MR. MISCHIEF...

Yes! That is exactly what you see...HOLES!! I had just gotten the kids ready for the day. I was jumping in the shower when Kalei comes running in saying "mom come look at talan's pants" my response was "what do you mean his pants ?? tell him to come here". So Talan comes walking in with a "what did I do" look on his face. I did not have my contacts in and couldn't quite make out what I was seeing until he got closer. WHAT!?! Yes...he had climbed up on the counter...pulled the kitchen scissors out of the knife block and CUT holes in his pants! This was just the beginning of his Mr. Mischief moments.

Talan LOVES to hide in places and do naughty things...like dumping a bottle of the powdered comet (the kind you clean the bathroom with) all over the closet and all over himself! Or dumping a bottle of Baby Powder all over the room and himself, in the dark for that matter. Or what about him dumping formula from the diaper bag all over the floor WHILE cleaning up the comet mess and then adding water to the formula to make paste all over the couch and floor. Yes he has been double trouble just all of a sudden. We all now know that if you haven't heard or seen him running around within a couple of minutes then he is hiding in a corner doing something he probably shouldn't be. Gotta love em'. He keeps us on our toes thats for sure!!

GILBERT DAYS 5K...

On November 21st my family and I ran in the Gilbert Days 5k. This was my first race ever! It was a lot of fun to be able to do it all together! I was very proud of myself...I actually ran the whole way through. Justin was the winner out of our group. We were also all very proud of my parents for finishing as well...even though they came in 2nd & 3rd to last. What a huge accomplishment. Then afterwards we celebrated Jules b-day at Rigatony's!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN.....

Our ward was able to have the annual "Trunk or Treat" on Halloween this year. So we headed over to the church for some yummy chili, nachos, cupcakes, lots of fun games and of course "trunk or treating". The kids had a blast dressing up in their costumes and filling up their buckets full of yummy candy. Of course Talan wanted to eat each piece of chocolate as it was being dropped into the bucket, but managed to hold back once he realized how much candy you can get. I love doing the "trunk or treat" each year...its safe and fun for the kids.



OF COURSE, after the ward party Kalei and her friend Jackson wanted to walk around in Grandma's neighborhood and do some real trick or treating. It was a lot of fun for them and a good way to run off all of their endless energy before crashing!!

This years costumes consisted of Kalei being Tinkerbell, Talan repeating the Pumpkin and Naelani being a Flower Fairy! Talan was supposed to be an Octopus but being that the weather here in Arizona was 92 degrees that wasn't going to be possible, without him having heat exhaustion!

Kalei was a little bit excited to have her Auntie Julie paint her face!

Naelani had fun going through her siblings candy and taking a few for herself.

TALAN TURNS TWO.....

October 19, 2008 was a special day for Talan. He turned the big TWO....we started off the day with his favorite breakfast...waffles and chocolate milk....It took him a little bit to figure out that it was his special day but once it clicked it it was all over with. He walked around the house saying BIRTHDAY all day long. Every time he plays with a present that he got for his birthday he will still come and tell me "mommy, BIRHTDAY!!" too cute.



If don't already know the kid is a CHOCOHOLIC..if there is such a thing. He will consume anything covered in chocolate. He doesn't eat the normal kid favorites like fruit snacks, gummy bears etc...it has to be a chocolate candy bar. SO...with that being said we decided to do a chocolate fountain for his birthday. We had all of the family over for Sunday dinner at my moms where we made one of his favorite dinners....Chicken Divan...sang happy birhtday and had some fun things for the kids to dip in the RICH, DARK CHOCOLATE!! Needless to say...it was a hit!

Here are some things about Talan....

*he weighs in at 32.8 lbs and 37" long...at the rate he is going he will be at LEAST 6' 2"-6' 3"!

*he is a big teddy bear...he loves to snuggle.

*big MOMMY's boy...

*LOVES to SLEEP...

*loves to be read to...
*best friend is his cousin Marley...

*loves his sisters...

*loves to play outside and help daddy with the yard work

*he talks so much and is trying to talk in sentences

*loves animals...loves to go to the zoo...

Talan is one special BOY and we are so proud to have him as part of our family !!

DISNEYLAND....

Disneyland is definitely the happiest place on earth !! We were able to take our kids for the first time with my family in October. We had so much fun. We tried to do everything we possibly could and probably didn't even do half of the things that they have there. I didn't realize how many things that the kids could actually go on, which made it a lot of fun for them. The all time favorite ride for them were the Tea Cups by far. I think we went on those about 10 times.

(Naelani,Kalei,Marley & Talan)

(Kalei,Talan & Justin) riding the teacups

We were given some disneyland advice from some friends who had just been a couple weeks prior. They told us that we needed to take Kalei to see the Princesses FIRST and foremost. So that was our goal. We got there a little bit early we ran as fast as we could to get in line to see the princesses. We bought her a princess book and a pen and she was able to meet Aurora (sleeping beauty), Pocahontas, and Little Mermaid. She was in HEAVEN!! She had them each sign her book and then we had pictures taken with each one of the princesses. That was it...after that she was on a mission to get her book filled up with signatures. BUT, the bad guys were NOT allowed to sign her book...lol lol. Here are just a few of the characters she was able to get sign her book...

Naelani was such a good sport, being that we spent every waking moment we could at Disneyland. By the 2nd day she had just had enough. She had been sitting with Uncle Brad while we took the other kids on the bumper cars and by the time the ride was done she was faraway in la la land!

Of course, we topped the trip off by going to Sugar Shack in Huntington, visiting family and going to the BEACH!! That is definitely one trip that we will have to repeat again SOON!

HAWAII....

In September I had an awesome opportunity to go to Oahu,Hawaii for the first time EVER with Julie (my sister), Hale (uncle), Richard (uncle), Kanani (aunt), Mabel (uncle's friend). Actually, I have had plenty of opportunities to go but something always seems to come up! This time I was bound and determined to make it there even if it meant swimming across the Pacific Ocean to get there.

My awesome, supportive husband knew it was something that I have been wanting to do in a long time and allowed me to go without any of my kids for a whole WEEK. My mom was nice enough to be willing to help my husband take on all of the little ones while I was gone.

My cousin Keala works for a private school there called Kamehameha. She has an apartment up at the school, so we were able to stay with her there. It is located up on a big hill and this is the view from her place. It's gorgeous!!

Of course, one of our first food stops was Leonard's Bakery for a HOT Malasada!! I have been hearing people rave about these for years and I was so excited to finally have my first one!
(Hale, me, Julie & Kanani)

We stopped at the Macadamia nut farm for some yummy samples, of course, and to walk around the grounds. (Julie,me and Kanani)

While driving around the island taking in the beautiful scenery we stumbled across the Dole Pineapple factory. Of course, the goal was that at every stop we took we had to buy a shirt. So we basically stopped to buy some souveniers and have some delicious pineapple!!

Yes, another food stop. If you haven't noticed we are wearing the same clothes in all the food pictures. Yes, we did go to all of these places and MORE in the same day. It was a major food fest, to say the least. This was us at a little store called Matsumoto's where they also serve the best shaved ice. (Mabel, Kanani, me and Julie)

This was another stop to get a T-shirt. BUT, the point of this picture was to see how green and beautiful it was there. The cliffs behind them were huge. I was told that in the winter time where all the little indents are in the cliffs there are huge waterfalls when it rains.

This is a picture of the beach that we went to. It was a private beach so there weren't a lot of people there. The sand was amazing. It is kinda course, pebbly, a lot different than California beaches. The water was clear. I am not much of an ocean person. I love to lay out on the beach but don't spend much time in the water. I actually did this time as long as there were people around me and I had my eye out for sharks!! We were able to see a big sea turtle that was swimming close to shore.

This is Jules of course rolling around in the waves, body surfing!

My mom's dad (grandpa Nagai) is buried there on the island. We were able to visit his grave. We cleaned up the headstone a little and added some fresh flowers. (Julie, Hale & me)
This is me and Jules with Auntie Alice. She is our Grandpa Nagai's sister who lives a couple houses down from our cousins that live in Kaimaki.

On our way to the Polynesian Cultural Center we stopped at the temple Laie. The temple there is a lot similar to the one here in Mesa, AZ as far as looks go.

Near the end of the week we needed to work off the food that we had inhaled every day we were there so we hiked Diamondhead. It was a fun hike with an awesome view of the ocean and city. These were one set of stairs that we had to hike up. I would much rather go up than down!!

YES! We made it to the top ! (Mabel & I)

The view on top of Diamondhead!

It was so much fun to be there with family! We had a lot of good laughs! Hopefully it doesn't take another 29 years to make it back there again.

SUMMER FUN.....

We can ALMOST say goodbye to Summer and Howdy do to WINTER !! It has been a fun filled summer for the young gang. Here are some of the activities we were able to do.....

What a way to start the Summer! In June Justin and I were able to go up to Oregon for Grandma Sellers funeral. It was actually a happy event. We have been praying for Grandma to go home to her family members that are waiting for her on the other side. It was a beautiful service acknowledging Grandma's accomplishments throughout her life. It was also like having a Sellers family reunion. All of the Girl Grandkids sang a musical number "I often go walking" and the boys were able to be the Paulbearers. It was fun to be able to see all the cousins that we rarely get to see. We love you and will miss you GRANDMA !!



We were able to take a trip up to Reservation Lake which is about 4 hours away from us to go camping. The lake was BEAUTIFUL !! We were supposed to spend 2 nights there but it ended up only being one. Talan decided to get sick in the middle of the night and didn't want to chance it the next night. He tends to go down hill really fast. It was fun, but next time I don't think we will go that far. As you can see Talan wasn't liking one second of camping. The girls were so excited to go fishing in the lake. They were hooked once they caught their first fish. As you can see Quincy was so hesitant to touch that fish, but was going to do it no matter what, and there was no way Kalei was going to put a finger close to that slimy thing. Do you blame her ?!?!



The first big official summer trip was going up to Utah for the 4th of July festivities. My sister and I attempted the long drive with all 4 of the kiddies. The drive wasn't too bad, they did very well. We stayed with my sister Malia and her husband Brad in Orem. My mom, dad and uncle Ben surprised us a couple days later and drove up to spend the 4th of July with us. We had a lot of fun attending the parade and watching the fireworks.





We took the kids to Park City where Malia and Kalei attempted the new roller coaster ride up by the Alpine slide. I was a little bit nervous for Kalei to go on it but she LOVED every second of it. The ride slowly takes you up to the top of the ski lift and once you get to the top you make a turn and book it all the way down the roller coaster as fast as you can. I thought it was a little scary myself, but I would much rather do that than the Alpine slide. So if you ever take a trip that way, try the roller coaster ride versus the alpine slide !!





Of course, there was a lot of this on that trip.....but as long as he was eating he was a happy camper !!



In August the David Young family had a little reunion with all the siblings and their families. We decided to attempt the drive up to Oregon and take some time to do fun things with the kids along the way. We took the long way up going along the coast of California. It was so pretty, the weather was beautiful. It took us about 31/2 days to get to our final destination. BUT, it was so much fun being able to spend time with the kids and do some fun things as a family.

1st PIT STOP.... was Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, CA. There are so many things to see and do at this aquarium. It sits right on the coast in Monterey. It is very interactive for the kids. The kids enjoyed the touch pools, where they got to see and feel the kinds of animals you would find in the ocean.





After going through the aquarium we took a pit stop at the Nestle Toll House Cafe down the street for a yummy treat !! They have the best ice cream sandwiches. You get to pick whatever 2 cookies you want and then any flavor of ice cream for the middle. Needless to say the were DIVINE !!



2nd PIT STOP was in Bandon, OR.....we stopped at the "West Coast Game Park". They had a huge petting area with all kinds of wild safari animals. We were able to buy animal food and feed most of the animals. The kids were also able to hold a couple week old Oselot. He was so cute !! One funny story...they had a huge Chimpanzee there with a sign by their cage that says something like "caution, do not taunt the animals, when they get excited they throw things including their own fecies." Well some visitors next to us decided to taunt the animals and guess what happened...you better believe it...they chucked their own POOP at them. It was pretty disgusting !! Note to self...do not taunt the Chimpanzees !!





3rd PIT STOP.....Coos Bay, OR.....we took a little hike down to the tide pools at the beach to look for some animals. We didn't see much, just a dead crab and a bunch of anemenes. BUT, we still had fun...who wouldn't, it's the BEACH!

4th PIT STOP...was in Lincoln City, OR....where we met Jacob, Morgan, Sage & Keiger at the Aquarium. I must say it doesn't really compare to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which was awesome...but it was still a lot of fun. The kids were excited to FINALLY see some of their cousins. However, they did get to see some Sea Lions swimming back and forth in the water, which they quite enjoyed. They also had some fun glass tunnels that you could walk through and see the fish swimming all around you, along with some more touch and feel pools.




LAST and not least we had to take a slight detour up to the Tillamock cheese factory before making it to our final destination in Salem, OR. Unfortunately, we made it there a little too late to see everything in production. We did get to watch them package up HUGE blocks of cheese and of course had to pick up some cheese curds and YUMMY ice cream on the way out. They do have the best peanut butter chocolate ice cream !!

FINALLY...after all that driving we made it to our final destination SALEM, OR!! We were ready to see the rest of the family and start our fun little reunion with everyone. Due to some bad weather we had to change our plans from camping by Mt Hood to staying in a friends condo in Eagle Crest, OR...which was AWESOME !! We didn't really care where we were as long as we were able to be together. There were a lot of fun things to do in Eagle Crest including games outside, hikes to the waterfalls, swimming in the community pool/huge splash pad and of course lots of laughs and giggles.

After our little trip to Eagle Crest we headed up to Portland for the OMZI childrens museum. They had dinosaurs on exhibit at that time. We were able to go to the planetarium and learn about the planets and our solar system. They had a huge kids area for them to wander around doing different activities from playing in sand, playing in water, making fun crafts, playing house etc. You name it they had it. I think we spent a huge majority of our time in the play area. So much for the dinasours. It was very entertaining and as long as they were having fun who cares !! Another day we went to the State Fair in Salem. We took the kids to a little clown show that was fun and then to an awesome acrobatic show. Of course we had some yummy fair food and checked out all of the animals. The kids topped off the long week by going fishing !!










A BIG THANKS to Nani & Papa for making this happen. We had such a fun trip !! What a way to end the SUMMER !! :) Here is our family picture from the photo shoot we had while we were there. What a good lookin' family !! :)