Happy Birthday, Mason!

Happy Birthday, Mason!

I can't believe 10 years ago today our first child was born. Wow, a whole decade! Mason has been such a blessing and a joy. He's smart, kind, and hilarious. We love you, buddy! :)

Mason's class had a music program tonight. It was called "Rats" and was based on the story of the Pied Piper. It was really cute and only lasted 30 minutes. :)

Before the program we went to Applebees with Bill, Tina, Marshall, Michaela, Katie, Grandpa and Grandma. After the program everybody (minus Katie, adding Andy & Reb-Katie had class and poor Michelle is sick) came over for strawberry shortcake and a giant rice krispie treat. The only downside of the whole day was that Bob is still out of town. He's been gone 3 1/2 weeks but will be back in 5 more days.

Mason's teacher sent me a few pictures. The top one is at school. Since it was his birthday he got to take a try at the "claw" game. I think he got it too!

The bottom picture is from the program.

Giant Rice Krispie Treat

Legos-of course

January Happenings...

It seems like January just kind of flew by us! Bob is coaching a 12yr. old volleyball club team and helping with a clinic/league for kids under 10. Between the two he has practice or tournaments almost every day of the week.

Just like her dad, Kenzie loves playing volleyball! She's still getting the hang of it, but she's having fun and it's fun to watch. :) She starts indoor soccer tomorrow and has her last volleyball tournament on Sunday.

Kenzie with her favorite Husker, Brooke Delano.

Martin Luther King day we went to the children's museum. It was super crowded and I think my kids are beginning to outgrow it, but we had fun. Grandma got to go and I think she had a fun time too.

I think these last couple pictures were taken in December but I thought I'd post them anyway. This winter has truly been a unique experience for Mason and Mackenzie. It was basically their first experience with snow and they sure got the full experience! :) It's been fun, but I think we're all ready for spring. At all the schools I sub at the kids are so tired of being inside for recess. Everyday it's either too cold or snowing. 5 weeks till spring!! :)

Christmas Day!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We had a great day and even made it over to my parent's house, despite a blizzard! You know when you've missed out on family gatherings for 6 years, you'll do about anything to be there. I have more pictures from mom and dad's house but they are on my camera, which I left at Bill and Tina's today. (I have some great pictures from our time over there too. I'll post them later.)

Christmas Eve the kids got to open one present. They opened "bendaroos". This is Kenzie's bendaroo creation.

5:34am was the time we FINISHED opening presents. The kids woke us up at 4:45am! I was sure they'd get really tired later on, but they did amazingly well and lasted until 10:00 that night without a nap.

Stockings

Wii games.

We took the Petz sports game over to my parents house and the adults had so much fun adopting dogs and racing them. Between Toto, Rowdy, Jack, and Kevin, Jack came out as the overall winner. (Jack was Bob's dog) It's really just a matter of who can shake the wii remote the hardest and longest. My arm is actually sore today! (That's a little embarrassing to admit) :)

And, this is what we braved to get over to my parent's house. Luckily they live pretty close. The snowplow drove in front of our house just as we were getting into the car and we followed another one on Highway 370. We took that as a sign that we were doing the right thing by venturing out. :)

Ok, since everyone else is making me look bad, I guess I better blog! :)

Merry Christmas! We are more than excited about Christmas around here. It's even more exciting this year because it's the first time in 6 years that we've spent this season with family. We are Lovin' it!

So, here are just a few pictures from the past few weeks.

Enjoy and Have a Blessed Christmas!

Our real tree. I wasn't sure I liked it when it was bare, but now I love it.

Today was the first day off school for Christmas break. I tried to convince the kids that we were late for school when they woke up this morning, but they weren't having it. We made "tortilla snowflakes" this morning. Fun and yummy!

Of course my "Hawaii kids" are LOVING the snow! They go outside to play in it everyday, sometimes 2-3 times each day. Even when it was bitterly cold they begged and begged to go outside.

Yesterday we took some family pictures outside Mom and Dad's house. Thank Dad for being our "papa-razzi" . :) In June we took family pictures on the beach, so this is our contrast. Mason was freezing and hungry but we got it done.

Pyle family Christmas, which took place the day after Thanksgiving. It was so fun spending time will all you guys again. Kenzie spent the entire weekend following Ellie around, probably driving her crazy! (Ellie, are you sure you don't want us to send Kenzie to you for the summer?!)

Happy Birthday x3

Happy, Happy Birthday Rebecca and Mackenzie! We started the festivities Sunday with a surprise party for Reb. (Not sure if it was a total surprise)

We played "name that tune" using songs from 1979-1998. This was Reb's reenactment of Titanic. :)

"The kids table" (By the way, I need Stacy's recipe for potato soup, Tina's recipe for vegetable soup, and Sarah's recipe for that yummy salad! Thanks ladies for the delicious food!)

The weather was nice enough for the kids to play and eat their cupcakes outside.

Moving on to Thursday night...we had a small family party. Rebecca and Katie helped me make some "pup-cakes" on Wednesday. I should have videotaped the entire process. Needless to say, they weren't as easy as the cupcake cookbook made it look.

Friday night: Sleepover!

Fun with the easy bake oven!

Twins! Thank you Emma for the dress. The girls looked so cute and even wore their matching dresses to McDonalds and the movie. We saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It was a pretty cute movie. The girls laid down for bed at 10:45 and were asleep by 10:50. I was pleasantly shocked!! (The payback came however when I heard giggling and playing at 6am)

Mason talked the girls into playing a little football this morning.

And, after football we made masks. Check out these scary bats!

We had a great week and are so blessed to be able to spend special days with family again.

There is no place like Nebraska...

Ok, I have a really great excuse for why I haven't posted in over a month...umm...well I'm sure there's a good reason. :)

Sorry that it's been so long. It's mostly due to the fact that I always forget to take my camera with me and somebody else (Dad, Sarah..) is usually there with a better camera. :)

We have had a lot going on and it's all been really good. Let's see if I can list some of the highlights:

* Amazing party at the Spizzirri's (At least my cousins are good at updating their blogs, so you have probably seen pictures of that already)

* Too much eating out at all those places we don't have in Hawaii. (Olive Garden, Panara, Culvers, Sonic, Applebees...)

* The kids started school.

*We are moved in our house and received all our belongings, without any damage.

* Last weekend we took a trip to see Great-Grandma Stanley. She is turning 94 in September! (We are hoping to see Grandma Pyle this weekend and Grandma Kaup the weekend after that)

* And of course we have spend loads of time with family to make up for lost time. :)

Anyway, here are a few pictures:

Stair-step cousins

We took this picture of the sunset on our deck. I guess you can have a beautiful sunset without the mountains or ocean. :)

Bob and Mason raced go-carts the night that Kenzie and I went to see Demi Lavato.

First day of school

Aww, aren't they so...alike.

Aloha Hawaii..

I sat down tonight intending to post some of the pictures that we've taken the past couple of weeks but I realized that all of our pictures are on the iMac and not on this laptop. Oh well, I guess I'll have to catch up with those later. (My dad's facebook page has some of the pictures)

So, I guess instead I'll use this post to reflect and try to put into words the feelings that I have right now. I guess bittersweet is a pretty good word to describe leaving Hawaii. This has been home for 5 1/2 years. We've only been a family of 4 for 6 1/2 years, so really we have spent our entire "life as a family" on this Island. I think it is appropriate that our blog is called "The Stanley Ohana" because the majority of our family memories have a Hawaii connection. Lately a couple of different friends who used to live here but have moved away have told us that Hawaii never leaves you. I 'm beginning to understand how true that is! We know that Nebraska is where God is leading us and we are excited to start this next chapter in our lives. But, please forgive us if the excitement isn't evident in our faces right away. :) We are saying goodbye to wonderful friends and a beautiful place where we have all experienced God in amazing ways. Hopefully we'll be able to come back here at some point, ideally in the winter! :)

"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." -Annie (The movie)

Aloha, Hawaii! We'll miss you! :)