palm tree princess

nanea did a photo shoot for palm tree princess, who sells the most darling handmade dresses on etsy. in "payment," she got to keep her dress and hair accessory, and the amazing tracy wright corvo sent us all of the pictures. here are some of the shots:

cowgirls

i worked 14+ hours both saturday and sunday this weekend, so the girls spent quality time with daddy. on sunday they went to a cowboy-themed birthday party and came home with lots of fun accessories. noa texted me these pictures while i was working:

little cowgirls

noa said makena kept shouting "i'm a cow bell!"

glamour girls

some oldies, but goodies...

loving baby mili

both girls love their new cousin mililani. especially makena, but i couldn't get a great picture of all three of them. nanea was so excited to hold baby mili all on her own.

hula girls

posing in their new pa'u from aunty sharyl and uncle bo

practicing their hula (with a break in the middle & at the end by miss goosie). she is very easily distracted...

rewind: christmas morning

SO thrilled with her new dora doll from aunty julie. when she opened it she yelled "yay! yay! yay! yay!!!"

trying on her new hat (with gloved still attached to the top) from tutu & grandpa

checking out their new kitchen from santa

nanea's princess doll collection & testing out her apron collection

q & a with nanea, age 5!

borrowed this from baby bangs post:

1. what is something mommy always says to you?

to listen

2. what makes mommy happy?
if you smile back to her

3. what makes mommy sad?
when you don't smile

4. how does mommy make you laugh?
by tickling me

5. what was mommy like as a child?
me

6. how old is mommy?
35 (funny how she remembers these things...but better than 55 which she used to say)

7. how tall is mommy?
this high (stretches hand in the air)

8. what is mommy's favorite thing to do?
stay home

9. what does mommy do when you're not around?
work

10. if mommy becomes famous, what will it be for?
me (this may very well become quite true one day...)

11. what is mommy really good at?
coloring

12. what is mommy not very good at?
really hard puzzles (like sudoku!)

13. what does mommy do for her job?
work

14. what is mommy's favorite food?
salad (not true, however she thinks all grown-ups love salad)

15. what makes you proud of mommy?
stay home with me and play

16. if mommy were a cartoon character, who would she be?
belle

17. what do you and mommy do together?
have fun and go to special dinners

18. how are you and mommy the same?
same color skin

19. how are you and mommy different?
different color hair

20. how do you know mommy loves you?
well, that's a hard one...

21. where is mommy's favorite place to go?
anywhere with me!

happy 5th birthday goosie!

age 1

age 2

age 3

age 4

age (almost) 5

it's hard to believe that we have a 5 year old. happy birthday to my sweet (and sometimes sassy) nanea. we couldn't have asked to be blessed with a more bright, dynamic, loving little.

the big santa present

the girls' big santa present this year was a kitchen (thank you ikea!). it's surprisingly well-constructed (real wood!) and compact and pretty enough to not ugli-fy my living room. they both love it and have been "cooking" up a storm since christmas morning. with lots of wooden food from tutu and grandpa, and lots of accessories from many friends and family, they were all set! check out nanea's chef hat made by aunty norma. she also made a matching apron, pot holder and hand towel. i'm taking orders for her etsy shop that i'm going to make her start. hee hee.

nanea's school christmas program

nanea was lucky to have baby mili, aunty sonia and uncle liko come to see her performance. it was quite the show!

a visit from nonda

my cousin nonda came to visit hawaii for the first time and stayed with us for a few days. he was on the design team for the new arizona memorial visitor center, so came out for the official opening and dedication. we didn't have a lot of time to show him oahu, but took a half-day driving tour of the island. we made it to most of it! we even visited the famous shrimp trucks on the north shore, which i've never been to. a bit price-y for something that you can make yourself, but still yummy and worth a try once in your life!

the girls and nonda in front of the shrimp truck

makena trying to copy sissy's pose

gobble, gobble

nanea's art projects for thanksgiving:

a pilgrim hat, and a turkey utensil holder

ice skating!

yes, there is ice skating in hawaii! we were invited to spend a saturday morning at the ice palace for a birthday party.

thank you tutu!

tutu sent twinkle toes...

jumping and showing the twinkles...

posing with their twinkles...

running with their twinkles...

nanea could not get over the fact that everything she did made her shoes light up. hence, all the action shots of twinkle toes.

happy halloween!

well, i didn't get nanea to wear her "witch queen" costume. in spite of my hemming efforts, it was still too big, so she refused to wear it. i then talked into being a clown, and she was SO excited to paint her face. i made her a make-shift wig out of a pink grass hula skirt, painted her face and she was all set. the next thing i know, she's downstairs, face scrubbed clean and in her snow white costume from last year. once a princess...

as for makena, she needed a little convincing to wear her adorable witch costume (which I somehow managed to NOT get a picture of the cute cut-out tulle tutu bottom of the dress) since she decided yesterday that she was going to be snow white. luckily her obsession with dora paid off and her dora halloween book has dora dressed as a witch. crisis averted. unfortunately, she ended up throwing up her dinner all over herself and me, so she ended the night in last year's costume as well. the combo of being too excited and shoveling food into her mouth without chewing so she could go trick or treating, as well as being completely terrified of a lot of the kid's costumes (i.e. the scream ghost), did not bode well for her digestive system. or my shoulder.