We went to the Zoo...

I didn't want to post too much at one time, but to continue with the other post why are weekend was so busy was we went to the Honolulu Zoo! It was alot of fun, and I am glad we have season passes but it isn't like the zoo's we are used to. It has alot of monkeys, zebras, giraffes, birds, and a petting zoo. But it doesn't have Lions anymore since they became too old, they unfortunately had to put them to sleep. They also don't have polar bears, (any kind of bears really). We did see a couple of cheetahs, rhinos, etc. This picture was too good to pass up....

This picture sums up my days pretty good!

In the petting zoo, Avery would follow the goats but wasn't too sure about touching them

These are Lemurs, a form of monkey or better known from the movie "Madagascar"

Here are some of the other animals we got good pictures of.

The rest are some pictures of the kids in various places at the zoo. We will definitely go back and get some more!

Cribs are a thing of the past....

So this weekend has been very, very busy. We had two scary experiences with our Avery, that made us decide to change their sleeping arrangements, which weren't going to be an issue until after they turned 2. She first pulled out her bottom dresser drawer, proceeded to climb into it, pull open the top dresser drawer and try to CLIMB the thing as it is tipping over her. Then the next day, she literally climbed out of her crib( if I wasn't in the room I wouldn't of believed she could of done it) flipped her body weight over and landed smack on her back (on linoleum floor mind you) Got the wind knocked out of her, and a nice size bruise on the back of her head. We obviously had to do something, and after much deliberation this is what we decided to do.

Here is a picture of the toddler beds that we lay them down in to take a nap after they were put together.....


Here is what the room looked like after about 2-3 hours of "freedom" they had to roam their room...(aka nap time)((this picture totally doesn't do it justice, one bed was against the other, and I moved it before I realized I should of taken a picture first))

I am sad actually that we have overcome another milestone of no more cribs, changing table etc. They are becoming little people! We will never have a crib again for one of our own kids, and it makes me feel like I am growing soooo old!

**On a side note, tonight after they fell asleep I went to check on them and they were both in the same bed..it was so cute! I would of taken a picture, but I was afraid the flash would wake them up, hopefully I will get one soon.

Are you wearing your thinking cap?

I just wanted to share something that was too cute to pass up. My Joshua was answering a jokle his sister was telling him, and the conversation went something like this:

Hailey: Josh, Why did the cow cross the road?
Josh: To get his milk!
Mommy: That was cute Josh good answer
Josh (as he is pointing to his head): That's because I have my thinking cap on Mom!

It made me laugh for a good few minutes. My son comes up with the cutest, abnormal little sayings, that MUST be why we love him so!

Step by Step

Well we are still going through boxes if you can believe it! We have a couple of what I thought were "decorative " themed boxes but lo and behold there are still magical things that appear that I forgot I had! Besides finding a new discovery, we are just going through the same old, same old...Hailey is testing at school, Josh is growing bigger everyday it seems like; he was just in a size 3T and now his shirts are just starting to fit to snug, and his church pants are little high-waters. The twins are getting into EVERYTHING!! They are starting to be harder than Josh to maintain, (if you can believe that!) They have stubborn tendencies, and little temper tantrums (one more so than the other) which just proves the theory that no child is alike in everything... even twins!

Where are those eggs?

Aloha Everyone and Happy Easter!

We were able to finally hide eggs outside for the first time, so the kiddos had alot of fun finding them early this morning. On another note, we finally started a garden and planted some flowers in the front yard. There are some pictures of that too. Enjoy your day and remember that Christ is the reason for everything!

The Easter Bunny hid a couple in the Jeep and Josh found them.

The girls weren't quite sure what to do....

But then they got it!

This is our tomato plants we started...hopefully they last!

This replaced a really ugly tree that was growing sideways,

we dug it up and planted these flowers, I am very impressed

with my hubby for knowing what to do!

Have a great and memorable day!

Happy Easter with much love,

David, Brandi, Hailey, Joshua, Avery and Audrey

Spoke too soon

Of course because I boasted that everything was fine and dandy, something was going to happen, right? I cut, errr rather SLICED my right ring finger down to the muscle. I can't even blame it on not knowing, rather just pure ignorance on my part...here is how those painful 22 minutes went in a two minute summary:

I was getting all ready to start dinner early, I even decided to make a NEW side dish that I invented that sounded good, so I get everything out hastily because I know I only have about 20 minutes before the three younger ones wake up from their nap, so I bust out my Pampered Chef slicer/dicer/thing-a-majiggy and start slicing the potatoes. Needless to say I didn't have the guard on the potatoes, and was wondering how I could cut them down without cutting my fingers and then SLICE! I didn't even realize I did it until I saw the blood in the pan, so I went to go run it under water, and if any of you have ever ripped a fingernail off you know that it is excruciating pain! Needless to say I wrapped my finger in a towel and held it over my head thinking what an idiot I am, and let's say about 10-12 minutes later when it didn't stop bleeding, I called my neighbor (did I mention David was at work? Figures right?) She said she needed to look at it, I didn't even know if I could get stitches because I sliced the skin straight off, so there was nothing to stitch together. Well she came, and we ended up asking the neighbor guy, (he is always home) and he brought over hydrogen peroxide and gauze and tape and said "Yup, you certainly cut the meat straight off your finger, it will take awhile to heal, but your finger will eventually look normal again." I thought again? How bad does it look? So I took a gander at it, and what I saw was not a pretty sight! It looked o.k. until you looked at it straight on and the roundness of my finger was COMPLETELY gone! It was cut at a diagonal down past my fingernail, and took some of nail with it.
So after about another 10 minutes and three gauze patches later it finally stopped. When David got home he asked me what the heck did I do, I told him he said "Why didn't you use the guard?" That is the only way I knew it even came with one! How lame am I? I obviously wasn't paying attention and in a hurry, so here is my ignorance turning into a deformed finger! Yeah me!

On a much better note, my son age 4 years and almost 5 months finally pooped in the potty! He has been able to wee-wee in it for quite some time and refused to poop due to Nemo going down the tunnel.

We bribed, and I mean Bribed my son to try and he wouldn't. We tried telling him he would get a toy, no deal. My husband took him into the bathroom with him and showed him he didn't go anywhere, no dice. He was so smart that he would go in his underwear and then he would touch the poop, put the poop in the potty, change his underwear, and then tell us he went in the potty! We caught him doing this once, so then he knew he couldn't get away with it anymore. We held him on the potty and made him sit there for up to 35 minutes and the second he got off he hid and went. We told him no more chocolate milk until he pooped in the potty. We told him he didn't have to take a nap if he went in the potty Nope, nada, nothing. Man is he stubborn! ( I can't imagine where he got that from!) Then today, he had to go and we knew it
David took Hailey and Josh on a hike, and Josh was holding his bum saying it hurt, they went on another errand and Josh still said he had to go but was scared...then the unthinkable happened..he went! And it was the biggest, longest, hardest poop ever! (David of course took a picture with his phone!) My poor, BIG BOY, took a poop for the first time and it hurt him! I felt so bad for him, well then he came home and went again, and again, and again! We are sooooo proud of him, and hopefully this means a trip to the toy store, if he continues this for a couple more days!


Anyway these incidences were in a matter of two days, so hopefully the rest of this weekend will be a bit more pleasant watching conference. Hope everyone is doing well, and we as always miss you guys.

Nothing is a good thing....

So I actually have a week of nothing going on..cross my fingers I don't jinks myself; but I cannot think back to a time where we weren't sick, had family come, be bombarded with obligations, etc. I am glad to announce that nothing is happening!