hey family and friends, we just came back from a trip to...

DISNEYLAND!

We arrived in LAX in the afternoon and met Papa, Nana and the Taylor's at the hotel in Anaheim in the early evening. Julie was so excited to be near Disney that we had to go that very night! We are in line for a ride watching the fireworks show. The next morning we were off to California Adventure Land! Drew and Alyssa had a blast getting each other wet!

Drew even drove a car for the first time!

The cousins had a blast everywhere we went! Little Cameron couldn't go on too many rides,

but he loved the merry go round!

And he did brave some some pretty scary ones! That ferris wheel went up super high and it had a double action slide that sent the cart back and forth as well!

Papa was also nice enough to give him some fun rides of his own!

Julie liked the screamer so much she went for a third spin on her own! That ride was awesome! (btw, not me behind her, another frowning Asian! :))

Our little animal lover Drew's favorite ride of em all? Jungle Cruise of course! He must have rode it five or so times!

part 2 of our trip was a visit to cousin Josh at Universal Studios and then to a 3 night cruise to Mexico with the Pfeifer Family reunion. to be continued... soon... we promise!

Moving Day

Sorry, first of all, for not making a post in such a long time. For all of you that are not aware, we sold our house, bought a new house, and are moving into a rental property while we do some remodeling on the new place. Needless to say, a lot of things have been going on for us, but all are good things.

Everything is getting moved to a storage unit this weekend and then we are off to spend a week in Waikiki (thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Sumile) before moving into our rental. The first half of the week will be me, Grant, and the boys (w/grandma and grandpa next door) and then the second half of the week Grant will be off island on his muchly deserved annual golf trip with his boys. It sure will be nice to have Ray and Hazel right next door to help me while he is gone.

Above are just a couple pictures I've taken during our packing. Grant and Drew took apart our jungle gym last weekend and Drew reconfigured the pieces in our yard to make an obstacle course. The next day water had accumulated in the slide and the boys made it into a make-shift pool. It was so cute.....I bet they played for over an hour in there.

The boys have really enjoyed packing boxes with me as we have turned it into a game and Drew is sooooo excited to move to our new place.

I want to conclude by thanking Ray and Hazel for all of their help with the boys while we packed. We couldn't have done it without you!

He Walks!... okay, He steps!!

Just a quick message to let you all know Cameron took his first unsupported steps tonight! Unfortunately, Julie went to Dream Dinners to put together some dinners for the family so she missed it! The little guy has been able to stand unsupported for awhile now and tonite he was playing and kept standing on the couch and laughing when he did it. So I put him on the rug and he got up and stood for a little while smiling then took three steps to me before dropping to the ground! He did it two more times before getting tired of it. Hooray for the little chumster! Grant

The Zoo

For those of you who don't already know, I recently led a Baby Hui group of 6 moms and babies. I participated in a group when Drew was a baby and had such a great experience and met so many new friends, that I decided I wanted to do it again with Cameron. Here are some pictures of my Hui group at the Honolulu Zoo this past Friday.

one green dollar!

Hi all, this is Grant writing for the first time. This morning we started Drew on chores and an allowance! He has been helping us with little things for awhile and always wants to help out when we are cleaning or groceries and stuff. I was thinking he was ready for chores to start learning to be responsible and after we read up on some literature from the Baby Hui, Julie and I agreed that he was ready to start! We are starting by giving him small tasks (like picking up leaves this morning) and making it fun and giving him a quick correlation from work to reward by paying him after he completes the tasks. As time goes by we will work him back to a daily then weekly allowance. He knows the concept of money already since we have him give the money when we get him something at the store. Now he can learn the concept of saving up to get something he wants! We will start the chores with little things daily that Julie needs assistance with and eventually get him some set things he can be responsible for. Main thing for us is to make it positive and fun for him so he thinks positively about being responsible and helpful. I talked with him about it this morning and he was excited about the idea! The pictures are him with his very FIRST earned dollar after he finished picking up the leaves outside! The second picture is his money box. I helped him some, but he did most and we made sure he did a good, complete job then he got his mula! Good job to little Drew-Drew!

Boob Guy

Today has been a very tough day on Cameron. I have decided to wean him. Actually, I've been trying to wean him for the last couple of weeks, but he is quite the boob guy and also quite the manupulator knowing how to break down mommy everytime. Because my plan of gradually reducing the amount of feedings isn't working, I'm going to try to go cold turkey during the day and see if I can get him to forget about the boob. So it is now 12:30pm and I haven't nursed him since 5am. He was fine up until it was time for his nap at 10 and then he started yanking at my shirt like a crazed child. I didn't give in and was able to divert his attention with a pasta picnic outside. At 11 though he had a complete melt down. I pumped and tried to give him a bottle (fyi...he hasn't taken the bottle whether it be my milk or formula since he was maybe 3 weeks old). He was fooled at first and sucked about an ounce of milk before he realized what I was doing. He then started crying even harder and pushing the bottle away. I just kept cuddling him and tell him that it was night-night time, trying the bottle here and there with no luck, until he finally gave up and fell asleep in my arms. Oh ya, I left out the fact that I had myself wrapped up like a sardeen and then a robe on top of that so he couldn't feel my skin or smell the milk. Please say some prayers for us that this transition goes smoothly and that I have the strength to stay with it. And if anyone has any helpfull hints, I would love to hear them.

Mom, Dad, and Deanna..... I sure wish you were here to help me!

The pictures are from this last Sunday. Daddy didn't want to leave the house because there was an important game on TV so we emprovised to give mommy the sun and relaxation that she needed and activities outside to get the boys active. For the kids, we blew up the bouncy house and turned on the sprinkler. For Mommy, Daddy made her a margarita and we moved the lounge furniture from the enclosed lanai outside so she could get some sun while watching the kids. And for Daddy, he watched the game from the lounge chair outside at the same time he chased the kids around. Something for everyone.

Mommy and Daddy get a break!

Yesterday was a long, but fantastically fun-filled day! It all started at 10:30am with Grant and I dropping Drew and little Cam off at cousins' Pat and Wendy Odo's house. They have been offering to watch the boys for quite some time and we finally got over the guilt of accepting help and took them up on the offer....and boy am I glad we did! I have been wanting to go to the job site of one of Grant's big projects for probably about a year now and haven't been able to go with the kids since it is a dangerous construction site. Can I just say, my husband is so incredibly gifted! The house is like nothing I've ever seen including in design magazines! Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera, but I will be sure to post some pictures of it at a later date so you all can see. We then went for a quiet, peaceful, long (1 hour) lunch at Kona Brewery and then it was back to the Odo's house to pick up the boys with crossed fingers that they behaved themselves. They both had a fantastic time and really took to Wendy, Pat and Drew said after he wants to grow up big and strong like Sean!


The boys (Grant included) then passed out in the car for two hours while mommy shopped at the new Nordstroms at Ala Moana. When they woke up we went to Sean's last baseball game (he plays 2nd base for Iolani's jv team) where they won against Pac Five 3-2....congrats Sean! We ended the night at the Iolani school fair where Drew had fun playing games, going on carnival rides, and jumping in the bouncy houses. Cameron had fun people watching just like mommy likes to do.


We finally started back home at about 7:30pm with Drew begging from the back seat to go back to Aunty and Uncle's house. Thanks so much for giving us a much needed break Odo's!!!!