Self Portraits

Here's some art that Lexi and myself did this morning while the little sister was sleeping.

Lexi decided we needed to paint pictures of ourselves.

If you look on the right side of her forehead, she put a big scar since she has an obvious one on her head now. The rest of her features disappeared when she painted the rest of her face green... oh well. 

Looks like Roald Dahl did my painting :-)

Valentine's Day 2011

In my defense, every time I sat down to put the small selection of pictures from Valentine's Day on here, I kept remembering I needed a picture of Carissa with one of my presents... and since I usually don't blog until she's asleep, it just kept getting put it off.

Why do I need that picture?

Because I could just show you the cute stuffed frog that Eddie gave me, and you could ooh and ahh about how cute he is, but I wanted to capture the largeness of this thing:

and it's even more cute when Carissa tries to steal it, almost daily, due to it's size.

But I couldn't get her to do that for my pictures today.

So, in attempt to not make this post just the same ol' "This was our Valentine's Day. Yay us!", I wanted to add a little back story. 

Ed and I both needed to find time to do our shopping for one another, and naturally, the girls always were with the parent that had to do this shopping. 

We will not be doing that in the future, considering Lexi walked in the door and said "Mom! We got you your frog and books!" to which I hear Ed quickly "Shhh! She's not supposed to know!"

Here are my books :-)

Just a tidbit of the Randomness in my cow book :-)

The evening after my shopping, Lexi looked at Dad at the dinner table and said "Dad! We got you your movie!" which we thought she meant our Netflix that had just arrived, but she continued "and a card and lots of M&M's!"

So even though it wasn't really a surprise, she didn't give all the details, so we could still enjoy our gifts to one another. 

Since Ed had to work on Valentine's day, the girls and I enjoyed our festive french toast (with red coloring added)

And Lexi practiced her letters,

I made us some trifles for our "Stay at home" Date 

 We put the girls to bed early after some yummy mac and cheese, and snuggled up to a movie with Panda Express, fizzy drinks, trifles, and each other! Ahhhhhhh! 

Ok, The End :-)

Attached - revisited

When Mom says you can't eat dinner with your blanket, maybe you should listen?

Traditions

People in Hawaii are all about traditions.
So much that it can really affect the normalcy of those who are not locals...but that's another post, another day...
One nice tradition, though, is singing to members of our congregation who move. And being in a military ward, we do this frequently. Those not familiar with this song, Aloha Oi, can borrow Lilo and Stitch from their neighbor or the library, and watch as Nani sings it to Lilo after being told that Lilo is going to be taken by the social worker. I know, a sad part of the movie, but that's the way they say goodbye.
It's a sweet and simple song, wishing the departing good tidings "until we meet again".
I cry every time we sing it.
I cry when we watch Lilo and Stitch.
Dang, I'm crying just WRITING about it.

Well, while the entire congregation stands and sings this song, anyone can come up, hug, and even give a lei to the families. I've never done this yet, because it's very special and not something I would do for just anyone. But this weekend, Lexi and I will be joining in with what I'm sure will be an overwhelming amount of people for a dear friend of mine whose family is moving next week.
Valerie was the first sister in the ward that actually made an effort to make me feel welcomed. She talked to me and was genuinely interested in every word that came out of my mouth. She would call me, just to see how I was doing. If anyone has ever been close to exhibiting the pure love of Christ, that would be Valerie. And she felt the same way about each and every person she met. She could not be more grateful to me for doing playdates with her, even though I loved them just as much. Even when she is angry or frustrated, she is cute! This lady made a full course dinner for our little family when we moved from one house to another, left crackers on my doorstep when I had the 24 hour flu, and gave us a decent amount of canned goods that they couldn't take with them. She serves until she's exhausted, yet doesn't think she deserves it in return. (Some of us have to be sneaky to do so...) On top of that, she's a mother to 6 kids and her husband has a schedule that changes more than a teenager's mind. In a word, she is: AMAZING.
I have seen her do things that most people haven't. I have seen her grumble at an old man who took forever to make a left turn...which if you know her, that's hilarious. We got her to dance with our Kinect this week... so much fun. She was like a kid again! Most people don't see her sassy side, but it's just as fun as her sweet side!
I don't even think I will be able to attempt to sing, since I know just thinking about her leaving brings me to tears. Sure, I've made many other friends since her, and most of them are wonderful in several ways as well. But you can't replace Valerie. Maybe some day we will get meet up again in this Air Force jumble we are in. I sure hope so.

We made her 5 older kids (the youngest is too little) candy leis. This is a tradition for the kids because they don't really enjoy a flower lei as much as something they can eat. They're kids! They aren't necessarily cheap either, so I bought the materials and made my own.

Lexi will get to give Sarah (her little BF) hers, and I've had the next two boys in my primary class and scouts...so by default the rest of the kids deserve one too :-)

Next Generation of Video Games

Those who know our family, or more specifically, my husband, should not be surprised to hear we are now owners of the Kinect (for Xbox). I'm actually proud he held out so long for it. It's almost creepy how good it is. You just move your body and hands and can control the stuff on the TV. You can even talk to it and it will follow simple commands. Remember Back to the Future II? Yeah, this is almost like that...only it's not a movie with special effects... it's real!
Since the only controllers are the people playing, Lexi has been able to play along with the rest of us. She has a pet lion that she can throw balls to, clean, and pet... and I don't have to do it for her! That's huge! She knows when it asks her a question, that to go on, she just needs to raise her right hand until it selects the button on the side and continue on. We also have a dancing game which our friend stated puts DDR to shame. It's fun.... and again, Lexi can play (and mess up) all she wants and it will not stop or criticize... so she loves it!
Wanna see?
Of course you do!

Can you read her poker face? 

Attached

Carissa is one of those kids that has an emotional attachment to specific items.

Sometime in the last 6 months or so, she became extremely attached to an old blanket that I got at a baby shower  FOR LEXI... and that silly, formerly bright pink but now a grayish dingy pink, blanket has been the the cause of many struggles between her and the parental units.

To put it frankly, we used to be able to go out without it... now if it's in site, that isn't an option.

(we lovingly refer to it as "Linus" so we can talk about it without her knowing)

She won't sleep without it. Period.

Because of her attachment to Linus and also a baby doll (who is pushing the limits of recognition as such), they become very dirty.(Linus had 3 different tire track marks on it after a nice little ride in the stroller last week ;-{ )

 But how do you wash them? 

Veeerrry sneakily...

Wanna know how bad it's getting?

Just a couple nights ago, I purposely saved the "pink load" (yes, we have a pink load) for after the girls were asleep so I could snag Linus (who smelled heavily of stinky baby diapers) and throw it and ugly baby in the wash.

As they were finishing in the dryer a couple hours later, I hear hysterical crying from Carissa's bed... 

As Ed cradled her and fought to get her to take a binky, I rush up, Linus in hand and hand it to her. 

Instant Silence.

Out Cold.

And today, we unveiled a cleaner "ugly baby" to this:

We hope to upgrade the baby situation for her birthday next month. 

As for the Linus... I just don't know what to do if anything happened to it. We would never sleep again!

Princess Hair

I love doing my girls' hair. Most days, I'm lucky to get it in a ponytail or pigtails without some sort of incentive, such as, "We're going to play at your friend's house and you don't want to have to worry about your hair all in your face, do you?" Other days, not even worth it. I just brush it out when they are preoccupied for a short while with something else.

Oh but Sundays...

I love Sundays because those days, my girls aren't just girls. 

No, they are Princesses.

Because Princesses wear dresses and you can't be a real Princess unless you have Princess HAIR. 

So they let me do their hair all pretty. 

Their cooperation isn't always 100%. Many weeks, I rely on Larry and Bob, my favorite vegetables, and some goldfish crackers, to keep them still. But on occasion, I can sit them on the bathroom counter and do my stuff. Both of them are getting their hair longer, so it's fun to see what we can do with it!

Here is some of the fun we've had:

From June-August: 

From September-December:

And January:

 I love how the style determines what color Carissa's hair appears to be! :-) She definitely has lighter hair than Lexi, but some days, those little "goldilocks" sure shine! 

You wouldn't think that they both inherited my fine hair... but that goes to show what a little time, lots of hairspray, and a couple curling irons can do! :-)