Tribute to my two little hawaiian girls

It's probably been a couple years since I made a post on the blog...But, desperate times call for desperate measures :)

Rachel and Kaili flew off to Hawaii on Thursday for a 10 day trip. We drove to the airport at 4:30 am. It was awesome. But, we can talk about that some other time. Rachel was pretty anxious about the 10 hours of flying, as our last flight from Washington consisted of Kaili wailing the entire flight until she finally fell asleep - as the pilot announced we were descending to land. Fortunately, it sounds like Rachel and Kaili's flights went pretty well.

How am I doing without my two favorite girls you ask...


Need I say more? ...actually, this picture is pretty fitting as we've gotten a ton of snow in the last few days, starting w/ the day they flew out. (so I've done a lot of shoveling)

Despite missing them so much, I have enjoyed cleaning up the house, staying REALLY late at work, and catching up on a bunch of projects around the house.

Anyway...I was super anxious to see some pictures of all the fun they've had. Rachel finally sent some pics last night, including a trip to beach, Kaili's luau, and just hanging around the house with all the fam. Here are a few of my favs.














LOVE YOU GUYS!!! Wish I were there with you.

She's almost 1!

It's hard to believe, but our little Kai Kai is growing up! She'll be 1 on the 20th and she's already acting like she's 14 :). Here's a clip of her getting her "walk" on. Also note: she has hair since the last time you saw her. It actually works into a ponytail!



Kaili and I are on our way to Kona on the 21st to celebrate, and to get some Kaili-grandma/grandpa time in. We are lucky to be able to skype and talk with Mom and Dad almost everyday, but it will be so nice to actually be together. Plus, Susan and Clayton and Grandma Smith will be there too! We can't wait!

Here are some more pics of our big girl for you to enjoy!

An Awesome Christmas in Bellevue

For Christmas this year we left our home in Utah to visit the Skeens in Andrew's hometown, Bellevue, Washington. We had a great time.

On the way over, we almost missed our flight:
It was a direct, but we got there at 5:20 and the plane was scheduled to leave at 5:55. We had luggage to check and a car to park. Andrew left me in the "Sky Cap" line outside and he took Kaili with him to park the car and take the shuttle back. Unfortunately, the line was rediculous, and not to mention, I had lots of luggage to move for the three of us. When I made it to the front of the line to check us in it was 5:45 and realized they required ID for us. Luckily I had packed our passports (don't ask why). As I started running inside, Andrew got off a shuttle. Our gate was at the very end of the terminal so we were sure we'd miss it, but we thought we'd give it a shot, so we started running. We didn't even bother to put our belts or jackets back on. Luckily, a man in a car stopped us and asked where we were going and if we needed a lift! We hopped on his buggy and made it to our gate at 5:56... Everyone was aboard and ready to go, but luckily no takeoff yet. phew!

Christmas Eve we did some final shopping for eachother, played some guitar hero, wrapped presents, and bathed the girls. Madison is 8 months older than Kaili. It ws so fun to see them play together.






Christmas morning we had "fluffy bacon and eggs" a traditional Skeen breakfast on Christmas morning and then made our way to the gifts. Kaili and Joey (the skeen's dog) worked together on opening a few of them.










On Christmas Day the boys played Wii Resort - a new game Kevin got for Christmas.



For dinner on Christmas we had an awesome meal with Dungenous Crab, potatoes, shrimp, and garlic green beans. They put brown paper on the table and just spread it all out. The crab was amazing (as always) and it was so fun just to literally "dig in."



On Saturday, Andrew and I went and got massages at the YMCA (thanks to Mom and Dad Skeen). Then we all made lunches and took them to a Bellevue park and distributed them among the homeless. After that, we went to JC Pennys and used my photo studio membership to get Skeen family photos. It was fun to coordinate everyone and to try to get Madison and Kaili to look at the camera at the same time.

That night, we went to Andrew's favorite local mexican restaurant Terreros, but it relocated and was now named "Ricardo's."

When we got home we watched Julie & Julia and 4 of us got hammered with what we thought was food poisoning. I was throwing up until 4:30 in the morning.

The next day Andrew and most of his family went to church while some of us stayed home to recover. That night we met up with some of Andrew's friends for pie and chit-chat. It was fun to see everyone and to get to know them better.

On Monday, there was more Wii and playing at home until we made it over to the church gym to play Dodgeball with some friends. I was not very versed in the art of dodgeball, so needless to say, I got worked, but it was fun.

We flew back on Monday night and have enjoyed the rest of the week here at home. Thanks to Steve and Teri for spoiling us and letting us invade your home!

Wii are nerds

So, if you recall this image from our blog post two years ago when Andrew and I jokingly declared ourselves "gamers":



Well, thanks to Andrew's work party last month and winning our current Wii system in their annual raffle, we have the opportunity to redeem ourselves as "gamers." (The funny part is, one week after we won it I had a birthday and Andrew decided that it would be a great gift to stock up on Wii games and extra remotes, so now we are all "geared" up with Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Mario Kart.) Woo hoo! Come on over and play :)!

Some 2009 Fav's

In an effort to catch you all up on our 2009 year (at least the last 6 months of it), I have created an album of my 64 favorite pictures from the year. I hope you enjoy them!

We are alive, in case you were wondering...

Hi all,

I'm not sure if you remember us, since we have pretty much been MIA since June when "The Lindon Pool" was all the rage, but after watching Julie & Julia and since we are beginning a new decade ahead of us, I thought it might be an appropriate time to recommit to my blog... I mean our blog :). The one stipulation however is that Andrew gets to watch Kaili for 20 minutes each Sunday so I can enjoy it and not see it as a pressure. So - new year, new blog (at least a new look) and weekly updates! Sound good?

Well for those of you who are reading this... first of all, I am impressed. I know my mom for a while there was checking my blog daily for any updates, but now she just calls :). You had every reason to give up on us.

Secondly, there have been quite a few newsworthy events that have occurred since I last posted which are worth mentioning. Here's the list (in no particular order, just a brain dump):

1. We bought a house in Pleasant Grove, UT and moved in mid-August
2. Kaili is now walking as of last week
3. We went to Washington for Christmas and had an amazing time with the Skeens
4. Kaili dressed up as a flower for Halloween and we had bazillions of trick-o-treaters
5. We met up with the Gleeds for Thanksgiving in New York for 10 days and Kaili met Ryan, Becky, and their two dogs for the first time
6. I ran a 5k in August - my first since I was 8 years old or something
7. Andrew and I both have church callings dealing with kids - Me: Cub Scout Wolf Den Leader, Andrew: Primary Teacher
8. We went to a Skeen family reunion in Eden, UT for a weekend in July
9. We went on a fishing trip to Fish Lake with some old neighbors over Labor Day weekend
10. I went to Los Lobos, Bonnie Rait, Diana Krall, and The Wallflowers concerts this summer at The University of Utah.


Phew, now I feel all good and caught up. I'll give you a real blog post tomorrow, k?