9 hours

Last night Jude fell fast asleep at 10 p.m.  And didn't make a peep until this morning at 7 a.m!! I couldn't believe it.  Neither Juneau or Nova totally slept through the night until they were a year old...Even now we have at least 1 girl coming over into our bed around 5 a.m.  It was probably a fluke, but I am just thankful for 9 uninterrupted hours of sleep!!

 

When Jude and I came back to Hawaii after our trip to Dallas, this is the beautiful site that was awaiting us...The finished garage playroom!!!! Currently Cris' motorcycle is occupying the playroom while we get the rest of the garage organized, but I think the playroom looks so beautiful, and will be such a great place for the girls to play!

 Many thanks to Sean and his friend Eugene for helping Cris complete this project in a fraction of the time it would have taken him on his own.  The girls have been really into the project since the beginning. After Sean and Eugene came over and the guys worked all day, this was the conversation we had on the way ot school the next day

Nova: Mom, on Saturday me and Juneau and Daddy, and Sean and Eugene are going to build a merry-go-round
Juneau: What about Brett (another friend of Cris)
Nova: I don't know if Brett even knows how to use tools
Juneau: Yeah, he does
N: Ok, Brett too.  Mom, do we have a lever that we can use to make it start?
Me: No, I don't think we have a lever
N: Ok, then we need to stop at Home Depot and get a lever

So funny the little details she picks up on in life!

We hung out with the Hamilton gang yesterday.  I pulled a paparazzi trick, and snapped this photo of Beth...hopefully she's not to embarrassed to see her picture on the blog :) Beth has a total "mommy vibe", and while I was deployed the girls loved seeing Aunt Beth on Friday evenings so they could get their "mommy fix". I think our normally very wiggly little Jude is enjoying his snuggle time too!

 I love this picture of Jude holding on to his Daddy's finger while he drinks his bottle. He held Cris' finger the entire time he was eating. So cute!

 "sweet mother" nova feeding Jude his bottle...

 Friday we headed over to Hawaii International Child for the annual trolley ride through downtown Honolulu to see the Christmas lights. I got the girls these cute sparkly outfits, and they loved them.  They said this is their "Sassy Pose"

 mmm.....Christmas cookies!

 You can't tell it in this picture, but this is by far the scariest santa I have ever seen.  First of all he was the scrawniest santa ever...his belly definitely didn't shake like a bowl full of jelly. Second of all, his pants ended mid calf, and he had no shoes and no socks...not even slippahs! I couldn't believe this skinny barelegged santa trying to pass for the real thing.  Oh well, the girls didn't seem any the wiser for it...and made their requests (Nova asked for a "Bucky Ship" from Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and Juneau asked for a toy puppy)

 On the Trolley....

 Momma and Jude

 After the trolley ride we headed back to Melody's house, and the 5 little girls made quick work of being sure every single toy was played with, then left out on the floor! :)
With Melody, Alyssa, Juneau, Nova, Ellianna, and Mackenzie as the members of our regular Friday Night gang, Jude is going to have a difficult time holding his own as the only boy!

 Nova and our sweet friend Alyssa

 Melody and Nova finished off the evening by snuggling up on the couch and reading a bit of "Little House"

 Mele Kalikimaka!!!

 

I have to include 1 more funny Nova story (one day when she is all grown up I want to be able to remember how funny/cute she was!)

Nova has been talking for several weeks about drawing pictures for "The Kupunas at Pohai Nani".  She inherited my ability to cram approximately 1000 words into a 5 second sentence, and it took me quite a while to decipher what she was saying. Pohai Nani is the nursing home in our area, and the kids at Nova's school will draw/color pictures for the Kupunas (grandparents) that live there.

After I finally figured out what she was talking about, I thought how fun it would be for her to get to go visit the Kupunas, so I called to schedule a visit.

The girls are very blessed that their oldest living relative has the spunk of a 21 year old (yes, that's you Mammaw Nova!!), and they have never been around anyone that really seems elderly.  I wanted to prepare them a little bit for what some of the residents of the nursing home would be like, so we were talking about what the Kupunas might be like, and what activities they might enjoy, when Nova said (in her very most excited voice!) "I know mom! We can take some of that cream that you rub on your cheeks to make your wrinkles go away, and we can rub it all over them! Isn't that a great idea?" At least her heart's in the right place!