Monday, April 30, 2012

Betsy turned ONE!

Our sweet Betsy girl turned one last Friday.  I'm still confused how her first year happened so fast, and I'm starting to have all these guilty feelings about missing it.  Where did this past year go?  Betsy bear is so special to us and has grown into this perfect little girl.  I think she's going to be a funny one.  She's silly and loves to make us laugh.  She's mellow and just kicks back and watches her wild brother climb the walls and do flips.  When she hears a beat, any kind of beat, she dances.  Sprinklers ticking, she's dancing.  The microwave oven ticking, she's dancing.  Dad drops another beat, she's dancing.  Man, that girl can move!  Betsy is famous for her rowing.  It's kind of a move she does when she's really excited about something, but can't seem to move fast enough to get to it, so she rows back and forth.  I need to post a video of her doing it, it's awesome.  

Betsy is no where close to walking.  Maybe a couple more months?  She scooches on her tush to get where she needs to go.  She's a good little gummer.  I feel comfortable giving her a lot of the same foods Tristan is eating.  4 teeth total, 2 on top, 2 on bottom.  She's still my wonderful napper.  Twice a day, 2-3 hours each.  And she is more than happy to go down for them.  I lay her down awake and she sticks that thumb in her mouth and puts herself to sleep.  Thank you Bets!  

For her birthday this year we decided to have something small at our house; dinner and cupcakes with a few families.  I actually LOVED not having to carry everything over to a park.  It was so nice having everything on hand at the house!  Birthday morning, the kids woke up to balloons, and danced, as usual.  Then we hurried and opened presents before dad left for work that morning.
 Tristan was waaay too excited about it being Betsy's birthday.  He was freaking out a little and was frantically rounding up all the presents for "Betsy" to open.  Below, "Betsy" opens up a present from her cousin, Addi.  Thank you Addi for the cute Shabby Baby dress!
 A little bummed out that brother's taking over?

The birthday party.  
Above: Nancy and the Ward family.
Below: Some of the Larsens, and the Thomson family.
On the menu: Crock pot mac and cheese, with sauteed ham and onions.  Garlic bread.  Green salad with fun toppings; pears, feta...., fruit salad.  Strawberry kabobs with angel cake and chocolate drizzle.  Pink Lemonade.  And homemade cupcakes with homemade buttercream frosting.  

Betsy's first taste of sugar!  She loved it but got over it after a few minutes.  She tried to blow out the candle on her own, and spit a little.  It was super cute.    

All the little ones!  It kept sprinkling outside so they had to keep coming in to take cover.  Poor guys.  They were having fun with balloons and glow sticks.  

Presents and post bath for Betsy girl.
 We seriously love all of our friends out here.  They are our family away from family.  We've been friends for a very long time (4-5 years) and have watched all of our little ones grow.  Due to the size of our little place, we were limited to only a few families, but there is a nice group of us that are really close.  Thank you for loving our little Betsy and celebrating her 1st birthday with us!

After the party, taken via instagram.  Clock on the wall is wrong. We need to fix that!  It was probably more like 10:00 pm when this picture was taken.  Betsy was still awake and going strong and I think it was from her sugar high.  House was all cleaned up and I was pooped!

Happy Birthday Betsy girl!

Monday, April 16, 2012

Easter weekend part II

Here are pictures from some of the Easter fun we had on the Big Island.  Friday morning we got together with another young family and dyed Easter eggs.  Tristan had such a good time and really hit if off with the boys.  Thanks Tutu for coordinating everything!
Striking another pose for the camera again.

 Easter Morning.  Christian came down with the flu the night before so he sadly missed out on Easter day.  The little ones LOVED their Easter baskets.  

 I love sleepy eyes.

 A giddy girl.

 More sleepy eyes.

 The aftermath of a chocolate ice cream cone!

 Pumped for the Easter egg hunt.

Christian forced himself out of bed for a few minutes while the kids looked for their eggs.  Poor guy had a high fever all day.  We had a yummy dinner of lamb, roast, roasted vegetables, asparagus, deviled eggs, and I'm going blank on what else we had, but I have fond memories of the meal.  It was delish!  Special thanks to Papa H. and Tutu for making our Easter special! 

Friday, April 13, 2012

Easter weekend part I

I feel like our blog has just turned into a photo blog without much writing, and I know I will regret it later because it's fun to look back and read about our happenings, but I don't always have the time, or I guess I'm not really a creative writer.  My mind usually goes blank on what to say, and then I just put captions on the photos.  I'm lazy maybe?  But I will try harder to journal more.  

This Big Island trip was long overdue.  The last time we headed over there was for Thanksgiving!  You would think that we would make it over there more often since we are only a couple of islands away, but the plane tickets are ridiculous!  We were excited to be there for Easter this year.  It was a super short trip, but well worth it.  We needed a mini-vacation.  Day one we colored eggs and were lazy.  Christian and I spent some time in town running some errands, but we spent most of the day lounging.  Day two we made our way to Waipio Valley with our friends, Am, Ian, and baby Enzo.    

Heading down into the valley always freaks me out.  4 wheel drive only.  It's super steep, and the road is narrow, with drop offs on the side.  We are encouraged to take off our seat belts for the ride down, in case our car rolls.  It's always a little creepy when you see a couple abandoned mangled cars at the bottom, wrapped around trees.  The picture above is of T holding on tight while we drive into the valley.  It seriously feels like you're going to tip over. 

It looks like the wild horses have multiplied.

Beautiful black sand beach.  One of my favorite things to do is run around and play on the beach with my little man.  

Betsy girl flirting with Uncle Ian.

Bathing beauty!  Rubbing her feet in the warm black sand.


I loved the bright lime green moss on the rocks.  
Enzo and Betsy getting to know each other.  I think B was a little nervous about Enzo's forwardness.
Loved the rock texture in this shot.

So, we were visited by a couple of heavy rain squalls.  The boys continued to surf but the rest of us had to move our party to the trunks of our cars.  And we snacked and snacked and snacked, and Tristan sat in the front seat and pretended to drive us places.    
As we were leaving we realized that I had never seen the falls in the back.  It's beautiful back there!  I always love coming down here.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

More beach time with the Kringels

After whale watching with the fam, we decided to stay on the north shore to eat and play a little on the beach.  It wasn't the warmest day, but it was still nice to be at the beach and watch the big waves.  And some of us were still a little drowsy from the Dramamine taken for whale watching, so a few of us got naps in.   Miss Ever being one of them:
And the boys paddled out:
 Christian top.  Jim below.
 
 
 
Best Friends Forever.

It's nice to be able to leave Betsy in one place, and know that she will still be there 20 minutes later.  No rush Bets, take your time.

The following day, we headed over to Halona Beach (aka cockroach cove, with no cockroaches).  Betsy and Ever played in the tide pools: 



While some of us jumped from the rocks.  The picture below is of Jim throwing Tristan into the water, but I missed it.

This hair is real folks.  Sticks up on its own, straight from the wash.  We're obsessed.

On the last day we went up to Round Top recreation area, (I'm not sure of the official park name).  It's a beautiful view of Diamond Head, all the way to the airport.  


I believe that's all the pictures we had from the Kringel/Hastings trip.  We were so glad we could finally meet baby Ever.  Thanks for coming!