Happy Birthday Daniel!

The next few posts will probably be about Daniel's b-day since we've just finished our celebrations. Daniel had been counting the days until his birthday and we were very excited to share with so many friends and family. Daniel received so many calls and this year was the first year he knew why they were calling. Every time he had a HUGE grin on when each person wished him a Happy Birthday. Uncle Jeff and and Kitty started it all off by calling midnight their time on the day of his birthday so the celebration even started a day early for Daniel!

We went as a family to an arcade/mini golf place and played skee ball, rode cars, and even raced in the Daytona 500. Daniel really wanted to wear his special birthday hat from school so everyone knew he was the birthday boy!

Beep! Beep! Ellie can't look.

"Watch out!" says Luke. "I still can't look!" says Ellie.

We're ready for the Daytona 500 to begin!

Rain, Rain and More Rain

A few weeks back we had a major storm that did some damage like blowing down both gates and breaking seven fence posts. Six of the seven down spouts were plugged. We had a mini lake in our front yard. A roof tile flew off and smashed just in front of the truck and with every gust of wind you could see and feel the roots of our largest tree coming out of the ground. To top all of that off we had our own indoor drip system. Unfortunately, the water was coming through our kitchen window soaking our counter and the shelf below the window. Not exactly the drip system anyone really wants!


Eric ended up getting sent home early from work and saved our tree by cutting some major branches to keep it from falling over. He also had to create a make-shift shelter to stop the rain from pouring in, literally; and he dug a drain to keep our lake from getting any bigger. All of this and Daniel really felt a need to help. Never wanting to dampen that enthusiasm and since he had new rain boots and coat, I dressed both Luke and Daniel up and sent them out in the crazy weather.
Daniel lasted the longest helping Daddy by grabbing a tool or wood. Ellie didn't have rain boots like her brothers, but she got her coat on anyway and watched through the window. Thankfully we never lost power like some did and we feel very blessed to have come away with so little damage comparably. Everything but one gate has been fixed and we're back to our same old happenings. Hopefully there will be more pictures to come this year.

Christmas Fun

Christmas was a bustling time in our household this year! We made cookies for Santa and sampled some of the sprinkles to make sure Santa would like them. :-) We hope your Christmas was Merry as well. I hope you enjoy the New Year!

There were many books this year and the kids really wanted to have them read to them.

Mom loved the cuddles from Ellie and her grandsons!

Tickles for Ellie!

Christmas night was fun to play and laugh with everyone.

Here's a Doctor's Kit for Ellie to play. When we say "cheese" this is her look. So if you see her smiling with her eyes open it's to see if we took the picture yet. I love it. Grandma even listened to her heart beat and measured her pulse!

Sunday night service is special, but made especially so by these cute little boys who use their lips to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus!

Church-dressed Ellie.

Cookies for Santa and Carrots for Reindeer.

All the purses and jewelry, you bet Ellie knew it was Christmas.

A very Merry Christmas to all!

For more Christmas Fun see Grandma L's blog http://notsocandidcamera.blogspot.com/2007/12/christmas-pictures_29.html

Boats

Little did I know how exciting life on a boat, especially a cruise boat could be. We went on two boats between our time in Hawaii and our cruise. One was this one, a sub, and we could only walk single file and the other was the one below, our cruise ship. Quite a difference. Both were fun to tour, but only one is fun to truly live on.

It's always fun to dress up and especially getting to have Eric in a suit ~how handsome!

We had quite the different attire during the day! I love climbing the rock wall, just not real ones! :-)

Fun Food

We had a wonderful time getting to eat different kinds of food. Pineapple was everywhere! If you ordered a meal at McD's pineapple came with it!!!! We even had pineapple ice cream with pineapple on top at the Dole pineapple plantation. We had a different experience every night and I loved trying everything new! I thought Hawaii was great for their weather, but the food was delicious! The different venues also provided a great atmosphere. Here we had our own hut!

This was a favorite for the food and view. It does a 360 degree rotation to show you Wakiki. We went at sunset for the best views!

Here Ellie is trying to keep her hat on her head due to windy conditions.

One of our dinners we ate inside but it was almost like we were outside since the restaurant opened onto the beach. It was so windy that the sauce we poured onto our fish didn't go straight down, it poured at an angle. The food was superb and the memories we have will always make me smile!

Speaking of smiling, whenever we had a buffet the kids loved it because that always meant more than one kind of dessert!

Eric loved the all you can eat because that meant more of what he loves!

Here was a Mexican restraunt that gave everyone balloon hats. Luke was scared at first but when everyone else joined in the fun, so did he.

Here's one more view of our food. If you're a meat-eater than this is heaven.