Happy Birthday Cade and Chance

We celebrated Cade and Chance's birthdays this weekend at Up-N-Jumpin. They had lots of their friends there to celebrate with them. I think everyone had a great time. They jumped on bouncers and play lots of other games. We ate hotdogs and other goodies and of course had cake and ice cream. The boys both wanted football themed cakes so that made it easy for me. Cade asked for a football field and Chance asked for a football helmet! That's what they got!! It was a great afternoon spent with family and friends! I've said it before and I'll say it again.... we are blessed with many great friends here! I love watching the kids of my friends and my boys grow up together! They are a special bunch of kiddos with great parents!

Good Job Chance

Chance took his first spelling test this past Thursday. It was actually a practice test! He made a 100!!! Because he made a 100 he didn't have to take real thing on Friday! Way to go Chance!!

Happy Chinese New Year!

The second grade at Adamsville celebrated Chinese New Year on Friday. They celebrated by having a chinese parade and eating chinese food. Cade got to lead the parade through the school because he has the highest AR points in second grade. He's worked hard and we are so proud of him. He got to carry a big white pearl on a stick that the chinese dragon follows. According to the chinese the pearl is known as the "Pearl of Wisdom". It is said that the Dragon chasing this "pearl of wisdom" represents the Dragon's way to pursue insight and knowledge. The dragon represents wisdom, power and wealth. Very interesting! The whole second grade chanted "Gung Hey Fat Choy" throughout the parade which means....Happy Chinese New Year! What a fun day! Chad was very sweet and took my camera to snap some photos since I couldn't be there.

Sweet, Silly Boys

My boys are like most siblings in that they argue and fuss quite a bit. If your kids never argue and fuss please don't tell me and just let me believe that they do and that my boys are perfectly normal!! As much as they argue and fuss I do know that they love each other and on occasion I'm reminded of that because I'll catch sweet moments like this one of Cade and Chance. Cade is letting Chance lay on him while he plays a game. This is not normal for them!! But I sure enjoyed seeing this sweet moment!



My boys have begged to take a bath in my "big" tub for a while now. Monday night Chad didn't get home until late so I let them all take a bath in the tub while he was gone. They had a good time playing and "swimming". Had to bring out the goggles and everything so they could go under and search for things! It was nice seeing them play and have fun together.

A week in Paradise!

Chad and I took a trip the day after Christmas to Hawaii. This was a late anniversary/Christmas present. It was also a much needed trip away from the stresses of everyday life. We really needed to get a way for a few days and what a place to get away too!! Chad planned the whole trip and then told me we were going. He earned some major bonus points for this surprise!! We had a great week doing some fun things and enjoying the beautiful 80 degree weather.

That's our hotel right there in the middle. We literally walked out and were sitting on the beach in a matter of a few minutes! It was great!



The hotel was decorated for Christmas so we enjoyed seeing the pretty lights and decorations. We were heading out on a date!!

Went to the Honolulu zoo. Did you know that there are only 2 snakes on the entire island of Hawaii and they are both at the zoo. It's against the law to have a snake or bring one onto the island. if you try to you will pay $250,000 and spend 3 years in jail! Yikes. I for one was very happy there were no snakes!

This is Hanauma Bay. Beautiful place and great for snorkeling which is exactly what we did. Chad saw a sea turtle and said he could have reached out and touched it but they tell you NOT to touch any of the fish or creatures you see. All of the dark area in the water which you may not be able to see in this picture is coral. Lots of beautiful fish living in there.

You can't go to Hawaii without going to a Luau! We had lots of fun, ate very well, and enjoyed a great show!

Chad getting his tattoo

Made a bracelet from real flowers

enjoyed a beautiful sunset before the show

One day we climbed Diamond Head. The view from the top was amazing.

One of the many sunset pictures I took during the week. Just loved seeing all the sailboats as the sun went down.

We went on an island tour and saw some really neat places. I didn't much care for the bus ride. I got a little car sick but all in all the tour was great....as long as we weren't on the bus!
This Buddhist temple was in an episode of Magnum P.I.

This is Sunset Beach. The waves were actually small considering how big they can get but we saw some surfers riding even these small waves.

Visited the Dole Pineapple Plantation.

It was an amazing week. However we were ready to get back home to our boys. I know Rah Rah was ready for us to get back home too. She took care of the boys all week which we appreciate so much but know how tiring that can be. The boys did spend one day with my dad and his wife. They had a great week!

Christmas Eve and Day!

We opened our stockings on Christmas Eve like we always do. Then Santa leaves the stockings on each pile of gifts. That way we knows which pile belongs to which person.




After opening stockings we headed to Rah Rah's house for Christmas Eve dinner and gift opening.



We came home and spread out our reindeer food....



and set out cookies and milk for Santa! Then it was off to bed!



Santa got busy putting together this big tent for the boys and filling it with some great gifts for the boys!



We actually had to wake these three sleepy heads up so they could go check out their things.



They all had a great Christmas and got some really neat things. After opening their gifts we all got ready and headed to worship. It was a beautiful Christmas day. We spent the afternoon playing with our new things and enjoying the day together. Chad and I began packing for a week long trip to Hawaii!!

Christmas Time!

I love the holiday season! Fun crafts, making goodies, Christmas music, Christmas decorations, and spending time with friends and family are all things I look forward to during the holidays.

Cade painted this cardinal in the snow picture at school. I think he did a great job.
The kids and I made these handprint santa's here at home to get us in the spirit of Christmas

We made a bunch of reindeer cookies for the boys to share at school and for us to enjoy here at home.

Cody and Lauren came a couple weeks before Christmas to celebrate a little early with us. Randy was still here so we got to enjoy having him here to celebrate some too. It's aways nice having them here.






The week before Christmas we went to Savannah to celebrate with the family there. We had a good time eating, laughing, singing, playing games, and of course opening gifts. There's never a dull moment when you get about 30 cousins together!! The boys love being around all of their cousins.




Once the kids were all out of school we had some of their neighbor friends over for a cookie making/movie night. We had lots of fun decorating snowman cookies, making reindeer ornaments, and watching the movie Elf!