Christmas in Maui

First off a fair warning, there are a lot of pics in this post. Now, on with the show.Grace sporting her first swimsuit

Sitting on the banyan tree in Lahaina

I love this one!

The boys one of the many times they had people bury them in the sand.

Evan went boogie boarding (so did Brandon and I)

Kyle covered in sand, which was pretty much him the entire time we were there.

Graham trying to steal the chips while we played shuffle board

Evan learning how to push them

Some tummy time in the grass

Sorry, no people in the picture, but isn't the waterfall gorgeous

Evan surfing

Kyle giving it a try

Grace while we were playing cards. I think I took a picture of her in every outfit she wore because I know she will never get to wear them again.

A great waterfall on the road to Hana. Poor Evan puked on the drive back because he got car sick and didn't tell anyone he was feeling gross.

Grace sporting her bikini. We need to start teaching her "modest is hottest."

I know it looks the same as the last one, but check out her tongue. She loves to suck on it like this all the time.

Uncle Bryce was a good sport an made many a sand castle and buried the boys many times.

Actually rubbing the sand in his eyes. That happened a lot too.

Our last night there, sharing a root beer float at Cool Cats (they have awesome burgers).

It's hard to see, but the lights are all on the giant banyan tree we had pictures on earlier. It is seriously a huge tree.

Another cute Grace outfit. I think she looks ready to play tennis.

The sun really took it out of them.

Surfing the morning we came home.

Brandon is the one still bent over. He caught a lot of good waves the last day.

That's me. Surfing was so fun, I don't know why I didn't try it on previous trips.

Grace sticking her feet in the ocean.

She wasn't a fan.

Ready to head out to the plane. Pardon my hair, but we were in a hurry. This was right out the back door of our condo. The view was amazing.

The trip was a blast. Not pictured are snorkling (Evan too), bobbing, the whales we saw multiple times, and President Eyring showing up in the ward we attended (he even waved right to us as he was leaving in the parking lot). It was an awesome trip and we were sad to leave, but we are enjoying being in our house again. Happy New Year!

Christmas Nativity

We got to spend Christmas in Maui this year with my family. Camille put together a Christmas Eve program for us that included all of us dressing up in costumes to act out the nativity.Our baby Jesus in a manger. I love the sign on the basket. It says "Hawaiian Style Please remove your shoes. Mahalo" Grace was so good and laid in the basket the whole time without fussing.

The shepherds. There were a lot of sheets to choose from for clothing.

My mom was the angel. Gotta love the visor.

Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus.

Our three wise men. It looks like Graham was bringing Catch Phrase as his gift. We ended up with gold (legos), frankincense (a little bowl with potpourri type stuff), and myrrh (a mirror). I'm hoping this is a new tradition because it was very fun.

Christmas Miracle

It is the first ever good picture of all 3 of our kids. The boys are smiling, Grace is kind of smiling. Everyone is looking the same direction. Granted we aren't in Christmas outfits, but we will take it.

Scarves

Check out the boys in their cute new scarves. My Grammie made them for the boys for Christmas. If that isn't impressive enough for you, she made one for everyone else in the family too, as in my parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. They are all so cute and you can tell the boys loved them.

Why the kid won't smile I don't know, but still a pretty cute face.
Thanks Grammie!

Finished Product

Here is the tree in all its glory. You are really missing out not seeing it in person because the Santa on top has fiberoptic lights and glows different colors. I call him creepy Santa because after you leave the pretty white light phase he turns green, purple, and my ultimate creepy favorite devilish red. We love our creepy Santa though and I'm sure we will keep him til his creepy lights die.

I loved this one of the boys. They just laid down on the floor and decided to color. It's good to know they can play well together, even if they don't choose to all of the time.

It snowed last night. A good 1/4 of an inch or so was still on the ground when the boys finished breakfast so they ran out to make a snowman. Evan looked so determined out there I sent Brandon out to help and using almost all of the snow in the yard they managed this guy. "Frosty the noman" as Kyle refers to him. By evening he was gone but I'm sure given another dusting of snow Evan will make another one.

Grace Singing

This is how Grace puts herself to sleep.

The Great Christmas Tree Hunt

I can't believe I'm putting this picture on here for all to see, but I thought Grace looked cute. I love the little hat that my Aunt Pam made. Grace sang to herself most of the time we hunted because she was tired. As my excuse for looking like this....it was Black Friday and I had been awake since 3:30 or so after having gone to around 11:30 the night before. I got some awesome Christmas presents though at 5 in the morning.

The boys thought Pimpa's chainsaw was too loud. After he was done with both trees Kyle announced "Pimpa killed it."

One of very few family pics of the 5 of us.

The helpers taking the tree back to the car.

Thanksgiving

I didn't take nearly enough pictures at Thanksgiving, but I thought these two were pretty fun. This game didn't get put away when the older folk were done playing with it so the little kids decided to give it a try. Kyle and Will played for a while. I'm not sure what their rules were or the strategy involved, but they definitely look like they are plotting out their next moves.

Noah, Nick, Alec, and Evan played too. I think they were just trying to make large blocks of their own colors, but who knows.

Three Words

They had fun.

I think Brandon is a bit ashamed of our not so professional looking gingerbread house this year, but the boys love it. I gave them full reign on how to decorate it and they placed the candy wherever they wanted. Not the best looking, but whatever.

I love that they neglected the back completely. That is the gingerbread man Kyle decorated. Evan covered his in candy, Kyle's only got eyes.