Moving Day

On Tuesday, June 22st we moved into our home! Thanks to the many people that helped us move. Luckily the wards here in Hawaii include many big Polynesians :)

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy! Anjuli and Zion each gave Zui a book. Zion gave him "Just Like Daddy" --a cute board book.
Anjuli gave him "Kisses for Daddy." This is a super cute book we discovered from the library. Anjuli repeatedly asked for it every night.
I made Decadent French Toast (and mmm it was good :)
Zui has been an awesome dad. He loves rough-housing with his boys, and dancing with his princess at the "ball." He takes them to the park, the pool, out shopping to Costco, and even to the zoo--ALL by HIMSELF (crazy, I know!). This is usually while I'm teaching piano. Thanks, Zui, for being Super Dad! We all love you!

Pali Lookout

While Katie was in town we headed to the Pali lookout, one of my favorite places.
I'm still amazed at how beautiful Hawaii is...
SUPER WINDY as always :)



The kids didn't really know what to think about all the wind.

The kids just love Aunty Katie, or as Zion calls her, "Uncle Katie" !
Just had to add this one...We ran out of Anjuli's panties, so we had to improvise with Zion's. She thought it was SO funny!
The day Katie left she gave Anjuli a brand new pink bike. Anjuli of course LOVES it. Oh, also you can kinda tell in this pic that I cut Anjuli's hair--about 8 inches off to keep her cool for summer :)

Even though it's so hot outside Anjuli still loves to wear a jacket and insists the hood is up.
Even Zion loves to ride the bike!

A New House in the making...

On June 1st, Zui and I became homeowners for the very first time!!! We bought a 4 bed/3 bath in Mililani. It's great because it's walking distance to where we both work, at Zui's dad's house. So our house is considered a "row house"-- attached on both sides like a townhouse but without the association fees. Because it is an attached home, it sold for much cheaper than other 4 bed in the area, which run about $600k.

We are so excited to have: a garage, an attic, 4 bedrooms (Yay! Izaiah will no longer have to sleep in the living room!), a dishwasher, small backyard, and lots more room inside :) We are going from 700 living sq. feet in this 2 bed townhouse to almost 1700 sq ft.

So we actually haven't moved in...yet. We've owned the house 3 weeks and are still fixing it up. First thing to go was the popcorn ceiling. Zui got a few boys from church to help take it down (thank you Carson, Nathan, and Cameron!)

It was quite the project, but as you can see the boys had fun in the process with "snow"ball fights and rain showers.
This is most of the accumulated popcorn they collected...crazy!

With the popcorn ceiling down the next step was to texture, which Zui did with the help of a few boys again. Good thing I married such a handyman!
After texturing, they primed the ceiling, then painted it. Here's just a little idea of the mess in our house...good thing we're getting these carpets replaced.
4 days after we got the keys, Zui left to go to Moloka'i for a week for a high adventure survival camp with the young men. Luckily my friend Katie came to help me through it. We were determined to not let anything slow us down while Zui was gone so...everyday we found sitters (thank you Brady's!) to watch Anjuli and Zion for a few hours so we could paint.

Zeya either played in the portacrib (didn't last long) or tried to go to sleep in the portacrib (didn't really happen) and mostly just stayed attached to me in the baby trekker. I got a little paint in his hair, but he didn't mind :)
Sorry about all the cheesy pics--I had never picked up a paintbrush before in my life, so painting for me was such a thrill!

I loved watching the walls turn from dirty white to "cottage cream." It instantly made the house feel more like a home.


Here's my friend Katie. I really can't thank her enough. She flew all the way from New York to help me while Zui was gone. She watched the kids everyday while I taught piano, then during the day helped paint AND at night my visiting teachers stayed in the house with the sleeping babes so we could go back and paint til 11pm or so.

While I was gone...

While I was gone for those 6 days, Zui kept me updated with what he'd been doing with the kids:
A day at the beach with their cousins

A trip to the Zoo. The girl on the right is our neighbor. I guess she was playing with Anjuli when Zui told her they were headed to the Zoo. "I wanna come!" she says, so Zui said, okay, go ask your mom. So that makes Zui and 4 kids at the zoo...I call that pretty amazing. Go Superdad!
Anjuli wearing Daddy's workout gloves :)

Thanks again, Zui! It was so nice to know my kids were having fun while I was gone.

Sister's Retreat 2010

Every 3-4 years us Jones sistahs try to get away for a little R&R. This year we all met up in California. It's a new tradition we started not too long ago, and I have to say, I like it--A LOT!
Those that were able to come: Julie, Brittany (newest sister in law!), Cindy, Corina and me.

I came in a day early and got to spend some time with Cindy and her family of 5 adorable kids. We headed up to Lake Folsom for a picnic.

Little did Chris know what was going on while he was blowing up the raft...hehehe :)
Pro paddler takes the kids out for a spin :)
Family fun
Thursday night all the girls came into town. Between all of us we left 18 kids at home with their Dad's.
We stopped at Cheesecake Factory on the way home from the airport to surprise Julie with a little birthday celebration.
mmm...sweetness
Happy Birthday, Juje!
Friday morning we got up and went for a run/walk, then headed out the door for some shopping. What was supposed to only last a short while turned into an all day event. It is sooo easy to shop without kids! We just couldn't stop! These bags are just one of many new purchases.
Aimee couldn't make it on the trip, but was sweet enough to send along some chocolates for us :) Thanks, Aimee!
I was in definite need of a new pair of slippers. In fact, when the cashier at Eddie Bauer saw the ones I was wearing he made me throw them away right then.
No joke, we had to stuff the trunk to fit all of our bags in, too funny!
Saturday we visited Big Trees national park. Huge, huge Redwoods.
Fresh fruit stand. Who would have known they make homemade apple cider donuts and apple streudels? We couldn't resist...
Sunday morning we went for a walk through the neighborhoods. This is somebody's backyard. I was so excited when I saw this horse I just had to take a picture for Anjuli. She would have loved it.

Sunday night Julie and Corina left, but I stayed another day to catch a cheaper flight home. Cindy treated me to her favorite restaurant, Rudy's. Seriously good Mexican food. It just doesn't get better than this.
What cute kids!

Monday night we had a residential campfire :) The Pratt family holds regular campfires in their backyard, how cool is that? We had a great time roasting marshmallows and making smores.

Thanks to Cindy for hosting us and planning the whole thing. I sure had a great time. Can't wait to do it again!!