May 2025 Part 2- Graduation Season, May Day & our 15th Anniversary

Part 2 starts out with May Day for the elementary school. The kids came home with their costumes the day before with very specific instructions on how to assemble everything, how the girls should wear their hair etc. They take it so seriously and everything looks professional! 

The performance is on the stage of the PCC. May Day starts out with the royal court, with a prince/princess and ladies in waiting etc for each island. The King and Queen are seen below:

The royal court is made up of 6th graders who tried out for the parts. Ava didn't want to try out because she didn't want to do the hula. One thing I like is that as each person in the court is introduced, the names of their parents are given. This is how people introduce themselves in church too. "My name is so and so, and I'm the child of so and so."

The girls from the royal court perform a hula, and the boys do their own dance too. Here's the hula:

Kai loved all of May Day so much and hardly blinked:

Coen dancing! His grade represented Tahiti. 

My petite boy looks extra petite here :)

Ava dancing! Her grade represented Samoa.

A tradition here is that family members come up to the stage and throw money at their kids. It seems chaotic and distracting to me- I should learn how this started!

6th graders with all the money around them! None of them scrambled to get the money. Ava says they were instructed to leave it, and at the end of the dance, the money was gathered and put into baskets and used for their fieldtrips.

Our cute performers! This is such an amazing experience for our kids.

I arranged for a babysitter to come that evening so that Brent and I could go on a real date for upcoming anniversary. We're trying to get better about going on real dates, so we decided we should each take turns planning them. I planned a super totally Jen and Brent date. We walked along the houses in our ward on Kam highway/ the beach, and using LDS tools, learned where everyone lives. 

We discovered the most gorgeous area off to the side of a beach we sometimes go to:

Then Kai was crying for the babysitter so we grabbed him at home before heading to L&L BBQ in the shopping center behind our house. Brent, if you're reading this, your turn to plan the next date!

The kids had fun playing dress up with their costumes from May Day:

We had only been to the PCC a couple times all year because we didn't have annual passes. So we decided it was long overdue and went as a family on Saturday. I love this picture of Audrey reaching out to the beauty.

Our next-door neighbor from last year, Sai, works in the Fiji island. He gave us our temporary tattoos:

Playing our instruments in the Fiji island:

Getting a ukulele lesson:

Rowing in a canoe- we totally played tourist the whole day! Some people have asked if we get sick of coming to the PCC, and my answer is no! It is such a happy place and I could literally watch the hula and all of the other dances every day and not tire of it.

Kai really enjoyed his first day at the PCC. The kids put a "First Visit" badge on him.

I love the singing in New Zealand so much. And also, isn't their coordination so impressive?!

On Sundays we go to Brent's office in the morning before our 1pm church and we work on my blog. I work on current stuff, while Brent and the kids are working to prepare all our older blog posts to turn into books. It is a huge undertaking, but I'm going to feel so proud and happy when each of the kids has their life history printed out.

Most of the kids in our neighborhood run free and play outside all the day long, which I love because I think it's so healthy instead of being inside on screens. We are so fortunate to live in a safe neighborhood, and where it's warm year-round so that they can do this. My neighbor boys crack me up because they are so independent. They went fishing, and here's one of the boys frying up his own fish after gutting it himself. He's in 2nd grade.

I had to film for a few seconds, boys being boys on Moana Street:

"This is how you teach him how to fly.... you just drop him." 

I should note that Coen tried fishing with the boys and enjoyed it a couple of times, but he prefers to either play with the girls, or do other activities like jump on the trampoline. 

A Sunday evening stroll on campus:

A video of squishy cheeks:

Ava had a fieldtrip to the PCC and they went around to different stations and learned about different careers like marketing and being a chef.

Our anniversary fell on a Tuesday which is one of my favorite days because I go to devotional with Brent. Kai is still little enough that he either sleeps or is a good boy during it!

My little buddy who I can't get enough of:

We usually include the kids on our anniversary, as we call it our family's birthday. We had free tickets to the buffet at the PCC from when we were models there (we still haven't seen an advertisement with that video footage?). So we saved the tickets for our anniversary! The kids were thrilled!

Ava requested that the live singer play the song "Kainoa" and so he did and we got a special shout out for our 15th anniversary. 

Happy 15th to us! 

Ava got a very yucky spit up on her head!

Audrey's last day of preschool was a swim party. Here's a video:

I think the thing I will miss the most about my preschooler is how she would run to me with open arms and give me a hug when I picked her up. I'm glad I got a picture of her running to me on the last day!

She may run to me in kindergarten like this, but I know our days are numbered. Also, she will be  walking home with Coen from school!

Ava was invited to a Wicked themed birthday party:

We got out our splash pad to beat the heat, and let Kai try it out. He loves water.

Our splash pad broke, so Brent was spraying it with the hose. 

I gave Coen a haircut and he looked so handsome.

Ava and her friend made brownies. Ava is starting to get really into baking on her own.

A video of Ava singing a Taylor Swift song to Kai:

Waking up to this cute face- he is pure heaven.

Audrey's tumbling has a performance at the end of the year. Her class had a theme of astronauts and aliens. Here's the dress rehearsal:

We had the Bleazards over to dinner and played games:

Audrey was up with a bad earache one night. I was worried I was going to have to take her into the doctor, but it seemed to resolve on its own by morning. Then the next evening she randomly threw up once. It was so weird, but then she seemed completely fine and wanted to eat dinner. I was worried she was going to be sick all night and miss her preschool graduation, but she woke up feeling great and was NOT going to miss preschool graduation.

Each class performed a dance for the preschool graduation. The graduation was at 9am, but it was already blistering hot.

Our preschool graduate! Since she started going to preschool when she was 2.5, she went for 3 1/2 years! She is more than ready to finally go to kindergarten.

All the friends shared leis with each other. 

During graduation, I took this adorable picture of my little Hawaiian-born:

Ava had to get some vaccinations before she can start 7th grade. She is terrified of shots and has a history of crying/hiding/refusing to get shots. I took Kai with us to the doctor and he entertained her beforehand by laughing at her stories from school:

After Ava got her shots, she wanted to hold Kai for comfort. Aww my mommy heart. 

Just a little snip of life of playing on Moana Street. Since the back units only have backyards, and front units only have front yards with no fences, the kids on the street play freely throughout all the yards. This is our next-door neighbor's backyard (just out our side door), and they allow all the neighbors to jump on the trampoline which is really nice. My kids spend a LOT of time jumping on here with Oliver. Here you'll see Coen heading over to the other neighbor's yard by hopping the fence. This is all very typical here :) 

Ava had a 6th grade awards banquet dinner. She won the most likely to be a teacher. 

It was a glow theme with lots of glow sticks:

May 30 was Ava's 6th grade graduation. She woke up not feeling very well and was pretty teary all morning because she didn't want to miss any of the special day. Looking back I realized that it was probably from her vaccinations the previous day, poor girl! She felt tired and kind of achy, but she powered through.

Our neighbors lent us their graduation duck to sit on our porch for a couple days :) 

Graduation was outside in the morning, and once again, so hot. The 6th graders performed many songs and dances. This song is about all of their memories from Laie, and going on to be Kahuku Red Raiders next. You can hear people cheer at Red Raiders- they are so proud of their high school here.

The kids performed little snips from all of their May Days throughout the years. Ava moved here in 5th grade, she had to learn them all. In this video you'll also see the money throwing tradition again!

A big smile on Ava's face as she got her diploma and is an elementary school graduate:

This is what I wrote on Facebook: Ava received an award for super citizen of the year, meaning she has been a good and respectful student all year. The thing I want to remember the most about the graduation ceremony is how much love I felt for Ava. As her mom, I know the difficulties and challenges she has faced, and I am proud of how hard she has worked. I felt immense love for her.

With her bestie, Chrissy. There was lots of lei giving:

All of the students made signs for their parents. This was Ava's- I thought it was so cute! It says "Sun or rain, heat or snow, you bring me to the places I'll love and grow, so thank you for helping me and giving me the best life." The sun, rain, heat and snow each represent the states she's lived in: Hawaii, Oregon, Texas, and Utah.

What a beautiful evening sitting on my front lawn with Kai:

Brent went with his film club to Kaneohe to see Mission Impossible 7:

Cute boy practicing the piano. He complains so much about doing it, but then when he sits down to play, he has this little smile on his face:

He's only taken for a little over a year (about one semester with my mom on facetime in 2nd grade, and then about 7 months in 3rd grade). But he is cruising through his books!

As is our tradition, the kids had a sleepover in the living room to celebrate their last day of school. They chose to watch Dogman. Summer here we come!

I took a few pictures as I cleaned out school papers. This is Coen's new year resolution: "To not talk too much unless I'm supposed to." I thought that was pretty funny since he's not really that talkative.

A card from Coen:

A typical homework paper of Audrey's:

Audrey's cute handwriting in preschool:

I get so many (like SO many) comments from people about how much Kai looks like Coen. 

I decided to pull some pictures of Coen at the same age as Kai to compare how much they really look alike. It is SO much fun to feel like I get to have baby Coen round 2. 

Did you notice that in one of the above sets of pictures Kai is on the left side instead of the right?

Wow, what a busy month. Can you believe that was only half of May? I always feel like the blog can make it look like since we live in paradise, that our lives are complete paradise. But not pictured on the blog from these weeks was lots of fighting, time outs, crying, fevers and colds, getting way too little sleep with a baby who wakes up many times in the night, and just some sad days. I felt ready for a break to go to the mainland! I always feel so nostalgic at the end of the school year that my kids are growing up. I'm grateful they all had such a great year!

May 2025 part 1-A Wedding and Magic Island

 Ava holding Kai while he's in his sleep sack. It is so fun to watch the relationship between Kai and each of his siblings. They all adore him! Ava loves to hug and kiss him. Coen loves to hold him and tells me how cute Kai is ("Why are babies so cute?" and "Kai is my most favorite person in the world", and Audrey loves to make Kai giggle. 

A video of these two together:

Two littles in my bed one morning. This swaddle was so perfect for Kai who liked to keep his arms up by his face always.

One morning I looked down and realized that Kai and I were matching!

Sister Gray (a friend Brent met working in the temple) had a granddaughter come to Hawaii to get married. It was at the Taggart's property and we got to go! Audrey was very excited. 

It was a very small intimate wedding and so beautiful. Spencer Taggart married them.

We had a dinner afterward on their pickleball court.

At family prayer we go around the circle and each person tells the person praying that night something they'd like him/her to pray for. We started this so that the kids can pray for each other, and also so that they'd have some variety in their prayers. Something I want to remember about Audrey at this age is that every night she asks to pray that she doesn't have bad dreams. One night it was Ava's turn to pray and Audrey said "I want to say the prayer! Because last time I got a bad dream when Ava did it!" Haha. Apparently Ava didn't bless that we'd all have good dreams because she was sick of praying for that. We're working on teaching Audrey that she can say her own prayers too and bless whatever she wants!

Kai turned 4 months old!

Brent did an impromptu kids party and we invited about 10 kids from our street to have pancakes and watch a movie. They chose Who Framed Rodger Rabbit.  

The Rappleyes came to visit and leave us lots of food etc. We are sad their mission came to an end and will miss seeing them and having someone from home nearby.

We had the Packers for a few hours after church so their dad could rest, since their mom had been out of town. We walked to the "flat grass" as Audrey calls it, and played. 

Little sweetie in his church clothes.

A video of Kai laughing while eating:

A beautiful rainbow one morning! It was so brilliant- hard to capture in a picture.

I had a work training on 401k audits over a couple days and listened to much of the conference like this:

Getting very strong at tummy time:

A video of Audrey making Kai laugh. He thinks she is so funny.

A picture I took of Coen playing with the neighborhood kids (far right, white shirt). He loves to play handball and was holding his own out there!

I took a walk on the beach. My work was doing a wellness challenge and one of the things we could do was send in a picture of "What wellness looks like to me." So I sent in this picture because walking along the beach is so amazing for my mental wellness!

Brent made homemade pizza!

Hilarious picture Coen took of Kai. What a chub!

I had to take Kai to a doctor appointment in Honolulu (to make sure the bones in his head were growing correctly and his soft spot didn't close early). It's an hour+ drive each way, so I let Audrey skip preschool and she was my backseat babysitter! Kai is happy in the car as long as he has a sibling next to him. Audrey can also feed him a bottle as we drive which is super nice. 

I felt like a frazzled mom, arriving there a few minutes late despite leaving an hour and a half before the appointment time. There was traffic in the busy city, and it took me a bit to figure out which parking garage to use and where exactly the clinic was in the medical complex. I had packed Audrey a bag of things to do in the car and the doctor, and she spilled her water in the room. Luckily the doctor was very nice about everything and also said that Kai's head is completely normal. Phew!

We took advantage of being in Honolulu and went to Chick Fil A for lunch and then to explore a new beach I've been wanting to go to- Magic Island. It was so gorgeous!

Audrey told Brent, "Dad! We found a new beach where there's no sharks!" As if we see sharks regularly at our other beaches :)

I hadn't really planned on going to a beach, so I didn't have swimming suits, but Audrey still got in and waded in her white dress.

These purple trees have been in bloom all over the island and I think that's the closest thing to spring we're getting. I love them!

In April and May Audrey's behavior was getting more and more difficult. Like, really bad. We discovered she was having behavior issues at preschool (what?!). In a matter of weeks, she did the following at home: peed in a cup in her bedroom and left it, only to be discovered by me when trying to figure out the awful smell. Got into my makeup and got red lipstick in her carpet. Carved her name in her bedside table with a metal screw. Pinched kids. Dumped out the entire container of new soap on her bathroom counter. Unrolled multiple rolls of toilet paper and wasted it. Plugged up her toilet with said paper. And carved hearts in our car:

As this blog is my journal and way of remembering everything, I try to balance showing the good and the bad, but also respecting the kids' privacy and not documenting their difficulties too much. I feel like all of us surviving Audrey's sudden spike in behavior is one for the books though! Sheeeeesh.

Coen's primary activity was painting for their moms for Mother's Day:

The Young Women learned how to make boquets and made them for their moms. This was Ava's- I loved it!

We met some new friends at church and went to the beach with them. All the kids hit it off and we had lots of fun together;

Audrey drew a picture of Ava. If you zoom in, you can see she drew Ava's braces. Audrey tried to draw the picture in a mean way, but I thought it actually turned out so cute.

For my Mother's Day weekend I wanted to go on an adventure to a new beach on the eastern side of the island (Waimanalo Beach). Ava and Coen are not fans of driving for so long, so they stayed home and we brought only the younger two. Audrey was very excited about a park at this beach! Kai was happy to be there too.

We were only at the beach park for a few minutes when it started to rain and we had to wait it out for a little bit. Then the skies cleared and we walked down to the beautiful beach, and did a little photo shoot of Kai:

We ate lunch in Hawaii Kai at a pretty little spot right on the water.

Audrey wanted to show Dad the same beach from last week, so we went into Honolulu. This time we had swimming suits.

A rainbow appeared!

After the beach we went to Costco and I got their cooked shrimp. It gave me food poisoning that night! I woke up feeling so strange, threw up once, and then went back to sleep a few hours later and was ok in the morning. It was so weird! 

The kids made me a scavenger hunt to find my presents that morning. I was ok to go to church luckily and had a nice Mother's Day RS lesson and then they served us yummy acai bowls.

These cuties fill my life and give it purpose. When I was a kid, all I ever wanted to play was "house." I played with my baby dolls for years and dreamed of being a mom. Having four of my very own kids is such a dream come true and I feel so grateful for them every day.

I am still pinching myself that I got a FOURTH baby. Lucky, lucky me.

Mother's Day was also Coen's half birthday. We got this beach toy set at Costco, so gave that to him :) 

This was so funny- we discovered Kai is simultaneously scared and intrigued with balloons. Here's a video of Kai screaming at the balloon:

Lots of sweet helpers to give Kai bottles. I nurse him first, and then we give him a bottle for the second half of his meal.

Kai and I went to visit Brent's class right after devotional. Here's Brent outside his classroom chatting with a student:

The kids went swimming at BYUH pool with our neighbors:

Baby giggles because we want to bottle these up and keep them forever:

Brent and the kids have been feeding the stray cats while the lady who does it was out of town for a month. They also stop by and feed Rocket:

I took Kai to his 4 month check up. He was smiling huge gummy smiles at the doctor the entire time. He weighed 14lb 1 oz and was in the 13th percentile for his weight- up from ONE percentile! 

Part 2 of May will be continued...