Hawaii

Like I said in the previous blog, we didn't get many pictures before our camera broke, so I drew some pictures of our whale watching experience (these drawings are so good, there is no need for real pictures!). I forgot to mention that we also got gourmet snacks that consisted of celery sticks, carrots, olives, zucchini, tomatoes and potato chips! Ha ha, I was thinking we were going to have the chance to taste some Hawaiian food! Oh, and the "boat" wouldn't start up again after they turned it off to get the whales to come closer to us. They kept saying "oh, don't worry, this happens from time to time. We will have it started any time now. " It took them at least 30 minutes to get it started and it was clear from the look on their faces that they were pretty worried it wasn't going to start. Despite all of that, it was still an amazing experience! My mom emailed me some of the pictures she took of the trip, so I'm putting those up along with the few that we got with our camera. Keira actually a picture of the little boat we were in, so you can see how truly dinky it was! Oh, and my mom, Kiera, and Sam were kind enough to watch little Addy while we went on our little adventure.
Matt was very brave and jumped off this cliff with Sam!We got shave ice almost every day!

Amazing Experience And No Pictures To Show For It!!

Matt and Addy and I spent the last week in Kauai with my family. Some friends of my mom had a time share there that they offered to let us use, so we took advantage of the opportunity. One of my favorite things we did there was go whale watching. I was feeling pretty excited about the idea of whale watching until I saw the boat we were going to be in! I thought it was going to be MUCH bigger that the dinky little inflatable speed boat thing that I saw out the window of our little rental van. I panicked because I am afraid of the ocean (sharks to be specific), and that boat looked like something a whale could just tip over! Anyway, I decided to face my fears and go on the trip. I am so glad I did! It was AMAZING!! First of all we saw two schools of dolphins! There were hundreds of them. I'm not exaggerating! They were so close to the boat that I could have reached out and touched them! Our captain happened to be a marine biologist and she said that for every dolphin you see on the surface, there are four more below. It was so exciting! We came prepared with our camera so we whipped it out to take some pictures and the dang thing was broken! It was so frustrating. The marine biologist kept saying "This never happens! You never see so many dolphins together at this time of day!" She may have been lying about that, but personally I believe her because she was hanging over the boat taking her own pictures and she seemed genuinely excited. Right after that we saw two whales breach off in the distance. I mean they came all the way out of the water and flipped! The marine biologist (Tina) said that they were males showing off for a female. So we start heading towards the whales and all of the sudden another school of dolphins come swimming by our boat! Off in the other direction we saw some whale spouts so we start heading in that direction. Apparently it was the perfect situation because there were about four whales trying to show off for the female and they were very focused on that so it was possible that they would come close to us. By law you are not allowed to come closer that 100 feet from a whale but if the whale comes close to you there is nothing you can do about it. So we get up there as close to the whales as we are allowed and they come closer. One went right under our boat. I didn't see that, Matt did. It's a good thing I didn't because I probably would have freaked out. The reason I didn't see it was because I was distracted by another whale like, I don't know 50 feet away or less coming out of the water! It was so amazing and I am so mad our camera broke! I have no pictures of Kauai! I am going to have to get some from my mom, and I will post more later!

Looks So Nasty, But Tastes Sooo Good!

I know this drink looks soooo nasty, but it's really so good! I look forward to this little drink every day! Several weeks ago we found out that Addy is sensitive to milk, so sadly, I have had to cut milk out of my diet. No cheese, no ice cream, no yogurt, no cream! These are some of my very favorite foods, and although this drink doesn't quite measure up, it's pretty close. The reason it looks so nasty is because it has spinach in it. Spinach is actually a pretty good source of calcium and I wanted to get it into my diet somehow. The problem is that I don't like spinach much. BUT, Kiera told me about this little drink and you really can't taste the spinach at all. I put 1/2 C. to 1 C. of spinach in along with 1/2 banana, a handful of whole, non-sweetened frozen strawberries (like 6 or 7) and about 1/2 C. of Simply Apple, apple juice (my favorite juice ever!). Then you just blend it all up and enjoy. Oh, Kiera also adds ground flax seeds, but I keep forgetting to pick some up. Anyway, I recommend it to anyone who wants to eat a little healthier.

Two Months Old!

I can't believe Addy is already two months old! We got some cute pictures of her today and I also got some clips of her rolling and talking to daddy. I thought Matt's side of the family would especially like to see this. It's just so cute!

This first video is of Matt and Addy "talking" to each other.


This video is of Addy rolling over. She's pretty good at it!

Snow and Smiles

This past weekend Addy I went Dan and Shelly's cabin with my mom, Kiera, Ian and Sam. Matt had to work. Anyway, Addy had her first experience with snow. I got her all dressed up in her cute little teddy bear outfit and as you can see, she wasn't loving the snow like I had hoped. Maybe when she's a little older the feeling of snowflakes landing on her face won't bother her so much. She spent a lot of time being held. Dan called her the human baton which is true. She just gets passed around. Everyone loves to hold her (when she's not crying) and she definitely doesn't mind! She did really good at night, sleeping for six hour stretches. Then we came home and for some reason she stopped doing that and wakes up every four hours. Darn. When she got home it was clear she missed her daddy. She just kind of gazed at him for a while and then she "talked" to him for a while. She only does this with Matt. I have tried to capture it on tape but I always think of it too late. Anyway she will just sit and babble to him when he comes home and it is so cute and funny. It's like she's trying to tell him about her day. She has been smiling for about a month now and I have been trying so hard to get a picture of her smiling! The problem is that every time I pull the camera out she focuses on that instead of smiling. I did manage to get a few pictures finally! Oh, and she's rolling over one way. She can roll from her stomach to her back. I haven't been able to record that but I will!

Where Does The Time Go?

Well Addy is almost 6 weeks old and I have finally found some time to post some pictures. It's amazing how one little person can take up so much of your time! Matt and I would love to get her into some sort of routine, but she's pretty resistent to it at this point. She can be pretty stubborn!
Addy smiled for the first time on Matt's birthday. She's still pretty stingy with her smiles, but when she does smile, it's the cutest thing ever. I'm hoping to be able to get a picture of her smiling soon. Christmas was a bit uneventful this year. Quiet, and honestly, a little sad. Christmas will just never be the same without my dad, so I decided that next year Christmas will just need to be sort of reinvented. All new traditions. Anyway, I have a cute picture of Addy in her "First Christmas" outfit. A few days after Christmas, Addy started to develop baby acne. Who knew there was such a thing! Her sweet little face has just been covered with little pimples. Now that it is finally starting to clear up, she has developed another lovely baby skin condition. She has a nasty little rash all over her face and ears. It's even in her eyebrows. Her skin has been so bad that I haven't taken many pictures of her over the past few weeks. I did get some pictures of her holding her head up for tummy time. She is very good at this! She actually looks a lot like Matt in her tummy time picture!

Christmas Baby

My incredibly talented mom knitted this stocking and hat! We thought it would be cute to take some pictures of Addy in her hat and stocking!