Gimme Some CANDY!!!

If anybody knows me very well, they would know that my favorite food is candy, candy, candy. Sometimes I feel like Will Ferrell in Elf! Well, obviously now that I have kids of my own, I have really hit the jackpot on Halloween. hahahaha...just kidding....well kind of.
This year I didn't think we would have much luck because it was raining really bad, but about 4 in the afternoon, the rain let up, so we took the boys out about 5. While we were trick or treating, we met up with Sarah and Audrey (my cousin's wife and daughter) and Rachel and her daughters (my sister and kids). We on our second road the rain started to lightly drop and within 2 minutes we were caught in a full down pour. Luckily we were 1 block from Rachel's house so we headed back. But by the time we got back, I was soaked, the boys were soaked, Mark was dry...hmmm...but I managed to keep the baby dry. Unfortunately the boys only had gotten a little bit of candy, so after we dried off and changed, I let the boys do a few more homes. Literally we only went to 6 more homes, but I think they felt bad for the boys and so they loaded the boys up with candy! I think the boys brought more home this year than any other year! What a great come back!

Small, Dark and Handsome

Hello ladies, I am a small, dark and handsome young man, that is always looking for a comfortable place to relax. I enjoy long walks with my family and drinking. In fact, I drink a lot, but I am not the partying type, no, I enjoy a quiet night at home. My favorite hobbies include, sleeping, letting loose (bowel movements) and of course, drinking. My favorite places to relax and recline are on the couch, on the floor and on my bed. I am active and take time to stretch and enjoy my day. Some like to say that I have a "big head" but that is just relative baby body size and my relaxed confidence! If you are interested in hanging out with me, give me a call...or my mom, she would love to find me a good babysitter!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Tonight was our ward party. I was lucky to find a bunch of costumes at a yard sale this past weekend...I was on the hunt for baby items, but I found a lot of great other things. I picked up George and Henry's superhero costumes for 2 dollars each. If you haven't guessed it, I am dressed as "Super" mom, and Theodore is my homemade pumpkin pie. Mark wasn't at the party because he has school in the evening.

Here is Henry showing his super power.


George loves his batman costume...here is a picture of him in mid air as he "flies" from the top step to the bottom.

Here are my two superheros standing on the small wall protecting our home.

Just My Luck!!!

On Sunday morning I was laying in my hospital bed when I heard a rumbling noise and the room around me started shaking. I sat straight up and yelled to Mark, "wake up, wake up!!" Mark jumped out of his pull out chair bed and grabbed the baby, we took cover near the hospital bed while items around us shook, moved across the room and fell off the walls. After the quake was over we were suprised by two more! At that time I lost it and started crying. My first thought was of George and Henry. Our home is on the north shore and we happen to live right on the beach. We tried to get a hold of Terra, my friend who stayed the night with George and Henry, but all the circuts were busy. We were worried about the Tsunami effect! For the first hour all the circuts were jammed and the power was out. A generator came on at the hopital but it couldn't sustain the AC so nurses were rushing around bringing fans to patients. We wanted to check out as soon as possible, but telephone lines were down and we couldn't even get out to the north shore (our hospital was an hour away). After waiting for hours, we were about to leave when the nurse said we had to stay in our rooms, A FIRE had broken out on the first floor of the hospital, they had put it out, but they had to do assessments and no one could leave! ugh...finally at noon we were able to leave and come home to a power outage home....no water, no sewer...no food!!! It was a crazy day, but we are doing ok now!

HE IS HERE!!!

Here are the shots of our newest bambino! I am sorry that it took so long to get up on our blog, but if you have watched the news lately you might have noticed there was a crazy Earthquake in Hawaii....that is another story.
Any way, Theodore Summerill was born at 2:23 am on Friday the 13th 2006!!! He weighed 8 pounds and was 20 inches long. Although he has the dark hair that George has, most of his facial features look like Henry. We are excited to welcome our little baby boy into our family.

ASK AND YE SHALL RECIEVE!!!

I have been wanting to go yardsaling since I returned from Utah, but because of Mark's busy schedule and our ever changing lives, I have only been able to go once. This is primarily because we live 1 hour from and decent yardsaling areas. I have been saying to Mark for the last few weeks that I would really like to save money this year and try to find most of the boys Christmas gifts at yardsales, and I really wanted to find a 3 in 1 playpen. Mark didn't really want to invest the time to drive an hour to yardsale and then not find anything that we needed, so I have held off and just kept it in the back of my mind.
Yesterday I just kept feeling like I would find what I needed if I went yardsaling this week, so I tried to find someone to go with me, but all my friends were busy, so this morning I begged Mark to go with me and he said ok. We went to 5 or 6 crummy yard sales, and we were about to give up. But I followed the sign to one more sale and guess what?!? They had exactly what we were looking for!!! I was so excited. All the toys in the top picture were brandnew, the still were in their plastic and in boxes! Then we found this great neutral color playpen! Besides these two items, I also picked up a few pairs of cute baby shoes, baby bibs, baby toys and tupperware (a must have in humid Hawaii). I have to say today was one of my best yardsaling days in a long time. I tell you what, the Lord answers prayers no matter how silly they are!!!

One Last Project!!!

I spent the last few days organizing my home and remodeling some of the furniture. This first picture is a picture of our bedroom upstairs. Our upstairs is a loft, but one side is completely open and the other side has a door and is more private: our bedroom. I recently bought the large Armoir that you see on the left of the picture and the padded white chest at the foot of my bed. I found a great posting on Craigslist (this is one of my favorite websites). A military family moved here from Maryland and found that their new apartment would only fit 1/2 of their furniture, so he put an add on Craigslist and I found it!!! I purchased 5 great pieces of IKEA furniture for only $180.00. The Armoir and the white chest were 2 of the 5 pieces, in the next picture you can see two more of the pieces that I bought: a tall book shelf and a hutch book shelf.
This second picture shows the open area of our loft. We have turned it into our office/scrapbooking area. Now with the new bookshelves, we have a great way to organize all of our stuff!!!



And Finally, this third picture shows the remodeling that I did. If you remember my old post, the white furniture that you see in this picture used to be black with a shabby chic finish. I decided that since we were so close to the beach and the carpet was so dark, I would paint them white and change my accent colors to blues and greens. I did throw in the red pillow because I love red!

Getting Ready for the Baby!!!

Only 3 weeks to go!!! Mark took these pictures of me after we got back from a morning walk. I have just a few weeks left so I decided to remodel some of my furniture and organize my home.

Another Cast!!!

Wihin a few days after getting his cast, Henry started playing around with it. I took Henry in for a check up after having broke his arm and my doctor immediately noticed that his cast was too loose. The doctor immediately sent us to the Orthopedic Surgeon to reset his cast. Henry's cast was too loose and his bones were not setting right, so Ortho Doc let henry pick out a color and then they set a new cast. Here is a look at Henry's new cast...it has already been autographed by all his little friends.

The reason you should come visit...

Over the last year and a couple months that we have lived here I have heard the phrase, "oh, we will come visit when we save up enough money..." blah blah blah. I have even noticed the cheap ticket sales to hawaii for 299 round trip from various locations in the US, including Utah. Well, the door is always open and today I thought I would add another reason for you to consider coming to visit us.
On Sunday night, my back went out (pregnancy nerve problems) and George got sick. Because I couldn't even walk, Mark had to get up 4 times from 3:30 am to 5:30 am to clean up mass amounts of vomit. It wasn't until the 3rd puking that I thought I would tell Mark it might be a wise idea to give George a bowl so Mark doesn't have to keep changing his bedding, washing the wall, the floor and the rails of the bunk bed. Needless to say, Mark was exhausted, and I was not any help, so he decided to call in to work. We decided to all sleep in Monday morning; however, we woke up to the sound of our doorbell ringing a few times.
It was our neighbor Kekoa, George's primary teacher. He came to let George know that there were Manta Ray swimming out in the bay behind our home (literally our back yard). So we all hopped out of bed and ran out to the beach. It was the most beautiful sight, the sun coming up, lighting the aqua marine water to show a mother Manta Ray and her Baby playing around in the waves. They were only at most 10 feet from the shore!!! Wish you could have seen it with us...luv erin

Bumps and Bruises...and BrOKeN bOnES!!!

Did I tell you that I recieved the Mother of the Year award? hahahaha...well Today for sure I was placed in the running for it. About 3:00 this afternoon, Henry was running around the house wildly, playing chase with George, and George's friend David. Henry decided to take a flying leap off the landing from the entry way into the living room. Although the drop is only about 3 1/2 to 4 feet, Henry landed awkwardly and then rolled onto his arm.
I knew instantly that he was hurt because he let out a whimpering, moaning cry...(not one I have heard very often in his lifetime). But his injury combinded with his not having a nap today, turned him into a crying, sobbing, whining boy. I tried to find out where he hurt for about 30 minutes, but he refused to tell me, so I just sat him on the couch and let him watch a show...which he then told me he was bored and blamed me for his ultimate boredom. At this point I figured He had just bumped himself too hard and he was over it. Henry was back to his "No Nap" self. So I sent him off to his room to get a book or a toy.
20 minutes later I realized that he hadn't come back from his room and so I went to check on him. I found him laying on his bed fast asleep. Well my suspicion was confirmed, he was only tired and only mildly hurt from his fall.
After he took a 2 hour nap he came and found me in the living room. Although the tears were gone, I noticed that he wouldn't use his left arm. At this point I felt prompted...by my Mom...to take him to the ER.
Once we arrived at the ER, I explained to the doctor that he wouldn't use his arm at all and he was in pain. But to my surprise, when the doctor asked to move his hand around, wave, touch his nose, turn his arm from side to side, he did it all without hesitation. At this point I felt embarssed that I had probably overreacted by bringing him into the ER. But, as I contemplated just apologizing for the false alarm, and sweeping him out of the ER, the doctor lightly pinched the sides of his arm. When the doctor touched a small spot an inch below his wrist, Henry shook and burst into tears again. 30 minutes, and 4 x-rays later, the doctor confirmed that Henry broke his RADUIS clean in half! I couldn't believe it...but I guess from now on I need to listen to my boys a little more.

(Here is sad Henry, recounting where he jumped from and where he hurt his arm)

Labor Day BBQ

If you live in Hawaii, you probably came over to my house today to go to the beach. The weather was perfect, only a few clouds in the sky and the waves were starting to get big enough to ride. Since we moved in a week ago, I decided to invite friends and family over for a Labor day BBQ. Mark and I woke up early and organized the house and the back yard so there would be towels and a place for people to wipe their feet off. The great thing about this house is there is an outside shower so sand doesn't get tracked into the house. Quite a few people showed up and we had a great pot luck BBQ. We started around noon and there were people here until six! George and I just got a little tan, while Mark and Henry were a little pink by the end of the day". I spent most of the time floating around in the waves. While Mark took a break from the beach to play ball with George and Henry. Sorry I forgot to pull out the camera, but I hope your Labor day was great too!

My friend Sarah, a teacher at the high school I taught at, and her sister Rachel, decided to throw me a baby shower. I was so grateful to them, because I hadn't expected a baby shower with my third boy and I had already recieved some wonderful gifts from my great Pleasant Grove Wives Club. I have to say that I am just so thankful for these wonderful women that are such good friends. In fact, I am so lucky to have such amazing, special, talented and great-hearted friends here and in Utah!
I just wanted to say thanks to all my friends on this blog and share a typical "my life" story...

Saturday night, I got ready and put on make-up for the first time in a couple weeks. It seems like such a task to look good when you are enormously pregnant. My cousins Anela and Sarah went with me to the baby shower and when we arrived I was so over-joyed because my friend Sara had bought me a beautiful full orchid rolled lei for my baby shower! The lei just lifted my spirits and made me feel prettier than I had been feeling in quite some time. Well, after the shower started, and all the women were sitting around talking I moved in my seat just a little to talk to a girl sitting next to me (Nadia) when all of a sudden, my self esteem was dashed to pieces...the chair underneath me collapsed to the floor...it had broken in half with the weight of my pregnant body!!! Everyone in the shower stopped talking and just stared...I think everyone was stunned and noone knew exactly what to say. So I just started laughing and then everyone at the shower started laughing and we all had probably a 10 minute laugh of hysterics. So just as a word of encouragement to others, if you are feeling large and uncomfortable with your body, just think, it could be worse, you could be breaking chairs like me!

(Here are some great gals from Hawaii, the famous Carol F., Joni, Jackie, Me, Robin and Sophia)

(My cousin is the far left, Sarah who threw the shower is next to her, she is holding a baby girl, Mariko, in the middle, is the baby's mother and a teacher from the high school, and then Tara and Pualei are in my single mother's club)....(OH, I am not single, but since Mark is gone from Mon-Fri and I only see him on the weekends, I sometimes feel like a single mother)

We Have Moved!!!

This is a picture of the extra bedroom...or the baby's bedroom. (My Mom made the quilt and gave it to me for my birthday).

This is a picture of the beach access from our dining room.
Here is a picture of the master bedroom. Around the corner to the right is the bathroom.
Here is a picture of the boy's room. My mom also made the quilt that you see hanging on the wall.











We finally found an place to rent that isn't tooooo (relatively speaking) outrageous for rent or too ghetto! I will be sending out our new address through e-mail. If you don't get it, I might not have your e-mail address correct, so just e-mail me to let me know if you got it or not.

The following are pictures of our new apartment. Our apartment is actually a duplex down on Kam. Hwy. We are right on the ocean and we have a great view of Temple beach from our dining room. Our new place has 3 1/2 bedrooms (the 1/2 is a loft space that is the size of a bedroom, but has no door) and 2 bathrooms. Although this townhouse is quite a bit bigger than our last apartment, it lacks storage space, so we are creatively trying to figure that one out. I have been recently informed that some of the airlines are having great deals on tickets to Hawaii, so if you want to come and stay the invitation is open, just let us know you are coming...and pack your bug spray (there seems to be a slight cockaroach and ant problem in this place. Last night Mark and I killed 5 2 1/2 inch to 3 inch cockaroaches and a million ants. Part of the home isn't sealed very well, so the bugs and other "friends" are finding their way in...but we are working on it.

Curious George Goes to School!!!

The night before George's first day at kindergarten, he could hardly sleep! He had talked about what kindergarten would be like, a day full of games, playing and making new friends. I was pretty confident that George would walk into his kindergarten classroom and find immediate friends without even saying goodbye to me. Unfortunately things didnt happen that way.
George walked right up to Mrs. Siazon's kindergarten classroom and then stopped dead in his tracks. He froze like a little otter pop. The fear of a new situation gripped him and Mark and I had to coax him into the room. (Henry had no problem walking right in and looking around at all the colorful toys and pictures) George's shy side emerged as the teacher talked to him and tried to introduce him to other kids.
Mark decided to leave to make the transition go smoother, but that only caused a waterfall of tears...first from George then from me. (I couldn't believe that I started to cry, I was so embarassed that I had to hide it...its all those pregnancy hormones). It took about 30 minutes until George felt comfortable enough that I could leave. He was partnered up with another little 5 year old that wasn't having quite as hard of a time.
AT the end of the day, George decided that he did like Kindergarten. He got to eat in the lunch room and he made some new friends.

GROWING

I am just getting Bigger and Biggger and Bigger! Well I only have 8 weeks left! Here are a few pictures I finally downloaded from this summers trip to Washington state. Since coming back to Hawaii, we have been so busy looking for another apartment that we haven't taken many pictures. Here are my two Pregnancy pictures, these will have to do. By the way, wouldn't it be great if every store had an Expectant Mother's Parking and not just the walmart in Ephrata Washington...because really, how often do you think that Ephrata spot is used?

While I was in Utah, I did have a chance to go to my 10 year high school reunion. While I was there I ran into some good friends from high school. Tiffany (Tessem) Benedict and her husband Jason, Alecia (fielding) Bales, Rebecca Miller, Jana BulkleyWent, Aubrie Gerun Ivie, and Nichole Herndon Teemant. It was really fun to catch up with everyone and see what they are doing now. I also saw Kami Chesnut and Nikky Christofferson, but they snuck away before I could get a picture with them. And I was really sad that Carolyn Walker Kunic decided not to come to the renion. At the reunion we watched a silly picture slide show, listened to music from our era and ate a great dinner. I was suprised to recieve the expecting mother award...I guessed they were suprised that a pregnant person would come. What a blast to the past...it is a good thing I am nothing like I was in high school...wink wink. hahahaha

Long time no Write!!!

Mark's photo talented brother, took this picture of me and the boys just before we returned from Utah.

Ok, I know that I haven't written for a long time, and really I don't have a good excuse. But since my last blog our little family has done quite a bit.

1. Mark continued taking classes through spring and summer term for his MBA.
2. Erin found out she was having her third boy. OH WHAT JOY!!!
3. Erin, George and Henry nearly died at the Pheonix Airport when Henry and Erin tumbled down a two flight escalator. George stayed at the top and cried from fright.
4. Erin, George and Henry traveled to Utah and spent 5 weeks with Grandma and Grandpa Calabio.
5. Erin walked two miles every day in the Utah Heat Wave to take the boys to swimming lessons.
6. Mark took up knocking on doors to find another place for our family to live in Hawaii...our contract ended in July and our landlord did not renew because his sister is going to be moving in.
7. Erin, George and Henry traveled with Grandma and Pokey Joe (Grandpa Calabio) to Washington to see the Pughs...Leslie and family.
8. Erin, George and Henry returned to Hawaii...with 2 weeks left to find a new place to live.
9. George started up at Laie Elementary as a kindergarten student.
10. Erin has spent the last couple weeks occupying space in the Tueller's Home (a family that used to live in Utah by the Calabios, but now lives in Laie) because they have air conditioning.

That is my top ten list of the exciting things that have happened since I have last blogged. If you have noticed that sometimes I don't answer my phone, or I dont call back, please dont feel bad, remember..."It's not you, its me." I will try to post pictures of our trip to Utah and my expanding body. I will keep you updated on our quest to not be homeless, George and Henry's discoveries, and Mark's rollercoaster ride through graduate school, the changing work field and on to PHD school.
Sorry for the long hiatus....luv Erin

Memorial Day at Castles Beach

For Memorial Day, our family spent the day at Castles Beach Park. Castles is only a few minutes from where we live; it has a smooth sandy shore and small waves. We spent the day boogie boarding, bbq-ing, playing in the sand and Surfing. Mark helped the boys catch a few waves on the boogie board, and by the end of the day George was taking the boogie board out on his own. Henry caught a few waves, but spent most of the day making sand balls with Klailea Bennet (Rachel's daughter) in the sand.
I am about 5 months pregnant, so I figured I have about one month more of time that I can still take out the surf board, so I went surfing. I stayed out for an hour or so but my balance isn't so good so I kept falling off. I finally convinced Mark to take out my board and he paddled around for a little, but the waves died off.
We came home exhausted, a little burnt, and ready for a cool shower. We love living in Hawaii!!!