Jewelry Hanger

A few years ago I bought these pants hangers that have 4 bars that attach at one side and swing open.  These are perfect for hanging and organizing your necklaces and bracelets.  I found these at Target for I think around $7.

Update

Wow, I have so much to update! I know that pics are lots more fun to look at, so I will try to keep the words short and post pics. This is not in any particular order. I will try to continue to find and think about the things that have happened recently and blog. Thank you for being interested in our family. This has been a very crazy year filled with good, bad and everything in between. Moving 2 times in a year is not fun. I've decided I never want to move again. Wishful thinking, huh?

Ok, so then my brother, Hyrum had a birthday and I wanted to do something crazy for him. My Mom was watching the kids for them while they went out, so we went to the store and got fun stuff and decorated his car and filled it with balloons and decorated the garage. It was awesome to see his expression when he got home!! We had lots of fun!!

Last weekend we went to a free concert that featured 3 artists that we love: Chris and Conrad, Jonny Diaz and Brian Weaver (we didn't know him before this, but we like his music now). We got to sit in the 4th row and at one point, Chris and Conrad asked people to come up front if they wanted to. Loegan and Malia got to get a real close up, front view. They even got to shake his hand, etc. Then at the end, we were able to get their autographs. We were first in line for that too, by chance.

This is Jonny Diaz singing one of our favorite songs, More Beautiful You. He was really funny too and sang some hilarious songs.

This is Conrad, from Chris and Conrad right before he shook the kids hands. I didn't catch it in time.

Loegan talking to Conrad and getting him to sign his K-Love sticker (we didn't have anything else - it worked out good though)

Loegan talking to Chris and Malia talking to Conrad.

Chris talking to Malia.

Malia's Birthday Costume Party

This year was Malia's year to have a family party. She wanted to have a costume party. We had a really fun time!! Everyone had great costumes on and it was a blast!!! I'm sure this will be very memorable! Thank you everyone for coming and participating!!

We Went Private - it's the thing to do, don't ya know?

Yeah, if you are reading this, then you are really special. Special that you are allowed to look at our blog - just kidding. Really, though, you are pretty special!

My phone ate ALL of my email addresses of all of my family and friends off of my phone and computer a few weeks ago. So, I can't even invite my family and friends to view this blog. I am very slowly getting addresses back. I have a lot o post about the fun things we have done the past few months. I got stuck because we came back from our awesome vacation in California with about 350 pictures and I am having a hard time to figure out which ones I want to select to put on here. I just need to do it!!!! Maybe I just need a kick in the pants to do it. Coming soon (soon is a relative term though).

School's out for summer...and craziness

Whew, school is officially done. Malia had a last few struggling days doing multiple, long lessons per day of really, really long, hard words to read. It was intense (even for an adult). She did pretty good, actually she had lots of trouble cause she kept wanting to say the first syllable (of 7 or 8) and guess the rest. Some words she had were extraterrestrial, unimaginable, paleontologist, and lots more that I can't think of. Funny, I'm having trouble spelling them. They were pretty tough. But, we are done!!!! On to summer fun and craziness. And to add to the fun and craziness, I found out yesterday that our favorite band, Casting Crowns is coming to Arizona in September for a concert. We made a promise to ourselves to make every effort to attend every concert they have in Arizona - yes, we love them that much!!! Tickets go on sale on Monday. Hopefully they are reasonably priced and we can go. What's one more thing, right? It's now a little over a week until we leave for the beach!! San Diego, here we come!!

Shooting at the Range

We went shooting at the shooting range on Saturday morning. For Loegan's birthday celebration day, he wanted us to all go shooting together. We had been wanting to all go as a family for a while anyway. We had so much fun!!! We all had a blast shooting the 22. Malia loves shooting. Loegan was really brave and shot the 30-30 several times. This is starting to really be a fun activity that we all love.

Loegan and Malia with their hats and glasses and ear plugs.

Loegan shooting the 30-30. I love the look on his face. He had just shot it for the first time.

Loegan looks like a pro.

Malia so serious! She is really good at this.

Malia loading the bullets.

So, while we were there we heard these little birdies chirping. We looked directly above our heads and there was this nest with 2 little birdies in it. The mama bird would come and give them food and then leave and come back. This silly mama bird built her nest in the strangest, loudest place ever, the shooting range, directly above the loud speaker no less! It was cool to see though!

Loegan's 10th Birthday Party

Loegan had a really fun birthday party last Saturday. I know that he had a blast and I hope everyone else that was there had fun also! He invited some friends and most of our family was able to make it.

Malia and her friend, McCall. Malia is showing off her messy frosting face.

Loegan looks so big and grown up.

The party - this is most of the kids that were there.

Loegan blowing out his 10 candles. That was pretty tough - huh, Loegan?

This is the LEGO cake that I made. It took longer than I thought. Thanks Mom for helping me with finishing touches!!

10 years ago my life was changed forever

At exactly 11:24pm, ten years ago, my life was forever changed by a very special boy named Loegan. He has blessed our lives in such an amazing way every day since the moment he was born. He has such an amazing heart and is so loving to everyone around him. I am so incredibly thankful to God for blessing us with such a wonderful, smart, loving, amazing and handsome son, Loegan Makaio. My first-born child touches the lives of everyone he comes into contact with. He is so polite, kind, selfless and he loves God. I am so blessed to be made a mother by this amazing young man. I cannot believe that my son is a decade old!

Loegan - I love you more than words can say! You are incredibly gifted with a quick mind, your love for others and your selfless nature (and many, many more gifts)! Thank you for blessing my life every day!

Loegan's first 10 years

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Soccer Finale

So, like a month ago, Malia and Loegan had their last soccer game and party. It was really fun. They had a blast playing and eating pizza with their team mates. They got trophies and their pictures.

It was a really fun to have both of them on the same team this season. It was really hard work. They both did a really good job and worked really hard. They will miss their team mates.

Here's Loegan taking a knee for an injured player.

Malia kicking the ball.

Malia waiting for the ball.

Loegan waiting for the ball.

This will be a busy summer!!!

Lots will be going on for us in the next few months.

First of all, it's getting HOT! For some reason, Fibro doesn't like the heat and it makes sleep difficult.

Loegan' birthday is coming up and we are planning his birthday. Last year was Malia's year for a big birthday party. This year, Loegan gets a big birthday party. So, he wants to have a Lego Birthday party. We'll have it at Peter Piper Pizza. I'm going to make this cool lego cake that Teanne gave me the idea to make. It should be fun and hopefully not too much work or chaos.

We are really excited to go to San Diego at the end of June. We have been trying to go for over 2 years now. It took a while for a time-share to be available and the wait was worth it and we will be staying on the beach in Carlsbad, near Legoland, which the kids have been really wanting to go to. It should be a week filled with hopefully lots of relaxation and fun. We should be done with school by then. Some subjects we have already finished, some will be doubling up on to get finished.

James' family is having another Kauwe family reunion in August. We are really wanting to drive up in a big van and pick up James' sisters and families in Fresno on the way up. (I still need to ask them.) James' auntie asked about us doing our vow renewal on that weekend and they will throw us a luau. Sounds great, huh?

In the past few weeks, God has provided for us an amazing opportunity that we can’t pass up. Our friends will be moving to Oregon for 6 months and they are asking for us to live in their house until they return and do a few projects in lieu of rent. This will be so perfect for us to pay some bills and fix up our credit enough to be able to buy a house before they return in December (with faith and the Lord’s help, hopefully the housing market will stay decent so that we can get something decent for a nice price).

So, we will be moving July 5-8 ish to our friend's house temporarily, then on to our first home right after Christmas. As some of you know, I have been slacking on the tidiness and organization areas for the last few years when my free time has been spent not feeling well and resting. So, that means that I will have a lot to do in the next month. I think I will focus on a room every Saturday morning and hopefully then the job will not be as big as it seems to be. Please pray for God to give us the energy and strength to get everything done that we need to do, to make wise decisions and be able to do all that He has in mind for us and for us to TRUST Him and not be anxious, worried or afraid about the future. We know that this would have only happened through His hand. We had no plan in the near (or far) future to be moving AT ALL.

Then, we will be going to the Arizona Grand Resort for 2 days and 1 night to play in the waterpark for 2 days straight in September. The kids have been dying to go back since we were there a few years ago. Since then, the kids have gotten tall enough to go on the slides and the resort has changed ownership and made lots of changes and improvements.

We are usually blessed to have any vacations, but this summer we somehow ended up with 3 plus moving and birthdays and all kinds of stuff. It will be a wild and fun summer! Wish us luck and send lots of prayers our way!!

I guess I got long winded, but, now you know what we will be up to in the next few months.

Mother's Day Celebration

First of all...
Happy Mother's Day to all of you Moms! It's a really hard, yet fulfilling job that we have!

Yesterday, I had the priviledge of spending a lot of the day with my Mom, Sister and Malia. We got pedicures and had a great time trying to relax. My Mom is so amazing! I only wish I had half of the patience and creativity she has. She is the sweetest person in the whole world and has so much love for all of us. My sister, Teanne is also an amazing mother. She has 3 little, cute, adorable, fun kiddos. I would love to be able to spend more time with her and her family. Here are few pics of us and our pretty toes and feet. (Who would have ever thought that I would be posting pictures of my feet - ewwww!)

What a day!! Meeting Scott McIntyre and more.

It was an exciting, fun-filled, intense, busy, awesome, hot day! We did lots of fun stuff. I will blog more about it tomorrow. But, tonight, I just wanted to quickly download and share what we just had the opportunity to do.

Through our homeschool newsletter, we heard about a special free "thank you" worship/concert, question & answer and meet & greet that Scott McIntyre was going to be putting on at his home church - Scottsdale Bible Church. Long story, made really, really short, we went and it was awesome! There were sooo many people there. A huge church worship center and another building were both completely packed. We got to meet him, get a few pics of him and with him and got his autograph too. Here are some pics. It was awesome! He is an amazing person with a really awesome story. He talked about his journey on American Idol and lots of other things about his life. His faith in God is so amazing. He has been through so much in his life and he continues to pursue his dreams and giving all of the glory to God.