New Years Eve at the Magic Kingdom

Keeping warm and sporting his Santa Mickey hat.

Mapping out all the hot spots!

Checking out all the humongous ornaments!

Braiden's FIRST official picture with Santa Claus!

-unfortunately Matthew & Hailey were off riding and didn't get back in time to take a picture with Santa :(

Reindeer

So happy to be on his favorite ride!

-It's a Small World

Braiden pooped out before the New Year rung in 

but went out having a blast!

Dah Popcorn Man

Eating out of a my-sized bowl of popcorn!

Christmas Traditions

Christmas mornings in our house is always filled with noise and laughter!  The kids are all excited and anxious to get the day underway. 

When I was growing up in the Yamamoto house, we were to have our family breakfast and get all primped and primed up while making our phone calls around the world to wish our Christmas greetings to all the Ohana.  THEN we could move on to the fun stuff of exchanging gifts!

Well, in TRYING to keep this tradition in our family now... it doesn't always happen.  Each year we fiddle around and sometimes cheat on opening our presents in our jammies =)  NOT this year...We followed protocol and got all dressed up first!

Our Christmas morning phone calls were a must!  BUT in this day in technology we were able to Skype around the world!  That is a gift all in itself.

STARTING NEW TRADITIONS

Instilling traditions in our children is just as important as starting new ones.  Matthew and Hailey are definetely at the age where they are living experiences through the eyes of their baby brother Braiden.  To see them so excited to see Braiden excited is something special! 

We all know that the issue of Santa Claus is debatable at Matthew and Hailey's age and in no doubt a must at Braiden's.  We thought of an excellent way to transition the older ones and keep it interesting for all three of them at the same time.  We presented the idea to Matthew and Hailey to give a gift to eachother.  Therefore giving 2 gifts and receiving 2 gifts from each of their siblings.  This was also interesting because as it turned out they all choose gifts that were so fitting to eachother, showing that they really knew what each one would like.

Braiden gave Matthew and Hailey new watches!

Matthew and Hailey gave Braiden

Honu PJs and Honu house shoes!

-Matthew's gift to Hailey

was money to put towards her saving for an American Girl Doll. 

-Hailey's gift to Matthew

was the last book in the Harry Potter series.

Bop It

A past time favorite since Auntie Katie's era is the Bop It game where you follow commands -sort of like Simon Says.  It has lots of fun gadgets that you twist, pull and bop it but best of all it has funny sounds and noises that kept Braiden entertained! 

Can't help but laugh at his infectious giggling!!!

The Trang Ohana 2010 Christmas Card

Holiday pictures

Matthew, Hailey & Braiden's classic pose together

It's always interesting to see how our pictures are going to come out.  We anticipate that 2 out of the 3 kids will be spaced out on another planet and cross our fingers that one shot will be salvaged from the numerous pictures that we take.

This year we were pleasantly pleased that we got more than just the one shot!

Decorating Our Christmas Tree

A holiday tradition for Michael & I has been to bring home our christmas tree on a Sunday night (which always happens to be raining) and stay up into the wee early morning decorating it.  Sunday just always so happened to be the day that this happened on.  So in creating and keeping traditions and memories in our family it was only fitting to get our tree on Sunday and instead of staying up all night decking our tree out...we turned it into a 2-3 day decorating event!

I can remember all the excitement I felt when I was younger when we would bring home our tree and decorating it with all our school made ornaments.  This was such a fun memory that I can already see formed in Matthew & Hailey's minds.  It sure is something to soak in when seeing Braiden's reaction to all the festivities and to also see Matthew & Hailey excited to see him excited!

Braiden was dancing around our tree showing it off!

The two boys anxiously waiting to decorate

The Star must be in this box?!?!

Everyone has a role in getting our tree decorated.  We left the Star searching to Braiden this year so he was on the look out for our Gingerbread themed christmas tree star.

Matthew & Hailey usually hang the ornaments and Michael is our lighting director.  I usually sift through our containers full of decorations and lay out the items for the kids to decorate with.

Telling mommy that he turned on the reindeer lights outside.

1000 + lights and counting!

The Trang Ohana Christmas Tree can never have too many lights!

Getting ready for his important job!

Braiden's first time to put the star on our tree

Ta dahh!!!

Our tree now has a star!

It's beginning to look and smell like chrsitmas!

Braiden loves to climb to the highest step on our step stool. 

His favorite ornament is our Gingerbread Mickey Mouse.

Holiday Time at Disneyland!

This picture came out blurry :(

It was a quick snap

Don't know what Hailey was looking at but

Braiden was sure picture ready!

Braiden is saying, "Where's Mickey"?

The castle was decked out for the holiday!

It magically transforms throughout the evening...

Notice how all 3 kids are looking in all different directions!

Visiting the ducks

...and the castle's transformation begins!

So concentrated on his favorite ride, "It's a Small World"

but wait a minute....

It's Holiday time in here too!

Love all the colorful lights!

My first time riding Autopia and I get to drive a GREEN car!

NO Tail gating

No Phone Zone!