Growing Pains

On Saturday, December 3, 2011 our Ward Activity Day Girls attended the Hawaii, Laie Temple Visitors Center. Since Sadie and Sophie are now in Activity Days and I am the Primary President, we loaded up our family vehicle and made it a family outing. We had a wonderful visit. The girls toured the Visitors Center and watched movies about Eternal Families and the Story of Jesus Christ's Birth. The Spirit was overwhelming and I ended just about every movie teary eyed.

The movie about Eternal Families touched my heart...I had seen this movie before, back in May when I miscarried, I was teary eyed then as well, but this time for a different reason. The reason being at the end of the movie the oldest daughter of the family is at the temple with her newly sealed spouse and as you can imagine I thought of SADIE. 

 Dallas and I married in the Mesa, Arizona Temple when I was nineteen, which meant if Sadie were to possibly do the same she too would be married at the age of nineteen. Dallas swears none of our girls will be married at that age, but I know better...it can happen, especially if they meet a wonderful young man such as their Father.

 Back to Sadie...my thoughts reflected to Sadie who is ten, which could quite possibly mean I have about nine more years with her. I don't want to have nine more years with her, but that is the reality of things. I know she will ALWAYS be my daughter, but my time for TEACHING HER all that she needs to know are limited. I want my girls to be the best: I want them to have their OWN TESTIMONIES of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I want them to have Temple Marriages and ETERNAL FAMILIES, I want them to choose a WORTHY SPOUSE and I want them to WANT children. I know they are capable.

My thoughts then turned to my Heavenly Father and the WONDERFUL GIFTS He has entrusted Dallas and I with...our children. I realize even more so, that Dallas and I have a limited amount of time with each of our children and with that time we need to ENJOY their presence...even if they are fighting and crying because that time only last for so long. I love being a Mother. I have been blessed with six wonderful spirits and I hope that through my example they are able to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the best of their ability.

A Gilmore Thanksgiving: 2011

We had an enjoyable Thankgiving! We began preparing for our Thanksgiving Feast a week before...buying the much needed turkey, potatoes, dressing etc. The necessary items needed to prepare a feast tend to run low here on the island, especially on our Military Post, mililtary personal and veterans from all over the island come to shop the reasonable prices at the Commissary. So, as you can imagine the store and parking lot were extremely crammed.
On Wednesday, I prepared the Gilmore Family favorite...Grandma Unsworth's Rolls. Dallas' Grandmother loved to bake and cook, her love for doing so left behind several family recipes two of which Dallas and I used for our Thanksgiving Feast. It is a nice little tradition we have started, being so far away from family this is one of the many ways we help our children feel the presence of FAMILY. The rolls turned out HEAVENLY and I am excited to pass Grandma Unsworth's recipes onto my children.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the turkey before it was carved...let me just add
that the turkey looked beautiful! You can sorta see the coloring on the wings and thighs, sorry Dallas.

Thursday Dallas woke at 5:30 am to prepare the turkey and the stuffing. Not only did he prepare and bake our turkey, but he also baked and prepared four delicious pies from scratch; one apple pie, cherry pie and two pumpkin pies! I am so LUCKY to have a husband who loves to prepare turkey and bake pies because preparing the turkey is something I DID NOT want to do at 5:30 am! The pies were AMAZING! So YUMMY!

Apple Pie

Cherry Pie

I was also in the kitchen...I prepared the mashed potatoes, candied yam,  and wardolf salad. The candied yam and wardolf salad are two Kinlacheeny family favorites, so I had to prepare them depsite me being the ONLY one who enjoyed the candied yam...I think my children will EVENTUALLY come around to love this dish.
Sadie also helped in the kitchen, she helped prepare the veggie dip and veggie tray and did a MARVELOUS JOB! She is ALWAYS so eager to help and I need to give/make more opportunities availiable to her.

Sadie's Veggie Tray

Sophie helped set the table. I wanted to "dress" our table for our Thanksgiving Feast, but doing so proved to be VERY EXPENSIVE so, I opted to buy and add one new thing each Thanksgiving and Christmas Holiday. For our Thanksgiving Feast I wanted to add a bit of elegance so, I purchased some red (nondisposable) napkins. The girls LOVED them and had a blast adding them to our table spread! Unfortunately, I could not find a table cloth to cover the expanse of our dining table so, I covered the table in some decorating fabric I had in storage...cause you know I love to sew and have fabric stashed away for times like this! The table turned out lovely and I was pleasantly surprised at how well the girls managed to arrange things! Job Well Done!

I had planned on wearing our Sunday Best for our Thanksgiving Feast to "jazz things up a bit" but, once the food was done, that became a different story...WE HAD TO DIG IN!! We wore whatever we were wearing to prepare the feast and that was OK!

Ammon making his "crazy eyes" face! Gotta love it! He ate his Thanksgiving Feast
in nothing but his pull-up diaper! Classic.

We Feasted at 12:30pm and were done by 1:30pm. The kitchen was clean by 2:30, followed by a short nap (parents only...the kids were wide awake) and then off to the theatre we went to enjoy our new Gilmore Family Tradition...watching a movie on Thankgiving Day! We watched "Meet the Muppets", it was suprisingly very funny and enjoyable...the nice thing about the show was, it CAPTURED the kids attention in a good way! Ammon was dancing in the aisle to the music and the girls were laughing. Dallas and I had a couple of good laughs as well!
After the movie we came home and enjoyed our delicious pies made by Dallas! We had a VERY enjoyable Thanksgiving. We are so grateful to have Dallas home, it makes ALL the difference. Last year, around this time he was at a checkpoint in Iraq eating a depressing "Thanksgiving meal", this year he is HOME with us and we are SO THANKFUL!! While eating we went around the table to share what we were most thankful for; Daddy being home, Family, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what topped the list. Oh, how I am so Thankful! I am trully blessed to have such a WONDERFUL FAMILY AND AN AMAZING HUSBAND!

Happy Birthday Ammon!

On November 3rd we celebrated Ammon's 3rd Birthday! To celebrate that evening Dallas made Ammon's favorite dish, which currently is spaghetti with meatballs. Immediately following dinner we had Ammon blow-out his three candles on the cupcake tree! It is so funny to see his change of expression in every picture, not only that, but I love that his face is still dirty from the spaghetti! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMMON! WE LOVE YOU SO VERY MUCH! Ammon recieved a "Cars 2 Racetrack" from Dad and Mom, a Birthday Card from Sophie and phone calls from Grandparents and loved ones on the mainland. 

Sariah: Spotlight Student of the Week

Sariah was chosen to be the "Spotlight Student" for the week of October 31st through November 4th. The School PTO tries to give each student this special honor during the school year. Sariah was fortunate enough to recieve the week of Halloween!

 My two munchkins excited to be eating lunch together at the school. Ammon sure misses the presence of his three wild sisters throughout the day, to be eating lunch with Sariah was a real treat! So on this day we ate "SCHOOL LUNCH" with Sariah, which again was a HUGE DEAL because Sariah always has  HOME LUNCH. Due to the fact that she was Spotlight Student for her class we were invited to eat lunch with her up on the school stage in the Cafeteria.

 We were served a cheesehamburger, orange slices, tator tots and a carton of chocolate milk...YUM! Not so suprisingly I ate ALL the food! Ammon ate all his orange slices and a few tator tots. Sariah ate a majority of her food, but as you can see below she was so thrilled with being able to be the Spotlight Student.

 I had so much fun eating lunch with her at the school! I love how she was SO EXCITED to have Ammon and I their to witness her special event! This is surely an event I will remember.

Sariah at the microphone in front of her peers on the school cafeteria stage asking for the "mermaid cheer!" It was magical to see her face light up! She recieved a blue sour sugar coated twizzler and a pencil for all her hard work in Kindergarten!

Sariah's Halloween Parade

I loved EVERY MOMENT of this parade! Sariah looked forward to it for two weeks and we watched proudly as she wore her Lady costume with pride!
 Love you Sweetheart!
MOM

A Hawaiian Halloween: 2011

These first two pictures were taken at our chapel in Wahiawa during our Ward Trunk or Treat! The kids were VERY excited about FINALLY being able to dress-up in their Halloween costumes! For the Trunk or Treat I took the TIME to do Sadie and Sophie hair; curling and "teasing" to get the extra poofiness, but it didn't last long, due to the humidity in Hawaii! Dallas did the girls make-up and I put the costumes together. Sadie is a Vamptessa, she really wanted to have blood dripping from her lips, but the Ward Trunk or Treat flyer asked for non-gory make-up. She is simply wearing my black swim cover-up with her vampire cape. Sophie is wearing the outfit I made for Sadie last Halloween, Frankeinstein's Bride, this year I simply tied my off-white scarf around her waist and added a white long sleeve shirt, angel halo, angel wings and a lot of sparkling silver glitter! Sariah is recycling her Lady costume from Lady and the Tramp, she wore this costume when she was 24 months old! Surprisingly it still fit pretty good! We just added a long sleeve Halloween shirt and tights to the costume! Ammon is Bubblebee from Transformers! He is such a BOY ! I simply purchased his costume from Costco before all the Halloween costumes there sold out, that tends to happen in Hawaii!

He didn't get to wear his Bubblebee mask that night, but enjoyed saying "Trick or Treat" to Ward members as he recieved his Halloween candy!

I bought the girls these Halloween outfits and matching hair ties at Gymboree on clearance, I just couldn't resist how cute I knew they would look in them! They wore these outfits Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday for Halloween!  Ammon had his very own   glow in the dark pj's. This picture was taken Monday morning before school started. 

This is our BEAUTIFUL Angel Sophie! She knew EXACTLY what she wanted to be this Halloween.

Our CUTE Lady! Sariah's costume was a HIT!

Our GORY Vamptessa! Yes, Halloween Night we ALLOWED her to be as GORY as she wanted to! I only wish I would have taken the time to do her hair, but I was too tired and sick from BABY #5. Still, Sadie was the best looking Vamptessa!

All the kiddos together standing in front of our trusty white trailblazer. Dallas and I had a blast getting the kids ready, he took the kids out trick or treating while I stayed behind and passed out the candy. 

Carving our Halloween Pumpkins

Sophie cleaning out her pumpkin.

Sadie pretending to eat the seeds!

Ammon proudly showing off his pumpkin.

For some reason Sariah is licking off the wooden spoon
 she used to clean her pumpkin.

The kids drew pictures of what they wanted their pumpkin to resemble
...Dallas did the carving while I took picutures.
I think he did a really good job!

Ewa Beach Pumpkin Patch

Last Saturday, we headed down to the Ewa Beach Pumpkin Patch. It was so much fun! Since we live in Hawaii I just kinda of figured there would be no Pumpkin Patches for us to enjoy, but to my surprise SEVERAL exist. Despite the heat our family was able to enjoy some Fall Festivities. Don't get me wrong I love it here in Hawaii, but I sure do miss the change of seasons...especially in Utah. I miss the vibrant colors, beautiful mountains snuggling up to Dallas with some hot chocolate and enjoying the nice cool fall breeze...so much fun! Anyways, the kids were way excited and that made it EVEN more fun for everyone! We bought the kids some tickets for the kiddie rides that were being offered, they each got about five tickets each, which was a fairly good amount considering there were only seven kiddie rides. After the rides Dallas bought us some much needed drinks and we enjoyed those in the shade while we discussed which pumpkin patch we were going to scour for our pumpkins. The kids enjoyed picking out their "perfect" pumpkins and Dallas literally was on a mission for the most "perfect" pumpkin to carve. 

Sadie, Sophie & Sariah on the "spinner ride" smiling from ear to ear cause their parents are just SO awesome!

Ammon on the "swing ride" all by himself!

Sophie's "perfect pumpkin"

                                                           

I had to take and post these last two pictures!

The kids and I waited for about ten minutes while Dallas picked out his pumpkin...as you can see he wandered pretty far. 

                         

Welcome Home Deployment Ceremony

 Everyone gathered at Sills Field on Schofied Barracks to celebrate the return of our soldiers! Seeing ALL of the extended family members of the soldiers who were deployed made me realize just how many families went without their mothers or fathers this past year. To see them ALL together brought joy to my heart! Seeing MY family together was indescribable.

Ammon fell asleep before we left for the Welcome Home Deployment Ceremony so, I was not able to change him into a more patriotic attire. The Welcome Home Deployment Ceremony took place after Dallas had been home for about three weeks, it was just one of the many events we attended together as a family to celebrate his return.

Dallas and Sadie were chosen by a CBS News Reporter to express their feelings about the deployment. Unfortunately, we were unable to watch the interview because I cancelled our cable...it was just too expensive. Dallas, of course, answered each and every question very eloquently and Sadie did a wonderful job as well! I think we "stood out" from the rest of the crowd because our girls were wearing some very cute patriotic dresses! 

Our Sweetheart Enjoys Her 5th Birthday

 We celebrated Sariah's 5th Birthday on September 5th (Labor Day Weekend). Sariah had a blast on her SPECIAL Day! We invited some of her friends over for cupcakes and rootbeer floats (the rootbeer floats were provided by our Dear Military Relations Missionary Couple the Websters). She was very happy with the gift Dallas and I purchased for her, a new bike! She rode her bike around the culdesac and up and down the street with her sisters that evening.

That is Dallas' sweet new jeep in the background in case you were wondering.

 Sariah's Birthday Dinner request...Pork Chops with Cream of Mushroom Gravy, Rice and Vegetables. She gobbled up every bit of it and I am grateful! She wanted EVERYONE to wear a Birthday Hat and was SO excited to blow out her birthday candles!

 Because I am such an AWESOME Mother I made cupcakes for her to share with her class the following day at school. Sariah was very pleased with me! I am SO GLAD Sariah is part of our ETERNAL family, she brings so much excitement and is such a JOY! These past five years have been GREAT... I have been able to witness Sariah grow! She is a wonderful Ballet Dancer and is EXTEMEMELY RAMBUNCTIOUS, but that is what I love about her ...her abiltity to drive me crazy! We Love You Sweetheart!

Captain Awesome!!!

Well it is official...Dallas is now Captain Awesome!! I am so proud of his accomplishment! The children and I attented the ceremony, I was able to tear off Dallas' old rank as a 1LT and replace it with that of a CPT, which was then followed by a punch to the chest (Dallas' chest not mine)!

I think Dallas looks even HOTTER with his new rank! He is no longer a Plattoon Leader, but is now an XO (not really sure what that stands for, but he keeps track of the inventory for the troop). I love how Ammon is looking up to his Dad with his tongue sticking out.

Not only did I (attempt to) punch Dallas in the chest, but the children were also invited to do the same and they had a good laugh!