New Do

   
So Chloee has been bugging me to cut her hair for the last few months, and I decided since she is turning five soon, she needed a big girl haircut to match her big girl attitude. We took her to the beauty parlor and she had so much fun sitting in the big haircut chair and looking at all her hair fall to the floor. The hairdresser did a great job, and Chloee made sure she got the perfect style before we left.  We did a mini photo shoot a few days later, and she did her thing for the camera. Sadly, Chloee is an aspiring beautician because she has now cut her own hair 3 times! Yes, I say sadly, because last night, Chloee modified her do and trimmed her perfectly cut bangs. They are MUCH shorter now...to be shown later when I get the nerve to take some pictures. I really need to lock up all the scissors.

Guess who??

Okay, so if you are familiar with Facebook, a lot of people I went to high school with are into posting "Old School" pics right now. It is mortifying. Imagine my shock and awe when I saw this pop up on the screen. This was in eighth grade, right before a volleyball game. Don't you just love my perfectly sculpted fountain bangs and perm?? What was I thinking? I showed this picture to Chloee and she didn't know who it was. I showed it to Haylee and she laughed hysterically. It's always nice to remind your children that you actually had a life before they came along. 

Okay fellow bloggers, get out the old school pics and show us what you've got!!

Oh, JoJo

  
 

I have been doing a lot of posts about Jolee lately, but Aaron took these photos of her a few weeks ago while we were at Grandma and Grandpa Swanson's house and they are too cute not to post. We were giving her a bath and got some great dimply bum shots, but I will save her the humiliation and not post those here. Jolee has always been a Mommy's girl, not usually wanting to hang with her dad. As you can see, Jolee is now buddies with her dad...as long as I am not around. Little does she know, she will soon be tightly wrapped around her dad's finger, just like her sister, Chloee, is. (She openly admits she likes her dad the best). Jolee is starting to show a feisty streak, and is not afraid to show her siblings who is boss, but she so has them eating out of her cute, little hand.

REALLY???

Okay, so here is the update of the day. Yes, Jolee was scheduled for surgery today. Well, yesterday, before we left for Anchorage, I was able to talk with the eye doctor. I told him that we have noticed that Jolee's eye has really improved over the last few weeks. You can see in the pic above how red her eye is. This was caused from all the tears that would irritate her skin. She has not had any redness for at least a month, and the tearing has been fairly minimal. After telling the doc this, he said to wait and continue to watch her eye!! WHAT?? I was really surprised at this because it has been my understanding from talking with our last doctor that this problem would not get better on its own. Apparently that is not necessarily true. So we are cautiously optimistic and have decided to wait and monitor how her eye progresses. I know this exciting blessing has come directly from the prayers, fasts and priesthood blessings that Jolee has received. Prayers really are answered, and even if Jolee ultimately needs the surgery, I know she will be safe and ultimately healed. I am just grateful that out of our five kids, this really has been the first medical issue we have faced and it is so minimal. We are truly blessed, but would appreciate any additional prayers for Jolee's tear duct to open on its own. Thank you all so much and we will keep you posted on her progress.

Jolee's surgery

Some of you know that our little JoJo was born with a clogged tear duct that has never opened. As a result, she usually has a teary eye, that while harmless, gets a little annoying. We are preparing for Jolee to have her tear duct corrected this Thursday. It's a fairly simple procedure that will take about an hour. Our doctor is wonderful and very experienced. The hard part is that she will have to a have a plastic stint placed through her tear duct, down her nasal passage, out her nostril, back up through the other nostril and finally through the other tear duct. This tube makes a continuous loop through her nose and eyes and will have to be left in place for about a month. The idea is that the tear duct will heal around the tube, allowing it to remain open. We have faith that all will go smoothly during the procedure and that Jolee will ultimately have her tear duct healed, but we are asking all of you family and friends to keep her in your prayers as she goes through this. We know that Heavenly Father will keep her safe, and we are grateful for your prayers and support. We will try to keep you all posted on how it goes. Love to you all! 

P.S. I love these pics of Jolee. You just have to look past the chocolate smudges on her face.

Christmas time

 
Well, we made it. Another Christmas has come and gone, and we not only survived, we had a great time. We have celebrated the last 2 Christmases on a sunny beach in Hawaii, but fearing a Grandma mutiny, we decided to stay in snowy AK this year. It was nice to have a white Christmas with all the family, even though the kids admitted they would rather be laying on a beach after opening their presents. Here is how it all went down. We decided to head to Anchorage this year instead of having everyone and their dogs come down (our family just keeps getting bigger), so we celebrated Christmas Eve at home with just our family by eating a wonderful steak and King Crab dinner! It was awesome. Aaron cooked while I worked on making some Christmas treasure boxes (I got the idea from Oprah). The kids have expensive taste like their mother and loved the crab. After dinner we had yummy banana splits complete with caramel, Nutella chocolate, whipped cream, nuts and a cherry on top.

  

 

Here is Brady enjoying his delicious crab and Jolee devouring her corn on the cob. Don't you wish you had some of our banana splits?

Now on to the important stuff...the presents. The kids obeyed their mother and did not come out of their rooms until 8:00 a.m. Jolee was still asleep so the kids practiced their patience and waited until she woke up at 9:00 a.m. to tear into their stockings.  Am I a mean mom or what?

 

Check out Chloee and her stocking loot. The highlight was definitely the Cold Stone gift card.

 

Jaron loved the Wall-E blanket I made him.

 

Brady's big gift was a guitar. He has been wanting to take lessons for about 6 months now and he is really talented musically, so we thought he could give it a shot. Rock on little buddy!! Maybe he will be rich and famous someday.

 Jolee loved her Curious George Jack-in the-box. I think the other kids loved it just as much. The sat forever just winding and popping George up for Jolee to squeal at.

 We got Jaron this wrestling mask in Mexico. We walked past a vendor and saw this and said "That's Jaron!" He loved it!! He immediately ran into his room and grabbed his hulk gloves he got for his birthday and started the gun show! He is too funny.

 Do you see the look of shock and awe on her face? Isn't that what every parent wants for Christmas? Yes, we are cool parents and broke down and got Haylee a new Ipod. Now don't go think she is spoiled (well, she is) but we made her make do with my old Ipod with only 4 gig memory for the past year. She used it every day, all day long (except when in school of course). She LOVES her Ipod. She loves to put audio books on it and eventually the 4 gigs just wasn't cutting it. We upgraded her to a new, blue 16 gig nano. If it sounds like I am speaking a foreign language, I don't understand it either, but she was really happy with what we got her. The plus side is that Brady inherited her old Ipod which he is thrilled with. I don't know what we did to ourselves because we now have 2 kids with headphones stuck in their ears.

 

We headed up to my parents house Christmas day for dinner and presents. The boys loved their laser tag guns my parents got them. And the Wii Rockband II will be a huge hit from Grandma Lynn and Grandpa Ron.

 Chloee's favorite gift is her new digital camera. She is always trying to take our camera and sneak pictures on it, so this is a perfect gift for her. She has already taken over 150 pictures!

 

Haylee has her hands full of baby girls. She told me she loves them until they turn 2. Jolee and Abbi, you have 4 months left! Baby Kennedy will still be on the favorite list for a while longer. Grandma Lynn is showing off her blanket made with love by me.

 

Here are some cute pics of our little girls sharing some Christmas joy. We hope you all enjoyed time with your families celebrating our most priceless gift of all, the birth of our Savior. May His love be felt in your life all year long. Melekalikimaka everyone!! (That's Hawaiian for Merry Christmas in case you didn't know)

The Reason for the Season

Merry Christmas everyone. I wanted to share with you all a beautiful slideshow that captures our Savior and his love for us so beautifully. This time of year can get crazy and very stressful, but I pray that you and yours will feel the love of Christ not only during the Christmas season, but everyday of the coming year. I love you all, and Merry Christmas!

Reflections of Christ