Popcorn popping

So I know it was forever ago, but thats just the way my blogging is happenning lately! Dusty's famiy came to visit a couple weeks ago, and I wish they could have stayed forever! It was so much fun to have them around. We all crammed into our one bedroom apartment (all 6 of us- good thing we have a loft!) which made it feel like a big slumber party all week long. I feel like most people wouldn't love their in-laws crashed on their living room floor, couch, and all around them for a week, but not me. I definitely lucked out in the in-law department, because I would have been so sad if they hadn't stayed with us and I think I might have jumped for joy if they said they were going to stay another week. They're that great, seriously.

We had a blast hiking to Waipio Valley, seeing waterfalls, hanging out at the nudie I mean black sand beaches (lol), driving up Mauna Kea (seeing the snow that caps the mountain close up!), going to the volcano, going to Kona, playing in the waves. Jumping off South Point- the most southern point in the United States and the bluest water I've ever seen, ever. Poor Troy, after watching Dusty jump, then me, I think he thought that was it for us. He was so relieved when we climbed up. It was so good to see Troy getting some good Grandma and Grandpa time while they were here. He warmed up to them so easily I think he must remember them- and of course I think my child is a genius so what else is new! :)

The last picture was taken at a swimming hole at what has now been dubbed, "engagement point". Dusty's sister Felicia got engaged while they were here! We loved being able to celebrate with them, and of course we did it with a "happy engagement/happy birthday Kevin" pumpkin cheesecake pie, our favorite. And in fact, Dusty's other sister Natalie recently got engaged, too! We're so excited to have 2 new members of the family, hooray for getting married!

Troy is one! And other big news :)

Since i havent posted in.....well a long time, I've got a lot to post! I wont bore you with one loong post though, so i'll just hit the big ones. Like our baby is not a baby anymore! Toddlerhood is just as fun as babyhood, just with more teeth and injuries. Because this kid can run! Toddle-run, that is. It's adorable. Oh I love him. There's more laughing, too, lots of laughing. I haven't posted a "watch Troy grow" picture in awhile, but believe or not I did take them. Most of them...well I missed a couple of months but believe me, there were definitely pictures taken! So I ad-libbed (not sure if that's a word) a little.

By 12 months, he was not having the whole, lie-still-on-this-blanket-and-let-mommy-take-a picture business, as you can see. And yes, he is wearing the same shirt in his 12 month photo as in his 11 month photo. Oops. He is also still wearing some 3 month sized shorts...ah well, neither Dusty or I are unusually tall or anything, so I think he'll grow up just fine :). At his one year check-up he was 21 lbs and 29 inches long (correction! I wrote the wrong height on a previous post and i dont know if that post will show up...oops again!), 46th percentile for weight and about 18th percentile for height, depending on what website calculator. Poor shrimp. Just kidding, I shouldn't make fun of my kid! In other news, (i told you this wasn't going to be a long boring post- i promise i'll keep my word!), Dusty got accepted into Teach for America and was assigned to Connecticut!

Which I am very excited about. Dusty is less so, but he already has plans for buying a river kayak (or two), practicing flipping over in my parents pool and then taking it down the (raging) connecticut rivers. I think he'll survive the two years. I am loving Hawaii, but missing family (both families!). So we have about 3 more months until we move, first to Idaho for a week or so then to another cross country drive to Ct. Its going to be a loong trip...

mele kalikimaka 2012!

 We had a good Christmas in the islands, but we missed our families like crazy!  We were wishing we they were all here with us.  We woke up bright and early (not much of the sleeping-in, type, Troy), ate a yummy breakfast

(This picture was actually taken a few days ago, but it just fit so well.  Such a cute little helper!)

Opened presents, (thank you!!  All you generous people, we love you!)

Got to hang out with auntie Felicia!  

And hang out at the beach

Last night we drove up to Mauna Kea to watch the sun set and see some stars -it was cold!  And I loved it :)

We probably won't be driving our car up to that altitude again (almost 14000 ft above sea level!) or taking our baby without an oxygen tank...so it was a memory!  We definitely want to go back to the visitors center (at 9000ft), they had telescopes set up you can look through, but it was a pretty cloudy night and we couldn't see anything but the moon, which was cool anyways.

Merry Christmas!  Oh yeah, and we saw sharks, too-

We went to a Heau where they use to do human sacrifices and feed them to the sharks, whom they believed were their reincarnated ancestors.  200 years later, sharks still regularly hang out in this bay.  This guy was about 20 yards off shore!  There were four of them swimming around.  Don't worry, we did not swim here (no one does, it was considered sacred ground and is part of the national park now).  

And I have to out these videos up, for your entertainment, of course.  (Mostly I want to show off this cute kid.  He is so stinkin cute!). Troy has officially starting walking!  He took his first real steps a couple weeks ago, on my moms birthday, and today he started taking more and more.  It's a Christmas miracle!

10 months

Troy at (almost) 10 months:

Loves water, in any setting (ocean, bathtub, puddle, etc.), and drinking it, too

Loves things that make noise when he shakes them

Loves being outside

Sleeps through the night...sometimes 

Wakes up before the crack of dawn every day, usually around 5am

Laughs when we laugh

Cruises on furniture and walks with one hand held, won't walk on his own even though I'm convinced he probably could

Is probably right-handed- if I'm holding his left hand while he is walking he will stop, switch my hand to his right hand, then keep going

Sometimes gives me the stink-eye from his carseat when he and Dusty pick me up from work, like he's saying, "you've been gone all day and now you don't even take me out of this stinkin carseat??"  It breaks my heart a little but is just so cute

Loves the refrigerator and will make a mad dash for it if he sees us open the door

Is not a fan of getting his diaper changed...and makes us crazy when he flips around and crawl-runs away with poop on his bottom!

Is very talkative, loves making any kind of noise with his lips, and sometimes he talks in his sleep (it's so soft I always think there's another baby around outside or something, but it's him.  So sweet!)

Oh I love this little guy.  I know he is not quite 10 months yet, but I had to post this now because I'm thinking about it now- if I don't, the days will just turn into weeks and then into months and I'll have no idea what happened to the time.  Well, that will probably happen anyway...

Our Digs

Here is the promised video.  MY Ipad only let me pick 54 seconds of it to send, so hopefully I chose a good 54 seconds...

And I took some more pictures of our apartment!  Troy is napping, and I had last night off.  Oh it is SO nice to be awake..!  :)  To start, here is our bedroom - I like the tall ceilings,

(that's Dusty harvesting our herbs in the corner)

and loft! and a wardrobe off our bedroom,

Bathroom, (not that special, but I really like the alphabet shower curtain holders we found at Goodwill)

Kitchen,

Troy's room,

And here is Troy napping :)  Although, he since has woken up and is now reading "the Grouchy Ladybug".  He's so smart.  Oh wait, now he's climbing all over me..using my hair as leverage...

                                      

Living room:

different view...

And that is our apartment!  Hope you enjoyed your virtual tour :)

living the life

We moved again, people!  This time, just across town :).  We moved to an apartment right in Hilo, which feels a

bout 20 times better than where wee were living before.  Not that it was bad, it was just far away from everything.  And down and awful dirt road that made Troy scream every time we drove down it, which was kind of making me never want to leave home.  Not good.  Here, we are 5 minutes to the beach, 5 minutes to surfing, 5 minutes to church, and 5 minutes to work.  Location location location!  We still have only one bedroom, but Troy has been sleeping in the living room/kitchen, which works out pretty well.  He doesn't wake up a million times per night and I don't snack at night as much for fear of waking him up, it's a win-win situation!  I only have a couple pictures...I would take more right now but 1, it's dark anyway and 2, Troy-man is sleeping.  So here they are: 

I love our little nook!  It's built in, so we didn't have to buy a table.  You can't really see it, but Troy's pack n' play is just to the right.

And this is driving me crazy...this bench (also built in) didn't come with any cushions or anything on it, so we got this futon mattress at a yard sale and just kind of threw it on to have a place to sit.  It's so ugly!!  As soon as I get a sewing machine, there is a huge fabric warehouse in Hilo (it's like heaven), and I'll be making a visit.  I have more expensive ideas for it, but...well they are more expensive.  So I'm thinking I'm going to convert that futon mattress into cushions that will cover the entire bench, then make some big pillows that we can lean against, like the kind of big pillows on the backs of some couches...it'll be better.  But then again, we still don't actually know how long w e are going to be living here, in hawaii, so is it worth all that work if we just leave in January??  I don't know.  I guess it all depends on whether or not I can find a sewing machine on Craigslist, really!  

We also have an herb garden in our bedroom window, and a loft with a mattress in it!  Come visit us! 

Anyways, that is so much rambling!  In other news, I got that job that I interviewed for :).  It's at a state veterans nursing home.   It's good and bad - definitely good that we have some income, but I miss being with Troy!  I'm on nights right now, so my shift is 10pm to 6:30am.  I thought would be the best schedule with Troy, but it turns out I have to sleep sometime, too...and so my sleeping usually happens from about 8am to 1 or 2ish, then I'm super tired the rest of the day because I'm not really one of those people who require less sleep than the average person, so I go back to sleep as soon as Troy does, at 7:30, and sleep for about 1.5hrs.  It's driving me crazy.  But hopefully.....they can get me on the day shift soon, that way at least when I'm home I won't feel dead!  Dusty is still job hunting, but now applying to some teaching certificate programs to teach high school.  We both feel really good about this, and I think good things are to come :).  

Here's a treat- sorry you'll have to ignore my annoying laugh!  It's so loud because I'm holding the camera (obviously), I don't think it's always that loud.  Lately, Troy thinks that everything Dusty does is hilarious, and he repeats it back to him.  It's so funny!  And except i can't figure out how to post a video from this app right now and I keep nodding off...I will post it tomorrow, I promise!  

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