We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. We were a little nervous this year, seeing as it was our first year without family. But it turned out to be a nice Christmas after all. We had a little Christmas Eve party the night before with some other families in the neighborhood who didn't have family around either. We went caroling and then came back to have treats and hot chocolate and cider. We also let the kids act out the Nativity Scene. It turned out to be a nice night. Gracie was so excited the next morning and couldn't wait to tear open the presents. So to our family as promised here is a look at Gracie on Christmas morning. The excitement as she walked down the stairs and realized Santa really did come.
She had asked for a closing eyes baby and a crib. It didn't take her long to guess what was in each gift from Santa.


I was proud of myself as I pulled off 2 surprises for Deven. This is the first one. In our ward is the "famous Bone Carver" he is so talented and sells his merchandise here in Hawaii. Anyways I asked him if he did custom orders and he said he did so I had him make this medical symbol necklace for Deven. I think it turned out quite well and I thought it was a great sentimental gift for him. He did an amazing job just look at all the detail.
My second surprise for Deven was his first surfboard. He has really gotten into surfing lately. One day I would like to get him a really nice board, but this is a great beginning one. Anyways Gracie and I picked this out for him. I am house sitting for a friend who went home for the Holidays so I asked her if I could hide it in her house until Christmas. On Christmas morning I set my alarm for 5:30 a.m. and snuck out of bed and walked over to her house got the board and snuck it into the living room then I had to sneak back to bed without Deven knowing. He woke up for a minute but I just told him was hungry and went down to grab a little snack. He was convinced and fell right back to sleep. He was just as surprised as Gracie in the morning. It was so fun to be so sneaky. Anyone who knows me, knows I have a hard time being surprised and keeping surprises I always get so excited and tell early, but not this year.

Gracie after all was said and done. After we got done opening gifts we made a big breakfast with walnut pancakes, eggs, and bacon (something we never seem to do anymore either since Deven leaves so early) We just enjoyed watching Gracie play with her new toys and then headed to the beach for some afternoon fun. It was so relaxing and I must admit I enjoyed the sun on Christmas a little more than I thought I would. A neighbor of ours invited us over for Christmas dinner and so that is how we ended the day. We definitely missed being around family but as promised here is are way of sharing our day with you enjoy. P.S. On a side note my brother Lee just got home from his mission tonight. I am excited to call and talk to him tomorrow. I wish we could have come home for it, but soon enough we will be making a trip. Welcome home Lee

Merry Christmas Everyone

We just wanted to say Merry Christmas to Everyone. I ordered Christmas cards this year from my sister and they got delivered to us on the most rainy day of the year. When we got them it looked like the package had been dropped in a puddle and ran over. Only about half of the cards were send able. But I am sending out greetings to everyone. We have had quite a year. I still remember 1 year ago when we found out we would be moving to Hawaii. Time goes by so quickly because here we are. We end this year feeling very blessed. Deven and I have survived half a year of residency. He manages to keep pretty busy, while Gracie and I are making the adjustment to our new life. There are things I miss deeply on this island (like Target, Sonic, and Super Walmart) but we are surviving. The scenery is beautiful and we are able to enjoy the outdoors year round. We have a wonderful ward who has taken us in and made us feel welcome. They take good care of us for that we are so thankful. We miss family especially this time of year. It has been a little different getting ready for Christmas with no snow (we are still wearing flip flops). But over all life is good. We have a lot to look forward to this upcoming year and that keeps my mind occupied. Deven's family will be coming to visit in April and my mom will be coming in May. We of course are so excited for the arrival of our new little boy in April. So to everyone we hope all is well and wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!!!

It was Deven's birthday on Saturday. Yes he is 30 (I can't say much because I turned 30 first). He is back at work and is on nights for now so we did things a little different. We had a mid afternoon date. Gracie was worried about missing his party so I let her (with the help of her baby sitter) decorate a cake for Deven while we were gone. She just wanted to help him blow out his candles. I didn't have 30 candles so he got off easy this year. Happy Birthday thanks for all you do for us. We LOVE YOU!!!
We met Deven after work one evening and went to Honolulu to see the lights. I am not sure if you can see the Santa in the background but He is doing the "shocka" sign and has his red coat wide open sitting by a beach with turtles. We thought it was pretty funny.
Gracie got to get her face painted. She picked flowers. She was so proud of it and felt so beautiful we let her keep it on the next day.

I just wanted to say to everyone Merry Christmas. If you have snow enjoy it for us!!!

Deven's Week Off

Well it has been a fun week, but also a rainy week here for us. Deven had this week off and we had many plans, but had to postpone some due to some crazy weather. We have been hit hard this week by rain. We got 15 inches in 12 hours. Deven and I were getting worried that our house was going to flood. Many of the roads were closed and the stream behind our house looked like a raging river. The dirt here is red so Gracie thought it looked like a chocolate river. Some parts of the island were hit hard and many people's homes have been destroyed. It is really sad because the parts that were hit the worst, are the more poverty area's and those people lost everything. So we managed to have some fun despite the past few days. Deven is taking up surfing and he wanted to spend as much time as he could trying. Even on this overcast rainy day, Deven wanted to head to the beach to try and catch some waves.
Gracie thought she was pretty good too, but she says she will only surf on the sand not actually in the water.
What looks like a dead seal in the background is actually a molting seal. This seal picked White Plains beach to rest for a few days. Gracie thought it was so cool. We had to stay and watch the seal for what seemed like hours, then when we got home she wanted to play like she was a molting seal.
Deven threw me a surprise birthday party early. I was definitely surprised. He wanted to do it before a lot of our friends left for Christmas. I had no idea and he kept asking me if I wanted to get dressed that day, but I kept saying if were not going anywhere tonight I just want to be comfortable so I ended up in my sweats for the surprise, but it was still a great surprise. So thanks to Deven and all my friends who helped him out, it was a great birthday. (We are not going to mention age)
Me in my sweats, at least I showered that day, but just threw my hair in a bun, cause Deven had told me we, that we should just hunker down that night and play games. I was ready for a lazy night at home.
Deven also managed to get some boogie boarding here. If we timed it right we usually found some sun in the mornings and then the clouds would roll in by the afternoon.
This was the best part of his vacation. We woke up early one morning to hike Diamond Head. It almost felt like a road trip. We wanted to beat traffic through Honolulu and hike to the top and watch the sun rise. So we started our hike off at 6 a.m.
Some of the pictures a long the way. When you get to the top you have a quite a few of the island. It was so perfect in the morning, there weren't a lot of people up there and the ocean seemed to peaceful.
At the top of the crater. Gracie was such a trooper she hiked the whole thing. She thought it was so much fun. She didn't even complain when we had to climb 200 stairs.
A view of Honolulu from the top of the hike.

It is not too late to order Christmas Cards...

Hey everyone my sister has started a little business doing graphic design. Right now her focus is custom Christmas Cards. If you are interested here are her prices...

(30) 4" x 8" $20

(32) 5" x 7" $30

(27) 4" x 6" $15 postcards

(27) 4" x 6"

Here is an example of her work with my last years Christmas photo.

All you have do to is email her your family picture and then she can mail your cards to her.

Thanksgiving and kicking off the Holidays

This is going to be a random post, but we have had a wonderful weekend. Deven is on an Anesthesiology rotation the hours are great and he got Thanksgiving weekend off. He also has a week off here next week. We are just trying to enjoy some holiday activities and and enjoy our first Christmas here. We went to the Tripler Hospital Tree lighting ceremony tonight. It was a lot of fun, there was music, food, hula dancers, and of course Santa made a visit. Gracie was sure she saw him flying in the sky.



We took advantage of a rainy weekend and put our tree up. Gracie, Deven and I had so much fun decorating it. It almost feels like Christmas here. We are kind of enjoying the rain. I have even made hot chocolate a couple of times.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Our friends the Reese's invited us over. Everyone pitched in and we had wonderful food. It made the day great as this is one of our first Thanksgivings away from family. This is a picture of some of my friends we celebrated with. Me, Chantell, Audra, and Amanda. Thanks for a great Thanksgiving. This year our turkey was cooked in and IMU. Our ward dug a huge hole in the back of the church and cooked 60 turkeys in this underground pit all night. The meat was sooo good.


Ok so these pictures are random, but I just had to share our costco gas experiences with everyone. This is by far the cheapest place to get gas on the island. And so everyone waits. I have waited 45 minutes before, but I guess it is worth a great deal is a great deal. Sometimes the cars are lined up off the exit. CRAZY!!!!

We didn't go shopping on Black Friday this year. We decided to hit the beach instead. Deven had Thursday and Friday off and he was craving a really relaxing day at the beach. We headed over to Bellows Beach and Gracie and Deven worked on their boogie boarding.
It was a perfect beach day and since everyone was out shopping it was not very crowded.
Gracie had her friend Brooklyn over and they helped me make rice crispy treats. They had more fun licking the spoons and eating whatever they could out of the bow. They made it a point to get it on their faces. They thought it was so funny that it stuck to their faces.
We found a train ride because what are the holidays without a train ride. Ok so not really important, but it has been rainy (we are in the rainy season) so we were trying to find some activities to do inside.