Merry Christmas!!

For the past couple of weeks the girls have been asking how many days until Christmas. One day Kezia carefully lined up all her small toys in rows and called me into her room to look at the display. "Is this how many days until Christmas?" She asked. "No, Kezia," I said, "there are a LOT more days than that." "But Mom," she said, "There are like 20 toys here!!" (and what could be longer than 20 days!!) So we decided to have Christmas a bit earlier this year...like the next week. So yesterday we put up the small Christmas tree, sang Christmas songs, and passed out homemade gifts to each other.


It was fun. Nate made clay pendants for everyone, I made paper flowers, Kezia made a dog puppet for Ivy, and Ivy made a can and string telephone for Kezia.

Elysse with a necklace from Daddy

I love the kids' imaginations, and Kezia's absolute LOVE for the canine species. No matter what you give her, it turns into a dog somehow. Like her princess dresses. They are the outfits for her imaginary character Dancy the Dog. And although playing telephones with the cans was entertaining for a while, a half hour later, they were both doggies on a leash.

Kezia found an empty diaper box, drew a steering wheel on its flap and called it a car. After a week of playing with it, she wrapped it up for Ivy for "Christmas". Ivy tore off the wrapping, revealing the diaper box. She announced in a not-so-sure voice, "It's... a.....booooxxx." Kezia said, "No, it's a car, Ivy." Ivy's face lit up like a sixteen year old with a new lisence: "Oh! It's a car!! It's a car!!!"

I guess it's all in the name.

Three's a company

I'm tired.

Taking care of three kids is like treading water above a hungry swarm of sharks. I know at some point one of those sharks will want to bite, but if I can just maintain and get a few good breaths in, then maybe I can tackle a shark when it comes in for the attack. But sometimes the sharks get impatient and want to bite at the same time. At the end of the exhausting ordeal, I somehow find myself on top of the water and breathing again (and maybe a little bit scathed).

I am so grateful for that higher power that supplies me with the ability to grasp a few breaths and have the energy to keep on treading even when I feel too tired to do so. And a lot of that comes from the handfuls of "Mommy, I love you" 's that I keep hearing from Kezia and Ivy. I don't know why they say it, because they say it out of the blue, but I think God knows it's what I need right now. It's like a power boost that makes it all worth it.

I am excited for Elysse to sleep through the night. I'm to the point where I am having dreams she awakes only in the morning and I am so well rested and happy, and that pleasant dream is interrupted with her crying at 2 in the morning.

Having three kids, though has been really helpful in helping me sloooowwww waaaayyyy doooowwwnnnn and just enjoy the moment. It's really been helping the mood of everyone, and that's good. I've also learned to prioritize better and be ok if we are late or if our house is a mess or we have mac and cheese every so often.

Mommy, I love you.

Could any other words strung together sound so sweet? And for some reason, both of my daughters have been telling me that the last couple of days. While we play together, do our own thing, or even after having a time out, they have said to me, "Mommy, I love you." And sometimes those words are followed by a smile and a hug. And I'm lovin' it every time.

Kezia and Ivy made a Funny

Kezia: This is only funny if you are familiar with the Argentinian ballad from Veggietales. There is a part of the song where Bob the Tomato gets upset at Larry the cucumber for accusing him of not being able to dance. "What do you mean I can't dance?" He asks. Larry responds in Spanish, "No comprendo" (I don't understand). Kezia has had a really hard time not using her hands to eat. It's like her hands are magnetized to the food. So one evening over dinner, we spent quite a bit of time deciding what to do about it. We decided to come up with a cheer to chant when Kezia only uses her utensils. As a family, we were creating all these silly cheers that we could use. When we were done, I turn to Kezia only to see her grab her food with her hands!! I said, "Kezia! Why are you using your hands? We just spent all this time talking about NOT using your hands and what we can do if you don't use your hands!! Why are you using your hands?!?" She looked at me for a second and responded, "No comprendo."

Ivy: To make sure everything is clean as a whistle on her rear end after using the potty, Ivy pulls sheet after sheet of toilet paper off the roll (and somehow still doesn't succeed at cleaning what needs to be cleaned.) After this ritual of waste the other day, I hear her flush the potty and then she called to me, "Look, Mom! It's Little Mermaid!!" I peer where she was pointing into the now clogged toilet. On top of the rising toilet water was a wispy gathering of toilet paper seemingly dancing in the twirling of the water. Who else but a three year old girl would see Little Mermaid in a clump of used toilet paper?!?

Kezia's hallucinations

Kezia has been sick with a fever since Friday night. This is pretty significant, since I can remember only one other time in her four years on earth that she has ever been sick, besides an occasional cold. Last night she woke up and asked for a blessing. Then she said, “I want a blessing NOW!!” and she was acting all weird. Like she said, “take it off! Take it off! Take your coat off!” So I did. And then she said, “Take it off!” pointing to my hair, so I pulled my hair behind my ears, which seemed to satisfy her for a few seconds. But then she started pointing to the ceiling saying “Take it off!” She said there’s a bead up there, right next to the little d, inside the o, and it’s blinking like a light on and off like a Christmas light. She said it was “disturbing” her…(yea, talk about disturbing—there was nothing there!) Kezia was very flush in the face, but after the blessing she began to get color back and make more sense. After that, medicine, and a popsicle, she went to show daddy the “bead light” just to find it had disappeared.

Elysse takes a bath!!

Yes, this is a momentous event. I think our poor baby has had less than 10 baths since she was born. I remember growing up in my family of 7 kids that when I was young, I had baths only on Saturdays. I used to think that was pretty gross and weird....now I understand why.

Nate's Surf Contest

Friday afternoon we got the report that the waves were the right size for the Steinlager Shaka surf contest series to begin Saturday the next day at Sunset Beach, and that the stand up surfing division will run that day. We got everything together that night and in the morning Nate drove down to register and I and the kids stopped at Grandma's to catch a bit of General Conference before heading down ourselves.

The waves at Sunset were messy and sizeable. Nate paid for his entry fee with a company check, so I joked that he is now a sponsored surfer. He got tips from his business partner Bill Ward who used to be a pro surfer. Being only his second contest, Nate said he wasn't there to place, but, quoting Karate Kid, just wanted to "put on good show".

Round 1: Nate paddled out for his first heat alongside Brian Kealana and Clay V. Nate confided in me that he has been dreaming of riding a big wave and getting barrelled (that's when the wave covers you and you surf through the tunnel it forms.) His first wave I thought he may have caught his dream wave. The wave curled over and the whitewater chased him down the face. Nate seemed to tease the wave as he danced up and down the face. We were excited when he got his second wave, a big one on the outside. He rode it really well, too. When Nate came in, he said he never was hammered so much as he was when he came in. Nate advanced to the next round-the quarter finals!!!

Round 2: The waves were cleaner now--not as windy, the waves bigger (about 8-10ft faces) but the water was still lumpy bumpy. The shore break was really big too, with the waves smashing up against the steep shore. Nate said he had a really hard time making it out, and we believed him. We cheered when he made it to the lineup. Included in the lineup were Dave Parmenter (a past pro longboarder and one of the first shapers of stand up boards), Kekoa Uemura (pro longboarder) and Kai Sallas (pro longboarder). Nate caught three waves--two really good waves. He caught one that closed out behind him and another big one on the outside.

Here's a home video of his second wave of his second heat:




Here are youtube videos of both heats. (Nate is in black in heat 1 and yellow in heat 2)






We were so excited for him! (And, I have to admit, I was nervous for him because he only surfed Sunset once on his longboard and never on his stand up board. Sunset is infamous for its really heavy waves) I waited for him to come in and he didn't come and he didn't come. The other surfers made it to shore and I still couldn't see him. I was about to turn back to the tent to ask the others if they could see him when I spotted him. He was about 30 feet from the shoreline in these little bitty waves, but they had quite a punch and Nate was barely making it through. I would learn later that he got tumbled in the waves right after his set and it took all his strength to get out of the inside. I found it very humerous that there he was surfing these big waves so well and now he was struggling through small whitewater. Nate placed 3rd in the round, beating out pro surfer Kai Salis!! He didn't advance, but he did really, really well. He was happy about the "good show" he put on, as evidenced by this photo of him emerging from the surf.

Nate, our surfing champ

Here are some other shots and videos I took while we were at the beach:







Ivy and Kezia on the shore watching Daddy surf . They kept getting closer and closer to the nasty shore break. I was grateful I moved them back just before a bigger wave covered where they were standing.

Elysse also gave her support to Daddy. She spent most of the day meditating and sending him good surfing vibes.


There was a pregnant monk seal on the beach. This endangered seal is found only found on the Hawaiian Islands and is endangered. This was only my second time seeing one, and it was a great babysitter for the girls. They spent a good while sitting and watching it under the "caution" tape that surrounded it, acting as a protection from the flow of tourists that came to see it.

News on everyone

Aloha,

So it's been almost 2 months since I last posted, and, you can guess why. Three kids keeps you busy. Life is good. I'm trying to take the "So what" attitude, like "So the floor is covered with junk and toys. So what?" or "So we don't have food in the fridge because I have no time to go grocery shopping. So what?" or "So my daughter has asked me every morning for 2 weeks for underwear because I can't keep the laundry washed as fast as she goes through underwear. So what?" and "So what if we aren't on time?" and "So I can't go surfing today. So what?"

So, so far so good. It's funny, just a week before Elysse was born was when people felt they should warn me about the difficulties of having 3 kids. I guess that is why I am taking that attitude, and it's been pretty easy so far. Apparently, once you make it over the hump of 3, you can have as many as you want. (Speaking of, yesterday I spoke with a woman that came from a family of 21 kids--same mom, same dad, 2 sets of twins. Wow!!)

I am enjoying my church calling as compassionate service leader. It is chillax....and I like being so involved with helping people out. I have been reading "Your Child's Self-Esteem: Key to His Life". It was recommended to me by my mom, and I think it is a great book. (Thanks Mom!) I recommend it too.

Job possibility
My friend works as a transcriber for www.fednews.com. She told me about her job and I got really excited about the possibility of making decent money working at home transcribing news events. I can keep up with what is going on and get paid for it!! So I am hoping this will work out. It's looking like I should get the job, but I should know for sure this week.

Dolphins
The other day I went paddle surfing at Alii beach and saw a great splashing of water in the distance. I could tell it was a pod of dolphins and paddled over to get a closer look. As I watched, a boat passed by, causing the dolphins to swim over to where I was. Immediately I was surrounded by these beautiful creatures swimming underneath me and leaping and twirling out of the water right beside me. Like synchronized swimmers, they arched out of the water one after another, blowing the air out of their airholes as they surfaced, creating a chorus of, well, snorts: "tschhh, tschhh, tschhh!" I stayed out there with the pod of about 40 spin dolphins for a while, baby dolphins included, who were no bigger than small mahi as they played and splashed in the water. I think God must have created the dolphin so there will always be one creature on earth who whole-heartedly enjoyed His creations. I know they are very friendly animals, but there is something eerie about seeing a creature bigger than you swimming right underneath you. As I was there, a few fish dashed out of the water as well. Wondering what they were swimming away from, I decided to go back to the lineup.

Easter
A couple of weeks ago I coordinated an Easter party for Kezia and Ivy's playgroups and other friends. It was a lot of fun for the kiddies.


Ivy the Easter Bunny

Ivy in mad pursuit of Easter Eggs!

The Easter Egg Factory at Grandma's House



The Famous Easter Egg Roll Race

Kezia is doing well, although she has been having a lot of accidents and wetting the bed again. I have heard this is common with a new baby, so hopefully we'll get past this quickly. She has also turned a slight bit aggressive. She seems to love the baby, but it seems like deep inside she might have a problem with having her here. Any advice?...(ok, since I wrote this, she seems to be mellowing out.) Kezia is into sayings. Her favorite right now are "Perfect timing!" and "I just can't believe it" and "It's so beautiful I can't take my eyes off of it!
Many times during the day Kezia disappears and our neighbor, Dancy the Dog comes to visit. Although we miss Kezia, we love Dancy the Dog. She is "famous" because she has magical powers, is taller than all the buildings on top of each other, is stronger than anybody, "takes away danger", always does what she's supposed to, and is very polite. We're beginning to see a slight resemblance to Kezia in Dancy the Dog's features...can you see it too? (The funny thing is, the dog snout is from their Halloween costumes 2 years ago--not a cute doggie nose, more like a werewolf nose, but the girls love to play doggie with it) The following video shows Kezia in the Dancy the Dog outfit she wears almost EVERY DAY!!! (usually without the snout, though)



Ivy is a happy little three year old. She loves Elysse and loves to hold her. She and Kezia are so helpful, usually in the form of giving her a pacifier. This week is the last week of music class for Ivy. I am sad to have it end because she loves it so much. But her friend that she goes with while I teach Great Beginnings is moving, so no more. She will be joining our 4 year old Great Beginnings class...we'll see how that goes. Ivy was a difficult 2 1/2 year old. She is a girl who loves her independence and will go to great lengths to do things her way, which is great, but is also a great way to cause headaches. Well, she seems to finally be getting out of those terrible twos. :)

Elysse is now 2 months!! Wow. She is a sweet little girl. She is very observant. She looks at Nate and at I with these big blue eyes, trying to take in all our features. She was quite curious when Nate held her with his motorcycle helmet and dark sunglasses on. She had this expression on her face that said, "Smells like Dad, Sounds like dad, Looks like a bug. huh?" We are working on helping her fall asleep easily for naps and staying asleep. Any advice on this too?...ok, a week has gone by and things seem to be going better for Elysse as well. To be honest, the first 2 months were challenging with Elysse. Elysse was a cryer and did not nap well. That added onto me not getting the rest I needed created a bad combo. I glad it's over (hopefully).

Smiling Girls

Elysse and Ivy in a wrestling match...can you guess the winner?
You can spot one of Elysse's charming smiles in this video:



Nate is doing great. He loves his work. He gets up way early to start working and works into the night. But he loves it. We are pursuing foreclosure auction deals right now, as well as the usual real estate marketing deals we do.
Nate's website, www.supsurfmag.com is on fire right now! He is so excited. It is at the top of the search engines right now (you can google in stand up paddle surfing or anything like that), and basically he has flown past his competition. He has plenty of companies coming to him for advertising now. It seems like every day he has something new to tell me. The other day Pacific Business News contacted him and wrote an article about his website, mentioning that he will be coming out with a print magazine soon. He had been toying around with the idea, and I guess now that the word is out, he's getting serious with it now.
He just received a bunch of magazines and DVDs about the MaxGXL product he raves about. He says the material is really good for teaching people about how the product improves health and energy. If you're interested he can send you one.

Nate's BOMB!

The other day we went to the beach and Nate went out surfing. The waves were an ok size, a bit overhead. And then this freak, outta-nowhere set came through that was like 3X overhead (about 15-18ft face). Nate caught the wave and rode it beautifully. Nate's business partner Bill and I were on the beach and we were like, "Whoooaah!!! That's NATE!!!" And then the wave closed out. The crash of white water was huge, and we didn't see Nate. We figured that he got swallowed up by the water...but then he emerged from the churning water still standing on his board! Bill and I were shocked. It was AWESOME!!! Nate was on a high for at least 24 hours afterward.
There is a contest at Sunset Beach this weekend he is hoping to enter. Wish him luck!

Joy School: The (Four) Bears

This is a little play Kezia and Ivy did at their little preschool, Joy School. I posted it mainly for the other classmates to view.

Kezia and Ivy

Here are some pictures of the "big sisters" we took at the beach last week.







I love Kezia's poser pictures. She has a friend who loves to pose and I guess she's been taking a few hints from her.


Little Mermaid and Snow White at a Dance show down: