Branchaud Family

This is a family that I just love. I met Adrienne in Kindergarden but we didn't become BFFs until 4th grade. I remember Adrienne was one of the cool girls. She was really pretty and always had her hair in cool braids. I just knew that we needed to be friends! We started hanging out and then we became connected at the hip ever since. We lived at each other's houses. My family became her family and her family became mine. We made a million home videos, and loved to play office (so weird). We went on family vacations together, which included many summers at the Colorado River. I just adore them and was so excited to hear they were coming to Hawaii for their vacation!

Allison, Char, Tristan, and Adrienne. My favorite ladies. (Dennis was MIA)

Tristan loved all of his aunties.

Come back to Oahu soon!

cuteness

design your wall

We seem to be in the midst of a wallpaper revolution! I love what you can find out there now. It's fun to surf the web and look at all the fun patterns and prints. There is something for every taste and style. It did take us almost a week to apply the wallpaper in our front room, and that was just on one wall, not the whole room. To make your life a little easier, vinyl cut outs have taken over the wall decor world. Simply peel and stick. Perfect for renters because you can just peel it off when you move. I just wish that we had more rooms in our house to decorate, (and more moo-la, because it can get expensive!).

Health Care reform

I think that Congressman Mike Rogers says it best here.

3 kitchen appliances on my mind

Kitchen-aid Mixer:

I could probably live without this, but I just think that they are cute. I love all the colors it comes in and the vintage look it can add to your kitchen. One day.

Bread Maker:

I LOVE bread. Some of you may know that I can't make bread. I try and try and I don't know what goes wrong. My bread rolls always end up really heavy, Christian calls them baseballs. I tried my sister's bread maker this summer and nearly died when I saw how easy it was. And they were oh so tasty.

Food Processor:

I could use this one sooner than later. Baby food can get expensive!

7 months

Yes, more pictures of the little stinker. I'm getting a little sad because he's starting to look less and less like an infant, and more like a little boy. I want him to stay this size forever. I think his body doubled in size this past week, he's growing so fast. During his free time, you can find him unplugging cords and sucking on them, ripping up house plants, pulling over the trash can in the kitchen, opening cabinets in the bathroom, and pushing rocking chairs over. I think he is starting to understand the word "no!" now, but he still likes to test me. He is still a cuddle bug and he sure can kiss! He likes to plant little wet ones on me. He says "Da Da" a lot, and he may know what it means because he only says it when Christian is around. We also think that he secretly knows how to talk but he is just holding back, because we thought that we heard him whisper under his breath, "I no kea" the other day (pigeon for I don't care). He knows what's going on.

To celebrate his 7 month birthday, we took him on his first hike. Kevin Hallstrom (friend from our ward) took us on the Kalawahine Trail, up by Round Top Drive.

Can you see the similarity in this picture? (the one with the boys)

We have a little guide book of Oahu and we've decided that we are going to explore something new in that book once a month, just to change it up from our usual surf/beach days on the North Shore. There is so much more to this Island that we need to enjoy. Hopefully we can keep to it.

snorter

It's funny because Tristan goes through these cute and quirky phases where he does something over and over again, and then moves on to something new. Like the lion growling, or he started inhaling really loud as though he couldn't breath, (he was breathing, he's just a little over dramatic at times). His new thing is snorting. I think that he discovered this soon after he had his runny nose. Yuck, but it became fun for him to breath in and out of his nose. See video below.

He's become quite the noisy eater. I think that he thinks you are supposed to say "yummm", or "ahhhhh" when you open your mouth to eat because that's what I did when I was teaching him how to eat.

just because...

we have way too many pictures.

Sweet blue-eyed boy.

Shopping with mom. He knows what he wants.

That walker has saved my life. He is free to roam around the house, therefore he is less frustrated and knows where mom and dad are at all times. Watch out for those ankles though! And yes that is spit up on his strap in the car seat picture. Sorry, but he just looks so cute. I can't wait until we are able to turn his car seat around to face us.

Mom and dad time.

He loves his sweet potatoes. He refuses to wear a bib, he rips it right off. Thank goodness for oxi clean.

visiting dad at work

He's a big fan of his dad.

Friday Night Lights

Every Friday night there is a firework show near Waikiki Beach. After our walk sesh and Christian's surf sesh, we decided to stick around for the show. Next time we will bring a big fat pizza to enjoy like everyone else did around us. We were drooling as we watched them all eat their dinners. This was Tristan's first time watching fireworks. He wasn't sure what to think of them at first and became a little frightened by a few, but I think that he enjoyed them. I look forward to more Friday nights under the fireworks.

camera obscura

The new Camera Obscura album, My Maudlin Career, came out earlier this year.
Wanted to give it space on the blog and say thanks to C.O. for this latest offering. I'm not going to describe it, it's above that. I'm not gonna recommend it to you, I'm not sure you're worthy of it.
But this is the call I'm making: this is the best album I've heard in years. period. end of post.

monkey in his cage

Ever since T started standing up in his crib, we realized that it was time to lower the crib mattress. It was too scary. He could easily fold over and fall out. Now, I think he likes the challenge of trying to get out. It got too easy for him. He stands up and falls, and climbs and falls. Thank goodness for bumpers!