Dude and Shalae

Last weekend, my baby brother got married! Crazy!! Technically, he isn't my baby brother in more... we have since added 2 more brothers younger than him, but since he was the last one I got have as a baby, he is still my baby brother. He has always been so much fun to be around. His name is Erik, but he has always been "dude." A few months ago, Dude started bringing a special girl around the house--Shalae. She quite a doll and we love her. They got engaged on Feb 15... that's right! Just over a month ago. They were trying for a slightly later date, but when you are trying to schedule around 10 siblings on just one side alone...well, it gets tricky. After a few failed attempts at other days, they settled on March 20. It was a bit of a mad rush to get everything ready, but it turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day!


While we were waiting for them to come out of the temple, KL tipped over stroller and sat down. I guess she was after more of a "recliner" affect.

Just coming out of the temple. Does my brother seem a little happy?Shalae modeling her shoes. Love it!

B and Z. Their hair isn't done because they had come straight from their football game. Our neighbor picked them up and brought them. They are such good buddies and so lucky to have each other!

I'm not quite sure why she was pouting here, but I still thought she looked cute.
I think it was because it was Shalae's family's turn for pictures adn I told her she couldn't stand by Shalae (who was quite the princess...even more of an attraction for KL!)

The "Pug" side of the family/friends posing for our picture. Isn't nice to know that in my current state, I can stand out so well in such a large crowd of people?

As we walked around to the other side of the temple for more pictures, all the little girls just gathered around the happy couple. I kept trying to get a picture from the front, but in my condition, I just couldn't move fast enough. At one point, KL was up on Dude's shoulders. I wish I could have got that. My brother assures me that the photographer got plenty. Maybe I'll post that later. Still... it was cute to see the crowd of little girls trailing after Shalae.
Grandma and Grandpa, Shalae, Erik, Mom and Dad

My dad's parents were there too, of course, but my grandma wasn't feeling up to waiting around for all the pictures, so they left before all the fun got started.

Erik, My Grandpa, Shalae

My grandpa was the one who sealed them.

Here we are trying to get all the kids together.
I just laugh at the look on Sam's face as he "tolerates" all of us adults!

Erik and Shalae and all the nieces and nephews

CK, Shalae, EvelynneErik and my mom

While everyone was taking pictures, my sweet little nephew Gunnar was having fun playing with the dirt/wood chips around the trees. I just couldn't resist taking his picture. Isn't he cute?

Shalae really wanted to whole thing to be casual. She didn't want a typical formal wedding reception. So, casual was stressed. The theme was that of tropical beach party. It was lots of fun. They had a fun little place to stick your head in and takc pictures. Here are CK and Evelynne.They really did a great job with the decorations. It looked really great in there. This is the "Ice Cream Sundae" table. As you can see, it wasn't easy keeping the little kids away from it!

Dave and KLD, CK, L (holding Shalae's nephew), Anna

My family... yes we are getting pretty big. Crazy thing is that there are still 5 people who aren't even married yet! Can't imagine what the family picture will look like at the last wedding!Our little family:
Me, B, D, Dave
KL, CK, L

My sister Mariana at the entry, welcoming all the party-goers

I had bought a bunch of these flower clips for everyone to wear. As people would leave, and as we were cleaning up, everyone would just come and clip them in my hair. I could've have gone and got the box for them, but that seemed too much effort. I started looking pretty ridiculous though!

KL had lots of fun all night long. She just loves to dance. I kept looking over and finding her like this... Occasionally, she would ask Dave or I to dance with her. But even if we weren't up for it, it certainly didn't stop her!

Anyway it was a great day and we are so happy to welcome Shalae into the family.
We love you guys!

Football Season

Football Season is here upon us once again! Yea for the boys! It is their favorite time of the year.
Here are some pictures from their scrimmage:

B and cousin Zach are on the same team. They are very supportive of each other. Here they are giving each other some love after one of them scored a touchdown. It is hard to get them to recognize the difference between "supporting each other" and "bad sportsmanship." They seem to really go overboard when ever they congratulate each other... it could seem a little upsetting to others. Nonetheless, it is still really cute/funny to their moms!

D is once again on my brother-in-law's team, which is also the Bronco's (B is quite jealous). He feels especially cool this year as their "uniform" is more defined. The whole team bought matching shorts and socks. They might think it gives them extra powers or something! :)

Our Own Little Fred Astaire

This year in school, D rotates through different electives each quarter. There were 5 total he could choose from at the beginning of the year. Obviously, he could only choose to not do 1 class. I was a little surprised when he told me he would be taking dance instead of choir. Of course, I was fine with it. He just finished the quarter and he had quite a fun time with it all. Here are some pictures of their little performance they did at the end of the quarter.

Getting ready...

(like the shirt, Katie and Jon? Think of it as our little tribute to you!)

Dance #1:End of dance #1:

This is his 2nd dance... Enjoy!

A Special Visitor

A few weeks ago at the kids school, it was Dr. Seuss Week. Each day was some sort of spirit day and they focused quite a bit on literacy and reading. One day, they had The Cat In The Hat come and read to the kids. This particular day happened to be a half day. We decided to go down to the park for lunch and wait for the kids to come home. As we were waiting there, all of the sudden, a very family face came driving by our park in a convertible. As soon as he saw the kids, he jumped out and came over to say hi. Some of the kids were a little bit hesitant, but not KL. She ran right up to him and said hi and posed for her picture. She really thought it was pretty cool and loved talking about it the rest of the day!

Aunt Erla's Birthday

Just about 4 years ago, Dave's cousin's daughter (Andria) and husband (Jared) moved down here. Then, about a year and a half ago, her dad and mom (Kelvin and Lisa) also moved here. We have loved having them around and getting to know Dave's extended family more. I have seen more of his family in the last 4 years, than in the previous 10 of our marriage. Dave says he has seen more in the last 4 years, then the rest of his life.

We are especially grateful that whenever family comes to visit Jared and Andria, Kelvin and Lisa, we are always invited to be a part of the celebrations.

A couple of weeks ago was Dave's Aunt Erla'a 70th birthday. She decided that what she wanted most was for all her family to be together. So, all of her kids/grandkids came here (it is nice to be the most "central" place). They had a nice big birthday dinner and we were invited to come. We had a great time with everyone.

Aunt Erla had planned a special surprise for her kids. She voluteer's at the Iolani Palace in Honolulu. Through her work there, she was able to meet a man who design's Hawaiian quilts. She asked him to design a quilt for her and her kids. She unveiled them that night. They were quite impressive. Here she is giving them to 2 of the 3 kids (U'i, the 3rd child, still lives in Hawaii, so her's was still at home).

Lisa, Aunt Erla and Kelvin with the custom made Hawaiian quilt.
Aunt Erla and Keala

U'i doing a hula dance. About a year and a half ago, she graduated from a very prestigious hula school. She also announced that night that she is pregnant. Congratulations, U'i and Eduardo!

Aunt Erla doing a Hula dance. She has been dancing since she was 3 years old.

Andria (the cake master) made this cake for her grandma.

L, Aunt Erla, B, Me, KL, D, Dave, CK

Dave with his cousins
Kelvin, Keala, U'i, Dave

Sleeping Beauty

I just got a bit of a kick the other day when I found CK asleep like this on the floor of the family room while she was waiting for me.

It was especially funny to me from this angle.

Pinewood Derby, 2010

It has come again... the time of year when one of my sons puts his entire self-worth into a race. Not just any race, but the cub scout pinewood derby. This is the 4th year we have been involved. Last year was D's last year to compete. This year was B's first. He had such high expectations. I was complaining to Dave about this whole process (as I often do) because of all the pressure to make sure the car does well, and therefore, my son's self esteem is intact. His response was, "There's no pressure. It's only his first year! No one expects him to do good." Yeah! Try telling him that!

Well, it all started out ok. My brother-in-law bought a new table saw that made the process far less painful than usual. I got it cut out in a fraction of the time. B was pleased with how it looked. I was feeling optimistic. A few days later, after much begging and pleading, I put the wheels on the car. It looked just fine, and all the wheels were spinning just as they should. I then gave the car to B, and told him to put it away carefully, and to not play with it so nothing went wrong or broke. Well, about 5 minutes later, I heard something of a crack, followed closely by him panicking. As he is quick to point out, he wasn't playing with it... just near it. He rolled over the top of it, breaking off 2 of the wheels along the side of the car and a good chunk of the wood that holds the wheels on. I did my best to glue it back on, but unfortunately, after all the glue dried, the front tire no longer could touch the ground.

After a couple of days of being more annoyed than usual at the Pinewood Derby, I decided I would just have to start over. I then talked to a friend who said that her son and husband had just finished their car, and during their research, they found that it can be beneficial to have one of the front wheels not touch--less friction=faster car...something like that. I'm pretty sure that there is a specific way to put in the wheels for this to really happen. Having the wheels break of, then glued back on unevenly isn't really the best to get the fast results one is looking for. Still, we decided to just go with it.

Friday morning, I put all the weights in the car and when B got home, he picked out what pictures he wanted to put on his car (he decided he wanted to pick his 3 favorite Bronco players and glue their pictures on the car). Once the glue dried (or had almost dried), I told him to grab his car and we were off to go and do the pre-weigh in. As we were walking out to the car, I heard another small crash. I turned around to see the car on the floor of the garage, with the same fateful wheel laying some feet away from it, with another piece of wood that broken off during this latest fall.

What could I do at this point? We picked up the wheel, went and weighed it in and then came home to glue the wheel back on for the 2nd time. After the glue went on, I made it clear that no one was to touch it. It sat safely only the counter until the next day when it was time to go. I picked it up, only to find that the glue didn't really take. I grabbed a little bit of duct tape and stuck it on it, knowing it was far to late to do anything else at this point.

Here he is with his car just before leaving for the big race.

Dave took B and the older kids down first while I waited for KL and CK to wake up from their afternoon naps. When I got there, he had been in 2 races, coming in 1st in one and 2nd in the other. I was feeling hopeful that it wouldn't be a terrible day after all. I got there just as he was getting is car ready for the 3rd race. As soon as the car left the starting block, I could tell our problem. It actually got out nice and quick, beating the other cars down the track. However, it was wobbling pretty good. As soon as the car hit the bottom part of the track, the shaking got violent and the other car passed it. This pattern repeated itself just about every time. B's face quickly began to fall as he would bring me his car after each race to show me how the wheel was barely hanging on. I tried to tell him how he was stilll doing good! He never came in 3rd and even managed to get one more 1st place. I pointed out to him how his car was always fastest up at the top, but it was the bottom when the bad wheel just came in to play too much. Somehow, this observation didn't help. He was just so upset that his car was broken.

Here is a picture of his car racing 1 other. You can see that, even given it's handicap, the car held its own. His car is the blue one on the right that is just barely about to loose.

After the racing was over, each boy got an award. He won for "Sportiest Looking". Here he is accepting his award.

Here he is with his award and car...maybe you can tell, but he is holding the cursed wheel because he had given up trying to keep it on the car.
Great smile, huh? It was actually the best he could manage. Just minutes later, the real tears began to flow. Tears of disappointment, hurt and dreams of what could have been had it not been for the fact that he was racing a broken car.

So, another pinewood derby season comes to an end. I am happy to have this chapter close and to know that I only have to go through this 2 more times (I'm starting to hope this baby is a girl, lest I have to start all over with this process!). I told B that each year I learn a little more to use on next year's car. He asked what I learned this year. Hmmm... What did I learn? When the car breaks, just bite teh bullet and start over. It's worth my son's happiness!

As of now, he seems to be over the worst of the disappointment. He is looking forward to next year. Oh great. The pressure is already starting!!!