I ♥ Faces - Constructive Feedback

I decided to enter a picture I took of Mary last summer over at I ♥ Faces

Vist Mary's blog to see my entry and read the feedback and please do go visit I ♥ Faces

I ♥ Faces for Jan 18th

This week at I ♥ Faces, the theme for their weekly challenge is Family. Here is my entry, two of my kids with their grandpa and cousin ... out for a ride with the sled dogs. Their grandpa (my dad) is a great winter outdoorsman. He loves to get his grandkids out in to the woods, the wild, the snow with him ... and they love to be there with him. Its a blessing both ways!

I ♥ Faces for Dec 7th

This week at I ♥ Faces, the theme for their weekly challenge is "Sweet Dreams" , everyone is invited to post a photo of a person sleeping ... I happen to love sleeping babies and I looked back over many many sleepy pictures of my sweet kiddos as newborns. But instead of using any of their newborn photos, I decided to use this one I took just a few day ago:



I had laid our two youngest kiddos down for naps each on one side of our big bed ... but when I came to check on them only 15 minutes after they had fallen asleep this was what I found ... they seemed to neither one have ever awakened but had gravitated towards each other ... my heart just melts!

Click on the button below to visit the I ♥ Faces website, where you too can join in the fun and share your favorite sleepy heads with us!

I ♥ Faces for Dec 1st

This week at I ♥ Faces, they are much more about photos from "behind" ... Why? Well, maybe because We ♥ Tooshies!






Our little Mary was covering second base while playing ball with her siblings and cousins a few months ago on the field on the Metrodome in Mpls ... yes that is really where we celebrated my sister's twins birhtday ... on the MN Twins home field. (well, it used to be there home field but that is a whole nother story ...)

Click on the button below to visit the I ♥ Faces website, where you too can join in the fun and share your favorite tooshies with us!

I ♥ Faces for Nov 17th

This week's theme at I ♥ Faces is "Autumn Beauty"

It is all about capturing a photo of a person surrounded
by the beautiful colors of autumn. Since we live in MN
we have great colors to photograph!



Click on the button below to visit the I ♥ Faces website, where you too can join in the fun and share your "Autumn Beauty" with us, or just come on over to enjoy all the beautiful fall pictures!

And feel free to visit this post to see more beautiful fall colors and my family enjoying them.

I ♥ Faces for Oct 27th

I really do enjoy the weekly photo challenges at I ♥ Faces even though I've not had enough time to enter lately. This picture of my sweet little Mary in her Tinkerbell costume at Disney World last week fits perfectly with this weeks Dress-Up theme!



OH! Isn't she just the cutest little toddling fairy you have every seen?

Click on the button below to visit the I ♥ Faces website, you too can join in the fun, or just come on over to enjoy all the pics!

And feel free to visit Mary's blog to see more cute Tinkerbell shots and lots more from Disney World!

I ♥ Faces for Aug 17th

I really enjoy the weekly photo challenges at I ♥ Faces
Here is my photo for this week's challenge:

WEEK 32 - Aug 17th - "Bubbles"
All photos entered this week must include a bubble of some kind. I thought of getting very creative and wrapping kids in bubble wrap or something like that but decided to take the easy way out today ... just too tired to get creative and used a picture we took of Z on our last trip to the children's museum.

Click on the button below to visit the I ♥ Faces website, you too can join in the fun, or just come on over to enjoy all the bubble pics!

I ♥ Faces for July 27th

I've really been enjoying playing along
at I ♥ Faces weekly themes. This is:
WEEK 29 - July 27th - "At The Beach"
All photos entered this week have to be beach-related. There will be just one category (you can enter either a Kids photo or an Adults or a mixture of Kids and Adults.)

Click on the button above to visit the I ♥ Faces website, you too can join in the fun, or just see a whole lot more beach pictures!

I ♥ Faces for July 20th

This week they are veering away from the typical faces at I ♥ Faces and focusing on feet instead ... how fun is that?! There is only one category you can enter and it can feature adults or kids (or both)…but the main focus needs to be on the feet more than anything else.

Here are some of the most precious feet I've ever seen (or kissed for that matter)

She just loves to be in the music room, especially if her big sister is in there practicing her harp or piano. Her sister is away this week but I caught these little feet in there today going through her sister's sheet music folders. I just had to snap a few photos before I cleaned up her mess.

I ♥ Faces ~ June 22 ~ Boys!!!

WEEK 24 - June 22nd - "Let's Hear It For The Boys!" It's the week after Father's Day and we'd like to keep honoring the special men in our life for the rest of the week.

All photos entered this week at I ♥ Faces should have a boy or man in them (no girls allowed this week). So come on over to I ♥ Faces and share a photo of that special boy in your life with us or just come take a look at all the amazing photos there.


Here is my entry for the Kids Category:

I took this picture just before the boys left with their dad to goto a "pirate party" hosted by our church. They had so much fun, really getting into the pirate theme. And I had fun editing it in Picasa ... still loving the sepia look.





And my entry for the Adults Category:

I took this picture earlier this year on a flight to Seattle. I love to watch my hubby being a daddy. He is so present with our kids and their needs. And I especially love when I come across these snuggling, sleeping moments.

I ♥ Faces ~ June 15 ~ Sepia Toned

All photos entered this week at I ♥ Faces should have a sepia tone to them (not B&W or color.) It can be as much or as little sepia toned as the photogrpher like. So come on over to I ♥ Faces and share a sepia toned photo or just come take a look at all the amazing photos there.


Here is my entry for the Kids Category, our youngest daughter cuddling her teddy bear one morning in bed, I love this one in sepia tone

I ♥ Faces for June 8 ~ Vacation!

WARNING: This may turn into a very long post! As I really do like to take pictures on vacation. But, hey, Amy and Angie over at I ♥ Faces asked for a vacation post.

WEEK 22 - June 8th - Telling My Story: Vacation Edition
a.k.a. - Amy and Angie's First Week Off! :)





Its "Telling My Story Through Photos: The Vacation Edition” week
Click HERE for all the details


For Easter in March 2008 we spent our Easter Break in Hawaii. We met up with my parents and both my sisters and their families on Maui. Yes, that does mean that there where 8 adults and 9 kids in our party. No need to share the ages of the adults, but just to let you know what kind of crazy we are ... we took children ages: 12 1/2, 9, 6 1/2, 6, 4, 2, 1, and 7 month old twins from Minnesota to Hawaii. Oh, and I was 5 months pregnant! Please note there will be NO pictures from the airplane, I'm sure can imagine why.


Saturday we packed our bags and headed to the airport:





We were thrilled to finally arrive at the Grand Wailea in Maui:









After stopping at both Kmart and Walmart for:
Sandwich fixings, iced coffee, boogie boards, inner tubes, sand toys, egg dye, and chocolate Easter Eggs ... we had just enough time to check in, change clothes and head off to our luau:

























If you really like Luaus or want to see the 200 Luau photos I took feel free to visit our Luau Album at www.shutterfly.com Just click Here


For Easter Sunday it was truly wonderful to wake up in such a paradise! I mentioned above that we arrived at The Grand Wailea on Maui. I cannot say enough wonderful things about this resort and their staff!

For anyone wanting to see more about this resort on Maui check out their main webite: www.grandwailea.com
We actually stayed in Grand Wailea's new addition called Ho'olei ... I think there is a whole page on the Ho'olei on Grand Wailea's site. It was very nice to have several bedrooms and several bathrooms and a nice big kitchen. There was also a lovely deck, with the most incredible view! The sliding glass doors were more like a glass wall that retracted into either wall, which maked the deck and the view a part of the living room area.

We noticed a few churches on our drive from the airport to the resort and honestly just picked one at random and trusted that God would be present in the Easter message. Well, boy did God surprise us!!!!

Please Please Please if you get a chance visit this church's website!

http://www.hopechapelmaui.com/


My sister saw the sign for this church's Easter service and it was close to our condo, so we decided to have everybody up and ready togo by 7:30 ... not too hard when 7:30am feels like 12:30pm to our bodies :-)

I was so blessed by this service ...



What a beautiful setting for a Church, ha?




Our kids outside after the service:



The picture above is what the sanctuary looked like as we walked in ... near the beginning of the service the worship director held up a couple stacks of differently colored post-it-notes and he commented about how plain and ordniary an individual post-it-note can seem.

"Each one has its own use or purpose, but that use and purpose can seem pretty insignificant sometimes." Then he handed them off and said, "But when you put those insignificant, ordinary things in the right hands and they all come together its amazing what can happen ... "

The person with the post-it-notes walked off and the choir entered and stood in front of the black back drop until later in the service and when they moved we realized what had been happening with all those post-its ... while we sang and listed to a solo, others where behind the choir creating a beautiful mosaic type masterpiece our of those ordinary post-its.


Notice in the next pictures the now colorful backdrop:





Click on this last picture to see how the individual post-its fit together to make this beautiful piece of art.


Back at the Resort:
After our beautiful Easter service and a yummy pancake brunch back in our condo, we headed over to the main hotel area for the Easter Egg Hunt and games for the kids. Shaved ice, cookies, ball toss, ring toss, miniputt ... stuff like that with little prizes. Kids enjoyed that. We all wore our swim suits over to the egg hunt, because then we planned to hit the big pool or the beach after the egg hunt fun. But it was sooooo packed over there that we decided it was too stressful to keep track of the kids. They went around the lazy twice and the little boys played in the wading pool for a bit, but then we came back over to our condo and enjoyed the smaller much quiter pool by our condo. Acctually for almost an hour we were the only people using the pool ... very nice.



































Monday Morning Sunrise
Ok, so our condo faced west ... great for sunsets, not as great to watch the sun rise, but Zeke and Papa and I were up around 6 this morning and we watched from our deck as the sky turned colors and the moon disapeared. Very cool!










The rest of that Monday was a pretty lazy day:



We hung around the condo and then spent 4 hours by the pool. The kids were swimming and playing most of the time, but I spent most of the time on a lounge chair. Little Z. even ended up falling asleep down there ... such a cute little guy!















Crazy Tuesday!
I guess its a good thing we rested on Monday because Tuesday was full of activity!




Aunti Am. and Uncle B. went out on a half day fishing excursion that left at 5:45 am. The rest of us woke up around 6 or 7 or 8. Papa left to do a bike ride up a volcanoe. Grandma, Auntie Al. Uncle R. the twins, and 2 of Am & B,'s kids were going to drive up the volcano and see Papa at some point but also enjoy a nice hike. Am. and B. were going to catch up with them after fishing. My family plus one of Am & B's kids left for the beach around 8:45, hoping it would not be as crowded as the other day. There were a lot of people already out for 9am, but we found a spot with 6 chairs by the kiddie pool and the kids had great fun there. They enjoyed the lazy river and several water slides. Then we walked a little ways farther and enjoyed the beach for 30 minutes. Kids have boogie boards ... that was really fun. After 30 minutes there, though, they were ready for the pool life again and we went back to our spot by the kiddie pool. We headed back to our condo around nooon and are resting a bit while we have lunch, then we went to check out the Maui Ocean Center, Hawaii's largest aquarium.

Trust me G. got happier ... he just looks pretty miffed in this picture.

Z. fell sound asleep as soon as we arrived at the Ocean center.

If you click on this picture and see it bigger you might be able to find the red Coral Fish





We were glad Z. woke up to see the turtle pool













And here are the pictures from Papa's trip UP the volcano

Here are Grandma and Papa at the top!

Papa rented a bicycle on Maui ... he can't ever go too long with out a bike ride, yah know. But the ride he took on Tues. was not your average bike ride.

He rode from the town of Kula(3500 ft elevation) up hill 22 miles, to the top of a volcano. The summit of Haleakala is at 10,032 ft. elevation. This ride is a big tourist attraction, but the bikes are usually rented and hauled to the top and the cyclists spend the day biking down the volcano. Not my dad ... he rode up! Grandma, Am., B., and R. and J. drove up to meet him and do a little hiking. A. & R. and the twins drove up, too.

Check out these link on Haleakala and the bike ride:

http://www.nps.gov/hale/
(info from the National Park Service)

http://www.haleakala.national-park.com/info.htm
(more about the volcano)


http://www.bikemaui.com/
(but keep in mind Papa biked UP, not down)



Wednesday on Maui

A good friend of mine from elementary school and high school lives on Oahu, she and one of her sons decided to come spend 24 hours with us on Maui. They got in on Tues. night and we had a great time down at the pool and the beach with them on Wed. Here are some of the great pictures she took while down on the beach:















And here are a few from my camera:











And check out M's crazy beach hair after Wed. at the beach:




Also on Wed. was our eldest's turn to go horseback ridding. Our daughter M. is in love with horses, and that is putting it mildly. So her and Papa signed up for a 2 hour horse ride. It was just her and Papa and this really nice guide, who by the way she homeschooled her boys. Papa said Mikayla and the guide chatted about almost everything under the sun for the whole two hours :-)







What a great memory! And we truly did make some wonderful memories on that trip!

Friday as say goodbye to Maui

But then, how does that saying go? All good things must come to an end?
What a great vacation we had in Hawaii! And we threw the flowers of our leis into the ocean before we left ... a Hawaiian symbol that you will one day return. We certainly hope to.

So there ya have it an very very very long vacation post!