Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS (I think...)! I only say that because we celebrated our Christmas before we left and when it's warm and sunny it doesn't exactly feel like Christmas. We started off with breakfast at the Gazebo again.

See it is Christmas...Sophia has a candy cane.

TJ and I wrapped a few little presents to bring with us. She got the Toy Story Gang.

(Sorry, I forgot to flip the picture) We then went to Flemming Beach where the big waves are to do a little boogie boarding.

Mollie and Sophia are quite the buddies. They liked to jump the waves, but not going to far without holding a hand.

Yesterday Kenton didn't like the sand on his hands, but he got over that today.

He loved the water and would yell at it every time a wave would come.

Having no fear...crawling right in.

Kenton even got a turn to boogie board

Yummy! (He already gave us a sandy poopy diaper)

Another perk of Hawaii is their fresh fruit. TJ picked some lemons off the tree at our condo. They smelled heavenly!

And bananas...We have our very own monkey!

I will post our Christmas at home when we get home (it takes too long to upload the pictures here). MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Hang Out Day

This was the last picture taken yesterday, but somehow I deleted it from my previous post. I think this is my new favorite picture, so I had to post it again.

Another one of my favorites, but kind of random. Sophia loves to hold Kenton's hand in the car. I find it absolutely adorable and such a precious moment when she does it. I know it won't last forever, so I had to make sure I document it:)
Today the weather was not so great. Don't get me wrong we are all still wearing shorts, t-shirts, and swim suits, but there were a lot more rain showers throughout the day. But the rain definitely didn't stop us. We hung out at the beach.

Kenton warmed up to the ocean. He still didn't really like the sand on his hands, but liked to walk into and sit in the waves.

This is definitely a picture moment...LISA (TJ's sister) is actually in the water and the ocean water for that matter (kind of an inside joke b/c she hardly ever goes swimming). All the kids had fun playing with her:)

That wave that came in was a pretty big one so the look on Kenton's face says it all...whoa...not too sure about that one!

Chillin' with Aunt Hollie and Grandma so I could go swim with Sophia.

After the ocean was the swimming pool. Kenton was a mad man. He loved to splash and kick!

Sophia has turned into a little fish. The past couple days if she's not sleeping or eating, she's swimming. That's my girl! I am so glad we packed her life jacket. It's nice that she can wear that and have more freedom around the pool.

This picture is a little blurry, but it was raining pretty good. The rain didn't stop her and her cousins from more swimming!

Later tonight we lost power in our condo, so TJ had to run out and get us all flashlights. In the meantime thank goodness for cell phones, computers, I-Pads, and anything electronics for light! Hopefully the rain and wind is over with and blue skies ahead!

I love Kenton's hair in the humidity. His whole head is covered in ringlet curls!

Wedding Day

Last time we were in Maui we got a pedicure, so we had to do it again. Something about being in Hawaii makes me have to put a flower on my toe!

TJ's brother Zac got married, so this day was focused on being ready for that. Mollie and Sophia were the flower girls, so we got them all pretty and ready to go.

It didn't take much for them to strike a pose!

TJ was in the wedding too...2 of my favorite people:)

When Sophia walked down the aisle, she took 1 flower out of her basket and chucked it down on the ground and walked fast, hahaha. At least she did it right?! Thank goodness Anna watched Kenton for us, so I could help the girls and video tape. Anna did good work and had Kenton sleeping the whole time.

The ceremony was nice and sweet. Here are all the brothers after the wedding. Seriously I don't know how 1 family can look SOOO much alike. Everyone is mixing them up this trip (even their own kids, haha)

The Brown Family

Day 1- Gazebo

We had to wake up and go to the Gazebo for breakfast with Caleb and Anna..white chocolate chip macadamia nut pancakes..yum!

Our first family picture in Hawaii!

Here we go...

Flying is not my favorite thing, especially really early in the morning, but we did it and made it. The kids were extremely good (I think better than me). TJ sat in the middle to help with both kids, so if I needed to close my eyes I could...thank goodness! Sophia yelled, "yay!" when we took off and liked to look out the window.

Kenton got a turn to look out the window when sister went to the bathroom. I love this picture:)
I am very grateful to be on the ground!

Dear Santa

I love Macy's Santa mail set-up. It's so cute and classy! Sophia started to write and then got frustrated and said, "Mom I don't know how to write Hello Kitty!" So she told me what to write.

There it goes...

As we went into mall we strolled by Santa, but she still didn't want to sit on his lap. Actually the closest she got to Santa was at Walmart this year. She sat next to him on a chair, but I had to be in the picture too. Has anyone been into Walmart and seen their Santa's??? I say Santa's because there were 3. You could choose the ethnicity of your Santa: black, white, or Filipino. I AM DEAD SERIOUS! When I saw all 3 I almost died!!! Gotta love Walmart!

NEW HOUSE

I won't go into too much detail seeing as though I just did in my Christmas card. Ignore me if you have already heard this story. We weren't planning on buying a house this year, but an opportunity arose for us to buy this house. We prayed and felt like it was meant for us. TJ's grandfather built this house and many other and it fit our family. We are so incredibly thankful for TJ's grandparents and the opportunity we have to own a home. We feel like big kids now;)

We love it!
Our house is definitely not put together yet. I still can't park in the garage because everything is everywhere. Slowly, but surely we will get there. We fell in love with this mirror and fabric from IKEA, so we rolled with it and LOVE it. Kenton and Sophia seem really comfortable in our new home, as do TJ and I.

Lots to be thankful for that's for sure:)

Christmas Tree Shopping

Every year we have a tradition to go chop down our Christmas tree and this year it was sunny and beautiful. I am quite picky (my mom trained me to be that way) about my tree, so it takes us awhile. My parents and TJ's brother's family joined us this year and we were the last ones to find our tree (like every year, hehe). Sophia found hers right away...

Kenton found his too! He wasn't quite sure what was going on and didn't like to touch them at first, but warmed up to that.
About an hour into searching (told ya I was a little particular) Sophia was done. Thank goodness for this big puddle. Her rain boots were on, so we told her she had to cross the river. That helped her change her mood for a bit.

We finally found it! Isn't she lovely?!

There's my manly man cutting it down (isn't his outfit awesome?!)

The tree made its way inside and TJ went to work on the lights. I am so picky that I can't do the lights because I'd be there all day, so TJ does them and I have to deal with his job. He does a good job though.

Sophia had fun getting out all her ornaments. It was neat to talk to her about the ornaments and when/where she got them. I told her that she needs to spread out all her ornaments, but she said that she needed to put all hers in one spot! I also had to strategically place nonbreakable ones towards the bottom for the busy and curious boy.

(don't mind Sophia's hair...we hadn't gotten to that yet;)...Sophia also has her own special tree and little presents to put under it. Each day in December she gets to open a present and put the new little ornament on her tree.

O CHRISTMAS TREE, O CHRISTMAS TREE, HOW LOVELY ARE YOUR BRANCHES!