Baptism Day

Rachel and Lydia recently got baptized!  In our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) children are not baptized as infants.  They can be baptized once they are 8 years old.  If you'd like to learn more about this, here's a link:  http://mormon.org/faq/topic/baptism

We had a really special day and we really appreciated so many family members coming to support us.

  

 

Rachel and Lydia turn 8!

Lydia and Rachel had a great eighth birthday!  It's so cliche to say it, but time really does fly!  It seems like just yesterday that life was like this:

Somehow time continues to march on though, and they keep growing up!  They had a party with friends this year to celebrate.  They absolutely love fairies so we planned a fairy-themed party for them.

Pin the wand on the fairy

Wand decorating

Butterfly pinata

 

 

Flower cupcakes- so easy!  The petals are Swedish fish!

Lots of friends!

We held their friend party before their actual birthday.  They spent the day of their birthday just enjoying being the stars of the day!

New rollerblades

I made them a Neapolitan Rose Cake.

Yum!

We are so grateful to have these kiddos in our family.  I can't imagine getting them one at a time- they were meant to come as a two-some!  We love you girls!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas!  I realize I'm late on posting these Christmas pics, but I still wanted to make sure I did it!

 

 We started the Christmas season off by going to see

the lights on Temple Square.  Seeing all the beautiful

lights and the nativity there really helps to set the spirit

for the Christmas season.

One of our kids favorite activities is decorating graham cracker
gingerbread houses.  This is Rachel with hers.

 

 Christmas morning

 Lydia

 

So glad I caught Charity's excited look here.

Who doesn't love pink sparkle shoes?

Hyrum loved his new sunglasses.

This year we went sledding on Christmas afternoon.  It was

so much fun.  It was a great way to spend time as a family and

get some fresh air and exercise (hill climbing).

Somehow we didn't take any pictures on Christmas Eve.  Every year we act out the nativity story on Christmas Eve and play games.  Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures next year!  We had such a nice Christmas!  I'm always sad to see the Christmas season end.  I guess we'll start counting down to next year!

The Nutcracker

Rachel and Lydia auditioned to be clowns in the local production of "The Nutcracker" this year.  We were ecstatic to find out that they made it!  They had a lot of fun rehearsing and performing.  I was in "The Nutcracker" for years so it was so much fun to see our twins in it too! 

Tech rehearsal

 

 All of the clowns

With some of the cast

With Mother Ginger- the clowns come 

out from under "her" skirt

What a fun experience!  Lydia and Rachel did a great job and we had so much fun watching them!

Trip to Hawaii!

Kenny and I recently returned from an amazing trip to Hawaii.  We spent some time on both Oahu and the Big Island.  We saw so many neat things and had such a great time.  Thanks a million to my parents for watching our kids while we were gone.  Warning: Long post ahead!

Waikiki Beach

Pearl Harbor

USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor

 Polynesian Cultural Center

 

Kenny trying to make fire the Samoan way

 We had a fun experience in the Tahitian portion of the Polynesian

Cultural Center.  They took people from the audience who were on

a honeymoon or celebrating an anniversary (we were celebrating 
our 10th), and had them participate in a mock Tahitian wedding 
ceremony.  It was supposed to be like we were renewing 
our vows.  It was a lot of fun.

Laie Hawaii LDS Temple

Snorkeling

We saw lots of sea turtles!  This one came near the rocks

I was standing on and I lucked out and snapped a photo

just as he came up for a breath. 

 Kona Hawaii LDS Temple- 

This is on the west side of the Big Island.

 Lava rock sea arch

 This is called "End of Chain of Craters Road" in Volcanoes

National Park because the road literally ends here.  Lava flowed 
over the road once, and they ended up repaving it.  Lava flowed 
over it again and they decided to give up and just let the 
road end here.

We thought this buried sign was pretty funny.

 

Halema'uma'u Crater-  This crater currently has no lava

flowing out of it but is emitting a gas and steam plume.

The plume glows orange at night because it's reflecting the

lava below.

 

Hiking through the Kilauea Iki Crater- This hike starts at the

top of the crater and then goes down through it.  This volcano last

erupted in 1959 and the eruption filled up this huge crater with

a lava lake 200 feet deep.  It has now cooled enough to walk on,

but there are parts that are still steaming and the rock feels 

warm to the touch. 

Thurston Lava Tube- This was formed when the outer

lava cooled more quickly than the lava below.  Lava

continued to flow through underneath and left a huge tunnel. 

We went to the Mauna Loa factory and saw them

gathering the nuts and learned how they crack

them and go through the whole factory process.

Did you know it takes 3000 lbs of pressure to 

crack open a macadamia nut? 

 

 We took a helicopter tour over the volcanoes, and we were

so glad we did because there was currently not really

any lava flow that you could see from the ground.

A glimpse into the top of a volcano

A subdivision that was recently destroyed by lava flow.  

You can see some of the road and trees that were spared. 

 We flew over a ton of waterfalls.  You can see 3 in this picture.

The view from our hotel room in Waikoloa, Big Island.

We went to an amazing place called Wapio Valley which is

on the northeastern part of the Big Island.  It was pretty

foggy so the pictures don't do this place justice.  This is a picture

before we hiked down to the black sand beach.

 

 This is a picture at the bottom.....and we looked like wet rats.

It was pouring rain as we hiked down but it was totally worth it.

What a gorgeous place!  There was hardly anyone around.

We had a wonderful trip, but we missed these kiddos!

We couldn't wait to get back to them!