Family Photos

We took some family photos at the temple yesterday. We had to sneak around the construction gates because its still being renovated. I cant wait for the temple to open in Novemeber. When Seth and I first got married we made it a goal to go to the temple once a week. We could feel the difference dramatically in our marriage when we forgot to go. Im so excited to be able to go again very soon, it feels like its been forever!

We had so much fun taking these pictures, I decided I am going to get Coco into baby modeling. She is in love with the camera! She is such a poser, always looking straight into the camera. I always wanted to get Sol into it but he has never had an interest in having his pictures taken. Picture taking requires staying still, something sol is incapable of. Lately when I try to take a picture of him he says," look mom, dinosaur" pointing behind me and when I look he runs and hides. We were only able to take these pictures because Seth told him he could get a popsicle if he was good. He tried his best but in the end he ended up swimming in the temple fountain. Should I have expected any less from my sollie?






Miss Coco is the cutest litle girl I have ever met. I know I am bias but I am pretty sure she is up there, I mean look at this face! Plus she is just as sweet as she looks. She is so mellow, she just hangs on my shoulder all day watching her brother be crazy. But the greatest thing about her is her sense of humor. She loves to laugh, especially at Sol. One little silly face from Sol and she is rolling. And her laugh is so deep and throaty it reminds me of Santa Clause, Its so werid coming out of her little body.

Seth and I were taking photos of the two of us and sol comes running over and says hey I wan snuggle too! and squeezed between us. Now if he could be this sweet all the time my life would be alot easier...

yes, this is where sol ended up

my baby boy

Being a mom is craziness! I have always been a student/mom, but now that I am graduated I have been able to spend alot more time with the kids at home. Before I semed to always be rushing to class or doing homework so when I did spend time with them I was thinking about all the things I needed to finish. But now I have all the time in the world to spend on them and I am loving it. But I do have to say it is the most exhausting job ever. I feel like my house is never as clean as I want it. Just as I finish cleaning up one mess, Sol will inform me that he has pooped on the floor(we are potty training) The dishes seem to be constantly piled to the ceiling and I feel like I am doing laundry multiple times a day. However, since I have decided to erase any ideas in my mind that I have to be the perfect Martha Stewart mom life is alot more fun. Do you think Martha would allow a two year old without pants to prepare the dinner's salad. Probably not. But he had a great time being my helper. Even though the salad was so wilted in the end from being cut so many times, his little smile made it so delicious and I was proud to eat it.

Sol has this new fascination of thinking he has a full time job. After breakfast every morning he will climb onto the counter and get a butter knife or one of seths tools, usually a hammer and will come to me and say"mom im goin work. give kiss"

then he will go outside and hammer or saw away at this water pipe we have outside our house. Yesterday I came outside to ask him what he was doing. He said " oh mom, its breaky" and then went back to work. Today I found him attempting to hammer down a tree on the playground. He was yelling at everyone "watch out! watch out! I dangerous!

oh sollie how I love you so

some pics for my mama

Has it really been a year?

Well in the time that it took me to update my blog I got pregnant and had a baby! Obviously I am not made to be a blogger mom. Here are some of the highlights of the last year:

Seth broke his leg and had to have surgery which ended our summer sales career for good…thank goodness, no offense to our summer sales friends its just that I hate constantly packing up and moving. I am so thankful to have been able to live in the same house for the last 10 months. We have never been able to live somewhere longer than four months in the last three years so this last year has been incredibly relaxing.

We moved back to Hawaii and are living in Tva, which is Byu Hawaii housing, which is shockingly blissful despite the constant infestation of bugs and lack of privacy. We live just a couple doors down from Shem and Andrea, Seth’s brother and wife which is so great because their son Tama and Sol are best friends. Those two are so funny together, they love to go on adventures around TVA without adult supervision. Sol is older and tends to be the more domineering of the two. He does what he wants and Tama follows him around trying to do exactly what Sol is doing.

Seth’s parents bought a restaurant five minutes away from our house. It is called the Kahuku Grill and serves the most delicious food, I suggest the cheeseburger if you ever get a chance to go. They also have a very handsome chef …

The boys in front of the new resturant. It truly is a family affair. All the boys work there except for Shem and Spencer, but when it gets really busy you will find them cooking in the back too.

Sol turned two and I turned 24! To celebrate Sol's birthday we took him to the zoo, he loved it. I didnt want to be running around planning a party when I was swollen and feeling like I was about to explode. So we celebrated his life just the three of us. I tried to cherish every moment the whole day, being as it was the last time Sol would have a day all to himself. For my birthday I woke up with a letter from Seth outlining everthing we were going to do that day down to the hour. Which sounds ridiculous but was kind of endearing and very cute as he tried to follow it strictly throughout the day. Basically the day consisted of shopping, going to an arcade, went to a beach we had never been to before-Ko olina and then dropped off Sol with Seth's brother and went to dinner and a movie just the two of us. It was a great day!

Seth and Sol playing at Ko olina's beach on my birthday
Our last family shot of the three of us. Coco was born the following week.

coco at 6 weeks

We had a baby girl on March 30, 2010. Her name is Coco Mitsuko Irene Hannemann. She is named after Seth and I’s grandmas. Both were amazing women and hopefully Coco will turn out like both of them. I forced her out a week earlier due to me graduating the following week. The delivery would have been perfect if my epidural had not worn off on one half of my body an hour before delivery. But I guess you cant always escape the pain of childbirth no matter how hard you try. I was in tears for the last hour trying to endure the pain all the while Seth and my sisters were there encouraging me to get through. I guess I was not the only one exhausted in the end because the first thing Seth said as soon as she came out was "I am exhausted!" and collapsed on a nearby chair. Seth hates me telling this story but I just think its too good not to share! Anyway, Coco is such a good baby and Sol is thankfully in love with her and has shown no signs of jealousy. He loves to hold her, he always says "I hold it ,I hold it mama" and then runs to the bed adjusts the pillows behind his back and holds out his hands…its so precious. Sol loves watching movies in bed before bedtime and since Coco has been born he insists on her watching beside him. He likes to put both arms around her and occasionally he will cup his hand against her face and say "mama cute cute" and then wait for me to agree... also very precious.

I graduated on Saturday April 10, 2010! Well kind of, I still have an internship this summer. But the school had me walk anway as I would be done before the next commencment which isnt until December. Andrea also graduated with me and because we have the same major and same last name we were able to sit next to eachother. I am so thankful to have her as a sister, we tend to go through the same life events together like getting married, having babies and now graduation. My family also came out to Hawaii to celebrate with us and see the new baby.

My dad bought Sol a ride on a horse at Turtle Bay. Has been the highlight of his life ever since. Is this not a pricless shot, it reminds me of a post card.

So all in all there has been alot of changes but all good ones and my little family is so happy.

May Oh My!

Time flies, just when we felt we were getting settled we were boarding the plane once again for the mainland. This time we were off to Washington DC. It has definitely been a lifestyle change to go from hanging out at the beach with Seth all day to never seeing him and being freezing cold with nothing to do. However, Sol and I are trying to make the best of it and so far its been pretty good. Sol does miss his cousins horribly though, sometimes he just stares out the window at the other kids playing and looks so sad. I have been showing him video of him playing at the beach with them and he always claps his hands and smiles. I feel so bad for him sometimes, but I just have to keep reminding myself we will be back soon and 4 months is really not all that long.

Our first real Washington DC experience was only a few days ago. Although we are only 30 minutes away from downtown DC we never were able to go walk around. Finally one morning the boys won a day to play in Dc, so we were able to visit the Smithsonian. It was very interesting to say the least. I have to admit I was a little shaken up after we left. How to caveman and dinosaurs fit in the eternal plan. It had so much stuff on evolution I felt like the whole time I kept asking Seth 'Do we believe that?"

Did Caveman really exist?
Im not sure why we have so many family pictures with these stuffed animals. Just looking at the pictures it looks kinda silly but in real life they look so cool. The animals looked so real.

I thought this display was so sad but this seemed to be the one Seth liked the best. He was jumping all over the place when he saw it.

Sol had a great time I think...

The ward here is incredible. It is the epitome of what a mormon ward should be, so welcoming and wanting to accommodate our every need. So far I have been donated a high chair, stroller and a box of toys. One of ladies in the ward invited us over for a play date. She had twins and apparently got married to a very well to do man, because her house looked like toys r us. I have never seen so many toys. And they weren't cheap toys ether they were all the really fancy expensive ones. I thought it would be a dream for Sol because unfortunately for him he has grown up without a lot of toys to play with. But the majority of the time we were there he was playing in their recycling bin pulling out plastic bottle and rolling around water containers. Ether Sol has been so deprived of toys that he doesn't know what to do with them or toys are overrated. I placed sol on this horse myself, he had fun for about 2 seconds and then moved on to their paper grocery bags collection...

One night for Family Home Evening we took Sol bowling. We bowled too of course but the highlight of the night was definitely not Seth and I's bowling scores. Sol was so funny to watch. Every time we would roll the ball down the lane he would start yelling and pointing and chasing after the ball. If you don't already know Sol is obsessed with balls, as soon as we walked in his jaw dropped and he was fighting to get out of my arms. Every time he got loose he was running after someones ball...down the lane and all.

I awarded myself most improved that night. My first attempts were pathetic with the ball landing perfectly in gutters everytime. As I have no competitive bone in my body and have always been terrible at any sort of sport or game I thought nothing of this. But Seth of course on his new kick of helping me improve on this sporting weakness gave me a few pointers and by the end of the night I dare say, I became a bowler.

The best of the night...

My fierce trainer and his trusted apprentice

See how Sols eyes cant get away from the ball, its like this in every photo

After bowling we played some arcade games, as you can see Sol was not a fan of the motorcycle.

It is strawberry season so for fun we went to a farm and did some picking. The strawberries were delicious but a lot more expensive than in the grocery store. It was so hot in the field and everytime I bent down to pick I couldn't help but think that air conditioned Walmart is a much better way to get strawberries.

Hot as it was though it was worth it just watching Sol pick. I gave him his own basket and he would pick one or two and place them ever so gently inside. And then everytime he would reach for a third he would look at his basket and sit down and eat the two strawberries and then stand up and start all over again. It was so cute

The strawberry farm was so fun because not only did it have strawberries but lots of activities for the kids. Obstacles to climb and farm animals that you could feed right out of your hand

We also were able to go to the National Zoo. That was alot of fun, but very tiring as I didn't have a stroller yet and chasing after Sol all day can get quiet exhausting. I swear there were live animals there, but looking at the pictures I came home with you would of thought we visited a zoo of statue animals.

Inspired by Marni Sol and I have started to paint. Our collection is still sparse however we hope that by the end of the summer we will have filled the wall with our masterpieces.

Every week all of us wives get together and have a recipe exchange where one of us will teach how to make something. Feeling homesick for Hawaii I made Seth's moms specialty-banana bread with macadamia nuts and icing. Very delicious. So far I have learned how to make steamed egg which resembles egg flower soup and strawberry filled mochi.

Elias and Pitchu had their birthdays this month as well. We all were over the celebrate the occasion.

Yes Sol is eyeing those red bean popsicles we got for Pitchu. Sol is so asian its funny, when it comes to his eating anyway. If he had a choice between pizza or tofu he would definetly take the tofu.

The wives- minus one

Ashleys pregant tummy! She looks great and makes pregnacy look so easy and fun. Everytime I am with her I get a bit jealous I am not pregnant.

Proof of his homesick for cousins- here he is so exicted to see other kids playing

If Sol could talk he would be saying, Here I am pass it to me!

Sol and I spend alot of time at the playgrounds. Here he is displaying his new found love, the slide. He has no fear. I love this photo, it makes me think of pure joy and not having a care in the world and truly enjoying life.

Sorry for the incredibly long posting, its just that I cant get myself to be updating this thing constantly. i dont know how other mothers find the time. That is one puzzle I have to solve this month, how so many other young moms are accomplishing so much like making crafts or being able to blog multiple times a week. How do you get the time to sit down and do something for yourself. I honestly want to know...in order to get this posting up I have been working on it for weeks in between naps or in the middle of the night when I cant sleep. Sol is my angel but he definetly doesnt act angelic the majority of the time. There must be a secret that I dont know about... if you know it please let me in on it!