Maddie's First Word

Maddie says "hi"! She started saying it on Christmas Eve and it is just so cute!

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas everyone! It is a silent night right now at our house, which allows me a few moments to write this blog. The girls are fast asleep, the presents are wrapped and the stockings are hung. We are excited for Christmas morning tomorrow! It has been a very busy few weeks for us - getting ready for the holidays has been a bit crazy and we also have lots of friends and family in town, which means lots of get togethers and outings. We need a vacation! The girls have hit a few milestones in the last couple of weeks - they refuse to eat baby food anymore and now only want adult food, they can both climb on the couch and even try to climb over it. They are both running and like to dance to music. They are keeping us busy and are so much fun. For Christmas eve tonight we went to church and enjoyed an amazing service with my mom, Heather and Brian. We followed that up with a fabulous four course dinner at Alan Wong's --- the girls were so well behaved and we really enjoyed the food and the time spent with our family. We've had an interesting month but we would like to remember all the things that we are thankful for---especially our family. Before it gets too late, I wanted to share some photos with you all.

Katie and her rice beard at Alan Wong's

Maddie at Alan Wong's

The girls in the pretty Christmas dresses

Katie at Wee Play today watching Santa make his appearance

Mosquito Bite Maddie - she sure takes after Mommy with this mosquito reaction

Maddie loves wearing her Tigger hat from Aunty Cynna---doesn't she look like a politician in this pose?

Two kids in the laundry basket

How many kids can you fit under the stool?

Christmas Eve Wee Play with Kailee

Our family on Christmas Eve

Back from Hilo

We went to Hilo this weekend to celebrate the life of Toby's grandma. In doing so, we took the girls on their first plane ride and our first family trip. Thank goodness we had Grandma Joyce, Aunty Sandy and Aunty Leatrice with us--what a weekend! We stayed at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel, which was nice...despite the fact that there was no hot water Saturday night and there was a party in the room above us until 1:00 am. The girls were great on the plane---the flight home, Maddie was a little upset but we think it is because the girls both have colds and bad coughs. Again, due to blogspot being weird, the photos are totally out of order.

Toby and Katie and Liliuokalani Park - there were TONS of mosquitos and Katie got bitten by at least 7 of them.

Family photo at the park

Maile and Maddie

The girls obviously wanted to take a bath---here is Maddie sitting in the inflatable bath tub

Katie in the duck tub

Toby, Maddie and Maile at Big Island Candies

Katie sleeping through Big Island Candies

Katie loves Joey, the Nakano's cat. Here is Dylan holding Joey so Katie can pet her.

Grandpa Rod liked feeding Maddie some rice---see it all over her face?

Maddie reading the safety brochure on the flight over to Hilo

Katie in the airplane seat

Maddie in the seat

We made it to Hilo!

Katie eating her first kid's meal---it was $0.99 and could have fed 4 little kids - they shared teriyaki chicken and rice and the tofu from the miso soup. At Nihon restaurant.

Maddie with a Gerber Star on her face---these are her puff snacks--she had no clue this was stuck on her nose

Maile and Katie waiting at Honolulu International Airport

Maddie just arrived at the airport

Aunty Leatrice walking with the girls before the flight

The family posing with the plane

Our first flight!

happy holidays!

We Heart You Holiday Card

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Visitro

As our tree is waiting to be brought in the house, a neighborhood cat decided to sit under it.

Happy Sunday! We went to get our Christmas tree today...look for more photos in the next few days as we start to decorate...

Katie posing for the camera

Maddie in her pretty dress

Katie in front of a tree

Maddie trying to pick which tree she wants

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was much more fun this year as Maddie and Katie actually got to eat the food - they enjoyed the turkey and mashed potatoes the most. Next year they will be able to eat even more food.

Katie with her mouth full of turkey

Maddie shoving mashed potatoes in her mouth

Maddie and Katie sporting their UW dresses thanks to Aunty Darcy and Uncle Alex - Go Huskies!

We had dinner out last night with our friends Tammy and Aaron - no kids! - at Azure at the Royal Hawaiian

The four of us in front of one of their Christmas trees

Catching up on the blog...again

It has been a while since we have updated the blog and we absolutely apologize to our faithful blog readers...it has been quite busy over here. We have discovered that Maddie is allergic to eggs (we let her eat one and she broke out in MAJOR hives that covered her body) and the poor baby had to endure her first allergy test. She is indeed officially allergic to eggs. Maddie and Katie both made their first ER visits---at different days and times. Katie fell and hit her head while playing chase with grandma and Maddie went in for a high fever. We have to say that we love the staff at Kapiolani Medical Center as they took great care of our little ones and all is fine with them. Instead of writing what could be an extremely long blog entry, I have uploaded lots of photos and will write captions underneath each of them. Due to blogspot.com being lame, the photos are totally out of order---sorry about that! Enjoy the photos and I promise to try to go back to the weekly update.

This photo comparison shocks me. The photos on the left (Maddie on the top, Katie on the bottom) were taken on the day of their birth. The photos on the right were taken exactly one year later. WOW!

This photo comparison is them with the Kahala Mall Santa in 2009 and them with the Ala Moana Center Santa in 2010

These are all the shots they got for their 1 year checkup --- 3 shots and TB test. At least they got cute bandaids =)

Here is Maddie helping Grandpa open his birthday gift. She was way more interested in the tissue paper.

Maddie, Shaun and Katie - Shaun was born 12 hours before Maddie and Katie and he came over yesterday to play and exchange presents.

Our family photo at the Ala Moana Santa's house

Katie and Maddie with Santa - Maddie only started to cry when the photoshoot was over....whew.

Katie loves to make this "o" face...it is just too cute.

Mommy, Maddie with Bear Bear, and Toby's cousin Erin - Katie was already asleep when we took this.

Maddie enjoying some food item.

Maddie and Katie helping out both grandpas with blowing out their candles. Check out the expression on Katie's face! Maddie and Katie have both learned to stick up one finger when you ask them how old they are---I guess Maddie is saying that each grandpa is one?

Baby Expo in October - we entered them into the baby crawling contest - they just sat there. That's Uncle Brian and Aunty Heather at the end and mommy's head at the top (I am holding a water bottle to encourage them...it didn't work)

Halloween at Kahala Mall - Maddie got tired so I held her wings over the Ergo carrier.

Another fun day at Wee Play with Kailee.

Maddie or Katie (can't tell) opening a birthday gift from Aunty Janet.

First tattoos at Kailee's birthday party (Maddie's leg is on the bottom, Katie's on top)

Katie learning to carry her own stuff in her new personalized backpack thanks to Aunty Toshiko and Uncle Tom - she has a matching water bottle too!

Playing in their ball pit thanks to Keoni, Aunty Lee and Uncle Jeff

Maddie loving her new personalized chair from Uncle Ryan, Aunty Debbie, Brendan, Aunty Colleen and Uncle Wes

Katie loves hers too!

Fast asleep and dressed as a cat for Halloween