Better get used to disappointment kid!

When Sam turned three, the only thing he wanted was a fisher-price garage. It cost $30, which was a lot for our law schooling selves. But it was all he talked about for months. So that's what he got.

When Benjamin turned three, he wanted a car cake and a batman toy. Easy. Very easy.

When Nicholas turned three, he didn't want anything but a Wall-E cake. He didn't want a party. He didn't want presents {but he got them anyway}. He just really wanted a Wall-E cake. The pressure weighed heavy on my non-cake decorating skills, but he was happy.

Eliana turns three in August. {How is it possible that my tiny baby is turning three?} And what does our little girl want for her birthday? A pony. Not a my little pony. Not a fuzzy stuffed pony. She wants, as she puts it "A real pony. That makes noise and I can ride on it and it breathes."

Good luck with that one, Eliana. For your sake, I hope the birthday fairy is real.

Just so all four are represented

I've been taking an on-line photography class. It's fun for me, but not so much for the kids. Eliana absolutely refuses to pose for pictures any more. And Nicholas will only do so if he can pick his pose.

So here are some of Nicholas' ideas of a good pose.

Piano Recital 2010

Sam and Benjamin have been taking piano lessons for a while now. It makes me happy to see them play the piano. It does not make me happy to have to remind them to practice. I've told them that when they are adults, they'll be glad they know how to play. But that doesn't mean much to an eight and 10 year old boy.

Still, we keep plugging along.

Because I'm the mom and I said so.

My Ballerina Bunny

I signed Ellie up for Ballet in December. She wasn't sure if she wanted to do it, but I knew that she loved it and really wanted to be a little ballerina. Watching her every week is so fun! She had her recital on Saturday and it was perfect! I, of course, had to bribe her with a new pony and a pink cake - but it was totally worth it.

If this video does not make your heart melt, you are not human.

Will wonders never cease?

There are three - count them - three new posts below this. Amazing, I know.

Reader's Digest Version

Dear Sorry, Neglected, Pathetically and embarrassingly lame blog,

I apologize for forgetting about you. I promise to {TRY} to be better about updating you. I hope that we can still be friends.

Here's what you missed in the long four months you've spent pining away for me:

Nicholas turned four.
Nicholas got potty trained (after a year and a half of trying!)

Benjamin turned eight.
Benjamin got baptized.
We went to the Great Wolf Lodge to celebrate.

Sam turned 10. YIKES!

Eliana grew slightly more hair. Still rocking the mullet, though.

Kenai . . . who knew a dog could be so much trouble.
Broke his elbow. Had to have surgery to have pins put in. Pins fell out. Had to have pins re-inserted, and a cast put on. While in the cast, re-broke his elbow. Vet got very, VERY angry about that. Spent 10 days at the kennel so the vet could be in charge. Came home good as new - although slightly more of an investment.

Everyone did the annual bluebonnet pictures.

Josh and Rachel spent a week in Hawaii.

Whew! Just the dog alone is reason enough to keep me from blogging.

Pictures may or may not follow. You can't expect things to change all at once. I'm just saying.

Hawaii

For Valentine's day, Josh surprised me with a trip to Hawaii. We had to wait for his schedule to clear, so we didn't go until last week. It was fabulous! We spent five days on the island of Molokai. It's a smaller island - no stop lights, no chain restaurants, one grocery store - island living at it's best. We had a condo right on the beach - it was perfect!

We had fresh mangos and pineapple. We had macadamia nuts right from the tree. We walked the beach for hours every morning. We drove through a rainforest (and I freaked out when the one lane road dirt road high on the mountain had no guard rails to protect us from the bazillion mile drop). We saw whales as we sat on the beach. We saw a Hawaiian Monk Seal (not as well groomed as they are in a zoo). We collected hundreds of shells an coral. It was the most amazingly perfect week ever!

There is nothing better than a vacation to Hawaii! I'm still trying to convince Josh we need to move there. Keep your fingers crossed!

Please forgive the picture overload, but you have to see it all. Besides, I only pick a few from the 500+ pictures we took. Consider yourselves lucky.

The view from our Lanai.

Papohaku Beach. I think it's three miles long. And we only ever saw one other person on it.

Hawaiian Monk Seal.

The grocery store in Maunaloa Town. So cute!

The view down to Kalaupapa - the Leper colony.

Josh exploring the tide pools at the Moomomi Preserve.

The island of Maui in the background.

The scary price of gas. And only two gas stations on the island. But have no fear - you can also buy diapers, ice coolers, big screen TVs and fresh fruit while you fill up.

Surfers.

Organic Papaya grown at Kumu Farms.

The royal coconut grove, planted by King Kamehameha V in 1860.

The view from the back of the condos.

One of the whales we saw from the beach.

Bluebonnets 2010

How could we call ourselves Texans without bluebonnet pictures? {Not that we call ourselves Texans. I'm not quite sure what we are. Except Texas trend followers}.