7:46am in the Randall House

A typical Wednesday morning:

Parker already finished breakfast and is out on our patio playing with his trains (man, I LOVE that train table, it keeps Parker entertained for hours).


Penelope isn't feeling too well this morning. She ate a little breakfast and has been sitting in her chair for the last 30 minutes. She doesn't want to get down which is VERY unusual. Poor girl.


And then there is a this cutey-patootie. He is so busy these days, he's starting to take steps and just wants to be in everything. I'm having to pull out 12-18 month clothes because he is such a big boy.
And that is our 7:46am on this Wednesday!!

Happy Halloween

This was the first Halloween we decided to do costumes for the twins. There was a trunk-or-treat at our church Saturday evening. So Friday evening we drove all around looking for costumes......note to self, don't wait 'til the last second to get costumes. Everything was pretty picked over so Penelope ended up being Wonder Woman and Parker was a Prince of Persia.






The trunk-or-treat was crazy, lots of people and lots of trunks. Looking back, we should have been prepping our kids before we went. They wouldn't say 'trick-or-treat' but they did say (most of the time) 'thank you.'

They got to eat a kit-kat on the way home and some popcorn while holding their loot. They were pretty excited. And they stayed up way past their bedtime, they didn't get to bed until 8:30pm!!

Apparently folks in Hawaii are all about Halloween and houses have been decorated for weeks now. On our walks, we get to see pumpkins and all sorts of Halloween fare and the kids have really gotten into pumpkins. So we decided to go to a local farm on Saturday and see their pumpkin patch. We picked out some pumpkins:



Then we got to go on a hayride:

The kids are still talking about their trip to the pumpkin patch!!

Look what Oliver can do

Blow-up Furniture

Our furniture is still not here (we just met a couple at the park who have been here for 2 months and they still don't have their stuff so I can't complain.......yet) so we are trying to get by with some lovely blow-up furniture. Parker and Penelope enjoy lounging in these blow-up easy chairs we found at Sears while watching a little Backyardigans.





And here they are listening to dad read them a story (I love their new pjs!!). Note the diaper box that is subbing for a toy bin in side of the photo:


As much as the kids like our temporary furniture, I can't wait to get our real stuff. Sleeping on a bed that needs a little air put in it every night is getting old.

The Move

Well we did it. We left San Diego with 10 pieces of checked luggage (plus two checked carseats), 4 carry-ons (including one carseat), 2 toddlers (in a double stroller when they didn't insist on walking), and 1 baby. The flight to Honolulu was not awful but not great. Penelope hadn't slept well the night before and with a 5am wake-up, she fell asleep which we were not anticipating (but was a blessing). Other than her nap, she and Parker pretty much watched DVDs the whole way. Oliver, on the other hand, did not like the flight. He and I walked the aisles for most of the flight except 2 naps he took. We all were very ready to land by the end of the flight.

The idea to move to Hawaii began about a year ago when Tory came home from a work conference in Hawaii. Apparently, some talk had been had about a job opening over there. Anyway much time passed and while the opportunity was never squelched, it hadn't come to fruition. Then, all of the sudden, things started to happen this summer and now here we are.

Tory came over about month ago and found us a place to live and then two days before we left movers came and packed up our house (the best way to move) and we hopped our flight. We will miss our friends in San Diego but are excited for life in Hawaii.

So the details are this: we now live in the state of Hawaii, on the island of Oahu, toward the 'leeward' side. Tory is working at Pearl Harbor. We are still getting to know our surroundings but so far, I think we are going to like it here!!

Some Big News

Parker and Penelope have something to share:

Our trip to Utah

One of the highlights of the trip was Sunday dinner at Tory's parent's house. All the Randalls were there (except a brother and his wife whom I haven't seen since Tory and I got married). So we took tons of pictures. This is one of my favorites. Here are Grandpa and Grandma Randall with ALL their grandchildren. What a fun bunch!!


Helping grandpa water his plants:


What a way to drink your milk; the kids loved their cousin Preston's backyard and had a great time in his kiddie pool:
Reading stories with Uncle Jacob:
Tory and his siblings (re: his sisters) threw a surprise party for their mom. Penelope enjoyed playing with her cousin Jackson on the floor while there:
Playing in Grandpa and Grandma Randall's great backyard:
Getting to go out to eat (I think they stayed in their chairs for all of 30 seconds):
We went to temple square and the kids LOVED the fountains:
This is the best shot we could get of the kids:
All in all a good trip, traveling does seem to be getting a little easier. We have an airplane trip coming up so we'll see how that kind of traveling goes!!