Dog Houses, Puzzles, and Guns

The "dog house" that kept them happy and occupied for more than two hours one morning.

And remember the baby gate in the window from this post? Well, with the awesome breezes that blow through that window the gate has proven to be a very efficient drying rack as well as a safety device. Do you see it in the upper left hand corner? Um, redneck?

For being such good doggies I gave them each a "biscuit" (in the form of a snicker-doodle).

This has been one of her favorite toys for months now. She plays with it every day.

Can you hear her saying "cheese!"?

This is her naughty, mischievous look that says, "Maybe if I do it slowly Mom won't notice that I'm pulling the bow out of my hair." She is such a stinker in the hair tie/bow department and ends up looking so unkempt most of the time because of it!

Cutesie Girl

Sassy Girl

My mom made her this little summertime romper with some seersucker fabric that Carla had given me. It turned out really cute and Lizzie likes it because it had berries and butterflies on it.

One morning last week the boys and I decided to have a puzzle marathon. We managed to put together all but three of their puzzles before it was time for lunch and naps. I think this picture is only missing one or two completed puzzles. It was fun!

I love little girls in pig tails!

Heading out to do some yard work with the boys...mismatched boots and all.

"Um, boys, I think this Guava tree could use come pruning!"

Lucas stayed with us for a couple of days while Dave and Carolyn went to Oahu to celebrate their anniversary. We had a great time! Here he is helping prune the palms with the boys. 

This picture cracks me up. Jonathan has his new revolver (thanks Auntie Rebekah!) and is either protecting the princess or holding her hostage, I can't tell. Either way they were having fun! I so enjoy watching them play and have fun together.

Any of you have followed this blog for any length of time know that Aden loves yard work and yard work equipment. This mower was a Christmas gift back in 2008 and it has been played with every day since. Seriously, every day. Sadly, the same day that I took this picture the mower was left out on the grass (out of view from the drivers seat of the van) and I ran over it. So sad. =(

A toy gun in one hand and a princess plate in the other. Yep, that pretty much sums her up.

Can you see the nifty "Junior Special Agent" badge the Rebekah sent him? The boys each got one (along with a new gun) and they were pretty stoked!

Don't mess with these bad boys! ;)

Pink Paisley Purse

This is not exactly what I had in mind when I picked this out for her...

My silly girl in her pink paisley purse hat.

Our Little Graduate

Last month Aden "graduated" from Preschool and boy did they go the whole nine yards!

 There was the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag, then to the Hawaiian State Flag, then to the Bible. I really liked the Pledge of Allegiance to the Bible and I love that the kids say it every morning after the flag. It goes like this:

I pledge allegiance to the Bible,

God's Holy Word,

I will make it a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path

And will hide its words in my heart

that I might not sin against God.

It was pretty cool to hear a group of small children saying it in unison!

 Whoops! Looks like some of them are still learning their right from their left! =)

 Supporting his big brother

There was a hand bell number. 

These two were focusing hard on their hand bell cue cards! I love Isaac's little tongue sticking out...classic sign of a kid concentrating!

 Little Luli Pants WAY past her nap time! She's snuggled up in Grandma's arms...a nice place to be!

There were caps and gowns!

 My heart skips a beat when I see this picture because I know that the next 13 years are going to fly by and in the blink of an eye I'll see this same boy walking up to receive his High School diploma!

 Receiving his certificate from "Mr. Moore" (a.k.a Daddy)

 There were "diplomas"

 Cutest. Freckles. Ever. 

I love this sweet face!

(And of course, there were leis...)

In all his lei glory!

 Party of Five

The Trio

The Boys with their Girls =)

Two Special Days for One Special Guy

What a thoughtful, generous, fun, smart, handsome man!

Happy Fathers' Day and Happy Birthday (6/25) Dad!

We love you!

There is No Method

to my (blogging) madness. Sorry, but here comes another slew of unrelated pictures. The only thing that connects them really is the fact that they were all taken within the last couple of weeks. Enjoy!

Hmm...I seem to recall this being a past-time of another one of my monkeys. Perhaps you remember too! Click here for a trip down memory lane.

A Cane Spider just chillin' on our wall. These things are HUGE! This particular one was about 4 inches wide.

Waiting for the 2:00 class to end so they can have their turn!

She loved the "wa-wa" and was always very excited to get in. She did a great job and based on her "performance" (for lack of a better term) I'm fairly certain we've got a little fish on our hands.

I guess there was an "incident" last summer with an undiapered three year-old so the pool now requires all children under 5 to wear swim diapers. Jonathan didn't quite know what to think when I pulled out the diaper for him to put on. The kid has been potty trained for nearly 2 years! He was reluctant at first but in the end was a good sport about it. He called them his "swim roll-ups" (I'm pretty sure he was mixing up the terms Pull-up and Fruit Roll-ups) and would correct me every time I slipped and said "swim diaper".

Da boys and da girl

Jonathan's the one in the red cap.
I don't have any of Lizzie in the water because I'm always in the water with her!

Aden's swim class meets at the beach on Wednesdays to learn about and experience playing in the waves with currents and under tow, etc. He has had a blast and has gotten a lot more comfortable playing in the water. I think it is a pretty cool element to the swim lessons considering we live on an island and 99% of the swimming we do is in the ocean and not in pools. I'll post some pics of his pool lessons soon!

In case you were wondering, Aden is in the center of the picture wearing light blue trunks standing next to the boy with the yellow trunks. Yep, that's him, the pasty white ha'ole!

One of my favorite things about being a mom is encountering scenes like this. Such care and precision went into this stuffed animal naptime set-up.

 And for a close-up...

The little lamb

The blue turtle

And the red fishie

Apparently Jonathan thought he should save the rest of his apple for later. You think it's safe to say that all my "there are children starving in Africa" lectures are making an impression on him?

We are loving the fact that Daddy's work schedule is a little more relaxed these days. Hooray for summer! He has had more time to do fun stuff with the kids like build crazy, large Lincoln Log "car washes" and super tall Lego towers.

Aren't dads the best!? I could never build something this cool!

And Daniel has even had the chance to introduce "Carcassonne" to the boys! They LOVE it!
What can I say, they are their mother's children!

Although, they do play a much friendlier version of the game than I'm used to. They become "friends" and build castles and roads together. It's cute and all but boy will they be in for a surprise the day Daddy decides to show his true game playing colors! ;) And for the record, Jonathan (at a mere 3.75 years) won the first time the three of them played together.

Side-by-side siblings...taking in a Netflix instant download of "Super Why"...their new favorite show.

Mommy's sunglasses on top of Daddy's glasses on top of the cutest, sweetest face ever!

Do you ever have morbid thoughts like, "What would happen if my husband and I both died, at the same time, unbeknownst to anyone else and my children were left all alone and unattended? Would they survive?"  (c/mon, you've all heard those crazy toddler survival stories!) Well, I'm pretty sure Lizzie would do just fine. Yesterday I was working on dinner but hungry Lizzie decided she couldn't wait any longer for food. She 100% independently opened the fridge, reached to the back and picked out yogurt, closed the fridge, opened the utensil drawer and got a spoon, climbed up into a chair, peeled off the yogurt lid, and sat and spoon-fed herself the entire container's worth. Seriously, "independent" is an understatement for this child.

Our very own Monster Jam Rally!

Of course Lizzie is right there in the middle of it. She was in charge of lining up the smash cars.

And on a less happy note, my little princess has been sick the past couple of days...

Poor baby! Shes's got a cool rag on her head to try to bring her fever down. It was 103.9 when I took this picture. Hopefully she'll feel better tomorrow...