Shad's Room

For Shad's birthday we asked my mom to get decorations for his room instead of other gifts since it was still completely bare, as Dan referred to it, a blank canvas. I went and picked them out with her and we had a lot of fun shopping together and coming up with a whole look we would like. We found a great set of decals at an AMAZING price that I loved. The whole set had over 75 decals although about fifteen or twenty had pink on them so we didn't use them. Shad loves being outside, I love trees and he loves animals-especially the owl sound so it all seemed to fit. There are also some leaf, flower and other plant decals by the floor but I didn't think the picture of those was quite necessary. We got the letters for his name and the frames on sale from Michael's and I then painted the letters white and stained the frames. I think it turned out pretty great and considering the budget it couldn't get much better. Thanks so much mom, I think Shad will appreciate a little personality in his room!

The saying above the window was a christmas gift from my sister a few years ago. It says, "life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." It just keeps getting more and more true for us. Wish you could see the squirrel better in the picture, that is what is on the branch on the right side.

Don't you love the pictures I chose for the frames! ;op Haven't quite gotten that far. He seems to think the hedgehog is pretty fun to look at while he is changed.

Leftover paint from the trim and doors that was in the house when we bought it meant the letters match perfectly and I didn't even have to buy paint, love it!

New Moves

So Shad has been doing this for a while, we refer to it as knee-walking (pretty creative right?) and he originally would flap his arms around and pant heavily while he did it as well. He has moved past that a little bit but you really just have to see the video to appreciate what a nut he can be:

This however, is pretty new and he is cruising around like crazy now!

A week in paradise

So, really quickly I just want to say we had an incredible time in Hawaii with my family. (Everyone but my little brother Dustin was there-He was missed!) We were so fortunate to be able to go and my mom was awesome and looked online months ago to see when Dan's spring break was so we could be there. If a picture says a thousand words here is how our family felt about the trip:

AWESOME!!!

My parents own a time share on Oahu opposite from Waikiki, it was so great to be away from the hustle and bustle, and although we were still on a resort it felt a little more authentic. The resort was incredible and seriously felt like you stepped into a post card. We had an amazing time relaxing on the beach and by the pool, but mostly just spending time together away from work and school. For our little family just the time together was priceless- for a woman whose husband is gone nearly fourteen hours six days a week I can't express how great it was to spend time with Dan and let him and Shad play all day. This was the view from our room:

Some of the great activites we enjoyed were Pearl Harbor, can't really describe this experience other than the USS Missouri was INSANE!!!

The Polynesian Cultural Center, so fun to make some kissing fish and learn about the cultures, wish we would have realized you pretty much have to choose between activities and shows we may have split it up, but we still had a great time. The night show was of course awesome and Shad was a trooper and had fun until falling asleep again:

An awesome Luau at our hotel with a Samoan Chief-- we perhaps enjoyed this even more than the PCC, and Shad loved every minute of it until he fell asleep, he was shouting along with the drums and dancing all over the place. The spotlight guy noticed him and gave us a grass mat for him to play on and some flowers so that certainly didn't hurt either. One of the solo dancers was the Chief's niece, THAT GIRL CAN MOVE! They said she has won every competition she has entered and I would believe. The whole performance was awesome but we also got to interact with the people and learn to make headbands, get Shad a tattoo that lasted a few days, learn about making fire etc. . . it was great. . . and my dad did some fanagling so it was free . . .even better! Here is the chief getting ready to fire-knife dance:

The Dole Plantation, totally fun to go ride around on the train and learn about raising Pineapple- The first crop takes over twenty months!! Also had great pineapple ice cream (Who doesn't love ice cream, right!): Unfortunately, we didn't get our camera out here but it was a fun little place to see.

And finally my favorite activity other than just spending time with family, Snorkeling!! Never would of thought such a terrible swimmer as myself would love it so much, but after getting the hang of it I was hooked!!! I snorkeled pretty much every chance I got and since Dan and Shad liked to nap on the beach it worked out pretty well. We did have one small incident that got a little dangerous, who would have thought treading water in snorkel gear could be so difficult but trying to do it while tying your swimsuit back on is a little scary. Someone thought it was pretty funny- can't imagine who that would be- oh yes, the person who untied it. Snorkeling was not as much his thing, I guess he was just trying to make it more interesting for us. I realize many people would edit this picture so it didn't look like two albinos but I am just looking out for everyone else's self-esteem here. You can thank us for making you look good:

My older brother and Dan indulged me by snorkeling with me a couple times but my mom was my go-to snorkel partner, we both really enjoyed it and it was fun to do together! I didn't think to take an underwater camera both because I didn't expect to be so impressed and I forgot with a snorkel you don't have bubbles so your pictures are better but thanks so much for the snorkel gear for christmas, awesome present!

Some of my favorite fish included the Threadfin Butterflyfish (I kept noticing them in pairs and commented on it, come to find out they are monogomous-Cute!).

The Hawaiian Dascyllus:

We also saw tons of others that were all on an identification sheet the resort gave us as well as a puffer fish and peacock flounder that weren't on it, pretty cool I thought.

Our last day there we had a red-eye flight as well as my brother Ryan so we had some time to kill in the afternoon after the rest of the family had left. We decided to check out a hike at Manoa falls we found in a guide book of my mom's. It turned out it was a bit of a sketchy area and signs advised not leaving anything valuable in your car. My brother was awesome and offered to watch our luggage while we went and saw the water-fall. The hike was beautiful and definitely seeing if you are there. Just don't take all of your suitcases so no one has to stay at the car. THANKS RYAN! The bamboo made really cool noises in the wind and it was the perfect weather! Shad grabbed this tree while Dan was passing under it and was pretty excited about it:

All in all we had a fabulous time and will never forget it, MAHALO!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAD!

Disclaimer; Dan actually edited this picture not me. Guess he has a sappy side after all! ;op

Okay, so it is late, but as my mother has taught me, better late than never! (No offense mom I do think it is true). We celebrated Shad's first birthday two weeks ago. I will admit I was pretty overwhelmed to follow the Phillips' tradition of having the whole family over for dinner. Although we missed them it did stress me out a little less that we were short a couple people since Micah and Kenzy's family moved to Vegas and David and Emily are down in St. George. However, my parents happened to be in town that weekend, as well as my brother and an Aunt, Uncle and cousin of mine. It was great to have them and be able to share Shad's special day with them, however seeing as I am not a party-planner I was a little stressed. Thankfully both my mom and mother-in-law have done this more than a few times and were great to help me out either by getting the food, helping plan, or just helping get me more in the mood to celebrate this great event. The rest of the family was great too in contributing food and being here ready to have a great time! It is so hard to believe it has already been a year. Part of me feels like just yesterday I was waddling around barely able to breathe and feeling that first surreal contraction, but then pumping-nursing-nipple shields etc. all thankfully seem like a lifetime ago.

Shad gets more and more fun every day. He still LOVES music so we got him a little piano toy that plays songs and also lets you play it or even record, hopefully he likes it for a long time. He was of course spoiled by all of the family although he kind of missed that part because he decided to bail on his own party and go to bed.

We could tell he was getting tired so we hurried and did his cake before he fell apart, rinsed him in the bath and let him start on his presents.

However, it didn't take long to realize he wasn't going to last and so Dan was holding him while his cousins all helped out opening gifts. The next minute I look over to see Dan standing there without Shad. I asked where he was and he said he was in bed, asleep already despite all of the noise. I guess that means he had a great time, it wiped him out.

We had a really good time visiting with all of our family and are so lucky to have such supportive and fun family. We also had a game with about twenty pictures of Shad on a poster board with a letter and they were suppose to be put in chronological order. Unfortunately, when I went to do the answer key and had to cheat and use my computer I realized it was probably a little too hard. The winner had five right if that tells you anything. As of his actual birthday Shad had two teeth, his Right upper and lower incisors. While on vacation he got two more, the left ones to match and so he now has four teeth. He also is ALMOST walking. He took about five steps while we were in Hawaii and as I freaked out and got all excited Dan claimed he had seen him do that many times before. Amazing how I am with him every day all day almost and I hadn't seen it, but weird stuff happens I guess. Since being home he has increased to about ten steps and shows much more interest in trying on his own as opposed to hanging on for dear life when you try to make him do it. His vocabulary hasn't changed much although he did start saying Dad. Last Sunday on our way home from the airport he repeated it over and over until Dan responded to him, so that was pretty cute. More about our trip to come!

MAHALO!

TALOFA!

ALOHA!