April 2011 Highlights

In April my mom came to visit and she treated us with a stay in Waikiki - a little mini vacation which was much needed. Most of the pics I took were with my phone so, alas, I don't have them on here yet. But these we took while walking down the street - one of those crazy street entertainers stopped us with his parrots and took an endless amount of pictures with my camera. Probably one of the only times it was actually worth tipping! So now we have fond memories of birds sitting on our heads in Waikiki.
We went out to dinner alot while she was here, which was heavenly because we hadn't been to a real restaurant in months (unless Taco Bell counts). The first picture is Bannock feeding Sean a chip (which turned into chip after chip after chip and it was pretty cute - Sean is such a good sport).
We also moved into TVA in April which was definitely the highlight of the year for us (so far...). Our new apartment is two bedroom, upstairs in one of the newest buildings in TVA (and did I mention way cheaper than our last crappy places?). We get an amazing breeze all the time and it has been an unbelievable blessing to be here. So I can now officially invite anyone who wants to come visit!!! I'll post pictures soon, once I make it a bit more homey.

March 2011 Highlights

Bannock turned 2! We celebrated his b-day by going to the aquarium and dinner and then opening presents and skyping the grandparents. The next day we had a BBQ with a bunch of friends and ate cupcakes... which Bannock enjoyed doing without his hands (my camera is crappy and this was the best picture that came out!) Anyway, it was fun and laid back and I can't believe my little guy is two.
-He is a genius - the most intelligent little person I've ever met. At the time of this photo he had over 200 words (we counted) but as of now he's a total chatterbox - the only two year old I've ever known to be able to say "Transporter truck" , "mini excavator"and a myriad of other phrases.
-He also knows all the basic colors (red, yellow, blue, purple, green, orange, pink, gray, black) as well as ALL his letters (I'm very proud of him for this) - we're working on counting to ten now and he's on his way.
-He loves Cars and Nemo and knows the names of all his favorite characters on all his favorite shows (he can recognize all the engines from Thomas - yes Bertie and Toby too - something I can't even do) I suppose he watches too much TV but some of the more educational shows I approve of because he learns so much - I think Super Why is the reason he knows all his letters.
-He asks me to sing songs when he goes to bed and the top ones are "Child God song" (I am a child of God), "Popcorn tree" (popcorn popping on the apricot tree), "Temple song" ( I love to see the temple), "Lets go fly kite", "Sunbeam song", "Sunshine song" (You are my sunshine,which leads to him asking for "Love you Bannock" song - which I made up to the same tune), "Row Row your boat"and "Twinkle star".
-He knows all his friends' names from nursery, as well as all some of their parents! He also knows our names and his grandparents and uncles and aunts names.
I'm always amazed at how much information this boy's brain retains (He sometimes asks "Go Target, get trucks, buy em!", Or shouts "Let's go right now!" when we're about to go somewhere) I wish I could list it all but I'm sure you'd rather not listen to a mother praise her child so much ;)

FURTHER MARCH NEWS:
We finished the (craziest) semester. It was stressful and anxiety ridden and broke and busy but we finished (and got good grades might I add!).

we also found out our next little peanut is a BOY !!! So we'll have two little troublemakers around the house come August, we're very excited. We would've been happy either way but were leaning more towards a boy so Bannock would have a playmate:)

babies...

Little Peanut

So this awkward Ultra sound is of our little squirt on her/his hands and knees like a little animal. But it's really in there! I went in to my first prenatal visit last friday thinking I was about 10 weeks (2 1/2 months) pregnant and the doctor goes "no, your about 4 months along" I was shocked (first, because this means I conceived sometime in November and I took 4 preggo tests -including a blood test at school - the beginning of Dec and they were all negative), I am about a month and a week further than I thought I was. So according to the Doctor I'm due around August 12 (according to the ultrasound pic I'm due the 10th). Our baby had an irregular heartbeat though so we're going to do a more advanced ultrasound next week to see if there are any problems. I'm a little concerned but I also know that it's a new heart and the kinks are getting all worked out still (also, I read caffeine can affect it as well and I had drank a coke before the appointment so....) we'll see. We might even be able to find out the sex, which is pretty darn exciting!

In other news - we got into TVA (married couple housing) for Spring term so we are incredibly excited that our rent will be dropping $400 a month (phew!). Bannock is about to turn the big 2 - and he's preparing us for it everyday. Last Sunday he made the worst mess he's ever made - we woke up to find an entire carton of raspberries smeared into our carpet, couches, kitchen table and not to mention Bannocks hands and feet! We were pretty pissed - but how do you discipline a two year old who doesn't think he's done anything wrong (or won't react to consequences like time-outs, etc.)??? Anyway - life is getting exciting and with that comes lots and lots of stress. Sean and I are due for a much needed vacation, or at least a date night!

A new addition...

I'm Preggo!
It's official now. We found out while we were in California ( I was sick pretty much the entire two weeks) but we've been waiting to share the news until I was farther along. I'm now almost 8 weeks and my due date is around September 10th. I've been wanting (and trying) to get pregnant for a couple months and now it's perfect timing. Bannock and the baby will be exactly 2 1/2 years apart, which is what we wanted. I've been feeling pretty crummy most days, not too much vomiting but just nausea a lot of the time. Smells make me gag and I have extreme cravings. This is totally opposite my pregnancy with Bannock, where I had no symptoms whatsoever. I'm just happy to be joining the masses of all my other pregnant friends! I'm so excited to be a mommy again :)

Sean's Birthday and the Zoo

So Sean turned 26 on friday! He's now closer to 30 than he is to 20 - weird. We celebrated with a delicious breakfast of french toast, some time at the beach and then a little date courtesy of our friends Natalie and Mark who offered to watch Bannock. We went shopping for his birthday then out to dinner (the Cheesecake Factory in Waikiki is crazy on a friday night! So we had to settle for Old Spaghetti Factory, which was good. I forgot my camera that night but we did have fun!
We continued his birthday into saturday with a trip to the Zoo (and some more shopping). Bannock had a ball at the Zoo - he was able to practice his animal names which so far consist of "Peacock", "Giraffe", "Monkey", "Zeeba", "Hippo", "Gecko", "Fish", "Phent (elephant)" and we're working on some more. There was a bold peacock walking around the playground with about 30 kids and it couldn't have cared less. Bannock also learned how to say "cheese!" for the camera and was eating it up, the two pictures up there are the best I could capture with my crappy camera, but, suffice it to say, his faces and hand gestures were hilarious. It was so fun to watch Bannock absorb everything - yesterday he was telling me all about it, the "two phents" he saw along with the "beeg Hippo!" and "hippo beeg mouf!" I love seeing him grow and learn every day. Its so rewarding. I love being a mom!

Home for Christmas!

We surprised our parents and flew home for Christmas : ) They had no idea. Sean's dad was so in shock when he opened his door at 11 o'clock at night and Bannock was standing there. He was speechless even when Bannock walked right in and said "Pop pop!". It had been almost 4 months since they'd seen him. We surprised my parents the next night and even though they had just seen Bannock it didn't register that he could be in California. It was a fun surprise and a fun visit. We went to Folsom Zoo's first annual Christmas night at the zoo thing - they had lights everywhere and all the nocturnal animals were still awake (did anyone know the Folsom zoo had tigers?) At the end of the walk Santa and Mrs. Clause were there to take pictures. It was Bannock's first time and even though he would get excited and say "Santa!" any time he saw one, being up close and personal with him did not go over well! What is it with kids and Santa? We also got to go shooting with Sean's family, which was fun. It had been awhile since I had gone shooting. I'm pretty proud of the picture of Sean I took - you can actually see the bullet! Anyway, we had a great Christmas, it was so nice to be back and almost impossible to leave. As great as Hawaii is there is no place like home!

A visit from the folks

My parents came to visit the beginning of December and it was a lot of fun. They rented this cute little bungalow on the beach that we practically lived at with them. We went to the Billabong Pipemasters surf competition which was so fun (got a ton of free stuff!), went to Pearl Harbor and saw the Arizona memorial, ate delicious Thai food at Haleiwa Eats and then caught a cute Christmas parade through the town. We also got to pay our respects to Ron Artis' family - he's a great local artist who had passed away just two days before we went to Haleiwa where his home/studio is. We spent a lot of time on the beach, of course, and Bannock was thrilled that his Nahna and Pop pop were there to spoil him rotten! It was a great week : )