the hastings project

9 months old

2012-01-27T15:06:00.000-10:00

Betsy girl is 9 months old today! She is growing up so fast, it's unbelievable, and sad for me. But it's a lot of fun watching her personality develop. She is such a sweet little girl, and she's also really silly. I can already tell that she's going to be really funny. She laughs and smiles all the time. We have also learned that she is a momma's girl for sure. She is at that stage where she will only go to me for comfort, which I love and also hate because I need a break once in awhile but that's never an option. But when she's really tired and we are both ready to snuggle, she just puts her thumb in her mouth and lays her head on my chest for a good 5-10 minutes or so, without moving! I don't remember having that snuggle time with Tristan, for that long anyways. I will always cherish the cuddle time I have with my Bessie Boo.

There is also so much of her to love! If you haven't noticed, she is our very round baby. Catching up quickly to Tristan's stats. At her 8 month appointment, she weighed 22 lbs. Tristan weighed 25 lbs. Putting her at "plus 95%". And she's really tall too! 28 inches, putting her at 85%. We are so proud of your rapidly growing body little Betsy!

She's waving now.

Learning how to eat her solids (finally!).

Goes down nicely for her 2 naps in the day.

Wakes up about 3-5 times every night, just wanting to cuddle. (killing me!)

Her once blue eyes are now a hazel color like her dad. Brown/green.

Her hair has a red tint in certain lighting. Otherwise, it's sandy blonde I think.

Curls, curls, and curls!

Her two bottom teeth are making their way in nicely.

Her favorite jibber word, "baa baa baa".

When she gets really excited, she squeals in a high pitch.

Not mobile yet! She sits on her tush or can roll around some.

Showing off those round curves.

We all survived brother's "potty training week"! Betsy was such a good sport and gave her brother so much support. Potty training was a success! We are all glad this week is over.

Happy 9 months Betsy love!

We're back!

2012-01-20T20:23:00.003-10:00

The kids can FINALLY breath out of their noses and I no longer need to pack a wad of tissue every time we leave the house! I think we were going on 5 or 6 weeks of stuffy noses, fevers, ear infections, nasty coughs, and throwing up. In and out of the doctors we went. I was getting about 2 hours of sleep every night, trying to tend to the kids not being able to breath or when they spiked fevers. Christian struggled to survive at work on little sleep. The sad thing is, their sicknesses lasted so long, it almost seemed like our new way of life. It began to feel like we would never sleep again. The kids would rotate waking up every 30 minutes, it was killing us! (me) We were kind of sinking into a hole, we even called in a super nanny to evaluate our situation because we knew that this couldn't be normal. I understand that this could happen a few nights, or even a week, but almost 2 months? Anyways, my point is, we clawed our way out of that hole and our family is up and running again. I just hope that we don't catch that nasty stomach flu that is going around right now!

To celebrate our wellness, we headed out to the beach of course and enjoyed some vitamin D.

Someone can't keep his eyes off the surf.

Notice the leg crossing. It's her new thing and it's so cute.

So squishy.

Tristan went ahead and put the leash on by himself and pretended to surf on Dad's board. Then he would jump off the board and yell, "wipe out!".

I hope I don't sound like a whiner! I know that a lot of families go thru this, I'm just learning how to deal with 2 kids now. It's not easy! It just feels so good to be back though.

Mele Kalikimaka

2012-01-03T14:42:00.002-10:00

This was our first year spending Christmas with just our little family. We missed everyone terribly but I was looking forward to a quiet, travel-free, relaxing Christmas together. Unfortunately, the two little munchkins got sick a few days before Christmas. Tristan had an ear infection and they both were snotty and coughy. Some throwing up. Some really high fevers. So, not everything went as planned but we still got to squeeze in some fun stuff. On Christmas Eve, we headed out to the North Shore to play on the beach while Dad surfed for a bit.

We pretty much had the beach to ourselves. It was a beautiful day.

I'm so proud that Betsy is not a sand-eater either. She just likes feeling it between her little chubby fingers.

Betsy visiting with Dad after his surf sesh.

Christmas morning was so nice and relaxing. I remember hearing Tristan get up around 6:30 or 7:00 am and stumble out into the living room. He whispered, "a bike!". And yelled, "MOM! A BIKE!" He was SO excited that Santa brought him his bike.

I'm not surprised that this boy caught on how to ride the bike really fast. It's awesome. He loves going down ramps as fast as he can. He puts his feet up on the handle bars and cruises. Very coordinated.

Miss Betsy (without her Christmas pjs on. Love the baby blow outs!) takes the time to meet her new Hello Kitty doll. She loves her! Christian said that she had the biggest smile on her face when she pulled her out of the stocking. It's her new best friend.

Later that afternoon, Tristan's fever spiked to104 degrees. It was pretty sad. We all tried to get in some rest and then we BBQ'd some yummy steaks with the Thomson family that evening. Aside from the sick kids, and being away from our families, Christmas was wonderful.

December so far...

2011-12-22T13:46:00.003-10:00

It has been raining a lot the past couple of weeks, which means the kids get stuck going on errands with mom, or they need to get creative with their time at home. It's been sweater weather which I love! Low 70's, high 60's. It feels like Christmas here.

The kids enjoy wrestling together. Betsy is finally holding her own! Enough getting picked on. (and yes, they are pretty much the same size now.):

About every other day, Tristan gets into the costume drawer and dresses up. He's pretty much the same thing every time; Spider/Super Man. He tries to get Betsy involved and dress her up too. This is what I've walked out to a couple of times:

We got our tree earlier in the month. We kind of thought we were going to get a little one this year, and we came home with this beast. Naturally, we had a little buyers remorse, but got over that fast and fell in love with our perfect tree. I love decorating the tree. This is our very first year using colored lights. Mama likes.

So does Tristan. He chose one little corner of the tree and hung everything there. So helpful.

My two boys posing by our tree:

Betsy girl is getting little curls over her ears. I love it! I hope they are here to stay!

Meet Fred. He is our elf on the shelf and has been in our home since the first week of December. He is keeping a good eye on our little ones and making sure they are being good this year. Each night he flies back to Santa and gives him a full report. Then he comes back to our home and finds a new place to camp out for the day, just to watch. Tristan LOVES finding his new spot in the house each morning. And he knows exactly why he is here. One day when Tristan was being naughty and was crying really hard because he was getting into trouble, he ran over to Fred and cried, "Please!...don't go back and tell Santa!". He was hysterical. It was the saddest thing ever. But hey, that's what Fred is here for, to keep these kids in line. :)

All clean from a bath, and just cute. Still, the happiest baby I've ever seen:

We did attend the Pipe Masters this year. Was so much fun. This actually deserves a post of it's own, so I'll post more pictures from this special day later.

This was the worst Santa I have ever seen! We were at a different mall from our own, and decided to just visit Santa while we were here and get it over with so we didn't have to fight the crowds at Ala Moana. No one was in line, we walked right up. Santa was kicking back with the elf photographers and a Mountain Dew. They finally saw that we were waiting and took their positions, but no one cared to greet me or tell me what to do. They didn't even look at me. So I just slowly walked up with the kids, and told the photographers that we were taking our own photos. They were fine with that, as long as we were behind the white fence. Whatever. That's fine. I repeated it to Santa, just to fill him in, and he says, "Don't tell me, I'm just the mannequin". Ok. So I'm forcing the kids on his lap and waiting for Santa to get into character but he never did. Didn't even care to talk to Tristan. So I had to step in and say, "Tristan, don't you want to tell Santa what you want for Christmas??" And Santa says really short, "What do you want?" Tristan was not that impressed but Betsy got a kick out of the whole experience. It was all pretty funny. But I think we will try and take them to Ala Moana to make it up to Tristan. It wasn't as magical as he expected.

The stockings are hung...

2011-12-18T22:11:00.001-10:00

...on our orange canvases with care.

Since we will be home for the holidays this year, I decided to make our family our own Christmas stockings. They are finally done! I started them back in November and I only had a small window of time to work on them at night, and not every night. So I feel like they were sitting there on the machine forever. I'm so happy we can finally hang them.

Tristan and Betsy's stockings represent snow animals from the north and south poles; the polar bear and penguins.

Woodland animals for Dad and Mom's stockings.

My attempt to hand-write our names onto to patches failed miserably. I have decided I would order embroidered name patches instead. So glad they are done, just in time for Santa!

Thanksgiving on the B.I.

2011-12-02T15:30:00.000-10:00

We spent Thanksgiving on the Big Island this year. It was a well-needed vacation for our family. We relaxed, bundled up in cold weather (low 60's I believe), brined our turkey (delish!), played in the yard, spent time in Hilo at the Zoo, and visited the beach. Beware, I have a TON of pictures!

We are super impressed with Tristan's hand eye coordination these days. Future baseball player?

Our silly little bebes. Whenever they are together, they love to ham it up for the camera.

The sun came out long enough to slide down the slip 'n slide a few times.

Betsy showing her Tutu her cups.

Tristan waiting in his apron at the Thanksgiving table.

At the zoo in Hilo. A first for me and the kids!

This slide at the zoo park was super slick and T was cruisin' on it.

The biggest attraction at the (free) zoo was the white tiger named, Namaste, donated from Las Vegas. He looked so sweet.

On the way home from Hilo, we stopped at Akaka Falls. T freaked when he saw how tall this fall was.

Christian spotted this house in his parent's neighborhood that looked pretty cool, and funny. The bottom was finished but the top floor was still in the works. I love the red floating door. Kind of fun.

On the last day we were there, we met up with some friends at Beach 69. The water is a little chilly this time of year so we took short dips and mostly visited on the beach.

Tristan with his (other) Uncle Ian, checking out his underwater shots. You MUST check out Ian's photography website! He is incredibly talented.

Tristan's new buddy, John boy. They had so much fun and were super cute together.

Meet sweet baby Enzo Ka'imi O' Kekai. Meaning, Seeker of the Ocean. He was 7 weeks old in this picture and has already dipped in the ocean a few times, head and all! He loved it.

Trip went by too fast. Thank you Papa and Tutu for hosting us! We need to come back soon.

Mokuleia

2011-11-29T14:11:00.000-10:00

A couple of weekends ago we stayed with some friends, the Hintons, in Haleiwa in their guest house/room. It really felt like a mini vacation away from home. And we knew we were in the country when the roosters woke us up at the break of dawn, to the smell of bacon and waffles. What a treat to stay at the Hinton B&B!

The next day we headed to one of the Mokuleia beaches near the end of the road. It was a beautiful beach with nice warm weather. We are trying to minimize our loads to the beach because it's getting kind of crazy. So we no longer carry Betsy in her car seat, because she's getting quite heavy, and she now enjoys sitting on a towel and playing in the sand. We also try to avoid bringing the umbrella too so we tried to build a little shelter for Betsy. It all worked out just fine. And of course I only take pictures of the kids and forget to capture anything else.

Betsy with her dad, enjoying the view.

My handsome husband.

We did a lot of this:

Sorry for the bathing suit shots. I made these pictures small for a reason. :)

Oh man, I love these kids.

Halloween Festivities 2011

2011-11-20T09:41:00.000-10:00

We all carved our pumpkin together.

Our ward Halloween party.

Spiderman with his Parrot friend, Talia.

Spiderman with DJ Lance Rock, AKA Ezra.

Tristan feeling a little intimidated at this moment. Wishing he had these pecks to win over the princess. One thing he did say when we got home from the ward party was, "Dad, I'm a super hero and I saved the princess!" So I'm guessing he did win.

Betsy and I baked Halloween goodies together.

Getting ready to go Trick or Treating. As soon as this Spiderman costume goes on, he stays in character the whole time.

Trick or Treating: a little boys dream come true. Knocking on doors and asking for candy. What more could you ask for? Tristan was SO cute! You could tell that he was a little nervous at each door and when he said, "Trick or Treat", he said it quiet and slow and stumbled on his words a couple of times. He wanted to get it just right. And he always said, "thank you!" when he got his candy. Such a sweet little spiderman.

Happiest night of his life. Staying up late, collecting candy, and hanging out with a pretty mermaid princess, Ava.

Prince Eric, Ariel, and Spiderman, head off together to collect more candy.

Happy Halloween!

Disneyland and a Special Birthday

2011-11-17T22:02:00.002-10:00

We went to Disneyland during the last week we were in CA. I LOVE Disneyland! It really is a great place. And it's even better having the kids with us. I wish I could see everything through their little eyes. It must be so magical. We first hit up the Buzz ride. Tristan freaked out on this ride. He was surging a little as he shot his gun. And I'm pretty sure that little Betsy was over stimulated. It's pretty wild.

Addison with her favorite Auntie, Chelcie. :) We all love this little girl.

All of the Clawson cousins. How cute are they?! All of them looking in different directions.

One of the highlights of the trips; meeting Minnie Mouse.

Coming out of seeing It's a Bugs Life movie in 4D. Pretty cool.

We also celebrated my sister's birthday while we were there at Roy's! She turned 23! (I think?) Those chocolate soufflés are to die for.

The birthday girl, Brookie and Mando.

My brother, Ian and Alisa.

My mom and dad.

My sister, Chelcie and I. We were each others dates! (picture stolen from Chelcie's iphone).

This concludes my CA trip pictures. Thanks again to my mom and dad for hosting us and for letting us infect everyone with our sicknesses. And for being patient with Tristan as he tantrumed and bossed everyone around. Miss everyone already!

Pumpkins and Baby Friends

2011-11-10T23:52:00.003-10:00

We met up with the cousins again at Tom's Farm in Corona. More Fall fun at the pumpkin patch! Tristan had a little fever on this day but he was a good sport.

Train ride with Papa.

And then with Addi girl.

Addi enjoying her tractor ride. It was super sad because the boys were too small to ride the tractors but they waited in line thinking they were next. They were not happy when we told them they couldn't ride them. It's not easy being small!

Uncle Ian with his mini-me Von.

At the pumpkin patch, Tristan snagged a wagon and started collecting pumpkins.

Addi made sure that Tristan knew exactly how the pumpkin collecting system worked.

Nama bought some pumpkins for the kids to color on. T loved this! Left handed? It's possible!

I had the chance to meet up with some friends and their babies. Betsy LOVED hanging out with little girls her age. It made her so happy!

Betsy with sisters, Harper and Monroe. It looks like she's saying, "Hey mom, look at me and my friends! We're playing!".

Rylee was another fun friend that she met. (I Think that the flash caught Betsy off guard in this pic).

The mamas and bebes.

And seeing Adrienne is always a must!

Cousins and Irvine Park

2011-11-07T23:07:00.000-10:00

It's been two weeks since we've been home from our CA trip and it's about time I post these pictures! The kiddies and I took a 2.5 week trip to visit some family and to debut little Betsy girl. Seven hours off of the plane, Tristan started his throw up fest. It went on for 2 days. Every time we get on a plane we catch something and get sick! Plus, we are exposed to so many new germs on the mainland. It makes traveling so much harder. :( After the 2 loooonnnng days were over, we thought we were in the clear of catching it because we had 4 healthy days. Then Tristan's cousin, Joaquin caught it really bad. My mom caught it. Then it hit me pretty hard for 2 days. Then back to Joaquin. Then his mommy and daddy caught it. Aunt Chelcie caught it too! It was all a nightmare. I don't even want to mention Tristan's Croup Cough he caught right after with 103 temperatures a couple of nights in a row. Then passed on to sweet Joaquin. We spent half of our trip on survival mode and trying to recover. But the other half was a ton of fun. I will let the pictures below do the talking, along with the next couple of posts.

Sweetest little girl. She managed to stay healthy through all of the sickness chaos. Also, it has been decided by all that Betsy looks most like her Aunt Courtney (Christian's sister).

During the 4 days of thinking we were all healthy and good to go, we met up with Ian and Alisa's family for lunch. Lunch was CRAZY trying to control all of these cutie pies, especially while trying to take these pictures with their Nama and Papa.

This is what was really going on. We have about 100 more of these pictures.

Someone got her cute little toe nails painted by her Aunt Chelcie!

She mastered sitting up on this trip.

During our first 4 healthy days, we met up with the Hastings family at Irvine Park. They were in town staying in Oceanside with the Kringels (Christian's sister and brother in law). I've never been there before but it was a perfect place to have a picnic lunch and enjoy all of the fall festivities.

Betsy with her Aunt Courtney. Twinners!

Tristan and his Tutu on the hay ride.

The rest of the gang enjoying the hay ride.

Tristan's first pony ride! He was singing, "ridin' the range, ridin' the range, let's go ridin' the range, yaw hoo!". (From the Backyardigans show).

Notice the same scrunched face in all of these pics.

Tristan got his cute face painted. He said no to super heros but YES to a pumpkin.

Checking out his painted face in the mirror.

California trip to be continued...

A special visit from Chelcie

2011-11-03T22:36:00.001-10:00

My sister Chelcie came to visit us last month for almost a whole week! She stayed at our house and got to see first hand how we deal with our insomniac child; fighting bed time and both kids rising with the sun. The on and off rains in Manoa. Climbing the never ending stairs to our front door about 3 or 4 times a day. I sure hope that she had a good time and will want to come back and visit us again one day! :) Chels helped me out so much while she was here. I wish I could convince her to move in with us. I'm sure she would love that. Sometimes I daydream about there being two of me. While I'm feeding Betsy, the other me is preparing dinner in the kitchen. Or someone is playing and entertaining Tristan while I take a shower and get ready for the day. That was Chelcie! She was my other half and jump right in when things needed to get done. Seriously, she is so awesome. We loved having her here.

So we did hit up the beach a few times while she was here. The weather was beautiful! I only took my camera out while we were at Gas Chambers on the north shore. We made a whole day out of it out on the NS. After the beach, we went to the Haunted Lagoon canoe ride at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Terrified Tristan, but was really really well done.

So at Gas Chambers, while Christian was doing this...

We hung out on the beach and soaked in some sun. Tristan LOVES his Aunt Chelcie. I think he has a crush on her because he kept telling me how "pretty" Chelcie was.

I'm sorry, but these goggle pictures are ridiculously cute.

We love you too Chelcie! Please come back again and visit.

Betsy is 6 months old!

2011-10-28T08:22:00.002-10:00

I need to recognize my baby girls half birthday! She turned 6 months old yesterday and is growing like a weed. A very round weed. She is a ball full of cuddles and love. Probably the happiest baby in the world. She loves being entertained by her big brother, greeted by her daddy when he comes home from work with kisses, and snuggling with her momma. She's our little sweetheart and we all just adore her.

She's still my little thumb sucker.

She puts herself to sleep at night.

Not sleeping thru the night. :(

She does this whale slap with her legs when she wakes up at night. So loud.

Obsessed with bubble baths.

Coos pretty loud.

100% sitting up without support.

Gets a kick out of watching her brother. He's always making her laugh.

Her hair is thickening. A dark auburn color. Love it.

These pictures make me laugh! It just shows how different their bodies are and how fast she's growing. You better be nice Tristan because she might be able to hurt you soon!

Picture stolen from Auntie Courtney. She is the best little snuggle bug! I wish that everyone could get a chance to hold her like this because it's the best feeling in the world and you would probably melt.

Happy half Birthday sweet Betsy Boo.

Catching up

2011-09-26T12:23:00.000-10:00

Nothing really crazy happened this past month, just life. I've kind of been a zombie lately so I don't really even remember what goes on in our days, but I know that they are non-stop and that I usually don't get to sit down and rest until maybe 8:30 - 9:00 at night when all kids have finally sizzled down, (or right now as I blog :). I say I've been a zombie because, yes, Betsy has broken her 'sleep through the night' cycle. You never know what's really wrong; teething, gassy, growing, hot, cold...whatever. There have been some nights where she has woken up every 30 minutes. I'm not even joking. She starts hollering for me and I need to rush to her before she wakes up our little prince, whose sleep is very precious to us. He wakes up a couple of times between all of that. It's been a lot of fun.

These little ones have totally consumed me. They need my attention from when they wake up, until they fall asleep at night. Oh, and all through the night. Am I whining? I don't mean to be. I've also become a little obsessed with these gremlins. They really bring so much joy into my life and we have so much fun spending time together. They are always making me laugh. My little sweethearts.

Betsy hits her 5 month mark tomorrow! It's unreal how fast she's growing. She seriously could pass Tristan up someday. Last month both of the kids had their dr. check ups. Betsy weighed in at 17 lbs.! And Tristan at 24 lbs. :) They are now both wearing the same diaper size, which makes it easier for us. Betsy is pretty much sitting up by herself now, with a couple of tip overs here and there. She has discovered her voice and it is surprisingly low! It's so cute because she loves to sing really loud to herself, just to hear that voice of hers. She loves having her face, head and knees softly tickled. But don't touch her feet! She will kick your hand away. She loves to giggle really loud when you tickle under her neck or her chest. Such a sweet girl.

Tristan is our little ham. He is talking in full sentences now and can hold real conversations with us. It's so much fun. Some cute things he says;

"I'm so happy mommy"

"Daddy, is that an Arkotec shirt? Awwww, it's so cute!"

"I'm just being funny"

"I'm so excited!"

When I ask, "Tristan, you need to eat your food", he says, "No thanks...I'm fine".

Whenever he sees his sister, he says in a high, almost crying voice, "ohhhhhhh Betsy, ohhh my sister. She's so cute".

He can do the robot on demand and he thinks he's a super hero most days. He's going to potty train soon! I'm pretty terrified for that.

Last weekend we went to Gas Chambers on the north shore. It's been awhile since we've been back there. I love that beach because we almost have it all to ourselves. The surf was really big that day which created these fun tide pools on the beach. Dad got to go out surfing while we played in the ponds. Tristan is getting a lot more brave in the water. His new thing is going all the way under and opening his eyes to look for rocks and fish.

How refreshing does this water look?!

My sister, Chelcie will be in town at the end of this week! We are so so excited! And then the kids and I are off to CA for a visit and to debut baby B!

Beach Day at Chuns

2011-08-24T14:37:00.001-10:00

We had another great beach day last Saturday at Chuns and took some fun pictures. Betsy is now able to wear some of her adorable bathing suits. I swear, I'm having so much fun with this girl thing. They are like little dolls to dress up!

Betsy is all geared up and ready to go!

While wearing his "super hero" wetsuit, Tristan focuses on getting his shaka just right.

I can't handle all the cuteness.

Today was a big day for this little one...

She took her first dip in the ocean. And I really mean 'dip', we only put her in up to her ankles. But she didn't even flinch. I think she liked it. :)

The boys took the board out. I feel so much better now that Tristan can wear his super hero wetsuit out there. They go pretty far out and it always makes me nervous.

Unfortunately I got tied up with Betsy and couldn't take any pictures of them riding the waves together. I need to get some soon because it's really cute and we are so proud of Tristan for being so brave.

The Thomson family came and joined us!

Dads are the best. They are always good at entertaining the kids and they don't mind getting dirty.

While digging their hole, Zach came across this little guy...

And battled it out with him.

Tristan became tough and started throwing sand at the crab.

And told him to go back where he belonged. It was all kind of sad for the crab.

By the end of the beach day, diapers came off and things got really messy.

oh Bessy

2011-08-12T23:39:00.000-10:00

For some reason, we started calling her lil' Bessy. Maybe because Tristan calls her that? I don't know but it's become habit now. Still trying to figure out who she looks like. And it looks like her eyes might stay blue. It's hard to believe that we have two blue eyed babies!

Christian's pouty lip?

She definitely has my hands. I love it.

This girl smiles like this all day long! So happy. She giggles now too.
Christian's sunshine eyes? :)

Where are you going Tristan?

2011-08-08T08:56:00.001-10:00

"I'm going to the Great Valley, Mommy".

He waits patiently for the next bus to arrive. Later I checked his lunch box to see what he packed for his long journey; one puzzle piece. I told him that next time he should maybe pack lots of water and some snacks, and maybe wear some shoes. Little does he know, he's already living in the Great (Manoa) Valley. He's closer than he thinks!

the huggies house

2011-08-03T16:38:00.001-10:00

Last year, my talented husband decided he wanted to make Tristan a playhouse out of the Huggies diaper box. He didn't really want to put much effort into it, just make it simple. Cut a hole or two for windows and maybe make it into two stories. Something Tristan can use for his Little People. Well, if you know Christian, you know that he's a perfectionist and would never settle for less when it comes to building models. This was his favorite thing to do back in architecture school. His simple project blew up, and he just couldn't stop. Tristan LOVES this house. We actually have to keep it up high and need to monitor him when he plays with it. One time I left him alone with it for awhile and when I came in the room I found the front of the second level all chewed up! I cried a little bit. That's how much he loves it, he wants to eat it. Christian quickly repaired the damage. So there are a few wears and tears on it from rough play, but not bad for spending under $5 on the whole project! He did a great job on it.

Turns out Tristan prefers to use his cars inside the playhouse. He loves pushing them down the ramp and squeezing them down the chimney.

Betsy's stats

2011-07-28T22:58:00.000-10:00

3 month old stats:

Weight: 15 lbs. 95th plus percentile (which is a nice way of saying, "wow, your baby is so far off the charts, we can't really track it.)

Height: 24 in. 75th percentile

Head Circumference: 41 1/4 cm. 75th percentile

In other words, perfect.

Betsy is 3 months old!

2011-07-26T08:46:00.002-10:00

Tomorrow Betsy hits her 3 month mark. I need to recognize how incredible this little girl is and how much she makes us happy. This might be a brag post but I don't care! There is something about fat babies that make them so happy and content. Betsy, if you haven't noticed, is a big girl. Not only is her chubbiness adorable, but she is also well-fed and satisfied, which means less crying and a ton of sleep. She has been sleeping straight through the night since she was one month old. From 8 pm until 6:30 or 7 am. Every. Single. Night. It's comforting knowing that when I put her down, she is down for good. And...when I put her down, she falls asleep on her own!! I used to have to nurse Tristan to sleep every single night, but this little girl sucks her thumb and puts herself to sleep. She has already picked up on the nap time schedule, napping about 3 times a day, starting at 9 am every morning. I lay her down and she goes right to sleep. (or in the car seat if we are on the go). All of this sleeping stuff is so foreign to me! What a blessing she is to us. And I know that all of her good sleeping habits will change with time, as she gets new teeth or grows, but until then I'm loving it!

Does this girl realize how good she has it? Just lounging on a beautiful Oahu beach. This was actually a new beach called Chuns. Our first time there. The boys took the longboard out for perfect learner waves.

I needed to add this photo to show all of the rolls, which I adore.

This is how she sucks her thumb. I wish I could get a hold of a picture of me sucking my thumb like this too.

Christian probably won't be happy that I'm posting these pictures of him but I LOVE them! Him with his little girl. She really really adores her dad.

This past Sunday, Christian stayed home from church because he wasn't feeling that well. I left Betsy with him, because she sleeps anyways, and it would be a challenge carrying her in her car seat with Tristan in tow. Anyways, this is the outfit I came home to; her harajuku skirt with no shirt. Dads are the best.

Did I mention that she loves to cuddle? She loves to rest her head on my shoulder or chest when I hold her. I'm soaking it all in. We go in for her 3 month doctors appointment tomorrow. Will keep you posted on her record breaking stats!

I'm so glad you were born because...

2011-07-25T09:18:00.001-10:00

Birthday's are very different as you get older. It's really not a big deal to recognize the day as much and you don't really feel like you need to be made over like you used to when you were a kid. Even though Christian didn't really care to party hard for his birthday last week, I still thought it was important to make him feel special. Everyone needs to feel special on their birthdays. I need to thank EVERYONE who contributed to his "I'm So Glad You Were Born Because..." gift. The responses were so wonderful and Christian really enjoyed reading each one of them. We had 32 responses for our new 32 year old! I hope that Christian knows how much he is loved by everyone and how rad he is. I am SO lucky to be married to this man. Even though you decided to stay in on your b-day because you were too tired, and we over charred your frozen birthday pizza, I hope that you had a special day! I love you. xoxo.

The birthday pizza. Burning a pizza is unheard of in our home. One of Christian's many talents is taking out a pizza or cookies at the perfect time. I'm not kidding, he gets it right every time. I think that he had some distractions going on this night. Please note that we did have a delicious homemade German Chocolate Cake with ice cream later that night. So the evening wasn't a total bomb.

4th of July weekend part II

2011-07-22T09:14:00.000-10:00

I've always wanted to explore Kualoa Ranch. The mountains are so beautiful and it's always green. It kind of reminds of The Great Valley from Land Before Time, or a little like what heaven will be like. Many movies and shows have been filmed in this valley; Jurassic Park, Godzilla, Pearl Harbor, Along Came Polly, Fifty First Dates, Lost, and Hawaii 5-0. We kind of decided last minute to go on an ATV Tour in the valley. I'm so glad we did! It was a ton of fun.

image via Kualoa

Round 2 of Waimanalo Beach. We came back here on the 4th (following the early morning AVT rides) and it wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be. I took some really cute pictures of T with his dad on the body board. I couldn't choose just one to post because he's so cute in all of them. He gets so excited when he catches a wave.

I think that this was the day that I caught my bad cold. :( We swam a lot that day and I think that my head filled up with the ocean. My head hurt so bad. That night, I decided I didn't feel well enough to watch fireworks, so I stayed in with Betsy boo. My parents were pooped and called it a day after the beach, and Bill flew out that afternoon. Tristan, Christian, and JLynn gathered at our friends apartment, overlooking the Ala Wai and city lights. They got to watch the fire work show from the balcony. Best view in the whole city!

My cold lasted a few more days. Fevers came and went. It wasn't fun. But I need to thank JLynn for taking little Tristan those next couple of days. (My parents flew out the next morning). I feel sad that I missed out on all the fun they had, but I am SO glad that she was here to relieve me so I could rest. And of course Betsy was an angel for me and slept when I needed to sleep. Tristan and his Tutu went to the zoo for about 5 hours one day! They went to the Discovery Center. Lots of toys and puzzle time. Thank you to all grandparents for taking care of Tristan while you were here. He loved every second of it. It's so wonderful when family comes in town. Thanks for the good times everyone!

4th of July weekend part I

2011-07-14T09:24:00.001-10:00

Betsy's blessing took place during the 4th of July weekend; therefore we were able to have a little longer weekend to play with the fam while they were in town. My parents flew in a couple of days earlier to play and Christian's parents came in a little after them and gave themselves enough Oahu play time too. The weather was absolutely perfect! I loved that. I feel like every time my family comes to town, the weather is stormy. But I couldn't have asked for better weather. The sun was out the whole time, with a light breeze. We did a lot of beach time, visited the Dole Plantation, rode ATVs, ate lunch in Haleiwa (my fave), a little pool time at the hotel.

Betsy was a little bored with us and had other plans for the weekend; sleep.

While driving near Crouching Lion, we pulled over at this beach. I love Oahu because the beaches go on for miles, so you can always find a beach to yourself.

At the Dole Plantation, we rode the train and learned a lot of cool facts about the plantation. Who James Drummond Dole was and when the pineapple first came to Hawaii.

Papa Hastings met Betsy for the first time on this trip.

Beautiful Waimanalo Beach. We ended up going here twice because we had so much fun. The water was warm and fun to body surf in. Our first trip there, we had a freak rain squall. It was crazy because we could see the wall of rain slowly coming towards us. It hit us pretty hard. Christian and his parents took Betsy and ran for cover, while my parents, Tristan and I stayed in the ocean and swam. The sun quickly popped back out after the rain squall left.

Tutu played in the sand with T-bone.

I'm sharing this picture just to show how difficult it is to put sunscreen on this little boy. I usually end up chasing him around the beach and have to tackle him to the ground.

This is a close up of the torture.

The results: An angry boy with blotchy sunscreen and a single tear.

Tristan enjoyed burying his Dad in the sand.

While Betsy kicked it in the shade. "rock on" she says.

Nama snuggled with Betsy back at the hotel.

Tristan had a few sleepovers at the hotel with Nama and Papa. He did really well! Thanks again for taking him Mom and Dad! :)

4th of July weekend to be continued...

Betsy's blessing day

2011-07-11T16:04:00.001-10:00

Little Betsy was blessed at church two Sundays ago by her Dad. Both of our parents were able to fly in for the special occasion. It was a blessed day.

The Baby: Slept the whole time and made it easy. Got a little antsy in the hot sun for photo shoot time, but as always, she was an angel.

The Dress: My mom made this dress for me 30 years ago for my blessing day. I was blessed in this dress! Thank goodness we were both XL babies to fit into the same dress. The dress was a little yellowed, and the sleeves needed new elastic in them (which I didn't bother doing), otherwise it was perfect for her. We can say that her dress was truly vintage. :)

This is actually the first family photo of the 4 of us. Tristan was being a little rascal and didn't want to participate in family photos. This is the best we could get. Betsy, of course, was an angel.

Nama and Papa Clawson with the kiddos.

Our Fam with Tutu and Papa Hastings.

Tristan enjoyed picking flowers to wear behind his and Betsy's ear.

The after after party: We invited a couple families and had lunch/dinner at Manoa Park.

Chicken salad sandwiches with yummy pasta and fruit salads.

Thank you everyone for loving and supporting our sweet little Betsy. More pictures to come from the fun-filled weekend.

get the sillies out!

2011-06-28T15:04:00.001-10:00

I put this short video together during the kids naps today. This is a little preview of how Tristan spends some of his time at home. I get a little warn out just watching this.

Song from Yo Gabba Gabba

brave boy (first surf)

2011-06-21T08:55:00.003-10:00

I dream of the day when Christian wants to go surfing and I can tell him to take Tristan with him. Aww...how nice will that be? Mama can have a little breather. When that starts happening, I will be encouraging the surfing A LOT more. I was really happy last Saturday when we were at Kahana Bay with the youth from church, and Tristan was brave enough to paddle out with his Dad on a longboard. It's all happening! They will be having their surfing outings in no time. They both had so much fun out there and caught a few waves. C said that Tristan was saying "weeee" as they rode the waves. Even when he was getting smacked in the face with water, he still had a big smile on his face.

Tristan is excited for his first surfing experience. Check out the dirty water and rubbish on the beach. I think that this side of the island got hit pretty hard with rain recently. yuck.

Due to the stronger wind, there were portuguese man-of-war and blue bubbles in the water. C and T stopped to talk with some of the youth about what to expect in the water and showed them some of their wounds.

They make their way over to their board.

Their paddle out.

Coming in from their session. They actually caught a couple sizable waves out there. Made me nervous! (I've finally updated to the newer version of blogger, so you can now click on my photos to blow them up. You can see T's cute face a little closer. No more photobucket!)

He was shivering when he got in. But I look forward to this part; I get to wrap him in his towel and snuggle with him. I think he likes this part too. :)

He was so tired by the end of the day. We were at Chinaman's Hat before we came here. Long day for all, but it was a lot of fun.

paddle boarding at waimea bay

2011-06-15T15:25:00.002-10:00

Last weekend we met up with our friends, the Hintons, at Waimea Bay for some fun in the sun/rain and some paddle boarding. I think that Waimea Bay is one of my all time favorite beaches. Sand bottom beach, jumping rocks, and plenty of white sand to spread out on. It was a beautiful day, (aside from a few down pours of rain) and we even saw a pod of dolphins jumping around. Oh how good it feels to be able to swim in the ocean again! (first time since baby was born).

The Boys

Christian out on the board.

Me out on the board.

And Tristan! He was having the time of his life out there.

Little Betsy stayed under the umbrella to protect that delicate white skin of hers.

Was a great morning at the beach! The summer is still young, we'll be back.

week in review

2011-06-11T16:30:00.001-10:00

We've kept it pretty low key this week. Some beach, movies, a trip to the temple, a little shopping. I still get a little nervous about leaving the house with the two little ones. Tristan has good and bad days, and I never know which day it's going to be for him. Betsy still sleeps most of the day. Her up hours are from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm and up again around 3:00 am until she feels like falling asleep again, maybe 5:00. I've got to work on switching this around!

I heart fat babies. I really really do. I love all the rolls and chunkiness that comes with them. This little girl has been getting a lot of shut eye this week. It's very rare when we can get a picture of her with her eyes opened:

Tristan continues to find higher places to climb, like the side of our house. The higher, the better for him. I foresee many broken bones and stitches in the near future?

Whenever I try to take pictures of Miss Betsy, this is what happens:

Tristan jumps in the frame, pushing Betsy over, and we have a really sad girl for having her spotlight stolen.

It couldn't be more obvious that this little girl has a big crush on her dad. Whenever he walks in the room or she hears his voice, her eyes light up. And he's the only one that can really get her to smile right now. She loves him:

Tristan's discovered how to build a fort out of the couch cushions:

We have been seeing a lot of this cheesy smile lately. He pulls out this smile when he knows that he's done something wrong and about to get into trouble. He totally works us! We are working on the discipline thing. We found that this boy has a fascination with money (coins), so we have a money jar, where he can put coins in when he's done something good, and we take out coins when he misbehaves. If the jar fills up to a certain point, we go get chocolate ice cream. We are finding that there are way more coins coming out of the jar than going in. It's currently empty right now. It may take a really long time to get that chocolate ice cream of his! We are working on it though.

Tristan has discovered the photo booth on our computer. :)

the Thirteenth blog

2011-06-10T14:23:00.003-10:00

Free Anthology subscription giveaway at the Thirteenth blog! Go check it out and become a follower of this great design blog!

another tired mom moment

2011-05-31T15:50:00.003-10:00

I took the kids to see "How to Train Your Dragon" today at Dole Theaters. My first outing on my own with the two of them! Well, we met up with some friends, so almost on my own. I realized I needed to silence my phone before the movie began, but instead I took out my car keys and pointed them at the movie screen and pushed the lock button, several times. I just hope no one really saw what I was doing!

one local boy

2011-05-30T19:22:00.001-10:00

We bought these slippers for Tristan a while ago because they were the smallest we'd seen and so cute. Recently he's grown big enough to start wearing them. They're a little big still, but that's ok. What a huge thing in his life, Tristan has his own pair of Locals... a rite of passage. Our big boy.

happy one month, betsy!

2011-05-28T17:57:00.006-10:00

Our little Betsy is already a month old, it's going by so fast. She is a sweet baby and so easy compared to Tristan, compared to her at that age and now.
Some highlights:

First day at the beach- gas chambers on May 21st, 3 & 1/2 weeks old.
She's a great sleeper and often sleeps through most of the night, usually only waking up once or twice. She's also a cuddler like her brother.
She is a LOUD sleeper, not sure if it's when it's a light sleep or when she's dreaming or uncomfortable, but it happens often. She is a mean grunter and sounds like a whole family of wild boars. Kind of difficult to sleep through sometimes. But then she does do an adorable squeak a lot, like a mouse snoring, that is our favorite thing ever.
She makes the weirdest noises, lots of bodily functions happening and we often can't tell which end the sound came from.
Her favorite thing to do is poop poop in freshly changed diapers. Over and over again.
It looks as though she has inherited Mama's hands and feet. Lucky girl! :)
She likes a good bath in the sink. Gets real calm and you can tell she's enjoying herself.
She could be bigger than Tristan in the near future. Last appointment she was 95th percentile in weight, gaining a whole pound in a week. Height was 75th percentile and head size was 50th. She's our healthy lil' moose. Tristan better be nice.

(sleepy eyes?)

We're working on getting her to smile, but usually just having her look at us is a challenge. She has her eyes closed most of the day, but when they're open they really are pretty. Maybe blue?

the joys of parenting

2011-05-20T15:43:00.003-10:00

While changing another poopy diaper at 4 am on our bed, Betsy decided to push really hard and squirt her poop all over me and the sheets around me. I'm not kidding, it was like a water gun! Sheets and mattress pad were stripped. At 6:30, same morning, we woke up lying in a puddle of Tristan's urine, soaked through the newly changed sheets and mattress, (Since the pad was gone).

It's a good thing we think those kids are cute, otherwise...

up close and personal: betsy

2011-05-18T15:23:00.004-10:00

Betsy's birth story

2011-05-18T15:00:00.000-10:00

Some may not be interested in reading this, but since this is our family journal, I'm writing this mostly for me. I loved going back and reading Tristan's birth story, and I personally love hearing other people's birth stories. Miss Betsy's story is pretty simple. Round two was definitely a lot easier because I knew what to expect and I hear that the second time is easier for most people anyways.

Week 38 of pregnancy, I went into Dr. Dao (a Tuesday) and had my membranes stripped. I did the same thing with Tristan on the same week, and he was born the following day, so I was ready for this little girl to come soon! Bags were packed. Christian's mom came into town to help with Tristan (thank you thank you!!!). We thought this would be a safe week to come because baby was going to be here. A whole week went by, Christian's mom had come and gone, and no baby. I was getting so frustrated! And doctors should never tell their very pregnant patients that their baby might come 'tonight'. It only makes it harder as you wait and wait and wait for them to come. Anyways, the following Tuesday I told him to strip those dang membranes again. I'd pretty much given up and went into 'whatever' mode. I thought that she set up camp inside to live forever. It's funny because it was only a week and I was dying. The longest week of my life. But Dr. Dao said that baby had dropped and was in position ready to go, so as soon as I felt stronger contractions, even 7-10 minutes apart we should come in. He kept saying, "When it happens, it's going to happen fast..." So we were anxious.

At 12:30 in the morning on Wednesday, the 27th, (one day after the second stripping) I began to feel heavy cramping as I laid in bed. Now these were a lot stronger than the braxtons. I recognized these labor cramps, and I knew that I needed to get to the hospital. I woke up Christian and said that these pains were real and that we should head over there now. Contractions became more consistent. We called our friend Zach to come over quick and stay with Tristan while he sleeps. We checked in at the hospital, contractions were getting stronger and faster. As soon as I was in the delivery room, the pain was unbearable. I was at 5 cm and I requested my epidural. Anesthesiologist arrived quickly and did a great job with the epidural. The only problem was, my contractions were happening so fast and they were so strong, that the epidural wasn't keeping up with them. He didn't realize how fast I was progressing so he had to give me a stronger dose a few times. My contractions were back to back now, with maybe a minute in between to rest, and I could feel it all! Christian's fingers almost broke off as I squeezed his hand. This all happened within an hour and half of being there. They checked me and I was already at 10 cm and fully effaced. Finally the epidural kicked in and I was able to relax. They told me to rest a little while the baby made her way down so that pushing would be easier. Was nice to rest for a little with Christian.

Forty five minutes later, the nurse did a test push on me, and then told me to stop immediately because the baby's head was right there. She called Dr. Dao to come and we were ready to start pushing. Ten minutes later, baby girl was here! Piece of cake compared to pushing for two hours with Tristan! Baby's little cry was so sweet. They took her and weighed her and cleaned her. She was whining the whole time. When they brought her over to me, she immediately stopped crying. I loved that the sound of my voice comforted her.

Hospital stay was nice. Nurses were great. The pediatrician wanted her to stay in the hospital two more additional nights because he was concerned about her red, swollen eye lid. They put her on antibiotics and wanted to monitor her in the nursery for the next couple of nights. Turned out that the red eye was just from birth trauma and it should be just fine. We ended up naming her Betsy Talei (pronounced Tah-lay) on our last day at the hospital. It suits her well. She definitely looks like a little Betsy. We are so excited for our new addition to the family and look forward to watching her grow. She is such a sweetheart and we have already fallen in love with this girl.

friday the 13th, good day

2011-05-13T22:15:00.010-10:00

everyone knows i am all about scary movies and being in the water, so naturally friday the 13th is my special day (friday the 13th the movie takes place at Crystal Lake with water being a key part of Jason's dominion of the area). there are a few other things i like as well, today i was able to enjoy many of them. i don't have work right now on fridays, so today was a good day:

- got up about 7:30 and slowly got packed up to head out
- dropped Shandra and the kids at the hotel in Waikiki to hang out with her visiting parents and sister
- went for a surf by myself
- went back to the hotel to meet everyone at their cabana by the pool
- jumped in pool with Tristan and went down the little slide a few times and into the hot tub
- ordered a lunch at pool and ate it in the shade of the cabana
- went up to their room after lunch with Shandra and kids while everyone else stayed down at pool so we could let Tristan nap- which was all of us napping- in a nice A/C'd, peaceful, dark room
- woke up and took Tristan to a friend's b-day party while Shandra and the others stayed at hotel. T got to see friends, eat cupcake and run around with balloons while I hung out with friends
- went back to hotel to pick up Shandra and Betsy and we all went to Teddy's burger to get dinner take out
- drove to look out above Honolulu just in time to watch fireworks, then shared a burger and chocolate shake from the best burger place
- came home and got Tristan quickly into bed, ready to fall asleep after his long day

good day. surf, swim, some friends, chocolate shake.

now Shandra's asleep with Betsy and it wouldn't be right without watching something appropriate. maybe it's time for a scary movie.

meet Betsy Talei

2011-05-03T16:24:00.006-10:00

Our little Betsy was born on April 27th, at 5:09 in the morning. Weight: 8 lb 4.4 oz. (most of her weight being in her cheeks!) Height: 19 1/2 in. We are so happy that she is finally here! She is as sweet as can be.

My two little babies. Tristan loved the present he got from his little sister.

Instant buddies. Betsy was thrilled to have finally met her brother. (Please note that the mullet will be gone soon. We've been too busy to worry about haircuts right now).

She may outgrow him in no time!

Daddy's little girl.

More brotherly love. He couldn't get enough.

Betsy was the star of the bath class demonstration. She was so great!

This is our attempt at a family photo. Can you guess who didn't want to cooperate?

Her birth story and more pictures to come!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-25T15:50:00.000-10:00

secret island beach

2011-04-17T09:23:00.005-10:00

It didn't surprise me that Christian's work planned another fantastic work party. In 2008, his Christmas party was held at the historic Mission Houses Museum with white tents outside and all the fanciness that goes with it. In 2009, they rented out The Liljestrand House (check the link for pics) designed by Vladimir Ossipoff. We were obsessed with this house!! We didn't want to leave. The 2010 Christmas party was pushed back till yesterday and was held at Secret Island Beach. A fun-filled day for the whole family. The beach was so beautiful and the weather was perfect.

Unfortunately, our family is a little crippled right now so we didn't get to enjoy everything that was offered. Christian is still recovering and wasn't interested in trying to hold conversations with people because he couldn't hear them anyways. I'm a beastly pregnant lady, trying to hobble around. And Tristan just caught a bad head cold, just to make things more exciting for us. Anyways, I wanted to share pictures of this beautiful place. It still amazes me that we live here.

While waiting for our shuttle boat, Tristan and I watched the fish jump in and out of the water.

I attempted to smuggle a beach ball over there. I think they were on to me. 38 weeks! Woo hoo!

Our ride over on the boat. Breathtaking.

The beautiful beach. There were kayaks and stand-up paddle boards to play on. A ping pong table and volleyball net. The water was super warm and felt so nice to swim in.

Christian spotted this cute beached turtle sunbathing.

Dad teaching his son to respect the wild life and watch from afar. The turtle was a little nervous with us being around. He was really cute.

He made his way down to the water to cool off.

There were a few hammocks on the beach, (my favorite part). Tristan loved it too!

After swimming and visiting, we had to leave soon after lunch was served so we could make it to Ezra's 1st birthday party at Waimanalo Beach.

With chocolate left over on his face from the dessert eating contest, Tristan swore that he saw a few "shocks" (sharks) in the water.

I was a little nervous that I would somehow go into labor while being stuck on this secret beach, but I was told that there was a doctor in the group, and that their boat could get me pretty close to a hospital at top speed. Thank goodness baby girl stayed put!

miss this boy?

2011-04-13T00:25:00.002-10:00

We've been a little occupied this last month or so. Christian has caught some sort of bug that has kept him out of work for almost a whole week. Throat, nose, conjunctivitis, ears, neck pain (having an MRI this Friday). Since having congested ears (one visit to the ER thinking he ruptured a drum), C has lost almost complete hearing in both of his ears. He will be seeing an ear specialist this week. Tristan's terrible twos have escalated beyond terrible and his tantrums are getting more difficult to manage. He's still adorable and fun, but cruuuazy. I can't keep up with the boy. Why is that? Because I'm 9 months pregnant, and this past month I had hips twisted in different directions, which felt like my legs were falling out of their sockets, with shooting pain in my lower back. I've been in physical therapy trying to fix myself because I wasn't able to walk without wanting to cry. Trying to man the house from sun up to sun down in this condition is not easy. Taking care of a sickling and a stubborn little turd (a cute turd) makes it a lot harder. This is what we've been up to the last few weeks. Things are a lot better now. I can walk again! Well, I waddle. But whatever, I can get around now. Christian is back at work now but has had to warn some of his co-workers about his hearing problem. I hope that he can get his hearing back soon.

On a fun note, I saw my doctor today and it looks like baby girl could arrive as soon as next week! I'm so excited to meet her. I'm also freaking out a little. I'm nervous about surviving the baby schedule again. I'm nervous about going through labor again and feeling that pain. I pray that everything goes smoothly. So we will be adding pictures of baby girl very soon, but until then, here is what this crazy little kid has been up to;

Watch out! He's a triple threat. He's got the looks, and we've all seen him dance, but we've discovered that he is a singer as well. He loves to sing and perform. His all time favorite song right now is "Pool Party" by the Aquabats. He requests (demands) to hear this song allllll day long, even while driving in the car. Other songs; Twinkle little star, and Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam.

He loves to bake (or pretend bake). It's to the point now where I have to hide when I bake, or he freaks out and gets upset for not including him. I was making banana muffins the other day with my hand mixer, trying to hide the mixer from his view, when I heard him sneak up on me and yell "Hey!.....chair!". And he ran over to his "blue cooking chair" and pulled it over. The pictures above are of him making a creation on his own. He peeled the orange and was pouring it back and forth, in the pans that he got out all by himself.

Don't judge me on this one. We received a new baby present on Sunday and I made the mistake of trying it on Tristan, just for fun. Here he is, adoring himself in the mirror. He didn't want to take it off. opps. It was funny watching him play with his cars on the ground in this dress. The next morning he ran and grabbed it and asked me to put it on him. I had a little talk with him so I think we're ok now.

The obsession with Woody and Buzz continues. Sometimes he combines the characters into one, (as seen in the picture on the right).

Some of his favorite words:

Mama and Dada have evolved into "Mommy" and "Daddy". I LOVE it.
Apple Juice
Bubbles side = Let's blow bubbles outside
Watch dis = I want to watch a show or movie
Socket = chocolate
Mummy = food is yummy mom.
Anch = Ranch dressing
Fi Trah = Fire Truck
Menamine = Megamind
George = Monkey (or Curious George movie)

holga

2011-04-01T21:38:00.009-10:00

I recently got a 120 mm film holga. Fun to have a different camera from our digital that forces you to look at things differently, also fun to have the mystery again of what the pictures will turn out like.

Only taken one roll so far, so have much to learn and experiment, but here are two of my favorites:

pecha kucha night

2011-03-20T09:00:00.009-10:00

Some of you may or may not know this about Christian, but he is incredibly talented. When he's not working at his architecture firm, he's moonlighting as a designer. There's not much designing going on at his firm right now because most of the work is just restoration projects, so Christian's creative outlet is through Arkotec; his underground t-shirt design company and Products for People line (homemade goods).

Christian signed up to present at this past Friday's Pecha Kucha Night; it's an event that happens every few months where designers can meet, network, and share their work with the public. 20 slides/20 seconds each slide. On top of that, he decided to be a part of the hifi fashion incubator, and display his stuff at Ala Moana Center for 10 days. Pecha Kucha was held at hifi's space at Ala Moana on the opening night so it was the perfect opportunity to introduce the public to Arkotec.

I wanted to post about this because I am so proud of my Christian. He did an awesome job presenting; he's a natural when it comes to talking about one of his passions.

Christian had some fans shouting for him from the audience. :)

Some highlights from his presentation;

But his number one fan was waiting for him off-stage. He's so proud of his daddy.

the contest is on

2011-03-09T22:28:00.002-10:00

"The contest is on." That's a statement Shandra has come to know well over the years. It means one of the world tour contests has started somewhere in the world and it's gonna be streaming live on the internet. It means that I'll be posted up watching it, night or day, potentially for long periods of time. Meals enjoyed at the computer, alarm set at random times during the night to catch a heat. About the only reason I wouldn't be watching is if I had the chance to be surfing myself, and it would have to be worth it to miss a contest.

We don't watch the Super Bowl or even the commercials during it. We don't watch the World Cup or Final Four or any playoffs. We don't even really pay attention to the Olympics. No American Idol either. In our home, surfing is all there is.

The first contest of 2011 just finished yesterday and I'm just so happy that another season has started. To celebrate, here are some photos from last December's Pipeline Masters we went to:

Tristan dogging while uncle Gavin looks on. He didn't feel very well after we got to the beach but was a champion. Didn't complain at all and even took a nap for a while in a makeshift tent.

Always an honor to see Kelly surf in person.

Dane Reynolds:

Dane recently posted a video with some contest footage on his site and I spotted myself in the crowd. Here's the same wave as above:

After the contest we went to a little spot I know and Gavin and I went out for a surf while our loving wives chatted on the beach. Young Ice T was still feeling bad and slept some more...hate seeing him like that.

Fun

two

2011-03-06T19:45:00.000-10:00

This sweet boy turned two last month. It makes me so sad that he's not my little baby anymore. I know that I'm pregs and extra sensitive right now, but I had a really sad moment last week thinking about how fast he's growing up and that our world will be changing so soon with this new baby. It was just another reminder to enjoy every moment with this boy. Before we know it, he will be a teenager and may not even like us. That will be sad.

Tristan is probably one of the happiest little boys that I know. It's not hard to make him smile or laugh. I love that he is so high on life. A ball full of energy. He is very social and becomes instant BFs with anyone. We just adore him and love watching him grow and become his own person.

For his birthday this year we decided to take him to Chuck E Cheese for the first time. He invited a few friends and they all had a blast. If we were there any longer, it may have given his mom and dad a seizure with all of the flashing lights and craziness, but the kids loved it. When it was finally time to leave, Tristan cried hysterically for 20 minutes on the way home, and then finally fell asleep. My plan to wear him out worked, which is extremely hard to do. After naps we opened presents, went swimming at the beach, had burgers at Teddy's and then ice cream at Bubbies. Fun-filled day.

Chuck E is kind of creepy to me, but T was pretty stoked on him. This is Tristan trying to give a shaka. We're still working with him.

The little ones waiting patiently for me to light his candles.

He practiced blowing out candles for weeks. Nailed it!

The aftermath.

Two year old stats:

5th percentile for height and weight. 50% for head. :)
He insists on having hot foods for lunch, no cold sandwiches for him. He loves tomatoes right now, his all time fave.
He still thinks he's Buzz Lightyear. He makes his dad (even his very pregnant mom) pick him up and fly him around the house or down the stairs to the car, as he puts his fists out in front of him and scrunches his face, or else...
He will climb anything. No matter how high, no matter how danger. He'll do it.
He dances on command. Even if he's throwing a tantrum, we say "go dance", and there he goes.
Favorite movies; any Toy Story and now Megamind

couples baby shower

2011-03-01T20:26:00.009-10:00

I was SO glad that Christian came out to CA with me on this trip. Not only to help me on the flights with Tristan, or to take turns putting that insomniac boy down for bed, but to join me in my baby shower that my family put on for me. They turned it into a couples shower and all of the guys got to come! I'm sure that all of the boys were just as thrilled as Christian was that they got to attend a baby shower. (ha). They were all great sports and we really had such a good time. It was great seeing everyone. I swear, we have the coolest friends. And Christian did know more than half of the couples in the room, so he was not an outcast.

I have very limited pictures from the evening. I didn't even get pictures of everyone that attended. Or the food, which was amazing! Catered by our favorite CA joint, Pick Up Stix. (Chinese Cuisine). I was probably too busy eating it to think about taking pictures of it. Here are a few shots that were captured that night;

This picture makes me laugh. Poor Christian, getting smashed by his chubby wife, as we try to squeeze into the same chair. After we had dinner and visited downstairs, the herd was moved up into the bonus room to play a game and open presents. Funny story: As we walked into the bonus room, we were shocked to see how many presents there were sitting there waiting for us to open. Being a first time shower attendee, Christian was also shocked when he found out that we had to open these presents in front of everyone. I had to explain to him that that's what we do at showers; ooohhh and awww over the cute baby stuff. He was so confused.

Left: Shellee and Nick. Right: Emily and Ben.

Left: Anthony and Steph. Right: Lori and Haws.

Left: Vauri and Jay. Right: Will and Jenn.

Left: Seth and Kim. Right: Whit and Jim/Shawna and Gavin.

Front: Kelly and Jason. Back: Sara and Dave.

Left: Kelly and Dave. Right: Rob and Adrienne.

Tristan waits patiently for presents to start opening. When he realized that mom and dad were taking too long to open the presents, he sort of snapped and decided to take matters in his own hands by destroying all of the unopened presents- pulling tissue out and throwing it everywhere and mixing up the cards. It was funny to watch but hard to keep track of the presents.

Girls clothes are so much fun. And it looks as though Christian caught on quick to the "oooohhhing".

Game time. Each couple had to pair up with another couple to write a story about Christian and I. They were instructed to include all of the words at the top of the page in their story.

Here we are reading the stories out loud. Hilarious! The things people came up with. It was a lot of fun.

Thanks fam for the fun shower!

long beach aquarium

2011-02-26T21:48:00.004-10:00

While in California, we only had one free day to plan a fun outing with the fam. My Dad thought it would be fun to head over to the aquarium in LB. I haven't been there since I was a wee one and I'm glad that we went. T had a blast. Christian only had one day to get in a cold water surf, so stayed back and went with our friend Will.

Nama and Papa teach Joaquin and Tristan about the fish.

Aunt Chelcie teaches T about how dangerous sharks can be, by showing him that he could be swallowed whole in just one bite.

We went and saw a 4D Turtle cartoon movie which was pretty cool, but ended up being one of those propaganda movies that traumatizes little kids and teaches them to be terrified of humans and hate them. Sad, but the overall experience was super fun. For some reason my mom chose to sit in the very front row, in an empty theater. :) So we got to experience 4D in full effect, with the smoke machine and waters splashed right in our faces. It was funny.

Tristan LOVED this part. He now thinks that it's ok to stick his hand in the water at Ala Moana mall and pet the Koi fish. Trying to teach him that only happens at the aquarium.

I just had to end on this picture of Joaquin, because he is just one cute little nugget.

30 weeks

2011-02-23T14:59:00.002-10:00

the gonzalez family

2011-02-21T07:47:00.008-10:00

We had the opportunity to make a quick trip out to California to watch this sweet, little family be sealed together in the Newport Beach Temple. I just love them, especially that little boy of theirs, Joaquin. The sealing ceremony was so special and wonderful and I'm so glad that we could be there.

I didn't take that many pictures of the gang but here are a couple from my camera, attempting to take nice sibling pictures:

Congratulations Gonzalez Family! We love you!

fist pump

2011-02-18T16:23:00.002-10:00

He's back! Remember the power stance? Little T has mastered a new move...the fist pump! Except that he has taken it to a whole new level. This kid is awesome.

Untitled from Shandra Hastings on Vimeo.

young galaxy

2011-02-06T16:40:00.007-10:00

This song is sick. nice beat, subtle 80s electronic influence- that sound that comes in at :37 seconds into it. unreal. I used to struggle to find new music. Now it's there for me whenever I want to go looking.

Cover Your Tracks

how do they manage...

2011-01-28T23:18:00.002-10:00

to get chocolate pudding all over their face?

I think he liked it.

p.s. please note the juicy lips.

north shore sessions: december 2010

2011-01-24T11:35:00.008-10:00

What has Christian been up to lately? Here's a few shots of him on the north shore this Winter.

serving tray

2011-01-19T10:26:00.004-10:00

My new obsession...collecting serving trays/platters. This one was found at Savers for under $10. I instantly thought of Anthropologie or Urban Outfitters. Thank you old Asian ladies for donating your awesome, vintage houseware.

big island highlights part II

2011-01-15T19:08:00.004-10:00

Tristan made it very clear that his Dad was his favorite person on this trip...and not me. I think that it's because at home, I'm with him all day, every day. So to be able to spend this much time with his Dad was pure heaven. I was always getting pushed away when they were having their special moments, no moms allowed! I guess I can't blame him, Dads are way more fun.

He took a nasty fall while paddling on one knee on the board. You can see the broken blood under the skin on his forehead. He was sad for one second and got right back up. It looks like someone needs a helmet for his birthday next month.

New Years Eve we met up with a couple of other families at Kalopa State Park to have a picnic lunch and play some frisbee baseball. Tristan was not shy and jumped right into the game.

Christian waves his sparklers next to his Dad and his twin brother, Christian.

Tristan was having some trials while the fireworks were going off, and we realized that it's because he didn't want his Dad to get hurt. Any time Christian got too close to the fireworks, he went hysterical and was screaming his Dad's name. Dad had to come up and comfort him a couple of times while I was holding him. As soon as he switched to Dad's arms, he would immediately stop crying and push me away to go play with the fireworks. Apparently he didn't really care if I got burnt or not. What a sweetheart.

Beautiful power walk down Mana Road. 4 miles to be exact.

big island highlights part I

2011-01-12T17:34:00.006-10:00

One of the coolest parks I've ever seen. It's huge!

I totally get the golfing obsession. It's really peaceful and relaxing. I chose to sit out and drive the cart and read my book.

I jumped in and took a swing.

We met up with the Ray family, who were in town for their family vacation, staying at the Mauna Kea Hotel. We love the Rays. Tristan finally got to meet Rowan and they hit it off. How weird would it be to be thrown into a bath with stranger? They didn't seem to mind.

The Dads bathing their little ones.

At Mauna Kea Beach, Tristan attempted to take his new paddle board out for a test ride. He likes the idea of having a board, and carrying it, but once when he's in the water with it he gets a little nervous. Does that make him a poser? I think so. When he gets bigger, I'm sure he will toughen up.

Tristan barking orders at his Aunt Winnie and Uncle Diego while building their sand castle.

While mom and Aunt Coco relax in the sun.

Our favorite black sand beach, Waipio Valley. The weather was pretty chilly this day, but some of us were brave enough to jump in for a little swimming and surfing.

Christian carves, stalls and prepares for his barrel.

Jim manages to create a nice spray while floating on the wave.

Stay tuned for BI highlights part II.

christmas on the big island

2011-01-10T22:41:00.006-10:00

We traveled to the Big Island for Christmas this year and had a great time. We were prepared for freezing weather and packed heavy, warm clothing, which took up a lot of suitcase space, but it turned out to be a lot warmer than we thought most of the days. Which is weird, because our summer trips over there were pretty dang cold. Tristan got a lot of attention from the family, being that he was the only kid there to spoil. All of this attention sort of escalated his terrible twos and he became pretty rotten. Mostly to his parents. Mostly his mom. But to everyone else he was a little angel.

Christmas is so much fun with kids. I think that Tristan sort of understood what was going on. He knew that the "maykismas" tree was something special, and off limits. It had so many "maykismas" presents under it that he wasn't allowed to touch until that one morning, when we finally let him rip them all open. How confusing for him. He pointed to all the "maykismas" lights hanging all over town. And he figured out quickly what the (nut) "cracker" was, and pointed him out everywhere. My attempt to teach him that it was Jesus' birthday failed, but I think he will be able to grasp that a little more next year.

Below are just a few pictures from Christmas eve and day.

Tristan enjoyed spinning on the swivel chair with Aunt Coco, an activity he forced many into participating in. "Push!" was a new word he learned on this trip. So demanding but it's hard to say no to his cute face.

Family photo by the perfectly proportioned Christmas tree.

Christmas eve dinner (with only half of the gang in the photo), consisted of "Christian's Roast". Yum yum!

Christmas morning, Tristan anxiously awaits to see what all of this stocking hype was all about.

He was not disappointed, especially with the goldfish find.

And his NASA space shuttle.

And fruit leather.

Before jumping into all of our presents, we decided to hit the beach early to beat the crowds and also to wait until Uncle Jim flew in that afternoon. At Hapuna Beach Tristan showed off his rock climbing skills.

Warning, do not ever mess with his sand castle.

Visiting with the Lindseys.

Later that evening, Tristan played Christmas tunes on the piano to bring in the holiday spirit.

Mom was thrilled with the new Gabba cd! :)

Checking out his new tunnel.
Was great to relax and be with family! Thanks for having us and Happy Birthday to Jesus!

More BI pictures to come!

jungle boy finds a surfboard

2010-12-20T13:52:00.007-10:00

We've been out to the north shore a lot this Winter. The surf has been fun for Christian and it's one of our favorite places to hang out. So yes, we do have a lot of beach pictures on this blog, but I guess that's what we do here! We can't help ourselves. So here you go, more pictures from the beach.

This boy has been making us laugh a lot lately. He really is such a ham and I think that he soaks up all of the attention he gets from mom and dad and loves to entertain. Just a couple of funny things he did last week for the books: While roaming around nude, exploring the bushes, I turn my back on him and let him do his thing back there. About 5 minutes later we hear, "Hiiiiiiii". We turn around and this is what we see:

Our naked boy saddled up on a dog. He was so proud of himself and excited to show us what he had done. What a sweet little dog for putting up with such behavior.

Dad intervenes and helps him down.

And shows him the proper way to treat a dog.

A bit later, (we were at the beach for 6 hours total that day! I don't know how we did it.) Tristan stumbled across this wooden board in the bushes and dragged it out. Remembering that his Dad carries a long stick around and rides it in the water, he knew exactly what to do with it.

Tristan is thrilled with his find and is excited to try it out.

He makes his way over to his Mom first to show her what he discovered. We were so impressed with how he carried it like a surfboard.

He says his goodbyes and charges towards the giant north shore waves.

"byyeeee".

Christian said that he looked pretty nervous as he walked closer to the water. He even walked into the water and got nailed by a wave, but he kept going until Christian had to stop him. Apparently he was determined to get out there and impress his parents.

Christian laid the board down for him and told him this was as far as he was going.

Later on when Christian and Uncle Gavin were ready to go out again, Tristan ran to grab his board and was excited to finally paddle out with the boys. Christian said it was actually really sad to watch him because he was so serious and thought that it was time. I ended up having to drag a really sad boy in as we waved goodbye to his Dad.

It's really fun for us to watch his personality develop and we realized after this that we have a pretty cool kid. So happy, silly and adventurous (and can handle extreme lengths of time at the beach). So excited to get out there with dad and surf. That makes dad happy too.

Tristan and Bentley

2010-12-18T22:20:00.003-10:00

It's really fun watching T develop his circle of friends. Little ones that he recognizes and gets so excited to see. Bentley is one of them. They play so well together and I think it's because they are both crazy, crazy kids. I had the chance to capture these really cute pictures of the little boogers when we were at the beach with his parents a couple of weekends ago. Oh so cute. Please note that Bentley is a full year older than Tristan and they measure at different ends on the scale. But that doesn't stop them from being BFFs!

christmas happenings

2010-12-13T22:29:00.005-10:00

Our Christmas tree has been up for a couple of weeks now. It's real! I love the smell it brings to our living room. Tristan has been really good about not yanking on the tree or ornaments. In fact, when he had a friend over last week, he brought her over to the tree and pointed his finger at it and said, "no no no!". I guess he's remembering what Mom and Dad have told him.

He wasn't that stoked on Santa. "Mom, Dad, who is this man?

"Seriously mom, are you going to do something about this?"

"Really? A candy cane? That's the best you've got?"

"Please don't touch me".

"I'm done here, and I feel a little queasy now ". After he hopped down from his lap, he handed the candy cane back to him.

Later that night, the boys frosted the sugar cookies.

Tristan got creative and used his licked finger to help spread the frosting on the cookie.

Multi-tasking! I hope that those of you who ate our cookies enjoyed them!

sugar

2010-12-10T23:59:00.002-10:00

a lot of Christmas baking = a lot of uncontrolled sugar intake = a toddler on speed = ten o'clock bed time = frustrated and tired parents.

Halona Beach Cove

2010-12-07T22:39:00.005-10:00

Also known as "Cockroach Cove". I'm not sure why, there are no roaches here. We had a lot of fun at this place. It may look familiar because this is where they shot the scene from "50 First Dates" with Adam Sandler and Drew B. I think that this was one of Tristans favorite beaches so far. He had plenty of small rocks to climb on and feel cool because he could do it all by himself. He could play in small pools of water and be sheltered from the big shore breaks. It would be fun to hang out at this place more often.

This photo was stolen from the web.

We went with the Ward Family. Tristan and Ava love each other.

This boy was in heaven.

Sports Illustrated cover shot.

It makes me wonder what he's thinking about in this picture. "I love rocks, and water, and sand, and mama, and dada. I'm so happy".

Exploring the tide pools with his Dad.

Some sort of sea urchin is discovered. It's really gross because all of those wormy things in the middle suck on you when you put it on your hand. It hurt a little!

Rock jumping.

I made this photo a little bigger so you could see how funny it was. His head looks like it's been photoshopped on to his body, like it's floating a little. No photoshopping here! We had a good laugh.

Tristan ended up jumping from the rocks a few times. Anything to be like his Dad.

temple open house

2010-12-05T20:29:00.004-10:00

The Laie Temple is back! It's been closed for two years for heavy renovation and it just recently re-opened last month. We had the opportunity to attend the open house and view some of the changes inside the temple. Beautiful. We had our little stinker with us which was a total embarrassment and probably ruined the experience for everyone on the tour with us. I don't understand, there were other little ones on the tour with us, but they were perfect angels. Tristan was being so rowdy and wanted to jump on the new furniture and make a lot of noise. It got to the point where Christian had to squeeze his lips closed (really hard) to make him stop talking! Note to self, get a sitter next time. Anyways, we are so excited that the temple is open again and we hope to come and visit it often.

Trying to stop this boy from jumping into the water. This pool is definitely not meant for swimming.

It was really cute because when we all walked into the visitors center, we were greeted with this beautiful statue of Christ, and Tristan immediately saw him and starting pointing and yelling, "Jesus!! Jesus!!.....Jesus!!!" This place is usually peaceful and quiet so we had to quickly cover his mouth. It's interesting how Tristan recognizes Jesus in all shapes and form. Tristan always knows exactly who it is, no matter how different each painting is of Him. Very cool.

Don't you love it when you ask bystanders to take a photo of your family and they get it all wrong. It's almost like they heard you say, "Can you please take a picture of our family in front of the temple, but don't get any of the temple in the picture. We mostly want our feet and try and capture a lot of the concrete ground. Thank you!"

This boy still had his eyes on that water. Thank goodness we packed our beach bags and we were off to Gas Chambers. If you drive all the way out to the North Shore, you've got to make a beach day out of it.

Exhausted. He swam his little arms off.

baby: part II

2010-11-28T16:20:00.007-10:00

We are expecting! Our baby girl will be making her big debut on April 29th. We are so excited, and so nervous at the same time. How do people survive with two kids? I don't understand. I sound really ridiculous right? People do it everyday, with even more kids. Maybe Tristan will have matured a little more by the time baby gets here? But then I hear that the second one is a lot easier. You have already got the baby routine down, you know what to expect. Either way, we are thrilled. We love being parents more than anything and can't wait to meet this little girl.

Here are a few of our latest ultrasound photos, which may be boring to most, but she's so cute I had to put some up.

16 weeks along.

Nana and Papa

2010-11-22T15:34:00.005-10:00

My Nana and Papa are two of my favorite people. They have such a big circle of friends and family who love them. They are hard working people with big hearts, who love to serve others. I grew up really close to Nana and Papa, as they only lived about 30 minutes away. The memories I have with them! Me and my sibs used to spend many weekends at their house and we loved it. Nana was little Ms. Baker in the kitchen. We were always fed really well. She is also an artist and would trust us with her art supplies and let us paint pictures. Papa made us this really cool fort out of wood in the back yard that I will never forget. It was two stories! He also didn't mind when I plopped my feet in his lap for him to scratch for me. :) Then Nana and Papa moved to Utah when I was in middle school and I didn't get to see them as much. My mom drove us kids out there as often as possible to see them. When I moved out to Idaho to attend Ricks College, I was finally able to reconnect with them. I drove down to stay with them almost every weekend! And they welcomed all of my college friends with open arms; fed us and let us take over their basement. Anyways, they are pretty awesome people and I miss them.

(These two photos below are old, but they are super cute).

BFFs.

During this last California trip, I had the opportunity to fly out to Utah to see them. My Papa had a couple of (serious) surgeries scheduled and we all wanted to be there for them. Tristan was a crazy little kid on this trip so my visiting time with them was limited, but I'm SO glad that I went. His second surgery was canceled due to his slow recovery from the first surgery, but it was rescheduled for January, so keep him in your prayers! It's a big one.

Me and my sisters with Nana and Papa. Joaquin was being bashful.

My mom with her parents.

Addison working so hard to make Papa laugh. She is such a ham!

Sweet.

Tristan colored Papa a picture but he was a little nervous to give it to him.

Chelcie will probably hate me for posting this picture, but she is so beautiful, I just had to. (It's a little blurry, or we can pretend that it's like a glamour shot :).

While in Utah, this little stinker was going stir-crazy and needed to run around! It started snowing while we were there, so going outside to play wasn't really an option. And he didn't understand that we needed to be patient in our hotel room while my mom was taking care of Papa at the hospital. So we all decided to take the little ones to a Discovery Center in Salt Lake. Very similar to Pretend City in Irvine. Ahhh, it felt good to just let him loose.

Tristan with my cousin Lisa.

Addison and Tristan report late breaking news about Salt Lake's stormy weather and icy roads!

But then Addison points out that it will be 90 degrees on Tuesday. That's weird.

I think that the hospital donated this helicopter for kids to play on and explore. It was so much fun for them.

Tristan waves goodbye as mom pretends to take off in the helicopter. By the way, it was freezing outside. It felt good to get back home to Oahu for some warm weather.

California Trip: pretend city

2010-11-21T08:52:00.008-10:00

During one of the rainy days in CA, we decided to take the kiddies to Pretend City. This place is so cool! It's an adult world, fit for kids. They can pretend to work at the Post Office, or check out a book from the library, or drive a police car, etc. They had so much fun.

Our cute little firemen with Addi in tow, race to put out a fire.

Putt.

Working on the farm. Tending to the chicks (they had real chicks!) and watering the lettuce.

While Addi picked the oranges, Tristan prepped the truck for drop off at the store.

Meanwhile at the grocery store, Addi worked the cash register while Tristan stocked the shelves.

"weeeeee"

Tristan's dream come true, working as an elevator door man. He could push those buttons all day.

Chelcie and sweet Joaquin.

Brookie and Mama.

California Trip: magician birthday party

2010-11-14T17:04:00.005-10:00

Little Von and Addi have birthdays in December, in the middle of all the holiday craziness, so Ian and Alisa decided to throw them this amazing magician birthday party mid October. If I took better pictures, I would submit them to Martha Stewart's party planning website (does she have one?). Alisa did such a great job on this party. All of the kids had top hats, staches on a stick, and homemade capes! Yummy homemade mexican food was served. A bounce house was blown up in the back. Everyone had such a great time.

Homemade cupcakes topped with cute little faces.

My favorite part of the party, the sugar cookies.

The birthday babies. They are so adorable and had so much fun!

You guessed it, homemade white chocolate stars.

Top hat cake turned up-side-down with cute kids jumping out.

Prepping the food for the party. Abracadabra/Hocus Pocus streamers.

The birthday kiddos with mom and dad in the photo booth!

Me, my momma, and Tristan. T was so cute because he knew exactly where to put his stache

Dad, Mom, T and I.

Everyone gathered to watch the Magician! They hired an old buddy of mine from seminary. He was incredible! He stumped all of the adults with his tricks. I'm still amazed and confused at how he did it. It was cute because after every trick, Addi kept yelling, "Wow, that was so magical!". It really was!

This is where I found Tristan towards the end of the night.

Everyone was pooped by the end of the party. Addi didn't even have time to untie the balloons from her wrists, she was so tired.

20 months

2010-11-09T12:03:00.003-10:00

Some new words; "water", "Juice", "Zoo", "Cheeeeeeeze", "Pease" (please). "Papa", "Tutututututu" (Grandma in Hawaiian), "Nama" (Grandma in Californian), "Willllla", (the neighbor's dog), "Car", "lawdlawdlawdla" (banana), "Baby" as he points to children smaller than him, which are rare to find.
His obsession with Buzz Lightyear has gone extreme. To get from one place to another, he first needs to poke his chest (the button to expand his wings), spread his arms out, shout "Buzz!" and run as fast as his little legs can handle. In his nursery class at church, he shouts out "Buzz!" in the middle of the lesson when they are asking the kids who created the animals. Buzz solves everything; when he's having a melt down, all we need to say is "Buzz?", and he immediately cheers for joy.
He almost goes to bed willingly at night. We just have to keep the door open, lights on in the other rooms, and continue with our evening so he knows that we are still there. Some nights are better than others, but we are making progress.
We haven't been to the doctors in a month or so but I'm assuming that he's still not on the charts. I'm not worried. He's easy to carry! He will get his growth spurt soon.
He is always so thrilled when "dada" comes home from work. He immediately stops what he's doing and runs and tackles him to the floor.
Tristan is still into kissing his mom and dad...on the lips...sometimes using tongue. I'm not sure where he learned that from but oh my!!! Should I be concerned?
He makes friends wherever he goes and gets along really well with them. He's a lover, not a hater. (see bullet above)
He has taken an interest in sitting on the toilet, with the seat up, and his clothes off. Signs of potty training? oh boy.
Some of his favorite games; Simon Says, Red Light Green Light, and Hide and Seek.

Aiea Heights bbq

2010-11-08T12:11:00.005-10:00

Last month we teamed up with a group of friends and headed out to Aiea Heights for a bbq. Sometimes it's just fun to pretend like we're not on Oahu and hang out on a chilly campground. This place was beautiful!

Tristan and Abigail blowing their bubbles:

So we've learned that our little boy kind of enjoys being a loner. Don't get me wrong, he's very social and interacts well with other kids, but like his dad, enjoys deep thought and the occasional alone time to ponder life. While mom was gabbing away with friends (or pretending to be on the phone)...:

...we lost track of Tristan for a minute, and Dad spotted him far off in the woods (the picture below doesn't show how far he actually was). He was just hanging out, eating his roll, becoming one with nature. When his dad went to see what he was up to, Tristan led him to a spot just behind where he sat (he knew where he was going)- to the edge of a little cliff, and started picking things up and throwing them off it. Good thing he's so cautious.

Picking things to throw off the cliff. He and Dad bonded a little over their embracing of loneliness and Dad brought him back to the party.

We made homemade sliders with chopped up onions and mushrooms mixed in with the hamburger using hawaiian sweet bread rolls for buns. Was unreal.

Here's the gang:

Finally, we stoked up the fire enough for smores and hung out until it started getting dark.

Good times.