baby: part II

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

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

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

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

• 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

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.