics clothes around the house.

Chan experiencing loud Christmas music at the county building

Esme loves going to the market with mom cause she gets to pick out a muffin :)

Chan still loves wearing Esme's sunglasses and slippers.

Esme was so proud of her pony tail coming out of her hat this day.

Chan loves eating rib bones.

This time he's actually wearing his own sunglasses.

Capri and Mimi sitting in Santa's chair at the yacht club.

Talking to the Christmas ballerina.

She actually sat on his lap this year!!!

Chan was sleeping so we couldn't get a pic with both kids.

And then he woke up!  Notice he's not sitting.  

Esme likes the kabuki look with her sunscreen.  

Chan having fun with cousin Mahina.

Christmas Card Update

Well it's that time of year again!  Christmas cards were mailed yesterday and since I didn't get a chance to write much on the card I thought I'd update the blog for those of you that decide to check it out :)  Thanks!

This past year brought lots of changes for us and the biggest of all was the huge move back to Hawaii.  Allen took a job with Hilo Medical Center as a clinical pharmacist and that was enough to get us out of Washington.  We figured everything else would fall into place once we got here but we've definitely had our fair share of ups and downs and we're still transitioning to our new life.  Don't get me wrong though, at the end of the day it's soooooooooooo nice to be so close to all of my family and to be able to be outdoors all year long!!!

I took a job with the Department of Education coordinating health care resources and improving health and wellness in 9 schools in the Kau-Keaau-Pahoa area.  It's a big change from primary care but having a teacher's schedule is awesome!  Allen is also transitioning to the world of education next week.  He's recently accepted a position as an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaii - Hilo College of Pharmacy.  How strange for both of us to no longer have on-call weekends, nights, hospital rounds, have to carry a pager, etc!?!?

The kids are doing amazing and loving all their cousins to play with here.  Esme is 3 1/2 and goes to Keikiland Preschool during the week.  She misses her bilingual Chinese daycare in WA and we're trying our best to keep up her language skills.  Her favorite colors are pink and purple, she always wants her hair braided, she still loves her noodles and rice (along with most other foods), she loves to play pretend, she's super flexible/bendy and she just started gymnastics.  She said that soccer scares her :)  She recently had a scare with Kawasaki's syndrome and was hospitalized for a week on Oahu.  Thankfully she made it out of that without any long lasting cardiac effects and otherwise she's been really healthy since we left WA.

Chan is 19 months and a true boy!  He loves trucks, big tires, puddles, running outside, dogs, etc.  It's amazing how different these two kids are.  He's just recently popped through all of his teeth (the molars and canines took forever!) and devours most any food that you set in front of him.  He's still working on growing his hair and we're hoping that by kindergarten he has a full head of it :) Chan's favorite song is Old MacDonald and he likes to sing the E-I-E-I-O line all the time and hum the rest.  He talks a bunch and picks up on stuff quickly.  He goes to Aunty Monica's Daycare which is conveniently located just one street up from our house.  He's a goofy kid there and enjoys the time with the other kids.  He's going through a very physical phase and so he's learning about being gentle and Esme's learning how to defend herself.  Yikes!

So that's us!  We miss all of our family and friends far away and welcome you to visit anytime!  Here's some hilarious flops from our family photo shoot at Liliuokalani Park.

Esme was trying to hold his hand and so he tried to bite her.

Here's Chan winding up to hit Esme.

And this is when both kids were done.  They only wanted mom :(

And then here's this weeks photo updates.  Chan's cold last week kept him our of daycare the entire time but luckily didn't turn into anything worse.  We were glad to get to the beach today to bake it all out of us!  The kids love the sand between their toes, in their hands, in the water!  That's December in Hawaii for you!

Onekahakaha Beach 

Merry Christmas with cousins

Capri and Esme playing on the tractors at Home Depot

Home Depot kids workshop. Esme's getting so good with the hammer...as long as Chan doesn't get ahold of it!