Then and Now

So Makaela found some of her old baby items in the garage (thanks to the mess we created pulling out the Christmas decorations). It was so funny to see Makaela climb into her exersaucer and proceed to get stuck in it...it really brought back memories.
November 2009

December 2007

7 years and counting

Yesterday Matt and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary. It's been so long, yet it feels like only yesterday we were married in Ko'olina. To celebrate, we headed downtown for dinner with friends, saw Dane Cook give his stand up comedy show and then headed out to dance. We had a great time (perhaps too good of a time that it hurt the next morning, but oh well...) and are looking forward to the next 7 years.Dane Cook

Getting down at Rumors

Sleepover at Hailey and Kailee's

Tonight Makaela had her first big girl sleepover. She got to sleep in Hailey's big girl bed and it was quite an adventure for both Makaela and Auntie Claudia. She went to bed with every stuffed animal she could find on top of her and proceeded to fall out of the bed twice, even though she sleeping against the wall. Apparently she is as energetic when she sleeps as she is when she is awake.

Happy Thanksgiving

After splitting my time between my proposal and roasting the bird, we headed over to Jaimi's house to celebrate Thanksgiving. It was a very low key night and we got to catch up on conversation, football and of course, eating. Makaela and Brooke discovered they are muscial prodigies and between the piano interludes, the dance recitals and the drag races down the hallways, the kids were exhausted (so were the parents :-)
Kaela, Abby and Brooke

Brooke and Kaela's recital

Tis the season

Today, I plugged away at my proposal revisions and when Matt headed to work, Makaela and I went to work on decorating the house for Christmas. We didn't set up a big tree this year since we will be on the East Coast for Christmas, but Kaela had a great time decorating our little one. Luckily I had nonbreakable ornaments, because at first she couldn't understand why the "balls" wouldn't bounce. We also set up her Little People Nativity set, so she is going around with the baby Jesus telling me that "Jesus, night night". I can already tell that this season will be a fun one.

New Moon night

The anticipation has been building for the New Moon premiere. Our friends got tickets to the midnight showing of New Moon. We met up for drinks at Mel's before the show and hung out with Jon Gosselin a bit more. The movie was great- overall I think they did a great job of condensing 400 pages into a 2 hour movie, but I would have loved the movie to have been longer.

The Ilima Ladies

Kiddie Christmas picture

Today we got all the kids together in attempts to get a keiki Christmas picture. There were lots of little sandy bottoms and wandering toddlers. After the craziness, we headed to breakfast and then Makaela and I went exploring the tide pools. When we returned to the beach, we found Matt hand feeding a turtle. Kaela had a great time splashing around with the Stampfer kids. Then we came home and had family nap time.

808bounce

Today we planned a family Sunday and headed to Pearlridge to let Makaela run around at 808 Bounce- a place that has a few bouncy houses and obstacle courses. She headed straight to the big kid one and attempted it head on. Once she got to the top of the obstacle course, she threw her hands up and yelled "I did it!" So glad she can revel in her accomplishments.

Go Green Day

Today I had to work Ilima's Go Green Day. We had a bake sale and popcorn sale and did pretty well. The kids worked on the mural and I was talked into getting a face painting, but being outside with middle schoolers left me tuckered out. I ended up passing out on the couch for a nap and woke up to Kaela tracing my face painting saying, "Mama pretty".

the flu and proposal stuff

Yesterday I woke up feeling absolutely miserable. My temperature was higher than normal, but just shrugged it off to nerves since I had my proposal meeting at 12. By 8am, my temp was at 101, had chills and my head was throbbing. Matt tried to convince me to cancel my proposal meeting but getting 5 professors to agree on a common time was hard enough. I made it through the 2 hour 15 minute meeting with many revisions: 2 totally new research questions, a brand new theoretical framework, two different data collection and analysis methods and a different direction altogether. I think all these revisions came about from my lack of strength to argue with these professors, but all in all, I'm glad to have them come to a consensus about what my study should be and have a plan for me to move forward. I did find out today that I need a new professor to join my committee seeing as how my SPED professor doesn't quite count as an outside program professor (some stupid rule that you need to have a professor outside our program to sit on the committee). Anyway, got home, picked up Kaela and proceeded to sprawl out on my livingroom floor battling chills and profuse sweating-seriously one moment my house felt like the icy tundra, the next, the Sahara. Six of my friends are horribly ill as well. Kaela was an absolute doll though. She kind of picked up on my lack of energy and watched "The Little Mermaid" or as she calls it "Awreal" three times. She was so great that I felt guilty plopping her in front of the TV. Later last night, I ended up waking up drenched in bed-guess my fever finally broke and it did...all over my bed. Gotta love it.

Trish and Justin's Wedding

Today we headed over to Haiku Gardens for Trish and Justin's wedding. We had a great time hanging out with friends and taking in the gorgeous scenery. After the wedding, the girls went out for a night on the town while Matt, Shelley and Brian watched 8 kids (all 3 and under). The boys got a great lesson in managing toddlers and the ladies got to go out and dance.

Furlough Friday

Today was a Furlough Friday, so we packed our day with as many activities as we could. Had a doctors appt in which the doctor told me Makaela is underweight...apparently she doesn't know how much Makaela truly eats. We're not worried though- she's healthy, just growing more vertical than anything else. Then we went to Matt's command family day which was a bowling outing. Makaela bowled with us (with the help of a ramp and bumpers) and she beat me in the second game. Guess she has her dad's bowling talents (thankfully). It was lots of fun watching her cheer her ball down the alley. Then we headed off to a pool day at Lisa's where Makaela discovered that she loved the hot tub and ended the day with a walk with Aunties Monica, Tanya and little Brooke. We were utterly exhausted by the time we got home.

our little Yankee fan

She has officially become a Yankee fan...this is her first Yankee World Series win.

parent manipulation at it's finest

Makaela has been going through a wierd eating stage- eats ravenously in the morning and then by dinner, has no appetite. Tonight we tried a new trick to get her to eat her food. Check it out...