My parents had a few days left of their Thanksgiving trip at the beginning of December. We went to the PCC, except for Ava who was at dress rehearsal for her play.
My cute parents.
Ava came and met us at the PCC for dinner, after her dress rehearsal. She volunteered watch Kai for me so that I could go to the night show. I came home to find them like this:
Audrey was going through another stinker phase. Sometimes I just don't even know what to do and feel very unqualified with these feisty kids! She can be so frustrating, and then she goes and does something like this- I found this note on my pillow "Look under the pillow" in her best kindergarten handwriting. And then my gift- a Frozen picture and a picture of the temple with her words, "I love you By Audrey"
My parents went with Brent and I to the devotional on campus which was the Christmas music one.
My parents watched Ava's dress rehearsal for a Midsummer Night's Dream and loved it.
Kai started walking for real while my parents were here! He had taken his first steps in mid-November, but on his 11 month birthday he decided to use walking as his main mode of transportation.
His other new trick is growling when we ask, "What does the dinosaur say?" We ask him a lot, because it's so cute! Here's a video:
That evening was the kids' Christmas program at the CAC. Audrey was starting to not feel well, but after some tylenol, she wanted to still go. She requested pig tails. Her grade was singing The Chipmunk Song and each kid had their name's first letter on their shirt.
She and Coen had to be there early, so they walked over together. I took a picture to remember how awesome it is to live in a small town. Most everything is walkable, and it's safe here, so my kids could walk over on their own.
Each grade does a musical number, and at the very end Santa comes. It's a fun tradition to bring in the Christmas season! I love how excited the kids got for Santa- here's a video:
This year BYUH put their lights in the grassy area between the CAC and the cafeteria since the whole front of the school is under construction.
Brent with his Pop Culture & Disney class on their final day. He likes to turn it into a party.
I took the younger 3 kids to the ward Christmas party. Ava was performing in her play and Brent had to work in the temple. The highlight was the shadow nativity story.
A cute video of Kai walking, look how proud he is.
I was able to go see Ava's play on Friday night. It was so funny! And fun to see her in her element.
My mom took some of these pictures when she went to the play. This is Ava and Spencer Taggart's son. Spencer Taggart and his family lived in the Philippines the same time my family did, back in the 90s. It's so crazy that we both ended up here and our kids go to school together!
A video clip from the play:
Her YW group from our ward came to support her and the other girls from our ward in the play.
We remembered to take Kai's 11 month pictures. Oh my goodness we all adore this boy so much!
One day Coen said to me, "Why is Kai so cute?? If he gets any cuter I'm going to scream."
He looks like he's doing the hula!
Ava and some friends went to wish their friend happy birthday on Saturday, and ended up hanging out in their backyard all day.
Brent went to the closing night of Ava's play. The school has no stage or budget, so they perform in the cafeteria with minimal props, and everyone creating their own costume. They did such a great job and the director is amazing for doing all this with no budget.
For Brent's birthday I decided to invite our neighbors over since he really likes people. We had been wanting to celebrate Advent to fill in for our neighbors since they're gone on sabbatical, so it was the perfect opportunity. They eat appetizers, sing Christmas songs, and light a candle and recite a poem for Advent.
Since I decided the day of to do this, we quickly threw together appetizers/snacks that we had on hand, and all of our neighbors that we invited were able to come!
We love our neighbors and are so lucky to live around talented, kind, amazing people.
Singing happy birthday to Brent:
The next day I had a CPE and could hardly keep my eyes open. It was a long three hours. Later that day I started getting Audrey's weird fever virus - a fever that would come and go, making you think you were better, and then strike again.
The kids decorated Christmas card envelopes and this one Audrey did of the reindeer was cute!
I gave Kai a haircut. It was very hard since he didn't want to hold still very long. It wasn't the best, but after a few days it always seems to look a little better.
A video of the little cutie:
Ava loves to make Kai giggle.
Other notable things this week: We had the Rappleyes stay with us for a few days as they were back visiting their mission. Brent went with our neighbors Mason and Erika to watch Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair at the theater, an almost 5 hour epic Tarantino film. He says you can never get enough Tarantino, although it was a very bloody affair.
Kai practiced his walking a lot. Here he is walking to Claire, Audrey's bestie who lives two doors down, and who I'm pretty sure Kai thinks is his sister.
Brent, Mason, and Joel Campbell with some of their graduating Communication majors. Brent teaches senior seminar so he gets to spend their last semester with them and really loves it.
The new plaza offers space for the community and families to celebrate the graduates through many cultural expressions. Lots of posters, leis, drumming, singing, and dancing. Here's a group doing the haka:
We went to a graduation party for our friend Amy Morris. Her husband had everyone wear shirts with her face on it, hehe.
That evening Ava had her first band concert. She plays the flute. Brent stayed home with the other kids since it was late and would be too hard for them to sit still. The high school, as I mentioned, has no stage or auditorium, so everyone was packed in the cafeteria (with pretty bad acoustics) trying to get a glimpse of their kid.
The next day we took the kids to the beach for a bit. The colors of the water and sky looked awesome!
Audrey lost her front tooth and looks so cute!
Random funny kindergarten story Audrey told us at dinner one night. She told us that they were put into pairs and needed to tell their partner about some things they really like. Rex told Emma that he loves robots more than anything in the world. Emma said, "robots are not for me." That made Rex burst into tears. Audrey was giggling so bad telling us the story, which made us all laugh too.
That evening was Ava's choir concert. I took her while Brent stayed home with the younger kids again. Her choir teacher is intense and had said she didn't want babies at the concert making noise (maybe because the acoustics are already bad enough?). After Ava's play performances the previous week and the band and choir practices and performances this week, she was wiped out. This video kind of cracks me up- it looks like she's going to sing her self to sleep:
We decided to invite more families over for another Advent celebration. We invited about 5 families, so like 25 people, each week for 3 Sundays in December. We had no Christmas parties, no family events, etc, so this was really our way to celebrate Christmas. It was exhausting but fun!
Here's our house ready for 2nd week of Advent:
Most of the families we invited didn't know each other, so there was lots of mingling and getting to know each other.
A video from the party- luckily each week we had someone who could play the piano well (sometimes only having chords to go off of for the songs).
One day after school, I found this scene- that's whipping cream. Oh boy. No wonder Kai loves Ava.
We have to keep our bathroom doors closed, or this is what Kai will do every time, along with throw something in the toilet.
The Hukilau at the PCC hosts fun Christmas activities the week before Christmas. It's fun to walk around and see the lights and ride the polar express in our shorts and t-shirts. I will never complain about no snow.
Riding the "polar express" around the PCC.
These two looked cute walking around together
Mele Kalikimaka!
Meeting Santa for the first time!
Audrey's letter to Santa. It says, "I want for Christmas is a cat. Santa you are the beaest." And then she threw in there a "six SEVEN" for fun.
I don't have any pictures, but I hosted a Taylor Swift night with some ladies! We watched two episodes of her documentary about the Eras Tour. It was a fun girls night.
I'm looking at my calendar, and we had some busy days. For example, one day besides our normal schedule of kids to school and working, I had a 7am CPE class, followed by an 8:30 blood draw for my physical, Brent recording a podcast at 4pm, and that night hosting my girls night.
We hosted a Primary party for our Primary class and had pizza and played games. The sister missionaries joined us for part of the night. Yes, Coen was in our class!
BYU hosted a live nativity on campus which was very sweet. Students acting out different scenes of the story while a narrator read the scriptural account.
Audrey's gymnastics class had a showcase to show us what they'd learned.
Her pose that I love:
A lady on our street teaches gymnastics in her gym, so it's very convenient for Audrey to walk down there to class. Here's a video from the Christmas showcase.
The YM/YW went caroling around the neighborhood in the back of a trailer:
We made gingerbread (Oreo) houses.
Last day of school tradition- sleep over in the living room!
Another Saturday beach day. This time at Temple Beach. Kai loves the waves and tries to run straight into the ocean. It's so hard and stressful to help him jump the waves! After this we decided he needed a life jacket for his birthday.
The visitor center hosts music night each night in December- different wards or groups sign up to take a night. We happened to go on a night where everything was performed in Hawaiian. I loved these girls' voices and harmonies. Loved them so much that we decided to go see them perform at the Waikiki Beach Walk a few days later!
Advent round three!
Audrey was on one and got in her gold leotard for the party. Then she decorated her face with slime during the songs.
I had bought some instruments for the kids like bells and triangle for our singing time. On this day our friends brought their instruments like flute, guitar, drums. Take a listen:
Kai made a laughing buddy in Michael Morris. We caught the end of it, but they were making each other go into fits of laughter.
Kai loves water so much. So when it's raining, he still wants to go outside!
A video of the happy guy standing directly under the rain gutter.
We went to Waikiki to see the singers we liked from the other night. Brent knows one of the girls' dads from BYUH so we were able to see their family. But first- in order to not pay for parking right in Waikiki, we parked at the Ala Moana mall (picked up Chick Fil-A for dinner) and then walked the 1.2 miles. Luckily it was a gorgeous night!
After the performance and our long walk back to the car, we went to see the Christmas trees downtown and the Christmas lights. The Christmas lights were not nearly as good as last year, because I think they had moved most of them to a park a couple blocks away. Walking through the Christmas tree set up was bringing back all the memories of one year before when I was waddling through these 9 months pregnant, having lots of contractions.
We did our sugar cookies on Christmas Eve. I always wish we were with extended family sharing in the mess and the fun!
The three of us took a Christmas Eve walk to the beach. It was so nice outside!
We had ham for our nice Christmas Eve dinner and the most exciting part of dinner was the rainbow jello I made. Although for Christmas I made it red and green striped.
We watched a family favorite, Home Alone.
And then Audrey got the cookies and milk ready for Santa and had our scripture time. Brent reads Luke 2 and I read a part of The Living Christ. Earlier this year I had made a goal to memorize it, and I accomplished it! So I was able to recite a part from memory. I really love that document.
After the kids were in bed, Santa's elves had to make a toy kitchen! And it must have taken forever, like until 1:30am.
The early risers in the family went on a sunrise walk to the beach.
Kai's first Christmas!
Then they came home and got the rest of us and the kids were so excited to see what Santa had brought. Although I think Audrey had snuck downstairs earlier to have a peek when I was getting up and the rest were at the beach. Stinker.
A little video from Christmas morning:
If you listen closely, you'll hear "Alabama Christmas" in the background. Brent always puts this on Christmas morning when the kids are coming down the stairs because he knows that's what my dad always played at my house. It makes it feel like real Christmas to me and it's so sweet. It's the little things!
This year was a lego year.
Besides getting the Disney lego set, Coen also got a Disney magic set. Audrey got a toy kitchen, Kai got a water table, and Ava got a bulletin board and Harry Potter almanac.
Ava was the sweetest and surprised us with a gift. She had used her own money and walked to the grocery store by our house and bought a beach mat I've been wanting.
After face timing our parents and eating breakfast, we went to the beach. We went to Kahana Bay which is where we like to go to celebrate all holidays! It was a gorgeous day and not very crowded at all.
I watch this video and I think, how lucky are we?? I say it all the time- just because we live in paradise, it does not mean our lives are paradise. We are extremely blessed, and we also have challenges and trials. But sometimes, just for a few moments at the beach, everything really is paradise.
Merry Christmas from the Cowleys
The day after Christmas is for playing with all the toys! We got out Kai's water table which he loved, although it was a bit chilly!
Ava laid out her presents and took a picture, just like I used to do.
On the 27th we went to town and went to the Honolulu Zoo. Only Audrey and I had been with her preschool, and we had lots of fun. Kai really loved all the cool birds they have. And Audrey mostly loved the playground! This sign for the zoo says "This is the best zoo to be found for 2300 miles in any direction."
Audrey kept fighting with the older kids so we split up and Brent took the others to keep looking at all the animals while I let Audrey play.
After the zoo we went to the mall, Sams Club, Costco, dinner, etc, so we were gone like 11 hours.
Kai in his Aloha shirt!
Brent took the kids swimming at the BYU pool while I worked.
On New Years Eve we decided to get one more use out of our waterpark pass that was expiring in 2025. It was such a fun day for everyone. I even went on many water slides which I hadn't done before since I was pregnant or had a little baby when we came before.
Kai thoroughly enjoyed the splash pad part.
After the water park we went to the Costco there in Kapolei, then on home for our New Years Eve celebrations.
We counted down with an older YouTube video of NYC at about 10pm our time. Audrey kept saying her head was itchy this week. I kept looking and couldn't see anything, and then one night, I saw it.... lice. Noooo! Getting lice is very common in Hawaii, unfortunately, although it was our first time. I spent hours combing the lice out of her hair while Audrey watched KPop Demon Hunters in only in a swimming suit bottom. I edited the picture since she was still dressed like that for our celebrations.
Although I can't edit this video so sorry! Ava went with me to the pharmacy at Longs earlier that day to get the lice shampoo and comb and requested we buy these New Years Eve supplies. The little confetti poppers were so hard to do, hahaha.
At midnight we went to the temple and watched the amazing fireworks. These are just neighbors around that buy thousands of dollars in fireworks.
If I need Ava to watch Kai for me for a bit (cooking dinner, doing laundry, running to the store), she will put on a few of his favorite clips on the TV and he happily sits in her lap and watches them. His favorites are the songs from The Sound of Music and the opening from Rio (he loves the birds). This day he fell asleep watching with her. 
I took the kids to the beach the last evening of Christmas break. Kai just runs for the water every time, so I was able to get this picture by having Ava ready to catch him when he got to the ocean. Haha. Then I could put my phone back while she held him. 
I asked Ava to research the cultural norms of Japan and a little basic Japanese and present it to us in a family night lesson. She took her job seriously and made a powerpoint to teach us. We learned things like 1. Do not eat while walking 2. No talking on the subway 3. Be prepared with your own garbage bag to carry your garbage out of public places.
Audrey really wanted to go to the 6th grade fundraiser. After picking up Ava from school I asked if she would watch Kai for a few minutes while I took Audrey for some special time. We caught the fundraiser just barely at the end and she chose a rootbeer float.
This came up in my emails- 20 years since Emily and I met! We met at the beginning of January 2006 when she came out to BYU and moved onto my floor in Helaman Halls. I sent this to Emily and we were both shocked that it's been 20 years! She has been my best friend and one of the biggest blessings in my life. It has been so fun to get married and have our babies at the same time. We stay in contact weekly with Marco Polos or texts, supporting each other through the hard things in life, and laughing at the funny things. 
What a blessing it is to have a friend like Emily. 
