The Jenn and Zui Kim Ohana

Jazzy at 8 months

2012-01-14T09:45:00.000-08:00

Jazzy's hit new milestones at 8months, becoming a "cruiser" around furniture. She's still a happy girl, despite being sick for all of last month between a cold, then stomach flu, then diarrhea for 10 days... glad to have that over with! Happy 8 months, Jaz!

Preschool Pics

2011-12-30T10:21:00.000-08:00

Baby Clause

2011-12-26T01:03:00.000-08:00

I forgot about these pics from Christmas...doesn't Jazzy make a cute Santa?

Christmas Day

2011-12-25T06:42:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! Anjuli woke up this morning yelling "Mom! It's Christmas it's Christmas it's Christmas!"
First we followed our strings. Anjuli's led to her new princess pop-up tent with a princess castle inside.She also got a set of farm animals

Princess Color Wonders
And a new movie (all garage sale finds!)

Zion's string led to the pantry.

He got a new Spiderman scooter (brand-new for $1)!Zeya's string led to his new pop-up tent.
He got an Octopus Peek a Shoe.
All the kids got a new pirate water-table. Jazzy liked crawling underneath it :)
Zui's "imaginary string" led to... a t-shirt!
My string led under the bed to a new stockpot! I've been wanting one of those for a while!
Enjoying the other toys...

We "lost" Jazzy and found her...outside the front door!
Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T02:48:00.000-08:00

Christmas pics at our Ward Christmas party. Jazzy decided Santa's hat looked tasty!Jazzy girl posing for me Christmas Eve morning :)

Christmas Eve morning we headed out to go caroling at a nursing home that a lady in our ward attends. I looked over and saw Anjuli and Zion holding hands.
Zui and I played 2 duets.

Then we headed to the waterpark! The kids had soo much fun. I can't wait to go again.

Teri, our babysitter, came with us. It made all the difference having an extra set of hands to help out.

Anjuli and Zui battle it out.

We saw our good friends the Ohki's there. They invited us to join them for lunch! The kids of course loved the pizza, fries, and lemonade (thanks!)

Grandpa Ohki was kind enough to hold baby Jaz for a while. With Teri watching Anjuli and Zion, and Zeya asleep in the stroller, Zui and I took off on a mini-date! When we came back, Jasmine was sleeping soundly in Grandpa Ohki's arms :) Here, all the kids are trying to warm up--it was a pretty windy day.
After a good long nap, we had our family Christmas Eve program. Zui told the nativity story while the kids acted it out.

Zeya usually doesn't wear tiaras, but he was our wise man, and we didn't have a crown...Jazzy was our sheep (check out her pajamas :)
And that black panther, unfortunately, is our baby Jesus. We couldn't find any of Anjuli's baby dolls so we had to improvise.

The kids each got to open one present afterwards. Anjuli and Jazzy got matching new dresses.
Zeya and Zion got new pajamas. Zeya LOVES his new Cars pj's (he calls them "Tars").

Zion got Buzz Lightyear, which he loves second to his Spiderman pj's.
The kids had a busy, but fun, day! Now on to Christmas day :)

Ko'olina

2011-12-23T10:05:00.000-08:00

We spent a day at the beach with Zui's good friend Gordon and his family. I love that my kids can play for hours there and never get bored. Good times.

Maiaohe Wonderland

2011-12-22T22:58:00.000-08:00

Every year my students perform their Christmas songs in "Maiaohe Wonderland" aka, the Dennis Kim's garage. Maiaohe is the name of the street the Dennis Kim's live on--the street is lit up with tons of lights, and gets tons of passerby's the few weeks before Christmas.
This year my students performed 4 nights in a row. I played the duets with most of the younger ones, it was really fun for me. Here I am with Mia Ohki. Brennan Lee at the piano.

Anjuli and Grandpa outside his house. Don't you love the lit up palm trees?

I love this decorated house. They turn the outside into Santa's Workshop, it really is amazing.

Cinnamon Rolls

2011-12-22T07:41:00.000-08:00

Well I just finished the last of my cinnamon rolls for the year. I made 20 batches of dough, which made about 80 plates! Phew! It was really fun, but I have to admit I was glad to see the last plate go out the door and get delivered. Here are my kids enjoying their goodness.

So glad to have this Jones family tradition!

Preschool Christmas Program

2011-12-21T02:49:00.000-08:00

The kids each sang a few songs for their Christmas program.
Anjuli's class sang "The Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy." Guess who got to be Mary!
Her shawl kept falling off, which she kept trying to fix during the performance :)

The performance was more like the nativity play in song, complete with shepherds, angel, wise men, and plenty of sheep :) It was soo adorable!

Jazzy at 7 months

2011-12-14T16:26:00.000-08:00

Jazzy is now sitting up! She loves crawling all over the house. I wish you could see how dirty this white shirt is. The front of her shirts are all just filthy because she literally cleans our floors with her belly.

Check out those 2 teeth!
This is how Zui dressed her while I was away teaching piano...

She would make a cute boy, too :)Happy 7 months, Jaz!

Anjuli's 5th Birthday!

2011-12-12T01:16:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday, Anjuli! Wow, I can't believe my little girl is 5 already! She opened a few presents before school.
And wore her new birthday outfit.

Anjuli had a big friend party--19 kids!! The kids pretty much entertained themselves. Some did dress-ups with all of Anjuli's princess dresses.
I left out a bag of balloons and a bunch of kids went to town blowing them all up.
We had the karaoke machine out, which the kids loved.
Leilaani is one of my piano students. She played Jingle bells on the piano while several kids sang along. It was so cute!
Joy, Kadence and Kailee playing with the kitchen toys.
We had a princess jumper up, the kids were constantly in and out.

The kids loved playing with Zui in the bouncer.

Decorating snowman sugar cookies.

Jumping on the bed :)

Dinner was chicken nuggets, cornbread, li-hing apples, and capri-suns.

Outside lining up for the pinata.

Anjuli wanted cupcakes for her birthday. Present time! Anjuli got a princess laptop, princess jammies, coloring book, nail polish and...her ears pierced!!

Happy Birthday Anjuli! We sure love you!!

Early December

2011-12-03T00:52:00.000-08:00

A few random pics from early December... the kids were soo excited to get a Christmas tree. It took 4 attempts to find a store that wasn't sold out. Ornaments go on the tree, ornaments come off the tree...this is a constant battle! But the kids love it. As soon as we put the tree up they thought Santa was coming that night...it's been a long wait!Making Anjuli's pinata for her birthday. Lots of fun, but lots of work!

Cannibalism at its best!

The kids got these crazy glasses from a birthday party.
And this is what they decided to do with them on!

We got to ride in the Wahiawa Christmas parade on one of Uncle Delbert's trains. So fun for the kids!

BYU vs. UH!! Zui was soo excited for BYU to come to Hawaii. This was his birthday/Christmas present :) And...we won!So glad Lory was in town, too!

Picture taking time

2011-12-01T00:15:00.000-08:00

Anjuli- Age 4 (almost 5) Loves playing princesses, preschool, coloring, dress-ups, playing house.

Zion- age 3
Loves his Spiderman pajamas (thanks Juje!), playing suitcases, riding his bike, and trucks and trains.Izaiah- age 2 In big boy undies but ... is still very much "in training"... Loves to play with his big brother, anything he is doing. Loves Little Einsteins.

Jasmine- age 6 months
Happily crawling all over the place. Laughs and smiles all the time, loved and adored by big brothers and big sis :)

After 5 years of marriage, here's where we're at :)

I love my family!

Happy Birthday to Me--31

2011-11-21T23:26:00.000-08:00

I was lucky enough to have a "birthday weekend" thanks to an encouraging husband :) On Saturday night a few friends got together and went to Bravo's, one of my favorite restaurants. Micaela's bday is just a few days before mine, so we had a little birthday bash for us, plus some. We got to ride in Andrea Taylor's convertible...with the top down! Let me tell you, it was SO much fun. I felt like I was a young, free, college student. Something about lots of girls in a convertible with wind blowing in your face is just so liberating!

The morning of my birthday Zui made blueberry muffins, yum! Zeya loved saying to me, "Ha-Birday Ma!"Right after we picked the kids up from preschool we headed to Ho'omaluhia. I love that place. It is so calm and peaceful, and I love that the kids are happy there. And that's what I wanted for my birthday: happy kids. Kinda funny, cause when we picked them up from preschool Anjuli had just gotten this cupcake loaded with pink frosting from a classmate's bday party. Everyone was hungry and wanted to eat it...how do you share one cupcake between 3 toddlers?? Well of course I didn't want pink frosting all over the van so I held that cupcake for the entire half hour drive with Zeya screaming non-stop. I almost threw in the rag and turned around to go home...so glad I didn't.We had a great time feeding the ducks. There are always soo many ducks there, and some big geese, too. The kids love having life-size animals following them around.
Feeding the fish is fun, too. There are CHOKE koi!

It was really amazing to see them all literally jump out of the water to grab the bread. Too bad you can't fish these koi, you could scoop them up with a butterfly net!
I just realized how crooked Jazzy is...good thing she didn't fall out! And no, it's not cold in Hawaii, Zion just LOVES to wear his jacket--with the hood on--all the time.
Anjuli insisted we all put flowers in our hair, even Jazzy :)
After the kids naps we went to...Chuck E Cheese! I wanted to spoil the kids and let them do whatever they wanted. After a half hour there we headed to McDonald's where the kids ate and played. When we got home Zui grilled us some steaks.

Birthday cake was meant to be a homemade mango pie but...the mangoes we were going to use had worms in them...so a few pastries did the trick. All in all, a great birthday! Thanks to everyone who helped make it special :)

Bach to the Future

2011-11-18T23:22:00.000-08:00

We had our "Bach to the Future" piano recital a little while ago. It featured music from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic genres. The week prior we had a Piano Party (rehearsal). Everyone played a run-through of their song, then we had a potluck lunch, followed by some playtime on the jump.

The kids loved the big jump (thank you Uncle Delbert!)
Emi and Mia Ohki
The night of the recital I had Zui open it up with the announcements.
Soren and I

Congratulations to all my students! Another great recital!

Jasmine at 6 months

2011-11-14T23:14:00.000-08:00

Jazzy-girl is at such a fun age! At 6 months she army-crawls all over the house, and she's getting fast. She loves to chew on Anjuli's princess toys and play with faces.

A few more crazy pics of my kids :)

They ALL love the camera!

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T00:06:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

This picture was taken at our church Trunk r Treat. They had a photo shoot set up, thanks to RJ Moat. She is great! She does all our family pictures. Don't you love Zion's costume? They are pajamas!! His absolutely favorite pajamas that he wears every night. Thanks again, Aunty Becca!
We had a fun time trick-r-treating up in Mauka with Zui's family. Luigi is Zui's brother, Darrell, and Mario is his daughter, Jenna. I thought their costumes were awesome! Brian sure has some guts...Jasmine was asleep most of the time...she was a green monster with a cute green flower in her hair, but I never got a picture of it.They got a little tired after a while...
What a fun night! They ate all the lollipops they wanted and I'm saving the rest of their candy for pinatas for their bdays :)

Jenn's trip to Oregon

2011-10-24T08:26:00.000-07:00

October 24-31st I had the trip of a lifetime. Me and Baby Jaz flew to Oregon to spend a week with my family. I got to see my mom and dad, my brother Carl and his fam, and my 3 sisters. The best part of the trip was just being with my family again.
Baby Jaz getting to know Papa again :)
Famous "Papa's Kisses"
Spent some time at the Ham home. All the kids had grown up so much! Gary loves holding baby Jaz, and even offered to watch her while Julie and I went out to dinner (thanks!)
Everyone loves feeding baby Jaz ;)

Dad took us all out to eat at Golden Crown, where we had our "favorite things" party that Cindy put together. Everyone brought two of their favorite things, then we all swapped. It was really fun to see what everyone else liked, and come home with something new.
I spent a night at Carl and Aimee's house. Tyler just got his permit and can drive!! I can't believe how old he is--I remember when he was born!
Again, everyone loves feeding baby Jaz, she was more popular than me! lol
Jazzy girl really liked Carl. He could always get her to smile.
I just had to take a picture of their wall, I think it is so cute. Maybe someday I'll do something similar.

Aimee and I had a really fun craft day. We spent several hours making cards.
Look at all of our materials!
Even Ryan joined in the fun!
Natalie with Jazzy girl.
On Friday the Jones girls and Mom headed down to Seaside for 2 nights at the Worldmark. Between us girls we left behind 20 kids at home!! We were all a little ecstatic :)

On the way we stopped to see Aunt Erna. She is 90 something but still going strong. She is such a crack-up! And her mind is so sharp, she says she does crossword puzzles and plays Scrabble to exercise her mind.
Mom treated us to lunch at Pig'n Pancake, yum! Luckily Jasmine fell asleep so I could eat with 2 hands.

We had to stop to get Elephant Ears--one of my favorite memories of beach trips to Seaside.

Jaz was such a good baby traveling around so much, still all smiles.
Uncle Lance came to visit, my mom's brother. It was great seeing him again.
Girls in the kitchen, yes we are bakers :)
Saturday morning yoga session! Corina taught us all a few moves.
Friday was such a rainy, stormy day, but Saturday turned out to be gorgeous, and warm enough to wear a short sleeve shirt!

Miriam and baby Jaz just cruised on the sand while we took pictures....until Jasmine started rolling away!
Me and my sis Julie. My sisters convinced me to cut my hair like Julie's, so now we're twinners!
"I love your hair!"
Gotta love the jumping pics--this is something I learned from the Kim ohana, they always do this!
Saturday morning Cindy and I took a walk on the beach while mom watched our kids. It felt so nice to get out. We let go and ended up doing cartwheels!

Me and Cinds had lots of great talks, it was so nice to catch up. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of us together!
Miri and Jazzy girl at 5 months, just 2 weeks apart.
Aren't they cute?
Back at the Hughes home, having some girl time painting nails.
We stayed up late playing Dance Central--soo much fun!
Juje and Creen showing their moves.
We even got my mom and dad to do it!

The next morning I flew home, and got a great big welcome home from Zui and the kids. It was great to see them again.The biggest surprise was coming home to Zeya in underwear! Zui potty-trained him while I was gone!!
Julie gave me some Spiderman pajamas for Zion, which he absolutely LOVES.

Thank you Zui, for watching the kids for a whole week!

Zui's camping trip

2011-10-21T00:28:00.000-07:00

Zui had this great idea to take the older kids camping and give me a little break. Of course I thought that was a brilliant idea!! He went with 2 other men from the ward that also gave their wives a break. So smart these men! They camped at Ho'omaluhia.

Dinner, a kids favorite: good ol' mac n cheese.

Just look at those happy campers! The kids roasted marshmallows at night and had a great time, although Anjuli was afraid of the fire.

In the morning they woke up to a broken canopy. Apparently it couldn't handle the weight of the rain.Zui was in charge of breakfast, BUT he accidentally left the breakfast bag of food at home...and because the gates are locked until 9am, Zui ran 2 miles to the nearest store at 7am to pickup pancakes and syrup. He actually found a ranger on the way back and hitched a ride home :) What a guy!

After breakfast the kids fed the ducks...

then fed the fish...

then tried to catch the fish they just fed :) Zion caught a tiny black fish, you can see it if you look real close. Too bad they couldn't catch the ones in the above picture with a net--that was a no fishing zone. Just look at all those koi!

The kids had a great time, and I did, too :) Thanks to a great husband!

Joy School take 2

2011-10-19T00:50:00.000-07:00

Last week was my 2nd time teaching Joy School. I took a few more pics to document... Here is Zion modeling the "Weather Watcher" glasses. At craft time we made caterpillars out of egg cartons. First the kids painted them, then glued on googly eyes and used pipe cleaners for antennas. It was a project Zion brought home from preschool that I thought was cute.

Free play time--the favorites are dress-ups and food toys.
On Thursday we talked about the earth, learning about land and water, continents, and using the globe to point out where we live. Anjuli said, "we're the tiny dot in the ocean!" They each took turns finding the tiny dot :)

Then we went around and each said something we love about our earth. I started with "sunshine," then the kids said things like "cookies," "princesses" and "trucks"...
This is our 3 minute rest time while listening to a primary song. Instead of lying on top of the blanket they all decided to go underneath.
To continue our lesson about earth, we made playdoh that we could shape into little earths, although the kids thought it was funner to turn it into birthday cakes :)
Fingerplay, puppet time. Everyone loves the puppets. We sing "5 little ducks" and "Cheesy Mr. Alligator."
Joy school has been so much fun for my kids. I'm really grateful to be a part of it.

Jasmine at 5 months

2011-10-14T01:37:00.000-07:00

My baby girl is growing up!! Jasmine loves this exosaucer, she is in it a lot of the time. She loves to "swim" kicking her legs and flailing her arms at the same time. She is dying to get mobile, I can tell... Now she is a thumb sucker *sigh*... but I guess one of the benefits of that is that she puts herself to bed easily. I think she's about to get some teeth, she drools like crazy. Most of the time she is such a happy baby, squealing all day long. She is such a joy to have!

Jenn's Projects

2011-10-08T00:23:00.000-07:00

Finally getting around to posting about these projects I did while Zui was out of town a few weeks back. Sometimes it's nice to have a husband gone for a little while to have the nights free to really do what I wanna do :)

Project #1: Frames
What do you do with a bunch of miscellaneous frames? Spraypaint! By the way, if you like to decorate and you haven't ventured into the world of spray paint, you should. It is so easy and fun!

First step, use a primer. Use light, even coats. It only takes a few minutes to dry.
Then add the color. I wanted red to match my house. Just a little collage to show the kid additions...
Project #2: Hair Bow Holder
My friend had one of these and she told me it was handmade. I so wanted one but thought there was no way I could make it, it looked too complicated and I thought, when would I ever have time to make this? I made it a goal to make it while Zui was gone. Total time: 1 hour.

If you have girls, you really need to know how to make this--it's a must have for all those girly hair things. Here's how:

1. Cut out a piece of cardboard the size you want your bow holder to be. I used a diaper box (I happen to have plenty of those on hand :)
2. Cover with a piece of fabric, allowing 2 inches of overhang all around. I bought a piece of scrap fabric from Walmart for $1.
3. Hot glue the fabric to three sides of the back of the cardboard.
4. Fill lightly with batting. I opened up an old pillow I was going to dump and used some of the batting inside.
5. Hot glue the last side down.
6. Hot glue ribbon onto back side top and bottom about 3-4 in. apart.
7. If you want, add a pin to be able to hang headbands on top of.
8. Hot glue a ribbon on the top left and right sides to be able to hang it onto the nail.

Voila! It is now displayed in my bathroom. This is Jasmine's collection of flowers. I know, I'm ridiculous :) I bought the lot of them on Amazon with some gift card money we got from a baby gift. I love having a place to put them all!

Happy Birthday, Zeya!

2011-09-27T00:52:00.000-07:00

My little boy turned 2 today!

Zeya was so excited when he saw the streamers and presents on the table. We've been practicing with him the last few days. Now he can say "Ha-BirDay" and "I am two!" This is typical Zeya: thumb in mouth carrying his blankie.
Zeya got to open a few presents in the morning: sugar cereal, and a tape measure! I bought this for him because it was great entertainment for our Taiwan trip. But of course we lost it, so he got his own. Of course the kids still fight over it...maybe I'll get more for Christmas :)
We went to Chuck E Cheese
Zeya loves the basketball one. Here he is wondering why the balls have stopped coming down at the end of the game.
Then we headed to McDonald's. Zeya was really enthralled at pointing out all the truck's and buses.

We had a short party at night. The more kids I have, the easier my birthday cakes become. This one is a brownie mix with Pooh bear decorations stuck inside--voila!

Of course he loved blowing out the candles...over and over again :)

He opened one last present: a fishing game that the whole family loves.

Oh, and he *loves* his balloon from Grandma! She sent him $5 in the mail and this is what it bought!Zeya has been such a sweet boy. At two he is talking like crazy now. He can say everyone's name and loves to pretend that Zion is his mama (long-standing joke--one night I was telling Zeya his story and had him say all the words he knew...when he got to "Zion" he said "Mama!" The kids laughed hysterically! Now whenever you ask him to say Zion he will only say "mama").

Zeya has been such a blessing to our family. We love you, Zeya!

Anjuli's Photo Shoot

2011-09-18T19:24:00.000-07:00

Anjuli wanted me to take lots of pictures of her a few days ago. She dressed up in several of her princess dresses. I never told her how to pose, she picked all the poses herself.
Here she said to me, "Mom, you'll need to get down low for this one, because I'm gonna do a low one."
Where does she come up with this?? I've never "posed" for her, we don't have those kinds of magazines around...we don't even have cable. Yet she knows exactly how to act in front of a camera!

Oh how I love my Anjuli :)

Since You've Been Gone...

2011-09-16T23:55:00.000-07:00

Zui recently returned from Washington D.C. to attend a NAIFA insurance convention. He was gone 6 days. The time went by pretty fast. I tried to keep busy with different activities for the kids. The day after he left we made brownies for our friends. The kids loved the eating part :)

Sunday was the Primary Program! Anjuli had a big speaking part: "Now we have living prophets today to give us guidance and instruction from our Heavenly Father."
She memorized the whole thing.
Tuesday we went to the Splash Park. We met up with some friends and had a picnic dinner. The kids had a great time.

Baby Isi and Jasmine are just 2 weeks apart. I took this picture just in case they get hitched someday :)
Anjuli was a big help with baby Jasmine. I could always count on her to hold her for a few minutes. Jasmine also started rolling over and laughing while Zui was gone! Anjuli is really good at getting her to laugh.

The kids LOVE their umbrellas. Whenever it's raining outside they go out and sing "Singin' in the Rain." Even Izaiah knows the words :)

Bathtime with 4 kids is...busy! Zion was getting all frustrated wiggling around, then he says, "Mommy, there's too many people in here!!"
The kids sure missed their Daddy, but I missed him most. Glad to have him back!

Jasmine at 4 months

2011-09-14T18:57:00.000-07:00

Baby Jaz is 4 months already! Wow, time has flown by. She has really grown up in the last few weeks. She has mastered rolling over both ways, and just started laughing. She sucks her 2nd finger to go to sleep (just like me when I was baby) and still has crazy hair. Zeya calls her "Ba-Ja" :)

I tried to clear out the background mess by having Anjuli hold up a curtain behind Jaz.

I took this picture because baby Jaz looks SO long. I was amazed at how she's grown!

Love those dimples :)
Baby Jaz has been such a blessing to our home. We sure love her!

Joy School

2011-09-09T08:28:00.000-07:00

Joy school has begun! We've recently started a preschool co-op with some ladies in my church, running Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-11am. There are 5 of us all together, so we only teach once every 5 weeks. This week was my turn to teach! Wow, what an eye-opening experience! With 4 kids of my own, an added 4 kids seemed a little like a zoo at first, but I got the hang of things by the second day.

We have a pretty organized schedule, complete with a sign-in board, songs, snack time, library, exercise, free-play, arts and crafts, and a *very* short lesson :) It helps to have a lot to do since their attention span is so short.

This pic is of them during freeplay. So funny, I got out some toys and the next thing I know all the girls are dressed up in princess outfits and asking me to paint their nails!

Zion, on the other hand, had the entire other side to himself with his big box of cars, trains, and trucks.

Arts and crafts time: Fingerpainting!

Yesterday we went on a parade. I remember my mom taking us on musical parades when we had birthday parties with friends. I used a Christmas garland that I was just about to throw away as a rope for all the kids to hang onto. They loved it since it was so shiny and glittery. Zeya is hiding behind the door in this pic, but I actually carried him (with Jasmine) down our very short parade, with 6 kids trailing behind. It was a sight to see! The mailman took this picture for me :)

This has been a really fun experience for me, and Anjuli and Zion are loving it :) Yay for Joy School!

The new Storage Ottoman

2011-09-07T09:07:00.000-07:00

We picked up this storage ottoman at a garage sale last weekend for $35. What a deal! The kids love popping out of it. They'll even put the lids on top so they stay really hidden sometimes :)

Anjuli loves dressing up Jasmine :)

A few months ago we moved Zeya from his crib to the kids room to make room for baby Jaz. At first Zeya would just cry by the door til he fell asleep. He became so used to it that even when he wasn't crying, he would go right next to the door to sleep. He finally figured out how to stay on the bed. We have another twin bed in the room, but they all like to sleep together.

The Flood

2011-09-04T01:16:00.000-07:00

On Friday I left to go pick up the kids from preschool. I left a little bit early so I could stop at the library and the bank. By the time I got home we'd been gone an hour. As I got closer to the door I could hear the sounds of gushing water. I opened the door and saw we were flooded! About 2-3 inches of water was covering the downstairs.
We later found out that the flood was caused because the nut that attaches the water supply hose to the toilet cracked. Who would've thought a small $6 hose could do so much damage?

When I saw we were flooded I immediately called Zui (actually he happened to call at that exact moment). He was downtown and it would be a half hour before he'd be home. Luckily he called his dad to come over and help. Here's Yvonne sweeping the water out of the house.
Dad scooping the water and emptying it into the toilet. With 4 kids awake and a huge disaster at foot, I was VERY grateful for their help.

The water also seeped into our neighbor's house on our adjoining wall. Thankfully, we have great neighbors that were very understanding and didn't put up a big stink.

The kids thought it was great! They loved that our house turned into a giant puddle. They took off their shoes and started splashing around. And guess what? We even found some missing toys and puzzle pieces that floated out from underneath the fridge and other places!

We are still surveying the damage. After we pushed all the water out and dried up the place, we noticed our laminate flooring started to buckle :( We are really hoping it doesn't get worse and need to be replaced.
Well, it could've been worse, that's for sure. It could've happened UPstairs. We're counting our blessings...

The new Jacket

2011-09-03T00:07:00.000-07:00

Zion loves his new jacket now, thanks to the disappearance of his 2T jacket :)

Zion loves his pink "skating shoes." They are actually the arm rest covers to Anjuli's car seat. He always wears them around the house and skates throughout the kitchen.
Jasmine gets quite a grip on Anjuli's hair--but she loves to put up with it.

This afternoon Zui came down stairs carrying both boys. They had just woken up from their nap and wanted their Dad.
They sure have a great dad :)

Zui hits the big 3-0!

2011-08-26T11:53:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my true love! Zui turned 30 on Friday. I've been planning his party for a few weeks now. I wanted to throw Zui a surprise party but it stresses me out too much--trying to keep secrets from him. I threw him a surprise party for his 25th and it just about killed me. So I just went ahead and told him I was gonna throw him a party. It was mostly just family that came, which still made for a pretty big party considering the size of his family :)

In the morning Zui slept in while I made him waffles with sauteed apples and fresh whipped cream--yum. Then he watched the kids so I could go get my hair cut. Yes you heard me right, Zui watched the kids so I could get pampered--is that fair? Not really, but I'm glad he was okay with it ;) I wanted to look decent for his party and I knew they were going to style my hair (how vain am I??)
Later that day Zui took a nap, then played basketball with some friends. Dad and Yvonne watched the kids from 5-7pm so we could clean the house and get ready for the company. I started to feel really stressed about 6:30pm when I started making the pizzas. Mostly because I spent too long doing this:

see that cute sign? I really REALLY wanted to get it done before the party so there I was, 5:30pm sticking those vinyl letters up on the wall (p.s. did you guys know this is SO easy to do? Buy vinyl from Walmart, borrow a friend's Cricut, and 10 minutes later you're sticking them on your wall). I love hosting parties because they inspire me to get things done in the house: deep clean, organize the toys, touch up paint...you know, finish the list of projects I've been meaning to do for forever. I never get them all done, but at least I make a dent in my list. So anyways, that sign was one of them--phew!

By 7pm as guests started to arrive and I was still making pizzas and melting by the 500 degree oven I thought "why didn't we just do Costco pizza?" Seriously, what was I thinking?? Luckily some angels came by (Amy Kim and Joy Yamada) and started cleaning my kitchen and making more dough for me so I could go feed the baby. I seriously felt so overwhelmed with their generosity, how they just jumped in and took a load off my back--big Mahalos!
Dessert was simple: brownies and icecream. Do you like my haircut? I cut off about 5 inches (tired of the Mom-do: hair in a ponytail EVERY day).
Anyways, back to Zui: We didn't really do anything at his party. Everyone ate and talked story, it was fun, nice and laid back.

Sheena, Kapono, Tiff and Brian
Yvonne, dad, and the Morden's. Yvonne held baby Jaz the whole night (thank you!). See those bandages on Dad? He tripped outside in his garden and landed face first on some bricks. Zui took him to the ER. Luckily he's okay.
Jenna, Amy, Lindsey, Lehua
The kids had a great time playing together. I had no ideas my hangars made great guns but the boys loved it.

The girls dressed up over and over again--switching outfits, changing tiaras..so cute. Kaila and Kyra with Anjuli.
Zui scooped icecream cones for all the kids. That was a great idea, the kids loved it and it was super easy.I'm so glad it didn't rain, it was nice to have the kids outside on the deck.
Everyone had a really fun time, and it was great to see all the family and close friends over to support Zui. Happy 30th Birthday, Babes!

The secret behind our Greatest Family Picture

2011-08-22T11:20:00.000-07:00

The secret? Photoshop. Or if you don't want to pay for Photoshop like us, we used Photoscape (free!). Getting a good family picture with everyone looking and smiling is next to impossible. The above pic was the best we could get, but of all things, I was blinking! Zui fixed that, copying each eye separately from a different pic and pasting it on top of my closed eyes. Voila! Perfection at last!

Zion and his Jacket

2011-08-16T11:34:00.000-07:00

Zion loves this ridiculously small jacket. He's always tells me he's "freezing" (is that even possible in Hawaii??) and insists on putting it on, with the hood up, of course. He's even slept with it on a few times! So I decided this boy needed a bigger size. I went out and bought him a 3T jacket. Do you think he wears it? Uh, no. He loves this small jacket! So now the little jacket has magically disappeared...

Baby Jaz pics

2011-08-14T00:23:00.000-07:00

So we (meaning I) wanted to get Jaz's pics taken professionally because she is so darn cute and I wanted a good camera to take a nice clean picture. Well I got the sharp picture but baby Jaz screamed the entire time. I tried everything: nursing, bouncing, the works. It would calm her down and then as soon as I would set her down to get the picture taken..."waaah!" So these are the best shots we got. I settled for "no smiles but not screaming" after an hour of hopeless picture taking... And funny, about the JAZ sign, I don't actually have a Jasmine sign up yet so I used a J from Anjuli, A from Izaiah and Z from Zion's names :) It works!

Jasmine at 3 months

2011-08-13T18:33:00.000-07:00

We tried these at-home shots today. Zui's holding up a curtain in the background :) Can't believe Jasmine's 3 months old already!!!

The Latest

2011-08-06T01:53:00.000-07:00

Finally catching up with the latest going on around here...

A few days back I found Zion doing his chore, putting the silverware away,
one piece at a time with his tongs. p.s. He LOVES his pirate pajamas :)

The kids join in for some exercise time with Zui!

All the kiddos on my neighbor's swing.
July 25th: Anjuli and Zion's first day of preschool!

Still best friends :)

Zion's teachers: Miss Juanita and Miss DeeDee with Miss Ellen

Anjuli's teachers: Miss Christina and Miss Noe

Baby Jazz has become everyone's favorite play toy. Zeya thinks it's soo funny to put the burp cloth on top of her head.

Anjuli joins in the fun...

Poor baby Jazz, she looks so helpless!
Last but not least, here's our FHE lesson on temples. For our activity we all helped build the walls of the temple out of TP. I said it looked like the Kirtland temple. Then Chris started laughing because it really is the "Kirkland" temple (Kirkland signature)!

Chris & Brittany's Visit

2011-07-30T01:08:00.000-07:00

My brother Chris and his wife came to visit us for a week. We had a great time, it was so much fun staying up late, eating icecream and talking story.

Zui took them on a hike up Stairway to Heaven.

It's a hike right on the ridge that goes straight up to a WW2 communications tower.

Beautiful views
We took a trip up to the temple.

Then headed to Hukilau beach to meet up with Chris and Brit.

They had fun boogie boarding while the kids played on the sand.

Baby Jazz cruising with a sea turtle. Look how small she is compared to the turtle.

Suzie Wela Kim Ohana Reunion

2011-07-10T00:43:00.000-07:00

Zui's grandpa is one of 14 children. They are the children of Chai Han Kim (first Korean baptized in 1927) and Suzie Wela. So the reunion was for all the descendants of Chai Han and Suzie. Thanks to Uncle Delbert and many others who planned the reunion. We had lots of fun getting to know our relatives.

Zeya with the Maui Hong girls.
Had to take this picture of my family sporting the many different Kim ohana shirts. Represent!

Baby Jazz almost 2 months old

Jasmine's Baby Blessing

2011-07-03T00:27:00.000-07:00

Baby Jazz was blessed today. I meant to get a close-up of her in her pretty white dress but the crazies took over and I didn't. This picture was taken a few days before the blessing.

Family of four! Can you see Jasmine screaming in this picture? Thankfully she was quiet for the blessing :)
Lots of family came to support us, thank you Kim ohana!
That night we had the family over for panipopo.

The kids all ran wild, while the adults played silly games. It felt good to laugh :)

Zeya loves his Maui cousins! Daisy and Gideon
Lory with baby Jazz.

Anjuli

2011-06-30T23:28:00.000-07:00

Here's a little bit of what Anjuli has been up to. She loves getting her picture taken!
Loves playing dress-up.
And loves preschool. This is the last day celebration.
They all got mini diplomas, pretty cute :)

Father's Day

2011-06-19T19:07:00.000-07:00

We got back from Taiwan just a few days before Father's Day. I remember my mom asking me if Jasmine was gaining weight, so I took these pictures of her to show off her belly rolls.
My personal favorite...gotta love the hair. It seriously sticks straight up 2 inches or so.
Zui got a big happy family for Father's Day :) Can you believe this young handsome dad is father to Four?!!

We sure love ya, Zui!

Going HOME!

2011-06-15T18:08:00.000-07:00

After two amazing weeks, we were finally heading home.

We found this awesome play area at the Taipei airport. It was great to be able to entertain the kids for an hour while we waited to board.

Anjuli showing off the cool squatters. When push comes to shove, you actually have to use these things!
I thought this sign was pretty humorous.

Yes, this is Anjuli tying her feet together. This girl has a serious fetish with ropes and tying things up.
Just about to board, hallelujah!

The flight to Japan, about 3 hours, the kids just played. But once we got on the plane from Japan to Hawaii they knocked out so fast. Thank heaven!

And after 12 blog posts, searching through 600 pictures, and countless hours at the computer, I am finally done blogging about our adventures in Taiwan! Woohoo!