Take Me Back to the Kine . . .

So now I can get back to documenting my wonderful family trip to Hawaii . . . ah, I love my former island home. We spent one of our days surfing at Kahana Valley. The water is the color of chocolate milk, but the bottom of the ocean is soft and sandy and the waves are small and rolly enough to teach keiki (children) how to surf.

I grew up in a house full of brothers and always longed for the companionship of a sister. So many of my dreams are fulfilled in my two eldest daughters. This picture was so funny. I wish I had it on video. This is the background behind the picture :

Chris and Sarah were out passed the breaking waves floating on a surfboard chit chatting. Cambria could make it passed the breaking waves but Kiera could not. Cambria offered to help her little sister make it out to Chris and Sarah by carrying her on her back.

Kiera jumped on Cambria's back and cambria buckled under her weight.

I think Kiera is only 10 pounds less than Cambria. They tried two other times and each time fell to the sand laughing before trying again. Finally they gave up and I packed Kiera on my back to Chris and Sarah. It was such an endearing moment.

Uncle Chris provided great entertainment for the kids. He drew a gigantic maze with a fallen branch on the moist sand. The kids played with the maze over and over again.

Kahana Valley was also a great place to teach Sarah to surf. She had a bum shoulder so Chris sat behind her in the water and would push her into the wave.

I love this picture and one of these days I am going to have to crop it. When Sarah caught her first wave Chris was just as excited as she was. You can see him throwing his hands in the air in the background like he just won a championship game of bingo! I love that he joys in Sarah's joys. He loves her and wants her to be happy.

The history to this beach goes deeper. When I was student teaching in 1999, Chris and Ryan flew out to visit me for their spring break. Luckily for me the teachers at the time went on strike and so my student teaching ended for the year. I was able to spend all day with the boys.

During that time we took the boys surfing at Kahana Valley!

Sarah says that every time they drive passed Kahana Valley Beach Park, Chris says, "I learned to surf at that beach." Now Sarah can say the same thing. Chris said he was so excited because all he ever wanted was to go surfing with his wife.

That was a direct statement from his mouth to your eyes.

The cool thing about Kahana Valley is, well that is is a valley. It is surrounded by these beautiful furry, green mountains. These next two pictures are out of order but, hovering right around the mountain tops were two para gliders. They were so beautiful. Right when we thought it couldn't get any better they began to hover directly above our heads. We wondered if we needed to get out of the way to give them more space to land, but they picked a little stretch of sand and landed right before our very eyes.

This little beauty about ate her body weight in sand . . . just kidding, but she really tried too.

This picture is entitled "Beach Bum"

Isn't it cute?!

I posted Cambria and Kiera's surfing pictures along with their birthday post, but I didn't want to leave Malachi out of the game. He really took to surfing as well. However after his wipe out, which you are about to see, he stopped trying to stand up when the wave came and opted to ride the surfboard all the way to the sand on his belly instead.

It was very hard to get him to share the surfboard.

Don't worry. He's tough:) The most important thing to remember when you fall off of the board is to get up and try again, if if you decide you can only ride on your tummy

instead of standing on your feet.

A Good Book

You are about to be inundated with pictures of Cambria from her 8 year old photo shoot that I did a few weeks ago. If you would like to see even more . . . click here.

"I Nephi, having been born of goodly parents . . ." is a sentence I have read dozens of times.

It is also a familiar sentence to those who belong to
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
It is how the first book in the Book of Mormon begins.

Nephi is a young man, who has an extreme amount of faith in God and a lot of respect for his father. He has some brothers that he gets along well with and some that he doesn't. He goes through an amazing amount of trials in his life time but feels guided by the hand of the Lord and comforted by that fact. The First book of Nephi is Nephi's journal and a true story about faith, hope, tragedy and trial and overcoming all with God's help.

Cambria started reading it not too long ago and is three pages away from being done.

Each time she finishes a verse she colors the number beside the verse with a blue crayon. Blue is her favorite color you know. This technique helps her keep her place in the story as well as help her see her progress.

You should have heard her when she read about Nephi and his little encounter with the inebriated King Labon.

I think it is safe to say that Heavenly Father has blessed me with an extremely sweet spirited child. I too, hope to be called a goodly parent someday. Of course she probably won't use those same words. I'll be happy with any sentence form that alludes to the same meaning.

I

I think itis important for us to keep a journal about our experiences, spirtualor otherwide. Maybe our experiences, bothgood and bad, can serve as a source of strength to someone someday.

Baptism Day

Jesus came to John the baptist in Judea long ago and was baptized by immersion in the river Jordan' s flow. "To fulfill the law" said Jesus, when the baptist questioned why, "and to enter with my Father in the kingdom up on high."

Now we know that we must also witness faith in Jesus' word, be baptized to show obedience, as was Jesus Christ our Lord. (Children's song book page 100)

I love children's hymns. They so simply teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Cambria was baptized yesterday among an intimate group of friends and family. It was such a sweet experience.

Cambria was a little nervous and the water was cold. After she was baptized she said she felt cold and fresh and happy. She looked happy too. She had a quiet excitement about her as we dried her off and changed her out of her soggy baptismal clothes and into her new white dress.

When she received the gift of the Holy Ghost she said she didn't feel too much different but she was happy to be an official member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Her two grandma's gave the opening and closing prayers, Kiera gave the talk on baptism (which included a 30 second video that she made) It was so sweet and funny at the same time. Her primary president spotlighted Cambria by discussing some of her favorite things, I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and actually used a talk that Cambria gave a few months ago. Kai baptized her and she was confirmed a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day-Saints by Kai Davis with Papa Hendrickson and Davis, Bishop White, Steve Faldmo, Cameron Klug, Quinn Ellis, Duane Thurston and Darrin Johnson.

These are a few of the reasons why we are baptized:

1. To be obedient to what Heavenly Father asks of us.

2. For a remission of sins

3. To become a member of the church

4. To prepare us for the gift of the Holy Ghost

5. To gain entrance into the Celestial Kingdom.

Why Our Children are baptized at the Age of 8:

1. In the Doctrine and Covenants, 8 years of age was revealed to be the age of accountability. This means the child is now old enough to distinguish right from wrong and to be responsible for the choices they make.

2. We believe that we are punished for our own sins and that Adam's transgressions are not passed on to infants at birth. Some religions believe that a baby who dies without baptism go to hell.

We are taught in Doctrine and Covenants 137:10 "And I also beheld that all children who die before they arrive at the age of accountability are saved in the Celestial Kingdom of Heaven."

in Moroni 8:20 And he that saith little children need baptism denieth the mercies of Christ, and setteth at naught the atonement of him and the power of his redemption"

8:22 it reads "For behold, all little children are alive in Christ . . ."

Why We are Baptized by Immersion (going completely under the water)

1. Because that is the way Jesus did it. Baptism represents three things, death, burial and Resurrection. Thus the reason for being immersed in water.

More Awsomeness

This time for Chris . . .

Awesome.

Prepare For Awesomeness . . .

Wait for it . . . AWESOME.

That's my boy. I think he spent more time in the water while we were at college than in a classroom.

A big thanks to our friend Mark Lee of Halladay Photo for taking these pictures.

Baking Secret Revealed! (And a little racing too)

I have no idea why blogger is underlining my words. Blogger must think what I am saying is really important . . . so important am I! I remember running as fast as lightening as a kid with the wind blowing through my hair. Now the only time the wind blows through my hair is when the wind picks up in the desert. Today was the day of the relay! The top 4 fastest girls and boys were chosen from each class to participate in a relay race at school today. Much to our delight, Kiera's team took first place for kindergarten. I told you we have a little competitor on our hands:) She was so proud!

Unfortunately Cambria's team had a different story. They gave a noble effort, but alas, they came in third place.

Kai is always so good at giving consoling words and I am always so good at taking pictures of him giving consoling words. (Don't worry, I console too.) Cambria recovered rather quickly from her depression induced by her loss. It only took her 5 minutes to fully engulf herself in the depths of despair. ( Yes, I am being overly dramatic. She was fine.)

Cambria made sure we all wore our matching "Davis Ohana" shirts. Every one complied except Bubba, he wanted to wear his "Captain America shirt- and that is his captain America shirt because it has red, white, and blue on it.)

So on to the baking secret . . . don't worry Lori, it's not yours . . . I swore I wouldn't tell that one and I promise I will take it to the grave. Lori makes and sells delicious gourmet cupcakes.

This is the secret . . . pudding. Most cake mixes say they have one cup of pudding in the mix, but guess what, go ahead and add a whole box of chocolate or vanilla pudding to your mix.

The result is scrumptiously moist cake.

Mmmm, I want some right now!

Something monumental happened at my kiddos double birthday party . . . I met my very first niece from my side of the family . . . little Aarilyn. I have no idea how to spell her name actually. I think I spell it differently each time.

I hope I learn how to spell it the right way before she learns how to read.

I thought Arilynn (see- okay I did that on purpose) and Raia looked so much alike! They are both white, bald and female!

Can you tell which one is mine???

I think this is the last big birthday I will ever throw . . . It was just too much work! In this picture the kids are getting ready to play a water relay game. They have a bucket full of water, a sponge and an empty cup that they had to race to. The goal was to get your sponge wet in the bucket, race to the cup and squeeze out the sponge. First one to fill up their cup, wins.

It was fun but ended in a full fledged water fight.

Kai ended up squirting them all with the garden hose.

I was so afraid that their parents were going to be mad at me. Luckily, they dried off before the parents came to pick them up.

We also had the grand pleasure of having my parents come for the weekend. I love having them come for a visit. I miss them so much. Do you love Bubba's pose?

Motherhood

"Moooooooooom! I'm outta paper toilet!" Normally I think this is such a cute phrase. I hear it surprisingly often from my little man. Just as I usually do, I head down the hall to the bathroom to open the cupboard drawer that houses the extra "paper toilet." Only this time when I get into the bathroom I realize Bubba ran out of toilet paper because what ever was left on the roll is now filling up the basin of the toilet. Ah, life is good. I love unclogging toilets. At least he hadn't tried to flush it yet.

Hangin' in there

You know when you don't have a choice but to keep on keepin' on? Yeah, I know you do. We all have those kinds of days.

I am so tired I can barely keep my eyes open.

Kai and I got a new bed. A king. I haven't slept well since we got it. I don't blame it on my bed. I blame my kids who keep me awake at night.

Cambria said our family prayer last night. In it she said,

"and please don't let us be late to school tomorrow."

Unfortunately, that happens a lot lately; being late to school that is. I think I have been in survival mode since Raia was born.

Some babies are easy.

I know this to be true because I have had two out of four that were easy.

Some babies are hard. I know this to be true because I have had two out of four that are hard.

More and more I am thinking that good babies are less and less about parenting and more and more about personality.

Don't get me wrong, Raia is the sweetest little thing on the planet. She just has an aversion to sleep.

So here's me keepin' on. Because that is all there is to do.

And by the way . . . who ever says the economy is recovering . . . I wouldn't believe them just yet.

Our high school has to cut 7 teachers due to the budget.

Our elementary has to cut 10.

The other elementary . . . 5.

I don't know about the middle school.

I am so thankful that Kai's job is safe. Thank goodness for special ed being in demand.