Drum Roll Please...........

Well it's finally time we annouce the big news on the blog - we're having twins!  We've known since the summer but were waiting till the end of the first trimester to announce it, like we've done in the past.  I had my first appointment around 9 weeks and all looked good including an ultrasound with just ONE baby present.  Then when I went back a month later the doctor almost dropped the ultrasound wand when she saw the two babies which was news to her and I.  All of a sudden life was changing right before our eyes!  We'd planned on 3 kiddos but 4 was a whole new story.  Needless to say after the twins were discovered there were more tests and scans to be scheduled.  I had an ultrasound with a doctor who specializes in multiples last week and it was very reassuring.  He said they look great and healthy, no abnormalities noticed so far.  Each kiddo is in it's own sac and has it's own placenta which is also really good.  Still doesn't tell us if they're identical or fraternal though.  I didn't realize this was possible before but Allen and I have done a lot of reading lately on the biology of twins.  Since I declined an amniocentesis we won't be able to tell if they're identical until they're born and we test their blood.  Oh and here's the other big part - we actually found out the genders this time!  We weren't going to find out with just one baby but we felt we had to with two coming now.  It was sort of anticlimatic since it took the technician and the doctor awhile to confirm the sexes but they proclaimed they're both girls :)  I honestly feel like they were 95% positive and at this rate even if it changed next time I wouldn't be surprised.  My first US was wrong so it could happen again right?  Regardless we're happy to have 2 sweet little girls join our family in the spring of next year.  We'll keep you posted as time goes by.  I'll have to have an ultrasound every 3-4 weeks to check on the twins progress.

This is the first US.  It's hard to see since it already started to fade when I took a picture of it but there's just one baby there.  You can sort of see the round head and body.  This was at 9 weeks. 

Then just 4 weeks later this is the shot we got.  You can see one baby lying there on bottom portion of the pic and then the membrane between them and the other head in the other sac.  I still need to take pics of the newest US shots. 

Meanwhile Esme has also had a big visit to the doctors office.  We had her one year follow up for her Kawasaki's last week.  We went to Kapiolani Hospital on Oahu to see Dr Melish but first she had to get a echocardiogram and an EKG.  Both of which took longer than my ultrasound on the same day!  Thankfully though both test were completely normal along with her exam with Dr Melish.  She told us that at a recent international symposium for KD they came out with some new studies that show that kids who had no cardiac involvement originally (like Esme) go on to lead healthy lifestyles into their 40s (that's as old as the studies are since KD has only been diagnosed here in the US since the mid 70s).  Kids with cardiac involvement had heart attacks, the need for stents, and other cardiac issues before their 40s which is so sad.  Our next/last follow up will be in 4 years and then Esme will be cleared.  Phew!

During her echocardiogram.  She was watching a TV high up on the wall.

Time for the EKG.

Then check up with Dr Melish who almost had the disease named after her since she was the first one to classify and diagnose it in the United States.  Turns out she and Dr Kawasaki had been doing the same research in different places and he was about 5 years ahead of her in Japan and she was in Hawaii.  Those are the top two places, in that order, where KD appears.  Next is San Diego, CA. 

Ever since Halloween Chan has wanted to wear his Spiderman costume almost everyday if we'd let him.  He even wanted to wear it for our family photos the other day.  The kid is obsessed!  He also loves pictures of the Avengers.  He calls them "da Bengers."  He got some Spiderman shoes the other day and the box has all the Avenger characters on it.  Well he ended up carrying the box with him for almost 3 days straight.  He's so funny!  Oh and the things that come out of his mouth lately!  He loves the word "actually" and uses it all the time.  He talks like he's 3 or 4 sometimes.  No one ever believes me that he's 2 when they hear him talk.  

Flashback: I showed this picture to Esme the other day and she says "Cute!  Did Chan get a haircut today?"  Ha ha!  I told her to look closer cause he's like 6 months in this pic.  Our little bald guy that he was!

Look at his hair now - still soft as a newborn baby though with curls in the back.

Driving cousin Makena crazy!

The underwear gang playing in the yard.

These moments are fleeting but it's cute to catch them doing stuff like this.

Picnic in the backyard with cousin Tosh.

Nature lesson with dad - checking out the green gecko.

Just Catching Up

In-flight Wi-Fi is awesome!  Mommy is on her way back from a conference in Washington DC and she actually has time to catch up on things like the blog!!!  It was hard to be away from the kids for 6 days but daddy had the help of all our family which we couldn't have done this without them.  While I was in DC and not in the conference I got to see some sights.  I even made it down to the Korean War Memorial where I looked up some info on my great Uncle Chan Jay aka Junior who was POW/MIA.  Our little guy Chan is actually named after his father, my great-grandfather.  The weather really cooperated and I got some great shots of the sunsets and full moon over the monuments.  

 

While I was gone daddy got a lot of quality time in with the kids.  He said they were acting out initially because I was gone but it got better.  These pics was taken before I left but this is probably what they did a lot of while I was gone :)  The kids love to ride on his back.  As you can see Esme's just chillin and reading a book and Chan's hanging out, just along for the ride.  Oh yeah, and he's in his underwear!  He's doing great still with the potty!  

The weekend before I left was busy filled with events around town.  There was a lot of face painting too.  Esme and Malia got painted at the Blue Zones kick off rally in Hilo and then Chan got his very own face painting at the HPA pumpkin patch on Sunday.  He was very serious when it was happening and told the high school student who was doing it that he wanted a monster.  See below for his monster face and pose.  Too cute!

 While we were at the pumpkin patch where there were rides and games, it turns out Chan had just as much fun playing on this container when I took him aside to go potty.  Go figure.

Esme also got her school pictures back.  I still need to send them out to family so if you normally get one, don't worry, they're coming!  I'm not sure what happened to her hair.  We put a clip in it when she left for school but apparently her teacher added the little pony tail.  And she also added the same pony tail to a few other girls too.  Haha!

 The kids are gearing up for Halloween.  Chan found one of Tosh's old costumes in our Halloween bin and hasn't taken it off since.  And Esme wore her Elsa dress from Disneyland for the Yacht Club Halloween party this past weekend.

Esme Goes To Disneyland

Phew, where to start???  It's already October and it feels like the end of the year will be here before we know it!  Our house is slowly coming along and we've given ourselves till the new year to get everything moved in completely.  It seems like there's just never enough time but I keep hearing that's gonna be the story of our lives from here on out.  Uh oh!  We still have house projects we want to complete but there's no rush at this point.  They'll happen when they happen.  We honestly spend a lot of our weekends and free time enjoying the kids and then we try to squeeze in house time when they're sleeping.  You can see why this'll take us awhile to complete :)

Esme and I had an awesome mother-daughter trip to Disneyland over fall break!  We met up with our WA friends, the Mitchell's, so Esme and Natalie had each other to experience this new adventure.  Esme was in awe of all the characters, especially the princesses.  I forgot just how much joy something as simple as that would bring her.  She enjoyed the rides and just doing whatever she wanted while we were there.  She also asked if daddy and Chan could come next time which was really cute.  We were at California Adventure and Disneyland for a total of 4 days which gave us a lot of leisure time to go at our own pace.  We also stayed right in the park at the Grand Californian so that also made life a lot easier when it came to taking naps, going back to rest, and just enjoying their awesome pool!  We had a few tired tantrumy moments but overall I think she did really good.  Pics below in a sort of random order.

Allen was amazing and potty trained Chan from start to finish while we were gone.  He did the cold turkey trick like we did with Esme and it worked with him for pee and poop.  With Esme it took a little longer for her to poop in the potty but pee was easy.  Allen also got Chan sleep trained to stay in his bed at night!  Way to go daddy!  We missed our boys a lot and were so excited to come home and see them.  Chan wouldn't let go of me at the airport.  The next day though it took the kids a little while to adjust to being siblings again.  They weren't used to having to share their parents we guessed and they kept trying to talk right over each other.  It was sort of funny until they started getting upset with each other.  Haha!  All is good now :)

This was a favorite ride for Mimi :)

Halloween at Disney!  Esme wanted to know how come we don't trick-or-treat in Hawaii.  She didn't understand why we got to do it early in CA.  

Esme LOVED the bunkbeds in our hotel room!

Pics with our Disney group and Mr Queen (that's what Chan calls him :)

She insisted on the "Elsa hair" for her Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique makeover.

Esme was soooooooooooo happy this afternoon!

After their makeovers they got to meet the princesses in the Royal Hall.

And then we went trick-or-treating at Mickey's Halloween Party.  They had to stop and pose in this scene we passed while in line.  

Esme wasn't so sure about Mickey Mouse.  She was fine with some characters and not so fine with others.  

She was totally into the princesses.  

Minnie Faces!

Sitting in a chair in Minnie Mouses house :)

Meeting one of the fairies in Pixie Hollow!  This was our last day which started off as pajama day for Esme.  

And then meeting Tinkerbell afterwards!

And don't forget Mary Poppins.  She watched the movie right before the trip so she had a frame of reference.  

We're Still Alive...And Doing Well!

So obviously the house and our crazy lives have kept us super busy and we haven't been able to update the blog!  Sorry!  The house is coming along slowly but surely.  So far this is what we've had done: new paint in the bedrooms/bathrooms/hallway, new carpet, new kitchen counters, new dishwasher, new gas stove, new toilets, and new curtains.  I feel like we're missing something cause it seems like way more than that.  Still yet to come is a microwave above the stove and new counters in the bathrooms and the master vanity.  After that it's all minor stuff we'll do at random like change all the gold and glass chandeliers :)

The kids are loving the new house and all the space.  They really love the fenced in yard and covered lanai that they can roam at their own will.  They also love being back in a bikeable and walkable neighborhood.  Esme took a break from her bike for awhile but now she's back at it.  And Chan is learning his tricycle pretty good too.  

Over the past month Esme had her first case of strep throat and Chan started having bloody noses.  The strep was shocking since she had the mildest of symptoms but I also think we caught it really early before anyone else in our family got it.  Chan's nose has been a bigger challenge cause he doesn't like us messing with it.  It's just been a little wet when he's sleeping and we notice it when he wakes up or barely drippy in the day when we've caught it before.  However today he fell and hit his nose and there was blood EVERYWHERE.  Worse yet, the more blood there was, the more he was freaking out.  So it took a little while to calm him down but we finally did and got his nose to stop.  We put our new carpet to the test also.  The blood came out just by blotting it with a damp cloth so it was worth all that extra money!  Ha ha!  

We haven't taken a ton of pictures cause we've been so busy but here's a few.  Thankfully the weather did a complete switch and we're back to normal temps all of a sudden.  We were hitting record highs for what seems like months this summer!  We're actually in the middle of a tropical storm and it's so nice to have the rain back!

I'm gonna warn you that the next post probably won't be for 2 weeks because next week is fall break and Esme and mommy are going to Disneyland!!!  Daddy's gonna stay home and sleep train Chan.  Ha ha!  We switched him out of his crib into a toddler bed and he keeps waking up at night and coming straight to our bed.  Sometimes it's nightmares but other times I think it's just out of habit.  Wish Allen luck!

The house has been a royal mess as we move in so the kids have had free reign over the furniture in different places.  

Chan loves playing in the doll house just as much as Esme.

The clear view of Mauna Kea from our front room.  It's much better in person :)

Papa made the kids a house out of the toilet box. 

Our happy boy!

And our happy girl!

Enjoying the new Mauna Kea State Park playground on Saddle Road. 

Touch-A-Truck event in Kona.

The kids loved pulling the loud horn in this truck.

Happy Birthday lunch for cousin Sarah in Kona.

The kids love to place all their Lego animals in different places all over the house.  This is how they were when I woke up one morning.  

On The Move

Sorry for the delay but we've been super busy!  We moved again and for the final time cause we bought a house!  New address is 1299 Launa St, Hilo, HI 96720.  We're also in the process of some big home renovations to make it just what we want so we've been without a kitchen since we moved in.  It's been a challenge but it'll be so worth the end result.  The carpets and painting along with a lot of other minor changes already took place.  Pics to come soon!