Christmas, Take 1

Ben had the week off before Christmas this year, so our good friends, Rob and Mollie brought their adorable 9 month old little boy, Benjamin, to visit us on Oahu. We had a lot of fun hanging out at the beach, we took the kids swimming at the Hale Koa, and we had a great day on the North Shore exploring the tide pools and eating at the shrimp truck. When the kids were in bed, we enjoyed some adult time with Champagne and Mexican Train! It was so much fun seeing them and getting to meet little Ben. He's adorable and Alaina had a fun time playing with him. I'm sure they all enjoyed their time away from the cold Boston winter too!

Who is this cute boy playing on my mat with me?

Their first picture together
(The parents have already decided on their arranged marriage)

Cole was, of course, a huge fan of Auntie Mollie

On Tuesday, we flew over to Maui to see Tutu, Gpaw, Auntie Katie, Uncle Wade and Tilly. I enjoyed a massage and Ben enjoyed a dive with Jim, Katie and Wade. We also took Cole on his first (of I'm sure many) whale watch. We didn't see too much activity with the whales that morning, but he loved being on the boat. Then there was Christmas...Cole was our official present opener for the day and he loved every minute. Today he asked me if tomorrow could be Christmas again! I'm afraid he's going to be going through serious withdrawals after his birthday.

Alaina's first Christmas present

Cole Jabara, official present opener Christmas 2011

This is something we don't see often!

Whale watch

Just being cute!

7 Months

December 13th 2011

I'm just going to start this off by saying, Holy Cow, this girl is going to (actually she already is) giving me a run for my money! I'm not sure if it's because she's trying to keep up with Cole or what, but she is constantly amazing me by what she has already accomplished and the new things she does every day.
At 7 months, she has 2 teeth, is "army crawling" and, you'd think this would be slow so it wouldn't be an issue, but this girl is FAST, she can get herself back up to a sitting position after she's been crawling, and her latest lovely trick is pulling herself up to stand. Seriously, I went into her room yesterday because she was crying and she was standing up in her crib holding on to the rail. I have no idea how old Cole was when he started doing this, but I'm pretty sure he was older than 7 months. All day long, all she wants to do is practice going from sitting to standing. If you try to sit her down on the floor she locks her knees so she can stand instead of sit. She's one very cute, but determined little girl.

Standing big girl

This is my, "Ain't I cute?" look

Dear Santa,

Tonight we braved the mall to meet with Santa Claus. Cole walked right up to him and just snuggled right into his jacket and was completely happy. Alaina had no idea what to think. She was quite impressed with his beard. I'm just happy we got both of them looking at the camera! We can check that off of our holiday 'to do' list.

Picture with Santa~2011

Oh, and, according to Cole, Alaina wants cars for Christmas! I find this hard to believe.

Meet Sparky

Sparky is the elf Santa sent to Cole to watch over him and make sure Cole's being a good boy. Every night Sparky goes up to the North Pole and reports back to Santa and then comes back and is in a new spot to watch Cole during the day. Well, this morning we woke up and found Sparky on the kitchen counter and he had made a huge mess. I asked Cole to come in the kitchen to take a look and he walked in and said, "Oh, it's Sparky" and I said, "yes, look, he made a mess of your cereal, do you think he was hungry?" and to that Cole replied "no, mom, his mouth doesn't open." Seriously?! Way to ruin all of mommy's fun my logical child!

Half Birthday

I know, I've really been slacking, but I've been trying to post pictures from Halloween in Spokane for weeks and for some reason the computer freezes whenever I try. So, I'm going to try to post Alaina's 6 month picture and see what happens.

And, it worked! Strange. Well, I guess I'll do half birthday girl's stats while I'm at it:

Weight: 15lbs 70z Height: 25"
Clothes: 3-6 months Diapers: size 3 Shoes: size 2
Food: nursing every 4 hours and just started eating solids. A little bit of rice cereal and fruits
New moves: At 6 months, Alaina is an expert sitter. This past week she's been working on her scooting and she can now easily get to Cole's toys. This has not been good as Cole does not appreciate her new found skill!
Sleeping: Not well, but I'm pretty sure this is due to the teeth almost in.
Teeth count: 0 (but I can see one coming up so hopefully it'll not be too much longer)
Other than her teeth bothering her, Alaina is a sweet, happy, very active little girl. I'm pretty sure she's going to be crazy busy like her brother. She's really inquisitive like he was at 6 months.

First Food

The day before we left for Spokane, we gave Alaina her first solid food, rice cereal.

Ohhh, I finally get to eat something with this spoon!

Maybe I shouldn't have shoved the whole thing in my mouth...

Yuck-O!

Ok, fine. I guess it's not that bad.

All done!

Aulani

Well, it was another very busy, but fun weekend filled with cute pictures. First, Alaina turned 5 months old!

Then, we got dressed up and went to our play group's fall fest. Alaina is pebbles this year and Cole is, you guessed it, a dinosaur! Didn't get many pictures of him because he was too busy, but you'll see more from Halloween.

Miss Pebbles

Bouncing Dinosaur

She found her tongue

On Saturday, we got to go stay at the new Disney resort, Aulani. It was pretty cool and Cole had a blast. It was nice because it wasn't too over the top Disney, which I liked. The pools were super fun, they have two water slides and a huge splash pad/jungle gym that Cole was deathly afraid of. The best part by far was the character breakfast. Cole loved getting to eat with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy. He kept saying, "Look at his shoes!" about Goofy's big feet. It was pretty funny. After two days out in the sun playing in the pools at the resort, we were all exhausted, but it was well worth it! And, for all of you who think it might be something you want to do when you visit...you probably won't when you find out the price of one night at the resort. The only reason why we went was because we got a huge discount for Ben's group doing the conference there. Otherwise, we never would have gone! But, you can still do the Character breakfast without being a guest at the hotel, so that would be fun if you're interested in that. We'll just have to use the beautiful beach instead of the beautiful pools!

Story time by the fire pit

Mickey!

Aulani Character Breakfast

Olivia provided Alaina with the perfect
outfit for breakfast with Minnie :-)



Auntie's Parade

Alaina LOVED Minnie
(Yup, right after this shot she sucked on her nose!)

And Minnie Loved Alaina, too!
I think she would have taken her home if she could.

Cole's favorite...Goofy. Fitting, isn't it?


Pool Time

Busy, Busy Weekend

Ben had a 4 day weekend (and I don't think that's ever happened where we've just stayed at home) so we made the most out of it by doing some fun things together. First, we went with Cole's playgroup to the pumpkin patch. Cole loved it and said it was his favorite place and he wants to go back again. It was nice for Ben to be able to go with us on a field trip.

Cole did NOT like Alaina eating the pumpkin

Cole with his buddy, Luca

Yes, he's wearing the same shirt from last year

My 2 little pumpkins

He finally found the one he wanted!

I had to do a comparison shot:

2011

2010
(I can't believe what a baby he looks like in this picture)

Having fun on the hay ride

On Saturday, we skipped gymnastics and had a day at the beach. We checked out Bellows and it was great. Though, going to the beach with 2 kids is not exactly a relaxing day. We were all exhausted but it was fun and I got some good pictures.

My bathing beauty. I love this picture of her!

Two beach bums

Little Lainey-bug

Umm, no, mommy, I don't like this at all!