Maui

We went to Maui The first week of May. My Dad and Sue have an awesome place at the Marriott in Kaanapali and we met up with them along with my step sister Stacy, her husband Gabriel and their two boys; Gabriel and Noah. I can't believe we have been back for almost a month now and I haven't gotten around to blogging about it! I must still be operating on Island Time! We left bright and early Saturday morning. This was the first time we have flown with all 3 of the kids and I was a bit nervous. Tanner is an excellent traveler, Carter is not really all that great in the plane (last time he cried for 3 hours straight) and Hadley is the easiest baby in the world but even she can have an off day. Thank God the flights were great! The first flight was to Phoenix and it was short and sweet at just a little over 2 1/2 hours. We had a small layover where we got breakfast and let the boys run around. We got back on a different bigger plane for the 6 hour flight to Maui. The boys slept and watched their movies and were total angels! No crying! I didn't even have to give them Benadryl! Hadley was wonderful too! We landed in Maui and I immediately felt more relaxed than I have felt in a very long time. I just wanted to breathe it all in, that Island air is amazing, there is nothing like it in the world.

We were there for a full week. I could have stayed longer. I wanted to stay longer. It's so nice there! I kept thinking and asking if there was a way to be in the meat business in Maui. I'm sure there is......people eat meat everywhere, right? I'm still working on that one!

It was great to be with Dad and Sue. We don't get to see them as often as we would like and I want more than anything for the kids to have a relationship with them. The boys were totally excited to see Grandpa Haendiges and Sue! I know they just overwhelmed them with their loud fast talking that never never never ever ever ever seems to end!

Dad and Haldey our first night there! Sitting out on the balcony breathing in that island air! Hadley looks a little dazed. She had been on a plane for 9 hours that day!

We went into Lahaina one day for lunch and all the boys had to walk with Grandpa! It was pretty funny! This picture is a classic, I think he should frame it for his office!

Hadley! Maui made, she was born to vacation! The lifestyle just fits her so well! She pulled herself up for the very first time! What a big girl!

Carter and Tanner


The boys at Longboards

Sue, Dad, Gabriel, Stacy and baby number 3 on the way bbqing dinner.

Daddy and Carter playing in the pool! This was just prior to the invisible incident that must have occurred to make Carter decide he did not want to swim anymore.

One day, Carter decided that he didn't like to swim. Fine. No one is going to make you, I tired and then for the rest of the day anytime I came near him he would yell "Don't grab me"! It is a whole lot of fun to play in the pool, but if you don't like it, that is your deal! It became like an AA meeting because he would go up to people at the pool and say "My name is Carter and I don't swim". What a goof ball! It is a little ironic that my child is the one on the steps in a life jacket...........

This picture makes me laugh! The resort had a Pirate Ship kiddie pool and the boys went crazy for it! Tyler and Gabriel are hanging out in the kiddie pool watching the boys play.

Tanner and Carter at the beach.

Daddy at the beach. The tide pools are so much fun!

The boys building a sand castle.

Carter at the beach!

Grandpa and Carter

Happy Maui!! Tanner and Carter in the tide pools!

Sue and Dad! Thanks for a wonderful trip! We love you both!

Dad lounging at the pool!

This is an attempt at a family picture. I like to, okay it's more like I need to take a family picture of us whenever we go somewhere, especially Maui! This years family pictures are hilarious to say the least. We have a few of them, I just wanted ONE nice picture to frame and possibly use as a Christmas card picture. We'll see, the editing is still in progress!

Stacy and Sue lounging at the pool! Such fun girls! So happy to have them as part of my family!

Hadley and Mommy getting some sunshine! Why is it cute that she looks like a little sausage in her bathing suit and then for some reason it's not cute for me to look like a sausage as well?

Carter playing in the sand!

Cousins Noah, Tanner and Gabriel playing in the ocean!

Carter in the sand! Remember, he does doesn't swim!

Noah, Tyler and Tanner

Another tearful frustrating attempt at a family picture! Look at them, you would think they are being tortured!

Nothing beats a beach sunset, plus that kid in the picture is pretty darn cute too!!

My name is Carter and I do not swim!

Dad!

Hadley 3 teeth sitting poolside! Happy to be on Island time!

Me going for a dip in the pool!

Mommy and Tanner swimming! I think this is the day Tyler and I raced to see how far each of us could swim under water holding our breath. I lost. I blamed it on the fact that I have a skirtini which is a bikini that has skirt bottoms. The skirt was more drag and it slowed me down!

One day we went to the aquarium. Maui has a great aquarium! We've decided it's even better than the Long Beach Aquarium! The kids had a blast and absolutely loved the shark tunnel. Take a good look at the stroller too. It's long gone now! This was it's third and final voyage to Maui and it has been replaced by a nicer newer version.

Touching the star fish.

Sharks!!

More fish!


Hadley loved looking at the fish!

Carter, edge side, at the pool!

Tanner swimming away!

Tanner and Mommy on the balcony of our room!

The cousins! Tanner, Gabriel, Noah and Carter. They played so great together and had an absolute ball!

Gabriel lost a tooth while we were there and the tooth fairy even came for a visit that night! It was very exciting!

Daddy, Carter and Tanner hanging out in the hammock!

We had a wonderful week in Maui. Vacations are just good for the soul. It is so nice to be able to spend quality time with each other as a family! We relaxed, sat poolside, drank yummy umbrella drinks and ate and ate and ate! We took in the views, the warm air, the sunshine, and the fabulous company. It was amazing to be able to spend a week in Maui with my family! I can't wait to do it all over again!

Maui 2011 Coming Soon!

We spent the last week in Maui and it was wonderful! I finally went through my pictures and realized I have over 300 of them ! Oops! I was a little shutter happy that week so it is going to take me a while to filter through all of them before I !

get the blog post up!

Easter Weekend!

Happy Easter! We kicked off Easter weekend with a trip to the mall Friday afternoon for a little lunch, a little shopping and to see the Easter Bunny! The kids were so excited to see the bunny! This picture is a classic! Of course, Jesus dying to save us from our sins is the reason we celebrate Easter. It has been special to teach the kids the Easter story and hear them tell it back to us in their own words! Tanner brought home and egg from preschool full of items that represent the Easter Story so he can share with us about Jesus rising from the dead! It's awesome!

Saturday morning, our neighborhood had an Easter Egg Hunt and I met a few of the other girls in our neighborhood out in the park when it was still early and cold to hide about 2000 eggs! Its took us about an hour and was a blast! When it came time to hunt for the eggs, it only took the kids about 30 seconds to pick up all the eggs that were hidden around the park! We feel very blessed to have such wonderful neighbors all around us!

This is Tanner with our neighbor Kristin.


Another one of our fun neighbors Brennan, with his really cool green boots on!

Waiting to hunt for eggs!



Tanner with one of our other neighbors, Kaitlyn.

Tanner and Frankie! These two are quite the duo!

Frankie, Kaitlyn and Tanner!

Carter hunting for eggs!

Chloe and Tanner! Later on that afternoon, we headed over to the Wright's house for Chloe's 8th birthday and Addy's 4th Birthday party. It was a costume party so Tanner went as Superman and Carter opted not to dress up. It was a lot of fun and the weather was perfect!

Chelsea, Hadley and Makayla. Hadley really loves being one of the big girls!

The Girls! Inara, Hadley, Addy, Makayla, Chloe and Chelsea.

Spiderman (Tanner) and Batman (Orion)

Justin and Tyler relaxing and enjoying the sunshine. It is ALWAYS nice for these girls birthday party! Every year, without fail! Hopefully I didn't just jinx it!

Hadley, Adrienne, Ashley and the back of Alicia's head- enjoying the sunshine so much!

The Birthday Girls! Addy and Chloe!

Tanner and Addy checking out the birthday cake Grandma Pam made!

Carter!

Tanner showing off his "Spidey Muscles"!

Tyler, Hadley and Inara. What a sweet picture!

Easter Sunday began when the kids got up and found their Easter presents from the Easter bunny by the fireplace. They were pretty excited! They just couldn't believe the Easter Bunny had been in their house! Tanner said he thought he heard hopping in the middle of the night and was sure that his bed had hopped too! What a goof ball! We went to church with everyone which was great! Later on in the afternoon we went over to Cameron and Jill's for an early dinner with Tyler's family. It was wonderful! The 3 boys play so well together! This picture above is of Carter and Caden in bed watching a movie and also having their own little conversation! Hilarious! I can only imagine the pressing issues 2 year olds have these days!

Here is the two little girl cousins! Hadley and Eloise! Both girls are celebrating their very first Easters! It was so much fun to have little dresses and tights and patent leather Mary Janes on! I'm sure these two will give the boys a run for their money on the egg hunt next year!

Aunt Kat, Grandma, Hadley and Great Grandma! The food was delicious and it was a real treat to be able to spend time together!!

Later on in the evening we headed over to my moms house for dinner and Easter celebrating. The boys hunted for eggs and other goodies at her house. This is Tanner and Carter, Carter is covering his face with his "egg scooper"!

Tanner with some of his loot!

Hadley and Daddy

Uncle Chris slicing up the ham with his cool electric knife!

Daddy, Mimi, and Uncle Chris with the food!

Great Grandma giving treats to the boys! We had a wonderful Easter Sunday! Holidays are so much fun!

Coloring Easter Eggs!

Holidays are so much fun! The older the kids get, the more excited they are for every Holiday. I love Easter, it means warmer weather and flowers are just around the corner! This afternoon the kids colored eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide, we like to take some of the work off his back for him whenever possible. This is also Hadley's first Easter and the boys wanted to make sure she knew just how much fun it was going to be!

The nice clean white hard boiled eggs waiting to be colored!

Waiting for the color tablets to dissolve so the coloring festivities can begin!

Still waiting.............it took one and a half minutes and it went very slow!

Commence coloring! I think their hands got more color on them than the eggs did!

Carter on an egg coloring high!

Dye, eggs, and little hands everywhere!

This one is lovely!

Tanner!

Hadley took her first Easter eggs coloring session off and opted to just sit with the brothers and eat one of the hard boiled eggs I cracked! She still had a blast and felt like one of the big kids!

Carter!

Some of our finished products! The look wonderful!

Not too messy!

Happy Easter 2011!

If You Can Work Like No One Else..........

We finish up FPU on Sunday. It has been wonderful, irritating, fascinating, and overwhelming all at the same time! It has varied week to week how I have felt about everything. Some classes have left me feeling so great about where we are, how we are going to stay on track and about the future. Other classes have left me feeling a little deflated but still hopeful. I think I mainly get deflated because I look at the state of our economy right now and become a little scared and discouraged. I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel sometimes and I need to look a little harder because surely it is there. Last week after class we both left feeling very good about where we are and what we are doing. Well, mainly what Tyler is doing. He does all the work and I just hold down the fort. Over the past year or so we have been asking ourselves a lot of questions and feeling like we might be missing the point. We are not missing the point at all. Dave keeps saying "If you will live like no one else, later you can LIVE like no one else". We don't live bad right now at all, in fact, we think we have it pretty good. We don't feel like we are missing out on much. Although, sometimes we do feel like we are missing out on fun stuff we just don't want to spend money on, but we get over it quickly! So, last week he focused on work, jobs, careers-whatever you want to call it. Tyler has been at the same job for the last 15 years. That's crazy right? I could hardly believe it myself. In fact I didn't believe it until it was shown to me on paper. During those years sometimes he hasn't felt like he was doing what he was supposed to do, maybe he should work somewhere else, maybe he should do something totally different, maybe he should go back to school, maybe we should move far away, maybe, maybe, maybe.......lots of maybes.



We put a stop to the maybes last week and it was very exciting. There are no guarantees in life, but I believe if you put in the time and effort, pay your dues, pray a lot, you will reap rewards later. So, my husband works, and has worked, 50-60 hours a week. He's putting in his dues, time and effort. I'm not saying he does more than anyone else by any means, I'm just saying he does more right now than I wish he would (although I do not complain or even remember this when he brings home money!) I just know that he will keep on doing this for what we are hoping is only 15 more years. 15 years! He is half way done with his work life! He is working a lot right now, so later, he can just work when he wants to work, which hopefully will be a lot less than he does now and we can play a lot more than we do now!



Dave read this poem and it hit me like a ton of bricks. It made me cry. It reminded me of the man Tyler is and just how thankful I am to be his wife.



I do not choose to be a common man It is my right to be uncommon... If I can. I seek opportunity... Not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, Humbled and dulled by having the state to dream and build, to Fail and succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the Guaranteed existence; the thrill of Fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence Nor my dignity for a hand out. I will Never cower before any master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud, and unafraid; to think and act for myself; enjoy the benefits of my creations; and to face the world boldly and say, "This I have done with my own hand, I am a man. I am an American.



*Originally published in This Week Magazine. October 1952, p. 10, and January 1954, p. 122, * The Honorable Dean Alfange was an American statesman born December 2, 1899, in Constantinople (now Istanbul). He was raised in upstate New York. He served in the U.S. Army during World War 1 and attended Hamilton College, graduating in the class of ?22. He attended Colombia University where he received his law degree and opened a practice in Manhattan. In 1942 Alfange was the American Labor Party candidate for governor of New York and a founder of the Liberal Party of New York. Dean Alfange was also Professor Emeritus at UMass Amherst and a leading figure in various pro-Zionist organizations (between other actions, in November 1943, he appeared before the House of Representatives and addressed them on the rescue of the Jewish people of Europe). He died in Manhattan at the age of 91 on October 27, 1989.

Trick Question!

Quick! Without thinking-how many people do you see in this picture? 2!! The right answer is 2!!!

My beautiful sister and her husband Chris are having a baby!!! YAY!!!! I think I am more excited for this little one than I was with my own! Cam is due in late November and we can all hardly wait!

One Friday night a few weeks ago she called me and asked if her and Chris could come over. Tyler and I were getting ready to go out to dinner that night so I suggested they just come with us. They didn't want to come with us, they had already eaten, they just wanted to swing by and see us. Weird? But that's fine! I said I looked the same but I might be prettier so it would be great if they swung by. Now, I knew that they had been trying to get pregnant and I also knew she was a few days "late". But I am an idiot sometimes and I didn't think anything of this odd "we need to come over" deal . They showed up and I had all the kids in the bath in our tub and so we all hung out in our bathroom for a little while. I even asked her if she had started her period and she said no and I couldn't clue in! We went through all the steps of the bath, then getting dried off, and headed upstairs to get the kids in their jammies and finally Chris just put the "stick" in my view so I could see the plus sign! I was so excited! I screamed really loud!

What a fun holiday season this will be with a new little baby! Now, I am off to plan the shower!

This picture was taken when we celebrated Cam's 28th birthday, which also happened to be the day they got back from Maui! Normally she wouldn't be so tan in April! Happy Birthday! You are the best sister I could have ever asked for! I love you!

Just checking in!

We have had 2 sunny days in a row and I am loving it! It has felt so good to be outside, get some sun on our skin and breathe in the fresh air! This video is of the boys sliding down the stairs. It makes me laugh! And, after last night, I need a laugh! I relearned the importance of compassion and understanding. Please Lord may I never forget to have both. Now-it's time to go back outside and play!

Happy "In Between" Birthday!

Birthdays are a special celebration! Tanner has a summer birthday so he wouldn't ordinarily get to celebrate it at school. Luckily, they celebrate "in between" birthdays! Today at Tanner's Preschool they celebrated his "in between" birthday. It was adorable! I really believe we go to the best preschool in the whole world! Tanner requested cupcakes with bouncy balls on top of them so all his friends would have a party favor to take home! To make the cupcakes even cooler, they were wrapped in Lightening McQueen cupcake paper! It really doesn't get any better than that!

Before they sat down to have their cupcakes and milk, Mrs Lindemood and all the kids told Tanner's special birthday story!

Tanner getting his candle lit on his birthday cupcake!


Carter got to join in on the festivities as well! He thought preschool was a pretty neat place!


The cupcake with a bouncy ball on top! I'm not the best baker, but these tasted really yuummy!

Tanner's special birthday story from Mrs. Lindemood! What a fun day! We can't wait until summer when he really turns 5 and we can celebrate again! Birthdays are so much fun!

The Boot Scooting Boogie!

Hadley-Roo is trying to crawl! Its pretty hilarious! She's doing the boot scooting boogie! She tuned 9 months old yesterday! We love you little sis!