Aloha!!!

If I just went to this beautiful state for nothing other than the sunsets, that would be enough! Hawaii has the most beautiful, amazing sunsets in the world! I love them!!!
We went with the Trapnell's, some good friends. We had a blast!!! (Cousins !!!)At the Polynesian Cultural Center, I became a MASTER at the Ukelele (ha!ha!NOT!)
Waikiki Beach was the sight of Jon's first surfing experience, he did pretty dang good!!!In Maui, we went to the top of Mount Haleakala, which is a dormant volcano that if measured from the bottom of the ocean to the tip of it's highest peak, is higher than Mount Everest. We were way above the clouds for this sunset, it was an absoloutely incredible sight. 50 degrees felt very very cold compared to the 85 we were getting used to down below!
Don't look at me, look behind me to the right, yes that's a whale fin. We went whale watching and had about 10 whales all around us. We saw them come right out of the water a few times, their fins, their huge faces, their tales. These massive whales weigh up to 90,000 lbs! We got so close we could smell their breath (which was disgusting!) and could reach out and touch their dorsel fins. It was a bit freaky, but OH SO COOL!!!!
We went on a helicopter ride around the huge sea cliffs of the island of Molokai. We also saw 1000's of feet high waterfalls and lush green valleys. It was incredibly beautiful and so fun!
Did I mention how much I lOVE Hawaiian sunsets?
Oh.....it was SO nice to be warm!!!!!!!!!
We went sea kayaking! Jon was so hoping we'd be overturned by whales or at least a massive tortoise. We did see lots of whales in the distance, but thankfully, none of them wanted to go swimming with us!!!!
We had a great time snorkeling and saw beautiful fish, turtles and coral.

It was such a great vacation! I love Hawaii, I love traveling with my hubby, and I love seeing the wonderful places our Earth has to offer us! It is definitely one of my passions. I love it!!!

Christmas!

I love Christmas.
Going carolling and visiting with Great Grandma Dyer. She is about the sweetest thing on earth and we love her dearly!
Grandma and Grandpa Chisholm always give gold dollars, which the kids look forward to with great anticipation! This year they were in cool glass ornaments, all the boys got balls and all the girls got purses, shoes or nutcrackers! So fun!
Brotherly love in front of the Christmas Story lamp........
Me and my sissies with the stockings from when we were kids! We love them!!!
The whole family gave my parents a "Count Your Blessings" quilt, a lot of love, time and energy was put into it, it was really neat!
Visiting with special people is always fun.....even if this "special" person was "DEFINITLY NOT THE REAL DEAL", Jaemon figured out real quick that it was Uncle Richard and thought it was HILARIOUS!
Don't ask......well ok. We go fishing for ornaments on Christmas Eve, the ornaments are wrapped in paper bags tied with festive ribbon. Somehow, someone got the fantastic idea of tying the ribbons in Josh's hair, it's quite the masterpiece, really. And it has stuck, so every year, Josh has about 28 ribbons in that big massive curly head of his!!!!
On Christmas Eve we always make candy cane cookies to leave out for the fat man, everyone fights over the red dough, and no-one really knows how to make the balls into the canes, no matter how many times I've shown them. We usually end up with red and white swirled balls....not sure what old Kris Kringle thinks of em.....but we like them!
Special gifts for special people!!!!!
A little arts and crafts moment, amid the all out, drag out, craziness of the season.
We LOVE Christmas jammies and special books on Christmas Eve!
Our first EVER snow day! We spent OUTSIDE!!!!! We built 3 beautiful snowpeople!
A 13 year tradition, going on the Polar Express, except this year it was the "North Pole Express". Still lots of fun, but not quite the same!
My kids think the treat giving is out of control, I love it, I love making things and delivering things for friends and neighbors. The other thing they whine about is the Christmas cards we make and that I enlist all their help in. I think it's a great thing, they need to learn that making things is part of giving of ourself!
Sleeping under the Christmas tree with Christmas books on December 23 is a well loved tradition!
And this, this is my favorite. (well, this and watching SCROOGE, the original black and white version at 11:30 on Christmas Eve night, I LOVE IT! I love these funny, cute costumes. I love singing carols around the piano. I love reading the Christmas Story and just being together as a family. Cozy and Warm, just having fun and re-enacting the true reason we celebrate this season. I am feeling melencholy that my babies are growing up, but they will always have these memories, and so will I. Yes traditions take time to carry out, but the memories are worth every single second.

This is what it's all about, Family. Time. Memories. Traditions. Most importantly, a Christ Child that made it all possible.

I love Christmas.

12 and 10

Brennan and Tyler are constantly asked if they're twins! They're not, but their birthday dates are only 14 hours apart! Brennan's is Dec 15 at 8:20 pm and Tyler's is December 16 at 10:13 am! I love that they are such great friends and share a room, friends, and most especially great brotherly advice. They are so good for each other and I love them both so much!
Happy 10th Birthday Ty-Bug! You have always been pretty tough! You started out with some rough times, but pulled through and now you still fight through things and excel! Some things we love about you....your kindness and tenderness to your brothers and sisters, your intensity in everything you do, your thoughtfulness, and that you love life and work hard!!! We love you!!!
Happy 12th birthday Brennan! I can't believe you're going to be a Deacon at church and almost be a teenager!!!! Time goes so fast! Some things we love about you are, your personality: you love to tease and joke and sometimes be sarcastic, but always loving and kind. You think of other people and are always the first one to ask to help. You are responsible and do well in school, sports and everything you put your mind to! We love you!!
We had a WAY COOL party! A big Semi came full of video games for the boys and 16 of their friends to play. Inside were 4 big screen TV's, and every video game and console out there. They had such a blast! It was fun to see them have so much fun! Happy Birthday to my two middle boys, WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!

Let me explain

This is what all the girls decided to do on Thanksgiving dinner AFTER it had all been cooked, cleaned, washed, swept, put away, bathed, folded, de-germatized, you get the general idea. We were tired so we went in my room, put this sign on the door, and watched sitcoms for an hour on my bed. It was wonderful!!!!!!!!
This is how the daddy's behaved.................while we were doing the afforementioned various "Thanksgiving duties"hence.............the sign on the door and the mommy "time-out"
32 people is a heck of a lot of people to feed turkey to. My arms are about falling off here, while Jon tried to take a "not blurry" picture. It actually was pretty gosh dang yummy if I do say so myself.........just call me Martha. HA HA HA!Here is the crazy lot of us. It really is insane when we all get together. We have a lot to be grateful for. I'm grateful they all came, that we had a blast, and that they all have homes to go to after the festivities are done!

Gracie's 5th bday!

We had a lot of fun celebrating our big 5 year old's birthday! (pink cupcakes, build a bear, and Color Me Mine....so much fun!)

I am having a very hard time believing she is really five. We are so grateful for our sweet Gracie and love so many things about her!

Here are some of the things we love about Gracie Ruth.

-she still can't say her F's or V's so she says "S" and "Z" for them, and I am adamant that no-one corrects her because I love it! She also calls Family Home Evening, "Has, hasning" and I will also kill anyone who dares try to change it!

-she loves to sing and dance and does so regularly all over the house!

-she is through and through ALL girl. Loves pink, loves purple, loves dresses, loves bows and frills, loves her dollies and is sugar and spice and everything nice!

-she loves salad more than cookies and chocolate, which is wierd, (being that she's my daughter) but so so cute.

-she gives big hugs regularly and tells us all she loves us soooooo much all the time.

- We LOVE that she is such blessing in our home, we are so grateful she chose to come to our family.

Happy birthday sweet girl!!!

Trick or Treat!

Start the day off right, ghostly pumpkin pancakes, orange hot chocolate with ghostly marshmallows floating in it!!!
Josh was Shaggy, (well actually, we took these pics the day before Halloween because he left for Washington DC the next morning early) so he wasn't really anything, but being a nice kid, he dressed up for pics anyway!!! Jen was a gypsie, Brennan, a jester skeleton, Ty, a jailbird, Jaemon the mad hatter (which was my favorite costume EVER!!!!) and Gracie, Alice in Wonderland. Next year they're all going to be Cheshire Cats cuz I think he's way cool.
Quite the jack-o-lantern artistry, I do believe!
It was a torrential downpour about 1/2 hr before trick or treating was supposed to begin, and then it suddenly stopped and a beautiful double rainbow came out! It ended up being a perfect night for tricks and treats!!!! Happy Halloween!!!

Queen of Halloween

I have been told on numerous occasions that I am the "queen" of the haunting holiday in October. Whether or not that's true, I dunno, however, I do love it.......a bit excessively, here are some of the annual festivities!Our annual Halloween party this year was an 80's party. It was SOOOOO fun! We played fun games, ate pac man and rubiks cube cookies, and laughed and laughed! All our friends are such good sports as you can see, and rose to the occasion for this shindig!
I had to literally bribe Josh to drive all the way home from Salem in between activities and practices to participate in our annual big leaf playing afternoon, he had all of about 20 minutes, but he came and indulged his crazy mom. I LOVE this tradition though, the smell and crunch and color of the leaves...........so fun!
Gardiner Village and the witches is something I look forward to every year, they are women after my own heart!
My wonderful sister in laws come and have a witches lunch, some of them refuse to dress up, but they come for the food and the FUN that we always have together!
Food is an ENORMOUS part of our traditions on Halloween, I made this monster cake for my witches lunch.......................oh my, 5 layers of chocolate pistachio heaven, Frankenstein would be so proud.
Witches lunch bunch, love these girls. We have so much fun together!
Witches brew, and other yummy treats!
One of 5 pumpkin patches we visited this year, this one was down in Central with the Chisholm gang! It was fun to go with grandpa (check out his happy, goofy little face!!!!!)
We always go to Cornbelly's and the corn maze. I want the big kids to love it as much as the littles, sadly for me, they go now just for the kettle corn, throwing corn, and again......to indulge their crazy mom. I hope someday they'll take their kids and thank me for "forcing "them into these silly things. I love it though, and I think secretly they do too!!!!
Love this, THRILLER by the Odyssey dance co. Jen was totally freaked out! It was so SUPER fun!! One of my favorite things!
Oh my, more treats, candy corn cupcakes, sugar cookies, caramel apples, pumpkin cheese ball....all favorites!
Another very very fun party. Jon is amazing......how many husbands you know would dress up as a puppy at their staff party where he's the BOSS?? So much fun!
Another punkin patch, at the Red Barn, we love the hay ride, donuts, ice cream and the biggest pumpkins we can carry!!!!!
Halloween nail painting, this year we got cool decals and the girls spent the afternoon painting each nail a different color (orange, black, white, green and yellow!) so cute!
Our haunted halloween house. Which, admittedly gives me a headache. They always fall apart, the little nerds fly all over the room and we slip on them, the frosting is black and stains.......but the kids really do love this tradition and it always ends up being so cute.

So, maybe I am the queen, maybe I'm looney, I don't know. I do know that there is just something about the fall that I am in love with, leaves, crisp air, the first snow fall, sweaters, the hint of things a little creepy out in the shadows. OOOOOH, I love it! Bring on the trick or treaters and last BIG party!!!!!! Happy haunting y'all!!!!