Jackson turns 2!!

 This crazy, fun, sweet kid has turned 2!!

He has been up to and into EVERYthing!

He loves to do things on his own and when he wants to do something, he does it!

Hence, he's on the couch with our wedding album. It weighs almost as much has he does but he is determined to look at so he does!

We turned his car seat around right before we drove to Minnesota for Christmas (that post to come later.)

He LOVES it. And he LOVED being able to relax and watch movies on the 2 day car ride!

 He got bored being around kids that were all way older than him, he wanted to do something he liked, so while we were in MN, he watched his beloved Bubble Guppies on the portable dvd player we had courtesy of my parents :)

 Jackson doesn't like the sun in his eyes so he wore my sunglasses on the trip home!

 Jackson got a cozy coupe for his birthday and LOVES it.

 My little man is leaving that blasted sippy cup behind and graduating on to a regular, big boy cup!

 He couldn't wait for his birthday cake...Mmmmmm.

 He blew out his candle no problem, even though Emma thought she has to help him.

 Jackson got lots of practice opening up presents at Christmas and dove right in when presents were put in front of him.

 Jackson likes to paint and did a GREAT job on his water colored monkey.

 He'd rather not use a paint brush....

 Jackson is one of my superheroes!

 Jackson got a belated birthday present in a big box he was excited to open

 A Bubble Guppies chair to read in...ahh, the excitement!

 After all that excitement, he was carried up the stairs in the big box

 Jackson has really become quite independent and I'm not sure how much I like it. Today, he insisted on zipping his own jacket.

The BEST independent thing he's done, so far, is insisting on carrying the 6 pound bag of pretzels we donated to our nursery into church last Sunday! He was determined to do it himself and he DID! I jhust wish I would have had my camera to take a picture for everyone to see.

Man, I love this kid and his fun personality.

Last night, while we were watching the animated Book of Mormon on the Mormon Channel, Jackson had a book with animals in it. He found the sheep and bleated, "BAAA!" super loud, followed quickly by the rooster crowing. 4 hours later I was still laughing about it. Not long after that, he slid off the bed and landed on his face. He wasn't hurt, in fact, he thought it was so fun, he did it again, this time with a, "WEEE!"

The kids' Sunday before Christmas picture

 The BEST one! (above)

The funny one! (below)

 My favorite one! (below)

My kids looked so cute the Sunday before Christmas! I just had to take pictures.

Really, though, my kids look cute all the time.

We decorated our Christmas tree

 For FHE a couple of weeks ago, we decorated our tree, after a GREAT lesson on Christ's birth by Mr Ethan!

We had a fun time!

 Merry Christmas!

Love, Ethan, Emma, and Jackson

(Mike and Karen too)

Family pictures 2013

We had our family pictures taken a few weeks ago.

I LOVE them and was very anxious to get some up on our walls.

That's DONE!

Here are a few of my very favorites.

(If you want to see them all, and they are all FABULOUS, let me know.)

We need to get this on a BIG canvas, I just have to figure out where to put it or where to put the pictures it will replace!

Wednesday...the last day!

Our last day in Hawaii was a long one! We checked out of our hotel and left for the day, our flight home wasn't until 9:00 pm so we had all day!

We decided to go check out Iolani Palace, where the Hawaiian Kings and Queens used to live. The only palace where kings and queens ruled that is on American soil. Sadly, I have no pictures from there because you can't take flashed pictures inside the palace. But if you google "Iolani Palace," you will see everything we saw and the colors are more vibrant than in the palace, for real.

There are some huge trees that Mike wanted a picture in front of, so here he is!

 After Iolani Palace, we went to lunch and a movie. The movie theater wasn't too far from the palace so we headed there to park and there was a Costco across the parking lot and that sounded yummy for lunch so as lame as it sounds, we went to Costco for lunch!

We saw "Captain Phillips" and it a great movie.

After the movie, we headed to the airport to return our rental car, check in, and get something for dinner. I was exhausted by the end of the day and all I wanted to do was sleep.

Our last picture in Hawaii...this trip!

I don't sleep well on planes so I took a Tylenol pm. I remember the fight attendants coming around with drinks and that's all. I didn't feel like I slept well at all, but when I woke up, I checked the status on how far out we were, and we were just over an hour from SLC. That means I got a good 3-4 hours of sleep. Well, not "good" but I slept. We landed at 6:40 am and I was glad to be home.  I missed my kids and was very anxious to see them. Mike got home, showered, dressed, and was off to work. I hung out and did load after load after load of laundry. Looking at all my laundry, I knew that that was the reason I do a small load every day so I don't have a TON to do all at once. It was overwhelming and made me cry...almost...maybe it was the sleep deprivation!

Hawaii, you were good to us! Thanks for the memories and thank you Mike for the awesome trip to celebrate a WONDERFUL 10 years together. Someday, Hawaii, we will return.

And a HUGE thanks to my parents for taking great care of our kids while we were gone!

Tuesday

Tuesday we headed off to the Waimea Valley and Waimea Falls!

On the way we passed "Queen Emma Street," we'd passed it before so I knew it was coming so I got my camera ready.

 I figured my Emma would get a kick out of it, after all, she does want to be a princess!

Waimea Valley is so pretty. I'm sure you've seen it in movies. "Joe Versus the Volcano," "Journey 2," "Chimpmunks, Chipwrecked," "Lilo and Stitch," just to name a few and the movies I've seen and heard of.

Lily pads

 This tree is called a Cannon Ball Fruit Tree. The fruit is not good for you but the flower is pretty

 I forget what kind of bird this is but they are endangered, there are like 500 left in existence, and we saw many of them.

 Can't go to Hawaii and not put a flower in your hair!

 This is a replica of the huts the natives lived in

 Mike's turn

 The hike to the falls isn't really a hike. It's a paved road, not hard at all. It's 3/4 a mile and if you go straight there, it'll take ya 30 minutes. We wandered off the path and explored so it took us at least an hour to get there, but when we did, it was AMAZING!

 The pool at the base of the falls you can swim in. You have to wear a life jacket cause there is a sudden 30 foot drop. The water is brisk but felt really good after a walk in the sun.

We made a deal with a family that we'd take their picture if they'd take ours!

 Just a pretty flower we found on the walk back from the falls.

 On our way back, we stopped at another beach on the North Shore. This one was not for swimming, the waves were crazy and the rocks were jagged, but oh so pretty.

 Funny story, Mike was exploring on the rocks and found some crabs running around. He asked me for the camera to take some pictures, but instead, a wave crashed up on the rocks and got him soaked!

 This just reminds me of a postcard

 We passed Queen Emma Street again too!  This time from a different way.