December

This month has been full of family and friends. The pictures can tell the story.

We first tried to do a photo shoot with Levi and the Christmas lights and ornaments, but these are probably the best shots I got. We resorted to asking David (our professional photographer) to do a family photo session for our Christmas pictures. I'll post some of those in another post.

Coloring!

Holding and drinking his own smoothie

Levi's first "Lights on Rice" parade. We met up with Andy and Michelle at their house prior to the parade (since they live right on Rice Street) and then walked over to the road to watch the floats. Levi loved seeing all the different things go by, and everyone was handing him candy (even though he couldn't eat it). He just kept passing it to Darin every time he got something, and then by the end of the night, we had a whole bag full of candy! One of the perks of being a parent to a little baby!

Some of the candy that we brought home

Kauai High School marching band

Creative Arts Program led by one of our friends, Megan Nii, and
one of our friends' kid, Emma was on this float

The parade ended with a real TRAIN that blew it's whistle (the train was on top of a flat bed).

Levi also got plenty of those glowing bracelets. He loved playing with them for the night.

We then had a friend from college (Fern) and her long time boyfriend come to Kauai to visit. So we had a last minute get together with friends at our house. We like to have people over because it allows us to still hang out past Levi's bedtime.

Levi checking out his girlfriend, Shaylen

Levi: 16 months, Shaylen: 6 months

Our little house we built

Heath and Tiff's house had an upstairs lanai and a chimney. It was probably my favorite!

Brenton and Fern

Andy and Michelle made their rendition of the White House

..... and Maaaaaaaaak.... he just made a mess on my floor.

We also baked some gingerbread cookies. These were pretty yummy!

Next, we had our Ohana group Christmas party. All the kids had their own Secret person to purchase a $10-15 gift for. Levi had Emma, and Ava had Levi. It was fun seeing them open their gifts and play with them at our lunch. We also had some pool time after all the food and toys.

Emma making Levi a loom bracelet.

Left-right pass the present game

Yeah, I'm just getting over my sickness, the water is cold, but I'm smiling from ear to ear

Evan and Uncle Jason

Loving eating ketchup with my eggs

We then headed to Maui from December 22-25 to celebrate Christmas with Darin's family. It was a fun time, Levi loved opening presents.

Anything to keep busy and grannie's house. 

Waiting for lunch at Sam Sato's.... NOODLES!

We took Levi to the Maui Ocean Center. We weren't sure if he would be too young to go and see all the fish, but we took a chance. He LOVED it! He says "ish"... not quite "fish", but he understands what he is seeing and loved watching them. He also can say "tur-toe" (turtle).

Santa went in the large shark tank to feed the fish

Our last night there, Grannie wanted to make dinner for us again and asked Darin to be in charge of the rib roast. Also on the menu was fried noodles, watercress salad, furikake shrimp and mashed potatoes. It was so yummy, I wished I had more room so I could eat more!

Levi enjoying his noodles with Aunty Traci

The boys resting after dinner

Christmas morning, Levi had fun tearing open all of our presents!

Thank you Grannie, Aunty Traci, and Oba-ban for having us over this Christmas! It was a great trip!

Spent Saturday afternoon at Poipu Beach Park with some friends. Ben was home visiting, as well as his sister, Jackie and her family. The kids loved the water. Tobi was feeling a little left out, and surprisingly enough, he wanted to also jump in the water to get closer to the family. Poor Tobi! He used to never even touch the water's edge before Levi was born!

Shane, Stacey and Shaylen

Jackie, James, and Koa

Jed and Tobi

Levi begging for more shrimp chips from Uncle James

We then got to hang out with my cousins and their families. They flew all the way from Virginia and Arizona to the Big Island, then made a hop to Kauai to visit us and more so, my grandparents. Their house was never so busy with little kids all over the place... the last time that was the case, was probably when we were kids!

Levi trying to keep with with Christian (8 yrs old) and Callan (4 years old)

Checking out the tide pools down in Kaumakani

Uncle Jed showing Levi the turtles

Mandy, Uncle Eddie, and her two kids Ethan and Audrey. Ethan was our ring bearer for our wedding, he's now 14 years old!

Levi and Audrey found a little pool full of hermit crabs!

Happy Birthday Christian!

For New Year's Eve, we headed over to the Marushige's house. Lance loves to play with fireworks, and we love to visit Aunty Gwen and Uncle Larry. Levi was making sure all the dogs were okay. Tobi was very nervous (I gave him a Benadryl, but that hardly worked).

Levi checking on Hoku

then on Hanna

Last night with Uncle Ben! Until we see you in March!

On New Year's we headed out to Anini. The weather couldn't have been any better! Ezekiel and Levi played in the pools, and Darin, Lance and Heath paddled out to surf.

The water is kind of cold!

Oh! More hermit crabs and fish!

Aunty Leah and Aunty Deanne with Levi. They learned to give him food so he would be their friend. Haha!

Daddy, here, no, on that one, no on that one....

Hang ten!

Quick photo op before everyone left!

Yummy, peanut butter and jelly sandwich! Eating like a big boy, and drinking milk from a cup!
(Still made a mess, but growing up so fast!)