Defining Nathan...

He's 7 years old, a joker, a tease, a Pokemon card collector, a car lover, a Hot Wheel collector, Thomas the Train collector and engineer, video game player, a reader, a Garfield books lover, a CTR 7 member, a runner, a tree climber, an adventurist, America's Funniest Home Video watcher, 1st grader, bike rider, snow enthusiast, a good roommate, Road & Track subscriber, computer game player, snorkeler, boogie board rider, a beach kid, loves knowing the name of the fish, water enthusiast, All Shore Adventure watcher, pogs collector, May Day Samoan Warrior dancer, a fierce ninja , Star Wars lover, Star Wars: Clone Wars Watcher, a climbing wall climber, a sport enthusiast, a library card carrier, a cookie baker, a pie lover, can eat lasagna everyday, loves mac & cheese, a veggies consumer, a fruit taster, can do the stomach wave, a red head, thoughtful, a helpful helper, sweet, a good friend, a grandson, a nephew, a cousin, a good brother, a son and a Child of God.Happy Birthday Sweet Boy and we love you with all our hearts!

We have been blessed to have Nathan in our lives and grateful to Heavenly Father for picking us to be his FAMILY!

Sunbeam

Mya is officially a Sunbeam and it makes us happy and a little sad. Our baby girl is growing up and not in Nursery anymore. She was so excited to be a Sunbeam and be in sharing time with Nathan. She did great being reverent with her arms folded as she walked to her classroom. We did peeked in her classroom later and saw her dancing around showing everyone her new sweater dress and how's it flares as she twirled. Then all the girls were twirling! Poor teacher! We been so blessed to have Mya in our lives and enjoy her sweet spirit.

Yummy Yummy SNOW!

Yummy Snow! For some odd reason, my kids love eating snow, especially Mya. She's always trying to sneak some in her mouth. I promise you, I feed my kids! I'm always warning them about where they can and can't pick snow to eat. Who would have thought I would be giving warning tips to my kids on what snow they can eat! But hey, you're just a kid once, and they should be able to discover for themselves the wonder that snow has to offer them.

Christmas BLAST!

We had a great and fun Christmas here in our snowed in city. We made a agreement with the kids that they could get up at 7:30 am the earliest to open their presents. (Oh, the joy of being parents. No sleeping in!)Mom made them wait a bit longer because she was getting the camcorder and camera ready. When she gave the okay they came running out of their rooms.

Here are some of the pictures of Christmas morning at our house.
They were so happy with the gifts they received from Santa and family. Mom took more photos of the morning but there are too many to post( in total for the whole day 104 photos, CRAZY!)

It has snowed here everyday since Wednesday the 17th and we have at least 2 1/2 feet of snow. The kids had to go outside and try out the sled they got from Santa and we had a BLAST!

We went sledding on the mound of snow that the plows had provided for us in front of our house. We had snowballs fights. More like, Blake throwing snowballs and people in the snow. Everyone else was ducking for cover! We had a great long day playing.
Christmas is always a special day but it's truly amazing when you see it through the eyes of your children!

Snowed In!

The snow started to fall on Wednesday at 7am and didn't stop until 4pm on Thursday. We got about 20 inches of snow which resulted of the whole city basically closing down. Only emergency roads were being plowed and not the residential. Which also resulted of school closure not just for Thursday but also Friday. The boys were bummed. They were suppose to have their class Christmas Parties on Thursday and "Horton's Hears a Who"was to be shown to the whole school on Friday. But they weren't sad for long because they had a blast playing in the snow. So we got a early start to our Christmas Vacation. HOORAY!
A Winter Wonderland in our backyard
The mailboxes look like they're wearing hats
I was in awe when I spotted these berries on the tree
We don't have a snow blower, so we shovel our driveway the old fashion way.Poor Blake he had a ton to shovel.
I also had to shovel our deck but it was fine cause I was listening to my mp3Isaac helping Mya get through the snow.Mya trying to crawl through the snowBlake decided to try to make a snow angel but the snow was too deepBlake and the kids Poor Nathan, lost his boot.
A happy little girl playing in the snow
A happy boy who loves attaching his brother and father with the snow
A happy boy having a the time of his life. HOORAY for SNOW!

Snow, Snow and Snow!

Let it SNOW, Let's SNOW.....
The kids haven't seen snow in person in two years and their excitement to finally play in it was a MUST. As soon as the boys returned from school today, they heading to the backyard to have a blast playing in the white powder. It was very endearing to see their wonder and excitement as they made snow angels. It has been snowing here since 7 in the morning and it hasn't stop. Roads has been closed all over our area and tires are require to have chains! So, I strongly believe if the snow continue to fall through the rest of the night, there will be no school tomorrow and I know my kids wouldn't mind because they would rather be playing in the SNOW ANYWAY.

Nativities From Around The World

We attended this exhibit Nativities From Around The World, sponsored by our stake for Family Home Evening yesterday and it was truly amazing! It had over 600 nativities and 30 countries represented. The nativities was loaned to the Stake by members and the community. I had a opportunity to be a Hostess and show the people the special nativities. It was also a great missionary opportunity to invite neighbors and friends to this event that they can feel the spirit. I felt truly lucky and in awe as I walked through the exhibits. I was amazed in how different artistes depicted the birth of Christ especially from different countries. I also thought of my friend Karma who collects nativities and realize now why she does. It's truly very special to have a collection of the birth of Christ. It also made me realized that I needed to get a nativity from Puerto Rico to have for my family and maybe share with this exhibit in the future. This exhibit truly showed a celebration of Christ's Birth. It surely to become a tradition for my family to attend it every year.

Oh Christmas Tree

How we love putting up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgivings. The excitement of rediscovering our Christmas decoration and ornaments. It always been a tradition when I was growing up to put the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving that I decide to keep it and share it with my own family. I also took my mother-in-law tradition of giving her children a new Christmas ornament each year and when they got married the ornaments would be given to that child for their Christmas tree. I especially enjoy the happiness of my children to be able to participate in the decoration of the tree while Christmas music is played in the background. Those precious memories are the ones I would always cherish.

Grateful for Family Traditions!

It always seem on the holidays you realize how truly you are grateful for the many blessings you have been blessed with. I especially grateful for family traditions, the new ones and the old. It built memories that will be always be cherished or not but it will be remembered. I enjoy incorporating my cultural traditions with my husband's and sharing with our children. Especially with food, we have been able to mesh the two culture and enjoy both. I want my children to appreciate the two cultures and be able to pass it to the future generation.

Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge

We decided to go this Wildlife Refuge with my in-laws for their last day of their visit with us. It was a crisp cold day but we had a great time. It's truly a beautiful place even though we didn't see too many of the wildlife except for swans, squirrels, a chipmunk, a hawk and a raven but we had fun on the different trails we took. I had fun taking the nature photos above and also those below. The Refuge is definitely a place that we will visit again and become a family favorite.
Trekking on Blackhorse Lake Trail with Papa and Nana. It's very CHILLY!
Nate and Blake were searching for a glimpse of wildlife but none that we can see. Watch out guys, there Papa hiding in the reeds.
HAAAAA! But they weren't scared a bit.
On his way to catch a Cattail.And Papa was nice and got one for Nate and the others kids.Admiring the Lake but my opinion Blake is looking for some fish.
On Keeple Lake Overlook trail we saw some swans and had to get a photo of the kids with their grandparents.Mya is Nana's "Little Sunshine"

Had to get of photo with me in this adventure.
My favorite photo of all is this one! It's PERFECT!

So, if you're heading our way, make sure you stop at Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge. You won't regret it!

My Fun and Personal Mosaic

1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
http://www.flickr.com/search/
2. Using only the first page, pick an image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.
http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php
(choose four columns and three rows, also choose individual URL's)

Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your nickname.

Tons of thanks to Forever Ka'ili for this concept.

Tagged Twice!

So I been tagged twice by my good friends Siana and Liz from the beautiful island of Oahu. I actually thought it was funny to be tagged twice for the same tag and felt the need to follow through.

So I'm giving it a try!
1. Link this post to the person who tagged you: Siana and Liz
2. Post the rules on your blog (done)
3. List 6 random things about yourself.
4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

1. Okay I love watching movies and shows that has Vampires in them. I know, I'm a freak but it's true. I don't like reading them except the "Twight series" cause my imagination scare me out of my pants and will have nightmares, but I sure love watching them. My favorite are "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"(the series) "Angel" and "Interview with a Vampire". My husband think my obsession is corky but he did gave me "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Complete Season 1-7 and a video game of Buffy for Christmas last year. I LOVED it.

2. It drives me CRAZY when people don't respect other people beliefs. Either in religion and politics! I just don't understand the need to bring people down for their beliefs. I'm a Democrat and proud to be. I don't need to explain why and no I didn't grow horns! I respect other people beliefs and I would like the same courteous.


3. I have an obsession with our DVR and always recording shows I can't watch with the kiddies. It's driving my hubby bonkers! He doesn't understand the need for me to record some of the current shows I watch. Like; "Dancing with the Stars", he doesn't understand why I record two nights of it. "America's Top Model", he just doesn't get that show, "Heroes", he just ask me, WHY?, "Cold Case", in his opinion a other cop show. ,"CSI"(the original) actually he enjoy that show and we watch it together.."Office", we love it! and many more.


4. I love dancing! I'm always dancing in my house, in the street and in my car. That's why I also joined a Hula group here in Washington. I love performing. It's in my blood. My kids just love when I'm dancing. I'll grab one or all and have them dance with me. It makes me feel, GREAT!


5. I'm a little of a clean freak! More like having things put away. It drives me nut to see my home upside down and it affects my mood. Especially the kitchen and living room has to be picked up. I don't mind too much the family room cause it's the FAMILY room and it should be a place where my kids can play with their toys. But for every way else, NOT!


6. I'm very outspoken and it has gotten me in trouble tons of times! I try to be tactful and most of the time, I am. But there are times that you have to speak up!

So that's some of my random things of myself. Now:

I tag Becca cause she's hoot, Holly cause she's amazing, Kirtsin cause she never let's me down, Clay cause it's about time she updates her blog, Mollee cause she never does my tags ( hope she does now) and Chrystie cause I enjoy getting to know her better. And Ladies you have a week to reply!

Well, girls I hope you have as much fun as I did doing this tag and enjoy!

Why I Love Autumn

I love Autumn for some of the obvious reasons like;

• the crisp smell in the air
• the changing of the leaves
• the colder weather

But I also love Autumn for the;

• Hot Cocos
• Warm Scarves
• Comfy Sweaters
• Cozy Socks
  

• I also love watching the squirrels getting ready for winter
• the Flickers having a meal at Nate's bird feeder he made
• the Quails having a family reunion in my yard

• Watching Mya smelling the flowers
• Going to the park
  

• Going on bikes rides

• Going on walks with Mya and discovering the wonders of Autumn

These are some of the reasons Why I love Autumn.