happy new year!

kalia practicing with her new mini pink fishing pole

the girls at zach's birthday party
maya wants the hat, she doesn't realize there's one on her head!

maya and her friend solei

flemings on new years eve

erik's firework show at flemings
kalia & adrienne & joel in background

our little pyro

new years day at kaanapali

new years day at leilani's
erik had to work, so the girls and i beached it and then we went to have lunch at daddy's work.

maya loving her oyster crackers!

ironwood on kona wind day

a big hole

Wishing everyone a wonderful and happy 2010! Wow, it's already feeling like it's going to be a good year. We ended the year with an evening at flemings beach with the girls and met some friends for erik's second annual $10 fireworks show and it was a lot of fun. Kalia was our little pyro and was all over the sparklers - even two at a time! Then home for some dinner, more sparklers and we were all sleeping by 10:15pm. I know, we didn't even make it to midnight. Hey, we've been working hard and have two young kids -- we need our sleep!

New Year's day erik worked and I just felt like we had to spend the day at the beach. So I took the ladies to Kaanapali Beach and then we went to Leilani's for lunch with daddy. Kalia sat in her usual spot at the end of the bar (see above photo with new year's gear on) and maya enjoyed lunch in her stroller - very fun day! So I started off the year with a trip to the beach and have been to a different beach every day for the first 4 days of the year with the girls - very fun! Maya is getting better about not eating sand - she's been crawling all over the beach, making friends and charging as usual. Kalia has been loving getting tossed by the little waves and it's been managable taking both girls into the water, with help at times from the baby floaty. Anyway, I guess that will be my New Year's resolution-- more time enjoying the water/sand and playing with the girls. Trying to take things a little slower.

christmas day 2009

maya on finds her push & ride toy

kalia opening stocking gifts

maya got a hat & family photo album from santa!

maya wasn't feeling very well, but still managed to play

kalia on her new bike from santa, maya on kalia's new bike from santa

christmas morning rainbow

kalia 1st time on bike with rainbow

there she goes!

opening her scooter from papa

riding her scooter

morning action

opening books in skirt that tutu & grandpa got her and she wore all day

ooh, gonna eat you up maya!

maya in the street as usual

maya chasing her sister

mommy & maya

day after christmas, playing outside

Christmas morning was really fun. Maya woke up early and we played with her on the bed for a while- she wasn't feeling great, but got some nice cuddles in. Woke Kalia up and she went straight out to see if santa had eaten her cookies and declared that "there are cookie crumbs!". The reindeer outside had left quite a mess and their hoove marks had torn up the grass and there were cheerios everywhere - they are not neat eaters!

At first we thought this Christmas was going to be a repeat of last year and take two days to open presents, since Kalia was going very slowly at first. At one point she even got an old set of pop beads out of her room and started playing with them instead of her new things. She's totally weird, but by the end of the afternoon, she was even opening maya's unopened ones. Kalia was excited for her big girl bike and she was also excited for maya's push & ride toy - which she went to first! Maya has been taking about 10 steps pushing the push & ride toy and yesterday took 3 steps at our neighbors house!

As promised, Santa brought Kalia her nail polish in rainbow colors! Santa also placed candy canes all over the christmas tree to Kalia and Maya's delight. Maya has been pulling them off and Kalia has been disappearing to her room when we tell her that she can't have another one...with the candy cane.

The best gift I got for Christmas was that Erik watched the girls in the afternoon and I got to surf! I have to admit, I was tired and when Erik mentioned that earlier he had worn his wet suit shirt, I wasn't feeling too motivated. But what fun! So thanks Erik!

Kalia spent the rest of Christmas day switching outside between her bike and scooter. She said about her scooter, "I could do this every year!" and "It's easy". Since she's really not the athletic type, we are so proud of her just getting on both and going for it. Maya is ready to ride both the scooter and the bike and is obsessing over both. Kalia would gladly take a turn on Maya's push & ride.

christmas eve

maya was sick and was very cuddly,
she never sits still like this!

princess maya

santa hat

maui hendricksons on christmas eve
a little horseshoes

the girls with uncle greg

uncle greg, alana, kalia

tanner helping kalia with her sprinkles

decorating cookies for santa

alana shows us how it's done

serious cookie decorating

Christmas eve was fun - erik surfed, I finished some last minute shopping and we got ready to have uncle greg, alana & tanner over. We had a nice afternoon snacking, playing horseshoes and playing with the kids. We had "fatties", a specialty of erik's family for dinner and then afterwards exchanged some gifts and decorated cookies for santa. Everyone really got into the cookie decorating - I did hear some a person or two ask kalia, "who's snowman is better?" "what about this christmas tree - isn't this one the best?".

After everyone left, kalia picked out the 3 cookies she wanted to leave for santa, the glass of milk and which cup she wanted to give him. Then she wanted 4 bowls of cheerios for the reindeer- they get very hungry! But they needed to share. The girls were asleep early, wish I could say the same for erik and I, we had work to do!

pre- christmas festivities

friends zach & joel came over for card making and wagon riding

everyone eats blueberry muffins!

erik's leilani's manager boat party

great whale show with baby breeching 2 dozen times!

getting comfy on the boat

kalia signature look

maya signature look

kids at story time

Just catching up on some photos - girls have been sick!

maya vacuum video

One morning maya was playing with kalia's vacuum - I guess she was watching her sister do it!

holiday fun

maya at honolua bay during "swell of the century" - it was all set up for the Billabong Pro
maya had so much fun getting dirty and making friends with everyone around her.

kalia has been loving playing with all the christmas decorations,
here she is playing with a toy soldier mom made years ago.

putting the starfish on top of the tree,
kalia kept saying that we need a star for the top and we kept
saying we needed to get one, we didn't have one - then we found this one with
the ornaments. of course, we haven't heard the end of it "i was right and you guys
were wrong - we did have a star".

decorating

kalia & the tree

kids during PACT gift wrap party at scarlett's house

maya making her escape

the babies

keiki christmas party - story time

our christmas photo

So kalia is officially daddy's girl. Today we had a total meltdown out of the blue, "i want daddy" - and I was told, "you can go to work and daddy can stay with us." I am also "not a nice mommy". What the heck? And Maya will go up to anyone and let them pick her up. I never thought I would miss my little opihi baby - but what the heck? What about mommy?

I have been going down to work the last couple nights and maya goes down fine with daddy and kalia is thrilled. I am happy that Maya will go down with her routine so easily, but doesn't anyone miss me? We went to Leilani's today to see daddy, since kalia was missing him so horribly and to give her incentive to go peacefully to the post office to mail gifts. When I told erik about the crying for daddy and the mommy go to work comment, he couldn't help himself - he was totally smiling!

So for anyone who doesn't know, my sister, Lauren is having a baby! Due first week of May and it's a boy!!!! Our first boy. She's claiming that she's broken the curse-- my parents had two girls and now we have two girls. A boy! I am so excited!!!!

Maya is definitely a handful - she is non-stop, but she is just so good natured. She is quite the "fireball" as my friend told me the other day. Today for the first time, when she was going to eat a handful of dried grass and I said, "no, not for your mouth", she actually didn't put it in her mouth!!!! This is huge, she usually compulsively puts everything disgusting and gross in her mouth. She's also been flushing the toilet. Maya also climbs up the slide at the park now.

Let's see, kalia has been really cute about the santa. She told me the other day that "Santa has a naughty list and candy canes." What about the nice list? I guess maybe I only mentioned the one list... She's also been saying things like, "It's a long time to wait until Christmas."

Last week we had a very busy week - gift wrap party for donations to PACT/story time, mom's night out, cookie decoration, double birthday party and keiki christmas party and then we had friends over to make cards. This week, erik and I have been doing total trade off with the kids and work. So yesterday, while Kalia was in school I took maya for marathon shopping - since we are so behind! Maya rocked it! So we just cruised pretty much today- besides the post office & lunch at lei's. Kalia wore her "birthday girl" tiara all day today and everyone asked her if it was her birthday, she was confused, "no, i'm just a princess".

the end for now.