I Will Not Cry.

So this is where I say, "Oh man, I sure have not blogged in a while." But that is pretty apparent by the date on my last post, and you guys are not dumb. So I will post the pictures from Ethan's recent Preschool Carnival  & get to all my other pictures another time (hopefully sooner than 3 months from now).

I have 2 children, an oldest and a youngest.  I feel like I make all my mistakes on poor Ryan & I baby Ethan a little too much.  I love both my children, but I am sure I will screw them up.  I think people have lots of kids so hopefully they learn how to be a parent by their 4th or 5th child (is this true?) . 

I feel like I am experiencing "lasts" with Ethan.  This is the last time I will ever see a child in preschool.  The last time time I will be able to have a whole bunch of wild (but adorable) 5 year olds playing at my house during school hours. The last time Ethan will "snuggle" with me in the afternoon while watching a movie.  Ryan is such a great big brother, and SO excited for Ethan to go to Kindergarten & ride the bus with him...it makes it a little easier to let Ethan go -  knowing he has a big brother to take care of him.  With that being said, here are some adorable pictures of Ethan's cute friends...

(Above) This was at Ethan's Mother's Day program at school.  They sang to us, gave us a cute necklace, potted plant, hand print flower,

  key chain, the cutest framed subway art of things about us (I will post a picture later), and we had a yummy lunch.

 These are 5 of the cutest 5 year olds around.  They are best friends & I love them all dearly.

Here are the Moms with Miss Linda. We love her.  She is such a fabulous preschool teacher.  I also love all the Mothers of these kids.  They are all second Moms to my children.  (We love the Dads too, they just are not as excited to jump in a photo).

Bring on Kindergarten

(well, maybe slow it down a bit)

Love, Kelly

Hawaii - Oahu

 When we landed in Oahu, we went straight to Pearl Harbor. What a cool, almost sacred place.  I had tears in my eyes many times.  I blame the dang movie with Ben Affleck & the attack of course.  :-)

 U.S.S. Arizona.

In a submarine.

 Those are cots above Ben's head, where men slept! 

Horrible.

In front of the anchor from Arizona.

 On the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial with the U.S.S. Missouri in the background.

 U.S.S. Missouri

 Ben's so strong.

This was the exact spot where the Japanese formally surrendered to the U.S.A., ending WWII 

 

 We stayed at a super cute bed & breakfast on Oahu.  The couple we stayed with was SO sweet.  And they made the BEST breakfast in the morning.  Here we are (above) enjoyed our breakfast watching the waves. We totally saw a whale!

A seal came up on the beach too! The owners said they had not seen a seal on their beach for the 18 years they lived there.  We were lucky, I guess.

Driving around the Island was gorgeous!

This was my favorite beach on Oahu, Lanikai Beach. 

Watching all the sea turtles at a beach by North Shore. Amazing!

 Eating my delicious Matsumoto shaved ice, watching the sea turtles.

After we got done snorkeling at Hanauma Bay.  We saw some crazy BIG fish!

 Polynesian cultural center.

We toured the center, watched a show on the river, had a luau, and watched the Breath Of Light show at night.

 Uncovering our Pig.  Yum.

We had such a fabulous time!  I am grateful we had the opportunity to go to Hawaii!

For any of you thinking about taking a couple's vacation though, having been to Cancun & to Hawaii.  I would choose to go back to Cancun.  :-)

Hawaii - The Big Island

Ben & I were lucky enough to spend a week in Hawaii together.  We flew my awesome sister-in-law, Liz, out from California so she could watch our boys for us.  The boys had SO much fun with Liz & their cousin, Kenly.  

Ben was working in Hawaii for a week before I was able to meet him. So here I am (above) flying to meet Ben.  My first time in first class. I tried really hard not to think flying that way was normal. I felt so spoiled!

It was fun to get to Hawaii and see Ben after not seeing him for a week!

 Above & Below is the view from our room.  Despite the clouds, it was a perfect, warm day!

My Favorite, laying out by the pool.

The first day we got there, Ben and his boss, Mike, went surfing and snorkeling, and Mike's wife, Jerilyn & I layed out at the beach, then had a spa day...massage, facial, pedicure!  Then we went to dinner with the guys at a cool restaurant by the beach in Kona.  It was a perfect day!

Our helicopter ride around The Big Island.  It was SO great!  I am so happy we were able to see the island this way. Beautiful!

After the helicopter ride, we went to Ruth's Chris for dinner. YUM!

The lava.

It's weird to think we were on a LIVE volcano!

The lava would spill right into the ocean like waterfalls...lavafalls!

Beautiful, right?

The largest waterfall in the U.S.  So awesome! (and scary, flying that close to mountains)

 Our resort from the air.

At my very first Luau. 

What a fun/perfect day.  Look at that rainbow behind us? So amazing!

Preschool & Soccer

 I know I've said this before, but Ethan has the BEST preschool teacher.

Here is his class going on a field trip to the new AWESOME fire station in Herriman.

The tour was so great, and the firemen were so amazing with the kids.

Ethan's cute indoor soccer team! 

Ethan loves soccer!

My Sister's Wedding

 My Sister's Wedding was also in December. 

Here are a few pictures to prove we were there.

Congrats to Summer & Adam!

 My new niece Eilee

 My Papa.

 I think he does like me, even though he looks thrilled in this photo.

My Momma

Siblings (the last one is still single ladies!)

p.s. I set up my final appointment for my braces today.  T minus 8 weeks!  Wahoo!