THE BIG 4....

Kalei turned 4 on January 26th. This year I gave her a choice, she could either have a birthday party, or go to Disney Princesses on Ice and invite 1 friend. Of course, she chose Disney on Ice and invited Quincy to go. We invited Grandma and Gigi to come along as well. So Friday, the day before her birthday the girls dressed up as princesses and we were off to see Disney Princess on Ice. Afterwards we joined up with Kanoe, Tilley and Conway for lunch at Oregano's and to indulge in their Pizzookie !! YUMMY!! :)




On Sunday, we celebrated with the family and sang Happy Birthday!! This year she chose to have a cookie bouqet for her Birthday cake which is what we had made a few days prior for her to take to school and share with everyone. It was a lot of fun and a hit of course.

Kalei is my big helper. I call her mother hen. She is always trying to be the mom to the little kids. In fact, just today she was putting Talan down for a nap in his "big bed" which was nice for me, if only he would just stay there. She loves to help cook, clean (most of the time) and play with her brother of course, and hold her little sister. She likes to ride her bike and has actually become quite well at it, which stresses me out not being able to keep up with her at times. She is our miracle child !! We love her and are grateful for her.

CAMEL RIDE ANYONE....

For MLK day we (Me, Grandma, Justin, Kalei, Talan, Naelani, Uncle Ben & Marley Girl) went to the zoo. If anyone knows Kalei she is afraid of heights and doesn't like to try new things.. As we were at the Tiger exhibit you could look down the hill and see that they were giving camel rides for $5 bucks. Of course, Uncle Ben likes to try and challenge and hype Kalei up to do crazy things knowing that there is no way in heck that she will. Well to everyones surprise she agreed to do the camel ride. Grandma in shock, agreed to pay for the ride, if it was to take place that is. I was so nervous for her.... her and her dad went and stood in line. I stood watching thinking to myself there is no way she is getting on that Camel. If so, then she will probably freak out and fall off or something. She basically showed all of us up. She got on that camel with very little hesitation and as you can see in the pictures loved it.

Kalei looks like she might be thinkin twice about this

Here she is enjoying her camel ride
Justin looks a little uncomfortable

UPDATE...

Naelani is a little more than 3 week old now. She has had a rough life so far. It all started with her catching RSV!! It was a little scary at times but are grateful it didn't get bad enough for her to be hospitalized. Now that she has overcome that hurdle in her life we are now focused on fattening her up. Due to her being sick she hasn't been gaining the weight she needs to, to be cleared off from the Pediatrician. Needless to say we have spent a lot of time at the doctors office doing weight & RSV checks. By her 2 week appointment she needed to be at least back up to her birth weight of 6.9, which she wasn't. So this past week we have increased her calorie intake as well as feeding her more often.

I am happy now to report that she has finally gained 10 ounces in 1 week. She now weighs a woppin 7.05 lbs and needs to gain equal if not more to 10 ounces this next week before her appointment on Monday. We are grateful for everyone's thoughts and prayers on her behalf and ask to continue praying for her health.

SHE IS HERE !!!

Naelani Leimomi Young

(neigh-la-nee) (leigh-mo-mee)
"the heavens" "lei of precious stones"

BORN: 12/28/2007 08:21 am
WEIGHT: 6lbs 9oz 19inches long

Naelani was born on our 8 year Anniversary!! I actually had a dream a couple weeks prior that it was going to be on our Anniversary so that's what everyone was planning.. kinda. I didn't think it would actually come true. Her original due date was January 6th. We are excited to have the extra tax credit for the year.. lol lol !!!

As you can see from the pictures she has a head of light brown/blonde hair. She has features of the other kids but I think she looks mostly like her dad !! It's been a challenging week so far dealing with the other kids being sick and trying to keep them away but she is a joy to have and brings such a sweet spirit in our home.

Justin was able to get permission to work from home the whole month of January (thanks to his boss for suggesting it ). So it will be nice to have some help for a while and hopefully make a smooth transition from 2-3 kids.

Kalei loves to hold her and Talan likes to laugh and point at her when she is crying or making noises. Here are some pictures from the day she was born and the day we brought her home.

OFF TO THE RACES....

My sister Malia and her husband Brad came down this year for Christmas. Brad's G-ma & G-pa raise horses and race them at the track in Phoenix. They invited us to come watch a couple of races that his Grandparents horses were going to be in. We packed the kids up and were off to the races. It was a lot of fun !! We did a couple $2 bets on G-pa's horses of course. They never won but came pretty darn close to. It was a lot of fun !! Kalei and Talan had a blast being so close to the horses when they ran the track. After watching the horses race they took us over to the stables where we were able to feed them carrots and peppermint candy!! All the walking up and down the stairs must of helped start the labor process (which wasn't much..lol) because I started having random contractions that night. Here are some pictures from the races....


FYI- To be a jockey I believe they said that the weight limit is 126 pounds. The smaller the better. You can't really tell but in the 2nd picture down you can see the jockey in the yellow jersey standing by the horse. He only weighed 110 lbs and wasn't super short either!!! That's crazy to me....

Talan, Justin & Kalei enjoying ice cream

Gpa, Kalei, Justin & Brad down in the circle where the horses are walked in order by # for everyone to see just before heading to the track. The horse in the back #1 is Gpa's horse. Kalei was excited that security let her through as long as daddy was holding her. The horses tend to get a little antsy to race and anything can happen.

This horse was 2nd to finish. This just shows how close we really were to the track.

Brad, Kalei, Justin & Talan at the horse stables

Justin, Talan, Malia, Kalei & Brad feeding the horses

CHRISTMAS EVE BASH....

Christmas Eve is my favorite time of year. All of our family gets together with everyone wearing their matching pajamas. We have lots of yummy food and of course do our x-mas eve traditions such as bunko, white elephant, prime rib and Luke II. This year my mom was in charge of the christmas program which was awesome. She based it around a story that I believe was published by Elder Faust. It was about a little boy who gave his dad his Good Turn Scout Diary for x-mas. In each corner of the page it had the initial "GT" which stood for Good Turn. Every day he would cross those initial off for doing a "good turn" or some act of kindness/service for the day. The diary was full of the past years worth of "good turns". She in turn gave us each our own little "good turn diary" to keep and remember to do each day. It was very spiritual and helped us to remember the true meaning of Christmas.

Kalei & Talan

Mommy, Kalei & Talan

Talan, Kalei & Marley

Before going to bed Kalei wanted to write Santa a note. The past couple of years we have spent the night at G-mas & Pa's house so we do christmas morning together. Now that we are just a couple blocks away we decided to sleep at home and go over in the morning. So Kalei wanted to write Santa to let him know that he needed to take the presents to Grandma's house. It was so cute... Justin wrote it verbatam...this is what is says if you can't red it in the picture..."Dear Santa, Can you help me (Kalei). Can you take the presents to Grandmas house? We all love you. Thanks for the presents and for Uncle Hale. Kalei and Talan and Mom and Dad." Hale is my uncle that came to visit us from Chicago for Christmas.

Kalei with her note to Santa

SUNDAY BEST....

This year we decided to do some family pictures the Sunday before Christmas. Here is the outcome of another challenging photo shoot....