family fun

This is the NEW game that occupied hours of time

at our family get together on Sunday.

If you haven't played UNO ATTACK you gotta try it.

It is addicting and great family fun!

I think WE are going to have to get it!!All the Hanamaikai siblings got together at Quinn's moms

for dinner Sunday, for a farewell to Kaleo & Lori.

They are moving to Texas. She is from there and they

did live there for a short time a while back.

But they have both got great job opportunities with

their current employer, to transfer there.

It will be a great opportunity for them and they

are really excited! It is sad for the Hanamaikai

Family. Not many have ventured away from Utah

(besides us). But everyone is very supportive and

know it will be great for them, as are we.

Hanamaikai get togethers are always full of lots

of FUN, FOOD, LAUGHTER, and CRAZINESS.

It was perfect weather and we spent the whole

afternoon/evening relaxing outdoors, while the

kids ran wild and had a blast!

Backtrack...what fun!

I don't have any pictures for this one, but I just wanted to tell THE GIRLS what a fun time I had on Thursday night. My sister Karli, Sis-in-laws LeAnne and Debbie all met for dinner and had a great 3 hour conversation-full of laughs, tears, advice, news, and so much more! With NO kids!!! Thanks to our hubbies for watching/babysitting so we could have a girls night out.

Debbie was here visiting from Cali, because she was running in the Salt Lake Marathon, with some of her family. I soooo admire her ambition and I hope to ONE DAY have the drive to do something like that! (I would even be proud of myself to do a 1/2 marathon)

Way to go Debbie

AND thanks again girls for a fun night out!

the MOVIE they've all been waiting for

Friday, Quinn's sister Haruko and I met in SLC

to take the cousins to see THE movie.

I was actually pleasantly surprised that is was a good as it was.

No Oscar, but a cute wholesome movie.

It was good we waited a week to see it,

cuz I think there was a total of like 15 people

at the 3:30 showing we went to and we were half of that 15. Quinn's sister is WAY into the movie!

As you can kinf of see she is texting :)

(I actually think this was the previews)

Olivia (5), Ella (7), Ame and Kaipo.
All of them were either eating, drinking or dancing and singing through the WHOLE movie.
It was fun to see them all so excited!

Easter Day

There was no BUNNY received this year,

but the kids were prepped for that so we didn't

have too much disappointment.

They were pleasantly pleased with the simple things

they got, so our Easter Sunday started off well.
Out of the 20+ pictures we took of the kids
these 2 are the best shots we got.
And don't they look charming???

After church we headed to Logan to spent the

rest of the day at my brother Jason's home.

We had a relaxing afternoon playing, talking and just

having a good time with family (Karli and her fam came as well).

Without fail we had a fantastic dinner

(if only we would have had some corn, haha-Kar).

But of course dinner couldn't get over fast enough

for the kids, so they could begin....

THE HUNT

LeAnne's creativity brought all sorts of fun to this

Easter Egg Hunt. Each kid was assigned a certain color

egg to find, as well as other BONUS eggs.

And they're off...

Of course Ash was easy to please

and would stop to enjoy the treats inside each egg

as he found them.

Of course Ame was in it for the WIN.

Kaipo didn't like being assigned to the color

PINK, but with only one girl (who was assigned to purple)

to really find eggs somebody had to go for the pink. Didn't take long

for him to get over the color issue though.

And here's cute little Ella havin' some fun

Don't they have a such a beautiful BIG backyard?!

Just perfect for the hunt!

and here HE is again, enjoying the goods

Ryan and Ame sorting and counting

3 loving, bundles of JOY

So, the fun wasn't over with the hunt.

LeAnne's family tradition is to have a

Easter Store, where the kids can trade

their eggs for prizes. LeAnne was so good

to think of everyone and what they would

like. This was just as fun I think as the

actual hunt for the kids.

And the less candy the better I SAY!

To Jason and LeAnne thank you so much for your

hospitality and generosity. We so enjoy our time

together with you and your family. We look forward

to MANY more good times to come.

*******************************

Our family is so blessed and we feel so thankful for the love

of family and wonderful friends. We are even more

grateful to our Savior for his tremendous sacrifice and

overwhelming, endless amounts of love.

Life is good, full of happiness and many surprises!

One last picture from our hunt at the park on

Saturday. The fun just keeps going and going...

the Show

Ame looked forward to THIS all week!

We had a date to the Salt Lake Ballet production of

Alice in Wonderland.

It was at the Eqyptian Theatre here in Ogden.

This theatre is really old, but quite neat.
We were in our up-close seats a half hour b4 the show started,
which was a long time for this girl to WAIT...

and WAIT! But finally it started. Unfortunately there

was no picture taking once the performance began.

I was pretty impressed at how well done of a show it was.

But I really don't know what was more entertaining-

watching the show, or watching my girl

filled with so much excitment and totally mesmorized by the

performance! This was true joy,

just watching her sincerely & completely happy.

She said afterwards, that it was BETTER than

she thought it would be and she thanked me

about a million times throughout the show

for bringing her on a date to THIS show!!

THAT was about the best $20 I have spent in

a LONG time!!

*oh how I cherish THESE times together*

feeling uncreative

Since THIS mom has decided against a Bunny for the kids, for Easter (or any time soon for that matter), I am feeling uncreative as to what to get instead. I feel since they aren't getting what they'd SOO hoped for, I have to come up with something great instead. I know Easter is not about gifts, and I should be teaching my kids that, but it isn't quite that easy. Do you think dad has taken one thought about any of this?? Of course not! This is just one more thing that is ALL ON MOM. So if anyone has a creative/fun idea to throw my way, I am very open to suggestions :)

gotta LOVE this

Ame was anxious to have a grapefuit, and needed a sprinkle of sugar on it. Of course she couldn't wait for mom to get down the newly filled/completely FULL tub of sugar, so she thought she would be helpful and get it down from the top shelf of the pantry all by herself. I heard a crash and a I didn't mean to do it!!! Only to come out and find THIS fun mess all over my kitchen floor. Of course I reacted without stopping to take a deap breathe. But to my defense we did need to leave for dance class in like 10 minutes and we were already running late. I wasn't planning to sweep the kitchen twice (not even once) b4 we left. QUinn's response in passing as we left and he returned home, was its OK she doesn't do things like this very often. If only I had had the same response. Of course it is easy to respond that way when you are not IN the moment and have to actually clean up the mess, while running late. Once again, this mom learned she is all too quick to react negatively, in stressful situations. Ame WAS only trying to be helpful. How would YOU have reacted????

house progress

Here is our NEW home in progress.

We hadn't been there for a few weeks,

and when we were there last all that

we saw was the foundation. So we were pleasantly

surprised when we went for our frame tour

this past week and saw this much finished!

Exciting to see it take shape.

They were starting shingles on the roof this week,

and sheet rock inside on Monday.

Stucco coming soon as well.

We will continue posts of the progress,

especially for grandma and grandpa :)

who are to far away to see it up close.

to STAY or to GO

The question is when you have this many yummy treats sitting in your kitchen, what do you do with it all? A lemon cake, homemade chocolate pie, mint cookies (from my VT) and left over cupcakes from Ash's party. It's just so hard for me to just throw any of it out!

And if all this isn't enough, Quinn brings home a box of fudge, from one of his hometeaching families. I just don't have the will power to throw it all away. I wish a little fairy would come in the night and get rid of it, since I can' t seem to do it!!!

A Logan Party

Unfortunately I didn't take very many pics from our trip to Logan

(I think LeAnne was better at picture taking than I was).

We finally made it up to see my brother Jason's family

and their new home in Logan. They have a beautiful home

that they have redone quite a bit and changed to look fantastic!

We hung out for a bit and then LeAnne invited the neighbor boys

over to babysit, got some pizza's for the kids and then us ADULTS

went out to dinner @ the fabulous Cafe Sabor.

Then we picked up an ice cream cake to celebrate one last time,

for our Ashy Boy.

Jason and LeAnne-

thanks for the wonderful hospitality, great conversation,

and celebrating a little with us.

And Ash thanks you for the present...

the potato heads are a BIG hit, even more so with the older two :)

forgot this one

I had to include this picture.

It was funny I was looking for Ash and found him with QUinn doing THIS...right up his alley. Ball heaven for this little guy! Such a funny shot!!!

our baby is NO BABY anymore!

Our favorite thing to call Ash has been,

baby ASH.

but THAT won't fly anymore, because our boy is 2 now!

We started off the day with (what else)

donuts.

Ash is funny because he gets all excited

to have it in front of him,

but then he hardly even eats it.

That is generally the same with all sweet treat.

After the kids got home from school and

we had lunch & play time at the Del Taco,

(because it has a playland), and wasn't McD's

we came home to

OPEN PRESENTS
gifts at this age are somewhat, especially when you already have a boy and girl (who have too many toys as it is). What do you add to the collection? Mom thought of a few things that ASH just LOVED!
ANYTHING mickey mouse made him smile :)
He also got a trike,

a basketball hoop

he is all about balls!!!

Later in the day we headed to

Jungle Jim's with some of QUinn's family.

Ash LOVED all the rides

even the roller coaster.

I wasn't sure about this one, because it does go pretty fast.

You can't see his expression on his face, but he was laughing and thought it was soo fun!

some of the rides were hard to get a clear shot of, as they zoomed by.

oh what fun

And what else for dessert, but Mickey Mouse cupcakes

Fun for all!

another GREAT lesson from Ame

After a lesson in Primary, Ame wanted to make her OWN lesson for FHE, to teach us what she learned. This is what she wrote. What a thoughtful lesson, with interesting detail. I am so glad she LOVES to do things like this, and wants to teach all of us such important concepts. What an incredible example AND big sister!

going back a bit...st patrick's day

So I was downloading pics from my camera and realized I haven't updated happenings around here for a while, so this is a bit of our St Patrick's Day WILD celebrations. I was actually watching my friends kids that day, so I tried to be a little creative (for the kids sake). There are endless possibilites with GREEN food coloring :) But mine were pretty pathetic! GREEN jello, bagels with GREEN cream cheese, GREEN leprechan drink, GREEN grapes, rainbow fish
and GREEN rice crispy treats with rainbow sprinkles.

THAT was our green fun,

expect for the surprise Kaipo found when he went potty the next day:)

turning a new leaf

Well, I'm gonna do it...

Masters of Education, in Learning and Technology

starting April 1st.

I'm nervous to go back to school, it's been soo long and to do an online program makes me even more scared. But Quinn has persuaded me and I'm just gonna do it! He convinced me it was a good time to get my Master's and with half tuition, it was hard to pass up the opportunity.
When I do decide to go back to teaching, this kind of knowledge (in technology) will be such a valuable insight to stengthen my teaching ability. Who knows where else a Master's Degree could take me, someday???
*WISH ME LUCK*

Her VERY own

Ame has been quite the $$ hagler. She has sold some old toys and has just saved money given to her by the toothfairy, allowance, and gift money. One of the things she sold was her old LITTLE bike. She thought she was too grown up for the princess bike, plus it was a smaller bike. And now she has a new bike that she bought all on her own. She was very excited and quite proud! The bike happen to have a sticker on it that said Amethyst (I guess cuz it was purple). Right away she recognized HER name in that word, so we carefully peeled off the extra letters, and now her bike is even personalized just for AME.