Another YouTube vid

Let's all just try to live in the moment, and not try to forecast any effect living in the media will have on  the future of these two:

You gotta admit:  That was pretty cool. :)
(Can't find your glasses?  Get the bigger picture here .)

Happy Tuesday!

:)

We came home this week to celebrate this guy...

(Isn't he beautiful?)

...and have been enjoying perhaps the best week ever with some of our favorite people on the planet:



Back to Washington today; more pics to come once we get settled in.

Oh, and I'd be remiss not to mention:

Terry turns 30 today!

Happy birthday to the family's younger Haole Boy Twin! ;-D

Happy Wednesday!

Anya's Hippo Birdy

Anya turned 8 on Saturday!



The birthday girl, reading a card some of her classmates
made for her.

Bustin' a move (or two).



Presents.



Yummy cake pops that Toby refuses to be associated with.
(He's Jen's nephew, and works at a real bakery.)

Finnigan, enjoying the fruits cakes of his parents' labor.



Malia, doing the same.



The Dad.



Happy Mama.
(Forgive me, Jennifer, but I happen to like this one. :-9)

The littlest Spotlight Stealer.



Getting my weekly baby fix.



I guess Daniel needed his, too.

Quiet time for the grown-ups after the kidlets went to bed.
Admittedly, we're a rather mellow bunch.

Back to packing--Happy Monday!



Happy Mudder's Day

I'm often a day late and a dollar short, and today is no exception.  I've been hoping to come up with some meaningful thoughts to share concerning the glory and wisdom of mothers, but, alas, 'tis not to be. 

My sister, however, has shared some truths about our mother on her blog, and, really, I couldn't have said it any better; check out her post here .



Our girls with their mamas, and us with our mama... ♥



My lovelies successfully executed Covert Operation:Photoshoot, and had new photos taken to give me for Mother's Day:

I don't know how I got so lucky.

You can find the rest of the shoot, as well as a guest post by Oldest Daughter, on Bethany's blog. 

(Thanks to all who encouraged my children in the otherwise reproachable habits of sneakiness and deceit, and helped this mission come to pass. ;-9)

Hope your weekend was lovely;

Happy Sunday!

Meandering...

Malia in her Happy Place
 (it usually involves fruit and fresh air).

Not much to say this morning; we're looking forward to

a busy weekend of slumber parties and birthday cake x 2--

I guess I should get my workout on. 



Birthday girl, and one of Miki's "BFFs." :D



Birthday twins. :)
aka, some of the cutest 3-year-olds we know.

Also looking forward to a trip home next week;

my brother Kale is graduating from college--so proud of him.

He's a little taller now.

Happy Friday!

Sport Girls

I can't remember which one of my girls coined that term in this household, but I like it. 

So much less intimidating to this girl, who was always best at loping plonking (let's be real here) ungracefully up and down the field/court/whatever, praying that the real athletes wouldn't pass me the ball. 

 (See? Just typing "athlete" brought back old feelings of inadequacy.)

Here are a few pics of our Sport Girls; finally remembered to take the camera.  Miki and Malia just finished up another session of gymnastics, and Kiana continues to aspire to be like her

Uncle Kale on the volleyball court.

Malia on the rings.

Work those abs, girl!



Sloooowwwly....



Her "I'm concentrating" face.

Talking story.

Listening.

Get ready!

Serve.

Breathe.

In other news, today is my baby brother's birthday--Happy 19th birthday, Snowshoes!

Hahahaha. :)   Let's try that again:

Love you, little brother.

Happy Wednesday!

Here's the video I mentioned leaving out of the last post; I figured out how to edit, so my apologies for the abrupt ending, and not sharing our address with our entire audience of 4. 

If you know my daughters, you'll recognize this as classic Kiana and Mikela. 

Happy Tuesday!

Sunshine and Bubbles

Yikes. 

Sorry about that last post; I am, indeed, a pessimist (really, I prefer "realist") by nature, but Idon't want that to be the nature of my blog.  Let's try this again, and watch some very random oldies-but-goodies that bring me back to my happy place:

I don't really remember what we were talking about here (maybe Oprah?), but Josh's hair was classic. 

 Also, note the voice cameo by Jennifer D.

 

My baby girl.  I love how I'm correcting her poor grammar (calling Kiana a "he")

with my speech impediment (I don't know how to spell my mispronunciation--"sche," or something like that); they've all picked it up at one point or another, but Daniel's been able to counteract the effect. :)



There was another video of Kiana and Mikela that I really wanted to post, but it seems 7-year-old Kiana was in the habit of signing off all of her videos with a complete recitation of our home address and phone number, and so I leave those in the archives. :)

Happy Tuesday!

Doom and Gloom

Let me just say this:

This little man will be entering the final year of his teenage-dom on Wednesday.

The sweet little girl on the right turns 11-years-old

about a week after that.

 (And now despises being called cute.)

And, finally, the mom and the dad in this picture

turned 56 and 57, respectively, last month.

I have a sense that this latest bout with writer's block is related to the lack of discussion regarding the birthdays of these people, punctuated by the recent passing of a dear, dear woman we have considered family since I was a child.  All have served as reminders of the swift passage of time:  unsettling, lump-in-my-throat-inducing, wow-I-guess-I'm-not-the boss-of-everything reminders.

Happy Monday! :-p

(Just kidding.  I mean, do have a happy Monday,

and maybe check in later to see if I've come up with some way to properly end this post. :)

Miki Mouse

To see Mikela's blog, click this awesome, radical link that will take you to the best blog ever!

This has been sitting in my drafts since July; not sure why I never got around to posting it.  I may have set up permissions for it, so if you're interested, message me, and I'll decide if you're worthy (and stable :-9) enough to keep up with Middle Daughter. :)

In other news, we had another fabulous weekend, and I've got nothin' to show for it.  Well, maybe a better tan; today was amazing, a lucky-we-live-Washington kind of a day.  (I just annoyed a few Hawaiians with that sentence. :-9)

All for now; have a great week!