Hawaii

John and my brother-in-law Mike waiting for the perfect wave

Having yummy sushi
John and Ella shopping on Front Street on Maui
John and I at the luau

Ella listening to some tunes

Ella and I relaxing

Whaler's village - Ella and John next to whale bones

The family at The Gazebo (a great restaurant)

Everyone who came to Hawaii - Matt's friend Jeff is taking the picture

Family picture on Maui

Ella loved the flowers

John, Ella and I made lei's

Playing in the sand

"Spouting Horn" on Kauai

Waterfall on Kauai

Hanging out at our condo

Ella loves Hawaii

Ella, my dad, and John loving life

John and Ella playing on the beach

In front of our place on Kauai

The kids with Grandpa and Grandma Briggs

Dean and Elysee's first plane ride

After we got to Hawaii (3 flights and 3 tired kids later)

Sunrise on Kauai

"The Lighthouse" on Kauai

We're back from Hawaii. We spent about a week in Kauai and another week in Maui. It was Ella's first time seeing the ocean and she loved it! Some of the highlights of the trip were staying at our timeshare on Kauai and having an ocean front condo, sight-seeing and exploring Kauai (it was our first time on that island), having chickens and roosters wake us up in the morning, seeing the sunrise every morning while on Kauai and seeing the sunset every evening while on Maui, having an ocean view at my parents timeshare on Maui, spending time with my family, yummy sushi, going to the Old Lahaina Luau, watching John and Ella play together in the water, and my #1 favorite thing was doing absolutely NOTHING! If we didn't feel like going out we just stayed at the condo.

Quick story - My parents didn't want any kids at the luau (just an adult evening) and John and I were stressing about trying to find a babysitter for the kids. I really didn't feel comfortable leaving the babies. The nanny service was going to be $26/hour! And we needed someone for 4 hours. At the ward on Maui we just happened to sit next to such a nice family and asked if they knew of any babysitters. They volunteered to watch the kids for us and I immediately felt comfortable with them. Anna is my age and has a little boy (Jay) Ella's age, her husband is deployed and she is staying with her parents until he gets home. So there were 3 adults to watch the kids. It was so nice to have a break from the kids and have some time with John. When we went to pick up the kids, you could tell they were happy to have us there. Anna and her parents said they didn't know how we handle that every day. When we tried to pay them, they said that they didn't want any money and just wanted to do it to give us a break!!! I just couldn't believe that this little family had so much love and compassion for us. I was honestly at a breaking point and ready to come home from the trip early, but this saved me. It's great to know that there are such sweet members who are willing to go above and beyond to help someone else.

We're leaving on a jetplane!

We're going to HAWAII tomorrow and I am so excited! Needless to say, we won't do any posts until we get back (the 22nd). We're taking all 3 kids, so wish us luck.

GO UTES!

John and I both graduated from the University of Utah (that's where we met). So naturally we love to watch/go to the football games. Tonight they were in the Sugar Bowl and we had a great time watching the game. What made it even better was that they won!!! Dean and Elysee both got into the game as well. Ella would have enjoyed it, but she is having a sleep over at Nana's house.

Christmas Fun

We had such an awesome Christmas!!! Even though we don't have a chimney, we had a key to let Santa in. It's a good thing we left that key, because Santa sure did have a lot of presents for us. This year was so much fun, because Ella kind of understood Santa and presents. When she would see Santa there were mixed emotions. In person she was really hesitant, and if I was around, she was scared of Santa. We kept reassuring her that Santa was NICE. So then when she would see pictures of Santa she would get excited and say "Santa, nice".

Here are some pictures from the night before Christmas. When we read the Christmas story from the Bible, Ella got to be Mary (she loved it) and the twins were animals in the stable (reindeer to be exact). They received cute matching monkey Jammie's also.

This is what the kids gifts looked like right after Santa came.

Christmas was so special. Ella was so excited. She opened up all of her presents by herself. It took 2 whole hours. By the end of it, Ella was starting to get tired and grumpy. Dean and Elysee just wanted to sit in their seats and watch. Although they did try to open their own gifts.

Christmas started out with the kids joining us in our bed. Although they didn't really know what was going on, Ella knew it was something to be excited about.

Ella received 3 Barbies, Barbie horse, puzzle, princess; towel, bowl, plate, pillow (that plays music when you plug in your ipod), Elmo live, bike, clothes, PJ's, fairy dress ups, baby legs, shoes/socks, movies, coloring books, crayons, learning cards, toothbrushes, Anne Geddes doll, v-tech digital camera, hat, gloves and some other little toys.

Elysee received some books, clothes, tickle me cookie monster, v-tech alphabet train, baby legs, and LOTS of little toys.

Dean received a tickle me Ernie, books, baby legs, v-tech alphabet train, baseball hat, clothes, a truck, and a few other little toys.

John received some clothes, movies, jacket, hat, book and a garmin 780 navigation system.

I was SO spoiled this year. John always surprises me and this year I was in SHOCK!!! I received some really nice, high end, clothes, toaster, and a nice knife set to add to our others. Just when I thought we were done, John asked Ella if she had gotten her ornament off of the tree. I looked over at the tree and there were gift cards all over the tree. I picked one up and it was to one of my FAVORITE places Gygi Culinary Solutions. I opened it up and it was for $100! Then I opened up the next one $100, and the next one $100. There was a total of $1,000 to Gygi's!!!! I was so excited I didn't even know what to say. Thanks you John for making this Christmas so awesome!

We wanted a cute Christmas picture of just the kids and Ella was doing so good until all of a sudden the train behind her, the one going around the tree, derailed. Ella though that she had done it and it scared her to death. She "threw" the babies off of her and took off. It scared me to death, because Ely and Dean flew to the ground. After we made sure they were ok, we just laughed and laughed and wished we had gotten it on video. It literally happened just seconds after this picture was taken. I had to share that with everyone, because you can just picture it in your head.

Christmas night we went to my parents home in Heber and had so much fun. Ella got a baby doll from Grandma and Grandpa and the babies received a ton of little baby toys. Ella also got to play with her cousins (which is something she loves to do). My parents always have a fun game that we play to receive extra gifts. John had a great strategy and we ended up with the most gifts! Go John! We also received a card saying that my parents are going to pay for us to go to a luau while we are in Hawaii (in January).

My sister Erika also made the most adorable skirts for all of the girls (nieces). Erika is amazing! These skirts are just so cute, here they are!