School Photos

Here are the kids class photos and school pictures for this year. I must apologize for London's hair. She has very difficult hair to comb because she has three MASSIVE cowlicks that make it impossible to part her hair. But Tank, on the other hand, makes a beautiful little girl!:) He was so mad when he saw the picture. He is glad that he has a boy's haircut now.

Family Photos

I have been meaning to get a family picture taken for awhile and I have even bought us some cute hawaiian clothing for it. Then Dave came home one day and said that they were doing photos on post that were relatively inexpensive so he signed us up. Then I found out that they were sepia toned 1920's and 1930's "themed" photos. I wasn't too excited but they actually turned out pretty good. We especially like how the outfits bring out the "inner rascal" in the boys.

Captain Dave

It finally happened. Yesterday Dave officially became a captain!!! We are so excited! Yes it is an increase in paygrade, but more than anything he starts to get more respect from those around him. We had London and Tank help promote him. After a nice speech from the Battalion Commander, Tank removed Dave's old rank and gave him the new one and then London replaced his beret with one that has his new rank. It was great. The kids held it together (more or less) for the ceremony but after that they were out of control! You know how it is...kids can never be good on those few occassions when it really is important! We provided pupus (aka appetizers) for all those that came to share in the ceremony. There were probably about 20 or so people there. The first “buddy” shot is of Captian Violand, Dave's company Commander. Now lots of you will be able to put a face with the name. Then there is Chaplain Mount. I call him Dave's boyfriend. He is a total athlete and Dave's surfing buddy. He and his wife are also adopting from China…but they are a lot further along in the process. Then we have the Battalion Commander, Lt. Col. Ocker. He seems to like Dave a lot...so we think he is a pretty smart man!:) In the family picture I forgot that I have transition lenses in my glasses so I didn’t take them off for pictures and ended up looking really silly!:( (I ALWAYS forget about those lenses!!) Last of all is the cake that we bought for Dave to celebrate when he got home!

Shock and Awe

We finally broke down and did it!! We gave the boys their annual haircut. I can hear the sobs from the Grandmas now!!! Normally we go to get their hair trimmed to keep it in the shaggy, surfer style and then get home with what looks like more of a girl's bob--which we proceed to shave off so that we can start the process over. This year we thought we would just save a lot of money and shave it off to begin with. Teancum sat pretty still and thought it was really good until he looked at it after and cried because he thought he looked ugly. Ezekiel instantly said "I can SEE!!!"..which I thought was hilarious. And Jonas started out enjoying it but found that it wasn't fun to wipe your mouth with hair on your hands. From that point forward I had a hard time finishing his haircut. He probably has some unevenness going on. The funniest, however, was when Jonas went to lay down for bed. He put his head on his pillow and instantly shot back up. He looked around on the pillow and kept feeling it. Then he would lay his head down again and again still looking puzzled. Then after a few times of this he asked me where the hair went. And then he said that he needed it back so that he could sleep!! Since I had put it in a baggy he wanted me to go get it to put it on his pillow!! I couldn't stop laughing. What a funny little boy!! Of course, they don't even look like the same kids now. So here are the before, during and after shots of the boys. I especially like the mullet ones!!

The Garden Island: Kauai

We just got back from Kauai on Tuesday night. We spent 4 days there and I was ready to come home...and drop off the kids and go back!!! We will definitely be visiting there on our own next time! Our camera broke so I didn't get pictures of all the pretty places we saw like the waimea canyon (Hawaii's Grand Canyon) or waterfall, etc... We figure we will get those pictures when we go back without "distractions"... a.k.a. kids! I am, however, going to bombard you with the few photos we have that did turn out okay. Mostly just pictures of the beach and the house we stayed in on the military post--if you are in the military definitely take advantage. It was wonderful and we basically had a private beach. There were never more than 5 or 6 people there with us and usually we were alone!! The beach had crabs everywhere first thing in the morning. The picture with all the mounds of sand is of all the crab holes that they had dug along the beach. They would be out and crawl into them when they saw you coming towards them. It was really cool. Also, some of the pictures of the ocean and beach you can see the neighboring islands, Ni'ihau and Lehua. The beach where we were staying was great because it had a depression that would fill with water at high tide and then stay filled for the afternoon. It was only about a foot deep so the kids had a great time playing in it without the fear of the waves getting them. Dave went surfing so that he can say that he has surfed on Kauai and there is a rare picture of me boogie boarding--since I am normally the one with the camera! We also went to Jo Jo's Shave Ice. It is supposed to be the best on Kauai--and it was GOOD! Instead of normal vanilla ice cream like we get here, it was macadamia nut ice cream under the shave ice. Very tasty. The kids thought it was a fun that it was called Jo Jo's since that it Jonas' nickname. Next time we go I will make sure to get LOTS of pretty nature shots because Kauai is gorgeous.