Fun In The Dryer

One night Jillian helped me with laundry. After we unloaded the dryer she just hopped in and started cracking up. I had to go get the camera.

I took a couple photos and Jillian said "one more mama". So I told her to make a funny face for the last photo. She said this is her "scared" face.

Happy Christmas 2008

I am finally organized with the few pictures from Christmas day. I can't believe how little pictures I took....I must have been too busy with all the cooking. Here is a shot of Jillian opening presents...even Athena helped. :)

Playing the piano. Jillian takes music lessons...pre-piano...and she is loving this little version.

We found this super cute baby doll set at Costco...gotta love Costco! The set came with a doll, stroller, bed and feeding chair. It is sooo cute! This gift was definitely a favorite. Jillian named the doll "Baby Lyssa". Hmmm, Allison...do you know what TV show inspired this doll's name?

My videographer. :) I may not have many pictures from this day...but I have an entire 2008 Withrow Family Christmas DVD.

Every year Costco gets these AMAZING poinsettias. They are huge! I love them sooooo much and just had to have one for home. BUT...fall and winter are ant season in Hawaii. When we put any kind of live plant in the house...its like ants on parade all over the place. And once they come in, it is a major battle getting them to leave...no matter how much we spray. Right now I am battling a colony living in an electrical outlet above our kitchen sink. Hawaiian ants are no joke.

So....the poinsettia lives outside on the lanai. Jillian and I are sitting outside looking at the pretty flowers. I've heard you can plant them and they will grow into trees....

A Santa Visit

The week before Christmas Santa came to Hawaii...he visited a little cafe in Waimea and we drove up to see him. Jillian was very excited until we arrived, I tried to pry her little arms from around me...but her death grip was just too strong. :) Santa said we should all sit on his lap and Jeremy was not terribly excited about this idea...but what could he say? Hee hee. :)

I have a friend who invites Santa to their home and has an annual party for her kids and their friends. After our day, I'm thinking...what a smart lady!

Jillian participated in her school's Christmas Program last Friday. The girls in her room were sheep, they sang and danced to "Do You Hear What I Hear?" It was very cute! In this picture, Jillian is the second from the end on the right.

Our little lamb in front of the Christmas trees.

Chores

When Jillian turned 3 this year, we decided it was time for her to have household chores. She has three jobs...she helps me feed Athena, she helps me with folding and putting away the laundry (especially her clothes) and she puts the soap in and starts the dishwasher.


Athena is eagerly watching Jillian prepare her dinner. Yum-O!

This week before school and work, Jillian was sleeping in and I did not not to wake her until the last possible moment. So, I tried to do everything I could do without her to get us ready...I made lunches, packed the car, and had her outfit ready. Then I decided to feed Athena on my own...I filled her bowl up with food and started getting her vitamins and pills ready (she takes 5 pills with each meal). Jillian heard the pill bottles from her sleep and came running into the kitchen...."I'll do the vitamins!" :)

Jillian is folding her clothes...great job! :)

Our Costco sells the Cascade packs in bulk...it makes Jillian's job easier to grab a packet and hit the "start" button.

We try to make her jobs as fun as possible. When I'm ready for her help I'll call, "Who wants to help me feed Athena, start the dishes, or fold clothes" And I try to sound super excited. If Jeremy happens to be home at the same time, he'll yell back "I do!" and run to try to do the job before Jillian. There is something about Daddy "wanting" to do the job that makes Jillian want to do it even more!

Wind Storm

Last week we had a massive wind storm. It blew our outdoor table across the lanai where the glass top shattered into a zillion tiny pieces. We spent hours picking tiny bits of glass out of the cinder gravel planter that runs along the edge of the lanai....using needle nose pliers....filling a wheelbarrow and a bucket. Jeremy used the shop-vac to vacuum the grass...the glass was in the yard and we didn't know how else to clean it up. Oh my heavens, if we ever get a table with a glass-top again (and right now the chances of that happening are almost nil), but if we do - we'll have it coated with the hurricane film. Thank God, Athena was OK. Jillian and I got home and Athena met us at the door with an apologetic look that seemed to say "I just dug up the whole yard and I am soooooo sorry. Please remember you love me!" I can't imagine how frightened she must have been. The glass covered every inch of our lanai, most of the cinder planter and even into the yard....we are grateful that somehow Athena's paws managed to escape injury.

On the bright side, Jillian has learned of something to blame when she does something ornery. "It was the wind" she has told me several times when asked "Did you do this?"

Countdown to Christmas

My original thought was to skip decorating for Christmas this year. It is very hard to get into the Christmas spirit when it is 80 degrees outside....it feels like summer! I thought, we'll get a nice poinsettia from Costco and that will be good enough. However, there are lots of houses in our neighborhood that go all out decorating for the holidays. Jillian watched all the lights and things go up and said "Mama, I want Christmas at our house too!" :) As you can imagine...the tree is now up in our home. Jeremy will be surprised when he returns tomorrow after spending a week in Honolulu. I was in scrooge mode before he left.

Since the tree was up, I wrapped a few of the things we had already bought for Jillian and put them under the tree. This temptation has been torture! Jillian REALLY wants to open them...she asks "Is it Christmas yet?" "Its dark out, does that mean its time for Christmas?" "Its morning-time now, is it time for Christmas?" "When Daddy comes home will it be Christmas?"

So, we hung up her fish bowl...that I found at the best school supply store that is now sadly going out of business. We put one fish in the bowl for every day until Christmas. Each morning (or evening - her choice) she may remove one fish. When she removes the last fish, it will be Christmas! Yeah! Here is a picture of her removing the first fish. Later, she brought me a second fish and said here mama, I'm ready for Christmas - let's take all the fish down!

Withrow Family Mini Vacation

Hilton Waikoloa Village is currently advertising Kama'aina specials....discounted rates for Hawaii residents. We decided to take advantage of their promotion on Veteran's Day. We stayed the night at the hotel and played hard for two days. We felt like we were a world away...instead of just 20 minutes from home. We felt like we were on vacation and truly enjoyed our little break!!!!

The Keiki pool had a sandy edge. Like the beach, but better....this sand was like small, soft rocks. It didn't stick to our skin...and Jillian's swimsuit wasn't full of it when we left. I could sing a song about this sand...it was beautiful. I buried Jillian and her new friend. After the moms snapped a few pictures, the girls stood up, brushed the sand offf and kept playing.

Jillian swimming with Daddy in the big pool. The water was way too cold for me!!!

Jillian and Mama resting under one of the umbrella lounge chairs.

Preschool

This is Jillian's 08-09 school picture. :) The photographer set up a stool on the playground and all the kids lined up for their picture. When it was Jillian's turn, she was shy and refused to smile for him....so he started acting goofy and it cracked her up. What a smart guy!!!!

Here is her class! :) It was like herding geckos getting all the kids to sit still long enough for a few photos. If you look closely, most of the kids are doing their own thing. Jillian was caught about to lift up the bottom of her dress. She is sitting on the second step, far right. They are sitting around the playhouse on the playground. I was standing behind the photographer, along with a few other moms, and we called directions to our kids...."Put your dress down!" "Stop picking your nose!" "Look over here!" and of course "Smile, Pretend you're happy!"

For school, the children have a uniform...they may wear the blue aloha dresses or blue t-shirts with plain tan/black/blue/white shorts. Getting dressed in the mornings is a snap...no fuss required. On picture day, the children were allowed to wear anything they wanted....I didn't tell Jillian this! I think the little dress is super cute!

Do you remember the school book clubs? You know, the one where for every book you buy, the school receives free books for the classroom? U of N does this, and I LOVE it. I found these cute books that talk about going to school and how much fun school is and that we love her all day long. Both talk about school pets, knowing that Jillian's room has fish, I asked her, "Does your classroom have pets?" She said, almost immediately, "Yes, BOYS!"

Even at this early age, the little girls tend to stick together. Jillian's teacher told me that they have to separate the girls during lunch and lessons....so they will actually eat and listen.

Our Girl

Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. --Elizabeth Stone

HPA Pumpkin Patch

Hawaii Prep Academy hosted their annual pumpkin patch last month. We went again....we had so much fun there last year that we started watching for it in September. Jillian rode a horse for the very first time this year! We waited in a pretty good line to ride the horses and when it was finally Jillian's turn she said "I'm ready to ride the train now". We convinced her to ride the horse first and then we could do the train. She had so much fun and was very thankful that Daddy walked along beside her. Students from the program walked the horses. She told Jeremy and Jillian that this horse is a retired race horse. No wonder he was so calm and slow...he is probably all done with the running stuff!


Then she rode the train again. At first she asked if I would ride with her...but, as soon as I helped her into her seat she was fine.

Fun Dress Up Days!

The week before Halloween, Jillian's school had fun dress-up days! For each day, the children were not required to wear their uniforms and could choose to dress up. Since Jillian only goes to school 3 days a week, she was able to participate in special color day (her room did BLUE), animal day and fireman dress up day. On animal day, since it is so hot here, we chose to limit her costume to headband ears. That morning I laid out her choices on the trampoline (Thanks Luke!) and let her choose. As soon as she started looking, I thought why did I include the antlers? And I was silently sending her the message...don't choose the antlers! Of course, she chose the antlers, the only option that was a happy meal toy from years ago. I thought some of the others were cuter, but it was her choice. Her teacher said she was a cute reindeer all day long!

On Thursday, Firemen visited the school to show the children their truck, fire hose and gear. They talked about fire safety and what to do in case of a fire. Jillian wore her fireman hat all morning....at home playing in the garage before school, in the car on the way to school and all the way up to her classroom. We walked into her room, she took off her hat, and refused to wear it any more that day.

Trick-or-Treat!!!!!!

Jillian is all dressed up as a fairy princess. We used hot rollers on her hair and she is wearing just a smidge of eye shadow and glitter gel. She LOVES all that girly stuff. We had fun getting ready...while Jeremy napped. It took him maybe 5 minutes to get himself ready. In Hawaii, most of the parents dress up to take their children trick-or-treating....more do than don't. It was never like that for me growing up...the parents never dressed up.

Joe the Plumber, Pink, and a cute Fairy Princess. We grabbed a quick photo of the family and left for trick-or-treating around 6:30. Jillian was so excited! We walked until Jillian got tired, which ended up being an hour and a half and probably more than half a mile. The next day, we noticed that she had walked so much that her sandals had rubbed a raw spot on her little ankle, poor thing. She never complained once. She was having a ball!

Jillian and Mama.

When we got home at 8pm, we opened up the garage and continued to hand out candy. Jillian loved giving the candy away! And she was so generous too, she gave everyone a big handful. I expected her to be stingy and want to keep all the leftovers. Maybe she felt secure knowing that her own pumpkin was full.

Our neighbors are so festive! We love the way they decorate their home!!

Happy Halloween!!!!!

Halloween Card 10/2008. I dressed Jillian up for Halloween and walked down to the park at the entrance to Lokahi Makai (our subdivision) and took a few pictures.

Hilton Waikoloa Village

On their last day in town, we took Papa Dan and Nana to see the Hilton Resort in Kona. We had never been either and had been wanting to go. It was amazing! If you vacation here, you would never have to leave the resort grounds, they have everything!! And its so ginormous that you have to take a boat on their lagoon waterway or a tram to get where you want to go!

Jeremy, Jillian and I are enjoying the boat ride.

Papa Dan, Nana and Jillian are enjoying the boat ride.

This the view of the lagoon waterway...it was so beautiful! There were fish swimming in the water and exotic birds in the gardens along the way.

We got off the boat to visit the Dolphin Sea Village. They have 14 dolphins and we arrived just in time to see them eat lunch and do a little bit of training.

On of the dolphins popping up to say Hi!

On of the dolphins swimming close to where we were standing.

After checking out the dolphins we ate lunch at one of the cafe's. After Jillian finished her lunch, she started feeding the birds her leftovers. The birds were less timid than I think she was expecting. She didn't like how close they got!

One of the birds perched on my hand while nibbling bread from my fingers.

Let me repeat, we were done eating. And we bathed in hand sanitizer afterwards. Oh, and I guess we were lucky that no one else happened to be sitting on the lower deck with us....they may not have appreciated that we were attracting more and more birds so close to the tables.

There is a path along the lagoon. In one area the path runs right under this pretty waterfall.

Papa Dan is holding Jillian up on a horse statue in one of the courtyards of the hotel.

All tuckered out after a long day of playing tourist.

Hawi and Hilo

Rainbow Falls in Hilo....so beautiful! We flew over to see the volcano park during our vacation to Honolulu in 12/05. On that day, by the time we got to the falls, 9 month old Jillian was asleep in my arms so we stayed in the van...and missed this beauty. Neither of us was sleeping during this visit.

This is why Jillian thinks her legs are broken and needs to be carried everywhere! Papa Dan carried her everywhere! The other night she got out of her shower and said "Mama, carry me to the bed so I can get dressed." Thanks Papa Dan! :)

Jillian got a scrape on her knee and she is showing all of us what a drama queen she can be...she is limping. Is this a girl thing? :)

Nana and Papa Dan at the Hawi Lookout.

I am sitting at the Hawi Lookout with this stud I grabbed for a photo op. I think I want to take him home with me!