Hawaii Minibook Day 2

Lots of days at the beach ... mom, do we go in the water every time? Sure, honey! Mom, it's not cold or grey or dark like at home. Loving our time here in the islands for sure ... fun in the sun!

The famous Duke Kahanamoku statue at Waikiki Beach. Since we are staying right here, might as well hit that beach first. Kaila caught her first of many waves and is now in love with surfing. Mom tried to catch a few and lost stamina ... boy, not the same when you are out of shape and many years older ... I just couldn't paddle hard enough on a couple to actually catch the wave ... shucks! In the end, only caught a couple and ended up with many sore muscles instead. Ha!

Fun title page ... part of our vacation time is spent in our hotel doing homework.

Kainani is researching Japanese American culture versus American Indian culture. Go venn diagram.

Having fun building any kine stuff with da cousins.

Our first morning on the islands, we took a walk on the beach when no one was there. Way cool!

Story of the day today was mostly about island foods and hanging out at the beach!

View from our hotel is pretty cool. Lots of tall buildings in Waikiki ... it's hotel central ... what do we expect?!? But at least we got ocean view, mountain view and Diamond head view!

Some of the foods we are sampling already ... kim chee chige from our favorite late night haunt Sorabol, manupua from Chun Wah Kam, more plate lunch and poke!

Mom, take a picture of this ... the kids know that my favorite thing to take pictures of is food!

Day 2 pau ... we are just beginning our adventures here on da islands!

Hawaii Minibook Day 1

Before we left on our trip, I stole some time in the scrapbook room to put together a travel mini book. It's mostly a Making Memories travel kit that I saved for my Europe pictures but still haven't gotten around to scrapbooking much of yet ... over a year later. So this time I'm going to try to get the stories told as they happen so I can actually remember them.

It's an 8x8 mini album of papers glued together, tabs punched and mini stickers to tell the dates. In between each date I also added a smaller sheet with a ripped note paper for the story of the day. All bound with rings in case there are other pieces of memorabilia I might want to add along the way. The front and back is acrylic to hold its shape in the suitcase. And I only brought along a one gallon ziploc of embellishments ... a sampling of ribbon, buttons, stickers, letters and twine. Ready, set, scrap!

Day One was the trip from San Diego airport to Honolulu. The girls don't remember the last couple of times they had been on a plane so it was quite an adventure.

Lena called dibs for the window seat. She took the picture of our view from the plane as we landed in Hawaii. She and I sat together during the 5 plus hour ride and entertained ourselves with another feet shot. Haha. She says to me ... mom, this is how you make an airplane. The thumb and pinky are the wings and the hand is the plane. We flying mom! So cute!

Keeping a piece of Hawaiian Airlines in the lunchbox and the swivel stick.

The journaling/story of the day was mostly about the trip itself. Upon arrival, however, they were pretty excited to see their cousins and sample our first dose of local food ... poke variety of all types!

And the shots of us on the plane. 5 hours went by pretty fast with breakfast, snack, a Dolphin Tales movie, a little DS and a little homework. Day One complete!

Take Twelve January - Taking Inventory

I am pretty excited to have easily accomplished my first digital scrapbook page ... thanks to the Take Twelve challenge. Yay! Winning the inspiration kit and templates resulted in one day with my camera and a double page layout done! The bonus is that most of these pics came straight out of the camera looking like this ... at night indoors no less. I am excited to be playing with the settings on the DSLR again and focusing on my love of photography. Aperture, got it. White balance, got it. Exposure with no flash, got it too.

In January, the theme was taking inventory of our lives and the things in it. I captured 12 different parts of our everyday life here in this layout. Life at home, with the kids, commuting, and vacation! This is our January 2012!

I'm a Winner & I'm Taking Twelve!

Some of my Facebook friends may have noticed that I am not really doing Project 365 this year. After 2 full years, I think it's time for a fresh approach. I'm going to do Project Life and Take Twelve instead. And what perfect timing . . . since I was recently a winner of the Take Twelve Inspiration Kit at the Capture Your365 blog!

Along the lines of my one little word being ENOUGH, I think I'd rather just take enough pictures to get memories told . . . once a month on the 12th I will take 12 pictures and scrapbook that! There's a whole community of people doing this at the Ella Publishing blog. And the kit will have inspiration ideas, prompts of what to take pictures of and a digital template to scrap the end result. Yay!

I'll most likely take other pics with my iphone throughout each week as well and use the Project Life method for that. Haven't bought a kit or anything . . . just using my scrap stash, an 8 1/2 x 11 inch binder and baseball card sheet protectors for now. There's just so many people jumping on the Project Life bandwagon this year that it's a little overwhelming and it took me a while to decide where to start. So . . . I'm going to remember to just keep to ENOUGH to get a few tidbits of life's daily stories told . . . that's all.

Be back soon to show my Take Twelve and Project Life January progress. Are you partaking in any of these scrapbooking or photo challenges this year?

PS. You know what's so funny too? My lucky number since high school has been 17 and wouldn't you know it, that was my number this time and I won!!!

One Little Word 2012

This time of year is perfect for making goals and new years resolutions. Usually I pick my One Little Word to focus on rather than making resolutions. The idea came a few years back from Ali Edwards. In 2008 my word was Simplicity. That year I pared down my belongings, my commitments and my life. In 2009 my word was Mindful. Learned to slow down, live more in the moment and eat more purposefully. Last year my word was Less.. Did less, cared less and wanted or needed less to live a more meaningful life. The impact has been pretty evident to me as I now reflect ... my life is right where I want it to be. Far from perfect but oh so perfect for me!

That leads to my word for 2012 ... ENOUGH. As I look at the hats I wear or the roles I play, I see the emphasis on this word being totally appropriate for this year. I AM ENOUGH!

1. Mom: I want to be sure I spend enough quality time with my girls. Not just together but separately one on one. I want them to get enough attention from me and feel special in their own right as I love them each on their own.
2. Wife and Daughter: I want to keep asking myself ... am I showing my love and support enough to my family? Sometimes the ones we love the most are the ones we either take for granted or are the most mean and impatient to.
3. Professional: Am I doing enough to add value to my team? I read a quote not too long ago that it is more meaningful to make your absence felt than to boast about your presence. Love the work I do, just want to be sure it's making a difference.
4. Scrapbooker: Getting the memories recorded is enough. Don't worry too much about the quality of the photo, the supplies being used or the process itself. Too many unfinished projects equals no real stories being told.
5. Individual: I am enough! Care less about what others think of me. Know that my intentions are there to live the life I was given the best I know how. Do not compare, do not want, just be and that is enough.

I'm sure as the year progresses, more layers of this word will come out as I go about making the most of this life we were given. I am grateful for the imperfect and genuine reality of life itself ... it is enough.

Do you choose a word for the year? Or make new years resolutions?

Currents : New Year

I'm still finishing up a few more posts of holiday events to post online for my December Daily photo book. But since it's almost a week into the new year, I'm ready for a clean start and a pulse check . . .
on to a post of currents . . .

time: 4pm
location: desk
weather: sunny, 75? wouldn't know been indoors all day
listening: traffic and cars outside the office window
eating: just finished a salad, going for 2 a day
drinking: water, going for 2 a day here too
wearing: jeggings, white Justice sequined tank, long black cardigan, black boots (jeggings and black boots seems to be the uniform lately . . . extremely comfy and sorta stylish at the same time)
feeling: pretty good, ready for the weekend
wanting: some time to scrapbook and decide on Project 366 . . . to be or not to be this year?
needing: to declutter, cleaning always brings clarity and I'm a bit lazy about the new year right now
thinking: I'm so lucky . . . quality family time right around the corner in da islands!
enjoying: wish I could say a glass of wine but it's not 5 o'clock yet :)
wondering: can I fit a family's 10 day wardrobe in a suitcase and 2 carry on's?

currents idea from here

Holiday Tradition: Christmas Eve

Holiday picture with their grandmas. So blessed to have both in their lives watching them grow up.

The girls with Grandma Marvie and Papa Nick.

Big family portrait with both sets of grandparents. Holidays are all about family!

After a nice big Christmas Eve dinner, we decided to go Christmas caroling. We have never done this before and since we have many days of our advent calendar activities to catch up on, the girls voted for this. It was cold ... but we were determined to spread holiday cheer. Our neighbors and their family from Texas were there to join us in the fun.

Ringing the door bell and waiting to see if anyone's home before we started our singing ... Jingle Bells, We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Frosty the Snowman were probably our favorites. A couple of others we tried but didn't know so well ... that proved a bit disastrous.

But when the kids are small ... even Ashley joined in ... most people were tolerant and enjoyed our attempts at caroling.

Once it got too cold to bear any longer, we headed inside to make our reindeer food. Mixing some glitter ensure that our lawn would sparkle in the night so Santa's reindeers would find our house.

Oats are biodegradable right? Grass likes it too right? You know ... just in case the reindeer didn't end up eating all of the food. Hehe.

Lena had the most fun sprinkling the reindeer food on the lawn in the front yard ... she ran around laughing and sprinkling and having the best time.

Kaila tosses the last of her bowl into the night. Welcome Santa and his reindeers, we are ready for you!

But then Nani was grumpy because she couldn't find her shoes and she was tired. This girl is sleepy and when it's time to go to bed, she doesn't enjoy doing anything else. She threw her whole bowl at once into the yard and quickly ran back into the house. Good night Nani!

One last step before the girls got ready for bed ... Kaila wrote a note to Santa and we put out the milk and cookies. Our house definitely believes!

Then the house was quiet and still as we settled down all nestled in our warm beds. To all a good night!

Holiday Tradition: Christmas Morning

Christmas morning is spent with family in our tradition of matching holiday pajamas. We take our time getting up, having breakfast, opening presents and enjoying each other's company.

Kaila was the first to get up ... waiting patiently watching TV while the others hit the snooze button a little bit more.

Lena is usually the last to get up. She is just like her daddy and really likes to sleep in. But this particular morning, she was a bit anxious and excited so she got up anad at 'em even before baby Ashley.

This was the first year we had stockings filled. It's usually too crazy and stressful for mom to worry about stockings in the past, it just never was a tradition we upheld. But this year, it was a fun addition to our normal routine. Nani enjoyed all of her Hello Kitty goodies. But her favorite was a sticky smash ball fruit that she could throw at a window and it would splat ... she is truly our tomboy of the bunch.

Kaila's favorite was her toe socks. She also found ways to keep busy during her 3 week Christmas vacation this year with a Sudoku book inside her stocking.

Lena had to keep peeking at her stocking before finally taking it down and looking inside ... giddy I guess. She got some fun coloring stuff (her most favorite thing to do) and cute penguin slippers and matching sleep mask.

Ashley is up and ready for the fun ... this might be the first year that she's starting to understand the meaning of Christmas morning.

A sign that the girls are growing up as we had a good mix of clothes, school supplies and toys. Much different than the toddler princess years where it was all about the toys.

Baby got in the act showing off her new outfit, too.

Lena's favorite outfit from grandma ... such a girly girl this one.

By far the most adored gift of the whole morning was this Dora backpack. After opening it, she couldn't wait to put it on. Then she kept saying how she has her own backpack and was so happy. Now she is ready for her adventures with Dora. Haha. LOL

Surveying the goods as they near the end of all the packages. So excited to start trying things on and playing with all their new stuff.

And right away, she starts coloring ... she really could occupy herself for hours just drawing, coloring and scrapbooking ... she is probably the most like me ... such a proud mommy. It was a merry Christmas morning indeed!