Christmas Pictures

After a horrific experience at JCPenney’s trying to get a decent picture of the kids, we resorted to contacting Jocelyn to take our pictures.   As usual she did a beautiful job!   Here’s a few of our favorites. 

   

Merry Christmas!!!

40th Anniversary in Maui

The first part of December the whole Kent family ventured off with eleven suitcases on an American Airlines flight to Maui.  It was Emma’s first time on a plane and she did wonderful.   The plane to Maui wasn’t full so the gave us an extra seat to put Emma’s car seat in.  She slept in the car seat nearly the entire  5 1/2 hour flight.  Everyone on the plane was commenting on how beautiful she was and how happy and content she was. 

As usual, my Dad had made all the arrangements and we stayed in a lovely condo at the Marriott Ocean Club in Kanapaali.  The resort was gorgeous and the rooms were very similar to other Marriott time shares that we have frequented.  The first two nights we shared a condo with Daniel, Krissy’s boyfriend and then we moved to a larger condo with a kitchen and laundry facilities. 

The weather was perfect.   Most days the high was in the low 80’s.  The only complaint was that we seem to have brought the wind with us.  The wind made for rough seas which affected are diving opportunities.  We ended up only diving one day with Lahaina Divers.   The company was just OK but I think we have gotten spoiled by Austin in St. Kitts.  We went to two sights.  The first was the Carthaginian which is a sailing ship that was sunk to create an artificial reef about seven years ago.   It lacked life and the ship wasn’t anything spectacular. The highlight was seeing Sponge Bob.  The second sight was a broken down pier that actually had some sea life.  We spotted a few turtles and two white-tipped reef sharks.

Other highlights of the trip included indulging in frozen yogurt from Yogurt Land which was in Whaler’s Village, a nice walk along the beach from the condo.  Elle loaded her yogurt up with every topping that looked yummy.  It looked disgusting actually! She was in heaven though. 

One day a group of us went to the Maui Ocean Center which is a sea life aquarium.  The kids loved it and I always enjoy seeing jellyfish and sea horses.  Luckily Grandpa kept Emma behind so Harley and I could enjoy the experience as well.

Another day, Harley, Daniel, Krissy and I went ziplining.   It was definately an experience.  The guides we had made it quite entertaining.  It’s quite a  thrill and not scary at all really!  It was the first time for Daniel and Harley and I think they had a blast as well.

As with most of our travels, we cooked in the majority of the time.  We went to Costco and Safeway to purchase food and took turns cooking.  One night we treated my parents to a Anniversary dinner night out at Kimo’s.   Some stayed back for pizza and the dive in movie! Nicole, Daniel, Harley and I went to Leilani’s on the Beach.   Nicole really wanted king crab and clam chowder and she got her wish that night.  

The last night we all went out to Cool Cat Cafe down in Lahaina by the big banyan tree.  The burgers were good and the company was great!  Another treat that we devoured was Hawaiian shaved ice.   Along with the shaved ice and flavoring, they out ice cream on the bottom and sweetened condensed milk on the top.   It was truly heavenly.   So much for trying to shed any baby weight this week.

  

One of the biggest highlights of the proposal and subsequent engagement of  Krissy and Daniel.   Welcome to the family Daniel!   Atleast this week you got a pretty good clue what the Kent family is about. 

 

Ugly Sweater Party

This year I volunteered to host the 3rd Annual Ugly Sweater Party.   Kelly has made this a Christmas tradition and we always have a lot of good laughs.  This year Krissy put together a Hot Chocolate bar with numerous tasty additives.  From whip cream to caramel chips to toffee bits…..it was lovely.  And my Dad made his famous homemade cinnamon rolls.  We had all the attendees bring a gift to “re-gift".”   We then played the white elephant gift exchange game.  The hottest gift was brought by Daniel and it was a $10.00 walmart shop vac.  Harley secured an insulated travel mug that you can plug into keep warm in the car and I ended up with an ugly picture frame.  LOTS OF LAUGHS AND GOOD FUN WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!  This is a great way to kick off the Christmas season.

Janice and Joe Dier were particularly ugly!

Daniel and Dad modeling their Christmas cheer.

Luke trying on Harley’s ugly sweater.  Quite the combination!

Three months old

 

Emma’s first three months have gone extremely fast compared to three months of pregnancy.  Times are busy with my return to work and Harley’s new job.   Emma has done great with the changes.  She has the best babysitters…Grandma Kent along with help from Sandy Yunt.   

Emma tip the scale at 11.4 lbs and  is 24.5 inches long according to my measurements.   She is now into six month size clothing.   She is smiling lots and even laughing a bit.  She pushes off everything to try and stand with assistance.  She holds her head proudly and turns it all directions to check out what is happening around her constantly. She seems particularly interested in the bright colors of the television.  She loves to suck on her fists which we are trying to break her of using the pacifier but its not really working.  She is already “talking” or babbling way too much for our liking.  Hopefully its not a sign of the future but my mom assures me that I never stopped talking once I started.  Everywhere we go strangers comment on how beautiful she is.  It appears that she recognizes herself in the mirror by the huge smiles she gives.  Its still hard to get her to smile for the camera.

Emma is still a slow eater.  She is still nursing but happy to have the bottle.  I find her very difficult to burp still.  Sometimes it is a half hour later before we get one out of her.  This month her sleeping habits really improved.  Most nights she will sleep six hours straight.   She happily goes to bed in her crib every night but once she wakes has difficulty going back to sleep in the crib.   And ‘m so tired I give in most of the time.  She loves cuddling and being warm.  When I put her down she immediately stretches and often wakes herself up.  During the day she sleeps best in her car seat.   This has proved to be nice some days with all the traveling to and from Bakersfield that I do.   She does wonderfully in the car…thank goodness. 

She had her first cold this month passed on to her by me.   Poor baby woke for over a week very congested but it didn’t seem to affect her temperament.  Emma is a very content, happy baby.  We continue to feel blessed to have her in our lives.   What an incredible miracle!