Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was small this year.  It was just me, David, and Billy.  We had planned on going up to St. George and meeting my family there, but that fell through, which was okay because our stuff finally arrived at our place the day before Thanksgiving.  We were in a mad rush to get things unpacked so we could cook our meal the next day.  We managed to get a lot unpacked and had a great day the next day!  Plus, we were finally able to sleep in our own bed after a couple of months without it.  My back was very thankful! 

Aloha!

Aloha! Billy, David, and I went to Kauai earlier this month. Although it rained most of the time we were there, we still managed to have a lot of fun. Luckily, there were a few days where we could go and play on the beach. It was David's favorite thing to do on our trip.
A small cave we explored near the north shore. David was a bit wary to go in at first, but curiosity won and he ventured in.

This picture was taken minutes before it started to rain.

David and Billy after it started raining. The tourist shops were prepared and had ponchos for sale. I guess that comes with Kauai being the wettest spot on earth. Oh, a few more interesting facts: Pineapples take two years to produce, one for it to grow and another for it to ripen; bananas are really herbs and not fruit; most of Kauai's vegetation is not native to Hawaii and those that were native plants have been overrun by non-native plants; finally, Smith's Family Luau had the best tasting fruit punch I have ever had.

David partaking of the ambrosia of the gods, it was so good!
This is a couple of hours after that rainstorm. That was one good thing about the rain, it didn't last long and before we knew it, the sun was out. Unfortunately, the same thing happened with the rain.

Happy Halloween (A little late, I know)

Halloween was pretty busy for us. We flew in to Salt Lake that day from BFE. David handled the flights very well. We then had to rush somewhere to find last minute costumes and the only one we found his size was the Chewbacca costume. Unfortunately, the feet were missing, but when you wait 'til the last minute, I guess you can't be too picky. Billy and I decided to dress up, too. Billy was a skeleton or something like that and I dressed as a witch. Creative, aren't we?


David went trick or treating in Logan with his cousins, Nathan and Kaitlyn. Since the flights and everything we did that day, he was a bit tired and cranky. The first door we went to, he got a sucker. We got that sucker out and he was golden for the rest of the night. He's clutching a sucker in all of the pictures we took of him. Pretty funny. At least he wasn't cranky.


At the doors, David would yell "'ick 'eat!" He had a blast! The only person who could guess who he was right off was a gentleman dressed up as Obi Wan. Must be the force ;).

'Yo

'Yo, everyone. That is how David says hello when he gets on the phone. As you can see, David is handling the move well. I think a lot better than I am. I've been missing Utah like crazy. Weird, I know, but true. Lots of stuff I took advantage of. Even though we have housing now, it still doesn't quite feel like home yet. It doesn't help that all of our belongings are in Utah and we have to wait until the first week of November to get them packed up. I'll have to post some pictures of this godforsaken place so you get an idea of what it's like. Ok, really bad attitude, but Billy's comment should say it all. When he first got back here, he said, "Wow, except for you and David, it feels like I never left Iraq." Not a good sign.

Living on base is a little, ok, a lot weird. For some reason, I get a little anxious coming on to base. They have guards posted at the gates and I always feel like I'm going to do something wrong and get in trouble. All the warnings Billy gives me doesn't help at all! Dim the lights at night to get in the gate. Go the speed limit because MP's are worse than cops and you'll lose your priveleges if you get too many points taken away. Pedestrians (marines) always have the right of way so stop for them. They even have dress codes of what you can wear into the commissary and exchanges. Ok, not that I'd ever wear what is not permitted, but I'd like to think I can walk into a store with my belly shirt on and my pants riding way below my butt, showing off my lovely boxers. I mean who doesn't want to see that;)!

There is an upside to all this, though. This past weekend, we went to Palm Springs and surrounding cities. We stayed at Desert Oasis. Swimming in the outdoor pool in the middle of October was so nice. And there was a lot of green foliage everywhere!

We'll be home on Halloween so I plan on visiting my favorite restaurants and shops. Everyone feel free to come join us! Hopefully, I'll be able to see all my favorite people! Talk to you later.

Da-da

Billy got back from deployment on Oct 7. David kept on pointing out random marines in their uniforms and saying "Dada" before we even saw him. I guess he remembered his dad in his cami's and so every man with that strange haircut and cami's was Dada. When he first saw his dad, though, he was very shy, holding his hands together with his head down. That shyness didn't last long and before long he was having a blast with his dad.

The first couple of days, he would call his dad "Mama" and Billy would respond with "I'm not Mama, I'm dada" over and over again. Well, today, while dada was at work, David came up to me and said "Dada." Sigh...how soon they shift their loyalties. It's actually great, though. It's fun to watch the two of them interact. David's favorite thing is to play cars with his dad. I think it's so funny how he will make such accurate car sounds like engine revving, sirens blaring, and cars crashing, etc but he can't pronounce words as accurately. He's such a boy!

Summer Fun

I've been a bit of a slacker with updating this blog, but I have good reasons. One of them being my lack of patience with uploading and downloading photos. The biggest reason, though, is David. He gets a bit put out when I am on the computer. He starts whining, then he'll pound on the keyboard, making the downloading take much longer than it should. However, thanks to Lana, I figured out how to send pictures from my phone to photobucket and it makes it go faster.



So, to catch everyone up, this is what we did this summer:



Lagoon (the price to get in is ridiculous, even if it's a discount. Seriously, do they think they're Disneyland or something?) Can you tell I'm not a Lagoon fan? I guess that doesn't matter when David had fun.





David and his cousin Kaitlyn on the little kiddy boats. He had fun ringing the bell and I think the pink just becomes him. I think my husband will cringe or is cringing when/as he sees this picture. What do you do, though? Kaitlyn gave up a musical show just to ride with him and since she is the princess, she needed to get in the pink boat.




The little green car is probably more to Billy's taste. This line was the shortest so I let him go on it twice and he even went by himself one of those times. It was kind of bittersweet to watch him drive away from me. Kind of reminiscent of him driving away to college. Unfortunately, I think that time will get here before I know it.


This helicopter ride was funny and sad to watch. He did not like flying up in the air at all. He clung to Nathan the whole time with this scared look on his face. I felt bad for the little guy. He survived, though. Thank goodness for Na-na.




A lot of the summer was spent with me trying to stay awake after a 12 hour graveyard shift. Most of the time, David would get his bat or golf club and hit balls around our living room. Kept him occupied enough for me to try and recharge.




David, Nathan, and Kaitlyn at the mini rivers and water falls in Liberty Park.

Trying to pose for the camera. For some reason, he thinks that tilting his head to the side is a proper pose.

Bear Lake: Should we call this muddy mess a beach? I guess it's as close to a beach as you can get in Utah. Not the real thing, but boy did David have fun sitting in the mud. His bath after was not pretty.

David at Bat

David has been into baseball lately. Whether it's wii baseball or trying hit the ball on the floor with his bat, he never gets tired of it. He'll wake up every morning and if he sees the bat and ball, he'll start whacking away. Look at his stance. Almost perfect, but then he'll lose his balance. It makes me laugh every time.

Excuse the poor quality video. Typical camera phone quality.

My little golfer

I don't know how she does it, but my sister is great at getting David posed and so cute for pictures. He doesn't hold still long enough for me.

Once again, I got this picture texted to me at work and it made the night much more tolerable. Lately, David has been more into playing with balls and so I decided to get him this cute little golf bag and clubs. He has still hasn't grasped the concept of hitting the ball into the hole, but he sure can swing that little club of his. If you are ever anywhere around when he's swinging, make sure you are far enough out of reach that you don't get clobbered. He may be little, but he sure packs a punch!

Rasta

Here is my rastafarian! I was at work when this was taken and my sister texted me this picture. It made my whole night! I knew there was a reason why I wanted his hair to grow faster. The funny thing about it is David seems to prefer Reggae music over anything else. At least, that's the type of music that we've noticed he's more likely to dance to.

Beep, beep!

I found this little car online and I decided to get it for David because he loves to make little automobile noises so much. He absolutely loved it and we had a hard time keeping him away while we were putting it together. He stayed in it the whole time we were at my sisters. When it was time to go home, he threw a fit and I had to drag him off of it, kicking and screaming.

This picture cracks me up! I love that I caught that expression on his face!

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The Day After

Yea! It worked. I just sent this picture from my phone. How great is that? I love technology!

This was David the day after the wretched egg hunt. I got him some spring clothes and since that day was the best day we had all week, I decided to put them on him. When I put his flip flops on him, he started walking unsteadily. Then, he grabbed the shoes he'd worn all winter long and handed them to me. It was his way of saying, "I'd rather have these on, please." Being the mean mom I am, I left the flip flops on and he eventually got used to them.

Look at the beautiful, clear day! Sigh...some day it will stay like that for a whole week! Here's to summer dreamin'!

Easter

Easter this year wasn't the greatest. I had the grouchiest baby in the world. I was unable to take any pictures of him hunting for eggs because he was clinging to me the whole time. When the hunt started, I helped him place his hand on the eggs. He would then grab the egg and throw, not place, them in his bucket. Good thing they were boiled. It was actually pretty funny. After that, it was more grumpy time! The times he was actually being cute were when my camera or camcorder would not work. So, unfortunately, I have no pictures or videos of Easter 2009.

I guess I can't blame him too much for being so grouchy. He had gone out and petted my niece's dog and then he ended up with hives. I gave him some Benadryl right before the hunt, so he must have been pretty sleepy. A sleepy David makes for a grumpy David! Boy, do I never want to deal with that again!

So, that was the second time David got hives from touching a dog and I'm afraid he's allergic to dogs. This is very sad news for Billy because there are no words to describe his love for dogs. It's also sad for David because he also loves dogs. Maybe it's just coincidence, though. We'll see.

My little puppy

As most of you know, Billy got new orders to Twentynine Palms, CA and recently, David and I drove down to check out the place. My first impression wasn't the greatest, but I've heard that people eventually learn to like it. I still have yet to meet one of those people. Anyway, there, we met Billy's landlord and his pet dog, Blue. David has always loved to bark whenever he sees a dog. However, since meeting Blue, he has taken up panting. Here is a video of my cute little puppy and his canine ways.

Baby Steps

David is walking everywhere now. Here's a video of him getting into our cupboard. At least he knows how to shut the door when he's through.