Mommy, Daddy & Me

What's Up?!

2012-02-04T17:54:00.000-10:00

You might have realized that lately a lot of time has passed between posts. At the begining of January I asked a former customer who took some amazing photos of one of my dresses in November, if she could find 10 little girls willing to be her models. I made the decision to focus on the costumes in my shop and to really capitalize on easy wear cotton princess dresses, especially the Disney Princesses. They've been getting lots of views but with the way the photos look now it's not very enticing. So Jennifer Owens got really excited and found 10 girls willing to pay a cut rate to be models and get a custom costume in the bargin. Soo, this month has been filled with making all these dresses. The amazing part for me is that they are all upcycled from old bedsheets rescued from the thrift store!

They all look amazing don't they? I think so especially when you know they are made from bed sheets. Well naturally as I finished each one Danya had to try it on. Some we didn't take a picture of but others we did (mostly just the ones that fit her)

Princess Tianna (she's wishing on the evening star in the first one, and kissing her frog in the second)

Mulan, yep this one is a little big, but still cute.

Again kind of big, Princess Aurora

Alice in Wonderland, ofcourse you already saw the fun one, but here is just normal.

Technically this not one made for the photo shoot, but I thought I would put it up here anyway, Princess Jasmine.

Again not the one for the photo shoot, but let's keep this as all of the princess dresses together, Snow white.

Alice in Wonderland

2012-01-24T09:53:00.000-10:00

I've been sewing like a mad woman this past week trying to get samples of all my Princess of the Month Princesses for my shop done for a BIG photoshoot. Each and every one of course Danya wants to have or at least try on. My photographer friend found an image of Alice squashed into a doll house, and I thought we could maybe try to get Danya to cooperate and get a cute shot before I sent this dress off. Well she almost cooperated and followed directions.

This would be when Alice eats the little tea cake in Rabbit's house and starts to grow.

Silly Alice.

Hawai'i in January

2012-01-21T22:49:00.000-10:00

Living in Hawai'i in January has it's perks, tropical weather is definately one of them.

Although Danya still remembers the snow, and loves to play at sliding with cardboard, or slide board as she calls it. Over Christmas break one of Danya's little Friends came over and we had an amazing day of playing and sliding on the grass at the park.

Miss M is soo darn cute, and neither one of them can be told of the play date ahead of time or us mommies get no breaks from the begging for it to start NOW! It's a really good thing that her Mommy and I are best friends.

Both girls look a little dressed up to be at the park, but when you are a fashionista like Danya is it's not surprising.

Another perk is year round laundry on the line. And to make it even more of a perk, Miss Danya has learned that she can help. Our clothes line is on a pully and so she just gives it a yank and takes the clothes off the line, puts the clips in the basket and then the clothes.

I discovered how adept she was at this skill quite by accident. I said "I need to go out and take the clothes down off the line right after I go to the bathroom okay Danya?" and she said okay. I come out of the bathroom and discover her well organized plan to help me out. She carried the empty basket up the stairs, and then got the clothes pins basket and was taking it down piece by piece.

Naturally since it is important to build upon these skills and actually add chores to her learning. Taking clothes down and determining if they are dry or not is one of her tasks on laundry day.

Not every day in January is bright and sunny, a cold front stalled over us last week and we were forced to play inside. It was laundry day at the time, so since I usually pull the car out of the garage to sort laundry we decided to pull out all of her little people an make a city.

This is the zoo with a school field trip walking around.

And the lake with the pirate ship in it and everything.

Uh Oh someone spotted the camera Pose!

As you can see she has quite the lego pile. But Wow! what fun was had that day with some little people and chalk.

Momma's been working on some new Princess styles for her store. Meet Princess Jasmine.

She's a little sasy,

And very cute, just like Miss Danya! I'm not sure why she's holding up the Icelandic flag other than the fact that she found it, and was dancing with it. Kind of just one of those random moments.

Swimming year round is also a bonus. Here she is not only swimming but swimming with bubbles, she likes to try and throw them line a snow ball and blow them out of her hand.

It's been a fun month so far, but there is soo much on our horizon. If you ask Danya what is happening in February you get the answer, "I'm going to see Gammy and my Grandfather" and we are. We are headed to Minnesota for a little over a week in February. Where we hopefully will get to see real snow. We're already working on a mainland shopping list. We are very excited. Life has been crazy busy this week, yet we've been having TONS of fun. I haven't pulled the camera out in a while, and that is part of the problem as to why I've fallen behind in my blogging. Sorry and hopefully I'll remember this week.

Christmas is Here!

2011-12-31T19:57:00.000-10:00

Blessings rained down at our house. Yikes! This was just Danya's pile. After we sorted all the gifts this is what was for Danya.

I'll spare you most of the "only child" gift opening adventure and just give you some highlights. Danya hasn't been overly cooperative where getting her hair combed and put out of her face is concerned so we've taken to wearing headbands. She got a super fancy one from Nana V.

The grown ups might not like that I put this up online, but here you can see all 3 of them opening gifts and enjoying all of their gifts too.

Then I won again this year! Yay! A dress I made her caused such a fuss she had to have it on right away.

As you can see the Fancy Nancy fabric went perfectly with the new headband.

Naturally for a super social child the weekend got a little long and boring with just grown ups, so about mid afternoon she asked if she could text auntie Brannon on my computer.

She spent a great deal of time focused on her letters typing and erasing her message. If you ever get a very random text or email from me it might not be me.

as you can see.

Thinking face....

Thank you for all the gifts! We were all soo blessed and excited by your gifts to us.

Pre-Christmas Fun!

2011-12-31T19:46:00.000-10:00

Backing up a little bit. On December 23rd we went out with some of our friends and had a fun dinner and then went to see the Honolulu City lights.

Danya and her bestest girl friend Miss M.

Family Self Portrait, since my weight loss we all fit in the picture now. (well almost.)

Family portrait infront of one of the judiciary buildings.

Danya's replacement Christmas Dress.

A little bit of fun snow, for Christmas.

On Christmas eve, after the movie and before bed, we let her open 3 gifts. She got to choose which ones she opened, and decided that she HAD to open the one from Uncle Frank, Miss M's Daddy.

As well as one from Nana Valera the one from Ryan.

Then it was off to bed. And this is what the tree looked like in the morning.

Notice how dark it was outside, that's because we wake up at the crack of dawn. Thus the reason why having a couple gifts out of wrapping to distract her and let her play with prior to everyone waking up.

Last Minute Christmas list to Santa

2011-12-31T14:46:00.000-10:00

As we were watching a Christmas movie on Christmas eve Danya started calling out to Santa to make a last minute request and make sure Santa was okay as he traveled over head.

Shortly after this video she insisted it was time to go to bed so that Santa would come. The good news is this is what she saw first thing Christmas morning.

Only Danya and Momma were awake, but her new doll kept her plenty happy until everyone else woke up.

More to come...

Dancing at the Children's Museum

2011-12-31T14:24:00.001-10:00

Momma's Little Helper

2011-12-14T17:18:00.000-10:00

During one of my many scouting missions to Savers at Halloween time I found this little chain stitch sewing machine. It doesn't really make a stitch that's going to hold up to make anything, but the awesome thing is it's designed for kids. It has a full needle guard, and surpisingly the batteries that are in it have lasted a really long time.

So in the office, which is already a bit crowded with all John's books and my sewing stuff, Danya has a sewing desk just her size too.

I've even given her some fabric scraps that are just for her. When I have a few extra moments I even "magically" make the piece of fabric into what she says she's making. Like if she is talking to the fabric and says she's making a dress for her doll, I'll make it into a doll dress super fast while she's asleep.

She isn't fooled, she knows I did something to make it into a dress. But she is still so proud of herself.

Like I said she wears her Sleeping Beauty dress everywhere. Even in my hot sewing room. The sewing room office is notoriously hot, or at least it was all of the Halloween season, but now that the rainy season has started it's actually quite comfortable, although I'm not sure I'd be wearing long sleeves.

Tis off season

2011-12-11T14:18:00.000-10:00

Like I said in the previous post after Halloween my sales took a nose dive. Some of my awesome local friends have bought things, but for the most part things are just not selling. There are soo many ladies out there selling cute dresses and I think that is the problem. So I'm starting to focus what I sell online to what is unique to me. I made up this pattern for Danya's Strawberry Shortcake costume for her Birthday party and a sold several of them at Halloween, and the ladies who got them were all so wowed by the outfit I thought about making it in the off season too. One of my Halloween customers returned and asked if I could make her a custom dress for a photo shoot she was doing. Well hearing she was a photographer with a willing model, something Danya is not right now except on her terms, I asked if I could send her a dress of my own design so that I could get some good shots of it. She agreed and almost instantly upon recieving the box went out and shot these shots.

And also of the little red riding hood dress that was her custom order.

This type of shot is hopefully going to bring my shop up to the next level and increase my sales. The other thing I decided to do was focus more time on my Everyday Princess collection. These are princess dresses that are made from cotton, mostly upcycled bed sheets, and so they are durable, won't snag like costumes do and look much better. They can also be worn out and about without as many of the funky looks, and are great in hot weather climates like Hawaii.

Like I said Danya is mostly cooperative on her own terms which for Aurora had to be at Target in a Wolverine mask.

Plus I added doll versions of them.

And ofcourse there are doll versions of the other dresses too, but that isn't really helping the sales of the cute everyday dresses. Oh well. Here's a sampling of the dresses and such, just incase you are curious.

Enough of the family life break, just thought I would share what is going on in my shop right now. Thanks for looking.

Christmas Pictures

2011-12-11T11:21:00.000-10:00

Somedays are great days and other days are attitude alert days. Naturally Christmas picture day was... well I'll let you guess:

Over the past 2 years I've made some amazing friends here. One of my friends and I decided that we should do a Family picture swap day. We met at a park all 5 kids and 4 adults to get our family Christmas photos taken.

This is our friends Brannon, Kainoa and thier 4 little B's. Aren't they adorable. I gotta take a minute before unveiling our family photo to love on Brannon for a minute. Over the past 2 years she has lost 75 pounds. I LOVE looking at her and knowing I am wearing some of her hand me downs. It just makes me feel soo skinny. (Ofcourse some of those hand me downs she wore when she was 9 months pregnant, but that is beside the point) She is also soo sweet. Her two oldest go to school in town so when she ventures over to Whole Foods, she's been known to bring me home some icecream, which I might add is one of the highlights of my week. For those of you who have known me for a long time you know I love to talk, well so does she. We have soo much fun swapping stories and just hanging out. Oh and did I mention her youngest boy and Danya are best friends.

A little bit of posing and some kissing. Oops we are in big trouble.

Just Mommy and Daddy

Just Momma and Danya

A sweet shot (in reality we were trying to convince her to look at auntie Brannon and smile.)

And now the Long Anticipated Family photo. Some of you will be getting a hard copy Christmas card, but since sales have dropped off in my etsy shop many of you will have to be happy with this electronic card. So sorry.

Super Model Danya and Mommy

2011-12-04T07:58:00.000-10:00

Danya has had to be my model for my etsy shop a lot lately. Thankfully most of the time she is cooperative. The other day She wanted to be a model and do all of her model poses for the camera. She also loves to be behind the camera directing Momma in her model poses too. She's pretty good even with my big camera, and soo careful. Hope you enjoy watching our little Model.

Christmas Dress...

2011-11-07T07:42:00.000-10:00

It's an absolutely adorable dress right, well it's a little too close to fitting perfectly. That means that by Christmas there is no way it will fit. I'm going to add it to my store soon. I love that she was soo cooperative, I think at least photographically we have turned the corner on listening. Yay! Ofcourse now where I got this fabric they don't have it anymore, so we are on a hunt for something equally as fun and Danya.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-07T07:32:00.000-10:00

Sometimes it's good to have extra dress up dresses onhand We had a slight/ major mishap with her witch costume. After the adventure at Chuck E Cheeses we had to wash it, well when I did it lost all it's spiders. SO for our MOMS Club Halloween party that morning we used her new snow white dress. She loves it an often wears it just because.

That night Ryan and his Mom joined us for trick or treating.

They had a great time collecting Candy.

Halloween is a major event in Hawaii. It's so nice here that families all gather int he garage and have a bbq while they wait on trick or treaters.

Couldn't pass up this photo opportunity.

Mom and Dad did get in on the action. It has become our tradition to have uncle Johnathan take a family photo after we are done trick or treating. It's possible we should do it beforehand so she's less cranky but we never think about it until we get back. Anyway here we are. A hogwarts professor, the minister of Magic and our preschool prodegy.

Here's her haul! Tons of candy and snacks. What I've discovered is that haveing candy in the house tht won't kill me, ie.doesn't have soy in it makes me sneak and do some bad things to my diet.

Chuck E Cheese for Breakfast?!

2011-10-29T19:35:00.000-10:00

Every year we head to Chuck E Cheese by 7:30 in the morning to go to a costume contest and trick or treating event. The contest is super low key as you just walk through the line and they judge you and you move on to play with all the games at Chuck E Cheese.

Danya was a character outside, talking to everyone, showing off her costume and everything. I even managed to hand out my last 2 business cards. I ordered more but they hadn't arrived yet.

Lots of people asked about her dress and if it was home made, but we were the first ones through the line as everyone else was taking their time adjusting costumes before getting them judged. Being first has it's disadvantages, since they don't want to rate you too high, but being later means a longer wait. Oh well.

Danya had a blast spending all her hard earned quarters.

I think she looks like such a proper lady riding this horse.

Yep Fancy Nancy even went with us, and for those of you who didn't see her ultra fancy Witch hat prior, check that out!

Then we still had time to kill, as the crowd this year was ginormous. They were still thick in the line at the time prizes were to be given out. SO Hot Dog for breakfast.

See that's the line at 9:30. Once they hurried people through the line they announced the prizes. We had no hope of winning against the families with babies though. The winning Parent and Child was a 2 month old dressed as a Sushi roll and the parents were dressed as Wasabi sauce, and Shoyu. Second prize went to a 6 month old dressed as a golfer in a stroller decked out to look like a minniature golf cart. We just can't compete against that kind of cuteness. Oh well.

Then it was on to the trick or treating.

Danya was soo happy as we went around. She kept saying " I won, I win, I win" every time she got candy.

Did I mention it was a big crowd? Oh and it rained as we walked around too. Thank goodness for witch hats. There were so many of us that even though we were about half way through the line some of the stops ran out of treat bags. Didn't matter though because she still came home with quite a haul. Thankfully since we have been changing her diet, she wasn't a glutton today, infact she easily accepted the fact that she could have one after nap and that was it for the day. I'm kind of proud of her for that. At this rate our Halloween candy will last until next year and we haven't even really trick or treated yet.

When we got back to the car a wardrobe change was in order. Her shoes were soaked ( and for once she wasn't wearing crocs so this was a problem.) And her dress had absorbed water all the way to the hips. And if you've ever been in wet satin you know this is not much fun.

So it was Wonderwoman who accompanied me home. There were quite a few Wonder Women at the party, and Danya learned her costume is not complete. She now wants a utility belt to hold her golden rope. Like I said before there are some perks to having a mom who sews.

Then in one of thos ironic twists that always seem to make us groan, guess what came in the mail today. Yep, my business cards. I guess we are carrying a huge pile as we trick or treat on Monday. Oh and if you've never wandered over to Little Lizard King's blog to see the patterns she makes, I want to point you in that direction, as she mentioned me today.

SUPER Fun!

2011-10-20T18:06:00.000-10:00

Danya and I love Savers! It's soo much fun to go treasure hunting at the local thrift store. You never know what you are going to find. This week, naturally, the Halloween costumes were featured, and while they were not on "sale" $3.99 is a great price for fun Wonder Woman play clothes. Naturally after watching some Wonderwoman cartoons and shows on YouTube she needed a crown and bracelets. SO what does a costume making Momma do, but go into my Halloween costume fabric bucket and find some gold lame and some silver to make a crown and bracelets.

Ryan didn't want to be left out of the costume fun so another fun trip to Savers was on our agenda. We found him a Superman Costume for $4 too. Complete with cape. I had to shorten the legs and body a little, but once that was done he had a blast. I was suffering from heat exhaustion watching him run around in 86 degree heat in that costume, but he was for sure not taking it off.

Running with a long cape is tons of fun!

The Super Hero team of Wonder Woman and Superman:

Getting ready to take off flying.

Notice Danya is blocking bullets with her bracelets.

Since these photos were taken we shortened Ryan's cape and used some of that lower portion to make Danya some Wonderwoman "boots".

All of this sewing got me to thinking about my Mom. When I was little I loved to dress up as much as Danya does, but my Mom had 2 other kids and one on the way by the time I was Danya's age. If I had been an only child I'm sure she would have done the same thing. I have more and more respect for my Mom as I care for these two. They are often twinlike, but other days it is like having an older and a younger. Eitherway they are a lot of work at times. Danya has been a bit more demanding since her surgery but otherwise she is totally recovered.

Fall Fun!

2011-10-15T20:10:00.001-10:00

The Monday following surgery we had a field trip with our local MOMS Club. We went to the Pumpkin patch. It just so happened that we were scheduled to do that and with our weekends being as busy as they usually are, and the fact that Danya doesn't do so well with waiting in long lines we went. She wore a mask for part of the day, but God smiled on us and it was sprinkling just enough all morning to keep the dust to a minimum and the sun off of us.

We couldn't order a more perfect day to go to the Pumpkin Patch. It even made wearing Jeans not such a chore.

Danya LOVED the school part of the trip and didn't want to leave school to go and take her picture with the pumpkins.

So instead of a nice fall photo we got post surgery whine.

and then our pre-teen wanna be attitude of 'Leave me Alone Momma'!

then "fine"

Well if Marlena is going to be in the photo I guess I can smile for Uncle Frank.

Then it was our turn on the hayride.

Danya and her Boys.

Danya has been making her own bed in the morning. A skill that I know I didn't have mastered at this age. Infact most days I still have laziness issues until well past noon on making my bed. Miss Danya, however, loves to make her own bed. As you can see there is very little room for her on her pillows, but at least all of her favorite things are close to scare away any bad dreams.

A while back, long before I got Halloween busy Danya and I were at the fabric store. She saw this spider fabric and promptly announced she was going to be a witch for Halloween. I had originally promised I would make her Sleeping Beauty, but she kept sticking with this witch idea.

So since I sewed my last costume to be mailed out I sat down and made her witch.

It's a very elegant witch and very happy and shiny. More of a Fancy witch.

She even cooperated for several photos. As you can see she is growing her bangs out. They are in her face but keeping the barrettes in her hair is quite a challenge as she always pulls them out.

I'm so proud of her for knowing how to walk, and run in a floor length dress. It's a skill many flowergirls never master and yet she is quite adept.

I decided to get a little whimsical with one of the pictures we took. I combined it with a photo that my Dad took at a lake a few years ago. She's "flying". It turned out pretty cute and at least for this fall season it is the desktop image on our computer.

Happy Halloween!

The day the Tonsils came out

2011-10-08T07:31:00.000-10:00

We've been a bit overwhelmed by having to do a second surgery with Danya. I've been scared of seeing her panic and not be her usual charming self. That morning she woke up in a great mood. I got quite hopeful. We packed a bag with some of her favorite things. When Nana arrived from Maui she brought another birthday gift of her Skipper Doll she's been asking for. Once opened she named them Courteney and Marlena. These are her 2 friends she calls her sisters. They live very close to us and their Mom and I are very good friends so the girls see each other quite a bit, infact Courteney is old enough she is Danya's babysitter thus she is Skipper. For her surgery naturally she had to bring her sisters with.

In front of her here you will see the ipod and speakers. Due to a major oops on my part this is the last time you will see this ipod. All moms do it, and on most days it's okay. When I went to buckle Danya into the car I placed the ipod and speakers on top of the car. Then as I was answering some questions I totally forgot it was there. The magnets int he speakers must have kept it from shifting too much as we drove the side seats and even quite a ways on the freeway. BUT when we had to make a sudden slowdown, thunk thunk thunk and off the front of the car it went. Only to be crunched by at least one car. Yes I stopped the car and went and rescued it. I now know what is inside an ipod. Thankfully we still have another ipod we can use for her movies and such as well as different speakers although none as nice. Oh well. It is the price we pay for stressful mornings.

When we got to the hospital we were early. Even with our little H1 misshap we still made it into town in 20 minutes, which for a Thursday morning is virtually unheard of. We went to the registration office and the little charmer that she is, saw a box wrapped like a gift with stuffed animals inside it. So naturally she asks "Auntie, can I have a snowman?" yes there was a snowman toy right on top. Auntie said yes and that she could keep it. She was thrilled and it helped to distract her as we waited for the surgery pager to go off.

Once down stairs she was still a charmer. We had arrainged for someone from child life to come down and help us distract her and get make sure that things went well. unfortunately she did get stuck in traffic, but Danya was so amazing we didn't need her. She came in right before we went in and it was still great to have her come. She brought Danya a tucker the therapy dog stuffed toy. Yep if you are keeping track that is 2 more stuffed animals in the house. At this point Momma got into her paper gown and got ready to go with Danya into the OR. I carried her down there and she was still talking to the nurses and anestesiologist the whole way down the hall. Once we were in the OR she seemed to remember what was really going on. She clung to me and it was very hard to hold her as they put the gas mask over her face. She kicked and cried until she went out. I had a much harder time holding the tears back this time.

The hospital staff is amazing and our Surgeon is very good at what she does. The procedure was quick and when she came to she was a bit whiney, but just wanted to stay in the bed this time. She asked to go back to the play room right away. Naturally we couldn't do that but the popcicle feast began right away. She was a bit like a baby bird waiting for Daddy to put the popcicle in her mouth.

Notice that Tucker moved up in the ranks right next to her bear she's had since she was a baby.

When the child life specialist came down before surgery she left part of the sleeping beauty tea cart for Danya to play with when she woke up. Everytime we go to the hospital for a Danya's gift drop off she finds this tea cart and plays, so we had them bring it down.

Soo cute the Tucker dog. And then it was time to go home. She still had a great deal of pain meds in her system still and felt pretty invincable. She was very animated on the way home.

The rest of the day went pretty well until it was time to give her some more meds. Danya has a pain tolerance that is amazing. She would rather endure the pain than take the meds. We remembered the meltaways that worked so well last time and ran out to the store yesterday to get those. Plus she wouldn't trust any of the slushies I made at home because she figured I had hidden medicine in it, so we went a bought her a Icee. It's been an amazing adventure. To look at Danya you would never know she had surgery 3 days ago. She is rebeling against the liquid diet at the moment. She really wants a hot dog on a stick. When offered icecream she whines for real food. In another day or so we can start more real type foods.

Well that's our Tonsil adventure. I'm working on the last batch of custom order costumes whenever I have a moment.

Busy, Busy, Busy...

2011-09-29T06:20:00.000-10:00

Costumes are my major business throughout the year. I've sold 41 orders this season so far. That's a lot of sewing! I've been up until midnight most nights. Its a bit rough on me, but it is helping us financially in a big way this month. I'm hopeing some repeat buyers will come back all year, maybe not keeping me this busy, but a little busy would be nice.

The big seller this year is Rapunzel!

Infact poor Danya even lost this one to a sale earlier in the season. It was almost too small for her which is why I sold it. After Halloween is over I'll make her a new one, if I can handle seeing the fabric again. She's been a pretty good sport about it. I've been blessed to be able to mass produce them, and last night I finished 7 in one night. They are all ready to be packaged up today. It's kind of crazy. Now it's on to a Cinderella, and then Pascal the costume I litterally fell into.

My cousin asked for one for his son to go with their Daughter's Rapunzel costume. Well I used a vintage dinosaur costume, and created this Pascal the chameleon costume. He's pretty cute, right? The pattern sizing turned out to be way to big for DJ, so I went to sell it on etsy. It sold within hours and I had tons of requests. Turns out not even Disney decided to make this costume and a lot of people were wanting it. Yikes. Now I've got an even bigger problem. I bought all of this fabric from my local walmart and it doesn't exist at any other store on the island. We'll see what I can come up with for to fill all the orders.

Nana Valera's Box

2011-09-29T06:02:00.000-10:00

When Nana Valera's box arrived she was soo excited.

As you can see.

Birthday Party...

2011-09-25T20:21:00.000-10:00

with friends!

Mommy made an awesome Strawberry Shortcake house cake! Auntie Brannon made the amazing frosting.

Berry Happy Birthday!

Waiting for her first guests to arrive she was all dressed up and waiting. Thankfully even though naps have been rather sporatic she took a nice long nap today so that I could get things done.

Yes Danya's hair is PINK! We bought some special spray in hair color just for her party. It was sparkly too.

I think she looks so grown up here. Very model esk too. Wish I could get this kind of cooperation without a party as the reward.

See playing with friends is a blast!

Eating dinner...

Breaking open a Pinata..

Danya's closest friends. She has tons of friends but most had things going on today.

Singing Happy Birthday. You will notice the Strawberries in the forground. Danya ate all the frosting off of her cupcake and about 8 strawberries. She was in fruit heaven.

Opening gifts is hard to wait for but fun to do!

Handing off her new lego set to Daddy (Aunt Julie the box arrived just in time for the friend party)

Excitement over a new Strawberry Shortcake toy

See!

Oh my it's Dolls for her doll house!

Then it was time for her friends to go home. We had a ton of fun, but now we need to do a toy reorganization I think. To all her friends that came, we love you and hope you had a great time.

Birthday Party part 1

2011-09-12T11:51:00.000-10:00

On the night before Danya's birthday Lola came over with fun balloon flowers that the neighbors put together for Danya and we decorated the dining room and wrapped the gifts. Looks like quite a pile doesn't it? Especially since that is mostly from John and I. But sometimes blessings just land in your lap. Danya has been asking for the Loving Family Doll house that her friend has for a while now, and when I was at SAVERS one day I found one for $8. It's an $80 doll house. They also had some furniture for 2.99. As we approached her birthday we kept our eyes peeled and found more and more furniture at rock bottom prices.

Thus the mountain of gifts.

When she woke up on her birthday she was amazed at the gifts and decorations. Once Daddy woke up she got to open the gifts. She was a bit peeved when she realized the friends weren't coming over for the party that day, but she soon got over it and opened gifts.

She was tickled pink at the Fancy Nancy doll from Gammy and Gamfie.

It's gift-topia play time.

For a special treat we told her she could choose what we did for lunch. She wanted to go to McDonald's playland of course.

And naturally Nancy had to come with and be safe.

That evening she got to blow out the candles on a cupcake.

Then it was a little more playtime after bath before bed.

It was a full and fun day for her. I can't believe she's 4.

Our new Skill

2011-09-10T07:21:00.002-10:00

We are a digital family, and as such Danya has learned how to play a couple games all by herselfon the computer. We usually play games on FisherPrice dot com. Her favorites have been the Train puzzle games and the painting games.

Happy 4th Birthday Danya Joy!

2011-09-05T00:13:00.000-10:00

There doesn't seem to be much doubt about it we are very lucky parents. Although 3 was worse than 2 for the attitude and 4 at times is looking like it might be ugly too, her comprehension and desire to learn are off the charts. When asked how old she is she responds "I'm not old! I'm a big girl!" So when asked how big she is she says "dunno let's get the tape and check, okay Momma" Apparently in her world being big and tall is more important than how many years you have lived.

Danya's Favorite things:

Her friends!

Especially Bryler, Brinley, Marlena, Maylene, Courteney (her baby sister aka baby sitter) and Ryan!

Dressing up!

Mostly she asks me to make her new costumes constantly. Once she has a new one she'll wear it for a few days and then change her mind.

Nana, Papa, Gammy, Gamfi, Lola, and Dadda or Uncle Clifford:

Tonight she got mad at John and I because we put her in time out for her attitude and she started crying that she wanted to go home with Gammy and Gamfi to Minnesota. She's been talking a lot about riding on a plane and going for visits or having you all come to her house.

Movies!

I won't lie to you Danya is obsessed with movies. When she finds one she likes we get the honor of watching it every time she is allowed a movie for several days until it mysteriously disappears.

Slushies!

Yep, still a favorite, followed in close succession with popcicles.

Dolls!

Whether they be Barbies, Baby dolls or any other doll she loves them. She can be heard having rather lengthy conversations for her dolls. She also has been practicing her fashion design skills with washcloths around her dolls. It's pretty fun.

She's been pretty convinced lately that I am going to the hospital not for meetings with other NICU parents but to go pick up a real baby. She has also been known to start roumors that she's going to be a big sister soon. Don't believe her, unfortunately she still has a while to wait.

Dancing!

This video is actually from the 4th of July so it's a little old. Her dancing skills have improved since then. It's a lot of fun to worship with her on Sunday mornings.

Reading!

She loves to read books. She has several of her books memorized and now our routine at night is usually I read her 2 books and she reads me 1. It's so much fun to see her learn.

Her favorite characters are still Fancy Nancy, the Disney Princesses, Hiccup and Toothless, and Strawberry Shortcake.

Stats:

According to the bathroom scale she weighs 44 lbs. (93%)

She is 43 inches tall. (96%)

Palientologist

2011-08-31T22:41:00.000-10:00

As we work more and more on her school work her drawing and coloring also improves. Check out this Stegosaurus! The only thing she asked me to add was the smile. She even did the horn on the nose and eye! Tada!

Costumes, Costumes, Costumes

2011-08-31T22:38:00.000-10:00

Okay so in this first image please ignore the messy background, I've been sewing like a mad woman to get my online store ready for the Halloween rush, and I kind of neglected the cleaning in our room for a few days, and I was doing some cutting out of the fabric in my room where the AC is in the evening.

That being said, I've been sewing like crazy! Danya is a pretty willing model, but she's also got a mind of her own where modeling is concerned.

This costume isn't on Danya but she loves walking past it and saying "Dat's an AAAAnngry bird". And it is. It is designed off of a very popular video game right now. Doing this costume this year kind of came about as an accident as I was making the above blue bird. I saw how easily an Angry Bird could be made.

On Monday is Danya's birthday we are getting ready to plan her party in late September and naturally we are doing a Strawberry Shortcake theme. So what did we need? Why a costume of course! Danya spends more of her time in dress up clothing than in regular clothing. She loves to dress up!

The new Strawberry Shortcake is super cute and very wearable. It is also in demand this year, so then it becomes a project for my Etsy Store. And might already have a buyer for another one. Now I just gotta find the tights. Keep your eyes peeled for her birthday invitation.

Rapunzel also made an appearance in this fall's line of costumes. Danya wore this one for 2 days straight. I just mailed off the first sold Rapunzel today! I love Halloween for the costumes and the creativity. It makes sewing fun!

This Little Red Riding Hood is currently the most popular costume in my store. It hasn't sold yet, but I have tons of people asking questions and asking about custom sizes. In the comming weeks I hope to see lots of sales.

If I haven't posted much lately forgive me, this is what I've been doing. It has gotten to the point where today Danya told me " I want a sewing Machine for my birthday, no pokeys though just a toy one okay. I wanna pretend with you Momma." Usually when I am on a sewing marathon John and Danya are playing together. Some times with Legos, some times with trains, and some times learning games on the computer.

Crazy Week in La La Land

2011-08-10T22:50:00.000-10:00

School started this week around here. That means that Ryan's big sister had to go back to school so we are now watching him 4 days a week. It hasnt' been too crazy but everyonce in a while he'll stop talking to me and answering me and it gets a little frustrating. One day I decided to take them both to Costco for groceries and cheep lunch. LISTEN UP COSTCO moms of the world think that 10 am is waaaay to late to open such a big store. By the time you get inside it's nearly lunch and nap time. This is just not fair. Hands up of Mommas who think they should have one day a week that they open only to people with small kids along at like 8 am! No body is crabby and shopping is much more enjoyable.

exhibit #1 notice the extreme crabby, and just for the record they wanted to sit there together. It got ugly right after this as there was some pushing and other such nonsense.

On days when we don't have Ryan I like to do special things with Danya not only to keep her mind off the fact that he's next door playing instead of at her house, but also just to really enjoy that one on one time. Lola bought her a snorkle mask a few weeks ago and after several frustrating trips in the pool she is now the expert Slug finder.

Slugs are not very smart creatures and they just sense water and end up drowning in the clorine of the pool. Once that happens they sink. There are not many things more nasty than stepping on a slug that has been at the bottom of the pool for a couple of days.

Danya LOVES to dress up lately. One of her favorites is to run around in the child size hoop skirt. Like mother like daughter.

Danya has a knack for making it work when obviously most people would give up on trying to get the hoopskirt into this little car, but when determination is on your side you can do anything.

For those of you who haven't clicked over to my other blog based on the series Project Runway you really should. Become a follower of that too! http://runwayps.blogspot.com/ I am taking the whole series, or trying to anyway and make the challenges plus sized. So here is the first challenge, to take your pj's and make an outfit out of it.

I LOVE what I was able to come up with and I was excited for the next challenge. The next one is not as cute or fun, but if you click you'll see it.

I am also getting ready to sell things at a craft fair this weekend. I used 2 twin sized bed sheets and made up this simple Rapunzel outfit for Danya. I have enough to make a second one to sell. It's great because it's just cotton you can let them play.

Rapunzel headed out of the tower to have some fun!

Rapunzel in her tower. This weekend should be interesting, but fun.

My Garden

2011-08-02T22:54:00.000-10:00

I showed you a photo of my rose garden the other day, and now I present to you my backyard garden. This is up on my very top tier in the back yard. I have a Noni Tree (it's a fruit tree that they use for special health drinks and such, never had the fruit, but I hear it's kind of uck). We didn't plant this tree. A bird planted it along the side of our house and it started to grow. It did really well but having a big tree right next to our wall was a bad idea. So we transplanted it back here. It had a rough time adjusting but seems to be doing my better the last couple of days. Then next to or behind in this photo are snap peas. We planted several vegis but most of the seeds were quite old as I found them in a drawer in the house, so they didn't work. There are however plenty of snap peas and some small green onions. Then beyond the vegis is our Puakenikeni tree. This tree produces amazingly beautiful flowers that smell wonderful. I can't wait for it to start producing flowers. We'll soon have a plumeria tree too, but I plan to cut it and keep it more of a bush. My allergist doesn't want me gardening, but now that I got the hang of it, I asked permission to continue. I can as long as I wear a mask. I look creapy but I have a lot of fun gardening now. I want to be able to add more roses out front and plenty more vegi's in the back. Like my daddy used to say, "does that cost money" and the answer is Yes, so no more roses just yet. Soon.

Birthday WIsh List aka. Cooling off in the afternoon

2011-08-01T21:25:00.000-10:00

Danya and I have always been known to head off to Walmart or Target in the afternoon to cool off. Free air conditioning, okay so it doesn't always end up being free because there is always something to pick up but the AC is free anyway. SO we head over to one of the stores and look around at all the fun things. Since Christmas my mantra has been "if you want it that badly add it to your birthday list" so she has come up with quite a few things to add to her birthday list. On a couple of our afternoon adventures lately we took photos of some of her wish list items.

The Lego City collection -- It's another Police vehicle but a small one.

A Princess Basket for her bike. Okay so any basket will do this one just came with a bell and streamers making it the most fun.

Danya LOVES her Tag reading system. She wants some more books, they are expensive but they are worth it for how much she learns from them. Tag books use a pen looking item to read the pages and do some activites. Of the books we saw, she'd like Beauty and the Beast, Cars, Tinkerbell, Rupunzel or Tangled, and Toy Story.

Side note here, she would also really like all 3 Toy Story Movies. She saw Toy Story 3 at a friends house last weekend and is still talking about it.

I would be a bad mom if I left these off the list as she really wants them. I just threw away all the ones she had though because the plastic clothing disinigrates in the Hawaiian heat and it becomes a big and annoying mess as it breaks apart. However Danya loves this one because the prince has a cape, so if you can find Snow White's Prince with a cape in a Barbie style I'd like that better.

Speaking of Barbies! Still one of her favorite toys. We couldn't find it to take a photo of it but they have a Skipper that comes with a set of bunk beds, skipper is the brunette pictured here only with the bunk beds I think she's blond, anyway Danya wants that too. but otherwise the only thing in these photos she already has is the bathtub set. She doesn't so much need dolls although she'll be happy as a clam to get them, she loves the furniture and rearainging the house. Although Skipper Dolly has been talked about for months as the one doll she NEEDS.

Lego CARS stuff is always a hit. NOT the Duplos though only the standard Legos.

And she is her Mother's Daughter, she really wants her own tools. This tool box from KMart had a little bit of everything inside and it had a rolling case. It took a little convincing to get it back on the shelf.

If it's for her Baby Dolls or her Barbies, she's happy. That is the safest way to buy.

We also have an online wish list that I've been trying to put together click here to go to the wish list.

Our Neighborhood

2011-07-29T22:24:00.000-10:00

We have some pretty awesome neighbors. I love our street. 4 doors down lives Tutu. She has alsheimers and her kids, grandkids and great grand kids help to take care of her durring the day. The other day the grandkids and great grandkids were outside playing in the pool.

In the morning we went over to play with them and then after nap we went back!

This was awesome for me because I got to talk with another Momma, but it was also great for Danya because she really HATES being stuck home with no friends.

Plus Great Uncle gave her an ice cream cone for snack, can't beat that.

There was lots of silliness and a baby, which made the fun just skyrocket. Danya has been quite baby obsessed lately. She told his Momma that, " You have a gorgeous baby auntie." Thank you Fancy Nancy.

Later Danya was done playing with Momma and Daddy for the night and insisted on going out front to play, and see if Ryan was outside. He was and so the playing began. They rode bikes and had a really good time. Ryan and Danya will be spending a lot more time together as he is going to be at our house during the day once school starts next week.

And of course you all know about MAK or Maylene, she is the one that helped me conquer the bush a few months ago. We haven't planted anything in it's spot yet, and the front looks rather plain right now, but soon this will be my flower garden. The allergist told me to watch out for the grasses, but didn't say anything about roses. I plan to have roses, tuberose, and plumeria out here. It will be my sanctuary.

Since these yard chairs didn't sell in the Garage sale I repurposed them in the front yard as this little rose garden tea nook. It's quite cozy. Yep those are old louvers on the table to make a top for it. Upcycling at it's best. The rustic look is quite quaint right here, where it had been annoying where the kids were pealing the paint off in the back yard. It also gives me a place to sit while Danya and Ryan wear each other out in the evening. I'm pretty excited about it, and while this front yard transformation has cost some hours, sweat, and pounds so far the only thing we've spent money on was getting rid of the trees and bugs. Not bad. Just you wait to see what's coming next!

Zoo Adventure Day

2011-07-08T23:54:00.000-10:00

It's nearly midnight as I put these photos in, but I wanted after that last super long non Danya post to put in some of her adventures. So this is our trip to the Honolulu Zoo for the first time.

You will see a lot of this cutie in the coming photos, it was Danya's Boyfriend of the day. Mr. C.

The Elephant habitat is under construction and Danya along with all the other kids was just as into the big excavators as she was the Animals.

The Root of all Evil...

2011-07-08T23:36:00.000-10:00

A few months ago I got this brilliant idea. The bushes out in front of our house needed some cutting back. They were fan palms and getting a bit out of control. As we were cutting them back we noticed an over abundance of roaches. Since having a bush that houses roaches is a decidedly bad thing, we decided the thing had to go. What we discovered is that it was easier said than done. These roots wind around each other, and some go really deep. It took a really long time to even get a hole dug, but after we got the first root ball out we thought for sure now that we knew how to do it we could get it out no problem.

BIG PROBLEM! They just kept going around and around and around each other.

So as I got to thinking about all this trouble we were going through I thought about the old saying "the root of all evil". Some times in our lives there is something that we do or say that we know is wrong. We know and therefore we end up justifying it over and over in our heads and hearts. Causing the lie to take root in our heart and the more we justify it the more the roots of "evil" just start to wrap themselves around and make it impossible to get rid of . Eliminating one root, just exposes a new branch of the root. The root of all evil or mother root is often at the center of a big root ball and often headed quite deep into the ground holding the whole thing solid. Can we get rid of the roots of evil in our lives? Yes, but it's gonna take a lot of work. Who do you need to appologize to, or confess to? Where is your root of evil, what one action or word started it.

Now just so you know this cross is not intended to bless the evil out of this root of all evil, it was meant to deter people from stepping into the whole. For nearly a month the whole looked something like this as we worked our way accross the bush. So now I know you are wondering if we ever got this beast out of the ground, well yes we did! Like removing evil from our lives it took time, and a lot of effort. To get them out we dug out the underside of the root ball a little at a time until we found the core root and then we just pulled it out. My upper arms are skinnier than ever with all the added effort and whacking with a pick ax and then a pitchfork and a shovel.

As you can see we also removed a few other things from the front of our house. We also had to remove the 3 cyprus trees. Turns out the roaches that were in that difficult bush were just the top of the iceberg, the cyprus trees were at their maximum age and it was turning brown because cockroaches like to eat it's bark. YUM right? They would eat the bark all the way around a branch and then the branch would die. You've never seen roaches until you've seen how many came out of that tree. I wish we had thought to take a photo of the cockroach gettysburg that existed outside out house that afternoon. This is the only one I have and it doesn't even come close to showing the full magnitude of how many roaches came out of the tree.

This was after sweeping them away twice, an hour later this was what we had again. The good news is while it was expensive to get rid of those trees, the guy who did it was over half the price of the other guys and did a really good job, and our roach problem is pretty much gone. hehe, my favorite part.

Plus look at the front of my house, it's a blank canvas waiting for some fun planting to happen. I can't wait!

Mommy Time Out

2011-06-20T08:24:00.000-10:00

As many of you know, why does it seem like I keep starting posts this way, I belong to a local chapter of MOMS Club. We have tons of fun together, and it has been amazing for Danya to have so many playmates too. Well one of the things we do every month is called Mom's Night Out. In January we planned a photo night were we took photos for our husbands for Valentines day. I don't know if any of the guys actually cared, but we had tons of fun!

This is a shot I hate of me, but it's a full body shot so you can see what I looked like in January.

Oh yeah, I had the girls take my photo so I could try and sell Fancy Nancy's mom's outfit I rigged up for Halloween last year. SO this is how big I was back then.

Last Saturday night we revisited the photo night only this time we went Island style. It was soo much fun and we got some amazing shots of everyone. But the most crazy thing to me is how much my face and body have changed in the past few months.

I have officially lost 30 lbs in the past 3 1/2 months. It makes a BIG difference.

So I just thought I would show off a little bit.

This outfit I was able to find at SAVERS for about $16 and the shirt had never been worn! I was pretty excited. I don't want to spend a fortune on transition wardrobe items, so I've been wearing my big clothes baggy for the most part, but for this I wanted something that fit perfect. I love this blouse, and you all will be seeing me in it a lot before it too gets too big.

My Farrah hair. ;)

Thank you to everyone who has been supportive of me in this diet. It's not fun, but it is making a big change that I was never able to do any other way, plus unlike other diets I'm not hungry all the time. I feel like I can eat and still loose. It's pretty awesome. Ok so now I am a commercial, but it really is amazing.

Introducing

2011-06-20T08:10:00.000-10:00

Sabrala Party

One of my good friends Brannon, was planning her daughter's first birthday party and had tons of ideas that she was going to buy and have shipped from the mainland, but with a little creativity Sarah, Brannon, and I worked super hard and created a pretty amazing design set.

Oh and we made the cupcakes too.

The decorated "Candy Bar" for party favors.

The birthday girl seems to approve! Yay for a successful party.

We've been half joking about making it a regular thing. Thus the name at the top of this post. We've got a few more of our kiddos parties to plan together and we'll see where we go from there, but it was tons of fun!

Danya's New Buddy

2011-06-20T08:00:00.000-10:00

As many of you know we've been praying for another little one to watch regularly to help pay the bills. This adorable little man lives right next door.

It makes pick up and drop off way easier for his Mom, Dad, and Big Sister.

The down side is that they have both figured out how to get to the other ones' yard and that either set of parents will welcome them, but neither one is real good about asking permission first.

That asside, when they are together through out the day they have a ton of fun.

He's just as much of a water kid as she is and that makes my afternoon fly even faster.

The one challenge for Danya is not being allowed to run around in her underwear in the afternoon when it gets hot and sticky. So Momma went back in time a little bit and created several halter tops.

So darn cute in it too.

We were even able to take Little Man Ryan to a birthday party with us last week. Unlike Danya you tell him one time to sit somewhere and he does.

But just like her they are both soo curious. Here they are checking out some fish in a pot.

Best buds.

Mixed Plate

2011-06-05T21:49:00.000-10:00

We've had the little camera die on us this week. Not so great, but in it's absence I've really enjoyed shooting with the big camera again, especially where my store is concerned. It really seems to bring out the definition more. SO Danya has not been a very willing model for like the past few months. She's gotten quite sassy and finds herself in timeout for sassing Momma quite a bit lately. So the other day when she was completely adorable and modeled the Abby Cadabby costume for me I was shocked, but also delighted in capturing such a great shot.

Thanks to a friend of mine, I now have some "new" clothes that fit. I was feeling extra cute the other day and did my makeup and decided to try and capture a photo of my new face. Tada.

looks the same as the old face, huh? Only notice the lack of double chin. Someone want to come up with a proceedure to shrink my nose ball though. Oh well, I thought I was pretty cute.

So on Saturday there were many Garage sale signs out and about. One was only a block away and so Danya and I walked there. At first we just picked up a couple of movies, but there was a rack there that I thought might come in handy for craft fairs. Since we walked I went home to think it over. Right at close up time I ran back, and they were practically handing me things. For a $10 bill I walked away with 12 plastic kid plates, 1 brand new ceramic butter dish (which happens to match my formal china perfectly) and this:

It's called the Cranium Mega Fort Builder Kit. The pieces are like the swimming fun noodles, only they magnetically snap into the connectors and some are bendable, some are solid, and some are flexable. First we made a boat.

Then Danya told me where to put stuff and we made this fort a la Danya.

And today we made a helicopter.

for about $80 and I got it for about $6. It's soo awesome I thought about looking for more pieces, um, now that I've looked I'll just keep my eyes peeled at garage sales. It's totally Awesome!

Old Videos

2011-05-22T21:24:00.002-10:00

So I just figured out how to get my videos off of my phone with sound so if you have a little while to devote to cuteness, here are some awesome videos just for fun. For those of you who are signed up to actually get this sent to your email, I believe you will have to actually visit the blog site to see the videos. It was fun tonight looking back through these, I hope you enjoy them too.

This one is from 3 days post surgery asking her Auntie Mick Mick for some more die cut castles.

One of her good friends gave her a stuffed cinderella doll to help her feel better post surgery. Here she is giving Cinderella Piano lessons.

The amazing fashion stylings of Fancy Danya and her mad dancing skills.

And more of the same.

Piano Playing Singing sensation, who by the way is not a fan of Paparazzi

Palm Sunday Song, yes her room is a mess in this video. We were putting thing on the ground like the people in Jerusalem did. It got kind of messy.

A couple more days of practice and she got pretty good at this song.

and another Go Fish Dancing and singing video

And finally today's Hula adventure...

We were having lunch at Lola's house and it was time to go home for nap, but Danya heard her friends practicing Hula and had to go investigate. At first she just stayed on the outside sneaking peaks and pretending to Dance...

Slowly she got a little more brave and tried to figure out what they were doing.

Then little Maylene came out and they both officially joined in the back row. I ended up learning some basics too as I was trying to help the little ones.

For now that knowledge is gonna let me get her a shaky foundation, but a foundation none the less for the time when she is ready to really start to get into it. Uncle Johnathan is not starting any toddler classes right now, so we've gotta find another Halau.

Danya got a Makeover

2011-05-21T07:55:00.000-10:00

When I was growing up I always hated the photos of myself when I was about 4. Prior to that I had waist length hair. Then with accute abruptness there was a pixy cut. It was all my fault, I didn't like my hair being combed and I know I got several whacks on my bottom from the hair brush. My mom always said payback was comming. I did everything right, I combed Danya's hair and braided it very young so that she wouldn't freak out about it. Well no such luck. She HATES having her hair brushed, and since the screaming was driving me nuts, I cut her hair. It's not super short, but it is a big change on her. It may end up even shorter eventually, but for now this was all I could bring myself to cut off. It was about 5 inches.

She looks so much more grown up, which at this point makes me kind of sad.

Although capturing a photo of her new doo is a bit rough.

She is in a phase where I have to just wait for her to look at me, because she thinks it's funny to avoid the camera.

We were at the park yesterday and caught lots of fun playing photos, so I thought that would show you her fun hair cut.

Thanks to Auntie Mick Mick for the fun leggings they make sliding a lot more fun than shorts, and they are light weight enough not to be too hot. And ofcourse paired with a Mickey Mouse shirt they are truely a Mick outfit. hehe.

So there it is Danya's new hair cut.

My little fashion designer

2011-05-10T07:15:00.000-10:00

Every time we go to the fabric store Danya asks for the shiny fabric. Usually I say no, but the other day there was a remnant and so we picked it up. When we got home I asked her what fabric we should put with it out of my fabric closet, and she went straight for this one because it is also shiny and fancy. Then she told me she wanted a long princess shiny dress, so this is Momma's interpretation of all her hand guestures and fast talking. So after putting it on I said, show me your model pose, and this is what I got.

Gardening with Lola

2011-05-10T07:06:00.000-10:00

Lola has been working on getting her yard fixed up lately, and Danya loves to help.

She loves to "scratch" the ground with the rake.

But naturally a dress and rain boots is the perfect gardening attire.

Sometimes we get distracted by new places to hide,

and have to put our boots back on even if our feet are sweaty,

But Momma knows how to distract her from that, because she gets to take some pictures too. Hi Lola!

Tada Momma!

The Beach....

2011-05-06T06:35:00.002-10:00

Still her favorite place!

Just in case you were wondering.

2011-05-06T06:31:00.000-10:00

Me pre diet photo taken by Danya.

Me down 18 pounds, photo taken by Danya.

Ignore the super cheesy grins, it's what you get when Danya has the camera, but at least you can all see the difference. It hasn't been fun, and with no special Easter treats or even being able to go out to eat for Mother's day it's kind of a bummer, but it is working. For that I am grateful.

It's a good problem to have, I suppose, when you need a belt for your skinny jeans, but pray for a windfall, because very soon I won't have anything to wear. I'm determined not to go shopping until I can fit in the clothes in the regular women's section.

Introducing...

2011-04-29T07:21:00.000-10:00

Danya's Cool Face!

And her Fancy accessory pairings

Yup, she's a rockstar!

Catch Up

2011-04-27T21:51:00.000-10:00

Some days you just have to demolish your organization to reorganize, and it always looks worse before it gets better.

I love what we were able to do with a little rearrainging of furniture. I used all kinds of make it work that I learned from my daddy to make a little shelf to hold all of our necessary items in our bathroom.

And then with a bit more moving, I was able to get a bit more organized with my books and things next to my bed. I feel like I have spent tons of money on a complete room redo, but I actually spent 0 dollars and just moved things we already had around where they function better.

Like I said this is a catch up post, and this photo has been just sitting in the photo file waiting for the perfect post.

I told you about my craft fair a few weeks ago but I never told you all how it went. I did pretty good in sales espcially since this is the first time this school has held a craft fair. That means that there wasn't a ton of traffic, especially after noon.

I'm quite proud of my display aparatus. I used a photo umbrella, a tripod, and some paper clips to hang the doll diapers an stroller seats. It filled the center of the tent without having to have a second table set up taking up space.

Just half of the dresses I had for sale.

Again another cute shot of Danya just because these posts would get long without them. ;)

I've told you all about this awesome Bloggy Friend I have. She makes these really fun patterns and this is one of her newest. It is a reversable corset top. I made up the little matching top for her doll, complete with the matching tutu. I tried and tried to get a good shot of her in the outfit, but with the beach so close she was not very excited to take photos.

It is a very adorable outfit, now if only she'd leave it on. Oh well. I plan to use the pattern to make some Halloween costumes this fall. I can't wait.

March For Babies 2011

2011-04-27T21:22:00.000-10:00

We joined up with the MOMS Club Honolulu East Chapter to walk in this year's March for Babies. It was an awesome morning and we got the chance to meet some new mommas from the other side of the city.

Here Danya is doing the Keiki walk. Even though I could sure use the long walk for weight loss purposes we walked in the Keiki walk this year so that Danya could have a bit more ownership of what we were doing.

This also gave her the chance to experience all the fun things that they had planned for the day. We had another egg hunt.

Then after some lunch and collecting all our freebies, we got to play with Tonic Bubbles.

They make some seriously huge bubbles.

Come to find out that Auntie Kelli who used to be Danyas public health nurse when she was still in early intervention is related to the creator of the awesome bubble mixture.

(psst. hook us up Auntie Kelli, I think we need some for her birthday party this year)

Mid Pop

Other kids came and went but Danya just kept chasing the bubbles.

After a hard morning of walking someone got to ride the half mile back to our car. There were so many freebies that she hardly fit in the wagon. It was a very fun morning raising awareness for an amazing non profit and helping to raise some money in the process.

Thank you to everyone who donated to our cause. We love you all.

MOMS Club Egg Hunt

2011-04-27T21:08:00.000-10:00

Our first egg hunt of the weekend began on Friday with the MOMS Club egg hunt. It was quite a party filled with all of her friends. Daddy got to come with too as it was on Good Friday.

Danya and her friend Bryler couldn't wait for the egg hunt so they kept busy by pulling each other.

And the egg hunt begins!

Danya had a very unique egg hunt strategy. She would crack open the eggs and only put the candy in her basket. It looked like she was cracking eggs for an omlet right in the midst of the egg hunt.

She didn't get very much candy comparatively but she had a ton of fun.

After the hunt we all sorte out our candies and got ready for a scrumptious pot luck picnic lunch.

Thank You!

2011-04-23T21:08:00.000-10:00

I'm too tired to post too much about our March for Babies today, but I wanted to say thank you to all of you who supported us. We had a great morning and met lots of new and amazing people.

Even though there were jumpers and lots of food it was the bubbles that kept her from wanting to leave. I'll fill you all in on our busy Easter weekend after it's over, I'm pooped.

My new diet

2011-04-11T07:04:00.000-10:00

For over 2 years John and I have been ready for another Baby to add to our family. We've been keeping it all kind of quiet since we didn't want the pressure of everyone asking us about it every month. Last month we gave in and said we couldn't do anything about this on our own. Something must be wrong. We went to a fertility specialist and found out that I have developed PCOS, or Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome. PCOS occurs when your body gets an egg all ready to be released, but it doesn't release and forms a cyst. PCOS has lots of lovely side effects, but one of the main ones is that it makes you insulin resistant. This explains why I can't seem to loose weight easily. So the Dr put me on a diet called "The Belly Fat Cure". On this diet you have to limit your sugar intake to 15 grams of sugar a day or less. At first I thought there was no way I was gonna accomplish this.

However the book that this diet comes from is very nice. It has lots of photos and recipes. This was my salad from one of the first days. It was very tasty. So when I go to plan a meal it's gotta be soy free, gluten free, and sugar free. I really miss soda pop, and my fancy chocolate bars. There is a type of Soda that I can have one of a day. It is sweetened with the stevia plant. It's called Zevia. I have a hard time finishing the whole can, it's diet soda and isn't near as carbonated as I like, but it's not all bad. At least it has cafine in it. I've been drinking lots and lots of sun tea. When ever I get a hungry twinge I just drink some more.

It has been an adventure so far and it's just barely begining. There are days that being "broken" has a big emotional toll, so I had to wait for a day that was more optimistic before writing this post. I've already lost 7 pounds and for the most part feel pretty good.

It's just one step to a healthier me.

Our Trip to Maui

2011-04-11T06:38:00.000-10:00

Last weekend Daddy had to go over to Maui to do some presentations for work. So seeing as how Nana and Papa Valera live over there, we went along for the adventure. Danya had a lot of fun rediscovering old toys that we leave over there, as well as some new stuff that Nana bought for our trip.

Danya also got some new movies. A collection of Ducktales episodes. In this photo she is watching one. Very focused.

Whenever my camera is within reach Danya takes photos. These next 2 photos were taken by her.

Nana doing her work.

Here John and Danya are working on a lego set that Nana bought for her. They just put together the little cars over there and when we got home we put together the bigger part of the kit. She loves to play with the finished lego kits, afterall they are kind of like mini doll houses and stuff.

It was a quick 2 days, but we had a lot of fun.

Inspiration

2011-04-01T16:47:00.000-10:00

Somedays it's just not easy to keep going, it's been rough to keep up with my new diet, more on that soon, when so much is going on in my world, but I have said it from the begining, "Sewing is my Therapy" and my amazing husband, knowing this, choose to let me have lots of sewing time the past few nights. Some of these you have seen before, but others have been my therapy the last few days.

Like a real fashion designer this is my summer line inspired by Papa who was always very specific about how we were wearing the colors of the flag. I have a couple more cut out and ready to be sewn but these are the ones that are ready right now.

I've been so drawn to these patriotic prints and so these are in memory of my Papa. Some are for sale in my store. I've gotten myself signed up for a craft fair next weekend, and so I'll post what doesn't sell after that.

Speaking of the craft fair, I'm pretty excited about it. I'm hopeing to sell out, but if nothing else hopefully people will take cards and call me with custom orders. I LOVE making someones thoughts work out for them. I've even developed some packaging and things that look super professional. So excited.

My Papa

2011-03-30T13:46:00.000-10:00

March 3, 1977

Just a little over 34 years ago Nana and Papa were on hand the day I was baptized, today Papa was greeted into Heaven by Nana and Jesus. My Papa was a sweet man who was a bit of a rascal when he wanted to be. I have many memories of my Papa, bear with me please as I put a few down into cyber space. I will always remember Papa making me feel special when I felt a little overlooked as the big sister.

Keep in mind I wasn't but when you were an only child for 2 and 1/2 years and suddenly you welcome twins into your family you feel that way. There were several times when I was little that Papa took me to the grocery store on Larpenteur ave. Usually because Nana needed something and he was sent on an errand. We would get whatever we were sent there for and then he would walk me right to the hot wheels spinning rack. I could choose one car for "helping" him get the groceries. I remember I got a limo one day and I had a really hard time sharing it.

Then there was the first time I was able to help him get cars to park in the yard for the State Fair. Nana and Papa lived right accross the street from the Minnesota State Fair. They rented out parking space in their back yard for the fair. The only way people knew about the parking was if someone stood on the corner with a sign and pointed them in to the alley. I was standing on the corner with my cousin Eric for what felt like forever waving and waving for people to park int he yard. Once the yard was full we went back to the house, where Papa had Lick A Stick ready for us to eat as a treat. Naturally there were a few cookies snuck to us during our time on the corner as well.

When Papa had his first scary bout with Diabetes I remember being very scared. I remember thinking he was going to die just like my great grandpa did. One of the stories the aunts and my Mom told from that time was that he claimed he had no granddaughters. The truth of it was he had a lot of grand daughters. I suppose we all could have been very offended. When Papa recovered and people told him what he said he thought it was so funny that he developed a special greeting for all of us. From then on every time we would venture to his house he would call "Hiya Boys" in greeting. To which someone always said "we're not boys" only to be smothered in a giant bear hug.

On the day I got married Papa came to Hawaii to be a part of our day. When it was his turn to have his photo taken with me he said to me "I can't call you a boy today, you're my beautiful girl"

My Papa was a sweet man who was a bit of a rascal. There are hundreds of stories floating around in my head, but the truest fact is that I will miss him terribly.

The morning Papa passed away Danya and I were enjoying a playdate with some of our friends when we talked about a school in Japan who had lost over 75% of it's population in the Tsunami. That's a lot of little kids who just arrived at Heaven's gate.

On top of getting to finally be back with Nana, Uncle Tom, and Uncle Rick as well as many others I know they are all helping with all those little kids, and if you can imagine Papa with all the energy he could ever hope to want and his 2 boys back together again, I just know if there are frogs in heaven Papa and my uncles are rounding up the boys for a frog hunt, and if anyone gets out of hand they are giving out Licken's (with the toungue not the hand)

He's happy, he's pain free, and he's enjoying the presence of his Savior. I can't think of anyplace I would rather he be right now.

My Papa, or Papa great to the great grand kids, did get to meet and hold Danya several times, even though she wasn't overly happy about it at a year old, I love these two photos. Especially the one when she was little. She has the same hairdo in those days, darn 4 month old hair loss, and she's so sweet about it.

A First Birthday Party

2011-03-23T21:04:00.000-10:00

A couple weekends ago now, we were invited by Danya's good friend Maylene and Lola to go to a first birthday party for a relative of theirs. It was an adventure that started with 2 of my dresses. One for each of the girls. I changed the pattern I had a little bit and made them with circle skirts and what fun the girls had twirling.

We were a little early for the party so we took a few minutes to snap some photos.

My girls one natural the other just my early morning little miss,

Modeling her dress.

Maylene squared (Lola Maylene and Maylene)

With Tutu May.

They had a few activities for the kids. The Balloon Monsoon guys provided balloon animals and stuff. They are AMAZING! This was Danya's Butterfly. I'm sure they are expensive but I for sure recommend them. If you follow the link above you will see some amazing examples.

They also had a face paint lady. Since Maylene had had a reaction the last time she had her face done, the girls got waterproof Hello Kitty necklaces. Again she was amazing at what she did.

Danya sat so still. The lady kept telling her she could lift her head some, but she was determined not to mess it up in any way.

See soo excited by her necklace.

The DJ had music playing and while we were eating. Chop sticks were plentiful and she, being as musically inclined as she is, began drumming away.

Then there was a magician! The fun just kept comming.

And then the one thing both girls had been talking about since before we even got in the party. CAKE! notice the cute girls all waiting as the Mommies got the cake ready for cutting.

Then when they were all pumped up on sugar it was out to the bounce house.

My Favorite Shot of the whole day!

Isn't it awesome!

Yep it was a really fun party.

Pule Lehua

2011-03-14T09:21:00.000-10:00

As a rule I'm not much of a nature photographer, but on this past fateful friday Danya refused to be photographed and insisted that I photograph the butterflies. I've never caught this in all my tries to catch the butterflies around our tree but on Friday I did. Why do I keep mentioning Friday you ask, well as you've read and heard in the news for the past few days Friday was a day that all kinds of disaster struck the pacific. Hawaii will recover, we have some damage around the harbors, but nothing that isn't recoverable. Japan, it was reported this morning, is in mourning. Over 2,000 bodies washed up on shore. That is unthinkable to me. Soo many with soo much lost. Pule Lehua is the Hawaiian term for Butterfly it means prayer flower. So I post these photos of Pule Lehua today to remnind all of us to set our troubles aside and pray for those people who may still be burried and surviving, or desperately seeking a family member. Among my local friends there are some who are still missing family, both parents, and additional relatives. Sometimes it hits way to close to home.

Quotable Moments

2011-03-12T21:39:00.000-10:00

The other day it was raining outside. We were in the car running errands when Danya said from the back seat.
D: Momma I need boots for da puddles.
M: You don't have any boots.
D: I need to get some boots for da puddles.
M: Well, I guess you'll have to put that on your birthday list. (my standard answer for that's not in the buget right now)
D: (Thinks for a few moments.......) But Momma it's still raining and my birthday isn't here yet!

For those of you who are wondering, her speach is amazingly improved in the month since her surgery. 2 out of 3 people can understand everything she says. The other person can understand most of what she is saying. It's great to go from noone but me understanding her to most people being able to.

Barbie House Virtual Tour

2011-03-12T08:17:00.000-10:00

Danya's Doll house has been a source of constant fun and since it has been a really long time since I posted photos of it, and many of you sent items for it, I thought I would give you a tour of our house/hospital.

We have a school room,

and a kitchen naturally, The Fridge is a thrift store find. It isn't really a Barbie fridge but hey it works.

And because well, it was drop off day a few weeks ago, and so in our house we have our very own NICU. Complete with live in nurse.

And the Mommy is in the next room naping.While her friend watches tv.

Then the living room, complete with the closet. Danya didn't want it in the bed room so here it is in the living room.

And of course the attic which is holding extra and broken furniture.

That's Danya's Doll House.

She still heads directly toward the Barbie furniture so even though all the rooms are full right now don't be surprised to see more furniture on her birthday list this year, after all that's what attics are for. ;)

TSUNAMI 3-11-2011

2011-03-11T08:40:00.000-10:00

Okay so last night John and I were just relaxing and doing some random computer stuff when we got a phone call letting us know that a big earthquake hit Japan and a Tsunami was generated. Like every good islander we turned on the TV to the news and watched like gluttons for punishment as they repeated the same footage and information over and over again. And when we got board or really annoyed by one set of news people we switched channels. We waited until midnight when the Tsunami was set to hit Wake Island in between Japan and us and then I crashed. Sleep was calling my name. Lots of facebooking had happened and I'm sure I freaked some of you out. I might have failed to mention that we live quite a ways up the hill, well away from innundation zones. Other than the persistand civil defense sirens every hour all night long we didn't really get affected by it at all. We appreciate that you all care for us and if you called when we were asleep we appologize for not answering, but sleep was very important since our 2 legged alarm clock has no idea that big things were happening. Waking up this morning we learned that there was some damage around the islands, but nothing unexpected. Infact it was less drastic than we were expecting. Our Govenor when asked if he thought we might have over reacted said, "Count your blessings," he went on to talk about how we couldn't have changed it and made it less no person could, but right now we need to center our thoughts on Japan, and focus on our close relationship with those people in any way that we can. If you can't reach me because all circuts are busy, please don't panic. There are a lot of Japanese tourists on the island trying to contact family and friends back home and they are clogging the lines a bit, as they should. There are still random waves ping ponging between the islands so no going to the beach, but other than that we are all clear.

Danya's Gift Drop Off Day

2011-03-04T22:15:00.001-10:00

Nearly 4 years ago John and I welcomed Danya into our lives, it was a tough start, but it was that tough start that inspired us to give back when ever we can. On our own we could never do very much. Some days just making sure that the bills are paid and there is enough left over to buy groceries is a challenge, but God always seem to show up when life looks the roughest. Our first couple of Drop offs for Danya's gift were nothing special just a quick in and out to drop it off and maybe tell a little of our story. Those days are long gone, as we now have a very good relationship with the hospital. Infact when our contact in the NICU retired before one of our drop offs we met Auntie Robyn who is amazing. She is a part of the office that handles gifts to the hospital, but the gifts she usually handles are large corporate or estate donations. Ever since our first drop off with her she makes a special time in her day to come around with us and coordinate all the different areas of the hospital we now donate to.

Danya is old enough now that she is actually quite a little helper when it comes to drop off. We always seem to forget that we don't have a wagon until a day or so before drop off. Once again this year our friends let us borrow their wagon. Our boxes were a bit big for it though and so I had to walk behind to hold them so they wouldn't fall off until we made the first drop off.

Going in. Working with Robyn has one very nice perk. If you've ever tried to park anywhere in Hawaii and get a toddler out of a car seat you will truely know how nice this perk is. See we have been allowed to park in the physicians lot while we do the drop off. Doctors are always in a hurry and so that they don't slam doors into each other the spots are wider than the ones in the hospital parking ramp. It's a very nice perk complete with the attendant who held the door open for us.

See what I mean by the wagon isn't quite big enough. I think before next year we might have to invest in a wagon without seats or one with seats that hide so that there is better transport space.

Every year Danya greets the fish.

And she always remembers this vanity and tea service. She loves it and while Momma was busy talking to the patient care ladies Danya served tea for herself . Our first drop off point was in the play room. This is a room where patients can come and check out toys or play if they are not on tons of machines.

This is the place where we drop off all of the party supplies. These 2 big boxes are the party supplies and small bedside gifts that we were able to bring by this year.

Then it was off to give a special gift to a little girl just Danya's age. Every year I ask them to find a little girl just Danya's age and have her pick out something special for that little girl. This year it was a Fancy Nancy book and Dress that Momma made as well as a lunch tote and a princess balloon. I'm always worried that she will not want to give it to the girl, but she was awesome even telling the little girl her name and saying to her "please, feel better, okay?" And since drop off day was after her adenoids surgery everyone understood her.

After we met up with that little girl there was one place that Danya wanted to be sure and see and that was the babies. We went and took a quick look. There was only one baby, but Danya was so intrigued.

Then it was off to where Danya's gift began. The NICU, or neonatal intensive care unit. This year we brought a few different things for them as well. One thing we brought were little lunch totes filled with snacks and essentials for Dads or other family members who come with a transfered baby, like from one of the outerislands or even farther away in the pacific, and they get to the hospital in the middle of the night with nothing because they were not planing on being relocated to O'ahu with thier baby.

I made lots of these bags and the Mom's Club helped us fill them. Together we made a total of 20 bags! If you want to know what was in them Check out this post over on the Danya's Gift blog. IF you didn't get a chance to help out you can also always visit my etsy store and purchase a lunch tote for yourself and sponsor one for the Stranded parents as well, if you don't have keiki (kids) then you can always request a custom bag for yourself rather than one that is more kid friendly.

Then it was on to the really cute stuff. All the little outfits you guys sent are always a hit. I only had a few that I made this year. There was just so much sewing on my plate, but there were plenty of little hats both knit and sewn. Gammi even learned that you can knit on the airplane.

Danya decided to show just how big she had gotten. She tried and tried to get this little hat on.

Of course we got to meet a couple of nurses too. It was a busy morning int he NICU, which is not a very good thing, but because of that we didn't get to see some of the people we knew.

Three generations of women giving back. I learned about giving from my mom, she is extremely generous and at Christmas I remember going to the store and choosing something for a kid who didn't have any money and then putting it in the toys for tots box. I hope that some day Danya will look back at all of this and say it was the start of her learning how to give back.

3 Generations

2011-03-04T06:44:00.000-10:00

When Gammi was here we made sure we went and got some great photos taken of 3 generations. It's soo funny because in this photo she looks just like us, but when you see her sitting in John's lap she looks just like him.

February... Yikes it's over!

2011-02-28T22:14:00.000-10:00

It's been forever since I posted anything and I'm sure all my faithful blog followers are just chomping at the bit to see more and hear more about what we've been up to.

Gammi came into town for the surgery and she found out how Danya is a bit of a cruise director. One afternoon she wanted to play dress up. She even got us all dressed up and then with a cute smile she asked to take our photo.

You can see the outside play tent that we found and rigged up to fit over her bed. She really loved playing in it and it had a bit more ventilation then the pop up play tents we were using.

The day before Danya's surgery we were trying to do some things we didn't think we would be able to do once the surgery happened. We were right and boy did we enjoy those few hours in the sun and sand.

Gammi tried to show Danya how to use a kick board, but Danya had other uses for the kick board.

It made a great place to collect rocks.

With no snow around here, sometimes you have to improvise, that's fancy for find another way to do something, and so we make snow angels on flat blankets. It's one of Danya's favorite silly games.

Auntie Mick Mick sent some die cut shapes, and Danya had such a blast glueing them onto big sheets of paper we even tried to make a video of her requesting more, but apparently my phone doesn't want to co operate with me 100%.

Yes Danya's speach has gotten a lot clearer.

Our Mom's Club is amazing! One of the things we've started hosting is lego maniac day. On president's day we had a total of 11 kieki and 6 grown ups playing with legos and all of the other toys. It was a lot of fun and a great way to learn about sharing.

It's been a while since we had Miss M and her sister over in the mornings but the time has come for everyone to get back into the routine. Dress up is Danya's new favorite game and it's a good thing that her mommy can turn grownup dresses into amazing dress up clothes, because Danya's friends come in all shapes and sizes.

And of course February wouldn't be complete without a trip to the beach.

Where has the time gone. February was a horribly busy month and we have had a ton of fun, but it's a bit crazy and I for one am glad to be done with it!

The Big Day!

2011-02-04T21:45:00.000-10:00

Today was the day I've been waiting for. Danya had her surgery this morning. Many of you were following our progress on Facebook today but for those of you who didn't, I wanted to share more about what happened.
We woke up early and drove down to Kap. We had to be there by a quarter to 7.

Once we checked in and completed some vitals check we got to play in the waiting room until it was our turn.

There was a lot of waiting time. Danya and Daddy passed the time running around and chasing a little bit, she had a lot of fun.

Then I think when the last kid before her went in it might have sunk in a little bit. I love this photo. It's like "I'm Hiding, you can't see me" In reality she was trying to take off the surgical outfit. She wanted to wear her "Fancy" dress instead.

Momma got to wear a fancy outfit. After all that waiting, I carried her into the OR. She was a bit scared and I don't blame her. I would have been too, not because the dr.s were scary or anything, but more becasue it was a new place and such. I held her while she fell asleep and then gave her one last kiss, being as brave as I could be making sure I didn't cry until she was asleep.

Then I left the OR and went to wait in the waiting room. When the surgery was all over I went into te recovery room to wait for her to wake up. When she did, she wanted to be held. So I gladly held her and snuggled. She was quite upset whenever a nurse got close, but she soon learned that Momma was there and would hold her for everything else. We went from the recovery room into an observation bay where Gammi and Daddy got to come in and sit with us. The hospital has tv's everywhere and they keep them tuned into a cartoon just for her.

There was a lot of tears off and on, due to being a bit groggy and not so sure about the nurses, but she did really well. Her nose was still seeping a little blood at this point but throughout the day it slowed down.

Here we are waiting for the prescription. Then we went home. They said she would be groggy for 24 hours. They lied. She bounced right back once we got some food into her. She enjoyed lots of apple juice slushies and popsicles today. Not sure how the night will go but we heard some improvement in her speach even by tonight that I'm hopeing for more tomorrow.

Wee Willy Winkie

2011-01-28T13:30:00.000-10:00

"Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town,

Upstairs and downstairs in his nightgown,
Tapping at the window and crying through the lock,
Are all the children in their beds, it's past eight o'clock?"

Waaaay back a year ago I brought this froggy fabric home from MN and I've been wanting to make some pj's out of it. Well yesterday morning I whipped it up. Danya felt she had to have a hat to go with it. I then tried to take a photo of her, but she just kept running around. Sometimes you just get lucky when you are trying to take a photo of a 3 year old. I was lucky soo cute my wee willie winky.

One Week

2011-01-28T07:30:00.000-10:00

One week from today we go to the hospital for Danya's surgery. I'm so confident in the Dr. that I have absolutely no nervousness about it. Danya keeps talking about wanting to go talk to the Dr. about her nose and other owies, so I'm hopeing she'll be at least a little cooperative, but I know that's expecting a lot where hospitals are concerned.

She's been so silly lately she wants to be wrapped up like a baby all the time. It's kind of funny because she'll stay wrapped up tight for quite a while, getting mad at us if we even think about trying to unwrap her before she's ready.On Tuesday she goes in for her preop appointment and we'll find out her official stats, but by the scale at the store she's a whopping 40 lbs, our scale at home broke, so we just check when we walk around the store. She's gotten taller we know because she's past up some of her friends who are almost a year older than her. She's so tall.

We are looking forward to Grammi comming next week. We wish Gamfi could make it too, but it's more important that he get all the way better first. A fellow blogger would call this a stream of conciousness blog as it kind of rambles around to whatever I am thinking about at the time. It's rather early in the morning still here.

We've found a way for Danya to sleep all night! It's kind of a funny thing. Danya wanted to nap in her little pop up play tent last week one time and naturally we let her. At night time 5 nights ago she asked to sleep in her tent on the bed. So because she had had such a good day we let her. She's too tall for just one we tied both of her pop up tents together making a bigger tent. She went to sleep and slept all night! Momma loved it soo much we didn't even move the tent off the bed for the next day. Now 5 days later I am well rested and loving it. We think that the tent is keeping the humid warmer air from her breath closer and so as she is breathing with her mouth open it's not as painful so she's sleeping all night again. I remember being younger and having a bed tent. It was one of my favorite things about sleeping in the winter because it always stayed warmer. If she keeps wanting to sleep in her tent we might have to invest in one for her, just because I looooove uninterupted sleep.

What has Danya's Gift been up to this year?

2011-01-24T15:45:00.000-10:00

Just incase you don't check our blog about what is going on with Danya's gift here is one of the projects we've been working on.

This one was born out of a project for our Mom's Club. We were planning to put together homeless bags to give to the homeless that we see along our way on the island, but what we discovered is that with HPD cracking down on camping illegally we weren't seeing many homeless. So our March of Dimes NICU Support contact came up with an even more exciting prospect. We would donate the bags to the NICU to be given to families who are transfered to O'ahu with their newborn, but were unprepared to do so. Many families are brought to our NICU from the "outer" Hawaiian islands as well as American Somoa and other Pacific islands. Often times it's the dad who is airlifted with the baby and they were not planning on even staying at the local hospital all night and now here they are transfered to another island. So these little care packages will take care of some basic needs.

I've set up a way for you to help and still get something great. The little tote bags that are a part of the care package are just a brainstorm idea that I had. Those first few days in the NICU I carried a little bag with me to and from the NICU with things we wanted to have with. It was sturdy so it didn't tear if moved quickly, but also it could hold the mountain of paperwork that we recieved.

These little totes will also serve that purpose for the famillies. Please check out my etsy store for an easy way to sponsor a bag and get one for yourself.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/mommaloha

If you would rather not accumulate anymore stuff at your house each care package costs $15 to put together. Please consider using the donate button on the right side of the Danya's gift blog.
We are also collecting all the same things as we have in the past 3 years. Sleepers, Onesies, hats, socks, party supplies and small bed side activities. Fabric especially boy themed is always handy too, both quilting faric for the bags and knits to make hats.

I can't believe it's been 3 and a half years!

She's grown so much, and changed so much. In 9 days She will go to Kapiolani again as a patient, I have very little trepedation about this visit though. Danya has to have her Adenoids removed and the terbinates reduced to give her better airways. I am actually kind of excited about the procedure, although I'm sure I'll freak out once they take her away from me that morning, with this procedure comes a great deal of promise. It should improve her ability to speak as well as sleep. The sleep apnea that keeps her from having a good nights sleep will be long gone.

There is a down side to this and that is that she might sleep so good she looses the need for an afternoon nap, but when it comes down to it, I'd rather have her breathing better than having no naps. I'm also hopeing that she will start to eat. She is surviving on a lot of milk and pepperoni (not on a pizza just the pepperoni) We've found that the things she does eat are spicy or bold in flavor. Gammi is coming to be with us for a while for the surgery. Gamfi wishes he could be too, but his Dr doesn't want him sitting on a plane that long yet. While Gammi is here we will be doing our Drop off for Danya's gift. You all, my faithful family and followers, have been a big part of seeing Danya's gift through. We've developed a really great relationship with the Kapi'olani foundation and when ever I email my contact in the office she gets all excited. It's fun to know that they look forward to drop off day as much as we do.

I've tried to break up all this writing with some adorableness that happens around our house daily.

And just incase you can handle just a little more cuteness, Danya is still the sweetheart of Mom's Club. She is one of only a few girls and apparently she is very popular among the boys. This is not the same little boy who asked Danya out on a "date" before, but he gives his Momma a hard time about going places until she tells him they are headed to see Danya.

As you can see the flirtation is mutual

Well I think that should conclude this really long post.

Blogging to Change the world Volume 2

2011-01-11T06:36:00.000-10:00

Twice this Christmas the Post office has made me furious. It's not the long lines, or the late delivery times, it is random and surprising new rules that make me have to pay additional postage. Just so that you all know flat rate boxes must close so that the top flaps touch, if they don't touch you will be charged based on weight.

So annoying. Infact the last box came with the specifics taped on the outside. The box can not be extended in any way, which apparently means a quarter inch gap. The worst part of the whole thing is that the box is physically unable to close because it was glued unevenly. Calling the USPS customer service is a waste of time. Their answer was to check every box before packing it to make sure that it closes. If it doesn't close don't use it. The annoying part is that the definitions are so vague that you really would never know this is going to happen until the postman shows up at your door demanding more money. I think it's all a ploy to get more money. They've gotten an extra $22 out of me this holiday season. I took photos of this box full and empty to prove my point.

My sister Michelle took up the challenge and contacted the originating post office for me. It seems that I am not loosing my mind, they also thought it was beyond reason that this box would be more money. Once I had all that documentation I went back to my post office to find out what is going on. They on the other hand thought it was perfectly appropriate to asses more charges to the box, because the flaps didn't meet. Infact the postman I talked to actually said "we have to watch out for the money." When I confronted the postman with the fact that the comercials don't have fine print saying that "if it fits only applies if the flaps of the box touch the entire length of the box and if the box doesn't close appropriately empty do not use it." also this rule isn't written anywhere so consumers have no way of knowing this. He responded that "even if it isn't written down that is still what is required". I was so angry I left without leaving all my documentation, and feeling as though nothing will ever change. My sister requested a phone call back from the DC office of USPS when she called to lodge the official complaint. DC filtered it down to the Hawaii oversight guy who upheld the local post offices decision saying that they "had to get every 20 cents we are due" It is obvious to me that someone is putting pressure on the Hawaii post office to make more money because flat rate boxes don't make a ton of money going to Hawaii. It seems like it's just one more way that Hawaii is given different rules and expectations by those in charge. I'm ready to fight! Last night I emailed our local news, perhaps a little media pressure will either clarify things or let people know about the mystery rules.

Danya's new skill

2011-01-07T07:07:00.000-10:00

Danya has now mastered which button on Momma's camera makes it take photos. Keep in mind that these photos are an effort to keep it real and if it didn't tell the story of how creative and silly she's getting these photos would never see the light of day.

We bought her a play camera from Target, just a cheep little thing that makes the camera noise and has lights that go off. Her and Daddy play the model game all the time where she takes photos of him doing funny faces and then Daddy takes pictures of her doing her model poses.

I was making dinner the other night and I heard her digging in the going out bag, and I turn around and she says say cheese. So I did, then I realized that she was only shooting from my shoulders and below so I bent over. There are quite a few shots that are not included here, but the photo shoot went on nearly the entire dinner prep.

See not such a great picture of me.

Auntie Em we might need some lessons on self portraits.

Then she hands me the camera..."take a picture me!" Model pose.

Oops fingers

Art desk and Momma's Etsy box. Oh and speaking of Etsy the overhaul is complete so please stop on over and see what is there, and please pass on the store info to anyone you think might enjoy the stuff there.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/mommaloha

Trying new things

2011-01-02T08:06:00.000-10:00

Okay so it's not too new to see me sewing, infact many of my readers recieved home made gifts for their Christmas gifts. My sister Margaret passed on a pattern to me that she bartered with a woman online to recieve so that I could make a little blouse for our cousin's 2 girls. It was adorable and inspired me. Once I got the first one done I realized there was just enough left over fabric to make one for Danya's american girl style doll. So I worked up a simple sized pattern for the doll and emailed it off to the original pattern designer. She was so excited and originally asked me to make some more, but as she realized it once the first one was done the rest of her patterns just kind of fit together. She spent a weekend turning out patterns at the speed of light.

This is Danya and her doll's shirt that I made them for this Christmas. She loves it and wears it quite a bit. The patterns by this woman are simple yet so adorable and girly. They are also very Fancy Nancy esk so as you can deduce miss Danya just loves them, and must try on every one I make.

For the new year I plan to amp up my etsy store and add many more things. These are just some of the things that will be added. Danya is getting to be a better model and more cooperative than she used to be. Infact just this week Little Lizard King, the creator of the pattern, needed people to test a new pattern before she sells it, so I volunteered. She also asked me to size it down for dolls. So here is the final product, a little 4th of July flare with Christmas stockings in the background. This one is a little big for Danya, thus the testing I think it's a size 6-7. But still super cute on Danya at a size 5.

So keep your eyes peeled because soon I will be unveiling a new look and tons of new inventory for my shop. Also you should check out my sister and cousins' shops as well as Little Lizard King, if you see a pattern you want me to make please let me know.

Shop Links:

Margaret's shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/stargrafdesign

Jen's Shop (looks like she's sold out right now but check back again) http://www.etsy.com/shop/MewesMountainArts/

Kj's Shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/kjerstenhayes

Little Lizard King http://www.etsy.com/shop/littlelizardking

My shop (Unveiling will happen later in the week so I'll post the link then)

Christmas

2010-12-26T22:23:00.000-10:00

Uncle Inflatable once again put up all of his decorations for Christmas.

It's always an amazing display of lights and inflatable decorations.

Danya loves to walk down the block looking at all the lights, we walked down there just about every evening last week. Then came Christmas. It was a busy week with John's Mom in town. We had a good open house on Friday night. Our fridge is still full of all the left overs.

Danya had a ton of gifts. She loved everything and then some. It was a wonderful collection of gifts. There was one gift though that got the biggest reaction. The kind of reaction that you only see in movies or commercials. She opened the bag and took out what she thought was just clothing. Then when I held it up so that she could see it she screached and jumped up and down.

It was a homemade Snow White costume.

Instantly she had to have it on. She wore it the rest of the day including nap.

Tonight before we drove Nana and Papa Valera to the airport we took some better posed and not so posed photos of Danya in her Snow White dress.

At the dwarfs' house.

I'm wishing...

So grown up. This year we figured it out we had a 95% homemade Christmas. I sewed most of our gifts. It was a very busy, and a bit stressful, but very fulfilling. It seems like everyone has liked their gifts so it must have been a success.

Santa Lucia Day

2010-12-18T07:17:00.000-10:00

Every year I've made sure we celebrate Santa Lucia day. Click here to see last year's and here to read about our first celebration. I just love that Lucia stood her ground and knew that doing what God asked of her was more beneficial than the husband with the right pedigree. It's an inspiring story.

In the 4 years I've lived in Hawaii we haven't done a Christmas picture on the beach. So before we went swimming earlier in the month, ie the last post, we took some photos of Danya all dressed up in her Santa Lucia dress.

Here she is with the candle to light her way. She's not overly into posing for Momma.

This one is about as cute as it got for an actual looking at the camera pose, and you'll notice she was distracted by the water.

This, however, is my favorite shot. It's a candid, but I love that it shows her toddler style bandaid owie, and the movement. I just love it. She was saying take it off! Because she wanted to go swimming.

Swimming in December

2010-12-12T06:03:00.000-10:00

It seems odd that I should post this on the morning that my family and friends in Minnesota are enduring 20 inches of snow, so much infact that it caused the dome of the Metrodome to collapse. But we've been enjoying Hawaiian winter. It's been dropping to a comfortable 60 degrees at night but still soaring during the day so that a day at the Beach is still fun. So with some Moms Club friends we headed to the Beach at KoOlina.

Lots of playing ...

Some posing, naturally.

more playing...

And because going to the beach some days is just too much work, we have asked our wonderful neighbors who have a pool if we can use it some afternoons. As you can see Danya looves the Pool! Thanks Auntie!

One thing you should know about playing at KoOlina beach is that even on a Monday morning, there are tourist brides getting married. Usually a Japaneese couple. The bride is always in a poofy dress that looks fresh from the designers rack. The groom is always in white or grey. The bride is almost never in a veil but more likely has large flowers in her hair. The photographer has the same shots he does every time, and he's on a strict schedule, because....

about an hour later he's down with another couple. See what I mean about them looking the same. It doesn't even matter how close the kids are, he just crops closer. Sometimes the only way you can tell that it's a different wedding is by the color of tourist aloha wear the rest of the family is wearing. Usually it's the expensive kind, but the first wedding of the morning all had the generic Hilo Hattie red and blue aloha wear.

Danya and her friend were very curious about the process, so they got pretty close this time. So funny.

Just incase you are wondering

2010-12-09T13:31:00.000-10:00

Which I know none of you really are, but I'm so flabbergasted that it worked that I have to share. I've heard all kinds of tricks for getting rid of the NUK. The Paci Fairy, the Easter bunny, throw them away... the list goes on. Well last week Wednesday I decided that was the day. We had just been to the dr the day before and Danya had another sinus infection and with her history the Dr. told us to prepare ourselves that when we meet with the specialist in a couple weeks she would most likely reccomend surgery to remove her adnoids and tonsils. That would not be a good time to drop the NUK habit so I made a choice. Wednesday was going to be the last day! I have said that before and always waffled. So to prevent that I tried a trick. I snipped just the tips of the NUK off. Once you do that they just suck air. "Broken" NUKs were no fun and certainly more of a hassle, and therefore undesireable. I let her have them, all 4 remaining NUKs, and she just lay there and stared at them. That nap was a bit rough but by bedtime she was accepting and didn't even whine for them. By the weekend she was back on schedule and completely NUK free. We kicked the NUK habit in one day! I'm pretty proud of myself for thinking of it and her for finding copeing mechanisms to make it work. Surpisingly enough in that day she grew up so much she doesn't even need her bear blanket to sleep either, she can use any of the umteen thousand plush toys that are crammed under her bed.

Incase you didn't notice it that was a plea for no more stuffed toys for Christmas.

Simple Christmas Ideas

2010-12-01T07:36:00.000-10:00

I know we've posted lots of things Danya wants for Christmas, but now that all the gift exchange names have been swapped, I thought we should post some simple ideas for each of us.

John

itunes Gift cards
best buy gift cards
dress socks
Seasons 2-8 of MONK
Compact computer speakers
Cash

Laura

4-6 yard cuts of cute fabric (solids, patterned, cottons, knits, flannels, grown up or kids it doesn't really matter)
Crocs size 10 womens
Pattern tracing fabric
itunes gift cards
home depot gift card
Outback steakhouse giftcard
Quirkle

Danya

Pretty much anything Barbie, Princess, Cars or Thomas themed
itunes gift cards
pretty much you can get a good idea checking out the photo site.

So that's some simple ideas. Hope that helps.

Danya Talking to Nana...

2010-12-01T05:22:00.001-10:00

We have yet to convince Danya that when she talks to people on the phone they can't see all the things she is showing them. Although if they could they might get a bit sick with as much as she whips the phone around. She decided she had to have the phone yesterday when I was talking to Mom G and then she wanted to show her the doll house. Naturally since "Nana" was small enough she actually went into the doll house and became a Barbie herself. It's pretty cute and a good representation of Danya's speech too.

So if you are ever talking to Danya on the phone and she says "see dat?" now you know what she's doing.

Water Park...

2010-11-30T13:24:00.000-10:00

It's been a while since we went to the water park. Danya's too old now to get in for free, so we've been waiting for a bring a friend coupon pass. We got one a couple weeks ago and so off to the water park we went.

So we can add one of these handy dandy cards to her Christmas list.

Check out her swimming skills!

Momma Date

2010-11-19T21:53:00.000-10:00

Today Danya and I went on a little Momma and Me Date. We went to Target to make a photo Christmas list, and just to explore and have some fun. As we went into Target she said she wanted a Santa hat. I said we would look for one, but we never found one in our Target. We had to go down the way to the office store, because there was something else we couldn't find at Target, and what would be right inside the door but Santa hats. It was over 80 degrees today, but that didn't stop her from wearing her Santa hat. She was so excited. It took until we were home and she wanted to take a bath that she allowed us to take it off of her. We took lots of pictures of toys that she wanted, they are posted on our photo site. You will notice that is is all toys. Yep, they are more want than need items, but when you take a 3 year old and you tell her to show you what she wants for Christmas that's what you get. We had a lot of fun, it was the most well behaved trip to Target we've ever taken.

"momma you're alive!"

2010-11-17T06:35:00.000-10:00

This was how I woke up this morning. Danya climbed into bed with us at about 4am, I can't even remember the last morning I woke up without her in our room. I usually take her back to bed when she wakes up right up until 4 am when I give up and just let her sleep with us. So this morning at the top of her lungs she rolls over and hugs me "Momma you're alive"
me: huh?
Danya: you kill da guys at da grocery store
Me, still very groggy: What
Danya: you move away and kill da guys at da grocery store, (yelling) den da bus comes! an we go far far away. Momma you're alive!

She must have had a dream, and a crazy one at that. Apparently I am quite the action hero in her dreams, cause later when I started asking her questions about it I was climbing out of windows and jumping down.

400

2010-11-16T19:14:00.000-10:00

Can you believe I've had 400 stories and things to share with you all? I guess that's a testimony to all the fun things we have done in the last 3 years. I feel like I should have something witty to say for this number 400, but alas I've written 3 different beginings to this post and deleted them all. So I'll just continue on as I always have with some random thoughts.

Danya rocking the headband. I had to take a second look at this one, because of the way the sun is shining it looks just like one of my old photos, plus the silly face makes her face more the shape of mine. Flash back.

The dress Danya is sporting is half of an adorable pair. Living so far away like we do, Danya misses out on cousin stuff. Well we found these cute dresses for Brianna and Danya. Can't wait to photoshop them into a picture together. It's not the same, but being as how they are both adorable it should be pretty darn cute.

Our silly Fancy Nancy girl. Glasses, bracelets, an appointment book and a ring to go to bed.

Speaking of bed, we went bed shopping.

Danya loved trying out all the beds and kept asking to go back. I however was in sticker shock. So we went online and looked through craigs list and found an amazing set for reasonable money from and awesome family on the other side of the island. Their daughter told me "I'm too old for Princesses! I'm so over it." She's 7 or 8 and clearly all grown up (yeah that was a little sarcastic). We put it together before Danya woke up from nap on Sunday. When she woke up she declared it was "soo beautiful" and she shows everyone who comes over the "beautiful big girl bed" explaining that "I so big girl" She also loves my vintage bed spread. It has to be serious quality, because I used it for years and it's still in perfect shape.

So cute.

Well those are my thoughts for tonight. Was all that randomness worth being number 400, I'm not sure, but that's what you get. Happy 400th post.

Danya's Ball Gown

2010-11-12T06:42:00.000-10:00

Some of you have checked out my etsy store and you know that for Halloween I had good sucess upcylcilng some old formals into costumes and dramatic play dresses. My amazing neighbor found this bridal gown at Savers on 99cent Thrifty Thursday. I kind of fell in love with it. The beading is amazing and knotted on individually which makes it much more durable for toddler use.

So I portioned it out into 2 chunks to make 2 little girl dresses out of it. I started the first one and totally loved it. I decided to sell Danya's Fancy Nancy from halloween so I thought I had better replace it with super fancy. She calls it her "ball gown" which it is so very smart.

I tried it on her just to make sure we had good sizing, and found that she didn't want to take it off, she ran away from me until I convinced her she would still get to have it when it was done.

When it was done she was REALLY in love.

The blue lips are curtesy of a blue sucker from Halloween, adorable yeah?

There goes my run away bride.

Laughing as she is running down the hallway, to avoid taking a good picture she turns around fast and starts running back in the direction she came from. I'm sure you can guess what happened next.

Flop! she laughed so hard that she fell down, then she laughed as she tried to untangle her legs from all the fabric.

Then we got up and ran some more.

Fancy Danya continued to wear it all morning, drawing playing it didn't matter.

Then Daddy came home and she had to show him. It's been kind of funny that once Daddy comes home she doesn't like to share him with me, often saying "stay here, I go play my daddy" So this photo is me still trying to get that good shot as she is sneaking in with Daddy, ready to lock me out.