Busy Week

We've had a really busy week and it was even a busy weekend. Natalie decided on Sunday that she wants to try to be potty trained so that's added to the craziness. She just took off her diaper and sat down and went without us even saying anything and she's been going on it at least several times a day. I think her sticker chart and the skittles are motivating. Speaking of going potty, she just went right now! Okay, probably more than most of you wanted to know... On to the pictures! :)

On Monday, we went up the west side of the island along the Waianae coast. There are a lot of really poor areas with homeless people living on the beach in makeshift tents with all their belongings piled around them. Quite sad, not what you picture Hawaii being like. We went to a little Army beach for a few hours and had a picnic lunch. Lots of fun although it's weird to get sunburned in November! :)

Trying out our new beach shade/tent. We got it at the yard sales when my parents were here for just a couple bucks. We love it!
Swimming in the water (I realize that I need to get Brian to take more pictures of me with the kids--they're always of him!)
Playing with the tent stake... the funniest things entertain her.
Blake tried out the exersaucer for the first time this week. He loves it (in short amounts of time). Natalie thought it was awesome--not sure what she's doing in this picture though!

Blake rolled over twice!! He was laying on his tummy while we were making cookies and we looked down and he was on his back! Way to go buddy! :)
Making peanut butter cookies--yum yum!
Modeling her new hat from Bonnie and Aunt Ardeth. Thanks for the great package!

(And for those of you with little kids--we just discovered Lunchable Jrs. I'm usually not big on packaged food but these are great in a pinch. They have turkey and cheese or crackers and raisins and peanut butter in the perfect sizes and portions. Best of all, I saved the little container and refilled it with my own things and Natalie thought she was getting something special.)

Blake has the cutest smiles and giggles.


This is how Blake likes to play these days, always trying to roll over.

Hope you all had a great weekend. We love you and miss you and are thankful that our paths have crossed through the years. Thank you for blessing us with your friendship. Happy Thanksgiving!

Long Weekend!

We love it when Daddy's home for extra days. We've been to the mall (I'm finally getting contacts!), mowed the grass, had a party here, played with toys, eaten pizza, sat on the potty lots of times, been to church, watched football...and it's only Sunday! Hopefully, we're going to go do something "Hawaiian" tomorrow. Thanks for serving, those of you in the military!

Natalie put this blanket around her and said "byebye...beach" Guess she thought it looked like a towel or my wrap.
Her favorite pastime--she doesn't care if she bumps into things...just gets right back up!
Sleepy time
Isn't he getting so big? People ask me if he's 6 or 7 months all the time...nope, just three!
And I got told SHE was so pretty when he was wearing these overalls. Crazy.

Just chilling on the couch
"Hey, where's the remote?"
Natalie loves to stand in front of the AC and let it blow her hair. She puts her babies in front of it to let them fly (I think Mr. Jason taught her that when he put Carter in front of it on Halloween because he was Superman. Funny what they pick up on.)
They are taking pictures for the directory at church so we had someone else snap a picture of us since we don't have very many of the 4 of us yet.

Party for Dave and Sarah

We had a goodbye party for our friends, Dave and Sarah, on Friday night. (They didn't have their camera so I promised I'd post pictures.) They are among the first few people we met when we got here and were so friendly to us. They invited us to a be in a marriage group at their house with another couple every Friday--we went through the book Love and Respect (by Emerson Eggerichs, highly recommend it!) We grilled out, talked and played (lots of kids!), prayed over them, and then later played games. Fun times.
We'll miss you guys! Keep in touch!

We stole the Hospitality House way of sending people off by sharing memories and then praying for them. (Don't worry, we gave you credit Matt and Tina :)

Lisa and Jess

Noble and Lisa
Dave, Sarah, Heather, Alan and their daughter Makki

Psalm 23

Ralph and Stacie (from Cedarville days) just found me on this and then I just found this on their page. Too cute not to pass along to more people. Can't wait til I can help Natalie and Blake learn Sripture. Hope it blesses you all and that you have a great weekend! We love you! :)

Our Little Helper and Future Baseball Star

Natalie definitely likes to help. She is my kitchen helper the most although she helps in other ways too--often unwanted: today we found her changing Blake's diaper- she had taken it off and was wiping him with a wipe! Too bad we didn't get a picture!Reading him a storyMaking a coaster and paper sandwich. Yum.

Here she is adding bay leaves to the big batch of pizza sauce. (She grabbed it out of the cupboard and poured half and when I went to get the camera, she poured in the other half. I guess there are worse spices she could have found, huh? :)

Helping season our plates with garlic powder so the burgers will taste even better. (Took these off the camera so I couldn't turn them, sorry!)
Our little man is getting so big. He is trying to roll over and even makes attempts at crawling--I'm not ready for him to grow up that fast!! He kept lifting his arm and he would topple/roll over and then get upset.
The outfit is from Aunt Bethany when she was here--can you believe he can wear it already? :)

Trick or Treat

Our friends, Jason and Jess (and her mom) came back down to pass out candy with us. Carter was Superman, Natalie was a bunny and Blake was a pumpkin. Natalie loved it all and was most excited about the huge bowls full of candy. I don't think she actually ate that much "tandy" but she definitely liked playing with it. Blake was around for pictures but then got tired so he went to sleep through it all. Maybe next year. Hope you enjoy the pictures. We had fun! :)

Ms. Jess did her nose and whiskers. Cute!

"I'm not too sure about this..."
Trying to get a picture of all three of them. Not happening.

It's a little hot in Hawaii so we had to push up her sleeves/pants. Aren't I the cutest bunny you've ever seen?
Ballerina Bunny"I'll take this one, thank you!"
Brian trying on the gummy teeth. Scary!
Pretty generous handful Bri was giving out, huh? :)
Jason, Carter and Jess (and Katie who will be here in just a few weeks!)