Happy To You!

Hello all! Things here are going well. We've recently celebrated my birthday (not telling which one haha) and had a family trip to a very small island called Lanai. I had a great birthday! I really was not caring about my bday this year. My dear sweet family and friends made it very special tho....so thank you! This year we decided not to buy each other Christmas or birthday gifts and to take a mini vacation instead! Michael works at the Four Seasons, so we were able to stay there on Lanai. It was a great trip...we just read, relaxed, stayed in our pajamas, ordered room service, and hit up the beach, pool, and hot tub. Isla had a blast! She does really well when she is in new environments. I notice she always seems to mature when we take her out of her normal routine and surroundings. She loved the water, exploring and looking at the big koi fish and lizards. Not to mention not having to use a high chair. We took a boat ride over, so that was pretty exciting as well. All in all, November was a great month!
Miss Isla is continuing to grow at an alarming rate! She is very tall for her age....we all know that gene didn't come from me haha. Her hair is still curly as ever and turning more blond with every beach visit. She has such a love for music! She wants me to sing to her all the time. She always shouts out her request/demands to me. "Happy to you" (aka Happy Birthday to You) is her one of her favorites right now. I always ask her who we are singing to. For awhile it was always people, lately tho it has been objects! We've sang happy birthday to lemons, the ocean, and even....i can't believe i'm admitting this....but POOPY!!! Yes, not sure why she wanted to do that!!! She is a trip for sure with her own very big personality! She has been calling me "Shallnen" on occasions just for fun. I tell her "That's Mommy to you!" and she says "No, Shallnen!" All in good fun of course. She likes to go thru her list of people and ask what they are all doing. "What's Daddy doing?" She's learning her colors and can sing most of her ABCs now give or take a few letters!!! She also enjoys saying "Watch this!" and doing some bizarre one armed dance or making funny sounds. She is such a bright spot in our lives and always keeps us laughing!

We are getting ready to go to the Big Island for Christmas to visit our family and friends! We are very excited to get Jaggar for the week! We miss him tons while we are apart. After we get back I'll have two weeks off from work still and then I'm going to begin working full time in January! While it is a bit of a drag to leave my baby full time, I feel very fortunate that I'm able to get MORE work in this horrific economy. That is it for now!! Much love!
Aloha!

Jag's visit and Michael's Bday

Aloha! So this month Jaggar came and stayed with us over his fall break! It's always great to have him here! It amazes me how bonded he and Isla are. She doesn't see him for months at a time and still remembers him and gives his picture an "up high" (high five) almost everyday. While he was here we took the kiddos to the Aquarium. Jag can name almost any fish we see there. We also went on a hike called Swinging Bridges. You have to cross two rickety bridges that are made from narrow slats of wood and wire cable. At the end of the hike you get to jump off of a man made water fall in the picture. We all jumped and had a nice day. Michael was doing back flips and suicides off the dumb cliff. Some kids that were there were giving him requests every time he jumped. Jag and I are the more traditional jumpers haha. While he was here Jag "hinted" to me that he wanted an ipod. A few days later he checked a box that we keep for him that we put any $ he gets from family for holidays/birthdays. He had $150!!! I told him that was probably enough to buy an ipod....so he now has a brand new blue ipod nano! He is so excited he fell asleep with it on. We also had a birthday bash for Michael....the BIG 36!!! haha. He'll kill me for that...anyways. It was really nice we had it at a beach park with a bunch of friends and the kids. We bbq'd and had a big spread of food and brownies. Michael has been surfing way more lately. He has found some guys from work that he goes with at like 5 am for dawn patrol sessions. Where you muster the motivation to do something that hard that early is beyond me ....so I give them credit! I've been surfing a little more on the weekends. I'm actually able to get up and stay up now! Woo hoo! I've been getting up every weekend until last weekend when the waves were a bit larger and I just got hammered repeatedly!!! Needless to say I dragged my sorry butt back to the shore and caught nothing but water up my nose haha. We usually take turns, one surfs, one watches the baby. She is always a cheerleader and I can see her from shore when I'm up with her hands in the air yelling, "Yeah Mommy!!! Go Mommy go!!!" So one last story then I'm out. Michael was washing the dishes one day and Isla drug the step stool out of it's home and over by Daddy to watch. He's washing away not paying much attention to the fact that her hands are in the water and the step stool is no where close to being tall enough for that to happen. He yelled for me from the other room to come see something and you can see in the picture what she was standing on.......the handle! I swear the girl is part monkey! Anyways...enough for now!
Much Love to all!
shall

E-I-E-I-OOOOOOO!

Aloha! So sorry for the tardiness of this entry!!! So we'll start with the little monkey b/c she's the most interesting/fun. She is 16 months now! She is a complete charismatic jabber box. When she is looking for something she'll say something like "Binky, Where are you?" When she wants something she will say it over and over with increasing volume :). She knows her classmates names, all of the foods she eats, greetings, and on and on. She tries to repeat most things. I'm guessing she knows around 100 words. Our neighbor is teaching her Spanish too. It's darling when she says, "mas moomas" for "mas uvas (more grapes)." She likes to sing too and will try to imitate songs she hears granted they are often jarbled but she gets the melody pretty close. Her favorite song right now is Old McDonald. For a long time she would just say E-I-E-I... but now she's added the "O." She likes to look at animal books and have me sing the song. She also has a mild obsession with the McDonald Baby Einstein DVD, but that's starting to fade into Sesame Street. She knows all of the animals sounds now including weird ones like owl, mouse, frog, and bee. OKAY!!! I know....way too much info about her speech/language development... I'm a speech therapist, give me a break!!!

She is WAY into the Sesame Street right now too. She seems to like Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie, and Oscar the most (at least those are the ones she names). They have an amazing website that has video clips. Her favorites are the ones with songs like "C is for cookie"(she sings and pretends she's taking cookies off the screen and eating/feeding them to you) or the "No no" song (she shakes her head and waves her finger with the kids on the video....soooo cute). The only problem with this being anytime someone sits down to use the computer she thinks they are her solely there to aid her in her Sesame Street addiction and will "no no no (from the song)" you to death!!!! That's another thing about this little one....she does not give up easily at all!

She's gone to the big girl potty chair four times now, however, we are not close to being potty trained. She told me "poop" one day and I put her on her chair and she actually went!!! It's a start! I got her big girl panties and she has gone to the bathroom in them within 5 minutes both times I've put them on her.....so we still have some work to do.

This girl does not seem to have a healthy sense of fear when it comes to certain things. She will try to climb whatever she can including her stroller (like standing backwards in the seat balancing), slides, and furniture. She loves to swing very high and slide at the park. She just started going down by herself. Her true love are boards tho. She will ride down this hill with her daddy on his skate board. He stands on the back and she stands on the front and he holds her hands. They ride all the way down our parking lot into our neighborhood and over the speed bump. I'm going to try and post the video some how soon. She LOVES this and says "weeee!" She likes playing with the skateboard in the house and is good at stepping on and off it on her own now. She even makes her baby skateboard haha. We also sit her on the surfboard in the water and she will sit there forever just floating around and over small waves. We go to the beach at least weekly and she loves being in the water and finding rocks to put in her bucket.

On to the grown ups! Michael is doing well at work! We will probably be moving within the next 6 months to a year with his job in order for him to move up. We won't know where until an opening comes up that we are interested in and he applies. He really didn't surf much when we first moved here. Now he has a surf buddy tho and they go out a lot for dawn patrol, like 5:30 am before work. How you get motivated to do something like that is beyond me....but I'm glad he's enjoying himself:) I had surgery this summer, tonsils/adenoids out and sinus/nasal surgery. It was a hairy awful deal that I'm glad is over. The surgery seems to have helped tho and I'm doing much much better. A HUGE thanks to my mom and my mother and father in law for coming to help me with everything during my recovery. I've started back to work and am enjoying seeing my kiddos. I've also been trying to hike with friends when I can. That's it for now! Hugs to you all and much love!

Jaggar

Jaggar came and stayed with us for awhile this summer. We had a blast! We also got to celebrate his 12th birthday with him. Jaggar and Michael went to Lanai to go camping for a night. We took him to play putt putt at a really neat place that had a river and volcano! One of the pix is of the Olovine pond hike and we also went on a bamboo forest hike with him. We went to the beach several times and got him a Bocce ball set that he loves! There are lots of wide open places to play Bocce ball here so they got broken in very well! Jag started the 7th grade this year!!!! I cannot believe he is getting so old! He is doing well in school this year and loves his teachers. He has a new cell phone so we are able to send him pictures and things on his phone. He's a wiz at working the thing already. He and Isla love each other so much! He is amazed by her and brags all the time, "She has a great vocabulary!" She loves him too and still gives his pictures high fives "up high Jaggar" whenever she can. After he left she carried around his video controller going, "Jaggar, where are you?" We will see him again in October and then again at Christmas. We miss him sooooooo much!

WAYYYY over due!

I've completely slacked over the last few months. I've been procrastinating b/c the more time that goes by, the more of an overwhelming task it seems. I'll give a brief rundown of what's been going on since February.
March- Isla and I went to Texas to visit my family and friends there. It was an amazing trip! We got to spend plenty of time with everyone. Isla had a blast with my nephews! She had her first of three 1st birthday parties there. When we came back home, Jaggar and Michael's parents were already at our house waiting for us! We had a first birthday part for Isla several days after I got back. It was really a special time. Jag and my in laws were an amazing help with the party....Isla loved being around them. She had her party at the beach and ate her cake on a cliff over looking the ocean. It was very mellow and lasted all day. She was a trooper and even took her nap at the beach under a tree in her pack and play.

April-Michael, Isla, and I went to Indiana for a visit. It was SO nice to see everyone! My mom, dad, stepmom, brother, stepsisters, cousins, and aunts came in town to add to the party. I will start by saying that on my dad's side of the family the youngest children are 8 yrs. old and that I was the last girl thirty some odd years ago. My two aunts had all boys. Me....9 boys.....Isla. Needless to say it was nothing short of a ridiculous amount of attention that Isla received. She would toddle from room to room and literally like 14 people would all follow her and flash pictures of every blink, snot nose, smile, and tear that she had. She had a blast! We stayed at one set of my grandparents and spent a considerable amount of time with my other grandparents. There was sooooo much family time ....it was amazing. There were several family gatherings and I was overwhelmed by just being able to be with my family after not coming home for two and a half years that I got teary eyed on several occasions! It's really tough to be so far away....I can here you now... boohoo you live in MAUI! I know, I know....but I still miss people!!! We also went to one of my friends weddings. It was beautiful! I was able to see several friends but there were many more friends that I would have loved to spent more time with. We will make it happen next trip!

May- This month we went to a small very sparsely populated island called Lani to camp for Mother's day! This was our first camping trip since Isla was born! We went with some very dear friends of ours and their baby, Isla's best friend. The camp site was so nice with tables, trashcans, and bathrooms. It was a stones throw from this gorgeous beach too.
We also went to the Big Island this last weekend for another friends wedding! I was honored to be a bride's maid. It was so nice and we got to spend a lot of time with Jaggar too!!! He has grown so much. He is getting all A s and one B on his report card. He had a blast hanging out with us.

So there you have our last several months. As for the little miss....she has changed so much! She is now a full fledge walker! I call her the undoer. Everything I do...she undoes. I find my hairbrush in the kitchen, dirty utensils from the dishwasher in my bedroom, Michael's watch in her toy bin, etc. She likes to imitate everything you do too. The other day she pretended she was pouring sugar in her drink and stirring it right after I did it. She also has begun talking soooooo much! Her favorite word now is "outside." We here "outside" from the time she wakes up until we are putting her down....at least 50 times a day. She cries when we have to come back inside. She is saying up please, thank you, apple, avo (avocado), berries, banana, bath, eyes, nose, eat, drink, more, uppy daisy, NOOOO, Isla, mommy, daddy, jaggar, baby, flower, dog, cat, bird, bye bye, hello, hi, book, ball, baba, night night, mimi (her blanket), shoes, open, shut, up, down, bite, bubbles, and that's all I can think of off the top of my head. She repeats things you say all the time....like "honey dew" "good girl" and "happy birthday," but those are after you say them first. She will combine words too like "berries please" and "bye bye daddy." Her little personality is just shining right now too. She is sooooo excitable at times and you can do the dumbest thing and she just laughs and laughs. She flirts with people all the time....she'll smile and shrug a shoulder at you and blow kisses. She is constantly stopping people in the store to tell them "hello" or "hi." She won't really go to anyone tho except mommy, daddy, and her teacher. She tells us "bye bye" now as we drop her off at school and blows us kisses. We're really glad she likes her school so much. I guess that is about it for now! I'm fading quickly as it is my bed time. Lots of love to you all!!! I'll post pix on here tomarrow or soon! i'm too tired

First word and sand eating!

I've been horrible and haven't updated this in a while now. The biggest news is that our little Isla is now saying words! Her first word was "Isla"!!! I sing a song I made up to her that has her name in it and her little girlfriends says her name over and over. Being a Speech Therapist it just thrilled me! Now her new one is "eyes." She is obsessed with eyes and will dig at her dolly's and yours if you let her. She has said "dog" and "up" on several occasions, but doesn't use them frequently. She is also standing now. She has been doing this for awhile now when i would let go of her. Just a few days ago she started letting go of things on her own. She gets the biggest smile on her face and beams when she's doing it! Yesterday she stood and her hands were way out in front of her for balance and she waved only moving her fingers to her friend. She thinks she's big stuff!
Other tricks she has been doing....she has a talent for crawling away from you while you are trying to change her. It doesn't matter that you have her legs, she will just flip her torso until you have to let go of her for fear of breaking something. I've found giving her something to play with helps. She decided that she wanted to eat SAND last weekend! We go to the beach every weekend....this weekend for some reason the sand at this beach looked tasty! She would shovel handfuls into her mouth and then cry if you tried to get it out. It all came out in the wash:) haha. I realize this pic is horrible of me....but I wanted you to see first hand the sand in her mouth!
On a more serious note, she currently has her 6th ear infection since September. She had a consult with the ENT and he is going to put tubes in her ears soon. Poor girl has them all the time and is constantly digging at her hears and pulling them. They have to put her under for just a short time and then do the procedure. I'm sure she will feel like a million bucks after!
Not much else going on! Michael and I are doing well....just working, playing, and hanging out! Much love to all!!! Click on the two beach pictures so they enlarge and you can see the sand mess!

Happy New Year!!!

Aloha! Happy New Year from our fam to yours! As you may have noticed, I didn't get Christmas cards out this year....so Merry Christmas too haha. We spent Christmas in Hilo with Michael's mom and stepfather. It was a great Christmas! We just relaxed, spent time together, ate A LOT, and opened gifts! Isla was still recovering from an ear ache....and then I got one too and my ear drum ruptured. It was nice to have some down time and a few extra hands while we were recovering. Jaggar got some video games, videos, clothes, dartboard, etc. Isla got gold earrings and a bracelet, clothes, a dolly, hair accessories, etc. Jaggar had a blast opening his gifts, Isla loved the paper, ribbons, boxes, and bows.
Jaggar is enjoying his Christmas break. He is spending some of it with his grandparents and then with us over Christmas. Isla has started crawling, pulling herself up on everything, and clapping! It is fun watching her explore with her new found freedom. She's into boxes, trash, books, cords, bathrooms, etc. She can follow us now from room to room. She JUST started clapping. A few days ago I started singing to her as i was feeding her and she started clapping all by herself! Her hair is long enough now that I've been putting little clips in it. I love decorating my little girl. She's also started talking more often and louder. She is getting four new teeth on the top. Another beautiful first was her first fit where she was yelling and arching her back because she didn't get what she wanted! She has been doing this for the last three days!!! I gotta tell ya....before she started doing this I would always look at women whose children were doing this and think....man lady get a grip on your child! So here I am with one of THOSE kids and I'm that mom. Karma I guess:) So for any of you experienced parents, if you have any input...ideas, lemme know! I am staying strong and not giving in to her....but aside from that, I'm clueless! Well that's a wrap for now!!!
Much love to you all and have a blessed holiday season!!


I guess that's it for now!!! Much love and season's greetings to all!!!
xoxo