First Post of the New Year {Merry Travel --> New Years Day}

Thankful to be writing this 1st post of 2018 from our tropical home ❤

Thankful that our Christmas Surprise to IL worked so well! My mom and Ray knew, but they did such a good job of keeping the secret!
Our travel began Christmas Eve, in cozy cute jammies for the kiddos. Virgin America rocked both legs of our flights- we flew on an almost empty flight from HNL to LAX. The kids are at such great travel ages! So very thankful ! Virgin America's planes look ancient, but the mood lighting in the plane was neon pink and the individual tvs, for free-  loaded with movies and games was an extra bonus!
We arrived Christmas morning at LAX, grabbed a tasty breakfast, and camped out for a couple hours. Everyone but Momma bear slept - yes on the airport floor ( minus stroller napper and Papa Bear ;)) ... woke up to board & loved the shorter than normal flight to ORD! Our taxi from ORD to Whispering Lake Drive drove extra cautious, making the travel time probably about the same as if the tail winds didn't get us in early... sigh...but we made it..... and the surprise was legit... what a super merry night!

Thankful for celebrating Dusty's birthday the next day together too & our Hill Christmas time.

Thankful for the beautiful snow that gave us a White Christmas & pretty cool views after. Hudson associates snow with Christmas, so every day he woke up excited for "Christmas" all over again!

Thankful for seeing so many of our friends during our stay. Although we live in a beautiful state right now, not being able to share all the aloha vibes with our friends and fam makes it hard to truly enjoy it all... we know God is working in us and on us during our time here... so for that we enjoy it and press forward... but we all left big pieces of our hearts in Chitown.

                                                             ↠Travel Pics

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                                                          ↠Happy Birthday Dusty!

                                                             
                                                                 ↠    PGM Tuesday 12-26

                                                           
                                                            ↠Wednesday 12-27

                                                           
                                                                      ↠Thursday 12-28
Thankful for the fun young peep group at New Lenox that invited us to Ice Skate.
 Hannah did a fab job on her 1st time! She has such great determination to keep at things, an she was skating minus the aid - thingie, in no time!

  Meanwhile back at the frosty ranch, Hudsie is bike riding in the snow and I'm selfie-ing 😅

                                               
                                              ↠Thursday night: thankful for the Beattie Bunch.
                                                                 Love them.
                   Thankful that we got to see some of the youngin's before they left for Rev in Canada.

                           ↠And then the crazy idea for an 8:45 am movie the next morning 12-29!
                                            Bestie Hannah and her adorable sis joined us!

                                                         
                                                            We love that it snowed that night! Dec 29

 And then Mimi reminded us we still had horse lessons from last year's awesome Christmas gift! Thankful that we got to use one of the lessons that night!

                                                     
                                                          ↠12-30 : woke up to shovel!

                                                     
                                         Worth the 45 minute drive for Sushiya and that smile

                                                             
                                                               ↠ Sunday post church 12-31

  What's the best way to avoid Sunday naps? Bake with Mimi of course 💖

 
                                            ❤New Years Eve Spring Creek Gospel Hall Style
 ( Get a glimpse of this Restoration Hardware style interior design... can't even get over how amazing it looks! The nursery is straight out of Pottery Barn, and I might have sat there for 30 minutes with Hudson during meeting just to soak it in! And yes the speakers made it possible for me to hear my hubbies message too ;))

                                                                                ❤

                                                                                ❤

                                                                                 ❤

                                                                              ❤

                                                   And YES! We made it to midnight!

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❤New Years Brunch at Dusty & Mila's : 1-1-18

12.19.17

Thankful for a SHORT work/school week! f.o.u.r days! {And since I didn't post this when I was supposed to, 1 day left & then break!}

Thankful for coworkers that make meetings way more fun with delish french press java.

Thankful for preservation. 

Harrison is experiencing some real life teen issues at his school. We have heard that the teen years are a bit daunting- and yet we are almost in them, and so far so good- minus the drugs and drama at school. The biggest issue when I was in middle school were kids sneaking to smoke cigarettes in the bathrooms... that was big then... but now it's bigger drugs... same place though! 

So when Harrison went to the restroom, he gets approached about drugs.

  This boy is so innocent that it killed us to hear the remarks the boy made to him, but we were so thankful it happened on a campus where Matt is, and where the admin and security staff are fast acting and supportive. It gave us very real dinner conversations, almost in code, to protect our other little innocent ears. 

We need to rise up together to pray for protection for our kids and for our students. The days at school will not get easier ... but our faith will be made stronger .... 

Help the teens in your area. 

Help the parents of those teens by praying and supporting and listening. 

Not judging- but support and listen and pray. Such real power in that.

 {T Minus 2 days and then big H will transfer back to his initial school here by home after the break-. Excited is an understatement.}

Thankful for the fun tubes at the pool. We love using the tourists tubes and then leaving them there for others to enjoy! Hannah Banana is such a fish!

 Thankful for a supportive admin team here at school that gives permission for fun parent involvement. I love love love making gingerbread houses- so my class gets to enjoy it too!!
13 out of 21 families came during the afternoon. It was so much fun!

Thankful for these amazing rainbows

 Thankful for being at the right place at the right time! We had no idea it was Santa night at our gym! But we worked out, pooled for a bit, and as we were leaving we saw the prep and decided to stay! It was so nice and festive! Our kids have never had pictures with Santa, so this was so fun that their 1st Santa pics happened in hawaii! And although we were 3rd in line with Hudson- the older 2 didn't want pictures with the big man, until...... they found out the elves provided real cool gifts after!
So we waited all over again with them..... and it was worth it....

 Thankful for Hudson's joy about Santa and the present. He was going to wait for Christmas, but then couldnt even wait 5 minutes to tear into it! Good thing he opened it then, although it was marked for a boy, it was a doll. Big Bro Harrison rescued and kindly asked for it to be traded.... and he got the BEST PRESENT ever..... a new train set.... seriously.... freak out... it was so so so so so wonderful! [And made us realize all those Santa bell ringers asking for donations outside every store are worth while donating too! The generosity of the Salvation Army was too much! We were so thankful!}

This 489 picture is very important ;) Matt and I play each other in a 2 minute football drill each time we visit the Gym's game room. We have both gotten close to "All Star" which is over 400. But NEVER 489!?!?!? Matt is getting closer to the "Hall of Fame" ;)

Thankful for Keith and Kate and their willingness to meet us for a later dinner out! It was so nice to hang out & our servers were so legit. These surfer dude servers just crack us up with their positive energy!

Thankful for sunny Saturdays & for the air pump at Koolina that makes our swan tube blow up so easy!

 Thankful for fun advent verse printables!

 Thankful for my aunt sending us fresh pine twigs, our house smells so wintery!

 Thankful for our friend Cheri giving us bunny ears - although this picture is blurry- it just shows joy and I love it.

 Thankful for the encouraging youth group our kids are a part of. We love hearing Hannah sing each month! She is not a big fan of the public attention, but she does her best!

 Thankful for these words of the song. Love it. Hadn't sung verse 2 before- but love it!

 Thankful for another braid style and that smiley boy in front ;)

 Thankful for Harrison's love of Koko. Sadly, Koko scared Hannah one day, so he is off her nice list. Hudson never did like Koko- so big bro to the rescue! But last night Koko dug into Harrison's hand, so who knows what Koko's fate will be! But for now, he gets snuggled.

Thankful for our school's awesome winter night! Sno-hana night. Bringing snow to our school family. So much work for the committee who ran it- but SO much fun! The trio next to the right is Hudson's teacher's kiddos.

Thankful for Hannah's caring & sharing heart. That cone-tree was demolished in 2.2 seconds :)