ALOHA!

We had the most amazing opportunity to take a trip to Oahu with my whole family! (my Grandma, Parents, all of my siblings and their kids). 11 adults and 10 kids, 7 of the kids being under the age of 3! It really didn't matter where we went, being together was all we really wanted, but lets be honest... going to Hawaii was amazing! I am so grateful to my parents for being willing to organize this trip. Vacations are where so many memories are made. I never thought I would travel with my young children to Hawaii, but we did and it was so fun! It's too bad they will probably not remember this trip since it will be a while before they go again. Good thing I am documenting it right? :)

We were a little nervous about a 5+ hour flight to get there and back, but our kids surprised us and they did awesome! I think I was more antsy than they were. So we arrived and went to the hotel. We stayed at the new Disney Restort, the Aulani.  It was perfect for kids. The pools were awesome and we had our own little beach/lagoon. We spent most of the time at the pool utilizing the water slides. James was obsessed. I probably spent more time in our villa than I would have normally, but when you have a 5 month old who is not the best "on the go" napper, you have to sacrifice a little sun time. Probably a good thing in the long run, none of us got sunburned! (Well Haws did a little the first day, but that is to be expected with his fair skin:)

Our famiy shared a villa with my sister Dana and her family. It was so fun getting to spend quality time with her and her boys since we don't get to see them all the time. Her twins are so cute... cute enough that I didn't mind being woken up in the middle of the night when one of them was out in the living room. James never quite adjusted to Hawaii time and was up between 4am and 5am most mornings anyway! Gave Haws and I time to trade off  hitting up the gym before breakfast and swimming started. We spent most of our time at the resort. We took some Costco and Target runs and Haws took James to Pearl Harbor. That was about all we saw of the Island. 

I was horrible and took most of my pictures with my phone. Thanks to my mom, she took lots of pictures with her camera. Get ready for picture overload!

Here are some pictures from our days at the pool/beach.

 Lazy river

 Scuba Diving

 James would go down this slide over and over and over!

 

Action Video

 

 Matching suits :)

You may remember one of my favorite pictures of Joshua. He has grown up so much since then and was brave enough to go down the "black hole".

We found out later, parents are not suppose to go down the kid slides. Really? Come on now. Luckily I think we all had the chance to do it before getting in trouble. 

We did the character breakfast one morning where the Disney characters come out and visit while you have breakfast. The kids loved it!

We were quite the crew.

Chase does a great job at entertaining the kiddos. Laundry basket rides are always a good time.

 So is bath time with the twins!

James would take these long naps (3-4 hours) which was great after waking up at 4am! He would sometime wake up with crazy hair like this. It was pretty funny.

James and Caroline are such great buddies. They find each other pretty amusing. I love hearing them laugh.

 Tanner and Luke are totally plugged in! Using Bop's headphones and iPads.

We gathered most meals at the villa that my parents shared with Brad, Kori and their boys. It was pretty lively during those mealtimes. 

Tanner's birthday landed on the day we were flying home, so Kori put on a birthday party for him. They did a treasure hunt and had a pirate themed party. The kids loved it. I can't believe he is 4!

 

We had one night out to dinner with all the adults... no kids! We put the kids to bed and hired babysitters from a local agency to watch them while we went to Roy's. Dana also has a August birthday, so we celebrated her while we were out.

We all love our children, but it was nice having a meal where we could all relax and have conversations with out being interrupted by little people :)

Haws took James to Pearl Harbor with Dana and Chase. James loved the big boats.

And you know you are having a great time when you are constantly getting picture of your kids passed out. 

Thanks Mom and Dad, aka Nana and Bop! This is a trip that will go down on the books (or at least on my blog)!

Coming home was kind of sad... we got thrown right back into reality. Haws started a new job in tax, which means he went right into busy season and has been working super long hours! I started my training to teach barre classes on top of our normal schedule, which meant I needed to leave the kids more than usual. We all had to readjust to not being together 24-7. I am glad we got that quality time in before the madness began. Looking forward to Oct 15th when things settle down a bit for Haws and we can be together as a family a little bit more. I am proud of him though for being such a hard worker and dedicated to pursuing the career path he wants to follow.

iPhone pics in July

Mothers Beach with the Wack's and Quack's

James getting a hair cut and making Davis laugh. He was eating chocolate pudding and watching trash trucks on YouTube to distract him.. even then he wasn't the most compliant client.

Sporting his new Thomas the Train backpack. Getting ready for Hawaii!

Snuggles with his Hippo Lovey

More snuggles with Andrea while visiting the new puppies their hunting dogs just had.

James loves giving kisses. He was actually more into the big dogs, but I didn't get a picture of them.

Davis has graduated from riding in the car seat for our walks and can now ride along side James. 

Aren't these two the cutest??? :)

For my dad's 61st birthday us kids put together a book for him that consisted of letters written to or about him from 61 of his friends and family. The book is filled with pictures of my dad through out his life. It is really a great book and I have loved reading the letters that everyone wrote. My dad is one of the most amazing people and it was awesome reading everyone else's stories and perspectives. 

Davis 5 months

Davis is 5 months old! Oh my baby is growing up too fast. I am loving this age with Davis. He is is still such a sweet and easy baby. He is what we call "very user friendly". 

He is weighing in about about 15.5lbs, not sure on the height.

He does great during tummy time and only gets upset if he gets stuck while attempting to roll. He is getting pretty good at rolling, but is selective as to when he wants to do it. 

He loves to stand and can do it while barely holding onto my fingers.

Davis loves to watch his brother. He thinks he is so funny and giggles at him all the time. I have video... I will have to post it at some point. 

Davis has become a little chatter box and loves making motor boat noises with his mouth. 

He has pretty much dropped the 4th nap. If we are out and about he might take a 20-30 min nap, but if we are home he would rather stay awake longer and then just go to bed earlier. His wake times are still only about 60-70 minutes long between his 3 naps though. 

Here is our little photo shoot from the other day. 

I love this look! It is his wide mouth smile and I get to see this quite a few times during the day. I love how his whole face smiles!

Attempting to sit up. He can do it, but it last maybe 5 sec. Not long enough to snap a picture.

 He loves to chew on his hands. I had to pry them out of his mouth to get some pictures.

cousins

Spending a little time with some of the cousins

 Davis, Garrison, Hunter

 Monte, James and Tanner checking out the construction trucks

 Monte, James, Tanner and Davis. 

I don't know how Kori got them all to sit by each other... but I love this picture! I love Davis' feet popping up in it. :)

Garrison and Davis. Exactly 2 weeks apart. They are going to be buds.

4 months

Davis is 4 months old (4.5 months really, but a little late getting around to this)! Time is just flying by. He is getting so big and I cant even remember what it was like when he was just a little newborn. He is really filling out. He has the cutest chubby cheeks and I love the rolls on his inner thighs. I just love this little guy.
You worry with your second child that you won't be able to give them all the quality time you had with your first... and lets be honest, you cant! But there are times of the day, during James' nap usually, that I get to sneak in a little quality DQ time. I love these quiet moments of the day when we get to bond and play.

Davis loves to sleep! His wake times are still about an hour, but he is starting to extend those a little bit. He takes 4 naps a day, the 4th tends to get cut short because that is the one I don't mind messing up as much. He sleeps from about 730pm-730am. We still give him a dreamfeed between 10-1030. The other day he slept until 845! I was so grateful because I had been up the night before until almost 2am (we saw the dark knight rises... awesome!)
When he is awake... Davis is a mover! If you put him down to play he will kick his legs and move his arms like he is dancing. Makes it hard to do a photo session as you will see.
Somethings about this month

• We dropped the swaddle due to his rolling (or trying to roll) onto his stomach. The first night was a little rough, but he is doing fine now and sleeps in a sleep sac
• Sucks his thumb
• Found his voice and loves to squeal
• Has become a very distracted eater. This is a tough one and it drives me crazy! He wants to look around or "chat" with me. I can't get too mad because he ends up giving me a big grin at some point
• He giggles when I tickle his neck
• went swimming for the first time and didnt cry when I dunked him. He also had his first lesson... pretty much did what I do with him in the pool
• He is a major drooler and loves making bubbles with his saliva
• Total cuddle bug!
• Laughs at James

These first pictures are my attempt at his 4 month photo shoot... didn't go so well.

Bubbles

First Swim. I love his expression as he is coming out of the water.

Super Hero!

James loves to give his brother kisses.