Christmas is coming!!!!

Can you believe it is December already and Christmas will be here quicker than we know it.

The day after Thanksgiving we set up the Christmas Tree. The kids helped Greg fluff it while I was cooking dinner. After that I took an hour trying to figure out the lights. You can't just plug each plug in they have to be plugged in the right one to work. It was a pain in the butt. Once we got it all figured out we started decorating. The kids helped put ornaments on. Kaidyn got bored of it quick, but Tailyn had a blast.

Fluffing the tree, the kids really didn't do much, but they thought they were helping

Decorating

I love her little fingers

trying to get Tailyn to put up the angel, she was scared

Our yearly ornament exchange from my bg buddies. We started doing this all of our kids second Christmas and hopefully we'll do it for years and years to come. We now include our other kids if we would like and since I don't have a group that does this with Tailyn I include her.

Tuesday we went to our favorite Gardens for pictures in our Christmas outfits for Christmas cards. Hopefully this year they are sent out on time and not after Christmas lol.

Tailyn just doesn't cooperate for pictures anymore. You have to catch her on the go to get anything good. This is why I got ONE good one of her and NO good ones of them together. Kaidyn is really good, poses for me, kind of smiles, he still has his goofy forced smile sometimes and continues to take pictures till I tell him he is done. 

this is the best I got of them together. Not great

This is my ok picture I got of her.

SO the diapers we use while out have two inserts so they'll last a little longer and her pants don't go all the way up over them LOL. 

Kaidyn and his friend Cassie

This year I decided to do an advent calender and continue it as a new tradition for us. I wanted to sew a cool one, but finding holiday themed material here isn't exactly easy, finding it for a descent price is even harder. So I decided to keep it easy and have the kids help me. I decided a chain for this year with some cute Christmas paper I have. I don't want to do any sort of gifts for them so I planned an activity for each night of December. Our list of activities are-

Dec 1- Make eggnog milkshakes and watch a Christmas movie
Dec 2- Write letters to Santa
Dec 3- Paint Christmas wood cutouts
Dec 4- Make paper snowflakes and decorate the house with them
Dec 5- Hot coco with Christmas marshmallows and a candy cane. Watch a Christmas movie
Dec 6- Decorate Christmas cards
Dec 7-Color Christmas theme pictures
Dec 8- Take the kids Christmas shopping for each other
Dec 9- Watch all three Santa Claus movies and have popcorn and other snacks
Dec 10- Make Christmas sugar cookies
Dec 11- Bring cookies and goodies to friends
Dec 12- Read the Polar Express and make jingle bell necklaces
Dec 13- Watch the Polar Express and snack on cookies
Dec 14- Make snow globes
Dec 15- Take cookies and goodies to the Fire Department
Dec 16- Visit Santa at the mall and ride the train
Dec 17- Go see the lights and displays at the City Hall
Dec 18- Make a Christmas wreath
Dec 19- Walk around to see Christmas lights
Dec 20- Read the Forgotten Carols and place ornaments on a small tree
Dec 21- Watch the Forgotten Carols
Dec 22- Make a ginger bread house
Dec 23- Pizza and a Christmas movie
Dec 24- Make Santa cookies and unwrap one gift before bed

Along with this we have our 24 Days of Christmas stories to read each night too. If you want to check it out go here.

Tailyn got to help me make the chain and Kaidyn did not because he didn't get his room cleaned like he was supposed to. He went to sleep instead.

I started with glue and then just stapled, much easier

once we were done she tried to tear it apart. Last night I went to bed before her and I woke up to find it all torn apart. KIDS

5 years!!!

November 25 was our 5th year wedding anniversary. I can't believe it's been 5 years, it hasn't seemed that long. We've never really been able to celebrate and do anything together. We usually go out to eat as a family and last year I got a sitter another day while we went to dinner. I wanted to do something just the two of us for a change. Date nights are far and few between and we hardly get out just the two of us to do anything. I wanted a whole day to spend together, but with most of my friends husbands soon deploying I didn't want to take away on their family days so we were able to get my friend to watch them the next day while her husband was on duty.

Our original plans were to kayak to the Mokulua Islands and explore a bit. I woke up got everything ready and then realized it wasn't getting sunny and decided to check the weather. Chance of rain with high surf and wind. Not exactly the best conditions for inexperienced kayakers. So I was off to figure out something else. We decided on going to Sharks Cove in North Shore and snorkel. The weather was supposed to be better over there. We got ready and headed out. It rained on the way and I was worried it wouldn't stop. We got there and walked down to the water. It was extremely windy and cloudy, but we went snorkeling.

The water was pretty murky and extremely choppy, but we were able to swim around and find fish to follow. We saw quite a few, got cut up on some rocks and spent a few hours in the water before deciding it was to stinkin cold and got out.

After that we went home, showered and Greg cooked dinner for us. We at diner watched some TV and then decided we should go get the kids.

We had a good time and it was so nice to spend time together.

We took a small camera and put it in a case we bought. The pictures turned out pretty good descent.

 The one on the left was really pretty. I wish I got a better picture of him

and I'd add a wedding picture, but we recently reformatted the computer and I don't have any on it right now.