When mom says no, ASK GRANDMA...

Kainoa is getting smarter. He's learning how to manipulate situations, which in my eyes is not a good thing at all!!! If I say no, he asks daddy, since daddy is a bigger sucker than me. Well daddy has learned to ask, "well, what did mommy say?" So, I thought we were in the clear, since Dante and I were now both on the same page as far as what was or wasn't allowed, especially when it came to Christmas. Kainoa had a few things on his list this year that just weren't going to happen, BIG brother and a BIG sister (not even Santa can pull that one off), Wii (Grandma has one, and uses it as bait to get him to come over, we've been instructed that we aren't allowed to purchase one), and Heely's ( I despise them, no offense to anyone out there who has bought them for their children, me personally, it will always be a no. Just can't stand kids in the mall zooming in front of me on them, drives me crazy). With all that said, I thought everything was covered, until this showed up on Christmas day. Yes, Kainoa had asked Grandma Deloris (my mother-in-law) for a gumball machine. I must have told him more times then I can count that he can't have one, yet there it was in all of it's red splendor. Not like I can send it back to grandma. I know I've read it before, but I guess it's really true, when mom says no, just ASK GRANDMA!!!

Too much confidence?

Is there such a thing when you're only five?!?!? Kainoa is the shy kid, until you get to know him. He loves to be liked, and is always afraid of messing up, and not being good enough. At least, I think that's who he is. All of the sudden he's stepping out. This morning Dante emailed me to tell me that Kainoa was doing the flag salute at school. The way Noa's school does it is the whole school stands outside together, one student holds the flag and says the pledge in the microphone, while another student will say the morning prayer. Apparently Kainoa walked right up to the principle and asked him to do the pledge, Dante was shocked at Noa's boldness. So Dante and I are emailing back and forth, and I tell him that this is a good thing, that Kainoa is becoming more confident, and it also shows that he feels safe at school, even in front of the 5th graders. Dante then proceeds to tell me that in the car on the way to school, Kainoa tells him that if he (Kainoa) were on a football field all by himself against a team of alot of guys he would win. Hmmmm.... Too much??? Naaaaaahhhhh, he's only five!!!!

Rock Climbing

MOST of the time I'm glad that I have the kid that will "just do it". It's also USUALLY fun to watch Kainoa do new things... Well, my heart quickly learned that such is not always the case. My company had a holiday party this past weekend, and instead of doing a fancy adult party, we decided to do something for the families, it is the holidays after all. So we headed out to an indoor rock climbing facility, however there was so much more stuff to do, that it took a while to get people on the wall. Well, apparently it was my little one that thought he needed to get it started. I was very supportive and encouraging, seriously not thinking he would get too high before he wanted to get down. BOY WAS I WRONG!!! Kainoa made it almost to the top. He was like Spider Man, and just kept getting higher and higher. It eventually got to a point where my eyes started to tear, and my thoughts were, I know that guy is trained to work here and all, but does he realize that's MY BABY UP THERE!!! Well, Kainoa knew his limits, and just before reaching the top, he was ready to come down. WHEW, glad that adventure is over. Here are some pictures below taken at the event.

Thanksgiving, a parade, and the emergency room

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. Well most of it anyway. Thursday morning, Dante, Kainoa, and I took Kaipo to the park for some soccer. We actually had a mini game, Daddy and I against Kainoa and Kaipo (Noa picked the teams), obviously the game didn't last very long. After that we were off to mom's for a very mellow Thanksgiving dinner. Everything was so yummy, and we all ate WAY TOO MUCH! Below is a picture of Kainoa, Mom and I, taken in their back yard.
We headed out of there around 7PM, and decided to surprise Avo and Nana with a visit, and they were so happy to see us. We hung out there and visited with my parents, my cousin and her son, and my Aunt and Uncle. We didn't stay long cause we were leaving for Sonora on Friday, where we would be hanging out with all of them for the weekend. Saturday morning Dane hit the Black Friday sales, and I stayed home with the kids (cousin Jaydon spent the night) and got ready for Sonora. We arrived later than we planned and had to hurry because we were going to the the Sonora Christmas Parade. It was so much fun to watch Kainoa at the parade, he was so excited, and would wave to all the people that were waving to us from their floats. He had so much joy and excitement in his eyes, it was PERFECT! Below are some pictures from the parade.


Saturday we woke up, and Dante was having problems walking on his foot. After debating over it for a couple of hours, we finally decided to go to the emergency room. Much faster process when you aren't in the city, after only an hour and a half, we were out of there, with Dante on crutches, he had a bad sprain and wasn't suppose to walk on it. Here are pictures of daddy in bed like a good boy, and Noa keeping him company.
All in all, we had a GREAT weekend spent with family, and it ended all too soon. Time to prepare for Christmas! :o)

Creative Ideas

I just love when I find these easy to do creative crafty projects. I see them and I think to myself, "I can do that" and I never do. Well I found a project in an old scrapbook magazine that I thought was super cool and easy. With money being a little tighter this year, I was trying to find crafts that I can do as Christmas presents, so I no longer had the option of not doing the project, I had to try. I was so glad that I did, this project not only turned out great, but it has meaning, and it was SUPER easy. All I did was buy some very inexpensive candle holders at Michael's, found a picture that I liked and printed it onto a transparency, used my Xyron sticker maker, and there you have it folks. For this first one I found a picture on the Internet, and created this for some wine lovers.

This next one was a picture that I had taken at a beach where we played for many summers in Maui. I really like this one because right where the sun is, will be about where the flame will hit from the candle. I then added some sand and some little shells, and it was PERFECT!

This last one was another photo that I take while on our trip in Hawaii. It's a Bird of Paradise, and for this one I printed it in black and white. I think for this one I may use three tealights instead of just one.

Christmas in November?

When I returned to work the Monday after Halloween, I was EXTREMELY annoyed that the Christmas decorations were already up on The Row . Really, could we at least get through Thanksgiving first? I was twice as annoyed when my office received the flyer letting us know that the Tree Lighting Ceremony would be held on November 18th. Are these people serious? Well guess where I was last night? After hearing about all the fun things they were going to have out here, I thought it would be fun for Noa and I to hang out on the Row for the evening. I'm so happy I did. Kainoa had a blast, and it actually got me into the Holiday Spirit. Here are some pictures of Kainoa enjoying the festivities.


Here is another picture taken from my lobby. I couldn't believe how many people were here. It was CRAZY!

Crazy weekend catch up

This weekend started off with me taking Friday off so that I could chaperon Kainoa's field trip to the fire station. He had a blast learning about the different tools, and all the different items that need to be put on before entering into a fire. He also loves field trip days because I will take the day off, drop him off at school, join him on his field trip, and then he gets to leave with me. Look at my happy boy.

After we left school, I took him and his little buddy to see Madagascar, I think I actually liked it more than them. Then we went to the park for some baseball, it was unanimous, mom (that would be me) is not the best pitcher out there, but we still had fun.

Saturday morning was the start of all the craziness. Kainoa's soccer team, the Warriors, had a big tournament to determine who would be taking home the first place trophies. We had one game on Saturday, which we won in the last 5 seconds. The score was 1-0 which gave us 8 points in the tournament because it was a shut out. Whew, one down only two more games to go. Sunday we had to be at the park at 8:20 for our first game. Again, we barely won, score was 1-0, another 8 points. The total of 16 points put us in the championship game. I know I'm just talking about 4 and 5 year olds playing soccer, but you wouldn't believe the excitement and stress that was out on that field. We had an undefeated season this year, so in their little brains, we've already taken the trophy. That was until we met the Snakes. They were undefeated as well, with no ties (we had two) and they were good. We lost, 1-0, we took second. It was so hard to watch him play so hard and not win, I knew he would be devastated. Sure enough, as soon as the game was over he came running through the crowd of people straight towards me and cried. My heart broke. I told him all the reassuring things, he played great, he's still a winner, they still got second place, nothing seemed to work. I decided to pull out a "when I was young story", I told him about the time when I was in a high school cheerleading competition. I told him how hard we worked, and how the other teams even told us how good we were, and that in the end, we ended up in 11th out of 12th place. I let him know that we were all really sad, and that it made us hurt inside. This seemed to help, maybe it helped him realize that I understood. So, here's to getting through one of many heartbreaks. Sometimes I just wish it was a little bit easier.

Where's Halloween?

I just realized that I posted no Halloween pictures on here. What a crazy day it was. Kainoa had no school that day, so my aunt brought him and my nephews to my office for some trick or treating.

After trick or treating, I took Kainoa and my oldest nephew to see Dante at his work. When we got there, there was daddy dressed up like Shrek for all the little kids. This is Kainoa and Logan posing with Shrek and Fiona.

The boys also got their faces painted, and did arts and crafts while at Dante's office.


Once we were done at Dante's office, it was off to Grandma's for Vesuvio's (YUMMY), and Trick or Treating. It's always nice on Halloween to go trick or treating in my old neighborhood. I even saw some parents of old friends from high school.


Once we were done Trick or Treating, Stitch had had a REALLY long day, but we had one more stop to Nana and Avo's, of course they wanted to see how cute he was. Whew, what a day!

Living in a dream

I couldn't let an event like what happened last night, go by without blogging. I feel like I am living in a dream. Some moments it's so real, and others I'm still in awe and amazement. Last night touched me in a way that I didn't even know it could. To hear my 5 year old son, who is half African American shout with joy that Obama won did something to me that I will never forget. Like my husband said last night, you will always remember where you were when the FIRST African American was elected as president. However it was the word's of a five year old girl that touched me the most. A child of some good friends of ours said to her daddy last night, "The Obama's look like me." How wonderful to know that we are one step closer to the day where children will never have to know that because of the color of their skin, they are treated as less than. They live in a country where they can now dream and possibly be the next President of the United States.

I have FINALLY downloaded all the pictures from Noa's field trip. The whole day was jam packed with excitement for him. First of all he was SO excited that mommy was taking him to school, a very rare treat. My little worry wart had to make sure though that I was coming back at 8:30AM to pick them up for the trip. After much assurance, he let me go. Boy was I happy about that, I had to make a quick run to Starbuck's so I could make it through the day. Once we got everyone loaded up in the car we headed to the Discovery Musuem. All I can say is, thank God it's a short drive. I think the kids we're having a contest on how could talk over who. Were we all like that at 5? So when we got there, Noa and I were pretty much on our own, since the other two kids I had with me had their parents there as well. So my son and I had three hours to play, and we played,

and played...

and played.

Noa even painted his own face, isn't he cute?

I love my husband

He has got to be the sweetest most thoughtful guy I know. Around my office all the women love him, and all the men hate him. He's the husband that sends flowers for no reason at all. So when he asked me if I received anything yet, I was expecting more flowers. That's exactly what I got! Being very aware that I am trying to be careful about what I eat, and trying to be healthy, instead of the kind of flowers that smell good and sit on your desk, I got fruit made into a bouquet. Boy was it YUMMY!!! I'll say it again, I LOVE MY HUSBAND!

Hippo

Ok, so you know that commercial, the one where the daddy goes on the business trip and finds the stuffed animal, and then sends pictures home with the stuffed animal in different situations? Well this is Hippo missing us. According to Dante, Hippo was looking for us out the window... We miss them too.

No daddy for a lot of days...

Lastnight was a rough night at our house. Dante left for a business trip today, so little Noa was having a hard time thinking about daddy being gone for "a lot of days". Dante had to go in his room and give him pep talks on more than one occasion. It's amazing how the flow of the house changes when just one of us is gone, even if it's just for a few days. All three of us are counting the days till daddy is home again.

Homework, I bet Noa thinks that's what the "H" word is. Boy does he hate it. He gets frustrated so easy, and is so hard on himself when he doesn't get it right away. We have had many breakdowns at the kitchen table over homework, and it's only Kindergarten, YIKES! He never misses an opportunity to make me smile though, the pencil in his ear is his "eraser" pencil, apparently the one that is actually on his pencil isn't good enough. I just love my boy!!!

Another crazy weekend, this IS our life

My two favorite seasons are Spring and Fall... Well today was the first day that it really felt like summer has left, and fall is here. I just love the feeling of the cold wind hitting my face, it just makes me feel at peace. Well we won't have too much time to enjoy it this weekend. I'm already tired thinking about it all. Tonight, Fall Fellowship at Noa's school, I'm really excited to meet some of the parents. I won't lie, sometimes it's really hard for me, most of the mom's get to stay home, and on the days when they want Noa to have a playdate after school, I feel so guilty that I don't stay home too. Then I look at him and realize he is so happy, and that we are doing the best that we can. Tomorrow we have soccer, b-day party, and then off to Livermore for our monthly dinner with my cousins, something we started after grandpa died, we just realized that we don't see eachother nearly enough. Sunday, church and then lunch with some friends we haven't seen in over three years, they just moved back from Malaysia... Kainoa is so excited, they have a son his age, and at two, they were the best of friends, we made sure to keep in touch, and Noa has a pic of him and Seth, so he can't wait to play with him again. Next week I'm a single mom. Just another normal weekend for the Billups.

Pocketful of Sunshine

I heard that song this morning as soon as I got in the car. Kainoa loves to sing it, and just picturing him singing it made me smile. I just knew it was going to be a great day.

Daddy's money is my money

This was said by Kainoa last night when I was trying to steal some of his jello. I told him that he didn't buy it so what made it his, and he said "well daddy bought it for me and daddy's money is my money." Smart kid!

Mommy I'm not feeling good

I hate those words. You would think that eventually you would get used to it, but it never gets easier. There was nothing we could do to save him, Kainoa was sick. It started Friday night, his throat was hurting, and then the coughing, finally followed by a slight fever. At least it was happening on Friday, and we had a whole weekend to nurse him back to good health, or so we thought. We had already committed to watching two kids Saturday night, and after calling their mom to let her know Noa was sick, they were still coming over. He pretty much rested all day until he had his soccer pictures at 1:50PM. Dante was not happy with me that I still wanted him to go. I just knew that if we didn't let him go, once it came time to hand the pictures out, his little heart would have been crushed, so we toughed it out. BAD IDEA, hey I can admit when I'm wrong. It was 96 degrees outside, with minimal shade, he was miserable. When it was time for his individual picture he looked so bad, everyone around me was saying, "poor Kainoa", and I'm thinking, who is this kids mom that would let him come out here like that? So the photographer gave him the ball and told him to say cheese, and he did, and he looked so cute. What a little trooper I have. The same happened with the group shots, and we were done. Once we got home, the kids showed up, and all of the sudden the sickness was gone. Isn't it just so amazing how they do that. So all the way up to Sunday evening, I thought we were in the clear. Whew, neither one of us would have to take the day off tomorrow. WRONG AGAIN! Sunday night his temperature spiked to 102. I did all the normal things and brought it down, hoping that he'll be able to go to school on Monday. No such luck, Monday morning, Dante and I are trying to figure it all out. Dante will take the morning shift, and I will come home at lunch so he can go to work. Teamwork, I love my husband. So today, Kainoa was off to school, both Dante and I praying that he makes it through the day. Sickness, just one of the many joys of being a parent.

Being 5

I really don't remember much about being 5, which makes what we are going through at my house that much harder... Kainoa is going through something, and we have no idea how to fix it. This past Sunday at church, he completely freaked out. When I say freaked out, I mean down right tantrum about not being right next to me during the whole service. We teach in the class, but that wasn't enough for him at that time. Then when you asked him what was wrong, he didn't know.... OK, so now what? Up until this point, we have seriously had this incredible, no tantrum throwing, happy go lucky, well behaved kid. So, you can imagine the thoughts going through our minds right now. As if the tantrum at church wasn't enough, he's also gotten this really sassy mouth in the last couple of weeks. So I asked him, "Kainoa, why are you talking to mommy that way?" His response was, "I'm just trying to be a BIG boy mommy." Wow, can someone please give me the instruction manual.

Yes, we are still alive...

Ok, I am horrible at this, I confirmed that by reading this, and realized that we've now had Kaipo for over a year.... So I am officially committing to all of you that I will update this weekly. I have even scheduled it on my outlook calendar.

In the meantime, here is a glimpse at what has gone on in the last year. First of all, Jen you were right about the dog. We have had problem after problem. He's a GREAT dog, just into EVERYTHING. We're hanging in there, and Dante has been very patient to say the least.

Kainoa and I went to Hawaii this last summer. After grandpa died, we had all talked about going together as a family like we used to when we were kids, so at the end of July, we did just that. We went to two islands, the Big Island, and of course Maui. On the Big Island it was, Mom, dad, Kainoa, Kekoa, Auntie Noe, Brent, Grandma, Uncle Pat, Auntie Teresa, and myself. We all stayed in one house, and it was a BLAST. Most families couldn't handle it, but we had no problems at all. Kainoa's favorite part was the pool in the backyard, go figure. After 5 days on the Big Island we were off to Maui. The minute we landed I could feel grandpa, he was everywhere. I talked to Koa about it and he said he felt the same way. Just knowing how much he loved it there, made it even more special. I got to show Kainoa palm trees that he had planted when he worked for the city, places he had taken us, where he used to live, and with all of that stories about grandpa as well. The only thing that made it easier to come home was Dante, he couldn't make it because of work. After about the 5th day of us being gone, he was very adamant that this would never happen again. No more vacations without daddy!

So since we've been back the biggest thing that's happened in our lives was Kainoa starting Kindergarten. HE LOVES IT!!!! Which was a huge relief for us since he didn't feel the same way about school last year. He keeps telling everyone that he wants to move to school, kind of makes Dante and I wonder if we're doing something wrong as parents. We are very excited though that he loves it so much.

Kainoa has also started his second season of soccer. So far we've had four games, and Kainoa has scored six goals all together. He's a little superstar out there, and he's so much fun to watch.

Well that's it for now, more to come next week.